Fast Company recently blogged about a study from the Political Economy Research Institute that reveals that cycling is cleaner, more efficient, and create double the amount of city jobs as auto-based planning and infrastructure projects.

Results from the study, Estimating the Employment Impacts of Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Road Infrastructure, shows that cycling and pedestrian-friendly city planning projects (for example, the planning and construction of bike lanes and sidewalks) demand more engineers on the job compared to simple construction jobs, and because of this, have greater employment impact and job opportunity associated with them.

So in the end we get sustainable design that creates not only more jobs, but a more livable, eco-friendly city as well!

OK, it’s official! I found my new favorite website—Do The Green Thing, a web portal and not-for-profit public service that inspires people to lead a greener life with simple tips product ideas, and eco-shopping alternatives that do their part to conserve Mother Earth. You might remember way back in the summer when MFX Partners created The Good 50, a game that aimed to do some good in the world by inspiring new, positive behaviors (e.g., like overpaying a parking meter for a stranger or actually wishing a telemarketer a good day, and meaning it).

Well, Do The Green Thing is of this accord. So please, do your part (baby steps) by checking out their brilliant videos and inspiring stories from some very creative people from 207 countries around the world who doing their part to live greener, more genuine lives.

CTRUS (the ball) was designed to eliminate human, referee mistakes in games and took the prize at the 2010 Red Dot concept awards over the 3,000 other hopefuls. The ball contains a high-tech, sensor that lights up in different colors  to indicate referee calls—for example, when the ball goes out of bounds, scores a goal or makes a foul. The ball also contains a small camera, and sensors that measure speed and positioning for a precisely called game every time.

Check out the video to see CTRUS  in action.

If you like to socialize over a few bevies with friends, then Bartab is your app.

Bartab lets users send and claim real drinks and try out new establishments by sending $1 drink vouchers via Facebook. All you do as the sender is log into Facebook and select a friend from your contact list to send a drink to. You will then be shown a list of local partner bars to select as your watering hole. Drinks cost senders $1 and they redeem $1 from the recipient for each drink as well. And users can conveniently add funds through their My Account page by supplying Mastercard or Visa information…just like a bar tab.

Your friend will get a posting on their wall or via text to alert them to the fact that “they’ve got new beer”! No, not really that, but wouldn’t that be freaking HILARIOUS! Just remember, drinks need to be redeemed within 90 days of sending.

Currently, the Bartab app is available for the iPhone in New York, Los Angeles and San Fran, with Android and Blackberry compatibility, as well as expansion to other cities coming soon.

Why? Because this cute little animated video submitted to the 2010 Adobe Design Achievement Awards by UK design student, Napatsawan Chirayukool, totally made mine—sugarpuffs and all!

It doesn’t surprise me that this two-minute, hand drawn short topped the animation category with it’s short snippets from people celebrating the everyday things that make them smile—everything from seeing your partner first thing in the morning to having a cup of tea (that whets my whistle too).

Chirayukool took the $3 000 prize for her efforts, which in my opinion inspire some positive design tips and some positive thinking. So watch and enjoy!

Happy Friday!

But is the same true for innovative product design?

Customer Loyalty & E-Marketing Event Project Manager, Eugene Schoen performed a study that found that simple innovations that make life easier most definitely equate to customer loyalty.

He points to the Apple iPad and iPhone as perfect examples of this user-friendly product philosophy. These devices makes browsing the web, checking emails, managing your calendar, accessing social networks like Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin a breeze from a single app-based, touchscreen device. Suddenly folks can use this one device to help them stay organized and improve their quality of life—be it online shopping, paying their mortgage and bills, booking travel, staying in touch with friends and business contacts—all from this one device and in an instant.

So what’s your take? Do smartphones, tablets and etc., make our lives easier or more difficult? I’ve heard both sides of the argument. And, more importantly, do they create loyalty around the brands that provide them?

Well the US federal government has made the art of advertising nothing a reality. They’ve funded a provocative new sculpture called Non-Sign II—and it’s essentially a large billboard advertising empty space. Non-Sign II was erected in Blaine, Washington at the U.S.-Canada border crossing near Vancouver, BC. Check it out for yourself; I’ve included a picture up above.

So instead of your usual glimpse of double bacon burgers, real estate agents, coffee, and car tires, Non-Sign II gives passersby a glimpse of a stainless steel rod frame surrounding clean air.

Non-Sign II is the brainchild of the Seattle art and architectural firm Lead Pencil Studio.

The studio’s Daniel Mihalyo says that Non-Sign II…”[Borrows] the effectiveness of billboards to redirect attention away from the landscape… this permanently open aperture between nations works to frame nothing more than a clear view of the changing atmospheric conditions beyond.”

Wow, now that’s a powerful social comment on advertising. Check out more pictures of the art installation on the Co.Design website.

Chapin designed the ‘Easy Latrine’ for a Sanitation Marketing Project that was launched in Cambodia in early October 2009, under funding from USAID and the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). His latrines can be easily built by village masons from locally available parts—the latrine is made up of three receptacles made of rings of concrete bound by the ash of rice husks, material that’s readily at hand and much cheaper than cement in Cambodia. The $25 latrine already comes with a pan, a bucket of water with a ladle, and pipes connecting a hut to a latrine buried in the ground. And, when a latrine fills, it can be capped and the sediment can be used as compost after a 2 year time period.

More than 2,500 ‘Easy Latrines’ have been purchased and installed by villagers to date. The aim to install 10,000 latrines by April 2011, and local producers are currently being educated on sanitation and hygiene, latrine production, and basic business and sales management.

This educational forum will feature InterfaceFLOR®, a global flooring manufacturer recognized in the industry as a worldwide leader in sustainability, design, production and sales of environmentally responsible carpet.

Checking out the InterfaceFLOR website, I was particularly interested in the various definitions of ’sustainability’ that they chronicle and make mention of on their ‘What is Sustainability?’ page. Here are two that particularly caught my attention:

1. Historically, the ’seventh generation’ philosophy of the Native North

American Iroquois Confederacy mandated that tribal chiefs always consider the effects of their actions on descendants seven generations in the future.

2. Forum For the Future recently defined sustainable development as: “a dynamic process that enables all people to realize their potential and improve the quality of life in ways that simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life support systems.”

Personally, with the increasing concerns for the environment, I’m constantly reminded of my childhood camping days and the advise of my Scout Leader who instructed us to “always leave the camp site in better shape than when we arrived.”

Romco Industries, a manufacturing company that builds everything from hanger doors to pressure vessels and post-harvest equipment vacuum chambers, called in The Anavitas Group to complete the retrofit of their 8400 square feet manufacturing building.

The Anavitas Group, a provider of energy solutions and high-end energy monitoring and management services, was called in to look at anything in the building that consumes energy—from the back door to the toilets—and determine if it could be greener. Take for example, the building’s 5 HVAC systems for cooling and heating—Anavitas determined 2 would cut down cost and energy and still perform efficiently.  The Anavitas Group is also working with Romco on the engineering side—to help make their motors more efficient and green.