Not long ago we wrote about high-end grape juices by First Blush, and recently one of our spotters came across MonaVie, another ultra premium line of alcohol-free juices that could easily be confused with wine.

Utah-based MonaVie offers both juices and concentrated gels made from 19 different fruits, all chosen for their healthful properties. First among them is the Brazilian acai berry—widely considered a health-promoting superfood—accompanied by apricot, aronia, acerola, lychee, wolfberry, bilberry and of course grape, to name just a few. Pricing is very high-end, indeed, at about USD 40 per 750 ml bottle of juice.

MonaVie is currently sold on a person-to-person basis in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan, with plans to expand further around the globe through its multi-level marketing business model. While joining a potentially restrictive MLM network isn't something we'd necessarily recommend, the ultra premium presentation of juice is one to look into if you're in food and beverage. For more inspiration, check out Wild Bunch & Co.'s organic juices.

Website: www.monavie.com
Contact: distributorsupport@monavie.com

Spotted by: Theresa Duffy

Mobile phones are connecting people around the globe like never before, but the simple fact remains that they don't work without electricity. In Uganda, which has one of the lowest levels of electricity in Africa, Motorola has launched an initiative to provide solar recharging stations that can be run by local, entrepreneurial women.

Launched last year, Motorola's Motopower project has brought 55 solar-powered kiosks to Uganda that offer free mobile phone charging to local consumers. Each kiosk is charged by a 55-watt inverted solar panel and can charge up to 20 phones at a time. The women who run the kiosks, meanwhile, are also equipped to sell handsets and operator SIM cards and to provide repair services. For local people without their own phones, the kiosks effectively function as a local "phone booth" for making occasional calls as well.

The initiative was designed to empower entrepreneurial women by providing them with the foundations to manage their own sustainable businesses. As part of a start-up package, each entrepreneur is given four Motorola handsets and a business skills training course. Nikesh Patel, senior sales director for Motorola Africa's mobile devices business, explains: “The Motopower initiative is the first of its kind to exist for women in Africa. Through this program, we are giving women the opportunity to run their own business, learn valuable entrepreneurial skills and generate a positive income.”

Of course, besides empowering women and helping Ugandans stay connected, the project will likely increase Motorola's share of the local market as well. It's a win-win-win, and one for other global corporate citizens to emulate as often as they can!

Website: www.motorola.com/responsibility
Contact: responsibility@motorola.com

Spotted by: Treehugger via RK

Mapping the best and worst seats in hundreds of airplanes, SeatGuru is one of our favourite examples of transparency tyranny—the power of detailed information to help consumers find the best of the best and leave the rest behind. So we were pleased to hear about TripKick, a similar venture that's tackling another aspect of travel: hotel rooms. While TripAdvisor (which acquired SeatGuru in 2007) gives travellers access to detailed hotel reviews by other travellers, who occasionally include info on which rooms to book, there's definitely an opportunity in getting specific about individual rooms.

TripKick—"your hotel sidekick"—launched with about 250 hotels in 10 US cities, with more to follow. Coverage of each hotel includes detailed information on which rooms to request: which rooms are oversized (rooms ending in 03 and 04, for example), which have great bathrooms or are quieter than others. TripKick, which spent a year gathering all of this information, also points out which floors are better, and which to avoid. Guests are encouraged to add their own reviews and upload photos of rooms they've stayed in.

Given they chose a name that isn't specifically tied to hotels, we wouldn't be surprised to see TripKick branch out to other areas of travel, too. If you're in the hotel business, there's more reason than ever to ensure that each of your rooms has something special to offer. Run a restaurant? Time to make your best tables stand out and rule out any such thing as a bad table. For more tips on how to turn transparency tyranny into transparency triumph, check out the opportunities section of trendwatching.com's briefing on the subject.

Website: www.tripkick.com
Contact: contact@tripkick.com

Spotted by: Grace Hodder

Crowd clout is a force that can be very effective in getting consumers what they want—such as cheaper prices, as we've noted before. For helping to effect social change, though, it typically focuses on punishing bad corporate citizens through boycotts and other means. A new, San Francisco-based site called Carrotmob, however, is turning that aspect of crowd clout on its head by using it to reward the companies that do the most good.

Very simply, Carrotmob aims to organize consumers to provide an economic incentive to companies for making positive environmental changes. The group hopes to begin by creating a broad network of consumers and forming partnerships with other larger advocacy groups, so as to tap into their research and infrastructure. Next, it plans to implement campaigns focusing on different industries, identifying for each specific opportunities to become more environmentally friendly. Carrotmob will then approach the companies in each industry with suggestions, and invite them to make the changes they have identified; interested companies, it hopes, will vie to do the most good. Competing offers will be evaluated by Carrotmob, and its network members will then reward the chosen company with "an unprecedented kind of shopping spree" to boost short-term company profits, as well as by proclaiming that company the most responsible in its industry. In short: the companies that do the most good get the most rewards.

The non-profit's founders explain: "The most exciting thing about Carrotmob may be that we can end the tradition of hostility between activists and business. Today we strive to make these important changes using a framework of positive cooperation. The best company wins, the consumer wins, and the planet wins."

For its first year, Carrotmob is seeking donations, and does not plan to generate any revenue; eventually, though, it hopes to become ad-supported, as members begin to display user-generated images and videos as ads on their Facebook profiles via a Carrotmob application. How it all plays out remains to be seen, but Carrotmob's reverse-boycott model is one to watch!

Website: www.carrotmob.org
Contact: carrotmob@gmail.com

Spotted by: Jono Hey

Earlier this year we wrote about idiomag, a digital music mag that's customized to subscribers' tastes. Picking up on the digital-delivery theme, French magazine distributor and kiosk retailer Relay now offers eco-minded consumers a way to receive issues of up to 400 magazines on their computers for one fixed, monthly rate.

Through a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Relay's fixed-price program—Eco forfait—lets consumers receive unlimited magazines of their choice (not including adult ones) for a price of EUR 17.90 per month. Subscribers begin by downloading Relay's special Delivery reader software. The magazines they choose are then automatically delivered to their computers in full multimedia format, complete with sound, video, games, wallpapers, integrated search engine and interactive links. Average download times are between 40 seconds and 4 minutes per magazine, Relay says. Consumers can then access and read their magazines anytime they want, online or off, and set up a digital library, add notes or create special issues. Content can be printed, or it can be transferred via a compatible USB key for perusal on any other Windows device, regardless of whether it has the Delivery software.

By receiving magazines digitally rather than in paper format, consumers help save the water, paper and energy associated with producing and transporting paper-based publications. In addition, EUR 1 of the subscription fee goes to the WWF each month to replenish and protect the forests of New Caledonia, which have been reduced to a mere 1 percent of their original area due to fires and other devastation.

Digital content delivery has long been held up as one of the most promising aspects of the computer age for eliminating paper and helping the environment. Will eco-consumers be willing to read magazines in digital format? Only time will tell. In the meantime, one to watch! (Related: Online magazine publisher for the masses.)

Website: www.relay.fr
Contact: relay.presse-wl.com/Publications/Editorial/Contact.aspx

Spotted by: Florent Lesauvage