Can a Carrotmob Change the World?

Browsing through The Guardian's list of 20 big green ideas I found one that was new to me, but which started just up the street from my San Francisco home (and far across the pond from the U.K. publication). Carrotmob: heard of it? I hadn't.

Brent Schulkin, a San Francisco environmentalist, organized a campaign to sway businesses toward sustainable practices by speaking their language: money. First, Schulkin encouraged more than 20 neighborhood grocery and liquor stores to participate in a competition, to place bids on the highest percentage of a day's sales they'd commit to re-investing into energy-efficiency projects in their stores. To the highest bidder, Schulkin promised to organize mobs of shoppers to patronize the store, and he delivered.

K&D Market was the winner, committing 22 percent of its sales, and over the course of two hours the "carrotmobbers" spent more than $9,000 on milk, mango popsicles, detergent and Lucky Charms. The store owner told San Francisco Magazine that it was a banner day for sales. But this was only the beginning.

The folks behind Carrotmob intend to develop larger campaigns, eventually targeting multinational corporations by organizing similar but large-scale competitions and millions of consumers. How can you get involved? Learn more by following Carrotmob on Twitter or through Facebook; you can also sign up to get involved in their next campaign.