I'm in Los Angeles, at the Opportunity Green conference, this weekend, and Leonard was a featured speaker this afternoon. Along with her co-presenter, Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios, she was a real highlight. And what I loved most about her presentation was her matter-of-fact analysis of where she'd gone wrong in the past.

Having spent 20 years investigating environmental health and justice issues around the world, she said, she was super confident that she had figured out the issues and problems. Yet for some reason, others didn't seem to share her enthusiastic concern. After taking a program at the Rockwood Leadership Institute, she was confronted with the fact that not only was she 20 years ahead of everyone else, she was so charmed by the cogent argument of her own intellectual ideas she had forgotten to engage an audience that had no idea what she was on about.

"I had been standing there wondering why people were not excited about the idea of a paradigm shift in our relationship to materials," she described. "I was too much in my head. And I needed to move to my heart."

So that's what she did with The Story of Stuff, which tackles her topic (issues with materials) in a way that an audience of laypeople can understand. Importantly, it's not about dumbing down or over-simplifying, but of speaking in a language to which people can relate. "If you’re trying to connect with people, a super intellectual brain-dump is not what’s needed," she said. "A connection with people is what’s needed."

Two years after it was released, the film is still watched by some 10,000 people every day. And Leonard has become a folk hero of sustainability. Next year, a book version of the film will be published. "I don’t like to encourage people to buy things," Leonard concluded wryly. "But buy it, and then give it to your local library later."

A trial involving 10 patients begins today (Nov. 5). These patients will be monitored while in the clinic in Rochester, Minn., to test the equipment and to train hospital personnel. Mayo plans to move on to a trial with discharged patients in early 2010, says Dr. Virend Somers, a consulting cardiologist and professor of medicine.

Talking with me before the official announcement, Somers acknowledged that telemedicine at Mayo is hardly brand new; the hospital has been taking readings from heart patients through at-home devices for years. But he said the STMicroelectronics technology should be more adaptable. For instance, it might be programmed to send real-time data 24/7, or for patients in less critical condition, it could record data and upload it once a day or week.

"The question is how can we make a comprehensive, unobtrusive, user-friendly, and economic remote monitoring system all together," he said.

The device and monitoring system costs money, of course. The clinical trials are also aimed at finding out whether they're worth it. Somers says he's fairly certain it will lower both technology and personnel costs. Time will tell, as they say.

The financial info company tallied patents and patent applications in alternative energy, an area it considers to be a proxy for automotive innovation, from 2008 through 2009's first quarter. Ford finished 12th, with 137 patent grants and filings. No. 1 Toyota Motor had 2,899—or 21 times more than Ford. Even General Motors bested Ford, coming in fourth, with 451 patent documents. (GM also outsells Ford, as does Toyota.)

Thomson Reuters also examined patent data in two other areas on the forefront of innovation—vehicle security and navigation—in 2003 and again in 2008 and the first quarter of this year. Ford didn't make the top 20 in any of these rankings.

Not to dump too much on Ford, I should note that it is moving up in alt-energy patents. In 2003, the carmaker wasn't even in the top 20, with 43 grants and applications. In 2008, it was 13th, with 116. I have asked Ford for a response, but haven't heard back.

For the record, here's the top 12 list in alternative-powered vehicle patents in the most recent five-quarter period:

1. Toyota 2,899
2. Nissan 601
3. Hyundai 549
4. GM 451
5. Honda 449
6. Matsushita 383
7. Nippondenso 334
8. Sanyo 219
9. Sumitomo 198
10. Hitachi 196
11. Bosch 144
12. Ford 137

The study of 5,618 respondents finishing or holding business degrees from five Northeast US schools (unnamed because of confidentiality agreements) found that there is a correlation between taking classes on entrepreneurship and forming a company with original ideas, as defined by obtaining patents, copyrights, and creating new production techniques.

For instance, 39% of respondents who studied entrepreneurship founded a company, versus only 26% who didn’t formally study the topic. Eighty-six percent of those who said their firms offered new products studied entrepreneurship, but only 18% of those who launched inventive goods said they didn’t study the subject. Among patent or copyright holders, 75% studied entrepreneurship, but only 10% learned on the job. And 62% of those who said their firms use new production techniques said they took a course in entrepreneurship, versus 28% who didn’t.

In August, Better Place was awarded the prestigious, 100,000 Euro "INDEX" design award. Now, the company has decided to put its winnings toward a design competition of its own. And to do so, it turned to BusinessWeek's list of the World's Best Design Schools. The challenge? To ask students from those schools to design a prototype for a next-generation, hands-free electric-car charging infrastructure (left shows a picture of the distinctly wired recharging system that currently exists.)

Ten finalists will be given 3,000 Euros to develop their ideas beyond a paper proposal. One final winner will receive a further 35,000 Euros to build a working prototype.

So where does this leave Better Place's regular design collaborator, NewDealDesign, which won for its Better Place work only this year at the International Design Excellence Awards. "We definitely are still working with them," said Better Place spokesperson Julie Mullins in a phone conversation. "But this is much more about being able to give back and do a project that's fun and exciting for all of us. And it's a way to give people the means and actual funding so they can do a competition like this and challenge themselves."

And the idea that they're tapping young talent for cheap work? "It’s not about getting free work," said Mullins. "We have brilliant teams of engineers and design folks; it wasn’t about that at all. It was being able to use the 100,000 Euros we won from the Index Award and give back in a fun way that will advance our movement toward sustainable mobility."

And no, the material doesn't look or smell like cow poop. And no again, you can't buy it in stores—at least not yet.

The booth is a public showcase of a dairy industry initiative to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. For a new product, it came together fast. Erin Fitzgerald, Dairy Management's director of social & environmental innovation, tells me she decided to enlist Mau after hearing him speak about sustainable design in May, as she was prepping for the sustainable-themed trade show.

Contractor and client quickly agreed that the booth itself should carry the eco-message. But how? While researching dairy farming, Tom Keogh, Bruce Mau Design's project director, says the Toronto-based team came across experiments by a scientist in Madison, Wis. The scientist, John Hunt, a general engineer with the USDA's Forest Service, had been testing alternatives to wood pulp in making paper and particle board. Among them: fiber-rich cow manure.

"There's a moment during the creative process," adds Paddy Harrington, a Bruce Mau Design creative director, "when someone says, the whole thing could be made of cow manure." And so it would be.

Many people who commute to work by car or public transportation and eat lunch in the office may be in the same boat, and Philips believes there is an opportunity here. The company plans to market DirectLife in the B2B space and has tested it with 30 companies.

Recently, I heard Roger present at BIF5, a conference held in Providence, Rhode Island (here, see notes taken there by master-live-blogger Ethan Zuckerman). And I confess, I was taken aback. Though still mild-mannered and softly spoken, Martin was steely and unamused as he discussed a topic that's close to his heart: business education. He quoted from The Economist, which said that the current system does no less than produce "jargon-spewing, economic vandals," a phrase that made the audience gasp and titter in about equal measure. [[UPDATE: You can see the whole talk in question here.]]

The talk raised to the surface a topic that I hear numerous parties discussing, but around which there seems to be little consensus. At least, everyone seems to agree that multidisciplinary thinking is a critical skill that needs to be nurtured in tomorrow's workforce, yet no one has any idea how to go about changing the existing system so that it can be taught effectively.

Martin referred to the need for a 3D MBA, which marries the teaching of a deep knowledge of facts and theories with the wisdom and skill needed to be able to apply them in the real world. I really like the idea, and I loved Martin's terse wake-up call to educators and would-be innovators. But how would this work in practice? How can the higher education system evolve appropriately—and quickly—to produce professionals who are equipped to drive the world in the direction it needs to go? Which schools or organizations are actually proficient at teaching or encouraging interdisciplinary thinking? How do they do it? Let me know—would love others' insight on this hugely important topic.

Even in the downturn, when corporations are curbing travel budgets to trade shows, employees from such diverse companies as Genentech, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Nike, Microsoft, and AT&T were in attendance. There were more corporate sponsors than ever this year—including Nike and Microsoft, new to sponsorship—according to the conference’s organizers.

Attendees listened to acoustic guitar and soulful songs sung by Malaysian musician Zee Avi, and looked at artist Chris Jordan show disturbing photos of dead baby albatrosses whose corpses revealed stomachs full of plastic bottle caps--intended to motivate people to understand the consequences of pollution and garbage. They also watched Nike’s Lorrie Vogel, general manager of the company’s eco-friendly Considered Design department, bravely discuss the true challenges of environmental responsibility for behemoths like Nike. She talked about how it takes a whopping 700 gallons of water to make one Nike t-shirt; and how even if Nike manufactures fully biodegradable shoes, it will consume enormous amounts of energy to do so.

Nike, interestingly, is sponsoring the inaugural offering of Pop!Tech Labs, a new initiative that will take place in Spring 2010.

“A customer is a precious thing. No matter how much you think you’re listening, you’re really not,” says J. Christopher Preuss, vice president of communications at General Motors. The company operates several blogs that allow people to comment on developments in the company.

I spoke with Preuss about managing GM’s brands: past mistakes, lessons learned about communicating with consumers and the company’s recent effort to combine design, marketing and communications under Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz.

As you might expect, the conversation focused on how to bring together the disciplines of design and business. Moggridge added a third: technology. In his nuanced take, innovation is the result of the overlap between all three disciplines. So while engineers might initially focus on technology, designers on people and executives on money, all three groups need to look up from their area of expertise to move toward each other in order to innovate successfully.

Sam Lucente, VP of Design at HP (second right), was also on the panel, and he outlined how he specifically looks for interdisciplinary thinkers who can bridge these kinds of divide. "I look for a willingness to collaborate -- and passion," he said, adding that the purpose of building an interdisciplinary team is to tap into that group's collective IQ.

The third speaker was Jeanne Liedtka, from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia (far left). Supremely articulate, she outlined a three year study assessing managers who had been able to grow revenue in a slow market. She described these managers as "smiling subversives" who were able to quietly work around an organizational system in order to get stuff done. And she criticized corporate cultures that have made systems out of bad habits. Too often executives only want to hear about "big ideas", she explained, which instantly commits an organization to making reckless bets that are unlikely to pay off. Instead, she said, executives "need to unlearn. The first thing a manager should do is leave the building and talk to a customer."

They learned quite a few lessons they wanted to share, so I thought I'd pass along a few to you...

In early November, ComEd will begin installing GE smart meters in homes and businesses in 10 Chicago suburbs and the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood. The test could expand to 310,000 customers if the utility, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon, gets $175 million in federal stimulus money. As it is, the test will cost $69 million, which will be paid for by all of ComEd's 3.8 milllion customers in 2010. (That's roughly $5 per account.)

ComEd's test is one of only a few big ones. But it seems tentative compared to efforts by some of its peers. Pacific Gas & Electric, for instance, is spending $1.7 billion to install roughly 5 million electric meters by 2011. It began the rollout in 2006. AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power, also plans to install 110,000 smart meters, about a month or two behind ComEd, under a $150 million project. (Their partner? Who else but GE.)

The meters in Chicago will be smart, but they are not quite geniuses. They will collect usage info every 30 minutes, which will be relayed to the utility with the help of another vendor, Silver Spring Networks. Customers could then get a daily report by looking up their account on the Internet. It seems to me, though, that constant, real-time data would be better carrots and sticks in changing behavior.

Still, it's a smart move, don't you think?

With the Internet, we are instantly disseminating all sorts of media–videos, photos, tweets. Yet in emergencies, such as hurricanes, many people continue to rely on television and radio for information.

I spoke with former CBS meteorologist Bryan Norcross, who started America’s Emergency Network (AEN), a company that uses IP video technology for emergency communication. It streams live video and audio updates over the internet that can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection via a computer or mobile device. The content is automatically archived and can also be broadcast over television and radio.

AEN, which Norcross founded in 2007 with former National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield in Miami, has been offering the service since 2008. It is owned by Miami-based Brampton Crest International. The hope is the service will give local governments an additional channel for communication in crises.

The model: government agencies, National Hurricane Center, emergency management centers, and other sources subscribe to AEN services for about $6,000 per year, plus the cost of equipment, to record, store and distribute video and audio files to AEN’s 300 media partners. News organizations stream this content live on their Web sites on a revenue-sharing basis with AEN for any advertising it draws.

The upbeat news first: The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office just showed me preliminary data for fiscal 2009, and it shows that 93,725 patents were issued to U.S. residents. While that's 49% of the total 190,121, it's up from 91,843 a year earlier. The rise might continue next year. Americans filed 264,197 patent applications in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the office's preliminary data. That's 55% of the total, and up from 256,887 in fiscal 2008.

OK, now for the downbeat info. I also asked analysts at Mintel, a market-tracking outfit, for the latest numbers on product introductions. Mintel compiled data over the first three quarters for these categories: food, beauty & personal care, drink, household, health care, and pet. For the 2009 period, the total plunged 23%, to 28,473, from 2008's first three quarters, when 37,203 new products came out. Down most: drink (-41%) and food (-33%.) Only pet product introductions rose.

Granted, many new food and drink items aren't really innovations—they're simply line extensions. And consumers genuinely seem to be craving traditional products today. These old brands recall a less topsy-turvy time, plus they're often cheaper. But one of these days, we're going to be hungry again for something other than a casserole made with Velveeta.