When creative people gather, the effect can be contagious. Case in point: the idea showcasing organization Solutions Twin Cities.

Welcome to our new "TreeHugger Deals" column, which will run every Tuesday and is exclusively for TreeHugger readers.

photo: Storm Crypt

As many of you know, Alex Steffen presented last month at the Sustainable Innovation Conference in Malmo, Sweden. Worldchanging ally Joel Mulligan attended the conference with camera in hand, and has been kind enough to share his original footage here on Worldchanging.

Below you'll find a half-hour excerpt from Alex's talk, as well as Mulligan's four interviews with other conference presenters. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into Sustainable Innovation 2008!

photo: SolFocus

By Li Taige

Environmental challenges make supplying the ever-growing population of Tibet with sufficient and sustainable electricity a logistical conundrum.

Puntso’s yard is piled high with dung – specifically, wind-dried dung.

The 68-year old is a herder in the village of Niangqu, in the Nagqu area of Tibet. The household uses dung for fuel for cooking and winter heating.

By Adele Peters

Investment in clean energy could boost the economy and create millions of new jobs.

by Anna Fahey

In October, the Center for American Progress released a report by economists at the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute called, “Green Recovery.”

Buy Nothing Day is only a few weeks away, but perhaps we should skip it this year, as we are already in the middle of a buy nothing season. According to the Wall Street Journal, nobody is doing much shopping these days. "It's definitely all of a sudden very cool to be cheap," says one former serious shopper. It happens every recession, but they suggest that this one combines economics with the environment.

Today, Americans will turn out in unprecedented numbers to elect their next President. Thanks to Flickr users across the country, we can see what the lines look like outside polling places from Manhattan to L.A.

I've re-posted some of them here, with excerpts from their original captions (for those that had them):