Henry Ford once said "If I listen to my customers, they will all have faster horses". Like Henry Ford almost a century ago, products like the Walkman, IPod and minivan would not exist if companies large and small did not take risks and establish new products and services that 'the customer' did not ask for. Although not a new class of vehicle or new way of purchasing or listening to music, the staple free stapler is one of those products that is ripe for the taking.

Check it out at Green Cricket - the staple free stapler! I purchased mine the other day and spent the first few minutes 'stapling' holes in pieces of paper - what a cool device. This device costs less than $10 and does not need staples, which means not having to worry about putting staples in the recycling bin or trying to find staples when it runs out.

Cool features aside, this product is a perfect example of creativity and (pardon the overused cliché), thinking 'outside of the box' (yes, I am sick of that term too, but what the heck, seems appropriate here).

It is this kind of thinking that will take us towards products and services that we will all embrace because they do good for the planet, and guess what, we don't even know they exist yet!

Now if only we can cut down on the amount of paper we use so we don't need the staple free stapler?