Green Options

Reduce paper waste and save trees with creative green holiday promotions. This article showcases the creative green holiday promotion of Von Glitschka, a small business owner, and offers tips for more sustainable holiday marketing.

The ocean is a powerful force that covers most of our planet. But until recently, the rugged coastline hasn’t really been considered a source of farmable land due to salinity. Saltwater crops are being more carefully by scientists as a possible source of bio-fuels, an article in Science shows that developing saltwater crops in coastal and salty areas could help open up vast new areas of land previously thought unusable.

WiredScience reports on new findings that show the biomass producing potential of salt-loving plants for use in alternative fuels:

The first time I slept on a memory foam mattress, I was in heaven. When it was time to buy a new bed, I was thrilled to find out about a new green company called Essentia, who makes the only natural memory foam mattresses on the market. Most memory foam mattresses are made of petroleum products, which are not only harmful to the environment, they’re unnatural and unhealthy. I want my bed to be a place of sanctuary and rest, not a chemical-laden nest of disease! Luckily, Essentia makes it possible to sleep healthy and green without sacrificing comfort or quality.

My Essentia mattress arrived in a much smaller box than I was expecting, due to their sustainable shipping efforts. The mattresses are compressed and rolled so they will take up less space on shipping trucks. But this is just the beginning of Essentia’s environmental commitment:

At Essentia, we fully understand the responsibilities of being a manufacturer in today’s society. That’s why we develop and manufacture products that produce 93% less waste during production than most mattress manufacturers. Derived from renewable resources, our 100% biodegradable memory foam are good for both the environment and consumer health.

With the holidays approaching and the economy on the downturn, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels the pinch in my wallet. There’s not much you can do to lower rent or mortgage, utility bills, or car payments, so your food budget will likely be what gets cut back. If the thought of eating nothing but rice and beans for your holiday meals scares you, don’t worry! You can trim your food budget while still eating well and keeping it green. In fact, there are many ways to lower your grocery bill while helping the planet out at the same time.

Following are some of the ways I’ve tampered my food spending, but please comment with your money (and earth) saving ideas!

AIGA Chicago is organizing an event called Incite / Insight 2008: Responsible Design 101, November 20 in Chicago that addresses the significance of green design. AIGA, the professional association for design, is the oldest and largest professional membership organization for graphic & communications design. The organization has been at the forefront of promoting the shift to sustainable design practices through their Center for Sustainable Design.

Green business owners are realizing that green marketing and design is a business asset that’s here to stay as momentum in the green movement builds. The graphic design industry is responding by opening more and more dialogues about sustainability and greening their practices. In this vein, Incite / Insight 2008 in Chicago focuses on the importance of green design.

Just because summer days are on their way out doesn’t mean the gardening has to end. In climates like mine on the Northern California coast, certain plants can be grown year-round. Through my experience growing organic veggies in a plot in my local community garden, I’m starting to learn the ins and outs of growing plants in my local climate. Even if your climate gets too cold for a year-round outdoor garden, you could try gardening in a greenhouse, hoophouse, under cold frames, or indoors during the colder months. I wanted to share an update on my community garden as well as a handful of things I’ve learned from my community gardening experience.

My local community garden, the Noyo Come-Unity Garden, is a very busy place in the summer. Each family plot is blooming with a variety of veggies and greens, and since each garden is different we are all able to trade with each other. Along the edge of our community garden are community beds, where we grow all kinds of veggies to feed the hungry in our area as well as flowers and beneficial herbs. We have donated pounds and pounds of fresh organic veggies to the local food bank and homeless shelter. Community gardens are a great way to help and grow your community!

Growing a successful brand is much like growing a garden. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

When it comes to branding a green business, it’s becoming harder and harder to stand out in a sea of companies claiming to have green products and ethical practices. While it’s wonderful that green is going mainstream, it makes good, original branding even more important for green businesses.

How do you set your business apart and attract new customers in a competitive marketplace? You work on your image, your public face, and your reputation. In a word, your brand.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
—Albert Einstein

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.
—Henry David Thoreau

We must live simply, so that others may simply live.
—Gandhi

Ah, the simple life. No worries, no responsibilities, it’s the stuff of dreams. But in today’s world, living is far from simple. Simplifying your life often seems like one more impossible task on your long to-do list. Even though common sense tells us that the most environmentally conscious life is a simple one, it’s much easier said than done.

It seems like the price of everything is going up lately, and so is the cost of doing business. One of the best pieces of business advice I’ve heard so far is to keep your overhead costs as low as possible. This can be tricky for a green business, since we often spend a little bit more on sustainable and organic materials and office supplies. But with a little green thinking it’s possible to lower your costs while making eco-conscious decisions. Here’s where our old friends reduce, reuse, and recycle come in.

The key to lowering your overhead while greening your business is simplicity. Keep your operations as simple as possible, and cut out the fluff you don’t need. For some this may mean working from home rather than renting office space. For others it may mean scaling your business down and working smarter with what you already have. Every choice you make has the potential to save (or cost) you money, as well as help (or harm) the environment.

Summer is my favorite time of year. The days are long and perfect for hiking, traveling, going to the beach, or just sitting on the porch. And summer is the season of my favorite fruits: berries, plums, and melons! I grew up picking huckleberries every summer in Idaho and am always on the lookout for wild berries. Free, fresh-picked fruit is always the tastiest, and wild blackberries and plums happen to be just ripening for the picking where I live on the Mendocino coast of California.

We took a walk to the beach the other day through an orchard overflowing with ripe plums. Further on, the path was lined with tall blackberry bushes. Needless to say, we had an excess of blackberries and plums for a while. Add to that the fact that a local organic wine was on sale this week, and I naturally just had to make sangria!

My sister lived in Spain for a semester last year, and I had some amazing sangria when I went there to visit her. Of course she knew a recipe for sangria, which the one below is based on. (Thanks sis!) So, with a little local foraging, some fresh-picked seasonal berries, and some local wine, I made a yummy summer drink that can be adapted for any kind of fruit that’s in season.