By Paul Smith •
July 3, 2008
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Living in the city, it’s natural that your thoughts may turn at one point or another to daydreaming about having your own produce generating garden. But then they just as quickly get tossed in the mental recycling bin as an impossibility. Or maybe not, but with your erratic schedule, it sits there, limping along. Maybe you’ve been wanting to participate in an urban farm or a community garden , but there again, your life gets in the way. My Farm in San Francisco has come up with a solution: They partner with you to cultivate a specified plot of land in your own yard, from as small as 4′ by 4′ to as big as your whole yard. And the deal maker? You don’t have to do any gardening yourself!
My Farm does all the work, and depending on how much your garden produces, you can get a box of goodies weekly, and also have My Farm chefs make a fresh food feast out of what you and others produce. And what if you don’t have a back yard? The garden’s collective harvest exceeds the needs of the garden owners, so My Farm provides CSA style veggie boxes as well.
While this is all a lovely idea, their intention here is beyond that.
By MC Milker •
July 2, 2008
Creative Edge Design has a big hit on their hands. The new eco alternative to the standard gallon milk jug has been adopted by both Wal-Mart and Costco and should be making an appearance in a store near you soon.
The “milk pitcher”, rated a story in the New York Times and is gathering both praise and criticism from retailers and consumers.
A simple change to the design of the gallon milk jug, adopted by Wal-Mart and Costco, seems made for the times. The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less. What’s not to like? Plenty, as it turns out.
The jugs have no real spout, and their unorthodox shape makes consumers feel like novices at the simple task of pouring a glass of milk.
Despite the initial reaction of consumers, who really tend to hate anything new…even if research says they should like it, the new milk pitcher is here to stay. And we can expect a host of other products to undergo a face lift too!
By Paul Smith •
June 26, 2008
These days there is an increasing amount of people who care about the health of the planet, their community, their family, themselves. Where they come from is also increasing in breadth, now including people far beyond the usual suspects, even from 5 years ago. You don’t have to be a Greenpeace activist chaining yourself to ships to make an impact these days. In fact, it seems there’s an overwhelming amount of options, big and small, to make a positive impact. It’s enough to leave anybody dumbfounded as to what to do.
Along comes Be The Change, an environmental leadership program from Silicon Valley based Acterra. They sum it up best when they say:
The program emphasizes building skills that enable people to act within the organizations where they work, live, worship and play to bring about significant changes in how they relate to the natural world.
Awesome.
By Julie Sammons •
June 25, 2008
Looking to light a ‘green’ fire under your employees, partners, or potential funders? Need a little eco-inspiration of your own?
If a single picture is worth a thousand words, a compelling or amusing video presentation may be worth a turnaround in your small business culture, increased buy-in from partners, or the flow of funds from sponsors. Entrepreneurs must be well-versed in the art of persuasive presentations, yet finding appropriate images and video content to add to the mix can be challenging.
Enter the latest DVD release from Arnold Creek Productions entitled Naturally Successful: Entrepreneurship That Redefines the Bottom Line. Highlighting some of the sustainability movement’s most compelling speakers, this 78-minute video “features interviews with some of the country’s top business consultants, educators, authors and speakers who are inspiring entrepreneurs worldwide.” Consider emailing clips to your team to kick off a sustainability discussion or launching your next presentation with the words of leaders such as:
View a preview and purchase the full-length feature, browse the Sustainability Shorts clips, and explore the full sustainability video series on Arnold Creek’s website.
By John Ivanko •
June 25, 2008
It’s not just any number: 350.
Returning to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in our Earth’s atmosphere is the level that most of the world’s scientific community agrees as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. When industrial revolution began, it was 275 parts per million. Today, we’re far above that at 385 parts per million and continuing to rise at an accelerating pace, often contributing to the extreme weather, shrinking glaciers and numerous other effects of climate change familiar to more and more of us.
View this stunning 350.org video animation on YouTube, created by the innovative Free Range Studios, designed to reach out to the world to foster the coming together of global community to address this challenge — and hold our political leaders accountable to provide the policies that encourage the changes we must all make as citizens and green business owners.
For most ecopreneurs, addressing climate change is at the core of our triple bottom line approach to operating our green business, putting into practice ways to mitigate climate change, be it in how we use or over-produce energy from renewable energy sources like the wind and sun, serve up organic or pasture-raised cuisine from a sustainable food system, focus on a more bio-regional or local economy, and cultivate relationships with their conserving customers. Many paddle a kayak with a community of like-minded ecopreneurs, rather than try staying afloat on the Titanic dependent on increasingly expensive fossil fuels while trying to dodge melting glaciers.
By Paul Smith •
June 19, 2008
Imagine you are Vancouver. Or Beijing. You have this obscure little event called the Olympics to host. There will be a short term high volume burst of people coming. Or you’re hosting a conference that regularly outstrips the available hotel capacity of the city you host it in, producing frustration, high costs, and long commutes for those having to stay out of town.
What do you do? Build more hotels? That’s one solution, but what about the rest of the year, when there is a lower, more typical demand, and you’re left with capacity far exceeding needs, and resources were used to build these hotels that could have been used elsewhere?
Abilmo, a French company, has a possible solution: They make foldable hotel rooms. Come again? Yes, they have been able to fabricate accommodations that can be set up, without a crane, as many as 25 erected in a day. And they’re not shabby, either.
By Mark Winstein •
June 19, 2008
This is not what you think.
You are the entrepreneurial genius. Yes, everyone thinks you’re a nut, but I’m talking about a different nut.
In entrepreneur-speak, your “nut” is what it costs to pay all your life expenses each month, including the cost of launching your start-up business.
Ask yourself, do you have a regular inflow that matches your monthly outflow without needing to raise investment capital?
By Olga Orda •
June 13, 2008
Kudos to my colleagues who go the extra mile to design seminars I’d wake up at the ungodly hour of 5:37 AM to sit and listen to in half-wake awe, Americano in hand.
Seminars that go by blockbuster titles - as least for green entrepreneurs - such as “How to manage carbon risk” have authentic learning value.
In our over-wired world, live events are a luxury, an hour or three to feel how much we really love context and contact, not just stoic information glaring out at us from a screen when we’re learning complex stuff - like international carbon trading markets.
More to the point, events are becoming an even more attractive “pull” medium than ever. And, the savvy, green entrepreneur should know how to harness the reputation and client lead potentials of a well-orchestrated event - an eco-friendly supplied event, that is.
By Paul Smith •
June 12, 2008
Recycling as an everyday practice has become more and more common these days. But what about all those gadgets you accumulate? What happens to them? There are many options out there, but for most, they involve more cost, effort, and time then our busy schedules or motivation will allow. Sure, there are some newer options such as Second Rotation, the company I profiled in January that quotes you a value for your product based on the condition you claim it’s in, then they inspect it, and either give you that amount, or a different agreed upon one. But even there, with the free shipping and the possibility of getting cash rather then spending it to recycle, it’s based on current market value, a wildly fluctuating amount, as the new half price twice the speed iPhone exemplifies.
What if you could guarantee exactly how much you’d get, based on how long you’ve owned it, at the time of purchase? This is now a reality, via the company Tech Forward. You can buy a product at any store you like, then purchase their Guaranteed Buyback service, which covers a wide range of electronics, from MP3 players to desktop computers.
By Mark Winstein •
June 12, 2008
To prime the pump on this “Dear Abbey” style ecopreneur coaching column, I’d like to start with some actual consulting projects, with enough changes to protect the client.
A few years ago I got a call from a cool green company that already had good sales, about $1 million a year. Problem was, their cash flow was “upside down” - they were trying to cover current expenses with money they wouldn’t get until later. They wanted me to help raise money to cover the gap.
At first, it seemed they were all set to receive some financing. I had a lender in mind who specialized in high-risk loans to green enterprises. All the lender needed to start the approval process was an up to date financial report. But as I started interviewing the principles, I learned that the company’s financial books were several months behind. Sadly, even weeks and months later, this situation persisted, making it impossible for the firm to make effective requests for money from anyone other than family members.
Shai Agassi is a man with with a pretty big mission - to engineer a globally sustainable personal transportation system for the 21st Century. As the founder and CEO of Silicon-Valley based company Project Better Place , he aims to turn that dream into a reality.
The Project works by teaming up with existing players in the car industry to establish large-scale electricity recharge grids (ERGs), made up of electric cars, batteries, charging points, and renewable energy power stations. Earlier this year, the company announced it had teamed up with Renault-Nissan to roll-out an impressive network of 500,000 recharging stations across Israel by 2010. Now it has announced plans for similar electric car projects in Denmark and San Francisco, with more in the pipeline for the near future.
A key benefit of the planned ERGs will be their role in driving demand for renewable energy. In Israel, most power comes from coal or gas, but the project plans to use solar energy generated in the country’s Negev Desert to power the batteries.
