Green Options

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As the organizer of what is becoming a craft show of epic scale, I have a unique perspective of the handmade movement in my region. Participants in Strange Folk are not limited to St. Louis though. This year, we will host 120 vendors from across the country, and even Canada! I’m excited, and very much in the thick of preparations at the moment. There is one glaring issue that I did not anticipate dealing with though…the dismal economy.

First, came the disappointing news from some of our former and potential sponsors that such contributions had been stricken from their budget. Then, I started hearing the various woes of crafters. They couldn’t afford to travel here due to gas prices. They had to go back to working “real” jobs full-time. Their small businesses were no longer financially sustainable. Disheartening as that is, a silver lining is unmistakable.

Rotting, leftover fryer grease has turned into gold in the race to our energy future — and thieves have taken notice.

It’s early in the pre-dawn dark hours of the morning. A group of Northern California pseudohippies just finished a game of Zonk — or rather, the game just stopped because somebody quoted a line from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and everybody forgot what they were doing.

Yet, by a stroke of luck, the conversation about Harold and Kumar reminds the group of their real reason for staying up so late. They pack into a truck and head down to the local fast food joint looking to load up — but it’s not the food they’re loading up on, it’s the nasty, half-rotted, leftover fryer grease.

It seems no matter where you look these days, there’s bad news about the US economy. Does that extend to the budding green collar jobs market as well? Yes and no. I spoke to Nick Ellis, Managing Partner at Bright Green Talent, a US/UK based recruiting agency with a focus on green jobs, and a commitment to walking the talk within their own company as well. Ellis was frank, encouraging, and insightful.

Well then, what does the green collar jobs market look like?

From where Ellis sits, there is an enormous demand on the client side (those looking to hire) and there is a shortage of green collar job candidates. Really? Yes, and that includes an intriguing factor: Many of the client companies have set their expectations so high, who they’re seeking doesn’t exist. An example Nick gave is asking that the candidate have 5 years experience with LEED certification. Many people may have tremendous experience in techniques and knowledge that falls within the green building realm, but LEED is fairly new, most don’t have that much experience with LEED specifically yet.

How to remedy this?

REI sees bike sales skyrocket reads a recent headline. When established bike manufacturers gear up, ecopreneurs can cash in.

Driven by an increase in gas prices, as well as, growing awareness of the impact all those cars have on the environment more and more people are dragging out their bikes for more than just a quick jaunt around the park.

Commuters now ride the unheard of distance of oh…2 miles to work, aided by the more casual dress requirements on many companies and the slick carrying packs now available for dress shoes and laptops. Moms gear up with child carriers and pint sized bikes and take the kids out for lunch. Grocery shopping done by bike seems to be the preferred method in semi-urban neighborhoods.

The list of bike accessories grows long. Most are marketed to serious athlete -bike suitcases, rechargeable lights, gloves, grips and parts specifically for improving speed. But more and more the green, casual commuter is an alluring target.

But the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will not be receiving any “Man of the Year” plaques in Michigan any time soon, because he also told the audience of more than 500 GM workers that he would let individual states set tailpipe emission regulations.

For more, see today’s post: 2018: The Year of Petroleum Independence?

Or get involved with wecansolveit.org.

We need to change the ECOnomic “story” that Wall Street, Washington DC politicos, and our capitalist culture of consumption are weaving.

We need to find a more sensible appoach to economics — call it ECOmonics — that doesn’t require infinite growth on a finite planet. For Earth’s sake and our sake, we need to get to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Quickly. Many of us, either as conserving customers or ecopreneurs, are already well on our way to helping make it so.

We’re reaching a point where the “More, Bigger, Faster” mode of economic activity — often at complete odds with social justice and ecological realities of a finite Earth system — must change. It is changing, by ecopreneurs who are determined NOT to destroy the planet or exploit people in the process. Like us, many green business owners are small sizing our operations to provide optimal control over our impacts. An egg is still an egg, one of the most complete forms of protein you can fry up in a pan, regardless of its size.

Our present growth-obsessed, global, capitalistic economic “story” seems broken when 5-percent of the world’s people uses 25-percent of its resources, produces 40-percent of the waste and, interestingly on the social side, houses 25-percent of the prison population.

At a Tuesday White House press conference that focused mostly on the current economic downturn, President Bush indicated that he has no intention of calling on Americans to conserve gasoline.

According to a recent CNN Opinion Poll, 74% of Americans are in favor of offshore drilling. While still split 49% to 44% on prioritizing the environment and the economy. In The Swamp, a Chicago Tribune Weblog, Matthew Hay Brown reports this survey is the latest one showing rising support for drilling, from consumers who are tired of rising gas prices.

The CNN/Opinion Research poll was conducted from June 26th - 29th and included more than 1,000 Americans.

Few places on Earth are as untouched as the "Crown of the Continent" — a 10-million-acre expanse of mountains, valleys and prairies in Montana and Canada. The area has sustained all the same species — including grizzlies, lynx, moose and bull trout — for at least 200 years.

Now — in one of the most significant conservation sales in history — The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land have preserved 320,000 acres of forestlands in western Montana

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Just when you thought that inflation would drive consumers away from more expensive green products, the silver lining appears. The Wall Street Journal, in an in depth article, Green Products Gain From New Price Equation on the subject, reports that green products and those with greener packaging may turn out to be the big winner as energy prices spiral out of control.

Consumers typically have paid a premium for environmentally friendly products. But with soaring energy prices pushing up the price of mainstream goods, green products are becoming just as — or even more — affordable these days.

Because eco friendly companies tend to use fewer fossil fuels in production and tend to focus on energy saving techniques, as the price of oil rises, it impacts green companies less. Eco friendly products made from natural materials, rather than plastic, a petroleum derivative, are impacted less by rising material costs. The same applies for packaging costs. Avoiding the plastic wrapper turns out to have been a smart economic move.