Over Memorial Day weekend here in the States, my wife and I took a little trip to New York City. I had to go for work on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the holiday and I have a relative that had an empty apartment in Manhattan. So we only had to pay for the flight for my wife and food when we were there. What a score!
The office space (for my day job) for our new New York office is right on Union Square. Union Square is the home of the Green Market. They have a farmers market there 4 days/week. It’s amazing. I can’t imagine going to work several times a week and having that much access to locally sourced food. Below is a video from Current TV on a new restaurant kiosk in Battery Park. Battery Park is where all of the tour boats to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty leave - so they have a ton of traffic. The new restaurant is called Picnick and is an all organic/locally sourced sustainable.
Before the wife and I went to New York, we contacted our friends at Organic Works Marketing, Katie and Megan. They suggested a ton of eateries, so we hit up a few. I wish I had some pics of that, but I don’t. We did hit up Candle Cafe - a semi-well known vegan joint. I’ve never been to a vegan place and I was pleasantly surprised. I had a vegan cuban sandwich and it was rockstar! I also went to Gusto - the first USDA Organic certified restaurant.
Anyhoo - here are some pics and a nice video. There were organic dry cleaners everywhere - I wish I could find one by me…but then again…I don’t dry clean anything.
There is a post over at Crunchy Chicken today about the launch of Planet Green (welcome back to blogging Ms Crunchy!). While I wrote about my superficial excitement for the channel, she delved deeper into the advertising message that is being promoted. I have to say - if I look at it in that context, I agree with most of what she wrote and that of her readers. This is not to say that I really am not excited to watch these programs, but I am a more educated watcher than the casual Oprah mom. (DISCLAIMER: I didn’t watch much of the launch last night because it was the last game of the Stanley Cup playoffs).
She pointed out that GM is a major sponsor of the channel and there will be product placement in many shows. I bitched about this with the HGTV Green House giveaway. Many of these shows have been on other Discovery Channel owned channels. One of which is Mean Green Machines. The first one that I caught last night was doing a comparison of a GM E85 truck versus the Tahoe Hybrid. I threw up in my mouth a little. Remember their commericals using little kids to sell SUVs?
In general, though, I think a lot of the programming is honest. I’ve always liked the host of This Old House on PBS - the one after Bob Vila - and he is the host of Renovation Nation. The five minutes I watched of it last night was a good program. Wa$ted is okay. It is the exact duplicate of a show from New Zealand that used to be on Discovery Home.
Anyway - I talked about some of the programs yesterday. Today is about advertising. Should we be worried about greenwashing to the masses? Of course we should. Many of these products being advertised are from major companies who are anything but green historically. Yes, they’re trying to make money off of a movement. If they make a household cleaner that is safer than 409, then I’m not going to complain (well, not too much). Not everyone is going to make their own cleaners like my angelic wife. It’s a tit-for-tat world. We could sit an nit-pick everything. I often do.
For some of the brands I’ve always liked like Burt’s Bees selling out to Clorox, I look at it like your favorite underground band finally making it. The die-hard original fans are pissed off because their band is “selling out.” In reality - the goal of a band is to make it big and make a living off of their music. The goal of a business is to make profit. The unfortunate part is there are lots of genuine companies who will be looked at skeptically because they are in the green market space.
Greenwashing is an issue, but I think we need to give these shows a chance. I’ve seen many of them in the past. They aren’t all bad. Some have their issues - like Wa$ted when their first episode was this McMansion and they barely did anything to change their lifestyle.
A commenter, Robin pretty much sums up what I’m thinking…”I’m not ready to call the channel useless yet, but I hadn’t given a thought to the type of advertising that would be on it, yet. Gives me some food for thought.”
Umm…Discovery Channel…this is kinda funny…but doesn’t make people want to live more sustainably…
PS - Ms Crunchy Chicken - I don’t want to see green porn with Tommy Lee. I think he’d make a cucumber blush.
It’s the final countdown…ahh…I’m not exactly talking about that fantastic Europe song. I’m talking about Discovery Channel’s new channel - Planet Green. It’s here! June 4th, 2008 is the beginning of Planet Green! Woo hoo! Discovery Channel doesn’t allow me to embed their video - boo - so follow the link to the preview.
This is the first 24-hour channel dedicated to greening your life. I am so excited because I’ve already watched a bunch of these programs on Discovery Home and HGTV. HGTV? Yep - Living With Ed is moving to Planet Green. Two of the shows I’m really excited to see are AlterEco and Wrecklamation. I want to see AlterEco because I really like Adrian Grenier of Entourage fame. I think he’s pretty genuine in his passion for the environment…and who doesn’t like a good makeover show? Especially an eco-lifestyle makeover. I want to see Wrecklamation because I’ve been going (not religiously) to host Jodi Murphy’s demolition sales for almost 12 years.
Let me say this - when you watch Wrecklamation - that is not an act. Jodi is crazy and fun. She has a company that she started herself called Murco Recycling. She herself was broke and wanted to do things to her home when she was driving by a house set for demolition. She called the developer and asked to have a shot at the house before it was torn down. A business was born. She has been running demoliton sales ever since. Personally, we’ve bought a bunch of random things from Jodi. I remember one house on the north shore where it was drizzling rain - we finally broke her down to give us this section of vinca for $5. I looked at the store and flats of vinca that same size was at least $60. You can buy anything from the house, though - from the windows and doors to the flooring and molding to the faucets and so on. We mostly purchased outdoor goods. My mother-in-law has had a path in her garden for a good 10 years that was removed from someones house at a demolition sale. So watch her show - it’ll be fun! Follow this link to watch the preview!
Greensburg looks cool too. A little over a year ago, the town of Greensburg, Kansas was hit by a tornado. 95% of the town was destroyed. The show follows the rebuilding of the town. They are rebuilding their town with sustainabilty at the forefront. Greensburg will be a green community. Watch the preview.
UPDATE: I just got this in an email from Treehugger.com:
Planet Green Launches Today! It is the first and only 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network with a robust online presence and community. Launching this evening, on-air content will reach 50 million homes with more than 250 hours of original green lifestyle programming. By representing a broad range of ideas and perspectives, Planet Green is taking an active role in generating conversation and motivating individuals to take action when it comes to improving the environmental status of our planet.
And none of it is canned- it is all new ground with original programming. Our General Manager Eileen O’Neill says “It’s been challenging at times, in part because we’ve been educating the production community that may have had certain expectations of what green content is.”
But we hope that it will educate and lead to changes in attitudes. Eileen says “This is a new genre, people don’t have any set expectations of what green media is, and we’re defining it - as really funny, engaging, entertaining and definitely credible.”
Spring kinda happened here in the Chicago burbs. It’s supposed to be in the 70’s here this week consistently, so we’ll see. I think it’s just going to go right into summer. Anyway, the garden is underway. We bought some cocoa mulch yesterday. It’s great for veggies b/c its so fine. It also smells great - although I really wanted a chocolate bar when I was done. Here is a short photo gallery of our first raised bed.
There is a post over at 
Greensburg 
