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ENDS TOMORROW - JULY 4TH
Who doesn’t like FREE STUFF? Free GREEN stuff at that! I know I do. So here’s what we’re going to do - after this brilliant, cleverly written article about Chapter One Organics, I’m going to be giving away The Green Eaters Gift Bundle.
I recently discovered that Hulu.com has clips from one of my favorite shows, Big Ideas for a Small Planet. Hulu has been great for finds of online TV viewing.
Go browse the clips from Big Ideas… below is a clip about the PowerLeap from Elizabeth Redmond, sister of Sara Snow. Elizabeth is a local Chicago resident, so it’s great to see her getting this recognition.
So I was reading Perez Hilton this morning - yes - it’s kind of a guilty pleasure now and again - and I saw this post about Julia Roberts. I searched around and it looks like she regularly brings reusable bags to the grocery store.
I also found this on Ecorazzi - maybe I should have started with that site - but I had to be honest. My name is Jason and I read Perez Hilton. I actually started reading that crap when it was still pagesixsixsix.com - then he got sued and changed it to PerezHilton.com. Anyhoo…
I think it’s great that a celebrity is using and promoting the use of reusable bags. She is doing her part…and hopefully encourages someone else out there to do the same.
source: Perez Hilton, Ecorazzi
We recently moved offices for my “real” job. So when we moved, we had vending machines installed. With my little power and suggestions, I was able to get the snack machine lights removed today. To keep people from thinking the machines are off, I created some signs and placed them on the machines. I also created a little sign and put it above the coffee. It reads, “Put sugar & cream in your cup before the coffee and you won’t need a stir stick.” The nice touch was the old NBC PSA logo, “the more you know.” It’s a simple change.
Vending machines are tough, because they generally consume a ton of energy. The energy consumption from non-cooled snacks like chips are easier to curb if you can get your vendor to turn the lights off in the machine. Most of the energy from these machines all go into the lighting. So that’s a quick win. Soda machines that are refrigerated are bit tougher. Apparently there are these retrofit things you can install - occupancy sensors - that will turn on and off the compressor. So whenever the machine isn’t in use, the compressor shuts off. If the machine is inactive for two hours, the compressor kicks back in and cools the machine to the proper temp and shuts back off. That could save a lot of energy. I settled for just having the lighting turned off. That’s an energy savings of about $126/yr - or $10/mo. The lights are on 24/7…not anymore.
Oh yeah…it’s sabotage because these little signs could go everywhere in the office to make people start to think about their choices…hrmm…what to place a sign on next? Maybe drop signs around the city…
I’ve always been a big fan of Ben Harper and his music. This was even before I knew he was green. I actually had the pleasure of meeting Ben last summer. Here is more from the Sundance Channel’s Ecoist series:
Did I not mention this yesterday? Well - I happened to be reading through the NeoCon magazine and never thought about how I had access to all of the speakers, etc. This one totally slipped past me. Robert F Kennedy Jr, the son of Bobby Kennedy and the well-known environmentalist was speaking at NeoCon. I looked through the book and initially thought I missed it - nope - 8am, Tuesday June 10th. I’m in.
I got up early to catch the 6:34am train into the office - which happens to be directly across the Chicago river from the Merchandise Mart, home of NeoCon. I got to work in time to pickup my credentials and drop off my laptop. I ran over to the Mart and waited for an elevator. I got in and took the elevator up - the operator informs me that it only went to the 11th floor - I had to get to 14. I exited at 11 and found my way to the 14th floor. I got out and looked around and said “WTF?” The hallway was empty - devoid of life - just shops with Christmas items - weird. It’s now 8am and I look in the program again. Oh shit! It’s at the Holiday Inn Merchandise Mart - connected, but in a different building. I’m not waiting 10min for an elevator again, so I ran down 14 floors of stairs, across the street and made it to the correct venue. Phew - I made it. Guess what - the 8am program didn’t start until 8:25am. A lot of running around for nothing.
If you’ve never heard Robert F Kennedy Jr speak, he has what I can only describe as a type of speech imediment - like he’s gasping for air. He started out a little groggy, but once his words are rolling, he’s fine. I only bring this up because I was a little worried that the speech would lack something. In retrospect, he could have been speaking German and I’d have been fine tuned to every last umlaut. I guess in my case, he was speaking to the choir.
I’m not a big fan of politics - never have been - but it is important to stay in touch with the world. With the latest administration, it’s impossible not to speak about or speak up about, rather, the political landscape. Kennedy made the point that Americans can tell you what color underwear that Lindsey Lohan is wearing, but can’t tell you much, if anything, about what is happening in the world (if you’re keeping score at home, the correct answer is, Lindsey doesn’t wear underwear). I think his quote was, “we’re the most entertained and least informed society anywhere.” People need to get out from under their rock which is general American media which is controlled by about 5 different companies.
Kennedy went over so many facts about the current administration that I had no idea about. He calls out all of these folks who are supporting environmental endeavors in the Bush administration as “former” lobbyists for bad people. I put “former” in quotes because many of these people - when they leave their posts, they go back to where they came from. They go back to the coal and oil companies.
I can’t do any of his speech justice, so I’d suggest taking some time and watching it for yourself. Some of these video clips are pretty much exactly the same speech I heard.
How the media fails us:
Here is a speech that is very similar to the speech he gave today:
My first stop today was the press room. I was happy to see that they not only had someone manning the trash station to ensure proper recycling, but they were composting as well. The plates were compostable. The glasses were made from PLA corn-based plastics. The flatware was made from potato starches and fully compostable.
After that stop, I hit up a ton boothes and show rooms. I saw everything from carpet made from recycles PET plastics, to sustainable fabrics, to plant-based foam cushioning mainly for office furniture. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about those different products and I know I’ll have a giveaway of somekind - probably some tote bags. Stay tuned.
So the title of this little article. Rainn Wilson, star of The Office, was on hand to promote office furniture, I suppose. He was recruited to be in the HON Furniture showroom. I wrote about HON awhile back. I’m not sure that Rainn will actually help them move any furniture or if people will even remember that they saw “Dwight Shrute” at the HON showroom. They’ll just remember HON. It was quite a surprise as I was being given a tour by a young girl who was barely out of college. I’m not sure if she caught on that I really didn’t care about the latest furniture styles and designs. I cared about their GREENGUARD certifications and what they are doing to be sustainable…then she sprung the surprise on me…”oh yeah - I wanted to show you that Rainn Wilson is here…he’s Dwight on The Office.” I prefer to think of him as “Arthur on Six Feet Under” or closer to the heart is “he was that one celebrity blogger on that one Entourage episode.” I think to myself - did she just say that “Dwight Shrute” is sitting 10 feet from me? Oh - that’s what that long line is for? I’m an indie movie fan and loved Rainn Wilson as the host of The Spirit Awards last year. So yeah - I follow his career a bit - no intentionally - he just happens to be in good stuff - like Juno. Anyway…
Tomorrow, I will be taking a tour of the Merchandise Mart (the home of Neocon). The Merchandise Mart is so large that it has its own zip code - even zip+4, probably. Anyway - why would I take a tour of this building? It’s the largest LEED-EB Silver certified building - a retrofit, existing building, LEED certification. I hope to provide more details on that after the tour.
PS - look for a photo gallery in the coming days.
Garrett Dutton III, aka G Love, gives us a tour of Brushfire Records Studios. Jack Johnson is the owner/founder of Brushfire. Check out one of the world’s first sustainably, green built studios.
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.
