Ecopreneurist

You drink coffee. Tea. When it’s at home, it’s organic, and when you’re out, you do your best. In so many ways, you live a green lifestyle. And yet, there’s one sticky point: the cup.

You know about bringing your own mug, but it’s just so…clumsy. And it’s not the right size for the machines your barista uses, so they have to use a different cup when making it, defeating the purpose of you bringing a mug.

Yes, their cups are made from recycled paper, but they’re coated to make them waterproof, heat resistant, etc. Which means they aren’t getting recycled a second time. Compostable? Biodegradable? Possibly, but still, some materials had to be used to make that single use cup. Often more than twice the weight of the resulting cup. And for many, unless you have a professional grade facility at home, composting or biodegrading isn’t going to happen any time soon.

What to do? KeepCup has what may be just the thing:

Usually when people visit a winery, people look for various shades of white or dark red, but here our color paradigm might shift to say Green. The recently opened CADE Winery offers not only solar power and organically farmed winery but hopes to garner LEED Gold status and if so, would be the first Estate Gold LEED certified winery in the Napa Valley.

When visiting a winery, people’s olfactory system normally goes into overdrive but instead of inhaling the aromas of vanilla, rosemary, oak and sage here we took deep breaths of the air. As in indoor air quality. No stuffy AC here as the building relies on natural ventilation. Although the wines remain something to admire, we also dig the other green aspects. CADE utilizes 100% solar power and organic farming methods which both look so green and tasty. Read the rest of this entry »

The sales of organic foods have slowed in the last year, after almost ten years of at least 20% growth.  The economy has cooled even some of the hottest markets, including organics, but with 6% growth in 2008, the organic industry remains strong and resilient.  A terrific ecopreneurial opportunity exists for people interested in helping others set up, maintain and harvest organic gardens.  And the industry is about to get a big shot in the arm from the Obama Administration. 

Or at least, we hope it is.  Michael Pollan, sustainable food activist and author of several books, advocated for turning part of the White House lawn into an organic garden.  If you google “Obama Organic Garden”, you’ll see the overwhelmingly positive response from the blogosphere.  While the Obamas have not commented on the possibilities, I’d wager they’re considering it.  Their daughters attend a private school which uses organic ingredients in their food, unbleached napkins made from Read the rest of this entry »

From subqns at Flickr under a Creative Commons License

As the mercury drops this winter season, the Grande Latte is in vogue again - but will set you back almost $4.  Here are 5 tips for how to have your cup o’ Joe without breaking the bank.

While I sat sipping my Grande Latte on a cold December day, I was taken aback by how much lighter my wallet felt as a result.  In between sips I managed to calculate that at the rate of 20 sips per cup, each sip  was costing me $0.20!  The realization that I could just as easily down a gallon of crude oil instead and still have some left over for a biscotti, made me vow to do whatever it took to ween myself from my addiction - here’s my story:

1. Bring your own mug

At first I went easy, and brought my own travel mug to the store.  At Starbucks this will save you a paltry $0.10 a visit, but I figured it was better than nothing.  Besides, I found my spiffy Starbucks Mug made me feel ultra cool since I was saving trees by not using paper cups.  I also discovered that I wasn’t re-heating my coffee in the microwave, an extra boon in my book.

2. Skip the milk

Read the rest of this entry »

Following a previous post, in which I profiled Dr. David Servan-Schreiber’s battle with cancer, as chronicled in Ode Magazine, I wanted to continue a discussion that contradicts Dr. Servan-Schreiber’s assertion that the reason cancer prevention is not talked about is because, “There is no money to be made in cancer prevention.”  

I would argue that there is more money to be made in cancer prevention than in cancer treatment, because as my crotchety Republican Uncle frequently laments, “Everything causes cancer.” 

Read the rest of this entry »

My family is coming for Thanksgiving this year and in the spirit of the season, we wanted to try and do something a little different, a 100-mile Thanksgiving.

The 100-mile movement is a local eating experiment whereby you buy food that is locally raised and produced from within a 100-mile radius of where you live.  We have 22 family and friends coming from up and down the East coast from Ithaca, NY to Tampa, and while the family is generally sympathetic to green-living, it required some friendly advice to pull it off. So, I sent an e-mail describing the concept and offering helpful advice, tips, links, etc.

We did our part, ordering a bunch of stuff from our milk man and local farm, Southmountain Creamery. We spent Sunday morning at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market and found all sorts of fabulous greens, yams, “Dr. Seuss” cauliflower, herbs, cheeses and chicken for stock. Once the kids warmed up with hot cocoa and croissants it was a terrific morning all around.

As for the rest of the guests, at first I heard nothing back from my email.

Then a few requests to resend the email.

Finally….

My sister-in-law from Brooklyn jumped in with apple-pear chutney to replace cranberry sauce. She also asked if chocolate from Jacques Torres in Brooklyn qualified. We decided, since one cannot pass up Jacques Torres Chocolate and we’re making a similar exception for coffee, that products with raw materials that cannot be found within a 100 miles (cocoa nibs, coffee beans) can be brought if they are processed locally. So, Jacques Torres is in as is Gimme Coffee! roasted in Ithaca, NY. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

I mentioned before in this blog that the gym and spa industry is one of the main buyers of sport bottles. It makes sense, sign-up for a membership, get a water bottle and t-shirt.

I also mentioned that the BPA scare pretty much halted the market for plastic gym bottles. This was an event especially felt by eco-friendly gyms, yoga studios and spas that had been using bottles as giveaway items. Many businesses gave up on plastic altogether and moved to aluminum or steel bottles.

Well the industry is fighting back with BPA free bottles especially designed for gyms - like Glass America’s 19 oz. Treadmill BPA Free Bottle - bottles designed with wide mouths and easy grips.

These new bottles also have the words “BPA free” imprinted directly on them to make sure the audience does not miss the fact these are “safe” bottles.

We will see how well these new bottle designs do. It is nice to see the industry bouncing back in this area and at the same time moving forward on green products.

For more information on BPA free bottles from Glass America please visit their website or visit us at Proformagreen.com.

This morning as I woke up to my clock radio, the one minute Project Green segment came on the Rush Limbaugh leaning KNCO AM. It reported on a recent meeting of California wine growers, all 26 of which are talking preliminary to major efforts to green their operations, product, and packaging.

Somehow this doesn’t surprise me. Vintners are acutely aware of the health of their environment, their plants, and the resulting product. With the refined and particular tastes of many of their consumers, a lackluster wine will lead to lackluster profits. Beyond that though, their customers are, I would venture to guess, more likely to be of the LOHAS mindset, choosing what they consume based on more factors then simply the cheapest available. They want everything they touch to have thought, consciousness, and a lighter impact on the planet factored into them.

How can a wine be green? The grapes themselves can of course be organic, the growing method biodynamic. But what else? Read the rest of this entry »

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Non Woven Poly bags are great but many of our clients don’t like non wovens and keep asking when an inexpensive organic cotton tote would be available.

Well the new Econo Tote Bag from Debco seems to fit the bill at 14.75” W x 16.5” with runs under $2 for orders over 1000 units and starts around $3.50 for a small run of 50 units with one color imprint included. These bags are 100% natural organic cotton processed AZO-Free with no hazardous chemicals. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who don’t read the LA Times, here’s a green products article you’ll want to catch. Today they featured a detailed story about green chemistry–the companies developing green body care, house cleaning and home building materials and the challenges they face. And, oh ya, also about the multi-millions in revenues they are earning and consumers learn more and care more about what goes into the bodies of their families.

Writer Marla Cone points out that the green products available today are not perfect, but the article is encouraging for the prospects for green businesses. And although she is focused on big companies that are going green, she also gives some good case study material on green companies that have gone big.

More on green products from Ecopreneurist:

Attack the Ingredient Not the Brand: Is Burt’s Bees New Campaign on the Right Track?

Organic Lotions Go Glam and Luxurious

4 Questions to Ask Before You Launch a Green Product