In a huge win for eco-friendly promotional clothing Boardroom Eco Apparel has been selected to supply apparel for The Hudson’s Bay Company for Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Sponsors, Partners, and Suppliers.

The Olympics has been a showcase for green ideas before, and I suspect the 2010 games will not stop at just apparel. Here is a news clip on this amazing development. Please enjoy.

Boardroom ECO Apparel is an apparel design and manufacturing company located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded by CEO Mark Trotzuk in 1996, Boardroom specializes in custom manufacturing and technical, fashionable and environmentally friendly clothing solutions.

If you have questions on the size and significance of this deal please contact Mark Trotzuk directly. Same for media, please contact Mark Trotzuk. If you want to get into the Olympic spirit a bit early and use Boardroom Apparel for your own promotional needs, contact you local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for selections and pricing.

It’s easier to buy green office products than ever before. The three largest office supply retailers, Staples, Office Depot and Office Max each carry thousands of reasonably priced products with recycled content and other environmental attributes.

Some even innovate. Take Office Max, they were one of the first national retailers to carry TerraCycle products and they now sell a range of their products from notebooks made from used potato chip bags to juice pouch pencil cases.

There are also a number of green office suppliers online such as Green Line Paper.com, TheGreenOffice.com or Green Apple School Supply that offer thousands of eco-friendly products. And green promotional item companies like John Simonetta’s ProformaGreen.com and EcoPromotionsOnline.com are also good places to find green office supplies.

I found ten awesome green office supply products under $10 because no matter how small every single purchase has an impact on the environment. Whether you’re buying copy paper or forklifts, that purchasing decision is an environmental decision. So, if you want to start with some small stuff, basic office supplies are a great place to start.  Here are my favorite cheap, green office supplies:

#1. on my list is reasonably priced private-label recycled content copy paper from office supply retailers. A scan of websites today (July 2, 2009) revealed the following prices for a 10 ream case (5,000 sheets) of 30% PCW 20 lb. 8.5″ x 11′ copy paper:

Office Depot: $3.30/ream (for a limited time until stock lasts; regularly $4.00/ream)

Office Max: $4.00/ream

Staples: $4.10/ream

2. & 3. The TerraCycle E-Waste Recycling Can is made from 100% e-waste (such as crushed computers and fax machines) that would otherwise have ended up in landfills. It comes in both blue and green, holds 28 quarts and costs $9.99 (www.officemax.com).  For a more funky and slightly smaller version, the TerraCycle 12″ Urban Art Recycled Trash Bin (its that groovy one above) also costs $9.99 (ShopOnlyGreen.com).

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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:

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UltraClub is the in house brand of promotional apparel supplier Bodek and Rhodes. Under the UltraClub brand name Bodek and Rhodes has recently launched a line of organic cotton apparel of a slightly higher quality than other organics currently on the market.

The quality of these garments is one thing, but more important seems to be the way this line is being marketed. Indeed Bodek and Rhodes is going out of their way to educate the promotional item industry, and indeed the end users of these items about what - according to Bodek and Rhodes- makes organic cotton organic cotton.

To this end they have developed the website www.ultraclub.com/organics as an educational tool for the buyer. Ecopreneurists that use the sale of shirts in their business can now arm themselves with facts to answer the question, “what makes this organic”.

Also Ecopreneurist businesses that use Bodek and Rhodes UtraClub Organic apparel for staff uniforms can use this information in their own marketing message as additional proof of their business’s commitment to the environment.

The site is divided into six fast sections, Why Buy Organic, Understanding Organic, It’s the Process, 100% Certified Organic, Protecting the Workers, The UltraClub Line.

Marc Seiler is the Bodek and Rhodes’s ASI contact to talk to about Bodek and Rhodes commitment to organic apparel. If you are interested in these items to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

Women entrepreneurs, don’t miss the Keiretsu Forum’s 4th Annual Summer Solstice panel discussion tonight about “How Women Investors and Entrepreneurs Will Revive the California Economy.”

The event will bring together the Bay Area’s most talented minds to:

•          Foster a collaborative atmosphere between women and the angel community
•          Confront the critical issues facing women entrepreneurs and investors today
•          Drive the recovery of the California economy
•          Build businesses and invest in thought out ventures
•          Explore compelling investment opportunities

In addition to a networking reception, attendees will hear brief presentations and a panel discussion regarding the larger role women investors and entrepreneurs need to play in the California economy. More than ever, the angel community is eager to attract women investors. Women investors are considered a largely untapped market that is critical to “financial and mentoring support for new companies.”

REGISTRATION


Please register at http://summersolstice.eventbrite.com $25 by June 26, $40 thereafter.

PANELISTS AND KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

The Summer Solstice will feature a unique panel of business women who will discuss a myriad of issues confronting the entrepreneurial community today. The panel itself will be comprised of notable members and entrepreneurs from the Keiretsu Forum and Women’s Initiative.

Agenda

5:30-6:30pm     Registration, Networking, and Booth Exhibitors

6:45-6:50pm      Welcome and Opening Remarks

6:50-7:10pm     Key Note Speaker

7:10-7:20pm     Panelist introductions

7:20-8:00pm     Panel Discussion

About the Keynote Speakers

Amanda Wallis is the Managing Director, Market Executive for the Northern California and Nevada Regions of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management.  Wallis is a member of Bank of America’s San Francisco Leadership Team, comprised of the company’s top executives in the market. The team manages the bank’s ongoing relationships with local community leaders and organizations and makes decisions about how to use Bank of America’s resources to support the San Francisco community.

With more than 30 years of financial services experience, Wallis joined U.S. Trust from American Express in London where she served as executive director, and Europe, Middle East, Africa Region Head of the American Express Private Bank. In that role she led a region with seven international locations.  Prior to her role at American Express, Wallis spent over 10 years at the legacy Private Bank of Bank of America. During this period Wallis served in several leadership roles in San Francisco and London.

Wallis earned her undergraduate degree from Smith College and completed the executive program in Leadership and Managing Change at Stanford Business School. In 2007 she was named one of the “20 Most Influential Women in European Wealth Management” by Global Investor Magazine.

Rashmi Sinha is co-founder and CEO for SlideShare, the world’s largest community for sharing presentations and documents. SlideShare is growing rapidly (more than 18 million monthly uniques) letting everyone from marketers, conference speakers and academicians share presentations and connect with others. Rashmi has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Brown University and did research on search engines and recommender systems at UC Berkeley. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo and Future of Web Apps. She writes a blog at rashmisinha.com about running a startup.

This is another  in our series of environmentally focused cartoons we are featuring from Seppo Leinonen a cartoonist from Finland. I met Seppo through Twitter @sepponet and loved his business oriented green cartoons - I think you will too!

Editor’s Note: The is a guest contribution by Danny Kennedy, President of Sungevity. This is part of a series from the CEO’s of major solar companies. You can follow the complete series here.

Sometimes it is hard to contemplate what a good news story our industry – solar sales and installation – and the broader clean energy economy really represents. I was reminded on Monday at the graduation ceremony for the Oakland Green Collar Jobs Corps.

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The added value of going green is constantly growing. According to a survey conducted lately, 46% of consumers say they would shop at a retailer more if it was environmentally friendly. Another study of Mintel shows 62% of customers choose a restaurant based on their commitment to the environment.

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Evening Breeze is an interesting solution: It’s a canopy bed that has adjustments for both temperature and humidity, and delivers it quietly, overhead, using only 400 watts. As it’s focused just on the place where coolness is desired, there’s no need to try and cool the whole room. Simple, brilliant. The resulting energy savings can mean 4MWh, $1000 and 2.5 tons of CO2 reduction annually.

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