Archive for the ‘Eco-Entreprenuers’ Category
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Who doesn’t like food? Especially fancy food. Lot’s of people do as judged by the crowds filling the aisles and booths of the Moscone Center for the 35th Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. With so many munchies, nibbles and treats to delve though we had to restrict our nibbling, tasting and inquires to the ever expanding Natural and Organic section.
Food like anything else can be about expectation. We set the organic chocolaty bar fairly high and weren’t disappointed by the plethora of organic chocolates but we actually went in search of more interesting items. Zhena’s Gypsy teas marked our first discovery. Even though they’ve been around for about 10 year they more recently created five biodynamic teas and we felt much better after sampling the Caramelized Pear flavor. On top of the tea itself we had to like containers made from 70% recycled steel (and the cans are 100% recyclable because they contain no paper stuck with glue. They make their tea bags from non-GMO corn silk and can be composted as they biodegradable after 60 days. Having this teas makes us feel good better come 4 pm tea time.
We know that several natural partially organic (organic flour) bog bones exist but we could help from talking (no sampling for us) with the owners of Bare Bones dog bones. If they hailed from Cali then we might not of stopped but seeing that these guys make their all natural bones in Dallas caused us to discuss how people in Big D see these dog bones of all things. They mentioned that the people in Texas don’t exactly “get” the whole dog bone thing but they know that organic is some buzz word so they continue to go along for the ride. Go get ‘em Fido!
Field Roast impressed us not just by feeding us tons of samples of their various fake meats but by showing us their factory in a renovated 1920s former dairy building in Seattle. These commitment to re-using an existing building cost them more than moving into some new factory but it showed that along with their commitment to use local veggies and minimal packing that their heart or rather their “meat” is in the right place.
We weren’t so happy to see all the companies pushing organic this and that in horrific plastic packaging. We saw enough gluten free, natural, corn syrup based products in the section (we don’t want to call anyone out at this point) that must have had various green marketing gurus earning their bonuses. We wish that they would spend less money on marketing about how good their product is and just make their product better.
Tags: biodynamic, corn syrup, gluten free, Natural, non-GMO, organic, San Francisco, teas, Winter Fancy Food Show
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, Events, Food, Products, San Francisco | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
As some of my colleagues and I wondered Friday (with less people) then Saturday (bobbed and weaved through the packed crowds) through the San Francisco Green Festival 2009 and we put aside any thoughts of the outside the green world bubble with the economic woes, with so many downtrodden uncreative businesses sticking to the old game plan. Here we viewed, tasted and discussed fresh innovative and mostly sustainable ideas.
We have to give the festival credit, maybe it seemed as though more authentic green businesses showed up at this year’s version. We didn’t see much corporate greenwashing like the not as Green as it used to be Burt’s Bees. Also, Coke owned Honest Tea sold its not so green corporate drink but that would be a minor quibble. Aside from checking out some of the various discussion groups (state of small Green business) and even some cooking demos (how to make organic stew) most of the time we spent wandering the trade floor.
Without spending too much time or words (we’ll post some more ramblings soon) here’s some of the cool stuff we found. Zen Honeycutt’s mother roped us in (or rather grabbed) us to introduce us to her daughter who is busy creating her own lavender empire with her practically lavish lotions, eyeshades and creams. Just down the long aisle, we spotted the reusable sandwich bag the Fresh Snack Pack. Great idea in place of the sandwich bags that get tossed. These packs contain no PVCs but we’d like to find out what these bad boys consist of. We had no doubt about what the Organic Essence lip balm consisted of. But we licked our lips for more than just the organic ingredients. The 100% FSC compostable non-plastic tube really wowed us. Why hadn’t someone thought of this before? Like us? We also ignored the wishes of our dentists and sampled the multitudes of chocolates, and we sampled them all but we liked Alter Eco bar (especially the dark) not only for the best and richest creamy favor but also for the organic ingredients and the fair trade philosophy that the relatively small company abides by.
As for 2010….bring it on!
Tags: 2009, Alter Eco bar, chocolate, fair trade, Fresh Snack Pack, FSC, Green Festival, organic, Organic Essence, PVC, San Francisco, Zen's Garden
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, Events, Food, Interesting ideas, San Francisco | No Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
No matter who attends the BSR conference, we always seem to find a balance between the people who legitimately wish to improve sustainability, not just for their company but the planet, and those who set out to further their profits by subtle or blatant greenwashing.
During the Thursday morning breakfast, Zhang Yue, chairman and CEO of China-based Broad Air Conditioning woke the crowd up as he spoke through an interpreter. A few minutes before that, I found myself asking a colleague “Who is this guy?” After 10 minutes, I changed my mind. More people should listen to this guy. True, I haven’t done due diligence on his company but if his company does half the things that he says they do then I’m on board. Yue created China’s first “non-electric chiller” and insists on showing consumers how triple paned windows will reduce their need to use air conditioners. Consider that their business revolves around making air conditioners. 
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Tags: Broad Air Conditioning, BSR, Calvert Social Investment Foundation, china, Michael de Soyza Dialog Telekom, PPP, Sayjay Raman Howcast Media, USAid, Zhang Yue
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Monday, August 17th, 2009
It was a one in 20 chance encounter. I felt like a paparazzi who got a chance to spy a celebrity but in this instance my camera caught a shot of the Tango, the car that makes look the Smart Car look like a Lincoln Continental. Only about 10-20 Tangos exists which makes the sighting more special. Actually my neighbor (a solar guy who already drives an EV-4) had the thing in his driveway in the Lower Haight and a crowd of passersby, tourists, and green auto enthusiasts formed around this electric only car.
As they say, looks can be deceiving. My neighbor said that the Tango can beat a Tesla in terms of acceleration. The Tango can accelerate from zero to over 130 mph in one gear. It accelerates from zero to 60 mph in about 4 seconds. We say Zoom to that.
Don’t think that just because this little guy is small that it isn’t safe. Okay, relatively safe. It contains a crash tested roll cage (like they use for race cars). More importantly is comfort. You’d think that anyone sitting in the back would be subjected to eating their knees but the back seat allows more room than one might guess with the running boards for legroom. (more…)
Tags: electric car, Smart Cars, Solar, Tango, Tesla
Posted in Eco-Entreprenuers, San Francisco, Transportation | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 7th, 2009
It’s kind of exciting to be around some of the top bloggers, social media giants, and computer media gurus at the 2009 Inman Connect. It would be silly to search for significant Green aspects within this conference, but the as they say it’s about people, planet, profit. Of course, the real estate industry here remains about profit but much of the new innovation deals with people.
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Monday, July 27th, 2009
For some people the act of walking in to a shopping mall during a huge sale makes them sort of shake like they are on crack and for me and my friend Mouse, walking into Scrap for the first time, it caused a similar reaction. How could I not have known about this place? True, the location could not be less in the middle of nowhere and in San Francisco that is quite a trick. But still, I have no excuse.
Scrap, which their pamphlet calls “a creative reuse center and workshop space” came about in 1976, way before recycling and Green became trendy, as a resource for artists and teachers. Scrap also set out to promote environmental awareness and creative reuse.
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Tags: landfill, non-profit, paper, recycle, reuse, San Francisco, scrap, textiles
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, Resources, San Francisco | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 16th, 2009
A couple months ago while strolling or rather avoiding the Bay Bridge rush hour type traffic masses in the Green Festival we spotted a shoe company. No dahhling, we didn’t spy any sustainably made Manolo Blahnik pumps (we wish) but rather some shoes that caused a Chuck Taylor déjà vu. Even more than the shoe, a sign caught our eyes – FSC certified soles. What? How can shoe soles be FSC certified? That’s a wood certification. Then we had one of those “oh yeah” moments. The soles come from rubber trees.
Okay, we’ll admit that the last things you would mistake us for are “fashionistas” but we can spot sustainable shoes when we see them. Don’t get on our case about shoes and sustainability. Okay, going barefoot would be the best way to go but for the rest of us we just wear our duds as green as possible. The still relatively unknown Autonomie Project creates the eco-friendly Ethletic footwear, as well as other clothing and accessories. They offer the classic low-top as well as flip-flops but the Organic Chucky Ts got us. (more…)
Tags: animal_products, bay_bridge, chuck_taylor, duds, global_marketplace, imelda_marcos, pcp, rubber_tree, rush_hour, shoe_bottom, shoe_company, shoe_makers, sweetshop, vegan
Posted in Eco-Entreprenuers, Products | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 18th, 2006
It’s not like we haven’t seen coupon books like this before in other cities (like Portland and Austin) but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be tickled green by San Francisco’s own Green Savings coupon book.
Green Zebra – San Fran’s Green version of those Entertainment coupon books recently hit the stands. You don’t have to be too bashful about using these coupons because the book only contains local green business (sorry Whole Foods) with a slew of restaurants, spas, shops and the like. Aside from the myriad coupons the book offers ideas about how create a Green Wedding, a list of Dirty Dozen produce, and our fave, a neurotic recycler quiz. Maybe it won’t hit the NY Times Top 100 Book List but who really cares when you can sip a free Green Zebra tomato martini at Bacar.
Tags: Austin, Bacar, Entertainment, Green Savings, Green Zebra, health, Martini, money, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, Whole Foods
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, San Francisco, money | No Comments »
In a city known for its famous writers, San Francisco got another taste of literary excellence. Sure we have the likes of beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and notable romance writers like Danielle Steel but last night the City got a taste of Green writing. To some, local Green hero