Archive for the ‘San Francisco’ Category
Monday, September 28th, 2009
“We’re on a mission and we’re in a hurry,” represented one of the slogans or rather calls to action for the small but influential Coral Reef Alliance. They celebrated their 15th anniversary a couple of nights ago with an energetic, education and edible gathering at the oh so elegant Bently Reserve building here in San Francisco.
The festivities brought together their field representatives from all over the globe including: Belize, Fiji, Mexico, Indonesia, Honduras, almost anywhere coral reefs have become an endangered species. Over locally produced and multilayered Lagunitas IPA and tasty hors d’oeuvres the crowd mingled and discussed the state of coral reefs worldwide. Talking to the various field reps, we got the idea that they create awareness and educate many locals and tourists with little resources. It was as if the field reps paraphrased a quote from the film The Grapes of Wrath, “Wherever there’s a fight about coral reefs, I’ll be there.” (more…)
Tags: Belize, Bently Reserve, Coral Reef Alliance, Coral Reefs, divers, Fiji, Honduras, Indonesia, Lagunitus IPA, Mexico, San Francisco, The Grapes of Wrath
Posted in Environment, Events, San Francisco, money | No Comments »
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
It’s still relatively early here out the third day of Outside Lands, people either circulating with cups or beer or coffee (or both). We’re taking a slight music break to check out some of the tents, behind the scenes offerings, and offer other general musings about the festival.
We checked out a local SF band Big Light early today – 1) to check out a local band and 2) because they played at the Solar Stage (completely powered by solar like last year). Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of the stages powered by solar? They actually used solar on a larger scale for OL uno but they had power issues which apparently turned into economic issues this year.
Behind the scenes, most people think that a lot of drinking and eating goes on, which is true but people like Ice Cream Man sits in his ice cream van and just gives out ice cream – free. Why does he do it? He wants to just give something simple like ice cream (we downed a few Cherry Garcias while we talked with him) just to promote community and show people that you can simply give stuff away without expecting anything in return. Ice Cream Man hits the festival circuit but we’re more impressed when he hits various childrens’ hospitals and gives out free ice cream to sick kids. Now that’s a wonderful dessert. (more…)
Tags: bands, EcoLands, Mr. Ice Crea, Outside Lands, San Francisco, Solar Stage, sustainability, Yellow Bird Project
Posted in Events, Food, San Francisco | No Comments »
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Live from Outside Lands day two (Green posse in tow), today we focus on some of the artists. After all, for most people Outside Lands remains about the music. But unlike many festivals or shows Outside Lands offers a significant numbers of bands and singers who either have some direct social justice, environmental or artistic causes that they support or create.
Pearljam, who rocked us (despite poor Eddie Veder’s scratchy throat) last night has been offsetting their tours since 2006. The social and environmentally minded rockers fight corporate monopolies, create and cover songs with social and environmental angles (no surprise that they they covered Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” among other tunes last night), and donate even donate their bank to alt energy projects.
Tonight, another powerhouse in the sustainable movement the Dave Matthews Band hits the main stage. These band helped start a project called the Bama Green Project which maintains a partnership between Reverb and IZSTYLE, and encompasses various environmental efforts that the band commits to while on the road, in the studio and at home. The DMB and the Bama Green Project works on educating DMB fans around the world about how to take simple and positive environmental actions. It’s good to know that we have some help in this educational environmental thing.
It’s not all about the big bands, smaller bands such as Blind Pilot, who toured the West Coast twice now on their bicycles, Lila Downs (who unfortunately canceled at the last minute) creates education funds for women down in Oaxaca Mexico), and West Indian Girl did their last tour with a bio diesel RV.
Hopefully, Outside Lands and other festivals will invite more bands with a social and environmental conscience. Sure the music is important but it doesn’t mean that the bands can’t do something good for someone or something else as well.
Back to work as the music continues…..
Tags: Bama Green Project, Blind Pilot, Dave Mathews Band, Eddie Veder, Environment, Lila Downs, Neil Young, Outside Lands, Pearljam, Reverb, social justice, west indian girl
Posted in Events, Lifestyle, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Before the onslaught of crowds hit Golden Gate Park for Pearljam tonight, I, along with other Green minions checked out the Ouside Lands Green scene just as West Indian Girl hit one of the numerous stages.
Don’t say that we didn’t warn you but those who are short on cash should consider the Global Inheritance sponsored recycle booth in the Eco Lands section. They offered a similar booth last year but not many people seemed aware of it. The deal here is that anyone who wants nifty Outside Lands shirt (for free) just needs to bring 75 empty cans or bottles to the booth. For 250 bottles you can snag a pair of Loomstate organic jeans and 150 gets a recycled record vinyl clock. Those not as inspired can get some Fuel TV sunscreen (and boy is sunscreen mandatory today) for just eight bottles. (more…)
Tags: eco lands, fruit, Golden Gate Park, green, hetch hechy, local, organic, Outside Lands, San Francisco, Water, west indian girl
Posted in Events, Food, San Francisco, Water | No Comments »
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.
(more…)
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, Products, San Francisco, Technology | No Comments »
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.
(more…)
Tags: landfill, non-profit, paper, recycle, reuse, San Francisco, scrap, textiles
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, Resources, San Francisco | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
Time is running out. No, that isn’t another car sell or a joke to keep GM in business but if you want to have your hand out to receive the $10,000 tax credit for purchasing a hopefully green new construction property (or even a condo in a dirty building) then you better do so soon.
That mammoth amount of cash that the state provided to steer buyers to the dormant new construction market has dwindled to only $12 million. May proved to be a boon for buyers taking advantage of the tax credit as buyers claimed approximately $30 million. The California Franchise Tax Board speculates that the $100 million fund will be “wiped out by August 2009 and the incentive will not be extended.” 
(more…)
Tags: $10000, Arterra, California, LEED-Silver, tax credit
Posted in News, San Francisco, money | No Comments »
Friday, June 19th, 2009
It wasn’t exactly a quite hush that settled over the San Francisco’s Moscone Center for the 50th PCBC convention but the crowds and exhibitors for this annual builders convention came in about one-half of last year. Nonetheless, in this era of minimalism and slimming down the show offered an array of notable speakers and some innovative products. Now of course, with the slogan “The New Age of Innovation” we hoped for more progressive Green products and not just in a marketing sense.
(more…)
Tags: Castor oil, FSC, Icynene, LEED, Moscone Center, PCBC, San Francisco, SFI, spray foam insulation, Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Posted in Materials, Programs and Standards, San Francisco | 3 Comments »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
San Francisco’s zany Bay to Breakers race brings out not only world class runners but crazy costumes as well. Some companies took advantage of the crazy and healthy atmosphere to promote various items (energy drinks, anti pain patches) but we had to question the Foster Farms “Say No to Plumping” race team.
Sure, everyone seemed to enjoy having their photo taken with the plump Foster Farms chickens but the brightly colored 16-person Foster Farms race team seemed bent on raising awareness of a little-known food fact: “plumped” or saltwater-injected chicken that costs consumers their health and money. (more…)
Tags: atmosphere, bay_to_breakers, bay_to_breakers_race, consumers, economics, energy_drinks, food_facts, foster_farms, health, hormones, missing_the_boat, money, San_Francisco, steroids, world_class_runners
Posted in Food, San Francisco | No Comments »