I spent this past weekend in SF for Co-op America's annual Green Festival.

On my commute downtown to our warehouse this morning, I realized it was time to revisit the Green initiative I had set forth here at DistinctiveFabric.com, some months back.

And I was also thinking back on yesterday's Lucent Dossier rehearsal. As a dance troupe, it's expected they'll have a large member base and a higher percentage of cars than anyone else at our warehouse. But what I don't understand is why they can't work to better coordinate each others travel plans. If even only half the troupe were to carpool, we'd see an immediate and significant reduction in cars (as well as parking issues for the rest of the tenants here).

As a pioneering creative force within their community and beyond, it seems especially vital to me that they start making some personal sacrifices to provide a better model for what attitude and action entertainers take towards the environment. There are some other area's that I see also requiring some attention, mostly in regards to trash, recycling, and energy usage.

This observation isn't just limited to just them, however. Our own company and team still has a number of steps to take, as do our other roomies, The Do LaB. And nor is this an attack on anyone person or group, just a reminder that we all as leaders need to step things up several notches and do this think like the rock stars everyone so thoroughly enjoys pretending to be.

Anyway, to date DF has made slow but steady progress with regards to its operation. Warehouse and office waste including trash, recycling: paper, plastic, glass, toner cartridges, etc. are all mostly accounted for (we still have to find some way to reduce and better dispose of our plastic bags); sustainable office and cleaning supplies are purchased as much as is feasible; and our transportation habits are pretty modest: half our team walks to work everyday and its other half (Josh and I), do our best to minimize our driving: packing lunch or eating within mere minutes from the warehouse and carpooling whenever possible. Granted, neither of our cars are Green but we are offsetting their emissions yearly now, along with any other aspect of our remaining
(negative) footprint.

Lastly, we're constantly powering down our office equipment when not in use: computers, printers, postage meter, lights, etc. And if we're walking through the warehouse and see any unattended lights we'll shut them off (which happens almost daily at this point, I'm afraid to say). While it has never been directly expressed for any one person or company to take charge with these mattes here, we have made the initiative to step and do so ourselves, again and again, without thanks or any other incentive but to do our part, as the custodians of our nearly 10,000 sq ft sanctum.

Next in line for us to tackle, are the area's of:

1. Lighting: updating our current system w/modern, energy-saving fixtures and bulbs for our 1/3 of the warehouse
2. Carbon Calculator: designing and deployment on our site at checkout to empower our customers with greater choice and exposure to
enhance Green-conscious consumerism.
3. Solar Web-hosting: go off the grid with our website via 100% solar-powered web-hosting.
4. Community: besides our warehouse roomies, we wish to initiate efforts to spread awareness and coordinate activities within our neighborhood to start cleaning up our immediate surroundings here in downtown, Los Angeles (CA).

We're excited and honored to assume even greater responsibility in our growth towards greater, conscious business and sustainability. We also look forward to sharing more of our progress and hope to hear about yours as well!

Earlier today I was driving through Hollywood (CA), when I stopped in for a much needed pit stop at Frankie & Johnnies Pizza.

While waiting for my grub (mushroom pizza...yum!), I casually scanned the one-room, pizza parlor searching for signs of Green consciousness but failed to locate anything along those lines. I am still struck by how easy it is to start making simple, quick changes in ones life or business, in the switch to more sustainable alternatives; in this case, corn-based utensils and plates seem like such a great place to start.

A quick search online later on via Google with such keyword terms such as "corn disposable plates" and "bulk disposable paper plates", yielded a great number of retailers to choose from. And upon my first price comparison, it's not surprising that greater numbers (of vendors/restaurants) haven't made this leap yet...

The Brenmar Company carries a 100% corn, paper product and sells in bulk, 500 for $140.00 (not including shipping), see full product details here, whereas Instawares offers the same sized plate, 1,000 for $12.18 (no free shipping either at this quantity), here.

If anyone can offer some better deals on disposable, compostable products, please share. I'd also love to hear some alternatives or otherwise affordable solutions for these types of issues, in case anyone feels like sharing their two cents.

Meanwhile, I plan to conduct some polls and research with some of the local vendors in my area to see what it would take for them to make the switch to more sustainable supplies.

P.S. Just ran a quick keyword search for disposable cookware (trying to identify the proper vocabulary for plates and utensils) and came across this post on an idea for an eco-friendly giveaway.

I can definitely relate to Gary Erickson, Ciif Bar Inc. and his personal story as shared in Raising The Bar.

Having grown up working and learning about extreme sports, the environment, community, business (and so much more), in an outdoor adventure company, than helped created a great internet brand, followed by efforts to green the internet and to help the planet by helping develop a web-based community, rich with tools and resources to educate people and businesses on how to green their lives, workplaces and so much more, I have definitely come to value and outright need a greater consciousness and purpose in all that I do (be it in the pursuit of business, entertainment, spiritual fulfillment, etc.).

Carbon Fund's Carbon Calculator:
DistinctiveFabric.com's 1-Yr Energy Use Offset
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I'm excited to announce that an awesome, inspiring natural and sustainable fabric section has been added to DistinctiveFabric.com's selection.

Dianovo now has an official Technorati Profile, in addition to its already diverse and steadily growing viral web presence which includes groups, profiles, blogs, reviews and more on: Green Festival, Del.icio.us, Tribe, Myspace, Curbly, StumbleUpon, Magnolia, Vox, and many others.

 

"Just yesterday, sky watchers from Scandinavia to Alaska witnessed a beautiful display of "auroras" when a solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field." Need more really be said?

I've just posted a How To on carbon offsetting, using my own recent travels from LA to Philly to Tampa and back to LA as an example. All told, I traveled 7,905 miles and contributed a total of 3.873 tons of CO2 emissions; total cost to offset that with wind energy was $48.00, as evident in the receipt below:

 

 

For the How To, please visit the How To's section or use this direct link:
http://dianovo.com/how_to/emission_carbon_offsetting

I've been traveling on and off for the last two months working on various projects, brainstorming on how our national transpo currently functions, interviewing a number of different business owners, investors, family, friends, strangers and the like to gain a wider understanding of how the Green movement has begun to effect them and wanted to sum up a few thoughts as I settle back into Dianovo HQ.

While holidays, birthdays and other occasions (especially Christmas!) are a great opportunity to show how much you care for someone, it's as equally important to remember the earth and to be as green savvy as you can in your holiday gift shopping.

There are a number of ways to accommodate both, it just takes a little thought and creativity. Below are a few of our recommended green companies for holiday gift purchasing and, be sure to check out Blue's how to on greening your holidays for more personal and creative gift ideas.