method

happy holidays!

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (annab) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:30:00 -1100

twice a year, all method employees come together from chicago, san francisco and the uk to celebrate our accomplishments. this year, we met at the san francisco ferry building, and when the day was over, we got together to toast our dedicated people against dirty. here’s to you.

happy and safe holidays!

eco wrapping

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (danny) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:17:00 -1100

it’s believed that americans dispose of 25% more waste between thanksgiving and new year’s, with a bulk of that waste coming in the form of gift wrap paper, bows and cards. while nothing says scrooge like handing a person a sweater, unwrapped, and proclaiming “happy holidays,” that doesn’t mean you need to resort to wasteful, unrecyclable gift wrap to contribute to the uptick in trash.

in my book Simply Green Giving, i came up with a handful of clever gift wrapping solutions that use recycled materials beyond just wrapping gifts in the sunday comics. i wanted to use commonly found materials that were likely designated for the trash bin anyway, make it easy to execute, and have the end result be something stylish and fun. here are three of my favorites:

VHS RIBBON TAPE
here’s something that goes from obsolete to absolutely fabulous. just rip open an old VHS tape (we all seem to have a bunch, don’t we?), and use the shiny black ribbon inside for gifts. to make fancy, curly strands, just curl them against the blade of a sharp scissor.

BURBERRY-INSPIRED GIFT WRAP
rip open a brown paper grocery store bag and wrap your gift. then use electrical tape in colors of red, white and black to create “stripes” around the box, replicating the famed Burberry stripe pattern.

POTATO CHIP BAG GIFT WRAP (see image at top)

carb lovers, rejoice. save those jumbo size bags of potato chips and use them to wrap gifts. just rip open the bag so it’s one flat piece, and clean it with a little soap and water. pat dry, and wrap with the shiny, unprinted side on the outside of the gift. nobody has to know you snacked your way through the holidays this year. who knew going green could be, um, so tasty?

rookie cookies

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (stephen) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:09:00 -1100

when I started here at method, the following was in my inbox:

by far the most sacred of all method commandments, thou shall bring fresh baked “rookie cookies” to the office to shareth with your new co-workers within one week of your commencement. please be sure to send an e-mail to “Office – San Francisco” to announce the presence of cookies on your desk and to give everyone a chance to come by and say “hi”!

it’s taken me a little more than a week (more like two months), but monday was my day.

however, i don’t like cookies. heck, i don’t even like sweet things. (i like to believe i’m sweet enough as is.)

if I’m forced to eat sweet, i want it balanced with something creamy or fatty. in lieu of making a giant vat of whipped cream, i found something that balances sweet and strong flavors with a dark, bitter yummy:

hand-dipped chocolates and truffles - cardamom, ginger, hazelnut, a rocky road, and homemade peppermint and plain marshmallows.

now, I can’t take all the credit. sunday, i spent eight hours assisting my friend suzanne and her partner-in-confection with their holiday production. i’ve been a recipient of their chocolate adventures for the past four years, so it was an honor to get elbow-deep in that good stuff.

mind you, none of us are food professionals. we were in a regular home kitchen, although they do have a tempering machine. 19 lbs. of chocolate later, I’m all dipped out.

i’ll need to recover for a few months, but next time, i’m hoping for some salted butter caramels or a pink peppercorn anise. or sesame... or lemon... or tarragon...

downloadable poster

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (annab) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:08:00 -1100

maybe we can’t all have our say at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, but keep the hope alive for a better future for our planet and a more sustainable way of life.

here are all three posters that we made for hopenhagen. pink, green and blue.

hopenhagen is change – and that change will be powered by all of us.

all I want for the christmas is...

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (julie) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:35:00 -1100

(photo copyright KOR)

i’m feeling pretty festive and am in the holiday spirit way more than i ever have been. i’ve had the “sounds of the seasons” soundtrack on repeat and have been loving every minute of it (next up, a charlie brown christmas, please). what kicked off this festive feeling in me was thinking of not only what i want to get my friends and family for the holidays, but what i want to get for myself. after all, i’ve been good this year and i'm rewarding myself, thank you very much.

all my gifts this year will have some element of being easy on the earth (eco-friendly, check), easy on the eyes (design-forward, check), or easy on the wallet (completely affordable, check). here are a few on the list:

o clothing from Nau
NAU is an awesome clothing company that creates sustainable fashion. Nau.com currently has a sales section with items as low as $18, which means it can also score in the easy-on-the-wallet department.

o music from itunes

i love the internet (have you seen my title?). what i love even more is taking advantage of it to make my life easier and clutter-free. streaming music over itunes means less need to produce cd's which means less plastic in the world and less cd sleeves cluttering up landfills (easy on the earth, check). also, with the rise in online music stores these days, prices can be pretty competitive (easy on the wallet, check). it’s a win-win.

o reusable shopping bags

living in San Francisco where plastic bags are banned, i’ve learned to carry around my own bags, especially when grocery shopping. whole foods has a nice selection of reusable shopping bags that are as low as 79 cents. and according to the whole foods blog, it also makes for a great way to wrap holiday presents!

o KOR water bottle
KOR believes in water advocacy. KOR bottles are reusable, recyclable and BPA-free. using reusable bottles like KOR means less plastic water bottles littering up our landfills and less energy needed to bottle and transport bottled water across the world. they’re also designed in sleek, tall packaging. 1% of all sales are donated to non-profits dedicated to water-related issues. now that’s something to cheer about.

o online holiday cards
sure, sending cards the traditional way thru the post office is nice, but sending your holiday greetings online through websites like hallmark or american greetings means less paper thrown out and less energy used to send mail all over the world during this holiday season. plus, most sites today offer up free services or cards as low as 99 cents each, meaning you can send your loved ones a personal greeting at a super affordable price.

can you add any cool holiday gifts to my list that meet the three requirements (eco-friendly, design-forward, affordable)?

method menorah

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (rachel) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:30:00 -1100

hanukkah begins tonight at sundown, and we are all aglow here at method getting ready for the festival of lights. there is no shortage of uses and re-uses for method products, and anna and i were inspired by our beautiful hand wash bottles to create a method menorah.

we bought white tapered candles and cut about 1/3 off the bottom. we then wrapped small pieces of white tape around the bottom of the candles. we removed the pumps from the bottles and wedged the candles into the openings. 8 bottles for 8 nights, plus 1 for the center helper candle, or shamash, which is lit first and then used to light each candle. so easy.

happy hanukkah!

*remember the rules of hanukkah safety, kiddies – lit candles should not be left unattended.

win a year's worth of products for your charity

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (annab) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:07:00 -1100

(method finance team doing some deep cleaning at Compass Community Services)

charitable giving is important to method, and we’re thankful for all the people against dirty who give back to their communities. so to help you help others, tell us in the comments section below what non-profit (pick just one) is close to your heart and deserves method products. we’ll randomly choose one person against dirty to win a year’s worth of method products for the non-profit of their choice.

to be the first to hear more about contests like these sign up to become an official person against dirty.

*total value is $360. contest ends 12/16/09, 11:59pm pst. must be 18 to enter. non-profit must be a registered 501C3 and be in the US or Canada. one entry per person.

getting crafty - hipster scarves

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (annab) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:09:00 -1100

some of us are born crafty while others desperately want to be. i am the latter, which is why in conjunction with two other method employees (who actually can craft), we have started the method “craft pod.”

our focus is creative reuse, which means taking things we already have (i.e. milk cartons, old wedding invitations, cereal boxes) and making them into something else. this not only helps to create less waste, but it is a good way of clearing out unnecessary items from your home or office.

the other goal of our monthly crafting is to be able to finish a project in an hour or less. this limits what we can do, but it allows us to be more realistic with our crafts. this is our lunch hour, after all.

(image from hellohoneyno.com)

our first crafty project was to make a scarf that requires no knitting or sewing. in fact, all you need are some old t-shirts and a pair of scissors. our inspiration came from hellohoneyno, this old dress and punkn's.

the process is pretty simple.

1.   grab some cotton t-shirts you don’t wear anymore. larger sizes tend to work better as do non-ribbed shirts with no side seams. small logos on the shirts work fine, too.
2.   grab a pair of fabric scissors if you have them, otherwise any scissors will do.
3.   lay the shirt out on a flat table in front of you.
4.   cut the hem off the bottom and put it aside.
5.   cut the shirt into 1-1 1/2 ” horizontal strips all the way up to the armpit.
6.   grab 3-4 shirt strips in both hands, and gently stretch them out. the strips will naturally curl into themselves.
7.   once you have done this with many of the strips, it is time to get creative. try draping them, wrapping one end with excess fabric, combining colors, braiding them, attaching beads, pins, old jewelry, etc.

as with most fashion, it is all how you style it. these scarves tend to look best when they are thicker and worn with a plain colored white, black or grey t-shirt so that the scarf really pops.

(braided scarf made by me and modeled by consumer responder sarah)

try it out and let us know what you think! this might just replace the old fruitcake at this year’s holiday gift exchange.

ps. have any other good crafting ideas? send them my way: anna [at] methodhome [dot] com

p.p.s. i think we might need a more clever name for our group than the craft pod. any ideas out there?

method shiny suds video

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (annab) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:10:00 -1100

We received a lot of feedback about our “Shiny Suds” video.

We understand the concerns associated with our video and have removed it from YouTube and all other controlled sources. This includes pulling the video and its corresponding comments from our blog. We are all for healthy debate, even when it’s not in favor of method, but when individual contributors begin personally attacking each other, we feel our blog’s purpose becomes unproductive.

Here at method, we are a group of women and men who care about our planet, but first and foremost about people. The purpose of this campaign was to raise awareness for transparency in cleaning product ingredients, to which we remain committed. It was not at all our intent to offend or promote any form of harassment.

We continue to learn, and we appreciate the fact that you took the time to reach out to us.

ETA - We have decided to remove and close comments from this post. Name-calling and dismissing people with different points of view does not help create understanding. We are grateful that commenters care enough to share their reactions and heartfelt convictions. To voice your thoughts and discuss with us directly, please email info@methodhome.com.

contest: name those fragrances!

user.nospam@nospam.example.com (annab) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:00 -1100

how well do you know your method holiday products? here is your test.

correctly identify 2 of the 3 holiday fragrances from the first year we introduced holiday (2003), and you will be entered to win a holiday assorted bundle, valued at $26!

one entry per person. must be 18 to enter and be a US, Canadian or UK resident. contest ends at 12pm on 11/29/09. i will post in the comments below when we have a randomly chosen winner. starting….....now!