threadpost

on tour: PDX sustainable materials

kevin — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:23:24 +0000

The first full day of sustainable building material tours got off to a rocky start. I awoke to discover that my bank and auto insurance company hadn’t been playing well together for the past three weeks. As a result, I was on the road, with a rental car, and without auto insurance. I never accept the supplemental insurance offered by the rental car companies, and my insurance company had to think about whether they were going to reinstate my policy, reject me, or allow me to renew. All three are unfortunate choices, but at least the renewal option would allow me to return or drive the rental car without fear that an accident would all be on my tab. I won’t bore you with more detail, but it was finally resolved by late afternoon.

I’ve experienced Portland’s public transportation before, so I know I would be able to make most of my meetings without using the car. But my first meeting was with a small company called Stardust Glass. They’re located outside of downtown and it would have taken more time than I had available to get there. Luckily that meeting was moved to another date and I’ll still get to visit their production facility.

Once I finally got the day of touring started, I found my way to the recycled aluminum product manufacturer Eleek. We’ve written about them in the past (here) and have used their recycled aluminum tiles. This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to meet the owners and see how their products are made. I had a great visit, tour, and interview with cofounder Sattie Clark. I’ll do a separate post about the tour, and another about the interview. For now I’ll say that their small artisan studio is a a fascinating laboratory focused on beautiful form making. It’s a really interesting place.

My second stop was with a solid surface countertop producer that is new to me – a company called Fuez. Although I was not scheduled to meet with the owner, Greg Martin, but he happened to be there when I arrived and agreed to a tour and interview. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the production facility since it was on the edge of town and I was without a rental car. But I hope to either fit it in later during the trip or when I return to Portland. Which I’ve already decided I have to do. There are far too many manufacturers producing amazing products to fit into four days. For anyone unfamiliar, Fuez manufactures a countertop material similar to Vetrazzo, IceStone, and EnviroGLAS. I’ve interviewed and written about all three here. If you haven’t heard of Fuez, it’s likely because the company is fairly new, had been focused on the west coast, and hasn’t done a great deal of promoting. In terms of size, they are smaller than IceStone and Vetrazzo, but larger than EnviroGLAS. There are several aspects of the product that set them apart from the others in their category, but I’ll save that for a full write up to follow.

Although my day was truncated by logistical issues, I was still able to see a few producers and learn more about one company I knew and one that was new to me. Next I take a day trip up to Hoquiam WA to tour some serious manufacturing facilities. Look for that soon.

on tour: PDX trailer treasures

kevin — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:48:40 +0000

I travel regularly for work. And when I do, it’s easy to be lazy and turn to chain restaurants, or worse, fast food, for meals. Most people who don’t travel frequently believe that when you do, it’s somehow glamorous. No doubt there are moments when it’s exciting or even fun. But by and large, it’s work – lines at the airline bag check, lines at security, lines at the coffee bar, lines at the gate, lines at the baggage claim, lines at the rental car desk, lines at the hotel. Depending on the flight, you can spend more time waiting than actually traveling.

So, when I find an easy food solution while on the road, I’m overjoyed. This week I’m in Portland OR. While taking a short break to share a coffee with a friend, she tells me about a new trend toward trailer-based food venues that have been popping up all over town. I’m familiar with some in various neighborhoods in Los Angeles, but it appears that Portland has embraced the idea with real enthusiasm.

I’m told that one of the best can be found on the corner of 12th and Hawthorne in an historic industrial neighborhood on the east side of the river. It’s the kind of place where every telephone pole has years of posters and bills. On one, there are so many staples, I’m a little nervous about losing a layer of skin if I accidentally brush against it. On the northeast corner, a former vacant parking lot has been transformed into a quasi-mobile food court. It looks like a carnival had been through town but the food operators stayed after the rides moved on to the next location. Randomly placed picnic benches and temporary tent structures tend enhance the festival perception.

I would have been convinced of my imagined carnival back story had there actually been a funnel cake vendor. Instead, there’s a pizza trailer named Pyro Pizza, a new BBQ stand called Bubba Bernie’s, a Mexican booth called El Brasero, you get the picture. It seems a bit transient, but several operators have been there for more than two years. Each food vendor cooks and sells from their own converted recreational trailer. It’s like a trailer park of food. It all looked delicious and smelled good, but the reason I’m here is a trailer called Potato Champion.

While I’m waiting to order my fries, I notice Joy Division playing on the speakers. When it’s time to give my name to the kid taking orders, I jokingly tell him Ian. He doesn’t get it. He probably wasn’t yet born when the band’s former singer Ian Curtis committed suicide. Or maybe he simply wasn’t paying attention to the music. He did seem to be mindlessly going through his activities. But all of that added to, instead of detracting from, the experience.

This corner carnival concept is clearly geared to the after hours crowd seeking simple food on their way home from neighborhood bars. None of the menus are complicated, and all are either the main dish or the side item, but not both. Most vendors open at noon, don’t close until 3am, and sell every day except Monday. I’m there on a Sunday evening, so the crowd is light, mixed ages, and mixed groups. I thought at first I may appear like a fish out of water since I was an out of town tourist snapping pictures. After all, the collection of trailers, benches, tents, and port-a-potties are not terribly picture worthy. I was also much older than other customers, but I finally notice that the one thing which sets me apart is my total lack of ink. Everywhere I look there are tattoos. In fact, everywhere I look in Portland there are tattoos. There must be a robust industry of tattoo parlors throughout the city.

It’s difficult to determine if the trailers being used are new or repurposed. I would like to believe they’ve all had wonderful previous lives or were owned by cute old couples spending their final years traveling the country. It’s impossible to tell, but again, I find myself constructing a back story for each. And maybe that’s the real treasure to be found in venues such as this – the neighborhood, site, objects, and crowd are all so rich with potential that your imagination can run wild with possibilities and interesting narratives.

I plan to find a few more to see if there are any trends to identify. I’ll keep you posted.

Click on the icon below for a text only download version of this post:

on tour: PDX

kevin — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:12:56 +0000

View on tour: PDX 2010 in a larger map

A week ago I posted a question on a LinkedIn discussion board asking for sustainable building material manufacturer recommendations in the Portland OR area. I was pleasantly surprised not only by how many responses I received, but also by how many interesting companies there appear to be in Portland. I arrived today and will be in the region for the next four days. For anyone who has read this blog in the past, you may be aware our stories of sustainability and on tour articles. Hopefully, the companies on my list will become the subject of some interesting posts over the next few weeks.

Here’s a partial list of tours and interviews:

I’m still finalizing and revising the list, but I’m very excited with what I have so far. I’ll post a few daily photos of interesting finds. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and introduced me to new people seeking to make a difference in the built environment. Stay posted,

review: NWA Green Expo overview

Kevin — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:42:30 +0000

When arriving at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, a few miles west of Bentonville, it’s difficult to imagine that a facility with so few gates could ever become a portal to the future of environmentalism. But with Walmart’s recently aggressive sustainability initiatives, that’s precisely what is happening to this small airport. Will we look back ten years from now with disbelief, or should we have anticipated the impact of their action?

I’ll be honest, as a retail designer, I’ve never been a fan of Walmart. Don’t even get me started on issues regarding treatment of employees or potential correlation between poverty rates in counties where Walmart stores are located. There’s a great deal to dislike about the world’s largest retailer and corporation. It has a long list of enemies, detractors, and opponents. But my opinion is beginning to shift.

With little fanfare or self promotion, Walmart is changing not only how they do business, but also how their suppliers operate, persuading them to rethink production processes in an effort to reduce costs and environmental impact. Walmart wields such economic leverage that manufacturers have little choice but to follow their lead. This, of course, will likely create a sizable ripple within the retail industry. Walmart competitors will be pressured to change just to keep pace. No single company on the planet has the same potential for deep and radical change.

In Bentonville, practically everyone I met is currently or was once employed by Walmart – the hotel night manager once worked there, the waiter’s day job is there, the bartender and his brother work there, an acquaintance I meet at dinner used to be a writer there, you get the picture. Some of the biggest buildings and parking lots are related to Walmart – corporate offices, distribution centers, and stores. Streets are named for founder Sam Walton. The original store on the town green is preserved as a museum and visitor center. It’s almost impossible to experience any aspect of the region that isn’t directly or indirectly connected to Walmart. It’s like visiting a military town such as San Diego, CA or Norfolk, VA, where the Navy presence is so dominant that you’re practically guaranteed to see a soldier or a ship.

By the way, none of this should be misunderstood as criticism. I point it out to highlight the incongruity or the irony of the circumstances I witness each time I visit. The dialogue regarding environmental impact and strategies for change are becoming louder and more emphatic. On my last two trips to Bentonville, I was there to discuss sustainable building design and learn best practices from Walmart and supplier initiatives.

These thoughts were on my mind when I landed last week for another green conference and expo. The NWA Green Expo was sponsored by Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Shell Oil, but this fact was completely downplayed and practically hidden. The two-day event was free to the public and offered a half day of speakers and panel sessions, film screenings, presentations, and two days of exhibits.

Event organizers Nancy Desler and Kyle Howell were able to pull in some interesting featured speakers and panelists. Too many events of similar size rely on a model that often leaves me discouraged by the lack of separation between event sponsorship and educational content. Far too often, speakers present nothing more than a thinly veiled marketing pitch for products they’re attempting to hawk on the exhibit floor. That was not the case here. Even though some of the speakers did have booths, they used them as venues for education and engagement.

For example, panelist George Orbelian, co-founder of the non-profit organization Project Kaisei, spoke about his organization’s fieldwork in the Northern Pacific Gyre and what they’ve learned from their research. He didn’t have a service or product to pitch, just knowledge. His time spent in his exhibit booth was focused on sharing knowledge.

The two keynote speakers were the CEO and co-founder of TerraCycle Tom Szaky, and IBM Chief Technology Officer Catherine Lasser. There were also two panel discussions. The first focused on environmental issues and included Michelle Harvey with the Environmental Defense Fund, Dr. Alan Hecht with the EPA, and Stanley Alpert who is an environmental attorney. The second panel focused on solutions and included Eric Jackson with the consulting firm Conservis, Andrew Nisker who wrote and directed the film Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home, Derrick Mains who is the CEO of GreenNurture.com, and George Orbelian with Project Kaisei. I was lucky to have access to most of the speakers and panelists for one-on-one conversations. I’ll post about my interviews and session educational content in follow-up posts.

There were approximately 90 exhibitors on the expo floor. Many events of this size are often overrun by companies that are loosely tangential to the event theme. At a recent show in Los Angeles I encountered an exhibitor showcasing beautiful clothing with no apparent link with sustainability. The best reason they could give me for their participation was that their product was made of cotton. That kind of experience leaves me wondering what possible selection criteria could expo organizers be using. Although there were one or two booths at the NWA Green Expo that had me scratching my head, this event had screened out any inappropriate exhibitors. Even better, most of the booths were showcasing local goods or services.

One exhibitor I liked was a gentleman by the name of Jason Quail. But he prefers to go by his eco hero persona, ECOGEECO. Several years ago he switched his daily transportation to the all electric vehicle pictured above and started driving to events, expos, festivals, and schools to teach kids about sustainability. On the second day of the expo he presented his one hour session, but I wasn’t able to attend due to a schedule conflict. I could easily tell from the ten minutes I spent with him that kids would probably find him very entertaining. By the way, his day job is IT with Walmart.

Many people will surely complain that Walmart’s motives are wrong, that their interest in sustainability is financial rather than environmental, that their dedication will be short-lived, and that they will return to environmentally unfavorable practices if those prove to be economically preferable. I for one am not terribly concerned with their motives. What I’ve seen so far suggests that the train has already left the station. They’re taking action now that’s beginning to have effect. I think the NWA Green Expo is another good example of how Walmart is striving to bring the community along with them on their sustainability journey.

Full disclosure: I have provided design services for Walmart in the past. In early 2009 I participated in a number of conceptual design projects while employed at a previous firm. I currently have no business relationship with the company or any of its suppliers or service providers.

Click on the icon below for a text only download version of this post:

on tour: BottleHood

kevin — Sun, 02 May 2010 23:46:11 +0000

“I wasn’t really interested in doing a business that only had relevance in San Diego,” said BottleHood co-owner Steve Cherry during a recent visit to his production facility in El Cajon, CA. And when I say “facility” I really mean a small storage and processing building at the end of a tight winding hilly tangerine-lined drive, a few work stations covered by tents, and a hillside of sorted boxes with empty used bottles awaiting their transformation from trash to useful product. If the facility sounds small, that’s because it is. That’s not only the key to its charm, but it’s also its secret weapon.

“This is a business that is very very scalable, meaning one location can get very big for very little money. And it’s also easily replicable, meaning you can easily start another one in another neighborhood,” Steve adds. “Southern California is hardly a sustainability leader [but] if we can make a success of BottleHood in San Diego, then there are probably twenty other cities in the U.S. where we can be even more successful.”

Steve’s new business venture, BottleHood, collects discarded bottles from various sources and cuts them into juice glasses, tumblers, vases, candle holders, and more. In August 2009 Steve was fed up with what he was doing and tells me half-heartedly that he had considered opening a taco stand in Costa Rica. With co-owner Leslie Tiano they decided to create an enterprise that could support the local economy, create local jobs, stop jobs from moving offshore, and keep valuable glass out of the landfill.

Just eleven U.S. states have container deposit laws, what are usually referred to as bottle bills. In most cases, the state charges beverage distributors a fee on certain types of containers. That fee is passed on to retailers and is ultimately paid by consumers. That fee can be recovered when consumers return used containers to recycling centers. In those states with bottle bills, recycling rates for glass, aluminum, and plastic are more than twice the national average. In fact, the eleven states with such programs recycle as much total volume as the other thirty-nine sates combined. In 1986, California passed the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act – that’s legislature-speak for bottle bill. Just ten years after the bill was enacted, beer and soda bottle recycling rates rose to 80%.

There is, however, one side effect of such legislation that’s often overlooked and rarely discussed. Any law that increases the value of some containers can, and often does, reduce the value of others. For example, in California, glass soft drink, energy drink, beer, and water containers qualify for the program. They have redemptive value (CRV). Wine and liquor bottles do not qualify for the program; their recycling rates are significantly lower, and they have limited value. The program incentivizes the collection and return of some containers and creates disincentive for others. The next time you’re in a bar, restaurant, or nightclub, glance at the shelves of bottles behind the bar and you’ll see an incredible collection of beautifully designed objects. Expand your view just a little and you’ll find a treasure trove of small soda bottles and micro brewed beer with stunning silk screened labels.

Most wine and liquor bottles end up in landfills. Only a small percentage is recycled. In Steve’s storage building he shows me a rack of drinking glasses made from triple weight wine bottles manufactured in France and used by a domestic winery. When purchasing fine wine, the bottle shape, glass color, and glass thickness all have positive value. They’ve been selected or designed to perform specific functions that add to the value of their contents. When these bottles are recycled, however, the shape is then considered waste. The bottles must be crushed for the glass be recovered, reused, and formed into another shape. And with those high quality wine bottles that Steve showed me, the glass itself has no greater value in the recycling process than any of the low quality glass it’s mixed with. It’s tragic that the glass, color, and shape value are so dramatically diminished in the current system.

This is where BottleHood comes in. They’ve created a business model that saves beautifully crafted bottles, those made with high quality glass, those with unique shapes, or those with well designed labels. In some cases, they actually increase the value of the used bottles being saved. For example, they sell tumblers cut from Charles Shaw wine bottles sold at Trader Joe’s – better known as Two Buck Chuck. Believe it or not, when those bottles are cut into the tumbler shape, they sell for more than the original $1.99. A bottle of Two Buck Chuck is actually worth more as a salvaged object.

For more than an hour Steve walks me through every one of his shelves telling me stories about every bottle and why it’s worth saving. And that’s when it hits me: the most interesting aspect of what BottleHood is doing is saving and enhancing the stories behind objects that have been artfully crafted by real people. The stories Steve tells me are not about big corporate enterprises, instead they are about people. By saving the bottles, he brings to light human interest stories that don’t have the same opportunity for exposure.

Although operating for less than a year, success has come quickly and the model seems to be proving itself. Steve and Leslie have plans to explore other cities around the country where they know an ample supply of used bottles can be sourced. I encourage you to check out the company and their products. And if you live in the San Diego area, visit BottleHood at the Hillcrest Farmer’s Market every Sunday between 9am and 2pm.

As Father’s Day approaches, Steve is frantically collecting as many bottles with names that have any reference to fathers – Dad’s Root Beer, Dad’s Cream Soda, Big Daddy IPA, Double Daddy IPA, you get the picture. If you can think of any, let him know. He’s hoping they’ll have the same thematic appeal that Arrogant Bastard Ale did for Valentine’s Day. He tells me, “every woman has an arrogant bastard in their lives, right?”

Click on the left icon below for a text only download version of this post, and the right icon below for other tour photos:

BottleHood Featured by the San Diego Union Tribune from steve cherry on Vimeo.