GreenSmith Consulting

Personal Scale Manufacturing is Here: Why it Matters and What it Means to You

2010-02-11T03:55:00-08:00

I've been watching the evolving trend of personal scale manufacturing with interest for some time, and we're about to see that mythical "tipping point." I want you to know about it, and how it may effect your business and our environment.

It's happening. Much like the computer went from a monolithic room filling device used only by the military and government, to one that can fit in the palm of your hand, allowing you to do something about your surroundings via a geolocation enabled app, manufacturing is fast becoming something you and I can do, literally. And it has the potential to likewise shift the balance of power and control of what and where things get made, and what products do and do not see the light of day.

How?

It used to be that if you wanted to manufacture something, whether it's an entire product or its components, you had to do so at a large scale. After all, for a third party manufacturer or yourself, it was quite expensive to set up the production line to make each part. Changing aspects frequently required time and retooling. Not something for a small scale production, unless you're talking a prohibitively expensive one of a kind.

Then along came 3D printers.

These devices use a laser to shape a piece of raw material, frequently plastic, into an object, layer by layer. At first largely the province of adventurous tech geeks, last year saw the emergence of Ponoko, a company that has succeeded in creating an ecosystem of people with ideas, tools, and desire to buy what's being created.

Basically, with Ponoko if you have an idea for a product, you can find someone to make it for you. One. Or many. You pay a per minute rate for use of the printer that makes it. If you have a printer, you get business funneled to you via Ponoko. If you are a designer, you have the ability to have your product made, at a reasonable cost, no matter the quantity purchased.

This was a definite step forward, and yet you still had the barrier of cost, someone else being in control of the manufacturing.

Enter Makerbot Industries.

It has recently introduced what is the beginning of truly democratized manfuacturing: The Makerbot. It is a $750 open source 3D printer that can create small objects via ABS plastic. And it can make its own replacement parts! While we're not talking automotive manufacturing here, it is a solid beginning to what I predict will swiftly become an increasingly wide spread, widely useful practice.

What does this mean, in terms of sustainability?

Unless you live next door to the factory of what you purchase, and all components are made in one location, your purchase of a product likely logged a lot of miles getting to you. With something made via a Makerbot, you could either create your own design, or download a design from someone else, and make it right where you are. Then, rather than having to buy a new one if a part wears or breaks, you create the replacements yourself.

You've now skipped the shipping and reduced disposal waste. While this is happening on a small scale now, imagine the impact if repeated millions, billions of times.

The one sticking point at this stage is that objects made in Makerbots are made with plastic, which being petroleum based material, has the accompanying ecological footprint and in time, may prove expensive as petroleum becomes a scarcer resource. Can bioplastics be used? Can those be supplied at a reasonable cost? What about aluminum, or a temporary liquid, even some other as yet to be created upcyclable substance be used? Let's hope so. Ponoko currently works with everything from felt to bamboo.

But for now, the Makerbot marks a point in time, where the shift began.

Readers: What's your take on the sustainability of micro scale manufacturing? How else can we cut out links of the supply chain? Right now the offerings are primarily machine parts and decorative objects. What would you design and offer?

The 3 Best Ways to Drastically Reduce your iPhone (Or Any Phone) Bill

2010-02-05T05:00:00-08:00

Late last year I got my first iPhone (I know I know! Three words : 2 year contract.) With the increase in monthly bill, I was inspired to seek ways to reduce it. And I found them. Many. I thought you'd like to know too.

These days, it seems there's nearly as many ways to save money using your phone as there are types of phones. But they all seem to have a weak spot: Requiring you to do numerical gymnastics, or making your caller i.d. on the other end look like something to avoid.

While those may have monetary benefits, they can reduce your productivity, and make you look less professional. So I was pleased to have made series of discoveries in the past week that put it all together, with minimum effort, maximum results.

Follow these steps and you'll be well on to your way to smarter, cheaper, more connected communications.

First, for your domestic calls, get Skype. Then, go into your account and get Skypeout so you can use it to call land lines and cell phones, from your computer. Deals vary from country to country, but here in the US, I was able to get unlimited calls in the US and Canada for $2.99/month (they call it a Subscription) This gets you additional options, such as voicemail and forwarding to the phone number of your choice. Or you can get pay as you go credit. Less of a deal though.

Next, buy some credit. $10.00 is the minimum. This can be used for a variety of purposes, but the two you'll likely find most useful? Wi-Fi via Skype, which gives you access to Wi-Fi where otherwise it's a sea of locked access and bulk purchase amounts, even if you need just a few minutes. The other thing to unlock is the ability to change your outbound Skype caller ID to that of your cell phone number. That costs 45 cents credit in SMS to that phone to validate it. All of these options are to be found via clicking the Account->View Account menu bar links. Or directly from your Skype contact list, the top right corner.

You've now closed the familiarity gap, with your number rather than 5555555 or Unknown Caller displaying on the other end.

Next, go get the Skype app for your iPhone. You can now make phone calls via Skype, showing the same number as the cell you're calling from. As of this writing, that can happen only via wifi. But, praise be to the Apple gods, it will soon be possible via 3g. This means that, barring being in an Edge only zone, you can make calls using none of your monthly phone plan minutes.

Call internationally? Two smart options here: Either choose a Skype subscription that allows for international calling, or, to provide always an always available option, go sign up for Rebtel, usable on land lines and now, iPhone (app link) What it does is brilliant: It converts all numbers you select into a domestic dial number, that gets you calls to places like Brazil (from the US, for example) for less than 2 cents a minute. The iPhone app does the courtesy of telling you exactly how long you could call each of your contacts, based on your remaining credit.

Even better, in a select number of those countries is the possibility to make a free call. Basically, you call using the given Rebtel number, ask the person on the other end to note the (domestic to them) number on the caller ID. They call you back, at no cost to both of you.

Want to go even deeper? Get a free Google Voice account (by invite only at this point) and set your number for the region you're most often when not at home, or where you do most business. It's changeable at any time, for a $10 fee. At long last, Google Voice can be used on iPhone, via a web based app, circumventing the logjam around an iPhone app being approved. Google Voice also gives useful options like incoming voicemail transcription, outgoing voicemail that can vary by caller, the ability to listen in as someone records a voicemail, to mark unwanted callers as "spam," and to choose when calls do and do not get forwarded to your various phones.

You now have the ability to have "presence" via your local phone number in the region you seek to work in, and you now show as calling from that number, on your iPhone, your Android phone, or ye olde landline even.

There you have a tightly integrated strategy to connect with the world, seamlessly, at much less cost. What other problems can I help solve for you? I'm here to serve.

Image credit: Sateda on Stock Xchng

Verterra: A Green Company Effectively Reaching Beyond “The Choir”

2010-01-22T04:00:00-08:00

I have the pleasure of working for all clients that I admire and respect, and while it’s typically my role to help get them written and talked about by other people, I have to make an exception here. That exception is Verterra.

Verterra is a rare find: A green company that goes far beyond the expectations for their product category, even in ways that aren’t apparent to the end user, while keeping it very affordable, eschewing the “green tax” so many companies presume they can get away with charging the mythical idealized green consumer. It goes like this: They make plates, bowls and platters out of fallen Palm leaves, that would have otherwise been burnt as agricultural waste.

They don’t say it on their site, but that’s roughly 15 tons a month. All of it, even production scraps, gets used.

Another thing left out of the spotlight is their reusing 84% of the factory’s water. And they continue to increase that. In a time where water is going to become an increasingly precious resource, this is not only ecologically considerate, it’s a proactive business move.

And please, don’t take my word for it, here’s what Whole Foods recently said, having used Verterra at an event themselves: “So that’s it. No trees are harvested or cut. No glues or dyes. Just leaves and water. VerTerra truly is an authentic eco-friendly line. And if the environmental benefits aren’t enough to convince you, VerTerra boasts unmatched durability and versatility – use the plates for microwave reheat or short bakes in the oven!”

All fine and good, but what’s in it for the consumer?

They didn’t forget them here. Since I began working with them in 2008, they’ve halved their prices, while increasing quality. And when food meets plate, it doesn’t melt, leach chemical binders (typically needed to stabilize plates that use a mash of materials such as sugar cane fiber), or just bow out of being used in an oven. All the issues people usually just have to grin and bear about your average eco friendly serviceware, Verterra skips. And they can’t say it, but I can: They’re reusable. Many times.

Verterra realizes, as should other green companies, that doing the right thing but reaching few people is not enough.

Yes, actions and impacts of all sizes add up, but making a well honed tiny impact when there’s so much more you can do, for a much broader audience is in my book inexcusable. Especially in this case, when what you make is used for an activity that everybody does: Eat.

Green cynics? Bring ‘em on!

Its unique story & excellent usability have such a high possibility of sparking conversations, even in the most green cynical of us. It in a way serves as an ambassador to those who’ve had poor experiences with other green products, or just write them off sight unseen, presuming inferior performance.

And rather than just go for coverage at green specific events, they’ve thrown their net wide into the mainstream, with great impact: They’ve been used at Superbowl and NBA All Star VIP parties, are featured at Statue of Liberty food vendors, and recently, were on a surreal segment on the Today Show laying out fashion trends for 2010 (see 3:36 onward for Verterra)

Beyond the green, into the mainstream

With their refined, stylish execution, you’d think they’d stick to a few high end green focused outlets. Fortunately, no. From one store on each coast when I first began working with them, to over 450 today, plus numerous online outlets, it’s clear they don’t plan to be a niche product for LOHAS purists only. Their focus is on a product whose first priority is serving their customers needs well, backed with being as sustainable as possible.

Readers: What can your company learn from Verterra? How are you likewise reaching beyond the “green choir”? Have you ever tried Verterra? What’s been your experience?

Photo credit: Theodore Samuels || Food by Silkstone Events

6 Tools You Can Use to make 2010 a More Productive, Enjoyable Year

2010-01-06T03:00:00-08:00

2010 seems to have come out of nowhere, here and waiting for you to make the most of it. You're ready, right? If you're not quite there, or would like some resources to make it even better, I have several to recommend today. I wasn't specifically looking for tools to start out the year, but a cluster of them showed up on my radar, and I wanted you to know about them.

For a long while I’ve been of the mind to seek out all in one solutions to organizing my life, work, plans. I’ve come to realize that’s an unfair burden to try and place on one piece of software. Nothing out there does all things well for all people using it. I thought Daylite was that for me. It’s not. And that’s okay. These days I'm finding that a variety of tools, each with their own strong suits, suits me better. Have a look, give them a try, let me know your experiences, ok?

Writing

I don’t know about you, but I write a lot in my work. And I generally don’t need elaborate formatting options to do it. When blogging, I tend to avoid Word, as it adds a lot of restrictive excessive formatting that mucks with altering it once in the blog interface. I’ve used Text Edit often, it's clean interface without button confetti is great, but then I can get distracted with all the other windows behind it on my desktop. There have been numerous options created that attempt to go minimal, and be the only thing you see. Writeroom, and other clutter minimizing apps. But they, to me, are too minimal, and ultimately, become boring.

Ommwriter is completely different than any writing tool I’ve seen. Created by digital creative agency Herraiz Soto & Co. , it hits a sweet spot for me: I like things simple. But not boring. Ommwriter achieves this, creating a beautiful, immersive experience, where you have a number of soothing, minimal backgrounds to choose from, ambient sounds/music to accompany it, even a choice of keyboard click sounds, including one that is slightly musical, and needs to be heard to be fully understood.

Ommwriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo.

It’s clear that some skilled interface designers had a hand in this, and this free app is a pleasure to create in. You choose how much or how little of the sound options you use. All controls stay invisible until you move the mouse, and even then, they're simple, intuitive, and don't distract from the flow. Need to duck out and get a link to paste in? Easy, the minimize button appears, you get what you need , then dive back in. Beautiful. And productive.

Time

Speaking of productivity, do you ever find yourself wondering where the week, day, heck, last 2 hours went? RescueTime is here to show you, without any need for you to go out of your way to do it. You simply install the software, and it tracks your activity, it then shows you exactly what you did, per application, and depending on the program, even more granular information.

It tells you which of those activities it thinks are productive, which not (which if you think is incorrect, you can change settings for the future) Then it's up to you how you shift your activities accordingly. Like cars having realtime mileage indicators, even this base information is going to help a lot of you.

But Rescue Time goes further, giving you the option to choose a designated amount of focus time, where non productive apps and activities (and everything else aside from the current activity, if you choose) will be locked out from use. A sort of Disneyland Autopia guardrail for your activities. According to their site, they help users recover an average 3 hours 54 minutes a week.

Tasks

If you're anything like me, you've tried what seems like dozens of ways to manage your tasks. From the most elaborate software to hand written lists, they all have their merits. And their limitations. It seems to range from a scattered assortment of papers to an overwhelming monster list glaring at you on your computer or phone. How about somehting in between, with flexibility to shift with your shifting organizational needs and sophistication of planning?

Things, for me, is that.

There are so many things that make Things recommendable, but one thing did it for me: the ability to enter tasks, whenever they come to mind, with relevant context, without having to go elsewhere on your computer, to the app itself, to enter it. Or if you have an iPhone, there it is too.

Others have written at length about its virtues, but it boils down to this: You can sort tasks & projects by whichever way makes most sense to you. And that includes by tags. Yes, you can tag to your heart's content, in the GTD methodology, or whatever terms help you best make sense of and retrieve your activities later.

When it comes time to do the tasks, you can sort them by what's due today, what area of responsibility (i.e. I sort per client, home related, and Portland, where I'm moving in the Spring)
This way, should you feel in a linear mood, you could just go through, by area, the tasks of the day. Or if you just feel like number crunching, click the tag for that and crunch away.

Energy Management (your own)

Today's monitors have gotten more and more brighter, more colorful, and more...disruptive to your sleep. That's right, when your eyes have light shown at it at daylight levels, your Circadian Rhythm thinks it's time to be awake and alert. Fine if it's daytime. Not so good when you're going to sleep shortly after using the computer.

What to do?

F.lux, a free app, fixes this, by mimicking the light quality in your room. Not as in the auto level adjusting that Macs do, but the actual "warmth" of the colors that varies by type of lighting. You tell it what sort of lighting you have on, where in the world you are, and it keeps colors in line with what's around you - daylight/lighting in the day, and at sunset, it shifts to a gentler, more nighttime appropriate light level. Your body doesn't get the time confused, you get your work done, and you get some good sleep after.

Thought management (ditto)

I’ve had an account with Evernote using their desktop service for nearly 2 years. And barely used it. Why should I? Delicious quickly serves as a way to store the web pages I want to remember and keep for future resources. I can share what I bookmark via Facebook, building brand. Marking pages I want to read in the near future is accomplished with ease via Feedly.

Then came Evernote’s iPhone app, and it changed the game for me. The ability to document, make searchable, and ultimately, more useful the things I encounter out in the world, without having to wait to get to my computer, is the clincher. Photos, notes, your voice can all go straight into there, synced up with the desktop app and ready to be made use of whenever you're ready. And in a vast improvement since I last actively used it, Evernote searches by text within images with a high degree of accuracy.

The app also uses geolocation technology to give location relevancy to what you find out there, marking exactly where you found it so you have an additional way to find it again.

Finances and Ye Olde Business Cards

Ah, finances. The Achilles heel of so many. Whether you work for someone or create your own work, you collect receipts. Business cards. Lots of them. You've tried valiantly (or at least thought about it) to organize them usefully, without absorbing hours of time. Perhaps you've even tried a scanner that claims it's made for this purpose. And it may even be true. But you're still using precious time you could be using to save the world, and get paid for it. Enter Shoeboxed.

Shoeboxed is a dream come true. You just mail all your receipts and business cards to them, and they scan, categorize, and put it into a format you can either use in their service, or upload it into your other tools of choice. Like Evernote, for instance.

And the price for this? Exceptionally reasonable. For my needs, about the price of a meal a month. A fast food meal. If you're an Evernote user, even better. They now have mobile apps for both iPhone and other smart phones, where you can photograph receipts and they get included in your Shoeboxed account, not counting against the monthly scan limit.

There you go, a smorgasbord of life and work enhancing tools to lighten up and turbo boost your 2010. What are you using? Have you tried any of these services? What's been your experience? Chime in, below.

GreenSmart Shows How to Have a Truly Sustainable Lunch (video review)

2009-12-22T14:22:18-08:00

If you're looking for something unique, sustainable, and affordable for a Christmas present, or want to make your lunch truly green, I may have found just the thing:

Work or school can be tricky to do sustainably, as my video below will share. But California based GreenSmart sent me some samples of a line of lunchboxes that eschew what you'll learn are often toxic chemicals contained in many neoprene containing reusable lunch boxes. And they've made them both practical and whimsically styled, the material insulating cold and warm food to maintain temperature, and the style adding some fun to what can typically be a more utilitarian meal of the day.

In the video I'll tell you more about the surprising dubious honor neoprene got this year, and how GreenSmart's Neogreene material sidesteps all those issues, to both your and the planet's benefit.

So, dig in to this delicious video and please share your comments, questions, ideas below.

For you last minute holiday shoppers, GreenSmart was kind enough to give me a 25% discount code to pass on to you: Go to their store and enter the code GSTW25, good through December 31st, 2009.

Time to Stop Talking About Going Local, and Doing It. Here's Who Is. (pt 2 of 3)

2009-12-15T05:03:00-08:00

We’re living in interesting times, and it’s anybody’s guess what the economy, the environment, our society will look, even in the next year. The COP15 UN climate change gathering currently happening in Copenhagen isn’t panning out as many would have wanted, and solutions to unifying the world’s goals look further off.

Wayne Maceyka has a single, clear, suggestion: Go local, in all aspects, (re)building robust, agile, stable societies and economies in the process. In part 2 of his 3 part series, he focuses on the organizations currently happening to help support that.

I mentioned Michael Shuman's book Going Local in the first post of this series, and for those interested in exploring ways to localize their economies, it’s a good resource. Civic Economics, with staff in both Austin, TX and Chicago, IL is another organization providing innovative consulting services for local economic development efforts.

On Michael Shuman’s Small-mart website, there are additional resources available to local economy advocates and defenders. In the Small-mart blog, he announced the combination of Small-mart and The Business Alliance for local Living Economies "BALLE”. BALLE formed out of a fortuitous meeting between Laury Hammel and Judy Wicks, both board members of the Social Venture Network and has been focusing on helping build resilient local economies since 2001.

The organization has grown to include 75 community networks with over 20,000 entrepreneurs & members across the US & Canada. Look for “Sustainable Business Networks” in your area to connect with interesting and creative people working in the local economic development space.

Developing local currencies are a way to keep capital in communities and build stronger connections between people and businesses. Famous examples are Ithaca HOURs, from Ithaca, NY and BerkShares from Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts (forgive my Northeast focus; I am sure there are more successful examples out there, and I’d love to hear about them, below in the comments). The IthacaHOURs site offers resources for communities interested in developing local currencies of their own. It’s worth checking out.

Of recent interest in the conversation about alternative economic models is the rise of the "slowmoney" investment philosophy through the Slow Money Alliance; “patient capital" seeking to provide investors financial payback as well as social and environmental capital appreciation through agricultural investment. They seek to bring money back down to earth. The effort is something of an off-shoot (or maybe a continuation) of the thinking around Slowfood, seeking to reconnect eaters with their food sources. The key questions asked by the Slow Money Alliance, and ones that I feel generate some interesting ideas are:

What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?
What if there was a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits?
What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?

The first Slow Money Conference occurred in Sante Fe, NM and received quite a bit of press, with articles in the LA Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, and Business Week. Is there a market for "patient capital"?

Perhaps there are enough investors that have had enough with the speculation that seems to pass for "investing" now-a-days and will be content to fund a local food enterprise and reap the slow and steady reward of building multiple forms of capital. Are there enough of these investors to change our course?

A somewhat different take on the relocalization concept comes from the Transition Towns Initiative. My take is that this initiative has come to the conclusion that we’ll be facing a far different energy situation within the next 20 years (peak oil is mentioned overtly) and therefore will be forced to bring basic necessities for life “back home”. They’re seeking to bring people together and draw upon the existing community skills to redevelop capabilities to meet basic needs locally.

The New York Times Magazine had a lengthy article on the concept (coinciding with the financial crisis of course) entitled The End Is Near! (Yay!). I’m not sure the article’s title accurately reflects what many people think, though a recent rather scathing Worldchanging post echoed some of the NYTimes’ sentiments (I replied to that post here); that the Transition Initiative has accepted a future of scarcity and proceed with an ideological rather than fact-based mission.

I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions, and would be interested to hear your thoughts on this, and who else you see taking proactive action to effectively localize, below.

In the 3^rd and final part of this series on localization, we’ll look at how food, transportation and infrastructure play a part in this equation.

~~~

Wayne Maceyka is innately inquisitive. He holds an ME from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a freshly minted Sustainable MBA from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute. His passion: creating resilient economies to generate, restore, & preserve capital -- social, natural, & financial. Organizations working in the regional food system and those seeking to make “waste” a feedstock are of particular interest to him. When not “saving the world”, he works for the measurement technology firm Mettler-Toledo.

Find him & connect: LinkedIn | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

image credit: Reyes on Flickr

Time to Stop Talking About Going Local, and Doing It. Here's How. (pt 1 of 3)

2009-11-24T04:00:00-08:00

With gold reaching all time highs in value, and other indicators that our global economy is in serious trouble (or seen more positively, ripe for a reset) money as we know it, and commerce as we know it may well vanish, or drastically change in the not too distant future. So perhaps, now more then ever, it’s time to look at how to build and maintain robust local economies.

This week’s guest writer Wayne Maceyka takes an interesting, inspiring look at how that can happen. Part 1 of a 2 part series, we encourage your thoughts, ideas, and questions in the comments below.

Considering the seismic activity that's been rumbling through the global economy over the past few years (it's not over, unemployment here in the United States is over 10%, the highest since 1983 and there are fears that commercial property loans, additional residential mortgages, and energy prices will squash a full-fledged recovery - in the traditional sense of the word), perhaps looking at our economy through a different lens would be interesting.

For me, that lens has been building local and regional economies as a way to buffer regions from the winds of globalization and perhaps address some of our environmental challenges as well.

Why import items that meet basic human needs (food for instance) when much of it can be supplied from nearby? Of course, “nearby”, “local”, and “regional” are relative terms, the definitions of which are up for debate, but lets leave that discussion for another day Why is “going local” a good idea? It reduces our dependence on long distribution chains that are vulnerable to energy price fluctuations, reduces environmental impact, and perhaps most importantly helps keep financial capital circulating within the region.

This recirculation of financial capital supports regional businesses and the jobs and value they create, further increasing the region’s resilience in the face of large-scale economic challenges. Will every city, county or state be self-sufficient in the next 20 years? Probably not, though depending upon your beliefs around peak oil (see Jeff Rubin below) perhaps they’ll have to be. The point is not to seek protectionist self-sufficiency, but cooperative interdependence on a scale consistent with human needs and natural resources.

If you’re curious about the role of energy prices in the relocalization of economies, Jeff Rubin’s book Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller is worth the read. His analysis is couched in economics and not ideology in a way that I found engaging and that may appeal to people of many backgrounds - maybe not even green. In addition, The Oil Drum, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, and the International Energy Agency provide interesting and sometimes contradictory information and analyses.

Michael Shuman's (of small-mart & BALLE) book Going Local provides a wonderful overview of reasons to go local and ways to help us get there. An example that made an impression on me (similar to the aluminum can energy analysis in Natural Capitalism) of the power of purchasing locally is a study from Austin, TX about bookstores. In this example $0.13 of a dollar spent at the local Borders stayed in the local economy; $0.45 of every dollar spent at the locally owned bookstore stayed in the local economy. Those 32 cents adds up; instead of exporting that capital to another location, the capital is kept within the community building the social and economic so important to our quality of life.

Douglas Rushkoff's authorship of Life, Inc. adds some weight to the idea of a local focus. While not an outright recommendation for local economies comes to similar conclusions about the value of local communities. He discusses the problems associated with the rise of "corporatism"; the idea that we've reached a point where nearly all facets of human relationships are mediated by a corporation. (I am writing this on a site enabled/owned by Google).

The book starts with a personal anecdote about his neighborhood in Brooklyn; he posted a warning on the community listserv about getting robbed on his street. Instead of receiving support and concern from his neighbors, he was reprimanded for posting something publicly that could adversely affect property values. The point? When the pursuit of profit supersedes the value of community, something's shifted in a dangerous way.

So, how might we address these social and economic challenges within our communities and regions? Please share your ideas and thoughts below. In Part II, I’ll look at some of the organizations working in this space, what they’re doing and the (sometimes) competing ideology around “going local”.

~~~

Wayne Maceyka is innately inquisitive. He holds an ME from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a freshly minted Sustainable MBA from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute. His passion: creating resilient economies to generate, restore, & preserve capital -- social, natural, & financial. Organizations working in the regional food system and those seeking to make “waste” a feedstock are of particular interest to him. When not “saving the world”, he works for the measurement technology firm Mettler-Toledo.

Find him & connect: LinkedIn | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

U2, Oxfam America, New York MTA: Green Hypocrites?

2009-11-04T04:00:00-08:00

If you're looking for an example of someone who walks their talk, Mike Lieberman would be your man. Best known as CanarsieBK on the web, this Brooklyn man is a living, breathing demonstration of how one can live sustainably, anywhere. He proves anything is possible, growing a thriving vegetable garden on his fire escape, and demonstrating actionable steps, daily, on how to be personally sustainable. And he's definitely not afraid to speak his mind.

Today Lieberman takes aim at those who don't seem to be walking the talk, balanced with options they could choose to align their actions better with their words. Do you agree with what he says? Have other views? Have other creative solutions for these and other organizations and globe trotting bands? Chime in, below.

With the green movement becoming more trendy, there are lots of high profile companies, organizations and individuals that claim to be green, but are they green hypocrites?  

They talk the green talk, but they don't walk the green walk. Since they are in high profile positions they have the ear of people and are saying one thing, but their actions say otherwise.  

 Arguably the biggest rock band of the past three decades, U2 has been vocal over the years about their stance on the climate and social injustice.  

On their current "No Line on the Horizon" tour, their acts have demonstrated the opposite of what they've been saying. Due to the extravagant stage set, requiring 100 trucks, there is a massive crew (200 people) that need to travel with the band.  

Carbonfootprint.com has said the tour's carbon emissions are equal to "the four band members travelling the 34.125 million miles from Earth to Mars in a passenger plane".  

Carbonfootprint.com also says that the tour will also create as much waste as 6,500 average people in 1 year. To offset this, U2 would have to plant 20,118 trees simply to offset this one tour's dates.  

The band has said that they would pay the carbon offset charges, but is that the solution to just throw money at it?

  I think that this has a pretty simple solution - don't be excessive in your stage set. Yes, it's nice and great for the fans, but if you are going to talk the talk, walk it as well. Otherwise, it's just a PR stunt.

  Oxfam America 

Back in September, Oxfam America held The Human Countdown event in Central Park. Its purpose was to send a message to the world leaders that time is running out to act on climate change.  

Volunteers, including myself, transformed ourselves into the planet earth, which trickled down through an hourglass, then formed the words “tck tck tck.” The purpose and intent of the event was great. It gathered a large group of people to "voice" their message to the world leaders.  

With Oxfam organizing the event, you'd expect everything to be environmentally friendly especially since we were all joined to combat climate change. Unfortunately, this was not the case.  

The ponchos that were given to the volunteers who made up the hourglass were made from thin throwaway plastic. The shirts and hats that were given to the earth volunteers were made in Haiti and Bangladesh, respectively.

  I'm sure pulling off an event like that isn't easy. It's also difficult to do in an environmentally friendly manner as well, but you are saying we are here to combat climate change and on the other you are contributing to the problem.

  A solution for this would be to solicit eco-friendly companies that would likely be willing to attach their names to such an event. Yes, companies aren't going to jump at the chance and several calls would likely need to be placed, but then the message that you are saying would jive with the message that you are sending.  

NYC MTA

 The NYC MTA prides itself on being environmentally conscious. When riding the subways there are ads in the cars saying how environmentally friendly taking the subway is.   On their site they state, "Thanks in large part to the MTA, the energy consumption and CO2 output of New Yorkers is approximately a quarter of the national average." They even have an MTA Effect Calculator.  

This is all fine and dandy, but then you go into the subway station and buy a MetroCard that is disposable. At some stations, notably the AirTrain station going to and from JFK Airport these cards come in plastic packaging as well. Seems like a lot of unnecessary waste to me.  

Solutions to this could be to offer plastic recycle bins at the stations for the cards and packaging. Otherwise, they just go to the landfills. Ideally plastic wouldn't be used at all, but recycling is the next best option.  

 These are three groups and companies that are in the spotlight and are vocal about the "green" movement, yet their actions say something else. On one hand they are bringing awareness to the problem by talking about it, but they aren't showing people what can be done about it.  

Are U2, Oxfam, and MTA being green hypocrites or is just them bringing awareness to the situations enough?

Ok readers, you heard him. Your thoughts? To me, it's a gray issue, as sometimes with events and companies, it's difficult to get all the moving parts in sync, all at once. For others, it's pure laziness, doing the minimum to get by. Some, they just don't know, and need to be made aware of inconsistencies. I'd say for all, it's acknowledging what's been done well, and encouraging, however it will most have effect and be listened to, that they keep going further. U2? I'm sorry, no excuse, to me that tour is ridiculously inexcusable, as it is now.

Coming soon...

2009-10-28T11:50:34-07:00

I've got something bubbling up inside me, and it's all Chris Brogan's fault. The man who I'm sure has a stunt double or two for all that he does, issued a challenge in a recent video, Overnight Success Part 2 - A Call to Arms.

In it, he said that it's time for us to stop just playing small, playing remedial when it comes to using social media to its full potential. Time to level up, together, as it were.

It knocked something loose in me.

I began to write all sorts of thoughts, not necessarily focused on social media, but instead on sustainability, and how I see people and businesses practicing it and shifting others towards it in a healthier and well, more sustainable, enjoyable fashion than is prevalent now. Social Media definitely plays a part.

What I've been writing has more questions then answers, and when it comes together to something I'd like to share with you, you'll be the first to see. Something big is bubbling inside me, and it's time to let it out. And I want your minds and hearts in on it too.

Stay tuned...

Do You Know Your Community? Does the Community Know You?

2009-10-21T05:00:00-07:00

I believe that we learn best by hearing from many different voices. And in this case, I'm learning along with you in our latest guest post. Like many of you, I use my deep, broad online resources almost exclusively for getting new business, and with the exception of one client, all are from other parts of the country, or even out of the country. Here we have Victoria Klein reminding us to pay attention to and make best use of what's going on right in our local communities, in terms of business, and gives several excellent resources to best explore it. Please share any we've missed, of which I'm sure you know some gems.

The wide wide World Wide Web has become an indispensable business tool in a very short amount of time. Websites, blogs, social media accounts – the way we do business has forever changed … or has it?

No matter how many virtual meetings we share, nothing can replace the importance of talking and collaborating face-to-face. The same concept goes for promoting and growing your business. You can have clients in all parts of the world, but does the mom-and-pop store down the street known what you do? With their own unique needs and perspectives, local residents and businesses are indispensable source for a business of any size. They are the original world of social networking.

But where do you start? How can you bring your knowledge, experience, and services to those who may need you the most – the folks right in your city? The answer is much simpler than the question: walk and talk. Now is the time to put in the time and effort to call or visit local ventures to, at the very least, introduce yourself and pass on a business card.

I’m not encouraging you to walk into this blind. Nor do I want you to desperately try to sell yourself like a telemarketer. Like any important project, step one is research. Delve into your local business community to find those that would benefit the most from you services. Start with:

BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
Yahoo! Local
GenGreen Life Directory

Seek out local business organizations for advertising opportunities and networking events, which are more common than ever. Use your talents to volunteer with a local non-profit – another networking goldmine. Don’t overlook any opportunity to talk with a real human about your work: hobby meetups, library events, weekly farmers’ markets, high school reunions … the possibilities are endless.

You don’t need to join yet another website to get the word out about your business – just knock on your neighbor’s door. Watch the 6 degrees of separation in action by joining in and sharing with your local community.

Readers: So, what do you think? What other resources do you use to connect with and learn about your local community and its resources, businesses? Let's talk about it below.

Victoria Klein is a writer, eco-consultant, and photographer who uses her creative interests to explore the delight and difficulty of the human experience, and our effect on the planet. You can read her blog here.

image credit: itzafineday on Flickr