Be a LiveGreen Contributing Author!

We are putting out a call for green writers. Do you have a business with a green side and could bring a different perspective to our blog? Or do you have expertise in an area and you would like to tell the world? We're not picky really, as long as it's green and good.

We are looking for writers who can bring useful, periodic green content to our site. We are looking for informative but fun writers. If you are interested, please email us.

Resource Revival: Bikes are Cool!!

We recently had a chance to chat with Resource Revival Founder, Graham Bergh and National Sales Manager, Jim Hassert. We started carrying their bottle opener last year after we discovered how they make them. Resource Revival pays for bike shops to ship them used bike chains and other parts. These parts are then reused to create functional art. An established company, Resource Revival is a focused company making a difference in this world.

LiveGreen: How did Resource Revival begin?

Graham: The idea behind Resource Revival came to me in 1991 when I had a flat tire riding to work. When I took out the inner tube I realized the potential for reusing bike parts. The city of Portland had a pretty cool program called "One Percent Well Spent" Which they discontinued in the mid 90s. It was a program that gave one percent of their solid waste budget out as grant money to people with innovative recycling ideas. It was a motivation for me that if I could think of something cool I could get like $100,000. That was the motivation behind getting the company rolling and we incorporated in 1994.

LG: Very cool...so, how big is your company right now?

Graham: If you hold your hands out as wide as you can...that's about how big it is. Seriously though, we don't actually give out metrics...but for employees we have only five. But that changed...a while back we had ten people. We're smart about the way we grow and partner with our vendors to do certain steps for us.

Jim: That's an interesting thing about our company too. In 2004 we moved out of the city to a more rural location...from a 10,000 square foot building to a much smaller building. This has made us more efficient and not as wasteful with space. We went from a bigger building and a bigger crew to a smaller building, smaller crew...but we're pumping out more work then we ever have.


LG: That's interesting. I was just over at New Belgium and saw a bunch of your stuff. My friend was with me and I didn't even notice that we were sitting on your stools until he pointed them out to me. He's interested in buying them. They're really impressive in person...the photos on your site just don't give them justice.

Graham: One of the long term plans for our site is to get more shots of our product in place. The flip side of what Jim was describing is that Jim and I are kind of the core two people that run this company and it's actually gotten pretty big. So there's just a list of projects that would make sense but we don't want to staff up and go further into debt, we'll just get them done when we can. Really, it's a very sustainable business plan if you think about it. All things in time. And it forces us to prioritize.

LG: What other sustainable plans are in the works?

Graham: The long term vision is that we will actually generate our own electricity here onsite. Maybe a five year vision...we've got good wind and good sun in the summer so we could have some micro-power generation going on. I just read a couple articles...one is about these micro turbines that you can actually put on the face of the building, they look like pinwheels, they're a little bigger but no stand alone tower that would actually be blown over here in a big storm. On the facade of the building we could have these on the west side facing the gorge and it could be a very artistic thing. Solar panels, we're looking at some new roofing tiles that would also be photovoltaic. So when we need a new roof, which will be in the next ten years, maybe we'll do those.

LG: We work with a company here in San Diego called Clean Power Systems that partners with Sun Power. They have a really cool building integrated PV. I think if you are going to replace the roof it's a great way to split the cost of two financially intensive projects.

Graham: Well especially in San Diego or Phoenix...it's ridiculous that any of those cities use coal or nuclear or anything, it's crazy.

LG: I see that you have computer parts in some of your products. Are there any plans to incorporate other recyclables?

Graham: Actually we are beginning to focus more on just bicycle parts. We had an idea to be the everything recyclable shop but now we are doing just bike parts. Bikes are cool! We like riding bikes, bikes are good for the environment, we have the relationship with the bike shops..and that's kind of enough. It makes our product line very focused too. And yet, one interesting thing about bikes is that you're not just stuck with one look. You know, if you're recycling sweaters you're stuck with wool or cotton, whereas with bikes you've got the chain, the frames, the tubes, tires, seats, handlebars...there are a lot of different options for us.

LG: I really dig your relationship with the bike shops. You pay for them to ship their broken chains and parts.


Graham: That's the great thing about this program...the shops are already taking these pieces apart. You know, instead of saying lets disassemble this thing and send it to Resource Revival, they're already disassembling this thing...already repairing the bike and taking pieces off...so just put it in a box and send it to Resource Revival. So we're capturing work that's already happening.

LG: Have you thought of offsetting the waste generated from shipping?

Graham: We've been looking into that. We have a global warming meeting once a month. I think in the short term we're more focused on what we can do here. Adding more day lighting, limiting employee car trips, things like that. Ultimately it would be great to offset...the way I'd like to offset the waste is instead of buying credits I'd rather produce energy here. Enough energy to power not only the onsite production but to offset all the associated carbon emissions. I think it's totally doable, but not realistic in the next year or two...I think five years is a realistic goal.

LG: Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Graham: We have some cool variations on the products that are coming out in a year or so. The website is being updated...we'll have more information on it, in certain cases less information about things that were more important to us a while back. We want to have a more interactive site and ideally some video showing products being made and the recycling process.

LG: Your company reminds me of the attitude over at New Belgium. You're just doing what you love, you know you love bikes...let's make stuff our of them. You don't have time to just sit around and think about this stuff.

Graham: We've worked really hard...a lot of time making it work. The sense right now is that we're not a start-up company, we're looking to the future and where we want to take it. We don't want to take over the world, we don't want to focus on just making money or recycling...we want balance.

LiveGreen Video Guide: BIOMEND

We did it! Our first video in our real-life documentary series highlighting our quest to become greener. Join us and local San Diego company BIOMEND, for our premier video.

Our video guide is meant to highlight simple solutions that we would like to share with everyone. If you know of a green product or service that we could try, please contact uscontact us.

Having trouble streaming? Try YouTube.

Free Eco-Tips from Ideal Bite

Just wanted to post a quick blog to direct you to an excellent green newsletter.
Ideal Bite provides a green tip a day that is loaded with information. I have used their tips on more than one occassion. Just sign up for the newsletter and check it out!

Can you tell what's wrong with this picture?

On a perfectly beautiful San Diego day, Noon. 72 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, yet two solitary bulbs burn, we jest of course but this is stupid. We've lived here for over a year and a half and these bulbs have been on 24/7. CFL's? No. LED's? No. Incandescent bulbs burning bright and hot on a San Diego day. Can you tell what's wrong with this picture? We just had to get this off our chest, we are outta here...on to Encinitas!
A&W

Cast your vote for Earth Friendly Moving

Click your way to the Sundance Channel and vote on the 25 finalists for "What's the Big Idea?" contest. Of course you can decide on whoever you'd like. Since we are using Earth Friendly Moving in our upcoming move, we'd appreciate it if you voted for them. Here's what Spencer Brown of EFM has to say...

Step#1- Sign up and then register with your e-mail address and password- click on the “remember me button” that way you only have to do this step one time!



Step#2- Logout and then click on the idea contest link and then login in with your e-mail address and password. Click on my image to vote and a pop-up window will appear- scroll down and then vote for me! (note: after signing up- I’m located on the 5th row, third picture on the right. I’m holding three bottles! )


It takes a few seconds and it will show you this message: Thanks for voting! You can only vote once per day so come back again tomorrow if you would like to vote again.

Step #3- after you’re signed in- all you need to do is go back each day and click on the vote for button on my image and the pop-up screen will load- click on vote for me button on my video and your vote will be added to my video! Once your account is set up your vote will take less than 15 seconds!



Here’s the main reason why I’m personally asking for your help!

As you know, 20% of the population packs and moves every year with cardboard boxes and we haven’t change this antiquated process in over 230 years!

The Recopack is made from all of those hard to recycle plastic bottles under your kitchen sink and laundry room. These bottles will never break down in our landfills and they are piling up! By renting the Recopack, it completely eliminates the need to pack and move with cardboard! It’s the 1st, zero waste, pack and move solution in America!

Every time we rent 100 Recopacks, here’s the immediate impact on our environment:

1. We remove over 500 pounds of hard to recycle plastic trash from our landfills!

2. Prevent over 250 pounds of cardboard/packing trash from entering our landfills!

3. We save 3 healthy oxygen producing trees from being cut down and converted into cardboard boxes/disposable packing materials!

4. Eliminate over 65 pounds of carbon emissions from entering our atmosphere!

5. Save over 6 gallons of fuel (gas and diesel) reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Voting for the Recopack is voting for the health of this planet because when you think about it:

“Without tree’s, we’re all fish out of water!”

Thanks for your vote and continued word of mouth support!

Spencer Brown

Inventor of the Recopack

A New Look

I hope you all like the new look. We're trying for a more seamless transition between sites. As we are doing our site ourselves with little to no HTML background, I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

Exciting, New LiveGreen Products!!!

If you haven't already checked them out, head on over to our LiveGreen Shop Page to see our new eco-friendly additions.


Our first addition, EPIC Cleaning Products! This local San Diego company has a product line of natural, environmentally friendly cleaning products. Even more, they donate 100% of their profits to non-profit environmental organizations. We are very happy to have their products for sale on our site as we enjoy using them every day. Our favorite scent is the citrus+ginger, but there are also a lavender and a free+clear (with no scent) fragrances. Come check it out!

Our second addition is a t-shirt. What's so special about it? Well, for one, the design and printing is done by a local artist here in San Diego Urban Octopus. The shirts themselves are made by American Apparel and are 100% organic cotton. We love to support local businesses, but we are totally excited that we can also support organic farming practices. Did you know that 10% of the worlds pesticides and 25% of the world's insecticides are used to grow cotton? That cotton shirt you're wearing...it took TWO POUNDS of chemicals to grow the material used to make it. Buy organic cotton and support environmentally friendly farming practices!!!!

And we still have our other products. Reusable Bags, Candles and Resource Revival Bottle Openers.

Foster's, a new Sustainable Brew...well, almost

We at LiveGreen love to throw back a few after a long days work and are always on the lookout for beers and other beverages made by companies working towards sustainability. One can always find a Fat Tire at my place ;)

CBS News reported today that Australian beer maker Foster's will be using brewery waste to create a fuel cell that could power a house. Two kilowatts may not be that much energy for a brewery, but this scale up technology could lead to better bacterial fuel cells.

All I know is that when you come over for a party, Foster's just might be on tap!

1000 Miles of Vespa!

Today was a momentous occasion...well, not really. I was riding my Vespa to work today and looked down...1000 MILES! Wow, this baby is just breaking in. Well, having 70mpg is really nice. Had I been carpooling those 1000 miles in our Ford Escape, I would have been getting 40mpg (20mpg gas guzzler spilt between two!). So, those 1000 miles of Vespa saved me (let me calculate this......) $33!

Well, now starts the official LiveGreen testing. Our Residential Project is starting up this month. We will be testing green moving, green cleaning, solar installs, and other projects. Along with that will be our transportation. We have a Ford Escape V6 19/21mpg that we want to upgrade to the new hybrid, my Vespa LX 150 70mpg (holds two people and a ton of luggage!), and bicycles (free energy...well, food energy). So, stay tuned for our life as we try to Live Green!!!

“San Elijo Lagoon Day” May 12, 2007

If you have a free morning or afternoon May 12th, stop by the San Elijo Lagoon in Encinitas for "Lagoon Day"!

ENCINITAS, May 1, 2007 – The public is invited to “Lagoon Day” at San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sat., May 12, 2007. This year’s Lagoon Day celebrates the 20th anniversary of San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy and features a nature treasure hunt, complete with treasure map, nature discovery stations, and prizes. Activities take place at the Nature Center located at 2710 Manchester Avenue in Cardiff. Lagoon Day is free of charge.



Lagoon Day is sponsored by the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy, the County of San Diego Department of Parks & Recreation, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and consists of fun-filled activities for adults and children, designed to increase awareness and appreciation of the natural and cultural resources of this valuable ecological reserve. Additional features will include a simulated archeology dig, live bird, reptile and insect exhibits, information on water-wise native plant gardening and backyard habitat, and a musical recital by artists from the Devine Guitar Academy. Additional art includes the fantastic bird photography of Heather Kinch, and on site painting by plein air artists, Gary Johnson, Scott Kuhnly, Lee Kromschroeder, Stan Sowinski and Gamini Ratnavira.



I’ve attached a press release and lagoon day poster for your distribution. Please call me with any questions. Thanks very much for your support of San Elijo Lagoon, environmental education and community connections.