EcoMetro Print Guides
July 7th, 2009 | Published in EcoMetro, Print
I started with Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis in 07′/08′, adding Berkeley/Oakland in 08′/09′, and followed by Silicon Valley and Denver/Boulder in 09′/10′.
To make it possible to write each city, I draft standardized paragraphs about a topic and plug in the relevant local information (for example, a chapter on selecting organic cotton clothing, with a local business plugged in). The chapters covered in each book cover these 12 topics on two page spreads. Linked are examples of each, from varying cities:
- Eating local
- Farmers markets (mostly research)
- Save energy
- Use clean energy
- Gardening
- Green home/green building
- Recycle anything
- Community/volunteering
- Green clothing
- Pets (or kids, depending on the year)
- Go by bike
- Take transit
Admission: I’ve never been to Minneapolis, or Silicon Valley, or Denver (since I was 13), but I write about each in these annual green living guides and coupon books as if I live there. Remote research is surprisingly fun!
Pro tip: I use Google street view to describe something I’m writing about from afar. Zoom in on a park, landmark, or store and you’ll get a sense of the neighborhood and be able to use descriptive, lively words as if you walk the streets every single day.
Each of these books is 25% resource, 75% coupons. Businesses much meet a strict environmental criteria. In new cities, we pass a draft by local government and utilities to ensure accuracy. In following years, we pass a draft by the local marketing team. But much of it needs to be correct the first time, so self editing and fact checking is important, as well as writing material that will be accurate for the one year shelf life.