This piece is one I started last year, but this year it includes all the recycling hotlines and energy resources, but it also has cool cultural resources like Urban Edibles (a way cool map of free food growing wild in the city) and a list of websites to check out including Inhabitat and Grist.org. Doing this for each city (Seattle, Twin Cities, Denver/Boulder, Silicon Valley/Santa Cruz, Berkeley/Oakland, and of course Portland) was a fascinating look at how these cities function–and don’t. Some don’t even have a clear hazardous waste disposal site for residents, or they do but no one ever picks up the phone. Portland is far and away the best at this online, but Berkeley has the EcoHaus resource center with a green hotline that you can call and ask anything about eco living. Anything!

Wondering about that peak in 2007? 2007 is when Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth won an Academy Award (it came out in 2006), it’s also the year he split the Nobel with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and he was runner up for Time’s Person of the Year.

Take a look at 2004! I started writing about sustainable lifestyle choices at the end of 2006, but looking at this I wish I had started earlier.

Right now you may be thinking that ’sustainable’ has been used for a long time in other contexts, while ‘eco friendly’ and ‘green living’ are tied to the trend. Here are the previous terms with sustainability:

As expected. In this graph sustainability is likely getting a boost from the agricultural and business worlds, where corporations prefer the term. PepsiCo and Walmart issue Sustainability Reports, not Green Living Reports.

The video is embedded below, some browsers have trouble with it.

At EcoMetro, I created and now manage the following Twitter accounts:

• National: @EcoMetro
• Portland: @PDXEcoMetro
• Seattle: @EcoMetroSEA
• Twin Cities: @EcoMetroTwinC
• East Bay: @EcoMetroEastBay

and soon Denver and Silicon Valley, too.

I also created Facebook accounts for each, but handed that over to the marketing team because I don’t really like Facebook and they do.

My work at EcoMetro is divided into two categories: Writing short articles and editing bloggers on the website, and writing and creating interactive content for the print books (circ. 100,000 in 09)’. EcoMetro is part of Celilo Group Media, a green lifestyle media company.

• Print Guides in 6 cities

• Creation and editing of the ecometro website

• Interactive print content (my favorite!)

For a description of the process and how I work:

• The story of the revamping the print guides in their 7th year

and

• Creating the website from scratch–coming soon. We started from wireframes, up from there.

Quotes of this were picked up and repeated in Treehugger, various blogs, and the book The Gort Cloud (excerpt).

EcoMetro.com,What Nau? May 2008

On Friday, May 2, Nau announced that “due to crisis in the capital markets” the company was unable to obtain enough funds to move forward. They did it with their typical charm, even nabbing the best headline, “Goodbye for Nau” for their press release. Through their 5% donation program, Nau donated $223,000 to non-profits in just under one year of business. That’s an admirable achievement for a little company struggling to stay afloat.

I covered Nau twice before they launched, first for Ultra PDX in November 06′ and later for Plenty Magazine, so this is the death of one of my pet companies. The offices were buzzing with energy back then, and the people could not have been nicer or more enthusiastic. They were heavy hitters too, coming from years of experience at places like Patagonia and Nike. So, what went wrong? At the risk of kicking Nau while it’s down, I saw this coming.

Nau set out to be the Prada of the outdoor industry, and at first it seemed they would pull it off. With a target market of creative, outdoorsy types and a growing national interest in environmental lifestyles, Nau launched at just the right moment in early 07′. What they put out, however, was…frumpy. I say that shamefully, because when VP of Product Design Mark Galbraith walked me through the sample racks in late 06′, I was drooling.

The bike-friendly skirts had me at hello, but also the presence of new textiles, several of which they engineered to be recyclable or compostable because the existing fabrics didn’t cut the mustard. Their work spelled new standards for an industry which has a significant environmental impact.

According to the Organic Trade Association, conventional cotton uses 25% of the world’s insecticides, and if you haven’t checked the labels on your raincoats yet, look up some of the chemicals and treatments involved in making them. The clothes we wear to tromp around outside have a significant footprint of their own, and Galbraith and I talked about this at length, but that sentiment was never spelled out in their marketing campaigns. It seemed Nau would set a higher bar, and maybe they have, but unfortunately not for style.

Galbraith had explained how he wanted to follow high fashion for its timelessness. The outdoor industry, especially snowboard clothing, is trendy and seasonal, requiring frequent replacement. Away from the drawing board went neon colors, away went blue camo prints, and good riddance. But Nau came out with a line almost exclusively in forest green, mud brown and a dirty cream. And then they charged 3 times the average for it, consistently marking everything down by 40% after a few months on a beautiful-but-absurdly-large Flash website.

There was nothing visually special about the clothes at first glance, and they seemed not at all like the ones I had viewed when I visited the offices. Was it just the energy of the place that made everything look beautiful and new, or did they wimp out at the last minute and go with safer, basic designs? Creative, outdoorsy people want to look like creative, outdoorsy people. The fashionistas, the hipsters, the creative set with the funky glasses, wear edgy, unique clothing. The photos were always of pretty people in the outdoor world, but the prices belonged in urban boutiques. Their Portland store was even in the massive suburban Bridgeport Place mall, alongside stores like Pottery Barn and Anthropologie.

As outdoorsy as any of us may be, we walk mostly on urban streets. And what’s the fun in a $250 sweater if no one is going to ask you about it, giving you the chance to talk about the organic fibers or recyclable clasps?

I’m sad to see this little company leave the block. Besides their non-profit donations, I hope the Nau legacy will be that consumers ask questions about the fabrics we wear including the production process and how it can be recycled in the end, as well as the heart of the company behind it all.

Most everything is 50% off online, so get your goods nau or never.

EcoMetro, December 2008 (condensed version appeared in 2008 East Bay EcoMetro Guides)

Name: Tierra Del Forte
Job Title: Fashion Designer
Time at job: Since 1999
Neighborhood you live in: N Temescal in N. Oakland

Del Forte is partnered with the Davis, CA based Sustainable Cotton Project, and uses only 100% organic cotton for her denim.

How do you commute? One top goal is to bike to work. My car is 30 years old, so I’ve definitely gotten a lot of use out of it.

Who inspired your view of environmentalism? A friend of mine—who now works with me– has been involved in eco-fashion for 12 years, mostly hemp, way before it was a big to-do.  She was super knowledgeable and super committed, but it never really clicked with me until I was doing the research to start my own company. Conventional cotton is SO polluting, and organic farming is SO beneficial.

What’s one positive thing that encouraged your environmentalism early on? There was a really positive reaction in the industry and buyers and boutiques I respect were really excited. I could combine my aesthetic with something I believed in. People who weren’t actively looking for eco-fashion were really pleased when they were presented with it. A lot of what we are doing with this company is consumer education—eco-fashion doesn’t have to be scratchy burlap jumpers! We just show them our product; the other part is a little trickier.

What inspires you to keep working for change? I’ve invested a lot in this company financially, emotionally, and time-wise. I really really believe in this sector of the market—not just my company in particular. Press regarding eco-fashion in the last couple of years has been growing and growing, and it’s becoming more and more of a focus.

What have you witnessed changing about the sustainable community in the last 5 years? I’m fairly new to it, but it’s getting a lot more glamorous. The environment is a huge issue in Hollywood right now, and there’s probably upsides and downsides to that, but the events are being better produced, the glamour portion is rising, the only fear is that the issue will get lost. Are people going to get too distracted and star struck? But mostly I think it’s really good.

What do you envision the world will be like in 5 years? In 10? What I’m really striving for is that sustainable practices aren’t just limited to a few companies. I’d like to see all companies start looking at how they are making their goods. Consumer demand is going to keep growing, so I hope sustainable practices are going to become a quality that successful companies have.

Where do you get your information on the environment? Tons! I work with people at the Organic Exchange, and the Sustainable Cotton Project especially because they deal with family farmers in CA. Cradle to Cradle, Paul Hopkins, Worldchanging, Treehugger, Grist, G Living…all of these I find are really really great. Then there’s social networking sites like Earth.

How do you, in your own circles of family and friends, impart your sustainable practices? I grew up in Berkley, so we grew up with things like recycling, and things that the rest of the country is starting to do in a big way we’ve done for 30 years. Being in this industry has made my family and friends more aware. Small changes that are easy for people to make, they tend to do.

What are three things you do to be green? In the office we buy only eco-friendly office supplies when they’re available—all marketing is recycled post consumer paper with soy-based ink, all paper in the office is recycled post consumer, we print on both sides; we avoid shipping garments any farther than we need to, and most everything is done here in the U.S. which drastically reduces our use of fossil fuels. Where there’s an option I buy the eco friendly option—and I buy a lot less than I used to. Beauty, food, fashion…I’ve discovered I need a lot less things than I thought.

What do you think is the #1 thing people can do to be green? Be an informed consumer, read labels. The mainstream marketing world has realized how much of a selling point sustainability is and they care co-opting the language left and right, using words like organic and natural. Demand the products you want—if your grocery store doesn’t carry organic, then ask for it. If your favorite boutique has no eco friendly fashion available, ask for it.

Online shoppers can purchase Del Forte Denim from the store list.

Plenty Magazine, Issue 14

GreenPrint’s Green Prince, Portland Tribune, Nov 14, 2006

Note: This same article turns up in a lot of other search results for papers within the Pamplin Media Group, such as the Tualatin Times.

A stint working at Ford of Europe, where the printers overflowed with superfluous pages, got Hayden Hamilton thinking, then acting. The result: GreenPrint’s application, which detects the unnecessary pages in a print job and alerts users.

Full text
We expect a lot from computers, but sometimes they deliver things we don’t want, like pleas from Nigerian diplomats, offers for discounted hair loss products and that extra page or two of gobbledygook that often comes out when we print.

Most people just shrug off the problem, but for Hayden Hamilton, those excess pages represented an unnecessary waste of money, waste of paper and an opportunity to create entrepreneurial software. Hamilton’s concern led to his just-launched company, GreenPrint.

The concept for GreenPrint emerged when Hamilton, 29, a Portland native, was consulting at Ford of Europe. He says he discovered in Ford’s office “10 print stations with two or three printers each, overflowing with orphaned pages.”

He already had been thinking about paper waste while on a fellowship to study ecotourism in Southeast Asia in 2000 (he has an MBA from Oxford University), where quality paper was scarce.
Expertise in the paperless realm

The scarcity of access to quality health care had been Hamilton’s cause before he turned his attention to overflowing office printers. In 2004, he founded ProgressiveRx.com, offering prescription drugs on the Web at 80 percent to 90 percent below U.S. retail prices through an office in Bangalore, India. The next year he founded the nonprofit Progressive Health Worldwide, which works to supply medical supplies and techonology to African agencies.

About a year ago, he began working with friend James Kellerman, whom he had met at Ford, to acquire investors and develop a beta version of GreenPrint.

For software development they teamed with Aditi Technologies in Bellevue, Wash. Just over half the company budget has come from Hamilton’s own pocket.

The GreenPrint software, Hamilton explains, “works on an algorithm that screens pages for common waste characteristics — a page with only a URL, or the legal jargon after an airline ticket — and highlights the page.”

In plain English that means that after opening a document and hitting the print button, the standard print window opens. After a few clicks to select the program from the printer list, the waste page appears in red. The elimination is confirmed with another click, and the document sent to print without the extra page.
Users can see savings mount

One especially nifty tool that will appeal to techies and environmentalists alike is a waste prevention monitor. It tracks the number of sheets prevented from printing and converts it to money saved (in ink and paper) and — most entertaining — the number of trees saved.

Users can track their individual savings and their company savings overall. Hamilton estimates that “a large organization could save 10-plus trees a day.”

Another function included in the software is a PDF writer similar to Adobe Acrobat. The function provides a one-click way for users to save documents off the Web, such as receipts or articles, as PDF files, which serve as an alternative to printing.

In addition to saving resources, there is the social impact of a program that reminds users of the environment every time they print.

Kim Silva, a foundation specialist at the Outdoor School of Multnomah County, which will be receiving several gift copies of GreenPrint, says, “Not only will the software save paper and printing costs, but it is also a product that fits strongly with the Outdoor School message. We can demonstrate to our students how to conserve.”

Environmental groups American Forests, Arbor Day and the local organization Friends of Trees also have endorsed GreenPrint. Scott Fogerty of Friends of Trees says his group supports the program because it promotes the idea that “green practices make good environmental and economic sense.”

GreenPrint has growth aspirations including a Mac version, a carbon credit program and a map on the GreenPrint Web site that Hamilton hopes will show “where savings are preventing deforestation and how that is reducing greenhouse gases.”

With a company of 10 based in Portland and a number of environmental supporters, Hamilton has another ambition:“We hope to save 1 million trees by the end of 2007.”

On the Web

• www.printgreener.com

• The home version will be $25 for an introductory month, then it will be $35. The enterprise version will be $70. The software only will be available for download via the Web site.
Vital stats

• Number of sheets of paper per year the average U.S. office worker uses: 10,000

• Number of sheets of paper the average tree produces: 8,300

• Percentage of the world’s paper the U.S., with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, consumes: 30

• Percentage of wood pulp that goes toward paper production: more than 40 pecent

Sources: CNN, www.reduce.org

Junk to Funk is a recycled fashion show that started the year I wrote about it and has since sold out entire show halls!

Appeared in the Portland Tribune Sustainable Life Section, Nov 2006.

Full text:

From trash to fashion
Sustainable Life: Artsy types take rubbish to runway, raise cash for environmental nonprofit

How much funk can be created from junk? At Portland’s first Junk to Funk: Recycled Fashion Show Contest, crafty locals will sashay down the runway in outfits made from curbside flotsam and Dumpster jetsam.

Junk to Funk, which calls itself “a night of trash, fashion, art and sustainability,” will feature 27 items of “wearable art,” including a kimono crafted from windsurfing sails, a mermaid tail woven from bicycle inner tubes, and a crayon suit complete with a Crayola-spiked mohawk.

Portland city Commissioner Sam Adams will emcee the event and will appear in recycled wares. Ticket sales will benefit Orlo, a local nonprofit that raises awareness about environmental issues through the creative arts.

Organizers Lindsey Newkirk and Elizabeth Fowler started the show as an experiment, with an open call for submissions of “fashion made out of found objects, recycled materials, and things you normally might find in the trash.”

In response they received nearly 40 entries, some from as far as New York City and Washington, D.C. Junk to Funk also gained sponsorship from local organizations and from the New Belgium Brewery and ReadyMade magazine, a favorite of the crafty crowd.

The majority of the ensembles were made by locals, most of whom are involved in the arts, but a few are full-time fashion designers. The challenge of using recycled materials appealed to sculptors, arts administrators, and others who saw opportunity in discarded objects.

A panel of local judges from the Metro Council, SCRAP, Orlo, Portland Sweatfree coalition and the Office of Sustainable Development also will be dressed in recycled clothing.

It’s slightly distorted because this is a scan of the copy printed on-site in Torino (each paper prints a local edition during special events). I also blew it out huge so you can actually read it, even at 1000pixels wide it was migraine inducing.

Here’s the cover, with a teammate: