November's speaker in Silicon Valley was Adriane Erickson from Acterra. If you missed the networking event last week, you still have a chance to apply for Acterra’s Environmental Awards, see below for more details.

Applications for Acterra’s 2012 Business Environmental Awards are now available - click here.  

This year’s categories are: Environmental Project, Environmental Innovation, Sustainable Built Environment, and the Acterra Award for Sustainability. 

Any business, municipality or organization located in the following counties is eligible to apply: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz County. Non-profits may also apply if environmental work is not their central mission. 

The deadline to apply is Friday, December 9, 2011. For more information, please contact awards@acterra.org. 

The Penny Ice Creamery, located in downtown Santa Cruz, is one of the many businesses that have made a huge impact on a local economy and launched by a Green MBA graduate. 

The owners and creative visionaries, Kendra L. Baker and Zachary E. Davis, use sustainably grown local ingredients, such as wild fruits, vegetable, herbs, and even flowers to bring ice cream lovers new flavors with each season. A recent Yelp reviewer states, "Some of the best ice cream in Santa Cruz. The flavors here are very strange, so be open! You can still get a lot of the classics, too." There are reports that there are often lines out the door on nice, sunny days. 

Davis is an alum of the Green MBA and the business plan for The Penny Ice Creamery was his Capstone project before completing the program in 2009. He and Baker secured a loan through the Small Business Administration, funded by federal stimulus funds. Davis had a very unique idea: to thank Obama for the loan with a "THANK YOU" video (it's fun to watch!) instead of a card (his mom must have been proud!). In it, Baker and Davis shared how the loan made it possible to contribute to the local economy through creating jobs and buying goods from other local businesses (when they opened their shop, they hired 11 employees and worked with 20 local businesses). The video got the attention of those at The Huffington Post and the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and was soon after "retweeted" by The White House. 

In what came as a complete surprise, in November 2009, Vice President Joe Biden called Davis to thank him for creating the video and recognizing the Administration for the stimulus package. What was even more thrilling was a call the following January, when the pair was invited to sit in Michelle Obama's chamber during the State of the Union address to the nation.

The journey to Washington DC seems like an incredibly fantastic event to take place during the infancy of a local business! The Penny Ice Creamery is a clear example of the types of companies that are born during (and after) a student's time at the Green MBA. While a trip to Washington DC wasn't a part of Davis' Capstone plan, the entire Green MBA curriculum is designed to support business professionals reach their goals.

Please join us on Tuesday, October 25 in San Francisco for a great speaker and the opportunity to talk directly with Green MBA grads! Register soon and see you there!

One of the best things about organizing SF EcoTuesday is the opportunity to meet and showcase sustainable business leaders partnering with designers to create thoughtful experiences. My hope is to draw more people from the design community to SF EcoTuesday as a place to connect business ideas with design strategy and solutions. This is a chance for designers to directly network with entrepreneurs and be more involved in work that effects change for the common good. As a designer my personal goal is to be more focused on working for and partnering with organizations who’s goals are to build a more sustainable world.

A great example of this is our upcoming speaker, Dr. Larry Weiss from San Francisco company CleanWell. Dr. Weiss and business parter Sam DeAth teamed up with IDEO to create CleanWell, a line of healthy hand cleaners to promote healthy habits. Weiss and DeAth had a compelling mission inspired by a personal story and an all-natural product based in science. Using design thinking to build a business, IDEO brought their expertise to craft CleanWell into a meaningful experience and brand. The combination of CleanWell and IDEO has succeeded in connecting people to a brand that goes beyond a product by resonating with our daily choices in a tangible and thoughtful way. Good hand washing habits with a healthy, enjoyable cleaner negate the need for us to expose ourselves and the environment to toxic chemicals.

Their collaboration resulted in a line of non-toxic, alchohol-free alternative to hand sanitizers and cleaners, produced cruelty-free and made from sustainably grown ingredients. The packaging is considerate in it’s sharp and simple visual design, including low-tac adhesive for easy removal for minimal branding in the home. IDEO designed the packaging and graphics for CleanWell’s line of spray and toweletts, as well as helped build operational and manufacturing capabilities. IDEO’s expertise comes from an interdisciplinary team including industrial designers, engineers, business specialists, and communications and graphic designers who create “multifaceted experiences that connect people to brands in harmonious, meaningful, and emotional ways.” Four years later, CleanWell can be found in Whole Foods, Rainbow Grocery, Walgreens, Target and many other retail locations. Both Seventh Generation and Method sell products powered by CleanWell technology. Through these partnerships the CleanWell logo itself has become a mark of excellence, representing the highest standard in all-natural cleaning quality. You can read more about the IDEO CleanWell case study here.

We hope you can join us this Tuesday, January 25, at The San Francisco W Hotel at 6:30 pm. $5 with online registration ($10 at the door).

While this festival is partly a showcase and marketplace for just about any green product you can think of -- from jewelry, clothing, and towels to food and drinks to the latest electric cars -- and may therefore seem less serious than the more businesslike green conferences in the Bay Area, it serves an important function in getting so many people involved and engaged. There's a lot to be said for making green more mainstream. And in between shopping, you can also choose among talks on a wide range of subjects. The ones I attended exemplified the energy and message of the festival, and the theme of personal and global engagement.

There's an urgency to environmentalism today that can't be denied. As Bill McKibben of 350.org reminded his audience, climate change is happening faster than we'd thought -- and while we have the technology to solve many of our problems, the political will isn't as easy to come by. John Perkins, author of Hoodwinked, pointed out that this is the first time in history that the whole world is confronting the same crisis. But it's also the first time that we're all communicating with one another, in a way that wasn't possible even a few years ago. As an illustration of this, 350.org has more than once virtually gathered people from all around the world -- their Global Day of Action was called "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history," and this year their Global Work Party drew people to 7,347 events in 188 countries.

We all have tremendous power to make changes. If you don't believe that, just look at the many examples of people who have helped change the world. Rallies organized by 350.org's predecessor in 2007 helped convince political leaders to set a goal of cutting carbon 80% by 2050. In Florida, as Perkins recounted, the head of an environmental agency had the courage to take a stand against a coal-powered plant, and the people stood behind her. The coal company got the message and is now the largest wind and solar company in the U.S. While they used to spend millions against CO2 taxes, now they fight for them -- because the people spoke.

So what can you do? It depends what your passion is; it's up to all of us to get involved in any way we can and do whatever makes the most sense for us. Connect with others who are trying to do the same things; volunteer to install solar panels; join organizations that force corporations and governments to change. It took just a few people to convince the administration to put solar panels back on the White House; imagine what we can do with many more of us. If we all engage in activities like this and make our voices heard, change will happen. And events like the Green Festival, which bring so many green-minded people together, can help facilitate that and inspire us all to keep pursuing our goals.

What to do when your scheduled speaker falls ill and can't join us? Turn the 'virtual mic' on ourselves!

We hope Jurriann feels better soon and we do look forward to rescheduling him for an upcoming talk because we love what Ode Magazine is doing. This spontaneous turn of events actually gave us an opportunity to hear more from each other. And what do you know...we have an amazing community so varied and full of creativity. I was struck with the potential we had in the room that night - we are making it possible to green our homes and businesses through renewable energy, zero waste, supporting the local community, serving sustainable food, having a healthy sense of ourselves, healthy indoor and outdoor environments, and are able to create and sell our own sustainable products. Pretty fantastic! Let's help spread the word about these folks. Here is a recap of most everyone we heard from:

Albert Hartman / High Tide
High Tide's products provide on-demand reliable power required for remote geographies, emergency situations, and mass adoption of mobile electronic devices. Check out their bicycle mounted USB charger, RollerGen.

Michael "Merc" Martinelli / Verdafero
Verdafero helps organizations understand, develop, and execute successful sustainability initiatives by  offering consulting and software as a service (SaaS) tools for sustainable business development. Their focus is small and medium enterprises (SME) who want to effectively manage their “Triple Bottom Line” - People / Planet / Profit.

Ingrid Ramsay / Closets Van Go
Closets Van Go and Kitchens Van Go is dedicated to helping you make your home a masterpiece — artistically, affordably and sustainably. They have a mobile showroom and a large variety of green woods and finishes.

Susan Wright / Connect the Dots
Connect the Dots consults exclusively for the nonprofit community to reduce their environmental footprint as they continue to focus on their social missions.

Nicola "Nikki" Ferenz / Gamechanger
GameChanger helps both big and small companies build powerful, breakthrough brands with fast, flexible new approaches to growth and innovation.

Bodhi Vela Cole / Style Consultant
Bodhi believes that everyone’s unique beauty should be celebrated and embraced. Image coaching is a process where your internal world is transcribed into a wardrobe that has you feel your best.

Chris Sofis / Sofistry
Sofisty's primary service offering is centered on Modern Cabana, an eco-fabulous spare room (think art studio, guest room, kids' play room, yoga/exercise studio, massage studio, or brand new office space . . . you get the idea) which will fit in the smallest of San Francisco gardens.

David Nuss / Runka
Runka was born from a concern that all of us share in preserving the planet. The site provides options for purchasing both practical and exotic products that promote recycling and the use of sustainable materials.

Linda Delair / EarthSource
EarthSource's mission is to proliferate the use of FSC-certified, sustainable and environmentally healthy wood products by educating architects, designers, woodworkers and contractors about the cost-efficiency and long-term benefits of specifying such materials for their building plans.

David Callicott / GoodLight
All GoodLight Natural Candles are paraffin-free, non-toxic, clean burning, 100% palm wax that contains no additives or blends, and use cotton wicks containing no lead or zinc or other metals. GoodLight works with the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and GreenPalm organizations pioneering sustainability in palm farming.

Matt Carreira / I Love Blue Sea
I Love Blue Sea sells the largest selection of only sustainable seafood that is sushi-quality fresh at the best prices. The fish is filleted right before it ships to you. The next day it's delivered to your doorstep in all eco-friendly packaging.

Evan Wynns / The San Francisco Energy Cooperative
The San Francisco Energy Cooperative is a consumer owned cooperative corporation dedicated to providing ownership of renewable energy production to anyone who is interested in investing in our energy future and wishes to have a hand in its growth.