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Veriflora Certified Sustainably Grown Plants and Flowers at the Opportunity Green Conference

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Fenja Blobel
Published on Nov 21 2011 in blog
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flowersVeriflora®, one of this year's Opportunity Green Conference sponsors, is a leading sustainable agricultural certification and eco-labeling program recognized as the gold-standard in the floriculture and horticulture industries. Most of the flowers around the conference as well as the long stem roses that were given out during Thursday evening's party were Veriflora certified.

Veriflora® certified growers who participated include California Pajarosa, www.pajarosa.com; Resendiz Bros., www.resendizbrothers.com; Green Valley Floral, www.greenvalleyfloral.com; and F & B  Farms and Nursery, www.fandbfarms.com.

 

Veriflora certifies cut flowers, potted plants, improved input devices, and peat moss products through its ‘Responsibly Managed’ peatlands annex.  The multiple attributes of sustainability addressed by the Veriflora certification (for more information click here) include:

1. Environmental Sustainability 

Sustainable Crop Production

Resource Conservation and Energy Efficiency

Ecosystem Protection

Integrated Waste Management       

 

2. Social & Economic Sustainability

Fair Labor Practices

Community Benefits

 

3. Product Integrity

 Product Quality

Product Safety

 

If you want to know where to buy Veriflora certified fresh cut flowers or potted plants, go to the Preferred Retailer Program page on the Veriflora website.

Call for Applications: Acterra’s 2012 Business Environmental Awards

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Fenja Blobel
Published on Nov 19 2011 in blog
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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. 

Accelerate At The Opportunity Green Conference This Week

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Fenja Blobel
Published on Nov 07 2011 in blog
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This week on November 10th and 11th, I will be representing EcoTuesday by attending the Opportunity Green Conference in Los Angeles. This is a wonderful conference that happens yearly with visionaries attending from the green economy. Go to the Opportunity Green website for more information.


This year’s theme of Accelerate fits perfectly with the current momentum of the green economy. We must continue this acceleration in order to have the amount of positive change we need in this world.


Personally, I am especially energized to listen to Conde Nast 2011 Designer of the Year, Yves Behar speak about Redefining Design. Founder and Chief Designer of fuseprojects, Behar has lead many inspiring projects including One Labtop per Child, underwear designed with compostable packaging, “See Better to Learn Better” and many more. Redefining the way we design products incorporating sustainability in every step of the way is the design of today.

A Green MBA Success Story: The Penny Ice Creamery

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Nikki Pava
Published on Oct 08 2011 in blog
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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!

 


 

 

Community & Stakeholder Engagement: Your Key to Success

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Nikki Pava
Published on Sep 14 2011 in blog
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Your customers, investors, employees, investors, community, suppliers, and family.

This is just a short list of the many types of stakeholders that support your company. All stakeholders are important for the progress and prosperity of a business.

 

Strategic employee engagement is the most effective way to foster successful economic, environmental and social initiatives in a company. Employees are learning more about best practices around sustainability, which in turn helps to save the company money. Companies can support these new ideas to spur innovation that will have a ripple effect with the other stakeholders. When a company focuses attention on the employee stakeholder group, it thrives. 


On Wednesday, September 21, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion entitled, "Community and Stakeholder Engagement: A Sustainable Approach" and will be joined by representatives from B Corporation, The Green Chamber of Commerce, and the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence. We will discuss communities, renewable energy, stakeholder groups, and more. 


The event takes place at the Hotel Palomar from 6:30-8:30. The cost is $30 and food/drink is provided. The first ten people to sign up for the roundtable will gain free entry to EcoTuesday in SF, so register today!


During the roundtable, I will focus on the following: 


Employee Engagement Through Building A Green Team: Your Key To Sustainability

  • Your employees as important stakeholders
  • Tips you can use to get employees enrolled in your company's sustainability intitiatives
  • How strategic initiatives increases motivation and productivity

Please join us this month in cities across the country to meet new business contacts and friends. Our event this month will take place on Tuesday, September 27. We encourage you to register beforehand so that we know you'll be joining us. In San Francisco ten people will have the opportunity to quickly share their "elevator pitch" about their company in supportive environment! We hope to see you at an EcoTuesday this month.


By the way, our November event will be held a week earlier, on November 15. We will not be hosting a December event.

mrtnmambi

Primary EcoTuesday City: 
Portland

lisalin

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shy shy girl

Primary EcoTuesday City: 
Dallas

iamvic

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tesco clothing

tesco clubcard

tesco clubcard deals

Primary EcoTuesday City: 
San Francisco

Turner Reyes

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Some say that luck is my middle name because I always win free online bingo games. I think that It's a matter of skill and timing.

Primary EcoTuesday City: 
San Francisco
Other City (if not listed above): 
washiington

Designing Healthy Business

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Jenny Martinez
Published on Jan 24 2011 in blog
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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).

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