What a whirlwind life and business can be. Here’s a quick snapshot of our last month or so…
Coachella was a great time, working with The Do LaB there…though the event still is far from the sustainable festival it could (and should) be. Lightning In A Bottle on the other hand, is the pinnacle of what green festivals are meant to be, and we were proud to have so many of our team members be so intimately involved with its production, again.
This year’s event highlights for me, were mostly the guest speakers that I booked to speak in the Temple of Consciousness/Healing dome space. Some of the highlights included talks from the Algalita Crew, a dot-com panel with some other great, green gurus Creative Citizen CEO Scott Badenoch, Jenn Breckenridge (web marketing consultant for the Greenloop, managing editor for eConsciousMarket.com, and more), Ben Clayton (Gliving, WattsUp America, etc.), and moderated by our very own Ryan Wartena.
Speaking of whom, Ryan recently joined one of the most exciting clean and green tech companies, iCel® Systems, Inc. as their Chief Technology Officer! Congratulations to him on his continued personal and professional path.
In regards to our company’s development, we’ve been exploring a number of different paths: from a deeper look into green data center development, services, etc. to getting our company LEED’s certified, to finding some new, key members to help actualize some of these options. We’re also looking into opening an east coast office, due to a continued request for our services on the greater eastern seaboard. Should you or someone you know be interested in joining either of coastal-based teams, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
As for our solar powered web hosting intentions, they’ve fallen much farther behind schedule then we’d hoped to be with this service offering and have now put any sort of public launch of this on hold, due to manpower restraints. And in that time, other companies have manifested similar services as we too had sought to make available.
Lastly, in area’s more personally related, my fiance and I recently found out we’re expecting…which has obviously triggered a whole new perspective on what it means to be living green and such. So much so that you’ll probably be seeing a whole new range of services here in the not so distant future. 
“A new study suggests that baby lotion, baby powder, and baby shampoo may be exposing babies to potentially harmful chemicals called phthalates.”
“Phthalates are used to make plastics flexible and stabilize fragrances, and are found in a plethora of consumer products including toys, personal care products and medical equipment.”
All the more reason to go green, organic and as sustainable as possible within your grocery and other supply shopping trips…some great alternatives you could use in place would be Jason’s, for instance. Otherwise, be sure to really do your homework online and if necessary, go so far as to contact the manufacturers directly before purchasing any products you’re uncertain of (or us if you’re not sure how to go about this).
We just wrapped a second day of green consulting for Mario Van Peebles and his family, along with the help of Ed Begley, Jr. From left-to-right: Shena, Elizabeth, Mario, Me, Ed, Brent, and Ryan:
We were hired by Hour One productions to come in and consult for Mario and his family for a green home makeover and today we got to get down with him, his family, Ed and his daughter and really have some fun with each other while showing them some quick and easy (along with a few major technical points concerning electric use and meter reading, which the kids just loved!), steps to go green as a family.
Brent, Elizabeth, Ryan, Shena, and I rolled out in her biodiesel Jeep Liberty from our base of operations at the Sugar Shack (an intentional urban community house going green too), arriving on site at 1pm sharp. Our team met the complete production team and Van Peebles family, then completed our assessment of the house, prior to shooting everyone’s first scenes.
The day went by very quickly as everyone had a lot of fun. Elizabeth and Shena shot some scenes with the boys, girls and Mario’s wife, while Brent and Ryan went through the electronics with the boys in their room, followed by a fun meter-reading session with them outside.
Then it was off to shoot our arrival scene with Ed, walking up the street with him and his daughter and our team. This was followed by our initial arrival into the house and meeting with Mario, then quickly dispersing off into our respective area’s of expertise throughout the house.
We shot some other various bits and pieces and were able to get nearly every one completed before the latest round of rough, west coast weather hit again.
And that was that: At a wee bit past 5pm, we packed up our gear, said our goodbyes and returned back to HQ for a homemade team dinner (along with our household’s weekly meeting). It was a great day of fun and learning for everyone involved and we look forward to the show airing on HDTV.
We’ll keep you posted on this as more details come our way, along with some promo clips, once the show launches.
Best of luck to Mario and family as they continue the greening of their beautiful home!
