Finally, after months of screening questions and some minor adjustments to our services description, Green Gurus has been approved by Co-op America.
We’re very thankful to join the ranks of approved businesses, non-profits and other entities enrolled in their ranks of Do Green Gooders 
and look forward to our first appearance in their National Green Pages, coming soon to the online version and in the Fall for their print version.
We’ve added their seal of approval throughout our site (and will be adding it here to our blog soon).
Again, we’d like to extend our thanks publicly to Co-op America for approving us and look forward to the changes this process has inspired us to take.
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.
Marlene Martinez from Public Affairs with Caltrans approached us this week about doing a table at their Earth Day event roughly two weeks from now.
So, we’ll be doing a table, hosted by Ryan Wartena, along with Freya Bardell of GreenMeme. Come on out and say hi if your in the neighborhood! Details on the event below…
–
California Department of Transportation
District 7 – Los Angeles & Ventura Counties
100 South Main Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist07
EARTH DAY EVENT
WHO: California Department of Transportation
WHAT: Earth Day - “A Day of Information”
WHAT: Come share information concerning one or multiple ways your company is environmentally improving your practices and/or emissions
WHEN: April 22, 2008, 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Caltrans Building Plaza at 100 South Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
BACKGROUND: The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is celebrating Earth Day by planting trees in our plaza and inviting other environmentally conscious businesses and departments to share information and ideas
COST: No charge to participants or the public
PHONE: 213-897-3656
First off a quick, Green Gurus team update on current events…
Last week while Shena was prepping for her time at the South By Southwest festival, Ryan continued working on one of his new solar flower designs, Elizabeth continued pouring over the latest Plan Check plans for one of our clients, Doug continued work on his thesis draft, Brent worked on the latest fabrication plans, Evonne carried on in Second Life, and I hit up Greg Wendt, Jeff Hayes, Sarah Shewey, Kipp Stroden, and Ferris Kawar’s Green Business Networking monthly night.
This was the first night that I had been able to make it out since hearing about it several months back. I ran into several great people I’ve been talking with recently and many more great faces, all from around the LA startup and sustainable business circles.
Several previous contacts included Michael Moss / Founder Green Nectarine, Jenn “1luv” Breckenridge, and Ben Clayton / Gliving, Watts Up America, etc. I also got to put some names to faces we’ve been hearing more about recently, like Scott Badenoch / Founder Creative Citizen and Melanie StJames / Executive Director of Empowerment Works. Other new faces included Olivia Kuhn-Lloyd / Cause + Capitalism Blog Author, Laura Beatty, Kacy Palmieri / Earth Day LA, Kristofer Youngstrom / Engineer at Digital Housing & Administration, and the Heart Beet Gardening gaia’s.
A few people were asking after more networking nights at this event and the LA Green Drinks was mentioned more than once, which we posted about last year here. Others range from Lunch 2.0 to Dealmaker, to LA’s Largest Mixer to Mashable’s return with “MashMeet LA 2.0“, and many, many others.
Some handy online resources include LA Times “Emerald City” blog, Siel’s “green LA girl“, the Green Group, etc….you just have to keep at it, digging around online, joining various social networking groups, meeting up at the local business mixers in person, and all the rest. Whatever the case may be, we’d love to meet up with you in person at the next LA Green Drinks or other event of your choosing…
Feel free to contact us here if you need help figuring out what to hit up next, carpooling arrangements or any other details.
We look forward to meeting up with you sometime soon!
Shena, our Chief Green Officer, is scheduled to speak at the upcoming South By Southwest festival.
She’ll be speaking on the “It’s Not Easy Being Green” panel:
Room 12AB
Saturday, March 15th
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Here’s the panel description:
“Music business initiatives in the environmental field are gaining traction, most notably in the touring and recording fields. Great numbers of initiatives and solutions are offered, more than any one company can process. How does one choose which efforts to undertake?”
She’ll be joining Kelly Cox (Integrated Mktg, NRDC) and Neal Turley (Ringmaster, Who Is Guy Grand), who’ll be moderating the panel.
If you’re in the area or are already planning to go, be sure to check it out and say hi if you can.
Wish her luck!
I stopped by yesterday for a few hours at the now annual Eco Gift Expo in Santa Monica, CA.
And to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it: the intimacy that such a small venue lends itself to, the easy and local commute (carpooled with my significant other), the laid-back atmosophere and other factors contributed to an enjoyable afternoon. I felt the Eco Gift Expo was more in line with its advertised values too, whereas the Green Festival seems to have become or simply is, trying to sell itself as something more than it really is, in my opinion (see my previous mention about this regarding the SF Green Fest).
I think the future of sustainable products is better suited for this more modest-sized event for both the consumers benefit and the environments, since smaller venues means fewer people and cars, less emissions, etc.
If local grown foods and locally made products are some of the key components in changing our current energy habits and subsequent emissions, then shouldn’t events not adopt a similar principle too? I think so and can envision a time of interconnected, regional events throughout the country (if not world).
Anyway, to sum up my thoughts on this particular event…there was a modest but busy and interested crowd both shopping (it was afterall a gift-themed event ) and researching green tips, trends and such. There was a fairly decent mix of interests represented including books, music, photography, lots of clothing, fabric (including some really nice bamboo towels), jewelry, food, tea’s and other drinks, some great innovative ideas making use of recycled bike and tire tubes (as well as billboard materials) by Green Guru Gear, and much more; trash, recycling and compostable items all appeared to be well managed.
I’m sure this event will continue to grow in size but I hope for the sake of my argument above, that they find some way to moderate their growth. Perhaps a spin-off from this event focusing on another aspect of the green wave or maybe even repeating this one several more times a year?
Shena and I recently attended Co-op America’s annual Green Festiva, in San Francisco.
We drove up with The Do LaB twins (Josh and Jesse) in a Honda Civic Hybrid from LAX to downtown SF on one tank (…nice!) and then met up with some old friends for a long night of wide-ranging talks.
The next day we hit the Green Fest at about 12-pm, where we met up with an even older friend Brent Hurley, a fellow Twin Valley graduate of mine. I also ran into an old friend from LA, Onyay, who had performed the day before with the Shakti Tribe, which I was sorry to have missed. Most of the day was then spent nearly fighting through the ample crowd for numerous free samples of holistic goodness in all shapes, sizes and colors; examined nearly each and every vendor for the latest, innovative Green…stuff.
And boy was there stuff, so much productization in fact, that we were literally stumbling over it all to get from booth to booth. Not only had the event not evolved from last year’s nicely balanced collection of (yes) products (they’re still a hook-line-and-sink for many), new technologies, services, and speakers to this year’s onslaught of nearly pure products. It was really quite disappoint, at least to me.
From an event that claims to be the world’s leading expo in sustainability, I really expected some measure of progression, anything to keep things fresh and innovative, not inundated with the same ol’ recipe for products waste known the world over.
That all being said, it’s still a great time for those curious about all the fuss and in need of alternative resources.
Just like Burning Man, the Green Festival has seemingly reached a pinnacle or threshold for that genuine raw creative inspiration I admire in innovative, truly ground-breaking events such as The Do LaB’s own Lightning In A Bottle, an alternative event growing in mass appeal that combines both the latter two events prized distinctions: radical self-expression and sustainability, respectively.
Anyway, the event was worth attending at least to see first-hand, just how much the Green wave has spread in the last year alone. In terms of sheer publicity for this movement, Co-op America is doing a fine job at getting the word out.
This Saturday the Eric Loyd Wright Ranch will be hosting a potluck celebration for the Fall Equinox. Shena and I will both be in attendance, so for those of you local to the greater Los Angeles area, this will be a great opportunity to meet up.
All are welcome to attend and join in acknowledging the change of season and greeting the coming autumn on the sacred Wright land where strong meridians, beautiful caves, Hopi land, and a medicine wheel are just some of the attractions, in addition to it having one of the best views in Southern California.
Participants will gather on the hill before sunset to mark the beginning of the Fall season. The organizers ask that anyone interested in attending to please bring plenty of organic food to share for the potluck feast.
The address is:
Wright Way Organic Resource Center
24680 Piuma Rd
Malibu, CA
