GreenSmith Consulting

What Does it Mean to Truly be a Green Bank?

When I say green bank, what comes to mind? For most banks, that largely means customers being offered paperless statements, perhaps some recycled paper use, and they call it a day. Capital Pacific Bank, a recent BEST  award winner for its sustainability practices, clearly understands that this can go much deeper, having a positive impact on not only the environment, but the employees of the bank and the community it serves. 

What does this look like, specifically? 

Green Roofs on Chicken Coops to Highrises: Jason King of TERRA.fluxus (GreenSmith Sessions #7)

The first six GreenSmith Sessions have spanned the globe, from a CSR thought leader in London to the man giving green blogging a southern accent in Nashville, Tennessee. Today's GreenSmith Session went local. Very local, to the desk next door to me at lively coworking space Tenpod, here in Portland, Oregon. 

With 3 acres of green roofs under his belt, Jason King of TERRA.fluxus has plied his trade from California to Washington, in a wide range of enviroments. Listen in as we discuss everything from the more common than you'd think practice of using chicken coops for testing grounds for avante garde green architecture, to the fact that NYC gets more rain than supposedly rainy Portland, Oregon. Keep an ear out for some interesting perspectives on sustainability, what it means, could mean, and how we could do better.

Hopefully this conversation will, um, plant some seeds in your mind of what you could do in your community, or on your business

I noticed on his blog that he had some DIY resources for green roofing, so I asked for you if he had sites to recommend for you to explore. He had three! 

TERRA.fluxus

Landscape & Urbanism

Vegitecture

 

Click here to play/save GreenSmith Sessions #7 Jason King

If you have any questions for him, or examples of landscape architecture (or vegitecture as he likes to call it) we would all benefit from knowing about, please feel free to share below. I'll make sure he knows about your questions, seeing as I can lean over and tell him!

Enjoy.

PS You can now subscribe to the GreenSmith Sessions podcast series in iTunes, and download specific episodes here.

Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, blogs weekly on green start ups of note at Triple Pundit and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. He creates interest in, conversations about, and business for green (and greening) companies, via social media marketing.

Maker Faire Africa and Beyond: GreenSmith Sessions #3 with Mark Grimes

In the third edition of GreenSmith Sessions, I talked with Mark Grimes, a Co-Founder of buzzing coworking hubs NedSpace, and one of the driving forces behind Maker Faire Africa. 

 A man of many hats, mostly of a social entrepreneurial bent, he and a small crew of people from around the globe took a leap of faith last year with the first African edition of this gathering of the inventive, the resourceful, and the appealingly crazy. It worked, and they went back again this past August.

Our conversation ranged from open source stop signs to fulfilling on the eight Millennium Goals , and an interesting puzzle for you: how to reshape social media to fit African entrepreneurs, within the current technological constraints they face?

An idea that particularly stuck out to me is when Grimes explained how small local African companies can compete with the often quite a bit larger Indian companies based there: Let the consumer decide how much they can afford, and build an object, i.e. a bed, within that budget. Makes you wonder, perhaps this idea can be applied in developed markets as well. It’s in a way the reverse of the high end notion of made to fit, this time made to fit your budget.

Please enjoy, comment, and add to what you hear in GreenSmith Sessions, below.

 

images via Maker Faire Africa

 

Click me to play/download GreenSmith Sessions #3 Mark Grimes

Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, blogs weekly on green start ups of note at Triple Pundit and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. He creates interest in, conversations about, and business for green (and greening) companies, via social media marketing.

What the Bamboo Revolution Looks Like (a photo essay)

Last week I published a profile at Triple Pundit on the Portland based, boundary expanding, successful despite the given wisdom/state of the economy company called Bamboo Revolution. Growing 40% in an industry that's shrunk 50%, they clearly are on to something. I took a lot of photos in their space, which serves as a demonstration of bamboo's versatility, and a sketch pad of sorts for new ideas they're working on. A few made it to the Triple Pundit piece, but all had an interesting story. So rather than keep them to myself, here's what I saw: 

 

Before Bamboo Revolution transformed it, this was the bunker, er, office of a paint supply store I believe. They set about making use of as much of what was on site. But some things, well, a line had to be drawn!

 

The office as it looks currently, with bamboo used for nearly 100% of the wall you see here.

 

Serving as both an additional stream of income and a demonstration of Bamboo Revolution designer's capabilities is Coava Coffee Roasters. In a city known for its coffee, Coava has quickly developed a reputation for its single source caffeinated alchemy. 

 

I asked what those giant cheese grater/car muffler looking things were on the ends of this table. Bamboo steamers apparently, used to soften bamboo for shaping. Now standing in as cafe decor.

 
 This burly table is made of what's called "strand woven" bamboo, which according to Bamboo Revolution is twice as hard as red oak. How? A giant machine presses so hard (1800 metric tons of pressure!) that it must do it upwards rather than down, or would cause structural damage without substantial floor reinforcement. 

An enormous door leads from the showroom to the manufacturing space. Graceful now, putting it up was quite a dance, as you see here.

 
Showing how bamboo can be used as is, in a beautiful way.

Sometimes (pre 4)  iPhone's lackluster low light capabilities can lead to artful photos like this one, a piece of bamboo manufacturing equipment doing double duty as a cafe table.

Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, blogs weekly on green start ups of note at Triple Pundit and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. He creates interest in, conversations about, and business for green (and greening) companies, via social media marketing.

10 Ways Geolocation is Changing the World

This post was written by Rob Reed. He is the founder of MomentFeed, a location-based marketing, strategy, and technology firm.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network.

Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn't been the technology itself but how we've used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade.

Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We've decentralized media production and distribution. We're doing the same for energy. And we'll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce.

The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us---namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:

Is Portland, Oregon Really the Green Mecca Its Reputed to Be?

I’ve been quiet on this blog for some time. With good reason. Its called moving 12 hours from tiny but mighty Nevada City, California to the Mecca of green that is Portland, Oregon. A huge move made for many reasons and one that, a month in, I’m glad I made.

As you’ve likely heard, Portland is lauded for it’s sustainability, often being cited as the greenest city in America. Does it deserve it? Mostly.

Just look at the Redirect Guide, a source for local green companies, products and services. It’s more than 200 pages long. Go out to eat, and you’ll find that even the fish and chips restaurant makes a point to tout it’s healthier, more sustainable fare. Farmers markets dot the city, more then one happening every day of the week, the biggest drawing 10,000 visitors weekly.

Bicyclists are everywhere, with well marked lanes, respectful motorists (I've even had a trash truck wave me through!) bike only roads, and bike designated streets adjacent to the busier car trafficked ones. Sunday Parkway events sees miles of road closed to automotive traffic, becoming a mass of cyclists, skaters, and walkers.

Well integrated mass transit covers the majority of the city, well, and with the aid of such things as the free PDX Bus iPhone app, is easily used even if you’ve never ridden before, as I can attest. And I’m not alone, as it was recently revealed the bus system’s servers get nearly 100,000 hits a day, just from this app!

Why is Portland the way that it is? A vocal citizenry and a supportive government helps. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen our Mayor Sam Adams directly answering people’s questions and requests on Twitter and Facebook. It’s clear he’s committed to making Portland an increasingly sustainable city, both on an individual and regional level.

Some less obvious factors contribute to Portland’s famous livability: Metro is a prime example. I’m still getting my head around it, but from what I understand it’s a regional government, distinct from the conventional government structure in place. They help make recycling easier, for people to live more sustainably, and know what’s fun to do They even manage to make outdoor activities sexy, with The Intertwine.

And yet, Portland misses the mark in some key ways.

Time to Stop Talking About Going Local, and Doing It (pt 3 of 3) Eating and Getting Around

You hear so much about the value of "going local," but perhaps not so much on how to go about doing it effectively. Thanks much to Wayne Maceyka for sharing copious resources to do so, first covering the value of and need for localizing economies, then who's doing it, and now for two of the essentials in our modern life: local food and transportation.

One of the basics of life is nourishment and along with that, moving the foods that provide said nourishment around.  Additionally, we move ourselves and other goods around all over the world as part of the economy.  We currently rely upon inexpensive fossil fuels to keep a national and international supply chain running to do all these things.

Industrial food production is garnering a fair amount of attention for the GHG emissions associated with its production (including transportation) as well as the growing awareness of the health consequences of ingesting it.  We derive industrial fertilizers from petroleum, and the machines that sow seeds, harvest plants, and spread the fertilizer depend upon fossil fuels to operate. 

From a popular culture perspective, Michael Pollan's book Omnivore's Dilemma (here's his recent TED talk),  Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution which premiered March 26 (to name a few) have helped raise the public's awareness about where our food comes from and what that means to our collective health.

An inherent danger in relying upon a far-flung and energy dependent food infrastructure is the price of oil.  It skyrocketed to somewhere north of $140.00/gallon in mid-2008, and what did that do to global food prices and basic access?  For those of limited means; they struggle mightily.  A recent post on a food security e-mail list had an interesting comment about the ongoing need for local & regional food infrastructure.  I highlighted the potential for regional & local food,

"[Senate Bill] S 510 (and even more so, HR 2749) will make it almost impossible to get local, healthy food to local people by dramatically increasing the cost of preparing local, healthy food for sale and distribution.  We need new cooperative packing houses, new processors, new distributors and new retailers or our food will only be available to the affluent at a premium price.  Not only the poor (both working and unemployed) but also the lower middle class will be almost entirely dependent upon industrial agriculture"

Personal Scale Manufacturing is Here: Why it Matters and What it Means to You

I've been watching the evolving trend of personal scale manufacturing with interest for some time, and we're about to see that mythical "tipping point." I want you to know about it, and how it may effect your business and our environment.

 It's happening. Much like the computer went from a monolithic room filling device used only by the military and government, to one that can fit in the palm of your hand, allowing you to do something about your surroundings via a geolocation enabled app, manufacturing is fast becoming something you and I can d o, literally. And it has the potential to likewise shift the balance of power and control of what and where things get made, and what products do and do not see the light of day.

How?

It used to be that if you wanted to manufacture something, whether it's an entire product or its components, you had to do so at a large scale. After all, for a third party manufacturer or yourself, it was quite expensive to set up the production line to make each part. Changing aspects frequently required time and retooling. Not something for a small scale production, unless you're talking a prohibitively expensive one of a kind.

Then along came 3D printers.

These devices use a laser to shape a piece of raw material, frequently plastic, into an object, layer by layer. At first largely the province of adventurous tech geeks, last year saw the emergence of Ponoko, a company that has succeeded in creating an ecosystem of people with ideas, tools, and desire to buy what's being created.

Basically, with Ponoko if you have an idea for a product, you can find someone to make it for you. One. Or many. You pay a per minute rate for use of the printer that makes it. If you have a printer, you get business funneled to you via Ponoko. If you are a designer, you have the ability to have your product made, at a reasonable cost, no matter the quantity purchased.

This was a definite step forward, and yet you still had the barrier of cost, someone else being in control of the manufacturing.

Enter Makerbot Industries.

It has recently introduced what is the beginning of truly democratized manfuacturing: The Makerbot. It is a $750 open source 3D printer that can create small objects via ABS plastic. And it can make its own replacement parts! While we're not talking automotive manufacturing here, it is a solid beginning to what I predict will swiftly become an increasingly wide spread, widely useful practice.

 

What does this mean, in terms of sustainability?

Unless you live next door to the factory of what you purchase, and all components are made in one location, your purchase of a product likely logged a lot of miles getting to you. With something made via a Makerbot, you could either create your own design, or download a design from someone else, and make it right where you are. Then, rather than having to buy a new one if a part wears or breaks, you create the replacements yourself. 

You've now skipped the shipping and reduced disposal waste. While this is happening on a small scale now, imagine the impact if repeated millions, billions of times.

The one sticking point at this stage is that objects made in Makerbots are made with plastic, which being  petroleum based material, has the accompanying ecological footprint and in time, may prove expensive as petroleum becomes a scarcer resource. Can bioplastics be used? Can those be supplied at a reasonable cost? What about aluminum, or a temporary liquid, even some other as yet to be created upcyclable substance be used? Let's hope so. Ponoko currently works with everything from felt to bamboo.

But for now, the Makerbot marks a point in time, where the shift began.

Readers: What's your take on the sustainability of micro scale manufacturing? How else can we cut out links of the supply chain? Right now the offerings are primarily machine parts and decorative objects. What would you design and offer?
 

Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, blogs weekly on green start ups of note at Triple Pundit and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. He creates interest in, conversations about, and business for green (and greening) companies, via social media marketing.

The 3 Best Ways to Drastically Reduce your iPhone (Or Any Phone) Bill

Late last year I got my first iPhone (I know I know! Three words : 2 year contract.) With the increase in monthly bill, I was inspired to seek ways to reduce it. And I found them. Many. I thought you'd like to know too.

These days, it seems there's nearly as many ways to save money using your phone as there are types of phones. But they all seem to have a weak spot: Requiring you to do numerical gymnastics, or making your caller i.d. on the other end look like something to avoid.

While those may have monetary benefits, they can reduce your productivity, and make you look less professional. So I was pleased to have made series of discoveries in the past week that put it all together, with minimum effort, maximum results.

Follow these steps and you'll be well on to your way to smarter, cheaper, more connected communications.

Time to Stop Talking About Going Local, and Doing It. Here's Who Is. (pt 2 of 3)

We’re living in interesting times, and it’s anybody’s guess what the economy, the environment, our society will look, even in the next year. The COP15 UN climate change gathering currently happening in Copenhagen isn’t panning out as many would have wanted, and solutions to unifying the world’s goals look further off.

Wayne Maceyka has a single, clear, suggestion: Go local, in all aspects, (re)building robust, agile, stable societies and economies in the process. In part 2 of his 3 part series, he focuses on the organizations currently happening to help support that.

I mentioned Michael Shuman's book Going Local in the first post of this series, and for those interested in exploring ways to localize their economies, it’s a good resource.  Civic Economics, with staff in both Austin, TX and Chicago, IL is another organization providing innovative consulting services for local economic development efforts.

 

On Michael Shuman’s Small-mart website, there are additional resources available to local economy advocates and defenders.  In the Small-mart blog, he announced the combination of Small-mart and The Business Alliance for local Living Economies "BALLE”.  BALLE formed out of a fortuitous meeting between Laury Hammel and Judy Wicks, both board members of the Social Venture Network and has been focusing on helping build resilient local economies since 2001.

 

The organization has grown to include 75 community networks with over 20,000 entrepreneurs & members across the US & Canada.  Look for “Sustainable Business Networks” in your area to connect with interesting and creative people working in the local economic development space.

Developing local currencies are a way to keep capital in communities and build stronger connections between people and businesses. Famous examples are Ithaca HOURs, from Ithaca, NY and BerkShares from Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts (forgive my Northeast focus; I am sure there are more successful examples out there, and I’d love to hear about them, below in the comments).  The IthacaHOURs site offers resources for communities interested in developing local currencies of their own.  It’s worth checking out.

Of recent interest in the conversation about alternative economic models is the rise of the "slowmoney" investment philosophy through the Slow Money Alliance; “patient capital" seeking to provide investors financial payback as well as social and environmental capital appreciation through agricultural investment.  They seek to bring money back down to earth. The effort is something of an off-shoot (or maybe a continuation) of the thinking around Slowfood, seeking to reconnect eaters with their food sources. The key questions asked by the Slow Money Alliance, and ones that I feel generate some interesting ideas are:

• What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?
• What if there was a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits?
• What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?

 

The first Slow Money Conference occurred in Sante Fe, NM and received quite a bit of press, with articles in the LA Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, and Business Week. Is there a market for "patient capital"?

Time to Stop Talking About Going Local, and Doing It. Here's How. (pt 1 of 3)

With gold reaching all time highs in value, and other indicators that our global economy is in serious trouble (or seen more positively, ripe for a reset) money as we know it, and commerce as we know it may well vanish, or drastically change in the not too distant future. So perhaps, now more then ever, it’s time to look at how to build and maintain robust local economies.  

This week’s guest writer Wayne Maceyka takes an interesting, inspiring look at how that can happen. Part 1 of a 2 part series, we encourage your thoughts, ideas, and questions in the comments below.

  Considering the seismic activity that's been rumbling through the global economy over the past few years (it's not over, unemployment here in the United States is over 10%, the highest since 1983 and there are fears that commercial property loans, additional residential mortgages, and energy prices will squash a full-fledged recovery - in the traditional sense of the word), perhaps looking at our economy through a different lens would be interesting.

 For me, that lens has been building local and regional economies as a way to buffer regions from the winds of globalization and perhaps address some of our environmental challenges as well.

Why import items that meet basic human needs (food for instance) when much of it can be supplied from nearby? Of course, “nearby”, “local”, and “regional” are relative terms, the definitions of which are up for debate, but lets leave that discussion for another day Why is “going local” a good idea? It reduces our dependence on long distribution chains that are vulnerable to energy price fluctuations, reduces environmental impact, and perhaps most importantly helps keep financial capital circulating within the region.

 This recirculation of financial capital supports regional businesses and the jobs and value they create, further increasing the region’s resilience in the face of large-scale economic challenges.  Will every city, county or state be self-sufficient in the next 20 years? Probably not, though depending upon your beliefs around peak oil (see Jeff Rubin below) perhaps they’ll have to be.  The point is not to seek protectionist self-sufficiency, but cooperative interdependence on a scale consistent with human needs and natural resources.