Archive for the ‘San Francisco’ Category
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Plastiki arrival in Sydney
It seemed like just a short while ago that David De Rothschild set sail from San Francisco aboard his boat made of 12,500 plastic PET bottles, the Plastiki touched base in the planned destination of Sydney the other day.
De Rothschild and his crew completed the historic expedition in four legs: San Francisco – Kiribati – Western Samoa – New Caledonia before reaching the Australian Coast (Mooloolaba) on Monday 19 July and continuing on to Sydney. The innovative catamaran carrying a crew of six made its trip without major incident.
De Rothschild’s inspiration for this journey came after reading the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) report ‘Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas’. His journey included sailing through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
While most cruise ships maintain poor to awful records of creating pollution the Plastiki set out to educate people about the use and misuse of plastic bottles. The Plastiki which uses core principles of “cradle-to-cradle” design and biomimicry receives 68% of her buoyancy from 12,500 reclaimed plastic soft drink bottles and the super structure is made of a unique recyclable plastic material made from a self-reinforcing PET called Seretex.
Hopefully more people will put down their two liter plastic soda bottles to realize how much plastic we overuse in our throwaway society and how we can move toward inspired ideas as a sustainable alternative.
Tags: David, David de Rothschild, Environment, Plastic, Plastiki, San Francisco, sustainability
Posted in Environment, Interesting ideas, Plastic, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Exhibit Hall Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2010
While wondering the exhibit hall of Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2010 style at the Pre-Conference Day, amongst all of the technology we figured that no one would go out of there way to promote Green but then we spied some of the “go paperless” inspired companies. In the race to go paperless, a few innovative companies have stepped up to create a paperless universe (at least in terms of contracts).
In the real estate world, agents often use ridiculous amounts of paper in which to disclose, offer and negotiate which in old school terms means that many trees get the saw for that counter offer. We passed the DocuSign booth and discussed with the folks the Green benefits of using their technology, which allows people to sign contracts with an electronic signature. No more printing contracts. Just sign on-line. We can see the sustainable value in an item that eliminates paper use and general waste. But we discussed how much energy it takes to run the servers that run the DocuSign program. It would take a third party study to determine the paper, ink, transport carbon footprint savings versus the energy used to run something like DocuSign.
We brought this conundrum to another paperless company that not surprisingly goes by the name Go Paperless. Similar to DocuSign this technology allows people to sign and mark up documents using a stylus and tablet PC. Again, saving paper versus using more energy.
We all know that the cost of people runs high in terms of its impact with deforestation, transportation, recycling, shredding, printing, etc. so even at the cost of added energy use, companies that reduce (one of the three Rs) paper consumption can only improve things. We just hope that these companies use this Green philosophy inside their corporate offices as well.
Tags: Docu Sign, Go Paperless, Green philosophy, Inman Connect, paper, Real Estate, San Francisco, three Rs
Posted in Business, Events, Materials, San Francisco, Technology | No Comments »
Monday, June 28th, 2010
BP Oil Spill Poster Art
During this past weekend, while practically everyone in San Francisco roamed the streets, we spotted some timely art. No it didn’t have anything to do with Pride Week or the upcoming 4th of July festivities. Instead, these posters cleverly highlighted the disastrous BP oil spill while taking a shots and the often-ridiculous alcohol advertising.
These posters plastered in the Castro district not only make people think about the continuing devastation in the Gulf of Mexico but to what vodka you might be drinking.
Choose your oil and vodka responsibly.
Tags: BP, Castro, Gulf of Mexico, oil, oil spill, San Francisco, vodka
Posted in Business, Energy & Fuel, Environment, San Francisco | 2 Comments »
Monday, June 21st, 2010
We thought that the whole college system was broke, so where the heck will the get the green to build this sustainability built joint use building on the rapidly improving CCSF campus? Maybe they will have giant vegan cookie sale over the next few years.
It’s not that we aren’t ecstatic to see the campus using sustainable deign practices be having architect Peter Pfau shoot for a LEED Platinum rating. Some of the sustainable elements will include natural ventilation, a green roof, radiant flooring, a geothermal central plant, abundant daylight, durable and easy to maintain materials, well designed shading for west-facing façade, and post consumer/green materials. Notice the lack of big-ticket items? Just because a building shoots for a LEED Platinum rating doesn’t mean that the budget needs to unsustainable.
When the new three story facility opens we’re sure that the students and facility will be give the building high marks for indoor air quality and the overall healthy study conditions. It makes us want to go back to school.
Tags: Green Building, green roof, LEED, LEED-NC, natual ventilation, radiant flooring, San Francisco, San Francisco City College, sustainability
Posted in Green Building, Programs and Standards, San Francisco, Technology, health | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
With the downturn in overall new building, more sustainable efforts have seemingly fallen by the wayside. We’re glad to see that some projects have not totally disappeared. On June 26, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will cut the ribbon on San Francisco’s new Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, which will mark the first green-certified hospital in California.
Especially with energy still on everyone’s radar, the new technology in the hospital’s three new buildings will focus on energy and water savings. The buildings will use 30% less energy than statutory requirements, have Energy Star rated roofs which keep the buildings cooler on hot days and reduce energy use, and they have “closed-loop” air conditioning systems, meaning the system uses water for cooling is reused rather than wasted. Although do they really need AC in San Francisco?
Because this is a hospital, designers and builders people actually gave a nod to indoor air quality with use of low or zero VOC paints, wood, glues, and flooring materials in the new buildings. Reducing the highly toxic VOC’s, and other indoor air contaminants will only improve indoor health for Laguna Honda residents and staff.
With this green thinking, finally hospitals will start to realize that hospital recovery not only comes with injecting various medicines into patients but giving them a place that offers a healthier environment as well.
Image courtesy JKL
Tags: Energy S, energy star, Green Building, health, Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, low_voc_paints, Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco, Water
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Green Building, San Francisco, Technology, Water, health | No Comments »
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Carnival San Francisco - Green Section
Carnaval here in San Francisco may not be as sexy, rambunctious or famous as its counterparts that take place in Rio or New Orleans but that doesn’t mean that the 2-day event doesn’t mean that the crowds don’t enjoy the fun, sun (the weather actually cooperated with glorious 80 degree SF weather) music and sexy costumes.
With all of the things going for Carnaval why can’t there be some added consideration given to making the event more Green. We did spy a plethora of compost and recycling canisters and the beer areas did utilize the non-plastic cups. The event did have a small cluster of vendors dedicated to products or services at least slightly aligned with being somewhat progressive. Earthlust sold slightly dented reusable water bottles at a discount, San Francisco Vegetarian Society, Zip Car, Rainforest Action Network and some others. Sure these aren’t as sexy as some of the other venders but Green can be sexy as evidenced by some of the Hollywood A-listers creating Green events or supporting various green products.
Nos gusta gazing at the colorfully sexy costumes and gyrating to the various Latin beats but wouldn’t it be great to see some of sexy thinking combined with some Green ideas?
Tags: A-listers, Carnaval, green products, Hollywood, Latin music, San Francisco, sexy costumes
Posted in Events, Lifestyle, Products, San Francisco | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
BP oil runners
In the 99th installment of Bay to Breakers, the usual things occurred: the Kenyans as a whole flat out rocketed to the finish line (one female breaking a world record), the fog covered the course for most of the day and a lot of participants (not the runners) got totally trashed and created of lot of people in the local recycling business. But we’re not here to check out the usual, we’re here to check out any signs of Green going on of and off the course.
To be sure, the organizers and the City have a tough time creating sustainability for the thousands of runners but they seems to have gotten control of the recycle and compost aspects. 90,000 equals the number of recyclable water cups used per race (almost 6 miles of cups if placed end to end). And with all of the beer and booze bottles, the recycling people had a bountiful day. In the media tent, they had the presence of mind to use compostable cutlery as well as cups but it would be nice to see more organic and locally produced offerings.
We might request the same thing from the Footstock area (which moved from the Polo Grounds much to the dismay and confusion of many participants where the vendors could offer more locally and natural offerings. We did spy some booths that did toss out all natural dog food (based in Novato) as well as West Coast companies serving up free samples of granola, nutrition bars and electrolyte beverages sans the artificial crap. We tried everything but the dog food.
As for the costumes (at least the ones that we saw), the BP workers dressed in oil splotched jumpsuits made the best environmental statement.
Next year the race turns 100, and with that mark, hopefully the race can incorporate some added greenness that will keep the event going for another 100 years.
Posted in Energy & Fuel, Events, Lifestyle, San Francisco | No Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Director Lixin Fan
In the last days of the 53rd SFIFF we must attend the parties (oh yes, it is a chore) and awards ceremonies. Last night we milled about the Golden Gate Awards with lots of buzz, drinks, food and happy filmmakers. The under appreciated and deserving filmmakers stood in the spotlight and garnered more than just awards but cold hard cash. (That’s what indie feature and docu filmmakers need most).
Held at the Temple Bar which does more than the average bar/club and adheres to the People, Profit and Planet philosophy (but we wish that they would do away with the paper towels in the bathrooms) the Golden Gate awards spotlighted several films and filmmakers who created sustainable and socially responsible films. Among the big winners, Director Lixin Fan picked up an award for best Investigative Documentary (along with oh so welcome cash) for his intriguing and visually stunning Last Train Home which highlights the story of a group of migrant factory workers on a taxing holiday trip back to their small village in modern China. It offers a stirring look at social justice and the dichotomy of modern versus old school China life.
The film beat out other feature documentary contenders including: Colony, where two Irish directors (Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn) investigate the mystery of the vanishing bee colonies in California’s Central Valley and The Investigation of Dr. Nakamats.
In a nod to festival award recipient Roger Ebert, here’s a thumbs up to films that don’t have to resort to 3D to tell a story.
Tags: colony, feature_documentary, golden gate awards, last train home, San Francisco, san_francisco_international_film_festival
Posted in Events, Films and Documentaries, Food, San Francisco | No Comments »
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Every once in awhile we get desperate enough to enter Safeway (mostly late night) for items that the not so green corner store doesn’t have. Just the other night we made one of those late night expeditions to the Safeway on Market Street with our reusable bag in hand.
After selecting a few items we ended up choosing the self-service line. We only selected the self-serve line because the human based checkout lines (the few that they opened) had monstrous lines. We certainly don’t support the notion of self-service as it simply eliminates jobs and makes things worse for the local economy (but of course it helps Safeway’s bottom line). Ever hear of the 3 Ps? People, planet, profit.
Before doing our own self-service scanning, we asked for customary bag credit (not that 3 cents will significantly cut our bill down but just to make a statement). The two people overseeing the self-serve robot lines said that they don’t offer the bag credit any more. We asked what they were now doing to encourage people to bring their own reusable bags (e.g. the weekly raffle that Trader Joe’s offers). The smugly replied, “Nothing.”
They honestly didn’t seem to care if customers bring their own reusable bags or they distribute plastic or paper bags. It doesn’t seem that sustainability can be found in Safeway’s culture or philosophy. If this store wasn’t in San Francisco, we might have thought that we clicked our heels together and ended up in Kansas.
Tags: people, planet, plastic bags, profit, reusable bags, safeway, susta, sustainability
Posted in Business, San Francisco | No Comments »
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Who doesn’t like food? Especially fancy food. Lot’s of people do as judged by the crowds filling the aisles and booths of the Moscone Center for the 35th Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. With so many munchies, nibbles and treats to delve though we had to restrict our nibbling, tasting and inquires to the ever expanding Natural and Organic section.
Food like anything else can be about expectation. We set the organic chocolaty bar fairly high and weren’t disappointed by the plethora of organic chocolates but we actually went in search of more interesting items. Zhena’s Gypsy teas marked our first discovery. Even though they’ve been around for about 10 year they more recently created five biodynamic teas and we felt much better after sampling the Caramelized Pear flavor. On top of the tea itself we had to like containers made from 70% recycled steel (and the cans are 100% recyclable because they contain no paper stuck with glue. They make their tea bags from non-GMO corn silk and can be composted as they biodegradable after 60 days. Having this teas makes us feel good better come 4 pm tea time.
We know that several natural partially organic (organic flour) bog bones exist but we could help from talking (no sampling for us) with the owners of Bare Bones dog bones. If they hailed from Cali then we might not of stopped but seeing that these guys make their all natural bones in Dallas caused us to discuss how people in Big D see these dog bones of all things. They mentioned that the people in Texas don’t exactly “get” the whole dog bone thing but they know that organic is some buzz word so they continue to go along for the ride. Go get ‘em Fido!
Field Roast impressed us not just by feeding us tons of samples of their various fake meats but by showing us their factory in a renovated 1920s former dairy building in Seattle. These commitment to re-using an existing building cost them more than moving into some new factory but it showed that along with their commitment to use local veggies and minimal packing that their heart or rather their “meat” is in the right place.
We weren’t so happy to see all the companies pushing organic this and that in horrific plastic packaging. We saw enough gluten free, natural, corn syrup based products in the section (we don’t want to call anyone out at this point) that must have had various green marketing gurus earning their bonuses. We wish that they would spend less money on marketing about how good their product is and just make their product better.
Tags: biodynamic, corn syrup, gluten free, Natural, non-GMO, organic, San Francisco, teas, Winter Fancy Food Show
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, Events, Food, Products, San Francisco | No Comments »