Archive for 'Entrepreneurship'
OG25 Green Business Start Up Competition Winner: Zimride
Posted on 04. Jan, 2011 by Kristall Lutz.
Zimride @ Opportunity Green from Opportunity Green on Vimeo.
Carpool 2.0, is how Lisa Galindo refers to Zimride, the OG25 Business Start Up competition winner. With a goal to bring a new form of sustainable transportation to millions of users around the world, Zimride is an on-demand ride-sharing social network providing community powered, sustainable transportation. With partners like Zipcar and Live Nation and the power of social networking site Facebook, Zimride is working with over 70 of the nation’s leading universities and companies. Also named one of the “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25″ by Businessweek, watch this video and see why Zimride is receiving much attention and praise.
For more information: www.zimride.com.
Continue Reading
Panel: Green Product Design and the Drive Toward Zero
Posted on 23. Sep, 2010 by AHA.
It was back to the Mad Men sound stage for a panel discussion this afternoon, and sadly, no sight of that rascal Don Draper. Sigh … But even better, messenger bag god and former CEO of Timbuk2 Designs, Mark Dwight, was among a group that discussed green product design. Dwight left Timbuk2 a few years back and now runs Rickshaw Bagworks out of San Francisco.
“Perfection is the enemy of progress in this journey,” he said. “Don’t wait around for the perfect solution. There isn’t one. There’s always an unintended consequence.”
Dwight said the ultimate goal at Rickshaw is to “drive toward zero.” The Power of Zero is the company’s rallying cry and a mantra on how to operate internally and communicate to the outside world, he says.
Also on the panel was Gopal Krishnan, senior director of global marketing innovation and new categories for The Coca-Cola Company. A participant asked which was better: recyclable or compostable packaging. “Recyclable is more important than compostable to us,” Krishnan said. “We believe it’s much more efficient to melt down a bottle and make another one instead of starting all over and creating a brand new bottle.”
Panel member Jason Foster, founder and CEO of Replenish, said his reusable bottle is getting a lot of attention, but he’s as excited about the cleaning solution inside. It’s non-toxic, pH neutral and biodegradable—a very rare combination for a cleaning product. Watch for Replenish’s flagship product to be out later this year.
Written by AHA! for Opportunity Green.
Continue Reading
Morning Keynotes: We’re All Connected
Posted on 23. Sep, 2010 by AHA.
Interconnectivity was the definitive theme of this morning’s keynotes.
First, Rick Ridgeway, Rick Ridgeway, vice president of environmental programs and communication for Patagonia, addressed the need to create landscape connectivity. Wildlife, Ridgeway explained, need corridors to roam for food and find mates—a need that has only increased with global warming.
“What happens when that need to roam is blocked?” Ridgeway asked. “Their ability to survive is diminished. And what are the consequences of that for us?”
Patagonia is tackling the need for landscape connectivity firsthand with its Freedom to Roam initiative. As Ridgeway explained, they’re connecting with big players across a number of industries—beginning, somewhat controversially, with BP and the oil industry.
Why sit down with the supposed enemy? Ridgeway explained that Patagonia has a philosophy of inclusion rather than exclusion. “We feel that the only way to bring long-term protection is to include the excluded,” Ridgeway said.
Because, after all, we’re all connected.
Steve Westly, managing partner of The Westly Group, also underscored the significance of interconnectivity. “Eighty-three million people in China will die of lung disease in the next 25 years,” he said. China has surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest polluter, and its air pollution is affecting air quality as far away as the U.S. In fact, Westly said China is now responsible for 25% of L.A.’s smog.
But China, Westly argued, has taken stronger, swifter actions to fight pollutants and climate change—including stricter fuel economy standards and the largest reforestation project in history.
“The good news is that we’re seeing the best and the brightest minds turning their attention to the cleantech revolution,” Westly said. Cleantech is now the largest U.S. venture sector, he pointed out; in the third quarter of 2009, it finally eclipsed both biotech and IT.
Westly urged OG2010 attendees to join the revolution: “I challenge all of you to be the innovators who see a new world, and continue to make the U.S. the entrepreneurial leader of the world.”
Written by AHA! for Opportunity Green.
Continue Reading
Patagonia’s Rick Ridgeway Says the Real Message of Transparency Is: We’re All In This Together
Posted on 22. Sep, 2010 by AHA.
Read an excerpt from our interview with Rick Ridgeway, vice president of environmental programs and communication at Patagonia. He talks about how sharing ideas—even with competitors—has helped his company stay at the forefront of the corporate sustainability movement:
When we have an opportunity to inspire other businesses to learn from us, it’s in our best interests to take it, even if on first glance it looks like a potential disadvantage to the business. Here’s an example: About five years ago, Walmart came to us and asked us to share our knowledge about using organic cotton. We’ve been committed to using only organic cotton since 1996, and Walmart wanted to introduce a percentage of it in their products.
At first, there was a pause within our company because, at that time, organically grown cotton was a major differentiator for us in the marketplace. We knew that if Walmart started using it, that differentiation would disappear. On the other hand, Walmart has a pretty major influence in its supply chain, so the upside of getting more farmers to start using organic techniques was huge. So, we shared our knowledge, and Walmart is now the biggest user of organic cotton in the world.
We’re proud of the difference we made, but it did take away something that made our products unique. A situation like that forces us to come up with new initiatives to keep our company out in the lead. The first thing we did was start working on technologies to recycle the synthetic fibers in our clothes in a closed loop. We ramped up those efforts and introduced something that hadn’t existed in the marketplace before. We encouraged our customers to bring in their worn-out clothes so that they could be truly upcycled in a process that captures the petroleum used to make the fibers in a closed loop, and also reduces the energy consumption to make new products by nearly 75%.
It’s an ongoing process and a challenge that never ends. We want companies to follow our lead, and that pushes us forward to the next thing. We’re proud of the change we’ve inspired, and our customers continue to reward us for staying out at the vanguard.
We also inspire other businesses in the way we report on our sustainability efforts, a sitelet on our website called The Footprint Chronicles. Customers can track our products through their life cycle, from design to warehouse delivery to the stores where they are sold. We profile our suppliers in stories, slideshows and videos, and we share both the good and the bad; what works and what doesn’t work. That’s a new concept for most businesses, but we’re beginning to see a shift toward more transparency.
To us, it makes so much more sense than a traditional CSR report. The stories and videos put a face on our supply chain and show customers that these are real human beings trying to do their jobs in a responsible way, and everything isn’t perfect. That’s the key—to not just tell stories, but to tell them fully and honestly, the good and the bad.
That shifts the conversation and sends an important message: We’re all in this together. We’ve got to figure this out together. That’s the real message of transparency.
Written by AHA! for Opportunity Green.
Continue Reading
New Belgium Brewing’s Jenn Orgolini Says Collaboration is Key
Posted on 14. Sep, 2010 by AHA.
Employee-owned New Belgium Brewing Company calls its sustainability
program “Alternatively Empowered.” Jenn Orgolini, New Belgium’s sustainability
director, defines the term this way:
“It indicates the different slant to business that we take here. Our purpose is to
operate a profitable company that makes our love and talent manifest. The words
themselves point to our unique culture, how much people love to work here, how
they invest themselves in the business, as well as our emphasis on alternative
energy and innovation. We love beer, and we love to make beer. And, we see
the business of making beer as a means to an end to create a better world.”
New Belgium has been a pioneer in the use of alternative energy sources. In 1999,
it became the first brewery to subscribe to wind power for all of its electrical energy
use and even capturing the methane gas generated in the brewing process to create
electricity on site. And, the company’s sustainability efforts don’t stop with its own
operations. Orgolini, who will be part of an Opportunity Green breakout session on
partnerships and collaboration models, says partnering with businesses has been
critical to New Belgium’s successes in sustainability.
On the philanthropy side, New Belgium worked with other companies in the Fort
Collins, Colorado, area to create an awareness campaign called Save the Colorado
River. The company also partnered with other local businesses as part of a U.S.
Department of Energy grant to demonstrate peak energy load reduction.
“We’re putting together projects to reduce our peak energy use by a megawatt,
which in turn benefits our city, demonstrates smart grid technology and how we
can add more renewables to the grid,” she says. “That is something we couldn’t do
by ourselves. It’s an example of the fact that so much of our ability to be effective
grows when we collaborate with others.”
Written by AHA! for Opportunity Green.
Continue Reading
Putting the Right Foot Foward: Interview with Kyle Berner, Owner of Feelgoodz
Posted on 15. Apr, 2010 by Clayton Su.
Opportunity Green: You’re a self proclaimed flip flop enthusiast. Why flip flops?
Kyle Berner: When I was growing up, my Mom used to call me “The Barefoot Kid.” I never liked wearing shoes, and flip-flops is the closest to barefoot that I can be.
OG: Tell us more about the rubber your sandals are made of and the process used to make them.
KB: Our rubber is derived from The Yang Para, or Rubber Tree. When a rubber tree is planted, it takes 7 years before it becomes ready for cultivation/’tapping.’ Once matured, farmers can tap rubber from the tree for up to 40 years. Once that is complete, the tree is uprooted and used for rubberwood furniture. A new tree is then planted in its stead, creating a cyclical process.
The Feelgoodz Process:
Step 1 : “Tap the Natural Rubber from the Tree”
A farmer uses a tapping tool to slice a small piece of bark off of the tree. A small silver cup is attached the tree, and the white raw rubber oozes out of the tree like a sap. A farmer will tap upwards of 100 trees per shift, then go back and collect the silver cups, and pour them into a blue bin.
Step 2:”Mix the Rubber with Non-Toxic Inks and Create Rubber Sheets”
Before the raw rubber settles, the farmer mixes the white rubber with non-toxic inks. The rubber then turns into the color mixed. After mildly settling (hardening), farmers place a rubber block (imagine a brownie pan full of rubber) through the rolling machine. Out comes a colored natural rubber sheet. The sheet is then hung on horizontal bamboo poles to hang dry for about one month. The tropical climate in Thailand helps to produce Grade A Quality rubber sheets, the highest quality in the world.
Step 3:”High Rubber Compound Molding Technique Ensures Zero Thermoplastics”
The rubber sheets are then shipped to our manufacturer where the unique HRC (High Rubber Compounding) molding technique begins. The sheets are placed in a mold and slowly compressed with high heat to prove for a soft comfortable pad of rubber.
Step 4:”Natural Rubber Sheets Stamped out in Various Flip-Flops Sizes”
The rubber pad is then stamped into the shape of a flip-flop in various sizes.
Step 5: “Strap placed into rubber flip-flops”
Once the various sizes are stamped out, the final step is for the molded rubber strap to be stamped into the rubber, creating an all-natural rubber Feelgoodz flip-flop!
OG: Can you give us a little more insight on your Triple Bottom Line? Where does each 1% go and how does giving back benefit you?
KB: We’ve actually taken the triple bottom line even further. We now live by a model called “The Materials Economy,” consisting of 5 steps:
- Extraction
- Production
- Distribution
- Consumption
- Disposal
TheStoryofStuff.com has a great example of how a product is taken through a series of steps in its production cycle. We have taken our flip-flop through this model and measured its responsibility each step of the way. In living by this model, the triple bottom line (People, Planet, Profit) is not just covered. It’s surpassed. So, instead of funneling out 3% in a broader way, we’ve taken that same % and invested it in a more sustainable model. We are still a 1%FTP member, an Ashoka Partner, and a B-Corporation, this model simply invests more in sustainability from the ground up.
OG: So the 5th point of ‘The Materials Economy’ is disposal; do you have any sort of program designed for the disposal of the flip flops or directions for how consumers can best dispose of used shoes?
KB: We have a new program called “Recycle Your unFlops”. unFlops are flip-flops that do not biodegrade, and we have a program with Soles4Souls where you send your unFlops to a S4S DC, and once a year, they will send them to Kenya to employ Kenyan Villagers to make new products out of the unFlops for resale in eco-boutiques around the world. We are trying to create a “Zero Flip-Flop Waste World” through sales of our biodegradable flops and through pioneering such unFlop recycling initiatives!
OG: I read that before you started Feelgoodz, you sold your car and used the money for a one way ticket to Thailand. That’s inspiring stuff! What was the catalyst that made you take the leap and how has the experience affected your decisions regarding your company?
KB: When I graduated college, I had a laundry list of interests but no particular ‘fit.’ So, the strategy I took was to find a way to tap into those interests, trusting that that strategy would lead to my passion in life. International travel was one of those, and after I met a backpacker in Austin who was making it happen, I was inspired. It was a certainly risky and perhaps even impractical to sell my car, but my gut was telling me “Now is the time.” So I just went for it. That decision is what ultimately led to the creation of Feelgoodz. While I was there, I was most affected by power of giving, and so I made it a point to incorporate that in anything I did in life from that moment on.
OG: So what is most important to you about running your business, and what advice do you have for other environmentally minded entrepreneurs out there?
KB: Passion. Vision. Tenacity. And as for responsible and sustainable business models, follow ‘The Materials Economy’.
Check out Feelgoodz at their website here.
Continue Reading
Ross Evans at TED Active
Posted on 11. Feb, 2010 by tinochow.
Ross Evans a serial social entrepreneur whom I invited to the Better World by Design Conference who brought his successful bike company Xtracycles. He also invented “Bike Surfing”. He has multiple talents from cycling and entrepreneurship to rodeo performances. His challenge to young people is to find their passion and use it to make positive change alongside his new initiative Holishift.
Inventions can be for fun! 
Continue Reading
Interview with Real Food Daily’s Catering Director, Elisha Valdez
Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Brady Gibson.
The Clean Energy Economy is emerging. Jobs are being created across the spectrum and industries are going through fundamental shifts to adapt to an ever-changing world. Whether business strategies evolve out of necessity to government policy or wanting to both improve and incorporate the Triple Bottom Line, sustainability is creating jobs, expanding the market, and promoting economies of scale.
Opportunity Green strives to recognize leaders in sustainability and the green movement. Whether you are Proctor&Gamble or Ecovative Design, the OG team recognizes green greatness through green living–the difference between those who “say” it and those who “do” it. Furthermore, these companies and individuals create an impact bigger than their immediate size. They collaborate with business leaders, companies, and customers that value sustainable operations, community development, and a clean energy economy. Community-based and intrinsically tied between People, Planet, and Profit, sustainability is an emerging cultural ideology that requires innovation, integrity, and perseverance. One way to live green is to eat green. Restaurant sustainability is on the rise, yet there are a limited number of leaders and pioneers in the Green Restaurant Industry. As one of the most wasteful and rigid industries in the United States, the restaurant industry represents a major opportunity to find successful models, tools, ideas, and management systems for other industries and the wider Clean Energy Economy as a whole. Opportunity Green took the time to look within their green community for a leader in this category and all signs pointed to Real Food Daily. Starting out as a catering company for Hollywood moguls and superstars in the 1980′s, Real Food Daily opened its first restaurant in 1993 in Santa Monica, California, under owner Ann Gentry. Since then, it has emerged as the only restaurant in Los Angeles to serve a 100% vegan menu with foods grown solely from organic farming methods. According to Elisha Valdez, Catering Director at RFD, “the goal [...] is to introduce the Real Food Daily menu to as wide an audience as possible. We want to break the misconception that vegan food is bland, boring, and unappealing.” (If you don’t believe her, go try the nachos!) 
In addition to their delicious food, RFD is both a leader and pioneer in the green restaurant industry and had centered their operations on sustainable design long before “organic” became the buzz-word du jour. According to Elisha, RFD has bought organic for 17 years and has been a “pioneer in the efforts to advance awareness of the organic food segment of the market.” Did you know the carbon footprint of a non-meat eater is 1/7th the size of a meat eater, according to the U.N.I.P.C.C? That is a snippet of information that Elisha and others at RFD incorporate into their ideology and they live it daily. Furthermore, they influence the community by providing “people with a delicious opportunity to embrace a vegetarian diet–even it’s not everyday–[as] one of the best ways to support sustainable initiatives in the community”. Ultimately, RFD is about “the balance for both the environment and the body, [coming] from a Macrobiotic foundation [that] incorporate[s] the yin and yang of not only food, but life”.
Although RFD makes it look easy to both maintain and grow a sustainable restaurant industry, Elisha told us they still face daily challenges. ”One of our biggest struggles is communicating to the full extent of our commitment to organic foods and sustainability.” Indeed, one of the biggest struggles in the restaurant industry and sustainable operations is finding a way to transition the restaurant into green operations–a goal that starts at the fundamental operations and costs of the business. ”We see a lot of companies say ‘organic whenever possible’, but what they mean is ‘organic unless it’s too expensive or difficult to procure”. These words ring so true to Opportunity Green and other genuine companies in the clean green economy.
“The triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits, has always been at the core of what we do at RFD. Before there was even a term for it, we just felt that it was right for our business because it was the right thing to do. For us, its not a triple bottom line–it’s one bottom line that is inextricably connected between those three elements.” As we move into the future, Opportunity Green hopes to observe green methods in the restaurant industry and the positive impact of sustainable systems on business scalability.
