Tag Archives: Los Angeles
OG11: Closing Video Recaps All the Fun, Learning and Connecting at Fifth Annual Opportunity Green Conference
Posted on 14. Nov, 2011 by Kristall Lutz.
Opportunity Green is working feverishly to upload the 15,000+ pictures, press articles, interviews and video from OG11 last week. For now, here is the Conference Closing video shown Friday evening.
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Livebloggers, Tweeters, Collaboration at Opportunity Green
Posted on 24. Sep, 2010 by Michael Liskin.
This is my traditional meta-post of real-time events during the Opportunity Green Conference
Check back periodically for additional info, and…
Follow @oppgreen on Twitter for official OG updates and live tweets.
The Official OG Live-Bloggers are from AHA! – Great work Laura, Melina, and Kristi!
For the FULL Opportunity Green Tweeting archive for OG2010: click this Twapperkeeper
And for the real-time Twitter Live Feed of the hashtag #og10: http://bit.ly/OG10twitter1
Twitter search for OppGreen: http://bit.ly/OG10Twitter2
Twitter search for “Opportunity Green” : http://bit.ly/OG10Twitter3
Please let me know when you blog or post about OppGreen 2010 (find me: @rhetor ) and I may add you to this or future lists!
Who were some Live-Bloggers at OG 2010?
Day 1:
“The idea, organizers said, is to show green companies that profit doesn’t have to be a pipe dream. While accepting her Eco-Maverick award, Rodriguez told attendees to “embrace the new era of capitalism.” Then, she showed off her deejaying skills at the after-party.”
http://mobilegive.us/2010/09/23/opportunity-green-conference-turns-to-mobilegive/
http://www.neenahpaperblog.com/2010/09/opportunity-green/
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/23/green-businesses-hope-practices-go-mainstream/
“The conference, in its fourth year, brings together about 1,000 green business leaders to hear from speakers, talk with exhibitors and discuss their businesses. It’s the first time it has been held at Los Angeles Center Studios, with the main stage set up where the “Mad Men” TV show is filmed and the media room is created from Judge Judy’s courtroom.”
Day 2:
Alissa Walker:
http://www.good.is/post/get-to-know-50-sustainable-startups/
Mother Nature Network:
http://www.mnn.com/eco-biz/sustainable-business-practices/blogs/weekend-reads-green-business
Art Center College of Design:
http://blogs.artcenter.edu/dottedline/2010/09/24/summit-2/
Rickshaw Bags:
http://blog.rickshawbags.com/2010/09/24/green-product-innovation/
Upon Conference Completion:
(to be continued…)
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Opportunity Green at Dwell on Design
Posted on 02. Jul, 2010 by BenjiRosen.
Dwell Magazine hosted its annual exposition, “Dwell on Design,” this past weekend at the LA Convention Center beginning on Friday, June 25th, and lasting through Sunday, June 27th. The coordinators at Dwell applied the same inventive approach they practice in their publication as they showcased one of the most dynamic and creative ideas in modern aesthetic and architecture. Although building and design were the centerpieces of this three-day event, Dwell-on-Design attendees (which included architects, professionals and environmental enthusiasts) were also exposed to countless innovative eco-products and a collection of captivating speakers.
Dwell focuses on modern architecture and design in their magazine, so it follows that development in building and design should be a focus of the exposition too. To the delight of the conference attendees, the Dwell team made sure to shy away from anything ordinary.
Opportunity Green Hosts Panel at Dwell on Design
The exhibition showcased furniture, building materials, outdoor accessories, and energy and resources that the general public has never seen before. And, in addition to “Asia Now” (which brought together the best contemporary design from Asia with an emphasis on saving energy) and “Modern Family Zone” (offering important lessons in improvement and sustainability for the whole family), “Dwell on Design” also had installations inside the convention center highlighting many unique home concepts.
The founder of ecofabulous and a good friend to Opportunity Green, Zem Joaquin, led the charge for innovative, energy-saving home ideas. Joaquin was the lead designer of the “Modern Living Showhouse,” assembled by Reclaimed Space in Austin, Texas, and built from 80-90% salvaged material. Merging style, function, and environmental ethos, the house was furnished by over twenty different eco-products. Ecofabulous advertised the showhouse project on their website, claiming the products utilized were “carefully selected for their superior sustainability standards and design aesthetic. From the lush living wall to the smart, energy-efficient kitchen and laundry appliances to the gorgeous vintage furniture from eBay.” To read Ecofabulous’s full narrative about the “Modern Living Showhouse,” view pictures, and learn about the show houses’ charity auctioning on eBay, visit here.
Actually, it seemed like Opportunity Green had members of our team all around the Convention Center on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We shared a corner space with Vapur, who designed and is selling a reusable water bottle that can be folded, rolled, flattened and frozen. While Vapur’s founder, Jason Carignan, were very busy selling out of Vapur’s innovative product, they also gave testimony on the OG Conference to all our booth visitors.
Carignan also hosted a panel on product design innovation with Nicole Landers, an OG board member and the founder of the sustainability firm, eConnect Group, and Peter Falt, the Director of Strategic Partnering for BMW Design Works. Our own dear Karen Solomon, co-founder and CEO of Opportunity Green and friend to all, was slated to anchor this panel but unfortunately lost her voice and could not participate. Landers came in as a last minute, and remarkable replacement. When thinking about his experience this weekend, Carignan admitted he “was really inspired by all of the great questions Peter Falt and [he] got from the attendees during our panel on an Insiders’ Look at a New Era of Design. Many of entrepreneurs and design professionals seeking ways to ensure their business are as sustainable as their products. I’m glad we were able to offer some practical guidance to realizing their vision.”
In fact, Nicole did a fantastic job stressing how important partnerships are in innovation and sustainability. Especially in design technology products, partnerships between the designers and their business-partners are what drive new ideas for better sustainability.
Events like Dwell on Design highlight the idea of collaboration and cooperation – ideas that Opportunity Green continues to champion. When we asked Nicole Landers what she came away with after hosting the panel, she discussed this theme of inter-connectedness, reiterating how in any smart technologies, along with having an innovative workable “public relations” are the stimulating feature. It is what steers the “three-way triangle” of people, profit, and planet onto a sustainable course.
As we come away from the conference of inspired designers and business professionals, it seems even more apparent that in order to create and maintain a market that supports both environmental incentive as well as bottom line, we have to come together. Opportunity Green 2010 has been built directly around the idea that only through partnerships and relationships can we truly make a difference. Please join us, September 22-24th at LA Center Studios for Opportunity Green: INTER 2010
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Politics Puts Solar Feed-in Tariff in the Shade
Posted on 09. Apr, 2010 by Ben Upham.
The Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) could not have chosen a worse time to introduce a feasibility study (PDF) of a solar feed-in tariff for Los Angeles. The study, a joint project with the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, shows how LA could add 500 megawatts of solar power over the next ten years by paying utility customers who install solar panels for any unused electricity the panels generate.
The problem is where to get the money to pay for it; typically it comes from rate payers in the form of higher energy bills. But Angelenos are already up in arms over rate hikes proposed last month by the Department of Water & Power. The city council sharply reduced the hikes, prompting DWP to withhold $80 million or so the city was counting on to help shore up a $200 budget deficit.
(Ironically, those hikes were meant in part to pay for the Mayor’s ambitious renewable energy goals, including 150 MW of solar power.)
As a result, the political loggerheads surrounding the hikes overshadowed LABC’s release of the FiT study, and, along with similar battles at the state level, helped cast doubt over the future of renewable energy initiatives across California.
“Pushing forward and falling back.”
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Comptroller Wendy Gruel, who are in the thick of things at city hall, both spoke at the summit today.
Gruel emphasized how badly the city needs the DWP cash, or any cash at all. But she also called talk of reneging on renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction commitments “disturbing.”
On the state level, both Republican candidates for governor, Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, have called for postponing state law AB 32, which requires California to lower its emissions of greenhouses to 1990 levels by 2020. Poizner has also backed an astroturf campaign to get the law postponed until unemployment stays at or below 5.5 percent for a year.
Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor Jerry Brown, who was at the Sustainability Summit today, danced around the issue of postponing AB 32, but called for the state to work within the limits of what it can do financially.
Brown, a veteran of California politics, made one of several memorable statements, calling governance a process of “pushing forward and falling back.” Given the state of things in California, I would say we are definitely in “fall back” mode, and any plan to bring a FiT to Los Angeles in the near-term is just that: a plan.
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Chevy Volt: Where’s My Test Drive?
Posted on 06. Dec, 2009 by Ben Upham.
I would like to announce a major scandal surrounding the highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt “extended range” electric car: there is only one car available for test drives.
This blogger showed up early for a minor press junket on the sidelines of the LA Auto Show in hopes of getting a spot on the test drive list, only to find out there were no spots available — despite the fact that the Volt was sitting undriven in a parking lot across the street the entire time. Apparently, the vehicle was saving itself for a pair of B-list eco-friendly celebrities who were running late.
David Darovitz, communications for the Volt, said that demand for test drives far outstrips supply. Which is not surprising, given the intense media saturation the Volt has received. GM actually has made 80 of the cars, most of which are running various automotive testing regimens around the country — Pike’s Peak, Death Valley, the 405 during rush hour, etc. — with another 20 or so smashed up in crash tests.
Anyway, Dave promised me a drive in March, when the Volt roadshow will be back in Los Angeles, and the company will have more cars to play with.
Test Press Conference, Not Test Drive
In the meantime, OppGreen had to be satisfied with a dinged-up fiber glass version of the car that looked like it had seen one too many PR events like this one, whose purpose appeared to be to wow a small batch of bloggers with the vehicle, as well as provide real-world media training for the Volt design and marketing team, which outnumbered the media in attendance.
Also there, like the pretty girl’s plain friend you feel like you have to talk to: the Chevy Cruze, GM’s latest attempt to compete with Corolla and Civic (their last attempt was the mercifully discontinued Cobalt). According to Chevy, the Cruze can get 40 miles to the gallon, and Car & Driver called it “well-designed and -built and doesn’t drive like an afterthought, as small domestics traditionally have.” The Cruze will be available in the US next year.
But enough about the Cruze.
At the PR event, OG learned that car-happy California will be the one of the first markets to get the Volt, when it begins mass-production in November of 2010.
Chevy is also partnering with three California utilities and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) “as part of an extended, real-world demonstration and research program to introduce customers to electric vehicles, advance vehicle electrification and establish vehicle charging programs to pave the way for consumers,” according to a press release.
The Volt’s price has still not been announced, although $40,000 has been floating around.
Oh, and one more thing, from the release:
Chevrolet will also introduce a new Volt song designed to educate and entertain consumers during the auto show’s public days.
(emphasis added)
As soon as we have audio for the Volt Song, we promise we will make it available on the Opportunity Green website.
LA to Expand EV Charging Network
The Chevy release happily coincides with announcement from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of a new partnership to beef up the LA region’s network of electric vehicle charging stations. From the Los Angeles Times:
Along with a network of partners, the city plans to update 400 existing charging stations around the region while adding 100, Villaraigosa said. Electric vehicle owners also probably would receive tax rebates to construct home chargers and would have access to high-occupancy-vehicle lanes and preferential or free parking.
Once funding sources have been finalized (a big if, given California’s budget situation), the Mayor hopes to have incentives of as much as $2,000 go to the first 5,000 residential customers to install a home EV charging station. Villaraigosa also hopes to add EVs to the city’s fleet of vehicles.
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Interview with David Martinon, French Consul General, Part 1
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by Susanna Schick.
David Martinon is the Consul General at the Los Angeles French Consulate. In this role, he is responsible for promoting French culture and arts, science, and business, as well as caring for French citizens in the US. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Consulate in 2008, Mr. Martinon was a spokesperson for the French President, before which he was chief of staff for President Sarkozy’s presidential campaign. And before that, he worked as a diplomatic advisor for four years. In this two-part interview we begin by discussing cultural sustainability, and France’s revolutionary attempts to redefine how we measure “success.”
OG: You do an amazing job of utilizing social media, much more than one would expect of a government agency. Your Twitter feed and your blog do an excellent job of promoting French culture in Los Angeles. So tell me, what are you looking forward to most about the conference?
David: Thank You, but it is more the work of Stéphanie Rainin. I wanted to attend Opportunity Green because I try to be aware of ideas that pop up here in California. I first met Karen Solomon when I invited her for the premiere of HOME, the film by French director Yann Arthus-Bertrand. We got on well, she’s a very interesting person. I like that you’re trying to promote not only awareness of environmental issues, but also to create new ideas on how to improve the situation. Before I came to California, I saw that there were great intellectual & technical revolutions in California, not only the ideology of May ’68, but also of course the environmental revolution going on today. Today’s ideas in California are the rest of the world’s ideas tomorrow.
OG: So it seems you work with two major industries- life sciences and entertainment. Can you tell me about some interesting projects in either of them?
David: In entertainment, for the past 13 years, we’ve put on a French film festival- City of Lights, City of Angels (CoLCoA) every spring. Also, this year we started OohLaL.A., a music festival featuring the most cutting-edge French musicians. The selection was made by Silvain Taillet, the art director of the very prestigious music school, Barclay. Both festivals are great successes, even with OohLaL.A. in its first year, we’ve had great partners and the seats were full every night. This is difficult, considering most of the artists are unknown in the US.
OG: It’s definitely hard to break into LA entertainment industry.
David: I think if we can’t be successful here in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, we better change the consul! We also try to bring American screenwriters to France, because we think that showing them the hidden faces of France inspires them. We want them to film in France, to take advantage of our beautiful scenery and great crews.
OG: Adam Werbach promotes the importance of cultural sustainability alongside environmental, social and economic sustainability, arguing that culture is too often ignored, particularly by multi-national corporations operating abroad. Let’s talk about how great the French are at preserving their cultural heritage.
David: On this topic, we French actually have a lot of contradictions. On the one hand, we’re extremely attached to our culture. For example, in Paris the Parisians go to the theater, to movies, and box office receipts are still very high, we maintain that a minimum of 50% of films are French, so 40% are American and 10% from the rest of the world. We also read a lot of books, publishing is still doing well. La rentrée literaire is always a interesting time. Roughly a third of the pages in French newsmagazines are dedicated to culture. It’s our pride. We will accept to be “poor” as long as we have culture.
However, on the other hand, we embrace foreign culture. We’re also interested in films from other countries. Even though few countries have national film industries, we welcome them in France. So we’re attached to global culture, and are very much in love with American products, the French love American blockbusters, American music, etc.
OG: Yet the French also do an excellent job of appropriating foreign cultural influences and making them their own, which to me is the crux of modern cultural evolution. For example, I’m a big fan of French mashups and French rap.
David: Ah, French rap…I’m a bit of an expert in French rap, the lyrics are much better. The arrangements as well.
OG: There is a real concern that the artisanal knowledge of the Haute Couture is not being passed on to a new generation of craftspeople. What is being done to keep the traditional arts alive in France?
David: It’s a huge topic- we have a tradition established for the past ten centuries of forming young apprentices in France. Of course there are some more popular fields, like cooking, fashion. Still in architecture and masonry, and all other fields we have what we call “The Tour de France for Apprentices.” Behind Jean Paul Gaultier, for example, you find old women with golden fingers who can do the very stylish parts of the clothes.
OG: Yes, but is it difficult finding young people who will replace them?
David: No, not as far as I can tell.
OG: Now, let’s get back to what you said earlier about accepting less money if that’s what it takes to enjoy a strong and vibrant culture. I am so happy to see that France is taking the lead on redefining GDP, something that has needed to happen for quite some time.
David: Many Americans question me about this, claiming it’s a way of breaking the tool to avoid measuring a bad situation. There will never be a good time to redefine GDP, you’ll always question the intention. But it needs to happen. Sarkozy, in the first weeks of his presidency, essentially said “If you destroy Earth, it can bring more wealth, but at the same time, it’s not improving global well-being.” And you know, one of the economists they’re working with on this is American, Joseph Stiglitz.
OG: That’s great! I’ve loved reading his books on globalization, and I recall discovering Redefining Progress in 2005 and wishing their ideas would break out of the Berkeley green ghetto. It seems the time has finally come when people recognize that money does not define us.
David: Yes, however, in the US, you have some wonderful legacies around quality of life as well, for example your National Parks tradition is something to truly be proud of.
OG: That it is! Stay tuned for part two tomorrow…
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Interview with Jimmy Brandt, Venture Capitalist
Posted on 03. Nov, 2009 by Susanna Schick.
Jimmy Brandt is president of The Brandt Organization, Inc. of California, a personal investment vehicle he created to identify and fund Southern California startups that have developed, or almost completed development of, environmentally friendly new products or services.
OG: What are you looking forward to most about the conference?
Jimmy: Primarily networking. Secondarily, it would be great if I could identify an attractive investment opportunity.
OG: How do you see the investment climate for sustainable startups, in the midst of these economic times?
Jimmy: Angel money has dried up because there are far fewer exit opportunities, and angels have less money to invest. A lot are finding it necessary to provide additional funds to startups that didn’t grow as originally hoped. Indeed, some startups which likely would have been viewed favorably in good times will be unable to obtain funding today. For those that do, company valuations will be much lower than previously. As a result, it’s a very tough time for entrepreneurs. In contrast, there will be many opportunities for well-funded investors.
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Interview with Josh Mark, Director of Sustainability for FOX Broadcasting Company
Posted on 02. Nov, 2009 by Susanna Schick.
Josh Mark is the Director of Sustainability for FOX Broadcasting Company. FOX Broadcasting is deeply committed to greening the filming industry, and is kind enough to share their wealth of knowledge with their competitors through the FOX Green Guide.
OG: What are you looking forward to the most about the conference?
Josh: I went last year, it was great! It was very inspirational, I saw what others were doing, took ideas from totally different industries, and found ways to apply it in ours. Nothing specific, but I took bits and pieces of this and that, and later found myself more easily inspired. I was recharged, and felt like I could always do more to make FOX more sustainable.
OG: I love how clear and simple the FOX Green Guide Best Practices section is. How widespread is the FOX Green Guide? What are you doing to popularize it within and outside of FOX?
Josh: A team of us developed the guide to enable our productions to have a simple resource for greening their work.We designed it for internal use, for our employees, production crews, and vendors. We don’t plan to advertise it and there’s no money involved in the guide. Initially, we discussed making it password protected, but that was too costly. Besides, we want everyone to be green, and there’s no competitive advantage to us being green, so the more people who know about the guide, the better. If everyone is greening their productions, it escalates people’s baseline commitments to sustainability, which can only be good.
