Opportunity Green had the privilege to partner with the French Consulate and American Cinematheque in the screening of HOME, a film by French director Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Held at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, the screening was attended by over 200 people and celebrities.  Prior to the screening, VIPs attended an Opportunity Green sponsored lunch at the home of the French Consulate General David Martinon.  Hollywood’s own Sharon Stone and Rosanna Arquette were on hand to mingle with the French elite.

Arthus-Bertrand used amazing cinematic examples from 54 countries to highlight global warming, resource shortages, and endangered species asking each viewer to reconsider their everyday human impact.  The production, like an alarm clock, alerts each viewer to wake up and realize we barely have ten years left to reverse the exhaustion of natural resources.

During the Q&A after the screening, Arthus-Bertrand revealed that HOME was screened in front of 60,000 people in front of the Eiffel Tower leaving his fellow Frenchman “silenced.”  At this point over 200 million people have seen HOME.  However, it was never shown in US theaters due to the film being readily available on YouTube.  Arthus-Bertrand, therefore, empowered the audience and requested they use social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to share the movie and its message.

Dwell Magazine made its pages come to life at the Dwell on Design conference held at Los Angeles Convention Center this past weekend.  Dwell is best known for its magazine focused on aesthetic in home design, modern architecture and product design.  Speakers, seminars and discussion panels opened up the conversation between Dwell attendees, while the exhibition floor charmed and inspired those with an eye for design and an appreciation for innovation and sustainability.

Dwell Outdoor, covering 15,000 sq. feet of exhibit space, showcased modern outdoor living trends, including landscape architecture, outdoor furnishings, and prefab architecture.  The real show-stopper of Dwell Outdoor was Reclaimed Space, out of Austin, Texas.   The 400 square foot salvaged wood home was fully equipped with the delectable furnishings and interiors designed by Ecofabulous furnished with high-quality vintage, repurposed and reclaimed items found on eBay.  One lucky bidder won the house on eBay at the end of the conference for $75,100. The ebay Green Team will donate all proceeds being donated to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles.

Everybody loves food so the panel “The Food Network: Social Media and the Way We Eat” was perfect for Dwell attendees. The panel showcased how bloggers, tweeters, and nomadic restaurateurs are using the Internet to feed the movement. Founders of the infamous Korea barbecue traveling kiosk, Kogi, coat-tailing off the infamous LA taco truck business strategy, explained their $0 marketing strategy which included blogging, loading pictures onto Flickr, and utilizing Twitter to help customers find their on-the-go business. Kogi Bbq is great example of how businesses can avoid printed materials and paper advertisements to get their message across.

The surf was up at UC Santa Barbara as Opportunity Green cruised into the beach city to attend the 8th Annual UC, CSU, CCC Sustainability Conference this past Monday and Tuesday. The conference featured work that students, staff, administrators, and faculty have done campus-wide in the area of sustainability.  Lectures and workshops addressed every issue from energy efficiency and green building, to waste reduction and recycling, the procurement of sustainable food systems, sustainable strategies within the transportation realm, and social equity practices in labor and housing.

Companies represented at the conference included Zipcar, Canon, and Waxie Sanitary Supply.  ZipCar enables users around a metropolitan area to use thousands of cars around their area, with gas and insurance included for small amounts of time.  By using RFID techonology drivers are able to unlock a ZipCar that knows the user has a reservation.  We can’t wait for them to arrive at UCLA!

Conference organizers demonstrated their own sustainable solutions throughout the hosting of the event.  A Rideshare program was organized to promote and facilitate carpooling to Santa Barbara, recycled content was put to use as much as possible, and all trashcans were blocked off with the posting, “Are you sure it’s trash?  Nothing given out at this event is trash.” Essentially, everything from the program of events, to the bio-plastic dishware, was either compostable, reusable, or recyclable.  

Opportunity Green Social Media & Marketing intern, Rosemary Squires, who just finished her first year in the Regenerative Studies master’s program at Cal Poly Pomona, presented a project she helped lead, design and implement on her campus under the Food Systems Track on the final day of the conference.  The program, Garden to Table, was developed to connect and educate home gardeners from the campus community and beyond about organic gardening and innovative and regenerative cooking and food preservation practices.

Perhaps the most inspirational speeches came from the students who represented each of the higher-education systems throughout the state.  Their stories of perseverance, passion, and vision in their quest for making changes in environmental issues on campus spurred the loudest applause, and even a standing ovation.

A Tesla for valet? Yes, indeed. The electric sports car was part of the introduction lunch to the Marrakesh House, owned by Chris Paine. Paine, director of Who Killed the Electric Car?, purchased the home in 2007 with the goal of transforming the space into a model home for sustainable living in the 21st century. 

The number of green elements infused into the 4,300 square-foot Culver City house are endless! To start the solar-paneled roof, powered by Mitsubishi Electric,  produces enough energy to supply approximately 60% of the house’s electricity.  Dig deeper and you’ll find all the wood used in the house is FSC certified (Forest Stewardship Council).

A two panel solar thermal array which can heat water for four people on average and an on-demand hot water heater is used in the kitchen.  The cabinets in the kitchen and bar are made of FSC formaldehyde-free bamboo and toilets in the house are low-flow to reduce water consumption.

Step outside of the Morocco-themed rooms and you’ll find the the organic living food garden.  The three-season garden, designed by Christy Wilhelmi, is filled with a variety of edible plants, housed in wood planters post-consumer milk crates. An organic garden wouldn’t be complete without a compost bin, worm bin, and chicken coop. The Marrakesh house has it all!

As the sun set upon Los Angeles Tuesday, eco-executives and newly minted MINI E owners pulled up to the Environment furniture showroom for Opportunity Green’s lastest VIP event. Invitees indulged on fresh organic burgers from O Burger, VeeV signature cocktails, and sweet treats from Real Food Daily. On hand to wash it all down were local micro-brews from Skyscraper Brewery, wine pours from Casa Barranca, and snowcones from LA’s own Locali. Coconut-flavored brown rice syrup on a bed of VeeV-infused crushed ice? Yes, please!

VIPs included executives from XPrize, Dwell, Disney, Global Green USA and Gensler to name a few. Joshua Mark, Executive Director of Special Event Production and Creative Services of FOX Studios left saying, “I got some great ideas for future projects, I am really looking forward to the conference in November - Green it, mean it!”

Intimate and cozy, the night was the perfect follow up to March’s gathering in San Francisco. Beyond the eco-chatter on plush beds and sofas fashioned from old army parachutes, VIPs were found huddled in the event photo booth, using props to spice up the candid shots. Cha Mueller, West Coast Brand Director for DWELL magazine, was elated saying “Opportunity Green always inspires, and in this venue it was just electric.”

We scoured through hundreds of tweeps in the green space to find the best eco twitterers. Whether your focus is eco-fashion or clean tech, check out Opportunity Green’s list of the top eco twitterers to add to your list:

1. @grist

Grist.org is the hub of everything fun and green. Their witty, yet informative site has contributors from around the world scribing about politics, green business, living green, and just plain fun stuff.  Opportunity Green Co-Founder, Karen Solomon, had her latest post as one of the top living green posts last week.

2. @maxgladwell

Rob Reed, the face behind the Max Gladwell alter-ego, is almost like an eco-friendly Batman. He is using the alias and social media as his super power, launching green living into the mainstream. His spiderweb-like network of people is leading a wholesale shift to sustainable systems.

3. @NRDC

With 1.2 million members and online activists in its back pocket, New York Times has named NRDC as one of the nation’s most powerful environmental groups.  We think a round of applause is due for redirecting over 80% of expenses to environmental programs.

4. @ecofabulous

Opportunity Green adores the ecofabulous site which focuses on stylish, sustainable living. CEO and Founder, Zem Joaquin, shares her favorite beauty, fashion, and other fabulous picks each week. It is a must follow for any eco-chic!

5. @treehugger

TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream.  Basically, they are the @CNNbrk equivalent in the green space. We love their variety, tweeting about zombie ants and potato box gardens to spice it up.

6. @yourdailythread

Tracy Helper, Co-Founder of YDT, injects LA sunshine into her green tweets. Her website offers updates about the Los Angeles sustainable community, eco-events, and even organic beer!

7. @greenmeme

Consider this your typical RSS feed but pumped full of green adrenaline.

8. @ecofashionista

To all eco-fashion fans: follow Kelly Drennan, the Founder of Fashion Takes Action.  Drennan is forging ahead in Canada, helping fashion-based businesses of all sizes become more aware of their social and environmental impact, while learning the benefits of operating a more sustainable business. Keep it up Kelly!

9.  @GavinNewsom

San Francisco’s own Mayor Newsom tweets about everything from signing legislation tripling San Francisco’s municipal solar generation-installing the nations largest municipal PV system to appearing on the Rachel Maddow show.

10. @elephantjournal

Elephant Journal is the guide to ‘the mindful life’: yoga, organics, sustainability, genuine spirituality, conscious consumerism, fair fashion, the contemplative arts. Editor-in-Chief, Waylon Lewis, is the host of the “Walk the Talk Show” focused on everything from tech to fashion.

Written by Max Gladwell

Editor’s note: We’re pleased to welcome Max Gladwell, of MaxGladwell.com.  Max Gladwell covers the nexus of social media and green living. We feel that these two trends and technological developments hold tremendous promise for improving quality of life for everyone on the planet.

If you’re reading this blog, then you’re on board with social media. There’s a good chance you belong to social networks like Facebook or MySpace. It’s likely that you Digg stories and even possible that you Twitter. These technologies and services, together with a growing number of others, make up the social web. It’s much like the regular web, but more interactive. More…social. It invites and even demands active participation from everyone. It has a global reach with viral capacity, and yet it’s bringing local communities closer together. It enables people to connect, organize, and make a difference as never before. Indeed, social media is a powerful force, one that the world’s CEOs are starting to acknowledge and take seriously.

Many entrepreneurs, activists, and marketers are leveraging the social web for positive change. In the process and by its very nature, they are giving each of us the tools to change the world and make it a better place. There are thousands of examples, which is precisely why Max Gladwell exists. Here are 10 worth exploring:

 1. Do-Good Widgets: If you’re Facebook page was a car, these would be your bumper stickers. Only these do more than spread the message. Widgets are standalone web applications that can run inside any web page. They take many forms, ranging from the absurd to the truly useful and socially valuable. The best ones engage us in ways that lead to action, awareness, and even fund-raising. Facebook was the first to offer them, and MySpace recently followed. Other social networks offer widgets, but these two have a scale that gives them unrivaled potential. Causes is the 800-pound gorilla in the do-good widget space with millions of daily active users on Facebook alone. If you support a cause, chances are you can find it in Causes. We support 14 ranging from “Recycle not Waste” to “Ride Bikes” and “GREEN“. Each Cause enables you to recruit others and make donations.

A new suite of widgets from Dank Apps called Social Change offers widgets for three main initiatives: Stop Climate Change Now, which raises funds for The Nature Conservancy; Earn For AIDS, which raises funds for the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative; and Earn for Breast Cancer, which raises funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Each of these allows you to send karma points to friends and play games, all of which generate donations from sponsors.

I’m sure I’d get hate comments if I didn’t also mention Lil Green Patch, which has helped to save over 20 million square feet of rainforest.

 2. Get a Green Job: The business networking space is currently dominated by LinkedIn, but  JustMeans has a new social media platform that “rallies both companies and individuals around social responsibility.” As you make your way through the registration and profile-building gauntlet, you are posed with two unique questions: What kind of change do you want to create in the world over the next 12 months? How do you plan on creating this positive change? The site encourages networking between members by recommending matches based on shared interests. Plus, you can network with companies themselves as “stakeholders”. Companies as well as nonprofits set up their own profiles, similar to Facebook Pages, where they can post content about initiatives and CSR efforts. An entire section of the site is dedicated to job listings. This is business networking with a purpose.

 3. Greenstream: Twitter is a way to stay in touch with friends and keep up with breaking news. It is a source of both cutting-edge news and unchecked banality. It all depends on how you want to use it. You can follow CNN, BBC, GreenOptions, and MaxGladwell as “micro-blogs”, where you receive bits of news and links in 140 characters or less. Or you can track the musings of iJustine and Aubs for pure entertainment value. Recently, we started a new Twitter channel called the “greenstream.” Whereas Twitter asks, “What are you doing”, this adds “that is green?” So if you’re shopping at a farmer’s market, drinking fair trade coffee, or carpooling to work, these qualify as Tweets for the greenstream. Just tag your Tweet with “#greenstream”, and it will be indexed for viewing by all. Alternately, if you want to Twitter a green tip, just enter “#greentip” and check the index page for those.

  4. Hugg a Story: Hugg.com is the green counterpart to the wildly popular Digg.com. These are social news sites that enable users to vote and comment on what’s important (and what’s not). This process places the power in the hands of real people who, collectively, determine which issues get attention, rather than leaving it up to the major news organizations to tell us what’s important. The great thing about them, though, is that they get better and more accurate as more people participate. So it’s your civic and social duty to Hugg and Digg stories that matter to you.

  5. Join the “Make The Difference Network“: Actress Jessica Biel, in a collaboration with her father and brother, just launched a social network that connects people and businesses with charitable organizations. Make The Difference Network already has a number of prominent celebrities signed up as members, complete with their favorite causes. Each of the site’s constituencies has a profile platform, and it’s free for all to participate. The “Find Your Wish” section gives people some direction in matching their personal interests or passions with charities ranging from addiction and animals to labor and literacy.

6. Go Shopping: Your purchasing decisions matter. Though presidential elections come once every four years, you vote with your wallet every day. Combined with the tools of social media, you get social shopping. Alonovo describes this as “the power of millions of informed, aware and caring people acting in concert. For a better world.” The company provides a platform in which to interact with fellow conscious consumers, to research products based on a range of social and environmental criteria, and ultimately make informed purchases through Amazon.com. You choose a charitable benefactor, and 50-100% of the commission paid to Alonovo is donated on your behalf.

OsoEco, which is currently in private beta, takes a different tact. Using a bookmark feature for the Firefox browser, you can pull products from any retail site and import them into OsoEco with one click. It’s much like a wiki in this way (more below). Then you review the product for others to see and rate. According to the company, they “created OsoEco to answer our own questions about what’s green, what’s sustainable, and what kinds of things we should buy and do that are good for our communities and, not to sound completely cheesy and cliche, our world.”

7. Contribute to a Wiki: Most are familiar with Wikipedia. It’s a fantastic resource for information and an even more incredible phenomenon of collaborative creation on a global scale. What’s incredible to consider, though, is that it’s just the beginning. As author Clay Shirky points out, it’s a drop in the well compared to the untapped potential of our cognitive surplus. PlayGreen.org is one example of how wikis are being built for specific topic areas. Anyone can contribute or edit articles such as How to build a green PC and RecycleBank. Imagine an entire Wikipedia of knowledge and human experience dedicated to specific issues like global warming, cancer, autism, and renewable energy. That’s where we’re headed.

8. Start Your Own Social Network: Ning has made starting a social network as easy as signing up for an email address. For an example, see the Max Gladwell network or any one of more than 100 networks tagged with “green”. The platform guides you through the customization process, where you can add features like a blog, news feed, videos, calendar, and assorted gadgets (widgets) to give it more utility. This is perfect for organizations on a tight budget that want a place to aggregate information, organize, and keep its members connected. With a bit of coding skill and a premium account, you can customize however you’d like and integrate your own sponsors or advertising.

9. Get Sponsored: SocialVibe is leveraging the traffic we generate from our social networking pages to fund various causes. It works quite simply. You sign up and select from a list of sponsors to endorse, ranging from PowerBar and Cherry Coke to Adobe and Apple. Next, you select a cause to support. We picked an environmental index of sorts that includes “water quality, global warming research and preventative measures, wildlife, agriculture, rainforest preservation and sustainable production of food and building materials.” SocialVibe places your ad on your social networking pages and can also generate code that you can embed most anywhere. When it’s viewed, you generate donations for your cause and also earn points and other perks for yourself.

10. Broadcast Your Message: The cost of web broadcasting (webcasting) has effectively dropped to zero. A number of new technologies are making it possible for anyone to have their own live online TV channel. Indeed, signing up for Ustream.tv is like renting your own production studio. While you’re broadcasting live, viewers can communicate with you and other viewers through a chat interface, and you can even add a co-host. Your “shows” can be archived for later playback, and you can post them to YouTube or your personal pages for further distribution. Ustream also provides a social networking platform and a number of ways to promote your shows, such as through Twitter alerts.

Seesmic has a much different approach with “video conversations”. It’s similar to Twitter in many ways, only instead of posting text entries you record video clips. Other users respond, which forms a thread of video clips that become a video conversation. These clips can be embeded anywhere you want, such as your MySpace page or blog. In fact, Seesmic offers a plugin feature for blogs where you can leave video comments. While there’s nothing particularly green about these video technologies, they represent a next step in communications and an efficient means for producing and distributing green messages.

Mamma Mia! Pregnancy Awareness Month (PAM) 2009 has officially launched with its Motherhood Begins Now event.  Karen Solomon, Co-Founder of Opportunity Green, attended the kick off in Santa Monica, which celebrates the month-long campaign focused on education, exercise, nutrition, and wellness and nurture.

Part of the PAM advisory board includes Anna Getty and eco-chic model Josie Maran.  Fun fact: After attending the University of Paris, Getty decided to pursue an interest in cooking and became an assistant to revered organic chef Akasha Richmond. Akasha’s first restaurant venture, AKASHA, is located in Opportunity Green’s backyard in Culver City.

By the end of the morning bellies were full from the organic lunch designed by Chef Domenica Catelli, CEO of Mom-a-licious, and muscles relaxed from the free Holistic Mommy Lounge Spa Services.  Sounds like the perfect Saturday to me!

The inaugural Green Dot Awards (GDA) went off last night without a hitch.  Set at the Smog Shoppe in Los Angeles, entirely powered by solar energy, the awards featured a gathering of international award recipients ready to celebrate Earth Day.

GDA recognizes businesses, entrepreneurs, designers, innovators and unique green business proposals that focus on creating progressive products, services, and business models. Basically, cheers to green pride!

Stephan McGuire, best known for his work on Leonardo di Caprio’s The 11th Hour, was presented with the GDA Visionary Award for his actions with  Coalition for a Sustainable Africa.  Also know as CSAfrica, the organization is empowering sustainable solutions for grass-roots initiatives and has launched Namibia’s first green charity - Green Awareness Africa.

Opportunity Green received the Award of Excellence in Community + Policy as an organization that has mobilized people and business to take action on environment stewardship. Karen Solomon, Co-Founder of Opportunity Green, graciously thanked the community for saying “yes” to the idea of a conference which encourages the experience of collaboration and the movement towards sustainability.

Esteemed figures in the academic community and Los Angeles government converged this morning to announce the launch of CleanTech Los Angeles.  This unique partnership aims to introduce Los Angeles into the greenspace as the hub of clean techonology.  Members include the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, Caltech, DWP, JPL, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, UCLA, and USC.Opportunity Green Co-Founder Mike Flynn was on hand to witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, signed by all involved parties. During the Q&A, Flynn highlighted the importance of creating clean technology curriculum at engineering schools, such as USC, UCLA, and Caltech.  In general, he is positive about the CleanTech intiative, stating “I’m very excited to see this collaboration between academia, policy and business in LA.”

The innovative launch comes one day after Villaraigosa’s State of the City Address.  A focal point was his plan for a “green” industry corridor east of downtown that would serve as a hub for environmentally conscious firms.  According to the LA Times, Villaraigosa stated Los Angeles needs “to build a future in which clean technology is as synonymous with Los Angeles as motion pictures or aerospace.” Additionally, Opportunity Green supports the Mayor’s recent initiatives: sending 2,000 dirty diesel trucks to the junk yard and replacing them with vehicles that run on natural gas and electricity.Overall, it’s hopeful the CleanTech initiative will boost the number of “green collar” jobs and build Los Angeles into America’s “cleanest and greenest” city.