LOHAS 11

LOHAS is an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. Read more about it on the LOHAS website. To me, it represents our target audience for much of what we are doing now including Playa Viva, Casa Viva, Calakmul, Rainforests2Reefs and more. I call them the "Whole Foods Shopping, Prius Driving, Yoga Class taking" consumers. The conference reinforced my belief that this group shops based on their values first.

Two big highlights from this conference:

1. TerraCycle - You got to love these guys. Their product is Garbage (Worm Pop and Worm Tea used as organic plant food. Their packaging is garbage (recycled plastic bottles). They develop a recycling program with schools and other organizations to raise money by recycling bottles for them. We hope to work with TerraCycle to develop a recycling program in Mexico. Mexico has a huge problem due to the cultural habit of burning trash. Now that PET Plastic bottles are part of the trash (rather than traditional all organics), the burning of PET releases poisonous and cancer causing dioxins into the air and ground water supply.


2. LivingHomes - We visited with Steve Glenn - founder and user of LivingHomes. His house is the model and it is a model. It is a prefab green home, so green that he achieved Platinum LEED Certification. Steve has thought of everything, from xeriscape roof garden, solar radian heat, denatured alcohol fume free fireplace, undersink composter and my favorite system of all is his computer system for tracking energy usage in real time. I thought watching and working the MPG meter in my Prius was a challenge befitting the Accidental Environmentalist, try monitoring and optimizing all the electrical use in your home. It woudl be nice to create pre-fab, modern green beach home project...maybe we can convince Steve to join us on our next project.

This was my first LOHAS conference, it was VERY LA (sitting in on Mariel Hemingway pitching her new book was just one example). Looking forward to this event moving back to Colorado next year.

SVN 20th Anniversay

So I joined SVN, Social Venture Network, a few months ago and attended my fist SVN member gathering, which happened to be its 20th anniversary. This was one of the best decisions of my life and one of the best events I've ever attended. What made it so great. First the people, the quality of people and the work they are doing. Second, the inspiration, just when you thought you were doing everything right, these folks show you what it really means to "do it right". So you want examples of what I mean by this, I can give you two:

1) Judy Wicks and White Dog Cafe - Not only is Judy a pioneer but she keeps on innovating. It was not enough to be organic, she had to be local, and then when she was local, she provided those resources to her competition to help the local community farmers. Her commitment is to the health of the community.

2) Bernie Glassman - and then their is Bernie - he truly is a Zen Master. But his commitment to socially responsible ventures is in one word, "inspiring". Here is just a slice of his story, more on his website:

Greyston Bakery. Founded in 1982 in the southwest corner of Yonkers, a poor neighborhood beset by high unemployment, violence and drugs, the bakery began to hire people that conventional businesses had deemed “unemployable.” It trained its employees in bakery crafts and soon they were producing some of New York's most expensive, high-end cakes and tarts sold in the city's fanciest eateries. In 1990 it began to produce brownies for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and its revenues shot up dramatically. Since its humble founding, the bakery grew into a successful $6 million business with more than 75 employees. Its hiring remains to this very day "First come, first served," and much of its profits are recycled into seed money for its sister not-for-profits, thus making the entire network more sustainable and financially independent.




I am looking forward to more of SVN.


More on SVN to come.