Throughout the years Root Concepts has traveled to a number of green events to provide coverage and report on the latest developments, speakers and ideas in the sustainability space. Last year we covered SolFest 2007. We ventured an hour north again, to enjoy the 13th annual SolFest in Hopland, California.

SolFest really is like no other event going. An outgrowth of the Solar Living Institute, SolFest, now in its 13th year, is an opportunity to learn about the benefits, possibilities and innovations of living off the power grid, and to see technologies in action. Like most non-profits, the Solar Living Institutes relies on fund raising to make it go. SolFest has proved an excellent way to spread the word, provide practical solutions, and garner a huge outpouring of volunteerism and passion for solar energy and its potential as an alternative to our dependence on petroleum.

Speaking with executive director, Lindsay Dailey , one gets the sense that the time is now for the ideas that have spawned this event. The solar segment of the market has been growing at a rate of 30 to 50% year over year. The industry actually needs qualified professionals to staff the demand for its products and services. This is where it starts to get interesting with regards to the mandate the 501(c)(3) has set out for itself: to serve the greater community.

Dailey says that as they started to look around to the people The Solar Institute was serving, there was a definite lack of color and economic diversity within its community. In order to truly be sustainable, they had to serve a greater segment. They looked to Richmond, California, where the crime rate, unemployment rate, and need for an infusion of real problem solving is highest.

Solar Richmond is an ambitious idea whose time has come. The mandate is simple and straightforward:

Our mission is to promote and inspire the use of solar power and energy efficiency in order to bring the economic benefits of the green economy to Richmond. We serve the community through solar installation training, educating a new “green-collar” workforce and opening doors to employment.Our mission is to promote and inspire the use of solar power and energy efficiency in order to bring the economic benefits of the green economy to Richmond. We serve the community through solar installation training, educating a new “green-collar” workforce and opening doors to employment. Our goals -

100 new green-collar jobs,

50 solar installations for low-income homeowners by 2010

5 megawatts of solar electric power installed in Richmond by 2010

Solar Richmond  - up on the roof!

The results are promising and inspiring: an urban solution from nature, and the Solar Living Institute. More of these types are programs are needed to bring real diversity to the green economy, jobs to segments currently lacking employment, and a future to the spreading of these concepts and ideas to communities outside the “green bubble”.

Bravo, to Solar Living Institute, Solar Richmond and the SolFest for spreading it around.

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Nau Update:

Nau has been acquired by Horny Toad who will attempt to resurrect the business model in a new and improved fashion. Be on the lookout for a newly updated site in October, along with a new season of clothes. Here’s what they have to say:

In October we’ll launch a new nau.com featuring new fall product. We’ll also initiate a new set of partnerships with a select group of retailers who will carry Nau clothing in their stores. Through the new website and our retail partners, we’re looking forward to making it even easier for you to find and try out the great designs in our Fall line.

Wishing them all the best in their new incarnation, and looking forward to seeing the new model bring the superior ideals of the old Nau to the fore.

Nau, Beverly Center which only opened last month.

Maybe it’s the economy, maybe it’s the true cost of doing business with a triple bottom line. Could it be the fact that we say we want sustainable choices, but when it comes down to it, we don’t want to pay for it…or perhaps it is a little of all of those things? Nonetheless, a great idea just shut its doors. Nau was a clothing company ahead of its time:

• Fair wages - bylaws prohibited any Nau executive from earning more than 12 times what the lowest-paid U.S. worker earned.

• Corporate responsibility - their charitable giving program dedicated 5 percent of each sale to charity.

• Innovative distribution via webfront stores - 10% off any purchase if one elected to have the item shipped for free instead of carrying it out of the store. This policy allowed Nau to stock and ship (and ship back) fewer items, creating more energy-efficient stores.

• Fashion forward design - truly sustainable fabrics and design practices from great designers with premium sportswear pedigrees…

• Shall I go on?

The bottom line is that Nau could not find its next round of venture funding to support a longer run, which says the model was still unproven, and therefore; great try, but not a home run. So it is with a sigh that we say goodbye to Nau, and what we expect may have influence on a longer-term success story. But in the short run, Nau leaves without the opportunity to prove itself sustainable.

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Happy Earth Day, 2008, the year that talk of sustainability spreads to new heights. Everywhere we look, we see the effects - CitiBank is offering a contest to win a brand new hybrid or green kitchen makeover. Green blogs are proliferating at an unprecedented rate: Technorati has 37,869 blogs about green, 6933 blogs about environment.

Even Disney is getting into the mix with their version of green messaging.

Mickey’s new word is “Environmentality”!

All of this is positive, right? At the same time, concerns arise over the ability of the green, cultural zeitgeist to hold the momentum. Can the “First World” truly become global in our ability to spread the green? The odds are working in our favor, as even the largest players are converting their awareness to what consumers expect, and transparency is big on the list. Greenwashing is now a word to add to the vernacular. So where do we take it from here? We’ve been a little quiet here on the Root Concepts blog…we are working on some ideas around these issues, and look forward to sharing with our readers very soon. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts. How are you taking it to the next level? Whom do you admire in the landscape of the new sustainables, and whom should we encourage to examine their motives and methods?

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A recent purchase in the product world has created quite the buzz. Last week The Clorox Company announced that they have bought the beloved Burt’s Bees for $925 million in cash.

Burt’s Bees, which began in 1984 as cofounder Burt Shavitz peddling honey out the back of his pick-up, has an ever-growing following for it natural products over the past years. Now in a situation similar to Colgate’s purchasing of Tom’s of Maine, or Ben & Jerry’s buyout to Unilever, brand-loyal consumers have been sent into a tailspin.

According to Clorox, the natural personal care market already accounts for over $6 billion in sales each year, and sales are climbing at an annual rate of 9%. The purchase of the natural products company is intended to prep Clorox for the release of Green Works, their new environmentally friendly cleaning line.
“The Burt’s Bees brand is well-anchored in sustainability and health and wellness, and we believe it will benefit from natural and ‘green’ tailwinds,” said Clorox Chief Executive Donald R. Knauss. “It’s in an economically attractive category with a margin structure that will be highly accretive to Clorox.”
Plans are in place for Burt’s to conduct a distribution test with Wal-Mart Stores by the end of the year. Clorox, coincidentally, obtains 26% of its sales from Wal-Mart.
The purchased Google search results link to www.burtsbees.com currently opens up to the “Our Values” page, featuring “The Greater Good Business Model,” instead of the usual homepage. Among other hypocritical highlights, the site includes “animals rights” and “fair trade” in it’s web of consciousness; a compelling contrast to Clorox’s animal testing practices and Burt’s branching out to Wal-Mart.
The site also features a response to the recent purchase via “A Letter to Our Loyal Customers,” which states that Burt’s still plans to stick to their ‘green’ guns, and that the purchase is “a great opportunity to help us better deliver against our mission of making truly natural personal products available to everyone, everywhere.” The company may now be able to make the most of their mission, but what about those values?
On the brighter side, the Burt’s business will not be joining The Clorox Company headquarters in Oakland, CA, but remain nestled in North Carolina. Perhaps the cross country distance between the bleach and the beeswax will be enough to convince consumers.

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Today is Blog Action Day, a worldwide event initiated to create awareness around the environment via bloggers. As Root Concepts’ blog is intended to get people thinking about the underlying issues of sustainability, we invite each of our readers to take part in this global action. Over 15,000 blogs have signed up, and they’ll reach over 12.5 million readers today via RSS alone, so early signs point to a success here in the inaugural year. Check out who is participating and surf on out into the extended green blogosphere to see what people have to say about the planet. And then take some action of your own…we invite you to let us know how and what you are doing.

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“SolFest, the Greenest Show on Earth”

Root Concepts is committed to promoting sustainable ways of life, so we could not pass up the annual opportunity to visit SolFest 2007. Hosted by the Solar Living Center, based in Hopland, California, SolFest, “the Greenest Show on Earth,” is packed full of green wisdom, innovation, education, nourishment, and, last but not least, inspirational fun! For each and every ecologically or socially unfriendly issue, there is a sustainable green solution.

Our first stop was the all-around sustainable Thanksgiving Coffee stand, where we were served great coffee in recycled ceramics mugs with a smile - we dunked delicious organic oatmeal cookies. Bellies full, we cruised past a multitude of attractive booths featuring sustainable ideas, services, and products presented by friendly knowledgeable vendors. The newly opened Green Building Exchange based in Redwood City, California, for instance, was actively fulfilling its mission to connect the public with sustainable, green building professionals while promoting its Green Seed Radio show. Nearby, an earnest young woman was surrounded by sustainably-produced clothing and accessories, handmade by women’s cooperatives in Guatemala. The Presidio School of Management’s presence was outstanding with one of its students who wisely summarized the reason for sustainable living as such:
“We’ve got to look at the triple-bottom line, valuing people, profit and the environment equally.”

We couldn’t pass up the delicious smelling pizza baking at 350 degrees in the solar oven before having a private interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Amy succinctly defined sustainability for us: “Sustainability is about non-violent living in the world, whether it’s in relation to people or the earth…Sustainability is about not only maintaining the earth but allowing it to thrive. Sustainability is about sustaining all of us…I think that if we deeply believe in sustainability, we can abolish war in the twenty-first century.”

Joyous, young girls proudly explained that they were running “the only solar-powered carousel in the world,” as they sipped on their organic grape sodas. We caught up with Serge Labesque, a remarkable beekeeper running a workshop at SolFest this year. Together we visited one of the Solar Living Center beehives while he summed it up: “Without them (the bees), we would not have the plants, the food, the life that we have. It would be totally different. We would not be here.”

As the sun began to set, we found our way to the sustainable wine-tasting tent. We stumbled upon Stephanie Jarvis of Mendocino Farms who was sampling its exquisite biodynamically produced wines. “Biodynamic agriculture is about producing not only in harmony with the earth, but with the entire cosmos,” explained Stephanie.

And what would SolFest be without its Moondance, the big Saturday night bash of of green fashion, veggie-oil wrestling, belly dancers and inspiring hip tunes?!

We left exhilarated and inspired. if we want to improve our ways toward a sustainable future, a multitude of creative and affordable solutions exist for each and every facet of our lives.

If you missed SolFest this year, be sure to bookmark your 2008 calendars!

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“Lake Michigan is like a giant bathtub with a really, really slow drain and a dripping faucet, so the toxics build up over time,” said Emily Green, director of the Great Lakes program for the Sierra Club.

Despite this knowledge, an Indiana refinery of the global petroleum giant, BP, has been given a permit to continue to dump mercury into Lake Michigan. The permit overrides an existing limit of 1.3 ounces per year on mercury discharges into the Great Lakes. BP will be allowed to continue their practice of dumping 3 pounds of mercury through surface water discharges as it has been since 2002, according to the Toxics Release Inventory, an EPA datebase on pollution emissions. The permit, which accompanies the plant’s $3.8 billion expansion, gives BP until at least 2012 to meet the federal standard.

“With one permit, this company and this state are undoing years of work to keep pollution out of our Great Lakes,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., co-sponsor of a resolution overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that condemned BP’s plans.

This lack of corporate responsibility brings to mind the mercury poisoning of the Japanese fishing village of Minamata in the 1950’s. The outcome was tragic as the town was poisoned by mercury from industrial pollution created by the town’s main employer, the Chisso Corporation. The plight became known as Minamata Disease for its devastating effects on the entire population., and was famously documented by Life photographer Eugene Smith who, with his wife, Aileen, lived in Minamata for many years.

It seems neither pervasive environmental awareness, nor the regulations designed to “protect” our resources are strong enough to deter the circumnavigation of this knowledge. It is disturbing to recall the images of a time only a few decades previous, but perhaps in the end, a picture is worth a thousand words.

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