Fermenting a New Culture – Has Begun!
October 3, 2011
The news from Occupy Wall Street is BIG – the country is in ferment, 
and yes – we are fermenting a new culture in many ways! Slow Food is one way we can all participate even if we can’t drive to Washington, New York…SF…
WE CAN ALL Stop shopping at Corporate stores, stop eating corporate food, it is all owned by the same guys & their brothers, the ones that brought us loss of jobs, loss of our homes, loss of our monetary independence. It makes dollars & sense, it puts money back in the local community, it is sustainable.
It-is-all-connected… & the destination for any continuing abuse of the body politic & your body, temple of our spirit – is sickness in community & in health.
What I am saying is we start spending our precious dollars in our own community, buy locally grown food, go to the Farmer’s Market, make a statement with our pocketbooks – we will feel good about it & will feel better physically too!
I spent the last few days creating and presenting a workshop on Fermentation, the live food chemistry kind. 
It fits in with my political rant here as you have let me say – Fermentation of simple, garden grown, local food gives many health benefits & helps stretch inexpensive food dollars, as well as using produce from field & garden. It keeps us out of the stores & helps us gather some “stores” of REAL FOOD.
We all loved the experience of making sauerkraut together, finding tastes that are new yet delightful & generally getting more deeply informed around the topics of yogurt, cheese, sauerkraut, vinegar, kombucha & sourdough. 
You can buy all these things or you can make them at a fraction of the cost, finding many ingredients in your locally owned farm stand or market. I encourage you to find such a class in your area or make one happen, it is about LIVE Food, Bio-available nutrients, Happy enzymes & intestines…all good stuff. I give thanks to my students who trusted me to guide them into the shallow waters of Live Fermentation…simple cottage ferments, political ferments… may we all find our way to the middle of the river, where deeper information resides, and a lifetime of experimentation brings new thoughts to the mix!
Certainly discovering the vast stores of knowledge at Sandor Katz’s website will be a beginning no Fermenter will regret.
And, oh yes – it is very political to grow & eat your own food, or get raw milk from a farmer down the road, let’s take that to the streets too!
Our Right 2 Know!
June 21, 2011
“Democratic progress requires the ready availability of true and complete information. In this way people can objectively evaluate their government’s policy. To act otherwise is to give way to despotic secrecy.”
We all have a ‘Right to Know’ before we make decisions that will effect our health, happiness, lives & future. it is that simple. Get educated. Take a stand. It is your RIGHT 2 KNOW! This new category of posts & information will bring attention to current issues that we all have a ‘Right to Know’ about.
The theme for the Sustainability Road Show tour this year is Right2Know – so I am inspired to start a blog with themes of Right2Know that they could use! Zack sez to think about this…
…we have the right2know about GMO’s.
We have the right2know that .51 cents per every tax dollar goes to fund military initiatives
We have the right2know the environmental effects of chevron’s drilling in the Amazon.
The R2K moment has been around for years – all over the world – mostly to do with Freedom of Information, Government Legislation & Hazardous Substances facts.
SO – Let’s stretch the definition back, back – to the common commonsensical right to know what we are putting into our mouths, what we are drinking & what we are breathing. The commons includes the Earth, the Air, The Water. it is our Right to Know when they have been changed or altered from the pure sources of life that all beings on this planet rely on.
Right to know is a concept that is both common sense as well as crucial to the health and stability of a community. Individuals in communities around the world are exposed to harmful pollutants and in some cases disasters in which were cased by corporation’s neglect. As a result, many have died and even more have been injured or have been stricken with detrimental health problems. Due to the demand for a decline in tragic events as well as safe living environments, Right to know has been pushed to indirectly restrict the harmful actions of corporations. With the ability to research one’s pollutant emissions, corporation are less inclined to pollute and carry out harmful environmental effect.
Here are some R2K websites & links to give you background for our discussion.
“Right to know“, in the context of United States workplace and community environmental law, is the legal principle that the individual has the right to know the chemicals to which they may be exposed in their daily living. It is embodied in federal law in the United States as well as in local laws in several states. “Right to Know” laws take two forms: Community Right to Know and Workplace Right to Know. Each grants certain rights to those groups. The “right to know” was a movement made popular by Rachel Carson with her book Silent Spring.
The Right2Know Campaign (R2K) is a South African nation-wide coalition of people and organisations opposed to the Protection of Information Bill – also known as the Secrecy Bill – currently before the South African parliament. The Bill will threaten hard-won constitutional rights including access to information and freedom of expression.?? R2K believes a responsive and accountable democracy able to meet the basic needs of our people is built on transparency and the free flow of information. The R2K campaign statement – “Let the truth be told. Stop the Secrecy Bill!” – demands that the Bill be drastically rewritten to bring it in line with constitutional values, or thrown out.
Australia’s Right to Know is a coalition of 12 major media companies formed in May 2007 to address concerns about free speech. The coalition is working with the Commonwealth and State governments to establish new policy and best practice to improve Australian’s relatively poor world ranking for freedom of speech. Australia’s Right to Know has also commissioned independent research into freedom of speech issues.
Canadian RTK is about information accessibility. Freedom of information legislation refers to the regime for accessing public information held by a government. It generally indicates what information is accessible by the public and what is not, such as, personal information or information related to national security in times of war.
The Right-to-Know Network is one source, helping advocates push for improved access to government-held information on the environment, health, and safety. The Right-to-Know Network provides free access to numerous databases and resources on the environment. With the information available on RTK NET, you can identify specific factories and their environmental effects; find permits issued under environmental statutes; and identify civil cases filed.
Back to the USA…What do you want to know about? To discuss? Corporate power, GMO Food labels, tax allocation, raids on raw milk producers, the effects of bottled water usage in your body? It is possibly endless…ok, so we prioritize>>>
What topics are the most pressing…should we specifically address first? Fuel useage, fracking, rail funding cuts, CIA control of Facebook? [Just kidding...not!] etc, etc…so many things happening…sheezz, how about a new discussion category called “we’re in deep shit”
Solution based ideas & comments invited, I always need a positive reason to get out of bed in the morning.
-Annie
The SUSTAINABLE LIVING ROAD SHOW
June 18, 2011
A day to play at a Festival! Hooray!
The best part of my day at Harmony Festival (and there were some great moments!) was discovering the SUSTAINABLE LIVING ROAD SHOW and the Eco-Grove…
a variety of attractions and vendors – ranging from live art to a living mandala to a “guess your carbon footprint” calculator and a whole myriad of other things in between. Well – yes- seeing Caroline W. Casey was an unequaled unrivaled wordsmithing blast…but that’s a subject for another day…
A rare family day for me & walking into the Eco-Grove took us right into a carnival! Five year old Adrien was immediately completely at home & wanted to be there more than anything else all day long – including the climbing structure. Why not? Brilliant – the eco-carnival games – yes, getting out sustainability information – not as a lecture or a blog – or any other wordy attempt to educate, but rather – as fun!
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Tossing out Fossil Fuels – a favorite. You toss bean bags at pictures of ugly drilling rigs or big trucks & if you hit it- it turns to a colorful image of a solar panel or a bus (They forgot to put in a train, darn it!) All for a donation of – whatever you want.
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Eco-opolis, a Model Green City was a favorite! Here you invest money (tossing coins) into various structures & areas of a Dream Green city built entirely from discards & trash.
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Very fun & punny too! Best place of all – the LOVE Factory, definitely my next job will be working here…Hard to hit, but Adrien did it, that’s my boy – a love factory investor.
I am sure that what these folks are doing is making a big difference in kids & adult lives, how can you not think about use of fuels or what we are doing for public health when you play these games!?
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Or – how about getting completely covered in mud while you help build a house! That would have appealed more if I had a change of clothes 
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The Earth Mandala was housed under a bamboo structure made by one of their amazing interns, Ben. He spent weeks leading up to the festival working on the project – and I must say that all his hard work paid off. The bamboo structure only added to the impressiveness of the mandala – I mean, it’s an amazing thing on its own, but with this beautifully designed structure, it was incredible! 
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Best of all – way up inside were huge flying honeybees letting us know how important their work is – can you read it? [1/3 of the human diet requires pollination from our friends - the honeybees]
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~Carbon Footprint anyone? I am stoked that my carbon footprint appears to be on the extreme lower edge of normal. Well, I thought I would register even better – but, without cheating on the numbers – it is time for that solar hot water heater! Maybe that NEV (Neighborhood Electric Car) that I keep threatening to find.
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~Or keeping chickens – that’s it! Eggs galore & no more slugs, now – that would be paradise…
Back on track (sayings about trains abound!) – I want to mention that you can visit the SUSTAINABLE LIVING ROAD SHOW at their website – even if they don’t come soon to a city near you…you won’t be sorry!
Ethical Eating – Food and Environmental Justice
February 20, 2011
I have been watching movies & reading so many diet & health books lately – trying to get my head around the deeper ethics of diet. Beyond eating for best health – what are the other issues? For one – Food Ethics – finding a worldview that incorporates the rights of humans to choose their food with the rights of all Beings to live successfully in harmony on this finite planet. That sounds simple enough – yet, why the raging controversy? You’d think we are discussing religion or politics! Well, maybe we are…
While studying for the endocrine nutrition classes I recently taught, it became very clear that references & resources are now legion in any one camp of belief, especially with Internet resources, multiple books promoting any one theory, and very few of us capable of reading actual peer-reviewed studies. In fact – my own history of study using peer-reviews in technical journals, is that the studies themselves seem to be funded by a well-off corporation who managed to get some academics to perform the study with an intended result. Am I being cruel? Is there no way out of this entanglement of beliefs & truth?
I can only reach deep inside myself & feel my way out when this happens. The heart “knows” more than the brain when it comes to first perception. I choose from there.
Have I lost you yet?
If not – back to my topic in mind – food ethics – determining what foods humans should choose with full consideration of planetary balance & the rights of all living beings. (Let’s say all of those still alive & those who have died due to our lack of eco-ethics)
Let’s say also that… we need to BE healthy instead of BELIEVE healthy.
What food choices really work for YOU? Can you know now what to eat – in advance of the probably years it will take to see the results… once your health is compromised – or worse – wrecked?
Simple thoughts:
Whenever I can – I choose to eat locally & organically, a variety of foods produced with minimal impact on water use, soil degradation & while also recycling maximum nutrient back into an almost closed loop system. Can we artfully achieve this noble goal in our daily life – replete as it is with the temptations & delights – indeed – the wondrous tastes of foreign foods- rich roasted coffee drinks, creamy chocolate desserts, bananas, blueberries in winter, fish from foreign shores, the entire range at Trader Joes for Gods sake! In order to eat ethically you have to stay home & garden, or shop quickly with a list & get out before your eyes linger on the specialties waiting to grab your attention at checkout. The demons of imported foods are all around us.
Oh, now where was I? (as she eats cute small tangerine & handful of almonds -where were they grown? – during mini-break) I was hoping to at least give you a list of ethical discussions now in print…recommended by me in my own slanted style of current favorites…reader warning – they don’t all agree!
Viola! Finally you come to it….(forget cultural bias, availability, health theory or practice when considering this aspect of food choice)
(a partial list of “Ethical Eating” resources)
BOOKS:
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon, Mary G. Enig PhD (A full-spectrum nutritional cookbook with a startling message–animal fats and cholesterol are vital factors in the human diet, necessary for reproduction and normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Includes information on how to prepare grains, health benefits of bone broths and enzyme-rich lacto-fermented foods.)
The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability - Lierre Keith (discusses alternatives to industrial farming, reveals the risks of a vegan diet, and explains why animals belong on ecologically sound farms.)
Full Moon Feast – Jessica Prentice (Jessica Prentice champions locally grown, humanely raised, nutrient-rich foods and traditional cooking methods as she recounts her relationships with local farmers alongside ancient harvest legends and methods of food preparation from indigenous cultures around the world.)
Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating by Jane Goodall (Goodall focuses more on the product of “factory farming” techniques: mountains of waste, nutritionally depleted soil, polluted water, displaced organic farmers, and severely compromised food.)
The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters (the Waters mantra: eat locally and sustainably; eat seasonally; shop at farmers markets)
Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe (eating lower on the food chain -i.e. more grains and vegetables- is crucial the key to ending worldwide hunger, author’s theory is that non-meat proteins are much more efficient and sustainable to produce)
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (In a journey that takes us from an “organic” California chicken farm to Vermont, Pollan asks basic questions about the moral and ecological consequences of our food)
How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons (Jeavons lays out a comprehensive guide to growing the most food you can on the least amount of land in the most sustainable way – on an ongoing basis into perpetuity, most healthy both for your family, your land, and the wider world.)
MOVIES:
I am happy to see more and more “good food” documentaries coming out. While I think movies like “Food, Inc.” are important to educate us on food issues, I appreciate the solution based films even more.
DIRT! The Movie, tells the amazing and little known story of the relationship between humans and living dirt. Why Dirt?
Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth’s climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth.
Edible City: A new (more grassroots) film prides itself in showing what people are doing in their own backyards in an urban environment, and with their own resources. It shows the movers and shakers in sustainable ag in the SF Bay Area.
FRESH - Ana Joanes (“FRESH brings more of the solutions and ideas for positive change to the table while Food Inc. focuses on the overwhelming power of industrial ag, its problems and challenges, leaving the viewer very troubled.”) I really enjoyed seeing the film “Fresh” recently on the shift towards sustainable food. It was great to see Will Allen’s Growing Power. He was growing sooo much food on a small urban plot, and loves his composting worms! And I loved finally meeting farmer Joel Salatin.
Botany of Desire: Michael Pollan (takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world – seen from the plants’ point of view – the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato – evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control)
Nourish: Food + Community: (With beautiful visuals and inspiring stories, Nourish traces our relationship to food from a global perspective and suggests the steps individuals can take to create a more sustainable food system and live more healthful lives.)
Want more?
Read some great thoughts…
Further interesting discussion threads form on this vegan web page – a China Study critique. Vegan insights – yet of course – in support of my current theme of moderate eating of all healthy foods, animal or vegetable – locally grown with closed loop inputs….plus a questioning of the results of our last 10,000 years of agricultural practices & the future of food…
Invite response? Yes! I may be impatient & a poor scientist, but am an eater of food therefore deserve an opinion. Also – as avid debater in the realms of art – in which I have always thought that nutrition & food belonged – I get to enjoy my own my “taste”.
How should we eat? Damned if I truly know…yet. Can we even afford to debate this matter of ethics & choice considering the spiraling descent of food availability planetary -wide? Best to debate it while we work in the garden & rest a moment on our shovels – just in case the narrowing gap between the starving & the well-fed continues to affect more & more eaters, mainly those of us in the USA blessed with choice & variety of nutrient & taste. The debate continues even while the deserts enlarge & the waters are poisoned.
PS For those who are still concerned with the effects of diet on personal health – and I am one of them….the important discussion on health & community should remind us that it doesn’t matter how much conviction these various authorities have on their own theories, if it doesn’t work for you it’s worthless. We’ve each got to find out on our own what we should include in our own diets using the advice of others merely as a framework. Wholeness & Health? Cancer? Perfect energy? Endocrine disruption? Arthritis? Athletic prowess? It’s all around us, let’s perceive with our hearts & choose with our deepest feelings before we say grace over that next meal.
Biochar
April 3, 2010
“char·coal” definition: a black or dark gray form of carbon, produced by heating wood or another organic substance in an enclosed space without air.
I have been putting my final charcoal from burn piles & the wood stove into my garden beds for several years, hoping this common charcoal was Biochar… it is 
created in a smothered fire & yet didn’t consume like the rest of the logs, fits the description…but, how to smash & screen it into a finer powder, that sounds important! This year I will do it better…
Ed Burton has been talking about this for years too…& of course, biodynamic gardening has promoted it forever…time to take it more seriously…
My friend Lee thinks that this will save us when we can no longer get outside sources of fertilizers & amendments…we do live in a forest after all…
AVATAR – A MYTH FOR OUR FUTURE
January 12, 2010
Hollywood has brought us yet another opportunity to tune into a possible future…
I loved it deeply, have seen it twice so far (3D was great!) and will see it again, I know.
Reading so many descriptions, reviews, got to give my own…
For me it was at least an offering to the vision of a beautiful future for our own planet – a vision of community, shared food, simple life in nature. Ok – that is merely the surface – I am trying to speak of DEEP ECOLOGY, the right relationships that can come with reverence for other Beings – be they trees or animals. All of this was implied in the world of the Tribal Forest People.
I want to speak right now of our relationship to the meat we eat. As a cook & nutritionist I have been through many phases of vegetarianism since 1970 when I discovered brown rice & macrobiotics. I now eat a small amount of local or organic poultry & wild fish, as well as using broth from bones. Although I do not kill my own meat, I have done so. years ago I was a communal caretaker of goats, chickens, rabbits, ducks. We fished and certainly i gutted, descaled & cleaned lots of fish as a child with my grandfather. I believe that we each should be able & willing to do that – to clean the organs, cleave meat from bone, access the animal’s raw biology & flesh. If we cannot bear to think about that – how can we justify being carnivores – eating such an offering from the life blood & sacrifice of this Being? And, so – I ask us all to question our inner truth, what do we eat, how do we offer it into our very metabolism, as it becomes part of our own flesh, do we give thanks, do we revere the life that has been lost to save our own? It is the true spirituality of food, and an opportunity to again – say Grace, give thanks and make the food into love & a blessing to our bodies. (And I am talking about plants here too, by the way)
So, let’s think about the hunting scenes…using bow & arrow, knife, a more equal challenge between the prey & the hunter…
In the words of Lauren Raine – www.threadsofspiderwoman.blogspot.com
…They even had enough anthropological understanding to include the hunter who prays over the body of the fallen prey, offering thanks for the gift of its meat – this is, indeed, what native peoples universally did in both myth and in practice, recognizing and honoring that the animal has sacrificed its life to sustain the life of the tribe. Most Americans do not equate the hamburger they buy with an animal that has lost its life, let alone do they comprehend a spiritual system that respects the exchange of life force and energy that has taken place. What a wonderful concept to introduce to the young people who watched the movie…
To finish – I invite each of you readers to see this movie as a deeper symbol of more than the politics between conqueror & conquered (European Invaders vs Indians, etc) and other wonderful analogies that can be made about resource extraction, but rather – as a mythology for the spirituality of nature & our place in it, the very Gaian Philosophy of Lovelock & Deep Ecologists such as Joanna Macy! I will even take it one step further – in the scenes at the Tree of Life - we witnessed a ritual of healing involving the synthesis of an entire community acting & tuning as one – the possibilities of which break open our own limited beliefs in “Self & Other”. Tune to each other, become true community, unite in compassion & shared life, healing. Enjoy, live in joy, fly! I think I got it.
GREENING UP!
April 1, 2008
Ancient Circles is “Going Green.” This is becoming an interesting and not altogether simple process. In this early stage – it still comes down to price points and sourcing. My tried and true suppliers are not able to easily source Organic or other sustainable materials at a price my current customers want to pay. What to do? Do I educate my customers & help my suppliers to source? Cut my margins? Find entire new markets? At what cost? As we all know – 25 years of sound business policy cannot be turned on its head overnight just because we are in a planetary crisis…but wait! What did I just say?
INCREMENTAL STEPS
Ancient
YOUR UNIQUE
There are other things we can do. Each business has a unique opportunity:
Open Circle has helped finance the installation of a simple dye waste treatment plant for my batik artist in
FABRICOLOGY
I have been researching rayon to see if it better for the planet than conventional cotton, and so far – I think it is. Balinese rayon products made by a small supplier, with good working conditions and family continuity can have a Green edge even though the Balinese cannot easily source Organics. I call these items “Fairly Traded”, as they adhere to the principles of fair trade agreements.
It sometimes comes down to the Shade of Green.
SIMPLE FIRST STEPS
I also have been offering flex-time for employees, reduced days a week ( saves commute energy) have been recycling and reusing most paper products, packing boxes and materials, using light wells and low energy lights, turning off office machines at night, flushing less often, and many other simple energy reductions. Solar would be great – but since I am renting that is a problem. Many businesses are in the same boat. We cannot install solar, radiant heat, or other large ticket energy savers without our landlord’s interest and frankly – financial backing. Why am I so interested in Greening my business?
ANCIENT CIRCLES HISTORY
Let’s begin with some history.
Ancient Circles began over 25 years ago with my discovery of meaningful ritual and a concurrent desire to create jewelry and designs that enhanced and empowered people’s lives. At that time, I was fabricating crystal pendants – hand making each one as the energy of the stone spoke to me. The crystals were very clearly part of our new Planetary harmonic, and it felt very right to be sharing them at that time. This successful launch evolved into a study and sharing of the symbolic images of world religions and ancient cultures- especially Goddess images and Celtic designs, which I felt strongly were bringing us all “back home” to our tribal roots and Planetary consciousness. Now, years later, the mass market has taken these images into our daily lives. Dragons, Fairies, Goddesses and the Green man are all about us now, and I feel that the arrival of the Divine Feminine as rightful counterpart to the Male God energy is also arriving for us all as we begin to reconsider the Green meaning of our lives.
GREENING OF THE SPIRIT
The spiritual background and discovery of our Ancient Roots is a great starting point for deep ecology – that deep “knowing” that does not require scientific proof of a melting arctic ice shelf to know that we are out of balance.
The Greening of our inner spirit with positive Male (The Green Man) and Female (Triple Goddess, Isis and others) Archetypes is offering us a way to connect with forgotten or untapped layers of our being. The outer world reflection of this rebalancing is seen in the current collective interest in Ecological matters, the Greening our lives, our material possessions and businesses. Many of us are in this place right now, right today. I feel strongly that soon we will evolve our deepest and truest values further – to a future of simplicity, fewer material goods, a sense of place, of community, of extended family and shared commons. This is – of course, not new at all, but rather a return to the ancient ways of our ancestors. We lost touch as we “partied” in the last millennia of cheap energy – especially the gross burning of an entire planetary supply of ancient sunlight – coal and oil resources.
GREEN VALUES
This re-newed emphasis on deep values is a necessary spiral curve as humans evolve to survive in the crisis ahead. Re-valuing love of family, re-considering nature, the beauty of sustainable goods, all of these outer signs are created and matched by a less obvious personal inner transformation. These are the elements of my own transition at this time, and I feel it being shared by most folks I meet. A study of the ancients, the stories of our grandmothers, and memories of the early years of the 1960′s and 1970′s culture are now the guiding light of an entire worldwide localization movement intent on reducing our energy consumption.
GREEN TRANSITION
Green products have always been with us, we are merely rediscovering and “Branding” them. The practice of using baskets and cloth bundles has been going on as long as there has been trading and sharing of goods. I still have several “Save a Tree” canvas market bags from the 1970′s. I don’t know who made them – but they were early innovators who have passed on their good idea to the rest of us “Ecobag” makers. My own product mix has included personal water bottle bags, and suggestions for reducing plastic bottles for about 10 years. This is just now gaining interest. How far ahead of the curve can we afford to be when in commerce? I have spent much of my professional life educating people about products because they were seeing the idea for the first time. Years ago – when I branded the personal care line – “Desert Essence”, I needed a huge space on the shampoo label to educate the buyer on Jojoba and the desert herbs that I chose for the innovative formula. Nowadays, it is common practice, but back then – it was a huge innovation. The usual creed of Branding – “Don’t make them think”, just help them unconsciously select your item in the store.” is at its heart very inauthentic! Let us all use some energy to bring everyone into this Green Transition. GREEN BRANDING WILL REFLECT OUR SUSTAINABLE VALUES, NOT THE OLD ADAGES.
As we truly Green our lifestyles and businesses, we will become better at choosing the best thing for the right reasons. Right now, we are all a bit unsure about the Shades of Green in our choices. Should I choose conventional cotton over rayon? Is that tag “Made in
ANNIE GREEN JEANS CONSULTING
We all need help with these questions. My consulting services include research to fit your specific needs, direction and business plan. What is it that you have always wanted to do, but felt was not practical? Can you start simply with some surefire energy savers, and declare your Green Transition? What is the difference between true green and green washing?
My consulting practice offers an opportunity for research into these Shades of Green and share solutions to any business who wants to “Green-up” and is not sure how to begin, how far to go, how much they can afford, and how to best position themselves in this emerging Eco-marketplace. I offer the know-how to do all of these things, in a manner that makes pocket cents, and gives you a truly sustainable triple bottom line. You will now begin to consider profits, people and the planet in your economy, and make even more cents!
GREENING YOUR BUSINESS
There are several key areas to Greening your business or service.
We can all agree -
* It is time to change our way of doing business
*We are running out of cheap energy resources
*What to do? ~ Change from extraction to a sustainable economy- simple, but difficult.
*How to do it? ~ Baby steps are a great beginning. Baby steps are incremental and measurable
Some basic steps:
TAKE AN INVENTORY : Where are you now in the use of resources? What steps have you already taken?
MAKE A VISION: In the biggest sense, where could you be in 5 years with your use of energy, product sources or services that add to sustainable community?
BEGIN THE PROCESS- Know What Works – Monitor and Measure Your Sustainability
Where does this Green Transition take place?
The way to your fully sustainable business begins here:
Infrastructure: your energy sources and uses, the lunch room, drinking water service, and waste stream management
Product Mix: choose your front end displays using considerations for local production, priorities for fairly traded, living wages and other Eco friendly supplier practices. BUY LOCAL if you can!
SHADES OF GREEN
Ultimately this will take us way beyond the common advice of changing light bulbs, recycling plastics, yet – everyone will begin where they are right now . The important thing is to start BEING, thinking, talking and acting Green
Commit to going the distance as the societal greening process emerges further with new energy resources & future levels of clear choices in both products and services. What did I just say?
BEGINNING the GREENING
A quick start for a retail store might look like this-
~ REDUCE : How about minimizing or eliminating packaging? Ask if they want a bag before offering one.
~ REUSE : Encourage the reuse of market bags with register discounts or rewards. Sell several versions of reusable bags, or give them away!
~ RECLAIM : Use your local “rebuild store” when remodeling. Think out of the box when building displays – is it a sustainable use?
~ REMAKE : Offer those closeouts to a local school for craft projects, don’t throw things away that can be used by others.
~ RETHINK : Schedule store hours for ease of commute times, what if we all shared rides or worked one less day week.
~ RECREATE: Can you compost lunch leftovers? Host a Barter night for your customers to exchange used art or craft
~ RECONSIDER : Add a small garden bed or container of lettuce or parsley to your back area or your front window, and eat it for lunch! In fact, invite munching and tasting, you may make some converts to slow food.
OUR GREEN FUTURE
On the horizon for us all is a whole new sustainable lifestyle and a new way of doing business. For my design business – that means downsizing products that I no longer feel are sustainable, cannot be “greened” due to supplier stubbornness or even due to the lack of usefulness in our simpler Green lifestyle. I am proud to have made a great contribution to many people’s lives with deep symbology and offered added meaning in their clothing and adornment. However I am now looking to Organics instead of conventional cotton, to creative ways that remind people to simplify, to choose wisely. I discuss this daily with my friends and community, and would love to talk to you and point you in the right direction. The baby steps we spoke of are now at hand. Do we choose to step into the sustainable choices that carefully conserve our finite ecological resources or will we continue with business as usual and hope that we can get away with yet one more year of good profits before we are forced to change? Join me in this Green Transition.
- copyright 2008, Ann Waters Weller
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