CT Green Scene

Discount Food Outlet: For the cheap-skate in all of us (part I of II)

by James Simpkins

I have lived in Canton now for about three years and in general, this town has a lot to offer the thirty-something new-comer: Proximity to a quasi-international airport, great natural beauty (unless you’re on route 44), and the ability to be in New York or Boston in about two hours. Yes, two of the three things I like most about living here have to do with leaving. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad place.

However, it has always felt as if Canton had something missing; like life will turn hip one day and it will all be better. I have finally located the problem as I see problem has two parts: 1) There is a lack of gourmet anything. 2) The most central retail location for the town is the biggest eyesore in it.

More important than either one of these two problems on their own is the convergence of the two into one black hole of boring; a perfect storm of the pedestrian that sucks everything edible, 50-70% off, and near expiration into one central location: Discount Food Outlet, in Canton. Yes, in the plaza where the McDonald’s is. (sigh)

Green Job Growth: What is it? Where is it?

by Anneli C. Olila, Editor-in-Chief of Boston GreenScene / Principal of Olila Documents & Communication Strategies

In my recent discussion of green job hunting myths, I argued against the mystique surrounding the green job industry and the psychological and other barriers this presents to those hoping to transition into a green career.  Responses from readers ranged from disbelief, to hesitant hope, to specific questions regarding qualifications and resources. In this article, I start to provide some data that may be useful to readers in understanding the projected growth of the green job market and where they might fit in.

What Do We Mean by 'the Green Job Market is Growing'?

According to the United States President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), green jobs are everywhere, and the growth of the green job market is anticipated to continue to outstrip the growth of other markets. In its July 2009 report, the CEA cited data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showing projected growth in environmentally-related occupations to be 38% more than all other occupations combined by 2016. This is depicted in the following figure, reproduced from page 8 of their report:

To put this into perspective, it is worth noting that the occupations they considered were actually in a fairly limited range.  Specifically, the BLS projections drawn from in the CEA report are based on data for the following occupations only:

Squashing Some Green Job Hunting Myths

by Anneli C. Olila, Editor-in-Chief of Boston GreenScene / Principal of Olila Documents & Communication Strategies

Each week, I spend hours talking to job seekers of all levels—from those just graduating from school to highly-experienced C-level executives. Many are contemplating a green career, either out of their passion for the environment or simply because other markets are tight and the green market shows promise. Often, what I hear is a fatigued and resigned voice on the other end of the phone saying, “I’d love to join a green company, but they all want you to already have vast experience in the green industry.” 

When anyone, let alone a top-level, international, well-accomplished executive, says this to me in the midst of cataloging his or her milestone achievements—such as dramatically increasing revenue, efficiency, and organizational prestige; adeptly handling countless mergers and acquisitions; building exceptional cross-cultural and cross-functional teams; applying proven project management and Six Sigma skills; and achieving numerous patented inventions across regulatory environments—I am astonished. I am astonished as editor-in-chief of a green information portal, and I am astonished as a communications specialist who works closely with companies, schools, recruiters, and job seekers. I am also astonished just as a thinking person. There is an apparent and unfortunate mystique built around the green industry—and, frankly, around the job search industry itself—that is completely unwarranted.

One Man’s Junk…

by Eileen Weber

Feel the need to clean out your basement? Garage looking a little funky? Wish all that stuff could go to a good home instead of a landfill? Then The Junkluggers may be the company for you.

Founded in 2004, the Fairfield-based company works with such charitable organizations like Goodwill Industries and Habitat for Humanity. Josh Cohen, the company’s 26-year-old owner, says getting into the business of hauling your unwanted stuff away was originally just a way to make money.

As a student at the University of Connecticut, he had the chance to study abroad in Australia. While there, a friend made $100 hauling away a neighbor's fridge. Eking out an existence on minimum wage, he thought he might be in the wrong business. But once he started, he quickly realized it was a great industry to express his environmentalism.

“The end goal here is to keep as much stuff out of the landfills,” says Cohen. “We’re just filling a need. There’s always junk.”

Cohen trains his employees on what is really trash and what can be donated or recycled. They sort the trash and put it into the truck based on where it has to go. With the landfill as the last stop, the trash goes toward the front of the truck, recyclables in the middle, and donated items at the back to be dropped off first. “It’s time-consuming and a little more expensive,” he said, “but it’s worthwhile.”

Back Away From The Dunkin' Donuts~Green Coffee in our Blue State

by: James Simpkins

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, I thought Dunkin’ Donuts was a throwback to the 1980’s—somewhere you stopped under duress in Podunk, West Virginia. Moving to New England a few years ago, the dream I was living became a nightmare: Not only was Dunkin’ Donuts not an Atari-like icon of a bygone era, but it seemed to have become the default coffee for millions of people living in the Northeast. And no one seems to care a lick that it sucks. And I’m not just saying that as a guy who’s from out of town, I say that as a coffee lover and aficionado. It’s really bad! However, walking around Yale’s campus a couple weeks ago, my luck changed for the better.

After the results of the 2004 elections, Andrew Ruben and his father, co-owners of Blue State Coffee in New Haven (and RI), were licking their Democratic wounds while in line for a couple lattés. Andrew casually mentioned how coffee might offer an opportunity to place some extra funds in the coffers of progressive causes. His old man knew a good idea when he heard one, and with the help of friends Blue State Coffee was born some three years later, originally as a website where you could order genuine Organic, Fair Trade coffee beans. As ideas tend to do, the concept of a Green, sustainably produced coffee eventually created a life of its own in the form of a retail shop where the idea really took root.

Blue State Coffee first store opened on Thayer Street in Providence, Rhode Island. They now have the original location as well as a spot in the Brown University Bookstore, and the location that I stumbled upon in New Haven. It figures that a good cup of coffee is needed at stellar, modern campuses like Brown and Yale, but how did the whole “Drink Liberally” entendre sit with the old, stodgy right-wingers that those two campuses are also known for? Ruben says it’s going just fine, thank you. Two and a half years in and all three locations are profitable, steadily increasing sales since their openings. Ruben, for one, is psyched. And he should be---he’s still in college (at Yale) and already has a bright future ahead of him. Like so many of us gone the way of the Humanities, that glowing future is completely unrelated to the American Studies degree that he is working on. Well, almost.

Ruben’s timing for his opening could not have been better. Well, maybe by a week or so. The first store opened a week after Obama’s inauguration and attracted quite the following. Al Franken even stopped by and gave a speech on his long road to becoming a U.S. Senator. Good press is also helping Blue State along with Ruben’s ideals being featured in places like Vanity Fair and the Hartford Courant, as well as local papers. What’s driving the interest seems to be the intention to be what Andrew refers to as a “zero-waste business”—striving to recycle, reuse or compost everything they sell. As Ruben says, “Basically, the goal is to remove the trash cans from all of our facilities.”

 Blue State also sources as many products as it can locally. While the coffee isn’t grown around here (I asked just in case) it is roasted by New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The milk in your latté is from The Farmer’s Cow, a Connecticut based six farm cooperative--and the food they sell is made and delivered daily by La Cuisine in Branford. This is all in line with today's progressive consumer demands. Because of the (correct) popular consensus that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere in our commercial enterprise, the Green concept is something that truly stretches across to our friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Kind of like a good cup of coffee. And this website.

 It’s not all roses, however. Ruben tells me that while each of the locations are making money, even while the economy is turning somersaults, Blue State costs more to operate than it would without the commitments that are behind it. Here’s the Mission Statement:

Our Mission:

• To offer organic, fairly traded coffee, roasted to perfection

• To donate 5% of sales to local and national causes that reflect our progressive values

• To run a zero waste, environmentally sustainable business

• To unite a group of people committed to bettering our communities and our country.

What doesn’t surprise me is that a company with commitments like these is more expensive to run. What does surprise me about Blue State Coffee is that when it comes down to making some money vs. a lot of money, those commitments still run the show. But, unlike your local Dunkin’ Donuts, there is no consortium of global private equity firms (like the one that owns DD) trying this and that to add a penny’s more worth to a weakened portfolio. There’s just a smart, driven college junior, his (clearly cool) dad, and a bone to pick with conservatives. Like one of the numerous Blue State double entendres states--“You’re on political grounds.”

I’m not asking you to give up your Dunkin’ Donuts-quite the contrary; go ahead and pick one up. Then stop by Blue State Coffee in New Haven for a comparison. But no dilly-dallying…it won’t be long before you’ll have to look outside their store for a trash can to put that cup in. Their cups are made from corn and can be composted along with the grounds from the beans. How about your Dunkin’ Donuts cup? Is that…styrofoam?  That is so 1985.

See? I knew it.

Blue State Coffee Locations:

·        Blue State Coffee @ Brown University Bookstore

244 Thayer Street | Providence, RI 02912

·        Blue State Coffee New Haven/Wall Street

84 Wall Street | New Haven, CT 06511

·        Blue State Coffee Providence/Thayer Street

300 Thayer Street | Providence, RI 02906

You Gonna Eat That?

by Eileen Weber

Ever feel like there are just too many tomatoes and not enough time? Come August, there will be plenty of backyard gardeners who would agree with that statement. And that’s where food trading comes in. Home growers are sharing their produce in a free trade system online and in communities across the country. 

According to an article in The New York Times on June 10th, there are a growing number of participants in food trading. The concept is based on the fact that “it’s a shame to let fruit go to waste” and “neighborhood fruit tastes best when it’s free.” Well, really, doesn’t everything taste better when it’s free?

Among others, the article listed web sites like VeggieTrader.com and NeighborhoodFruit.com as a place for traders to post what they have in exchange for what they want.

If you, like the founders of Veggie Trader, had excess lemons from your lemon tree, wouldn’t it be nice to see someone else make use of them? You could trade those lemons for, say, herbs or zucchini. You get to give what you have more of and take what you have less of. It’s a win-win.

In the New England area, Brian Alcorn, Founder of the Vermont Garden Exchange, wrote that many times a gardener has too much to use himself and doesn’t have the time to preserve the excess.

“The idea is to open it up so that you can trade anything,” said Alcorn, who founded the site with his wife. “You could even trade a cord of wood if that’s what you had. I just don’t want it to become an online grocery store. That’s not what it’s about.”

Lynn Seigel-Boettner, Founder and Organizer of the Santa Barbara Food Not Lawns chapters, agrees. “It’s more than just sharing food. It’s about bringing a community together and connecting people. We’ve forgotten how to do that.”

Speakers/Exhibitors Wanted: Green Event @ Sub Base, Groton

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

For the second time this year, the Groton Naval base is putting on a green "Healthy People, Healthy Planet" expo that is open to the public. It presents a great opportunity for speakers and exhibitors to get in touch with a vast audience who is looking for sustainable solutions at work and home.

I spoke to the Sub Officers Spouses Association a few months ago, and it's a great group of people wanting to make a difference. If you're interested in participating, either with a booth or applying to be a speaker, contact Officer Paul Rath via email: paul.rath@navy.mil and let them know that CT GreenScene sent you! :)

Green B&Bs

by Eileen Weber

 

Thinking of making a last minute get-away for the holidays? You might want to consider a “green” hotel or bed and breakfast.

Increasingly, proprietors are trying to meet their clientele’s interest in greener practices. From organic foods to green cleaning practices to energy efficient amenities, your next stay could be more eco-friendly than stopping off at a roadside Super 8.

Kate Bauer, co-owner of Homespun Farm Bed and Breakfast with her husband Ron in Griswold, takes being green very seriously. They compost their organic refuse and use the eggs from the chickens they recently purchased. Bauer said on the B&B’s web site, “I hope this [green] movement is in time to save what is so important to us all.”

In a New York Times article dated June 26, 2007, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants found in a survey they conducted in 2005 that 16 percent of guests choose their properties because of the company’s environmental practices. Kimpton, named for its founder Bill Kimpton in 1981, is a San Francisco-based collection of boutique hotels that leads the hospitality industry with its ecologically-sound practices.

Michael Depatie, Kimpton’s president and chief executive, was quoted in the article saying he got a lot of unsolicited letters from guests about the company’s green initiatives. “I’m a little surprised by how many mention our green programs. We’ve been doing this for a while, but it seems like it’s suddenly at a tipping point.”

My Cup of (Green Organic) Tea

by Elizabeth G. Howard

I have a real problem with the perennially-peppy, "EVOO"-chugging hypocrite Rachel Ray, which might explain why I have never become a true convert to Dunkin Donuts coffee.

That doesn't mean I don't appreciate DD and their brilliant re-branding strategy that saved them from a deadly one-two punch of healthier eating and viral spread of the Starbucks experience.

However, whether you are clinging to your cup of Joe at the moment, or, like me, huddling around a mug of green tea, there is something about the hot beverage that instills true loyalty and keep us focused and motivated, especially in the mornings.

Bring It!

There's a bit of a problem with these delightful hot (or iced double-half-caf with a twist) drinks, naturally, as they are never going to be local for us Westerners.

Tea is grown primarily in India and China, and coffee beans, my friends, grow around the world like a belt -- at the equator, ideally with temperatures of 60-70F and rainfall of about six inches per month or more.

So, like almost everything green we do, we have to compromise. Here's some options:

READ MORE

Glenn Croston: A Blueprint for Business Success

by Tracey Finch

Some of the most successful businesses today grew out of the Great Depression. That's right. Fortune magazine is one, and there are many more. For where there's a meltdown, there is space for innovation and determination to grab a foot hold and climb out of the rubble.

So go ahead, put your thinking cap on and grab a copy of "75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference," by Glenn Croston, Ph.D.

It outlines opportunities, describes current and projected market need, what you need to know to get started, what kind of capital is required, and some of the special challenges you can expect along the way.

Glenn was kind enough to spend some time with CT GreenScene to give us some insight into where he thinks things in the green business arena are heading.

GS: What specific industry is leading the way in the green revolution?

GC: Renewable energy is poised to make a bigger impact than ever on the economy and the health of the planet.  Solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy have a number of factors that will support their continued rapid growth, even in the face of the current economic turmoil.  Providing cost effective clean energy will help our national security, fight climate change, create jobs, and get our economy back on track. 

GS: What are your favorite big name companies with bold initiatives?

GC: Green leaders like Gary Hirshberg at Stoneyfield Farms and Ray Anderson at Interface have shown that they can grow a successful business while still doing the right thing for the planet.  They have been taking the lead and providing it can be done, which is pretty bold. 

The many car makers poised to transform our automotive industry are bold players.  If the big automakers like GM can't do it, it will leave the opportunity open to small companies like Aptera.  When the auto industry emerges from its current trials with a new variety of electric cars and plug-ins coming to market, it may look very different than it does today. 

GS: What's a promising green product or service?