by Tao Oliveto, Brattleboro, VT

Brattleboro has a dominant number of thriving local businesses, many of which thoroughly but subtly display their green creds. Thrift and vintage places - my personal eye candy - were especially irresistible, and practical, as it turned out. I suddenly needed a nail clipper/file and I found both, hidden amongst hundreds of antique collectibles of every category at a store called “Twice Upon A Time”. Proving, once again, that they don’t make things like they used to. These stores can be full of surprises - I have managed to stay out of mainstream drugstores for years by using thrift/vintage for basics like this - low cost and no packaging is a bonus.

I went back several times to Boomerang - a vintage and vintage-inspired clothing and accessories shop owned and operated by Loretta, who replanted her creative roots from LA. Here I found some fun and stylish used clothing - some are cleverly marked by era - Jerry was drawn to the 50’s while I found out I’m a 60’s - 70’s kind of girl. Boomerang also supports Rise Up International, a group of artists, ideallists and social entrepreneurs using the fashion industry to empower children out of poverty. Rise Up International doesn’t mess around when it comes to giving - they donate all profits to support free education centers, drug rehabilitation and art vocational schools in India, Central America and China.

As happened in a few different cases, I was readily engaged in conversation by the locals and felt welcomed, even as I accepted my designated title as a “flatlander”.
A haven for art, music, alternative health and recreation, “Brat” - as I brazenly use the local term - has not seen the last of me!

by Tao Oliveto, Brattleboro, VT

We stayed at the historic Latchis Hotel, circa 1938, now a preserved memorial building on Main Street in Brattleboro. The original lead-paned windows still open - something now rare in most hotels - there is no A/C and the heat still comes from radiators. The stairwells are welcoming, with natural light and I noticed most guests used the stairs to the 3 floors of rooms. There is no parking garage or large, new lot, or luxuriously furnished lobby, just a straightforward comfort and friendliness.

If you do want to be impressed by style, however, visit the original Latchis “theatre” next store - now a movie house. Detmetrius Latchis had the walls painted with the images and scenes of the Greek gods, like Jupiter welcoming Psyche, the temple of Zeus and Colona with her children, Apollo and Diana. There are also statues - one of Thalia, the Muse of Comedy and Cleo, the muse of History. The ceiling is sky blue with stars and the twelve signs of the zodiac.

Staying in the heart of a city allows you to sightsee car-free and I chose this place because it’s one way to support local business (and history!) while traveling. The rooms are simple - just a few pieces of maple furniture, including a wooden bed frame. The rooms also feature consigned art by local artists.

The Latchis is participating in the Project Green, which asks guests to save resources by reusing linens. This is not so impressive, however, when you consider all the other ways we can consume less during hotel stays. Here’s my list - feel free to add on.

1. Bring your own toiletries, rather than using the small bottles and tubes provided, which will be thrown away and replaced after each use. I travel with a small shampoo/body bar, which is wrapped only in paper and can be carried with you while flying.
2. Use one towel for everything, rather than using bath mats/handtowels.
3. Skip room service during your stay, eliminating more water, energy, detergent use.
4. Use your own drinking mug and water bottle.
5. Use the stairs instead of elevator.
6. Use one trash can - rather than the two usually provided - and you will keep more plastic out of landfill.
7. Open windows instead of A/C. Turn heat off when you leave your room.

8. Ask your host where you can recycle items. If it’s not available, bring home any paper, newspaper to recycle at home.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

There is hope for the future of commerce. The workforce is beginning to take matters into their own hands - working on terms that fulfill not just a livelihood, but a “right livelihood” that nourishes the soul, the planet and communities. At yesterday’s event (see below) for sustainable entrepreneurs and businesses, it became obvious that we are willing to take risks, to revisit expectations, to shift the idea of “work” to a place that is more healthy and satisfying and hopeful.

There is Green Planet Catering green catering company, Green , who serves only local and organic food, provides biodegradable utensils, composts all job waste and even delivers in a vehicle powered by vegetable diesel - that he makes with his own waste oil. He says his long days don’t feel like work.

Scott Blackwell started the Immaculate Baking Company in his garage with big dreams and a few simple goals: To create top-quality baked goods with fun and unique combinations, to celebrate the creativity of folk art, and to somehow give back. So, he created “Cookies With a Cause”.

Filling an important niche is Southern Energy Management, a husband and wife team, who help businesses and home owners plan energy systems that will minimize energy costs and footprint. They become “team” leaders who provide solutions to commercial and residential energy use.

Trinity Design/Build specializes in historic preservation, renovation and green retrofitting of existing buildings. They work with homeowners, contractors, and architects and their services include everything from conceptual sketches to turn-key design/build.

There’s more of course, and I’ll be highlighting and sharing what I’m learning from these inspired and committed people. For now, remember, we’re shifting, tipping, pushing the iceberg - don’t give up. Change is a’foot.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Today we Changers will be participating in an event with UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Jerry will be moderating a discussion panel of motivated businesses, including the director of U.S. marketing from Burt’s Bees. We will conclude with a workshop on branding for good, where Jerry will explain, “Branding is not rocket science. It’s a cocktail party.”

BASE and The Change present:
Branding for Good
A Panel Discussion on Successful Branding Strategies for Sustainable Entrepreneurs

The Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School was established to help executives and future business leaders understand how social and environmental considerations are changing the competitive landscape of business.

The CSE provides education, research, and outreach to business students, executives, and organizations to help them benefit from the opportunities inherent in sustainable enterprise. Kenan-Flagler Business School is ranked one of the top business schools in the world for education in this arena.

We are looking forward to meeting many inspiring people!

Two years ago, Jerry contributed to a sustainable industries’ online forum asking branding agencies “how to make sustainability cool.”

Here’s what he told them~

“Sustainability IS cool. From Bo Diddley to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jack Kerouac, the young Elvis, Jimi Hendrick’s, punk DIY culture, the Merry Pranksters, Marlon Brando, and Burning Man – the essence of cool is personified by communities and sub-cultures driven by individuality and self expression. The essence of being cool is being your own damn self. The opposite of cool is forming yourself based on social influence and conformity. (No one buys a Ford Explorer or a McMansion because they’re following their heart).

And in an organic, local, ethically hip, off-the-grid world, individuality and self- expression are rampant.

Reported on Ecorazzi.com, Actress, Thandie Newton, on clothes - “It is grotesque how out of control manufacturing has become, and the excess, the pollution that’s caused by it. Vintage (clothing) is not only glorious and stylish, it’s also the way forward in terms of recycling. Whenever I go into great vintage stores, I wonder why we ever buy new things.”

Some celebs walk the walk - red carpet and otherwise - and Thandie gets going green.

The Change founder, Jerry Stifelman, knows the consumer end of fashion, and he loves all aspects of thrifting, especially the new clothing and accessory swap site, Swango.com. At Swango, you can find quality and style for a few dollars and the price of shipping, and you don’t have to leave home. Here’s more from Jerry on the experience of thriting:

For the core thrift customer, it’s a conscious, highly valued choice. For them, the glossy sterility of The Gap or Banana Republic pales in comparison to the possibilities of used clothing. The foundation of the thrift experience is that it is AN EXPERIENCE.

These assets include:
- DESTINY. Everything at a retail store is calculated to appeal to people. There is no thrill in buying a pair of jeans that a marketing department has predicted that a half a million people including yourself will purchase. At a thrift store, if you see a sweater, or a hat that appeals to you — it’s the only one there. It has taken its own path across space and time to reach you. It’s meant to be. It’s special. It’s meaningful.

- STORY. A new t shirt comes to you from a factory where it was made alongside thousands of others. A thrift store shirt has an utterly unique story — you don’t necessarily know what the story is — but you know it’s there.

- COMMUNITY. Like anything that involves a choice that deviates from the mainstream, there is a sense of community associated with the thrift experience. You know that others feel similarly and it creates an instant connection. The exchanges between thrift store employees and customers are more intimate, relaxed and less businesslike than between typical retail employees and customers — in fact, they are more apt to be genuine conversations — not just polite exchanges.

Fashion doesn’t get any better than this.

by Tao Oliveto

Some things are so simple.

For instance, clean-up at public urinals is a disproportionate problem in many places. Then someone in Europe decided to strategically place a small drawing of a fly inside the basin as a “target”. The problem decreased by a measurable 80%.

Hmm. This makes me think of the issue of plastic bag use. Years ago, Whole Foods stores started offering a nickel back for bringing your own bag and over a decade, has encouraged approximately 20% of their customers to reuse. Ho Hum. As an new and enthusiastic employee back then, I suggested that charging a nickel for bags instead would be a stronger motivational message and decrease bag use even further, saving waste and the company dollars. I also thought we should sell our reusable canvas bags at cost in compensation for any perceived “inconvenience” to customers. Nobody agreed.

Wouldn’t you know it…a decade later (as reported in Fast Company), Ikea stores in the UK decided to charge their customers 5 cents for every bag they took. Plastic bag use dropped by 90% in less than two years! When the same policy took effect in U.S. stores in Mid-March, 2007, bag use dropped by 50% in less than one year - more than anyone expected. Ikea also dropped the price of their re-usuable bags to 59 cents at checkout - and those sales increased 10 times.

Can green guidelines live happily with customer service and profits? It sure looks that way.

For better or worse, we humans are a predictable bunch - and more willing to Change than marketers realize.

Simple as that.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Have you seen the recent Starbucks/Got Milk advertisement? Not only a old and tired play, but as misleading as the original version.

It shows an aproned and smiling employee, holding up a latte with the “Got Milk?” tag underneath, including the misleading health claims about the getting “half the dairy you need” from the milk in your Latte Grande. Not a regular, reasonable latte, but a super-sized high-$ version.

Because of hormones, pesticides and antibiotics, non-organic milk is not healthy in the first place. And although I enjoy lattes occasionally (the soy version), I’m not going to be convinced that it’s part of a healthy diet. We don’t need the daily “goodness” of super-sized caffeinated drinks, nor does the planet need the paper cups and plastic lids that comes with them. From Lime.com:

According to Metaefficient.com, we used and disposed approximately 14.4 billion paper cups in 2005 — or a mind-boggling 410,000 paper cups every 15 minutes. That number is expected to grow to 23 billion by 2010 unless we change our current coffee-drinking ways.

I had heard whisperings about Starbucks moving to organic milk last year, and maybe a few stores carried it briefly, but it’s been confirmed that the initiative has been dropped. Looks and feels a lot like their same half-hearted efforts to support Fair Trade. And just what about all those paper cups?

Like many mega-businesses, Starbucks had an opportunity to make a positive impact on consumer habits as well as the organic coffee and milk industries. They missed the mark and then some.