HUGE THANKS TO THE COMPANIES THAT DONATED PRODUCTS FOR THE PRIZE PATROL:

Wear the Earth

English Retreads

Green Guru

On April 9th, GenGreen LLC was among a prestigious class of over 60 businesses to achieve Silver Partner status in the Fort Collins Climate Wise program!

Climate Wise is a voluntary, city-run program that is dedicated to helping local business and the environment. Through environmental assessments and creative solutions, the City of Fort Collins Climate Wise Team helps businesses tackle modern-day business challenges that impact bottom lines and the quality of life in Fort Collins.

Besides reporting data to Climate Wise annually, attending climate related meetings and green business seminars, Silver Partners are required to implement and report one new climate related initiative at their place of business.

To learn more about the Climate Wise program, visit: www.fcgov.com/climatewise

April 22nd marks the 39th time Earth Day will be celebrated in the United States!

“Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.” (Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earthday)

Since that first Earth Day in 1970, people in communities all over the nation have planned celebrations to honor the Earth and raise awareness about the things we must all do to preserve her beauty and health.

Here’s a round-up of some of the coolest celebrations going on around the country. More events like this can be found by searching the GenGreen Event Calendar…look for one in your community today!

Please send comments, reviews and pictures of anything you do to celebrate the planet this Earth Day- we’d be happy to feature them on the blog! Send to: info@gengreenlife.com

HABANA OUTPOST EARTH DAY EXPO

WHERE: Habana Outpost 757 Fulton Street (Corner of South Portland) – Brooklyn, NY
STARTS: Sat, April 18, 2009 12:00 P.M.

The two day free event will feature Green Crafts and face painting for children sponsored by Habana Works and The Leadership Learning Lab, a Kid’s Eco-Fashion Show with the Scrapkins, and a Recycled Art Show featuring the art work of local students. There will also be plenty of information for adults – groups like Green Homes NYC, Transportation Alternatives, Green Spaces and Brooklyn Green Drinks will be on hand as well as Habana Outpost suppliers; Solar Energy Systems, Tri State Bio Diesel and Rolling Press.

ECO-FRIENDLY EARTH DAY CRUISE

Where: Alcatraz Landing at Pier 33 – San Francisco, CA
Starts: Wed, April 22, 2009 10:30 AM

Celebrate Earth Day aboard the nation’s most environmentally friendly ferryboat! The Hornblower Hybrid, the only hybrid vessel in the United States, is offering people the opportunity to celebrate earth day out on the San Francisco Bay. All proceeds will go to Save the Bay, an organization dedicated to protecting, restoring and celebrating San Francisco.

EARTHFEST BOULDER

WHERE: CU Research Park – Boulder, CO
STARTS: Sat, April 18, 2009 9:00 A.M.

Earthfest is a combination of activities including, the EarthDay5k (a 5th annual Bolder Boulder qualifier), the 5th Annual Dirt Day Adventure Challenge and Expo, Short Track Mountainbike Race, Kids and Adults Cruiser Parade. In addition, there are hands-on family activities like interaction with wild animals and leave no trace clinics, renewable energy demos, live music, fly fishing and climbing classes, and plenty of good local organic food!

10TH ANNUAL TOPANGA EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

WHERE: Topanga Community House Fair Grounds 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd – Topanga, CA
STARTS: Sat, April 18, 2009, 10:00 A.M.

Two days of music, guest speakers, gallery of ecological artists, non-profit organizations, biodegradable solutions, an environmental demonstration area, ecological products and services,alternative energy, optimum healing arts, living by example workshops, tribal elders, organic food &beverages, sustainable solutions, green technology, composting, and planting for all ages and all cultures

DUWAMISH ALIVE! RESTORE OUR RIVER WORKDAY AND EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

WHERE: Various river sites/Cooper Elementary School – Seattle, WA
STARTS: Sat, April 18, 2009 10:00 AM

Hosted by People for Puget Sound along with Puget Soundkeepers, The Boeing Company, City of Tukwila, and EPA. An Earth Day work party to help restore the riverside at Codiga Park – a former dairy farm, now home to Chinook salmon and other river wildlife. Bring your friends, family and co-workers to pull weeds, plant and mulch native plants, get dirty, and build community! The celebration continues at Cooper Elementary School in West Seattle for the Earth Day Festival from 2:00pm – 5:00pm for free food, performing arts, nature hikes, and fabulous giveaways!

EARTH DAY ON THE NATIONAL MALL

WHERE: National Mall, Washington D.C.
STARTS: Sun, April 19, 2009, 10:00 A.M

On April 19th, like in years past, hundreds of thousands of people will take Metrobus, Metrorail, walk, and bike to the heart of the nation’s capital to witness the official launch of The Green GenerationTM and show their support for responsible, brave environmental policy that helps us face the challenges ahead. Earth Day will bring together families, adults of all ages, civic leaders, entertainers and other community members to celebrate Earth Day and share a common commitment to make greener life choices and stem the tide of climate change.

Remember…More events like this can be found by searching the GenGreen Event Calendar…look for one in your community today!

Also, don’t forget to add the ‘Every Day is Earth Day’ application to your Facebook profile to get tips about living greener every day and to help us reach our goal of offsetting 100,000 lbs of carbon on Earth Day!

Many people are dedicated to going green this Earth Day, but here at GenGreenLife.com we believe making small, consistent changes are the way to take better care of the planet every day!

That’s why we are proud to announce the launch of our first Facebook application- Every Day is Earth Day! For the 12 days leading up to April 22nd, the application will suggest a way that you can decrease the environmental impact of your daily routine in a small, but significant manner.

And that’s not even the best part!!

And as a huge gift to Mother Earth on her special day, GenGreenLife.com has teamed up with Cooler to offset the carbon equivalent of an entire day of using Facebook for each person that adds this app! So share it with your friends and help us exceed the goal of offsetting 100,000 pounds of carbon by Earth Day!!

Be one of the first to add the app! Click here:
http://apps.facebook.com/gengreenearthday/

To stay in the loop about this and other breaking news about GenGreen:

1. Sign up as a user on GenGreenLife.com

2. Become a fan of the GenGreen Facebook page

3. Follow @GenGreen on Twitter

Go Green Expo, the largest environmentally-focused business and consumer show in New York’s history, announces its exciting, SOLD OUT return to New York City for the second year in a row April 17-19, 2009 at the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan. The nation’s premiere eco-friendly business and consumer show promises the strongest show yet with big name exhibitors including Disney’s Earth movie, The Sundance Channel’s The GREEN, DELL, Home Depot, Food Network’s Good Food Garden, and Honda’s all-new advanced hybrid vehicle, The Honda Insight.

“We are so pleased to bring Go Green Expo back to New York for the second year in a row,” said Bradford Rand, CEO and Founder of Go Green Expo. “Last year’s event was such a success with over 10,000 attendees, and we have even more to look forward to this year.”

The event will showcase a variety of special interest consumer and business areas including: Home Building and Energy Conservation; Health, Beauty and Fashion; Travel and Transportation; Business and Electronics and a Kids Zone, giving New Yorkers a chance to see, learn and interact with the latest in energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly products and services, as well as participate in interactive seminars with leaders in the green industry, local politicians and community organizations.

Committed to Green: In an effort to make every aspect of the show as green as possible, Go Green Expo has enlisted Brighter Planet to calculate the event’s electricity usage, on-site fuel use, staff travel, event vehicles, waste disposal and attendee travel, and then offset their carbon emissions for a completely carbon neutral show. The Go Green Expo National Tour will boast the latest in green design and function, supported by Metropolitan Exposition Services and Printing Responsibly, such as: 100% compostable and biodegradable table top coverings, recycled material booth ID signs, biodegradable banner material, soy and water based inks and a waste management program that takes environmental and social ramifications into account by utilizing local donation programs.

GenGreen LLC will be at the NYC Go Green Expo!!! If you will be attending, please plan on stopping by our booth to meet Team Members, browse our merchandise and take advantage of exclusive expo discounts!!

There are dozens, nay, hundreds of green retailers in the world today. While in most cases, this is a long-overdue triumph in the fight to make green mainstream- there are still those who are simply taking advantage of a new market, new “stuff” they can push on consumers to make a nice chunk of change.

Then there are retailers like Tiffany Parks.

Inspired by a love for the planet and desire to make it a healthier place to raise her daughter, Parks founded Wear the Earth (WTE), an online retailer of sustainable clothing and accessories. Dedicated to closely examining their total carbon footprint in 2009, WTE is working to find vendors and designers that offer drop-ship services to their customers.  That means they eliminate an entire leg of shipping to their facility and ship directly to you, the customer.  This will also allows them to offer some of their products at new lower prices.

Fair trade, so important yet so often overlooked in the green industry boom, is paramount at Wear the Earth. As their website states, “We have put a great deal of energy into finding companies that practice fair labor & sweat-shop free philosophies for sustainable living.  This will continue to be our standard as we explore new and exciting companies.”

Wear the Earth recently received its approval as a Green America Member, further displaying its efforts to be a credible and transparent green company. And those efforts don’t just end at t-shirts and purses. WTE recently launched a free monthly newsletter featuring green tips and information (sign up here).

GenGreen is also proud to report that Parks is an active participant in the Ambassador Program, sharing the good news about GenGreen with her clients and generously donating Wear the Earth products to the program that are used as rewards for completion of monthly Eco-Tasks.

Great job Tiffany…we are so proud of you!

- The Team at GenGreen

These days, everyone’s interested in saving money, and tight wallets can mean hard times for businesses.

Wondering how your business can get national exposure without emptying your pockets?
The answer: GenGreen Sustainable Savings Coupons!

Now you can post an electronic coupon redeemable for discounts on the green goods and services you offer, for mere dollars a day…and it will be accessible right from the GenGreenLife.com homepage. These “Sustainable Savings” are a great way to bring increased visibility to your brand as well as strategically marketing your offerings to the thousands of green consumers that visit GenGreenLife.com on a daily basis…no clipping required!

GIVEAWAY:

Today- Wednesday, March 25 2009, until 9 p.m. MST you can enter to win an e-coupon for a week…FREE!

Multiple entries are encouraged! Here’s how:

First Entry (required) – Leave a comment on this blog post telling us the name of a company that currently has an e-coupon in the Sustainable Savings section of GenGreenLife.com. Note: you must also leave your email address with this comment.

Second Entry – Follow @GenGreen on Twitter (if you don’t already) and Tweet about this giveaway. Leave a comment on this blog post with your @name and a link to the Tweet.

Bonus for Two Extra Entries – Post this Giveaway on your blog or website and leave a comment on our blog with a link to the post.

Winners will be announced on Thursday, March 26th 2009 by 12 p.m. MST.

Best of luck! And don’t worry if you don’t win, we’ll be running this contest again next week!

GenGreen LLC was recently recognized for its excellence in environmental practices at the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Dinner.

Each year the Chamber Environmental Business Award honors member and non-member businesses that make environmental improvements in daily operations, recognize the value of using environmental products to enhance their corporate bottom line and play an active role in the local and global community.

GenGreen received the Rising Star award for a small business that was a member of the Chamber. Sustainability in the office is important to GenGreen, and current efforts are listed under “About GenGreen” on www.GenGreenLife.com.

Nordstrom is Using a U.S. PTO Error to Throw a Small Competitor Under the Bus – and What You Can Do About It

(NOTE: This is a call to action written by Jim Harper and originally published at  http://techliberation.com)

I’ve gotten an unusually strong reaction to a TechKnowledge piece that went out today describing how the Nordstrom retail chain is capitalizing on a Patent and Trademark Office error to throw a small business under the bus.

Beckons is an organic yoga and lifestyle clothing business that Nordstrom is trying to force off of a trademark – or out of business. It’s owned by two businesswomen in Colorado who have done everything right to get a trademark, but now may have tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills to defend it. The short article is called U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: FAIL.

I wrote about it because I think it’s an outrage. People have written to me since I published it asking what they can do.

Well, there are a couple of things. The original error is with the PTO, so you can send a copy of the story or a link to your Member of Congress. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is within the jurisdiciation of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

But it’s Nordstrom that has really taken advantage of things. And you don’t have to beg for a politician’s help to bring companies to heel. Here’s a four-step plan for helping Beckons beat Goliath. Do one or all of the items listed below.

1. Send this page to all your friends. That’s probably the most important thing, because the more people doing the other things on this list, the better.

2. Write a letter to Nordstrom, telling them that you disapprove of their abuse of the trademark process, and that you won’t be shopping there until they mend their ways. Here’s the address for the president of the company.

Blake W. Nordstrom, President
Nordstrom, Inc.
1700 Seventh Avenue, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98101

3. Print this page, copy it, and hand it out at Nordstrom. Or slip copies into the purses they sell – especially any with the “Beckon” label!

4. If you do yoga, or know anybody who does, shop at Beckons! (Be sure to send this along to friends who do yoga.)

So those are just a few ideas for getting Nordstrom to correct its abuse of the trademark process against this small business. Please feel free to put additional ideas or report on your successes in the comments. (Got a sample letter to Nordstrom, for example?)

A well-functioning marketplace requires assertive consumers – so assert yourself!

Staff Photo: Josh D. Weiss
Piper Davis, left, talks to friends as she wears an LED headlamp during lunch at Wesleyan on Wednesday. The school is taking part in the Green Cup Challenge and invited all the students to bring flashlights so the school could turn off several lights around the building.

Note: Jessica Felts is one of the most rockin’ Ambassadors GenGreen has ever know- and she’s been with us from the beginning! Miss Felts is a great example for youth everywhere that being young need not prevent you from making a significant, positive impact in your community!

Learn more about becoming an Ambassador here.

NORCROSS, Georgia – Jessica Felts wore a head lamp Wednesday, using it to illuminate her work in her classes at Wesleyan School.

The day before its winter break, the Norcross school encouraged students to bring flashlights to campus and conserved energy by turning off some lights in classrooms, hallways and the dining hall.

Wesleyan is one of 27 private schools – one of four in Gwinnett County – participating in the Southeast Green Cup Challenge, which encourages schools to reduce their electricity usage in February. The other Gwinnett participants are Greater Atlanta Christian School, Providence Christian Academy and Covenant Christian Academy.

“The end goal is to learn how to be better stewards of our resources,” Wesleyan teacher Alison Holby said. “We’re trying to educate the community that it’s not dramatic steps that need to be taken to be better stewards of our resources. It’s little steps we can take.”

While “Flashlight Day” was a grand gesture, it exemplified one thing schools are doing to reduce their energy consumption: turning off the lights.

“I was surprised by how receptive most of the students were to Flashlight Day … but a good 60 percent of the high school was very supportive, if not enthusiastic,” said Felts, the student founder of Wesleyan’s high school environmental club, Gen Green. “Overall, the competition has really brought awareness and united the lower school, middle school and high school on one major green endeavor.”

Felts said practicing good stewardship makes good fiscal sense.

In the first two weeks of the competition, Wesleyan reduced its energy usage by nearly 12 percent compared to the average from the previous three years, Holby said. With the school’s winter break beginning today, she said she was hopeful that decrease would increase.

Covenant Christian Academy teacher Pamela Krumpach said Georgia Power reported the school has decreased its electrical usage, but exact figures weren’t available. The Loganville school has switched some of its light bulbs with lower-wattage varieties and encouraged people to turn off lights when they leave a room.

“We are a Christian school, and our belief system is based in that God calls us to be good stewards,” said Krumpach, who is organizing the school’s Green Cup efforts. “I personally believe God has given us and blessed us with so much … and it’s incumbent upon us to take care of that beautiful gift.”

Greater Atlanta Christian School’s goal is to reduce the amount of electricity it uses by 10 percent compared to the average of the last three years, said Alan Henderson, chair of the school’s high school Bible department and co-chair of the Creation Care Initiative.

“GACS is participating in the Green Cup Challenge because it fits well with our commitment to being good stewards of the resources God has given us,” Henderson said. “Though the final results are still a week away, we have already seen a reduction in energy consumption on campus. Faculty, staff and students are doing more and more little things to cut consumption, all of which adds up to big savings.”

Sean Chapman, Providence Christian Academy’s high school principal, said the need for conservation is becoming more important. The school’s Green Cup Challenge, led by teacher Ashley Keeton, is raising awareness among the students, he said.

“In the world they’re going to live in as adults, if they don’t understand and do it (conserve), the world won’t really be an inhabitable place, I don’t think,” Chapman said.

(By Heather Darenberg – This story originally published in the Gwinnett Daily Post)