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 by Kevin, on May 7th, 2010 
When arriving at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, a few miles west of Bentonville, it’s difficult to imagine that a facility with so few gates could ever become a portal to the future of environmentalism. But with Walmart’s recently aggressive sustainability initiatives, that’s precisely what is happening to this small airport. Will we look back ten years from now with disbelief, or should we have anticipated the impact of their action?
I’ll be honest, as a retail designer, I’ve never been a fan of Walmart. Don’t even get me started on issues regarding treatment of employees or potential correlation between poverty rates in counties where Walmart stores are located. There’s a great deal to dislike about the world’s largest retailer and corporation. It has a long list of enemies, detractors, and opponents. But my opinion is beginning to shift.
With little fanfare or self promotion, Walmart is changing not only how they do business, but also how their suppliers operate, persuading them to rethink production processes in an effort to reduce costs and environmental impact. Walmart wields such economic leverage that manufacturers have little choice but to follow their lead. This, of course, will likely create a sizable ripple within the retail industry. Walmart competitors will be pressured to change just to keep pace. No single company on the planet has the same potential for deep and radical change.
In Bentonville, practically everyone I met is currently or was once employed by Walmart – the hotel night manager once worked there, the waiter’s day job is there, the bartender and his brother work there, an acquaintance I meet at dinner used to be a writer there, you get the picture. Some of the biggest buildings and parking lots are related to Walmart – corporate offices, distribution centers, and stores. Streets are named for founder Sam Walton. The original store on the town green is preserved as a museum and visitor center. It’s almost impossible to experience any aspect of the region that isn’t directly or indirectly connected to Walmart. It’s like visiting a military town such as San Diego, CA or Norfolk, VA, where the Navy presence is so dominant that you’re practically guaranteed to see a soldier or a ship.
By the way, none of this should be misunderstood as criticism. I point it out to highlight the incongruity or the irony of the circumstances I witness each time I visit. The dialogue regarding environmental impact and strategies for change are becoming louder and more emphatic. On my last two trips to Bentonville, I was there to discuss sustainable building design and learn best practices from Walmart and supplier initiatives.
These thoughts were on my mind when I landed last week for another green conference and expo. The NWA Green Expo was sponsored by Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Shell Oil, but this fact was completely downplayed and practically hidden. The two-day event was free to the public and offered a half day of speakers and panel sessions, film screenings, presentations, and two days of exhibits.
Read more review: NWA Green Expo overview 
by kevin, on May 2nd, 2010 
“I wasn’t really interested in doing a business that only had relevance in San Diego,” said BottleHood co-owner Steve Cherry during a recent visit to his production facility in El Cajon, CA. And when I say “facility” I really mean a small storage and processing building at the end of a tight winding hilly tangerine-lined drive, a few work stations covered by tents, and a hillside of sorted boxes with empty used bottles awaiting their transformation from trash to useful product. If the facility sounds small, that’s because it is. That’s not only the key to its charm, but it’s also its secret weapon.
“This is a business that is very very scalable, meaning one location can get very big for very little money. And it’s also easily replicable, meaning you can easily start another one in another neighborhood,” Steve adds. “Southern California is hardly a sustainability leader [but] if we can make a success of BottleHood in San Diego, then there are probably twenty other cities in the U.S. where we can be even more successful.”
Steve’s new business venture, BottleHood, collects discarded bottles from various sources and cuts them into juice glasses, tumblers, vases, candle holders, and more. In August 2009 Steve was fed up with what he was doing and tells me half-heartedly that he had considered opening a taco stand in Costa Rica. With co-owner Leslie Tiano they decided to create an enterprise that could support the local economy, create local jobs, stop jobs from moving offshore, and keep valuable glass out of the landfill.
Just eleven U.S. states have container deposit laws, what are usually referred to as bottle bills. In most cases, the state charges beverage distributors a fee on certain types of containers. That fee is passed on to retailers and is ultimately paid by consumers. That fee can be recovered when consumers return used containers to recycling centers. In those states with bottle bills, recycling rates for glass, aluminum, and plastic are more than twice the national average. In fact, the eleven states with such programs recycle as much total volume as the other thirty-nine sates combined. In 1986, California passed the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act – that’s legislature-speak for bottle bill. Just ten years after the bill was enacted, beer and soda bottle recycling rates rose to 80%.
There is, however, one side effect of such legislation that’s often overlooked and rarely discussed. Any law that increases the value of some containers can, and often does, reduce the value of others. For example, in California, glass soft drink, energy drink, beer, and water containers qualify for the program. They have redemptive value (CRV). Wine and liquor bottles do not qualify for the program; their recycling rates are significantly lower, and they have limited value. The program incentivizes the collection and return of some containers and creates disincentive for others. The next time you’re in a bar, restaurant, or nightclub, glance at the shelves of bottles behind the bar and you’ll see an incredible collection of beautifully designed objects. Expand your view just a little and you’ll find a treasure trove of small soda bottles and micro brewed beer with stunning silk screened labels.
Read more on tour: BottleHood
by aleida, on April 28th, 2010 Image courtesy of BrightTALK webinar
BrightTALK’s Green Building Summit continued on April 22, 2010 with What’s Good and What’s Next: The Future of Sustainable Materials, a panel discussion moderated by our very own Kevin O’Donnell. I won’t write more about the session here as Kevin will post on it later this week. Instead, I’ll [...]
by aleida, on April 27th, 2010  Image courtesy of BrightTALK webinar Right at noon on April 22, 2010, BrightTALK presented the roundtable discussion Ghirardelli Goes Green. Moderated by Deanna Meredith, the Senior Marketing Manager for Willdan Energy Solutions, the panelists were Jane Echlin, the General Manager of Ghirardelli Square and the Developer Representative for Fairmont Heritage Place located in Ghirardelli Square, Darren Nix, the LodgingSavers Program Manager with Ecology Action, and Dr. Densen Cao, CEO of the CAO Group. The discussion was specifically centered on the transition of the historic Ghirardelli sign that sits atop Fairmont Heritage Place to an LED system.
“Ghirardelli Goes Green started last year with a focus on our trash and recycling program, but has morphed into us reviewing other areas here at the property … where we and our tenants can make an impact,” says Echlin. They have tracked gas and electricity use for each tenant through the ENERGY Star website. An assessment of the carbon monoxide emissions in their parking garage concluded they could turn off some fans. And then they organize an actual event – that coincides with Earth Day – attended by various participants who showcase ways that the public can reduce energy use.
Last year, Echlin and her team actively started looking at alternative, lower wattage lighting systems. The property had historically had problems with maintenance with the old type of bulb, which would be affected by the salty air and often go out. But when they started looking at the options “we were confused by the amount of product out on the market and knowing which were reliable products, which were going to last, etc.,” says Echlin. For professional advice, she reached out to Willdan Energy Solutions and PG&E.
Read more event review: BrightTALK GBS3 session 4
by aleida, on April 27th, 2010 Image courtesy of BrightTALK webinar
BrightTALK’s Green Building Summit on April 22, 2010 continued with Bridging Ecological Research and Urban Design: Ecological Design and Planning, presented by Alexander J. Felson from Yale University School of Architecture and Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Felson first did a fast-paced overview of the lack of rigor within [...]
by aleida, on April 26th, 2010  Image courtesy of BrightTALK webinar BrightTALK’s Green Building Summit on Thursday, April 22, 2010 continued with a presentation titled Sustainable Federal Buildings: Mariposa Land Port of Entry, AZ, presented by Melissa Farling, Brian Farling, and Eddie Jones, all three from Jones Studio, an architecture firm based in Phoenix, Arizona. They gave us an overview to some of the considerations that are going into the redesign of one of the largest ports in the United States.
The Mariposa Land Port of Entry is just one of thirty-three ports of entry along the United States – Mexico border. Located in Nogales, Arizona, “Mariposa’s facility annually processes more people than LAX and JFK combined. It inspects $12.85 billion of merchandise, and 45% of the produce consumed in the US crosses Mariposa,” said Jones. Yet the facility struggles to do its job. These numbers are continually increasing, and during harvest season, trucks already have a wait time of up to 10 hours. But at least they have designated paths to follow; pedestrians have to use worn dirt paths to get to and from the port. “The traffic queues, congestion, exhaust fumes, and dessert temperatures combine to create a toxic environment and an unpleasant experience for customs and border patrol agents, [United States citizens], and Mexican citizens.”
Built in 1973, the port is in need of a major redesign. “One of our most daunting challenges was to redesign the port to move traffic more efficiently, while saying architecturally, “Welcome to the U.S.A.” The project is pursuing a “whole system” approach – one that minimizes the use of resources and impact on the environment while providing security and a welcoming environment. Inspired by linear rail yards, the redesign includes a clear area for southbound traffic into Mexico, two designated areas for northbound traffic (one for personal vehicles, and a much larger one for commercial trucks), and two safe and distinct lanes for pedestrians. Lastly, an “oasis” has been carved out for port employees. Designed at the scale of a small downtown main street, it will provide a safe zone where employees can enjoy the outdoors and de-stress.
Read more event review: BrightTALK GBS3 session 2
by aleida, on April 26th, 2010  Image courtesy of BrightTALK webinar To mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, BrightTALK, the on-line webinar service, went all out with a week-long schedule packed with a total of 54 sessions. Of the eight presented on April 22, seven focused on green building. Kevin previewed the day’s line-up here. I started the day with The Economics of Green Building, presented by George Elvin, Ph.D., the Director of Green Technology Forum and an Associate Professor of Architecture at Ball State University.
The main theme of the presentation was, as he put it, “saving the planet without breaking the bank.” (Why do people insist on this ridiculous notion of “saving the planet”??) He touched upon these six major topics:
- no- to low-cost LEED credits
- tax incentives
- high ROI investments
- fist cost vs. life cycle cost
- economic benefits
- green project financing
The forty-eight minutes that Elvin had for this session prevented him from doing an in-depth look into any of these topics, yet he managed to pack in a lot of information. I’ll take a cue from him and focus only on what he presented for item number one. For it, Elvin provided some of the results of a survey from earlier this year that asked practitioners to identify what they considered the most low-cost LEED credits that they achieved in a building.
Read more event review: BrightTALK GBS3 session 1
by kevin, on April 25th, 2010 
Last week I posted a blog where I pondered whether virtual conferences would ever replace live face-to-face ones. It was my way of introducing a preview for the BrightTALK Green Building Summit held on Earth Day. We’ll be posting reviews of individual educational sessions over the next three days. This week, I’ll be flying to Bentonville, AR to attend the second annual NWA Green Expo. I’ve been invited to attend, review, and write about the event. Where last week seemed to be about virtual participation, this week I’ll be engaged physically.
One thing that sets this trip apart from others I’ve taken is the fact that I will not be traveling with a laptop. Instead, the only devices I’ll have with me are an iPhone, a new iPad, and a camera. It will be the lightest business trip I’ve ever taken. I will readily admit that I’m a gadget hound. On April 3rd, the first day the iPad went on sale, friends called and emailed, anxious to hear my first impressions. They were assuming, of course, that I would be an early adopter. Although I was far from being the first person in line, they were, as it turns out, quite correct. I did have an iPad by the end of the first day.
The majority of my work is somewhere else, so I accumulate frequent flyer miles quickly. I deliver thirty presentations throughout the country in a busy year, and ten in a slow year. I haven’t had a slow year in a long time. Even though a laptop is technically portable, lugging it through airports, dealing with it during security scanning, and carting it around with other luggage gets old fast when you’re doing it every other week. The potential to travel with a devise significantly lighter, even if slightly less capable, is worth trying. So my event reporting will be an experiment to see if it’s even possible to conduct business without a laptop.
I’ll be arriving in Bentonville, home of Walmart – one of three primary event sponsors, Thursday afternoon. Conference and expo start early the next morning. Part of my coverage includes limited access to the featured speakers. I’m hoping to conduct short interviews with each of them over the two and one half days I’ll be in town. Since my time will be short, I have to make certain I maximize my time with each. I’ll be preparing over the next three days so that I don’t ask dumb questions or ones that don’t lead to useful insights. I’m envious of people who make interviewing look easy, because I know it is not. When the interviewer is uncomfortable, nervous, or self conscious the interviewee can easily tell, and it totally changes the conversation energy.
Read more event preview: NWA Green Expo
by kevin, on April 18th, 2010 
While others debate whether we’re living through the final days of print media, I wonder if some day virtual conferences will replace physical ones. Are the webinars of today comparable? Do they offer an equally compelling exposition or learning experience? Actually I’m not entirely certain that’s a fair question. Although similar, the two venue types are so utterly different it’s difficult to make comparisons.
A year ago I might have thought it unlikely that a webinar could equal a face-to-face conference. But two things have changed my opinion. First, over the past twelve months I’ve endured terribly disappointing lectures at some of the biggest events. There are few things more frustrating than traveling long distances and paying good money for event registration, flight, rental car, hotel, and meals only to be tortured by painful presentation skills and horrendous graphics. It’s even worse when delivered by someone you respect and were looking forward to. Second, I’ve attended several well produced and informative on-line sessions. There’s still some disparity between virtual and face-to-face events, but technology and web speed are helping to narrow the gap. I can say with absolute certainty that my office chair is far more comfortable than any stackable convention chair. My couch is even better.
Even though a traditional conference is experienced live, I usually feel a strange detachment from the speakers. If the event is large enough, I might be seated several hundred feet from the podium. If the speaker is sufficiently interesting, attendees will swarm the stage, making it impossible to actually meet the person. Even with a computer between speaker and attendee webinars can be more intimate with a conversational tone.
A good example is the webinar hosting service BrightTALK. To celebrate Earth Day last year they organized their own virtual educational program called the Green Building Summit. I was invited to present a session about the environmental impact of buildings. It seems odd to use these words, but I actually met a number of interesting people. BrightTALK held a mini summit focused on sustainable building design earlier this year, where I also presented. It too was a well attended and an informative day of educational sessions (we posted about it here, here, and here).
Read more BrightTALK Green Building Summit 3
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Earth Day origins
In 1999, Advertising Age magazine compiled a list of the best advertising campaigns of the century. Many of their selections occurred in the 1960s; an era that many consider an advertising golden age. The AMC television series Mad Men quite accurately depicts New York’s Madison Avenue during that time period. Atop the magazine’s list is Volkswagen’s Think Small campaign that launched late in 1959 and ran for more than a decade. The campaign slogan, Think Small, was the work of Julian Koenig while at the firm Doyle Dane Bernbach. Koenig is a legendary copywriter who eventually co-founded the firm Papert Koenig Lois. He’s responsible for the now famous tag line – Timex: It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. His genius was making the complex look easy. He was a master at boiling down product attributes to their essential and developing catchy memorable phrases that resonate with audiences. His work seems effortlessly timeless.
Julian Koenig
He is also credited with naming an event celebrating its fortieth anniversary today – Earth Day. The story goes something like this. Koenig was a member of the Earth Day organizing committee, the event was planned to take place on April 22, Koenig’s birthday – Earth Day rhymes with birthday – that easy. Thank goodness organizers didn’t go with their initial name – National Environment Teach-In. Fortunately, smart marketing won. The name is as memorable and meaningful today as it was forty years ago.
Late in 1969, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson delivered a presentation to a small group in Seattle, WA where he proposed an idea for a national teach-in dedicated to environmental issues. Coastal damage caused by a devastating oil spill near Santa Barbara, CA earlier that year left a lasting impression which moved him to action. The activism and demonstration tinged decade of the 1960s was coming to a close, but Senator Nelson knew that environmentalism interest begun with Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was beginning to gain momentum. In his opinion, the pace wasn’t fast enough and national awareness of natural depredation needed a jump start.
Read more Earth Day origins