Green Festival: Planet Green

Reggie Brown, NBC5 Street Team

Well after eating all of that food, I had to work it off, and what better way than biking! In an attempt to bike fast enough to turn on three light bulbs, I learned about Planet Green. They’re a television network that works with different TV shows to promote greener living. I have to make this blog short — I’m still exhuasted from that ride. To learn more, check out www.planetgreen.discovery.com.

Green Festival: Baring (Almost) All In The Name Of Green

Marcus Riley, NBC5 Street Team (video)

So while we were strolling around the Green Festival, we ran into a group of students from the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine program at National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, IL. I thought it looked like interesting stuff, so I interviewed one of the students while another performed an acupuncture procedure.

After we finished one of our groupies (yes, TV crews have groupies), suggested I do the interview with my shirt off while receiving a fire-cupping procedure. Whether she thought it would make for good TV, or she was looking for an opportunity to grope my bare back (which she did), I had to agree, it would make for a much better segment. So we re-did the interview, sans shirt.

Oh, by the way, you can get more information about Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine program at www.nuhs.edu. All of their treatments are natural and they don’t use any synthetic materials.

Green Festival: Totally Vegan

Reggie Brown, NBC5 Street Team

After Marcus spoke with one of the co-owners of Totally Vegan, he gave us some of the meals to sample. I’m not normally the vegan type, but it was awesome. I’d definitely suggest the sunflower seed pate, the raw carrot salad, the lasagna and the spinach quiche. But after he started talking about how much weight he’s lost, and how low his cholesterol is since he changed his eating habits, I knew we had to interview him again. For more information, hit www.totally-vegan.com.

Green Festival: A Couple Of Standouts

Fayth (aka Relaxocat), NBC5 Street Team

Green Fest was really exhausting as far as I’m concerned. So much information, so many people, and so many samples. I think I had enough flax seed to fill my Omega 3 Fatty Acid quota for the month. After all was said and done, there were a few standouts that come to mind to share with you.

Earth Paints Collection Systems – Ever wonder what to do with your unused latex paint other than leave it behind in your old apartment for the next person? One thing to do is bring it to an Earth Paints Collection Center where they will recycle it into 100% recycled, usable paint or turn it into an additive for other building products such as concrete. There’s a small fee for disposal, but it sure beats having old cans of paint around the house.

Greenmaker Supply Company – Co-owner Ori Sivan described the company as “Green Home Depot in the city.” Which is pretty accurate as far as I can tell. Greenmaker carries “energy intelligent”, environmentally sensitive, and healthy building products. Everything from construction products to kitchen and bath fixtures can be found at Greenmaker. If you’re looking for recycled glass tile, environmentally friendly flooring, or any number of home improvement products, check out Greenmaker.

Credo Mobile – I really wondered how a wireless phone company could be “green”. It isn’t so much that they are, but they help support environmental, humane and other charities through their mobile services. Running the on the Sprint network, you can get your service through Credo and have a percentage of your expense donated directly to charities included in the Credo group of charities. It’s not perfect for everyone, but the plans are simple to understand, include free “Credo-to-Credo” calling, and a number of other features. Best of all, your mobile phone can help you help a cause.

Green Festival: Peace Coffee

Reggie Brown, NBC5 Street Team

If there’s coffee around, I’m gonna drink it. I don’t care if it’s first thing in the morning to kick start my day, a quick cup before a work out, or a perfect accompaniment to my dessert, it’s going down. Walking around the festival was a little tiring so I followed my nose over to Peace Coffee and man am I glad I did. A lot of places claim to be ‘planet friendly’ or ‘green’ but this Minneapolis-based brand has really embodied the concept. For starters, their organic coffees come from free trade farmers in nine different countries around the world, each blend carrying their own distinct flavors, notes and characteristics. On top of that, all orders in the immediate Minneapolis area are delivered by bicycle and orders extending into the suburbs, by bio-deisel van. How cool is that? I will always stand up for the little guy and peace coffee provides the perfect pick-me-up that I would take over Starbucks any day. To pick up some peaceful coffee of your own, go to www.peacecoffee.com.

Green Festival: Chocolate Is Divine!

Megan Bowers, NBC5 Street Team

Now we go from chocolate nibs to chocolate bars! I understand that my last post involved a chocolate booth, but I’m a chocolate lover and I don’t care who knows it. Moving on, I noticed Divine Chocolates because of the people lined up to play their trivia game. The prize, if you couldn’t guess, was a large chocolate pod. That’s right. Pod. Similar to a bean pod but much better tasting. Even though I got most of the chocolate trivia questions wrong (I don’t know the stuff, I just eat it), I learned that Divine Chocolate gives a portion of their profits to cocoa farmers in Ghana. Giving back never tasted so good! To check out their website, go to www.divinechocolateusa.com.

Green Festival: Stop Beer Warming!!

Reggie Brown, NBC5 Street Team

Does this situation ever happen to you? You’re at a house party with your trusty plastic cup in hand. You’re slowly sipping on your beer and schmoozing with the crowd. And just as you’re about to take a final sip you get that grimace across your face which is the product of warm beer? No longer do we have to be victims to those last few disgusting drops. The Chillster is a new glass that makes sure you never have that problem again. After sticking it in the freezer, it’s supposed to keep your beer cold for up to two hours. Talk about cool. The premise behind The Chillster is to cut down on the waste of plastic cups. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to help the planet by taking down a cold one. To purchase The Chillster, go to www.stopbeerwarming.com.

Green Festival: Riot For Cacao

Megan Bowers, NBC5 Street Team

So after a couple hours of walking around the festival, I was ready for more free samples. After all, a girl’s gotta eat, right? This time my eye caught a row of martini glasses filled with chocolate candies. Nice. While I was savoring ‘Flavor 50′ I noticed rally signs around the Sweet Riot booth that said ‘I Riot For Cacao!’ and ‘Change the World!’ I don’t mean to profile, but I’d riot for chocolate any day. I found out that Sweet Riot is a candy company that sells “peaces” of cacao nibs. What in the world are nibs, you may ask? They’re little pieces of chocolate that are only one to two calories, so needless to say I sampled an entire handful without feeling guilty! To learn about how you can riot for cacao, check out www.sweetriot.com.

Green Festival: Eatin’ Vegan

Marcus Riley, NBC5 Street Team (video)

The words vegetarian and vegan don’t necessarily sit well with me. If there’s not a piece of meat on the plate, I feel like it’s missing something. That’s why I was a bit skeptical when I ran into Roxia, with Soul Gourmet. You can find her products at places like Treasure Island grocery stores, and she owns a restaurant called Vegetarian Life at 622 East 73rd Street. And I can add from personal experience — her cheesecake is phenomenal! I may not be going fully vegan anytime soon — or ever — but at least my mind is now open to the experience.

Green Festival: The Blade

Reggie Brown, NBC5 Street Team

All you gearheads, greenies and drivers out there, check this out! The Blade is a revolutionary new product that allows you to be eco friendly, while also saving you cash. The creators of The Blade claim that it not only cuts down on emissions from your car, but also increases fuel efficiency which is a definite plus. It is relatively inexpensive, and with today’s gas prices, practically pays for itself within a few trips to the pump. It simply attaches to your tailpipe and you’re ready to go! So whether you’re looking to reduce emissions, cut down on gas,trick out your ride or all of the above, you gotta get your hands on a Blade. To learn more about The Blade, go to www.bladeyourride.com.

Green Festival: Five Accessories

Megan Bowers, NBC5 Street Team

During the Green Festival, I got the chance to check out Five Accessories. A new company that sells handbags, laptop bags, picture frames, jewelry and all sorts of good stuff. Being the self-proclaimed accessories guru, I loooved their purses. But the vibrant and colorful selection wasn’t the best part about this company. A percentage of their profits goes to people in need in third-world countries. To check out their stuff, go to www.fiveaccessories.com

Green Festival: The Nuts And Bolts

Marcus Riley, NBC5 Street Team (video)

The NBC5 Street Team took a crew to the Chicago Green Festival at Navy Pier over the weekend. We spoke to several business owners and individuals about what they’re doing to improve the quality of this world we live in. More video segments to come, but check out my interview with Isabel Schechter, the regional director of the Green Festival.

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Slideshow: Green Festival 2008

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We Campaign

Global warming is an urgent, but solvable problem. That’s why I’ve joined the We Campaign, a powerful nonpartisan movement of concerned citizens that was founded by Nobel Prize Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. We’re already a million strong — and growing each day.
        
Will you join, too? Visit this site to learn more and add your voice: http://www.wecansolveit.org/.
        
The We Campaign is working to ensure that elected leaders make the climate crisis a priority. Visit: http://www.wecansolveit.org/. Here, you can learn about solutions to global warming, take action steps and even find events happening in your community. Although it’s not too late, global warming is very serious and there is no time to lose. So please don’t wait any longer to get involved – sign up today: http://www.wecansolveit.org/
        
Together, we can solve the climate crisis.

Going Green At Naperville Salon

My name is Cheryl Lauderdale and my husband James and I are Naperville salon owners who have decided to “Go Green.” Our salon, located in downtown Naperville, is called Jus’ Hair.

We now use organic hair color in our salon. It’s called “All Nutrient.” We are very excited about the change, and has been very successful with our clients. They love the idea that what we are using is organic, good for the environment and good for their hair. The colore is made from plan/flower extracts and natural oils.

With so many people eating organic foods, recycling, buying water treatment systems for their homes (which we have done in the last year instead of buying plastic water bottles), we decided to do our part with an organic hair color line.

We’re happy to be a part of such a growing movement! We want to make a difference. Every little bit helps to save the earth.

SALON SUITES
22 E. CHICAGO AVE. SUITE 114-H
NAPERVILLE, IL. 60504
630-863-8665

Going Green: Every Little Bit Helps!

I am writing to you on behalf of the Children’s Department of the Lowell Public Library, Lowell, Indiana. I am currently planning the Summer Reading Club activities for summer 2008.  This year our theme is “Going Green – Every Little Bit Helps!”.  The eight week program is designed to encourage children to read throughout the summer to maintain or even improve reading skills, have some fun and hopefully foster a lifetime love of reading.  This year we are also trying to encourage the “Going Green” movement through education and fun.  The program is for children preschool age through fifth grade.  Last year we had 620 participants who read a total of 15,723 books.

 

The Summer Reading Club program is free for the children and offers a wide variety of activities including crafts, games, cooking classes and entertainment.  In order to encourage the club members to read throughout the summer we also try to offer a variety of incentives such as weekly drawings, picking from the treasure chest, rewarding the top readers and displaying the reading achievements of all participants.

Swapping Goods

Just wanted to recommend the company I founded, www.swaptree.com. Swaptree is a website that allows you to trade and recycle all your books, cds, dvds, video games and textbooks with other users for free. So you list the items you have to trade (that book you’ll never read again), and the items you want, and Swaptree’s trade algorithms instantly find the perfect trade for you. Besides being free and green we’ve been told its amazing and fun.

So on Swaptree your copy of Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows, can be traded to another member, for another best seller, and then once you are done with that, another and another and another, saving lots of money and trees in the process. While we only support these 4 media types now, we want to expand to other products, such as clothes and collectibles.

 

Cremations

We can’t change the cremation process, but we can change everything else. How about recycling our bodies to science? We can Help.

We are the first in the country. Family owned and trying to make a difference. We have only been operating since the first week of February and we have made a difference. How about a free pen that entitles the holder to a $25 discount when that pen is turned in at time of need. The pen is sanitized and sent to a different family. We even use bio-degradable urns.

www.PlanetGreenCremations.com

The Conservation Foundation

Our not-for-profit organization has a great program that has been extremely effective and popular in helping homeowners green their environment. It’s called Conservation@Home and focuses on native plants that do not require the water or fertilizers that other plants need in this climate. Prairie plants improve the soil, feed birds and butterflies, absorb water and more.

Other fun stuff associated with the program — we have lots of photos showing before and after conversions to eco-friendly yards. People can earn a C@H sign for their yard. We have sold over 500 rain barrels in the last year – and two communities are doing “rain barrels on parade” like the cows – decorated along main street! This program although very popular, still needs publicity to help spread the word about easy, achievable steps that nearly everyone can make to help improve the environment. We do over 50 presentations a year to schools, garden clubs, church groups showcasing these good environmental changes.

The Conservation Foundation
Land Protection Specialist
Conservation@Home Program Manager
630- 553 – 0687 x 302
www.theconservationfoundation.org

Sleeving The World A Better Place

The shirt rescue company is a green friendly upscale resale shop of men’s designer shirts. We specialize in top-quality designer mens shirts, sweaters, jackets and ties. Our focus is on preserving the environment by recycling shirts. Another way we accomplish that is by contributing to the carbonfund.org Foundation. For every customer that doesn’t take a bag, we donate 30 cents tothe carbonfund.org foundation.  Our motto is “Sleeving the world a better place.”

WWW.SHIRTRESCUECOMPANY.COM

New Eco-Friendly Andersonville Store

I am the co-owner of a new (just opened March 28th) eco-friendly store in the Andersonville neighborhood.  We are an eco-friendly boutique specializing in green goodies for whippersnappers and their grown-ups too!  
773-944-9250
http://www.green-genes.com/

Shaklee Cleaning Products

My husband and I have started selling Shaklee products because we believe in the products and use everything they offer for us.  Shaklee has been around for 50 years and have a line of Get Clean products which are safe for the environment along with the safety of your family inside your home.

We offer organic cleaning products, laundry booster/concentrate, automatic dishwasher concentrate, hand soap,  dryer sheets. Every get clean bottle states it’s clean credentials:  NONTOXIC, NATURAL, CONCENTRATED, BIODEGRADABLE SURFACTANTS, HYPOALLERGENIC, NO PHOSPHATES, NO CHORINE BLEACH.  Now how many products are out there that can honestly state these facts!   We believe a home should be the safest place in the whole world and a clean house shouldn’t involve dirtying the earth. 

 

Please visit our website and see the products we offer:

 

 http://www.shaklee.net/lefebvre

 

Earth Paints Collection Systems

My name is Juli Beucher.  My husband George and I recently opened a new business, Earth Paints Collection Systems, which is dedicated to keeping latex paint, and the containers it comes in, out of our landfills. In 2006, over 69 million gallons of latex paint was dumped into our country’s landfills. For us, this is an unacceptable statistic considering the present state of our environment. Although latex paint is considered non-toxic, it is still made-up of potentially toxic chemicals. When leftover latex paint is poured down the drain, into the ground or dried out and thrown into our landfills, it harms our environment in several different ways.  Illinois households alone use an estimated 12.7 million gallons of paint a year, producing 1.4 million gallons of waste.  With such a simple solution at our fingertips, we feel it is our responsibility to stop this type of environmental contamination now.  If we don’t, we’ll be leaving our children a world of contaminated ground water and toxic landfills.  It is our hope that, with our simple and convenient solution, we can make dramatic strides in reducing that number. Through responsible recycling, left over latex paint can be reused and reprocessed to create n ew consumer products. 

Our plan is to use current paint retailers as collections sights. This will enable the consumer to dispose of old paint before they purchase new paint, avoiding the pile-up of waste paint in garages across the country. On average, the typical family garage has 3-5 gallons of old latex paint ready for disposal.  But, until now, there hasn’t been a consumer friendly, simple disposal option.  Earth Paints Collection System offers a simple, environmentally safe option, at a minimal cost. We have been in business for about 20 weeks and we currently have over 20 retailers signed on as collection sites in the Chicago area, with new stores signing on each day. Visit earthpaintscs.com for more information.

George & Juli Beucher

Thinking Green

I am contacting you as I am a member of the Northern Illinois Home Builders Association and I participate on their Cavalcade Committee. The Cavalcade is a home show open to the public and is sponsored by Northern IL Home Builders Assoc. Attendance during the show averages between 20K – 30K people per year. This year the Cavalcade is celebrating it’s 50th year.

The theme of this year’s show is “Thinking Green”. Builders are incorporating the green movement into the homes that are being constructed for this year’s show. It is the goal of the committee to help promote these ideas, techniques and tips that builders will be displaying and demonstrating at this year’s show.

Got a Green idea or information? Send it to goinggreen@nbc5.com.

Find Someone To Ride With

Everyone can use RideSearch.com to find someone to carpool with. It is a free service that helps people find others who live near where they live and work near where they work. Thanks, Brian Bass, Creator of RideSearch.com.

Got a Green idea or information? Send it to goinggreen@nbc5.com.

Green Grocer Chicago Opens In West Town

You have to check this out and do a piece on this new grocery store that has hit West Town in Chicago! It is called the Green Grocer Chicago, located at 1402 West Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60622. The owner of the store is Cassie Green. The Green Grocer features organic, local, delicious foods. Cassie is very knowledgeable on organic food and the impact on the environment by supporting local food manufacturers. What a great store! The website is www.greengrocerchicago.com.

Please let everyone else in Chicago know about this store!

Got a Green idea or information? Send it to goinggreen@nbc5.com.