Green Ideas: Green Business Network August 8, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Nature, Sustainable Living.trackback
In 2008, the Weather Channel aired an inspiring show, Forecast Earth, on Sunday nights.
Since cancelled, the show touched upon the severe weather changes we face from global warming, specifically an increase in the frequency and intensity of coastal erosion, drought, tornadoes, wildfires, and heatwaves.
It also focused on solutions, like planting roof top gardens in urban centers to minimize heat build-up.
In the remaining segments, Forecast Earth featured innovators in the world of Clean Tech (i.e., Green Technology):
(1) Worm Poop ~ an organic fertilizer packaged in recycled soda bottles.
The 25-year-old founder of the business, TerraCycle, got the idea while growing marijuana in his basement in Canada. The plants grew lush and tall and potent due to the regular application of worm poop.
Wanting to capitalize on the idea, he and his smoking buddies tried to borrow some venture capital, with no luck ~ they couldn’t find a bank who wanted to loan money to college drop-outs who watched worms poop while smoking reefer. Determined to move forward with their idea, they lowered production costs by packaging the worm poop in recycled 2 litre soda bottles.
Success!
The company is thriving and expanding its innovative product lines to include: kid’s juice boxes turned into shopping bags and pencil cases, and plastic grocery bags turned into colorful handbags. TerraCycle: Outsmart Waste
(2) Green For All ~ after graduating from Yale Law School, a “green jobs evangelist” moved to Oakland California to focus on justice, peace, and opportunity for all.
His company, Green For All, trains inner city residents for green collar jobs ~ such as the increasingly marketable skill of solar panel installation. The founder, committed to creating a new, green economy, is confident that “a green wave will lift all boats.”
(3) After Katrina, Charlie Daniels (an environmental engineer, not the singer) saw the need for an inexpensive and quick way to build temporary housing after storms. He developed just such a product using . . . pressed wheat grass.
Instead of building a house with lumber, by clearing an acre of trees which won’t regenerate for 25 years, he is able to manufacture panels for an entire house with just 6 acres of wheat grass, which can be regrown each year.
The housing structures, which snap together quickly (250 man hours, from foundation to furniture), are completely recyclable and non-combustible.
(4) Eco-envelopes ~ an innovative business woman created an entire line of reusable envelopes for businesses and consumers. Her product, which is catching on, has the potential of eliminating 81 billion separate return envelopes, many of which end up in the trash, each year.
If you’ve got a Green Business Idea, learn how to promote and market it by joining Green Business Network:
Become part of the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse network of socially and environmentally responsible businesses.
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Thumbs up!
Wish Forecast Earth still aired. We loved it.
A forward looking, optimistic glance at the future.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. Sometime We come up with a great idea that will give us success but drop it before it has been properly executed to go on to the next big thing or something that’s more exciting. We always want to be occupied with the next big thing! We lack Focus unless we specifically and consciously “decide to focus”.
Have a blast on the DreamChasers Cruise . . . and if you get tired of having that Zebra hanging around, send it this way. : )