Archive for June, 2010
Jun
30
Summer Coupon CodeIf you haven’t already noticed the brown banner on top of our pages, here’s what’s going on: Verde Lifestyles is offering a 15% discount off of all orders over $100! Just type in the coupon code, summer2k10, into the appropriate field at checkout and click “apply”. Not sure what you could purchase to qualify for the discount? We have plenty of beautiful, eco-friendly products for your home to choose from! You can start looking here: Our sustainable wood products come in a variety of shapes, sizes, styles and colors—there’s truly something for every taste and every room!
Our Teak wood spa shelves will add a subtle, natural presence your bathroom. They are manufactured from wood from the plentiful Teak tree species in Southeast Asia, some of the fastest growing, most abundant hardwood trees in the world.
Our sustainable wood twist stools are perfect for sitting or setting objects on. Each stool is finished with all natural, non-toxic oils, making them safe for any area of the home and for the environment. They were hand-carved and finished by local Chiang Mai, Thailand artisans. If you’re looking to add a few eco-friendly, artistic touches to your home, check out these green home accents:
Our recycled steel bowls are both stylish and strong, and can be used indoors or outdoors. Made completely from recovered steel, they can function both as a centerpiece and as a conversation starter.
Give your walls some shine with unique art pieces made from recycled steel. This piece’s smooth pebbles are arranged in a flowing shape that can complete a room from wherever you want to place it. Provide any room with the calming presence of this polished, elegant Buddha wall panel. Available in three different finishes [honey, walnut and white wash] and four different sizes, this piece will be at home in any setting. Happy shopping! As our business accomplishes new milestones and discovers new avenues for expansion, there are suddenly a ton of new projects that need to get done. Already having a lot on our plates, Danielle and I were searching for a new team member to handle many facets of the day to day copywriting and online social involvement. We had also been working on putting together a more comprehensive set of rules and guidelines for customer service to help better serve you. Well… the search is finally over!
Marie Schutt, a senior at the University of Michigan, is a perfect fit for our search engine marketing needs. In addition to her Linguistics and Creative Writing double major, she has experience as an editor and writer for multiple Ann Arbor-based companies. She has also had to do plenty of online research, blog posting and promotional writing for those companies, which has helped her hone her skills in online copywriting. Marie has approximately three years of experience working as a customer service representative and media assistant for the Instructional Support Services division at U of M. We can admit when we’re under-experienced and immediately saw an opportunity for improvement on our current customer service setup. Here’s a few fun facts about Marie: Her favorite cuisine is Japanese food, about 95% of her wardrobe is thrifted, she has a minor in Mandarin Chinese and she loves watching foreign films. Welcome to Verde Marie! Portland, Oregon has something up its sleeve: The OSC, or Oregon Sustainability Center, a building that will utilize innovative design and architecture to capture and reuse energy and water. Though the building is far from completion, the project hopes to meet the standards of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council’s Living Building Challenge when it’s finished.
What is a living building? Simply put, a Living Building generates and uses its own energy and captures and recycles its own water, all while avoiding the use of toxic chemicals and substances in its construction and operation. The criteria for Living Building status are varied and stringent—stricter than those for obtaining LEED status—and what makes it even tougher is that they are performance-based: the building and its operations must meet sustainability standards for at least 12 months after it is built. The OSC building will be over 200,000 square feet, will house over 700 office tenants, and will provide office and classroom space for over 1,400 students and faculty. According to the Oregon Sustainability Center’s website, “To meet net-zero energy, OSC must reduce typical energy use by 70-80% to supply the building’s energy needs on-site with renewable resources. And it must do the same with water. This has never been done on this scale before.”
On top of that, the OSC is a part of something even bigger: “OSC is also the proposed anchor for Portland’s first EcoDistrict, a strategy that combines high performance buildings with infrastructure – boosting energy efficiency, water efficiency and livability. This evolving strategy will benefit through research to better understand how the building can interact and partner with its surrounding neighborhood.” (Also from the website).
The International Living Building Institute can be found here. If you’re interested in learning more about EcoDistricts, you can start here. (images from the OSC Website). Have an old cell phone (or three) that you don’t need and don’t know what to do with? Here are some safe, environmentally friendly ways to put your old phone to good use and keep it out of a landfill: -Donate it. Mail your old phone to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. This organization uses the proceeds from selling refurbished cell phones to fund its programs, which include providing cell phones to victims of abuse so that they can call 911 in emergencies. If you mail your phone to Greenphone (the shipping is free, they provide a shipping label), they will repurpose it, or, if they must recycle it, will plant one tree for every phone recycled. Cell Phones For Soldiers sells the phones you donate to Recellular and uses the money to buy calling cards for soldiers overseas. Check in with Call2Recycle to see what programs they offer for you—and your workplace—to keep old batteries and cell phones out of landfills. -Recycle/Repurpose it through the manufacturer or service provider. Most service providers and phone manufacturers how have programs for recycling and/or refurbishing and selling old cell phones. Check with your carrier or the company that made your phone to see what they can do for you. Some are teamed up with charities and nonprofit organizations. -Sell it. If your phone is still functional, sell it to someone who can put it to use. The benefits here are obvious—your gets reused, you get paid, and if you sell it locally you probably won’t have to worry about shipping materials or costs.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, E-waste is increasing at a rate higher than any other category of municipal waste. Greenversations, the EPA’s official blog, states that the average cell phone is used for only about 1.5 years before it’s replaced. With companies competing to produce smarter, sleeker, more versatile cell phones and cell phone upgrades offered every couple of years upon contract renewal, many of us find ourselves replacing our phones more and more frequently. Add to this the fact that cell phones themselves are often not built to last longer than two years, and it’s no wonder that e-waste is on the rise. A startling statistic from Greenversations: “150 million cell phones are taken out of service each year, if Americans recycled just 2/3 of those cell phones, we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 630,667 tons of CO2 and save enough energy to power more than 194,000 U.S. homes for a year.” Ever wonder how eco-friendly soccer city is? Check out this video featuring the architect and how this stadium that will host the opening and closing games amongst others With the stadium 3 years in the making, the video explains how they reused materials, water, and built on the site of an existing stadium. Other articles on the sustainability of the World Cup: South Africa 2010 World Cup: Eco-Friendly Stadiums Nike Creates World Cup Jerseys From Landfill Plastic Ready to make a change in NYC’s eco-friendly nightlife scene? Make sure to vote for Fair and Square. The Fair and Square goal is to bring about New York City’s first Fair Trade bar, which will serve wine, beer, and even artisanal liquors. This will certainly change the current bar scene: it’s a company desperate to show they care, and an opportunity to encourage responsible decision-making.
In addition to a trendy bar, Fair and Square will provide a daytime coffee shop, a place for ethical city-dwellers to relax in peace. The comfortable and stylish place will serve Fair Trade products to further improve the lives of all Earth’s inhabitants. Fair Trade provides relief for impoverished communities who are belittled by the traditional sales method. Fair Trade ensures that those workers receive the most value for their product, and that buyers receive the best quality. As Fair and Square proudly states, “The solution is to trade fair & combat global poverty with our purchases.” Well, let’s help them out! Visit the Fair and Square Web site for more information or if you want to vote. It only takes a second, and it will greatly benefit those in foreign countries, and across America. Voting ends June 14, so make sure to act quick! Look out, New York City– the Fair Trade bar is coming! We’ve all been inundated with information on the oil spill over the past month. Most of the articles are focused on the politics of the situation and the latest updates, so I thought I’d include links to articles for helping out. There are so many ways to become involved, here are just a few that I found. Please feel free to include any other sites you find in the comments. Gulf Oil Spill Aftermath: How to Help How You Can Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill Want to learn more about the oil spill? Here are sites that have up to date information on the spill.
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