To all of those people who have been following our posts, tweets, facebook messages and ourapidly approaching event on October 1st, we thought we’d give you a quick sneak peak at some of our products. Keep in mind that we will be showcasing several other items at the event in downtown Royal Oak and everyone will be given coupon codes.  (If you can’t make it, you can sign up for our newsletter once the site launches for coupon codes and updates.)

First up is our Larch organic duvet and pillowcase collection. The rich dark cocoa colors pop out from the white background. This will be available for queen and king-size beds. We’ll also be offering organic pillows and comforters for filling these items.

Lighten up your room with one of our exclamati lamps. These unique lamps are all hand-made using non-toxic and repurposed materials as well as clay. Shown here is the bejeweled lamp. There are many different colors also available in this design as well as several new orb collections.

Everybody loves bamboo! As you certainly know by now, bamboo is the fastest growing lumber in the world and is therefore rapidly replacing many other wood structures as the latest and greatest alternative. Our bamboo rugs are just two of the many bamboo products we anticipate selling within the coming months.

Our soy scented candles have arrived just in time for the fall rush. Each season, Danielle and I will be choosing from our favorite flavors! This fall we’ve decided on Pumpkin Spice, Cozy Home, Harvest, and Victorian Christmas. These items will be available in 10 and 16 ounce sizes.

Finally, because the largest part of our site is devoted to accent pillows, we thought we’d just show off one of them. This eclectic Buddha pillow is part of our EcoArt selection and one of my personal favorites. Other pillows in the Zen collection will be available to choose from as well.

Thank you all for your support so far and we look forward to seeing you at the Tweetup! Make sure to RSVP to the event on facebook.  On a side note…To start more conversations online, what type of content would you like to see on our blog?  Or topics of discussion on our Facebook page?

Here’s the link!

-Ryan-

Total Read Time: 3 Minutes

Yesterday Danielle and I headed on out to downtown Rochester for a Eco-Tuesday event. For those of you who aren’t familiar with EcoTuesday, it is a small but quickly growing community of eco-conscious business men and women. They started about two years ago with the goal of bringing together forward thinkers and people who are proactive about creating a healthier environment. Their presence can be found across the nation every fourth Tuesday of the month.  At the events, people get together to network and share stories.

Yesterday’s event was hosted at Mind Body and Spirit, a health food and sustainable restaurant which just opened this past year and has already been a big hit with the locals. We had the opportunity to take a tour of the building and speak to some of the employees about the building’s unique features.

The first part of the building we visited was the greenhouse. They grow all of their own herbs, peppers, tomatoes and a couple of other greens in a moderately sized greenhouse right off one of the main roads. It has a ventilation system that open and closes automatically so optimal conditions are met for the plants. To water the plants, there is a giant rain barrel which collects rain water from the roof, which is filtered, and they have yet to run out of available rain water for their plants. There are also giant tubes of stagnant water and a large cinder block wall filled with cement that holds in heat from the sun in the winter to keep the room warm. This is a great example of passive solar design at work.  One of my favorite items though was a giant composting machine that accelerates the composting process.  Any food scrapes from customer’s plates or the kitchen are added to the machine every day.  The machine accelerates the process so within 15 hours you have usable compost that local farmers and employees have first dibs on.

Then we went outside to talk about the building’s other green features. All of the decking was a composite mix of wood and recycled plastic. The floors were all made out of cork. While some of the tables were actually constructed out of crushed sunflower seed husks or sawdust and mixed with non-toxic glues.  They looked great too.  I should also mention the building is 100 years old and that much of the building’s foundation and some of it’s interiors were reused for the restaurant.  Items such as the marble floor in the entrance way and large pillars were refurbished and the original crown molding was repurposed to change pictures.

After the tour we had a change to meet others involved in different sustainable industries.  One such person was a permaculture designer, meaning he designs sustainable landscapes (yards, walkways, gardens, forests, etc). We also had a chance to sample some of Mind Body and Spirit’s entrees, which were very tasty.  Eventually we found our way back to one of the tour guides and discussed the geothermal design the restaurant implmented and how involved the process really is (details will be in a later post). They went with the vertical approach which involves drilling 200-250 below ground. They are so confident in their investment that they don’t actually have a furnace or an air conditioner!

Cool Company Policies:
1. Servers and other employees get hired more so on their enthusiasm for eco-friendliness and organic living than years of experience. The idea is that you can train just about anyone to wait on tables but teaching a lifestyle is much more difficult.
2. Approximately 40% of the restaurant’s waste is food and everything but the bones is put into the composter. Approximately 40% of the materials they use gets recycled. Only about 10% of all their waste actually get’s thrown out.

That’s all for now. We’ll keep you posted on where the next local Eco-Tuesday will be and if you live in the area, we’d love to see you out at the event.

-Ryan-

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