I was contacted yesterday with a request to write an article about a relatively new company and I approached the request with equal amounts of skepticism and intrigue! The request was to write about a company that takes used cardboard boxes and sells them back to businesses and the general public at low prices. What I found was an extremely environmentally aware business whose value system is centered around reducing waste and recycling as many cardboard boxes as humanly possible;

“You don’t have to cut down a tree, to make a used cardboard box!”

The founder of the company, Marty Metro, started selling used cardboard boxes in his local neighborhood back in 2002 and he saw the potential for a big business;
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I just received my Utility bill today and was first, very happy to see it was much lower than last year due to our efforts at water conservation and also because the bill included a card that described a program that reaches out to young environmentalists. In cooperation with the North Central Texas Council of Governments through funding from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Green Teens is a new program introduced in the Fall of 2008 to reach out to young environmentalists through training and hands-on demonstrations and allow them to educate their peers, as well as their community, on ways to green their lives.

The program includes educational and practical components to facilitate long-term, positive changes in attitudes concerning waste prevention, reduction, reuse, and recycling. The Green Teens go out in the community and ask businesses about their “green” practices and give each of them a set of criteria that will help them reach the goal of a “Green Teens Approved Business” status. The businesses are then placed in tiers based on the number of practices implemented, in our community of North Richland Hills, there are forty businesses and counting that are Green Teen Approved Business!!

A unique aspect of Green Teens includes an innovative, youth-oriented and targeted marketing campaign. Green Teens will provide education by producing an environmental PSA, creating and maintaining a Green Teens web site and MySpace page, and using a weekly “text tree” to provide helpful tips to peers. Additionally, Green Teens will utilize a video-enabled social network to send video emails, create video podcasts, have group video chats, and streaming video.

To learn more about this program go to:

http://www.nrhtx.com/green_teens.aspx

The card lists all the Green Approved Businesses and the Tier level they have attained. One of our favorite places, the Yogurt Patch Frozen Yogurt is in the Top Tier (20+ actions). Great yogurt and very green to boot!

As our family attempts to take steps to simplify our lives and help our planet, I wanted to read something that was relevant to organic food and a simply life. This book fits the bill.

On Good Land, is an excellent book. You are drawn into the story of this small farm in the suburbs of Santa Barbara, California from the very beginning. The author, Michael Ableman has refused to let Fairview Gardens, this small farm be destroyed by the urbanization of California farmlands. He writes with wisdom and wit about the environmental and cultural benefits of small scale, diversified agriculture, and the link between good food on the table and the good earth it comes from. Good Food starts in the fields and orchards that are well tended. He makes the point that if we ignore this fundamental rule, it could be at our own peril as it says in the book “without good farming there can be no good food; and without good food there can be no good life.”

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While out grocery shopping this past weekend, I came across a great product. I bought a bag of Stahlbush Island Farms diced butternut squash. The brown paper packaging caught my eye with 100% Natural, Certified Sustainable Farming, Grown in the USA across the top. That was enough to make me buy and try the product. I have to say, it was wonderful. It tasted as good as fresh, excellent flavor.

Stahlbush Island Farms is a Real Family Farm.  they were founded by Bill and Karla Chambers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 1985, planting and harvesting just 2 crops. In 1998, Stahlbush Island Farms launched the sustainably grown frozen fruits and vegetables in the distinctive brown paper package that I purchased and in 2003, they begin selling a brand of organic pumpkin products called Farmer’s Market.

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We were recently invited by my wife’s parents, Sharen and Carter, to get fresh frozen yogurt from a local business they had been telling us about for weeks. We tagged along in hope of some delicious dessert and found much, much more! The “Yogurt Patch” sells a variety of low-fat, no-fat and no sugar added fresh frozen yogurt and it’s all delicious but what really impressed my wife and I was that the Yogurt Patch has made an obvious investment in being a green business.  It’s not immediately obvious but eco friendly products are used all throughout the store.

The eagle eyed yogurt buyers will notice a sticker on the door which shows that the business is supported by a local “Green Teens” organization proving that the local community has already recognized the green commitment being made.

The Yogurt Patch owners have truly invested in green options throughout the store, we wish more businesses would make such a green commitment and we’d like to share the experience with you, so here we go… (more…)