Episode 48 – Cork Comes of Age
February 9, 2012
What does the Iberian Lynx have to do with a bottle of wine? The Cork Forest Conservation Alliance.
In Episode 48 of The Wendel Forum(originally aired on January 28, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show host Bill Acevedo welcomes Patrick Spencer, Executive Director of Cork Forest Conservation Alliance (CFCA).
Originally founded in 2008 as Cork ReHarvest, the Oregon-based CFCA is a nonprofit that campaigns globally for the protection and preservation of the Mediterranean cork forests, its inhabitants (including the Iberian Lynx) and biodiversity, through education, direct action, and partnerships with communities, businesses and governments. In addition to the group’s educational campaigns, a major piece of their work is to collect and recycle cork before it reaches a landfill. Bill and Patrick discuss the group’s four main areas of focus, and the new “Real Cork Inside” program.
Recycling
CFCA has developed a distribution network to collect used wine natural corks and recycle them close to where they are collected, thereby reducing the carbon footprint in the recycling circle. Whole Foods Markets, with drop off locations in their 300 stores in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., is by far their largest partner. There are many other locations in the network with drop-off locations from Surry, British Columbia to Austin, Texas. Once collected, the cork is recycled into products including cork floor tiles and numerous industrial and consumer products.
Education
A primary mission of the organization is to educate the wine community, various manufacturers and consumers regarding the sustainability of cork. The group frequently participates in outreach, sustainability seminars and conferences, and hospitality industry programs to correct some common misperceptions about the harvesting of cork. Cork is actually the bark of certain oak trees. Patrick explains that, contrary to popular belief, the trees are not cut down in order to harvest the cork. It is harvested by hand by individual family farmers working the 6.6 million acres in the Mediterranean cork forest region. The bark re-grows and is harvested about every 9 years from trees that can live up to 300 years.
Stewardship
CFCA works with local governments and with other nonprofit organizations throughout the world to become a central hub for information, education and advocacy related the harvest of cork.
Environmental business development
To further the mission of the organization, CFCA actively works with companies looking to up-cycling spent wine cork. Using natural cork in other products diverts large quantities of waste from landfills and offers many businesses a more sustainable alternative in the production of goods and products. By working with business leaders in a variety of industries, the group is able to identify new opportunities to create all kinds of environmentally favorable applications – from flooring in schoolyard playgrounds to bobbers for fishing.
The “Real Cork Inside” program
The “Real Cork Inside” ™ certification program was developed to help wineries let consumers know that they have committed to using natural cork in bottling their wines. Because most wineries put foil or plastic capsule over the top of the bottle, a consumer often can’t see if the bottle uses natural or synthetic cork. Now consumers can look for an acorn symbol on the bottle that indicates the winery is committed to using natural cork closures. This trademark logo is licensed by CFCA to certified wineries in the program and gives the consumer the power of choice.
Post Links:
Listen to the interviews with Patrick Spencer: Episode 48 of The Wendel Forum (27:41 mins; mp3)
Cork Forest Conservation Alliance website: www.corkforest.org
Whole Foods Market cork program press release: wholefoodsmarket.com/pressroom/blog/2010/04/06/whole-foods-market%c2%ae-partners-with-cork-reharvest-to-recycle-wine-corks-help-save-mediterranean-cork-forests/
960 KNEW AM Radio website: www.960KNEW.com
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: www.wendel.com/wacevedo
Tagged: The Wendel Forum, Supply Chain, Bill Acevedo, William Acevedo, Natural Products, Labeling, Recycling, Conservation, 960 KNEW
Episode 47 – Shaping a Superior Surfboard
February 3, 2012
Show host Bill Acevedo surfing Hollister Ranch New Year's 2012
In Episode 47 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on January 21, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), passionate surfer and show host Bill Acevedo brings together a diverse set of people, all with a passion for improving the environmental impact caused by the surfing industry. Their interests span from the core material used to make blanks that are ultimately shaped into the ideal board to filmmakers attempting to capture the stories that will hopefully inspire a new generation of surf product innovation; the conversation explores how each of our guests is making waves.
First up is Clay Peterson of Marko Foam Products, a company on the cutting edge of sustainable surfboards. Bill and Clay discuss the more environmentally friendly materials now being used in the production of surfboard blanks, as well as Marko Foam’s significant efforts to use recycled styrofoam as feeder product to create its supply of blanks. Clay provides context and history on the challenges board manufacturers and shapers faced until recently, including an explanation of the lawsuit that ultimately put Clark Foam, one of the original titans of surfboard manufacturing, out of business. He describes how the manufacturing process has evolved into a cleaner, healthier process.
Later, the conversation turns to Desi Banatao of Entropy Resins, maker of the first USDA BioPreferred Certified Epoxy System. These bioderived epoxy solutions allow manufacturers to lower the petroleum and VOC content of their products. The resins are derived from materials like pine oils and non-food grade vegetable oils. Desi (the engineer in the family) works with his brother Rey Banatao (who has a background in polymer chemistry) to develop these innovative renewable products that can be used in multiple applications, ranging from green building materials to snow and sea sporting equipment.
Joining the fun, Andrew Rice and David Whitney of Kenai Productions describe their new documentary project, Every Board Has a Story, which will serve as a vehicle for educating the public about the alternatives to traditional surfboard manufacturing. The story will explore the relationship between the surfer and his or her board, and will track various efforts to design, create and test the performance aspects of sustainable surfboards.
These are great stories showcasing how people with a passion for the environment are transforming an industry.
Post Links:
Listen to the interviews with Clay, Desi, Andrew and David: Episode 47 of The Wendel Forum (27:33 mins; mp3)
Every Board Has a Story trailer: kenaiproductions.com/every-board-has-a-story–green-surf-board-documentary.html
Marko Foam Products website: www.markofoam.com/
Entropy Resins website: www.entropyresins.com/
Kenai Productions website: kenaiproductions.com/
960 KNEW AM Radio website: www.960KNEW.com
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: www.wendel.com/wacevedo
Tagged: 960 KNEW, Bill Acevedo, Conservation, surfing, The Wendel Forum, William Acevedo
Episode 46 – Ecofabulous Offers Eco-Inspiration
January 26, 2012
Zem Joaquin, founder and editor of ecofabulous®
In Episode 46 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on January 14, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show host Bill Acevedo chats with Zem Joaquin, founder and editor of ecofabulous®, a trusted online resource for stylish sustainable living.
In her conversation with Bill, Zem discusses her journey of self discovery that led to the founding of the company. Through her personal experiences with products ranging from cleaning supplies to toys that contributed to her own children’s health problems, she started her exploration to identify more sustainable products to create a healthier home for her family. Immersing herself in this research for her own life, she soon realized that most families would not have the time to dedicate to the level of research she was able to perform. Out of this idea, ecofabulous® was born.
She delved deeply into all things a greener home might require, from building materials and interior design elements to the products found in the home’s walls. With her knowledge and passion she created an online space where she could share what she learned, offering mothers and fathers everywhere reliable and trusted information on products that would be healthier alternatives for their families. She shares her tips and inspiration in areas ranging from home décor and fashion to tech products.
Zem understands that sifting through the product choices leading to healthier living can be overwhelming to someone who doesn’t have the bandwidth to dedicate to extensive research, so she strives to make greener choices accessible, easy and fun.
As she says in the interview:
“Eco-inspiration mobilizes.
Eco-guilt paralyzes.”
Listen to the episode to hear more about what inspires Zem, big projects in the works at ecofabulous®, and Zem’s picks for top eco-trends in 2012.
What’s your greener style secret? We’d love to hear about your great green finds for a healthy home.
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Zem Joaquin: Episode 46 of The Wendel Forum (27:16 mines; mp3)
Ecofabulous® website: www.ecofabulous.com
960 KNEW AM Radio (formerly GREEN 960 AM) website: www.960KNEW.com
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: www.wendel.com/wacevedo
Tagged: 960 KNEW, Bill Acevedo, Conservation, Green Building, Natural Products, Organic, retail, The Wendel Forum, William Acevedo
CA Energy Commission Tackles Vampire Chargers
January 16, 2012
[Note: Thanks to Wendel Rosen attorney Greg Jung for this update and guest post.]
Greg Jung, attorney at Wendel Rosen
On January 12, the California Energy Commission approved the nation’s first efficiency standards that apply to “vampire” chargers — electrical battery charging systems that consume electricity even when they are not connected to the device being charged or turned off. The new rules would take effect on Feb. 1, 2013, for chargers used with consumer goods, such as phones and power tools; on Jan. 1, 2014, for industrial chargers, such as forklifts; and on Jan. 1, 2017, for commercial equipment chargers, including walkie-talkies for emergency personnel and portable bar-code scanners.
See www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-energy-vampires-20120113,0,6391528.story
Tagged: Conservation, Energy, Greg Jung
The Wendel Forum has a new broadcast time!
January 12, 2012
We hope that 2012 is off to a great start for you. The Wendel Forum took a bit of a break over the holidays, but we’re ready to jump into 2012 with both feet. It’s going to be a great year! There are a few changes we want to make sure you catch.
Green 960 Becomes 960 KNEW
Our radio station, Green 960 AM, is changing its call letters. You’ll still find us on the air at 960 on the AM dial; however, the station now goes by 960 KNEW “Opinions, Finance, Advice.” Also, the new website is www.960knew.com. Don’t worry, you’ll still find us as a part of the Green Morning line up every Saturday morning (along with Sea Change Radio and An Organic Conversation).
Another program change is that we have a new time slot. Our new time is 9:30 – 10:00 a.m. on Saturdays. As always, if you’re out of signal range, you can listen to the show via the station’s website and www.iHeartRadio.com (as they say, “there’s an app for that!”).
Saturday Welcomes Zem Joaquin of Ecofabulous
We are kicking off the first new episode of the year in our new 9:30 time slot this Saturday, January 14. Please tune in for a discussion with Zem Joaquin of Ecofabulous. She’ll share how Ecofabulous brings together style and sustainability without sacrifice.
California’s Landmark Benefit Corporation Legislation
So besides our radio show changes, what else has been happening the last few weeks, you ask? Quite a lot. With the enactment of AB 361, California’s new landmark Benefit Corporation legislation, Wendel Rosen attorney Donald Simon has been spreading the word about how companies can adopt this new corporate structure. You can listen to Episode 36 of The Wendel Forum for a previous discussion about this legislation, which allows companies to incorporate their values into their governance.
Donald Simon, Jay Coen Gilbert, Assemblyman Jared Huffman and Yvon Chouinard arrive in Sacramento
Donald also participated in the media event at the California Secretary of State’s office on January 3rd (the first day companies could submit paperwork to become Benefit Corporations). Here’s a press release describing the event and some photos of the day. We were thrilled to be able to assist about a dozen companies with filings on this first day of eligibility, including Patagonia. It was great to see Yvon Chouinard there to help champion the cause. A true leader in sustainability! See below for links to some of the coverage this event garnered.
Interview with Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia
Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia addresses crowd to celebrate Benefit Corporation legislation passage.
Recent Coverage of AB 361 – California’s Benefit Corporation Legislation
- Los Angeles Times: www.latimes.com/business/money/la-california-businesses-seek-new-benefit-corporation-status-20120103,0,7475968.story?track=rss
- KQED Radio: Law Aims to Increase Corporate Social Responsibility
- The Economist: Firms with Benefits
- Treehugger.com: Patagonia Becomes A California Benefit Corporation
- View additional coverage at www.bcorporation.net/media
Tagged: AB 361, B Corps, Donald Simon, Green 960, green business, The Wendel Forum
Episode 45 – BetterWorld Telecom’s Name Reveals Its Mission
December 22, 2011
In Episode 45 of The Wendel Forum(originally aired on December 17, 2011, on Green 960 AM radio), show host Bill Acevedo chats with Matt Bauer, President and co-founder of BetterWorld Telecom. BetterWorld provides voice and data services to small- and medium-sized businesses and focuses on relationships with companies and nonprofits that support social justice and sustainability.
Matt Bauer, President and Co-Founder of BetterWorld Telecom
The interview touches on a number of subjects. Matt describes BetterWorld’s approach to business, the importance of running a “mission-driven” company, and legislative and economic trends he sees as opportunities for small businesses to succeed, particularly in this sickly economy.
A part of the $2 trillion global telecommunications industry, BetterWorld’s competitors are companies like AT&T, Version and Quest – companies not generally recognized as leaders in sustainable social circles. BetterWorld has been mission-driven from the beginning, balancing people, planet and prosperity and focusing on serving organizations with similar goals.
They have also created a number of alliances with organizations such as 1% For the Planet (they’ve been a member since 2006) and are a certified B Corporation (in fact, they are a founding member of B Lab). The company considers these types of organizations so important that it has committed to giving 3% of gross revenues (not just profits) to support social justice and sustainable causes.
BetterWorld’s mission goes beyond simply donating money to organizations; the company is attempting to change the fundamental paradigm related to how people work as a way of enabling companies to reduce their carbon footprint. The company invested in research and analysis resulting in a program they call BetterWork. On their website you can download a white paper that describes how to lower costs and carbon emissions, while increasing profits and employee morale through telecommuting, video, web conferencing and other communication tools.
A busy man, Matt is also involved in a number of activities to influence his industry and support small business. In a recent editorial that ran on www.thehill.com(The Hill’s Congress Blog) and www.triplepundit.com/, Matt addressed the issue of Net neutrality and the regulatory structure necessary to create a relatively even playing field for carriers like BetterWorld against the giants of telecom.
And because most of BetterWorld’s customers are small business (with under 100 people), they see first hand the economic challenges facing this market segment. Realizing that capital to fund business growth is harder for small companies to get in this economic environment, Matt has been tracking some emerging non-traditional capital-raising solutions. He and Bill explore some of the pros and cons of two newly popularized funding solutions for small businesses – crowd funding and Direct Public Offerings (DPOs), including some of the trends and legal issues associated with these two evolving areas of small business finance.
Show Notes:
For the next couple of weeks The Wendel Forum, like many of your favorite television and radio programs, will be running “Best Of” episodes. On Saturday, December 24, tune in for a rebroadcast of Episode 36, in which Bill Acevedo and Donald Simon discuss the recent passage of Benefit Corporation legislation in California (AB 361). Companies will be able to take this new form of corporate entity beginning January 1, 2012. They are joined by Erik Trojian, Director of Policy for B Lab.
On December 31, we will rerun Episode 21, Part I of the compilation interviews conducted at last June’s San Francisco Business Times Cleantech & Sustainability Awards. Companies featured in the program include:
- InterContinental San Francisco
- Propel Fuels
- Primus Power Corp.
- Numi Organic Tea
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Matt Bauer: Episode 45 of The Wendel Forum(27:34 mins; mp3)
BetterWorld Telecom website: www.betterworldtelecom.com
BetterWork web page: info.betterworldtelecom.com/how-to-lower-costs-and-carbon-emissions-while-increasing-profits-and-employee-morale?hsCtaTracking=4fd1a1ce-e997-4c9f-ba6d-70c0cd896e52%7C43b6cc83-e720-4716-b881-1fb93cb5fd74
Green 960 AM Radio website: www.green960.com
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: www.wendel.com/wacevedo
Tagged: AB 361, B Corps, Bill Acevedo, Green 960, green business, investment, The Wendel Forum, William Acevedo
Episode 44 – What Gets Measured Gets Saved
December 15, 2011
In Episode 44 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on Green 960 AM radio on December 10, 2011), show host Dick Lyons talks with Michael Murray, CEO and cofounder of Lucid Design Group in Oakland, California.
Michael shares how his company’s software products influence behavior by providing building utility performance transparency to individuals who occupy commercial buildings. Lucid’s Building Dashboard® makes energy and water use in commercial buildings visible in real time on the web. The company has found that by making this information visible, building occupants will adjust their behavior, thereby reducing their usage of these resources by an average of 10-20 percent.
From their Kiosk application, building occupants and visitors can view the building’s performance information in the lobby. It shows how an individual building ranks against other similar buildings and creates a competitive environment for occupants to contribute to improved performance. The program measures, tracks, analyzes and displays everything from plug loads to carbon offsets, providing the users with a lot of actionable information about energy usage in a building.
Peer pressure works!
By creating an environment where conservation becomes the norm, the incremental actions of individuals become a collective force leading to overall savings. The company taps into social media to build a culture of conservation and has plans to develop mobile apps to make information even more accessible. These programs move the power (so to speak) for energy conservation out of the exclusive domain of facility managers, building operators and architects and into those of the individual occupants.
So who owns the data?
Already with a client roster of about 180 customers representing 1300 facilities, their hosted server model allows the company to aggregate a growing repository of valuable information on individual buildings and general behavior related to water and energy use. Michael and Dick touch on issues related to privacy and data ownership, as well as current and potential uses for the information being collected.
If you are using this or a similar product, we’d love to hear about your experience. Did your personal behavior changed after installation? Any surprises or lessons learned?
Post Links:
Interview with Michael Murray of Lucid Design: Episode 44 of The Wendel Forum (27:35 mins; mp3)
Lucid Design website: www.luciddesigngroup.com
Green 960 AM radio website: www.green960.com/main.html
Dick Lyons website profile: www.wendel.com/rlyons
Tagged: Conservation, Dick Lyons, Green 960, Green Building, Richard Lyons, The Wendel Forum, utility production