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Check out the transcript of RFC’s conversation with Eric Ritz.

Recently Dario and Kelly sat down with Eric Ritz, the founder of Global Inheritance to get a better understanding of what Eric is hoping to accomplish. Started in 2002, Global Inheritance is a 501C-3 non-profit working to empower individuals worldwide to think and act creatively in solving global imbalances. Global Inheritance raises the bar in environmentalism by partnering with big businesses and artists to push for progressive social change. With Eric’s experience working with the Truth Campaign, he gained insight on how to reach people for non profits.

“American Legacy was one of the first, if not the first, sort of [Non Governmental Organization] that went out there and really transformed their messages based on the audience and really did a good job of empowering versus guilting and really playing to people’s intelligence versus fire and brimstone preaching.”

With his fresh and open minded outlook on getting attention for his worthwhile causes,Ritz decided to start his own non-profit.

“I’d always really wanted to start my own non-profit, and I felt that due to technology and the direction that we were going and what you could create on the web, that it was the perfect time because I felt like I was experienced enough, I had enough energy, and with the Web I could be a lot bigger than we were without any sort of funding.”

By partnering with fashion brands ranging from Levi’s to Diesel and from American Apparel to Puma, Global Inheritance started to use clothing as a canvass for supporting causes and as a platform for the artist’s ideas.

They “felt it was a great way to communicate ideas and have people take a vested interest in what they believed in.”

From the Fashion Piece, Global Inheritance moved towards events and planning ways to incorporate socially conscious decisions with musical festivals and concerts. By designing a recycle bin with artistic flair, they helped to reduce the typical trash piles from after concerts. Without labeling themselves as an environmental organization or as being “Green,” Global Inheritance is taking strides to level the playing field between multiple opposers. Their latest projects include an Environmental Museum in the middle of a mall along with an Environmental Theme Park.

“We thought it’d be great to call an amusement park and our tagline was, “Nobody Rides for Free,” and really kind of play off, this whole thing with “that this can be fun or interesting, and really get people in there. Because, for us, we feel like we’re trying to get them to look at it and ideally inspire them to care more or want to be involved or see that it can be done through different angles.”

With an outlook to meet people where they are and “know your audience” Eric is looking to get people to think. He wants to help them to see that no matter who you are, you can make a difference. Currently the cause is environmental matters but the cause can evolve and change depending on what is happening in the world.

“We want this to be something that people take pride in and have fun doing and feel like it’s a part of their lifestyle.”

Be sure to listen to Eric Ritz’s podcast to hear all of the fantastic things he is working on with Global Inheritance and be sure to check out Global Inheritance for more information.

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Check out the transcript of RFC’s conversation with Peggy Brennan.

The Detroit area is not always known for its forward thinking, Green initiatives. More often, Detroit is often coupled with negative press whether it is for its politics, its economical troubles or its crime news. Until now, that is. Tom and Peggy Brennan are heading up Detroit’s Green Garage. Luckily Peggy carved out some time in her already busy schedule to sit down and talk with us about their project.

“The Green Garage is basically three different things, a building, a business and a community. It’s a building in midtown that used to be a Model T showroom. We bought it at the very end of 2007 and right now it is undergoing a green and historic renovation. It is going to become a green business incubator and finally the last component of it, is it is a community of people,” said Brennan.

With the help of a team of architects, designers, and people from the community, the Brennan’s are undertaking this renovation with high hopes. They are looking to bring people together with a common goal. They are taking a “community based approach” to the renovation with plans to take everyone’s opinions into play so that it is not just one persons plan but yet a group’s collective decision.

The Green Garage has been looking for forward thinking design plans from the beginning. For instance, they are hoping to have a net zero energy building. “Net zero energy means that the building will produce as much energy as it is going to consume.” This takes every inch of the building into consideration. They have developed a tight building envelope that is super insulated. With help from energy modeling software, the building will be built in a way that reduces the heating and cooling demands by about 90%.

“So basically we’re going be heating this building as if it were a 1,000 square foot building instead of 11,000 square feet, boasts Peggy.”

Founders of the Great Lakes Green Initiative, Tom and Peggy have been working together to encourage a more sustainable lifestyle. Once motivated, they began planning for some sort of demonstration center that would help promote their learning.

Originally thought for Ann Arbor because of its college base of volunteers, the Green Garage was shifted to Detroit after good friends’ suggestions. It was originally a Model T showroom when it was built in the 1920’s during a boom time in our city. The windows were later bricked over in 1967, the year of the Detroit riots. “For us, it’s going to be very significant when in a couple of weeks we’re going to unbrick those windows. That for us symbolizes hopefully the turnaround that this city is going to experience.”

With absolutely no trouble from the city of Detroit, the Brennan’s and their team developed building plans unusual to most zoning and city officials. With over 25 pages long, they had detailed descriptions of systems that are not typical for buildings, such as their geo-solar hybrid heating and cooling system.

With plans to have the building completed in April and their exterior work to be finished in the month of May, the Green Garage will be open for business at the end of May, 2010. With hopes to rent out spaces as small as a desk to as large as an entire set of offices, they are looking for small businesses that are looking to conduct green business. In addition to renting out spaces, they will also be available for individuals looking to green their lives.

“We are developing a library, we are developing a design center so there will be places where if you want walk in off the street and say I need some help with something, we are hoping that that is part of what we’re doing. In the annex building, we’re going to be setting up workshop space for people who want to rent space to develop a product,” says Brennan.

Alongside the Green Garage will be the Green Alley Project. This is the Brennan’s effort to beautify the ally closest to the garage with a brick walkway paved with permeable pavers and native gardens.

With a project that is so community based and hands on, The Green Garage is looking for volunteers who can lend a hand. If you are interested in helping out, email Peggy and Tom at greengaragedetroit@gmail.com or find them on Facebook. If you are in the midtown area, be sure to look out for the Green Garage.

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Check out the transcript of RFC’s conversation with Benjamin Gott.

Back in late September we wrote a blog featuring Boxed Water is Better, a water company that takes a more environmental approach than your traditional bottled water company. Boxed Water is Better is a company based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan that distributes water in cartons oppose to plastic bottles. The concept derives from the environmental issues that are caused by the overwhelming amount of plastic bottles entering landfills.

We were lucky enough to get in touch with the founder and designer of Boxed Water is Better, Benjamin Gott. He agreed to be a guest on our Recycling for Charities Podcast Radio Show to sit down and answer all of our questions about Boxed Water is Better.

It all started with a simple idea of creating a new bottled water brand. Sounds simple right? Well Gott didn’t want it to be just like every other brand. He wanted one that was kinder to the environment and also gives back at the same time. His solution was instead of packaging water in a plastic bottle he would bring back the old school carton and use that instead. Hence, the name Boxed Water is Better.

The company was officially launched last March, but the idea was originally formulated in April of 2008. A year and some months later Boxed Water is Better is making some major moves. “The idea came about and we didn’t have any experience in the beverage industry, but we thought there was a better way to do it,” said Gott. They decided to create something that was simple yet beautiful, which led them to go back and reference the simple carton shape. At no point did they consider themselves luxury water. They considered themselves a simplistic answer to bottled water. To further differentiate themselves they decide to go a more sustainable route than bottling the water in plastic. They decided to use a paper carton which is composed of a more sustainable resource, that being trees.

“I mean it’s a massive industry. Bottled water is a $15 billion to $16 billion industry in ‘07 and ‘08 I believe,” stated Gott.

With numbers like that being thrown around, Benjamin had to figure out a way to make sure Boxed Water is Better stood out. On one front there was the environmental aspect that he could use in his favor. Not shipping empty bottles to the filler and instead of shipping the cartons would save a significant amount of energy. The cartons are considerably lighter than the plastic bottles. They also lay flat so in a sense you are just delivery a box of paper somewhere. On top of thinking about the environment, Boxed Water is Better also plans to give back.

“We’ll be giving back to kind of the things that compose our products which majority of that is paper and of course water,” says Benjamin.

They will be giving back to a World Water Relief fund as well as reforestation efforts. This makes sense because two of the main components of the product are A) the carton itself (paper) and B) Water. This hopefully will allow Boxed Water is Better to find it’s place within the packaged water industry.

One of the biggest challenges Gott faced when he started the company was that he did not have any experience in creating a brand in the water industry. “I’ve never done anything with beverages before. Like some of our biggest challenges right off the bat was the carton itself,”said Gott. Like most brands the packaging plays a key role in the products success. It wasn’t as simple as just putting water in a carton instead of a bottle.

“Being a traditional style package finding fillers was difficult for us. Finding people that even saw the vision was difficult. Minimum orders from our carton manufacturer were massive in the beginning so we had to be kind of clever and work those numbers down,” says Gott.

It was hard for many people to understand the advantageous position Gott was in with his idea. The challenge was trying to find fillers that caught on to the idea and yet were close to home. Gott says, “Other challenges we faced were that there’s a lot of water brands like some of the bigger ones that are filled far. I mean Fiji’s actually filled in Fiji in the bottle and then shipped over here.” The process may stick with the brand name, but there is so much energy being used from shipping it so far. If Boxed Water is Better followed that path it would defeat the purpose of being a sustainable product. This led to the challenge of find local fillers and local areas to distribute the water so they did not have to use energy shipping far. Another problem they ran into on the way was being perceived as big company trying to sell something that was not needed.

Gott will be the first to admit that tap water is better than any other resource you have available, including the purchase of bottled water. Still there is an existing market for bottled water and it is not going anywhere. There had to be something that could be done to make it a little bit better. Once they had their product, they had to come up with the best way to market it or reveal it to people.

To do this Gott took a very simplistic approach. They did not go through all the funding needed for a massive roll-out. “Instead what we did was very simple, I took it to a market that we eat lunch at every single day.” While eating there everyday Gott became very familiar with the owner and simply asked him if he could put his product on their shelves. He was confident this would work because the design of the box sticks out compared to your everyday bottle. People are more likely to pick it up because it is something they are not familiar with it.

“The first time you see it you’re like what, what is that?  It’s black and white. Traditionally you know bottled water brands are this sea of blue or tinted blue and tinted green and there are icecaps and there are waterfalls and there are mountains and everything is very similar,” stated Gott.

They decided to go in the complete opposite direction and keep it simple with the black and white carton. The idea was to differentiate themselves from the every other water brand. In the same sense, they decided to go with a very simple launch in a market they thought it would do well in.

“I would highly advise differentiating yourself in any market that you go into. Don’t do it just for circumstance sake, we kept it simple because our product was inherently as boxed water. The brand is the product and the product is the brand,” stated Gott

This is exactly how Gott would market Boxed Water is Better. Being that is was so different and in hope that it would easily gain attention, Gott sent out two press releases to admire blogs and websites. From there he credits Twitter as the main source of marketing to fillers and businesses. People started twittering about the product and the design to the point that it started to get picked up by bigger sites. Eventually, magazines started to get in touch with them and they even had a story on ABC’s Good Morning America. Once Boxed Water is Better garnished national attention in the media the next step was marketing to consumers.

Gott feels that the moment people see it in the store they are going to pick it up. The curiosity of the unfamiliar is what he is banking on. Even if people don’t purchase it they are still going to wonder. They are going to read the copy and wonder what it means. They rely heavily on the idea that people are going to look it up and find out. Boxed Water is Better has a very simple website address to remember and are also the first link on Google when boxed water is searched. “I guess being genuine and then having something that truly differentiates you is very shocking to a lot of people.It’s like what is it? Well it’s water; it’s a box with water in it.” For Boxed Water is Better to differentiate themselves they have been very literal, just look at their name. With their name being the essence of their product it leaves very little room for competitors.

Boxed Water is Better can be primarily found in west Michigan, but is making moves to expand. In the past 6 to 8 weeks they have been looking into markets in Chicago, New York, and the rest of Michigan. They try to keep their products in certain businesses like coffee shops and delis. Restaurants have requested the water but Benjamin doesn’t see the fit, “We kind of stray away from restaurants because they have tap water readily available or they have filtered water readily available. I think it’s pretty wasteful to just bring out bottled water that isn’t sparkling or mineral water or something specific.”

In establishing a name for themselves, Boxed Water is Better plans to expand to other cities and states. All while keeping in mind the environmental aspects of their product. Not only is it more energy efficient than plastic, but it is also better for the environment. Plus once the money starts pouring in, Boxed Water is Better will give back to World Water Relief and reforestation funds furthering promoting an environmental friendly product. They also are looking into ways to become more sustainable and resourceful for future endeavors. Much like Recycling for Charities, Boxed Water is Better is creating a product that not only supports green initiatives but also gives back to good causes.

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Check out the transcript of RFC’s conversation with Ron Gonen.

RFC recently interviewed Ron Gonen, Co-Founder and CEO of RecylceBank, to discuss the success of his company and how he and business partner, Patrick Fitzgerald, came up with the idea of rewarding participants for recycling. RecycleBank was recently recognized by the UN for their current environmental efforts across different socio-economic lines.

“We feel very fortunate to have been recognized for the work that we’re doing regarding the environment,” stated Gonen

RecyleBank helps divert waste from the landfills, and we also reward people for their positive green actions. The way that works is we sign a long-term contract with a city, every home gets one of our large RecycleBank recycling containers, there’s a chip embedded in the container, we retrofit the city’s trucks with a mechanical arm that picks up the container, reads the chip, identifies the home recycled and how much it recycled. The amount they recycled is translated to a recycle bank point that they can then use to redeem and shop at over 2,000 local, regional and national businesses.

“We’re in over 50 cities across the country, and we’re also providing service in the UK,” stated Gonen.

The idea may seem simple or even a “no-brainer”  for cities and citizens alike. The program has been picked up in urban and rural communities, and all different types of neighborhoods. Still growing, they are going international and branching out to commercial as well.

“We plan on getting businesses involved in 2010, but today we’re just focused on residential market,” stated Gonen.

RecycleBank helps to recycle plastic, paper, glass, tin, aluminum, and they also have an e-waste program just like Recycling For Charities. They are now also beginning to reward people for other green actions such as reselling and reusing goods through eBay and Cashlist.com.

“We try and get everything we can out of the landfills,” stated Gonen,

People can earn points for the amount they recycle.  They can log in to their account, and just like looking at your bank statement, they can see each week how much they’ve recycled, how many RecycleBank points they’ve earned, and then they can choose from the different stores in terms of where they want to shop, and they’ll get a redemption voucher to go to that store.

RecycleBank not only helps keep waste out of landfills but they also give households the option to “donate [their] points to environmental initiatives at local schools, and then will match the donated RecycleBank points into a real dollar contribution to that school.”

RecycleBank is a smart incentive to help promote reducing needless waste and rewarding people for it. Learn more about Ron Gonen and Recyclebank by listening to our podcast.

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Check out the transcript of RFC’s conversation with Sustainable Dave.

Everyday people throw away trash into bins, dumpsters, compactors and from there it is out of our hands. Once it’s no longer in our possession it is easy to assume that all of our trash has gone away. Where exactly is away though? Sure it does not get piled up in our own homes, it has to go somewhere right? Well, that was not the case for Sustainable Dave, who decided to keep all his trash for one whole year. Dave Chameides decided to turn the basement in his tiny Los Angeles home into his own personal landfill for a year starting the 365 Days of Trash initiative.

Crazy? Yeah we thought so too until we had a chance to sit down with Dave for our Recycling for Charity Podcast. Dave is a passionate environmentalist who promotes conservation and living a more sustainable lifestyle. Over a year ago he decided to put together a blog that would document his 365 days of trash, where he did not throw anything away for a whole year. Sustainable Dave has garnished press not only locally or nationally but world wide to showcase his endeavor. We just had to sit down with him and figure out how the idea of 365 Days of Trash came up and why he decided to do this.

The nickname Sustainable Dave is not derived from some great story but just happened to catch on from word of mouth and stuck with him. It all started as Dave was thinking of a name for his website but could not come up with anything. One of his friends had told them that in her household he was known as Sustainable Dave. Turns out that was just the name Dave decided to use for his website. A local radio station picked up on his story and gave him a call asking for an interview and throughout the interview he was known as Sustainable Dave, “And then within ten minutes, I was suddenly this entity that has kind of like grown into its own life.”

The idea of turning a basement into a landfill just does not come to fruition over night.

“I was sitting with a friend, October of 2007. We were having a beer and I went to throw something away, and we started talking about throwing something away, and where was away.. And it was this, it really was kind of like throwing it over your shoulder, because while you’re putting it in your little kitchen bin and you’re taking it out to the black bin outside, it’s disappearing, and you assume it’s being taken care of, but you really have no idea. And more importantly, you have no idea how much you’re making,” stated Dave.

The idea behind it was if your backyard or in Dave’s case the basement was the “away” where all the trash was going, some major changes would have to be made. So Dave decided to do it, and keep all his trash in his small basement for a year to see what exactly would happen. He saved all his trash and also all of his recycling, which left a lot of people asking questions. The truth is recycling is better than throwing something in the trash, but it also requires a lot of energy.

“I started thinking this is going to be out of control. At the end of the year, I’m going to haul it out, and I’m going to look at how bad we are. And after about the first month, I realized that what was happening, as things went down there, I was making changes in my purchasing habits, because I was thinking, well, I don’t have that much room, and my wife’s going to get angry at me if it starts coming up the stairs. So I have to start making changes,” said Dave.

Dave, because of the limited room in his basement, decided to make drastic changes to see how little of an amount of trash he can create but by still being a normal guy, “where if you come over for dinner, other than having a weird conversation, you won’t know that anything’s really that different.” By the end of the year Dave only made 28.5 pounds of trash compared to the average American, which is, 1,600 pounds. The difference between these numbers is obvious. Dave had to develop ways to make sure his amount of trash wasn’t going to exceed his tiny basement.

“When I first thought of this, I was like, ‘What am I going to do with food scraps?’ because that’s obviously a big part of things that go in the garbage, unfortunately. It’s like, why are you going to throw away all of this food that actually has nutrients, and you can turn it into castings to put back into the earth, or sell if you want? When there’s such a good and another opportunity to deal with it,” stated Dave.

He decided to set up worm composters in his basement that would take care of that problem. The compost system consisted of tiered tray system that was approximately two feet by two feet and depending on how many trays you have could be two to three feet tall. The composters used worms to break down all the trash that was put in including paper, cardboard, food scraps, and turn it into compost. This is one of the main reasons Dave was able to have such a low amount of trash after a year.

“I think the story was picked up because of the novelty. I mean, most of the headlines were, “Man Keeps Trash in Basement for a Year.” I know a lot of people who tuned in were expecting what you would think to expect off that headline,” stated Dave.

Dave picked up press nationally from ABC News, New York Times, and other national recognized media outlets. Probably just for the rarity of something like this being done. The headlines definitely gave the reader initiative to find out more about this perhaps crazy man. As things went on and Dave gained more attention the press would actually come to his house and conduct interviews. Initially reporters would think he was some whacky guy, but once they could see for themselves they started to understand that there really was an idea behind what he was doing. The press wasn’t the only people who thought Dave was a little bit out there. He also had to deal with his family and peers.

“My wife is a saint, and she deserves a lot of praise for putting up with this. As I’ve told people, if I’m willing to do this, it’s obviously not the first wacky idea I’ve come to her with, so she’s sort of used to left field things coming at her,” stated Dave.

Obviously, it is not easy to just come home and tell your family that their basement is going to be transformed into a landfill for all their trash. There has to be some understanding there. That is one thing Dave stressed the fact that his wife was pretty cool with it. She may have never made it downstairs, but she helped with ideas.

It’s difficult to say whether Dave’s young kids completely comprehended the idea, but it definitely influenced them in some ways. “I don’t know how completely they understood it, but they for a while were bringing things home from school, like wasn’t even theirs, going, “Here, Daddy. This is for the basement.” That’s really wonderful that you want to be part of this, but I’ve got enough going down there as it is.” Dave addressed that 100 percent of this was for his kids to teach them and train them by example.

When it comes to Dave’s friends the perceptions varied. Some of them could not understand why he was doing this, while others found it fascinating and even participated. At first everyone Dave talked to automatically assumed they would go down in his basement and just walk into a smelly rat infested room. However, once they saw the neatness, the worms, and they way Dave was conducting things they came around and realized there was more to it than just piling trash up in a basement. In order to keep this initiative stable Dave had to develop a new lifestyle in order to make sure his basement did not become exactly what everyone initially perceived when they heard of the experiment.

“The first week or two was really tough, mainly because it was me going through the garbage, because I’d throw something out instinctively, and then go, ‘Oh, man.’ I’m digging through to find out whatever it was.”

As time went on though Dave started to change his lifestyle and not throwing things away became second nature to him. After a month into it he would reach into his pockets and find wrappers and used packets that he didn’t even realize he put in there. He learned to train himself to not do something as little as throwing something in the garbage, imagine how easy it could be to not drink out of plastic water bottles or use plastic shopping bags.

To further educate the public about sustainability and conservation, Dave has designed a seminar called, “Chasing Sustainability”. Dave travels to different locations explaining 365 Days of Trash and teaching the public that they are capable of helping. They may not want to pile trash in their basement, but there are little things that everyone can do to help our environment.

The first half of the seminar is designed to be quite frankly, depressing. He goes over all the problems that are occurring in the environment on our behalf as society. He explains what exactly is going on when it comes to environmental issues. The second half is then the pick up when Dave decides to show them that there is hope. He offers them ideas and ways they can start to make a change and improvement in our environment.

The fascination with kids is that they feel they are helpless and can not do anything about it. Dave shows them that is not the case and gives ideas to children to further promote his and their ideas. “I’ve had kids coming up and asking me for my autograph, asking me how to start places in their schools. I had one girl write me a letter, telling me she for 14 years hadn’t slept with the light off, and for the first time she slept with the light off, because she realized that her fears were not as important as what she was doing to the planet.” That is the truth that Dave is trying to deliver to the world, people do not need to make drastic changes in order to help preserve the environment. Something is better than nothing and that something can go a long way.

When it comes to thinking about changing the world, starting a personal landfill in your basement probably is not the first idea that pops into mind. However for Sustainable Dave, it was exactly what he was going for. Although, he may not be captain planet his initiative has come a long way and really shows what one man can do to help the environment.