doing the right thing

Not a day goes by that someone doesn't walk in the store and tell us "we are so happy you are here."  It is so validating and energizing to know that we are appreciated.   People also constantly tell us they hope we "make it."  We do too.  The triple bottom line (people, planet and profit) is driving us.  Things are changing and business is being done in a new way.  Hopefully we are not too ahead of the wave to make it work.  

Opening night

Fun is the word for what we had on Saturday night.  Although a few of our dear friends and supporters could not make it for various reasons, we saw so many old and special friends and could not have asked for better support.  It's a bit anti-climatic today, coming back to the shop after weeks of preparation, regrouping for our next project but it's all an adventure!  We are getting more and more manufacturers contacting us about carrying their products and so our research on investigating the "true green-ness" is cut out for us.  

Here are a few pictures from the opening! 

Finally opening for real!

We have been working so long and so late (in fact it's way past my bedtime right now) but we are finally ready and open for sales at Olive Branch GBS!  We have had the most amazing help. We are so lucky to have found Jamie Huffman our architect/designer for our custom sink cabinets. My dear friend Joel Martens has been our unofficial/official showroom design consultant who is just brimming with creative ideas about making our showroom look awesome (not the least of which is our low-cost and recycled material solution to hiding ugly but energy efficient florescent bulbs) and even as I speak I owe him a dinner.  Our Yolo paint just arrived and they have made us feel a part of their family already.  Other suppliers like our flooring supplier Ada Freed have been just so easy and wonderful to work with.  We absolutely love our new location and our friends have been coming to visit us much more than in our old location, which wasn't far away but was not the entertaining, hip and walking-friendly area we are in now.  So far, the one and only drawback of our location is that we are completely addicted to the incredible food and coffee and company of Linda and Greg at Cafe Forte around the corner!  I guess we'll have to make good on our promise to ride our bikes to work to save lunch money and burn off those calories!

so much to share

I have been to four green building conferences this year.  First in New Orleans, then San Diego, then San Jose and finally Boston.  What an education I have had.  Scientists, scholars, politicians, clergy, the list is long and inspiring.  I wish I could show you what is in my heart.  There is emotion (energy in motion) that I hope to channel and make pragmatic.  Out of all of that information, my favorite message was E. O. Wilson's observation that "Our moment of crisis gives us great opportunities and great possibilities."

Lisa 

co-owner, Olive Branch

opening Olive Branch

We are starting this blog to humbly disclose the behind-the-scenes agonies and thrills, as well as descriptions of our personal and probably embarrassing decisions and activities resulting from the massive amount of information, both green and mundane, involved in the opening of our business.  We are hoping for support, criticisms that help us come to a screeching halt if we are going in the wrong direction, and humor related to our modest attempt to make a living while helping to sustain the planet.

Lynn

co-owner Olive Branch