More on plastic bags

A little rant:  I'm so dismayed that the OTL tournament resulted in a plethora of white plastic bags littered all over Fiesta island.  I'm a competitive marathon runner, and I run many many miles around the island.  The days after the tournaments, bags were literally scattered everywhere.  After my first lap, I took the next lap to gather up bags as I ran around and at least throw them in the trash cans, which are right there!  I don't understand why the clean-up for the event did not include gathering up the trash that blew all over.  It's especially troubling that the bags are right on our beautiful bay and will end up there if not picked up.  I can't believe that I personally ended up being the clean-up crew out of all the hundreds of people that actually participated in the event.  Oh well, I'm glad to have done my tiny little part to keep the bay healthy.  I would love to see a ban like there is in San Francisco or at least a tax like is being proposed in D.C. since obviously there is no general motivation to reduce or even control our use of these toxic white things.

Snowball effect

in a good way! I blogged recently on making personal commitments to going green and Lisa commented on getting rid of trash-can liners. "Let's put the trash in a bag and then throw the bag away! A bag just for throwing away!" Now that we've done it, it just seems so ridiculous that we ever used them. So the snowball effect is that, one, we didn't want to throw yucky food in the trash, so we started a compost bin. That has been amazing. Needs some fine-tuning so we can use it effectively, but I can't believe how much stuff we've put in there and how little it is and how beautiful the compost is. And then next, two, with our trash reduced dramatically just from those two measures, we became aware of "what the heck is in our trash, anyway?" Packaging. Hard plastic, plastic wrap, containers, food boxes. Buying without the packaging, it turns out, is hard! So I'm not sure if we'll make headway on the packaging or focus on something else while slowly figuring out how to get away from it. We have done a very good job of using reusable bags at the grocery store at least. If a white plastic bag accidentally comes home, it is actually painful for me with the inescapable images of our oceans and fish being filled with these sickening and non-decomposing useless pieces of petroleum based garbage! 

Lynn, co-owner Olive Branch Green Building Supply

Green Washing

It's just the height of disgusting that toxic, unhealthy greedy products are being promoted as green in my opinion. I'm not the only one taking offense. There are those who are taking it to the courts: http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202431342143 Gotta love it.

Lisa

Lisa just finished the Old House Fair in South Park and is on her way back to the store. While I watched her handing out cards this morning, I remarked "you love selling." She told me "I just love talking to people!" And here's the thing: she is telling the complete truth. If you've been here and you've met Lisa, you already know it's the truth. If you haven't met her, you should: she'll socialize with you, talk green products and installation, listen to what you have to say and at some point make everybody crack up. Those of us who know her, love her! With visitors to Olive Branch she is truly in her element. It is a thing of beauty!

Lynn, co-owner Olive Branch

Green behavior

In order to stay alive and keep meals on the table while Olive Branch is just starting to grow, I still have to “work” (although one of the purposes of Olive Branch is to make money to support ourselves, it does not fall in the “work” category because it doesn’t feel like work). With a Ph.D. and a credential as a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA-D) I have to get continuing education credits to keep my license current. Imagine my mood when I went to the recent behavior analysis conference in Phoenix and got all my credits going to presentations relating to sustainability! How could this be? Because, although technology will help us, it will not save us and ultimately it is our behavior that must change; and the behavior change must happen on a cultural level, as when we as a society took action on littering and smoking. The behavior analysts have a lot to say about how this might happen (although they have no simple answers) and I was fortunate to attend presentations by scientists such as the eminent Lonnie G. Thompson (paleoclimatologist) who can tell us what the priorities for change are. Back here in San Diego, I’m now very excited and fortunate to be in a position to find out exactly what people are doing. I would love to hear from anybody who can tell me (1) what behaviors they have changed toward going green and maybe even more important, (2) what motivated the change. For those of you reading this blog, leave a post and let us know what you're doing!

Lynn, co-owner Olive Branch

Our customers

One of our favorite customers, Chris, came in this morning to pick up her recycled ceramic tile and told me she was depressed.  The reason?  She had just come from the mall and was overwhelmed by all the excess and conspicuous consumption.  These are our customers.  They have made us realize that Olive Branch is bigger than us.  We are the vehicle but we are by no means the impetus to the availability of green products.  There are others even more passionate than us that desperately want to move as far away as possible from the throw-away society many of us grew up in.  Lisa has written on our glass board by our desk "thoughtful process not impulse buy."  That describes the people coming into our store perfectly.  They may be coming to learn or to get more information or because they have already done their research and have just been patiently waiting for someone to carry the products they want.  They come with great questions, often that we can't answer (we love that; we are learning too!).  "Our" customers:  it is an honor to be able to call them that.

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.