Fighting Global Warming, One Party at a Time...

Chief Sustainabilty Officers on the Rise!

2009-03-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, though companies are dropping jobs at record numbers, some new and novel ones are being created. The NYTimes ran a short blog about companies adding "Sustainability Officers". I've heard of these being added at the VP through C-level at organizations. Of course even if you don't get a formal title like that, you may still be on the hook for making your companies' practices sustainable.

From the NYT:

"Last month, PGI, a maker of materials for medical and industrial uses, announced the creation of a similar post, and Flowserve, a Texas-based maker of pumps, valves and seals, announced that its vice-president for public affairs would also take on the newly created title.

A number of other big companies, like Sun Microsystems, Georgia Pacific and Dupont, already have chief sustainability officers."

This is valuable news for any environmentally friendly product or service provider as these rolls tend to dictate green behavior across the board. Fine the new Chief Sustainability Officer at that prospective client you have been eying and pitch to them.

Project Green Prom: Waste Management

2009-03-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, Palo Alto, A Certified Green Hotel

2009-02-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

A client had booked their conference at the Crown Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto, CA finally giving us the opportunity to work with this Certified Green property.

The hotel recently went through major eco-friendly upgrades including light sensors in every room to ensure no energy is wasted when a room is empty. Classically beautiful things like the black and white, Art-Deco-esq pool decks were kept in tact.

Aside from the building itself, the hotel’s staff offered impeccable service under Sr. Catering Events Manager Renee Reagan. Ms. Reagan was available for any request of our high profile client, providing outstanding customer service. Her staff was professional and attentive.

The Cabana Hotel has combined upscale hotel service with environmentally friendly options. If you plan a meeting here, the majority of your green event planning has been done for your with location, accommodations, food and beverage and waste management all being coordinated with sustainability in mind under one roof.

Startbucks Not Recyclable?!?!

2009-01-31T11:31:00.000-08:00

This note came to me from my colleague Cat Lincoln, blogger-extrodinaire (I say that with complete bias as she writes about Twirl and my events from time to time). This news was actually surprising to me and I assumed Starbucks would be a bit more responsible as a to-go based business. I mean, even McDonalds has cut out it’s egregious Styrofoam packaging (I will not admit how I know this but it’s not from something I’ve read).

“I'm pinging you to send you two links about this campaign that I started to get Starbucks to switch to recyclable and/or compostable cups. You probably know this, but right now their to-go cups are not recyclable! I was shocked, and almost everyone I tell is surprised, too.

With all of your knowledge about recycling and helping large groups of people eat and drink, (plus your networking skills!) I'm interested in your thoughts about solutions, and ways to spread the word.

Here is the TONIC post I wrote: http://news.tonic.com/featured/step-up-starbucks-disposable-cups-are-not-recyclableyet/

And here is the campaign I started on The Point: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/starbucks-eco-cup-switch-in-2009”

Now, I am in no way on the “I HATE STARBUCKS” bandwagon. They go above and beyond certified Fair-Trade practices with their growers and give millions of dollars to education projects. Their hiring practices are to be applauded: Many friends worked there through college or bad economies WITH HEALTH INSURANCE and other full-time benefits with opportunities to move up. Additionally if you compare the diversity behind the counter of a Starbucks and your average hipster coffee shop you might get a very NIMBY feeling about the whole debate.

Nonetheless, by their product offering Starbucks is a huge procurer and creator of landfill waste. Them switching to compostable corn cups and the like isn’t my recommendation as very few communities offer the proper composting programs. But not having the option to recycle their containers hurts my head as much as brain freeze from a Grande Mocha Frappacino.

Holiday Season 2008

2009-01-04T12:24:00.000-08:00

Phew, That was a doozy! We worked on over 13 fabulous holiday events in the month of December through New Years Eve. For a small, growing company this kept us on our toes but I was proud that the work flow is in such a good place that we balanced the intense work load with perfection for our clients.

There is a sense of dread in the market place, despite the festive season. Many parties slashed their budgets over 50%, some pushed back until after the New Year to save on Holiday-Season rates and a few canceled. The oddest request we got was, “We will pay you the same contracted amount, can you just make it look like we paid less?” Spending right now is considered gauche and frivolous. It will be interesting to see how this spreads throughout the industry as the recession evolves.

Contact us for a free consultation

2009-01-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

Fill out my Wufoo form!

The MacCallum House & Green Weddings in Mendocino

2008-10-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

I attended a dear friend’s destination wedding in the lovely town of Mendocino. The majority of the events took place at the amazing MacCallum House. The town of Mendocino paired with the venue of the MacCallum House is a lovely option for a green destination wedding in Northern California. The hotel restaurant and bar specializes (and damn near perfects) organic and local cuisine and culinary cocktails. The dill and other spices in my Bloody Mary the morning after nearly sent me over the edge.

A large, Raj-style tent was erected in their front lawn and the décor the hotel spearheaded was elegant and simple with draped paneling, hanging chandeliers offering both incandescent and candlelit dinning. The hotel let us dance and celebrate into the night only shutting us down at the same time as their bar, at 2am – a rarity for most hotel destinations that usually close events down by midnight.

For guests who did not stay at the MacCallum House, there were many options within walking distance at all price points from 2 to 4 star accommodations. Camping was also available for the more adventurous guest.

The location offered carpooling and wine tasting options to and from Mendocino through one of my favorite regions – The Anderson Valley. Shuttle/Wine train service was also available from San Francisco (or other metropolitan areas) to Mendocino with stops at wineries, cheese shops and farms along the way.

Raffle-4-Riders

2008-10-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Raffle-4-Riders is a Twirl Management created program that acts as a rewards system for event attendees who ride their bikes or public transportation to your festival, conference, trade show, etc. Showing the ticket stub or the bike claim ticket from Bike Valet and an honor code for walkers at the Raffle-4-Riders, attendees are eligible for a raffle with prizes from various local businesses and restaurants.

We rolled out the concept at Spirit of Japantown 2008 in San Jose California with great results. Despite the heavy downpour that day, our marketing to take alternative transportation was rewarded by over 200 visitors to the booth for the duration of the one day festival. Our prizes included gift certificates from Jamba Juice, Sports Basement, Bicycle Express, Naglee Park Garage, and Farm Fresh to You.

For this roll out or goal was to partner with the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition but due to late procurement of sponsorship this did not happen but is slated for this years festival on September 26th, 2009. It is a great program to work in conjunction with a bike valet partner and a transportation sponsorship. This rewards alternative transportation to your event and an opportunity to incorporate a different variety of sponsorship and donations.

Bi-Rite Street Fair

2008-09-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

Example of a green street fair...

This last weekend I was pulled out of the office by a friend to enjoy the day and check out the Bi-Rite Market Street Fair. It was one of those 80 degree, no fog Early-September San Francisco days that was torturous to be inside at the computer.

Sweet organic corn, Niman Ranch Pork and bean salads, Bi-Rite ice cream with chocolate syrup, watermelon drinks, and hot dogs were a few of the treats being sold at this foodie schmorgusborg. For show they were roasting a pig in the middle of the street, which was apparently going to be turned into sandwiches and sold the next day.

Bi-Rite is the epicenter of fine, local and organic foods in San Francisco. They have their Bi-Rite Creamery just down the street with flavors such as Salted Caramel and Balsamic Strawberry. The Bi-Rite Market is packed to the gills with organic delicacies perfect to spice up your own dinner party, bring as a gift or pack as a picnic in Delores Park. Did you know they have a catering service?

So it was only natural that their waste management sorting system was worthy of any green event. They offered trash, recycling and compost with clear and direct signage of what goes in which bin. For example the cups were all recyclable while the rest of the serving ware was compostable. The waste bins noted specifically that. I can only guess that the choice to do recyclable cups was a cost and recyclability issue that is important to examine when procuring disposables for your event – What goes in must go out so be sure to look at where it will end up…

After devouring a large lunch meal and many small sides I rolled myself back into my office – fat and happy to be filled with well prepared and grown food.

Slow Food Nation

2008-07-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

Slow Food Nation

I volunteered a few hours of manual labor to help plant the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden in the San Francisco Civic Center. There has been a million and one great articles written about the project such as this New York Times article.

If you would like to get involved there is still a need for volunteers:
Email shireen@slowfoodnation.org to find out how you can help distribute information in San Francisco and in your neighborhood.

Also, don’t forget about Slow Food Nation 2008 from August 29th to September 1. Our favorite San Francisco hotel the Carlton, is one of the participating venues and hotels. They are a certified Green Business and are a carbon neutral hotel – that’s something to really make you sleep well.

Twirl of Clementine

2008-07-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

This summer has been flying by. But as a San Francisco resident, I am looking forward to the sunnier days of Fall just around the corner.

At Twirl we are working on a lot of projects that are more “promote green event planning” than directly for clients. Our newest project is a co-conspiring with Clementine Events in Sonoma County. We are going to be hosting Eco-Parties for professionals in the event planning industry, breaking down the process of going green, highlighting some fabulous vendors and locations that can help keep your event cutting edge and elegant, while illustrating that going green doesn’t mean going brown.

So the concept is this:

1 Green Venue
1 Green Food
1 Green Beverage
1 Green Product
1 Green lesson

This equals a fabulous party and an opportunity to meet that sustainable caviar farmer that is only a few counties away while sipping on a solar powered California sparkling.

The idea came out of meeting and working with vendors who wanted to offer their eco-friendly products to event planners (understanding their massive purchasing power). Instead of setting up individual meetings, we figured that it would be much more fun to show by doing and experiencing.

We will be launching the website soon and announcing dates. Come hop with us around the Bay Area as we take you to venues you may not have expected to be green or even a venue.

Zone Verde

2008-05-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

Zone Verde at Carnaval San Francisco

Being promoted as San Francisco's largest outdoor green event, the Zone Verde, part of this year's 30th annual Carnaval Festival, is converting one city block into an eco-friendly space filled with performances, information about local sustainable resources and food, music and drink.

One of the key elements to creating the space was to ensure the Latino culture being celebrated was incorporated into the information and the green message being promoted. Douglas Kolberg, the Zone Verde coordinator, brought his years of experience in green event production and cultural events in San Francisco together to create a Green Zone that would best serve the Mission District community. The majority of information and performances will be in English and Spanish, including a bi-lingual yoga class directed by Yoga Tree. Kolberg, who wears proudly a t-shirt that says, "Green is not necessarily White," was passionate about bringing information and entertainment to celebrate San Francisco's urban environment in away that translated to the city's Latino community.

To help orchestrate the production needed to minimize waste and create a green festival, Kolberg is working with eco-event pros such as Green Mary, Green Festivals, Nature in the City, SF Department of the Environment and Clean City. To create an "interactive and educational space" non-profits such as the Sustainable Living Roadshow and Poder have signed up. "I wanted to approach this from a Fair Trade and International aspect for the booths and event participants," commented Kolberg. San Francisco, as a city, is getting a routine in place to support green events through it's municipal organizations and experienced festival producers - come down to Carnaval's Zone Verde to see the machine in action on Harrison and Treat Streets at 17th Street.

Looking to get hands-on experience working on a green festival? Douglas and the festival organizers are still in need of great volunteers. Call 415-875-9224 to sign up.

Taste 2008!

2008-04-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

On April 17, 2008 Root Division held their annual Taste fundraising event with the support of their resident artists, local restaurants, beverage companies and Twirl to raise money for their education programs. The art gallery was packed with art lovers, fashionistas and foodies all tasting samples of Andalu, Bar Bambino, Brick, Cantina Lounge, Cook Club, El Buen Comer & La Cocina, Maverick, Ozumo and Zazil while imbibing drinks from Trumer Pils, Lotus Vodka, Ritual Coffee Roasters, and Grown Up Soda. How's that for a mouthful!

The environmental considerations woven into the event were:
• Artist designed re-usable bags for the gift bag
• Only local restaurants participated, most with sustainable food purchasing programs
• Trumer Pils and Lotus Vodka are both manufactured in the Bay Area
• Re-usable glassware was used for beverages
• Recycling and composting were available on site (with instructions and signage)
• Invitations were printed on recycled paper
• All the disposable serving ware and napkins were either paper or compostable
• Each food prep station was given individual compost bins to raise our waste diversion ration and make it easy for our chefs to compost on-site.

With all of our green initiatives for the event met we wound up with only 2 bags (about 8-10lbs) of landfill waste from the 300+ person event. Next year we'll get down to less than 1!!!

Home Sweet Home

2008-02-12T16:43:00.001-08:00

After completing our first holiday season as Twirl, we decided it was time to change things up a little and move office space. We are now located at 18th and Treat Streets in the Mission District of San Francisco, at a new building run by ActivSpace. This past January has been filled with designing the layout of out new office, building shelves, painting walls, and moving into our new space.

Though not a party or a meeting, this was quite the event for us and we set a goal to follow good environmental practices at each step of the move. We thought that it would be a good idea to chronicle some of our work here!

First we found a perfect fit at ActivSpace which utilized many green building practices, as most of their properties do. Though not LEED designated, the building is the equivalent to a LEED Silver level. We, of course, chose an office right in the center of the quad, smack in the middle of the action like the party people we are.

For décor and furnishings we went to Eco-Home Improvement to pick up Nolo and American Pride paints. We of course re-used our existing furniture, and we supplemented these with used items including shelves, side tables, chairs, and serving ware purchased from sources like Craig’s List, Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Cookin’ (a wonderful little store crammed with used specialty kitchen items). We bought power strips so that we can turn off all of our appliances when we go home for the evening. The new items we acquired were an Energy Star mini-Fridge (where else would you store the champagne?) and beautifully crafted trays made from acacia wood.

We are so happy with our new home away from home. Let us know if you would like to come by for a cup of tea!

Cheers!

Green Festival 2007

2007-11-13T01:02:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a weekend! Green Festival was fantastic!

Kelin Backman of Sonoma County based E(Vent) Creations and I arrived on Thursday to set up around noon. The Concourse was already fully buzzing from activity of all the vendors and volunteers setting up to be ready for the following day. We carefully laid out our screens, hung our signs and displays in the next few hours. The booth was shaping up beautifully and we went home to get a good nights sleep to be energized for the following few days.

Kelin, Vanessa Hauswald, the other co-owner of E(Vent), and I arrived Friday around 10am Friday morning to apply our finishing touches. We set out our marketing materials and ventured out to the San Francisco Flower Mart to pick up gorgeous bundles of Tuberose that left a wonderful scent all around our booth. The festival kicked off at 2pm and as visitors trickled in, we all started to become aware of what a great opportunity participating at this festival was going to be.

Over the next 3 days we had many visitors: potential clients, new vendors, members of the press, job seekers, and generally interested people in what exactly is a “Green Event” (including a few skeptics). The three of us easily maneuvered around each other explaining our companies methods and purpose, sharing tips and educating the public on how they can either use our services or take our tips home and green their own events. We were able to take turns venturing out of the booth to visit other vendors and watch some of the informative speakers presenting at the festival.

Come Sunday at 6pm, we started packing up and were able to leave our booth spotless in 40 minutes with only creating 1 bag of trash, of which half was compostable, from the entire weekend.

Our two companies and three ladies left the event tired, happy and very excited about all of the doors our participation in Green Festivals opened up for us. It was also wonderful to know that both our companies compliment each other well and I hope for future collaborations in the future! We are definitely planning to come back next year.

Producing a Sustainable Trade Show Booth Part 2

2007-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Sign construction is something new for me. I’ve designed, placed orders for, and hung sign, but never built one. This was a definite labor of love.

We wanted a sign that was going to have life outside of the trade show floor and would illustrate the style and design strength Twirl brings to each event it builds, with the environment and sustainability in mind.

I enlisted the help of Anton Berteaux, an experienced builder and welder, Matt Williams, a talented designer and Chuck Inman of Phantom Signs to advise on materials, design and construction instruction. Their expertise was invaluable!

I purchased non-VOC paint from Eco-Home Improvement in Berkeley and repurposed all of the other materials from various sources like scrap yards and leftovers from Chuck’s shop.

Anton offered his shop in on his solar-powered farm in Winters and under his direction, I hand cut the copper to form the lettering of the Twirl logo.

The other part of my contribution to the booth was the word display to describe elements of green event design. As mentioned in the previous post all the materials were sourced from Scrap. Another green addition to this project was the staff at Eco-Home Improvement recommended that I can take the non-VOC paint I purchased from them to Purcell Paint, also in Berkeley and have it filled into a spray paint can for easier application. I had made stencils of the words and spray painting the lettering made the job quicker and easier to accomplish.

Now I am packing up my toolbox with scissors, tape, glue, twine, clothes pins, measuring tape, cards, new business cards, and the organic table cloths for smooth and efficient installation at the San Francisco Concourse. I am ready for this trade show to start!

Producing a Sustainable Trade Show Booth Part 1

2007-11-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

Twirl Management and E(Vent) Creations are sharing a booth at this year’s Green Festival taking place at the San Francisco Concourse, November 9-11, 2007. Our goal for the booth is to illustrate how recycled and sustainable materials can produce high quality, well designed events, meetings, and celebrations.

We began our booth design and construction with retrieving resources and then seeing how we could use various elements together. We had the benefit of two farms located in Petaluma to salvage used materials and supplies. Additionally we shopped at Scrap, a re-use art store located in San Francisco. We have finalized the design as being two large dividing screens re-purposed from the Museum of Natural History’s dump nearly 20 years ago using them to flank the booth and provide surface area to mount images and teams for our booth. The back wall will be rows of framed wording in black and white. The frames and canvases all came from Scrap. Additionally we will have a table set out draped in an organic table cloth from Hands On the Table, who make organic and hemp table cloths for retail and special events.

We are handing out limited printed material so as minimize waste creation. We are excited about our mini ‘How To Plan Your Next Event Green’ postcard where interested visitors can fill in the categories on the card with the resources they find at the festival. This will be a great way to teach the festival visitors how they can simply reduce their waste from their dinner parties and use more sustainable products to entertain their guests. Additionally, they can use the postcard as a note to themselves for later reference. We had the cards printed locally in San Francisco at www.GreenPostcards.com, a printing company that uses 100% recycled paper, soy based inks and varnishes, an energy efficient printing press, 100% wind power energy and Union Labor.

Our next step in the production is to start manufacturing the designs. I’m off to the Sommerset Farm in Winters, California to build the Twirl Sign!