Today, we’re shining our CFL spotlight on Collared Greens, a eco-conscious clothing company from head to toe. Recently, green is sexy had an opportunity to talk to Founder and President Randy Ashton about how the company started, their CG/24 initiative, and even some great customer reaction stories.

gis: We recently found out about the hip styles of Collared Greens.  Tell us a bit about the company and how it came to be.

Randy: I came up with the idea for Collared Greens while on a photography assignment (traveling to 13 countries and 60 Atlantic salmon rivers) for The North Atlantic Salmon Fund. I wanted to create a classic American brand for the high-end consumer who deeply cares about the environment while also donating money to conservation organizations around the world that battle nature’s enemies on the front lines.

I was sitting in the middle of the woods writing in my journal and waiting for a picture, when the idea for making organic collared shirts popped into my head. When I told my mother about the idea, she said, “Great, but you should really name it Collared Greens.” So I worked my tail off in Sun Valley, Idaho with the help of CG co-founder Robbie Svoboda who was in Atlanta, Georgia, and started calling anyone who would talk to me about creating a clothing brand that we could manufacture in the USA using organic cotton and recycled materials whenever possible. Most people told me I was nuts. But Jeremy Bull and Alex Floyd believed in Collared Greens and moved out here from Raleigh, North Carolina to help us make the vision a reality. The four of us work really well together and our goal is to create a model for green business in America. We have a long way to go but with loyal customers and hard work we are confident that Collared Greens is going to take off. Business has been off the charts so far.

gis: Beautiful bow ties!  We’re curious to know some of the ways the clothing is produced in an eco-conscious way.

Randy: Thank you for the compliments. Our ties are selling like crazy and our American-made (sewn in Ketchum, Idaho) organic polo shirts are a big hit with customers because they fit so well. All of our competitors, most of whom do not support American business or the green industry, buy a generic polo shirt pattern. Collared Greens has designed and cut our own patterns for each shirt—The Original, The New Classic, and the Jersey Polo for men and women are available now from retailers and on our website, http://www.collaredgreens.com.

Our polo shirts are made of 100% organic cotton. Our soft cozy cotton is certified by EDPA USA, Inc., and fully complies with American Organic Standards and Global Organic Textile Standards. Organic cotton is grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers that are harmful to the environment. Only natural, low-energy, non-metal, low-impact dyes are used. All of our polo shirts are manufactured in-house in Ketchum, Idaho, where CG offsets our carbon footprint with Native Energy. Our next step is to convert our sewing machines to solar power with the help of Eco Built Energy Systems in Charleston, South Carolina.

All of our silk is inherently organic because it is produced by a little organic silkworm that is not harmful to the environment nor is it endangered in any way. Our tie packaging is made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper, certified by both Smartwood and the Forest Stewardship Council. We encourage consumers to repurpose the packaging and find another creative use for it. Collared Greens’ universal hang tag that accompanies each product is also made with 100% post-consumer recycled paper, certified by both Smartwood and the Forest Stewardship Council.

Collared Greens’ unique embroidered hats use 100% organic cotton and our t-shirts are also 100% organic cotton, sewn in downtown Los Angeles. Our shipping boxes, packing tape, and tissue paper are all made with recycled cardboard/paper.

gis: All the way down the the packaging, that’s great.  We also saw you have an initiative called CG/24, which gives 1% of your profits back to the planet.  Can you speak to the initiative?

Randy: Conservation is my passion in life. All proceeds from my second book, A Celebration of Salmon Rivers, are donated to the NASF to save wild salmon. It is our duty to protect nature because nature is what gives us life.

I created Collared Greens to make money for CG/24 so we can help finance the conservationists on the front lines who make no money while protecting nature’s finest resources.

The CG/24 Conservation Project is a commitment to help protect and promote the environment. Each year, Collared Greens will partner with three conservationist organizations to help promote their efforts and donate to their causes. Collared Greens will donate one percent of our profits on behalf of “One Percent for the Planet” and donate another one percent, for a total of two percent of our profits, on behalf of Collared Greens and Marvin Leopold, the green polar bear. The environment needs our help, and Collared Greens intends to do just that.

gis: What are some of the impacts you’ve seen CG/24 have?

Randy: The impacts of CG/24 have been small thus far due to the fact that Collared Greens is still a very new company. But we hope someday it will be HUGE, similar to Patagonia’s “1% For The Planet” program. We dream BIG at Collared Greens. We are donating a portion of our profits to the CG/24 Project and as the company continues to grow, so will our contributions to environmental initiatives. We also donate to many other wonderful organizations around the country, including the Idaho Conservation League and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

gis: How have your customers reacted to the fact you have stylish duds that are easy on the mind?  Any cool stories about a reaction or pleasantly surprised customer?

Randy: Solid question. We have heard many wonderful stories. Some of our favorites come from businessmen working on big deals. They often write to say “Thanks for the lucky tie.” One insurance guy in Stamford, Connecticut said he landed his biggest deal in a “Green Stripe” tie.

A nice young man emailed Marvin Leopold (our green polar bear) and said he wore “The Makers” tie during his “ump-teenth” job interview trying to change up his luck, and sure enough, he got the job.

One fun story came in a few days ago. A good-timer at some prestigious college said that after a late night at his fraternity house, he woke up the next morning to find a CG sticker on his car and he thought it was so cool he wrote to us and asked for more.

Collared Greens is very lucky to have an amazing client base made up of great people with great energy who love the environment. Our slogan says it all: “You do your best when you look your best.”

gis: That is hysterical about the sticker – maybe a Guerrilla marketing technique?  Ha. Tell us a bit about your roles at Collared Greens.

Randy: Collared Greens is one big team. Officially I am the Founder/President, Jeremy Bull is the Retail Manager, and Alex Floyd is the Product Manager. However, both Jeremy and I were All-American lacrosse players in high school and college, so we have a team mentality at Collared Greens. We all work together to create the company brand. We also have a dedicated team of folks working on this vision behind the scenes. It is a total group effort. Jeremy, Alex, and I are on the front lines, but we have a huge crew right behind us providing solid navigation.

Collared Greens was created for our generation, the younger generation that wants to make a difference in this world. We are not just about one person; we are about the entire generation and the generations yet to come. We are a team and we will grow together.

gis: A solid team.  What are some of your own favorite green tips?

Randy:

• Reuse everything until its purpose has been fulfilled.  Then recycle what can’t be used any longer.
• Turn the lights off if you are not in the room. Turn your computer off at the end of the day.
• Don’t leave any power on so we can get ride of so many dams that prevent so many species of fish from getting home.

gis: We are always talking about turning off the computer, too. Thank you for those.  Is there anything you’d like to end on?

Randy: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill

This month, Kim Sedgwick tells us how to put spice into our environmental actions. She co-owns a boutique and wellness centre, Red Tent Sisters, with her sister Amy. Together they created ecosex.ca as a way to make it easier for people to have “environmentally-friendly” orgasms. Their mother helps unpack boxes of dildos and their dad proofreads all text! Naturally, we have a lot of questions for the family who’s bringing sexy back to the earth.

gis: How did two sisters end up starting a sex store specializing in environmentally friendly products?

Kim: A bunch of things sort of converged together. I went to school for Women’s Studies and English out in Halifax and there was a store out there called Venus Envy that specializes in sexuality and then they also have books. Our father was in publishing, so Amy and I always thought it would always be cool to own a bookstore together.  Kind of hard to do in Toronto where Indigo and Chapters are sort of taking over. So I was interested in sexuality, interested in books, and my sister, when she went off of hormonal birth control, had some complications with breast feeding and things like that and I found out a lot of information about what the pill actually does to you. We were living together at the time, I was helping take care of her daughter, and thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to create a space that was safe to talk about sexuality and fertility, and all of that stuff in a holistic way?”

Then we found out the sex toy industry is unregulated and they can put pretty much anything they want into a toy because it’s labelled as a novelty product, meaning it’s not intended for use. I didn’t know that until we started the store and I started opening the boxes and there was this funky odour and I was like, “This doesn’t smell right.” So I did some research and found out it was the phthalates actually leaching out of the plastics.”

gis: Phthalates sound quite unnatural and kind of scary. What are they and what do they do?

Kim: Phthalates are a chemical used to soften plastic. Traditionally, toys are made out of plastic and they’re jelly, that soft, squishy material. Phthalates are added to make it into that squishy material and phthalates are known to be an endocrine disrupter, which means they disrupt the hormonal balance of your body. They’ve actually been banned from baby products. Along with BPA’s, phthalates were also banned.

My concern is: if they’re toxic enough to not be in baby products, why should adults be exposed to it, particularly if you’re putting it in mucous areas of your body, that doesn’t seem like it is a good idea.

There is a lot of evidence that it builds up in our bodies and phthalates are used in all kinds of products – like shower curtains – all kinds of products have phthalates. I’m all about reducing exposure. If you can have something without the chemicals, why wouldn’t you go that route? So there are more and more companies making phthalate-free toys, particularly toys made of silicone, which is really great.

In addition to all the chemicals, jelly toys are really hard to clean, so then you end up buying toy cleaners, so you’re adding chemicals to chemicals and then putting it in your body, which I don’t think is great.

gis: So what’s the best way to clean toys?

Kim: In my opinion, I believe you shouldn’t have any toy that cannot be cleaned without warm water and soap.

I don’t even believe there should be such thing as toy cleaner because if you use a toy cleaner, it means your toy is porous and it’s probably not good for you.

Most toys can actually be boiled. If you want to save water, you can put it in the dishwasher. Most of them can be put on the top rack along with everything else.

gis: While searching for products, did you find companies focusing on environmental kindess or are eco-friendly sex products a happy accident?

Kim: Most of the companies were doing it really purposefully. Not so much about the environmental standpoint; a lot of it has to do with the cleanliness, actually, which was an interesting issue. Particularly the toys that are being used anally, it’s hard to clean them, so people were using silicone because you can boil it. So it was more from that standpoint. I’d say it was more the health aspect for our physical body, less so the toxic side of things, but there certainly are more companies that are starting to do that for the environmental.

Certainly rechargeables are way more popular. There’s something about vibrators; they seem to go through batteries like nothing else. I don’t know if it’s how much they get used, or if it’s the motors, or what’s happening, but they seem to go through a lot of batteries! These batteries, unfortunately, a lot of people just throw them in the garbage rather than properly dispose of them, so rechargeables are becoming more popular.

As I said earlier, they originally were novelty products. A lot of people were buying them for, like, jokes at a Bachelorette, but more people were using these products, so why not make them so they last? So that they can be turned on for more than two seconds.

The other thing is, people were coming in, saying, “Well, I spent twenty bucks, but I also threw it away after one use.” That’s not environmentally friendly or very cost efficient if you’re constantly replacing it.

So I’d certainly say there are more and more companies that are trying to make them both safer for our bodies and better for the environment. One of my favourite companies is actually called Happy Valley, located in Peterborough, so they’re local. Happy Valley are possibly the sweetest people: they raise sheep and keep bees and make silicone dildos!

gis: Oh! So that’s the 100-Mile Sex Diet?

Kim: Yeah! I like that! I’ll put it on my website! Can I steal that?

gis: You’re totally welcome to.

Kim: Awesome!

gis: You’ve got an “Ask an EcoSexpert” space on your site. What is the one thing everyone  needs to know?

Kim: That they aren’t required to label products so you need to be informed. There are certainly more and more places where you can do that, so pretty much any good company will have their own website where they will list everything about what’s in their product and what they’re doing for the environment, so I’d just say, “Do your research before you buy a product and make sure that you’re informed because no one else is looking out for you.”

gis: Do you see any difference in the environmental awareness of the sex toy industry since you began your business?

Kim: Definitely. We only opened two and a half years ago and I’d say there’s been a huge shift in terms of what people are coming out with. Even those companies I mentioned that don’t have a mandate to be eco-friendly or to be better, I think there’s enough pressure that one or two of their products are better for the environment or for you. If the big companies are jumping on the bandwagon, it’s a sign of a bigger movement and I think people are becoming more informed. The best thing you can do is make an informed choice and do your research and people are doing that. They’re going into stores and they’re saying, “I don’t want this on my body. I want something that’s safe.” I think there’s pressure and we’re going to see a huge change in the industry in the next few years.

gis: Give us the lowdown on eco-friendly toy materials. We see wood and glass stuff on your site. And is silicone really okay for the environment?

Kim: My feeling is that silicone is good because it is phthalate-free, which is part of what makes it eco-friendly. It’s also not going going to degrade, so it’s eco-friendly because it will last a long time. The reverse of that is that it will not bio-degrade in the end. So it’s not the most eco-friendly, but it’s certainly way better than the alternatives that are in the mainstream.

For people trying to find the most eco-friendly, I would say glass is fantastic. As long as they’re careful with it, it will never break and it will last a lifetime. Wood is also great. I’m going to try to get some clay ones in. A friend of mine is a potter, so she’s going to make some clay dildos, so that’s certainly eco-friendly. When it comes to toy materials, there are degrees to what’s the best.

gis: Even if we choose long-lasting toys, there will be a time when we have to dispose of them. What do we do?

Kim: Excellent question! I went to the City (of Toronto) and asked what I can suggest to my customers that they could do with these toys and to my dismay, they said to throw them in the garbage like everything else. On my long to-do list is to find a way to do a recycling program.*

gis: Toys or no toys, what’s the easiest thing someone can do to put a little eco into his or her sex life?

Kim: Well, if you want to think broadly, shower with your partner. Save some water that way. Just don’t have any fun times in the shower because then it will probably end up being a long shower and that’s not very eco-friendly!

Do it with the lights off and save electricity! Or if you want to use a soy candle, that’s much better than petroleum-based candles.

If you’re using condoms only for pregnancy and not for STIs, there are much better forms of contraception, like fertility awareness methods.

Yeah, there are lots of things you can do and most of those are free! You’re saving the environment and saving yourself some money.

gis: Okay, since we’re talking nature and sex, we’ve gotta ask: where’s the best place to get it on outside?

Kim: Keep in mind that people still use pesticides, so if you’re going to be doing it outdoors, try to make it a place where people are not using pesticides because that’s getting on your skin. Maybe do it in your own backyard, where you can guarantee that you know what’s being put on those things.

Be careful if you’re doing it outdoors in the forest. There are lots of things – poison ivy and such – you might want to look out for. That might not be so pleasant.

Depending on how many people you want to see, you might want to keep location in mind as well, but yeah, do it outside, do it in a new location. I’m all about spicing it up.

gis: And what should we pack for such a special outing?

Kim: If you’re doing it in the woods, then bringing a nice wooden toy would be awfully fun.

If you need condoms for either STI protection or contraception, we do carry the only ethically manufactured condoms available in Canada. They’re called Glyde and are the only ones where the people that manufacture the rubber are ethically treated. They’re paid a fair wage, which is not necessarily something other condom companies are looking out for. So you’ll want to bring some of those along.

I think lube is the best thing ever. It makes everything more slippery, more fun, so check those out too!

gis: Finally, what’s the sexiest thing about being Green?

Kim: You can do it with a clean conscience, which always makes you feel better about yourself!

*Hey, guess what? We found a couple of places in the U.K. and U.S. that offer discreet recycling services for your adult enjoyment!

All photos except website (c) Katherine Topolniski, 2010, K B T  PHOTOGRAPHY

For March, we’re taking our CFL spotlight to the schools and shining it on one very eco-conscious place, Vermont Academy.

Located in Saxtons River, Vermont, Vermont Academy is a small independent secondary school.  Their Director of Communications, Maryann McArdle, as well as current student Dylan Gilbert were kind enough to share some of the green initiatives they have organized to promote green friendliness on campus.  Check them out!

Vermont Academy students clean up the river during the Connecticut Rivershed Cleanup day. Students also work at compost buckets during lunch time.

Bottled Water Initiative
Based on a growing awareness about the negative social & environmental consequences of disposable plastic water bottles (and disposable plastics in general) Vermont Academy agreed to discontinue the use of bottled water at Vermont Academy. The bottle water initiative:

• Eliminates bottled-water expenditures
• Reduces Vermont Academy students and faculty exposure to harmful Bisphenoln A
• Educates Vermont Academy students, faculty and visitors about water as a universal right that must be consumed sustainably and protected
• Reduces Vermont Academy’s participation in fossil fuel dependence, climate change, environmental pollution, and water privatization among other issues
• Creates a powerful statement that Vermont Academy takes sustainability seriously—improving our image in the community and providing opportunities for promoting ourselves to prospective students and their families.

Composting Project
Vermont Academy along with every major institution in the United States today faces a convergence of crises largely centered over the interface between ecological and economic sustainability.  Beginning on Earth Day last year, we as a school acknowledged an excellent opportunity to eliminate a tremendous amount of our waste production while at the same time producing a much-needed resource for the region.  So began the Vermont Academy Composting Project. This project has many important environmental benefits: it helps us to reduce the amount of waste we are putting in local landfills; it reduces our contribution to the global warming gas methane; it educates faculty, staff and students at VA about “closed-loop ecological systems” as an alternative to wasteful linear systems; and it produces a high quality soil amendment which can be used on campus gardens, donated to community gardens, sold at fundraisers or traded to local farmers in exchange for fresh organic produce (further reducing our ecological footprint and dependence on fossil fuels).

Christine Armiger, environmental science teacher and Certified Master Composter, Bruce Herforth of Garden Alternatives, along with some of our product.

VA Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Program
Vermont Academy as an individual player in a global society bears the responsibility to make efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials and energy as efficiently and effectively as possible. During this time of global climate change, VA must transition away from our participation in the linear materials economy, and toward systems that follow closed-loop ecological cycles. Vermont Academy conducted a survey, specifically addressing our efforts to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle here on campus.  Over 200 surveys were distributed to students, faculty and employees at Community Lunch.  Results of this survey indicate that while the majority of Vermont Academy students have made some efforts to Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle materials and energy on campus, a significant number of individuals are not contributing to sustainability efforts either because they do not find it to be convenient or they are not aware of the importance of modifying their individual actions for the collective benefit of the environment and future generations.

Based on these findings, the Vermont & Environs Committee proposes a series of initiatives targeted towards increasing campus participation in a variety of sustainability projects:

• Place single-sided paper bins – have been placed next to every printer and at the end of the day, an assigned individual places all of the paper that is sitting idol in or beside printer tray into the ‘single-sided paper bins’. This helps Vermont Academy reduce the amount of paper it uses.
• Disposable products – such as chip bags, disposable coffee cups, and disposable yogurt containers have been removed from the Dining Hall. This has reduced VA’s amount of post-consumer trash waste significantly.
• Reusable Klean Kanteens – VA school store numerous metal reusable water bottles as to accommodate students with reusable water bottles that are durable and do not leach harmful chemical into the water.
• Black Out Time Slots – every week there is a scheduled time slot where the Vermont Academy community takes efforts to reduce its energy usage by conserving power. Phantom devices that slowly leach energy are turned off.

Organic and Local Products in the School Store & Student Café
Vermont Academy has recently started to incorporate local products into the School Store and Student Cafe. Local artists are commissioned to provide clothing and various locally produced items, such as maple syrup for sale. Moreover, United Natural Foods Incorporated (UNFI) will now act as the school’s main distributor for organic products.

Earth Day
Every year in order to raise environmental awareness Vermont Academy holds an Earth Day event. Students are required to attend and participate in activities designed to raise environmental awareness. Workshops are taught, green art projects are commissioned, students are taken to work on local farms, and students are invited to visit to local recycling and paper centers.

Localvore Banquet
This year Vermont Academy will host its first Localvore Banquet. The night would feature the produce of local farmers. Selling finalized soil amendment from the Compost Initiative to local farmers in return for fresh produce would offset some of the cost of the night. Farmers will come to speak about the benefits of your local community, sustainable agriculture, and the importance of knowing where your food comes from.

For more information about Vermont Academy, visit their website.

For the month of love, green is sexy shines a CFL spotlight on John and Allyson Lindsley, two Ohio natives now residing in Seattle, who recently had a very green big day.

We hear you had a big fat green wedding! What were some of the reasons you wanted to be eco friendly on the big day?
When we realized we were potentially spending a lot of money for just one day, we wanted to be sure our dollars were going to the right places. To us that meant ensuring our wedding would have a soft environmental impact, and that our dollars were contributing to supporting fair trade. Although we wanted to go local as much as possible, we wanted to pay fair trade for our goods that were being shipped from other countries. In a way, we just wanted our wedding to help, not hurt the local and global communities. Plus, we are conscious of the environment in our daily lives, so we wanted to reflect this on our wedding day when our lives would come together.

What are some of the things you did to stay low impact and environmentally conscious?

1. Our reception site, the Culinary Vegetable Institute, was an amazing green facility with fresh produce straight from the farm.
2. The church we worked with for our ceremony takes all profits (after operating expenses) and donates to children of the working poor and autistic education efforts in the local community.
3. Local Food (fresh from the garden!) and Beverages (local wine and beer) at Reception, as well as Organic Fair Trade Coffee. Buying local ensures a minimal carbon footprint.
4. The Bride and Bridesmaids’ bouquets, the groom’s boutonniere, and all table and floral arrangements were created at CVI from herbs grown in the vegetable garden, vegetable blossoms, and flowers grown on site. Did you know the zucchini plant grows flowers that usually go to waste?
5. Donating to Carbonfund.org to offset our travels from Seattle to Ohio; posting a link to CarbonFund.org on our website for guests.
6. Recycled Paper for programs and invitations
7. Fair Trade Wedding Dress and dress for Bride’s Mother were from Lena Medoyeff Bridal Studio in Portland, OR. Lena buys her raw silk material from a woman in India, pays her fair trade for her labor, then employs a local seamstress to create the dresses. Allyson loves how she knows exactly where her dress came from!
8. In lieu of party favors for guests (that usually get tossed in the garbage anyways), we donated to Oxfam Unwrapped, purchasing gifts like a “Plant 100 Trees”, “Support a Farmer”, and “Pair of Sheep” to ensure that we were giving to communities that need it the most.
9. Wedding Party Gifts + Gifts for musicians, readers, officiant: Handmade Jewelry Boxes from Rwanda (www.handmadeexpressions.net) , Eco-Stationery, Fair Trade Organic Coffee & Chocolate from Theo’s Chocolate (www.theochocolate.com) , jewelry from www.tenthousandvillages.com.
10. We made a wedding mix CD for our out-of town guests made with recycled CD sleeves from www.rebinder.com.
11. We took the time to research our vendors and worked with those that upheld eco-friendly values and had their own green initiatives in place. We liked some things being done at Great Lakes Brewing and Paper Source.
12. And if there was a way to harness all that energy generated from the dance floor at the reception, we definitely would have fed it back to the power grid.

Ha!  You might be onto something with that dance floor energy solution.  Tell us about the Culinary Vegetable Institute where you had your reception. That sounded like a great place.
CVI offered so much of what we were hoping for to make our wedding day environmentally and socially responsible, and not to mention a very vegetarian-friendly menu for the bride! The veggies served were all fresh and organic produce from their garden, and for the carnivores the meat was grass-fed beef. CVI pays close attention to its environmental impact and is an ardent proponent of sustainable agriculture. Focusing on the “earth to table” method, farmers and chefs come together to use in-season produce grown at the facility. The site itself is a green facility that was built from local limestone and timber, and includes large windows to allow for minimum indoor lighting.

All the table decorations at CVI came directly from their gardens, as did the herbs used for our specialty cocktails.

We were able to meet with our Chef, Johannes Klapdohr, to describe some of our tastes, and these are some of the amazing creations he came up with…

• Beet “Lollypops” with Spices, Crushed Almonds and Scented Oils
• Chefs Garden Summer Rolls with Spicy and Sweet Jingle Bell Pepper Dip
• Lasagna of Summer Squash, Bok Choy and Root Spinach with Buffalo Mozzarella
• Oven Roasted Grass Fed Beef Tenderloin “Carved to Order” with Sunflower Crust and Vidalia Onion Jus

Sounds like you had some really interesting food! Especially those beet “lollypops.” What is one of the best/ most fun green things you did for your wedding?

Well, topping the fun things we did included when we invited our out-of-town guests over for a barbeque with our families before the wedding day. Even for this occasion we were able to be green by serving food and recipes from the bride’s parents’ garden and contributing to their compost when we were done. It was a great day with Ohio sun, friends, games, and great fresh food!

You knew where every food came from – that’s a great idea. What were some of the hardest green decisions you had to make when planning your wedding?

Something we struggled with was the idea of showcasing our green practices to our guests without being overbearing or overly preachy. We wanted to show people that a wedding can be super fun, but also be environmentally conscious and socially responsible.

We also knew we couldn’t be 100% green. We tried to incorporate both green and fair trade ideas into every part of our day, but eventually realized not everything was going to be green due to lack of availability or cost.

But we must say, planning a green wedding is really easy! There are tons of resources for you out there such as:

• www.greatgreenwedding.com
• www.fairtradefederation.org
• www.etsy.com – so many eco-friendly vendors!
• ethicalweddings.com

Our initial plan was to incorporate fair-trade ideas on our big day, but the more we researched, the more being green and supporting fair-trade went hand-in-hand.

Are there any suggestions you would give to our readers who are considering having a low-impact wedding?

Don’t be afraid to step outside the traditional perception of a wedding. Let it be a reflection of who you are, and just try to plan the wedding day according to the green practices you already love and enjoy!

As long as your guests are buying you gifts, try adding green items to your registry. We love some of the bamboo and fair trade products we received!

And just because it’s fun – how did you two meet?

We happen to be from the same home town and were both home for Christmas. We were each at a friend’s party on Christmas evening, but being a small town it turned out to be the same party. We hadn’t actually met before that night, but the irony was that our parents lived right down the street from each other. So of course our wedding was back in our home town, and whenever we go home now for Christmas spending time with both families is easy.

Thanks, John and Allyson, and congratulations!

Photos by Whirlybird Photography.

To kick off 2010, we caught up with green building and LEED consultant Lauren Gropper to learn about green building, her super cool entourage and why “shift” is more than a key on your keyboard.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Vancouver, Canada.

How did growing up in Vancouver influence your greenness?
Vancouver is a super green city and the natural environment is very much a part of the city itself, so I definitely developed an appreciation for all things green early on.

What made you want to pursue Environmental Planning and Design?
I was always interested in cities, the way they’re designed, and the ways in which we relate to our environment. I had also studied geography and environmental studies in college. So, pursuing sustainable design was a great way to combine my love of design and the built environment with sustainability.

You have a Masters of Science in Environmental Planning and Design. What is that, exactly?
Good question!! It’s basically the study of sustainable urban planning and the design of more sustainable environments, beyond the building scale.

Tell us about your latest project, SHFT:
I just launched an environmental media platform called SHFT with Adrian Grenier and Peter Glatzer. We offer original video series, curated shopping, and a host of resources that speak to a modern, inspirational, sustainable lifestyle.

What drew you to the new project?
I’ve been working with Adrian and Peter for several years, and it was something that we developed together after they approached me with the concept.

What is the easiest and most affordable thing everyone can do in their own home to make it greener?
I know this sounds very boring and cliche, but turning off your lights when you leave the room and switching out your incancesdents for CFCs or LEDs is a great start.

In addition to consulting on green building projects, you also consult on various television shows….
A few years ago I hosted and consulted on a green show for HGTV in Toronto, and shortly after that I was a consulting producer on a show for Discovery’s Green channel called “Alter Eco” – which was created by Adrian Grenier and Peter Glatzer, my business partners in SHFT.

You work in both New York and Los Angeles. Is it easier to be green on the East or the West coast?
You have such hard questions!! They both have their advantages and disadvantages. LA is great for fresh, local, and organic food and NY is amazing because of accessibility and an incredible public transit system, though the green attitude is definitely present in both places, and growing.

What’s next for you?
I’ve also recently launched a line of compostable cups and cutlery made from plants called Repurpose. All of our products can be composted in 90 days.

Do you have an eco-indulgence?
Long showers!

For more info on Lauren, check out her website, and be sure to check out SHFT!

For December, we caught up with Cassie Stevenson, co-founder of Degree 6 Clothing to learn about bamboo clothes, cotton’s insatiable thirst and why there’s more to six degrees of separation than Kevin Bacon…

Do you design the clothes yourself?
I do design each piece myself. I work with my pattern maker on each each style from start to finish until all details are perfect and ready for production.

Each piece in the collection features a Green Facts label – how did that happen?
The tag was an extremely important aspect to each piece in the line. One of our goals with Degree 6 was to make the environmental issues that we support easy for the consumer to understand. One thing that everyone understands is “nutrition facts.” In the same way that each box of food is labeled with “nutrition facts” which contain its ingredients, we did the same with our “Green Facts” label in order for the consumer to understand the ingredients of each Degree 6 garment.

Why bamboo?
The Bamboo Sorona is by far my favorite fabric to work with. There is really no comparison to any other fabric for a Tshirt, from the way it feels to the way it lays against the body. The Bamboo has a unique soft and silky feel, and is just as durable if not more than any other Tshirt fabric. However, the most important quality of Bamboo is its sustainability. To produce a Bamboo T-shirt requires 35 gallons of water compared to the 750 gallons of water it takes to produce a single cotton T shirt.

Do you wear your own clothes?
I do wear my own clothes. I love to comfy T’s for any occassion, whether is casual day wear or to dress it up at night, so my line is actually perfect for my style.

What is your favorite D6 piece?
I love each of the styles for different reasons, but I would have to say the Boyfriend T is my #1 because it is so versatile and is sexy and comfortable at the same time.

D6 stands for Degree Six, a reference to six degrees of separation. What does this mean to you?
I believe that everything each person does each day can effect the people and the environment around them. There are simple choices that people can make everyday to make a positive impact. A choice as simple as buying a bamboo Tee, rather than one made from conventional cotton can save over 700 gallons of water.

Have you ever played the Kevin Bacon game?
No, but I want to. Who should we start with?

You come from Portland, one of America ’s greenest cities. Do you find it more difficult to be green in your current hometown of Los Angeles?
Portland definitely has a heads up on LA as far as living “Green.” I continue to do the same things I did growing up in Portland, although they do not seem to encouraged in quite the same way. It is habit for me to recycle cans, plastic, paper, etc. As well as conserve energy by always turning the lights and electronics off when not in use, and not leaving the water running more than I need. However, I have seen more of a push for “green living” in Los Angeles in the past year than before. There are many more businesses taking action to do good for the environment and more products offered that are recycled and eco-friendly.

What’s your favorite green living tip for this ultra-consumptive time of year?
REUSABLE BAGS when shopping!!!!

Are you hoping to find anything special under the tree this year?
A puppy!!

What’s next for you and D6?
At this moment I am focused on developing the Mens and Womens collections further and incorporating recycled clothing in a few of the new styles as well as keeping busy with the launch of our D6 Baby collection.

For more on Cassie and the ultra-soft, ultra-cool D6 clothing line, check out the company’s website.

For November, actor, writer and Freelance Video Journalist for the New York Times, Jeremy Beiler volunteers to step into the spotlight and share some of his greeness. Jeremy has produced, shot and edited about a hundred videos for the New York Times since starting in 2007, almost all of them for the Arts section. He can also be seen in the hit production of Our Town currently playing off broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre.

Is there something or someone that first prompted your interest in the environment?

I used to get nerdy over science almanacs in high school and college, and I had crushes on magazines like Scientific American and books like Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything” – so I think my concern for environmental stuff was a natural byproduct of my interest in science and cosmology. It’s hard to read about the earth without reading about the damage that’s been done to it, and then at some point it became less about the scientific fascination and more about the basic obligation of being a living person on the planet.
If I had to pick one person who solidified my views, its Carl Sagan. His 70’s educational series “Cosmos” is so incredibly expressive and accessible and beautiful. He dedicated his life to educating normal people about science and connecting them with the true questions of life, bridging the gap, and there’s nobody like him today. He was talking about global warming decades ago while a lot of people were calling him crazy.

Why did you choose coal as the subject matter of your first video (and is it your first video of this nature?)

I made Coal with my sketch group, FreeLoveForum, and we’ve made a lot of parodies, but it’s my first video of a green nature, yes. I’ve written some more stuff in this vain that I intend to produce. I think humor has a way of illustrating real issues in a way that is clearer and more accessible than just speaking about something. I wrote “Coal” after I saw a commercial called “the human element” put out by Dow Chemicals (part of a larger campaign of theirs). It’s a truly beautiful commercial, full of gorgeous cello music and sweeping slow-motion images, a deep meaningful voice over about the preciousness of human life – And of course, Dow is notorious for decades of environmental disregard. They manufactured Agent Orange, helped build nuclear bombs, leaked Dioxyn into residential communities… so this incredibly beautiful commercial seemed like the ultimate irony, and the ultimate display of how a company’s branding may bear no resemblance to the reality of their business.
I wanted to poke fun at the tools that are often used to create a company’s image… I wanted my commercial to look expensive, and have all the earmarks of something “inspiring” – slow motion, people looking sincerely in the lens… and I used coal as the subject because it’s so ubiquitous and iconic as a dirty substance. I made the vid around the time that “clean coal” was gaining noteriety as an alternative energy source (which it is not).

The number of hits for Coal on youtube is nothing to sneeze at. What has been some of the feedback towards the film?

We have gotten some nice blog action on it – and it was featured on the homepage of YouTube, which is where it got a boost early on. It’s been shown on TV a couple times in “best of the web” shows on CW and Current, and it caught the attention of Greenpeace last year, who got in touch with me and said it inspired them to create a humor-based campaign to spread their message. I don’t know if they’ve gotten that off the ground yet, but I was touched to hear them say that, and I hope they follow through.

At green is sexy we enjoy how relatively sustainable it is to run a website – do you feel that way about film and video?

I make all of my videos using a corn-based bicycle-powered video camera, and all my film-stock is recycled burlap. Uhm… I mean…. Actually it’s not the most sustainable activity, no. Making films and videos uses electricity and can be wasteful. Most pro lighting instruments, even simple ones, pull a whole lot of juice. And on bigger film projects, a lot of money is spent on sets and other materials just so they can be photographed and then destroyed. So it’s not as low-impact as a website, BUT, there are a lot of ways to cut corners and have a consciousness about what you’re using while filming. As with anything else in life, it’s possible to minimize the wastefulness.

Are there easy, cost effective ways to be green when filming? Any tips?

One thing that’s always good to do is whenever you can make a scene work outside, shoot outside. For one thing, the sun is the best lighting instrument available, and it uses no electricity. Or if it’s gotta be indoors, stage the scene near a window using the natural light in the room, and a bounce board to fill. It usually looks best that way anyway. And, in terms of gear, don’t let your batteries stay in the chargers all day after they’re charged. Unplug the charger when its not in use or it will keep sucking power. In general, keep gear switched off unless it needs to be on. There is lots of waiting on a film set between shots, and all that time adds up to a lot of waste if there is something running that doesn’t need to be.

You are currently starring in the critically acclaimed off broadway production of Our Town. Is there a movement towards sustainability in the theatre world? Tips for being green on or offstage?

Theatre is the most sustainable form of entertainment because it’s just people talking and telling a story in person – no electricity needed! (Though, realistically, commercial theaters use gigantic lighting instruments and dimming switches that suck a lot of power.) Maybe the best green page to take from the theatre is the idea of re-purposing materials into new things, and maintaining old things to keep them working. The theatre world has a great reputation for not having any money, and therefore re-using sets, costumes, props etc. and modifying them to fit any production. It’s always good to be creative about reusing things before you just throw them away. Like – if you have a broken chair, don’t replace it, fix it really well so it works again… Or, if you have a crooked old bookshelf, take the shelves out and attach them to the wall. Be a pack rat with the things you can’t recycle, and think creatively about how to turn them into other useful new-seeming things.

What is the most rewarding thing about making these projects?

One of the coolest things about “Coal” was hearing from a friend that his sister’s professor in Montreal showed it in his classroom one day. And every once in a while we get an e-mail asking if it’s okay to use in a presentation or class. So it feels good that people want to use it to illustrate a point. I want to try to make things that speak for themselves and express concepts clearly, on their own. While making you laugh. It’s gotta be funny or it doesn’t float.

Do you have a favorite eco film or play?

The final episode of Carl Sagan’s COSMOS series – it’s called “Who Speaks for Earth?” (I’m a nerd, I remember the title!) is so amazing. I’ve watched it many times, it’s an inspiring and serious call to action. And it’s so much more powerful (and scary) that it was written and recorded 20 plus years ago. It speaks the truth beautifully and urgently, and reminds you why the cause is so important. It gives me chills.

What is your favorite green thing?
YOU! And, building-integrated photovoltaics. Which are solar panels that are incorporated invisibly into the façade of a building, or the shingles of a roof. So the building is constantly gathering its own power without looking any different from its surroundings!

Check out Jeremy’s NYT news video on the flooding in the Cedar Rapids.

Contact Jeremy @ jeremyben1982@gmail.com

For September, we caught up with jewelry designer Carolyn Rafaelian to learn about her Alex & Ani line of jewelry, enhancing human consciousness and the most charming recycled-metal bracelets around.

We love our wire bangles! Where did the idea for the charms come from?
I love personalizing my jewelry, so I came up with different charms so when girls wear my bangles, they feel connected to them spiritually. There are many charms starting with Love, Peace and Om symbol to Zodiac Signs, Birthstones, and Initials. This way everyone that wears Alex and Ani can personalize their sets!

The three of us have very different wrist sizes, but each of us can rock our bangles like they’re custom fit, which is unusual. Where did the idea come from to make the bangles expandable?
We were originally known for our classic lightweight “endless hoops” earrings, which are designed with a sliding function. I took this exact idea and turned it into the perfect bangle designed to fit everyone. The simplistic design along with the sliding adjustable function creates a custom fit.

You come from a family of jewelers; did your mother have lots of jewelry when you were growing up?
My love of jewelry came from my mother and playing in her many fun jewelry boxes but the desire to create it came from being brought up in my father’s jewelry manufacturing factory. I learned everything just being around it my entire life.

Your line, Alex and Ani is named for two of your daughters. Are they into jewelry?
My daughters absolutely LOVE the Alex and Ani jewelry! Ani will leave for school with a whole arm of bangles and return with only two!!! Her explanation: “Mom, I had to give them to all the girls in school, they were begging me for them!” Alex and Ani love the expandable bangles because they can expand as they grow!!

Your jewelry is made from recycled metals. Why is this important?
I started Alex and Ani about 10 years ago, long before there was this huge green movement which I am thrilled about and I am proud to say that I have been designing green jewelry the entire time. We are one of the last jewelry manufacturers in the United States that does not import product. Our pieces are all made in the USA and we use recycled materials purchased from local Rhode Island mills. It’s important that we continue to produce everything here in the USA because we adhere to higher environmental standards and rules for waste management and chemical disposal compared to other countries. We have always done things this way and we are lucky to have our own factory and manufacturing facilities, where we dictate how and where our products are produced.

You grew up in the smallest state in America and you now live in the biggest city in America. Is it easier being green in Rhode Island or in New York?
I actually live in New York and Rhode Island; I grew up in RI and find it very hard to leave. My kids and family are in RI. My showroom is in NYC and since I get a lot of my inspiration from NYC, I travel there every week. I think that if you are conscious about being green, it doesn’t matter where you live, you just make that extra effort to help the environment.

Nature seems to play a significant role in your designs. How does a busy city-gal like you get a chance to soak up the great outdoors?
A: I spend a great deal of time in Jamestown, RI, so I love to go to the RI beaches and “special spots” where I become inspired. Mother nature is the most creative force we are blessed to experience everyday anywhere- whether you’re sitting on a NY rooftop or at the water’s edge.

Giving back seems to be an integral part of your business. What exactly is “Charity By Design”?
We’ve partnered with several charities and are thrilled we have the ability to help foundations in need. We came up with our Charity by Design concept so we create specific pieces and collections catered to each organization with proceeds of sales donated to these foundations. Foundations that we have partnered with and donated to have included Stand up to Cancer, The Humane society, Red Cross and African Rainforest Conservancy to name a few. Charity by Design is the heart and soul of Alex and Ani, and it continues to grow.

One of the goals of Alex & Ani is to “enhance human consciousness”. Can you elaborate on that?
I am inspired by people, their unique energies, what makes them who they are, and what is truly important to them. Jewelry has the means to empower and I am just a designer who helps facilitate one to their own greatness because the meaning behind many of the pieces I create should reflect the essence of the wearer. Our Collections are all about what is inspirational to you and reflects you as a human being, Whether it be a cross, Buddha, an Om Symbol, you can create a custom piece that is your own and directly represents your life’s purpose and individual spirit…

We hear your third daughter Alivia might soon have a namesake line. Can you give us any hints about that?
I am trying to decide if I want to develop another jewelry line or if I want to venture out and do a lifestyle/home line. I will keep you posted!

Stay tuned for Carolyn’s Alivia line, and in the meantime check out the Alex & Ani website for more info about Carolyn, her jewelry and the Custom Create feature (create your own charmed bangles) coming in October.

For August, we caught up with Daniel Riser, founder of greenwriter.org, a new website for screenwriters to house their screenplays for production companies and directors to find while helping to save an estimated 5,000 trees per year. Catch the full catalogue due out later this month and read below to see how Daniel and the people at greenwriter.org are helping Hollywood make going green just a little sexier.

So what exactly is greenwriter.org?
Greenwriter.org is a web service designed to streamline the conventional process agents and producers use when finding scripts, while creating environmental awareness.

What made you want to “reinvent the way we buy and sell screenplays”?
I wanted to reinvent screenplay distribution because I was tired of seeing a general acceptance of mindless waste, both in regards to printed paper and writer’s works. There are dozens of online venues a screenwriter can use to showcase his work but they all charge $60 to $1,500 to submit a PDF. That’s when I decided to rebuild the system from the ground up.

Are you a screenwriter yourself?
Yes. I’ve got the cynicism and coffee mug to prove it.

How did you become involved in screenwriting?
I was eight years old. Bought some old James Bond novels at a used book store. My parents quickly found my chauvinist contraband and confiscated it. I wasn’t about to let that stop me so I sat down and wrote movie versions of the books. Next thing I know I’m 19 years old writing an action film for an independent company and we go out all over the world to film it. That’s when I bought the coffee mug.

For those of us not in the film business, do screenwriters really use that much paper?
Short answer: Yes. An average screenplay is 90 to 120 pages in length. Your run-of-the-mill screenplay guide recommends printing ten copies (at least) Most of which go to agents (unless God himself has smiled on your charmed life and you already have one) and a few random production companies across Los Angeles. About 200,000 screenplays make it into circulation every year.

How much paper would you estimate the film industry uses for things like scripts?
Oh boy. Well a “greenlit” script gets copied at least 100 times for the various members of the three stages of production (pre, principle, post) and then any revisions to the screenplay are also printed for each member. This obviously doesn’t include storyboards, index cards, shot lists, production schedules, etcetera. If I had to present an estimated figure I’d say at least 16,000 sheets per production for the screenplay itself.

How much paper or how many trees will the film industry save with the help of your website?
If 1/2 of industry professionals use Greenwriter as their content provider and 1/2 of the agents encourage their clients to do the same (we are developing a privatized feature for established writers) AND assuming 3/4 of screenplays are printed on recycled stock… we would still save 5,000 trees per year.

We love that Greenwriter helps the environment, but doesn’t it also help writers and production companies?
We are non-profit to the writers and their works because we want them to have a safe haven, free from exploitation or abuse. In order to stay in business we have customized our architecture to fit the needs of industry professionals who will pay for a professional interface that exceeds traditional online screenplay catalogs.

This service was designed to help struggling agents find excellent writers seeking representation, directors looking for the perfect “blueprint” to launch their professional career, actors of all success levels to find a star vehicle, independent investors who are interested in funding low budget films and increase a veteran producer’s productivity without printing a single sheet of paper.

Your nine person company is based in LA. Are you all writers?
Most of us are involved in entertainment and media but there are only two writers; myself and Trevor Berry; a dialog specialist. I’m more of a story editor/structure aficionado.

Aside from offering an essentially green service, does greenwriter implement any other green strategies in the office?
Our staff is environmentally responsible. The company recently purchased two Hybrids and we even had our office sign made in recycled materials. The only thing that isn’t Green is our flat screen TV. We’re movie people here so we have to have the biggest TV we can get our hands on. I think we succeeded.

Your Slogan for the site is “Let’s Save 90 million pages in 6 months” do you think you will reach that goal in 6 months or less?
100 screenplays were uploaded on our first day. I believe with all my heart that we can accomplish our goal but it’s not intended to be a race. Our original slogan was a statement. We’re proud of the service we have in store for everyone (Catalog is revealed late August) and we believe producers will see the benefit our digital product will bring them. If writers can see the opportunity we have created for them we will have no problem saving paper, saving trees and greening an industry that desperately needs it.

Where do you see Greenwriter a year from now?
We are hard at work crafting a perfect place for everyone involved in the screenwriting industry with plans to expand into television pilots, webisodes, commercials, novels, journalism, comic books, songs and other literary markets by the end of this year. We want to provide a venue where illustrators, editors, musicians and other artists can showcase their work before a global audience for free. Each category will be meticulously crafted by experts in their respective industries but it all begins with screenplays and our dedicated staff is making sure it’s worth the wait.

For more information on Daniel, Greenwriter or reading/selling screenplays online, check out greenwriter.org.

Thanks to Erin Kuhlmann for this interview!

For July, we caught up with Matthew Rutman, the project coordinator of Partners in Solidarity, the international computer placement program of NextStep.

Partners in Solidarity is not your typical non-profit. You might recall our spotlight for July that focused on NextStep Recycling. Partners in Solidarity take NextStep’s rebuilt computers and electronics to the next level: they are the facilitators between organizing NextStep’s electronics that will be shipped to communities in need, and organizes with another non-profit, INEPAS, that will make sure the equipment is set-up, managed, and used most efficiently. They are the bridge. And it all started about 8 years ago with an idea. In Matthew’s words….

I spent a year working in Guatemala from 2000-2001. I was involved in a variety of non-profit work that included house construction, homeless shelter support for street kids, and education. I thought I’d only spend a few months there, but ended up spending almost a year. The big “yahoo” moment for me came from being invited by a group of community leaders in a small village called Pasac Segundo to work with them on a fund raising project to build a school in their community. I spend days which turned into months spending time in their town-getting to know families, teachers, and kids.

The town school was built out of a variety of scrap materials and all the classrooms were dirt floors. Kids sat on planks of wood supported by cinder blocks. It was amazing to see how inspired they were to learn, and how little resources there were. Over the months, I was adopted by the town, and especially a family that made me one of their own. The long story short was that we wrote grants together, put on fundraisers, and eventually raised enough money to buy land and build a school. To this day it stands as the largest building in the community. That experience was huge for me. In addition, I knew dozens of awesome Guatemalan NGOs that were doing amazing work with limited resources. While down there, one of these NGOs told me they had over 300 donated bikes in the states but didn’t know how to get them down. They asked me for help. Through networking in the states, I sorted out the shipping and an idea was born.

I figured it would percolate for a while before becoming a reality. But, the dream of staring a non-profit was born during that time.

Things were sped up on July 10,2001. I was working for the United States Forest Service(USFS) in Washington state as a fire fighter. Me and 11 other fire fighters and two civilians were trapped behind a fire that became known as the 30 mile fire. Four fellow fire fighters died that day and the rest of the survivors came as close to dying as was possible. I realized how thin the veil was between life and death and decided to make some dreams turn into realities while I was still here. I had argued with death in my fire shelter and said that there were things I was supposed to do. One of those things was to create a resource bridge to Guatemala.

A student at Casablanca School, Salcaja, Guatemala

Initially, the vision of the project was to gather anything valuable to the myriad of NGOs in Guatemala that were focusing on education and health care projects. We brought down medical supplies/equipment, school supplies, classroom furniture, computers, bikes, kids clothing, toys. I had friends that were dumpster divers and would score all kinds of amazing junk(i.e. working bikes) that would make an orphanage kid super stoked. So, we filled 8×8x40′ containers with “American excess and trash.” Everything we brought down worked fine, but had no value in the rich throw away society of America.

I remember hearing an amazing story of a clinic that saved the life of a little girl whose lung had collapsed. We gave them a bunch of medical equipment/supplies that were going to be trashed by an American Med Supply company. In the boxes was the apparatus that saved the girl’s life! Just that one story alone makes everything we’ve done so far worth it. But, of course there are many other stories.

For example, we brought wheelchairs one year, and an eight year old paralyzed girl got her first wheelchair. You should have seen here smile! It was amazing.

As the project morphed and changed over the years, we started bringing down more computers and teamed up with two awesome organizations. In the states, NextStep Recycling started rebuilding old computers for us.

Technology CAN destroy culture. It CAN ALSO PRESERVE CULTURE as well. It depends on whose hands it is in.Projects like ours help break that cycle. If a student knows how to use computers, they will have access to higher education. Doors will change, power paradigms will shift. I now hear indigenous students saying they want to be doctors, lawyers, even the president when I visit schools with labs. This is the start of something that could go far. There is a cool article about the project written by a reporter who went to Guatemala to track and report on the project.

Thank you, Matthew. Partners in Solidarity just shipped an 8 x8 40′ container with 325 computer systems. They will augment existing labs, start new labs, and support various NGOs in the dept. of Quetzaltenango. They have volunteer techies working with Guatemalan counterpoints on prepping machines, teaching basic repair/maintenance classes, and organizing a spare parts warehouse that will support the over 1000 computers in the labs.

If you are interested in getting involved, there are many options. For one, donating funds, computers, printers, etc. to Partners in Solidarity is easy. Check out their website to learn how to donate. Or you could volunteer. Visit NextStep Recycling’s project partners to see how you can help. Want to learn Spanish? One of NextStep’s project partners INEPAS pays its bills by operating an awesome language school in Xela. Visit INEPAS to learn about taking Spanish classes in Guatemala.

Outside of Partners in Solidarity, Matthew is an elementary teacher based out of Eugene, and currently preparing to spend the next year teaching at an international school in Venezuela. Feel free to contact him by email.