Seven Planet

June 11, 2009 EVENT DETAILS HERE

Watched a brief talk on TED this morning regarding the storing of seeds:

If you live in Portland I encourage you to visit the Portland Farmer’s Market
Or, plant your own Tomato Tomato

Go to Portland Farmers Market or plant my own?

Naturally Knotty is your source for the world’s finest cashmere, stylish handbags and apparel. By using recycled materials and gorgeous fabric remnants that would ordinarily be swept into landfills, they are doing their part to help the planet. Naturally Knotty is committed to environmentally-friendly manufacturing practices, integrating components of factory scrap, factory overstock or recycled materials whenever possible. They are very careful to insure our products are made in factories that treat their employees fairly because they believe in the end we are all in this together.

With our seven planet store in Idaho up and running, we are now making preparations to open/launch our Portland flagship store location. Below are images from a recent tour we took of the soon to be seven planet PORTLAND GENERAL STORE – specific address to be announced anon:

1 door or two?

Latter or Ladder?

Greenprints

What to do about lighting? What to do with old?

What do with X waste?

Considering Memorial Day is nigh, I thought I’d throw out a camping tip for today’s post: years ago I was reading a book titled The ABC’s of Backpacking – this book provided me loads of helpful tips all surrounding (and taking into account) Accessibility, Balance and Compaction – aka the ABC’s of backpacking. One tip in particular that I found a bit odd yet interesting, was their idea of taking old dryer lint, cramming it into an old used film canister… and then, when starting your fire out in the woods, you just open your little can up, pull a pinch of lint out, place it in your kindling, light a match, and boom, you have fire!

Below is a picture of my new firestarting kit:

Dryer lint, empty film canister, lint filled canister, fire...

Great discussion I heard on the topic of GREEN WASHING back on February 12, 2009 – let us be careful

Timely Portland writeup in The New York Times – READ Frugal Portland ARTICLE HERE

Source Frugal Portland - NYTimes.com

As serendipity would have it: Yesterday afternoon I was doodling with my red pen as I was working away on several seven planet product-development-related-projects; I was creating a diagram representative of our global supply chain. At around 4pm I put my pen down, scratched my head with wonder, loaded my duffle bag, and then headed out on foot to go catch the train on its way downtown. I was going to meet a friend, who runs a local shop in Old Town, and then I was on to First Thursday – which, if you haven’t been, is worth checking out.

seven planet supply chain

Now I’ll be honest; as I was conceptualizing the supply chain (pictured above) I was becoming a bit cynical – I was telling myself “the problem is too big… people don’t care… we are screwed… all our children think about is video games and myspace… etc – ha!” – I was doubtful and I was reflecting as I walked. Then, no sooner, did I come across a large sheet of butcher paper that had been wet by the rain and was on the ground. Some random kid had doodled some random “save our earth” poster (pictured below). I picked their drawing up, shook off the rain drops and smiled. I was comforted knowing we are on the right track – all is not lost!

Save our earth

Out of the mouths of babes something that you say when a small child says something that surprises you because it shows an adult’s wisdom and understanding of a situation

Last week I did a post re our first visit to the-work-in-progress seven planet HOUSE. This week I followed up with the owners of the house (I sent pictures via email) and asked them to clarify what type of woods they used in the construction of their beautiful new shelter – btw I certainly admire their passion for sustainability and their knowledge of building with reclaimed wood – it is apparent they take pride in their purpose – I also appreciate their willingness to let us use their casa as our first “experiment”

Below 1. images of their home and 2. owner’s explanation of materials used therein

Cedar tongue and groove siding from Building Materials Recycling, with pressure-treated posts

Miscellaneous hardwoods waiting for a project

Cedar rafters and beams milled by a local mini-mill, with tongue and groove siding from Building Materials Recycling

Redwood potting table

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The other day I was cruising on foot through N Portland and then headed down to Interstate Avenue where I boarded the train. On my walk I was noticing all the garbage lining the streets – I thought to myself – “What do we do with all this garbage?” Image below is what I came up with on the spot.

I found a scrap length of red string

I found a smashed metal wristwatch dial

I bought a paper train ticket

The result: a one of a kind necklace

Now that said, the necklace below may not suit you; but at least the concept of it points us in a new direction; the direction being using up all that is around us.

Earlier today I was thinking that everything we need to live on/in has already been made and is already around us; maybe rather than creating new things we should just find a way to use seemingly old things in new, creative ways? – a different kind of recycling if you will. What if we had the mind to turn garbage into treasure? What if we opened a Rebuilding Center or a seven planet in every major city? What if desired architecture aesthetics shifted to a new type of look (such as some of the images below)?

This off the cuff reckoning in my mind continued a bit as I went for a long walk through N Portland. My older brother is a physicist and I was recalling a conversation we’d just had about The Law of Conservation of Energy (energy cannot be created or destroyed…) – I was thinking about matter too – and how they both relate to the idea of sustainability. At the same time some random yet relevant media came to mind: the movies Waterworld and Mad Max. I was also thinking about tacos. I was thinking about real estate and public transportation. I was thinking about reverse suburbanization. I was thinking about prefab modular home construction and a few other things along way. Yes, I think too much!
Below is my walk to the Rebuilding Center – I encourage you to go and check it out. It is a great local resource:

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We live where we work, and the pristine beauty that surrounds us in the Rocky Mountains gives us reason everyday to do our part to protect our environment. We do all we can to reduce waste, making sure to cut as much raw product as possible out of every bolt of fabric, then reusing the scrap material where we can. We rescue and reuse old boxes to store our finished products, and employ recycled material in our packaging. Finally, even some of our products themselves are recyclable! We believe in our responsibility to the next generation, whether four-legged or two!

The other day one of my light bulbs burned out – ironically, I got to thinking – what should I do with this now dead bulb? Do I throw it away? Do I recycle it with the rest of my glass? Do I turn it into an art piece? Should I replace it with an energy efficient bulb? What to do about Light Bulbs?

What to do about Light Bulbs? from Garett Stenson on Vimeo.

seven planet initially launched as a brand on 07-07-07. In terms of where we are at these days: the seven planet website is now live and selling. Our first store has been up and running successfully under Gary’s mindful eye in Idaho and now, we are nearing the opening of our flagship Portland location – in terms of our store opening timeline we expect it be mid July – we will surely keep you posted.

In the meantime I wanted to share some of my early idea generation/continued brainstorming notes below (I tend to doodle a lot while taking the Max Train from N Portland into downtown). On that note, and please pardon my pun, I am excited to be working on the research and development behind seven planet’s product assortment; though I must admit I have been a bit contemplative about my brainstorming method being used to do so thus far… you see: I have to jot my ideas down on paper first before they come to fruition digitally online – my brain just works that way. But maybe I should begin using scrap paper instead? Maybe I should be using recycled paper? Maybe I should use both sides of the paper rather than just the front? Maybe I should work to change my old way of thinking and ways of doing things? Would these small changes even make a difference? I don’t know. Hmm… or maybe I should find something clever to do with these old notes? Maybe create a collage or shred them up and use as insulation or maybe I should… there are million options I suppose… what do you think?

Sustainable evolution?

7 industries being considered

The Gardener’s Guide to Composting a down-to-earth guidebook authored by Stu Campbell
What are your thoughts on composting?

Let It Rot!