Green Lifestyle
Concepts: Mindful ________ (fill in blank)
Collaborating with Plywerk for 9/12/9 Grand Opening Art Show – working concepts below:
Mindful Blanks
Mindful Disposal
Mindful Upbringing
Mindful Neighberhoods
Mindful Snakes
Mindful Timeline
Mindful Treading
Mindful Witnesses
Walking Remnants Installation
We’ve been conceptualizing various art installs (with our interior architect) for our soon-to-be-open seven planet Oregon general store (opening 9/12/09). One thought in particular we’ve been keen on is creating certain pieces made from found objects (as pictured below). Everyday when I walk down my street in N Portland I come across all types of items like these and now working with seven planet I think to myself… what can be done with all of this stuff? Give it some thought and it can be pretty just like new.
Found objects on walk to store...
The New Neighborhood
Yesterday afternoon I hopped on the Max Train and headed downtown to meet with a few of my fellow seven planet company founders – this meeting surrounded overall marketing strategy – in particular, our meeting surrounded the grand opening of our flagship Portland General Store (opening late summer). That said, I showed up to this meeting a few minutes early and so I decided to walk around the new neighborhood and scout things out. The video below gives a quick look at the neighborhood surrounding our new store – there is a lot going on – boutiques, bikers, tall buildings, restaurants, China Town and much much more…
seven planet PDX STORE COMING SOON from Garett Stenson on Vimeo.
9 Million Pieces of Paper Saved
Over the weekend my little auto ol silver eyes was victim of a hit and run – luckily I have car insurance – but I don’t have health insurance – that thought alone is making me rethink priorities… let’s just say I am glad I was not hit. That said, maybe it’s time I start walking/biking more?
As I’m sure many of you know, dealing with insurance companies is not fun. On that note: I was on the phone with my credit union, or rather I was on hold, waiting to discuss my loan payoff and insurance settlment. I was listening to their pseudo elevator music and random advertisements as I waited on the line. I usually tune out when put on hold, but this time I heard something that caught my ear. The pre-recorded voice on the phone was spouting off facts and info – one in particular was interesting – by switching to electronic statements, rather than paper statements, my credit union is able to save 9 million pieces of paper a year. Wow! Now imagine if everyone, every bank, every hospital, and every brand switched to digital records rather than paper copies… that my friends, would be a lot of paper saved.
Moral of the story: cars no good, paper statements no good… biking and emailing is the way to go!
PONDERING PRELIMINARY PORTLAND PRODUCT PLAN
Over the past few months (and particularly this past weekend) I’ve been mapping out the product mix for our seven planet Portland store location opening up in the heart of Old Town – opening mid August. This store location, Portland’s General Store, will offer a wide variety of goods and services; all stamped with seven’s mindful commerce seal of approval. Our store will house both local and internationally produced products, and on that note, below is a quick image reel I put together that summarizes my thoughts from the weekend… some concepts surrounding our upcoming product assortment:
Portland can be a model for world to follow
Curtains, bulk fabric, carpet scraps, remnants
Turning denim into quilts and...
Yellow broom
Vintage table, chairs from 1970
seven planet House Project
Project Description
The seven planet House is a home recently built in Portland, Oregon that will make every possible necessity-based purchases through seven planet. That is right…all possible purchases for both products and services that they need as a household. We know that in today’s world there are amazing sustainable and eco-friendly products and services that are available for almost every facet of our lives. However, it is sometimes difficult to find them, to procure them or to find a service that provides them. Well, we decided to find them for one home and they in turn decided to make us their source for them all.
We are fortunate to have an amazing couple working with us here in Portland around the 1st ever seven planet House. This newly built home was handcrafted by the owners, along with some help, and was architected in a very sustainable manner. The home has multiple sources of reclaimed or reused elements in it and leverages massive amounts of windows for natural light and even has a roof top garden. It is the perfect environment from which to build a home where what they need is garnered through the world’s first chain of green general stores.
This house and this project are in place to fulfill a belief and that belief is that “mindful commerce” can have the single greatest positive impact on the planet if instituted by us as consumer. So, we will work to keep you posted on the progress of the seven planet House and how a single home is making the ultimate move towards making their lives seven.
Ecoroof planted with sedums
City of Portland & Multnomah County Proclaim ReUse Week June 12-18
My friend Kelley over at S.C.R.A.P. sent me the following message – thought I’d pass on in case you’re in the mood to ReUse something this week:
“SCRAP has the honor of joining other reuse organizations in celebrating our community efforts to incorporate principles of sustainability and environmental responsibility. The City of Portland and Multnomah County will proclaim the week of June 12-June 19th as ReUse week.
Because the Community Warehouse, SCRAP, FreeGeek, SchoolHouse Supplies, the ReBuilding Center and the ReStore share common values of re-use, sustainability, and building community, we are working together in an effort to education the community about how and where to take items for reuse. The reuse of materials not only conserves scarce resources, it is an invaluable tool in helping citizens improve their lives.”
Dryer Lint Firestarter
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...
