Seven Planet

Simply put, this is one of the coolest companies in America.  We kid you not.  The moment you learn the LooptWorks story we think you will agree.  The company was founded by Scott Hamlin, Gary Peck and Jim Stutts, with the simple notion of taking excess textile waste (new fabrics that are factory remnants), that was headed for landfills or incineration, and to make brand new clothing and accessories from it.

The numbers are staggering and the new form of “upcylcing”, known as “precycling”, is truly amazing.  For example In 2006, Americans generated more than 11.8 million tons of textile waste, which represents 10 pounds for every person.  Every week, one factory can dispose of about 60,000 pounds of textile waste that goes into landfills.  Again, this is all new fabric and textiles that is perfectly good, but just was not utilized completely in a particular product.

Now a good portion of this same excess of brand new and beautiful fabrics is being designed into limited edition runs of shirts, sweaters, jackets, laptop sleeves, cell phone carries, etc.  Since they are limited edition each item of LooptWorks clothing is designed with remnants in mind and is hand numbered on a loop on the hem of the garment.  All of the products are made from 100% upcycled materials from the fabrics used, to the buttons sewn on, to the string to sew the buttons on, to the hang tags to describe the product.  It is totally amazing and is totally precycled.

Recently the company was the focus of one of our new mindful media videos.  Summer and DJ, who know the company well and who often sport their amazing gear, walk us through the LooptWorks story and the current product line for you to see.  To review the mindful media video simply click here.

Wild Alice Bars are plainly the single snack I eat the most of in the world.  I have probably 2 to 3 of them a week and think that they are awesome.  I eat them so regularly because they are super nutritious, quick to eat, conveniently located in our store and local.  The last two reasons I eat so many of them may not apply to you, but the first two reasons likely do.

What is amazing to me is that nearly every day there is a moment either between breakfast and lunch or between lunch and dinner where a quick, simple, readymade snack that is highly nutritious is needed by the body.  When you are not at home this notion of a quick nutritious snack can be difficult to find or get.  In turn, we often end up just getting whatever is near us that isn’t “too bad for us” or we don’t eat anything at all.  Neither of those choices are ideal.

So now Wild Alice Bars are here and can be a part of your natural habitat.  They are gluten free, vegan, produced in a certified gluten free kitchen, local, delicious and available in two forms including the Wild Alice Bars and Wild Alice Edges.  They are available in two flavors including Cranberry Walnut and Apricot Cashew, both of which are great.  You can order them by the box via our site or stores or individually in our stores.  Either way, you will wish you had a box of them in your cupboard and at your desk.  This is the energy bar of the eco-movement.

Recently, Alice, the creator of Wild Alice Bars, stopped by seven planet to speak with Summer and DJ about her unique products.  She provided some amazing samples to Summer and DJ and in turn we can all learn some of the simple ways to prepare healthy eco snacks using her bars and edges.  To see the mindful supplier interview simply click here.

Happy Valentine’s Day From seven planet & botanica: floral design

It is here again, the one holiday a year where we celebrate love, relationships, romance and where we inherently buy one of nature’s greatest gifts…flowers.  It has become a staple in the U.S. to make certain that every February 14th you get a bouquet, an arrangement or at a minimum a single long stem rose for your love.  Many of us wait till the last minute and many of us just go to the closest one stop store where we can get a card, some candies and that arrangement.

Until lately, we at seven planet didn’t think much of this Valentine’s Day purchasing tradition until Josef Reiter, the founder of botanica: floral design (located in seven planet Oregon), told us the “tale of two roses”.  See Josef describes how you can show someone two very similar looking roses, but one is freshly cut, from Oregon, grown organically and not shipped at all.  The other was cut a week to ten days ago, is from Brazil, grown with pesticides and herbicides and was shipped via truck, then via boat, then via a truck again.

Both roses cost a similar amount to us in the end as the consumer, but the local one creates jobs in the U.S., builds the foundation of organic farmers nationally, minimizes CO2 output and builds on localism and community.  The other exports jobs from America, puts workers often in very poorly health regulated work environments, adds immensely to green house gases and does little to nothing for local communities.  For us now, the “tale of two roses” hits home.

So, this Valentine’s Day we are expressing our love for our spouses and loved ones as usual, but also for our farmers, our community, our state and our planet at large by supporting our local botanica: floral design and their mission to rewrite the story of the “tale of two roses”.

As you know we love our seven planet mindful suppliers and the amazing product lines and services that they have brought to market for you and I to make mindful commerce more viable in our lives. This past fall seven planet began on an ongoing educational project called mindful media where we are utilizing, reviewing and educating on the best products and services we provide in our stores and on our site to you.

These mindful media videos are then provided to you and to our suppliers as they are a candid 3rd party review of how their products or services are a better, more eco-friendly solution for the necessity-based products and services we all purchase and use. In these videos you will learn about their company, their brand message, their product or service purpose and of course the unique applications of those products or services.

This most recent mindful media video is on one of our favorite suppliers, the wonderful CleanWell, out of San Francisco, California. Sam DeAth and Dr. Larry Weiss, co-founders of the company, designed their product suite to help provide more eco-friendly and human friendly ways by which to clean. Sam’s son Conor, was born with an auto-immune disorder and so their need was real in regards to creating better cleaning solutions that would not negatively affect Conor’s health. A father’s mission has now led to an amazing product line for us all. To see the mindful media review click here.

In a time when electricity use for lighting within commercial buildings and residential homes are two of the leading users of our both traditional and phantom energy consumption, there is a new ray of hope.  They are called namuh Design and they are an eco-focused and innovative company out of Portland, Oregon co-founded by four guys looking to change the world of commercial and residential lighting forever.

We met namuh Design just over a year ago as they were in seven planet Oregon and Eli, one of our team member, Eli, asked them what they did and they stated that they did custom lighting design, product development and installations.  Eli stated that the new store needed lighting fixtures, but that we did not want to take any existing lighting out nor did we want to add any new lighting, but wanted a better solution for our patrons shopping in the store.  The solution they provided was genius as they hung old reclaimed window frames, with eco-prints of clouds and tree branches in the window panes, from our existing ballast.  We get comments on how amazing they are all the time.

The namuh Design team recently stopped by and went through our mindful supplier overview interview where we asked them our standard seven questions for founders of our supplier companies.  The seven questions answered by Erik Newgard, who co-develops all namuh products, just provided further support that namuh Design and the four founders are working to do their part in the movement.  We more than appreciate our partnership with our mindful supplier namuh Design at seven planet.  To see the mindful media supplier overview simply click here.

We can’t be serious, right?  Eco-resolutions…like we need another thing to fail on throughout the course of the next year.  We’ll just hear us out.  We know that every year starting just after Christmas you begin to get the question of, “do you have any resolutions?”.  According to a recent survey, 48% of people state that they are likely to make some New Year’s resolutions.  Of the unlimited number of resolutions one could make, to “lose weight” was the leading vote getter among people who said they’d probably make a resolution.  This outpaced “stop smoking”, “get a better job” and even “be a better person”.

So, as a society we are more likely to set a resolution to “lose weight” than to “be a better person”.  That is pretty telling about how much we want to, and need to, as a society get in better shape.  Our planet has that same need though as mother earth is getting more and more out of shape, because of us.  Unfortunately, for most of us we don’t follow through consistently throughout the year and it turn don’t get the results that we had resolved to get for ourselves or for the planet.  So, why do we set the resolutions in the first place?

It is simple, we want a starting point.  This is just step one though.  We have to then set a specific quantifiable eco goal (like not using any paper cups anymore).  We then have to have a habit set in over 5 weeks.  Then we have to have behavioral change.  We then have to have a lifestyle of only using glass and ceramic cups going forward.  This is the sort of step-by-step progression that we collectively need to make to be successful.

This is because goal setting on its own is just not very viable.  The experts state that statistically “only 3 to 5 percent of people whom set goals achieve them”.  These odds are not too empowering.  That is because setting the goal, or the New Year’s eco-resolution, is just the starting point.  Each of the next steps are even more critical than the previous one.  Let’s go through these steps again:

1. Set a goal, an eco-resolution, a starting point.  It can be anything that is better for the planet.
2. Set a specific and quantifiable eco goal for yourself.
3. Stay with this goal for 5 weeks in total to set the habit.
4. Stand strong with your new behavior of putting your eco goal as a new way of living.
5. Make this single eco move a part of your lifestyle, your social activities, your personality, your daily life.  You will never regret this.

In the end New Year’s eco-resolutions are as good as your plan to resolve them.  As stated 95% to 97% of people will not achieve their goals set and in turn these are numbers not worth investing much into.  Invest in the 5 steps listed above and someday you will turn back and state, “I set a resolution ‘to not use paper cups anymore’ and I did it”, because I worked at it.  It is not easy, but it is getting easier with the support of your eco-minded employer, family and friends.

With all of the hustle and bustle of Hanukah, Christmas and the Holiday Season upon us we are all working to make sure to not leave any one in the family without a gift or two to show them how much we care.  The interesting thing is that sometimes there is one member of the family that may be overlooked at this time…and those family members are our dogs and cats.

If you think about it our pets bring us, in most cases, a unique unconditional love and a level of loyalty not often experienced in this world.  They are a staple of support and comfort in various seasons of our lives and this season we can all thank them by taking their health and their food to the organic and natural level.

We recently ran a mindful media product set review of one of our leading mindful supplier’s product lines for cats and dogs.  Castor & Pollux, a local Clackamas Oregon-based company co-founded in 2000 by Shelley Gunton & Brian Connolly, is a passionate, independent, family company that offers a range of natural and organic food, treats and supplies for informed, conscientious pet parents.

The company celebrates the love of pets in the family, and is committed to feeding pets in need.  Through its Pet & Soul foundation, Castor & Pollux has donated more than $400,000 in food, financial aid and volunteer time to organizations including Guide Dogs for the Blind, Project Pooch, and AniMeals, and is a founding sponsor of freekibble.com.  To learn more about this amazing company, their high quality eco-conscious pet food products and their pet product lines, see their mindful media review by simply clicking here.

Every Christmas season Santa Claus only has one primary question.  Were you naughty or nice?  For one company the answer is inherently both.  See Naturally Knotty is one of those companies that is doing all they can for the environment and at the same time have one of the nicest product lines you have seen.  To put it simply, essentially every person that tries on one of their 100% bamboo pashminas wraps falls in love with them.  This is both due to their eco-packaging (which is actually a section bamboo stalk), it’s insanely soft fabric and how light the wrap is around the neck.

The Naturally Knotty team recently stopped by seven planet Oregon and went through our mindful supplier overview interview where we asked them seven questions (of course).  The seven questions asked of Summer Widmer, who heads up sales for Naturally Knotty, were as follows:

1) What is Naturally Knotty?
2) What was the genesis of the company?
3) What products and services do you provide?
4) What are the sustainable elements of your business?
5) How are you changing your industry?
6) What is your definition of mindful commerce?
7) What is your seven planet story?

The answers provided only further reinforced how Naturally Knotty is working to do their part in the movement towards bringing quality, upcycled and life-long-lasting products to the market.  We continue to appreciate our working relationship with the founder and principals of this great mindful supplier to seven planet.  To see the mindful media supplier overview simply click here.

No, it’s not a real battle and no they aren’t real super heroes, but Green Friday could become a super power in the future and we are working to make that the case.  See, Black Friday, or the 1st major holiday season shopping day of the year lands on the Friday just after Thanksgiving Day and is the day that many Americans begin making a large number of purchases for Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, etc.  It is when consumption and consumerism are at annual highs and mindful commerce can often go out the window.

This is due primarily to a few key factors including: 1) it is the holidays and many of us will make more non-food purchases in the next 5 weeks than most of the previous year combined, 2) stores and sites run promotions with amazing price breaks driving the purchase of more non-necessity-based products, 3) stocking stuffers, or holiday impulse buys, become a very standard part of the purchasing process and 4) seasonal, or currently “hot” products, become in high demand and drive the purchase of more quantity vs. quality products.

For most of us it becomes very difficult to make a mindful and eco-conscious buying decision for each and every product we pick up in November and December each year.  So, at seven planet we are working to make that process a little easier.  With our seven criteria product review process, with our direct working relationships with our mindful suppliers, and with our educational information in our stores and site we hope to make this Friday a Green Friday for you and yours.  The future is green if we collective choose to make it that color.

This holiday season seven planet and Portland Pedal Power are partnering to create a mindful way of shopping, promoting sustainable, recycled, and local goods.  Green Friday will take place at seven planet in the Pearl on Friday November 26th from 10am-6pm.

seven planet and Portland Pedal Power will be offering prizes and free giveaways all day for those who take part in the Green Friday Geocache.  Geocaching is a treasure hunting game using a GPS and social media to find prizes.
Portland Pedal Power will be at various locations throughout the downtown area with free prizes and giveaways.  Clues will be posted on Facebook and Twitter and whoever finds the PPP bikes will be awarded prizes.  Become a follower and fan of seven planet and Portland Pedal Power to take part in the fun.

seven planet will have sales set at 20% off all products in the store plus an additional 10% off with a donation of five non-perishable food items to support the Oregon Food Bank.  Food samples and hot apple cider will be provided by Nirvahnah Café.

More information and details will be posted on seven planet and Portland Pedal Power’s Facebook pages.  Join us in promoting an environmentally friendly way of consuming and enjoy some great discounts and free prizes throughout the day!