Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple months, you’re probably familiar with the “Occupy” movement. Until recently, I only had a general idea of what it was: 1% of our population makes significantly more money than the other 99%. This, however, didn’t seem like “breaking news” to me, so I decided to do a little reading on the movement to more fully understand it. Pretty wild stuff. For those of you who are a little fuzzy, I’ll highlight a few points:

• The protesters seek (in part) more/better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics.
• The top 1 percent of income earners have more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a recentCongressional Budget Office (CBO) report.
• In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.
  

  Source: Congressional Budget Office, Average Federal Taxes by Income Group, “Average After-Tax Household Income,” June, 2010.

That said– I’d like to introduce you to Rusted Yucca Furniture. Travis Toms and Sam Rolph of Golden, CO are educated individuals. They have degrees in Urban Planning and Business Administration. For nearly a year now the two have been looking for jobs in their field that would pay the bills, and they have yet to find suitable employment. SO- have they thrown up their hands, moved into their parents’ basements, and nurtured their beer guts to the point of being mistaken for a pregnant Rosie O’donnell? NO!

Instead, they got creative. They started collecting wood that no longer served anyone a purpose (old fences, broken shipping palettes, etc.) and began RE-purposing it into fine furniture.

The fact that Trav and Sam truly love the work they’re doing is evident in each final product. No two pieces are alike, but they all are re-purposed from unwanted pieces of timber, and exhibit exquisite craftsmanship & a signature rustic Colorado style. These characteristics speak for themselves and, as such, the business is taking off. Their extremely reasonable prices even sweeten the deal.

If you want to support these local artisans and businessman, you can visit their website at http://rustedyucca.wordpress.com/
You can also meet them and purchase furniture in person at the farmer’s market off 2nd and Santa Fe every Saturday.

Garth Henrichs, a famous author, was quoted as saying: “The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves.”

The point is: The job market is tough. Money is tight. What can you do to be creative, make money, and contribute positively? Occupy your time.

- Ches Sheridan Arms

First, bringing some up to speed, about a month ago I wrote a post on the changing landscape of business due to such business sustainability initiatives of the Triple Bottom Line (3BL). This is an ongoing subject that I love to rant about, shine light and attempt to create innovative ideas on the reg, or as some prefer, on the regular.

To provide some context on the paragraph below, this was taken from a paper written by business heavy hitters Yvon Chouinard (CEO, Patagonia), Jib Ellison (Founder & CEO, BluSkye) and Rick Ridgeway (VP, Environmental Initiatives). The  paper is aptly titled “The Big Idea: The Sustainable Economy”. Fantastic read. I got the inside track from good friend and colleague, Patrick Cowen who is an advertising badass and currently earning his MBA from University of Denver.

Real change will come as high-level calculations filter down to individual companies’ bookkeeping. Puma, a sports footwear and apparel brand that is a subsidiary of the French PPR Group (which also includes Gucci, Stella McCartney, and Yves Saint Laurent) announced in April 2011 that it would begin issuing an environmental profit & loss statement that will account for the full economic impact of the brand on its ecosystem. It commissioned PriceWaterhouseCoopers to help develop the EP&L statement, and both companies hope to create a model robust enough to be adopted by others. “This is nothing to do with corporate social responsibility and the green agenda,” Chris Knight, of PwC’s sustainability practice, told The Financial Times. “It is hard-nosed economics.”

For me, this paragraph should be a big eye opener for all business stake holders. Are you one who considers this business sustainability movement a mere pop culture trend? Good luck with that.

I think it is a sign of the very near future to see a growing economy like China surpass the U.S. in total clean energy investments and technology advancements. U.S. based think tank Third Way  says China has surpassed the United States as the top nation in total clean energy investments, attractiveness for renewable energy investment and overall patents filed since 2010.

“Our country is sitting on the sidelines as the equivalent of 16 percent of our GDP is up for grabs,” says Joshua Freed, Third Way Vice President for the Clean Energy Program.

Freed and his co-authors say China is adopting policies to slowly gain ground against the US in the areas of finance and innovation, particularly in clean energy. The report shows China has the highest public market financing in the clean energy sector, while the United States ranked third in total clean energy investment in 2010, behind China and Germany. In 2008, the United States ranked first.

Hopefully this creates the awareness and motivation for the US and other countries to step up their game.
China is the fastest growing economy in the world, and I personally find it encouraging to see that a big reason for this is the innovation and big picture thinking towards finding solutions to sustainable living on this planet.
Why do you think?

For more information and reading:
http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/

Collectively as business stake holders, strategists, economists, entrepreneurs, and as folks who enjoy buying things to enhance their life, I believe we are doing ourselves injustice by calling ourselves consumers. Sure, we consume things. I consume a lot of libations whilst pairing with delicious food. We consume gasoline and electricity like pandas on bamboo. Problem is, being described as a consumer does not necessarily enhance our lives. I certainly to not feel like I am on top of my game of life being labeled a consumer. To me, it sounds so effing pessimistic. Not only are we/you just another number, we/you are also a disgusting person who digests any product in there path with no consideration for value and leaves a path of destruction in the wake. In addition, if you are a business owner, do you really want to call out your valued clients as consumers?

Some will argue that much of the modern world are made up of those “consumers” who pillage through products, resources and otherwise. Ignorant. That is what I will call them. These are typically the same people who tell me technology is ruining our family bonding and social engagement. Bullshit. We are all humans on this earth striving for an improved life; whatever that may mean individually. I like to think that we are all on the same level intellectually, we are just separated by passion or drive to make things happen or get things done.

This may just come off as a semantic rant to some, but if we are to change what many of us view to be problems in our current economic and environmental condition, I strongly believe that it starts with perception. How we perceive our lives and our actions in this world is as important as an actual action in my opinion. This is why I think we need to reconsider our labels of the general purchasing public, i.e. ourselves.

I have written several times that I hate the word consumer. Last week, a friend of mine and a person I respect highly in regards of branding and design wrote me a message that he has been using the term “participants” to replace “consumers” and, in his words, it had been resonating very well with him. Without getting his opinion, I think my man Brian Oliva understands that as communication artists we have a responsibility of progressing the business world, or at the very least the communications industry, towards a better future. If we don’t progress and educate our peers down to our clients/potential clients then we essentially have no value, incapable of pushing new boundaries of our passions and businesses. Sounds pretty whack to me.

As a part of my daily/weekly/annual self-actualization, I try to find small to big methods in improving my surroundings. This week substituting my use of “participants” into all communications where you would typically find “consumers” will suffice as a decently sized check mark for improving professionally.

What does it really mean to give back? If you asked ten people they might all give you different answers: To help your local schools and the children of the future, donating to non-profits, recycling, to be politically active, tithing and church offerings, planting trees, and so on. These are all valuable ways to make a difference in peoples lives and help protect this planet. For me, this concept is about contributing to our planet more then we take. This is a very difficult task to undertake if you choose to live and work in a thriving metropolis like Denver. However it is still our responsibility as humans to really take care of our planet that is clearly starting to suffer from our perpetual consumption of its resources. Even if Companies and individuals who can find a way to have a Zero Carbon Footprint will help tremendously.

Today I would like to feature a company who has internalized the concept of giving back into the ethos of their entire brand. Acciona is a leader in building and supporting sustainable life on this planet and focuses it energy on Infrastructure, Clean Energy, and Water (Global Leader in Reverse Osmosis). Acciona ranks number one on the Dow Jones “Sustainability Index”, and employees over 30,000 people in 32 countries to help build a better tomorrow.

Please take a minute to check out their website and learn about a few of the global efforts being made for a sustainable future on this planet.

As my hipster friends will inform you, I am far from a proper hipster. While I have my own category of sweet tea available on the shelf, it certainly is not definable. As my friends and past lady friends will tell you, I have the best snowflake tattoo ever on my back. Super impressive. 4″x4″, located on the left shoulder. So sick. Holler ladies. This has allows me to have my own category, and thus, I can continue to write on the subject of the hipster as an unbiased outsider.

I found a nice opinion piece written by William Deresiewicz in the The New York Times this past week. My man William is well beyond my league in terms of education and intellectual man-processing. If we got into a heated Mixed Martial Arts exchange, he could most likely take a single word, spell it out loud, and that act alone would succinctly bludgeon my face.

The title of the piece “Generation Sell” is William’s explanation that the millennial generation is an entrepreneurial one. Over all, I could not agree more with the name of the op-ed article or the over all theme. My generation of millennials is a radical group fused of go-getters and creative business folk. To me, the millennials understand the business cycle better than any other generation. We/they/us understand how to market product, make it sexy, build substance behind the product, produce a quality product and tie it all together with a solid business strategy.

I think William missed a comes across very harsh on the millennials or as he puts it, “Generation Sell” later in the piece. Take these following quotes:

“The self today is an entrepreneurial self, a self that’s packaged to be sold.”

“The millennial affect is the affect of the salesman. Consider the other side of the equation, the Millennials’ characteristic social form. Here’s what I see around me, in the city and the culture: food carts, 20-somethings selling wallets made from recycled plastic bags, boutique pickle companies, techie start-ups, Kickstarter, urban-farming supply stores and bottled water that wants to save the planet.”

Perhaps I am misunderstanding Mr. Deresiewicz, but I feel that he is dramatically disconnected with the millennials, and specifically the hipster. When the fuck is being an entrepreneur an issue? Or selling a bad quality? Or especially wanting to save the planet an societal problem? I hop on ye ‘ol Facebook and Twitter universe everyday and I am constantly reminded what is right with the hipster. What I see are tweets and status updates of how the millennials are taking shit into their own hands. And this starts with business. From my perspective, my friends and colleagues are merging economics with fun with community. And, along with these daily status updates of awesome from my peers comes the personal pressure to step my game up to compete with them. You see, I want to be the better than the best. I think some of my friends feel the same way.

I was eating lunch yesterday with a colleague/friend and we were discussing ethics in business and how as of late, many top companies within their respective verticals were creating sustainable practices or more planet aware programs as a part of their business strategy. Why are companies feeling the pressure to implement such programs? Because the hipster entrepreneur is forcing them to do so with competitive products and business models. Companies like Nike and Pepsi are trying to find new ways to be sustainable because their hipster customers (not consumers, not a good word) are more educated about the social substance of products.

To be clear, I do not think William is a hipster hater or completely disagrees what the millennials bring to the table. However, I do not think Mr. Deresiewicz is truly considering where we are at as a society and as a planet. Recently, we have seen volatile economic conditions that have cost me many personal setbacks in starting my own ventures. I have personally failed only to rub dirt in the wound, pick myself up and attack life with the fury of a hungry mother-scratching hippo. And I probably have too many hipster peers and friends who have similar stories. If this is staying “too positive” or “too affable” than we are headed for better things as a country in my opinion. See you at the top ballers. Time for a shot of tequila.

-Tyler Browning

Let’s face it: we are consumers. Whether we consciously attempt to reduce our consumption or not, if it wasn’t for Black Friday and arbitrary shopping sprees our economy would atrophie. It is what it is, whether we like it or not.
Last week I shared the concept of “dining mindfully” with you. On Monday, Rustin asked the question: “Can a Product Really be Sustainable?” Whilst considering these topics my mind drifted to wood… and NO, not the wood that normally “pops up” when sitting alone in front of one’s computer- the more sustainable kind. Ya know: the kind that remains useful for more than 5 or so minutes…

Before we make a purchase, many of us don’t consider what it took to create our shiny new object– Nor what happens to the materials in an item once we are through with it. However, to remedy this lack of concern, all we have to do is purchase from the brands that have already thought of this for us! Piece o’ cake!

Wood is one of [if not] the single most sustainable resource(s) on our beautiful planet. Trees are naturally renewable. With responsible manufacturing waste is virtually eliminated by creating products out of wood. There is far less energy and fossil fuels that go into their production. The durability of a finished wood product contributes to it’s longevity, not to mention the fact that wood stores carbon– thereby reducing the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. And finally, at the end of their initial life-cycle wood products are very easily recycled for other uses!

Now that you’re psyched on cedar and revved-up on rosewood, get out there and earn some style points!

• WeWOOD fashions the dopest wooden timepieces from mostly scrap-wood and uses state-of-the-art Miyota movements forthe guts, resulting in a unique watch that’s handsome, earth-friendly, and splash-proof.
• Shwood is a self-proclaimed experiment with nature. They make handcrafted wood eyewear created with the finest exotic woods.
• Omerica Organic designs and crafts wooden plugs and jewelry, to your specifications, from a single block of wood. Even better: they’re a young bunch of pierced and tattooed artists based in a workshop right here in Denver!

“Wood is Good.”

As a clothing company owner I almost always felt obligated to update my wardrobe every season, when our new line would be released. But as someone who has always been a minimalist and had an issue with over-consummation this has been a very difficult internal battle.
Why get into fashion then you may ask? … good question, seems silly but I guess I really enjoy how dynamic and functional the creative process can be. I love the business side of it, and I love the challenge of creating products that can somehow give back or have a closed-loop life cycle.

The book Cradle to Cradle does a great job of explaining what a truly sustainable product should be, which in theory could replenish the earth through its lifecycle or could be perpetually recycled, and  yield benefits that enhance all life. Unfortunately most of our products are still on a one-way trip to a land fill.
Being ethical and working towards creating sustainable products  is not easy and can often be very expensive at first. However new solution’s are being developed and worked on every day. Take for example this fun and wonderful example of recycling old denim into installation, which is becoming more and more common. Even Gap created a whole campaign to recycle your old denim and receive discounts on new denim.

However, is this really sustainable? Where does the denim go after it is installation for houses?
Are there products that we make that can actually live inside a closed-loop? Cradle-to-cradle design, offers a framework in which the effective, regenerative cycles of nature provide models for wholly positive human design. Over the past decade, the cradle-to-cradle framework has evolved steadily from theory to practice. In the world of industry it is creating a new conception of materials and material flows. In a cradle-to-cradle economy, cities are the principal home and source of technical nutrition—the place where metals are forged, polymers synthesized, and tractors, computers, and windmills designed and manufactured.
It is exciting to see this change happening, but we have to continue to push ourselves to be creative and learn new ways to give back more then we take.
Some examples of companies creating products that do just that:
Climatex
Zeftron

Thank you for your time,

Rustin Coburn

Mmmm… California Eggs Benedict: Warm Hollandaise, tender ham, fresh avocado, and ripe tomato– all served on a buttery croissant.

If I was getting “The Chair” tomorrow I know what would be gettin’ cooked for a second time my belly.

When it comes to dining out Denver has a plethora of palatable choices. But, what is it that motivates our decisions as to where we stuff our stomachs? Is it speed and convenience? The likelihood of running into friends? Perhaps a severe allergy to shellfish…

While these are legitimate reasons to pick (or avoid) a spot for your next meal, do any of us consider if the restaurant is concerned with social responsibility? Is the beef in that burger grain-fed, family farmed, certified organic? Probably not.

But don’t fret! There are many delicious options out there.
Snooze, An AM Eatery has switched all of their whole eggs to cage-free and are sourcing pork from a producer that does not confine breeding pigs in gestation crates.
If you’ve eaten at Chipotle you’ve probably seen their commitment to “Food With Integrity” printed on cups, bags, etc. I wont go into detail as to all of the initiatives Chipotle is taking, but click the link (in the last sentence) or Google them. Truly awesome.

These are two great choices in the battle for dining mindfully. If you’re curious to see which of your favorite joints are on-board with this, check out the website for Eat Greener Denver. They’re an association of locally-owned, independent restaurants that are stewards for sustainable action in the restaurant industry.

We would hope that with the progressive atmosphere of business today all of our favorite eateries would have some concern for people and planet (The Triple Bottom Line). The fact of the matter is, it is up to us as falafel fans and croque mossier connoisseurs to be mindful of where we grub. By frequenting businesses that are socially and environmentally conscious we are doing our part.

- Ches Sheridan Arms

Merel Karhof is a London based company that has developed ingenious ways to use the world around us to create very close to zero-impact products.
Take for example their “Wind Knitting Factory”. This clever invention uses small windmills connected to a knitting machine to make custom scarves. Each scarf has its own label which tells you in how much time it has been knitted and on which date. The video below displays the beautiful, simple and intelligent creation.

***
Windmills were used in Persia (present-day Iran) as early as 200 B.C, and yet we still do not see them used in every day life… especially in urban areas.
I think the “Wind Knitting Factory” is a perfect example of taking ancient knowledge and showing new ways to apply it in a very self-sustaining, low-impact business.

- Rustin Coburn