Graphically Green, The Story of an Upcoming Green Designer

Ever wonder what it’s like to work for an environmentally conscious company, as a designer? Well aside from the fact that getting coffee from Styrofoam cups is practically a sin, it’s a pretty nice gig.

 I feel that as today’s society is starting to realize the ugly truths of landfills and pollution, more and more people every day are trying to find ways of becoming green. However, not everyone is interested in reading (or understanding) the volumes of scientific research and protocol, in regards to how greenhouse gases have impacted our ozone layer in the past 30 years. In this regard, I see this dilemma as an excellent opportunity for artists and designers to use their skills. 

A series of colorful and appealing visuals can go a very long way to spread the ideas of environmental sustainability, especially in today’s day and age, where .jpeg’s and .gif’s dominate about 90% of the content on our social media platforms. Anyone who can help visualize the ideas of correlating to “green” solutions and “protecting our environment” will be very helpful in increasing the awareness of the importance of waste diversion.

And it also looks pretty darn good on your portfolio.

Hey all you environmentally conscious people out there. Check it.

We have a new segment called the Green Meme of the Week.

Obama sees you, and your Non recyclable foam cup.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival: More diversion!

Wow! Congrats to all those who helped with recycling and composting efforts at this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival. They managed to divert 20 tons of compost material from the festival!! This is in addition to the already epic 10.8 tons of waste they had already diverted!! Awesome!

Largest urban orchard in North America opens in Vancouver

Vancouver recently unveiled its newest and largest urban orchard with a staggering 500 trees, courtesy of social enterprise SOLEfood. SOLEfood's orchard fulfills many of Vancouver's green goals by providing it with an "increased amount of local food" and a stronger "green economy." The orchard is a big step toward decreasing the distance that food travels from the field to the plate. To learn more, check out this article.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Congratulations on 10.8 tons!

Congratulations to Eric Hollinger and to all the awesome people helping out with composting and recycling efforts at this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival in DC. They managed to divert a whopping 10.8 tons of waste! The festival sees more than a million attendees and this is a very big deal! In addition, the festival this year is utilizing cups and cutlery made from corn! Numerous food stations are also utilizing environmentally friendly and compostable clamp food containers! Great work guys!

President Barack Obama unveils new plan to combat climate change!

Holy cow! President Obama has just announced "a series of executive actions to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address global climate change." It's so great to see President Obama joining the forefront in the fight for greening up not only our home in the United States, but also the world! Check out the actual announcement, environmental-related statistics on the impact of carbon pollution, and more goodies at the White House's website here.

Special Events Waste Diversion Act of 2013

On Tuesday, June 18th, 2013, Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced the Special Events Waste Diversion Act of 2013 during a COW meeting to help promote a greener and more sustainable Washington D.C. The act specifically targets events such as parades, marches, and rallies which attract thousands of people and generates a significant amount of waste. Surprisingly, there is currently no requirement for large event organizers to recycle. In addition, few events even offer the opportunity to recycle to their attendees! This waste diversion act, however, seeks to fill that gap. Under the act, applicants of large special event permits must include a waste diversion plan along with their application. Applicants must also pledge to divert at least 35% of the waste generated by their events through recycling, composting, or other comparable methods. Lastly, and perhaps of most significance, the act requires organizers of large events to offer their attendees the opportunity to recycle. This is great great news for the district! Here's to a greener DC!!

You can find the video of the hearing in which the act was discussed here (at the 18:00 mark): http://dccouncil.us/events/committee-of-the-whole-regular-meeting3

DC Event Recycling Bill: Fingers crossed!

Great news for the Washington DC! Councilmember Mary Cheh has introduced a bill that will make recycling at events mandatory during an upcoming legislative hearing! Fingers crossed for its passing to promote a greener and healthier home for all those who inhabit it! 

Tales of a Diversion Virgin: Our First Event

May 26, 2013, a sunny day I will never forget. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the Punjabi Mala 2013 event held in Bull Run Regional Park. About 12000 people congregated to celebrate Punjabi culture. It was our first event since the establishment of our company and we were all excited about it. As a member of Waste Diversion, I came there not only to enjoy the celebration, but also to spread the information on how we can protect our environment and let more people know about how to make our earth “green”.

 From noon to the evening, we continually mantained 15 trash bins to make sure the trash had been placed in the RIGHT bins: a recyclable bin, where recyclable materials like plastic and paper were collected. When children approached, I told them how to identify a recyclable bin and what kinds of trash should be put in it. I hoped my patience and efforts could help make the event “green”. One thing happened on that day gave me a deep impression: as our staff worked hard keeping picking up the trash on the ground, many people from the event also volunteered to help. They stopped littering and start to use the trash bins. We found that in the later afternoon, there were much less people trashing on the ground than it was. I was so proud that our employees’ efforts really helped to strengthen people’s awareness of environmental protection. By the end of the day, we “harvested” 1500 gallons of recyclable plastic trash in total!!!! Though exhausted, we feel happy and proud about our achievement. What a meaningful day we had!!! 

   You may wonder why we do all this. As we all know, a large amount of energy and money can be saved by recycling materials, but there are few companies and people actually doing this. With the importance of environmental protection in mind, our team keeps helping coordinate and organize waste recycling and composting for outdoor events. We hope with our efforts we can make the most of all the recyclable waste and make our planet a better place to live.

Forgive the cynicism, but color us not all that surprised at the news that startup automaker Detroit Electric is postponing production of its SP:01 electric sports car by "at least a month." Launched in a flurry of media attention in early April, the plug-in electric SP:01 sports coupe is...

Not sure if you really want to live in a tiny house? This tiny home builder is making these cabins from salvaged materials, which visitors can test out at an eco-retreat in Maryland.