Oregon Manufacturing Goes Green and Stays Local

EcNow Tech announces the start of local manufacturing of environmentally friendly compostable products in Corvallis, Oregon. Plant based polymers sourced in the U.S. are formed by EcNow Tech into useful products (food service and other) and provided to area restaurants and businesses. Local manufacturing is a key component to EcNow Tech’s vision for creating environmentally friendly closed loop systems for consumable products and improving local economies.
EcNow Tech believes local manufacturing is more conducive to sustainable and healthy communities. Trends in the United States have been to outsource US based manufacturing jobs to lower cost labor regions of the world. This has led to loss of vital skills, jobs and income needed to sustain healthy communities and economies.
A local Corvallis company, EcNow Tech has a vision for changing the outsourcing trend and improving their community’s carbon footprint. EcNow Tech believes local manufacturing makes good business sense and is better for the environment and the community.
When a product is manufactured, transported, consumed and composted locally it creates less waste and has a smaller carbon footprint. In sharp contrast, large distribution networks operate out of large hubs, use lots of energy and have significantly larger carbon footprints. Petroleum based plastic products have an inefficient life cycle as shown in the graphic below. The life cycle consists of sourcing crude oil, refining the oil, polymerizing the refined oil and creating pellets, manufacturing plastic products then disposing of them in the landfill where they sit for thousands of years. EcNow Tech’s goal is to break the cycle and create a locally sourced, closed loop, life cycle.

April 30, 2010

Lowering our dependence on petroleum based products makes good business sense and improves our community by reducing our carbon footprint and eliminating waste. Less than two years ago a barrel of crude oil approached $150 per barrel. As the world economy and standard of living continues to improve the price of oil will continue to rise. Oil is not a renewable resource and the basic principles of supply and demand will make petroleum based products very expensive in the future. Plant based products which are based on renewable resources are less likely to fluctuate over time.
When global warming and the environment are considered it is clearly better to manufacture, use a product and compost it locally versus expending energy and outputting carbon into the atmosphere when products are shipped long distances. Consumers and business owners have the power to make a sustainable choice and choose an alternative which supports their local community and reduces their carbon footprint.
EcNow Tech was started in 2008 and has a mission to eliminate our dependence on petroleum based products. The company’s goal is to steadily increase its ratio of locally manufactured products to those purchased overseas. To learn more about EcNow Tech visit our website at www.econwtech.com or stop by the Earth Smart Store located at 160 NW Jackson Ave, Corvalllis, Oregon.
Contact: chris.vitello@ecnowtech.com

Clear Tip of the Week

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from A Clear Place

Getting rid of stuff that no longer serves a purpose is only one part of having a clear place. Another, equally important part, is being mindful about your purchases. I love finding fun and useful items that are eco friendly and multi-purpose. And last weekend, I discovered a place that is clearly a wonderful resource for just those kinds of things!

The Earth Smart Store is dedicated to green home products, compostable foodservice items and sustainable building products. Located in Corvalis, OR, the storefront provides retail items to take home and serves as a showroom for green building needs and wholesale restaurant products. Paul Nash, VP Engineering, gave me an impromptu tour of the warehouse and explained the company’s mission and purpose. Paul and his partner and their wives run the business with an eye on the community. “We are very much about being in touch with the locals. We listen to their needs and design accordingly.” EcNow Tech is the design side of the business providing, for example, compostable clam shell “take out” boxes to all the area restaurants. “It’s not about being the biggest,” states Paul. “We believe that the future of business is in keeping a small footprint. Serving the community and knowing your customers first hand. Once the template is operational, then you can take it to any town and apply the same standard of service and quality to that local community.” If you are fortunate to live within drive time to Corvalis, stop in and check out the great energy and green products. If not, visit their website to view the vast array of items. They happily ship anywhere!

Show below are just a few of the cool things I found at the store. Thanks for sharing, Paul, and thanks to all of you at Earth Smart for your efforts in making our earth home a clearer place for everyone!

The Dish Dumpling
Don’t you just love that name? This is a 100% biodegradable scrubber for pots and pans. The inner sponge is wrapped with tough agave twine so it holds up forever. 3.4″ square. Retails for $3.99.
Another scouring pad, the Loofah Scrubby is the same size as the dumpling but this time the sponge is wrapped with loofah. It, too, is biodegradable and dye free.

The Mabu Multi Cloth is made from 100% wood fibre and is naturally bacteria resistant. It’s super soft and absorbent and machine washable. Paul says his customers love how it feels SO much they even use it to remove make-up.
The 12″ square cloth retails for $2.25.

You might remember reading a recent Clear Tip where I talked about the importance of knowing the source of your candles and essential oils. I noted that even soy candles only have to have 1% of soy in them to wear that label (which means 99% can still be parafin). Earth Smart carries the real deal called Naked Soy. Handmade here in Portland. A great gift idea, I got a large square pillar in a beautiful lime green glass holder made in Spain by Ecoglass. Retail price for both candle and holder is $12.00.

I spied these large sacks of clay in the warehouse - believe it or not their contents can transform your space with heavenly wall colors. Take a look at the options below - imagine having these lush textures and serene tones wrapped around you. Paul explained what a perfect choice clay is for the shower walls. The clay absorbs the moisture and then naturally dries out again. Brilliant!

The clay goes on with a trowel and the finish can be silky smooth or rough like stucco depending on the look you want to create for your room. Doesn’t this just call out to the artist in you?

Speaking of art, the folks at Earth Smart collaborate with a local craftsman who fashions everything from frames to furniture out of recycled barn wood. The products are amazing and VERY affordable. Unique, sturdy, beautiful and earth friendly … doesn’t get any better than that. And if you don’t see what you are looking for, you can order a custom made piece.

Last, but not least, I have to mention the beautiful green flooring options - like the cork shown on the right. I was standing on this and thought it was wood. The rich hues and depth of color make it a perfect choice for enhancing your home or business. How does it hold up? The store has had it in their heavy traffic area for over three years - and it still looks brand new.

Learn more about these and so many other green products and building options at
The Earth Smart Store - or you can email Paul directly with your questions at PaulNash@EcNowTech.com. Here’s to mindful choices and clear living!

Did you miss last week’s Clear Tip?

Click below to read about another wonderful office transformation!

The doctor will see you now … in a clear place.

EcNow Tech was honored to be a part of the sustainability town hall on March 10, 2010. All the food service products were donated by EcNow Tech and commposted ensuring that the event was a zero waste event. By coincidence I ran into a reporter as I placed my bicycle in a bike rack at the event. The transcript appears below and can be viewed at.
http://www.klcc.org/Feature.asp?FeatureID=1641

Town Hall Encourages Recycling, Composting
3/12/10
By Laura McCandlish

The Corvallis Sustainability Coalition gathered hundreds of residents Thursday for a town hall meeting. They were encouraged to travel by green means to the “zero waste” event.

Chris Vitello: “I rode my bike through the pouring rain, about 2.5 miles, and I was amazed when I pulled up, there was no place to park because there were so many bikes here.”

I met Chris Vitello of the coalition’s waste reduction team by the bike racks.

Though many biked and walked to the meeting, more drove. Few took the bus. Greeters collected transportation stats at the door.

Door greeter: “Hi, are you just arriving? We’d like to find out how you got here. Did you bicycle, walk?

Attendee 1: “Oh, I drove tonight.”

Greeter: “By yourself? Ok so one in a car… Ok, so you also used your car?”

Attendee2: “Uh-huh.”

Greeter: “Specifically for the purposes of getting here?”

Attendee2: “And I did 3 other errands at the same time. But I’m coming from Albany.”

Greeter: “Ok, so a car trip was involved?”

Attendee2: “yeah, just by myself. Worst. Sorry.”

Laura McCandlish: “How do the results look?”

Vernon Huffman: “Well, it’s kind of disturbing just how many people are getting here alone in their car.”

McCandlish: “Do you think the weather has anything to do with it?”

Huffman: “I’m sure it does. I think even more our addiction to motor vehicles. A lot of people really think they need a car.”

That’s Vernon Huffman, a bicycling advocate and one of the greeters.

Inside the forum, held in a ballroom at Oregon State University, I met up with Chris Vitello again. His team pushed for food scrap recycling. Corvallis was the first city in Oregon to offer the curbside service.

Vitello: “The sustainability coalition was instrumental. When the contracts were coming up, they made sure the city included that as part of the requirements. So it’s a huge improvement, converting all that waste that is now golden compost.”

Residents huddled around dozens of tables to discuss their sustainability goals. Vitello was a discussion leader. His green home business is one of the coalition’s over 160 member organizations.

Vitello: “We should include the word composting in here. So the goal is to recycle and compost up to at least 75 percent by 2020. It’s currently 50, so 75 percent might be a low bar.”

Last year, the coalition urged residents and businesses to sign up for free energy audits. They’re asking for input on a new challenge for this year. A car-free day, a campaign to support restaurants serving local foods or low-carbon dieting are options on the table.

All this through the work of volunteers. Corvallis Mayor Charlie Tomlinson commended their efforts in a closing address.

Tomlinson: “We can do it from the top down and develop public policy to try to encourage people to do things. But I have come to believe that the energy and enthusiasm that you have for this effort is much more important than the public policy we can put in place.”

February’s newsletter is now out download it now.

Topics

• Building Products
• Home Products
• American Clay Products
• Green Tips!

In an effort to continually shrink our carbon footprint our team has decided to deliver products within a certain radius of our store/warehouse via bicycle delivery.   This will reduce our carbon footprint, improve our health and hopefully encourage others to think of ways they too can reduce their carbon footprint.

Look for the bicycle with a trailer riding around Corvallis in the near future delivering environmentally friendly products to customers.

At home we ran out of plastic lunch bags a week and a half ago.  Instead of purchasing new bags I grabbed a box of soy wax lined paper wraps from The Earth Smart Store.  www.earthsmartstore.com   and decided to see for myself if it was possible to live without ziplock sandwich bags in my lunch. 

I can honestly say after ten days that it feels pretty darn good to be able to wrap virtually everything needed in my lunch with the soy based wrapping paper.  When I used brown bags, I would crumble everything up at the end of lunch and toss it in my compost bin.  On the days where I used a re-usable lunch tote it was just less compost waste.

The bottom line is that the following wrapped up just fine with no problems:

Sandwiches - the bread stayed very moist with no issues.  PB & J was which spilled out of the bread was well contained by the wax paper.

Cookies - The corners of the wrap were pulled up around the cookies and the ends were twisted around each other. Cookies stayed fresh and there was little or no damage.

Crackers - Same technique as above and no issues.

Grapes - Worked like a charm

If I wanted to have soup I could use a compostable PLA lined paper container and lid and small portion cups could be used for applesauce and other sauces. 

At the end of ten days I saved approximately 25-30 plastic ziplock bags which would have gone to the landfill and was able to compost all of my waste.  That’s approximately 780 bags per year for one person.  Imagine if a large group of us started doing this?  I’m sure Glad  wouldn’t be happy!

This weekend we had a very enthusiastic customer come into our store.  She was thrilled that we had compostable products for the public.   Her dilema was that her favorite restaurants in town still used evil Styrofoam.  We offered to give her sugarcane clamshells at a really good price if she wanted to take them to the restaurant and have them place her takeout in the green clamshells. 

She took us up on our offer and happily walked down the street to her favorite restaurant.  A while later, after eating a great dinner, she came running back to the store.  The restaurant liked the idea, but needed a different size clamshell.  We promptly gave her a smaller size and she hurried back to the restaurant. 

All in a days good work !  We were thinking we owed her a comission for bringing us a new customer. :)   

Thank you to all of our customers who share our passion for reducing waste and eliminating toxic materials like Styrofoam.

The Earth Smart Store is proud to carry Spray Nine Adirondack cleaners.  The cleaners have extremely low toxicity and have passed “Green Seal” certification.  What is Green Seal?

Green Seal (www.greenseal.org) is an independent organization that provides 3rd   party “green” certification to various products and services.

EcNow Tech was fortunate to spend time with members of the Corvallis sustainability coalition and Brian Clem on August 22.  Brian is planning on running for Governor of Oregon and we were able to explain what makes our company unique and our strategy for enabling future green tech jobs in Oregon.   

Below is an excerpt from Brian on his reflections from his listening tour in Oregon:

 ”My listening tour is in full swing as I explore running for Governor of Oregon. This past weekend I visited the Willamette Valley, hearing ideas on how we can move Oregon forward from people in Salem, Corvallis, Eugene and several communities in-between. I also made a quick stop in Bend for a special event with the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. 

In the past I’ve talked about how I am listening to the experts - everyday Oregonians who know how to get our state on the fast track to progress. I’ve talked about meeting with local leaders, business owners, and people who tell me their communities have innovative ideas on how to create jobs, provide education solutions for the next generation, and especially make Oregon greener and more livable.

In the Willamette Valley, I saw firsthand how Oregon’s green future, from jobs to protecting our natural splendor, is in our hands. And I heard that Oregonians want a Governor who will take the initiative to support our local businesses and who will fight tooth and nail to protect our environment while sustainably using our abundant natural resources.

In Corvallis, I met with local sustainability leaders to discuss the city and state’s future in our new economy. One company that stood out was EcNow Tech, which deals in green plastics, paper and wood products, and other housewares.  This is the model of the future: finding green solutions for everyday household products that have traditionally come at an environmental cost. “