GA Director Sarah Brown Interviewed on 92.5 The River!

This past Wednesday, GA Director Sarah Brown was featured in a series of Earth Day spots on Seacoast radio staple (and recent business partner!) 92.5 The River. The radio station, which is one of two in the country powered almost exclusively with solar panels, played 3 brief green stories -- delivered by Sarah -- throughout the day. Brown was also interviewed about the GA itself, wherein she expressed our goals and plans moving forward, as well as touting the growing appeal of our Green Card, which provides discounts to all GA businesses. Needless to say, the River -- which reaches 280,000 people a day -- has proved an invaluable asset to the GA, and we look forward to continue working with them extensively in the future.

Earth Week Chock Full of Amazing Green Events for GA

It was an incredibly busy few weeks for the GA, with numerous Earth Day events and celebrations providing even more community awareness of our ever-growing enterprise.

Last Tuesday the Radisson Hotel in Nashua hosted their first ever Eco-Hospitality Summit. With nearly 50 vendors representing everything from organic cannolis to sustainable lawn pest control to hotels and restaurants from all over New England, we made some outstanding contacts and met some incredibly creative and driven entrepreneurs.

This last Saturday also saw the first ever Hampton Earth Awareness Fair. Despite cloudy skies and threatening rain, dozens of local citizens turned out to mingle with Seacoast green vendors including the GA, as well as business partners Simply Green, Waterline Alternative Energies, MJW Drywalling, and many more. The strong turnout definitely bodes well for the fair going forward, and the GA is already looking forward to helping make next year's event even stronger.

Then, just this past Wednesday, the GA was represented at two outstanding Earth Day fairs. Lonza Biologics in Portsmouth held their first ever Earth Day fair, which was held Tuesday and Wednesday in the firm's on-campus cafeteria. Hundreds of Lonza employees were given time to chat with vendors including the GA as well as numerous other GA business partners and non BPs alike.

Finally, the GA capped off an incredible Earth Day with an amazing "unplugged" music and green vendor social at new GA BP Clay Hill Farm's beautiful restaurant and banquet facility in York, Maine. This candle-lit event drew dozens of local vendors and ordinary citizens alike for an evening of song, tasty hors d'oeuvres, and drink. GA Director Sarah Brown gave one of the keynote speeches which generated an incredible response from those in attendance. It was the perfect way to cap off a truly amazing week for the GA and all green and sustainable businesses and organizations on the Seacoast.

Read more about these events in the upcoming GA May Newsletter, which is scheduled for delivery next Thursday morning!

GA Corporate Partner Smuttynose Profiled in Herald

"Corporate growth and the environment too often find themselves unable to coexist, especially these days. But an established Portsmouth company is moving to Hampton and its goal is for its new building to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified..."

To read more about GA Corporate Partner Smuttynose and their most recent profile in the Portsmouth Herald, click here.

What Does It Mean To Go Green?

From GA Director Sarah Brown:

What Does It Mean To Go Green?
by Sarah Mae Brown
sarah@greenalliance.biz

One year into the creation of a novel organization that works with local businesses looking to “go green”, it’s worth taking stock of what it means to be green today. The “green movement” has now moved so far into the mainstream of the American consciousness that most businesses, regardless of industry, are embracing the concept. This “popularization” of sustainability has happened at a lighting pace. Just two years ago the words green or sustainability conjured up images of fringe individuals “obsessed with the environment” or long-haired “tree-huggers”. Today this is no longer the case. Environmentalism has moved well beyond simply looking out for the best interests of our planet. It has transcended party lines and religious beliefs; it has become common sense. Today’s mainstream green wave is considered not just good for the trees but also good for our pocket-books, our quality of life and a businesses’ bottom line. It is here where I gauge the power of green; businesses are taking the lead, they are not waiting for the consumer to push them but rather taking the reigns and utilizing their transformative power on the public psyche with environmental leadership.

When I first started the Green Alliance, a consortium of green-leaning entrepreneurs on the Seacoast – the greening of industry was just beginning to take hold. Now 11 months later, businesses from across the spectrum, from hair salons, to printers, to realtors, to restaurateurs, are embracing the concept of more environmentally friendly products and practices. The growth and popularity of the Green Alliance speaks volumes to the changing face of what it means to be green. Last May, two green businesses struggling to carve out a niche for more sustainable products in two very toxic and polluting industries, lawn care and home heating oil, joined together with me, an outspoken environmental activist in hope of creating a business model that would further that triple bottom line: people, profits and planet. Armed with business ingenuity, environmental authenticity and a belief that the public would reward businesses offering greener options, the three of us set out to create an organization that we hoped businesses and consumers would eventually flock to. And they have. The Seacoast Green Alliance now has 50 green Business Partners, 300 consumer co-op members and more than 9,000 subscribers to a newsletter on local business and the environment. The Green Alliance is infectious not because of what any one of us has done individually, but rather because this coming together of environmental entrepreneurs is both authentic morally and makes good business sense.

So what does it mean to be green today? With businesses we use an analysis that looks at both product and practice – something that has relevance to the greening of our individual lives. So yes, our new car should get good gas mileage but we also should simply drive less. And yes, our furnace should be efficient and our windows, high R-value, but have we remembered to put on a sweater and turn down the thermostat? Each business that joins the Green Alliance commits to an extensive analysis of every aspect of product and practice. But while our evaluation is indeed thorough, we are not looking for perfection. Even the greenest of businesses have areas in need of improvement; just as even the loudest environmentalist uses energy, generates waste and has an environmental footprint.

Being green today is not about perfection, but rather about making better choices. Making better choices in many areas is no longer a hard-ship. Why, for instance, would you chose to redo your baby’s room with paint containing Volatile Organic Compounds that will off-gas for years when you could choose no-VOC paint of comparable quality? Why would you burn #2 home heating oil when you could burn American-produced Bioheat? Why would you choose a restaurant that overloads our landfills with organic waste when you can dine at one that composts? Why would you use a plastic cup made from petroleum that will never break-down when the one made from corn performs just as well and will biodegrade over time? Why would you dry-clean with the neuro-toxin perc, (a chemical banned in the state of California), when your clothes will get just as clean at the Green Dry Cleaner? Why would you use toxic chemicals on your lawn, that same lawn that your children play on, when it could be just as lush and beautiful using natural methods? This is what it means to be green today – to make better choices when you are able and share why you made them with those around you. It’s already happening right here in our own community. Let us continue to ride that green wave until it is so common we forget to call it green – it’s simply called common sense.

Sarah Brown is the Director of the Green Alliance an organization that works with businesses to help them become more sustainable. She is also Chair of the Kittery Energy Committee and the mother of three beautiful children. For more information on the Green Alliance visit www.greenalliance.biz or email sarah@greenalliance.biz

MJW Drywall & Foam Insulation: Cooling Down Home Energy Costs

These days, everyone is looking for ways to mitigate increasingly unpredictable energy costs of home-heating. For many, this means incorporating more efficient equipment; others turn the thermostat down and put on a sweater. But the easiest and most effective road to efficiency rests not in better equipment or heavier sweaters, but rather by addressing what builders refer to as the "envelope" –of the home. To that end, Mike Wilson, owner of MJW Drywall & Foam Insulation in Hampton, N.H., has made it his goal to educate local consumers on how much energy –and ultimately money --can be saved with good old insulation.

Click here to read more about MJW Drywall and their exciting, cost saving opportunities!