NY, NY

Kim and I just blasted our way through New York. Three days, many meetings from gMums to strategic partners with the odd good meal thrown in. Nothing better than starting a day with a run around Central Park. It amazes me that at 5.30am there are huge Peletons doing laps and runners of all shapes and sizes putting the hard yards in. There was a quote near the Children’s Zoo – a city’s greatness is measured by the quality of their green spaces. NYC has done an amazing job.
And as you leave the tranquility of the park and negotiate around the horse drawn carriages you are transported right back into the thick of a major city the highlight being those delightful tax drivers. I had an idea for a reality tv show…take a NYC cabbie and a Portland cabbie and have them swap cities for a day. Make that an hour…

The face of Interface

One of my true heroes is Ray Anderson – the CEO of Interface carpets. Carpet making is a messy business. Ray has been in the business for 50 years. 14 years ago at the age of 60, he was asked what his view on sustainability was. He drew a complete blank. Since then he has transformed his company into a business at the cutting edge of sustainability. Drawing on Bill McDonough’s Cradle to Cradle principles and bio mimicry, his carpet design and facilities are the gold standard in sustainability.

I was lucky enough to meet hiim at a marketing conference last week. It was such a thrill to meet someone I have read so much about. He was the keynote speaker and his words made all of us really sit up and think. Needless to say he received a standing ovation. He is truly inspirational.

The Lazy Environmentalist – the book…

Anyone who saw gDiapers being featured on Martha Stewart last month would have seen Josh Dorfman doing the demo. And he nailed it. He can join our crew any day – and he doesn’t even have kids yet!

Josh and I first met last year over the phone when he did an interview with me for his radio show – The Lazy Environmentalist on Sirius Radio. When Martha Stewart asked him to come and offer some green products, there were many to choose from but gDiapers were chosen and Josh was just fabulous. This month, he has launched his book, “The Lazy Environmentalist” and he has given gDiapers another rave review …we should be giving him stock or something.

So check out the book. Here is the low down:

We can’t all camp out in old-growth forests, lying down in front of the bulldozers. And it’s not only that we’re too busy: Some of us just don’t want our fabulous threads to get caked with mud.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t care passionately about the environment. Luckily, the days when becoming environmentally aware entailed eating bread that tasted like dirt, wearing clothes that looked like frayed burlap sacks, and spending summer vacations assailing whaling ships with Greenpeace are passing away. It is now perfectly possible (and increasingly easy) to be well fed, well coiffed, well dressed, and well traveled while remaining deeply committed to an ecologically sustainable lifestyle.

In The Lazy Environmentalist, Josh Dorfman—host of the Sirius Satellite Radio program of the same name—provides comprehensive guidance to fashion-forward consumers who are as concerned about the long-term health of our planet as they are about the design of their bathroom fixtures. Covering topics that range from clothing to electronic gadgetry, home decor to recreation, and gardening to financial investment, Dorfman lets us know which trends to watch and which eco-conscious products—cars, toothbrushes, cell phones, pet accessories—to buy. Green, it turns out, can be an extremely stylish color.

A touch of celebrity

So at the aforementioned event, Kim and I had the opportunity to speak with Jenna Elfman and Amy Brenneman. Given the worship of celebrity in this big brown land and the media saturation of all things Hollywood it is always odd when you actually meet one or two of them up close and personal. They are both of course incredibly lovely and parents of course so we had much to talk about.

Solar Powered Treo

Charging my Treo in the glorious Portland sun. The folks at Reware make this great portable solar power plant. No emissions or messy used uranium to handle. You can strap it to your courier bag or just lay it out wherever to power up your PDA, phone, iPod…way cool!

A movie launch isn’t a movie launch…

…without an after party. gDiapers, Happy Baby and Baby Legs hosted an after party for the aforementioned movie. It was quite the success. We met customers by chance – who were really tall too – which is always a thrill. We ended up having sushi with these guys!
And as a couple who have had two homebirth waterbirths, we were surrounded by like minded people which is always nice. As homebirth now represents such a tiny percentage of all births, if you have had one you tend to be drawn to others who have done birth that way. And while I am by no means preaching – birth is a choice and you need to do it the way you want it – the movie did a great job of setting out where birth has come in 100 years, the medicalization of it and the risks of both hospital birth and homebirth. It was really well put together, again in non preachy way. There is always such a fine line to tread with these kinds of issues. There was a great interview with a really wise French ObGyn who did such a good job of setting out the issues.
Maybe time to have another one…

The Business of Being Born

Wow – what a great movie. It was just the right balance of data and expert opinion revealing the state of birth in the US, real experiences of Mums and Dads and their birthing stories, the view from a midwife and an Obgyn’s eye and humour. Yes humour – they had that fabulous clip from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life and the machine that goes ping.
I was really surprised you can make a movie that hammers home a point so well while being entertaining and not preachy. Just the facts.
The film is in the top 10 for audience popularity – if it wins the audience choice award, they get another
viewing tomorrow. And then it is off to a Cinemax near you.

Someone ran off with our company

And they are known as customers like these two champions – Jenn and Melissa in Virgina who said “we wanna help”! So we said sure and they cruised along to their local Whole Foods and spread the gospel. And then they recruited customers and now those customers are wanting to help. I think my job is in jeopardy here…I wonder what the market is like for wsshed up flushable diaper executives?

Pop Quiz…

Q: What does Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States of America have in common?

Condolences to our neighbours

To the Kiwis who lost to Sri Lanka today and were thus bundled out of the World Cup. The Lankans have a confirmed birth in the final. The other team will come from tomorrow’s South Africa- Australia match.
Given today is ANZAC Day – the day the Aussies and Kiwis fought & died together back in 1914 against the Ottoman empire, it is a doubly sad day – for the black caps particularly though.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.