Episode 94 – Michele McGeoy Discusses Solar Richmond
April 24, 2013
In Episode 94 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on March 30, 2013, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Bill Acevedo, chair of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Michele McGeoy, founder and executive director of Solar Richmond, which offers free solar training, staffing services leading to temporary and permanent employment, and green business ownership opportunities for low income and under-employed residents of Richmond, CA.
Michele McGeoy of Solar Richmond
McGeoy spent the beginning of her career running several software companies and later founded a non-profit that sought to tackle the digital divide. Eventually, she “burned out” on the computer industry and transitioned to the solar field. A longtime Richmond, CA resident, she wanted the city to be part of the green economy. Solar, she thought, was the antidote to pollution, and jobs were the antidote to violence. Solar Richmond’s mission is to “catalyze transformative change,” which includes providing training and job opportunities related to solar, including installation, service and back office jobs, for 18-24 year olds.
Partnering with Berkeley City College, Solar Richmond has placed more than 140 young people in green collar jobs in which they acquire skills transferable to many industries and careers. Recently, Solar Richmond became a worker-owned cooperative, in which graduates of the program become part owners in the company. McGeoy hopes to have 10 worker-owners by end of next year and continue to add new employee-owners every year.
Solar Richmond logo
Solar Richmond works on both residential and commercial solar projects and recently completed a power purchase agreement with a Walnut Creek church. The City of Richmond also hired Solar Richmond for six of its buildings, including community centers, fire stations and libraries.
Would you consider hiring Solar Richmond for your solar project?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with McGeoy: Episode 94 of The Wendel Forum (27:20 mins; mp3)
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Solar Richmond’s Website: http://www.solarrichmond.org
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/wacevedo
Episode 90 – Nikhil Arora Discusses Connecting Families to Food
February 15, 2013
In Episode 90 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on February 9, 2013, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Bill Acevedo, chair of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Nikhil Arora, co-founder of Back to the Roots, producer of gourmet mushroom growing kits nourished with recycled Peet’s Coffee grounds.
Back to the Roots co-founders Alejandro Velez & Nikhil Arora
Arora and his co-founder were about to graduate from UC Berkeley in 2009 when they learned during a class lecture that it’s possible to grow gourmet mushrooms in used coffee grounds. Inspired by the notion of turning waste into fresh, local food, they founded Back to the Roots. Since then, connecting families to food has become Arora’s “true passion,” and the company’s slickly designed, easy-to-use urban mushroom farm kits produce a gourmet crop of oyster mushrooms in about 10 days. Back to the Roots now also sells a three-gallon aquaponics garden, perfect for growing an herb garden on a kitchen counter or in a classroom.
Last year, President Obama invited Arora and his co-founder to the White House to discuss how the administration could support small businesses. Arora says it was “cool to be representing Oakland,” which he describes as the epicenter of the start-up food culture. In addition to a loan from the city, Back to the Roots received redevelopment funding to move its warehouse to Oakland. The company also received a $25,000 loan from Whole Foods (which is fitting because produce guys from the Berkeley store were early advisors) and raised nearly $250,000 via Kick Starter.
With a core commitment to sustainability, Back to the Roots is a certified B Corporation. Today, they’re working to build a global, “hip and fun” lifestyle brand that connects people to food.
Are you interested in growing your own food?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Arora:Episode 90 of The Wendel Forum(27:37 mins; mp3)
Back to the Roots Website: http://www.backtotheroots.com
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/wacevedo
Episode 82 – Elemental Herbs Brings Good to Body Care — Inside & Out
November 6, 2012
In Episode 82 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on October 27, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Bill Acevedo, chair of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Caroline Duell, the founder of Elemental Herbs, an organic body care company based on the central coast of California.
With a background in herbal medicine, Duell is a massage therapist and outdoor enthusiast who began making skin care products for her friends and family. Later, after success selling the products at farmers markets, she launched Elemental Herbs, a California certified B Corporation. That certification is to sustainable business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee – it measures a company’s commitment to operating a business responsibly and sustainably.
Caroline Duell, Founder of Elemental Herbs
Duell also runs a farm, from which she harvests some ingredients for her natural healing products such as All Good Goop, a moisturizer and salve. While Duell also gets ingredients from outside suppliers, she only partners with similar-minded businesses. In particular, she examines other companies’ employee benefits, utilities use, social benefits and transparency. Though not certified organic, all Elemental Herbs holistic products and remedies contain organic ingredients and are free of GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
The Elemental Herbs farm also offers a CSA (community supported agriculture) and serves as an education center, including offering courses about sustainable living. As a member of 1% for the Planet, one percent of all Elemental Herbs revenues is dedicated to fighting for social and environmental justice around the world. Organizations it supports include a local marine mammal protection organization, a local trail organization, Save Our Snow, which provides information about how global warming affects the planet’s snowfall, and cityWILD, which brings inner city kids into the mountains.
Do you care about the company policies, as well as the ingredients, of your skin care products?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Duell: Episode 82 of The Wendel Forum (26:47 mins; mp3)
Elemental Herbs website: http://elementalherbs.com
B Corporation website: http://www.bcorporation.net/
1% for the Planet website: http://onepercentfortheplanet.org/en/
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/wacevedo
In Episode 79 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on October 6, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Dick Lyons, co-founder of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Peggy Cross, founder of Bay Area-based EcoTensil, which produces eating utensils made from sustainable materials.
Peggy Cross of EcoTensil
With a background in packaging and marketing, Cross developed a whole line of certified compostable eating utensils made from “silky smooth” paperboard, similar in mouth feel to a soda cup. The taster spoons are a particularly better alternative to plastic tasters, which are made from petroleum in China and are used for two seconds at ice cream shops, grocery stores or at trade shows, yet will exist on the planet for thousands of years. In contrast, EcoTensil’s taster spoon offers efficiencies in storage, shipping and waste management, and companies using it can offer customers something obviously greener. Interestingly, EcoTensil’s first clients, which still represent 25 percent of her business, were prisons because users can’t hurt themselves or others with a paper spoon.
In launching EcoTensil, Cross learned that everything in the start-up world takes longer than you think and costs twice as much money. As a result, she recommends not launching a start-up without an abundance of tenacity and perseverance. She also says that entrepreneurs should not just want to make money, but they must also have a passion for what they do.
Wouldn’t you like to ditch the splintery wooden taster spoon?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Peggy Cross: Episode 79 of The Wendel Forum (27:49 mins; mp3)
EcoTensil Website: http://ecotensil.com/about.html
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Dick Lyons’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/rylons
In Episode 78 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on September 29, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Dick Lyons, co-founder of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Scott Potter, managing partner of San Francisco Equity Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in consumer products growth companies.
Scott Potter, San Francisco Equity Partners, in The Wendel Forum studio
Potter’s firm partners with companies that have demonstrated a proven demand for their products. So while there’s no consumer adoption risk, the companies are usually facing operational and scale challenges to reach the next level. Typically, they are $5-10 million companies poised to scale their businesses, often to north of $100 million.
Identifying these optimal risk-reward companies is more science than art. San Francisco Equity Partners is particularly focused on its companies’ channel strategy. That is, a given beauty product can’t successfully be sold at both Sephora and Wal-Mart. Channels include food (Safeway), drug (Walgreens), mass (Wal-Mart), club (Costco), prestige (specialty retailers and department stores) and direct-to-consumer (online and direct-response TV). Determining the right channel for products is often a company’s key to success.
A growing channel is the so-called natural channel, as epitomized by Whole Foods, which is separate from the traditional grocery channel. But Potter’s firm specializes in natural products that are targeted for the mass channel. Companies targeting this channel should not ask consumers to pay more for an inferior product “just to save the fish,” Potter says. Rather, the product’s value proposition has to work in and of itself outside of sustainability and natural missions. The prime example is Method products.
When San Francisco Equity Partners first invested in Method, it was producing just hand and cleaning products. It has evolved to include bathroom and specialty products and even successfully launched into the competitive laundry space. Early on, Method knew it would never have the marketing budget of Proctor & Gamble. So it chose to overinvest in packaging, focusing on the point of sale: when product is on the shelf. Method’s in-house design team devised a distinctive look, including the bottle molds, and focused on the aesthetic and the user-experience (such as the one-hand laundry detergent dispensing system). With the “design baked into the products,” Method aspired to be like Apple.
At what kind of store are you most likely to purchase natural products?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Scott Potter: Episode 78 of The Wendel Forum (27:48 mins; mp3)
San Francisco Equity Partners Website: http://www.sfequitypartners.com
Method Products Website: http://methodhome.com
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Dick Lyons’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/rylons
Episode 73 – Lindsay Riddell Discusses Current Cleantech Trends
September 7, 2012
Lindsay Riddell covers Cleantech, Sustainability, Startups and Venture Capital for the San Francisco Business Times
Biofules and Biochemicals
Investment trends
Carbon Data
Electric Vehicles
Episode 70 – Mark Dwight Discusses Manufacturing Locally
August 13, 2012
In Episode 70 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on July 21, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Bill Acevedo, chair of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Mark Dwight, founder of San Francisco-based Rickshaw Bagworks.
Mark Dwight of Rickshaw Bagworks visits The Wendel Forum Studio
After leaving his Silicon Valley tech roots, Dwight joined Timbuck2, where he fell in love with the bag business. When he moved to Rickshaw, he committed to making bags in a sustainable way, including minimizing waste and overstock.
Rickshaw bags are made with polyester recycled from beverage bottles and industrial plastic, and the company avoids materials that are noxious in their manufacture, use and disposal. Every Rickshaw bag features a gem tag with the letters PCQ, which stands for “passion, craft and quality,” and a five-pointed star, which represents Rickshaw’s five constituencies: employees, customers, business partners, shareholders and the community.
Bill and Dwight discuss how no business can be 100 percent impact-free and that sustainability starts at the bottom line. That is, businesses must be sustainable financially in addition to committing to environmental and social justice goals.
Dwight is also the founder of SF Made, a nonprofit organization that promotes local manufacturing. Since its founding two years ago, 350 San Francisco manufacturers, including Anchor Brewing, have become members of SF Made. Dwight established the organization as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (as opposed to a 501(c)(6) trade organization for for-profit companies) so it can receive tax-deductible donations. The City of San Francisco even awarded a grant to SF Made to promote local economic development. SF Made has served as a model for other communities launching similar geographic branding programs.
Does it matter to you to buy local?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Mark Dwight of Rickshaw Bags: Episode 70 of The Wendel Forum (27:34 mins; mp3)
Rickshaw Bags Website: http://www.rickshawbags.com/
SF Made Website: http://www.sfmade.org/
960 KNEW AM Radio Website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Bill Acevedo’s Online Profile: http://www.wendel.com/wacevedo
In Episode 69 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on July 7, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Dick Lyons, co-founder of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Gary Price, a tax partner at Sensiba San Filippo, one of the Bay Area’s largest accounting firms and a green business certified under the Bay Area Green Business Program.
Gary Price
Dick and Price discuss how in the last few years, it’s become economical for businesses to use renewable energy sources, particularly solar and wind, which provide energy without using oil or gas. Because buildings and their occupants produce a significant amount of pollution, even businesses like accounting, law and other service firms can help the environment by buying clean energy from roof-mounted solar power systems that replace or supplement power from the grid. Even if those businesses occupy just one floor of a big building, they can contribute to lower energy consumption.
Renewable energy used to cost more than electricity purchased from utility companies. But the 2008 renewable energy credit program helped bring prices down. Within just four or five years, companies using renewable energy will see the payback, resulting in real cash savings. Using solar and wind energy also has related insurance and bank loan benefits.
A new clean tech trend is that larger renewable energy companies – perhaps a solar company or even a company that produces a part of a solar energy system – have accelerated the use of solar power by become financing companies. As a result, customers may not need cash at all to buy electricity from roof-mounted solar systems. Solar and wind energy options will continue to grow and experience increased demand, which will further drop the price point.
If a business is interested in switching to renewable energy, Price recommends finding an expert to “put the whole thing together.” Construction and engineering companies, for example, have savvy energy departments. Law and accounting firms also have specialists that put green projects together.
What would it take for your business to buy clean energy?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Gary Price: Episode 69 of The Wendel Forum(27:53 mins; mp3)
Sensiba San Filippo website: http://www.ssfllp.com/
Price’s article on Sensible Savings: http://www.ssfllp.com/sustainable-savings-how-businesses-can-profit-big-from-clean-technology/
Bay Area Green Business Program website: http://www.greenbiz.ca.gov/
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Dick Lyons’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/rylons
Episode 67 – Lars Jacobsen Talks about Bamboo Bikes
June 27, 2012
In Episode 67 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on June 23, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Bill Acevedo, chair of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Lars Jacobsen, co-founder of Stalk Bicycles, which produces handmade bamboo bicycles.
Lars Jacobsen of Stalk Bicycles shows off bamboo framing in The Wendel Forum studio.
The fastest growing plant on earth, bamboo is considered by many in the U.S. as a pesky weed, but it is also a surprisingly versatile sustainable material. It has a finished exterior and the grain allows it to bend, but it is still remarkably strong. In some countries, for instance, it’s used as a substitute for rebar!
As for its use in bicycles, bamboo boasts a “supreme vibration dampening quality,” making it comfortable to ride. Stalk Bicycle’s bamboo bikes ride beautifully, explains Jacobsen, who spent two years empirically testing the bikes, riding down stairs and along the pock-marked roads of Oakland to assess product quality. The base model, which takes more than 40 hours to custom construct and weighs about the same as an aluminum bike, costs $2,500 and comes with a three-year warranty on the frame.
To increase its commitment to sustainability, Stalk uses other natural fibers, such as hemp, for its products and sources as many materials locally as possible. In fact, another Wendel Forum guest, Entropy Resins (Episode 47, Shaping a Superior Surfboard), is a supplier of the resin that Stalk uses on the joints of its bike frames.
According to Jacobsen, market acceptance in bamboo bikes is increasing. “When people ride them, the bikes sell themselves.” In addition to direct customer feedback, Stalk has earned support from Northern California’s local artisan movement as well as the cycling community.
Would you consider purchasing a bamboo bike?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Jacobsen: Episode 67 of The Wendel Forum(27:31 mins; mp3)
Stalk Bicycles: http://www.stalkbicycles.com/
Entropy Resins: http://www.entropyresins.com/
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Bill Acevedo’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/wacevedo
In Episode 64 of The Wendel Forum (originally aired on May 26, 2012, on 960 KNEW AM radio), show moderator Dick Lyons, co-founder of Wendel Rosen’s sustainable business practice group, welcomes Steve Roth, CEO of Roth Consulting, which helps companies devise and execute a “winning strategy,” whether related to capital, expansion, product development or management.
Steve Roth, CEO of Roth Consulting
Roth brings his experience as a senior executive and investor in companies in a wide range of industries to green businesses and double-bottom-line companies, those companies for which a social goal — like benefiting the community or the environment — co-exist alongside profit goals. For those companies, the biggest issue is balance, Roth explains. Companies can’t forget that profitability is what allows a company to be generous and, therefore, profitability must remain the core operational focus. Companies shouldn’t become so enamored with a social mission that they lose the ability to fund it.
The average double-bottom-line company devotes about 5 percent of sales to a social mission. The more profits earned, the more impact the company can have. Ben & Jerry’s was one of the first and most successful double-bottom-line companies. “On a public relations basis, charitable endeavors are a big part of their raison d’être.”
Companies can also donate employee time – within limits. In the 1970’s, Xerox was one of first companies to devote its human resources to help the community, and some employees were even promoted on that basis. But Xerox diverted too much attention from its core business and now no longer exists. “It’s an educational tale.”
Another business challenge for these companies is making the charitable work relevant to customers. Many businesses in the coffee industry, for example, donate money back to the cooperatives that grow their beans. It may be more expensive to source products from those areas. As a result, customers may need to pay higher prices or the company may have to accept lower profits. “Corporate communication is critical to justifying the premium” customers may have to pay, especially in a competitive marketplace where consumers have many choices. The customer must be educated about the social benefit of buying that product.
Roth and Dick also discuss socially responsible investing.
What social causes would inspire you to purchase products from double-bottom-line companies, even if the prices were higher?
Post Links:
Listen to the interview with Steve Roth: Episode 64 of The Wendel Forum(27:45 mins; mp3)
Roth Consulting: http://www.consultroth.com
960 KNEW AM Radio website: http://www.960KNEW.com
Dick Lyons’s online profile: http://www.wendel.com/rlyons
Dick Lyons
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