Portland
Welcome SolarWorld!
Last Saturday hundreds of guests gathered for the open house at SolarWorld to learn more about the factory, the company and solar energy.
The new SolarWorld $440 million plant will be home to SolarWorld Industries America headquarters for SolarWorld AG of Germany, one of the largest solar-cell producers in the world. The plant just opened last Friday, October 17, and by 2011 it is expected to produce material each year capable of generating enough electricity to power 80,000 U.S. homes.
This translates in to $400 million directly invested in Oregon’s economy, 1,000 new jobs by 2011, and will allow us to set an example in affordable and efficient energy alternatives.
We celebrated with grilled Hamburgers and Hot Dogs, (and Veggie Burgers!), German Sausage, Sauerkraut, Beans in Red Chile Sauce, Grilled Veggies, Artisan Bread with Whipped Butter, accompanied with all the mixings! Chocolate Chip and White Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert, and plenty of fresh Strawberry Lemonade and Iced Tea made it an amazing meal!
Read the article in the Portland Tribune about their move to Hillsboro by clicking here.
Go Green ‘08 Cultivating Sustainable Business
Go Green 08
Cultivating sustainable business
GoGreen’08 was held at the Gerding Theater at The Armory in The Pearl District Portland, Oregon on October 1, 2008. The Armory has been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as exceeding the requirements for designation as a LEED Platinum building.
The only conference of its kind, Go Green ‘08 gave tactical steps on how to “green” your business and build sustainability enlightenment amongst business owners. Attendees participated in panel discussions geared to provide solid takeaways and next steps to make any size of business sustainable. Conference topics included a showcase of Portland’s Best Sustainable Businesses featuring Best Business Award Winners, Green Marketing and Branding, Green Incentives Available to your Business and How to Win Media Coverage with Your Sustainability Initiatives. Event Sponsors included Metro (Recycle at Work and Drive Less, Save More), City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development, Portland Development Commission, Portland Tribune, Travel Portland and Sustainable Industries.
The GoGreen ‘08 mission is to bring the business community together to inspire and educate about the importance of sustainability in business while offering concrete next steps to make these new initiatives a reality.
The keynote speaker mayor elect Sam Adams kicked off the event by giving an inspiring state of green address. Noting that once again Portland has been declared the most Sustainable city in the US. Also noting that we have a long way to go to becoming truly sustainable especially if being compared to the Global community.
He talked about current infrastructure and its need for growth. Especially embracing electric vehicles and having charging stations throughout the area. The future must contain solutions to the current fuel crisis and that will come in the form of bio-fuels and electric vehicles.
Sam also announced the all new Portland Sustainability Institute. Located near the Rose Quarter just on East Broadway, and is set to open in early 2009. Find out more about it in Sam’s Blog at http://www.commissionersam.com/node/3665
The conference left me with many insights as well as MUCH more to ad to my ever growing to-do list. Never the less I am glad to have been a part of such an event.
I know as a company, Crave Catering has a long way to go as we go further down the Sustainable road, but at least we are on it and heading in the right direction. A few immediate actions we will be taking will be to discuss our energy consumption and look into renewable energy through PGE, also auditing our carbon footprint and looking at carbon offsets, as well as evaluating our “Food Miles.”
For more information about the event please visit the official website
http://gogreenpdx.com/
Featured experts included – http://gogreenpdx.com/speakers/
Pat Reiten, President of Pacific Power
Sam Adams, Mayor-Elect of Portland
Portland’s BEST Business Award Winners
Susan Anderson/Director, City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development
Lisa Sedlar/President, New Seasons (Large Business Winner)
Bob Lauron/Vice President, Full Sail Brewing (Medium Business Winner)
Jason McMillan/Owner, Mint Dental (Small Business Winner)
David Weigel, Vice President of Marketing, Ecos
Justin Yuen/President, FMYI
Stephanie Swanson/Principal, MarketShift Strategies
Craig Trames/Principal, Corragio Group
Grace Pae/Founder, Artemis Foods
Derek Smith/Former Director, YOLO Colorhouse
Jack Graves/Chief Cultural Officer,
The Holland Inc. (Burgerville)
Monty Moore/Vice President, Neil Kelly
David Yudkin/Co-Owner, Hot Lips Pizza
Megan Stein/Recycle at Work Program Manager, Office of Sustainable Development
Richard Satnick/CEO, Laughing Planet
Josh Halley/Manager, Green Mountain Energy
Bill Scott/General Manager, Zipcar
Erik Weeman/Weiden+Kennedy
Curt Mudd/Founder, Emergent
Renee Spears/Founder, Rose City Mortgage
Mitch Rofsky/Founder, Better World Club
Green Giant Awards Ceremony
Presented by Portland Tribune’s Sustainable Life
Awards Host: Steve Clark, President, Portland Tribune
& Community Newspapers
Activistas | www.activistas.us
Clean Tech Alliance | www.cleantechnologyalliance.org
Green Drinks | www.biothinking.com/greendrinks
Greener Good | www.greenergood.com
NW Earth Institute | www.nwei.org
PDX Mindshare | www.pdxmindshare.org
Small Business Administration Green Guides | www.sba.gov
Springboard Innovation | www.springboardinnovation.org
Sustainable Business Network of Portland | www.sbnportland.org
Young Women Social Entrepreneurs | www.ywse.org
Featured Door Prizes:
Artemis Foods, Inc. ~ Artemis Meals to Go gift certificates from Artemis Café at SE 12th & Division
Crave Catering ~ Chef’s Seasonal Lunch for Six
McCormick and Schmick’s Harborside at the Marina ~ Dining Gift Certificates
The Original McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant ~ Dining Gift Certificates
Hotel Vintage Plaza ~ One night stay with Romance Package
September’s Sustainability Workshop
Sustainability –
What does it mean?
How do we become?
How do I help others understand?
Where are we now?
Crave Catering’s owner, Mark Lopez blogs:
Last week I got an entire day filled with sustainable answers. Not a be all and end all by any means, more like a journey or an evolution. On Thursday, September 11, 2008 I joined about 30 like-minded people interested and eager to hear what was in store for us at the Natural Step Network’s workshop entitled Sustainability Using The Natural Step Framework.
Presentations were given by Duke Castle the facilitator, Natalie Reitman-White of Organically Grown Co., Clark Brockman and Lisa Petterson, and SERA Architects. Additional Resources were provided by the Sustainability Resource Guide and Green Living.
While sustainability has been a core focus and vision for Crave Catering, we definitely still have room to grow. I was relieved to find that many of my local “heroes” in sustainability all started out just like me. I decided weeks ago when registering for this event that we would become members of the Natural Step Network. Now I know it was a great decision.
The workshop really helped us look at the big picture of sustainability and overlying strategy. We’ve been doing things to lessen our impact on the environment for many years now, but what I began to find out is that we have been doing things at the tactical level. In plain terms our approach has been simplistic, and there are ways we can be more effective.
I’m taking what I’ve learned back with me to take Crave Catering to take it to the next level of sustainability and further our journey down its path. Along the way we will discover what seems like a very simple question turn in to a variety of answers… “What does a sustainable caterer look like?” This will be the forefront of our focus, along with sharing our experiences with caterers across the nation through the Sustainable Catering Association.
ABCD Process, Sustainability Planning Process
A – Awareness, What do you know about sustainability and why it matters?
B – Baseline Mapping, What does your organization look like today?
C – Clear and Compelling Vision, What does your organization look like in a sustainable society?
D – Down to Action, How will you manage and prioritize steps to sustainability?
The natural step is not just for individuals, organizations, and is even scaleable to entire communities. I like to look at the Portland Metro-Area as my community, and how my piece of the puzzle fits in to a sustainable future.
–Mark Lopez, Crave Catering Owner