Last weekend I went with Ben Metcalfe to the Maker Fair at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. The best way I’ve heard this fair described is, “Burning Man meets the tech world.” The Maker Fair showcases Arts, Crafts, Engineering, Food, Music, Science and Technology. Above is a video of the two guys you’ve seen a million times on YouTube dropping Mentos into Diet Coke.

Here is a short list of some of the other awesome things I saw:

Mouse Trap, the old game, but blown up on a huge scale with bowling balls instead of marbles.

A machine that etches in wood and metal at ridiculous speeds. Basically a printer except it’s carving with a laser.

Bags made out of old rain jackets by City Bag Trade.

A huge city made out of Legos with running trains and whole districts.
Goats in a petting zoo!

Huge Metal sculptures of people. See picture.
exc…

We even saved some pandas, and remade some ice in the poles, that was super!

But we missed a few things, and for that I am sad, but will dedicate blog space to them in the future. Here is a quick list of stuff that should have made the blog, that you should check out now, and will make the WhitScott.com in the future.

Book Review: Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth..

This book changed my life, my habits, my outlook on the world, and how I consume in it. I can’t recommend a better book for any of you to read. I’d let you borrow my copy, but someone has it.

Here you can find an interview with the author, Tim Flannery, on NPR.

2 Interviews

Andy Cooper from Humboldt about his company Footprint Recycling.
Cooper makes and sells diesel. He’s completely passionate about it, and I can’t wait to get an interview of him on my site.

Seth Bauer is Editorial Director of The Green Guide for the National Geographic Society. I met him in New Orleans at a sustainable branding conference, and am hoping to get him to talk a little bit about National Geographic’s The Green Guide.

I have been introduced to, or already know, a ton of people doing some really inspiring work in the green industry. To them I send out a special thank you: I wish you could all have been on the blog.

It’s been a fun Green Month. Stay warm (from global warming), stay green, stay healthy, consume less, stop dumping your gas in the ocean, and save a penguin.

Happy Earth Day Earth!
Today I am making several commitments to save the earth.

1. I’m giving up Whaling! It’ll be tough, but I’ve heard it’s bad.
2. I will shut down 2 of my coal plants. Completely.
3. No more Oil. For today, unless it gets cold, or I need to go somewhere.
4. I refuse to touch plastic, let alone use it.
5. I will save the life of 3 seals.
6. I will breathe less, thus emitting less Carbon.

What will you do?

But seriously, I feel like I need to plant a tree or something. It’s Earth Day! On Mother’s Day we make our moms cards and give them big hugs. On Father’s Day we BBQ (bad for the ozone) and give each other man-hugs, but for Earth Day, EARTH DAY what do we do?

Jim Woods: Yerba Mate Beer
Officially I started brewing the day I turned 21… so I guess that would mean that I “started” brewing while at UCSD.

I stumbled upon the idea of MateVeza a few years ago - I was nursing a pale ale betwixt sips of yerba mate (a cousin of mine introduced me to this wonderful beverage when I was in college) and noticed the way the flavor of the mate and the cascade hops complimented each other; the earthy, herbal, grassy notes of yerba mate paired quite well with the crisp, citrusy flavor of the cascade hops. I later realized that the effects might be another selling point in light of a growing trend of caffeinated alcoholic beverages.

A home brewer for years, I set out to brew a yerba mate pale ale. After experimenting with different recipes, methods, and quantities, I brought a formula and label artwork to Butte Creek Brewing Company in Chico, California because I was a big fan of their beers and their pioneering in brewing organic. We structured a joint venture and brewed the first batch in November of 2006.

Mateveza is brewed with EcoTeas organic yerba mate from a family farm in North Eastern Argentina. The coarsely chopped yerba mate leaves are added during the mash. The yerba mate provides a refreshing herbal finish and a natural source of caffeine equal to about a half cup of coffee per beer.

I decided to brew MateVeza organic because I was committed to using the very best ingredients and having a environmentally responsible product.

MateVeza is brewed with 95% organic ingredients (everything but hops). The USDA has placed hops on their exempt list due to the commercial unavailability. This means that brewers can label beer with the organic seal even if the hops are not organic. Here’s an article from the LA Times if you’re interested in the details.

Keep in mind that organic hops are extremely difficult to source (especially with the current hop shortage). There aren’t any farmers in the US who produce organic hops and the farmers in New Zealand have most of their crop committed for the next few years. Hopefully things will change and organic hops will become available. We will continue to look for a source.

Business has gone really well. Getting approval at Whole Foods and BevMo has been great. And we have expanded our distribution to CA, OR, and WA. We haven’t had much of a budget for advertising or sales support (it’s still a one-man team), so the main challenge is getting the word out and educating people about the product.

We’ve gotten a lot of good press (Mateveza press), which has been awesome. A part of me was worried about how the craft beer community would respond to a caffeinated beer, but they have really embraced it. Most really appreciate the fact that the yerba mate contributes positively to the flavor profile of the beer. The mate buzz is just a bonus (but for some a huge selling point).

I’m currently working on some new packaging and making a big push in the markets we’re currently in. So stay tuned…

David, who I featured the other day and works for Green Options, drives an older car and when questioned about why he drives it instead of a hybrid he gives a similar answer. It’s because the car isn’t dead yet, it has thousands of parts that are going to end up in a landfill, so why not use it until it can’t be used any more?

How are you green?

I’m motivated best by my peers. When a good friend that I trust tells me that my car has better gas mileage if I drive it at 60mph instead of 75mph, I change my driving habits.
I try to set examples for the people around me. I know my peers are going to make decisions on their own, but if I can show them a comfortable green lifestyle about which I’m passionate, and prove that I myself can maintain it, I may be able to get a small group of people to change their habits. If they do the same, they pass it along to their friends. We all know this works.

What I/we do.

• I try to hang-dry clothes instead of using a drier as often as possible. I’d say 1 in every 3 loads we hang.
• Buy local organic food that is delivered to Claire’s office building, where other people people have food delivered as well.
• Turn off the water while soaping my hands and brushing my teeth, and consider my water usage in general.
• I’m lucky enough to get to take a bus to work—living in a city really helps lower my emissions.
• I wear out my clothes. It’s hard to do in a materialistic society, but I feel strong about repairing and re-wearing my clothes.
• I don’t drink out of plastic bottles, and avoid using paper plates and plastic utensils.
• I try to buy beer out of tap because it tastes better… Oh yeah, and no bottle plus less shipping generally. Local beer whenever possible.
• I don’t eat meat except fish, and the fish I eat is on a Seafood Watch List made by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sustainable fish.
• I don’t use plastic bags from stores.

What makes me worse then most people on earth.

• I fly more than the average human. This is probably the worse thing I could do for the environment besides opening a coal plant just to watch the pretty black smoke.
• I have my computer almost constantly plugged in and on.
• I over-consume. Maybe not more than the average American, but more than I need I’m sure.
• Electronics for 2 people: 4 cell phones, 3 computers, 1 projector, 7 hard drives, 3 iPods, 2 speakers, N64, Gameboys, 2 video cameras, 2 digital cameras, 3 still cameras, 1 VCR, 40ish tapes, 1 DVD player, 100 DVD’s (not in cases).

If you have a moment check out the Scarsdale Challenge and video. I was blown away by some of our consumption as a country.

What do you do?

I’d love to hear from you by Seesmic video—you can copy and paste the code in the comments. Or just leave a comment.

Whit: So David you know that it’s Green Month on my blog, and I said I would be featuring friends in the Green industry. Can you tell everyone why I chose you to start with you? What I’m asking is, what do you do for a living?

David Anderson: (are we pretending this is a phone transcript or something?)

Whit: I’m totally putting all of this in the blog, and yes.

David: Ah, direct copy and paste. Well, then, let me be as pompous as possible… Well, Whit, first let me say how much I appreciate the opportunity. I’ve been following your blog for a long time, because, well, blogs are my job.

Whit: Really? And what blog are you with, and what is your role at said blog?

David: I run the first blog network with exclusively environmentally-themed content. We’re called Green Options Media.
Technically, I’m the Publisher of the network, which is really a lot more fun than it sounds. Our editorial team does all the really hard stuff, and I just get to sit around and determine the strategic direction of the network’s editorial staff, content and marketing.

It’s my job to look at all of the other blog networks and other new media, and identify how those strategies can be applied to green media.

Blog networks are kind of a brave new world, and best practices, writer compensation, and all the other details are still very fluid. I’m particularly proud of the writer model we’ve come up with. In other verticals where blogs have become big business, it’s because the majority of readers are already very interested in a wide range of related topics, and it’s pretty easy to find knowledgeable writers.

Green Media faces a tougher challenge; to date, most successful green bloggers are just people who happen to be interested but have no particular expertise in a green field–instead, their expertise is in running a blog. At the same time, there are tons of environmental professionals who are looking for a way to share their expertise with the world. Many of them are starting blogs as that outlet, but almost none of them have the time or expertise to administer, market, and otherwise find exposure for their personal blogs.

Whit: Well I’ll be asking you to come on the blog a couple times this month. Just so everyone knows, what is it that you brought you to this position? Specifically, what is your background in the green world?

David: Like many web entrepreneurs, it started small and evolved unexpectedly. I graduated from college (UCSD) with a growing passion for sustainability, and started a blog on the interplay of environmental and energy issues.

Through that blog, I met other high profile green bloggers, and the idea for Green Options as a single, multi-author blog was born. We launched that in Feb 2007. That blog grew quickly, but we recognized that we were only successfully reaching an audience that was already very ‘green.’

We realized that splitting our blog into smaller, affiliated blogs on more niche topics was a much easier way to pull people into the circle of sustainability, since when most people start to “go green” they start with one or a couple topics that interest them–no one’s going to make a ‘green’ portal that claims to be all things to all people their homepage, but normal people are open to small introductory changes before getting more involved.

So, we have a food blog, a parenting blog, a cleantech blog, and so on down the line, each written to be accessible to a particular audience who might not want to dig into every green issue in the world… quite yet.

Which brings me back to our writer model: we set up what we call a ‘direct professional’ model — giving those green professionals a platform to bring their expertise to the world.

Whit:Well you know I love GO, I’ll have you back on the blog soon. I just wanted everyone to get to know you and your site before I proceed with Green Month. Thanks for the first chat.

David: Any time, Whit.