Method Opens in SoHo

San Francisco-based Method setup a pop-up shop this week in New York's SoHo district. The new temporary storefront is the latest in the company's Detox Your Home traveling tour focused on helping consumers detox their homes.

Method will be in their SoHo digs through June 7th. Their new shop features many of their products as well as product experts, aroma stations and even a “dirty little secret” cleaning confessional.

The company is also offering a “toxic turn-in” where people can drop off their old cleaning products and Method will dispose of them properly and reward people with a free Method product.

Method's Soho shop will play host a number of private parties which will focus on educating and inspiring guests to live more sustainable lives.  Events will include eco-craft parties hosted by green living expert Danny Seo.

Method's Detox Your Home New York is located at 550 Broadway between Prince and Spring streets.

Green Really Does Matter

Kraft's New Redesigned Greener Salad Dressing Uses almost 20% less plastic

After reading Denis Salazaar’s article Sustainable Packaging, the Housewares Show, and the 5 Stages of Grief I had to shake my head and chuckle in exasperation at some of the companies he described. As a species, we are truly amazing in our resistance to change, no matter if it’s better or not. I wonder if medieval citizens struggled to embrace sanitation when it was first introduced, it was probably hard to break them from their habit of tossing waste out their window onto the street despite the incredible benefits of not doing it.

Our society has become the frog in the warm pot of water, we’ve lulled ourselves into a false sense of security and comfort just before the pot starts to boil. Our inability to sustain our uber-consumption is a reality we all need to face. Thankfully, research is showing that we as consumers truly care and we’re starting to take personal responsibility as we’re empowered to make a difference by being able to purchase viable environmentally responsible alternatives. Mintel just released a study in 2007 that reports there was a 200% increase in green product launches over 2006.

In addition to having more choices, a recent study by DoubleClick Performics found that about 60% of online shoppers say they believe a company’s environmental practices are either ‘very’ or ‘extremely important’ and they are willing to pay 5% or more for them. Almost 50% say they specifically go online to check out eco friendly products. While the green trend has been building for some time, "the number of people who say that being environmentally conscious is important to them is higher than I'd expected," says Stuart Larkins, senior vice president/search at DoubleClick Performics. "It's easy to think people who are shopping online are only looking at price, but clearly, they are looking beyond that."

Keep the faith, green is here to stay and the research results are indicative of real change happening. There will always be the person that throws their trash out the car window or the neighbor that doesn’t clean up after their dog. By and large though, most of us really care about our eco-system and are willing to vote with our pocket book to insure that companies continue to develop products we want to buy.

Anke Corbin recently left her corporate career as VP marketing for a major media company in order to launch an eco-marketing consulting agency and to design her first environmentally responsible indoor-outdoor furniture collection called Anke C.- Real Living launching spring 2008. To network, for consulting or just to chat, contact Anke at ankecorbin@gmail.com

Wal-Mart Unveils HE.5 Energy Efficient Store Prototype

Love them or hate them, Wal-Mart has been making news for a while now with their environmental efforts including asking vendors to reevaluate their packaging and trying to decrease energy usage in their stores.

As the world’s largest retailer and also the globe’s largest private electricity user according to an Associated Press report, Wal-Mart is in the perfect position to make positive change and show other retailers how it’s done.

Wal-Mart unveiled a new store prototype, the HE.5 last month that is designed specifically around the store's location and unique climate in order to use 45% less energy as compared to their baseline Supercenters. 

The first HE.5 store (pictured above) opened last month in Las Vegas, NV.

Their goal is to open store prototypes by 2009 in western states. The energy efficient design features include new technologies in heating, cooling, refrigeration and lighting. The stores pump water through roof-mounted cooling towers and then the water runs underneath the retail floor to cool the store for comfort and decreased energy use. Most of the interior lighting during the day will come from skylights and will be supplemented by fluorescents lights.

The data from the energy usage being monitored by Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas will be shared with the Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Lab in Denver and the University of California at Davis so that the findings can be shared with other retailers.