GroovyGreen.com – Start Today :: Save Tomorrow

Trees for the Future is an amazing organization that plants trees all over the world to restore cover to some of the Earth’s most degraded lands. Since 1988, they have planted tens of millions of trees! Each year, these trees remove more than one million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Groovy recently had the opportunity to chat with Dave Deppner, Founder and Executive Director of the organization.

Groovy: Was there a significant event or moment for which the idea for ‘Trees For The Future’ came to be? Was there a particular country that inspired the cause?

Dave: The program began in the early 1970’s when several of us, confronted with serious environmental problems that greatly limited our effectiveness in rural development programs, found ourselves in need of ideas to save these threatened lands and the people there. My own start was in the Philippines. Working with local dedicated and talented guys (and gals), we developed programs that saved and restored degraded lands with the starting point in bringing back tree cover.

Groovy: You have a partnership with the fashion company, Ecoist, that promotes the planting of a tree for every eco-friendly product they sell. How successful has this partnership been and have you found other companies interested in promoting the same type of campaign?

Dave: I’ve never asked Ecoist , but the great majority of such projects have proven very economically beneficial to the participating business – that’s what we get from their voluntary statements because we never have asked. Most also tell us the most important benefit is to employee morale because their employees are really concerned about global climate change. They say employee morale is even more important to the bottom line that increases market share.

Groovy: I had the opportunity to fly over vast swaths of Haiti last year and was shocked at how much of their land lies barren from deforestation. Has the situation turned the corner there or are they still faced with an up-hill battle to repopulate their land with trees? What country is in greatest need of a reforestation effort?

Dave: Haiti is, by far, the most environmentally devastated country in this hemisphere and certainly one of the worst cases in the world, although India, Nepal, the Philippines, Honduras and several in Africa come close. You might think of the relationship between environmental degradation and the human population per square mile as components that need to be considered. There are also coujtries, such as island nations, that may not be so bad off by themselves but which are greatly threatened by rising sea levels.

Groovy: What’s the most versatile tree species you’ve found to help rebuild the myriad of climates and conditions you face?

David: You gotta think in terms of systems rather than individual species. We work with several of the Leucaenas, and L leucocephala is the species most frequently planted in our program; mostly because it is easy to plant under a wide range of conditions. But several of the acacias are also coming into their own. But again, it takes as much diversity as we can possibly introduce to make these projects really sustainable.

Groovy: How much do you rely on volunteers to help spread your program? Can anyone with a little initiative and a ticket overseas become directly involved?

David: We are very hesitant to use volunteers overseas unless they pre-qualify by significant experience working in developing communities and by demonstrating a sincere concern for the people who live in these communities. For us, volunteers can do so much more working in their own communities and, incidentally, we are slowly developing programs – mostly educational – here at home.

Groovy: With environmental awareness growing around the world, do you believe there’s more momentum behind projects such as Trees For The Future ? In other words, are the donations matching the enthusiasm?

David: It isn’t enthusiasm as much is it real concern. People want to know why we’re in a situation where a major storm can wipe out a large American city in an afternoon (the “spike” to our website started a few days after Katrina reached New Orleans – Al Gore’s movie made it jump even faster starting last May and this latest UN Debacle in Europe has made it really jump starting last week). In that time, our membership has more than doubled and the income has almost tripled thanks largely to concerned businesses in North America and Europe that are jumping in. I don’t know if that matches “enthusiasm” or not, but it’s certainly keeping us growing.

Groovy: What’s the best way people can become involved in Trees for the Future?

David: This is a PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE program. Otherwise it simply wouldn’t work. We need their money, sure, but we even more need their activism: can they tell others about us? Can they introduce us to local businesses? Do they have friends/relatives in the Developing World who should know this help is available if they ask? Do they have management skills and ideas to make us more efficient? Can they write letters to stupid senators who think this problem (like Vietnam) can be solved by “throwing money at it”? Can you imagine what the reaction would be if I walked into the office of the President of the Philippines (as I intend to do in a couple of weeks) and tell her I’m speaking for a million concerned Americans who want her to get those barren mountains turned green again?

Groovy: Any milestones you’re hoping to reach in 2007?

David: The planting of 9,000,000 trees this year, more than double any year before, is a significant milestone and one that is consuming the entire staff. My own goal is to begin getting Americans to understand that this threat is so real, so serious, that the only possible way to resolve it is for the people of North America to join hands with the people of the Developing World. By working together, planting trees and forests on the barren lands of the humid tropics, we can simultaneously solve the problem of global climate change and the very serious – life threatening – problems of the people who will plant these trees. No government can do this but people can – if they start seeing each other as equals and friends. Can that happen?

Groovy: What country has the best forest conservation program in place?

David: By now you can imagine my thinking that COUNTRIES don’t ever have significant reforestation programs. The last here was under Franklin Roosevelt – the CCC in which I was once a minor participant. But the PEOPLE in some countries, within thier local organizations, have some great programs. The two that first come to mind are Honduras and Ethiopia.

Many thanks to Dave and the entire Trees for the Future organization for answering our questions. If you are interested in helping, please visit their website here and give what you can! It takes a donation of only $100 to plant a grove of 1,000 trees! Check out their contributions page for more information.

Can you remember two years ago? If so, you might recollect that streaming video was something very little of us could implement, much less afford. 24 months later, it’s now incredibly easy to film something and get it up online for all to see. Video sharing, publishing, and downloading are now the wild new frontiers. You no longer need a lucky break through public access television to reach an audience. Your great skit, message, or on-the-scene report can be uploaded and catapult you onto CNN or MSNBC the next week. It’s an exciting time and there are several options for showing off your work.

Treemo.com is one such player in the field of ‘media sharing’. What makes their service so appealing, however, is the social mission their business follows — from supporting environmental causes to promoting the arts. If Youtube is the urban playground, Treemo is the wild beauty just outside the city limits. Groovy Green is in the process of switching our videos to their site; not just because we feel the quality is better than others, but because Treemo’s mission is the same as our’s. I recently had the opportunity to throw at few questions at Brent Brooker, the CEO and Founder of Treemo.

Groovy: Tell us a little bit about Treemo, its mission, and your involvement. Also, how did the name come about?

Brent: Treemo is a ‘media sharing’ web site and mobile application. We allow users to upload, view and share video, photos, audio and text both on the web and mobile phones. We also are unique in that we have integrated a ‘social mission’ into our business where we are promoting recycling and social programs. We changed our name to Treemo to reflect the ‘green’ influence, that a ‘tree’ has. We also like the tree metaphor for so many other reasons. One of our taglines, is, “It’s Growing.”

I am the founder and CEO. Started the company in October 2005, but had the genesis of the idea a long time ago.

Groovy: Related to number one a bit, Treemo mentions that its “Accountability Trifecta” is people, planet and profits – in that order. Can you elaborate on that thinking?

Brent: The new line of thinking is to build companies that have interests behind just profits and financial success.

People means our employees and our users and the social programs we’ve created. We treat our employees well; from health care benefits to sane working hours to a ‘bottoms up’ philosophy where any idea from anyone can be acted on as we try to build consensus. For our users, we are trying to build a safe community on the internet and mobile phones. This means promoting the content that is responsible and has a good message and banning users who violate our terms of service. We also are working with a couple non-profits to teach digital photography to disadvantaged or low income youth. We’re on our second class right now and it is very gratifying to seeing these kids ‘express themselves’ on Treemo.

Planet – we have dedicated a section of our site, called ‘Get Involved’, where we promote recycling and our social programs. We all need to dispose of the mobile phones, digital cameras and computers responsibly or the planet is going to suffer. We also make great efforts to run our business as a green business – recycled paper and other office supplies, we have looked into carbon offsets for our electricity, and we are thinking of getting an ‘office’ bike, so anyone can run errands with the bike.

Profit – that is pretty self-explanatory, but is also a challenge to weigh all interests in every decision we make as a company. While we would always like to put people and planet first, we have a business to build and we’re in a pretty competitive space.

 Groovy: Treemo is aimed at the creative video market – in a world of YouTube and Google Video, do you find yourself attracting a more mature audience of individuals looking to share for the benefit of the message rather than shock value like on other sites?

Brent: Our intention is to become the ‘media sharing’ platform for the green movement on the web; but because we are also integrating with mobile phone carriers, we are getting users from a younger demographic and the mainstream market. Our goal is to promote our green ideals and socially responsible message and if we go into the mainstream, we have the opportunity to convert or educate the masses. It seems that there is some talk of the green movement going mainstream and that is going to come when the dialogue moves from preaching to the converted to preaching to the uninformed. We are happy to be in that position. One challenge that we face is that we have an open community and platform and we promote freedom of expression. What happens when people express themselves in ways that you don’t want to promote?

Groovy: Any thoughts to offsetting a percentage of Treemo’s electric bill through wind credits?

Brent: Yes, we have looked into that, and the issue we have is that we are sub-leasing our space and therefore can’t use wind power directly. In the course of looking into it, my family has now offset a portion of our personal electriticy with wind power through our electrical company.

Groovy: What happens if someone reaches their 1000MB quota? YouTube has something called Director Accounts that place no such limits on their producers. Are there any plans to offer something like this for people with lots to share?

Brent: We plan on launching a ‘pro’ service that will allow essentially unlimited storage for a $2.99/month charge. We haven’t determined the exact amount of storage but around 2gb/month. We also plan on launching an revenue sharing program for our pro users where we will share back advertising revenue.

Groovy: The Mobile Phone appears to be the next frontier for user generated video. How has Treemo positioned itself to take advantage of this?

Brent: We think we’re very well positioned for that. Right now, every video that is uploaded is converted to a format used on most mobile phones (that support video). We are also in discussions with a number of mobile phone carriers to have Treemo available on their phones. We just recently launched our TreemoTXT SMS service. This allows users to get to their Treemo channel on their mobile phone quickly and easily, all you do is text the username to Treemo or 873366. Currently, this is only available on Cingular and Sprint.

Groovy: Video sharing sites are now starting to offer revenue sharing opportunities for creators of popular videos. Are there plans for Treemo to offer this as well? Could such revenue also be offered to charity or additional notable causes?

Brent: The charity angle is something that we have discussed and we might support down the road. We have other ideas as well like allowing users to have petition signups or similar links on their channel or content.

Groovy: Do you have a favorite video on Treemo that you would like to point out? (Groovy-aside! )

Brent: From the artistic to the auteristic, to the journalistic (like Groovy Green), but my favorite videos have to be of my daughter. I like to take quick videos of her and I can watch them over and over again. I can’t wait to chronicle her life through Treemo through the years.

Groovy: Where will Treemo be 12 months from now? What goals are on the horizon?

Brent: I have no idea where we’ll be in 12 months. We have lots of goals, so we will continue to refine our technology and work on getting more traffic and distribution. We hope to ‘break’ some stories or launch some creative careers, or make some further innovations of our platform.

GroovyGreen recently chatted with Summer Bowen of BTC Elements  to talk about her latest sustainable venture…

10 Questions For Summer Bowen from BTC Elements:

1.) Have you found your search for ’sustainable’ products to be hindered by a lot of the crap or false promises companies tag onto their products? In other words, do you find this search to be one akin to an uphill battle?

Definitely.  One of the reasons I started this company was to help people sort through the crap, or really to sort through it for them.  “Organic” and “sustainable” are such hot words, some companies try to squeeze it into their name or description.  At first, it can be hard to distinguish between who wants to help the Earth, and who is just looking to capitalize. After a lot of research, it becomes easier to distinguish between green and green washing.  People who are legitimate give a lot of details about their products, or they find out about it for us, or they change their production in order to meet the standards of BTC.  Also, there are plenty of companies with good practices and great intentions that I don’t use for one reason or another.   So, yes, it is an uphill battle, but I don’t know many people who aren’t on an uphill battle…keeps life interesting.

2.) Are there any plans to offer your products to brick and mortar stores? It seems like your site could also work as a sort of portal to bridge the gap between small producers and name-brand businesses.

I may open a brick and mortar store myself someday, but wouldn’t necessarily be a portal for producers and name brand businesses.  Many of our products are in brick and mortar stores already, especially in areas like Santa Monica, CA, where there is more shopping than I thought humanly possible.  I actually see pieces I’m selling at plenty of non-green stores like Fred Segal, and smaller boutiques.  It makes me a little giddy; they are selling them because they are stylish, and happen to be green.   So many green designers are getting it right – they know you need to have both these days; most people will compromise a little on price, but not on style.   

3.) I’ve noticed more fashion designers embracing alternative forms of fabric–such as the corn-based Ingeo. Do you believe it will take high-end clothing designers to inspire a trickle-down effect to consumers; or will organic and alternative fabrics simply be something dictated by price and not culture?

The use of alternative fabrics is growing for a number of reasons, and it’s hard to put a finger on what will continue to push the movement forward.  I think it will be a combination of creative designers that want to marry style and sustainability, responsible consumer demand, and a changing culture…each affecting the other.  Consumers didn’t necessarily say, “Hey, I want a purse made out of reused inner tube tires,” but they know it is easier on the environment to choose this purse rather than a brand new one. The consumer is becoming smarter, more aware, and so are designers. This awareness is stemming from the fact that what we are doing to the environment is starting to effect people’s lifestyles: health, gas prices, weather, etc.  It is actually touching people.  Sorry for the Marx reference, but when exploitation becomes palpable, revolutions begin.  We’ve gone too far with our exploitation of the earth, which is one reason the green trend and alternative fabrics are picking up momentum -  people can relate to it now.  Now “we” aren’t the ranting minority.  We’re CEO’s, ex vice- presidents, rock stars, bloggers, we’re growing, and we want alternatives. 

4.) How do you find your suppliers? Is it possible for small companies out there to contact you directly to potentially promote their product on your site and through your distribution network?

I hunt for my suppliers. I read up on them, email, call, ask for samples, go to trade shows.  When I’m lucky enough, I visit designers and producers, have lunch, martinis, or espressos.  The one time I did use a distributor for a product, it really didn’t work for me – I like to do my own due diligence. I felt disconnected with that process, so I’m determined to go to the source, or at least the direct sales people for the source.  I enjoy my interactions with these folks; smart, good, progressive, funny people that I appreciate and look forward to talking to everyday. 

And yes, small companies can definitely contact me about a product or idea.  I get emails all the time about potentially selling items on the site.  I welcome any and every person who wants to drop me a line…except I’m pretty picky.  If it’s not fabulous, green, and fairly made, it won’t go up on the site.

5.) What influences your decision to feature products from overseas–such as Indonesia? Quality and form? Price and Availability? Economic Benefits? Or a little of everything? Just curious, since some people might have issues with importing instead of going national and conserving energy in transportation.

This is a great question.  Most of the products I carry are made in the USA. Keeping it local is important, supporting our economy, ensuring that people are treated well and paid well for their work.  Everything I do get from overseas is either sourced through the Fair Trade Federation, which is a screening body for fair trade practices, or is certified fair trade.  Many of the sustainable products that I source internationally are unique to the area, not available in the USA, or have unique and inspiring stories that I’m drawn too.  As many of your readers know, hemp is a sustainable material that can’t be grown in the US, so I get my reusable hemp coffee filters from an importer that provides training equipment and seed money to cooperatives looking for financial independence.  Another example is the SPIRAL Foundation, a non-profit based out of Nepal and Vietnam that imports baskets made from reused potato chip wrappers.  The money they make off these baskets goes to funding heart surgeries for children who can’t afford them.  While energy is being wasted in transporting these goods to the US, I think it is worth it to support these companies.  Money really has less to do with it (sure, everyone says that).  I don’t really look at in terms buying “Widget A” overseas rather than domestically because it is cheaper.  I usually buy “Widget A” from overseas because it is an interesting or useful product that is benefiting folks who need the business.

6.) How is the demand these days for sustainable products? Do you find there is greater awareness overseas than within the United States?

I do find a lot of awareness in terms of sustainability internationally.  In general, I feel like there is a greater green awareness in Europe as far as food standards, public transportation, and resource use, and I’m sure that translates into a greater awareness for sustainable products as well.  In the US, we’ve been fortunate enough to have access to almost unlimited resources- but this entitlement has been a crutch for this country in terms of sustainability.  We Yanks are gaining momentum though….

7.) Is it difficult finding products for men? Is this a demographic the industry as a whole is short on?

You mean beyond really cool t-shirts?  Absolutely.  Many of the sustainable designers are still new, or for various other reasons, they only have a women’s line.  This’ll change though. It may take a few years for men to have a sustainable wardrobe, but we’ll get there. Just recently I was able to add a great organic cotton casual dress shirt for men that has sage and natural stripes from color grown organic cotton!  Yes, I get excited about these things, it’s my life.  My husband loves it too though; he’ll be sporting it at a wedding we’re going to in couple of weeks.  

8.) If you could live anywhere else in the world, where would your run to?

Gosh, I kind of like where I am right now. Being a northern California gal, I didn’t think I’d like my recent move to Santa Monica (about 10 miles west of downtown LA) but I can walk to the farmer’s market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and pretty much ride my bike anywhere I need to go. Plus it’s beautiful here and we’re close to “the industry” for my freelance composer husband.  If I moved anywhere else in the world, I’d need to take all of my friends and fam in California, which might be a little too demanding.  Plus, the Wild Oats grocery store three blocks away lets us take all of their used boxes for filling BTC orders. Can’t beat that.

9.) Finally, where would you like to see BTC Elements two years from now?

Employing a group of solid innovative people, providing sustainable products to the public, and raising awareness about green and fair trade issues.  Possibly turning a building into an off-the-grid live/work urban eco village with BTC Elements as the retail store on the bottom floor.  Complete with a roof top organic garden with chickens, and a fair trade organic café (alright, maybe in ten years).

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Many thanks to Summer for the interview. Be sure to check out her online store at: BTCElements.com