Recent Posts

Real Plastic Trees: What California’s Stance On The Bag Ban Means For The Environment

This is the season of plastic bags stuck in trees. Stray shopping bags–many of them white, with handles, perhaps from a deli or a fruit-and-vegetable store originally–roll along the streets, fill with air, levitate like disembodied undershirts, fly, snag by their handles in the branches. Trees wave them in the breeze. They luff an whirr like spinnakers and twist into knots. Daniel, a guy who works at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, was removing a plastic bag from a Japanese flowering cherry tree at the eastern Parkway entrance with a leaf rake as I walked by. He held the rake above him at arm’s length and snatched at the bag with the tines. It took him a while; finally, he pulled the bag down and squashed it into a ball in his hand. I asked if I could see it. Its blue logo read, “MARTIN PAINT…’It Ain’t Just Paint.’ “

-Ian Frazier, “Stuck in Trees”

I came across Ian Frazier’s now iconic New Yorker essay the other day, in a May, 24, 1993 issue of the magazine I’d found, jumbled amongst late-80s Gourmet’s and 70s Good Housekeeping’s, in the consignment store down the street from my apartment. In a nation of people largely apathetic to plastic bags, Frazier stands out. Not content with mere grumbling, Frazier and two of his friends, Tim and Frank McLelland, formed a “Bag Snagger” society and started spending their Saturdays patrolling the sidewalks and parks of the five boroughs, using an improvised elongated rake to snag the bags from their treeside perches. Eventually the men had their snagging device patented, and started what is now, in Frazier’s estimation, a “multi-hundred dollar” company, Bag Snaggers Inc.

Carbon Neutral Restaurants: Myth or Reality?

It’s not easy being green, especially not for the restaurant industry, currently the retail sector’s largest consumer of energy. However, the recent emergence of carbon neutral restaurants have caught the eye of diners who want to keep eating green when dining out. The question is, in simple terms, “are they for real?” Curious, we did some research on a few of the new carbon-neutral restaurants, trying to determine a) whether their operations and menu lived up to its zero carbon promise, and b) whether the food and concept connected with diners.

Unfortunately, we found that some–though not all–of these establishments might not be as green or as palatable as they first seemed. Carbon-neutral restaurants are a possibility and they may exist in the future, but it is important to keep in mind that being carbon neutral is not as easy as it appears.

Green-Eyed: Our Favorite Environmental And Climate Change Crusaders

Here is a quick snapshot of just a few of the many people that have changed how we look at our planet and the environment for the better.
1.) Jean Jouzel: He started his career studying hailstones, not knowing that one day he would become one of the leading specialists on climatic shifts. A climatologist and glaciologist renowned for his work in Antarctica and Greenland, Jean Jouzel is considered a pioneer in the reconstruction of climate history. He is the director of the CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) and received the highest French scientific award, the CNRS Gold Medal with Claude Lorius for archiving glacial shifts. Constantly faced with the heated debate surrounding climate change, his research has been published in more than 350 articles within various international journals.

5 Websites To Get Your Green Fix

Amidst the vast blogosphere of green websites that pop up every day, here are a few websites that stand out when it comes to enlightening and entertaining readers about eco-friendly news and living:
1) The Daily Green

Pitched as the consumer’s guide to the green revolution, this website has everything and anything you need to know about green news, cuisine, products, tips and tricks. Senior editor Dan Shapley learned about the environment by growing up in the upstate New York with a family that reduced, reused and recycled as a way of life. Born and founded on Earth Day 2007, the quirky website includes interesting headings like “Weird Weather Watch” and a blog called, “The Green Cheapskate.” The stories are clear and concise without being bogged down in too much technical jargon.

Belgrave Trust Partners With ArtHamptons And Kavoo

July has only just begun, but the summer’s already shaping up to be a real red-letter one for Belgrave Trust. Today, I’m thrilled to announce Belgrave Trust’s new partnerships with ArtHamptons and Kavoo. On the surface, it seems like an art fair and a charter aviation company would have few similarities, but they share a common dedication to adopting sustainable and clean technologies—without sacrificing quality. It’s a dedication that resonates with Belgrave Trust’s values, and I couldn’t be happier with both end results. The full press release is after the jump.

Belgrave Trust Paints ArtHamptons Green

Not literally, of course! But yes, the East End’s most prestigious art fair is now environmentally friendly. I went to the inaugural ArtHamptons, back in 2008, and I remember, distinctly, three things:

• The quality, and quantity, of the art was fantastic, ranging from old school cubists (Picasso) and realists (Andrew Wyeth) to new school splatterers (Pollack), printmakers (Jasper Johns), and pop-artists (Lichtenstein, Warhol).
• The tents—I think at that time there were four—were enormous. We’re talking big-top level, possibly bigger. Also, they were freezing; the tennis ladies were rocking major goosebumps.
• Yellow heirloom tomato Bloody Marys are delightful, especially when they’re free.

Out Of The Smoke, And Into The Fire

Mysh bzi, Morembe, Es salaam aleikom, Pauari-ecuápe, Sapyibabyi, Hello! Quick note: Apart from the last, I don’t speak any of those languages. Nor, until this week, did I speak PHP or CSS—heck, I barely spoke HTML. And now, a scant handful of days into my sojourn at Belgrave, I can safely put myself into the “beginner” category of web design. Why am I learning these concepts? Because the Belgrave blog’s getting a redesign! Tackled, in part, by me.

At Night In The City Of Open Angels

I recently had the honor of presenting the Belgrave Trust at The Open Angel Forum, Los Angeles edition, and as I head back to NYC the instant snap impression is it’s a textbook example of what makes our startup ecosystem so vibrant, agile, and powerful.

Why? The answer is simple, and hardly a secret.

Frankly it’s the basis of most of what you learn in the first few grades of school. Sure you learn how to stop eating paste and so on, but the important stuff should stick with you for life: 1) Share 2) Play Fair 3) Stick Together 4) Do For Others What You’d Have Them For You 5) Watch Out For Traffic.

Actually I think I made that last rule up myself, but it’s strange how flawlessly it applies to both preschool and online startups, so let’s leave it in. The other four are core values of the Open Angel Forum, and of many of the initiatives Jason Calacanis has created.

Beware Of False Idols, Especially The Green “Marketing Guru” Type

So I happened to find myself at a sustainability event awhile ago and a very successful and well known (among those who follow such things) individual came up to speak about connecting with audiences, advocacy, driving change and opinion. Not someone who was known for green issues or advocacy mind you, but a “Marketing Guru.” We heard all about using the latest and greatest marketing tactics to convince the world to “Go Green!” Create clever advertising! dazzle people!

And so on.

All well and good I guess. Nothing wrong with advertising to convince people to do something that’s worth doing. No reason not to grab people’s attention instead of boring them to death, right? Fair enough, but is there anything more than talk to all this? Well, as it turns out there was, when it got into specifics there were several “tactics” but one that I remember clearly:

“La dolce vita – with a splash of social responsibility”

Our story begins, with a rock:

“You’d have to be living under a rock to have avoided the controversial chatter about global warming. If you’re reading this, chances are you don’t live under that rock. In fact, you probably enjoy a nice life, indulging in occasional luxuries, whether it be driving a fabulous car, owning multiple homes or flying often for business or pleasure. It’s great to be a well-traveled person, but don’t forget to consider your sizeable carbon footprint.

Not to worry, say Jeff Stewart and Nick Baily, co-founders of The Belgrave Trust: they have one, too. But they’ve figured out a way to counteract it. The Belgrave Trust is a membership concierge service that promises ‘an intelligent way to solve global climate change.’ The firm manages a mutual fund-like portfolio of offsets….”

Read More [PDF]