EcoFlip Has Recently Been "Flipped" by a Bigger, Greener Outfit...Stay Tuned!!!

EcoFlip Will be Featured in San Francisco's 7X7 Magazine this April

San Francisco's 7X7 Magazine has been covering the hottest and most up-to-date Bay Area trends and we're honored to be included in April's issue.  We will most definitely keep you in the loop regarding the article as well as with where the founders have been over the past few months. Stay tuned...

San Francisco Bay Air

There's obviously something special in the air here in the SF Bay Area. Something fresh... Something very, very creative! Yeah that's it, there's a creativity in the air up here! Originally a SoCal dude, I must admit that every so often I do vent about the type of cool weather up here that seems to bite. Granted, Mark Twain suffered from hypothermia during a stay in San Francisco, his famous line "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" tells all. However, the SF Bay's signature cold may just be the bite of creativity. I mean, let's not forget it was the people on this beautiful part of the globe that birthed biotchnology, Google and did I mention jeans?

I've lived on the East Bay and worked in the South Bay. I currently live in the North Bay and work mostly in the heart of San Francisco. And although the microclimates of each can (and usually do)differ simultaneously, they all carry the priceless breeze of creativity, all year long. 

Young Green Savvy

Many Marin residents at the core of Bay Area's rise in enviro-friendly businesses...

 

Above: Forrest Kolb (left) and Joe Paone, seen in Sausalito, co-founded the classifieds Web site EcoFlip.org in an attempt to become the craigslist for green products and services. (IJ photo/Alan Dep)

From the Marin Independant Journal

ENTREPRENEUR Neal Gottlieb was 28 when he started Three Twins Organic Ice Cream in Terra Linda in 2005 and now bills it as the first "chain" of organic ice cream stores.

The owner of two ice cream stores also sells his ice creams, gelatos and sorbets to restaurants and at farmers markets and grocery stores. He is hoping to expand production at a plant in Petaluma.

Gottlieb is among Marin entrepreneurs whose businesses are young and green. He chose ice cream because it was a business that could be started small and grow.

"Organic sets us apart," Gottlieb said. "When you think of what is done to cows and the chemicals you put into our body - we are so lucky in Northern California to live in close proximity to so many great organic dairies and having an abundance of organic produce."

Gottlieb tried the corporate world for a while after graduating from Cornell University in New York in 1999, but he decided it wasn't for him.

"After Sept. 11, I thought about how I would feel about my accomplishments if I got killed in the World Trade Center," Gottlieb said. "I wanted to do something more meaningful."

He said that if he was going to work 40 to 80 hours a week, he wanted to feel passionate about what he was doing.

"It's such a great opportunity to make people love you and not just think about the bottom line," Gottlieb said. "Customers talk about you and they spread the word - they want to support you."

Green businesses, or environmentally friendly enterprises, are on the rise in the Bay Area, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments, which started a green business program in 1996. Since then 1,375 businesses have been granted green certification.

Marin launched its program in 2002 and now lists 254 certified green businesses.

To qualify for certification, a business must comply with a checklist of requirements, such as buying only recycled paper and copying on both sides, cleaning premises with nontoxic products, installing energy-efficient lighting systems and conserving water with low-flush toilets and faucet aerators.

Sarah Diefendorf, executive director of the Environmental Finance Center at Dominican University of California, said green business momentum is building. "We're not at the crest of that wave yet," Diefendorf said. "Everything is pointing in that direction, but we haven't reached a point where industry is saying 'we need this.'"

She noted the university's green MBA program is beginning to see a demand for hiring sustainability coordinators.

She said the future is bright for Marin's young green entrepreneurs. "We are going to be forced into energy efficiency and conservation, and those who are ahead of the curve are always going to fare better."

Sausalito resident Forrest Kolb, 25, earned a bio-engineering degree at the University of California at San Diego and got a job in research and development at Genentech Inc. in the East Bay. He moved to Marin about three years ago.

He was inspired to start his business, BizzFlip Inc., while he was driving through Silicon Valley, noticing how many technology company names were posted on buildings. He realized businesses needed a way to talk to each other. He and a business partner, Joe Paone, began to research a Web site that would serve as an online classified advertising site for entrepreneurs.

BizzFlip.com was launched in May 2007 and includes postings for businesses for sale, business services and venture capital pitches.

This year, Kolb and Paone launched EcoFlip.org, a platform for environmentally friendly listings for products and services. Users can place free online postings for buying and recycling green products, fuel-efficient vehicles and environmentally friendly services.

"Our vision for EcoFlip is for it to be the first place people go for eco-friendly and green business," Kolb said. "We want to be the craigslist for green products and services."

He loves living in Marin and setting his own schedule so he can enjoy the outdoors while working long hours.

"We are on the computer all day," Kolb said. "When you're really passionate about your business, it's not work.

"We are looking at taking investments from angels to scale it up," Kolb said. "We don't want to take money and lose control, we want people who are passionate."

Another young Marin entrepreneur, Jorge Lee, grew up in Mill Valley and graduated from Cornell University in December 2006. After working as an intern for the Clorox Co. in Oakland and then in payroll at Catholic Healthcare West, the 23-year-old Lee decided he didn't want to sit in a cubicle and do paperwork.

"I wanted something where I would keep learning," Lee said. "I talked to entrepreneurs and they said they wished they had started earlier."

Lee spent time in cafes learning about Web sites. He knew he needed to learn how to sell so he took a door-to-door sales job with AT&T in Oakland. "You learn real quick how to sell," Lee said. "You have to impulse someone."

Lee saw a need for nontoxic house cleaning services and decided that would be his niche. "I wanted a low start-up cost that would grow," Lee said. "Growing up in Marin I was very aware of green."

Lee experimented with nontoxic materials such as baking soda, club soda, vinegar, borax and Castile and developed his own line of cleaners in his parents' garage.

He brought in a family friend and the two began cleaning the houses of friends in March. He developed a checklist to let clients know exactly what had been cleaned.

He was certified as a Marin green business, boosting visibility. His Web site is www.marinhousecleaning.com and he has about 15 clients. Lee plans to hire a manager to head several teams of cleaners and let the business run itself.

"I've learned so much about sustainability doing this," Lee said. "It's going pretty much according to the business plan - the business is scalable.

"I'll knock on every door in Marin before I see this business fail."

Gardening provided a green ticket for Zachary Wahle of Fairfax, who grew up in West Marin and developed a passion for sustainable agriculture. He earned a master's degree in ecological agriculture and did his thesis on banana sustainability while living in the Caribbean.

When he returned to Marin, he started Edible Attractive Terrains, or EAT, a certified green business, and began to work with clients, designing, installing and maintaining sustainable, organic landscapes and gardens to produce food for the household.

Wahle, 29, said his plan was to start a business that would let clients produce food no matter how small the property.

"I wanted to build food security - I saw the threat to our food sovereignty," Wahle said.

Wahle plants fruit trees, artichokes, strawberries, okra, root crops and blueberries, among others, along with edible flowers such as roses and marigolds. He uses natural pest control and water-conscious designs. "I don't have a mower, a blower or a weed wacker," he added.

He thinks of himself as a mobile farmer and works with clients based on the level of service they prefer, from being a guide to maintaining gardens and harvesting crops.

"People can produce more than they think," Wahle said. "It's all going to depend on how much of their property they want to devote to it and on how much time they are willing to spend - or how much they are willing to pay me to do it."

San Francisco Converts Grease to Biodiesel

Energy Current

"SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco will build its first pilot facility to convert as much as 2.5 million gallons of the city's restaurant grease into biodiesel.  San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) received a US$1 million grant last month for the project from the California Energy Commission (CEC).

The new plant will be sited at SFPUC's Oceanside Sewage Treatment Plant.  The new plant will create three treat three grades of biodiesel using brown grease collected from the city's restaurants.  The three grades of biodiesel can be used to feed motor vehicles, sewage treatment plants and the city's heating and electrical needs.

The CEC is looking closely at this and similar projects to help cover California's anticipated 1 billion gallon shortfall of biodiesel by 2022.  The shortfall is anticipated even with a growing number of yellow grease recycling programs like San Francisco's SFGreasecycle.

The SFGreasecycle program, which was launched last year, collected yellow grease-like fryer oil from restaurants to fuel the city's vehicles, buses and fire trucks.  SFGreasecycle will also manage the brown grease pilot plant, which is scheduled for completion this December.

"Sewage treatment plants account for three per cent of the nation's electrical consumption because they run 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington.  "This brown-grease to biodiesel project is a win-win for our ratepayers and the environment.  We'll keep more grease out of the sewers and reduce our reliance on outside energy sources for our treatment plants."

Plant a Green Classifieds Ad on EcoFlip.org!
Post a Free Business Classifieds Ad on BizzFlip!

BizzFlip Inc. Plants a Greener Classifieds Community

San Francisco - BizzFlip, Inc. recently announced the soft launch of their greenest addition to a growing brand of specialized, community-driven classifieds. EcoFlip.org provides a craigslist-like platform allowing users to create free ads for the buying and recycling of green products, fuel efficient vehicles and eco-supportive services to name a few. It even features an EcoPersonals section for local tree huggers to network and socialize as well as discussion forums supporting green living. 

“There’s no better time and place to take part in the shift towards a cleaner, greener economy” mentions Forrest Kolb, one of EcoFlip's co-Founders and CVO. “We are very excited to expand our brand of niche classifieds and we understand the value EcoFlip.org brings not only to our eco-conscious users but to Mother Earth herself.”   

Similar to the simple interface and functionality of entrepreneur-centric BizzFlip.com, eco-conscious users create free ads under various posting categories. 

On EcoFlip.org, posting categories include:

Green Living
Household Products
Fuel Efficient Vehicles
EcoFriendly Services
Green Travel
Green & Conscious Events
Reuse & Recycle
EcoPersonals

As BizzFlip, Inc.’s latest addition continues to grow, EcoFlip.org intends on expanding its posting categories based upon user feedback. Forrest concludes, “we will continue updating our eco-friendly classifieds with categories promising to stimulate greener and cleaner living.”

About:

EcoFlip.org is exclusively owned and operated by BizzFlip, Inc. which launched entrepreneur-centric BizzFlip.com in 2007. EcoFlip.org features green and eco friendly classifieds via the collaboration of eco-conscious people worldwide.

-EcoFlip.org Staff

Post a Green ad on EcoFlip.org!

Alcatraz Island: The Global Peace Center

Here I was, sitting at my favorite local cafe, testing and troubleshooting newly added EcoFlip.org, when this bright couple stood up next to me and said, greetings! There smiles were packed with the type of energy needed to spread awareness and bring about change. They must have noticed my organic T-shirt and realized that we were on the same frequency when they handed me a CD and post card that read...

A Progress Report

On February 4, 2008, 55,000 S.F. Voters said YES! to The Alcatraz Conversion Project. This visionary initiative resulted in substantial local, national and global media attention. We are committed to seeing this project to its completion!

The New Alcatraz, a place of light, beaut and freedom will become an artistic, educational and spiritual center which will attract millions of people from all over the world to be "Inspired, Delighted, Healed and Enlightened."

Through this process, we will e-create Alcatraz island as a sacred site and thus acknowledge the Native American people, while simultaneously initiating a new, peaceful and enlightened epoch for all humanity.

To learn more about this noble, inspired and timely project visit our website!

Your Support Is Deeply Appreciated!

GlobalPeaceFoundation.Org   Alcatraz.NU

As I am personally interested in learning more, I will be contacting the head of the organization early next week and will be sure to update with more information.

-EcoFlip.org Staff

Post a Free ad on EcoFlip.org!