GreenBox Spotlight: JWG

Jackson, Wyoming just got a “whole” lot cooler.

Family-owned, passionate, and full of heart…Jackson Whole Grocer is setting the standard for what “food shopping” should be.

With an emphasis on sustainable, local produce, JWG has become a staple of the Jackson community – a thriving town square with so much more than what’s on your shopping list.

From regional craft beers on tap to a wood-fired pizzeria, you’re invited to stay a while, and a seat beside the fireplace is the best in the house. They’ve got a juice & smoothie bar, too – best enjoyed on the sun-drenched patio. Top it off with a sushi station & taco taqueria, and we’re bringing our sleeping bags.

….And yes, they love the Earth. What more could you want in your go-to grocer?

In fact, JWG recently relocated to a 40,000 square foot spot – and the space is chock full of eco-friendly goodness. The ceilings are dotted with LED lighting, walls decorated with upcycled snow fencing and the café is covered in reclaimed furniture. They’ve even earned EPA’s “GreenChill” certification for their use of green refrigeration systems.

We just love these guys. Their custom GreenBox is pretty cool, too. ;)

 

 

So, if you’re ever in Jackson, stop by JWG – and maybe even “Build your own sixer.”

Because once you go whole, you’ll never go half.

Margaritas & Mother Earth

Tangy margaritas, cheesy quesadillas & spicy salsa dishes… mmmm mmm, we can already taste Cinco de Mayo!

With the holiday just around the corner, there’s sure to be plenty of Mexican-inspired festivities over the next few days...and of course, we can’t let you forget about keeping it green! No, we’re not here to demand you buy all organic or use eco-friendly paper goods. You know the drill. Instead, we thought we’d share a couple of lesser-known tips on reducing your carbon footprint this weekend.

Let’s keep Mother Earth celebrating, too.

      1. Clean up the green way

Think those greasy Lays bags can’t be put to good use? Enter Terracycle: a super innovative green company that collects hard-to-recycle packaging and repurposes it (in really cool ways…i.e. a Doritos wrapper tote is already on our Christmas list). Since 2001, they’ve collected over $2 billion pieces of trash and donated almost $7 million to charity. So, post-party fun, gather up your empty chip bags, endless soda can tabs & capri sun packaging and send it off to Terracycle. Help save the environment, and get an awesome totebag while you’re at it. It’s a win-win.

      2. Take it outside

What better way to enjoy the new found spring days than to take your party outdoors? If you’re planning an afternoon fiesta, the sun is our favorite form of light: it’s natural, warm & best of all – free! A nighttime get together doesn’t need to suck up electricity, either. Just imagine your back patio filled with the aroma of eco-friendly, soy-based candles…cozy, cute and festive.

      3. Pick a potluck

Instead of spending hours in a hot kitchen (and racking up your electric bill), throw a Mexican-inspired potluck. If each guest brings his or her dish in a reusable container, there will be less waste, and less to clean up! In need of a little inspiration? Check out this list of Cinco de Mayo meal ideas (yes, yes those are South of the Border Chicken Tamales…). But, if you’re dead-set on doing all the cooking, a barbeque is the best choice – lump charcoal or propane utilizes the least amount of energy, and is best for the environment. 

And as they say - ¡Viva!

10 Ways to Love the Earth Today

Sometimes, “going green” can seem like an undertaking. But, here at Ecovention, we know that small changes can add up – and make a remarkable difference.

In honor of Earth Day, let’s show the planet how much we love her. There’s no better time to start changing the world, one step at a time.

• Grocery shop in your PJ’s – Instead of trekking to the store this afternoon, shop online for your meals. A study by the University of Washington reveals that using a delivery service for your groceries (like PeaPod or Safeway) will slash your CO2 emissions by 50%.
• Cut it short – Simply cutting your morning shower by 2 minutes saves more than 10 gallons of water (that’s 3,650 gallons per year!). Are you a bath person? A year’s worth of daily baths uses a total of 7,300 gallons of water, costing you about $1,280 annually. Keep that shower short & sweet today.
• Junk the junk – The average American receives 40 pounds of junk mail every year (destroying 100 million trees in the process). Today, consider canceling a catalog that you hardly read, or removing your name from a few mailing lists. God knows you don’t need 14 coupon books throughout the year. 
• Recycle your morning paper – Over 63 million newspapers are printed in the U.S. daily…and 69% of those end up in the trash by mid-afternoon. If every American recycled their Sunday paper, we’d save 500,000 trees per week. Better yet – cancel your newspaper altogether and start reading the daily headlines online instead.
• Rethink your morning Joe – Each year, Americans toss more than 138 straws and stirrers used in their morning coffee. If you simply pour the cream & sugar in first, the hot coffee will do all the work.
• Choose cold – Catching up on piles of laundry? Try washing all your clothes on cold today. According to Energy Star, just about 90% of the energy consumed by your washing machine goes toward heating the water. Splurge a little on your detergent, and you won’t have to worry about your clothes coming out squeaky clean.
• Switch it out – If every household in the U.S. traded just one old light bulb for an eco-friendly fluorescent bulb, the pollution reduction would equal the removal of 1 million cars from the road.
• Go light on the napkins – If you stop by a fast food joint today (maybe for pizza!), grab a smaller handful of paper napkins. If every American took one less napkin a day (the average is 6), we’d save more than a billion pounds of wasted paper from ending up in landfills. 
• Swap out your shower curtain – You all know that new plastic smell. In fact, the average vinyl shower curtain emits 108 different chemicals into the air you breathe. Today, replace it with cloth, hemp, bamboo (oooh!) or a PVC-free plastic curtain.
• Pop the old-fashioned way – Hate to break it to you, but microwavable popcorn isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, the bags are lined with PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid): a chemical that contributes to cancer and infertility. A much safer (and yummier!) way to fresh popcorn is to pop it on the stove with some olive or canola oil.  

uOur planet is a beautiful place. Let's keep it that way. 

Wandering through the Wonder

There’s just something about a snow-capped mountain view, a salty ocean breeze, or the feeling of a warm summer rain.

The Earth is a beautiful place.

Really, though. You could be having the worst day, and all it takes is a breath of autumn air or a walk through a woodsy trail. You forget about your troubles for a while & just let go. Is there anything more spectacular?

With Earth Day coming up next month, we wanted to start getting you all in the spirit. So, we’ve gathered a list of the top 10 most amazing facts about our beautiful, incredible, mind-boggling planet.

It will never cease to amaze us.  

The largest mountain range on Earth, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, is underwater. It is almost 20 times longer than the Andes Mountains.

8.6 million lightning bolts hit the earth on a daily basis. Just one bolt can heat the air up to 30,000 degrees.

Only 14% of the world’s species have been identified. In fact, while oceans are home to over 1 million species, 2/3 have yet to be described.

99% of Earth’s gold lies in its core. That’s enough to form a 1.5-foot coat around the entire planet.

The Sahara, the largest desert on Earth, is about the size of the continental U.S. It is constantly expanding.

Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world – over one mile, or 5,371 feet down.

Earth is home to the smallest mammal: Asia’s “bumblebee bat.” They weigh less than 2 grams and are about 1 inch long.

The coldest temperature ever recorded was in Antarctica in 1983: -136°! The hottest was recorded in 1913 in Furance Creek (coincidence?), CA: 134°. We’re pretty sure the name is no coincidence.

The word “planet” comes from the Greek word planetai for “wanderer.”

 

Want to take part in a local Earth Day event? Awesome! We’ve put together a handy list to help you find your way. Now you don’t have any excuses ;)

Here’s to loving our planet & making sure she knows it.

East Coast

New York, NY

Litchfield County, CT

Washington, DC

Boston, MA

Baltimore, MD

Midwest

St. Louis, MO

Detroit, MI

Columbus, OH

Chicago, IL

Denver, CO

West Coast

San Francisco, CA

Portland, OR

Los Angeles, CA

Santa Barbara, CA

South

Nashville, TN

Central FL

Asheville, NC

New Orleans, LA

Southwest

Austin, TX

Phoenix, AZ

YoungIntern Takes Faux-Environmentalists To Task!

YoungIntern (aka Emani) made an interesting discovery the other day: there is a word for those folks who tacitly support the idea of eco-friendly initiatives, but who don't actually bother to incorporate them in to their lives. Not that we here at ECOvention are judging anyone - it's just good to keep up on your vocabulary. Take it away, YoungIntern!

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This week is my last week with ECOvention -- a moment of silence please... Thank you!

For the past few days I've been researching the top 100 Pizza Chains - our future customers, in other words.

Today was slow and tiring, so I finished that up and took a quick break to snack and get my energy up. I was looking stuff up on the Urban Dictionary, to catch up on slang that I'm too embarrassed to ask friends about (I'm 15, I should know these things). I came across the word CONGREENIENT, which is the practice of recycling, or being green, only when convenient. A congreenient person is one who only recycles when it is convenient to do so.

Now, how many people do you know that are congreenient? Are you congreenient? I believe most people in the world are congreenient: they care about the environment... just not enough to constantly go out of their way to recycle or be eco-friendly.

People who act this way aren't horrible; they do make some effort to do right by the earth every now and again. It would just be nice to have everyone do what right for this beautiful planet, but unlike Julia Roberts we all can't slap $20 million into solar powered homes... so ECOvention will stay eco-friendly with our very affordable and effective GreenBox. It's an easy way for businesses and consumers to avoid being called CONGREENIENT!!!