Slay Energy Vampires! the return, plus a new local business in Tempe that composts!

Hello all! Justin here, and I am pleased to announce the return and reboot of Slay Energy Vampires. I am sorry for leaving all of you hanging, I took a quick break for the holidays, but when I returned I found that my computer was on the outs, and after many weeks of battling the computer, and other issues I finally started gathering information and idea for the return of Slay Energy Vampires! We are back in complete operation now, hoping to provide you with tips and tricks on reducing your footprint, plus local businesses trying to make a difference, and yes, Meatless Mondays, and my own adventures to make my house just that much energy conscious. I thank you again for the patience, my own person New Year's resolution this year was to make this site 100,000 hits...please help me out, spread the word, send me some links, or heck, even write an article, this is a community here, not just me...

Now with the news!

Coming out ot Tempe, Arizona, there is a new business in town called EcoScraps. EcoScraps offers to takes unusable rotting fruits and vegetables from local restaurants and grocery stores and uses them to turn into nutrient-rich compost and which they then  sell back to local nurseries and landscaping companies. This is removing the need to ship in other compost from out of town, and keeping the whole decomposition chain local. According to the press release from the City of Tempe:

This month alone, they will likely create enough compost from what would otherwise go into a landfill to offset the emissions of 13,000 cars for a month.

That's a lot of cars to offset. I applaud companies like this that take the initiative to bring green farming, and sustainable practices to a city and community.

EcoScraps started as a brainchild of Dan Blake who noticed that so much of his food was getting thrown out in restaurants. He started dumpster diving for food from local restaurants and composting at home as an experiment with different methods of composting. EcoScraps is currently in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. You can find EcoScraps on Facebook: here.

---Justin J. Stewart (...link via Angie Fretz)

Tempe goes to green composting pilot, adds recycling around town...and I finally get a post out there!

First off, I must apologize for the lack of information lately. From this point on there will be more and more information and great ideas coming out from this blog! I appreciate all of the support that has come from the audience out there, but I am still looking for links and stories from you, the readers! If you have something in your community or your house that you think should be covered or want people to know about, leave us a note and we'll get it out there for ya. We are always looking for input and the more we keep talking the better for all of our communities and homes.

Now, on to the post.

Tempe, Arizona has done it again, leading the way with a new and invigorating ideas to improve their city and continue to promise green living to their community. Over a year ago they expanded their recycling program to include all plastic numbers, #1-#7, and now they are looking to include green compost waste. According to an August 24th, 2010 press release from the city they are piloting a program in some of their neighborhoods to college green compost waste. This is exciting news, especially from a community that already offers free compost bins to their residents. According to the release the waste is going to be used right back into their community:

As they say, what goes around, comes around - in a good way. Tempe's new pilot compost program collects green waste that comes back to the community in the form of rich compost for parks, ball fields and community gardens.

They also have released a nice video about the program and the important benifits of the program:

Once again, Tempe showing the way for other Arizona cities, and actually, United States cities. Does your community do this? If they do let me know, and I'll give an update and a shout out to those communities as well!

Also, speaking of Tempe. According to a July press release from the city, they have finally installed the much needed Mill Avenue District recycling bins for drop-off recycling. This should be a great benefit for the students that live off campus in apartments and houses in the area, where recycling is not necessarily offered. From the press release the location is:

It’s now a little easier to be green in downtown Tempe. This week, the City of Tempe in partnership with Downtown Tempe Community installed three new recycling containers in the downtown area – on Mill Avenue at both Fifth and Sixth streets and at Tempe City Hall, 31 E. Fifth St. – making it easier for people to recycle while visiting downtown Tempe.

This should be a great improve to a city always trying to look forward. For more information please visit Tempe's recycling website.

Speaking of recycling really quick, I recently took a trip back to Michigan, and was flying Delta. For the first time in all of my air travel, they actually offered in-flight recycling. I was shocked, but pleased. This probably isn't news since I don't fly more than twice a year, but it was comforting to finally see this in-flight.

Until next time, which will be sooner than last time, feel free to reach out to us and help us bring this community together and move forward one mind at a time, and spread the word!

----Justin J. Stewart

The Stone House, a new wine and cheese bar, looks at retail and food service sustainability

...link via Angie Fretz

I like to eat. Those that know me, you know I like to eat. I also like to drink a plethora of beverages. I like fresh squeezed juice, I have a passion for coffee, I like cheap shwag beer and non-cheap micro-brews, and I love wine. So when I see a new cool place opening up around the country, I get excited. Especially when it's cheese (which I love), and Wine (which I have already stated my previous mention of love for). Now, you are saying, "Justin! What does this have to do with home energy usage or sustainability at all?".

Great question...

I have journeyed to many coffee houses. One of my biggest complaints about coffee houses are how they are not taking proper steps to reassure a sustainable practice. For some examples: non-recycling offered on the premise (even though their cups are #1s or #2s, yes, I'm looking at your Starbucks), thrown away coffee grounds, and preferred disposable containers offered to in-house purchases instead of washable cups and dishes.  I am singling out coffee shops because it is easy to assess all the waste that takes place in one. Fine sit down dining is a little harder, because you don't know what goes on in the kitchen. Coffee shops, fast food restaurants, and other in and out type locals, its a lot easier, and you know what I see? I see a lot of waste! There are some great independent local coffee shops that I've seen, one of them being The Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe, AZ, that deals great with waste. But it is rare when a new bar lets you see what helped them make some responsible decisions.

The Stone House, a new wine and cheese bar in Eureka Springs, AR has designed a restaurant based around sustainable practices. The owners renovated an old 1800s stone built house in Eurka Springs, and given it a new chance for a new life. This is sustainable urban planning at it's finest, true cradle to cradle usage. They use locally grown organic produce in their meals. The best part of all, which was inspired by Jay Fretz, is the use off biodegradable and compostable food service products that would normally being thrown in the trash. The Stone House went looking for a supplier of these materials and found a company called World Centric. World Centric states on their sustainability page:

"Sustainability is the idea that civilization as a whole can act in a way that supports not only social equality but also protects the earth’s ecosystems and natural resources for generations to come. At World Centric we try our best to do our part - in the products we sell, how we run our business, what we do with our profits and the values we hold. We list the things we are currently doing to be a sustainable company..."

This a great news for entrepreneurs like The Stone House, and other upstart restaurants that want to be environmentally responsible. It also gives us as consumers, choices of where we want our spending dollars to go and in what directions we want to see new businesses develop. Also, another great thing for us at home is World Centric products are available for home use at Whole Foods, and Cost Plus World Market.

So here I am raising a glass of wine to the success of The Stone House! We need more businesses like you and your vision of how to run a business! If you know of any other sustainable run food service businesses, let us know, we would love to share!

The Stone House on Facebook

The Stone House while being renovated.The inside of The Stone House near the end of renovation.

--- Justin J. Stewart (link Via Angie Fretz).