We receive information - a lot of information - about green things going on in South Florida. Sometimes they don’t merit a whole article on the topic, so we post a quick link on Facebook and / or Twitter for our followers there. Are you a Fan of greenerMiami.com on Facebook? Do you Follow Us on Twitter? Please do! And let us know the best way to get information to you quickly in the comments below.
Want to do something different, unusual, fun, healthy and will help the area be green? This weekend, Saturday, October 24 thru Sunday, October 25, 2009 there is a great event going on at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. It is the Fairchild’s Edible Garden Festival and Scarecrow Contest. You can always call for directions or more details on what they have to offer. There are going to be contests, food, lectures, cooking demonstrations, plant vendors and demonstrations on how to create a fruit and vegetable garden in your own home garden or as a container garden. Wouldn’t we all love to have fresh fruit and vegetables on our plates knowing they are free from chemicals? They do taste so much better and healthier for us too.
Bee Heaven Farm & Redland Organics will also be there with their first batch of certified organic heirloom tomato & veggie starts, plus some farmer’s market style items with the first of the local harvests - all certified organic as well.
So bring the kids, grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbors. Maybe this would be the time to start a neighborhood garden. All the information needed at your fingertips and what a fun way to show our children a better way to eat and be healthy.
We love Yelp. If you aren’t familiar, this is THE site (and iPhone app is killer) for restaurant and business reviews. It’s a growing community of really great people that want to share their recommendations with you. In fact, we originally joined in order to share our own reviews of local green businesses. Of course, we are behind on just about every project right now, so we have nothing to report there.
The good news is, the Yelp community is doing it for us! This week, they featured vintage & thrift shops around Miami. Buying used items is the ultimate in eco-friendly shopping. No new resources, keeping items away from landfills. It’s a win all around! This list includes businesses we’ve never even heard of…and what’s best, you can read about other people’s experiences before you even get there.
Do you have a favorite used spot? If you know me at all, you already know mine!
“Help save planet earth starting with uranus.” That pretty much sums up this product! Uranus eco-friendly boy shorts (ladies underwear) are made from soy material. They are super soft, and what’s best perhaps, is that the entire concept came from a couple of local Miami girls (and fellow Gators).
In an interview with the New Times, the founder tells the story of Uranus:
We came up with the idea a little over a year ago. We were painting my sister’s room in our underwear and were talking about our favorite planets. Somehow we got to talking about how it would be funny if there was an underwear company called Uranus. I think we were slightly delirious because of the paint fumes, but my dad heard us talking and thought it was a great idea, so Uranus Apparel was born. We decided we wanted to make the underwear out of eco-friendly fabric and came up with our slogan: “Help save planet earth starting with uranus”. We did a lot of research about different types of sustainable fabric and chose soy because it is the most eco-friendly and the softest.
The soy fabric is made from by-products of the soy food production process (tofu, etc). A set of 3 pairs is priced at $19.
The Good
The Not So Good
Currently the only option is to buy a 3 pack of the underwear and it arrives in a burlap sack. Though burlap is pretty eco-friendly, I’d reserve this kind of packaging for “gifts”, and allow people the option to order without. They do request that you compost or reuse the bag, however!The Verdict
Have you tried Uranus? Tell us your experience in the comments section below!
Want greenerMiami.com to review your product in our ProdLab? Contact us!
Bike Miami Oct 4, 2009. Click to zoom.
Bike Miami, Miami’s Largest FREE Street Party is Back! No bicycle required.
Sunday, October 4, 2009. 9am-2pm
Downtown Miami streets CLOSED to motor traffic:
Flagler Street will be closed from the Courthouse to Bayfront and connect to
Mary Brickell Village via SE 1st Avenue and South Miami Avenue.
NOTE: Motorist Traffic allowed to cross at SE 7th, SE 8th and SE 3rd Streets, as well as Biscayne Boulevard
FREE Children’s Activities all day long
FREE Bicycle Rentals ~ Bike and Roll Cruisers and BuddyBikes
FREE Air, Brake Checks from local Bicycle Shop Mechanics
Park (your car) at Mary Brickell Village all day for just $3, FREE Bike Valet
Performances by Suénalo, Afrobeta, Jazzilla and other live music
Have an individual, business, or organization that is demonstrating leadership and innovative ideas in sustainability and green practices? Nominate them to win in the first Sustainable South Florida Awards! Deadline has been extended through September 4, 2009!
Capablanca signing the UN agreement
This is a guest post by Fernando Capablanca, president and chief executive officer of Union Credit Bank (UCB).
Now, more than ever, businesses are embracing an eco-friendly attitude. We encounter the infusion of environmentally friendly living in our everyday activities from supermarket chains with organic-only aisles to clothing stores selling apparel made of organic cotton. It’s becoming increasingly clear to many that the earth is in dire need for us to change and adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that several banks are also embracing eco-friendly ways of doing business. Leading the pack in this movement is Union Credit Bank (UCB), a Miami-based community bank. UCB is the first community bank in the nation to sign the U.N. Environment Program Finance Initiative, which aligns the bank with environmentally friendly principles.
This pairing allows UCB to offer its customers “green” services such as hybrid car loans and green home equity lines of credit. Customers are offered loans at a reduced interest rate to help them purchase a new hybrid vehicle, an environmentally friendly home or a business as well as make improvements on their current home or business. Green incentives have also been implemented to encourage green builders. UCB provides funding with higher loan to value rations to help green builders borrow enough money to cover higher costs of construction, which later translates to an increase in asset value.
Beyond all of these initiatives, the bank truly understands that reducing carbon imprint begins from the inside. UCB’s Miami headquarters, located at 1150 South Miami Ave, is completely environmentally equipped; the building is registered as a “green building” and is considered to be a historical site. This alone has allowed the bank to acquire benefits such as tax incentives and zoning incentives.
The bank’s second branch located in the city of Doral (map), is entirely eco-friendly.
All the furniture, carpeting and flooring are made out of recyclable material. Not to mention the fact that UCB effectively reduces power and paper usage by encouraging paperless statements, offering electronic marketing brochures and installing a recycling program.
More recently UCB is in talks to sign an agreement with the Certified Green Partners as well as considering the possibility of adopting the Equator Principles.
About the author: Fernando Capablanca is president and chief executive officer of Union Credit Bank (UCB), a full-service Miami-based bank. With more than 40 years of banking experience, Capablanca founded UCB in 2006 and has overseen the bank’s expansion in South Florida.
The “keys” have just been handed over. (Push button start? I have to learn all over how to start a car.) I’m the “owner” of a very serious BMW for the weekend.
BMW’s 2009 line included two diesel models, the 335d and the X5 xDrive35d. Both of models are improving fuel efficiency while minimizing emissions and are the first clean diesels from BMW in the US in 25 years. I’ve been given the X5 to test out, and I’m a gonna test it, alright.
We’re taking the family on a mini-road trip to see what this car is all about, test out the mileage (supposedly 19 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, 22 mpg combined), and frankly to enjoy a little luxury for once!
BMW has an Eco Credit offer that is about to expire on August 31, 2009. It’s similar to the Cash for Clunkers program, but doesn’t require a clunker. You’ll get $4500 towards the purchase of one of these diesel cars. Details here.
So follow us along for the ride this weekend. We’ll be tweeting as often as we can from @greenermiami on Twitter.
Here is the final program for Miami Living Green. Don’t forget your coupon for buy one, get one free! Saturday & Sunday, August 15 & 16, 2009 at the DoubleTree Miami Mart.
Here are some of the latest details for the upcoming Miami Living Green Expo on August 15-16, 2009 at the Doubletree Miami Mart Hotel & Exhibition Center (map).
Admission is $10 (there is a coupon for buy one get one free), but we have several free passes available. Please comment below with how many you would like and why. We’ll contact those we can for mailing addresses to send out the passes in time.
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