green building

Creativity is at the root of innovation and inspiration is the key to creation. I'm getting super excited about a new mobile I ordered from Schmitt Design, a funky eco chic bamboo mobile we're going to hang up in our office. Our office space is already pretty comfortable to work in, with great daylighting, open space and green roof deck for taking breaks. I am stoked though to add a bit of subtle movement and lightness above our desks with the new mobile. It's being custom made for us by Brian Schmitt in Sacramento, CA and as you can see from the photo we got from him the other day, our creation is well on its way in production. Besdies bamboo Schmitt Design also uses other sustainable materials such as FSC certified cherry in their other mobiles and lighting fixtures.

After looking at the reclaimed parallam beams in our warehouse for the last 7 months I finally got around to following through on the reclaimed wood work bench I envisioned when Saul Good moved into share space with Eclipse Awards. Parallam is a recycled wood building product that Eclipse used to reinforce the ceiling to add strength for the green roof top deck on top of the building. It looks really cool, layers upon layers of in line wood grains, now playing the role of table top in our production space. It was just last week when I dropped into see our friends at Propellor Design, a local Strathcona Green Zone business that designs and builds rad lighting fixtures and furniture using eco materials, when I mentioned this project and they kicked down a super simple design that we bagan to work with. Besides scoring a design we also got a few boxes of reclaimed bamboo and nice hardwoods for our hand turned pens by Tradeworks Custom Products.

Building capacity & walking the talk

I hired Shane, one of the Eclipse production staff, to help turn the plan into action and after a day's work our new table is sorted! We're using it as our new and improved assembly benchy for our sustainable corporate gift and gift basket business. Not only does this new additon keep in line with our other green building and warehousing initiatives but also adds capacity to help meet growing demand for sustainable corporate gifts in Vancouver, BC. The new work bench has a lower shelf which we're using for our recycled gift boxes which frees up a bunch of space in our shelving for more the local organic gourmet food products we use in our gifts. With added production capacity we're gearing up for the Christmas and holiday gift season.

When given the opportunity to move my business and share space with Eclipse Awards, a leading crystal and glass awards business in Vancouver, BC, I jumped at the chance.  Eclipse has been active working on the Strathcona Green Zone, a hub of sustainable business in the Downtown Eastside, by building green roofs and doing green renos in one of Canada's poorest postal codes.  It definately was a step up, having been running Saul Good out of my house for the last 2 years, and an exciting opportunity to not only scale up our operation but also create a culture for collaboration between businesses, finding ways to work together for mutual benefit.  As I moved in and started to set up shop I was faced with some purchasing decisions.  Did I go green or go home?

Green shelving

I scored some leftover LEED green shelving from Arpac, Vesta particle board shelves made from 100% recycled and reclaimed wood without any added formaldehyde.  Apparently these were leftover from a recent job doing shelving for MEC, membership in the co-op has it's privilages!

Reclaimed wood table & work bench

The next item on the list is a work bench, used to assemble gifts and store empty gift boxes.  Using materials leftover from the Eclipse green reno I'm working with Tradeworks Custom Products to custom manufacture a work bench made from reclaimed parallam beams, originally used to reinforce the ceiling for the green roof.