green roof

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.

I love my job! I got this call yesterday from Russell at UrbanSweet Honey asking me if I was interested in high quality honey made by bees in Vancouver. He prefaced his offer, letting me know that he's only looking to work with retailers that have high end quality products that understand the value the local artisans. It was an easy answer, Russell found his guy.

The product is 100% pure wildflower which is a blend of various plants, maple, dandelion, blueberry and clover. Basically all the various plants you might find in your Vancouver neighbourhood. Russell's bees live near the PNE so this honey is East Van all the way.

Strengthen your immune system

Eating honey from your local ecosystem is good for your immune system as your body becomes more balanced with the local environment as the bees collect pollen from local plants. If you've got mild allergies, eating a little bit of pollen from the plants that give you problems can help your body create an immunity. Tom Ogren, a California horticulturalist and botanist, advocates for the use of small amounts of local (like a few mile radius from your home) to help with allergies. If you have severe allergies you need to be really careful as eating a small amount could cause an adverse reaction so act with caution. UrbanSweet Honey, although lightly filtered still contains pollen, bees wax and propolis, all good things for the immune system.

How local is local?

Bees live in a 2-3 mile radius from their hive so if you want to be truly hardcore, this is what local means to ensure the pollen you're eating is from the plants you encounter. Of course where you live, work and travel affects what local means in this case. Most artisan honeys that you'll find at the farmers market could be local but there are different kinds of bee keepers (or apiarists) which you should know about to help you with your decisions:

1) Migratory - these bee keepers travel up and down the coast to let their bees live in different areas during different season, from California to the BC interior. In this case 'local' doesn't mean much unless you're a gypsy or a rolling stone.

2) Stationary - these bee keepers live and keep their bees in one place, thus local is the radius of how far the bees travel.

In Vancouver there are a few urban bee keepers. Apparently there are bees in Strathcona Community Garden, in addition to bee hives on the roof of the Fairmont Vancouver and the new Vancouver Convention Center. We've seen honey bees on our green roof, so they are getting around!

Top 3 things I love about UrbanSweet Honey

1) The honey is so rich and smooth, the taste lingers ever so slightly and lasts in a good way.

2) Local - as local as it gets, did I mention it's good? Really good!

3) Clean - UrbanSweet is processed in a professional certified food products facility. No need to worry if dem dirty as dreadlocks from the farmers market are getting up in your food.

Cooperation once again triumphs. Last week Saul Good along with Eclipse Awards hosted an open house and green roof mojito party for our clients, associates and friends down at our green office space in the Strathcona Green Zone in Vancouver, BC. We wanted the opportunity to show our clients what we've been up to this past year, developing corporate gifts, recognition items and promotional products that say more than 'thank you', using sustainable materials and fair labour practices to create memorable and meaningful gifts that tell a story. Over the last couple years my strategy in this space was to throw a local, organic, wine cheese and chocolate tasting party for my clients to let them have a taste of what we have to offer in terms of our gourmet gift baskets, hosting the party in the fall leading up to holidays, giving ideas for corporate Christmas and holiday gifts. We reincarnated, made fresh mojitos, added a green roof and an amazing space and the 1st annual green roof mojito party was born.

One Planet Catering, Vancouver's leading socially and environmentally responsible catering company, provided an amazing array of things to eat and treat through the day. From hand made cinnamon buns and muffins in the morning to croissants with pear and brie to a spread of cheese and fruit into the afternoon and evening. Amazing artisan crisps from Gone Crackers paired with artisan cheeses and a selection of organic wines from Lotusland Vineyards, a local organic vineyard near Abbotsford, BC. We were also happy to showcase new artisan specialty nuts from Cocoa Nymph, a Vancouver based chocolatier, featuring espresso and cocoa covered local Agassiz hazelnuts, great items that are easy to share and enjoy for hosting or to send to your clients. Once again we were also happy to feature fair trade organic chocolate bars from Zazubean and the new single origin fair trade organic coffees from Salt Spring Island Coffee.

I felt really good getting to spend time with my clients, new and old, and meeting some of the companies that have been working with Eclipse over their 11 years in business. It was something that really pulled our team together both at Saul Good, Eclipse and how we both work as teams individually and collectively. We can't take all the credit, we had great help, insight and planning from Corwin at Red Wagon Management, whose work and experience made the event a smooth success. Did I forget to mention the party? Had a great time playing dj with Unkl' Funkl', one of my friends from BGI, mixing tunes well into the night. Thanks to all our friends and associates for coming out, contributing, good times and conversations. We're in it together and its really just begun.

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.