Philadelphia

Philadelphia Man of Mail

CALLING ALL OF YOUS! I want to come up with something clever to stencil or put on the Internet. Sort of how Brooklyn did their Biggy thing. I’ve been cutting up boxes,  saving bottles, washing plastics, and testing out the waters of a trash free lifestyle. Philly has plenty of ways to give away yr reusable garbage as well as get it (ALL FOR FREE), Freecycle is fantastic. You’d be surprised how much we actually do throw in the trash, never to be seen again, makes you wonder. I was thinking of possibly Carrotmobbing some businesses (where they may not need too many electrical or efficency improvements) based on who’s willing to be the least wasteful. Reusable bags, no foam/paper products, composting, even bailing cardboard boxes to sell back; with a small amount of effort and some start up capital (!!!) this doesn’t seem as far fetched as first thought…

Any who, I didn’t have much company at Clark Park this past weekend, short notice and change of seasons make these things hard to trade yr spare or work time for. No biggie, I had fun writing some and meeting my neighbors, telling them about what we’re doing, as well as just straight hangin’ out on a beautiful day. We’ll get another sesh going real soon, I’ll take some sort of a survey. But for now, here’s a couple of things to chew on:

1. I want to do some Carrotmob volunteer work; maybe just a park clean up or street clean up, I was thinking even making some food to feed some homeless . We’ll pick a real nice day and place, take some photos, tell some local press, get some more buzz, building up our status in the community, it would be great. Let me know if your involved in anything like this or have any ideas. I’m super open but we’ve gotta do it soon.

2. Earth Day Festival and Flea Market-THIS LOOKS AWESOME. I’m psyched to go in general, but start stacking those business cards and stencils, this is gonna be another great chance to get our word out. This a very close-knit community based event, many people, but nothing like the expo. Live music and poetry to top it off is going to make this a great experience.

For Now, that’s all I got, stay tuned, more to come. Meeting Time-Place-

P.S. Skilled Photographer Needed For Documentation Purposes-No Pay Involved. Carrotsofphilly@gmail.com

-Unicorns Will Rule the Earth, We’re People Too.

tnymnt.

Clark Park: WEST PHILLY.

Hi again, the forcast says Sunday’ll (the 22nd) be warm and partly sunny, so lets meet in CLARK PARK. It stretches three blocks long (Between Baltimore and Woodland) and 2 blocks wide (45th-43rd st). We’ll meet on the Woodland side since the farmers market probably will be going on. Plan to be there AT 2 O’CLOCK pm(Eastern Standard Time), we’ll hang and hold off some before getting down to biz, but at 3, fashionably late ends. Just look for me, I’ll be there early and all day so feel free to come early so we could get some coffee or brunch. If yr taking public trans, hop the Green Line Route’s 11 or 36 and get off at 45th, you can’t miss it. Call or e-mail me if you need any help getting there or finding me.

(856)316-2901-tonyxmont@gmail.com

p.s. Feel free to bring some materials to make some biz cards (recycled and/or trashpicked ONLY).

-Tony.

Taking Over the Go Green Expo.

HEY, SUP?

We have had a very exciting weekend for Carrotmob! Friday, I attended the business-business day at the Go Green Expo, this enabled me to get a grasp on exactly what sort of businesses we could be in contact when dealing with the actual execution of the repairs and/or ‘revamping’ for the store which we Carrotmob. Although a number of the businesses ‘humanitarian’ motives were a little lacking, there was a substantial amount of businesses motivated by solving real environmental issues with intelligent and sometimes very easy services. A few in particular stood out as far as their services’ potential usage in the Carrotmob Execution (Most of Which are Local and Privately Owned):

-Four Leaf Energy, inc.-Based out of Pottstown, what this business does is install (a) ‘regulator(s)’ of some sort which saves and recycles the extraneous energy not exactly being ‘used’, and in a rollover-type concept, allows you to waste much less energy (and money). Local and Private. Check the site for more specifics.

-Sola Design-This Haddonfield-based company utilizes the actual outside sun/daylight to light up a given store. Installing ’self dimming ballasts’ enables the store to harvest natural light, tremendously decreasing energy output.

-GREENandSAVE.com-Philly Based ‘Eco-Appraisers’ inspect and diagnose the energy-wasting flaws and deficiencies of homes. Headed by Eco-Humanist Charlie Szoradi, these efficency specialist appear especially enthusiastic to the cause of our bad habits. Szoradi appears a dedicated and passionate humanitarian and progress maker, his energy when talking to me about our mutual environmentally sound dedication was one of genuine excitement. When I told Szoradi about how we at Carrotmob don’t typically have ‘business cards’, he chuckled, commenting that he just chops up cereal boxes, but didn’t have the time or hunger to make enough for the expo, he got a few hundred printed.

-IRN: The Recycling Network-This Philly based company has many cross-business affiliations and partnerships, all based around making recycling a more cost-effective process, dealing with exchanging bulk trash as well as finding other processes and usages for various ‘waste’ excess.

-AES-Advanced Enviro Systems-Chester based, formerly ‘Advanced Hydraulic Systems’, deals with services similar to those of IRN. Focuses on Chute and Duct Cleaning, Electronics Recycling, as well as Composting Equipment.

-Mr. Ellie’s Pooh-Business Cards made out of 75% Recycled Sri-Lankan Elephant Pooh! Had to mention these guys.

These are just a few of the businesses whose services could be used in the CM process; once again reminding all of us just how economically beneficial this whole plan is! At the expo, I also encountered many groups individuals; both profit and non-profit oriented whose networking abilites and excitement about the mob could combine to get the word out in a very cost-effective, paperless, and quick manner.

-Green Jobs Philly-Founded by a fiery Paul Glover, this Philadephia-based networking site is based around offering and requesting “Green Jobs” for many in the area in hopes to  “help you connect with the people, money, raw materials and know-how you’ll need” to make this happen. Glover has a very large newsletter email he sends out to Philadephia Residents. He is just getting started as well, but I have much confidence in his vision, read about him!

-GREEN-Lifestyles on Planet Paradise-”Our Mission is to Green the Planet back to paradise by inspiring paradise from within.” This network is all about getting back to the essentials, finding the true beauty in conservationism and love for our planet. Geared towards very positive and fluent change, these guys have the right ideas.

-Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia- This network is a very smart way to coordinate and connect many eco-friendly businesses in the Philadelphia Area.

-Earth to Philly-A Philly.com affiliated blog with a few different writers all “focusing on earth-conscious technology, trends and ideas, from a Daily News perspective.” Give it a look-see!

-GRID Magazine-A free-Philly magazine dedicated “Towards a More Sustainable Philadelphia”. Mostly Freelance Writing so Submit some stuff! They’re working on their 4th Issue.

After getting the word out to the businesses on Friday; Sunday we brought the noise, i mean Mob. Around 20 of us showed up to the convention in our white tee’s, not knowing what to expect from the buzzy, busy convention floor, we had much success..

Upon our entrance, we were hesitant to pay the deep 10 dollar entrance fee, but a quick recogniton by the CEO of the entire expo, Bradford Rand, cut the price in half. He had heard about the Carrotmob elsewhere and was ECSTATIC to hear it was coming to Philly, he was hootin’ and hollerin’ everytime he saw a mobber on the floor. With the word about all of these white-sharpied shirts and the crazy concept associated slowly leaking into everybody’s ears, we were getting asked about the Mob left and right. Reporters, Students, Businesses and even the visiting consumers were immensely curious about the CM, everytime I ran into another mobber I was met with wide eyes and a huge smile, they had been spreading the word. With a majority of booths having a heads up about the Mob, they were able to see the unfolding of our wasteless, bright, and enthusiastic tactics at work. We didn’t give out pamphlets or cards; we gave out our minds, our expression, and our wit. After a couple of hours, we felt our impression was made with a very strong statement; “LOOK, WE DON’T NEED BUSINESS AFFILIATION TO BE ORGANIZED AND GOAL ORIENTED!”, We all want the same thing as they do, Change.

As I’ll be doing what I can to keep contact with various businesses and organizations, I’m looking for some help with writing emails, working on the site, and saving/cutting some boxes up and making art for CM cards and ads, even some general ideas and advice; I know everybody has something to offer the Mob movement. We’re gaining ground guys and gals, rounding up our fellow neighbors and peers and constructing our Mob, in the meantime, keep up the word. Another meeting is coming soon, Just keep checking the site, I’ll inform you and hopefully we can organise our next move, there are plenty of options.

-P.S. You can give out the email address CarrotsofPhilly@gmail.com to those who wish to send us some stuff, it should be convenient to have an email.

-P.P.S. Seriously, if any of you are any good at web development, hit me up! This is not easy for a plain ol’ bio major.

-P.P.P.S If yr one of the folks who I gave a card to in Rittenhouse today, HI!

Enjoy the Changing of Weather! It’s been beautiful and it seems to be dying to stay this way, usher in Spring with some Community Love, however you choose, just enjoy life; Spring Break or Not.

-With the love of a thousand cute little baby bunnies,

-AnthonyFulvio.

Can Philly 'TURN GREEN'?

Hi there, all of you. Welcome to the newcomers. I hope things aren’t too bare and pre-developed for yr tastes, cause this is all we got (for now). I’ll be working on developing the page with a few friends, if we can get together, but until then I’ll just keep posting. We held our first ‘official’ meeting at The Birdhaus on Sunday, and 12 or so prospective mobstarters got their gears turning and mouths runnin’, the coffee helped us maintain a constant speed of conversation.

The conclusion we all rushed to emphasize was the sooner we get moving the better. We quickly came up with very simple, cheap, and fun ways of getting the Carrotmob on everybody’s tongues; for better, not for worse.

• We aren’t printing flyers or giving out business cards; its wasteful and regressive in a sense. Instead, we’ll give out Carrots, tie a small piece of yarn or tape around the carrot and write the website (PHILLY.CARROTMOB.ORG) on the tape or another small piece of fabric or leftover material; be creative, but make sure they can stil eat the carrot when they’re done with the message.

• Grab a white tee and write the site name in sharpie, however you’d like, just make sure people can read it. Wear it as often as you can, if somebody asks about it, go right ahead and let em know what we’re all about.

• If you work someplace that throws out a lot of cardboard or paper products; steal them! Save them from their landfill futures and make them into a useful sign or large carrot drawing or something you can give out, if it’s destiny was the trash anyway, why not use it?

• Contact yr  school or local newspapers or bloggers, let them know what we’re doing, tell them that if they dig the idea, then use their social networking to spread the word. Other nonprofit organizations, charities, clubs, any sort of social group are all prime examples of simpler ways to spread this to the large Philadelphia populations. But let me remind you, take a individualistic (rather than generalistic) approach to this, don’t give the impression that this is some movement of specific people or groups, this is everybody, nobody is left out.

• Start writing/emailing local news outlets, journalists, and anybody inclined towards an environmental grassroots movement underway in their very own Philadelphia.

• I was thinking of getting a philly.carrotmob.org stamp and just start stamping people up!

Whatever the method, be sure to be bold, but positive; enthused, but not overbearing, and above all; no negativity whatsoever, we don’t want any bad energy or press for that matter coming back to us. We love everybody (you get the idea).

SUNDAY, MARCH 15th: Operation Silent Mob.

On Sunday, the Convention Center (11o1 Arch) is holding a “Go Green Expo” to showcase businesses involved in Environmentally friendly practices and services to the public as well as to other businesses. This means a lot of people, all (hopefully) environmentally conscious will be attending as well as soliciting, at the meeting we decided this was a great place to start our branching. In our best interests, we don’t want to be advertising or trying to get people to sign up, all we’re doing is getting our name and website out to the eyes of Philly’s public. Wear that white-sharpied t-shirt with our site name on it, walk around, check out the services offered, maybe make some friends in the meantime; this expo should also be a great experience as consumers ourselves. If someone happens to ask you about the shirt, you could (and should) explain a little something, tell them to check out the site and video, play it cool. Hopefully there will be enough of us to catch plenty of people’s eyes and get philly.carrotmob.org a few hits and a few more comrades.

We’re meeting at City Hall around Noon (12pm) No later than 12:15 if you wan’t to come with us as the group (if you can’t get there that early, just show up later). The convention goes until 6 but we can pretty much come and go as we please, as long as people see our shirts. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in joining, or maybe getting brunch(!) beforehand, don’t hesitate. We’re taking our initiative, lets gain some momentum.

-Thanks Once Again,

AnthonyFULVIO.