Monday, July 28, 2008

Our Blog Has Moved

Dear Fellow Supporters, Fans, Customers, Attorney Offices, and Securities and Exchange Commission Officers,

Our blog has moved! Yes, we have a new home for all things Factory Green, and it can be found at www.factorygreen.com/blog. We hope you enjoy the new blog, and especially enjoy the new website, coming in early August.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

It's been far too long since the last blog entry, but it's my goal to get better at producing them more frequently. We've gotten a bit of flack lately that our blog isn't "eco" enough, so amidst my humorous witticisms and sophomoric humor, I'll bend to the will of The Man and include some bits of eco-wisdom and ultra-easy ways to green your life.

Perhaps even a few ways you haven't considered before...


But first, an update on what's cookin' in the world of Factory Green:

1. New Website: FG is having a completely new website designed and it's going to rock! Not even joking. Be on the look out for it towards the end of July.

2. Wikipedia: You know you're ballin' when you've hit "Wikipedia entry status." Check it out HERE.

3. Magazines: Factory Green will be in the September issue of Greenability Magazine! Daniel and Jack will be dressed like members from the Village People (only kidding...or am I...).


I wanted to talk a little bit about a GQ article that I read a few months back concerning just how important the little things are when it comes to reducing one's environmental footprint. One of the astonishing facts about reducing our individual carbon footprint—the standard way of measuring the CO2 emissions each person is responsible for—is that it doesn't take much effort at all to have an immediate impact on reducing the production of greenhouse gases. What's even more mind-boggling to imagine is the cumulative effect on these emissions if enough of us act together in these minor ways.

That's because so much of the way we live our lives is wasteful and, to put it bluntly, thoughtless. It takes nothing to unplug your phone charger, switch off a lamp, take a 5 minute shower instead of a 20 minute one, skip the pre-wash part of the dishwasher cycle, etc. And they all save $$$, which is one of the rather striking things about reducing your carbon footprint.


So we've mentioned before a couple ways to "green-up" your life, but here's a few ways I bet you haven't thought of...


1. Your Death: Eco-friendly funerals. Many private funeral homes are beginning to present eco-friendly alternatives to traditional coffins, including wicker caskets and shrouds (yes, shrouds). Traditional coffins are made of chipboard that is created using formaldehyde which, when cremated, can release toxic gases into the atmosphere. If simply buried, that same formaldehyde and glue leaks into the soil and groundwater.

FG's advice: Die in the desert. You'll fertilize the nutrient-depleted ground with your corpse or, better yet, become the snack of a starving animal.


2. Don't Be a Butt Tosser: There's a myth out there that cigarette butts, when simply tossed on the ground, will biodegrade over time. While partially true, decomposing cigarette butts release harmful chemicals that enter our land and drinking water during their break-down. Nearly 4.5 trillion (that's with a 'T' people) cigarette butts are littered worldwide each year.

FG's advice: Quit smoking. But if you gotta' smoke (?), carry around a 35-mm film canister to store those used butts in until you can discard them properly.


3. Standby No Longer: Leaving one's computer or tv on standby wastes huge amounts of energy. Electronic devices utilize 40% of their full running power while in standby-mode. Each year, the energy wasted in this way is the equivalent of the annual output of 26 power plants.

FG's advice: plug your 'energy vampires' into a power strip and turn it off when not in use.



-Daniel

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Waste by the Numbers

Here's something to think about...

The United States is the world's top consumer nation. Americans spend about 4x more per person than any other country. And we do it largely by shopping. We shop, on average, every day for about twenty-four minutes, spending a total of $4 trillion per year--on everything from mustard to muscle-cars.

The psychology of shopping is embedded in our brains: more, more, more. The mentality fills the closets and the ego but doesn't take into account the other side of the shopping equation--where does all that stuff go?

Each of us produces about 4.54 pounds of trash every day through our consumption and disposal habits, amounting to 1,657 pounds per person per year. With 6.6 billion on the planet (and growing...), all eventually apt to buy something and throw it away, shopping poses a real hazard.

So what to do about it?

Here's a few simple suggestions, each of which involve the least amount of effort on your part (perfect!):

1. "Paper or plastic?" Shout it out: PAPER! While neither choice is ideal (it's best to sack your croceries in reusable organic cotton totes), paper bags have a higher likelihood of being recycled and reused. My favorite quote in the world can be found on one of Factory Green's eco-totes: "F*@k Plastic!"

2. Try to buy products with minimal to no packaging. If just 1 out of 10 products you bought had little or no packaging, it would eliminate more than fifty pounds of waste per household per year. If every household did this, 5.5 billion fewer pounds of waste would enter landfills. That's enough garbage to cover all of New York City's Central Park to a depth of 27 feet!

3. Switch to bathroom tisuse made from 100% recycled paper. Yes, even good ol' fashion "butt paper" can harm our planet. If every household replaced just a single twelve-roll pack of regular bathroom tissue (aka glorious butt paper) with a recycled variety, it would save almost 5 million trees and enough paper waste to fill 17,000 garbage trucks!


-Daniel

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Goin' International!

Big news on the FG front: we're GLOBAL!

Factory Green is a big hit in Sweden...


And in Canada...


And in Germany...



Ballin' at SPRIG.com



SPRIG.com, home of all that is eco and wonderful, has published a big spread on Factory Green!

Here's a little taste of the interview...


Sprig.com: How do two University of Missouri students operate a green apparel and accessories online store while in school?

FG: We don't sleep much! We're a couple of pre-med science geeks, so we've been honing the necessary skills needed for business for years—perfectionism and narcissism!

http://sprig.com/experts/203/


-Daniel

FG at TreeHugger.com

The #1 eco-retail company in the world (FactoryGreen.com, of course) has just been featured in a great article by the renowned TreeHugger.com.

Check out the article
HERE!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/factory_green.php

Friday, June 13, 2008

Movin' On Up

Like manna from heaven, the blog reviews keep rollin' in for Factory Green.

First off, kudos to our wonderful friends at The KC Pitch and at the famous G-Spotting blog for writing killer articles on us. There's a special VIP room in heaven for all those FG supporters out there... with rum, lots and lots of wonderful rum.

Today I want to talk a little bit about the glory that is better known as "FG threads." Most people don't realize that the traditional apparel that they buy from their favorite clothing outlet, be it a shirt or a hoodie, was produced on machinery that emits over 7,600 grams of CO2 into the atmosphere, per item! What the @!#$, indeed.

That's why Factory Green is so proud to offer it's brilliant and dashingly good looking customers an alternative that not only reduces CO2 production emissions by 85%, but is superior in quality and feel to anything you can purchase at the mall. True story.




-Daniel

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Clip of the Week

Brilliant! Factory Green were just featured again by KOMU in a great story about local green businesses. A big special thanks to reporter-extraordinaire Jessica Daley!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Local Celebrity?

Factory Green was just featured on KOMU news. Check out the video... it will change your world.


Saturday, May 3, 2008

Look at that!


Factory Green. Yeah, we're kind of a big deal. These sources prove it thus far:
Vox Magazine - Growing a Green Business

The Maneater - Student Entrepreneurs Bring in the Green

KOMU will be runnin
g two features on us as well. This is only further proof that if it's not on TV, it's not really important.

As always, you can always see what's important at FactoryGreen.com.

FG Fact: Being a local celebrity does not YET in fact make one a celebrity. Instant recognition at bars may vary.


Friday, April 25, 2008

Fact Check


We at Factory Green would like to take this moment to review some pertinent facts:

Fact number 102:
A man driving
a minivan is exactly

3/5 of a man.



Fact number 103:
A man wearing an
FG Rollin' on 26's shirt
is
exactly 3.72 men.


*effects may be halved by wearing a Factory Green shirt inside a minivan, even as a passenger... Especially as a passenger.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

So here we are. We now have our own dirty four-letter word (bl*g) and we'd like to welcome you to it. However, we’d prefer you to think of this less as a blog and more as a love letter to you, dear reader (and a hate letter to John Bassford).


We'll have the normal FactoryGreen.com product updates and around town happenings, as well as a few interviews, sage advice (rules from the Gospel of Jack and Daniel), obscene rants, inappropriate photos, and the occasional display of intellectual snobbery.
We hope you like it, because we like you.


Rule No. 147:

Never trust
anyone who, within
five minutes
of meeting you,
tells you where
he went to
college.

Rule No. 148:

Especially if he
refers to
his college as
"a little school
in Boston"
followed by
a pause as
he waits for
you to ask
its name.



-Daniel & Jack

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Welcome to Factory Green

We are very excited with the launch of our new company, Factory Green. We believe that going green is something that can be done by everyone without sacrificing an ounce of style or sustainability. Please visit our website, FactoryGreen.com, and see what we're all about. We're looking forward to serving you and saving our planet in the process.