On my commute downtown to our warehouse this morning, I realized it was time to revisit the Green initiative I had set forth here at DistinctiveFabric.com, some months back.

And I was also thinking back on yesterday's Lucent Dossier rehearsal. As a dance troupe, it's expected they'll have a large member base and a higher percentage of cars than anyone else at our warehouse. But what I don't understand is why they can't work to better coordinate each others travel plans. If even only half the troupe were to carpool, we'd see an immediate and significant reduction in cars (as well as parking issues for the rest of the tenants here).

As a pioneering creative force within their community and beyond, it seems especially vital to me that they start making some personal sacrifices to provide a better model for what attitude and action entertainers take towards the environment. There are some other area's that I see also requiring some attention, mostly in regards to trash, recycling, and energy usage.

This observation isn't just limited to just them, however. Our own company and team still has a number of steps to take, as do our other roomies, The Do LaB. And nor is this an attack on anyone person or group, just a reminder that we all as leaders need to step things up several notches and do this think like the rock stars everyone so thoroughly enjoys pretending to be.

Anyway, to date DF has made slow but steady progress with regards to its operation. Warehouse and office waste including trash, recycling: paper, plastic, glass, toner cartridges, etc. are all mostly accounted for (we still have to find some way to reduce and better dispose of our plastic bags); sustainable office and cleaning supplies are purchased as much as is feasible; and our transportation habits are pretty modest: half our team walks to work everyday and its other half (Josh and I), do our best to minimize our driving: packing lunch or eating within mere minutes from the warehouse and carpooling whenever possible. Granted, neither of our cars are Green but we are offsetting their emissions yearly now, along with any other aspect of our remaining
(negative) footprint.

Lastly, we're constantly powering down our office equipment when not in use: computers, printers, postage meter, lights, etc. And if we're walking through the warehouse and see any unattended lights we'll shut them off (which happens almost daily at this point, I'm afraid to say). While it has never been directly expressed for any one person or company to take charge with these mattes here, we have made the initiative to step and do so ourselves, again and again, without thanks or any other incentive but to do our part, as the custodians of our nearly 10,000 sq ft sanctum.

Next in line for us to tackle, are the area's of:

1. Lighting: updating our current system w/modern, energy-saving fixtures and bulbs for our 1/3 of the warehouse
2. Carbon Calculator: designing and deployment on our site at checkout to empower our customers with greater choice and exposure to
enhance Green-conscious consumerism.
3. Solar Web-hosting: go off the grid with our website via 100% solar-powered web-hosting.
4. Community: besides our warehouse roomies, we wish to initiate efforts to spread awareness and coordinate activities within our neighborhood to start cleaning up our immediate surroundings here in downtown, Los Angeles (CA).

We're excited and honored to assume even greater responsibility in our growth towards greater, conscious business and sustainability. We also look forward to sharing more of our progress and hope to hear about yours as well!