Going Solar for under a G!

I found this cool little article courtesy of the Sierra Club. It talks about how you can go solar for under a $1000 and start down the path to low cost eco friendly living! I'm digging on the Solar Ipod Charger!

Solar Projects for Under $1000

While installing enough solar panels to power your home might not be affordable in the short term for many, there are several less expensive solar projects that most home owners can handle.

Some utilities offer incentives and rebates for installing solar panels on your home. Contact your local utility to find out if they offer such incentives. (Here's an example of an incentive program in California.) Lastly, the government will pay you back 30 percent of the cost of your solar installations, up to a maximum of $2000.

Here are a few examples of what you can do for about $1000 or less:

• Outdoor solar lighting for decks, walkways, gardens, porches, and garages: $75 per lamp. These are probably the easiest and cheapest solar additions to your home.
• Complete solar cabin kits to power an outdoor shed, or remote cabin: Starts at $975 for 80 watt output, $1610 for 165 watt output. After government tax breaks, that's $683 and $1127 respectively.
• Even a solar iPod charger! Works with other MP3 players and PDAs also. Only $44.

Here's an excellent, comprehensive guide on solar installation (pdf) from the California Energy Commission. You can also purchase a wide array of installation guides from book sellers. Here's one example.

Maku makes #6 on the Chicago Tribune Eco List!

Check it out, the Chicago Tribune lists Maku Furniture as #6 out of 20 ways to live green. Even our friends over at Carlsbadistan picked up on the story!

If you are in the Chicago area be sure to stop by Orange Skin and say hello and find out the latest and greatest in the world of modern design.

Welcome Nest Living!

Welcome to the newest Maku Furniture partner, Nest Living. Shaan and crew have a cool little store in Jacksonville Florida and we are stoked to be working with them!

Here's a big high 5 to Nest Living!

YIKES!

I am sure that most of you have heard of the tragic death of a local San Diego man whom was an accomplished ocean athlete - surfing, swimming, diving, fishing, triathlons.

This is the first confirmed Great White attack in San Diego in almost 50 years and our thoughts go out to the entire Martin Family for their loss. While we don't know Mr. Martin, as surfers we have a tremendous amount of respect for those that have an equal appreciation for the ocean and from the media reports he sounds like a pretty cool guy!

White sharks travel substantial distances from Alaska to Baja Mexico and I would venture to guess this female shark is long gone. (I hope...) In the meantime I snapped this picture from the beach on Saturday....

10 ways to better mother earth!

Best Wishes from Maku Furniture for a wonderful Earth Day 2008! Check out these to easy ways to help Mother Earth. Courtesy of our friends @ Surfrider Foundation.

10 Things You Can Do Now to Soften Your Impact on Mother Earth:

1. Reduce, Reuse then Recycle as much as possible, including paper (newspaper, office paper, corrugated boxes), glass, plastic, aluminum and steel (and water!!). Use the back of every piece of paper.

2. Be conscious of your water usage and try not to let too much go down the drain and don't let any go down the street because of over watering.

3. Conserve energy, use energy efficient lighting and ask your utility company to use renewable energy. Turn lights/TV off when not in use.

4. Find an alternative to chemical pesticides for your lawn and buy organic produce when possible to reduce pesticide use in farming.

5. Eat locally grown organic foods. Limit or eliminate meat from your diet and purchase only those brands of tuna marked "dolphin safe."

6. Join a Surfrider beach cleanup or organize a cleanup of your own!

7. Use public transportation whenever possible and, when driving, try to carpool. Bike or walk for short trips…and gain a health benefit too.

8. Get your toes in the sand! Visit and support our parks. Help teach young people to appreciate the beauties of the natural world.

9. Educate yourself on important environmental concerns and know how your elected officials stand on the issues.

10. Spend time teaching a child about the importance of a healthy environment.

Earth Day 2008 Kudos

For Earth Day 2008 I thought I would give some props to more mainstream companies that are making strides to become green.

At the top of the list is Target. Yes that's right the mass merchandiser with the funny dog, the Red Target, and The Flying Tomato. Now I can't even remember the last time I was in a Target Store but I have long admired them for the ability to re-invent themselves and almost create a pop culture icon.

The basic and most important premise's behind Target's marketing machine is never loosing site of "The Brand". For those interested in Branding and Marketing, here is a great story from Fortune Magazine

Branding / Marketing 101 runs pure in Target and that is what I like about this company.

Now to the original reason I started talking about Target. In the most recent issue Newsweek Titles "Who is the Greenest of them All" that landed on our door step and interesting 2 page spread caught my attention.

Here is a scan of that ad. For Target to take on such a massive endeavor as trying to reduce the number of plastic bags they use (ok, cost cutting is probably the true reason) and be able to do something good for the environment is pretty much genius in marketing and branding terms. (See initial comments...)

Or, is it Greenwashing...? I would venture to guess that despite the cost savings in reducing the number of plastic bags Target uses, at the very heart of this initiative is a desire to what is right and good.



This same issue of Newsweek had some very interesting Fixes for the planet and companies / ideas that are probably worthy of further study and investment.

1. http://www.ecocycle.org/
2. LED Lightbulbs
3. Greener Golf Fairways
4. Kiteships to offset Container Cargo Fuel Costs
5. Plastic Solar Cells
6. The Aptera

Earth Day 2008 Tuesday April 22nd

Coming up this Tuesday is Earth Day 2008. What better way to make a Green Statement and commitment to the Environment that starting on Earth Day. Just make 1 commitment to the eco system and stick to it for the entire year and use it as a growing point to continue adding on for years to come.

Be it driving less / riding your bike to work one day a week, recycling (more), making an effort to pick up trash that somebody else has so rudely dispersed on the street. Or investing in green home products such as Maku Furniture

Even the little things can make a big difference if we all do it!

Maku debut's on MTV's "The Real World"

Check it out, The new Season of MTV's "The Real World" debuted tonight. Filmed in Hollywood, the 20th Season of The Real World is focused on eco living and sustainability. And of course what other furniture company than Maku Furniture would be involved!

Tonights episode had lots of really good shots of the Maku Sectional, Maku Bench, Maku Chaise, and Maku Lounge Chair. The set and design crew @ MTV did a great job in placing all the Maku pieces throughout The Real World set.

Some people might question why Maku would be involved in a show that focus's on young 20 somethings "finding" their way through life with strangers in front of a camera but this is exactly the kind of non traditional approach to the world of home furnishing that we like.

Structured Green Grand Opening!

This Saturday April 19th (3 days before Earth Day 2008!) Savannah's first sustainable living showroom opens. Maku Furniture is proud to be one of the key brands represented in Structured Green so stop by and check out the Maku Lounge Chairs and Maku Chaise lounge that Mike and Raquel have in stock. You can also special order any pieces in the collection that are not in stock.

A BIG HIGH5 to the entire crew @ Structured Green and best wishes for a successful opening!

West Coast Salmon run all but gone...

Being tied closely to the ocean, I see macro and micro changes in our eco system all the time. Both good and bad.

Fortunately here in North County San Diego the kelp beds have made a comeback! They were all but gone a few years ago and then an agressive kelp reforestation program brought it back. Not only does the kelp offer a home to many species of oceanic life but it also creates some nice glassy surfing conditions inside the kelp when the wind is blowing on the outside.

What does kelp in North County San Diego and Salmon have to do with each other. Well, much like the kelp forests a few years ago the west coast salmon have now all but disappeared. As recently as 2002, 750,000 adult salmon were counted in the run up the Sacramento river. It is estimated that less than 90,000 Chinook ran last fall and that number is projected to plummet to as little as 58,000 this fall. Less than 10% of the salmon that ran in 2002 an over 90% decrease!!

While certainly I feel that some of this can be attributed to climate change and perhaps cyclical nature, there is no doubt in my mind that most of the decline in the west coast salmon run is attributed to man. More runoff / pollution / sediment build up in the Sacramento river basin from increased building, farming, and pretty much people not caring about our impact on our eco system.

There are solutions to these problems, I always talk about the easy ones such as recycling. It's not that hard to put your plastics, papers, bottles and cans in a separate container for the garbage man to pick up. Remember the North pacific gyre and the blob of plastic the size of Texas floating in the ocean...?

Eating organic foods that don't use synthetic pesticides which runoff into the river and oceans creating algae / plankton blooms and sucking the oxygen out of the water.

Conserving energy and turning off lights or electronics when you are not in the room.

When are we as an entire society going to start seeing the impacts firsthand and change the way we live to help mother earth heal from all this damage? It appears that we are willing to pay $4 for a gallon of gas and looks like we will be paying $30+ for a pound of wild Salmon in the near future. At some point society has to take a stands and say enough is enough look at what we are doing to our environment. I think that time is nearing.

Act locally and think globally. I know that's kind of a played out saying but it's true and we can each make a difference together if we take a stand and do what is right.

Getting a new board!

Got these pics from John up at Cole Surfboards showing me a new board that Cole is shaping for me. There is a lot of cool new technology happening with surfboard shaping right now and this particular blank from my buddy Matt @ Prop Surf has a "quadrabolic" stringer meaning there are 4 stringers on the outside rails of the board as opposed to the traditional single stringer down the middle.



The idea behind this is that as you do a bottom turn you load the board with energy and as it comes out of the turn the energy releases from the board giving you more speed down the line. And speed is your friend when surfing! The energy transfer is very similar to the way a snowboard or ski will flex through the apex of a turn and then give you that pop as you come out of the turn.




So far this board looks amazing and I can't wait to try this thing out, Cole just needs to put his touches on the board and then off to the glasser it goes. Shouldn't be too long until it completed, Thanks Cole!

Better Living Show - Portland

Our good friend Dennis from Eclectic Home in Portland sent in this shot of the Maku Dining Collection from the Better Living show last weekend. Dennis and Eclectic Home continue to set the standard for Sustainable Furniture Retailing in the NW and it is great to have him as part of the Maku Furniture Family!

Check the Eclectic Home blog for more updates.

Welcome Structured Green!

Check it out, Maku Furniture just added another member to the family! Mike and Raquel are super cool southern cats with a great new store called Structured Green in Savannah, GA. Their website is up and running and the new store will be open in the next few weeks. A fresh shipment of Maku goods like the Maku Lounge Chair, Maku Side Table, and Maku Chaise are on their way so if you live in the Savannah area be sure to stop by and say hello!

Word has it that the new Discovery channel Planet Green is going to do a feature on Mike and Raquel's new store!

It's pretty rad to not only see these terrific Sustainable Retailers popping up through out the country but equally cool that Maku Furniture is privileged to partner with them!

A big virtual High 5 and Congrats Mike and Raquel!

Organic Cotton

Our friends over at econsciousmarket sent over this great info on Organic cotton.

DID YOU KNOW?
It takes 1/3 lb of toxic chemicals to produce just one conventional cotton T-shirt. How many tees do you have in your closet?
Conventionally-grown cotton crops account for twenty-five percent of all the pesticides used in the U.S., many of which are classified as the most toxic by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Organic Cotton: What is it?

Organic cotton is grown and harvested with natural fertilizers and in soil free from pesticides, defoliants, fertilizers, drugs, hormones, or synthetic chemicals. Organic farmers rely on crop rotation, mechanical cultivation, and botanical or biological means to control pests and weeds.

All of us @ Maku Furniture have been longtime supporters of companies such as Mission Playground and prAna that have been manufacturing super stylie clothing with an eco minded attitude since back in the day or one of our favorite up and coming brands RVCA

But "The Fabric of our Lives" i.e. Cotton is used in far more products than just clothing. Be it bedding and linens or as cottonseed oil in the feed that used for the livestock and ultimately the milk you drink... Just another way that unwanted pesticides can end up in your home and on you dinner table!

Earth Hour 2008!

Join Maku furniture, hundreds of companies and millions of people in taking a stand against global warming and participate in Earth Hour 2008 this Saturday @ 8pm.

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!