Ecotainus

Eco-friendly Backyard Barbeque on Fox5 Atlanta

In the midst of all this oppressive heat, it’s a good time to remember that you can have tons of fun while not creating tons of waste. If you’re a believer (ya know, the whole global warming thing), you know that the waste quotient only adds to the issue. With an average person generating over 1.6 pounds of waste during a typical, four hour event, the trash can really pile up if you’re not being a conscious consumer.

So…here are a few tips to green your summer BBQ:

Décor:

• Like linen: first off, using a washable linen of any fabric is a more sustainable option than something that is not (ie plastic). A new option on the rental market is one made from recycled plastic bottles that can be found at BBJ Linen (www.bbjlinen.com).
•  A fun craft project that my pal & famed Atlanta Caterer Dennis Dean (www.dennisdeancatering.com) came up with is turning a piece of burlap into a BBQ banner of sorts that can be displayed at your entrance or on your table as a runner then reused for the Fall holidays. Use a paper stencil or even a wooden letter to paint on your initials, the theme or a special guest’s name. You can find paper stencils at Sam Flax or wooden letters at Hobby Lobby. Any craft paint will work – opt for a natural hair brush.
• Potted & portable: accent your table with potted sunflowers or other potted flowering plants. At the end of your party, turn your potted flower arrangement into a portable, take home gift for your guests to enjoy on their table or in their garden.

Food & Beverage

• From skin to servingware: use everything inside your orange and out to make a delicious citrus fruit salad (add grapefruit & watermelon to add a multi-color dimension that is also delicious). Cut your oranges in half, scoop out all insides, dry skin halves over night at room temperature. Before your party, simply scoop your fruit salad mix into each half and display.
• Turn your cabbage into the container for your bleu cheese cole slaw. Follow standard directions for cole slaw, add organic blue cheese crumbles. I like the 365 organic bleu cheese @ Whole Foods (www.wholefoods.com).  Use the outer layers of the cabbage (red cabbage tends to offer a bit more color) as your cole slaw container.
• Sauce it up: my favorite part of a BBQ is, of course, the sauce. Offer guests a sampling of various barbeque sauces…either as a competition amongst those coming to enjoy the summer festivity or your own favorite finds. In lieu of making your own, explore local options. Whole Foods is great at pointing out who to check out in your local market. I really like the honey, chipotle and classic sauces the Williamson Bros (http://www.williamsonbros.com) from Atlanta churn out. Since guys love a good BBQ – offer take home samples in reusable, glass jars that ensure your sauce is good to the very last drop.
• Buy in bulk – from chips to Coca-Cola, avoid single-serve containers and ensure your generating less packaging waste overall.
• An apple a day: a great summer drink for kids is a simple glass of apple juice served with an apple slice in a Preserve cup (made from recycled plastic). It’s fun and house-friendly (ie not breakable). Available at Whole Foods.
• Local brew: the best way to cut down on your carbon footprint is to buy and support local. Check out your local beverage options from non-alcoholic (Whynatte) to beer (Sweetwater, Terrapin) or spirits (Horné Rum).
• Box it up: turn an empty box into your go-to recycling container and encourage guests to reduce their waste by recycling all of their glass, plastic and aluminum from your summer BBQ.

To view my segment on Fox5 Atlanta, click video below:

So more for your Super Bowl Sunday festivities…

How to spruce up your spread with sustainable practices. Check out my segment with SFL’s The Morning Show on eco-friendly decor for your Super Bowl party.

Say no to Styrofoam as your go-to foundation for creating beautiful wreaths for your front door and fire place mantles this holiday season. What a better start to creating a festive flourish than with a wreath made from mountain raised Noble and Fraser Fir which is an easy to work with base to add seasonal touches to. You can easily tie or pin in glass or fabric ornaments, pinecones and ribbons while getting an added bonus of color and the Christmas smell. The best bonus of choosing an eco option for your festive decor this season is you’re not creating an impossible-to-recycle product of waste. I have even found that Fraser Fir wreaths can last far beyond the holidays if you rework the accents to focus on the overall winter season.

As I pulled out the multiple storage boxes of purchased, procured and passed down ornaments to adorn my Christmas trees, I started sorting out how to repurpose the various sentimental, colorful and ornate baubles to create a new look, with everything old. With the economy in the proverbial toilet, the best way to be eco (economically and egolocially) this year is to find the fab in the drab (or old stuff we pull out from year to year). There’s no better testament to this idea than with our fabulous First Lady who hauled out ghosts of Christmas ornaments past and challenged people from over 60 community groups across the country to renew over 800 of the previously used ornaments with graphical tributes to their favorite local landmarks which tied into her holiday theme of “Reflect. Rejoice. Renew.”

Besides repurposing ornaments from holidays, take the shop swap idea to your tree. Location is everything, as they say, and doing a little trade with your friends to swap ornaments (and even other seasonal decor) is an easy and inexpensive way to add an inspired touch to your trimming. Placing anything in a different setting instantly gives it a fresh look. Host a swap meet with you friends – a little mixing here and a smidge of matching there will turn everything old new again.

So, I’m back from the Thanksgiving respite well-rested, rejuvenated and overjoyed to be in the official midst of the holiday season. With the festive spirit in full gear, I have decided to commit to filling the month of December with ways to make this a sustainable season- 25 tips to make you green this holiday. Starting on now December 2nd, this entry is a double decker.

What better way to stroll into the season than with the quintessential staple – the Christmas tree. My feeling on Christmas trees is this – if you are one of those people who anxiously awaits the evening where you bundle up and head out to your favorite tree place to find the perfect, well-rounded Fraser Fir, the tip is to purchase one from a Christmas tree farm in as close proximity to your home as possible. After going the potted tree route last, I felt the urge to go back to my childhood roots and go big & bushy. So, I did a little checking and found that one of our local Whole Foods had a really nice selection of very lush, mountain grown trees from a family farm in the region. I spent my four day weekend sprucing up (literally) my home to make it holiday-ready complete with the addition of several potted cypress to add the Christmas touch to my mantles, a table top tree for my piano and a larger tree on the porch.  Both our table top tree and our 7ft Fraser Fir came from Bottomley Evergreen Farm in North Carolina. Owned and operated by a father and son team, their farm produces crops from cantaloupes and cabbage to a wide array of greenery including a vast selection of Christmas trees (see their farm below). I really liked that each tree had a tag attached telling the story of the farm – it definitely leaves you with a warm cider smile. Keep in mind your Christmas tree is a renewable resource; it’s biodegradable and can be recycled at your local Home Depot.

On to my second tip…which relates back to tip #1 and to the Home Depot. As pretty as a natural Fir tree is, let’s face it – it’s spectacular when it glows. Beyond an adornment for your tree, Christmas lights seem to sparkle throughout every city I visit and we all have those neighbors who go a little bananas and light everything on their property from their hedges to their rooftops. Well, fortunately for our environment, there are great eco options to help reduce the energy expended on running these and even solar lighting choices that don’t require the cords that have you reworking your string lights over and over so you can successfully reach the top of the tree from the base of the power plug. Home Depot carries both the solar and LED lights that use up to 80% less energy than traditional lights and burn at a cooler temperature which is also a safety measure. The LED lights still offer plenty of bulb shapes and colors so you don’t have to sacrifice look or color – the solar option has a few less choices on shapes but you can find both white and multi color available. So light up the season with a choice you can feel good about.

Party themes can come in all shapes, sizes and, we believe, soda cans. Truth be told, we went a little beyond a soda can for inspiration at this year’s Vision for America Dinner, held by our inspiring client Keep America Beautiful, at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.  As a subtle shout out to the honoree Novelis, a “world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling,”  we took creative license to infuse their product with the mission of KAB (preventing litter, reducing waste, beautifying communities).

During the cocktail reception, renown recycle artist Nancy Judd of Recycle Runway exhibited several of her eco trash couture creations including her aluminum drop dress originally comissioned by Novelis in 2004. Her jaw dropping dresses are fantastic conversation starters and a phenomenal display of how to turn your trash into a treasure. Imagine what a beautiful community we would have if we all repurposed our recycleables into a fashionable frock!

For the dinner tables, we repurposed Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch aluminum cans into flowers which sprouted from beds of wheatgrass, based in aluminum containers…a significant and sustainable centerpiece. Smaller versions, placed in soda cans, decorated the hi-boy tables for the cocktail reception. I think it’s safe to safe the guests “took to them” as there wasn’t a one that wasn’t taken at the conclusion of the event. Special thanks to our friend Mark Good with markandscott for the fabulous floral and our pal Courtney who spent tireless hours turning our trash into the evening’s treasures.

Lastly, the generous folks at Novelis gifted the guests with (adorable) aluminum peaches – symbolic both in composition and for the city (Atlanta).

Photos by Ross DeLoach of Northlight Photography