I visited the Western Wake Farmer's Market this past weekend and was pleasantly surprised by the number of vendors and visitors shopping there.  In addition to plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, there was also a harpist who played wonderful music.  I enjoyed the free samples and picked up a number of seasonal fruits and jams.

For more information about the Western Farmer's Market, please visit http://westernwakefarmersmarket.org/About/.

As part of eco-friendly living, be sure to visit a farmer's market near you.

A number of Fortune 500 companies are transitioning to open floor plan (getting rid of offices) to increase productivity and decrease costs.  There are challenges to open floor plan (which include how to maintain a certain level of privacy for employee activity.  There are a number of advantages as well such as cost savings from decreased utilities related costs and also decreased square footage needed per employee.

To ensure success adoption of an open floor plan concept, it is important to establish "ground rules" or etiquette for employees who occupy the space.  For example, it is important to highlight the level of acceptable practices (e.g. "it may be acceptable to wear headphones to listen to music while working" but not acceptable to have your music speaker on that may distract others.")  Also, it is important to have an open dialogue policy in which employees are encouraged to speak up if an individual is not adhering to the established group rules.

There are nightmares associated with open floor plans (e.g. "having employees bring in house hold pets such as dogs when fellow employees are allergic to them.")

Acceptance of telecommuting remains a challenge for management at most companies.   However, there is a positive overall industry shift in decrease dependence on "face time" vs. "productivity."

I work for a major Fortune 500 company and the company have recently announced that they are no longer offering paper cups.  Specifically, all employees are encouraged to bring their own mugs to work for hot beverages and bring their own reusable water bottles.  In addition to cited cost savings, we are also more eco-friendly.  I am so excited about this new initiative!  There is a limited number of visitor mugs in the general pantry area for guest use.

I am so proud of this effort and hope that other companies follow suit.  Now if only we can encourage folks to bring their own reusable utensils as opposed to offering the plastic forks, spoons and knives....

After visiting several local farmers' markets this past few months, I am very excited to come across a great new resource and website, www.localharvest.org.  This website lists a number of local food CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and farms by zip code so you can quickly search for nearby farms or if you are visiting a new area and are interested in learning more about nearby farms, this is a great website.

The following are tips on how you can make your meetings more eco-friendly:
- avoid dates on meeting signage so that you can reuse the meeting signage for another date/time in the future
- setup a collection bin for supplies near the entrance of the meeting hall so that individuals can drop off leftover supplies on their way out of the door
- communicate upfront to meeting participants the importance of making the meeting as eco-friendly as possible
- do not offer individual printouts of meeting presentations, ask individuals to either share a printout or bring up a digital version on their individual laptops
- use washable mugs, cups and utensils for meeting meals
- communicate the intent of reusing name tags so meeting participants will keep the name tags in good condition
- adjust the temperature in the conference room to a cooler temperature (or open windows if it is not too noisy outside)
- do not supply individual water bottles, supply gallon containers of water and have individual participants pour their respective drinks if needed

Upcycling is the process of creating new products from existing used materials.  It is very common to find a number of upcycled totes (created from gently used clothing).  One of my favorite upcycled product is a wine bottle lighting fixture.  Here is a video that I came across that shows how to make one.  I saw a number of these sold at a local earth day festival for about $18 each (not bad considering that the wine most probably costed that amount or less).  I