I was originally going to live blog this, but it was a little smaller event than I was expecting. In any case, I would be remiss not to start a post so intertwined with the environment without capturing this wonderful weather outside.
I admit that I was initially underwhelmed with the size of the event at the Georgia World Congress Center. I overheard that 2,000 people or so are expected (the event runs through tomorrow), which with the $5 admission price wouldn’t exactly make anyone rich, but wouldn’t be a bad start. I talked with Martin Kabaki, one of the event organizers, who said this was the first year of what he hoped would be an annual event. He said that a similar event had already been held in Jacksonville, with other events planned for Gainesville and Miami. As you can see, the scale was pretty small, but it didn’t prevent me from spending a full two hours exploring what was here. (Herb Butler wouldn’t have stepped foot in any place named for Zell Miller, but hey, some things can’t be helped…)
I took note of every exhibitor at the expo, but I will admit up front that I only talked to those that seemed to have something interesting going on. I’m quite frankly skeptical of the “magic health products” types, which don’t really strike me as particularly “green” anyway.
Here they are, in the order I visited them:
New Life Journal – No one was at this booth, so I flipped through a couple of pages of the magazine. Didn’t seem too remarkable.
Owens Corning – Selling that Pink Panther insulation. Not sure if any new technology was involved, but hey, insulation’s not a bad thing.
Monroe Products – Was purveying a product they called “Hemi-Sync”, which supposedly stimulated brain activity, blah blah blah, and some meditational CD’s.
Pure Energy Solutions – The first exhibitor that captured my interest, they were marketing solar thermal heating techonology as well as photovoltaic cells. The man described the company as an “earth craft home builder”, which may or may not have some specific meaning. The water heating technology involves mostly hollow tubes, like a thermos bottle (pictured below), with small copper tubes of water inside them. I was told that the termperatures inside the large dark tubes could reach 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which boils the water in the copper tubes and sends the steam to a condensing bulb which transfers heat to slowly-circulating water that can then be used for hot water or heating.
Perfect Exteriors – advertising acrylic exterior paint that supposedly absorbs 70% of UV rays and reduces energy costs.
Growers Alliance Coffee – This was where I met Martin Kibaki. I learned that he founded the company to remove the middle man between coffee growers in Kenya and consumers here. Turns out they didn’t have to work to be organic – the farmers were so poor they couldn’t afford any of that fancy chemical stuff anyway. A portion of the money from the sale of the coffee (which was tasty) goes back to the village.
Warm Spirit International – Seemed to be selling candles and beauty products.
Ardyss International – More health products, along the lines of what you see in the magic pills aisles at Whole Foods, along with something called “Le Vive”, a juice that had Noni, Acai berry, and mangosteen extract, among other things. Was also selling some odd corset-looking thing that I obviously didn’t ask for details about.
“Liv Fit” – Their main product was a rather mysterious concentrated dietary supplement that delivered 250% of the RDA for copper and had a warning not to consume more than five ounces a day. Apparently it worked for all the smiling testimonial photograph subjects, but it sounds a bit out there for me.
FAFCO – They were displaying some different solar hot water technology, pictured below. The general idea was some relatively inexpensive polymer resin panels with dimples in the tubes through which the water passes, which mixes it better so that it heats more evenly. There was also a solar controller which flips to the solar system from the conventional hot water system only when it’s hot enough to use. FAFCO has apparently been in this business since 1969 and developed this technology in partnership with the government.
Long Drive Solar – They exhibited a solar/electric hybrid golf cart, with the technology able to power other vehicles as well (since golf carts imply golf courses, which are pretty terrible for the environment). The batteries charge either through the solar panel (warranted for 20 years, if I remember correctly) or from a wall socket.
Kitchen Craft cooking show – Infomercial-style marketing of “waterless cookware”. Dunno what that means, but the food that came out of it certainly looked tasty. I was happy to hear that the cookware is American-made, at least.
Greenpeace – Their displayed material focused on global warming, with a chart displaying Georiga’s place as the fourth-highest per capita worldwide (!) emitter of greenhouse gases between 1960 and 2005. I was pleasantly surprised to notice a union bug on the postcards to the EPA they were having visitors fill out – I was told that Greenpeace makes a point to maintain good relationships with unions.
Taylor Construction – Was conducting a prize drawing (probably intended as a marketing tool), with some of the marketing centering around home energy audits and insulation.
Enviro Expo – Apparently the 2nd annual “Advances in Green Science and Technology Symposium” will occur in Atlanta on November 14 and 15. Who knew?
The Sierra Club – I skipped talking to them, mainly because I’m pretty sure I know what I need to about them.
Dixie Home Crafters – Advertising energy-efficient windows and sidings, also conducting a prize drawing.
Natural Awakenings Magazine – No one was staffing the booth and it sounded too out there to bother looking at.
Garden of Eatin’ – I thought this was that brand you see a lot at Whole Foods and Sevananda, but I found out that it’s really a small (1.5 acre) farm share operation in Henry County – the guys running it had no idea the big brand existed until they tried to get the domain name. Half shares cost $250 and full shares $500, which is a bit steep but probably is worth the super fresh produce and free range eggs – the lettuce leaf I ate off the plant was pretty fudging good, incidentally.
Aquarius Atlanta – Lots of cosmetics. Sorry, ladies, this one just wasn’t for me.
Solar Sun World – More solar heating technology. These people also use hollow tubes, with dark fins inside heating circulating glycol in interior copper tubes. I was told that the positioning of the fins is adjustable, but isn’t such a big concern for Atlanta and other locations at this latitude.
NRG SVRS Based right here, off North Druid Hills, this company was marketing several efficiency-improving technologies, the most significant of which was some capable zone-heating/cooling units. Essentially these are much nicer and more flexible (remote-controlled, even) versions of those terrible wall/window units at hotels and for sale in big-box stores – they can de-humidify, too. Apparently they can bring a room to the desired temperature in 3-4 minutes, so you can only climate control the parts of your house that you actually live in.
Get Lean Green – This was the highlight of the expo for me – they had not one but TWO separate technologies that I was utterly fascinated by. The first one is some ridiculously stingy computer systems (gee, wonder why I spent 20 minutes talking to the guy?) made by GreenLite PC. The desktop system pictured (with the monitor) runs on 27 WATTS. And the big system I photographed the inside of, with a 1TB hard drive, triple core processor, graphics card, yada yada, does all of that on only 115 watts, at load. I know those numbers aren’t made up because these systems were hooked up to power monitors – those numbers are for real. And most amazingly, the big system costs not the $2500 I expected, but a paltry $875 – and the desktop is $465 (without the monitor). I had to restrain myself from placing an order right on the spot.
On to technology #2 – LED fluorescent lights. Essentially everything we love and have been advertised into loving about compact flourescents, without the heavy metals, and with even longer lifetimes and lower power consumption. The lights are encased in plastic (not glass) tubes and last 22 years, drawing only 15W (compared to ordinary fluorescents, lasting 6-8 years and drawing 40W). Right now the high-power LED’s themselves (you can’t really make them out in the picture) come from China, but they may be made in California in the near future. So even at $65, I’m thinking of buying these, and they also come in normal household sizes. So CF’s may not be The Big Thing forever.
Shea Butter Secrets – Yeah, I totally skipped this one. Sorry.
SaveWithInsulation.com – Didn’t stop to talk, but presumably there wasn’t much to be gained above and beyond what’s on the web site.
Solar LED innovations – More LED’s, but not the hard-core industrial kind in the fluorescent replacements. Still nifty little devices, which charge NiMH batteries that can be independently replaced if necessary.
WOW Green – Eco-friendly cleaning products. Seemed pretty self-explanatory.
The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association – I didn’t stop to talk, so I don’t know if this is as creepy as it sounded, but they were promoting vegetarianism and lifestyle changes in addition to whatever weird spiritual stuff they might have been proselytizing.
Eletrical Savings System – Last but not least, this is a device invented by some guy in Cumming that claims to smooth out the current spikes that occur when big appliances come on and suck down the big power. At $349, it ain’t cheap, but supposedly the evaluations so far had shown that it was legit, with power companies in Canada and Venezuela signing on, and a company in the US trying to sell it to their customers to reduce brownouts. I talked with a guy named Art who showed real utility bills which seemed to confirm that it could lower consumption (or at least recorded consumption) by 25%, so maybe it really is that wonderful. It’s pretty small, whatever it is and whatever it does.
All in all, it looked like a pretty successful first iteration of the event – there seemed to be some pretty interested folks there in addition to the usual curiosity seekers. It’s worth checking out, and if they have this indie craft festival in Centennial going again tomorrow you can enjoy that too.
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