Our own Tracy Perkins was on a segment of Good Morning Arizona this past Friday! She was doing a soap making demo and promoting her eco-friendly, vegan bath and body products company Strawberry Hedgehog.
Friday morning we packed up all her soap making gear and headed down to 3TV’s studio. Once we arrived we had to wait a few mintues for a commercial break so that they could sneak us in the studio to setup. It was weird setting up all her stuff while the anchors were chatting and reporting the news just a few feet away. I was afraid we’d drop something big and interrupt them while they were on the air. We also couldn’t figure out how to get the stove on and none of the anchor’s or producers knew either! Luckily we finally found someone that knew how it worked and we got the stove on and the soap started. Everyone there was extremely friendly and made our trip down there fun. Dan Davis was great and made Tracy feel very comfortable on the air. Believe it or not they just wing the segment, no scripts or really any planning on how it will go. Sounds stressful to me but they seem to like it.
Tracy did great on her first TV appearance! Follow this link to her get her version of the story on her blog over at blog.strawberryhedgehog.com. Check out the video and below to see her in action, and be sure to visit StrawberryHedgehog.com for all your eco-friendly, cruelty free bath and body needs.
A million thanks to Jessie from Jessiebell Designs for making the awesome hand dyed and screened, 100% organic cotton apron that Tracy wore on air. It turned out amazing!
aka Green - Green Building supplies. Head here instead of Home Depot or Lowes.
Favorite local non-profits:
Hero’s Quest 2008 - Raising money for the 100 Club. The mission of the 100 Club of Arizona is to provide financial assistance to families of public safety officers and firefighters who are seriously injured or killed in the line-of-duty, and to provide resources to enhance their safety and welfare.
Independents week is this week and is a national event to promote local businesses across the country. Here in Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is supporting this cause and has declared June 30 - July 6 as independents week! Support your local economy and its uniqueness by making an extra effort to shop locally this week.
Why support local business? Check out this list of reasons from Local First Arizona:
For every two jobs national retailers bring to a community, three jobs are lost as a result of local businesses closing down.
When you shop locally-owned businesses, your money is re-circulated over and over and creates up to 75% more tax revenue to our community and state.
Independent businesses raise the standard of living in your community because they take their profits and buy products and services from other local businesses, thus creating more and more tax revenues needed for the community to thrive.
Millions of dollars of tax revenue subsidies handed to chains by financially-starved local governments drain even more tax revenue from our community and state.
Blighted empty shopping areas are created in your community when chain stores re-locate to a more lucrative shopping center, or leave altogether. Literally hundreds of big stores are abandoned each year across the United States.
Independent businesses are unique enterprises that contribute to the character of our community by offering a more diverse selections of goods and services.
Independent businesses provide meaningful service with a personal touch. It matters to them that you are satisfied and will come back again.
Carefully planned predatory pricing practices have allowed national chains to establish virtual monopolies as they drive local competition out of business. And then they raise their prices.
Take the pledge to support local business this week and pick up your golden ticket to save 20% at participating locations. No matter where you are in the country this is a great week to support local business and help keep your money local and your neighborhood unique.
Look forward to my list of recommended local businesses coming later this week. Until then see what some other Arizonan’s favorite local spots are here.
We previously wrote about PC911’s plans to expand to Arizona here and now that they are here we decided to pay them a visit. In many ways PC911 is a typical mobile computer repair company, they provide in home residential computer repair services, business services such as network installs, phone systems, maintenance plans, and surveillance systems. What sets them apart is their commitment to reducing their environmental impact. I’ve worked for a mobile computer repair company before and it involves A LOT of driving. In sprawling cities like Phoenix it is easy to drive 100 miles or more a day criss crossing around to different homes and businesses. This is the biggest environmental impact businesses like this have and is where PC911 works the hardest to reduce. They do this by buying used diesel ambulances and converting them to run on waste vegetable oil. Running a vehicle on veggie oil is cleaner than running running petroleum diesel, provides a local use for a waste product, and reduces demand for foreign oil. This also saves the business a lot of money in fuel costs. The $1200 install for the conversion is paid off after only 10 tanks of fuel. Another way PC911 works to reduce their impact is by recycling as much of their waste as possible. They have opted to pay for a recycling dumpster behind their office to accommodate this. The owner of PC911, Chad Stone, also runs his personal vehicles on waste veggie oil, he has a VW TDI and 1984 Mercedes.
We contacted Chad about taking a tour of their office here in Phoenix and met up with him on a Monday morning. They have a very typical office except for the fact that their garage has 4 ambulances stuffed in it. Chad popped the hood of one of them and started telling us about the WVO systems they have. They use Lovecraft conversions which are single tank systems. Typically with these systems you have two tanks, one with diesel or biodiesel to start the vehicle and than another tank with the WVO to switch over to once the vehicle is warmed up. WVO needs to be warmed up to thin it out to a viscosity closer to diesel fuel so that it can be more easily injected into the engine. Lovecraft systems preheat the oil in the fuel filter and use a booster pump to get rid of the need for two tanks. Most of the people I’ve talked to recommend the two tank system, but Chad says they’ve never had any problems. Here’s a video of Chad cold starting one of their ambulances after it has sat unused over the weekend.
PC911 collects and filters the oil themselves. They first pre-screen the oil into a drum and then it is forced through a sock filter which I believe filters it down to 10 microns. Here’s a video of Chad filtering some used oil and then filling up a ambulance with it. At the time of our visit they hadn’t secured any sources of waste oil in Phoenix, but are working on that.
Basically that is it, these systems are pretty simple overall and easy to operate. Thinking of running waste veggie oil in your car? Sure it is a free source of fuel, but you should also know there can be downsides. Systems improperly installed, or bad oil, especially oil with water in it can cause catastrophic damage to your engine. Check out this horror story of one man’s journey with running his VW TDI on waste oil. Not to end with a downer, but be sure you know what you could be running into if you decided to go down this path.
If you need any computer services we’d highly recommend PC911 for their high quality computer work and their commitment to the environment. They are currently located in Las Vegas Nevada and Phoenix Arizona, perhaps one day in a city near you.
Being more efficient and less wasteful is great for saving money and with rising energy prices businesses are all in. This among other sustainability topics is what was discussed at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce Sustainability Summit at the Hyatt Regency in Phoenix on Friday.
“Sustainability is about making money,” said Ed Fox, vice president and chief sustainability officer for APS. “Sustainability is a business strategy.”
He encouraged business executives to “stop thinking about sustainability as a green movement,” because that “makes the finance guys think of additional costs.”
Instead, he said APS encourages employees to look for ways to save the company money, like the idea to shut down energy-wasting computer monitors when they’re not in use. The company borrowed the idea from a local school that was pinching pennies.
James Towner | 
08 24th, 2008| 
Our own Tracy Perkins was on a segment of Good Morning Arizona this past Friday! She was doing a soap making demo and promoting her eco-friendly, vegan bath and body products company Strawberry Hedgehog. 
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