EcoGreen

During the previous movie night, we ordered food from the EcoGreen café in TTDI. Everyone enjoyed the food very much. Therefore, I decided to interview the owner. Mr. Wong, the owner, was very nice when we asked him for an interview; he did not hesitate at all. They have 2 branches, both in TTDI, one is solely a café and the other is a café and “market place” where you can purchase organic products. There is even a place on the 1st floor for small scale events or networking session.

A little background on Mr. Wong, he is a chemical engineer by profession. He started with engineering business connected to the environment like air pollution and waste water. Then he had an organic farm of his own and that leads to his business today.

EcoGreen‘s core business is selling and serving organic food and promoting sustainable living. They want people to see the connection between the food on their plate and the state of the planet. The definition of organic by EcoGreen is different from some people. This café does not serve vegetables only, they serve meat as well. According to Mr. Wong, we need animal for sustainable living, it is a cycle. EcoGreen promote food at a few levels. First is local food first to minimize carbon food print and post harvest pesticides. Second, is eating organic which also reduces pesticides and promoting recycling (composition of waste).

During the interview, Mr. Wong shared a lot with us from the environmental related books that he read, history of pesticides to the current issues of environment in Malaysia. Nature operates in a cycle and industrialization and human act has broken the cycle. For example, in a jungle, trees and animals used to live independently, trees grow, animals eat its fruit, animal leave waste, trees uses animal waste as fertilizer and this cycle has been going on for thousands of years. Nothing was transported far away and will always be within the same area. When industrialization comes in, thing are being exported to everywhere in the world and that leaves major carbon footprints. And things that are taken from the earth were not returned to where it belongs and we are taking away from the earth much faster that it produces.

For those of you who would like to try the food in the café and to shop for organic products, you may want to pay a visit to EcoGreen. Here is their website address www.ecogreen.com.my

Millionaire Bullock Goes Green Too

Even Hollywood stars are supporting Al Gore. (hmmm...imagine if Bush lost his presidential post to Al Gore, how green the earth would be?!)

From Julia Roberts, Jake Gyllenhaal to Speed's main star, Sandra Bullock, these are just a few celebrities who are into anything and everything green. And yes, they're millionaires but that doesn't stop them in saving a little and contributing a little to reduce carbon footprints.

Sandra Bullock just came out with her line of soy wax candles - Bessence. And yes, it's made from soy. (like tau foo fa and tau cheong sui...)

And she didn't just stop there.

She has her own restaurant in her hometown and everything from the foundation of the restaurant to the furniture are made from recyclable materials. Reason being, she demolished her old house and reused all those materials to build her new restaurant. Nothing goes to waste. Amazing huh! Even her cutlery are made from 100% organic materials. Green is everything to this Hollywood sweetheart.

Sandra was raised in an environment where everything doesn't go to waste. Thanks to her mommy.

We're glad that Sandra kept this little priceless experience until now. Now, let's see if she can influence her Hollywood friends to follow suit.

For more news or other happenings with Hollywoodland on green, log on to http://www.ecorazzi.com

Living Green

I had an interview with Callie who owns Justlife group. Justlife is an organic shop. They not only sell organic food, you will be surprised at the range of things that they sell. Apparently they have organic handkerchief, sanitary care, cosmetic and organic clothes. I have yet to check out their store, but I will probably drop by to take some pictures next week.

The concept of organic according to Justlife is everything that is good for the earth is good for us. This concept actually runs thru as their business concept as well. Callie herself preaches earth saving diet, meaning to go vegetarian. She herself is a vegan.

I was asking her how all these started and I was a little shocked when she told me that she herself is an accountant by profession. She actually started eating organic even before she started her business. She got introduced by a friend to eat organic. From there, she started the business with her siblings.

When I went into the office, I notice that all her staffs are very young, between 20+ to 30+ and I find it weird, maybe because it’s kind of like a stereotype that people who are into organic are mostly uncles and aunties in their late 40s. She was telling me, in this business, they need passionate people who truly believe in what they do. Therefore, that explains why the staffs are so young. According to Callie, they want to break the stereotype that organic is only for uncles and aunties. Organic is for everyone. Every single one in the team will have to go through a 2-3 months of shop assistance position (regardless of what your position is) when they first joined to see if they are really passionate about what they do. Some stayed back and some didn’t. For Callie it is alright because to her, education about organic to people is much more important. Most of the people that decided that this is not what they want to do will already have an understanding about organic and they do shop in Justlife for organic products.

The business of Justlife is not only in selling organic, but also to educate people. Aside from their core business, they also organized events; go to schools, colleges, kindergartens to educate the younger generation. The Climate change even was organized by them. At present, they are running a contest, The Most Natural. This contest is for youth and the grand prize is a Mini Cooper! Check it out at www.themostnatural.com.my

Stay tune to this site as I will be visiting the shop and will be posting some pictures of the shop here soon!