Exhibitors from the Green Chamber of Commerce filled the Lovonya DeJean Middle School auditorium on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Richmond Chamber of Commerce is up to its old tricks, writing its members to oppose the “manufacturing tax,” although the proposed tax would only substantially affect one business in town, Chevron (See Petition Drive Seeks to Place Refinery Tax on Ballot, September 29, 2007) and asking its members for a “voluntary RichPAC Donation,” presumably to continue funding opposition to progressive public policies and candidates.

The following is from Sunday’s West County Times:

Richmond promotes green business

By Tom Lochner

STAFF WRITER
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:10/22/2007 03:02:26 AM PDT

With polar ice caps melting at an alarming rate, an East Bay community that is home to a large oil refinery spent Sunday championing "green" business.

Now Richmond can be a pacesetter for other communities, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said Sunday at "Greening Richmond," an event hosted by the Green Chamber of Commerce. The group hopes to parlay into a nationwide network its concept of businesses that produce goods and services while promoting a healthy environment.

"Our planet is in the throes of a life-threatening disease: environmental degradation and climate change," McLaughlin told a crowd in the Lovonya DeJean Middle School auditorium.

The economy is in an "overshoot and collapse mode," she warned.

Richmond, meanwhile, thinks globally and acts locally; the city has added a climate change element to its General Plan. Richmond also charges no permit fee for installing solar panels, McLaughlin noted.

Green exhibitors included Osiris Enterprises, marketer of the AquaMaker, which produces drinking water from water vapor in the air as an alternative to bottled water. The company also displayed shopping bags made of a tough, woven material derived from recycled plastic shopping bags.

In another example of local-global synergy, Osiris donates part of its proceeds from the AquaMaker to a women's cooperative in Tanzania that makes the shopping bags, said company representative Upezi Mtambuzi.

Scott Barrett of Vetrazzo showed off a substitute terrazzo made with recycled glass. The product line is made in panels at Vetrazzo's quarters in the old Ford assembly building on Harbour Way in Richmond and can be used instead of granite in kitchen countertops. The alternative surfaces included varieties made from recycled window glass from demolished buildings and autos, and one blue-speckled variety made from recycled bottles of Sky Vodka.

Barrett also took a turn at the microphone, speaking about the "three P's" of green business: people, planet and profit.

Other exhibitors included manufacturers of solar panels, environmentally friendly appliances, a solar-powered attic heat dissipater and the "Anti-Muscle Car," an electric vehicle that claims to cost less than 2 cents a mile to operate.

State Assemblywoman Loni Hancock hailed the idea of a green chamber of commerce and urged immediate action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. She chastised officials who "set goals for 2020, 2030 or 2050."

Later, Hancock said the East Bay is a fertile ground for smart environmental policy, where "cities are in a kind of friendly competition. They learn from each other and want to be first."

Other speakers included Richmond Councilman Tom Butt; Middle College High School sophomore Stephanie Pizano, who belongs to the Ma'at Youth Academy; Albany green architect David Arkin; and Jim Coyle of San Francisco green builder Pankow.

The host Green Chamber of Commerce was started in February, said executive director James Carter, who previously held the same title with the Albany Chamber of Commerce.

The Albany chamber started the Green Albany Project, which helped businesses compost some 160 tons a year of organic materials that used to go to a landfill, Carter said. But green programs tend to not be the focus of traditional chambers of commerce, he said.

Carter sees a nationwide Green chamber as an antidote to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which he said is dominated by oil companies, pharmaceutical giants, automakers and other polluting industries.

"If we can get businesses to operate in a green manner and start producing products and services that are sustainable . . . that's when we'll turn things around," Carter said. "We'll be creating a new economy."

Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@bayareanewsgroup.com.