Thank you so much for coming to Duboce Park Cafe’s Carrotmob. With your support this past Sunday, you helped another local business become even greener – and the results far exceeded our expectations. In just three hours, Duboce Park Cafe tripled its afternoon sales and served 3 times as many people than they normally do in a full day. What hard work they put in! What a Carrotmob!

A full 50% of those sales – plus 100% of a full “greening donation jar” – are being reinvested back into the business. Duboce Park Cafe will become more sustainable by upgrading lighting and reducing waste. Not only will the Carrotmob have long-term impacts on Duboce Park Cafe’s energy costs, but they have also agreed to continue providing 10% off to customers who bring their own mugs — so hurry back to help yourself to some savings at this great neighborhood hangout.

Check out pictures by clicking here.

Carrotmob is just another example of why grassroots organizing works – folks respond when you unite them around a positive common cause. We look forward to working with you on more events like this in the future.

Once again, thank you for making this Carrotmob such a rousing success! We also want to send some extra greening love to Kirsten & Caleb of the Green Cafe Network whose expertise is vital, the hard-working staff at Duboce Park Cafe, Bernie – from our original Carrotmob – for attending, Ben and Morgan of the Wigg Party for helping with turnout, and all of the volunteers that make an event of this magnitude possible.

Best,

Rebecca Prozan and Rachel Herbert

What Duboce Park Café has done after winning the Carrotmob

- Duboce Park Cafe and sister cafe Dolores Park Cafe both joined Green Café Network
- Created a new 10% price discount for people who bring their own mugs/cups
- Pursued an energy audit with SF Energy Watch

Additional changes that Duboce Park Cafe is working on

:: General ::
- Becoming a SF certified green business

:: Waste Reduction ::
- Putting in a dirty / clean spoon system to replace the wooden stir sticks
- Exploring biodegradable plastics
- Researching options for using more post-consumer paper
- Putting in new customer-facing 3-color trash cans

:: Energy Conservation – Lighting ::
- Replacing 23 flood lights with lower wattage lamps (going from 50w to 37w)

- Changing ballasts and lamps in the 2 fixtures in the kitchen and in 1 fixture in Rachel’s office (going from magnetic ballasts to electronic ones and going from 40w T-12 lamps to 32W T-8 lamps)

- Replacing 7 exterior halogen lights and 3 incandescent lamps with photo sensors with 10 compact flourescent lamps (going from 65w to 23w)

The CO2 reduction resulting from implementation of the new lighting:
4,022 lb. or 2.0 Tons of CO2 Annually

:: Energy Conservation – General ::
- Installing air hand dryer in bathroom
- Researching a way to reduce energy produced by ice machine
- Researching plug-load controllers to turn off idling equipment after working hours

::Water Conservation::
- Scheduling a visit with Water Walk Through with SFPUC to detect leaks and recommend conservation practices

Mark Your Calendars!

Duboce Park Café
2 Sanchez Street @ Duboce
Sunday, April 25 · 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Join the mob to support energy efficiency!

Duboce Park Cafe has pledged a whopping 50% of profits towards greening their business!

Carrotmob encourages businesses to compete to see who will do the most good for the environment, and then rewards the business with a mob of consumers.

RSVP and Invite Your Friends!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=115208358494501

Volunteer at: carrotmob@rebeccaprozan.com

As Time Magazine proclaimed, Carrotmobs really are cooler than boycotts.

What’s the Wiggle? Click here to find out.

I am humbled and honored to play a part in organizing San Francisco’s 5th Carrotmob on Sunday, April 25th from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, at Rachel Herbert’s Duboce Park Café.

When I organized my first Carrotmob at Bernie’s café back in October 2009, I was excited at the task at hand: creating a community event which would motivate not only the people of Noe Valley, but people all across San Francisco, who are committed to doing their part in greening our city and the environment. Would people come and buy their coffee on the designated date and time? They did. Would there be a palpable energy from people being a part of something bigger than any candidate or ideology? There was. Could San Francisco have a warm Sunday at the end of October? Well, two out of three ain’t bad…

Just days later, with the momentum of an outstanding event propelling us forward, I announced my candidacy to become San Francisco’s next District 8 Supervisor. Carrotmob shows why grassroots organizing works – folks respond when they are given the opportunity to unite around a positive common cause. That’s why we are planning the next Carrotmob and holding it during a week of such import as the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Here’s what we did to make this Carrotmob happen:

Since we had so much fun at Bernie’s, enjoying the company of old friends while making new ones over a cuppa joe, we chose to target cafes in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood. We used the same letter as before, but now we had the great results from Bernie’s under our belt and business owners were all ears.

We ended up approaching eleven café owners and not a single one turned us away. The bidding war was on! From those who expressed an interest, Rachel Herbert pledged a whopping 50% of her profits when we mob Duboce Park Cafe on April 25th. We’ve enlisted the help of Kirstin at Green Café Network to help us out by consulting with the café about what changes they could make.

On October 18, 2009, your overwhelming support helped Bernies Coffeeshop on 24th Street become even greener with smashing results. In just 3 short hours, we quadrupled Bernies profits, grossing almost the same amount in that time as the coffeeshop does in a full day! 40% of those sales are being reinvested back into the business, making Bernies Coffeeshop more sustainable, and truly making this a win-win event for everyone.

Carrotmob is just another example of why grassroots organizing works – folks respond when you unite them behind a positive common cause!

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/premshree/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

We checked-in with Mark from Epicenter to get a finalized update of the changes they made in response to our mob. Here’s a summary of what he told us:

-Completed an overhaul of the HVAC (heating ventilating air conditioning) unit, allowing more efficient temperature control of the cafe. Because of the glass frontage, this has traditionally been a challenge for Epicenter.

-Instituted an 8% discount for people using travel mugs.

-Started sourcing a greater percentage of food supplies from local and more responsible vendors, including Fish from Wild Planet and others, Meat from Zoe’s, Produce from Rainbow and others, Bread from Panorama.

-Completed an energy audit and consulted with lighting experts, both yielding positive results.

-Transitioned from disposable wooden stir sticks to washable spoons.

-Implemented a front-of-the-house compost/recycle/landfill bin system.

-Joined the Green Cafe Network, complying with all GCN standards.

-Joined SF’s Green Business Program to get certified as a Green Business by the city.

Nice work, San Francisco. These changes at Epicenter happened because YOU all showed up and voted with your dollars. Stop in at Epicenter, grab a coffee, and check out the impact you had.

Thank you so much for coming to Bernie’s Carrotmob.  With your support, on October 18, you helped Bernie’s Coffeeshop on 24th Street become even greener – and we had smashing results.  In just 3 hours, we quadrupled Bernie’s profits, grossing almost the same amount in that time as the coffeeshop does in a full day!  40% of all those sales are being reinvested back into the business making Bernie’s Coffeeshop more sustainable, and truly making this a win-win event for everyone.  Not only will the Carrotmob have long-term impacts on Bernie’s energy costs, it made for a great community event, bringing out neighbors from Noe Valley and beyond.

Check out pictures here: http://www.rebeccaprozan.com

Carrotmob is just another example of why grassroots organizing works – when you put something positive to unite folks behind a common cause, people respond.  We look forward to working with you on more events such as these in the future.

Once again, on behalf of the staff of Bernie’s, thank you for making our first Carrotmob in Noe such a rousing success!

Best,

Rebecca Prozan and Bernie Melvin

Between 6pm and 9pm the bar earned about 63% of the total average earnings for an entire Saturday night! The owners, Dave and Tom, were so excited about the community support and getting more revenue for the changes that they extended the time period to go until 2am! During the whole night they earned 140% in comparison to an average Saturday night. This money, along with the proceeds from the pub crawl will allow them to make some substantial  changes.

We had a TV crew from Germany filming a documentary on groups working on solutions to climate change, keep an eye out for us dubbed in German! Prior to the event we also had the Food Service Technology Center do an energy audit and they are preparing a report that will be utilized to determine the most effective use of the funds.

Thanks so much everyone for all of your support!

For future updates on this bar, you can go to www.greenandtonic.com or www.facebook.com/greenandtonic

Originally we were focused on the Mission, but after receiving outside interest from bars with sustainability commitments in other neighborhoods, we decided to open it up. The other bars (in addition to Shotwell’s) that have all shown outstanding commitment to going green are Mojito, Hemlock, and The Page.

This event is in conjunction with 350.org Day of Action to fight climate change.

Our goal is to have mobbers send out 350 tweets about the event to get as many supporters out as we can! Here are the details of the event for the tweets:

What: Shotwell’s Carrotmob
Date: Saturday, October 24th
Address: 3349 20th Street
(between Folsom St & Shotwell St)
Time: 6pm to 9pm

TWEET AWAY!!!

Reminder: Drink responsibly for you and the planet!

Bernie’s
3966 24th St. (between Noe & Sanchez Sts)
Sunday, October 18, 11 AM to 2 PM

Google Map

Here’s how it came about:

A few months back, some friends and I gathered to kickstart a Friday evening with some wine tasting at Castro Wine Village.  Over an earthy biodynamic Pinot, we spoke about uniting people for a common cause: sustainability.  In essence, we wanted to bring community back (cue Justin Timberlake music).

Someone in the group suggested hosting a Carrotmob, a term which puzzled even the designated drivers.  What was this elusive idea known as Carrotmob?  After a Syrah hailing from the Santa Cruz Mountains, my wife and I went home, where I began researching the concept.

Though I wasn’t part of the March 2008 mob that rewarded K & D Market with over $9200 in sales over the course of a few hours, the video of the crowd captured their excitement.  And their energy stemmed from doing good – rewarding a small business owner for making a commitment to become more energy efficient.  I was hooked!

The process:

The next Friday, with almost the identical set of friends at the same wine bar (hey, we are consistent), we were abuzz with the notion that we’d host a Carrotmob.  The folks at Carrotmob provided us with a basic template for a letter to approach local businesses (thanks Brent!).  We chose to target cafes in the Noe Valley neighborhood.

We ended up approaching ten café owners with our written materials and palpable enthusiasm.  We listened to their concerns and then countered with facts gleaned from Carrotmob’s website.  Not a single business owner turned us away without hearing our pitch!  From those who expressed an interest, only Bernie’s made a pledge of committing 40% of her sales toward going even greener — Bernie’s is already a certified member of the Green Cafe Network.  We are working with this local gal now on improvements identified in a June energy audit, with the help of Kirstin at Green Café Network.

Mark Your Calendars!

Join me for San Francisco’s third Carrotmob at Bernie’s, 3966 24th St. (between Noe & Sanchez Sts) on Sunday, October 18, from 11 AM to 2 PM.

Volunteer for the event by emailing: carrotmob@rebeccaprozan.com

RSVP and Invite Your Friends!
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142880802683

Here’s the best page to distribute as you tell your friends about Bernie’s Carrotmob: http://sf.carrotmob.org/bernies

As Time Magazine proclaimed, Carrotmobs really are cooler than boycotts!

Green bars:

We help bar owners to realize energy, waste and water efficiencies.

Green beverages:

We work with sustainable alcohol producers to gain traction in the bars.

Green drinkers:

We educate the community about what it means to drink sustainably and how they can make an impact through something as simple as their happy hour drink choices.

Who are we?

We started as a Green Team formed from Acterra and developed a community project to make the bars more sustainable. We had just one thought: how many people stand in line at the bars on a Saturday night for the bathroom, flushing over and over? What if we did just one thing and focused on changing out all of the toilets in the bars? As we crawled down the rabbit hole of bar greening, we realized there is a plethora of sustainable opportunities to be had. Since then, we have evolved into an organization that has a vision of greening all of the bars in San Francisco and beyond!

Why are we doing a Carrotmob?

Since our inception, we have essentially been “mobbing” the bars by bringing the community out to support environmental retrofits with their presence and money, although we never applied the competition model. We thought the Carrotmob method would provide an excellent opportunity for more bars to come to the table and start thinking about taking action.

Why did we want to raise seed money?

This summer, we approached the bars in the Mission of San Francisco and had feedback that ran the gamut from “We want to be 100% sustainable, so are you going to make that happen for us?” to “We don’t know that we will raise any money from the event, so why would we want to participate?” Fair enough, we actually couldn’t make any promises. We started thinking. How could we come up with some kind of guarantee that this event will help make their green dreams come true?

Out pops the idea of a Get ZeroWasted Pub Crawl.

Why the pub crawl?

1. Reward the hard-working bars choosing to be green (for example Doc’s Clock just received their official San Francisco Green Business Certification!).
2. Raise seed money to help another bar go green on October 24^th in conjunction with Carrotmob and 350.org.
3. Educate consumers on how to drink green.
4. Provide a market for green (local, organic, and/or sustainable) beers and spirits.

The Green & Tonic Get ZeroWasted Pub Crawl was a huge success last weekend! We raised $516 for the next bar we green and over 100 people attended! The bars were able to gain additional profits from the community support. As one crawler said, “It’s so awesome, I get to drink $2 solar powered beer!” Thanks for all of your support!

Now that we have the seed money and proof that we can pull in a crowd, what about the Carrotmob on Oct. 24^th?

We will be doing our competition quantitatively by asking how much of the event revenue they are willing to commit to environmental retrofits.  Our plan now is to go back to those bars interested and give them extra motivation to compete.

Why the Mission neighborhood?

We have a good following here. It is close to public transportation. Word of mouth between bar owners and customers is spreading. Good vibes, activist-oriented people, a surplus of awesome dive bars, need we say more?

We will keep you posted on our progress, stay tuned!!

Find out more about us at: www.greenandtonic.com and www.facebook.com/greenandtonic

Contact us if you would like to help out: volunteer@greenandtonic.com