Fremont

Check out our video from the Fremont, CA, Carrotmob.
Fremont Carrotmob!

Our Fremont Carrotmob went well. We had Randi Ray singing her heart out on acoustic guitar (myspace.com/randiray). Dozens of friends showed up to support the effort. The owner was pleased. He had initially been skeptical but afterward started telling his Indian-American market owner friends that they should check out Pacific Gas & Electric’s rebates. PG&E gives rebates for about 2/3 of the lighting and installation cost.

We had hoped to raise an additional $1,500 to $2,000 in revenue for the store owner. Ranjeet Singh needed to pay $280 to upgrade all his lights to T8 fluorescents and electronic ballasts. What we actually raised was $700. The owner said that was OK and he would go through with the retrofits.

A few lessons I learned were that:
* it’s good to be at a location with foot traffic. In my town, people drive everywhere so it’s unlikely we were going to pull in passersby.
* It would have been better to be within walking distance of a BART train. We were 1 1/2 miles.
* I should have held it on Sunday afternoon not Saturday afternoon. Many friends had kids with sports activities (soccer and baseball) and could not come on Saturday afternoon.
* It’s all about word of mouth among people who know each other. The newspaper article and ad were useful for general public education about the power of a carrotmob but I don’t think it pulled anyone in. My friends and acquaintances were the ones who rallied. A big thank you to them for supporting the first Carrotmob.

By Justine Burt

Why are we sitting around waiting for the federal government to fix climate change? There finally seems to be overwhelming support to do something about global warming in Washington. The problem now is that there are many different opinions about what should be done: carbon tax, cap and trade, cap and dividend? Settling on a solution the majority in Congress can agree on may take time we don’t have.

While we’re waiting for Obama to crack the whip on Congress, we need to take matters into our own hands and work locally to fix climate change. There’s no reason we can’t have a good time while doing it. If our local projects are fun, they will catch on like a wildfire.

I’m doing my part by organizing a Carrotmob here in California.  The concept behind the Carrotmob is this: incentivize a business to do the right thing by bringing hundreds of friends to shop at a small, locally-owned market. The owner will then have extra revenue with which to upgrade energy inefficient lights and refrigerator gaskets. This project was inspired by Brent Schulkin, who conceived of and organized the original Carrotmob in San Francisco last year.

While managing this project, I’ve had help from many talented people.
•    Pacific Gas & Electric staff performed four energy efficiency audits at various Afghani and Indian-owned markets before we settled on Sam’s Best Food Market.
•    Jonathan Good created this amazing poster. Yes, Gandhi would support shopping locally to address a large, challenging problem, wouldn’t he?
•    Donna Olsen, the director of the Tri-City Ecology Center, helped with publicity.
•    Musician Randi Ray will play an acoustic set for the first hour and a half.

If you live in the Bay Area, stop by Sam’s Best Food Market on Saturday, March 7th between 1 and 4pm. Come buy a few food items, listen to some great music, donate an item for the local homeless coalition, and feel good about the fact that you’ve done something small to help.

Will anyone show up? I’ll let you know next week.