Martha Stewart Loves Pingg

Let's say you want to have a party. Whether it is a beer and nachos blow-out to watch the Duke v. Carolina game, a classy wine & cheese soiree to celebrate your friends' anniversary, or a mad hatter themed tea party for your 6 yr old niece and her friends, the first thing you'll need is the perfect invite.

And for that, my friends, you need to Pingg.

Pingg.com is an event management site offering customers services like customized invitations, RSVP and guest list management, reminder notices, last-minute changes, and thank-you notes. Since its creation in February of 2008, over 2.5 million electronic invitations have been sent by Pingg.

Just to be clear here, Pingg offers party planners a foolproof way to send beautifully designed, eco-friendly (i.e. paperless, inkless, transportation-less), and super affordable invitations to guests and then track them. Unlike other online invitation services I have tried that are hella confusing, Pingg invitations are so easy to figure out that even a monkey could do it.

Back in late October, the simplicity and class of Pingg caught the attention of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc (MSLO) who decided to invest and and enter a commercial agreement with Pingg. Besides being an unwavering entertaining authority for the longest, MSLO also owns Martha Stewart Radio on Sirius 112, which the Lazy E has hosted a handful of times. That in itself means Martha and her people know a good thing when they see it.

President of Media and Co-CEO of MSLO Wenda Harris Millard says, "Pingg illustrates our commitment to our digital business and our focus on growing our core franchises in new and exciting ways by providing tools and resources that enable our customers to carry out the inspiring ideas they expect from Martha Stewart."

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Eco-Holiday Gift (vol. 1): Now That's a Cool Book

As the holiday gifting season approaches, the Lazy E appreciates presents that are easy-to-find, easy to use, and require little to no assembly. If that gift happens to be inspiring like Sebastian Copeland’s “Antarctica: A Call To Action”, well that’s just an added bonus.

Copeland has made a name for himself as a documentary-maker and photographer capturing beautiful images ranging from nudes and nature, to celebrities. Copeland says, "Something like the Burning Man Festival celebrates humanity in a natural environment, and the photos I have taken reflect that. Antarctica on the other hand thrives outside the reach of humans, yet is an ecosystem most effected by them. It is like a Ground Zero of Climate change."

If someone on your list loves breathtakingly beautiful photos, this book is a great choice for them. Or, for another type of coffee table photo book of super-cute babies strategically positioned in flowers and watering cans, there is always Anne Geddes.

In this video, Sebastian talks about the mission of the book, some of his favorite photos, and man-handling penguins to get the good shots.

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Strawberry Earth: Green Your Bar and Party Hearty

Strawberries & Cream from Strawberry Earth on Vimeo.

The lure of Cheers, the bar in the 1982-1992 "Cheers" the TV show, was that everybody knew your name. And they were always glad you came. But what if Norm had told Woody, "look the brewskis aren't enough. I think you ought to trick out this bar so it's eco-friendly." Most likely Woody would have been confused. Perhaps a more likely scenario, would have been Frasier Crane (remember he was in that show) telling Sam, "Look man, I think a more sustainable but upscale aesthetic is needed to attract more business." Sam also might have been a little confused, considering it was the 90s, however in a green savvy 2008 this is actually happening.

Putting customer purchasing power to work, a new Amsterdam based eco magazine Strawberry Earth challenged a few of their favorite local bar owners to see what percent of a night's revenue they'd spend on environmental improvements on their premises. The bars loved the idea, competed in the challenge (even though admittedly, the challenge name Strawberries & Cream doesn't sound like a bar-challenge at all) and the first winner is the Bar Waldorf. On December 7th, Bar Waldorf has promised 60% of the night's revenue will go to greening the bar.

Strawberry Earth, a self described, "magazine with lots of good stuff about the environment" features international stories including a regular NYC column by Lazy E team member Margaret.

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Green Karat: Recycle Old Gold, Receive New Jewelry

If you've ever bought bling bling, then you know that the karats cost! Furthermore, buying jewelry goes beyond impacting your wallet. The gold industry extracts 2,5000 tons of gold per year from the earth, using a gnarly process that is harmful to the environment.

Fortunately, there is enough old and unused jewelry above ground stored in vaults and home safety boxes to satisfy gold demand for 50 years. GreenKarat is an industry leader jewelry using recycled precious metals to make beautiful rings, necklaces, earrings, etc.

And now they have taken their A-game to another level with an easy, consumer driven jewelry recycling program myKarat. Just look around your house and find old gold jewelry (white, rose, or yellow) that you don't wear anymore. Send it into MyKarat and you will receive store credit, which you then use to you to buy new jewelry. It's just easy. This program is similar to another Lazy E favorite, Patagonia's Common Threads Program in which consumers recycle their old Polartec® fleece clothing (from any maker) that Patagonia then transforms into new clothing. But unlike Patagonia, myKarat actually pays you off in jewelry, in exchange for recycling. In fact, I'm sending in my gold grillz, right now.

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The Lazy Environmentalist Guests Hosts Martha Stewart Living Radio

It’s sweet to be back on Sirius Satellite Radio for a few days. You can catch me this week at 10am EST on Martha Stewart Living Radio (Sirius 112/XM 157) as the guest host for Whole Living. We had a fun chat today with Dr. Cheryl Dellasega, author of Forced to be Family: A Guide for Living with Sinister Sisters, Drama Mamas, and Infuriating In-Laws (awesome subtitle!). We talked about how to cope with going home for the holidays, an occasion that we want to be filled with family cheer but can deteriorate into backstabbing bitterness and petty jibes that leave us filling less than fulfilled by our time spent with so many ‘loved ones.’ I enjoyed the conversation because it hit home on some levels for me like I think it probably does for most of us. It’s also fun to to chat about topics that are about how we relate to and treat each other since my radio conversations almost always focus on how we relate to and treat the earth.

But we hit upon that topic with our second guest, Jeff Barrie, filmmaker of the documentary Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America. I watched Jeff’s documentary last night. He does a fantastic job of first providing a national and global perspective about our energy and environmental crisis, next personalizing it through the stories of those who directly suffer as a result, and then rapidly shifting focus to solutions we can implement on the individual and societal level. He also hits upon one of my favorite topics; the eco-innovation underway at school districts across the U.S. to reign in energy costs and create high-performance educational facilities that enable students to maximize their education and thus their economic opportunities. It’s exactly the type of environmental framing needed to shift the dialogue from problems to solutions and paint a vision of a future that’s better for all Americans precisely because it’s green.

By Josh | Comments (0) Email this Entry