Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

There is so much going on here at Flash Forward San Francisco. I'm running off to the Adobe Keynote to kick off day two, but I thought I'd share a warm fuzzy first impression before I go.

The organizers and sponsors of Flash Forward have worked in concert with city officials to make this year's conference greener than ever.

Bins have been put out to separate not only recyclables, but organics as well. These compost bins are picked up by the city, as part of their public composting program. Brilliant!

You won't find a plastic water bottle anywhere. Organizers have provided attendees with reusable, post-consumer water bottles. Water stations have been placed around the venue for easy refilling.

The public really seems to care about their city as a collective here. It's infectious.

What do you do with 1500 pounds of spent coffee? We do something a little unheard of in Class A office space, we reuse it. Eeeewww! Not what you think! We only brew our creative jet fuel once. However, every week 30 pounds of used coffee grounds are reincarnated in compost. Those rich Columbian relics of countless brainstorms, late nights and waaaaaaaay too early mornings have a lot of energy in them. Specifically, soggy nitrogen which cooks with dead leaves, grass clippings and other stinky kitchen scraps.

Shortage of landfill space makes compost recycling an easy process for converting decomposable waste into rich, clean, natural fertilizer. Modern composting originates from early 20th century European organic farming. With the 1999 issue of the Landfill Directive to “prevent or reduce as far as possible the landfilling of waste", the EU elevates that whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing even further.

Shouldn’t we learn from them?

The Coats household is trying. We started composting 2 years ago but not being a lover of the dark beverage, we needed coffee grounds to balance the dead carbon stuff. I see a colleague tossing used coffee grounds in the trash. Shazam! Right under my nose, the triple bottom line.

We can save valuable landfill space, create an endless supply of free fertilizer and invest in fair trade products with the savings. I encourage you to set up a coffee collection in your office. Besides being good for our environment, it promotes discussion. No, compost doesn’t smell when finished. It’s magic. Mama Nature handles it. No, it doesn’t take long to decompose. Usually about 1 month. Yes, it does look intriguing, though. It looks like fertile teamwork and forward thinking.