Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Reality TV Goes Green

For those of you curious about the green makeover show that I've been working on, there is a great write-up about it here.

Here's a little snippet for your reading enjoyment:
These days, there are reality TV shows that will make over your wardrobe, your weight, your car or your love life — is there any area of life that hasn't been tinkered with yet? There is indeed: Mission: Sustainable is poised to make over your environmental impact. And it's set right here in Seattle.

The one-hour show features eco-unfriendly people who have been nominated by their friends or family for a lifestyle makeover. Environmental experts assess the nominee's current level of sustainability in all areas of their life, from the food they eat to their transportation to how they wash their clothes, identifying the three areas in which they’re leaving the largest footprint. Three specialists then jump in and help them to go greener.

"We want to be super-green [but] we want to reach out to the middle America crowd. We don't want to preach to the choir," explained Mission: Sustainable producer Rose Thornton. "On the whole, it's a really lighthearted show. This is not the drill sergeant saying, 'You must change your ways; you’re destroying the planet!' kind of show."

The pilot, which will be screened at Seattle Center's Fisher Pavilion on Feb. 11, features a local family.

"It's a fairly typical Seattle family: a mom, dad and two kids living in South Seattle," said Thornton. "Their products had a lot of 'green' labels, or 'all natural' ... [nevertheless], there was a lot of work to do with them; a lot to improve."

"We live in a really old farmhouse style house which is extremely energy inefficient," admitted nominee Shannon Saxton. "I felt that as far as our food choices went, we were doing okay. I knew that some of our cleaning products weren’t the most green."

Her husband, Ben Saxton, begged to differ...

Good sports, the Saxton family agreed to leave their house while Mission: Sustainable consultants spent the better part of a day going through the entire house, top to bottom, searching for signs of unsustainability.

When the family returned, the experts were ready for them.

"They had one person who was the food expert, another who was the product expert, another who was an energy expert. Each one went through the cupboards and the drawers and the medicine cabinet and said, 'this product's a good choice; this one's not so good; here's an alternative,'" Ben explained.

The experts assigned to help the family green-up included personal care consultant Deanna Duke, who investigated all those so-called "green" and "all natural" products in the Saxton home....

To finish reading the rest of the review, check out the original article, Reality TV Goes Green. And, for the record (because I'm a total anal retent), the shower head flow valve upgrade was one of my recommendations.

Next Thursday is the premiere of the show at the Seattle Center and it should be great fun. There will be close to 1,000 people there! If you live in the Seattle area, don't miss out on a chance to see the show!

10 comments:

Encore said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea!!! Aren't we all trying to share little tidbits of greenery with the ones we love?!! What an awesome idea, I hope this show takes off and everyone can learn-and hopefully adopt at least a few green tips for living!!! YAY for the network!!

swiggett said...

This sounds incredible. I hope it gets picked up, so I can watch it!
startofsomethingfrugal.blogspot.com

Surviving and thriving on pennies said...

Oh how close I am but not close enough! Wish I could go so bad! I really hope this show makes it so I can watch it here in Portland. What a great step towards a greener planet. Open up those eyes!

Farmer's Daughter said...

You brighten my day so much, I've given you an award. Come on over to check it out :)

dixiebelle said...

Have fun at the premiere and I can't wait to see some photos of you... (PS. Did you kick the cold?)

equa yona(Big Bear) said...

I wanna watch!! Probably won't come to South Dakota Public Broadcasting(the only tv I get) anytime soon, eh?

Greenpa said...

Hey Crunch. I know it's not your responsibility- but- that logo is a REAL problem; enough of one that casual watchers could just click through to the next channel - a lot.

It would be a real shame if it all got up- and then got canceled for a few percentage points on the ratings. The bad logo could really make that much difference.

Dealing with it on the show is internal politics, of course. If your CEO designed the logo- boy, that's a problem. Or if your CEO's niece designed it- etc.

I think any other marketing expert would come up with the same response- having the Earth in that position breaks the words- and mostly what people will see with a quick look is "Miss NSustainable! Which when your subvocalize it in your head comes out "unsustainable" -

It looks like a really fun and worthwhile show. Good luck with it all!

Greenpa said...

just a little more ammo for you Crunch if you decide to pursue it-

A big part of the logo problem is that if you already KNOW what it says, mission sustainable- it's very easy to see the earth there, and not have your reading disturbed.

The problem is entirely with people who do not ALREADY know what it's supposed to say- and getting decision makers to understand that is difficult. But that's why people dealing with this kind of thing have "focus groups" - to get fresh outside opinions.

:-) ok, shutting up.

Crunchy Chicken said...

Greenpa - Keep your tights on. If the show gets picked up by a network, I'm sure the logo and whole bunch of other stuff will be changed. They are selling the show, not the logo and, for that matter, there's no guarantee that I'll be on it if it does get picked up.

Sadie from allnaturalme.com said...

How fun!!! I would love to be able to go through people's houses just to tell them everything they are doing wrong!

Coolest and most natural gig ever.