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Beware the Carrotmob
Stonehouse Subs in Durango chosen for environmentally friendly mass benefit
Herald Staff Writer
Photo by JACK PINCUS/Special to The Herald
Click image to enlarge
Photo by JACK PINCUS/Special to The Herald
Stonehouse Subs manager Melissa Nichols, left, talks to energy consultant Mike Frisoni of Annadel Building Solutions about the shop's outdated and inefficient water heater.
Carrotmob details
Stonehouse Subs, the business designated as a Carrotmob target for Saturday, will offer its usual selection of sandwiches and soft drinks at regular prices inside. Outside, 4-inch pre-made subs at $4 each will be available in four varieties – ham and cheese, turkey and cheese, Italian and vegan. Credit card purchases must be made inside. Stonehouse Subs, 140 E. 12th St., will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. More information about Carrotmob
It could be called a buy-cott – the opposite of a boycott – and it’s happening Saturday in Durango.
The event is Carrotmob Durango, the local version of an off-the-wall happening in San Francisco last year that has gone international – Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Helsinki, Finland; Basel, Switzerland. It coincides with the international Day of Climate Action.
How it works: Consumers reward with mass patronage a business that pledges to invest a certain amount of its gross receipts for a day in energy-saving improvements to its building.
A Web search reveals that Carrotmob was the brainstorm of Brent Schulkin, a San Francisco electronic-games developer and social-causes activist, who in March 2008 persuaded liquor stores in the Mission District to invest in the environment. K&D Market, the high bidder at 23 percent, made $9,000 worth of sales, compared to its usual $2,000 day.
Audrey Crane, a software developer at Interaction Designer in Durango, was intrigued. By networking, Crane and co-enthusiasts found four businesses to bid to be the target of mob action. The winner was Stonehouse Subs, a sandwich shop at 140 E. 12th St., which pledged 35 percent of the day’s gross take to green improvements.
“Carrotmob is a practical way to help the environment,” Crane said. “It’s not like asking people to stop driving their car.”
Carrotmob is a play on words, Crane said. Carrot refers to the folk wisdom that it’s easier to get results by offering a reward than prodding with a stick. Mob refers to the conglomeration of people that is expected at a targeted business.
Carrotmob follows a pattern, but events aren’t related – much like participation in Earth Hour in March when people around the world turned off their lights in a rolling blackout to call attention to energy efficiency.
In order to give the operators of Stonehouse Subs an idea of the range of possible green improvements, Mike Frisoni of Annadel Building Solutions and Catherine Mercier of Ecos Consulting did a walk-through last Saturday with Marla Moon, a business partner with her mother, Heidi Malberg, and manager Melissa Nichols.
Frisoni and Mercier stuck to easily tackled projects involving daily operations. Modifications to the two-story building – constructed in 1895 – that could involve city codes and participation by the owner of the building weren’t addressed. The structure has served principally as a dwelling but since 1981 has housed a bakery and the sandwich shop, said Robert McDaniel, director of the Animas Museum.
Among immediate energy-conserving moves that could cut utility bills, Frisoni and Mercier said, would be installing a low-flow toilet, replacing incandescent lighting with compact fluorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs, and checking the power consumption of vintage cold-hold cases.
“There’s a quick payback from these investments,” Frisoni said.
Frisoni loaned Nichols an apparatus to test the kilowatt-hour consumption of various pieces of equipment. In Montezuma County, he said, the Mancos library and Empire Electric Association loan similar gadgets.
In the kitchen, an aging gas-fired, 40-gallon water heater – which also serves an upstairs apartment – could create a death trap if the exhaust pipe became plugged, Frisoni said. He suggested switching the heater, which is 55 to 60 percent efficient, for an on-demand electric water heater.
Frisoni and Mercier told Moon and Nichols there’s help available. Information about energy-saving appliances abounds on the Internet, and locally, the Four Corners Office of Resource Efficiency has grants for projects that meet certain standards.
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