This guy immediately caught my attention yesterday as I was walking around the Stand Festival at Pioneer Square in Portland. His booth was front and center and how could I possibly miss those lime green boxes made out of plastic bottles. I was very curious and approached him for a Green Streets interview. Here’s how it went:

PPnG: What’s your name, how old are you and where do you live?

SB: My name is Spencer Brown, I’m 41 years old and I live in Los Angeles, CA.

PPnG: What do you do for a living?

SB: I’m a product designer but the marketplace calls me an inventor.

PPnG: What do you invent?

SB: I invent products. I take concepts to market and I’ve done it 9 times in 24 years. I’ve done a lot of different things.

PPnG: How are you green?

SB: I think before I do anything. I think about the impact what I do has in terms of the life cycle of the product. For example, instead of rushing out to buy wasteful carbonless forms I did some research and found 100% green sustainable forms. It took me two years to find that and they are now used for our contracts with our clients.

PPnG: What is your business?

SB: I am the owner and founder of RentAGreenBox.com. It’s a zero waste packaging system. We rent moving boxes. When you pack and move your house or small business or you need some storage, you call us up and we drop off boxes made from 100% recycled plastic trash. When you are done, we pick them up, sanitize them and rent them out again. They are the replacement for cardboard boxes. What I do is I go to landfills and buy all those pretty colorful plastic bottles that you find underneath your sink or in your laundry room and I buy them in football field quantity, clean them, sort them and make lime green boxes.

PPnG: How do you get that lime green color?

SB: Well, we have to buy a lot of blue, clear, yellow and white plastic bottles to get that green color. With the other colors we make zip ties.

PPnG: That’s cool. Can you share some specific ways that you practice green living in your personal life?

SB: Sure. I don’t run the faucet when I brush my teeth. If it’s yellow, be mellow. I also compost at my house. I’m a minimalist when it comes down to consumption. I only buy quality products that have a long life span. I don’t buy junk and then just dispose of it. I shop at local farmer’s markets and I’m kind of a farmer’s market natzi. For example, if a vendor tells me that they grew that tomato, then they better be able to look me in the eye truthfully with that information. I can sometimes be a bit rough but it’s only because I want to be sure that it is local and organic. I also educate my kids and give them choices. I’m raising them to be eco-conscious and good stewards of the earth. We always say things like ‘green power’ and ‘green love’ to each other which is a positive thing.

Wow, that’s amazing. Thank-you for contributing to Green Streets.