So I saw a commercial yesterday for some food product that said “Made with Real Ingredients!”.  Made with Real Ingredients????  What is that???  Are they saying that other companies put “fake”  ingredients in their food?  As baffled as I was by this statement it reminded me of quite a few “green” campaigns I have seen over the past few years.  The reality is that the plumbing industry is becoming greener everyday.  Toilets will be made to use less and less water, water heaters will become more and more efficient, and all the fixtures in our homes will be designed to use less water without us noticing the difference.  The other reality is that not all of these products are going to be well made, or with your best interests in mind.  In fact some of them will be “real ingredients” an empty statement designed to mislead you into thinking that you are spending your money on something worthwhile and good for your home.  When the truth is the people who produce, sell, and install these products care more about their bottom line than doing anything good for you, our community,  or the planet we live on.  If everyone was just honest enough to tell us what the ingredients really are, we could all make the right decisions on how to live with more freedom and comfort, without it costing us our valuable time and money to figure out what the ingredients are on our own.

Posted By: Paul Guzman, GM

One of the things that constantly amazes me is how far ahead other countries are when it comes to smart affordable ways to leave a smaller footprint with our daily lives.  This is one of those articles that makes you go, hmm…

 Energy Efficiency Is A Lot Of Garbage - By: Jim Olsztynski - From: The New York Times 

Denmark has 29 waste-to-energy plants and 10 more are planned or under construction. Across Europe, there are about 400 such plants. The U.S., with 50+ times the population of Denmark and more than 60% of the EU’s, has only 87 trash-burning power plants, almost all built at least 15 years ago.

There is something elegantly green about turning useless rubbish into profoundly useful energy. So why aren’t we doing more of it? Click here to read the rest of the New York Times article.

Thank You Marin!!!

Just a quick thank you to everyone who voted for us in the Pacific Sun’s annual Best of Marin Contest.   We are here to serve our community, and your votes are the ones that count.  Thank you to all our loyal customers, friends and family who support us and our families!  Without you there would be no us!  See you soon!

You can check out the rest of the winners here Pacific Sun\’s 2010 Best of Marin

Posted by: Paul Guzman G.M.

Okay, Green Plumbers, USA.  Fine.  Yahoo.  Big Deal.  Blah, blah blah. 

All us plumbing companies come at you because we want your patronage.  The old “yeller pages” are full of plumbing companies, the internet lists hundreds of us — there are approximately 200 companies in Marin County alone.  So how do you choose? 

Well, why not choose a 3rd party recommended plumbing company?  That narrows us down to only 4 in Marin County.  And what better 3rd party recommendation than a company that puts its money where its mouth is — Diamond Certified: www.diamondcertified.org.  They’ll guarantee we do a good job or pay you $1000.00 – now that’s a number even I can trust.

Okay, now why, out of the 4 plumbers recommended, should you choose us?  Simple — We are the only FULL SERVICE plumbing company listed.  The others do a bit of new building, a bit of sewer cleaning, a bit of water softening, a bit of remodeling, a bit of this, a bit of that … and a “bit” of service.  We, on the other hand,  are service-only — totally dedicated to service plumbing, totally dedicated to keeping your home healthy, safe, and secure. 

If you’re a woman looking for plumbing service then you should know that our company is owned by a woman, Rebecca Kleiner, my lovely wife and partner who understands service from a woman’s point of view.  If you’re a guy wondering why my lady owns the company then you should know she’s smarter, better looking, and more business oriented than me ‘ol Irish self.  If you’re a pet wonderin’ why we’re woman-owned you should know that she has katz and firmly believes we are responsible for the clean, fresh, water you get every day from your own owner …, er,  I mean pet-guardian.

Well, now that you know we’re Diamond Certified, are a Service-Only company, and that we’re woman-owned, you should also know that our male plumbers are good-looking, have nice smiles, talk gently, have “feelings”, and are generally considered to be the best technically trained dudes on the West Coast.  (We are = opportunity but have not found any women plumbers … yet; though you may rest assured Ed O’Connell hizzelf is working diligently to this end.) 

If you’re reading this, then you’re already in our site, so look around to find out even more about us.  And don’t trust just what we say — trust our Diamond Certification and what our present customers say about us.  Dang, but we really are that good.  Dang, but I’m really not that humble.

Have some fun today.

‘ol Ed

Jun 24, 2009

I’ve not done this bloggin’ before so bear with me as this old(er) dude launches hizelf into the 21st century … not that I’m about to do any twitterin’ or the like.

I was so sick and tired of hearing the word “Green” applied to stuff like, “This broom is a green product because it is human-powered and cleans your home without using electricity” that I almost passed up the real opportunity to be of green service in the plumbing industry when it came along.  Thankfully, I did not — enter ”Green Plumbers, USA”, an offshoot of ”Green Plumbers, Australia”.   

Skeptical at first, I decided to attend one of their trainings in Sacramento, California to see for myself what they were all about and found they were the real deal.  Subsequently, I made the investment of time and $ to attended 1 more workshop in Sacramento and 3 more in Las Vegas.  What I learned literally shook me, and made me glad I’d not fallen in to that old trap of “contempt before investigation”. 

Bloggin’ should be short, so for now I’ll simply say I had only the vaguest impressions about the connection between water use and energy.  If I was surprised to find our local Marin County water districts were the heaviest users of electricity in our area then I could only imagine that most of my clients did not know this either.  Add the fact I did not know these water districts sent water meter readings to the various sanitary districts so they could tax us accordingly and I knew I had found a new passion — Green Plumbing. 

I am now embarked on the attempt to educate the folks I do business with about the positive aspects of green plumbing – even if it’s just one service call at a time.  With 6 guys workin’ in the field, visiting an average of 2 or 3 homes a day, that’s 12 to 18 customers every single day, or 90 a week, or … well, you can do the math.  To be brief, I saw that finally I could be of real service to ‘ol Gaia rather than simply give lip service.  That feels good, that’s what I want to do now that I’m not involved with the day to day running of my biz, and that has become my new passion … and without passion life’s relegated to bein’ simply a bit of a bore. 

Best,

Ed