“We’re growing by 20, 30, 40% a year,” McRoy says. “We’re probably in the 15- 20,000-ton range [of recycled wax cardboard] right now, and we’re hoping to continue to grow the fire log market.”

McRoy describes his product as the “ultimate wood substitute,” and the use varies widely — from cooking, to camping and everything in between — for clean-burning fire. The energy savings and saved landfill space is quickly catching on, as Enviro-Logs are available nationwide at many traditional outlets.

Later in the show, Green Box’s William Walsh calls in to talk about how his pizza containers are revolutionizing the industry. For Walsh, it was a no-brainer: When he was a college football player, food container waste was all around him.

“Sixteen-and-a-half square feet of paper go into a pizza box,” Walsh reveals. “Two-point-three-seven billion are manufactured in this country every year.”

Needless to say, something needed to be done. Enter the Green Box, a 100% recycled, multifunctional pizza box. There is no need for cleaning materials; no need for other storage materials like Saran wrap, aluminum foil etc.; and it is 100% recyclable.

Scudamore started the business before college in 1993, and it has been fueling a green waste revolution since then. Currently, 61.3% of all materials picked up are recycled. Scudamore’s goal is 75% by 2014.

“We will come by, a customer points and says, ‘Here’s what goes,’ and they know that we’ll take those things to the proper facilities out there,” Scudamore says of the simple process. “We call ourselves a junk-removal company, but we’re much more of a junk-recycling company.”

In keeping with the conservation angle, John and Mike chat with Jeff Yeager, “The Ultimate Cheapskate.” Yeager, author of The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches, has been conserving his entire life.

In his discussion, Yeager reveals how he has conserved all throughout his life — from freezing spending for a week every year to biking his entire book tour routes.

“I’ve been a proud environmentalist my entire life,” Yeager says. “I’ve always seen this inherent connection between consuming and spending less and living lighter on the planet.”

“I had always wanted to do something in the greenspace,” Littlehale says. He credits summers spent at camps for his love of the environment.

“There are a lot of ways you can make an impact responsibly using and recycling e-waste. We created a simple, convenient, easy process with a monetary incentive to trade in your electronics.”

Later in the show, Jessica Lundberg of Lundberg Farms discusses how her family’s Northern California farming heritage has close green ties.

Lundberg recalls how her grandfather established the family’s Richvale, CA, farm with the idea that sustainable, healthy, green practices were necessary from the get-go — not just for the sustainability and preservation of his farm, but also for the health and longevity of his family, friends and neighbors.

“Energy efficiency is the hottest issue in the Southeast,” Mahoney says. “It’s not an issue we pay much attention to. Energy prices are rising 8-10% a year. We’re trying to provide people the opportunity to cut energy use and save money.”

The city of Atlanta has cut its City Hall energy use by 20%, and the city is rolling out an incentive program to help residents cut energy usage.

Later in the show, Brad Schulman of Green Planet Bottling helps spread awareness about earth-friendly drinking containers. Schulman’s company, Green Planet Bottling, makes natural bottles that are completely compostable and safe for use.

“There’s a pandemic worldwide with the use of chemical-based plastics,” Schulman says. “We have a solution for that, and it’s made from plants, not oil.”

Green Planet Bottling makes bottles of 100% plant starch with no chemicals. For every 72 bottles the company produces, it saves 1 gallon of oil.

“We’d like to see the religious community leading the environmental movement,” Bingham says. Based at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, Rev. Bingham has been speaking on the ties between faith and the environment all over the world, and authored Love God Heal Earth, which brings together 21 spiritual leaders to make their case for tying religion and environmental stewardship together.

Jeff Mendelsohn founded New Leaf Paper in 1998, long before the green revolution. Mendelsohn entered the paper business in 1991 in New York, but his thought process shifted green soon after, as he was itching to do something with less environmental impact.

“New Leaf is the fruition of my original vision,” Mendelsohn says. “By 1998, we wanted to start fresh, turn over a new leaf, move to San Francisco and launch post-consumer paper products.”

Today, New Leaf is one of the leading producers of post-consumer paper products and FSC-certified fibers.

Mondavi, responsible for the Charles Krug brand, has been practicing sustainable winemaking techniques in Napa Valley for years. The company harvests its grapes with as much natural control as possible, and has refurbished original Charles Krug-built buildings on the winery site.

“‘Sustainable’ is starting to become the norm [in the Napa Valley]. The Napa River is coming back to life again,” Mondavi proclaims, in response to his green practices. “It’s an evolution. We were looking at organic techniques and learned together.”

Rive got into the solar business to help speed up the adoption rate of solar energy.

“We asked our customers, ‘What’s preventing you from going solar?’ The number one reason was the upfront costs,” Rive recalls. “We focused on reducing the cost, but that wasn’t enough. That’s when we invented the solar lease program.”

The homeowner can now put a solar system on the home without making the huge investment. The idea is to bring this technology and clean energy to as many consumers as possible with as few challenges as possible.

Hollender and Seventh Generation want to give everyone the ability to buy safe household products.

“Most people assume that they can look on a label and see the ingredients they’re bringing into their homes,” Hollender comments. “Unfortunately, there is no ingredient disclosure requirement. You don’t know what you’re bringing into your house. We only use chemicals tested to be safe.”

The students discuss the Toshiba Youth Conference, which brings together students from New York High School of Environmental Sciences with students in Japan, Thailand and Poland to discuss alternative energy solutions for 2050. Each student was encouraged to bring a solution idea — no matter how outrageous — to be discussed at the conference. It was this sharing of sustainable ideas, concepts and knowledge that is the true mission of both the school and the conference.

“We looked at all the trends toward the environment,” Levitt says. “We figured selling and reusing preowned network hardware was part of that trend.”

Launched in 2007, UsedCisco.com simply uses the concept of reusing e-waste. The site has expanded worldwide fueled by the fact that e-waste contributes to 3% of the world’s overall carbon output. Levitt is hoping to curb e-waste in landfills, waterways, oceans and our streets. All of UsedCisco.com’s products come with a full warranty, easing consumers’ minds about buying preowned electronic equipment.

Mughelli tells John and Mike that his foundation really took an environmental slant once he arrived in Atlanta to play for the Falcons. Once there, he gained insight on all of the difficulties our natural environment is facing and what needs to be done. An important quote stuck with him: “You can’t love people if you don’t love the environment.” From there, his foundation adopted the motto “Our future is green.” Mughelli’s foundation focuses on the entire green space, from recycling to preserving the rain forest, and teaches children firsthand how to act at a young age.

“Going green — you can’t go wrong with that,” Mughelli says.

“I realized there was a big disconnect with people throwing away boxes and people needing boxes,” Metro tells John and Mike. And with that, UsedCardboardBoxes.com was born. Seven years later, Metro’s business has expanded from typical moving boxes to large-scale business-to-business accommodations, allowing for the transfer of massive amounts of cardboard efficiently.

Metro tells John and Mike how his “rescue, resell and recycle” model — “rescuing” boxes from large corporations, reselling or reusing them where there’s a need and recycling the poor-quality finds — is changing our usage of cardboard for the better, and how it’s lessening our eco-footprint in the process.