million participants in coastal cleanup. so this gives and next -- you know, when my kids go out this saturday to ocean beach, people want to know that they are making a difference towards something. it is not just cleaning it up and checking something off a list. now they know that the plastic will go into a bottle, and a bottle will continuously be recycled. it gives meaning to something that already has a value, but it sends a message back on what you're doing individually and how that can make a difference. talking of making a difference, the person i am going to introduce started at dpw in san francisco. and he said, jared, how can we come up with it was to protect our janitors, to protect people that go into city buildings, and save money? so that the things that the city buys are good for the environment. so we sat down and came up with a list. now the city only buys things that do not have harmful toxic chemicals in them.

one of the things that administrator jackson has pushed for is transparency and information about what is in a product. we would call companies to ask what is in the cleaning products, and they would not tell us. we would say, if you do not tell us what is in the product, we will not be able to buy it. method tells you every single thing in their product. nobody should have anything to hide about what is in their bottle. that transparency is a big part of what epa is doing. and lisa's leadership to make sure we all know. but would not have happened without the leadership of the mayor of the city, ed lee. i would like you to come up to the podium and say a few words. [applause] >> thank you. welcome to the border of chinatown, san francisco. this is amazing to be here to join administered jackson. thank you and welcome. administer mills, thank you.

i also want to thank dan for being here. nancy pelosi's office has been a great supporter of us. and our business office at the region has been wonderful supporters as well. i am here to celebrate. this wonderful tribute to our city of innovation. you know, as you write of the elevator right here, they already have a model on the elevator that you can not have to think dirty. you can actually think clean. of course, that has tripled meanings in our city. [laughter] but as we approached coastal cleanup this week, there are already press releases. when you look at the way our beaches are looking now and the amount of debris that is there, and jerrick is right, it is not just about cleaning up.

it is actually creating. i think we're at this moment in our city and our country. we have to do more than just clean it up. that is what i had to do at dpw for many years. i kept picking it up and picking it up in every neighborhood. is there a different business model that we can actually follow? and when method has come up with another suggestion, and this one is so timely that you can actually take marine debris and reuse it in a clean way, whether it is metal or packaging, it is and other successful business model, and it is part of the innovation that the city encourages of all its businesses and the new businesses that we try to encourage to come here and share that innovation. i am really proud to be in a city where method itself is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. so on that behalf, if i may --

and >> oh. >> in concert with our federal administrators that are here in leader pelosi's office and jar ed, everybody to suggest to you that we are celebrating innovation, a new business model. but also, an old, old promise, a commitment, that we would do something more for the future generations that inherits this city, that in herod our country, and that we do this in concert with the president as well. because i know that the incentives that have been announced today through president obama's work, will be very positive. these are the kinds of things we did to save companies when they were thinking of leaving this city. those very business incentives are going to allow companies like method to grow and encourage other countries -- other countries to be innovative. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco and in

recognition of your great innovation, your ideas of sustaining our environment, and this being a great business on the edge of chinatown, san francisco -- [laughter] may i declare this to be method day in san francisco. [applause] >> come on over here. let's take a picture. >> i was not expecting that. thank you very much. >> congratulations. >> thank you very much abou. [applause] >> the real reason we are here is that there is great food in

chinatown. no, we love san francisco. it is a great honor for us to be recognized for what we like to do every day. she mentioned transparency -- jarend mentioned transparency. that is something we believe deeply in. there have been some very nice things said about method today. we appreciate all of them. we certainly are not a perfect business. we focus every day on trying to get better. one thing, very coincidentally, that we have done is actually eric and i have written a book about our business model called "method money." it comes out today. it is the type of book that you right after you're not in the business anymore. but we believe very deeply that if other people can explore and see how we do things, both right and wrong, then maybe they can improve upon that, and maybe we

can make it a little bit of a better place. so watch out for that. >> this is the best book launch recover ever asked for. [laughter] thank you. and we started the company, and a goal of ours was to have an impact bigger than just making ourselves. i am absolutely blown away by the guests that we have here, method day, and all of you. so thank you so much. it is just amazing that 10 years later in san francisco, we have been able to have this impact, and we feel like we're just verdict scratch the surface of what is possible. >> we're going to go on a tour of the office and show people how we do things around here. i would like to close by thanking administrator jackson, mayor lee, and the others.

>> [inaudible] >> thank you for reminding me. please, questions. >> on the issue of transparency -- [inaudible] >> that is the plan. when you take this type of plastic and recycle it, it does that. >> [inaudible] which company partners? >> we cannot say which retailer we're partnering with at this time. our goal is to try to bring this to market sometime early next year. of course it depends on making sure we get the right supply of plastic and enough of it so we can make the bottles to watch it nationally. >> during the height of the recession, i and understand that your company contracted and you had to lay off some of your workers. that was because the demand for green at products what's the

down for consumers. how are things now? are you hiring? or is that market? >> we have several open positions on our website. we're hiring and have open positions we're looking to fill. the business is growing. i think we're growing as fast as anyone in this industry if not a lot faster. >> the demand for green consumer products is down, people cannot afford it or they are not prioritizing it. >> i think the demand for ordinary green products is down. i think what we do is we create an extraordinary products. that type of product design creates a lot of loyalty in our brand that has carried us through the recession. generally when people try method, they keep using it. that gives us a base of which we can grow. >> whatever betty to have at least one question before follow up. >> quickly, i was not quite sure how you're going to get the

continuous supply chain of the plastic. can you explain that? >> frankly, neither are we. creating the supply chain for ocean plastic floating in the ocean 3,000 miles from here is not something that has been done before. there is a number of beach clean-up organizations that work in california and hawaii that irregularly cleaning up this plastic. the model is just to intercept that plastic, which is normally taking it down to the landfill and take the portions we can use in denver that down to california for manufacturing. the only remaining step we have to do is to get enough of the supply. we're not finding it that hard to get enough of the plastic. it is a matter of scaling how broadly we roll this out at retail and the ability to get the supply. i am certainly will be able to do it. >> obviously, this is one

company of many that the administration is hoping to support with the american jobs act. i am interested in utility scale alternative energy companies, which is a huge market, right? i am wondering how the american jobs act will help create a whole group of jobs in alternative energy? >> well, let me remind everyone that the stimulus act, the american reinvestment and recovery act, had $80 billion in grants and loan guarantees for the clean energy space. the loan guarantees were very important to businesses that were starting up, and a lot of work on user efficiency and some on innovations, because we need to keep innovating. as the president said in his speech, it is important to remember what he is looking at, and that is his first big push, because he knows those are jobs that are on the table right now.

we did not talk about the teachers, firefighters, and construction worker jobs that he is talking about, hundreds of thousands of them that we can restore right now in our economy. but he is also continuing the programs he has put in place, and those are very much things we are defending right now so we do not lose the progress we have made, to continue to push those things for it. whether it is advanced batteries are other types of innovations, whether it is the clean car and truck release requiring cars to move much quicker toward zero are very low emissions to the those are very important, and we're not backing away. as the president noted, we're going to be doing even more. and utilities, epa has very important roles. we have adopted across state air pollution rules. the mercury rule is due in december. as we speak, people are trying to stop them from being

finalized. extraordinarily important that we make sure that solution -- pollution is not given an advantage over clean energy, which is why we want it. >> you are here talking about exchanging ideas about green jobs, and on the state, the "washington post" has a story headlined "the green jobs hite." they're talking about how president obama has that made this a showcase of his economic recovery and that the result has been underwhelming. how do you respond to skeptics that say the green jobs technology, the industry, is a hype? >> you will continue to see a strong push back. everyone in the administration knows that. we see those jobs in supply chains across the country. everything from, yesterday, i spent time at recology.

they're well over 1000 people working in this area, simply because the city has said we want to divert all of our waste out of landfills. those are green jobs. you have heard about the jobs that are recreated because somebody said we want to recycle plastic. then i want to project open hand and that the people who put solar panels that solar hot water panels on their roof. that work is continuing. of course, public policies here in the city that are forward- looking are helping that to happen. yes, i know that there is so focused that because of one issue, people are not seeing those jobs as fast as we might like. but they're there. i think you should expect to see a solution to answer those charges. >> there is the poster child for failure, which is cylindra. >> the investigations of what happened there will continue. but what i would hate to see is

for us to walk away from the other companies to have benefited from good government policy, whether it is cleaner vehicles are clamping down on air and water pollution from dirty your energy sources or whether it is all that money that went to an array of businesses across the country that are designed to transition us. it is a transition to move to clean energy. it does not happen overnight, but it requires us to continue to move forward. there are certainly a lot of folks that are looking for a rollback. >> are there more? >> yes, yes wondering, the local point. president obama's jobs act -- [inaudible] do something else? >> well, we are certainly going

to work in concert with our federal government to support any local business relief, if you will, because i know businesses will find ways in which they can create more jobs. as was announced earlier, there already hiring jobs. they have got a good model to start. in the bottom line for everybody, because i think it begins with a vision, as asked earlier, a durable -- jobs are the very end. people need cities like san francisco to create those jobs. the best jobs being created right now are in the clean technology and bio technology life sciences. those are so well paid for, and they have sustainability. especially when you keep the innovation spirit that we started here in san francisco. in addition to the technology jobs in tourism jobs in the city, i think the companies that want to move here want to make sure that they can sustain themselves with all of the incentives that local government

and federal government can provide. i think the federal government is doing what the local governments are attempting to do, provide those incentives that were to create and sustain jobs, especially in these new industries or i think a lot of students and young kids are looking for the jobs. they want something that is sustainable. they also want to be attached to something that proves our environment. that is what i hear every day. high-school kids from public schools was something that will be proud of. associating themselves with a company like method will make them very proud. there will be good citizens as well, and they will be volunteers this saturday, i am sure. >> thank you. [applause]