Another State Street Vacancy

After a year of giving it go, the Morgan & Teach wide plank wood flooring showroom at 1125 State Street is going out of business and liquidating it stock. The company manufactures custom wide-plank, exotic wood floors for residential and commercial buildings.

Morgan & Teach planned to move its manufacturing facility to the Central Coast from Oregon, bringing as many as a dozen jobs with it. Lower rents helped the company to open a store where it hoped get a great deal of foot traffic. Company officials were not immediately available for comment.

GREEN DRINKS: Krista Harris, publisher of Edible Santa Barbara, will give a brief talk at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 21, at Arch Rock Fish Restaurant, 608 Anacapa St., about how the publication works behind the scenes, printing in a digital world, and the food scene in Santa Barbara. Harris will speak at this month’s Green Drinks free meeting of eco-friendly business and nonprofit group leaders, which is from 6 to 8 p.m. Edible Santa Barbara is the latest in a growing community of more than 40 Edible Community magazines.

Next month’s Green Drinks will feature Steve Gaines, the new dean at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Sciences.

Those who want to attend can RSVP on the Green Drinks’ Facebook page.

BUSINESS EXPO: The “Building Business Momentum” Business Expo and Job Fair is planned for noon to 5 p.m. on July 21 at Earl Warren Show Grounds in Santa Barbara. Staples Co. and Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring the trade show to provide local and regional companies the opportunity to have a booth and share job openings with the community.

All local business interested in presenting at the expo should contact Luis Villegas, Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president, for more information at (805) 233-3690 or luis.villegas@sbhcc.org.

BE GREEN PACKAGING: Santa Barbara-based Be Green Packaging and conglomerate Proctor & Gamble have received the Dupont Diamond Award for their recent collaboration on the design of Gillette’s new Fusion Pro Glide razor packaging trays.

The trays, which are composed of plant-based fibers, reduced cost and material weight while maintaining Gillette’s packaging, company officials said. Be Green is known for its line of compostable and recyclable packaging that is made from plant-based materials similar to those used in the Gillette Fusion ProGlide trays.

DuPont gives Diamond Awards to companies that demonstrate high levels of innovation, commitment to the principles of sustainability, and cost and waste reduction. “This award proves that it is possible to bring sustainable green solutions to the marketplace at lower costs than traditional packaging while significantly lowering a company’s packaging footprint” said Ron Blitzer, chief executive officer of Be Green Packaging. “For consumers and retailers alike, this collaboration is providing a template for the next generation in packaging.”

The South Coast Biz Blog is a round-up of the latest business news in the Santa Barbara area written by Ray Estrada, who has covered business in the region for numerous publications over the past couple decades. See more at independent.com/biz and http://rayestradamediaconsultant.wordpress.com/southcoastbizblog-com/.