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Blast From
The Past
PRODUCT SAFETY
MARCH 2015 •
PPB
• 75
Do It For Yourself
PROMOTIONS
79
AVID USNER’S
curriculum
vitae doesn’t
read like it
could belong to just one
man. A promotional products
distributor since 1981, Usner
is also an actor, Amazonian
guide and adrenaline junkie
(with 500 skydives under his
belt). He and his wife, Pat,
work with the Pachamama
Alliance, an organization that
supports the indigenous
people of the Amazon in
Ecuador and organizes tours
into their homeland. “I
moved my company to San
Francisco and reinvented it
as Greener Promotions to
match my commitment to
environmental and social jus-
tice,” Usner says. “My com-
pany is much smaller than it
was, but it operates on my
values and I find clients with
the same values.”
When not performing in
plays or producing and star-
ring in indie feature films—his
latest project,
ROXIE
, was
released late February—he’s
teaching acting or pairing
with his wife to lead others
into the Amazon.
PPB
spoke with Usner
about his travels.
PPB
How did you become
involved with the
Pachamama Alliance?
Usner
In 1989 my wife and I
traveled to a remote part of
the Ecuadorian Amazon rain-
forest to visit the Achuar, an
indigenous people who had
kept out the modern world
but were now allowing some
visitors. It was a life-changing
trip. We went back again in
1990 and 1996, when we dis-
covered Pachamama Alliance
and became funders of the
organization. In 2004, my wife
accepted a job with the
Pachamama Alliance, so after
spending my entire life in the
Philadelphia area, I picked up
and moved to San Francisco.
PPB
How often do you visit
the Amazon?
Usner
We have been there
about a dozen times or so and
trips are 11 to 12 days. Once a
year, we take small groups of
eight to 16 people, visiting the
local people and even doing
ritual work with the shaman of
different communities.
Pat and I do this as our
way of contributing to the
world. We also do it to give
us life. We have always been
connected to some sort of
activity that feeds the adven-
turous part of us. Whether it
be riding motorcycles around
the country, skydiving or
trekking through the Amazon.
PPB
What unique leader-
ship skills or lessons have
your trips taught you?
Usner
We think we have
challenges in our lives; we
have no idea what others
around the world face. The
people in the rainforest are
not only fighting to keep
their way of life, they are up
against multi-national compa-
nies that think nothing of poi-
soning the rivers and land
with toxic runoff. The indige-
nous voice is tiny against the
deep pockets of these com-
panies. It makes me look
more closely at where I par-
ticipate in activities and con-
sumption that drive this
destruction of not only the
rainforest but the collapse of
systems in our modern world.
Pat and I try to consume less
and less, and I changed my
promotional products busi-
ness to focus on environmen-
tally-friendly products.
D
Five Minutes With
David Usner
Owner And Manager Of Greener Promotions
Brand Worthy
MARKETING
83
86
David Usner (above left) spied this member of the Achuar on one
of nearly a dozen trips to the Amazon.