Standing on the corner of 3rd and Harrison Ted Gonder is wearing two green Viv shirts, one as a shirt and one held over his head by a Viv sweatband. Listening to the Travis Barker remix of Soulja Boy's Crank Dat he starts to get pumped up, stretching and dancing a little. Ted, along with Dinesh Thirupuvanam, begin their energetic run in downtown San Francisco.

Dinesh and Ted work for Viv, a relatively new Bay Area company that allows consumers to become eco-friendly by putting free stickers on their credit and ATM cards. "This is awesome-- that guy just stuck them {stickers} on his credit cards right there," Dinesh says after handing out stickers during the run. There is an estimated 17,000 people using Viv stickers throughout the Bay Area, with the number growing everyday because of the creative ways the company is getting the word out-- like the green run and eco-friendly graffiti.

The consumer's role in Viv is to show their Viv sticker at one of the eighty plus Viv businesses, which are listed on the company website and identified by Viv decals next to credit card decals on business windows and cash registers. Viv businesses range from Zen's Day Spa to the Sports Basement to Jessie's Hot House, which is currently the only Viv business on the San Francisco State University campus.

Each business comes up with a green action plan, outlining a green action for x amount of stickers scanned (i.e. switch to energy efficient light bulbs after 75 stickers). Once a business sees a certain amount of stickers, they take an action to become greener.

In mid-December, That Takes The Cake, a cupcake café on Union Street, was the first to become a Viv business, signing on only two weeks after the company started seeking out businesses. Since then they have seen one hundred and eighty-one Viv stickers.

"It is important to us that we are as green a business as possible because we are both tree hugging Californians born in San Francisco and Berkeley," says Keisha Williams, who is one of the cafe's owners. "We want the earth to out-live us and our offspring."

Keisha, who gives many reasons for their decision to join Viv, says that although they were doing their best to be as green as possible, they had not been doing anything to promote that they are a green business. "The idea of Viv handling a portion of marketing for us based simply on our efforts to be a green company" was a major draw for the café.

As part of their green action plan, the cupcake cafe has changed their office paper to be a minimum of thirty percent recycled paper, and printing office materials double-sided whenever possible. They have also changed to more energy efficient lights, actively recycle, and has switched to non-toxic and eco friendly cleaning products.

They are also in the process of setting up recycling containers for customers and composting all biodegradable waste--all in partnership with Viv. "It's an awesome cause," Keisha says. Consumers can check what green changes any Viv business is making on Viv's website, where each business has a profile.

The company, co-founded by cousins Dinesh Thirupuvanam and Arul Velan, employs a small number of environmental enthusiasts. Ted, who started the Viv runs, is a summer intern from Chicago. "If this were my entire job I would die of happiness," he says days before heading back to Chicago, where he will be spearheading the company's new Campus Rep program.

The employees are constantly trying to come up with efficient ways to lower their carbon footprint. "These are fun," says Arul holding an old campaign button with a Viv sticker over it.

Now going on nine months on the market, the company continues to gain interest from businesses willing to pay a small monthly fee to become eco-friendly. The company, whose goal is to help Bay Area businesses reach more than 500 "green actions", wants to eventually bring Viv all across the country.

The staff is also reaching more consumers anyway they can-- with Viv runs, and attending events like Outside Lands Festival to get the word--and stickers-- out to the public. They currently reached 1,000 fans on their Facebook page, rewarding that fan with her very own Viv sweatband."People are busy, but usually people are pretty receptive," Dinesh says about the company's cause.