BOULDER - Sterling-Rice Group, a Boulder-based advertising and marketing company, has created a national print advertising campaign for the U.S. Potato Board.

The campaign, launched Tuesday, Aug. 19, intends to debunk the nutrition myths associated with the potato. The campaign's signature is "Potatoes ... Goodness Unearthed.

The ads point out, for example, that one medium-size (5.3 ounces) potato contains no fat, sodium or cholesterol, and it has 110 calories. It provides 45 percent of the daily value of vitamin C. In addition, with skins, it is a good source of potassium, ranking highest among the top 20 most frequently consumed raw vegetables in the U.S.

Steve Witt, Sterling-Rice's creative director for this campaign, said the ads are setting the record straight. "We are directly debunking these lingering nutrition myths so people will see that potatoes are, in fact, nutritious, delicious, lean machines."

The ads will begin appearing in September in a variety of women's food and lifestyle publications including Cooking Light, Redbook, Southern Living, Taste of Home, Weight Watchers, Parents, Family Circle and Woman's Day.

LOUISVILLE - Real Goods Solar, a Hopland, Calif.-based solar installer with an office in Louisville, has acquired Independent Energy Systems Inc. of Santa Cruz, Calif.

Independent Energy Systems, or IES, is a residential solar-energy integrator. The transaction was Real Goods' third acquisition in less than a year.

Exact financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Real Goods said the consideration paid was within a targeted range of paying "50 percent to 60 percent of 2007 revenues." In 2007, IES had revenue of $6 million.

"We are very excited about strengthening our position in Northern California by teaming up with an established local market leader that shares our values and is completely dedicated to the growth of solar energy," said John Schaeffer, chief executive of Real Goods Solar, in a statement.

Real Goods also was selected by California-based 1 Block Off the Grid, an independent consumer advocacy group, to provide turnkey residential solar system installations to its members with existing homes in San Francisco.

TechStars Investor Day will be held Wednesday, Aug. 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets are free and valid for access to balcony-level seats. This will be followed by a Tech Cocktail from 6:30 to 9 p.m. For more information go to www.techstars-iday08-community.eventbrite.com.

The Boulder Small Business Development Center is meeting Wednesday, Aug. 20, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at 2440 Pearl St. in Boulder. Attorney Theresa Pickner and Gary Sekerak, CPA will cover the legal, tax and accounting aspects of getting your small business up and running. For more information, call Julie Gottschalk at 303-422-1475.

BOULDER - Muttropolis, a retailer of high-end pet supplies, is closing its store at Boulder's Twenty Ninth Street on Aug. 24.

"At this point we're a fairly young retailer... and economically it didn't work out in Boulder," said Janet McCulley, co-founder and owner of California-based Muttropolis.

The company will keep open its three locations in southern California and one in Tucson, Ariz. McCulley said Muttropolis likely would return to Colorado in the future, perhaps in Denver or Boulder.

Another part of Muttropolis' departure from Twenty Ninth Street had to do with the landlord The Macerich Co. receiving a better offer on the 2,002-square-foot space, McCulley said.

According to city of Boulder building permit records, Macerich has received approval to make tenant improvements to the Muttropolis space for a LensCrafters retail optical store.
 
Muttropolis opened its Boulder store in October 2006 at the grand opening of the Twenty Ninth Street retail district.

BOULDER - Sustainable Cards LLC is producing more than 70,000 wooden hotel key cards for use during the Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 25-28, the company announced Tuesday.

"We wanted to make this our coming out party," said Greg Hartmann president and chief executive of Boulder-based Sustainable Cards.

The Millennium Harvest House, Homewood Suites and Best Western Boulder Inn are three of the 91 Denver metro hotels that will use the Boulder-based company's biodegradable cards, he said.

The cards, which will be emblazoned with the Denver 2008 Host Committee logo, will reduce waste, and the company expects the cards to become a souvenir of the 2008 DNC, according to a press release.

A magnetic strip is applied to the wooden card and can be read in a normal key card reader. Europe has used wooden key cards for more than a decade, and the cards have been equally durable to its plastic counterpart, the release states.

"Our mission is to reduce nonbiodegradable card waste to zero during the convention and throughout the year by encouraging the use of our eco-friendly wood cards in every hotel in America," Hartmann said.

Eventually, the company plans to explore using wooden cards to replace traditional plastic retail gift cards as well, he said.

BOULDER - Customer Paradigm of Boulder has acquired Visual Science Inc., a full-service marketing communications firm based in Boulder.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founder of Customer Paradigm Jeff Finkelstein said Visual Science is a great match for his company. "We have had many clients ask us to expand more into high-level marketing strategy, including branding, marketing collateral, package design and more. And it's a great merger for Visual Science, who has been expanding their Web design and interactive media capabilities."

Visual Science specializes in brand identity, print design, Web sites and tradeshow campaigns.
 
Customer Paradigm's services include Web site development, e-mail marketing, search-engine optimization, personal URL systems and privacy consulting.
 
 Laura Francis, president of Visual Science, will join Customer Paradigm's team of 16 people as vice president, business development. In the past, Francis's work at Goodbye, Silverstein Partners, a San Francisco-based agency, included clients such as Nike, Starbucks, Norwegian Cruise Lines and the CA Milk Advisory Board ("Got Milk?").

Some of Visual Science's clients include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Colorado Christian University, Wedgewood Kitchens, Educes and Chromatic Technologies.