Category: Buying Green

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We’ve long been huge fans of Annie Leonard’s brilliantly succinct “The Story of Stuff.” Now, she’s turning her focus on bottled water, cosmetics, electronics, and cap and trade.

She tells it like it is in The Story of Bottled Water. (Follow this link for the full version.) Get the inside scoop on that old advertising trick, “manufactured demand.” And, did you know that a third of all bottled water actually in the US comes from municipal taps? She also explains the difference between recycling and downcycling. And check this quote from Pepsi’s chairman: “The biggest enemy is tap water.”

Take back the tap! Make a personal commitment to not buy or drink bottled water. Then, take the next step by joining up with an advocacy organization to improve access to clean, safe water for everyone.

“Carrying bottled water is on its way to being as cool as smoking while pregnant.” Go, Annie!

Guest post by Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson, mother and daughter co-authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, available at their website, Celebrate Green.

As summer winds down, you might be thinking of an end-of-summer celebration with your office. Here are a few tips for eco-friendly company parties. (Many of these ideas are inexpensive too!) If you are looking for more in depth information, just contact Lynn and Corey at their website.

• Avoid choosing paper anything unless it’s treefree or 100% recycled and printed with vegetable inks.
• If you are giving gifts, make them earth-friendly. Potted plants make great centerpieces and can be given away.
• Instead of centering the party around food and drink, come up with some fun activities that may include poking gentle fun at management.
• Provide drinks in pitchers, punch bowls or glass bottles. Avoid disposable cups and plates.
• If you’re having the party catered, seek out one who emphasizes sustainable, local and organic food.
• Giving out awards? Choose from recycled glass awards, fair trade picture frames, organic chocolate bars etc. You can find these and others at Recycled Products and Green With Envy Gifts.
• Have your party early enough in the day so that lights are not necessary. If you use decorative lighting, ensure that it is LED or solar.
• Serve fair trade, organic coffee (shade grown if possible) and/or tea.
• Plan carefully. Avoid overpurchasing food. If you have leftovers, compost, send home with guests or donate if you can. Unopened bags, boxes and cans can be taken to a local food bank.
• Consider having your party or celebration benefit a local cause. Invite guests to bring books for local book drives, coats for a coat drive, school supplies or whatever else your local community needs.
• Clean up with eco-friendly products and be sure to place recycling bins where guests will use them.

If you like these suggestions and want to read more about greening events, check out our guest series from eco-event planner extraordinaire Lori Hill.

As always, we love to hear from you! What creative ideas have you tried for your company celebrations?

7 Questions to Ask When Considering Purchasing a Product or Material for Your Business:

1. Apply life-cycle thinking. This includes:

a. Does the product contain toxic materials?
b. Where do the raw materials come from and where is the product manufactured?
c. How much energy is used to extract and ship components or parts of a product?
d. How much energy, water and resources are used to create and package the product?
e. How can it be disposed of or recycled at the end of its useful life?
f. Are there any environmental or health impacts of its use?

2. Do you even need to purchase the product new? Sometimes a used item is just as good.

3. Exactly how much of it do you need? Don’t buy more than you need; this wastes money and resources.

4. What type of packaging does it come with? Environmentally-conscious companies are doing all sorts of creative things to green their packaging. This addresses the materials that packaging is made from, as well as the amount of it.

5. Is the product well-designed for its intended purpose? Often, cheaply made goods fall apart and are thrown away within 3 months of purchase.

6. Does the use of this product require special ventilation? If so, don’t buy it! There are plenty of alternatives for low- and no-VOC cleaning products, paints, and adhesives.

7. Depending on how far you want to take it, ask about labor practices. Does the manufacturer pay a living wage, do they give their employees benefits, do they have a diverse workforce? Do they contribute to their community? The social aspects of sustainability / green are sometimes overlooked, but have huge potential payoffs.

7 Tips:

1. Look for locally-produced and sourced products. This helps support your local economy, and reduces transportation-related environmental costs. Continued

Joel Makower, longtime green business guru and executive editor of Greener World Media, wrote an excellent article in his blog recently asking this question.

Joel writes,"Better. It’s a word I’ve been thinking about lately. And as I look at the landscape of sustainability, the green economy, and green marketing, I’m struck by how much of what’s greener isn’t necessarily better, at least not in the ways that matter to most people. And until "green" is synonymous with "better," it’s destined to remain marginalized, incapable of fomenting change at the scale and speed necessary to address climate change and other pressing problems."

In this article, Joel surveys the green landscape: cleaners, clothing, computers, cosmetics, energy, furnishings, buildings, appliances. Many of the greener alternatives are of higher quality, last longer, result in lower bills, all of which indicate higher quality. But, Makower, notes, it’s not all roses and honey. Green marketing is still stumbling over this simple fact:

"But many mainstream consumers believe that "green" equals "worse" — that making environmentally responsible shopping choices means making a sacrifice in quality, affordability, convenience, or some other attribute. A relative few are willing to make such sacrifices in the name of a healthier planet or a better world. But not many are. And they won’t do so until green = better."

Read the full article and see what you think.

by guest writer Nedda Wittels

Help Yourself, Help the Animals, Help the Earth.

How can having a greener footprint benefit our animals? Here are some thoughts and insights that have changed the way I care for my animal family members.

1. Feed Your Animals Naturally

Have you ever read the labels on your cat and dog food packages? Admittedly, you may need a magnifying glass to do so, but it is well worth the $10 or so investment to discover what you are actually feeding them.

Unfortunately, most of the pet foods readily available and promoted on TV are really full of things that no animal should be eating: chemical preservatives, artificial flavoring, meat by-products, and so on. Do you know what the big, long, barely pronounceable words in the contents list actually stand for? I challenge you to look them up online and discover what you are feeding your animals.

The expression, "You are what you eat " is correct, and today we and our animals are sicker than ever before. A lot of it has to do with what we are eating.

It’s time to tell the corporations that we want to feed our animals natural foods, not foods filled with industrial waste products. Companies are getting rid of industrial waste by putting it into your pet’s food.

Feeding organic foods (and some "all natural" foods) will mean healthier dogs and cats. Animals need foods filled with nutritious substances that are readily available to their bodies.

For example, what is a "meat by-product"? Do you ever see it in the meat section of your supermarket? Do you know that it’s the parts of the slaughtered animal that is considered unfit for human consumption? If humans shouldn’t be eating it, neither should our animals!!

Do you know WHY some pet food have artificial flavorings? Because no animal would touch the food if the real flavoring wasn’t covered up. Continued

Chris Moline, a Residential Group Manager of Carpet One Flooring of Alexandria Virginia ate a piece of Marmoleum yesterday afternoon to prove its truly green properties. Lets just hope its durability doesn’t complicate his digestive system, hmm….let me know how that goes Chris.

Alexandra Carpet One offers several kinds of eco-flooring including Marmoleum, a non-toxic alternative to most other post-industrial flooring options. It’s made with 100% natural ingredients: linseed oil, cork, limestone, tree resin and natural pigments. According to the Green Building Supply website, "The natural bactericidal properties of marmoleum prevent micro-organisms including Salmonella Typhimurium and Staphylococcus Aureus from multiplying themselves. It is the continual oxidation of the linseed oil that enables this phenomenon."

Well, Chris perhaps you could advertise it as an antioxidant too!

Check out more from Chris Moline and what he put in his mouth here .

Be The Bay specializes in products from and about the Chesapeake Bay, and they donate 10% of their profits towards bay restoration and education projects. The founders of Be The Bay have long hoped for a clean bay again where you could swim without worrying about bacteria levels and eat seafood without worrying about mercury levels. Be The Bay focuses on educating residents and tourists on how they can positively effect the bay. Their clothes and bay products can be found at numerous local retailers and their on-line store.