October 2009

Clothing is often a victim of a closet cleaning, moves, or style updates. Perfectly good pieces are pitched in the trash without a second thought. Levi’s and Goodwill have launched a tag-team mission to make sure your jeans have more than one life.

Levi Strauss’ new “Care Tag For Our Planet” program has a twofold mission to reduce the carbon footprint of their jeans. Each pair will have a tag that recommends that the owner reduce energy consumption by washing the jeans in cold water, air dry them when possible, and wash them less to reduce water consumption. The last label line suggests donating the pair to Goodwill to extend their lifecycle.

Next month Barack Obama is making a trip to China and originally he’d entertained hopes of convincing China to agree to caps on carbon emissions. That’s not going to happen according to Todd Stern, Obama’s envoy for climate change. China wants the U.S. to make far greater cuts, pointing out that its cumulative emissions are 25% that of the U.S.

Furthermore, China is racing toward renewable technology. It considers caps on carbon emissions unnecessary and a sure-fire way to limit economic growth (something for the U.S. to learn there?). China is demanding a significant financial commitment from the U.S. and other developed countries to “adapt” to global warming. How much of a financial commitment? Oh not a lot, just .5% to 1% of total GDP!

Halloween is just around the corner and like any other celebration that usually means two things: spending cash, and decorating with props. Props like costumes, scary skeletons, tombstones and eerie lights that cast an orange-ish glow all are part of the fun and they help create fond memories for kids and adults alike.

It’s all part of bringing in the Halloween spirit so how can you preserve the fun and still do something to reduce impact on the environment? We’ve pulled together some easy tips and they’re centered around three words – reduce, reuse and recycle.

Supermarket shoppers are more educated than ever before on what they are putting in their carts. Sweden has taken it one step further by adding food labels that show the amount of CO2 emissions connected to the production and distribution of a product. Each label plainly states "Climate declared” or the kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of product.

The idea for the labeling system was born from a 2005 government study that found eating was the cause for 25% of national per capita emissions. If the labels could encourage shoppers to make smarter choices the nation could cut about two metric tons of CO2 emissions.

An argument can be made that the addition of the CO2 labels is a militant move and will only end up confusing customers. The Nutrition Department at the Swedish National Food Administration says that making better food choices is similar to buying a hybrid car -- every bit counts.

As election losses piled up in recent years, Britain’s Conservative party was in desperate need of a makeover. David Cameron emerged from their ranks with the idea of a kinder and greener Conservative party. With a near lock on next May’s election, are Conservatives actually living or selling green?

The revamp began in 2006 with the slogan, “go green, vote blue.” Cameron amped up his public appearances handing out recycling boxes  and began riding his bike to work. His shoes and briefcase, however, traveled in a separate car. The party got back on track working with Labour legislation like the Climate Change Act that legally calls for an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050.

This is the pleasant side of a free market economy where there are multiple healthy competitors. Barnes & Noble just debuted its new Nook e-book reader with a price tag of $259 and that seems to have ignited a reaction from Amazon who has consolidated its Kindle 2 lineup to eliminate the “international” version.

Instead, there is only one Kindle 2 now that is compatible with GSM networks. Incidentally that may mean Sprint losing some wireless network business on future versions of the Kindle which for now will be using AT&T’s network, the same as the Nook. Current Kindles will still function on Sprint’s network, but what is Amazon aiming to accomplish with this move?

Amazon has a head start in the e-book reader space, but its competitors are lining up to bat. Sony, Spring Design and now Barnes & Noble are all looking for market share in that burgeoning space and most of their innovation seems targeted at adding more functions to a device like the Kindle 2 that’s highly specialized in displaying books.

Barnes & Noble is chained to the Kindle 2’s pricing as a later “me too” entry into the market. Its Nook e-reader will launch in late November for $259. Like the Alex from Spring Design, the Nook adds a smaller color touchscreen to the bottom of its case which it hopes will pull in people looking for easier navigation and more from a device than just reading books. The Nook will run Google’s Android operating system which connects the device to a large group of developers creating new applications and functionality every day. Good stuff, but what truly sets the Nook apart?

It’s not uncommon these days to find companies investing more in their ad budgets to tout their “green” products than investing that cash in environmentally sound business practices. An Ethiopian company called SoleRebels is bucking this trend by being “green by heritage -- and not because some marketing whiz told us to be.”

SoleRebels was founded in 2004 by Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, her husband, and brother. Their idea was to put a unique spin on the traditional Ethiopian shoe called a “barabasso” or “selatel” which uses a recycled tire sole. Facing rampant unemployment in Addis Ababa, the trio wanted to create an place where their neighbors could work and thus move the area from a culture of aid to trade.

The Republic of Maldives is known internationally more for being a tourist’s paradise in the Indian ocean than its political leaders. Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected President in the history of the country, may change that with a single cabinet meeting.

The President has ordered his ministers to grab their scuba gear and attend an underwater cabinet meeting tomorrow in an attempt to make a point about global warming. Ahead of the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, the government is slated to sign a declaration calling on all nations to curb their carbon emissions.

Nasheed’s idea of underwater diplomacy may be construed as a calculated publicity stunt to many. He certainly knows how to attract the media’s spotlight with his previous career as a journalist. Video of flipper clad politicians would certainly be bait for bloggers and viral video creators.

California has regulated power consumption for other appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners in the past, but now the state government is turning its attention to big screen plasma and LCD TVs. The average household in California consumes about 10% of its daily energy by using TVs.

With the convergence of TVs and oversized computer monitors meaning almost the same thing, it’s no surprise that big screens account for that much energy consumption. Not everyone is in agreement with state officials though, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is fighting that legislation citing concerns about stifling innovation with too many regulations.

The reality is that coal power plants create toxic waste. And with so many people focused on cleaning up the air we breathe, roiling black smoke is pretty unpopular. So what are coal companies doing to ‘clean up’? They’re installing scrubbers to clean emissions before they enter the atmosphere. That sounds good so far, but there’s a cost.

For the scrubbers to operate effectively they require an ongoing supply of chemicals which allow them to capture emissions. The byproducts created after those chemicals are used has to go somewhere and usually nearby waterways are the target. That’s convenient for the coal power company, but not so convenient for residents using those waterways for drinking water.

Cell phones have become a landfill liability with only 10 percent of them recycled each year. San Diego’s ecoATM has created an ATM like device to help consumers safely dispose of or even profit off of their old cell phones. The company was inspired to create  the “Automated eCycling Station for e-Waste” by bottle redemption programs in the US.

Mark Bowles, CEO of ecoATM Inc. said “Over 100 million used, but still valuable phones, are quietly retired to closets and drawers each year in the US where they decay into zero value and then enter our landfills years later. Our automated ecoATM provides consumers and retailers an easy, convenient, incentivized method to convert those devices into real money instead of toxic waste.”

It’s good to see some companies making effort in their journey toward meshing sustainability with profits. O2, a top mobile service provide in the UK, just launched the Sony Ericsson Naite and it’s marketing the green phone primarily based how nice it is to the environment.

O2 claims that the Sony Ericsson Naite cuts down CO2 emissions by 15% and it comes with an ego-massaging kicker: a gift for yourself or “the world” option. That gift comes in the form of a month’s pay for a teacher, care for a child in need, or a contribution toward the PlayPump roundabout water system in Africa. That’s great, but what does the phone sacrifice functionally to achieve its green status?

The biggest impact might come from the Sony Ericsson Naite’s minimal packaging and electronic manual. Taking out a printed manual supposedly cuts paper usage by 90%. That’s great, though ideally all phones would make some changes in their packaging to reduce leftover waste. What else is unique about it?

New York has been and continues to be the most populous and economically powerful city in the US. Its expansive global reach and political prowess has given it an edge over cities like Chicago and LA and now it is also hoping to get an edge in the green market and more specifically solar energy.

Governor of New York, David Patterson is looking to cut down on greenhouse emissions and energy costs by providing funds for solar energy projects. The $10 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) initiative to install solar photovoltaic systems hopes to not only green up the city, but also create jobs.

The governor certainly feels the city and state has room for improvement, and with the pressure from President Obama to reduce emissions, New York is looking to get on board with alternative energy projects.

Nissan’s Leading Environmentally friendly Affordable Family (LEAF) car will launch in Canada first as part of a joint marketing effort supported by the company and local government. The Nissan LEAF promises 100 miles of travel on single charge of its battery. But why target Canada with an early release with a wider launch in 2012?

One reason may lie with the country’s interest and support of electric car infrastructure. Vancouver is openly competing to become the greenest city in the world by 2020 and part of that plan includes cleaning up emissions from vehicles. The Renault-Nissan Alliance, the province, the city of Vancouver and B.C. Hydro are all working together on talks for making charging stations a common site in Canada.

Both the 2012 London Games and the newly announced 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics are looking to offset the thousands of athletes, coaches and sports fans converging on their cities.

But Rio’s “Carbon Zero 2016” campaign is planning to offset the entire games through tree planting. Three million saplings, when all said and done, actually.

Tree planting is a great start. The trees will throw tons and tons of oxygen into the air, helping to combat carbon emissions from things like plane rides and construction projects.

But I’ve yet to read about Rio officials looking at ways to decrease the amount of carbon they plan to use. Any green program should have both offsets and reductions, especially programs as high-profile as the Olympic games.

Oh no, don’t throw that tennis ball!

Before your dog sinks its teeth into that or any other play toy, a new study conducted by The Ecology Center and announced Wednesday is encouraging you to find its toxicity.

Healthystuff.org, based on the study, shows chemical levels of programs and then ranks them as low, medium or high.

But what does it really mean if Fido’s squishy ball has 14 parts per million lead and a medium score on this site?

Well, according to the Web site, nothing. An “important note” on the site even says “ratings do not provide a measure of health risk or chemical exposure associated with any individual product, or any individual element or related chemical.”