KeepGreenGoing

Rapanui Clothing is an organic and sustainable clothing company based on the Isle of Wight, using organic, natural and ethical fabrics coupled with their response to climate change (using factories with their own wind and solar panels, biodiesel vans and carbon offset warehousing), Rapanui has a fair claim to being one of the greenest clothing companies on the planet… and that’s on its product’s credentials alone.

Set up by surfing brothers Rob and Mart Drake-Knight, 23 and 21 respectively, the brothers were motivated to influence environmental change after becoming ill from surfing in polluted waters. Mart wears scars from a skin infection caused by pollution; Rob spent three days of a holiday in France in bed due to sickness caused by field run-off. Added to these personal issues, Mart’s studies in the field of Renewable Energy engineering gave the brothers insight into the convergence of crisis our planet is facing. They felt they wanted to make a difference.

Rapanui is the vehicle of this inspiration; garments are manufactured in Fairwear Foundation audited factories - ensuring that at every stage of the garment manufacturing process workers are guaranteed a fair deal. Their products are also undergoing license for fair trade. Read on»

It’s one idea to talk about buying a hybrid car and/or riding you bike to work everyday. But for some people, these two options aren’t realistic. Instead of making such a drastic change in your life, what would happen if we simplified the solution? What would it look like for everyone to take one small step that held one big impact?

Think about it this way - What would happen if each of us decreased our demand for gas by %5?

On average, Americans consume about 386 million gallons of gasoline each day. Over the course of a year, that adds up to just under 141 billion gallons of gas. That’s a lot of gas.

If all of us were able to reduce our gas consumption by 5%, we’d save 7.05 billion gallons of gas each year.

Decreasing your gas intake is easy to do:

• Drive 1 less day out of the week.
• Carpool to work with a co-worker.
• Take you lunch with you to work so you don’t have to leave during the day.
• Do all of your errands in 1 trip out, rather than multiple trips throughout the week.
• Have you kids ride their bikes to school instead of driving them. Read on»

Bamboo this, bamboo that - What’s up with the bamboo buzz?

Technically classified as a “weed”, the bamboo plant is strong, renewable and inexpensive. There are nearly 1000 different species of bamboo and it can be grown in almost any moderate climate. Bamboo can grow 20 meters in less than 60 days.

However, extremely fast growth is not bamboo’s only environmentally friendly virtue. Bamboo also helps repair the devastating effects of deforestation and mining to soil and communities. Bamboo actually removes toxins from soil, prevents erosion and provides jobs and food for many people.

It thrives in a diverse landscape up to 12,000 feet and releases 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees. Bamboo is the strongest plant known to humankind.

Bamboo is also extremely versatile. It has thousands of uses, from paper to clothing, fences, construction, chop sticks, flooring, musical instruments - the list is endless.

Furthermore, when manufacturing solid hardwood flooring from plantation timber, only 20-25% is used. Bamboo flooring, on the other hand, uses over 90% of the bamboo plant with no wastage.

Its strength-to-weight ratio is better than graphite. The US Navy even used bamboo to reinforce concrete in World War II.

In conclusion, the buzz about bamboo is quite legit. If you have the opportunity to buy things bamboo, we say go for it. Buy bamboo and keep the green going.

Warm weather is almost here and for some, that means it’s time to rip the waves. Surfer dudes and dudettes, this one’s for you - We’ve got a way you can surf all you want AND help the environment.

Help reduce waste by purchasing surfboards made from recycled materials (such as polystyrene foam) and covered with an epoxy resin. Most surfboards are covered with polyester and fiberglass. That’s bad news. So get things right and go with an epoxy board, which is not only lighter but also will last 5 times longer.

So that’s what we’ve got. Sounds simple right? Well it is! If just 1 in 50 surfers in the world purchased their next board from recyclable polystyrene, the number of surfboards saved from landfills could stretch more than 2400 miles.

To help get you started in the right direction, here’s a few green surfing resources:

GreenSurf.org
Greenlight Surfboard Supply

Simple, free and green. Words we all like to here, right? Those are the goals of a newly developed United States Postal Service program that allows customers to recycle small electronics and inkjet cartridges by mailing them free of charge.

The “Mail Back” program helps consumers make more environmentally friendly choices, making it easier for customers to discard used or obsolete small electronics in an environmentally responsible way. Customers use free envelopes to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players - without having to pay for postage.

In a sense, this is the type of program that empowers the everyday person to go green. And it’s simple too. The free, postage-paid Mail Back envelopes can be found on displays in 1500 Post Office lobbies across the country. Simply find a location near you, take as many envelopes as you want and let the electronic recycling begin.

The pilot program is set for 10 areas across the country, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego, but could become a national program this fall if all goes well.

When it comes to recycling don’t forget about good-old-fashion snail mail. Pick up your free envelopes and do your part. Thanks for the great pilot program USPS… We appreciate it be simple, free and green!

Today there are plenty of great ways to begin making a positive impact on the environment; but what if one aspires to something more personal than the great yet simple practices of recycling, buying with a conscious and reducing their own impact on the planet? Enter Grassroots Green.

What I have christened as Grassroots Green is getting green accomplished through your own unique, passion instilling means. The beauty of Grassroots Green is that by getting active on another level, others will be inspired, green happens in a whole new way and the opportunity to introduce others to green opens up. From my own experiences I’ve found the following three steps to be fundamental in beginning your own Grassroots Green effort.

Identify a green need within your community. This can be anything from starting a recycling program for you and your neighbors, to getting the ball rolling on legislation for more renewable energy incentives in your city. Don’t get too caught up on it, if we’ve tried to communicate anything through our publication it is that green should be simple. Start small and move on from there. After you’ve got your need identified write out the steps needed to get it resolved. These steps should be flexible as your understanding of the need will more likely than not change as you are working on it. Be prepared to take the first step immediately; it will likely be as simple as a phone call or a bit of research online. Finally, I think that it is important to find someone else that you can count on to partner with you, share in your passion, and help take the steps already identified to see that your community’s needs are met.

Read on»

We hear it all the time - Green this, Green that. So let’s face it, green is the newest black and everybody loves to feel like they’re taking part. It’s the latest trend. It’s marketable. And it’s not slowing down. Trust me, if Corporate America can make money on “green efforts,” you can count on them digging in. So what does “going green” really mean?

Too often people feel like they have to make drastic changes in their lives to go green. When usually, the opposite is true. You don’t have to become a liberal-hippy-vegan-bike-rider to make an impact. The whole green movement is based on the idea of making conscious decisions. Also, going green shouldn’t cost a grip of money. You don’t have to go buy a new car (or sell the one your driving now). You don’t have to restock your frig with organic foods and you certainly don’t have to ride your bike wherever you go (although, the KGG crew does recommend pulling out the bike and taking a spin from time to time…riding bikes is a pretty tight thing to do). The idea is to think before you act. When you consider what’s being said, it really is a simple idea. Do you need to turn that light on? Do you really need to print? Do you have to take another shower? Read on»

I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately, especially after some of the articles we’ve written on packaging. Should you buy conventional CDs or purchase digital downloads? Which method is more environmentally friendly? Which method is more beneficial for the artist? Let’s take a look at the two different processes:

Purchasing CDs

1. A band/artist records their album
2. The music is pressed onto billions of CDs
3. The CDs include artwork, inserts and are individually packaged and shrink-wrapped
4. The individual packages are placed in larger boxes for shipping
5. The larger boxes are shipped out across the world via trains, planes and automobiles to retail stores and online distributors
6. Retails stores often place stickers on the individual CDs
7. Online distributors place the CDs into other individual shipping boxes for order deliveries
8. From this point, two things happen:
   1. You drive to the retail store to purchase the CD
   2. A truck (UPS, FedEx) deliveries the CD to your residence

Digital Download

1. Log on to iTunes, Amazon or any other online digital distributor
2. Make purchase
3. Downloading begins

Obviously, from an environmental standpoint, our second choice seems most logical. But is it really that simple? What about the graphic designer who lives off designing CDs? Is his/her career simply turned into a JPEG format of an album cover? What happens to the value of the artistic approach poured into the layout, design, photography, packaging, typography and printing of conventional CDs? How much money does an artist make from the digital download? What happens when going green ends up cutting others out of jobs?

Read on»