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»

Ever feel like everything you learned in college amounted to a pile of trash? Now, how about if that were a positive? In a piece that ran in the New York Times last week, Edward Rothstein turns a cultural critic’s eye on garbage in the modern age, referencing an NYU course offered last fall on creating a museum for the Department of Sanitation (from the syllabus: “What is the cognitive, practical, and cultural role of garbage in contemporary life?”) while making some wry observations about how and why we’ve come full-circle to embrace our refuse.

I first spotted this on Murketing, where Rob Walker followed up his post with an interesting link to a guy who literally sells trash — in little plastic cubes — and his prices are rising.

All this leads me to wonder: How accurate is Rothstein’s cultural barometer? Granted, there’s nothing new under the sun (or the mountains of trash baking in its heat). I remember re-interpreting trash from childhood D.I.Y. projects, designing many an aesthetically-questionable birdfeeder out of a rinsed-out Sprite liter bottle. But I think we’ve progressed since then, and if Rothstein is right, it’s with a renewed “feeling of virtue that seems to transcend considerations of cost.” Help kick-start my creative juices with some of your own ideas. How have you managed to re-classify your garbage?

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

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»

Many of you may have, like me, reached a point where you’ve become to feel more than a little bit inundated with green this, green that, mountains of green marketing and green buzzwords. What do we do with it all? How are we to delineate between when we are being sold a trend rather than embracing a truly positive green lifestyle? In this day of battery powered Mercedes, carbon offsetting, and fair trade organic everything, it can be tough. With that in mind I thought I might put my best effort into putting together a few simple rules to cut through what I have dubbed “Green Noise” and get back to what really matters, living a sustainable, respectful life.

Read on»