KeepGreenGoing

I’m sure we all own at least two pairs of shoes, right? Today’s links are provided to encourage you to stop your regular shoe shopping routine and check out some shoes that really matter. Each of the follow shoe companies are doing great things for the environment and humankind. Maybe you’ve never thought of buying an eco-friendly shoe. Maybe you’ve never heard of these companies. Maybe… you have no clue what an eco-shoe is. Today, none of that matters. Take a few minutes and check out these fantastic options when it comes to shoes that really matter:

Simple Shoes - Shoes made from recycled car tires, organic cotton, recycled plastics and hemp.

Earth Footwear - 100% vegan.

Sanuk Sandals - Eco-Friendly, socially-conscious sandals.

Terra Plana - Urban respect and eco-sustainability whilst producing shoes that are good for your feet.

TOM’s Shoes - For every pair you purchase, TOM’s will give a pair to a child in need.

Have you ever thought about your clothing and the effects on the earth? What if I told you that the way cotton is currently grown and harvested, it endangers lives? Conventional cotton is causing extreme concerns and here’s why.

Tons and tons of pesticides are sprayed on cotton fileds every year to eradicate a little bug known as the boll weevil. The problem with using poison to kill one bug is that it kills all the other beneficial insects that keep nature on track.

In cotton’s natural habitat, the shrub is drought-resistant. It originally grew in dry parts of the world and was able to cope with those climates. Because of our consumption of cotton, the plant has been brought into environments that it is not equipped to deal with. The result is more natural predators that the plants can’t fight. Even in the US cotton farm workers are exposed to pesticides during spraying, or shortly after. The effects translate into long-term illnesses and other effects we aren’t even aware of.

Everything about this crop that was once naturally harvested is now a contaminated product. A quarter of the world’s pesticides are used to grow cotton. In order to make cotton safer, Monsanto Corporation developed a genetically modified cottonseed that had a built in pesticide that was lethal to the boll weevil. They sold the product to farmers who were looking to save money on their crops and make a better profit. But the well-intentioned seed had the opposite effect.

One name that keeps popping up is methyl parathion. Farm workers exposed to it suffer long-term health effects. In California, which by the way is doing great things to limit carbon emissions and taking steps to clean up the air, is not doing so well when it comes to pesticides. Cotton farmers are dying because of their exposure to pesticides. 20,000 – 40,000 deaths worldwide all year are caused by pesticide poisonings. Millions suffer the effects of minor poisoning.

Leukemia in children is increased in families that used pesticides in their houses. Across the world, over 90% of people exposed to pesticides all day suffer illness. Symptoms can range from vision disorders to cell death. Chemicals sprayed by air drift. There are no government regulations set-up to protect the families, farmers or babies that live and work in adjacent areas. If a crop plane dumps a load of pesticides for one field and they get carried into the next field over and sicken or cause illness to the people there, they have no recourse. Winds carry pesticides to fields, trees and into the water we all drink from. Read on»

Thanks to KGG contributor Alex Dow for an open, honest account of his meat-free week. My open, honest admission? I love meat, and that love is fiercely loyal.

For now, I’m sticking to my bone-gnawin’ guns. Even so, Alex’s food diary encourages me to do as he did and think about the consequences of consumption.

This builds on the lessons I’ve been gleaning from Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle — a remarkably clear-eyed treatise on food ably disguised as a winsome family memoir.

So far, I’ve learned to shudder at the thought of ever again buying fruit and vegetables off-season. I’m cultivating a farmers’ appreciation of the ominous Dark Storm Cloud. And I’m finding a whole bunch of ways to connect with my food by buying locally.

LINK IT UP! (from animalvegetablemineral.com)

• LocalHarvest: “The best organic food is what’s grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area…”
• New Farm’s Farm Locator: “Consumer Search links you to farms selling directly to consumers…”
• Farmers’ Market: “Farmers markets allow consumers to have access to locally grown, farm fresh produce, enables farmers the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with their customers, and cultivate consumer loyalty with the farmers who grows the produce…”

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»

Often, the green community enjoys discussing tips on going green, new green products out on the market and companies that are making a green impact. Today’s article speaks more on a humanitarian level. It speaks about making a difference in a community through a simple, practical device. Sometimes, the first step for people to go green requires them to be enabled through a simple solution.

The Hippo Roller, from Project H Design, does just that. It frees up people’s time for more productive economic activities.

The Hippo Roller is a simple rolling barrel device that allows communities that depend on the daily fetching of water to more easily access and transport their daily water supply, and reduce the risk of long-term bodily injuries. The roller holds 3-4 days worth of water for a family of 7, which is 5 times the amount of water that can be moved using traditional methods.

The Hippo Roller gives going green a whole new meaning. It enables communities by the masses, it’s a very simple device and it’s practical. Most importantly, it keeps the green life going. What intrigues me the most about the Hippo Roller is its impact for the greater good of a community.

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

Local or organic? What’s more important? Supporting the farmer’s market or ensuring you have the USDA stamp? Both types of food make a great impact on the environment and both are worth buying. Here’s a little more info on each:

Local Food

Buying local food, such as local produce, meat and dairy is an exceptional way to support your local economy. By purchasing food from local farmers, business owners and local coffee shops, more of your money will get reinvested back into the community. Locally grow food is often produced by small farmers, many which follow organic farming methods but may not be able to afford organic certification.

Another benefit to buying local food is you don’t have to pay as much for the food to be packaged and transported to you. The average piece of produce sold in the United States travels 1500 miles before arriving on the shelves. If you buy local you help decrease the demand for shipping produce from far away.

Ultimately, buying local means buying fresh. Local produce usually tastes great and it hasn’t been sitting on a truck for the past couple of days. Buying local is a great way to support your local economy and keep money in your own community.

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»

The United States is the world’s top consumer nation. Americans spend about four times more per person than any other country. And let’s face it - we do it largely by shopping. On average, every American shops everyday for about 24 minutes. Per year, we spend somewhere around $4 trillion. That’s a lot of money. And think about this… A new car is made every second, 2.3 million shoes are purchased every day and 2. 6 billion toys are bought every year. Through marketing and advertising (I should know, I work at an advertising agency) the psychology of shopping is embedded deep into our brains. The real question I always wonder - where does all that stuff go?

Each of us produces about 4.54 pounds of trash every day through our consumption and disposal habits. This amounts to 1657 pounds per person per year. That’s a lot of disposal. Also consider that every month 100,000 CDs are tossed and 50 million pounds of toothbrushes are scattered throughout the country’s landfills every year. It can easily be said that we’re a disposable society - we use tons of materials, water and energy to make the things we buy - only to discard of them later.

With over 6.6 billion people on this earth doing lots of buying, shopping poses a real threat. So where does all “this stuff” come from? It’s manufactured. The manufacturing industry alone sucks 1/3 of the energy and 13 percent of the water supply in the United States. With all this in mind, here are three simple steps from “The Green Book” to keep green going when shopping:

Read on»