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In my online travels (that’s the only way I get to travel these days), I came across a few things well worth sharing. I hope you find them useful as well. First, a new CFL bulb, called the CCFL bulb, which has much lower mercury, better color, and is dimmable and usable with motion sensors. It’s available locally in the DC area from Better Bulb in Bethesda, MD.
Now onto the videos. You’ll need to devote some time to these, but well worth viewing. First, for those skeptics still out here who aren’t convinced that Global Warming is a reality or are unsure whether or not it’s caused by humans. This airtight argument will be fun to use at upcoming holiday parties with you favorite naysayer.
The second video, Black Balloons, provides a visual for energy consumption. Very creative.
Sorry for the amalgam of stuff today. I just thought these resources were well worth sharing. Hope you enjoy.
The amount of junk mail I receive each day drives me nuts. All I can think of is how many trees were cut down each and every day just to send me crap that goes straight into the trash — wait, I didn’t mean trash, I meant recycle bin. Because what many people don’t realize is that the vast majority of your mail can go right into the recycle bin along with your newspapers and other papers. That is, if your city recycles those materials.
Often people are worried about putting their mail out with the recyclables, but it’s really no different than your mail sitting in your mail box all day until you pick it up! I would not, however, recommend putting any credit card offers in the bin. But instead of recycling, why not just stop the mail from being printed and sent to you in the first place? Here are some tips for making that happen:
- To stop receiving those credit card offers, simply opt-out. You can opt-out for five years or forever. But each adult in your household will have to do the same.
- To stop receiving catalogs, email optout@abacus-us.com, which provides many of the mailing lists to catalog companies. You may have to call the 800 number for catalogs that you have requested or from which you have purchased products. (Try that one with Pottery Barn. I’m still waiting for those to stop coming. They print on FSC paper now, but somehow that still doesn’t seem to make it OK.)
- To reduce general junk mail, register with the Direct Marketing Association. Be warned, they will charge you $1 (a bargain!). But read through the information, because DMA states that although “the typical consumer sees a great reduction in the unsolicited mail he or she receives not all commercial mail will stop.”
- Do not send in warranty cards. They really just want your address, and warranties are in effect from moment of purchase anyway as long as you have a receipt. But if you must, be sure to write “no mailing list” on the card. Do the same on any rebate cards.
- Always look for the tiny type on any forms that you send in to companies that discuss “privacy policies,” and opt out of any mailing lists or sharing of your name.
- Call your credit card company. Your credit card company probably sells your name the most often. Ask them to stop selling your name.
These are a few simple steps you can take now. If you’re interested in further reading, I’m sure there’s a wealth of information available online. Unfortunately virtually none of these options are available to businesses or to individuals at work. You may have to undergo the painstaking task of calling those businesses independently. But in either case, make sure to recycle that which you do not need.
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
Just a quick note to let you know that I (finally!) added an actual list of resources to the “Resources” page on my website. I’m hopeful that now that I finally have some links up there, it won’t seem so daunting to keep updated. So while this list is by no means comprehensive, nor even the best green list out there, hopefully you’ll find something of value. Please do let me know if you find any bad links, useless resources, or additional links that you think I should include. I find more information on this stuff daily, but I’m sure I’m not finding it all.
So please feel free to drop me a line about websites you have come across — tools, green blogs, valuable information, and more.
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
Is it me, or is the variety and complexity of paper choices getting a bit confusing? There’s certified (by various bodies), recycled content (various types), bleached vs. chlorine free, and more. There’s just so much to take into account when making a purchase. It’s nearly as overwhelming as trying to choose cereal in the supermarket. (Do we really need an entire aisle devoted to a single breakfast food? But that’s for another blog.).
I wonder if so many options can make it difficult for consumers to make a decision, because we certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from making a sustainable choice. Especially when you consider that — even with recycling — more than 30% of our municipal landfill waste in the U.S. is composed of paper. In addition, papermaking remains the third largest industrial use of fossil fuels, and the number one industrial use of water per pound of product.
Just think about it. From the moment you get up in the morning until the moment you go to bed, paper touches your life. From tissues to toilet paper, to cereal boxes, to mail and packaging, to our printers and desktops, to the book you leave on your nightstand. We live in a world of paper. So much for the paperless society.
To help sort through the clutter, I’ve included below a quick primer on paper options. Basically there are three things you need to take into account when considering your paper: 1) pulp; 2) process; and 3) certification.
Pulp. Unfortunately most of the pulp used in the manufacture of paper still comes from unsustainably harvested trees, making it important to choose paper made from recycled content. Post-consumer recycled content is best because it does not rely on virgin trees. Post-industrial recycled content (often labeled “recycled content”) is excess material from manufacturing that has been used to make new paper. Though not as good as post-consumer content, it is still better than non-recycled paper.
Process. Another important criteria in choosing paper is whether or not it was processed using chlorine. There are three chlorine-conscious paper options. Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) is usually made from non-recycled pulp that contains minimal chlorine. Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) is virgin pulp that contains no chlorine. Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) paper is made from recycled pulp, which may contain chlorine remnants, but is not produced with additional chlorine.
Certification. In the United States, there are currently three bodies that certify paper as being harvested from sustainable sources: The Forest Stewardship Council is considered by many to be the most rigorous and most protective. The Sustainable Forest Initiative, originally created by members of the American Forest & Paper Association, a paper industry association, also provides certification. Finally there’s the lesser-known American Tree Farm System. There is a certain amount of controversy surrounding which system is best. Meridian Institute completed a Comparative Analysis of FSC and SFI, the two best known systems in the United States. as did the International Standards Organization. Just to make it a bit more confusing, certified paper may or may not have recycled content. So check for that as well.
Bottom line is that any of these choices is still better than paper sourced from virgin and unsustainably managed forests. You can learn more than you ever thought you wanted to know about paper and certification from Yale’s Program on Forest Certification. And I know I’ve already mentioned this before, but the report on the state of the paper industry from the Environmental Paper Network is definitely worth a read.
Happy (electronic) reading!
P.S. I never considered that my propensity (read: thriftiness) for buying used and borrowing books was a sustainable choice. But maybe I was wrong…
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
Just in the last few days, I’ve seen several new tools, resources, and reports made available on the Internet that are helping to make it so much easier for all types of businesses to go green. The first is a web seminar I attended that featured Joel Makower, editor of GreenBiz, and Yalmaz Siddiqui, Environmental Strategy Advisor, Office Depot. The one-hour seminar was compelling because it provided practical, simple efforts that anyone could take starting today. Environmental sustainability can sometimes get too complicated too quickly, which can turn people off.
Also EPA’s Energy Star program launched their updated version of their Portfolio Manager that now allows various businesses improve their energy use and track their carbon emissions at the same time. The online tool allows businesses to set up an account and measure and track their performance. According to the site: “The tool allows you to streamline your portfolio’s energy and water data, and track key consumption, performance, and cost information portfolio-wide.” In addition to business offices, other sectors covered include supermarkets, retail stores, schools, and more.
Also available is a new report on the state of the pulp and paper industry. The report, The State of the Paper Industry, produced by the Environmental Paper Network, makes the case that U.S. paper use is a significant cause of global warming — all the way from the beginning when the tree is cut down and a source of carbon sequestration is lost, through production, use, and landfilling when the methane is produced as the paper disintegrates. (According to the report, methane has 23 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide.) The report is also a resource for understanding how your paper buying habits can influence this industry. For example, demanding chlorine-free paper from you supplier could lead to safer manufacturing processes using less chemicals.
The more of these user friendly resources we have, the easier it will be for businesses to go green. There is now a wealth of information on-line, and more coming daily.
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
