How do Brits like to be green, and what green behaviors do they still avoid?

That’s what a new survey by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is showing us by examining the environmental actions and preferences of 100,000 British people from 40,000 households.

The findings presented below are the first from a new annual household survey in Britain named Understanding Society. The environmental topics are one subset of the whole survey, which also examines the “working lives, relationships, health, finances, neighbourhoods, education, transport and more” of Brits.

What are the main findings thus far?

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The 97th spent months prepping for its evaluation and earned a “you knocked our socks off” comment from the ESOHCAMP program manager, but that’s not the only sustainability feather in Altus’s cap.  The base is also home to one of the Air Force’s premier green remediation sites.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2009/11/19/altus-air-force-base-is-flying-high-on-new-green-award/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/10/31/did-diet-coke-cause-my-cancer/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/10/31/did-diet-coke-cause-my-cancer/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:27:12 +0000 Rhonda Winter http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/10/31/did-diet-coke-cause-my-cancer/ Recently I have been reading very disturbing research about how Diet Coke can possibly cause cancer and kill you. The artificial sweetener that is used in most diet beverages, aspartame, once ingested, becomes a lethal poison called methyl alcohol. Small quantities of this noxious substance can lead to blindness and death; even the most miniscule amounts of this aspartame toxin are strongly linked to cancer.

This is an image of the cancerous tumor that was recently removed from my body.

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]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/10/31/did-diet-coke-cause-my-cancer/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/19/almost-half-of-us-consumers-would-choose-a-green-cell-phone/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/19/almost-half-of-us-consumers-would-choose-a-green-cell-phone/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:22:09 +0000 Andrew Williams http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/19/almost-half-of-us-consumers-would-choose-a-green-cell-phone/

A major new survey has revealed that nearly 50% of all US consumers would consider buying a ‘green’ cell phone, but only if key factors such as the price, features, and performance were equivalent to other phones.

According to the poll of 1,000 American adults carried out by ABI Research, just 7% would be willing to pay a premium to go green, a figure that may cause cell phone companies to think deeply before investing heavily in environmentally friendlier models.

Speaking about the findings, industry analyst Michael Morgan said, “These survey results mean that almost half of those surveyed were at least committed in principle to use of a green handset. However the public is largely uninformed about their availability: only 4% said they were ‘very familiar’ with green handsets.”

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/19/almost-half-of-us-consumers-would-choose-a-green-cell-phone/feed/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/16/2594/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/16/2594/#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:15:39 +0000 Sonya http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/16/2594/

Fancy a new online store for eco-friendly children’s products?  Green product website Ambitious Green calls itself a “fun place to buy great products at the center of today’s environmental issues, concerns, and debates.”

Says Ambitious Green: “We think the environment and education are challenging debates worth having. Every time you make a buying decision you are telling manufacturers and the market what’s important to you.   We share the same frustrations you do - finding products that are natural, functional, friendly and fun. We believe that what’s good  for you can be good for the planet.”

Here are a few of the latest toys at Ambitious Green:

Dancing Alligator, $19.99 (shown above) “This award-winning, wooden alligator pull toy struts his stuff as he wiggles, bobs and click-clacks along.”  These toys are made in Thailand by Plan Toys, a green company that emphasizes socially responsible manufacturing.   It’s green because it’s made of organic rubberwood, non-formaldehyde E-Zero Glue, water-based dye, recycled and recyclable material and soy ink and water-based ink.

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]]> http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/16/2594/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/14/book-review-natures-second-chance/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/14/book-review-natures-second-chance/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:37:59 +0000 John Ivanko http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/14/book-review-natures-second-chance/

Have you ever wondered about Mother Nature’s counterpart, Father Nature?

Look no further than ecologist and artist of nature, Steven Apfelbaum. You could even call him Father Nature. His book, Nature’s Second Chance: Restoring the Ecology of Stone Prairie Farm (Beacon, 2009), offers an engaging and refreshingly personal narrative of how, as humans, we can reconnect with the land, our community, and our true selves through restoration work on the land. (The book is also available as an eBook.)

“Dirty hands and sweat welded my relationship with Stone Prairie Farm … where I have worked to give nature a second chance,” writes Apfelbaum in the book’s Introduction. “My years of planting, of nurturing the resurgence of prairie, wetland, and forest cover where eroded fields once lay exposed, have created a deep, direct connection to nature.” The land became his home, love, passion, and peace — even the humble beginnings for his livelihood after launching the ecological consulting firm, Applied Ecological Services, Inc., and Taylor Creek Restoration Nurseries — both exemplary triple bottom businesses.

Apfelbaum’s inspiration, like many in his field, was renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold who so clearly enunciated a vision for a land ethic to guide our human relationship with all of nature: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise.”

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/14/book-review-natures-second-chance/feed/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/12/mind-you-there-are-more-cases-of-autism/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/12/mind-you-there-are-more-cases-of-autism/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:30:30 +0000 Cate Nelson http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/12/mind-you-there-are-more-cases-of-autism/

There’s been a seven- to eight-fold increase of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) cases in California since 1990.

I’ve suspected that the rise in diagnoses of ASD is linked to many factors, one of them better detection. You, too? Not so, says a new study.

“It’s time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California…We’re looking at the possible effects of metals, pesticides and infectious agents on neurodevelopment,” said researcher Irva Hertz-Piccoto.

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]]> http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/01/12/mind-you-there-are-more-cases-of-autism/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/01/08/hong-kong-ecological-footprint-is-twice-as-large-as-china/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/01/08/hong-kong-ecological-footprint-is-twice-as-large-as-china/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:38:32 +0000 Andrew Williams http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/01/08/hong-kong-ecological-footprint-is-twice-as-large-as-china/

A startling new WWF study has revealed that people living in Hong Kong currently use twice as many resources as residents in China, more than double the sustainable level.

To feed the vibrant city’s massive demand for natural resources, and absorb the CO2 emitted, residents need an area of land and sea larger than 250 Hong Kong’s, an incredible seven-fold increase since 1965.

According to Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director of the Global Footprint Network, “Although small geographically, Hong Kong not only has significant resource demands, but it also has an over-proportional influence on the world.

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]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/01/08/hong-kong-ecological-footprint-is-twice-as-large-as-china/feed/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/13/first-green-certified-laptop-battery-greenlighted-by-hp/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/13/first-green-certified-laptop-battery-greenlighted-by-hp/#comments Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:51:05 +0000 Mike Gagnon http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/13/first-green-certified-laptop-battery-greenlighted-by-hp/

HP teams with U.S. based Boston-Power to create the first line of eco-friendly laptops.

In the race to come up with newer eco-friendly laptop solutions HP has not only led the way, but helped achieve a few firsts in the process, according to a recent Boston-Power press release.

Not only will HP be launching what it calls its new “Enviro” series of notebooks, but it will also be teaming with Boston-Power to be the first manufacturer to bring a product of this type to market.

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/13/first-green-certified-laptop-battery-greenlighted-by-hp/feed/ http://feelgoodstyle.com/2008/10/23/lend-a-helping-handbag-eco-friendly-finds-that-fuse-fashion-with-philanthropy/ http://feelgoodstyle.com/2008/10/23/lend-a-helping-handbag-eco-friendly-finds-that-fuse-fashion-with-philanthropy/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:48:12 +0000 Gennefer Snowfield http://feelgoodstyle.com/2008/10/23/lend-a-helping-handbag-eco-friendly-finds-that-fuse-fashion-with-philanthropy/ In the past, when you’ve thought about helping the environment, things like recycling, using rechargeable batteries, cutting back on your power and water usage, and carpooling or bicycling to reduce pollution probably leapt to mind. 

I doubt that carrying a chic, designer bag topped your list. 

But with all of the eco-minded designers popping up, using alternative materials to craft high-end, contemporary creations worthy of a runway romp, you can do your part to save the planet, and look stylish doing it.

Here is a list of the must-have sleek and sustainable haute couture handbags available for the eco-savvy shopper:

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(Kittens make everything cuter.)

Stephen Harper, Conservative Party leader and newly re-elected Prime Minister of Canada, isn’t many people’s ideal of an environmental hero. He once famously called the Kyoto accord “job-killing, economy-destroying,” and a “socialist scheme.” Understandably, many Canadians look disapprovingly on his environmental record.

However, for a society to achieve sustainability it must have the support conservative leaders as well as liberal leaders, especially when a conservative leader like Harper begins to take interest in the environment. Over the last several years, the Harper government has been making efforts to turn over a new, greener leaf. Despite his continued foot-dragging on Kyoto emissions targets, Harper has been at the head of some important achievements.

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This year, the ozone hole extended to approximately 27 million square kilometers. This compared to 2007’s 25 million square kilometers and 2006’s 29 million square kilometers.

Want a size comparison? That’s about the size of the North American continent!

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Environmentalists and anyone else attempting to derail wind farms have often turned to the fate of birds for scientific back up. In the case of the environmentalists, I’ll let it pass, but it’s when the senators and other politicians who have never shown an ounce of interest in the outdoors – let alone an animal in the outdoors – jump on the “PROTECT THE BIRDS” bandwagon that gets me riled up (among a host of other things).

Thankfully, new research out of England has lain to rest at least some of the claims saying that wind farms, and to a lesser extent singular wind turbines, represent a real threat to bird populations.

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And now, thanks to researchers from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and the Center for Space Research (CSR) in America, a new and accurate picture of Greenland’s shrinking ice cap has been formulated.

Subsequently, the researchers have found that Greenland is currently responsible for an annual increase of sea levels of up to half a millimeter.

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Ever since I first saw Ernie and almost the entire felt-cast of Sesame Street do “The Rubber Duck, Duck” dance on Sesame Street, I have had a strange fascination with rubber ducks. They aren’t the common toy here in Australia that they appear to be elsewhere. And though looking back at that video now presents me with a bit of a moral and architectural dilemma, considering just how many people are naked together in that tub, my love for the rubber duck continues.

And now, once again, the rubber duck is coming to the aid of science. US rocket scientist Alberto Behar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California has sent 90 rubber ducks into the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland in an attempt to figure out what is happening inside Greenland’s fastest moving glacier.

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It’s no secret: businesses who build durable internal systems breed long term and sustainable profits.

In fact, the rule on the street, and this applies to enterprising green businesses who are past their mainstream ‘breaking point’ and are now swimming with the rest of the so-called ’sharks’, is often ‘automate or perish’.

But automation (business speak for “doing it better and faster”) is hardly a Darwinian one-way street – eco-minded companies are benefiting more than just their own bottom line by developing or partnering to develop software that automates green decision making: they are greening entire industries.

And, the three who are doing it – Green Printer, Workforce Software and Sustainable Minds – have a lot to share on what it takes to get there.

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With ye olde cobbler long dead (re-soling Jesus’s Birkenstocks in forgotten profession heaven) and cheap production methods shortening the lives of shoes, Americans have gotten into the habit of pitching worn out (or simply undesired) kicks and buying new ones. Shoe-shopping has become something of a fetish, a joke, an emblem of the spoiled housewife who fills her emotional void with Italian suede.

We could go into Manolos, but we’ll focus here on sporty treads, not just to stay on-topic but because they account for a third of the U.S. shoes market.

The production of athletic shoes is infamously shady, from a human rights perspective. Historically, manufacturing giants such as Nike have followed cheap labor, exploiting workers in developing countries so that they might enjoy enormous profit margins. (Nike has really turned itself around in recent years, however, and is now one of the greener players on the field.)

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Apparently, community colleges in North Dakota, among other states, are beginning to train wind turbine technicians; those who are trained in maintaining and repairing those giant wind turbines that make us all that lovely energy.

“The demand (for wind technicians) is such that some (colleges) have been trying to keep companies away from the program because they want everybody to graduate first,” said Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association. “In some cases, students are being picked up after only a couple of months.”

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How can a mahogany desk, made of slow-growing hard wood plundered from the Amazon, be eco-friendly?

When it’s re-used.

Often, the greenest consumer route is not buying new products made with Earth-friendly methods but rather scoring used products made with traditional, possibly heinous methods. Reduce, reuse, then recycle.

This rule of thumb certainly applies to office furniture. Unlike energy-consuming products such as appliances, furniture is somewhat innocuous to the environment during that period between factory and landfill known as “in use.” The impacts on indoor air quality, however, are like Britney: Not that innocent.

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What you may not realize, cherie, is that whatever you flush down comes back around. Our waste fertilizes our fields and is pumped back into the waterways that are our major sources of drinking water. Let’s take the journey from toilet to tap, shall we? Oui oui. (We’re affecting French here for a touch of sophistication in a post centering on fecal matter.)

Americans use about 70 gallons of water indoors, every day.  About three-quarters of that is used in the toilette—shower, bath, sink, crapper—and over one-quarter is used whisking away our waste.  You can cut this water usage by making sure your toilet isn’t leaking, using a composting or low-flow toilet or even displacing the water in the tank with a brick or container filled with sand .  Your toilet is not a trashcan, so save cigarette butts, tissues and used condoms for the basket, not the bowl.

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