Green Options

I started writing this post a few weeks ago, inspired by this article, PR Agency Warned Starbucks About Wasteful Water Policy. Like, what were they thinking?

I know, I know, it’s hard to think of everything, but that they pay good money to a PR firm then ignore their advice? Hello? (Check out this post,Starbucks Coffee: How Green Is Their Java? on our sister blog, The Inspired Economist, for the whole story.)

Yes, well, they were busy. Guess they aren’t now…oh wait – free coffee on election day – business is back up!

But seriously, I talk to ecopreneurs everyday. People email me questions, catch me on Twitter or actually (gasp) pay me to give them advice (Yes, I am a marketing consultant and have been for ummm a whole bunch of years.)

Often what I hear from folks is…do you think I, as a green product manufacturer can do xyz (overpackage; make product in China; use plastic…ship my product over 2000 miles away to a customer)? My answer is

BP’s been feeling the heat over their plans to increase their dumping of ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan and have backed away from the plans, for now. Nice work greenies!

Here’s BP’s press release over at Earthtimes, via Earth2Tech

I promise you, I am not making this up. This is not from the Onion.

GM hired Rush Limbaugh to do a radio ad about how Green a company they are.

Rush Limbaugh. The fat drug addict right-wing hypocrite ignorant jerkass blowhard.

GM. The most un-green company this side of Monsanto, the one that builds gas guzzling monster cars and blocks any bump in fuel efficiency standards, the one that Killed the Electric Car.

Green. The simple idea that we shouldn’t poison and destroy the world we live in.

It’s rare to find those things together in a sentence, rarer still to find them together without a lot of “nots”, “aren’ts”, and “scoffed at” in between.

Seriously, this actually happened.

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The USDA is trying very very hard to completely gut the Organic Foods Standard…

You know organic has gone mainstream when Wal-Mart starts selling it. In fact, organic products are the fastest growing segment of the agricultural market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says organic sales jumped 22 percent last year. A growing number of people are willing to pay a premium price to eat what they consider to be superior products and to support farming techniques that are better for the land.

But what does “organic” really mean? According to USDA regulations, a product called “100 percent organic” must contain all organic ingredients. If the label just says “organic,” a processed food product can have up to 5 percent non-organic ingredients by weight — if those ingredients are on the USDA’s “national list” of approved non-organic ingredients.

Until last month, there were only five ingredients on the list: cornstarch, water-extracted gum, kelp, unbleached lecithin, and pectin. But the list just got longer and there’s quite a debate taking place as to whether this is good or bad for consumers.

What just happened?
On June 9th, the USDA added 38 non-organic ingredients to the national list: 19 food colorings, two starches, casings for sausages, hops, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin, celery powder, dill weed oil, frozen lemon grass, and a sweetener called fructooligosaccharides.

These 38 items, chosen from more than 600 requested by food manufacturers, can now be used as minor ingredients in 95 percent organic products if a company can prove to its certifier that an organic version is not available in the quality or quantity needed.

“There are a lot of organic farmers and a lot of organic producers who are very concerned about this,” says Phil Lempert, consumer reporter and the Supermarket Guru on NBC’s Today Show. “They worry that by adding these 38 ingredients it actually diminishes the importance and the credibility of a lot of the organic products that are out there.”

LOL

Aquafina bottled water is tap water. You’re paying $2 for a plastic bottle and a bunch of tap water. Ha. Ha. Ha.

NEW YORK (Reuters) — PepsiCo Inc. will spell out that its Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water, a concession to the growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry. According to Corporate Accountability International, a U.S. watchdog group, the world’s No. 2 beverage company will include the words “Public Water Source” on Aquafina labels.

“If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it’s a reasonable thing to do,” said Michelle Naughton, a Pepsi-Cola North America spokeswoman.

Pepsi Chief Executive Indra Nooyi told Reuters earlier this week the company was considering such a move.

Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola Co’s Dasani are both made from purified water sourced from public reservoirs, as opposed to Danone’s Evian or Nestle’s Poland Spring, so-called “spring waters,” shipped from specific locations the companies say have notably clean water.

Coca-Cola Co. told Reuters it will start posting online information about the quality control testing it performs on Dasani by the end of summer or early fall.

“Concerns about the bottled-water industry, and increasing corporate control of water, are growing across the country,” said Gigi Kellett, director of the “Think Outside the Bottle” campaign, which aims to encourage people to drink tap water.

San Francisco’s mayor banned city employees from using city funds to buy bottled water when tap water is available. Ann Arbor, Michigan passed a resolution banning commercially bottled water at city events and Salt Lake City, Utah asked department heads to eliminate bottled water.

Critics charge the bottled water industry adds plastic to landfills, uses too much energy by producing and shipping bottles across the world and undermines confidence in the safety and cleanliness of public water supplies, all while much of the world’s population is without access to clean water.

The Green movement needs Paris Hilton like I need a hole in the head. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Paris Hilton hater. I think she’s done remarkably well and is either a secretly shrewd person or has some really good handlers. She’s turned herself into a mega valuable brand and for as stupid and shallow as she seems (and may well be), you can’t knock her success in her field (being a [...]

BP (British Petroleum) is so great, they are expanding their solar plant in Maryland. What a green and responsible company!

But wait, what’s this? They want to dump more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan!?!

Oh yeah, that’s right- BP sucks.

WHITING, Ind., July 14 (UPI) — An enormous BP oil refinery in Indiana is planning to pour significantly more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan, it was reported.

The move by the British

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