Green Options

Good ideas have a life of their own. That’s what Paul Baricos, Executive Director of the Hollygrove Growers Market and Farm (HGMF) in New Orleans is learning two years after the Carrolton-Hollygrove Community Development Center (CHCDC) set out to figure out how to bring fresh produce to a neighborhood with no real access to affordable food.

New housing programs target specific populations or neighborhoods that have been dislocated by the sequence of events initiated by Hurricane Katrina and which are critical to getting the New Orleans economy thriving again.

Editor’s note:  Please read the comments below. This company has come under scrutiny by consumers.

I’ve been noticing more and more people from all walks of life using metal water bottles. At about half the price of other stainless steel water bottles, non-profit Eco Canteen’s mission is to get as many people as possible off of bottled water, since 80% of plastic water bottled are not recycled.  Of the plastic water bottles that do make it to the recycling center, 40% of them end up in China or Indonesia.

Here are some staggering statistics about the detrimental environmental effects of plastic water bottles:

• 2.5 million disposable water bottles are thrown away in the US every hour.
• In 2007, $16 billion was spent on bottled water.
• 20 oz. of bottled water costs almost as much as a gallon of gas.
• Discarded plastic water bottles take 700 to 1,000 years to break down.
• A 20 oz. bottle of water takes 5 oz. of oil to produce and ship.
• Dioxin, one of the deadliest air pollutants, is created when unrecyclable PVC is separated from PET/PETE #1 plastic water bottles and then incinerated.

What do CarrotMobs and sugar cubes have in common? Other than finding their way into your Easter basket, they are the campaigns created by Virgance to create change through consumer organizing.

A Green Printer ‘Design Goes Green’ dispatch.

A contributing post by Deb Ozarko, Director of Creative Services for Clearly Green Design, an Ottawa, Canada based visual communications firm.

There is no escaping the dark news about today’s current economic situation. Regardless, there are ways for us to all survive - and thrive - simply by asking ourselves one question: Want or Need?

In a planet faced with the tragic fallout from the over consumptive patterns of typical North American society, an economic crisis may just what we need to show us the true cost of our spending habits.  It would not hurt us a bit to do less spending on frivolous - and often environmentally damaging items, and pay more attention to consumer or donor messaging so we can begin to develop an overall higher eco-consciousness.

The National Audubon Society, like so many other businesses and organizations in the United States, is struggling with the current economic recession. So much so, that they have made a significant push for contributions from their own employees.

U.S. schools spend more on utilities than books and computers combined.

Public schools spent $8 billion on utilities in 2002, up by $2 billion from 2000, and the fluctuating utility and oil prices can be daunting when planning for the future.  Although natural gas and oil prices have come down significantly from their high last July, it is important to remember their recent impact.

In a recent post, I interview Jack Norris,  co-founder of Vegan Outreach, about the environmental impacts of our diets, and how he markets his organization.  There is a great deal of similarity between some non-profits and for-profits, and aspiring social entrepreneurs have a choice to make in this regard.  There are both benefits and drawbacks to either option. 

In the case of a for-profit business, especially in the green community, the obvious drawback is that customers won’t donate to your cause.  They may preferentially choose your products over traditional competitors, but they may also come in the door with higher standards for products and services.  But certainly no one is going to make a movie about how much worse animal agriculture is for global warming than many other factors that people are myopically focused on and use it to raise money for your organization, for instance. 

In writing my book, Build a Green Small Business (McGraw-Hill), I interviewed hundreds of social entrepreneurs about their businesses, and found some interesting answers to questions about events they didn’t anticipate regarding their business.  Does the classification of their business as a for-profit business help or hinder when it comes to unexpected events? 

Is there anything the iPhone can’t do?

Shazam figures out what song you’re listening to. A pocket flashlight (not to mention a light saber) is only two taps away. And Yelp can get the phone number, directions and even a review of the place you’re trying to find and meet your friends at in a quarter of the time directory assistance, Safari, Google or any mapping software can do it.

We live and breathe design 12 hours a day, and are involved with many top designers…The future of green branding is going back to the earth. Nature and the photo-realistic incorporation of real elements are coming in the next year or so to the mainstream.

Very rarely do brands get it right when inserting themselves into historic moments in time. Brand-building generally only works around events where advertising is expected and even then it is, at best, tolerated as part of the environment.