Green Options

Filmmaker Ken Burns’ most recent PBS documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, is a stunning and utterly engrossing tribute not only to our country’s many awe-inspiring natural landscapes, but also to our nation’s fundamental democratic principles. Burns interviews scores of ordinary people, from park rangers and activists to journalists and historians, as they trace the origins of our greatest collectively-owned resources, and share their unique personal experiences in the vast beauty of our national parks.

“When we look at the parks and we look at the United States and we examine the whole idea of democracy, I think that the park experience is an exploration of the idea of freedom.”

-Shelton Johnson, Park Ranger

Croatia and Hungary signed an agreement yesterday to protect a major biodiversity area that crosses borders along three rivers. The agreement is being called a “Trans-Boundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve” and has resulted in the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) awarding the two countries with a “Leaders for a Living Planet” award.

The reserve will preserve several endangered species, among other environmental jewels. There is also the possibility of the reserve expanding several times over into neighboring countries in the future.

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg occasionally writes posts on new, innovative green products (see Five Greenish Products You’ve Seen on TV and Five More Greenish Products You’ve Seen on TV). Rather than try to steal his thunder, this post looks at some basic, simple, green products that can make your everyday life many times greener.

Staying away from the topics of food and transportation, which are probably the biggest daily products you could green, here is a list of products you use everyday.

If you are one of the millions of people around the globe celebrating Christmas this holiday season, you may be wondering what Santa is going to be filling stockings with.

Some people look for small gifts to put in stockings, while small in size they often aren’t small in price (jewelry, video games, gift cards). Others find stockings stuffed full of candy on Christmas morning.

The best gifts to fill a stocking with are small, fun and purposeful. To that end, we like to find:

This morning I brushed my teeth with a recycled toothbrush. As I looked in the mirror, toothpaste frothing, the thought that it had all started with this simple piece of plastic was enough to make me stop for a second. And then I kept brushing.

Over a year ago, one of our designers in our firm brought in a Preserve toothbrush made by Recycline, along with a Stonyfield Farm yogurt cup that mentioned Recycline recycling all their plastic yogurt containers. The toothbrush was their first product—the foundation of all the Preserve products—it received placement in specialty stores, then eventually mass merchants and even a cameo role in a movie (Will Farrell brushes his teeth with it repeatedly in “Stranger than Fiction”).

We had been reviewing the products that we had made in the past and wanted to work with a company that reflected our own mission for sustainability. After all, we didn’t endure the looks from the natives when we turned a sewage treatment plant into our company headquarters for nothing (ah, but that’s another blog entry).

So, as the head of design, I did something and … I called them. I talked to someone on the other line, made a proposal to expand their product line and hung up.

Over the course of many phone calls and meetings, Recycline took us up on our offer to supply them with product design and refinement in exchange for a royalty on whatever went to market. A lot of firms our size have worked on royalties for years but this was our first try. And I’m happy to report that after less than a year, several of the products we developed with Recycline are available at Whole Foods including food storage containers, cutting boards and colanders. (For the whole story, check out Metropolis: Cooking with Leftovers)