The problem, until now, has been that recycling CFLs was inconvenient for post people. That’s about to change, thanks to Home Depot. The New York Times reported this week that Home Depot will offer CFL recycling at all of its nearly 2000 U.S. stores. That puts 75 percent of Americans within 10 miles of a CFL recycling location.

If you’re not part of that 75 percent, you still have options. Ikea stores provide CFL recycling bins, as well. Or visit Earth 911 or Lamp Recycle to look for a recycling location near you.

Need help choosing the right CFL? Visit our online guide, “How to Pick a Better Bulb“.

You’ve started a green team and seven weeks later, your once ecstatic committee of cubicle warriors by day, green champions by night (a.k.a your green employees) begin to dwindle in numbers. Even the most eager employees look like they would prefer to be idling in traffic than be here listening to your green pitch.

Preston Koerner wrote a valuable article in Green Biz on how to prevent “green fatigue” and separate it from the “green noise” amongst customers in response to a recent commentary on eco-overload in the New York Times.

As Williams points out, fatigue, confusion and contradiction amongst customers is vivid in today’s advertising landscape. Canada’s Competition Bureau has even announced a crackdown on environmental claims in advertising and labelling. But, how can a leader stop green fatigue from stymieing the ongoing efforts of its staff? Here are the five S’s to keep sustainability flourishing from the inside out:

1. Shake things up

How can use of the hot-button, resource intensive “tools” at the office - like paper, packaging, energy and vehicles - lend themselves to more creative solutions? Here’s a few ideas to get the juices flowing:

Carpool Day
If you have a large enough green team with staff that commute from the suburbs:
i. Have staff write down their name and their neighbourhood on a piece of paper.
ii. Match up names into boxes according to neighborhoods;
iii. Do a weekly draw to see who carpools with whom and;
iv. Voila! Instant conversation between the Accountant and the Maketer, not to mention C02-reduced commuting.

Green intrapreneurs
Google allows its engineers to spend 20% of their working time on projects that they are passionate about. This has allowed employees to produce Google Suggest, AdSense for Content and Orkut. While 20% may not be feasible for some companies, try for 5% to start. It boosts employee moral, provides a sense of ownership and may just help create a recycling system that helps the whole company make green while going green.

2. Show honesty
Just when you have a product that has both positive and negative environmental attributes and you’re working to improve the negative attributes, you want to be upfront to employees about that office kitchen composting initiative that went south.

Say it like it is, find out why an initiative failed to get off the ground or just plain stunk (no pun intended), have a laugh and move on.

3. Scintillating conversation
Bring in a green speaker. It doesn’t need to be someone from Speaker’s. Call up the unlikely green heros you read about in your community paper that morning. I’m sure they would be thrilled to come and talk about how they donated solar paneled, hand-cranked internet-enabled $100 laptops to children in developing countries.

4. Step down
Finally, sometimes an idea deserves to die, if only momentarily. Let it. Sometimes, it’s time to delegate the green champion to best successor in your committee. Let go, if only to see your green team revive itself with new energy.

As echoed by Arthur D. Little: regulation, rising energy costs and increased consumer pressure on businesses are driving corporations to chose sustainable buying - and indeed, many start from a humble “green team” - to lower costs and build more valuable business practices.

Print green. Save a tree. And, look good while you’re at it. Learn how many trees, C02 emissions and waste water you can saving using Green Printer’s Eco-Calculator - with sources from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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News byte: Why should we care about keeping our forests or more specifically, our rainforests anyway? What it costs says it well:

“Tropical rainforests help cool the planet by absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide and producing clouds that reflect sunlight and heat away from the earth. Experts say that between 25 and 30% of the world’s GHG emissions are the result of deforestation. The World Bank reports that 85% of Indonesia’s 3,014 million tons of CO2e emissions are caused by fires and deforestation, making it the third worst offender in the world for GHG emissions (behind China and the United States).”

Correction: Adsense for content was not produced by google engineers in their 20% free time. It was an acquisition of a Santa Monica-based firm. Orkut also arose from work outside the company.

Oregon: the land of volcanoes, beautiful coastline, forests…and trash? Unfortunately, that might be the case if Hawaii gets its way.

According to the Portland Tribune, Honolulu is quickly running out of space in their main landfill. In order to prevent overflow, the city has hatched a plan to send ships full of garbage up the Columbia River in Oregon, where trash will be put on trucks and trains headed to the Columbia Ridge Landfill.

It may seem strange that Hawaii wants to send its trash to a state known for being so environmentally conscious. Interestingly enough, that’s exactly why they want to do it.

Oregonians recycle over 50 percent of their waste, so the state has plenty of excess space. And Hawaii isn’t the only state taking advantage of this generosity. Oregon is the fifth largest importer of garbage in the country, and nearby Seattle sends over 2 million tons of trash a year to the Columbia Ridge Landfill.

Is this how we want to treat states that recycle? It is certainly true that other states have to put their trash somewhere, but it is a shame that we are rewarding Oregon for environmental awareness by giving them  excess trash.

Related Posts:

• Want to Curb Global Warming? Start Recycling and Composting
• San Francisco Fryer Oil Skirmish
• Portland’s Grease Wars: Battling for Biodiesel-Bound Cooking Oil
• How Peak Oil-Ready Is Your City?

In a joint effort, the country’s paper manufacturer, Middle East Paper Company (MEPCO) and Tetra Pak Arabia will, exchange expertise and experiences in the recycling field and MEPCO’s role will be to collect, sort and do the actual recycling work. Beverage carton recycling will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites.

The partnership will address the issue of recycling thousands of cartons that get discarded by households and other establishments across Saudi Arabia on a daily basis, the first of its kind in the Middle East region.

The collaborators hope that apart from making a mark on the environment, they will be opening the recycled products, largely post consumer food and beverage cartons, to a wider international market, and follows successful trials conducted to demonstrate the recycling ability of Tetra Pak cartons by MEPCO.

“We strive to be an eco-friendly company committed to the principles of conservation and sustainability. We look forward to recycling the cartons and raising consumer awareness about environmental issues,” said MEPCO chief executive, Abdullah Al-Moammar.

“Although it’s a great challenge and costs too much to separate the plastic from the paper during the recycling process, we (are in it) to help the protect the environment. We didn’t look at it as beneficial agreement.”

Jeddah based MEPCO is Saudi Arabia’s and Middle East’s largest paper and board manufacturer using recycled raw materials. MEPCO is also a leading supplier of liners and fluting, offering the full range, both in virgin and recycled fibre. The company is a major supplier to the corrugated industry for high-end packaging purposes. MEPCO produces nearly 110,000 tons of paper every year and, also collects and recycles more than 150,000 tons of waste paper.

But this arrangement may prove to be a social challenge for the paper manufacturer in a country that lacks social awareness of the importance of the recycling process and they will need people to be educated on how to isolate the different types of wastes before throwing them into trash cans.

Tetra Pak Arabia has recently upped its game in recycling and environmental sustainability. Just in March this year, the company appointed Mohammed Angawi as its environment manager with responsibilities that include driving Tetra Pak Arabia’s post-consumer beverage carton recycling initiative across Saudi Arabia and the Gulf in partnership with local paper mills, waste management companies, municipalities, NGOs and government authorities.

The core product of Tetra Pak’s packaging is wood fibre that comes from sustainable managed forests, a renewable resource. The Jeddah factory of Tetra Pak Arabia is ISO 14001 certified and the entire factory waste is recycled regularly. Globally, the company recycles 21 billion cartons annually.

With these combined conservationist attributes from the two collaborators, they are hoping to create an oasis for environmental sustainability and set the pace for a greener Middle East.

Image Credit: André Gustavo at Flickr under Creative Commons license

The Suter Energy Savers, a team of fourth-graders at Suter Elementary School, won at the elementary level for their work on 28 conservation projects in all. Their efforts included collecting $200 worth of recyclables, distributing flyers at area coffee shops urging customers to switch to compact fluorescent lightbulbs and making s’mores in a solar oven.

It was the first time the fourth-grade program won a national title, though it’s taken statewide honors three times already. The elementary program is led by teachers Deborah Pate and Judy Toy.

Also on their way to the Washington awards ceremony are eighth-graders representing The EnerJags from Workman Middle School. The junior level-winning team did everything from collecting recyclables and selling ad space on reusable shopping bags — enough to pay for the D.C. trip — to creating green t-shirts and observing regular “Blackout Wednesdays.”

Eighth-grade teacher Andrea Hussey said the weekly sunlight-only class day probably saved the school district about $200 in energy costs.

To find out more about Pensacola’s top green kids, check out this article in the Pensacola News Journal.

• All landlords to provide adequate recycling and composting for their tenants;

• Businesses that sell items (e.g., takeout food) to allow the public to deposit small amounts of recyclables, compostables and trash in their receptacles;

• Event organizers to site and manage sufficient groups of recycling, composting and trash receptacles;

• If incorrect materials are found in a receptacle (e.g., recyclables in the trash, trash in compostables), the collector shall leave a tag identifying the problem. If incorrect materials continue to be found, the collector can leave a tag and not empty the receptacle;

• Materials accepted in recycling and composting programs to be banned from the landfill transfer station.

Seattle, Philadelphia, and San Diego already have mandatory recycling laws, but SF would the first city to include mandatory composting. The city vows to achieve zero waste by 2020.

Via: Plenty

Now, paper is back under the public eye in fuller force than ever because of its significant climate change footprint.
“Paper is a tremendously resource-intensive product to produce,” explains project manager Victoria Mills, “and the decomposition of paper in landfills generates methane, a greenhouse gas with 23 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide.”

When EDF first consulted with their ambitious list of household brand companies like Starbucks, Citgroup, UPS and many others, they were pushing many “environmental firsts” (Starbucks was one of the first to use recycled content in direct food contact applications).

So, what was it that worked and where are these companies now, years after EDF intervened? And, most importantly, how have the original suggestions put forth by the EDF, public pressure and shifting supply chains challenged these brands to green their paper use even more?

Starbucks
Starbucks, after almost a decade since EDF joined hands to improve the retailer’s paper use, switched to 10% post-consumer recycled content paper cups, instituted a 10% per cup discount to encourage “for here (ceramic) versus to go” cups and adopted a corrugated cup sleeve to cut out double-cupping.

What Worked: Throw down a challenge
One of the more innovative things EDF did at that time included challenging Starbucks’ suppliers to find better materials and designs for its disposable cups. The team evaluated several designs, which included adding an insulated outer layer made from unbleached recycled fiber.

Where are they now?
According to their Februrary 2008 company fact sheet, Starbucks recycled their first-ever paper cup made with 10 percent post-consumer recycled fiber in 79 percent of all U.S. and Canada stores where they controled waste and recycling.

Citigroup
Citigroup, the world’s largest financial services firm, had their eye on two kinds of green when they partnered with EDF: a. to cut the environmental impacts of copy paper used nation-wide and; b. in doing so, cut costs. Through sheer determination, the reliable banking system, the size and number of offices across the U.S., Cititgroup managed to switch its U.S. offices to 30% recycled copy paper at no extra cost, producing annual environmental savings of 43.8 billion BTU’s of energy, 2,800 tons of greenhouse gases and 26.3 million gallons of wastewater.

What worked: “Visual education” for employees
However, what made Citigroup stand out was its employee education programs, including posted signs at its copying and printing locations to encourage double-sided copying and printing by its employees. During a 5-week, 2-sided printing test, Citigroup saved an estimated $98,000, 11 tons of solid waste and 28 tons of greenhouse gases.

Where are they now?
In 2005, Citigroup purchased more than 6,596 tons of copy paper. By purchasing recycled paper instead of virgin fiber paper, the financial services company:

Saved the equivalent to the amount of residential energy used by 363 homes per year and cut out over 4 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions – equivalent to the amount released annually by 379 cars.

To date, Citigroup’s environmental savings continue to grow.

UPS
While most of the companies in the express delivery industry had made significant efforts to manage risk in the 1990s, UPS paid very little attention to advancing superior environmental performance to gain a competitive edge.

But in 1998, that changed - largely as a result of EDF’s intervention.

The packaging action plan announced in November 1998 cut across the spectrum of UPS’s express packaging. Together, the new packaging improvements along with the reusable envelope, reduced air pollution by almost 50 percent, cut wastewater discharge by more than 15 percent and used 12 percent less energy than previous UPS packaging. In addition, the initiatives saved the company more than $1 million annually.

What worked: Stimulating competitors to action
Once UPS jumped on board, overnight shipping companies spurred to make some notable improvements to their packaging.

In October of 1999, FedEx announced that it switched all of its bleached virgin paper envelopes to 100% recycled, minimum 35% post-consumer content paper. This change, which affected hundreds of millions of envelopes a year, saved almost 12,000 tons of trees annually.

Where are they now?
From UPS‘ latest Sustainability Report, UPS purchased 35,800 tons of materials with recycled content. These purchases have the equivalent energy savings of removing 6,618 passenger cars from the road for a year.

In 2005, UPS recycled 30,700 tons of solid waste materials including metals, plastics, paper, corru-
gated materials, pallets and wood waste, causing a ripple effect amongst their suppliers.

Through its Corporate Office Recycling Program, 54 percent of waste produced by UPS’ corporate office was recycled, including paper, cardboard, lamps and ballasts. In 2005, UPS recycled wastes at a rate of 115 pounds per person at these locations.

To date, UPS has also greened its ground and air fleets, resulting in significant fuel emissions reductions.

The Verdict?

According to BP’s “Environment and society: The results so far” paper, if all Fortune 500 companies used recycled paper, an estimated 6,311,610 tons of CO2 could be prevent. Enough said.

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Weekly Tip: Recently launched online dating site DateForTrees.com partners with American Forests, as it continues to pursue its goal of donating at least 12,000 trees annually.
Green Printer’s eco-calculator, with sources from the Environmental Defense Fund, helps customers like Best-Western, ReMax, Lush and Aveda go - and stay - green. Green Printer carries attractive, eco-friendly and high quality recycled paper types at competitive prices.

From their website: “FiberStone is made from 80% Calcium Carbonate (CaCOз) with a small quantity (20%) of non-toxic resin (HDPE- High Density Polypropylene). The Calcium Carbonate comes from limestone collected as waste material from existing quarries for the building and construction industry.”

The bottom line is that no trees are cut down, no water is consumed, no bleaching chemicals are used, and no air pollution is created. Along with being waterproof and recyclable, it is also tear resistant. They offer a wide range of products such as marketing and packaging materials as well. Does this sound like a dream come true for some of you struggling to find ways to reduce the environmental impact of your creations and microbrands?

I asked a representative from the company a few questions with the indie craft community in mind…

Do you need any special equipment or inks to print on this paper?
It can be printed offset/lithographically, gravure, screen printed, inkjet, or on a solid ink printer such as a Xerox Phaser.

Will you be offering your products online to individuals?
There is so much interest from corporations and smaller companies that we cannot offer it to individuals with small runs at this time.

Any different colors or textures available besides white?
It is only available in white. We can emboss textures into it. It has a brightness of 92.

Any possibility you will partner up with an art/photo printing site to be included as an option?
Sounds interesting. I’d love to explore this further.

Do you offer bookbinding or have plans to make that available?
On larger runs, yes.

This is not the first time I have ran across an amazing eco-friendly material that would be widely embraced by our community, yet is practically unattainable. Many companies like this focus on consultation and sales to other established businesses rather than to the general public or cottage industries.

I wonder though, could groups of crafters mobilize and create co-ops to purchase specialized materials? Might these companies be responsive to ideas about how they can cater to artists and crafters while tapping into a lucrative and under-served supply niche?

I think this product would be of obvious interest to those who scrapbook or create art (that goes for a lot of us). Also, thousands of indie entrepreneurs rely on promotional and labeling materials to market themselves, and compete with the pizazz of commercial packaging.

Most national craft supply chains seem out of touch…only appealing to the indie crowd minimally, as if they are waiting out a trend. Hopefully they will come around, but it likely won’t be a significant effort anytime soon. Bypassing these stores to acquire green options in existence is becoming increasingly necessary. Upcycling demonstrates our inventiveness, but does not present a long-term solution.

The modern craft resurgence has been a catalyst for thousands of microbrands. In this realm, personal responsibility meets product fabrication, and independent art gives mass media a run for it’s money. It makes sense for our community to be proponents of environmental innovation in our materials and substrates. As of yet, we do little more than ride the coattails of established retail trends when it comes to technology, though much of our merchandise thrives on resourcefulness and personal attention that big business cannot replicate. Ironically, some of them continue to capitalize on aesthetic styles we have initiated.

Perhaps our individualism has put us at a disadvantage when it comes to commercial supplies. The spectrum of our collective practices is vast and varied. Some artisans conceptualize a finished piece with clarity before acquiring their materials. Others enjoy the challenge of refurbishing existing objects, and excel at collecting more of the same treasures. I have met thrift store enthusiasts that dismiss the need for modern commercial supplies altogether, and designers whose vitality rests on the consistency and availability of mass manufacturing. It’s been futile trying to define our genre, much less self-organize in the traditional sense. Yet, we continue propping up a huge community that nurtures creativity. It wouldn’t hurt to examine what possibilities we are missing out on because we don’t collectively pursue them.

My recent survey reflected that, overwhelmingly, we want our creations to encompass a cycle of sustainability. We all know that green practices in homes and business are helpful for the environment, but they don’t inspire people. Art propels world views, and for most of history, permanence has been a major factor in it’s value. Increasingly, this is at the expense of the planet. Michelangelo erected a few bronze sculptures, but he never had a practically limitless supply of plastic canvases and acrylic yarn to cross stitch with.

Getting back to this fabulous paper product…how thought provoking would it be to offer giclee prints of your latest doodles on waterproof paper with the clear statement of it’s intended lifecycle?

“This work of art has thus far created minimal environmental impact. At the wish of the artist, please submit it to the designated recycling program when interest in it has ceased.”

I admit, this is completely upside-down approach! Having worked at an art supply store, and as an artist, I can’t stress how important the term “archival” has become. It’s understandable that one would want to create their original art with potential to last indefinitely. The problem is that the moment it leaves your possession, you are no longer in control of it’s longevity. The idea that your creation might be revered as a family heirloom to be passed down for generations, find a permanent home in a museum, or become priceless long after you’re gone is a smidge unrealistic. We need access to materials that are durable and light-fast, yet have not wreaked havoc on living things, and better yet, will continue to be harmless if discarded of properly. Such is the case with FiberStone paper.

Now, where is my organic cotton duck canvas primed with natural gesso and mounted on stretcher bars made from recycled plastic bottles?

Maybe our cultural legacy lies in finding creative ways to eliminate the environmental footprint of creativity itself. I don’t think that means we should tip-toe around technology. After all, the vibrancy of the current handmade movement is largely due to the internet.

What about the waste management of these “prosthesis” of our hands??

As a multinational communications company, Vodafone can play an important role in helping to tackle climate change. Vodafone Group has announced that it will cut its CO2 emission by 50% by the year 2020 increasing energy efficiency and the amount of renewable energy the company uses.

“Your phone still has a lot of energy” is the slogan of a project Vodafone has recently launched in Italy to collect the great challenge for the environment and the future: regenerate old phones and produce clean energy. “My Future is now” is the name of this campaign directed to the regeneration of phones no longer used that contribute to the achievement of photovoltaic systems in schools in Italy. More than 800 Vodafone shops are involved and a bus is going across the country for a recycling tour collecting old mobiles.

Great news! I’ll pass by a Vodafone shop as soon as possible, it’s exciting to know my old cell phone is still alive and can contribute to the environment. But I continue to believe the purpose shouldn’t be to plug up the holes in the bucket…

My question is: why don’t we overpower our marketing addiction and try to reduce mobile production?

Sources:

Eurostat

Vodafone My Future is Now

Image courtesy of Gaetan Lee at Flickr under Creative Commons

A www.greenprinteronline.com dispatch

For all those days when you believe your green values aren’t aligned with your workplace but you can’t - or don’t want to - make the eco-entrepreneur step, here are some immediate action steps to try out at the office this Monday.

Remember: while many green teams start from humble beginnings, they can grow exponentially - pent up passion for green amongst employees can be powerful driving force.

For instance, one eco-savvy video games President started with an email blast to employees and 30 people (out of 90 staff) showed up for the first meeting.

Some useful tips to kickstart - and motivate - your office sustainability team:

1. Just get started no matter what! Find one passionate person to start the group and use money from savings to get the group going and moving forward.

2. Don’t turn people off by being a preacher. Instead support people for what they are doing. Find common ground. Keep it light, fun and inspiring

3. Once you start more ideas will follow. It’s always about learning.

4. Focus on the low hanging fruit first. Look at energy consumption and purchasing. For instance, it’s easy to switch over to a green office supplies company. Get your hands on easy to understand paper purchasing guides (”what does “tree free” paper look like anyway? Can I trust the FSC certification?”) from pros such as Monadnock. If it’s not easy, then it’s not fun and it’s not sustainable. Start with the easy stuff.

5. Concentrate on employee engagement activities that will promote behaviour change – things people can easily do at work at home or commuting like:

• cheeky reminders to turn out the lights as well as turn computer and/or monitors off when not in use;
• consider eco-friendly waterless printing;
• have numbers or contact people to who employees can report leaking taps and toilets immediately;
• reduce disposable food choices from coffee cups to take out green purchasing;
• recycled paper products;
• emphasize the four key areas to promote behaviour change including energy efficiency, transportation options, water reduction, recycling;
• show stats and tangible, monetary energy savings like Seventh Generation did in their cold-water promotion;
• post cool links like this one by Greenupgrader or PlantABillion.org Billion Tree Campaign from Nature Conservancy in an internal Green Team forum or list-serve to remind people what this effort is all for when motivation wanes;
• consider new kinds of cool products on the market, like this award winning paper by Neenha, which uses green energy and manufactures many brands carrying the Green-E, Green Seal and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification;
• show how good of a job you are doing to your employees visually - companies like Visible Strategies can help and;
• why not have your business donate money to bring green textbooks to local elementary and high schools? It’s a unique way to show your commitment to going green in your community and to motivate employees.

6. Last, but not least, reward good behavior with prizes, special events or speaker series and games.

Above all, keep your expectations in check. Green teams should prepare for the ebb and flow of interest. So, keep up the friendly competition and bring outside people or groups of interest in to help keep up the motivation.

Save trees, time and money the eco-friendly way with our recycled paper, sustainable printing methods and eco-calculator with Green Printer - more details at www.greenprinteronline.com. Now, wasn’t that easy?

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)

You probably won’t believe it when I say it, but it was all pretty easy to set up and implement. Because the people at Recycline are careful and thoughtful about their approach to business in the same way they are about their approach to the environment, they didn’t “stick it to us” when the money started coming in. In fact we have strengthened the connection. For our part, we have been as passionate and unpredictable as any creative team—but we delivered on time and collaborated on building the vision together rather than imposing our will. I know I’m going to sound like a bad tv commercial testimonial, but all it took was picking up that phone.

In the end, all of us, as consumers, benefit from being able to have a choice to choose green products—from a recyclable toothbrush to an entire line of home goods—it’s all coming someday soon to a store near you.

RELATED POSTS ON GREEN PRODUCT DESIGN:

Ecopreneur vs. Entrepreneur

Life Goggles: Radius Toothbrush Eco Product Review

Image source: it all skyrocketed with Gutenberg’s printing press…

A Green Printer dispatch.

Ever wondered how much energy and thought it took to produce that shiny brochure your marketing staff handed to you this week? And no, it’s not just the brand and visual design genius we’re talking about.

Let’s face it: making a few pieces of paper look pretty takes up some pretty hefty resources and the paper and pulp industry is there to meet our paper hungry needs (so much for the paperless office).

In fact, the OECD Environmental Outlooks calls the pulp and paper industry the single largest consumer of water and the third greatest industrial greenhouse gas emitter, right after the chemical and steel industries and the oil and gas industry.

And, that rank, as echoed by Co-op America is not set to go down anytime soon.

The Environmental Defense Fund further attests that paper use is on the rise with paper and packaging still making up one third of municipal landfill waste. And, producing all those nice brochures (or manuals or contracts or….) takes up a lot of energy. In fact,

• Producing paper uses 11.5 percent of all energy in the industrial sector.
• One third of all wood harvested in the U.S. goes into paper products.

Thus, on the bright side, paper use presents the potential for enormous environmental savings. Citigroup took up the challenge of using post-consumer waste paper and saved 43.8 billion BTU’s of energy, enough to supply 430 homes for a year.

But then, what about those cool, “a must” coloured graphs and charts on the company brochure?

More than likely, it was made using inks containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). That’s short for those nasty major pollutants linked to the deterioration of the earth’s protective ozone layer and, consequently (some researchers suggest), to accelerating climate change.

So what are we to do?
Let’s begin with the water used to print those brochures. Waterless printers have been able to dramatically reduce water consumption. For example, a printer in Switzerland, operating one of the world’s first waterless web presses, eliminated the use of approximately 250,000 liters (about 66,000 gallons) of water in one year. That water would normally have come from a nearby lake, which is a source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people.

The invention of water-washable inks has allowed the waterless pressroom to be virtually VOC-free. Water-washable ink technology takes out the need for solvent-based press and blanket wash solutions, which typically account for a large portion of a printer’s VOC output.

So, have your cake and eat it too. We all love handing a cool looking brochure to a client. It just doesn’t need to cost the Earth.

More resources

• No piece of paper is completely environmentally invisible, even the recycled kind, so choose check out these guidelines for environmentally preferable paper by the Environmental Paper Network.
• Handy printable signs to encourage better office paper use by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
• Ever wondered where to even start to buy greener paper? The first step starts with asking the right questions and this Paper Supplier Evaluation PDF by the EDF is about as thorough as it gets.
• Recycled paper purchasing article from GreenBiz.com.

Get these brands and more, all while tracking how much CO2, trees and wastewater you’ll save with the Eco-Widget, at Green Printer.

That’s the message from “Stop Trashing the Climate,” a report prepared by The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and Eco-Cycle, a non-profit recycler. The study finds that waste prevention and increased recycling and composting could reduce as many greenhouse gas emissions as are produced by 21 percent of the U.S.’s 417 coal-fired power plants.

Why? There are two basic reasons. One, by trashing stuff instead of reusing or repairing it, we create the demand for new resources … and extracting, manufacturing and transporting those resources generates carbon dioxide. And, two, by tossing biodegradable materials into landfills instead of composting them, we’re creating emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is shorter-lived but 72 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

“Recycling is as important for climate stability as improving vehicle fuel efficiency, retrofitting lighting, planting trees and protecting forests,” said Brenda Platt, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and lead author of the “Stop Trashing the Climate” report.  “By avoiding landfill methane emissions, composting in particular is a vital tactic in the battle to stop Arctic ice melting. Biodegradable materials are a liability when buried and burned but an asset when composted.”

The report asserts that “A zero waste approach based on preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling and composting is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies to protect the climate.” It also notes that, per megawatt-hour, a trash incinerator produces more carbon dioxide emissions that a coal-fired power plant. Incinerators also waste three to five times as much energy as recycling helps to conserve.

“A zero waste approach is not only good news for climate stability, it’s also good news for America’s businesses and economy,” said Eric Lombardi, a report co-author and director of the Boulder, Colorado-based Eco-Cycle.

“Stop Trashing the Climate” urges a local and national 20-year goal of zero waste. We can get there, the authors argue, by not subsidizing landfills and incinerators, putting an end to waste incineration, composting biodegradable materials and expanding the nationwide infrastructure for reuse, recycling and composting.

As part of World Environment Day, community supporters of better recycling and composting lobbied officials in several parts of the country, including Tallahassee; Providence, Rhode Island; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Los Angeles; and Massachusetts.

Created by Nadine Storyk Curtis, Be Sweet is one such company that has all those lines covered. While living in South Africa, Curtis became enamored with the local craftspeople and wanted to share in their creativity and resourcefulness.

Working with a rural South African community, Be Sweet offers over 15 different yarns that are hand spun and dyed by women who work within a job creation program. All of Be Sweet’s yarns are made from natural fibers and most are created from using leftover yarn tid-bits and environmentally friendly fibers like bamboo.

But these are not your ordinary run of the mill natural fiber, recycled skeins that make up the environmental line; Be Sweet’s yarns are fun and inviting. Mystery Ball is made from recycled mohair fluff and is spun with small curls in the yarn. Knobby Ball is also spun with recycled mohair fluff and is characterized by its fobs. They also do lovely thin baby mohair skeins as well as a thick merino. The yarn is all hand dyed and their names range from Bollywood, Strawberry Shortcake to Sunshine. Magic Ball sounds the most fun, as it is made from bits and pieces of all of their yarns combined.

To get at the social line, Be Sweet employees women from South Africa to spin, dye and knit their yarns. The women involved with the employment program are able to help support their families and invest in their future. Be Sweet’s involvement in the knitting project has increased the number of trained and employed women and funded improvements to the working environment. Be Sweet also gives back to the community by donating a portion of their profits to South African schools.

To help them with that pesky financial line, you can find their yarn retailers here.

Image credit: Be Sweet

Crowds of people were walking and riding their bikes to the biggest green celebration to hit my city every year, and I just could not get enough of the samples of vegan food, the representatives from green non-profits explaining what they do, and the friendly green business owners promoting their products.

Yet the Green Festival has its detractors. Some people say it is not green enough, others say that just the idea of a green trade show is hypocritical. After all, how can an event that burns fuel to promote the environment really be good for the Earth? Here are the five things about the Green Festival that I think are truly, remarkably green (and one issue that still needs a lot of work).

1. All the food served at the festival is biodegradable/compostable.

Try the organic, fair-trade coffee, the mate tea, and some mango bean salsa from Whole Foods without feeling guilty. Each sample comes in a plant-based cup or tiny dish. Eat and drink, and when you have finished tasting everything once or four times (like I did!) put the biodegradable container into one of the compost bins available throughout the festival hall. It will end up in someone’s garden or city park again some day.

2. The festival is sustainable and carbon neutral

In addition to composting biodegradable food containers, the Green Festival organizers work very hard to make the event sustainable and carbon neutral. According to Katie Hunsberger of OrganicWorks Marketing

“Green Festival works to encourage sustainability and sustainable practices throughout all facets of the event- from production to education and programming to offering opportunities for “greener” practices to attendees. Green Festival is not just an event that offers green ideas or more eco-friendly options, the event’s production strives to be sustainable, and to encourage everyone coming to practice sustainability in their attendance and takeaway.

This entails the following on the production side:

-hundreds of thousands of pounds of waste have been diverted from our landfills: plastics, aluminum, glass, mixed paper and cardboard, electronic waste, compost and grey water

-many valuable resources have been recovered

-attendees have been educated about eco-product alternatives, composting and landfill diversion

-almost 130,000 pounds of materials from the 2007 Chicago, DC and San Francisco events were diverted (we are putting together Chicago 2008 numbers currently and will have them soon)

Last year, the Chicago Green Festival had amazing results:

Total waste collected: 48,745 lbs

Went to landfill: 1,000 lbs

Reusable content: 47,745 lbs reusable, recyclable and compostable materials

Other initiatives to reduce the festival’s carbon footprint, educate, and reduce waste include:

- Discounted admission for bicyclists (including free bike valet) and mass transit riders

- Ewaste bins at event entrance for attendees to bring old batteries, compact discs, cellphones and other handheld electronics to be recycled

- Carbon offsets for traveling festival staff members.”

3. The booths are simple, not wasteful

As a doctor, I have attended many medical conferences. Big pharma has a big presence at medical conferences, and not surprisingly, corporate America spares no financial or environmental expense to create huge displays made from non-sustainable materials that are most likely tossed out, never recycled. The businesses and non-profits represented at the Green Festival had refreshingly simple booths. Business owners, food and beverage suppliers and non-profits displayed their wares on tables without huge signs, loads of paper and cardboard, and entirely lacked the free pens, pads and plastic wa