Green Options

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.

After nearly destroying a forest and obliterating a species, one corporation does a 180 and becomes an EcoHero.

The story begins in the 1830’s, when the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company (SCCRC) bought a 100,000 acre plot of longleaf pine forest near Dorchester, South Carolina. Timber from the forest was an essential element in SCCRC’s expansion, development and continued operation. Not only did timber provide material for cross-ties, trestles and bridges, but most of the then steam powered locomotives burned wood to heat their boilers. This meant a nonstop and insatiable demand for timber which the forest was unable to support.

Following the destruction and carnage of the civil war, more timber was needed to repair the railroads of the South. Reconstruction was successful; too successful in fact, and SCCRC developed new lines, became overextended and ran into financial trouble. In 1893, the railroad was reorganized as Southern Railway. Most of the mature timber was gone by this time, and nearly all but 14,000 acres of the original 100,000 acre forest had been parceled out and sold off. Red-cockaded woodpeckers, who depend on longleaf pine forests for their survival, were also close to extinction.

Southern Railway’s 180

In 1920, the railway began replanting longleaf and loblolly pines for pulpwood production. Soon afterward, it began to construct a demonstration area for local landowners who were interested in reforesting their land. Southern Railway also opened up its land to forestry students from Universities all across the South.

I think it’s the stubborn in me, but at this time of year, instead of getting a jump on the Christmas season and having, oh, I don’t know, a RELAXED holiday for a change, I feel the urge to really dig down into the autumn leaves and embrace the glories of this season. I live in the north, and so the trees are a treasure to behold, the temperature is blissfully breezy and crisp, and I look dang cute in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. So celebrate with me the apple harvest and my casual cuteness with these thematically-appropriate projects taken from some of my favorite Web sites:

All companies like to say they are “green,” but Xerox is putting numbers behind it. Its “2008 Report on Global Citizenship” provides a year-over-year look at its progress toward its goals toward corporate social responsibility.

Among the highlights:

• Two additional facilities named members of U.S. EPA National Environmental Performance Track (validating environmental performance beyond regulatory compliance). This brings the total to five.
• Named a National Performance Track Corporate Leader in 2008.
• Recycling

[...]

Presstek, the inventor of chemistry-free platemaking, is offering a free white paper entitled, “Growing Your Business by Going Green.” The paper speaks to both the environmental and economic benefits that can be realized by in-house print shops or third-party print providers who adopt the practice of “green” printing. This is also relevant to marketers who are looking for information to help them select a print provider that will help them meet their green marketing goals.

Despite the broad range of topics covered, the white paper is largely designed to discuss the economic and environmental benefits of Presstek DI digital offset presses. Most of my posts involve the business and marketing models relate to toner-based (digital) printing, but I’ve discussed the green benefits of the DI process in my posts before. This white paper goes into far more detail than I can cover here.

Like toner-based printing, DI printing eliminates many of the chemicals used in the print production process, although it is an offset process—it looks like traditional offset printing. But compared to a traditional offset press (comparisons are made to both 500-run and long-run quantities), it eliminates waste from

• press developer,
• press replenisher,
• press finisher/gum,
• fountain solution
• fountain substitute
• waste water

Carbon Sciences, Inc. has developed an innovative technology to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) - which is implicated in the issue of global warming - into a number of commercially useful, earth-friendly carbon products. The company calls this technology advance: GreenCarbon Technology. The aim is to extract value from carbon emissions by transforming the gas into a product that holds commercial value.

If you do not want to waste precious moments searching the internet for the top stories in business and finance, or if you have found an ideal economics news story that you would highly recommend to other readers, then Tip’d might quickly become your business social destination everyday.

An innovative campaign from HelpSweden.org aims to turn our notions of wealth and poverty on their heads.

HelpSweden.org has drafted a petition to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. It urges greater action on the Millennium Development Goals when Sweden holds the European Union presidency in the second half of 2009. The message also holds a reminder of the first world’s forgotten debt to the rest of the world for resources and labor.

Think Africa’s poor?

Not in terms of natural resources. Most diamonds and gold in the world come from Africa. With all the conflict that’s erupted over mining the abundant precious materials in the Congo, there’s a saying, “We’d be so much better off if we weren’t so rich.”

Much of the African continent is also blessed a climate far more lush than, say, Sweden. Yet with a fraction of the natural resources and more snow than you could shake a kräftskivor at, Sweden’s economy is among the top twenty largest in the world, dwarfing any African nation.

So what gives?

Many printers say they are “green” or “eco-friendly” because they print using soy inks, are FSC-certified, or print on recycled paper. But if you want an example of a printer who is really serious about its stewardship of the environment, take a look at Green Printer.

Using sources from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Green Printer estimates that it helped its customers save 74,645 [...]

This week, everybody is watching the stock market and talking about the economy, but I want to do a little reality check here. Other than tweaking our portfolios, there isn’t much we can do about it. Was the bail-out the right decision? Was it not the right decision? Talking about it makes us feel better—as if it gives us some kind of control—but the reality is, it doesn’t. Why not take all that nervous energy and channel it into something really productive? A place where we can make a difference right away?

Did you know that by making some basic changes in your document management and print marketing, you can reduce your carbon footprint, use fewer trees, use less petroleum, and improve your bottom line at the same time? In today’s time of financial crisis, that ought to get any company’s attention. It starts, not with the paper or ink you spec, but with the fundamental way you print at your documents.

By utilizing today’s digital production technologies, you can move to document management models that have a major impact on the environment. By printing shorter runs—even for high-quality, four-color documents—you eliminate warehousing costs and the cost of outdated print, but on the environmental side, you avoid cutting down trees for nothing. Every time a book, a pamphlet, a flyer goes out of date and gets thrown in the trash, you just contributed to needless deforestation.

By making smarter use of your database—say, mailing to only the top 10% of your customer base—you reduce the amount of printed material you use. If you combine it with smart use of print personalization, you could earn even more revenues than on a larger static mailing.

Some great examples can be found in a new report on digital-printing-driven marketing models entitled “Digital Printing: Transforming Business and Marketing Models,” released yesterday.

Wall Street is in financial crisis. Individual investors are reeling. The world is watching. If ever there were a time to get serious about our world stewardship, it’s now.

While we’re used to thinking along broad, expansive lines such as international policy and national priorities, the fact is, there are changes you and I can make in our daily lives to make things better, including in the world of marketing. We don’t have to change the world. We just have to change our world.

That’s what “Greening Print Marketing” is about.

Along those lines, I got a press release from Xerox today. The company has released a new series of papers and tools to help companies reduce the environmental impact of printing in their organizations. This starts a comprehensive program of papers, resources, and Web tools to help customers identify the right paper, the right supplies, and the right way to print with the environment in mind.