Green Options

By contributing guest author Ida Cheinman, Principal and Creative Director of Substance 151, a strategic design agency for Green Printer’s “Design Goes Green” series.

We live in a time when “sustainability” is topping the buzzword charts and a wave of greenwashing is flooding the mainstream. We live in a time of intense competition, gloomy economic forecasts and rapidly disappearing marketing budgets, but also in a time when more and more companies and organizations strive to uphold higher environmental and social values, making the shift to the triple bottom line economic model. Sustainability and social responsibility are the forces that drive many of today’s business decisions; they also change the way organizations re-think their branding and marketing strategies. As marketers and business leaders, we are faced with the challenge of finding differentiation by creating empowering and memorable brand experiences for our audiences in the increasingly crowded sustainable marketplace.

So, What are the rules?

The WebMD Health eHome is a a new educational collaboration between WebMD and Healthy Child Healthy World and is sponsored by Seventh Generation.  It provides you the tools to discover how to create a safer and healthier home for you and your children.  While many of the writers here provide daily information on how to provide your family a safe environment both outside and inside your home the WebMD Health eHome promises to provide more wonderful information on how to rid your home of health hazards.  With a variety of tools it may even enlighten some ECP readers on new ways to improve their quality of life.

Landor Associates, a leading strategic brand consulting and design firm, has released their second annual trends outlook, which provides “predictions” for 2009 including sustainability.

Is your Resolution to Kickstart the Next Clean Revolution?

A post by contributing writer Melissa Chungfat.

I talked to one of my friend’s yesterday and she told me that the staff Christmas party wasn’t nearly as joyful as in previous years. Half of the people who came to the party were let go. There have been record layoffs since the economy has gone south, and it’s hard to talk to someone whose family hasn’t been impacted in some way.

We all know that every little girl is going to become a woman someday. There are those of us who wish that day would stay far away and there are those who embrace and celebrate the transition from childhood to adulthood.

For some reason, having my oldest daughter turned eight was difficult for me. I looked at this blond haired, blue eyed, angel and realized she is quickly going to be taller than I am and that she is now becoming an independent being. I was devastated. Then I started sweating… at what point do I start talking to her about PUBERTY? For crying out loud, she is eight. When I looked around our community I realized that some girls need this information by 8 or 9 while others don’t until 13 or later. The last thing I want is my child to enter the world of becoming a woman without being informed.

So, I set out on a mission to prepare her (and myself). Thankfully there are a lot of good books out there, so grab one (or several) that you’ve read through and get ready. Decide on the age and how much you want to cover. We’ve started with the basics and I have the kit on hand to bring out when the time comes.

Have you ever noticed that things you would normally recycle may not get recycled in the bathroom? Most people simply have a small trash can in the potty and toss everything in.

Not in my house. We keep a small basket on the back of each toilet. In it we store things like extra rolls of Seventh Generation or Sunrise recycled toilet paper. I also toss in my waiting to be recycled preserve razor handles, toothbrushes and packaging. When a roll of tissue runs out, the empty cardboard roll goes into the basket.

Whenever I talk about all natural or home made cleaning products the response is always, “does it work?”. The short answer is ABSOLUTELY.

Somewhere along the way we have been brainwashed to believe we must KILL KILL KILL bacteria and viruses by using toxic substances like chlorine bleach, triclosan and fancy “antibacterial” products. Thanks to mass marketing ploys such as Clorox’s “Essential to a Healthy Home” advertisement.

The truth is simple. Yes we need to keep things clean, no we don’t need super antibacterial products to do that. In reality, over use of bacteria killing products can be counter productive. Clean well, clean naturally, clean often.

A wonderful cleaning solution is the Vinegar of Four Thieves recipe. We’ve been using this for years. It does have a vinegar smell (add more herbs to help counteract), but it works beautifully.

You purchase organic cotton bedding and pesticide-free fruits and vegetables.  At home, you use a vacuum with a HEPA filter and make sure that your children wash their hands before eating.  But are you hiding skeletons under the sink or in the closet?  I’m referring to chemical-based, conventional cleaning products – those bottles usually marked, per federal regulation, with a skull-and-crossbones logo.

In the US, accidental ingestion of chemical-based cleaning products accounts for many trips to the emergency room and calls to the Poison Control Center.  Bleach is a strong corrosive and may cause pulmonary edema or coma if ingested, while ammonia can damage the eyes, respiratory tract, and skin.  These aren’t the only harmful ingredients in conventional cleaning products, but manufacturers purposely omit many dangerous ingredients from labels.  Additionally, chemical cleaning products end up in our waterways, soil, and landfills, where they contribute to oxygen-depleted ocean dead-zones, release harmful gases into our air, and poison both humans and wildlife.

Did you know that the Greek root of the word “ecology” means “house”?  If everyone created a healthy, green environment in our homes, it would extend to the greater good for the planet.  My evolution into environmentalism began with caring about endangered species issues to natural beauty products to vegetarianism to green cleaning.  Seventh Generation and the Children’s Health Envrionmental Coalition’s Blue Buttefly.org have teamed up to create a green cleaning guide for safer homes titled Naturally Clean:  The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning.

Naturally Clean is written by Jeffrey Hollender, Geoff Davis, Meika Hollendar, and Reed Doyle. The book is divided into seven sections:

1. Case for Change at Home: These chapters are about the chemicals in household cleaners and the negative effects they have on our health, including cancer, asthma, hormone disruptions, and multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS).
   

   Like almost anything else, there is a good side and a bad side to all the molecular manipulation chemists practice. There are safe chemicals, and there are unsafe chemicals. Our problem today is that we don’t really know which are which.

There are not a lot of “green” businesses in Flint. Absolutely none listed in Co-op America’s National Green Pages or in any other database of green businesses that I’ve found. Earlier this year there was a green business event for Flint and Genesee county area businesses…maybe five companies were there: CBC Recycling, Office Max (I think), a mobile document shredding company and I don’t remember who else, if anyone.

For years it has been very hard to be green in Vehicle Rust City. Some outer suburbs have curbside recycling but I have to haul mine directly to the recycling center. If I wanted to buy green, any specialty items like cleaning supplies, organic cosmetics, clothing or anything else that I want had to be ordered through catalogs or online (I am sooo thankful for the Internet). Organic food also had to be special ordered or searched for (sometimes to no avail) at the Farmer’s Market.

Absolutely.

Non-toxic cleaners are the far better, safer choice in household cleaning. That said, there is still some danger in any cleaning product. Your child could have an allergy to an ingredient, it might contain an eye irritant or could cause stomach upsets. This is much less of a concern than carcinogens and mutagens in cleaning supplies, but that doesn’t mean we can store our solutions under the sink in an unlocked cupboard and assume that our child is safe.

This topic came up last night with a girlfriend of mine, she is one of the most environmental people I know. She shot me an email saying, “As a Mom who has changed to eco-friendly products, be it Seventh Generation, or Vermont Soap Organic All Purpose Cleaner, or even a vinegar, baking soda and water mix- what if my child were to get into it, swallow it/drink it? How non-toxic is it really, as far as having to call 911, etc…? I mean, you still have to call a doctor, right? Even though it is “non-toxic” you should still follow some sort of instruction in case of eye contact/swallowing?”