Green Options

I know, I know, it’s not very eco-friendly to get your children’s toys from across the Pacific Ocean; however, Soopsori wooden toys are beautiful and top quality.  Made from 100% natural wood without paint or bolts, these toys are safe, adorable, and ethically produced.  Made from 20 different kinds of wood, natural color and texture create variability in these toys.

‘Soopsori’ is much more of a public corporation chasing a common good than a commercial company. We here at ‘Soopsori’ provide you with lifelong memories in addition to wooden toys. As a result, we aim to dedicate ourselves to practicing an honest and reasonable management style. In order to realize this philosophy, we share our profits with environmental NGOs, as a company we feel socially responsible for contributing to a more eco-friendly society. From lumbers that are not taken artificially to making products without any chemical paints, we are aiming to build for an environmentally-secure future. This is our primary objective.

Little more than a year ago, Wicked Footwear in New Hampshire created a new adult collection of shoes and boots fittingly named Wicked Hemp. Co-owner Matt Mahmet described the venture as his “future-past vision” derived from his eight years in the footwear industry, and his personal interest in an outdoor lifestyle. Matt combined his work and passion with the hemp revolution, which was not so popular during his American history studies in college.

Matt converted a small farm of mountains, trails and streams into the Wicked Footwear headquarters where new designs are developed and tested. The Wicked Hemp division turned global August 2008. And a new wood pulp and hemp collection was created with projected deliveries soon, ‒ mid 2009.

My green crafting manifesto is clear about this: I craft primarily with recycled materials, and if I can’t make a recycled material work for my project, then I use primarily natural materials–cotton, hemp, wood, etc.

Generally, this makes the positives of green crafting quite clear. When I craft with recycled materials, then I know that I’m taking positive action for the environment even if what I’m crafting with was originally some sort of resource-heavy plastic–felting around dumpster-dived plastic Easter eggs to make shaker eggs or play food for my daughters, perhaps, or incorporating costume jewelry into a new piece.

The ethics of crafting even with natural materials, however, are trickier, because you have to consider not just the nature of your material, but also its provenance.

Take wood.

Looking for a green job and wondering where they are? Well, as job hunters flood the usual suspects — such as solar and wind companies — with mountains of applications, you might have better luck finding your dream job in a more unexpected sector.

That’s the advice from Amy Vernetti, a managing director at headhunting firm Taylor Winfield. She says many of the green jobs are coming from areas that probably don’t leap to mind when you think of cleantech, such as companies developing fuel additives and air-filtration technologies. “These are hidden gems in the market,” she says, adding that some of them are “hiring like crazy.”

Ugh.  By now, anyone paying attention knows about the plastic “soup” floating across the Pacific.  You’re well-versed in the phthalates problem.  You avoid bisphenol-A.  You even try to avoid plastic overall as to lessen your consumption of petroleum.

But what if that plastic water bottle wasn’t made of plastic anymore? Or even stainless steel?  What if your “plastic” was actually made of wood?

Natural dolls are almost impossible to find in conventional stores. Most dolls you can get at big box stores are made of plastic with phthalates and PVC. Cloth dolls can be found at specialty stores but they can be very expensive. Getting quality, natural, safe dolls for your little ones can be a tall order if you are on a budget.

Recently my little girl fell in love with small wooden fairy dolls from an etsy seller, The Fairy Ring. These dolls are simple, adorable, and very stimulating as far as creative play is concerned. Upon getting her first fairy doll, which she decided to name “Jewel”, she insisted on having more right away and they have been with her constantly ever since. When she takes a shower they hang on the shower door. When she goes to sleep at night they are held lovingly in her hand. Her dreams are now filled with fairies.

Helveta, specializes in supply chain tracking systems that give companies the ability to track any and every item in their supply chain. In forestry, this means that it can link barcodes and radio identifiers to individual trees and map them using GPS and Helveta’s proprietary software.

Using these tags, it allows timber producers to demonstrate that their wood and lumber comes from a legal source. According to Patrick Newton, President of Helveta, this gives an additional level of auditability and supply chain assurance to buyers and watchdog groups:

If it doesn’t have the tag or the audit trail attached to it, they will know it is probably illegal

And, according to an article in the Economist, that’s exactly what is happening in Liberia.

I’m reading a book about wood. The title is “Wood,” by Harvey Green. It’s written a bit like the slightly more popular and accessible books by a different author titled “Salt” and “Cod” by Mark Kurlansky. But “Wood” is about our use of wood in home construction, furniture, machinery, packaging, religion—everything. In this book, the author makes many interesting observations, like the fact that although the saw was developed independently in many parts of the world and they are strikingly similar, some cultures designed saws to cut on the push stroke (Western) and others to cut on the pull stroke (Eastern). I think this is fascinating.

He also writes about a time in our past when almost everyone had some knowledge of working with wood because everyday activities like farming, cooking, cleaning traveling, required implements that needed to be made out of wood.

Now that I have read it, this seems so obvious. Back in Laura Ingalls’ time, you couldn’t just go to the store and buy everything you needed like we can today (alas, Mr. Oleson’s store was well stocked but not like what you can find at Wal-Mart). Still, what a cool common bond they all had. I feel a little envious of what seems like a really artistic skill, but then I think that this is sort of how computers are for us today. Almost everyone has to have some knowledge of a computer interface in order to help get our jobs done (supposedly) faster and more efficiently.

With my complete lack of faith in the US federal government, it warms my heart aplenty to see so much initiative by local governments and businesses in going green. On Friday of last week, the 19^th, two announcements were made that saw plans revealed for two new renewable energy sources.

The first announcement saw Oglethorpe Power Corporation (OPC) announce plans to buld as many as three 100-megawatt biomass electric generating facilities in the state of Georgia. The second, was an announcement by SBD International promising the future construction of a small solar farm in Florida, capable of generating up to 20 megawatts.

And these sorts of announcements come across our desks almost every day. But there are only so many articles we can write that would be as long as this introduction.

This is a guest post by Raz Godelnik of Eco-Libris.This article was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on July 16.

Forests need strong allies to win their survival battles. This week it seems they have a new powerful friend that might help. His name is Wal-Mart.

Environmental Leader reports that the world’s largest retailer has become a member of the Global Forest & Trade Network (GTFN), a WWF initiative to eliminate illegal logging and improve the management of valuable and threatened forests. By becoming a member, Wal-Mart pledges to help save endangered forests by using more wood from sustainable and certified sources.

WWF published a press release about the new member of GTFN this Monday, reporting that by joining the organization, Wal-Mart has committed to phasing out illegal and unwanted wood sources from its supply chain and increasing its proportion of wood products originating from credibly certified sources – for Wal-Mart stores and Sam’s Clubs in the United States.

I’ve heard of making fuel from wood before, but rarely does using wood as fuel come up. However, just today I was pointed to this site, hosted by a local radio station, with a real-life example of someone burning wood as a fuel in his truck.

I can’t say for sure how the system works, whether it’s dual fuel or the wood-burning supplies all the fuel the engine needs, but it doesn’t appear to be a hoax and is certainly interesting. Evidently, during WWII, there was some experimenting with alternative fuels (due to shortages caused by the war), and one of the results was the wood burning automobile.