Re-Caluclated Footprint

Over the quarter I was only able to reduce my footprint by .3 earths.

Over all I am a bit disappointed with this. I appreciate now how hard it is to break out of this American lifestyle of high consumption. Small changes do make an impact but I still use so many resources to fuel my lifestyle.

I am glad that I was able to reduce the impact my diet has on the environment. My first footprint listed food as a quarter of my impact.  Now it it just under a quarter. Buying organic food and only eating meat during dinner seemed to help.We also started composting all of our food waste. The quiz did not account for this so I am left not knowing how much that helped.

I was also able to lower electricity and gas use quite a bit. Our bills were lower than they were this time last year. Usage is frustratingly high during the winter no matter what though. I've been thinking about how poorly homes are designed based on what we have learned about greener more efficient building methods. Our heating bill is so high during the winter just trying to keep our house warm. It's silly to think that we spend so much to heat our house when it could have thicker walls, better instillation and better fitted windows. Its sick to think how much energy is wasted making up for bad design.

I will continue these lifestyle changes after the quarter ends. The changes aren't so hard once I'm in the habit and they do make a difference even if it is a small one. I will also look into vegetarian recipes once the quarter ends and I have more time. For all my work this quarter food is still the highest impact area so there is more work to be done there.

Rethinking Water Fountains

 

Woosh Water is  a new approach to the distribution of water in Israel. They come in the form of attractive water bottle refilling stations that now cover the city of Tal Aviv. The station dispenses cold filtered drinking water and will clean and sanitize your refillable bottle for you. The stations are free to use by anyone but offer additional benefits if you join the network. Joining can be done online quickly and easily. Once done you receive a key chain sensor to log in with when you refill your bottle. It will keep track of individually how much water has been consumed and how many plastic bottled have been saved as well as the collective numbers for all users. These statistics are displayed on screen when you log in.

I think this is a great and very effective plan to save plastic water bottles. People are drawn to and to want to interact with beautiful objectives. Woosh is beautifully designed and clearly has been thought through. I think they add aesthetically to the city and are a constant reminder to people to use their own refillable water bottle. The fact that is dispenses cold water is further influence to use the stations in hot climates like Israel. Thus these  

Woosh hopes the stations will be used in cities across the globe in the future. Here is a video further explaining the system: 

 What I wish Woosh would have done is incorporated a water station locator app like the WeTap app. This app relies on crowd sourcing to keep track of new fountains, removed fountains, and water fountains that need maintenance. It will even tell you the quality of the water, the condition of the fountain and allows for comments and pictures to be posted for each fountain by users.


This is a screen shot of the app

 I love the idea of this app. Water fountains are disappearing from our city landscape. I think  apps like this one and increasing new interest could influence cities to reinstall water fountains. It would certainly help save plastic water bottles and make it easier for people not to use them in the first place.


This is a picture of a very stylish water fountain you can find in the Fairhaven Village Green (behind Village Books)

There also used to be a octagon shaped water fountain on the corner of Cornwall and Kentucky (between Bellingham High School and the Catholic church.) but it had to be removed because it was being used as a garbage can. Which illustrates the point that its ultimately up to the people of a city whether water fountains and stations can work and whether we will be seeing more of them in the future. I personally hope that we do.

UN climate talks

In light of what has happened in the Philippians it is more important than ever to come together to create change. Representatives from the Philippians have been many of the speaks at this years meeting. They are very passionate and some even cried. They challenged who ever doesn't believe climate change is happening to go to the Philippians and see for themselves.

Places like the Philippians should not be paying the price for global warming. I feel people will not understand the effects until it happens to them though personally. The question is how many more super storms and human lives lost will it take until the world comes together for change?

Read the full article below:

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/12/we_can_stop_this_madness_philippines_delegate_urges_action_at_u_n_climate_talks/

Evil Bottled Water

I did a project on the bottle water industry over the summer and its a lot worst than what she says. FDA has 1/2 a person that looks over the entire bottled water industry. She splits her time between that and her other responsibilities. There is also no regulation on water that is sourced and resold within the same state which the majority of water falls into this category.

She states in the video that bottle water is sometimes less clean than tap. I feel like that is an under statement. Bottled water has been recalled many times before and independent firms have found toxic material and caner causing agents in the water straight off the shelf.

She also does not address that when companies pump ground water for their bottles they hurt poor communities. Towns have seen their water tables drop and have experienced days with no water. The water bottle industry then turns around and sells their water back to them. Basically the company steals the towns water and then sells it back.

It was nice to see in the video that bottle water sales are dropping. I really hope they continue to. At one point in the video she says that carrying and using bottled water is going to the way of smoking. Its looked down upon and you see less people doing it. I totally agree with this. I certainly find myself judging people I see with bottled water and hate carrying it myself. I feel bad if I do and feel like people are now judging me. I want to tell people "I never do this truly".

The horrors of E-Waste

This video shows what happens to our e-waste when it ends up in china

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2013/05/30/pkg-aoc-watson-china-e-waste.cnn.html

Green Toys

Hasbro, Lego and Mattel have all starting thinking green when it comes to their toys, manufacturing and packaging. 

Before this article I hadn't put a lot of thought into the toy industry when it came to sustainability. I don't think I am the only one either, I feel outside of safety concerns this industry is mostly over looked. It really got me thinking though. Here we are pumping out millions of toys each year and how long do these things really last? Toys are easily broken or lost or just outdated because kids always want new toys. I think its where their consumerism starts. So even if the toy is still fine and working the child is bored with it and wants a new one anyway. So what happens to all these old toys? Some get donated, I know I took all my old toys to the local Goodwill. Some get passed down and some get saved for grandchildren but they are still all old toys. The new kids getting them can't be that excited to receive them. Especially now that toys change so quickly with new technology shifts. So most of the toys get thrown away and end up in landfills.

If these toys are going to end up in the landfill what they ares made out of  and how much really matters. Besides being non-toxic and safe to play with most toys are plastic and won't break down in a landfill. Hasbro is starting to study alternatives to phase out PVC's and Lego already has entirely. Hasbro has stopped using plastic bags within their toys. (The bags that the pieces come in and are stored it when now in play) Lego has also made sure that every raw material they use complies with the UN Toy Safety Directive.

There is also the issue of packaging. I remember mountains of packing and wrappers after receiving new toys for Christmas or birthdays. Mattel has eliminated non-recyclable twist ties and has been playing around with new ways to package their toys using less material or using recycled materials instead. Lego has introduced smaller boxes that they say have saved 4,000 tons and Hasbro has reworked their play-doh cans to use less material and be better designed to be reusable. The company doing the most though may be Lego. They are trying to reduce the amount of waste they generate and say that any waste that is produced is being reused or recycled. I think there is still a long way to go in this area of improvement though. Toys come with so much packaging.

The three companies have also looked in to their manufacturing. The most interesting was Lego. Their parent company Kirkbi is investing $547 million into building a wind farm. The company will control 32% of this farm and says they will being giving back to the world the same amount of renewable energy that they have used in manufacturing. Each company has also pledged to reduce emissions and and toxic byproducts.


You can read the full article below:

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/10/31/how-hasbro-lego-and-mattel-stack-green-toy-makers

Reducing My Footprint: Progress

My goal to turn off the lights and TV when not in use has gone very well. I am much more conscious and aware now of how I use electricity. My goal to take shorter, cooler showers has also gone well. I am down to just under 15 minutes. My goal to eat less meat on the other hand has not gone so well. I did cut back to eating meat just for dinner but it took a lot longer than I thought it would. Its been about the last week that I finally reached that point. I think this is mostly due to my busy lifestyle. I don't have the time to find new receipts and options that are still easy and fast. I think for this quarter I will eat vegetarian dinners when I can but will not be working on my original goal of only 5 meat dinners a week. I think this is something I can revisit in the future.

Instead my new goal is to eat more organic and/or local food. I recently started shopping at Trader Joe's last week and want to check out some other new stores soon. This new goal will work towards reducing my food slice of the pie in a more obtainable way I think. 

We also started composting. We set up a bowl in the kitchen to collect food scraps that we then dump into our compost garbage can that the city picks up. Its been pretty easy to do and is such a simple fix.  

Method: SOLD

Method was sold to the European company Ecover for an undisclosed amount back in September. Co-founder Eric Ryan will stay on as chief brand architect and Drew Fraser will stay on as CEO. They hope to increase product reach by introducing the products to the European markets.

It will be interesting to watch Method in the coming year and see what kinds of changes Ecover makes to the brand. Hopefully Method will keep its original values and design with few changes to its environmental and social missions. I hope this is not a "sell out" of the earth friendly brand.

This also is a clue to how far we have come in terms of "green products". Brands that are based on environmental values that everything in their power to lessen their environmental impact, are being getting big enough and successful enough to be sold to larger companies. Better yet they are being sold and keep as a valuable assets and not shut down.

Some are speculating that Seventh Generation will be the next one sold. Some are indeed surprised that Method was sold ahead of Seventh.

It will be interesting to see how this all will play out and what the future holds for green companies.

Read the full article below:

http://adage.com/article/news/method-sold-european-green-cleaning-rival-ecover/237007/

"Hello here I am" Boyan Slat is here to save the world's oceans.

Boyan Slat who is just 18 years old may have solved the problem of how to clean the world's oceans. His plan to create a manta ray shaped ship anchored to the sea floor that allows plastic to come to it is not only brilliant he says its profitable. (see below picture)

The ships, 24 of them, would be anchored in a zig-zag pattern across the pacific garbage patch where the currents of the ocean would flow through them. The ships, outfitted with filters, would catch and collect the plastic while discarding any plankton that may have been caught. The ships would run off the power of the sun and ocean currants and could clean the pacific garbage patch in 5 years he claims. If he sold the plastic collected to recycling industries who buy old plastic he could reportedly make $500 billion US dollar. That is more than his start up costs.

Here are some frightening figures about plastics:

• We produce 300 million tons of plastic each year
• 7.25 million tons of plastic is in the pacific garbage patch
• The largest plastic spill was last year off the coast of Hong Kong (6 shipping crates worth)
• In parts of the world plastic pieces are covering beaches like sand or rock

The state of the world's oceans are absolutely sickening and I dearly hope that Slat's project gets the funding and support it needs. The world's ocean, beaches, and wildlife face a very frightening future if we don't start cleaning now.

His website is below.

http://www.boyanslat.com/plastic4/

The website is a call for action and help.Slat and his team of 50 engineers, modellers, external experts and students are currently conducting their feasibility study and say that their report should be ready in several months. I look forward to their report and am optimistic. I really think it would be amazing to see this project completed and executed. 

BMW isn't selling a car they're are selling a lifestyle

BMW of North America recently won the Best Marketing Campaign by a Green Power Purchaser award. The award goes to companies that purchase or produce their own green power and actively promote their activities in a creative or compelling way.

BMW won the award with their new ActiveE electric vehicle. BMW offers ActiceE owners exciting new "accessories" for their new car such as renewable energy certificates or discounted solar photovoltaic panels for customers homes. Your new green education comes free. According to BMW buying the RECs offsets 9,900 pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of two years. By buying the solar panels for their homes customers can offset fueling costs by making their own clean energy.

BMW partnered with Green Mountain Energy Company and Real Good Solar to make this happen.

I really like the whole idea and feel of this campaign. Many people view hybrid or electric cars as the end all of saving gas and fossil fuels. They seem to forget that someone is still burning coal to supply them with the electricity that goes in their car. The ActiveE is starting to solve this problem. By selling customers discounted solar panels they are truly saving fossil fuels.  I also like that BMW's sustainability values are customer facing. It's great that they are encouraging and educating their customers to be conscious of sustainability issues in a very natural way. It doesn't feel forced. If BMW is truly serious about being green like they claim they have just made the customer end very green indeed and are on their way to a value chain with green on each end.

It will be interesting to see if this car/greener lifestyle takes off and if other hybrid/electric car companies start offering similar products. I think this is a much more positive direction to be moving in. Electric cars are cool but they use a lot of electricity that still comes from a very negative place. I would like to see more people powering their own cars like this. If more companies move in this direction I would definitely be more inclined to buy one myself.
 
You can read the full article at the source below:
http://www.hybridcars.com/best-marketing-campaign-by-a-green-power-purchaser-award-for-bmws-activee/

Shampoo = Toxic?

After watching "The Story of Cosmetics" I decided to do some research on my own shampoo: Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Shampoo. This shampoo is marketed as very earth friendly. The bottle is 94% biodegradable and contains 50% recycled plastic. It is also marketed as human friendly. The bottle states there is no silicone, no paraben, no dye and that it should leave hair feeling light/weightless because there is no heavy residue left behind. I wanted to check how accurate these claims really were.

Here is the list of ingredients found in my shampoo.
List of Ingredients: water, ammonium lauryl sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium chloride, pyrus malus extract/ apple fruit extract, parfum/fragrance, sodium benzoate, hydroxypropyl, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, hexylene glycol, citric acid, salicylic acid, benzoic acid, niacinamide, pyridoxine hci, caprylic/capric triglyceride, linalool, hexyl cinnamal, saccharum officinarum extract/sugar cane extract/ extrait de canne a sucre medica limonum peel extract/lemon peel extract, camellia sinemsis extract/camellia sinensis leaf extract, malpigha punicifolia/acerola fruit extract, sodium hydroxide. 

First I looked up my product on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. they gave it a overall score of 5 or moderately hazardous to my health. The biggest concern was the fragrance they use in my shampoo. The EWG gave it a high score of 8 (highly hazardous) due to "Ecotoxicology, Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Miscellaneous, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)". All other ingredients got a moderate to low rating based on concerns about allergies, irritation to eyes, skin or lungs, skin absorption or organ toxicity.  Overall there is no caner or developmental/ reproductive toxicity concern with my shampoo.

Next I checked the toxicity list in Okala ecological design. Good news is none of my shampoo's ingredients were on the list!

I decided to look more closely at sodium hydroxide because it was one of the ingredients described as
"Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)". Sodium hydroxide is commonly know as lye. I found that Sodium hydroxide "Is used in many industries, mostly as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents and as a drain cleaner." It is also used in the food industry in the "Washing or chemical peeling of fruits and vegetables, chocolate and cocoa processing, caramel coloring production, poultry scalding, soft drink processing, and thickening ice cream. Olives are often soaked in sodium hydroxide for softening; Pretzels and German lye rolls are glazed with a sodium hydroxide solution before baking to make them crisp"

When I looked at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention page it warned about coming into contact with sodium hydroxide on your skin or eyes and that it may cause hair loss, skin burns and irritation. It is also listed as incompatible with water or "when in contact with water may generate sufficient heat to ignite combustible materials".  It's interesting that a chemical that can cause hair loss and should not be mixed with water is in my shampoo that I mix with water and use on my hair!

I think I will keep using my shampoo even in light of what I have learned. The health risks I found steam from coming in contract with the pure substances used in the shampoo not the shampoo mixture itself and none of the ingredients stood out as being very serious. I feel like I can live with the risks listed and I have never had any problems with allergies or irritations to the product. I do know now though, that I should never get this stuff in my eyes or mouth! I do not think that there is enough of any one ingredient to hurt me so I'm not going to worry about it. If I do decide to stop using the product I'm sure I could find a substitute shampoo that is less harmful.

Citations:

           "Garnier Fructis Haircare Pure Clean Fortifying Shampoo." Envirnmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (2013): n.pag. EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Datebase. Web. 6 Oct 2013. 

Okala Learning Ecological Design. 2nd ed. Phoenix AZ: 2009. 17-21. Print.   

"Sodium hydroxide." Wikipedia. 2013.

United States. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.Sodium hydroxide. Atlanta GA: , 2010. Print.

My Footprint

Goal 1. Eat less meet. Cut back to 5 times a week.

Besides services my biggest area for improvement is food. Currently I eat meat every night for dinner and occasionally lunch and breakfast too. I want to cut this back to just eating meat for dinner and in time just 5 dinners a week. This will be my hardest goal because as it is my diet is very meat centered.

Goal 2. Use less electricity by turning off items that are not in use like TV and lights.

I have a really bad habit of leaving the TV on when I am no longer watching it. I will just walk away and leave it on for no reason. I need to be conscious of this and remember to turn it off when I am no longer using it. I also have a problem leaving lights on in rooms I'm no longer in. I will also need to get in the habit of turning off the lights when I leave a room.

Goal 3. Use less gas by taking cooler shorter showers. Limit myself to 15-20min.

I certainly like taking long hot showers that can last up to 30 minutes at a time. And when I say hot I mean hot. Even in the summer time I take hot showers. I need to turn down the temperature and limit myself to about 20 minutes at most. This goal will be pretty hard to get use to I am going to struggle a lot.

Over all I was pretty surprised by my results. I thought I was much more earth friendly than I actually am. I also did not think that my meat consumption was making as big of an impact as it is. Cutting back on meat will be pretty hard. I was also surprised by how big my goods area was. I never next to next buy new clothes, I have a Nook for reading or I use the public Library and I don't receive any magazines or newspapers to my house. I think my biggest contributors to this area are buying person/ beauty products and cleaning supplies.