The request and popularity of green merchandise has compelled companies to listen, making more choices available.

However, with increased exposure and demand is there also a silent cost added to the consumer?

Are we being tricked into thinking we need to have all the latest in green gear in order to do our part and be environmentally responsible?

Does our need to accrue better products precede our need to be more mindful of what being environmentally accountable is more capable of, instead of only what can be produced for the shelves?

The stuff we accumulate and demand in production is being held according to higher environmental standards; which is desired and much needed. People normally spend their money on items with good intentions and the motivating factor of being more earth friendly is a payoff.

From a research perspective though, is it possible that there are other underlying causes behind certain actions and in choosing more naturally based merchandise? Some studies have looked into why people purchase greener products, and wonder if there are other reasons than ecological ones for doing so.

One study, Going Green to Be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation, suggests that social perception may play a role.

Groups who participated in three different experiments had a tendency to choose eco-friendly products when in a public setting. In one of the investigations, when surveyed, more than half of the participants who read a story intended to heighten social status in turn chose a greener product than the comparison group, who read a story without an underlying connotation of social rank.

Though this assessment didn’t really take other aspects of behavior into account, such as long term environmental efforts, the researchers asserted the study’s importance in showing that social position could actually be used as a tool for instilling more ecologically friendly behaviors.

No matter what or where the choice internally stems from, being a more responsible shopper does matter.

Ultimately, marketing and the retail realm will draw people in but smart consumers are able to make real choices that are not just for show, but for the worth and impact of doing so.

Image Source: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Many are non-profit organizations that are available to the public for shopping, although some are only open to specialty customers, such as schools, construction industries or other particular businesses.

In order to keep perfectly good items from local landfills, reuse supply centers generally operate by collecting and then offering materials at affordable prices, thus providing the community with needed, reasonably priced products. The inventory is continuously changing as new merchandise and contributions are received, but some available items usually include fabrics, furniture, construction and office supplies, woods, wires, tiles and tons of other things.

These are great options for finding many basic and unique supplies, which are ordinarily much cheaper than buying new products. For artistic talents, warehouses frequently have lots of inexpensive art supplies, as well as educational materials for local families and teachers, schools and community centers.

Reuse Alliance and Lancaster Creative Reuse have directories of reuse centers in the U.S. as well as some international listings, including nearly 100 scrapstore postings for the U.K.

Habitat for Humanity International has 825 ReStores in Canada and the U.S., which offer gently used furniture, appliances, housewares and building supplies. Profits go back to local associates that help build affordable homes and perform housing renovations.

Interested in opening your own reuse center? Check with local business development centers. These are usually available through government entities and at some universities. Additionaly, the U.S. Small Business Administration provides information on opening a non-profit organization.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also has an overview on reasons that reuse and recycling focused areas offer practical business opportunities.

Reusing on this scale keeps a large amount of still functional objects in circulation, giving them another useful go around.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Some of these are non-profits and a number operate as for-profit organizations.

Some may question which one is a better option in providing humanitarian assistance.

Non-profit operations normally are established in order to serve a social need, and usually receive charitable donations, government funding and tax deductions; however this is not to say that they are in business without the goal of turning a profit. Much of the generated profit though is in turn put back into the needs of the organization.

For-profits run much like typical companies do as they are privately funded and exist in order to make an income to run the business, pay employees and business partners.

One example of a for-profit that has seemingly combined the two business models to provide a safe, renewable lighting option to communities in need is ToughStuff solar lighting systems.

Lighting Africa assisted in the product development, which is an organization that works with private businesses to efficiently and ethically connect them with areas that need renewable lighting access. Their systems are mainly offered in unindustrialized areas and for emergency relief. They also research the particular needs of their clients, especially in African areas, where they participate in studies to further understand what would be most helpful in a solar light intended for long-term, desperately needed use.

Their line of products are sustainably produced and affordable, being much cheaper than kerosene lamps and possibly one of the cheaper solar lighting options available on the market. In addition to durable lighting, the portable configurations are also capable of charging mobile phones and radios.

Another practical design is that they have parts which can be added if needed, allowing users to only have to purchase what they need, having the option to add to it later if necessary. Parts include the main solar panel, light gear, charging pack and radio connector.

In addition to lighting up the night, ToughStuff also offers an extra resource that comes with their for-profit operation. They provide assistance to others interested in developing their own businesses selling the solar gear. This in turn arranges their community with a source of income while providing a renewable resource at an economical cost.

They believe this business model helps them to meet environmental responsibilities while further enabling social vitality. They also note that since they do not have to depend on monetary contributions or assistance, they can continually provide service to meet demands while being accountable to investors and consumers.

Although for-profit ventures may cause some to suspect they are operating solely as self interest groups, ToughStuff’s business concept combined with their in the field practices help provide communities with sustainable lighting as well as an opportunity to sustain themselves through cost-effective and ecological business enterprises.

Source: ToughStuff: Featured on Real Green TV. 2013. Episode 55.

Image Source: ToughStuff

However not all of those are so committed to the green process that they earn the highest available rating from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), producing many of their products with 100% FSC certified materials.

Forms + Surfaces, a California based business that specializes in doors, recycling bins, fencing and elevators, has accomplished this with their wood slat benches and other creations.

Additionally, they either meet or exceed many other sustainable certification standards. In business for 40 years, their products are made from a high amount of recycled materials and are also responsibly obtained.

The steel they use is made from 80% recycled content, and items like doors contain ethically gathered wood cores. Finishes are made from recycled products and are either low in or contain no volatile organic compounds.

Their interior elevator panels are made with a lightweight designed polycarbonate that is constructed from only about 40% recycled resources; however the material used actually lends to less energy required for operation, thus they are more economical than standard elevators. This is due to the decreased weight of the panels, which weigh at least 1/3 less than a typical elevator design.

Most of their merchandise can also be recycled after the end of its use, but they state that their products are built with the intention of lasting. Since they are durably made, less energy is required to churn out new products. This saves consumers money, but also reduces energy consumption and landfill waste from improper disposal.

They also have a team that assists clients in seeking projects that maintain a highly sustainable level. In addition to manufacturing mindfully based merchandise, they have inspected some of their own business practices and have turned them into more ecologically viable operations.

For example, they found that they received and used a great amount of cardboard. Although this material is recyclable, they developed a way to incorporate an even better effort than recycling it.

By using a machine that recycles corrugated cardboard on-site, they are able to ensure that it is in fact actually recycled, but also can then use the reprocessed content for their business needs, like shipping and storage.

Another way they have restructured traditionally made products to make them more environmentally conducive is by coming up with a new process for etching. Eco etching is a term they use to define the newer way they etch doors and other products.

Metals traditionally have been etched with toxic chemicals. They have cleaned up the customary etching process and only use glass beads and water for engraving. The glass beads efficiently perform with no chemicals creating detailed decorative touches, and moreover they are fully recyclable at the end of their use.

Quality products matched with exemplary sustainable business practices provide the best offer to the consumer and commercial markets. While even common sense practices like recycling cardboard really make a huge difference, comprehensive product and operative scrutiny with the goal of conservation and ecological sustainability should be a model more readily used by other businesses and corporations who have the means.

Source: Real Green TV. 2013. Episode 55.

Image Source: Forms + Surfaces

In October last year, I attended a film screening at Oregon State University.  All in attendance learned something new that day and left a little more aware of why not to use plastic bags.

The film screening was for “Bag-It: The Movie”.  It follows an average Colorado man named Jeb Berrier, who makes a pledge to stop using plastic bags.  This decision leads Berrier to start being more conscientious of plastic bag consumption, how the bags are made, and where they end up.

It started with a contest in Colorado to see which ski resort town, Aspen or Telluride, could remove the most plastic bags from the area.  Telluride succeeded, diverting 5.4 million bags from the waste stream in just over three months.

Aspen later banned plastic bags and started charging 20 cents per paper bag, encouraging customers to “BYOBag”.  It allows all other retailers to join the ordinance.  All fees collected are shared between grocers and the city for waste reduction costs.  Many cities countrywide are now banning plastic bags.

Berrier is not a radical environmentalist; he simply wants to take a closer look at our infatuation with plastic.  He discovered that 60,000 single-use disposable bags are thrown away every five minutes in America.  That statistic, along with the effects on animals and the world is very alarming.

Berrier also looks beyond plastic bags to discover that almost everything in modern society is made with plastic or contains potentially harmful chemical additives used in the production process.  The documentary shows how far mankind has come and displays how the plastic world has caught up to us.

I am not suggesting that you should see the documentary, but I do suggest that you look around your home or do an internet web search and see how prevalent plastic is in our world.  The results will captivate you, surprise you, and may persuade you to stop using plastic bags or plastic all together.

Just because plastic bags are disposable doesn’t mean that they disappear when you’re done with them.

www.plasticbagbanreport.com

This also applies to many companies’ views on working efficiently, since one can assume that outdated equipment is detrimental to worker’s success, and should be replaced immediately.

That being said, there are many technology standards in use today that will soon be rendered ancient tomorrow.

For instance: desk phones. This tired old model of secretarial and cubical communication has passed beyond its peak of usefulness and must take its leave from the office.

In replacement, cellphones and tablets. Both are portable, and both have facetime abilities, for video conferencing and on-the-go mobile productivity.

Next on the chopping block is standard work hours. Many companies are beginning to switch major job duties from office work to at-home tasks, which allows for a more flexible schedule. This isn’t to say that all jobs are compatible with being completed from home, but many are and have been for some time. Society’s move towards a more evenly balanced lifestyle has prompted this change in standard business practices.

Another technology becoming more prevalent in the workspace is tablets. Slowly but surely, iPads have found a home in the business world. Whether it’s stock trading or document creation, these light, portable, and high-performance devices are popular among those who formerly swore themselves to be PC-only business types.

Last on this list is the cubicle of the 90’s. Many companies are switching to a more open office space, and moving away from the cluttered, claustrophobic, and uninviting image of cubicleland. Along with purchasing furniture and office appliances that focus on efficiency and design, employers realise that to some, this type of cold environment can become depressing over time.

Tomorrow’s office will blow away the previous model in many ways, the most important being efficiency.

The amount of work that can be completed using modern technology is quite incredible, and should be a testament to any business owner who hasn’t updated their office in 20 years.

Source:
http://mashable.com/2012/09/25/extinct-office-tech/

Various writers claim that our industrial system of economic development is the reason for our planetary malaise. Is the economic structure of the so-called democratically “free” world guilty?

If so, how on earth can we transform a system whose global reach is ever-expanding? If poverty, like population, is a key player in our environmental challenges, surely a system established to generate prosperity is more of a help than a hindrance?

Surely…not.

The bad news is when you dig below the surface, the values and ideologies which underpin the “developed” world’s system of economic growth fail to stimulate prosperity worldwide. Instead, many writers argue that modern economic development leads to urbanisation, ethnic strife, cultural breakdown and diminished sustainability.

Conventional wisdom, however, says that the only way to reverse both the population and poverty explosion is through more economic growth – for the less-industrialised parts of the world to catch-up with the industrialised “west”.  Sounds fair. Equitable. Just. Surely everyone deserves the chance for a flat-screen TV and oversized SUV. Surely…

The problem, unfortunately, is not just the environmental nightmare of this scenario. The problem is also mathematical. The fact is – and this is a fact – the numbers just don’t add up. According to Norberg-Hodge & Goering in The Future of Progress, the “developed” world’s prosperity is only possible because “its inhabitants, one-fifth of the world total, consume roughly four-fifths of the earth’s resources…What’s more, the biosphere is already under serious threat from current levels of human activity: it is inconceivable to imagine that the Earth could sustainably absorb the 16-fold increase in economic activity that would be needed” for consumption levels (akin to western economic development) to equalise across the globe (p.18).

It’s perhaps no surprise that many commentators argue for a sharp turn-away from the modern development model. The alternative, they say, is a realistic framework for sustainable development. But what does this look like?

Is it not reasonable to assume that sustainability varies from one location to another, from one culture to another? Different horses for different courses, and all that. One thing is generally agreed: sustainable development requires simultaneous and balanced “progress” (whatever that word means) in four dimensions – social, economic, ecological and political. Importantly, sustainability recognises the interdependence of these dimensions – one cannot thrive in the long-term without supporting (and being supported by) the health and prosperity of the other domains.

The question is: In the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges (poverty and population growth being the tip of the proverbial iceberg), and given the diverse interpretations of our assorted problems and solutions, what on earth are we to do? Perhaps education is the key? Perhaps our salvation resides in reorienting our learning (life-long that it is) to help us achieve the social, economic, political and ecological sustainability to which we aspire (once we figure out what those aspirations look like). But despite our shared intention to “think global and act local”, the global keeps getting in the way. Perhaps globalisation is a critical challenge to achieving sustainability? Certainly, the impacts of globalisation set the context for international decision-making that reaches beyond our personal lessons in sustainability, our household actions and local initiatives.

A political issue, globalisation is rarely debated in terms of its social, cultural and environmental impacts. Instead, it’s touted as an economic success in which the internet and free-trade make the world smaller and accessible to all. Hailing globalisation as the shining light for sustainable development, the doctors of spin espouse a well-formed rhetoric that the consuming masses lap up with every cheap imported purchase. The flipside, of course, is that the rhetoric of globalisation has allowed powerful elites to “maintain their access to the world’s resources and waste sinks” (Huckle, 1996). This in turn widens the gap between rich and poor…which kinda makes poverty kinda difficult to solve.

Well…anyone would think the world was about to implode! The challenges seem so massive and overwhelming, how can we humans possibly find our way? For every single one of us, creating a social climate for sustainability (in which real change is possible) is no mean feat. One thing is certain. As a species, human beings cannot afford to give up. We cannot afford to see the problem as insurmountable. We created it, afterall. If we had the power to build it, we have the power to tear it down, brick by brick, and make a new house for us all. We need to recognise that the solution wins out in the end, because we are innately creative and driven by the will to survive. As human beings, we must not give up.

We must work – together, steadily, surely, with urgency – to build the shared capacity that grants us a future in which sustainable development is a reality…and not just a couple of complicated words.

The problem here is that mining and gas companies have spent an extortionate amount on extracting these resources and dumping them in favor of renewables may well have a sizable and negative impact on the UK’s energy economy.

Over four trillion British pounds could be wasted if government changes continue, resulting in massive losses for oil, coal, and gas firms.

London is the fossil fuel center of the world in terms of market investment and capital.

Government changes, by way of new green protocol policies, could see only one quarter of fossil fuel reserves being used. This is a difficult political situation for the UK government, which had promised to be the ‘greenest government ever’ but is now facing further downgrade in economic ratings and a dash for domestic fuel in order to reduce expensive dependence on overseas oil.

There is technology available that is able to remove the carbon elements of fossil fuels, the most talked-of being carbon capture.

However in its current state these technologies are proving expensive to roll out and there is some doubt over their ability to function on a mass scale. Trials with carbon capture are behind schedule due to lack of funding in the economic downturn and the results of these trials may not be in on time to resolve the on-going problem with fossil fuel reserves.

Elements of the energy research sector point out that existing mining, oil, and gas facilities are operating under a policy that was drawn up prior to the government’s commitment to carbon reduction.

Environmental advocates stress that the wider picture is more important – that reduced use of fossil fuels will both significantly help the environment but also prompt industry into a new era of green technology. Industry is unlikely to be convinced, having spent trillions in large scale extraction of minerals.

The UK government will have to find a way to balance the concerns of environmentalists without driving away high status companies from Britain that provide huge economic revenue and employment.

Through the course of money’s history, it has often developed and adapted around the existing society who needed to use it.

For one example of electronic money, take the Bitcoin, which is in the e-currency spotlight and soring, falling and rising again in value. Surfacing in 2009, bitcoins are online cash in which holders, referred to as miners, can accumulate and spread around coins. Collected bitcoins are ready to be gifted, traded or used for payments by accepting vendors, which are periodically appearing in several countries.

Bitcoins can be spent or transferred to others online via your wallet. However, there are many obvious downsides of internet based money, although on the other side, cynicism over financial banking institutions was probably the spawn of digital currency. A major caution is privacy issues. Since bitcoins are stored in a virtual wallet, skeptics are rightfully wary. Just like a real life wallet can be stolen, so can an online version, so you clearly don’t want to risk keeping your life savings in one wallet.

It probably depends which side you tend to lean towards in forming an opinion of the bitcoin, but from an environmental perspective, is digital cash currently a better choice? Is it a better alternative to plastic, paper or coins? Some say, possibly hesitantly, yes, but is that a correct choice?

Manufacturing money presents a huge energy expenditure, not mention the actual process of gathering materials through mining metals for making coins, the minting process, and plastic-ing credit cards are all practices carrying environmental risks. Additionally, the collection of paper resources for printing money, along with the bleaching and inking procedures required for paper currency, all do have their collective ecological impacts.

Again, there is another side presented. It takes a vast amount of processing to power up a bitcoin mining operation, especially when multiplied across the board. Often quick firing processors are employed to calculate the mining systems, which use up a lot of electrical energy.

While time, earned trustworthiness, legitimacy and pending regulations may be the ultimate deciding factors in the continuance of electronic cash, it remains to be seen if digital currency is a financial fad or is here to stay. Either way, seemingly both sides could green up their production.

Source: Serwer, A. & Liebelson, D. (2013, April 10). Bitcoin, Explained: Everything you need to know about the new electronic currency. Retrieved from Mother Jones

Image Source: 123RF Stock Photos

Holidays bring about excitement and festivities, which more than make up for the accompanying headaches of the season.

And of course, these celebrations would be nothing without a colorful cast of family and friends. But with the season comes gift giving.

Though it can be fun to search out tokens of affection that suit your loved one’s personality, every family has one or two members who are hard to gift. In fact, you may be one of them.

Perhaps they may have everything or simply want nothing. This can result in wasted purchases or the impersonal tactic of slipping money in an envelope.

So, in keeping with the holiday spirit, a kinder alternative could be to donate to a charity in your loved one’s honor. You may want to check if there is a specific cause that is special to them. They would probably be delighted that you are taking interest in something important to them and helping those in need in the process.

You may even ask others to do the same for you in place of a present. If your friend or family member doesn’t have a preference, there are many great charities that aid people during holidays. If this loved one (or yourself) is afflicted with the same dilemma at birthdays, there are numerous causes that put good will to use year round.

Toys for Tots have been providing kids with toys since 1947. Toys for Tots usually cater to children 12 and younger, but some donations can be made for older kids between the ages of 12 and 16. There aren’t specific guidelines of what should be donated, so pick out what you believe would make an appropriate and unique gift. Toys for Tots have several drop-off locations dotted throughout North America.

Another great alternative to traditional gift giving is to sponsor an animal in your loved one’s name. Sponsoring an animal is different from adoption.  Instead, you ensure the animal is provided with the necessary food and equipment needed to lead a quality life. One of the best programs to sponsor an animal through is the Best Friends program. They even have wish lists, detailing current items needed by animals and their caregivers, as a way to start you off.

The opportunities to give are endless and can really help improve the happiness in peoples’ lives.

Research local charities in your area and make a difference.