Greenwashing Is A Dirty Business
By Anne O'Loughlin
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | 6 Comments
The term “greenwash” is what you get when you combine the words “green” and “whitewash,” or when a company uses environmental trends to its benefit by lying to or misleading its customers. First coined in the mid-1980’s when hotels started claiming that by reusing towels you could save the environment, greenwashing has hit the mainstream. The practice has grown exponentially in popularity as more and more companies are jumping on the environmental bandwagon and bombarding consumers in every way possible with advertisements of their “green” practices. As a result, greenwashing has become a household phrase and has been making appearances all over the media, from local TV newscasts to the Today Show to the new segment on American Public Media’s Marketplace called The Greenwashing Brigade. It’s even caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission which is attempting to protect challenged consumers by updating its 1995 environmental advertising guidelines. Continue reading Greenwashing Is A Dirty Business…
Posted on June 16, 2008 |
Earth Cinema Circle: Netflix For Eco Geeks
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Green Living, News & Reviews | 1 Comment
When I first heard of this “environmental cinema club,” it sounded so out-of-date. A book club, a wine club, a DVD club…this was for the Angela Lansbury type, for someone who belongs to the not-busy-with-anything-except-my-rose-garden sort of club. As it turned out, I had Earth Cinema Circle pegged all wrong. It’s like Netflix for eco geeks, well, sort of…ECC curates eight films into 2 DVD’s and sends them your way every other month for twenty-two bucks, including shipping. These DVD’s are a combination of full length features and shorts. The hook is that most of them you’d never get to see without being a member of Earth Cinema Circle. And you get the bonus of carbon neutral shipping and 100% recycled packaging.
In just one rotation of films, I discovered earthships via the Garbage Warrior, deepened my fledgling understanding of biodynamic farming, fell in love with whales, and watched the most delightful cartoon about a man named Fred who folds the modern world origami-style into a wild expanse of nature. The films are insightful, edgy, and educational and just perfect for the nature lover, activist, eco-geek, teacher or cinemaphile in all-strike that-so many of us.
Some of the ECC films are mind-blowing, some mediocre, but all of them are packed with incredible information and inspiration about the world we live in. The beauty of having so many films in each shipment is that you can easily skip to the next one, like I did with The True Cost Of Food…and Ed Begley, Jr.’s intros (sorry Ed-I still love all the great work you do!) The ECC collections are yours to keep, so if you fall in love with a film, like I did with Garbage Warrior, you can host a screening at your house or pass them on to your enviro junkie friends.
If you’re a busy person who cares about the planet and you just can’t make it through your copy of Silent Spring after a long hard day at work, then Earth Cinema Circle might just be the perfect match…
Posted on June 13, 2008 |
Top 5 Easiest Ways To Save The Planet
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Green Living | 3 Comments
1 CARPOOL by Wolf
Sharing a trip with one other person immediately cuts the emissions in half by taking a car off the road. On average a carpool saves 527.8 gallons of gasoline and 4.536 tons of CO2 each year. The average family purchases 1,143 gallons of gas per year.
2 EAT LESS MEAT by DAVEC
Raising meat for food (livestock) is an environmental disaster, contributing more to global warming than transportation, using up 30% of the Earth’s land (yes, that’s right, 30% of the entire land mass of the Earth is used directly or indirectly in livestock production), contributing to significant water pollution, using up tons of energy and water for raising and transporting livestock, etc. For example, it takes 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of meat. The average American eats 185 lbs of meat per year, meaning 462,500 gallons of water can be saved by moving to a vegetarian diet!
3 TUNE YOUR CAR REGULARLY by Argam
Keep your engine tuned properly. Checking spark plugs, oxygen sensors, air filters, hoses and belts are a few examples of maintenance that can save a vehicle owner up to 165 gallons of gas per year, resulting in potential savings of over $600.
4 ELIMINATE JUNK MAIL by karlbach
- Junk mail destroys 100 million trees a year — the equivalent of deforesting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.
- Largely due to deforestation, junk mail manufacturing creates as much greenhouse gas emissions annually as 3.7 million cars.
- Every year, Americans receive 848 pieces of junk mail per household — 44% of which ends up unopened in a landfill
Also, more than half of unsolicited mail is discarded unread or unopened; the response rate is less than 2%. And junk mail creates 4 million tons of unnecessary waste per year! Calculating the weight of the junk mail trash from EPA data, it works out to 13.4% of 1276 lbs per household! So that’s 170 pounds of trash per household per year.
5 DON’T WATER YOUR LAWN EVERY DAY by Ghengis
The amount of water used by a sprinkler in one hour is equal to the daily water needs of a family of four! The average sprinkler will use in excess of 240 gallons of water per hour. If the average person sprinkles every day for a half hour and reduced that to once a week, one could save 37,560 gallons a year!! This is huge!
These Top 5 Creative Solutions were chosen by the folks at CreativeCitizen.com, the freshly launched collaborative website for community-proposed eco tips.
Posted on June 12, 2008 |
A Creative Citizen Is Born
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under News & Reviews | 2 Comments
When you talk to Scott Badenoch about his newly launched dot com, you get the sense that this one is going to go big time. He is smart, articulate, and self-assured as he runs you through the ways CreativeCitizen.com is going to bridge the disaggregated actions of the exploding Green Movement. Scott and partner Argam DerHartunian are driven by the mission to help everyone conserve 5 important elements: water, electricity, waste, emissions, and money. Badenoch explains his take on conservation, “No one is going to throw away their lifestyle and start wearing loin cloths and walking everywhere. It’s vital that the green movement find a place in people’s lives that saves them time, resources and money, rather than the other way around.” Continue reading A Creative Citizen Is Born…
Posted on June 12, 2008 |
Free Range Studios: The Story Of Stuff
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, The Big Picture, eCo TV | Leave a Comment
The Story Of Stuff has spread like wildfire through YouTube, Google videos, and inboxes all over the country and the world. What explains the millions of views of this little video by Free Range Productions? Well, everyone’s got stuff and will probably acquire some more of it in the immediate future. If you really want to know where your stuff comes from and what the effect of it all is, Annie Leonard breaks down the facts in a sweet and easy-to-understand way while weaving a tale you will never forget. And you might as well watch it, because stuff happens-and let’s admit it, those little cartoons make it so much easier to deal with…
Inspired by The Story Of Stuff? Take action!
- Order the DVD or download a free copy and host a screening at your house
- If you have a website or social network profile, you can share The Story Of Stuff on your site by embedding video or images from the film and linking to their site
- Donate to The Story Of Stuff and help Annie grow her mission
Posted on June 11, 2008 |
Great Green Father’s Day Gifts
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Green Living, Sustainable Style | Leave a Comment
Father’s Day 2008 is indeed upon us. Yes, again. Why not get your Dad something this year that’s better for the planet than say, another set of golf tees or that three-dimensional trout plaque that your Mom will make him hang in the garage anyway? (Disclaimer: An eco-friendly Father’s Day gift is a simply a suggestion and absolutely not intended to offend any child who’s purchased that trout plaque for Father’s Day in the past or plans to in the near future.) Anywho, here are the top eco gifts for Dad from eConscious Market… Continue reading Great Green Father’s Day Gifts…
Posted on June 10, 2008 |
The Ultimate Eco Laptop Bag
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Sustainable Style | 1 Comment
This chic recycled wool felt laptop bag by Carga is biodegradable, highly durable, and a slammin’ choice for the meetings that matter. These fairly traded bags are designed by Mauro Bianucci and handmade in his native Argentina. They can be found at various shops around the world or online at Refinery 29. Continue reading The Ultimate Eco Laptop Bag…
Posted on June 8, 2008 |
Carrotmob: The Art Of The Buycott Continued
By Greg Berry
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, eCo TV | Leave a Comment
You may have read about The Art Of The Buycott last month on eCo Times. If not, the basic idea is about using the buying power of the masses to make positive changes in the world, rather than boycotts, marches, and sit-ins (which can be effective too, but much less enjoyable.)
We found a choice example of the art of the buycott by an emerging organization called aptly, Carrotmob. You can probably tell by the name, Carrotmob is leading with humor. They dangle the carrot of fun, finance, and positivity to lead business to make the right environmental decisions. Carrotmob organized a hugely successful buycott in April at San Francisco’s K & D Market. Check out the hilarious video…
Posted on June 6, 2008 |
The Mother (Earth) Ship Has Landed
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Green Living | 2 Comments
Michael Reynolds is a wild recipe of a man: three parts rebel, two parts contractor, one part inventor, one part child, a dash of magician, and a whole mess a’ genius. He is known to some as one of the most brilliant green architects of our generation and now, due to new documentary film by Oliver Hodge, to some Mike’s known simply as the “Garbage Warrior.” Continue reading The Mother (Earth) Ship Has Landed…
Posted on June 5, 2008 |
Zaproot: Goodbye Nalgene, Hello Chipotle
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under eCo TV | Leave a Comment
The lovely Jessica Williamson of Zaproot bangs the final nail into the coffin of Nalgene plastic water bottles and gives us the scoop on seasonal and organic fast food options. You’ll also get a glimpse at some of the wackiest alternative transport options available today…stainless steel rocket-powered toilet anyone?
Posted on June 4, 2008 |
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