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 |
Field To Fork: The Story Of Food Miles
By Joshua Rosenthal, M.S.
Filed Under Green Living, The Big Picture | 2 Comments
Personal food choices have an impact on our bodies and on our environment. Every single meal we eat is made up of food that requires significant amounts of energy to reach our plate. The journey our food takes is much longer than most realize. We refer to this journey as food miles - the distance food travels from field to plate. The higher the mileage, the less cool the food.
Food travels further these days because large corporate grocery stores have centralized methods for distributing food. In some cases, a crop of cherries may travel across the country to be packaged and then sent back close to where the cherries were originally grown. In other situations, stores fly in food from all over the world to ensure they have fresh produce, whatever the season. This practice causes us to have organic bananas from Peru, kiwis from New Zealand, and avocados from Mexico at any time of year.
In my own area, my food coop sells organic apples from Washington State right next to apples grown locally and they both cost about the same. Locally produced, seasonal foods cut energy use and therefore leave a smaller impact. They are much much better for the environment and for local economies.
Then there’s the matter of meat. To eat or not to eat, that is the question. Cattle require huge amounts of water. Giving up just two pounds of beef a year will save more water than if you stopped showering for a year. When is Al Gore going to start talking about this? Continue reading Field To Fork: The Story Of Food Miles…
Posted on June 3, 2008 |
FSC-Certified Rubber: Helping The Amazon To Bounce Back
By Pippa Sorley
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | Leave a Comment
Some of us have heard the term “FSC-certified” before, especially when shopping for furniture or paper products. The Forest Stewardship Council was established in 1992 to improve forest management worldwide and has been certifying wood-based products for more than 15 years. But there’s a new certification trend in town: eco-friendly rubber?
Rubber is used to manufacture thousands of our every day products. We use it to rub out our mistakes (pencil erasers), rub elbows on the tennis courts (tennis shoes), and even rub up against each other (condoms). Rubber is ubiquitous, but one rarely thinks of where it comes from…rubber as a product sourced from the Amazon Rainforest.
The rubber tree produces a sap that is extracted just like maple syrup. This sap is known as latex, and is typically harvested when the trees are 5-6 years old. Incisions are made just deep enough to tap the vessels without harming the tree’s growth, and the sap is collected in small buckets. This process is known as rubber tapping.
Though most rubber tree plantations are found in Indonesia, rubber trees are indigenous to the Amazon Rainforest. When Amazonian “rubber tappers” a.k.a. “seringuieros” are able to make a living wage from harvesting in the forest, it reduces greatly the likelihood that they may sell their land to timber companies for a quick, one-time payoff. This is a perfect example of when conscious commerce lends to both social and environmental sustainability at the same time, while also turning a profit a.k.a. serving the Triple Bottom Line.
Many companies in the US and Europe are starting to realize that they can participate in sustaining healthy economies and ecosystems abroad while sourcing the highest quality raw materials for their products. Anne O’Loughlin uses FSC-certified rubber to make the soles of her sneakers at her fair trade shoe company, Autonomie Project. According to Anne, “All natural rubber certified by the FSC is truly the most environmentally-friendly alternative possible for the soles of the shoes…The rubber earns its certification because it is completely natural with no added toxins or chemicals, and is tapped from a tree…in a sustainable manner.”
Interested in the Forest Stewardship Council? Take action!
- Look for the label and ask for FSC-certified products when buying lumber, paper, and rubber
- Source FSC-certified materials, if you manufacture items with rubber, paper, or wood
- Become a FSC member and vote on issues at the FSC General Assembly
Posted on May 27, 2008 |
Memorial Day: Understanding The True Costs Of War
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under The Big Picture | 3 Comments
This Memorial Day weekend, Bush stated, “Kids will be out of school, Moms and Dads will be firing up the grill, and families across our country will mark the unofficial beginning of Summer,” Bush said. “But as we do, we should all remember the true purpose of this holiday – to honor the sacrifices that make our freedom possible.” This is a rare opportunity to follow the advice of our President. Let’s take a stark look at some of the human, environmental, and financial sacrifices of the US-led invasion of Iraq, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Ecosystems
Though the total toll on Iraq’s environment due to the war is yet unknown, many obvious aspects can be examined. Depleted uranium used as munitions by the US military in Iraq has caused cancer rates to soar in both children and adults. Both the ancient rivers of the Tigris and the Euphrates run through Iraq, providing drinking water to people as well as a diverse array of West Asian wildlife. Approximately 90% of the marshes on the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers have dried up due to strategic dam building. This has caused the disappearance of water buffalo, foxes, birds, and boar.
Intentionally-set oil fires have released thousands of tons of greenhouse gasses into the air. These fires have also polluted the Sea of Oman with fallout from burning oil debris, which is laced with poisonous chemicals such as mercury, sulfur, and furans. This sea is home to 4 out of 5 species of endangered marine turtles, as well as many types of birds and fish. These species are now being poisoned. Poorly tended oil wells have spilled in surrounding ground water and soil, contaminating animal habitats and human water supplies. Potential farmland has been ruined by the scattered unexploded ordinances and craters caused by bombings. Overall, it is clear that the natural elements, as well as the cities and infrastructure will take countless years to recover. Continue reading Memorial Day: Understanding The True Costs Of War…
Posted on May 26, 2008 |
The Art Of The Buycott
By Greg Berry
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | 2 Comments
It comes down to awareness.
Many of us know what is happening. We are living out of balance with the natural world. Our culture gives us carte blanche to throw away plastic bottles after drinking water from the other side of the planet. Our TV tells us that we’re never going to find true love unless we choose the right toothpaste. We listen to music protected by lawyers on iPods built in sweatshops while driving SUVs shipped across oceans fueled by diesel that funds dictatorial regimes. It’s not cool, it’s not natural, it’s not fair, and both “the piper” and “the fat lady” are tuning up off-stage.
Had enough? It’s time to do something.
The real power you have, I have, we all have, is in our wallet. The economic puppeteers know it to be true. Like it or not (and I’ll go on record in the ‘not’ column), consumerism is the lifeblood of America. It fuels our entire economy. And the only thing that is going to create lasting, sustainable systemic change starts and ends at the cash register. In the 21st Century, it’s no longer about political protests and angry boycotts, it’s about economic leverage and focused BUYcotts. Why the change? It’s more effective. Plain and simple. Continue reading The Art Of The Buycott…
Posted on May 13, 2008 |
World Fair Trade Day
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | 1 Comment
World Fair Trade Day is celebrated every second Saturday of May. It is a day devoted to bringing awareness to the what, where, why and how of Fair Trade. Where we get our morning cup of coffee directly effects farmers and agricultural communities all over the world and can mean the difference between an impoverished community and a thriving one. Whether it’s coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas, rice, sugar, handicrafts, or even sports gear, asking for Fair Trade at the stores you shop at is key. Check out this beautiful piece on Fair Trade coffee by eq.tv.
Take Action: Support Fair Trade in your community.
- Celebrate World Fair Trade Day at an event near you
- Buy Fair Trade products
- Look for the Transfair USA Fair Trade symbol on imported staples (coffee, tea, sugar, rice, and bananas)
- Ask your grocer what Fair Trade products are available in their store
Posted on May 10, 2008 |
Myanmar Cyclone: Time to CARE
By admin
Filed Under Modern Philanthropy, The Big Picture | Leave a Comment
We often go about our daily activities - consumed with our careers, family obligations, and entertainments of every kind. It’s easy to exist in the bubble of our own lives. But there are moments that by their sheer awfulness, jolt us out of our insulated reality. Catastrophic events like Katrina, 9/11, the 2004 Tsunami have forced us to take pause and become aware of our greater global community.
According to the UN, the Myanmar Cyclone has killed as many as 100,000 people, and left hundreds of thousands of people without food and water. From so many miles away, we can not fix it all, but we can definitely help. We can CARE. Continue reading Myanmar Cyclone: Time to CARE…
Posted on May 8, 2008 |
The Natural Evolution Of Business: Introducing the B Corp
By Greg Berry
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | Leave a Comment
Historically, progressive business leaders had a few different ways to create companies. The Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), ‘S’ Corporation, and ‘C’ Corporation are the most common legal forms of business. Some of the most socially minded business people have chosen to start ‘earned-income non-profit corporations.’ Without devolving into a Latin-laden deconstruction of these choices, each of the existing options includes some major flaws for this generation’s greatest heroes, the social entrepreneurs.
Our friends at B Lab have set out to change that, with the formation of the B Corporation (B Corp). The ‘B’ here stands for Beneficial. B Corp provides a comprehensive ratings system and certification to help both businesses and buyers distinguish “good companies” from “good marketing.” Founding B Corporations include eConscious Market, Method, Seventh Generation, and Dansko. We spoke to Andrew Kassoy, one of the B Lab founders, who explained their purpose as a way to support “the power of business to create benefit, and to ‘be the change.’”
The socially conscious business movement is by no means limited to a handful of lefties in Boulder and San Francisco. According to Kassoy, there are approximately 60 million ‘green consumers’ in the US today (roughly 20% of the population), 30-40,000 businesses that identify themselves as socially-driven businesses, and over 2.5 trillion dollars has been assigned to “more conscious investments” which span a diverse group of investors and strategies. Continue reading The Natural Evolution Of Business: Introducing the B Corp…
Posted on May 6, 2008 |
Drink Coffee, Kick Junk
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Green Living | 3 Comments
I’m not generally into making New Year’s resolutions and, until now, I’ve never actually kept one. Back in December, I went to have a late night tea with a friend. There was a Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf right there, so we popped in for their last call. I didn’t actually want the tea I ordered, I just wanted to talk with my friend and it seemed polite to have a tea together. My mint tea came in not just one paper cup, but two, and a sleeve. These people really wanted to protect me from the heat of my luke warm tea. I’d been trying to cut down on excess waste (plastic bags and all that), so I gave them back one of the cups. As I sat with my friend, sipping this tea I didn’t really want to begin with, I just realized I can’t do this anymore. I looked at my friend and said, “This is my last paper cup.” Continue reading Drink Coffee, Kick Junk…
Posted on May 2, 2008 |
Putting The Fair Trade In Sports
By Mathew Gerson
Filed Under Conscious Commerce | 3 Comments
Scott James redefines the term good sport. Scott and his wife Susan have pioneered the North American market in Fair Trade equipment for soccer, football, basketball, volleyball, and rugby with their company, Fair Trade Sports. Pakistan is the number one producer of sports balls in the world, and Fair Trade Sports is one of the few sport retailers that can truly guarantee their products are made by adults who are paid a fair wage in a decent working environment. If you play sports or know someone who does, this is the brand for you.
What inspired you to get into the Fair Trade sporting good biz?
I was in the Fair Trade movement already, doing coffee, tea, and cocoa, when I saw a note from FLO (Fairtrade Labeling Organization International, Transfair USA’s parent company) that sports balls became an official certified Fair Trade product during the run-up to the last World Cup in 2006. I’m a lifelong soccer player, so it caught my eye and the idea stayed in the back of my mind for a few years…I felt it was time for someone to lead the efforts here in North America and I wanted to bring a new, fun, sexy product to the Fair Trade movement to show consumers we have more than just agricultural products. Our line consists of eco-balls for soccer, football, basketball, volleyball, rugby, and more.
Where are your balls made and by whom?
Our sports balls are hand-stitched by our adult workers at our certified Fair Trade facilities in Sialkot, Pakistan. It’s a town of about three million people, most of whom are involved in the sports ball creation industry. Amazingly, more than 75% of all sports balls in the world come out of this one town….
Our adult stitchers are folks like Sameena, who lives in a village called Chak Gillan, near Sialkot. Sameena is one of 11 siblings, seven sisters and four brothers. Two of the older ones also stitch balls. Stitching wages are low - only the Fair Trade buyers from our international group pay enough to enable the three to provide their family with all the basic necessities. Continue reading Putting The Fair Trade In Sports…
Posted on April 29, 2008 |
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