Being “green” is so hot right now. Everyone’s talking about it, even Walmart, and now their best computer buddy is joining in for some of the hot, hot PR action.
environment
How Many Earths Would It Take To Sustain Your Lifestyle?
By 9.25.07
“Consumer Consequences” is an online “game” where you enter data about your living, work, travel, energy, and eating patterns, then see how many earths would be needed to sustain your lifestyle if every single person on the planet did the same thing. It’s a relatively fun way to graphically tally up your environmental footprint, and helps you highlight where you use the most resources (and, ideally, where you can therefore cut costs).
Tips For A "Greener" Autumn
By 9.18.07
LighterFootprint has compiled a list of things you can do during the fall to help lower your impact during the winter. Lowering your impact usually means lowering your energy costs, so it’s a good idea to pay attention to these tips even if you hate the planet and want it to melt.
By 9.17.07
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London Councils is considering either banning or placing a tax on plastic shopping bags to help curb landfill waste. They say London is “facing a landfill problem because Londoners annually use 1.6 billion bags, which take 400 years to decompose.”
By 9.10.07
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The last time you bought a mattress, the store probably offered to take your old one away for free. Trouble is, mattresses are hard to dispose of and expensive to recycle. They can’t be compressed easily in landfills, and have to be manually torn apart or put in expensive machines to even partly recycle them. They suggest you look for “green” mattresses online, and take good care of your current one so it will last as long as possible. [Seattle Times]
In The Store, "Green" Is A Matter Of Opinion
By 9.6.07
Do you try to be a green consumer? Says who? The problem with eco-friendly shopping today is that it’s become the “Wild West” of marketing, says the Los Angeles Times, with dozens of self-appointed labels, grass roots seals-of-approvals, and no unified, federally mandated guideline. According to Bruce Hamilton of the Sierra Club,
“People are consciously trying to fuzzy the boundary lines between clarity and lack of clarity so they can sell more products. Everybody is trying to promote their products as green even though they may not be.”
By 8.22.07
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If you’re interested in switching to “green light,” check out this comprehensive but digestible CFL buying and use guide. [Danny Lipford]
Ethical Shopping Is Pointless: An Interview With Consumer Activist George Monbiot
By 8.7.07
Sure, being a more conscientious shopper is gratifying; we’ve gotten in the habit of refusing bags at the store whenever we can manage to carry the goods some other way, and although it’s a small step, it feels good. But Monbiot, a British journalist and political activist who was interviewed this week on the website of newconsumer magazine, would laugh in our stupid faces at how ineffectual we’re being as consumers: “In the absence of political action it is a form of passivity.”
I am very sceptical of consumer power. I believe better consumption by itself is an entirely useless means of achieving political change. Those who have the most votes – the vote being the money you have to spend as consumers – are generally inclined to use them the least.
Borders Forces Customer To Take Plastic Bag, Claims It Is "Proof Of Purchase"
By 7.31.07
A Borders cashier wouldn’t give Allison her copy of Harry Potter without a plastic bag. A mindful environmentalist, Allison refused, even after the cashier stated that the bag would serve as Allison’s proof of purchase. When Allison pointed out the absurdity of using a bag as proof of purchase when she had a receipt, the cashier:
…rolled her eyes and said that if I didn’t want the bag, I could throw it away as soon as I left the store. I exclaimed that that was certainly the least environmentally friendly thing anyone could do, and she just pushed my book, a bag, a poster and my receipt at me and said, “Next.”
Allison’s letter to Borders, and their response, after the jump.
What Good Is A Carbon Offset Program If British Airways Doesn't Tell You About It?
By 7.23.07
British Airways has come under fire for not informing customers of its carbon-offsetting program, possibly for fear that people will fly less if they knew the real environmental impact, according to the Times of London.
Donate Or Recycle Old Cellphones With exPhone
By 7.7.07
What will the legions of new iPhone owners do with the perfectly good cellphones they just replaced? exPhone hopes that anyone with unused, unloved “exPhones” will consider either donating or recycling their old companions. Before saying goodbye to any exPhone, you should take three basic steps to protect your wallet and your privacy:
Continental To Let Passengers Purchase Carbon Credits To Offset The Environmental Impact Of Air Travel
By 6.2.07
Starting this summer, Continental will offer passengers the ability to buy carbon credits to offset the environmental cost of their travel. Though airlines contribute to global warming, air travel is one of the most carbon-efficient ways to cross long distances.
[Continental’s] program, being carried out with Sustainable Travel International and announced Wednesday, will let fliers calculate the so-called carbon footprint of their trips’ greenhouse gas emissions and buy carbon offsets online from Sustainable Travel.
San Francisco Modifies The Age-Old Question: Paper Or Plastic?
By 4.1.07
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 to ban the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags; supermarkets across the city will retrain their employees to ask: paper or biodegradable plastic?
The Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, written by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and Co., sponsored by six other supervisors, gives major supermarket chains with more than $2 million in annual sales six months to make the switch to biodegradable bags. Pharmacies and retailers with at least five locations have one year. Violators face fines of up to $500.
Supermarkets have let economics guide their choice between paper and plastic. Paper bags cost four cents, while plastic bags cost a penny. The largest San Francisco supermarket hands out 125 million plastic bags each year.
GE: We're Totally About To Invent A Better Incandescent Light Bulb In, Like, Several Years
By 2.23.07
Ultimately the high efficiency lamp (HEI) technology is expected to be about four times as efficient as current incandescent bulbs and comparable to CFL bulbs.
Like, by when? The apocalypse? —MEGHANN MARCO
On-Line Energy Audit Tool for Fanatics
By 12.27.06
Want a “real” energy audit, but don’t want to pay for it? Introducing the Department of Energy’s Home Energy Saver! It’s a very intense energy simulator that takes into account the shape and square footage of your house, how many windows you have, shade trees, you local climate, the direction your house faces, the age of your appliances…everything! The site then suggests upgrades and calculates how long it will take for energy efficient changes to pay for themselves. Very, very, very cool tool for consumers who already know the basics and want to do more. —MEGHANN MARCO
