Eco – Tips™ — green “sweat equity” at home

May 22, 2012
Vol. 3, No.20

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how seemingly unimportant individual actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, actually do have an immense impact.

Fact:  As mentioned last week, while there are lots of cheap and easy ways to be green, some things may be cheap money-wise — or even free for that matter — but they may take a little more commitment and effort on our part.

Discussion:  Remember, effort is a relative term — some things will be a cakewalk — some things a little bit harder — but all of them should be do-able.

The good news is all this effort pays big dividends —  the “sweat equity” we invest in our environment will give us a huge ROI  – both in terms of better health — and in actual money saved.

Suggestions:  “CMC” — cheap but more commitment.  Once again it’s a long list– some things easier than others

1. Use ambient light even in the dim hours of early morning  (Be like George Washington and Abe Lincoln when getting up early and try not “lighting  any candles”  )
2. Use non-toxic soap in shower/bath (may also be more expensive — ME — but not necessarily so)
3. Use non-toxic personal care products (may also be ME – but not necessarily so)
4. Eat less meat (It takes approx. 20 lbs. of grain to raise 1 lb of beef)
5. Go meatless one day a week
6. Get rain barrel for garden water
7. Use same water-glass all day
8. Bring own travel mug to coffee shop
9. Use re-usable lunch containers for food brought to work
10. Use “old” one-sided paper for printing on your ink-jet printers at home
11. Take old ink-jet cartridges to office supply firms who can re-fill them
12. If you can’t re-fill cartridges at your near-by office supply store, UPS or “flat rate” Priority mail them back to the manufacturer so they can re-use them
13. Unplug all small appliances (toaster, phone charger, food processor) when not in use
14. MPG – open windows under  55 MPH – No AC
15. MPG – use cruise control all the time – even in city
16. Shop local when possible
17. Buy local/US goods when possible (may also be ME — but not necessarily so)
18. Avoid canned foods
19. Buy fresh food grown regionally when possible
20. Shop at Farmer’s Markets
21. Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) food co-op
22. Raise your own veggies  and herbs in a garden
23. Buy truly “natural” products (check ingredients – “sugar” and “98% natural” don’t count)
24. Watch less TV
25. Unplug computer when not home
26. Use “re-cycled” towels as rags instead of using paper towels
27. Use “recycled” towels  instead of disposable paper mop “pads” like “Swisher”
28. Clothesline or “rack dry” clothes when possible (you may be doing  this for “delicates” already – simply expand the range of clothes)
29. Use an electric mower
30. Trim bushes by hand (great upper body workout)
31. Compost — you can do it even in an apartment with special breeds of worms and have no odor or health problems ( We’ll talk in  six weeks about using that apartment compost)
32. Use natural soil enhancers in your garden (cow poop) — but know your source.  One friend told me of a gardener who lost all her tomatoes cause the cows were eating “treated” pasture
33. Grow garden pesticide free
34. Use table salt as a “kill all plants” weed killer (do not use it in lawn or garden as it kills everything — use only on walkways, etc.)
35. Grow lawn pesticide free (but know it might be more patchy or uneven till you get the hang of it)
36. Use shovel for lighter snowfalls instead of constantly going for the snowblower
37. Use plant/animal safe de-icer
38. And last, but not least — the old camp adage — “If it’s yellow let it mellow” (Easy to do, but may require some “committed” and possibly awkward conversations with your family/partner/roommates)

CMC —  “two points” for each action for their slightly higher environmental impact

1. Dispose of CFL bulbs properly – no mercury in our landfills please (Home Depot has a collection bin for CFL’s as do most hardware stores)
2. Car pool

CMC  – “three  points” for their much higher impact on our environment

1. Repair leaky faucets
2. Use eco-friendly paints (may be ME –but not necessarily so)
3. Use mass transit instead of own car
4. Bike/walk to work
5. Walk to stores less than a mile away.  (Will give you up to 15-20 minutes of exercise each way to boot)
6. Boycott “greenwashers”
7. Contact greenwashing company  and tell them you’re boycotting them
8. Use hand mower
9. Buy natural predators for garden bugs (e.g. lady bugs for aphids)
10. Insulate windows with plastic sheeting in winter
11. Write your government officials about environmental issues

Backstory:  If I have a mantra, it’s reduce your “energy profile”  and save water anyway you can.

This includes unplugging everything you you’re not actually using. Plugged in electronics are still sucking energy out of the system even when they are turned off (Vol. 2, No. 43) .  Be like Eric Clapton — and go “unplugged”.

Most of us never see the smoke stacks that are belching out NOx, SO2, CO2, mercury, lead, and other toxins into our air.  But they are there nonetheless – just ask Europeans about “acid rain”.

As for water — we’re spoiled here in the Great Lakes area — but many places are “thirsting” for water.  As population grows and both seasonal and long-term climate change affect shortages, water demands will increase.  Already over one billion people world-wide have limited access to water.  You may not see them, but they are there, and their plight indirectly affects our economy here in America.

We’ve all seen how oil shortages can  play havoc with our economy — but without water, both us and our economy are literally dead

Some where down the line, every one of us winds up paying a part of both the direct and indirect costs for not paying attention to our environment. It becomes an indirect tax you pay for resource impacts like acid rain, higher food costs, or higher health care costs — to say nothing of the personal tragedy of seeing a life cut short.

Stop.  Think.  Choose….  build some home spun green “sweat equity” — and reap the dividendss of your “sweet work” both now and in the future….

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Next Week:  Short-term expense — but long-term cheap

All the best,
David
IEMA Certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Eco-Tip™ — “sweat equity” green…at work

May 14, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 19

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how seemingly unimportant individual actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, actually do have an immense impact.

Fact:  As mentioned last week (home) and  the  week before (work), there are tons of cheap and easy ways to be Green.  Some things, however, take a little more effort and commitment on our part.

Discussion:  In our modern, fast-paced way of life, “easy and convenient” have  become the bywords of our culture and the standards by which we judge almost everything.

The sharpening stones of speed and time have honed us into an “Effortless Society”.

Today’s Eco-Tip™ cuts across that grain.  These are are all things that may take a little extra time and effort on our part — some not so much — and some that could stretch your “comfort zones”.

The good news is all this effort pays big dividends and will not only make our environment better — the “sweat equity” we invest in our environment will wind up paying us huge dividends.

Suggestions:  Once again it’s a long list– some things easier than others — but all with both long term financial and  health rewards — and a sense of accomplishment to boot.

MC: more commitment — worth one “point” (out of  three) on the environmental impact scale

1. Charge cell phone with adapter in car rather than in an office outlet
2. Talk about sustainability with co-workers
3. Talk about sustainability with supervisor/top management
4. Suggest green business/production methods to company
5. Suggest green office cleaning methods to company
6. Bring home recyclable not recycled at work (cans, plastic – or even paper)
7. Re-use manila folders (turn “inside out” to use tab on other side)
8. Recycle mail you don’t keep rather than throwing it in wastebasket
9. Remove “windows” from any envelopes you’re recycling (Usually poly or cellophane windows are not recyclable)
10. Remove staples from paper you’re recycling
11. Remove and re-use paper clips from paper you’re recycling
12. Re-use cardboard boxes
13. Re-use packing materials (bubble wrap, “peanuts” and packing paper)
14. Remove all tape from boxes that are being recycled
15. Use pencils rather than disposable pens when possible
16. Unplug monitor at night (may be harder to do than radio/disk player because of location of outlet/powerstrip under desk)
17. If company policy allows, unplug computer at night
18. Unplug ink-jet/laser printers at night
19. Unplug small appliances (microwave, toaster, coffee maker) in company lunchroom at night
20. Geeky as it may seem to some, bring your own lunch to work (in re-usable containers of course)
21. Use commercial printers who use 100% vegetable oil based inks (Note – by law, soy inks can contain up to 82% petroleum-based materials)
22. Buy FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and/or SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified papers  (Many papers are now FSC and/or FSI certified and their cost is competitive with most non-certified papers)
23. If using CFL light bulbs, dispose of them properly
24. Dispose of old electronics/computers properly  (In Cook County, IL, SWANCC – Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County – sponsors three sites to properly dispose of electronics at lower than “market rates”)

MC - worth two “points” on the environmental impact scale

1. Investigate your supply chain’s sustainability
2. Buy from sustainable suppliers (may be more expensive – but not necessarily) and eliminate “brown” suppliers where possible
3. When buying printing – never use UV coating (toxic and non-recyclable
4. Use sustainable printing companies (minimum requirements – vegetable oil-based inks, availability of recycled papers)
5. Use mail house who uses petroleum-free imaging systems (may be more expensive, but not necessarily)
6. Use oil-free/toxin-free laser printers/ink-jet imagers (may be more expensive, but not necessarily.  Canon and Xerox are two companies who I know from experience that carry “green” copiers)
7. (Suggest to/work with top management to) Use bio-diesel powered/high fuel-efficient company vehicles
8. Use messenger services and freight lines who use bio-diesel  powered vehicles(Vol. 3 No. 13)

MC - worth three “points” on the environmental impact scale

1. Think in terms of LCA (life cycle analysis) and RoS (Return on Sustainability) in terms of products used or upgrades made
2. “Green” your supply chain by educating current suppliers and seeking sustainable ones
3. Prevent “greenwashing” and protect yourself and all company employees by reading the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for products used by your company — both in the office and in production
4. Find out if any materials require  special RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) handling and disposal

Backstory:  As mentioned before — reduce your “energy profile” anyway you can — including unplugging everything you you’re not actually using. Plugged in electronics are still sucking energy out of the system even when they are turned off (Vol. 2, No. 43) . Be like Eric Clapton — and go “unplugged”.

Another reason is because  electricity’s impact is “invisible”.  Over 60% of our country’s electricity comes from coal.  (Here in Chicago, it’s mostly nuclear-generated, but Com Ed is still buying coal generated electricity on the open market to make up for energy shortfalls.)

Most of us never see the smoke stacks that are belching out NOx, SO2, CO2, mercury, lead, and other toxins into our air .  But they are there nonetheless – just ask the Europeans about “acid rain”.

Some where down the line, each and everyone of us winds up paying a part of the indirect costs of all that un-needed and non-sustainable electrical generation — whether it’s through resource impacts like acid rain, higher health insurance premiums,  or higher health care costs in general — to say nothing of the personal tragedy of seeing a life cut short.

Stop.  Think.  Choose….  build some environmental “sweat equity” now — and reap the rewards of your “investment” later….

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Next Week:  “sweat equity” at home

All the best,
David
IEMA Certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Stamp Out Hunger with the US Postal Service – May 12, 2012

USPS News:

On May 12, local communities across America will be asked to join the U.S. Postal Service and its letter carriers to combat one of this nation’s growing problems — hunger.

About 50 million Americans — including 17 million children — now live in families that lack sufficient food.

The Postal Service, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), Campbell Soup Company, Feeding America and other partner organizations are working together to collect food donations on May 12. It is the nation’s largest single-day food drive in local communities across America — including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

Now in its 20th year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive benefits Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.

“The Postal Service is pleased to continue supporting the National Association of Letter Carriers as we enter our 20th year together to help Stamp Out Hunger in America,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “I am confident the 2012 campaign will be our best ever because the need continues to grow.”

In 2011, letter carriers collected 70.2 million pounds of food donated by customers on their delivery routes, which marked the eighth consecutive year the total food collection was at least
70 million pounds.

This year, Nick Cannon, multi-talented entertainer and member of the Feeding America Entertainment Council, is the national spokesperson for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive for the second consecutive year. The drive particularly hits home for Cannon, who experienced hunger and visited food pantries as a child. Cannon will promote the drive on television and radio, as well as in print and social media to encourage even greater participation and donations.

To participate in the 20th Stamp Out Hunger food drive, residents are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal next to their mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on Saturday, May 12. Letter carriers will collect these food donations as they deliver the mail and take them to their local food bank or pantry.

Post cards and shopping bags promoting the food drive will be delivered by letter carriers to more than 90 million homes across the country as a reminder to participate in the drive.

Other partner organizations supporting the Stamp Out Hunger food drive are the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, Valpak, United Way, AFL-CIO, Uncle Bob’s Self-Storage and AARP.

The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive began at the local level in the late 1980s and went nationwide in 1992.

For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, visit www.helpstampouthunger.com or www.facebook.com/StampOutHunger, and follow the drive at www.twitter.com/StampOutHunger.

Eco-Tip™ — Cheap and easy “green” …at home

May 7, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 18

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how seemingly unimportant individual actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, actually do have an immense impact.

Fact:  As mentioned last week, there are many ways to be “Green” — some of them both cheap and easy — some a little more costly or requiring more effort on our part….

Discussion:   WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR affiliate, recently aired a segment on ways to be Green “on the cheap”.   I broke down  WBEZ’s concept a little further into five different categories to include those things that may take a little more effort than others, but are still cheap nonetheless — or may be easy but have some costs attached to them:

1.  Cheap and easy  — stuff you can do without batting an eye once you know to do it.  (CE)

2.  Cheap — but may be a little inconvenient and needs a little more commitment/slight changes to how you normally do things.  (CMC)

3.  Short term more expensive – but long term cheaper. (STE/LTC)

4.   Usually more expensive.  (ME)

5.   Takes significant effort for most people and/or will lead to lifestyle changes – FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON  — but not for saints like you and me…. (MC+)

Last week I wrote about the “no-brainers” we can do at work — this week is about the “no-brainers” you can do at home with little or no effort on your part.

With thanks for her comments, additions and “rural sensibility” to my friend, Juanette, who lives in the high plateau country of eastern Oregon.

Suggestions:  It’s a long list – but all of it super easy — some of them no-brainers that you are probably doing already — and some you may not have given much thought to yet, but are easy nonetheless.

CE: cheap and easy  — worth one “point” (out of  three) on the environmental impact scale 

1. Use ambient light in daytime — no need to turn on the light
2. Re-cycle the plastic bag from the home-delivered newspaper (or return the  rubber band to your carrier to use again)
3. Re-cycle yesterday’s newspaper
4. Re-use newspapers as garden mulch to keep down weeds between rows or around plants
5. Unsubscribe from catalogs you seldom or never use.
6. Ask merchants you do business with to not sell or trade your information to cut down future “solicitations”.
7. Recycle paper, plastic, bottles, cans
8. Turn off water while shaving
9. Turn off water while brushing teeth (morning and night)
10. Turn off water while soaping up dishes when hand-washing ‘em
11. If you take more that ten seconds to wash your hands, turn off water while soaping up  and back on again to rinse.
12. Bring re-usable garment bag to dry cleaners so they won’t have to use disposable plastic bags
13. Recycle/re-use hangers from dry cleaners
14. Turn OFF computer when going to sleep
15. Turn OFF computer when going to work
16. Turn OFF computer when gone 24 hours or more
17. Print out things only when you truly need them
18. Print double-sided whenever possible
19. Save discarded single-sided sheets to write/print rough drafts or other personal materials
20. Use “light” ink setting when printing out what you need
21. Turn down thermostat when going to sleep (or on vacation)
22. Set AC for higher temp when going to sleep  (or on vacation)
23. Leave shades up in day to “solar” heat your house on cool days or in winter
24. Pull shades down in summer to “un-solar” cool your house
25. In summer, open windows at night to cool the house, close them after sunrise to keep hot air out.
26. Turn off porch light when going to sleep
27. MPG – check your tire pressure and keep tires properly inflated (incresaes MPG by 3%)
28. MPG – take heavy things out of car trunk, truck bed (Another 3%….)
29. MPG – shop enroute home from work so you take fewer separate trips
30. MPG –When possible walk between stops rather than restarting the car repeatedly (Also  good cardio workout)
31. When only buying one or two items – don’t use any bag
32. Use re-usable grocery bags
33. WASH your re-usable grocery bags to kill bacteria build-up
34. Buy “bulk” when possible (less packaging, transportation required)
35. Use full loads in washer and dryer
36. Wash all clothes on “cold/cold” setting
37. Use “free and clear” detergents
38. Use phosphate-free detergents (required in some areas)
39. Use full loads in dishwasher
40. Take a walk in Nature to reconnect with your “Mother”
41. Use natural mulch (leaves) to help garden plants/trees retain water
42. Turn water heater to lower setting (120 degrees is recommended)
43. Turn down your water heater when going on vacation
44. Don’t over water lawn/garden
45. Water plants/lawn early morning/evening (less evaporation)
46. Run dishwasher and washer/dryer “off peak” (less strain on grid, cheaper rates for you, and eliminates the need to  build additional generating plants just to cover peak time)
47. Use electrical companies that have solar, wind or hydro offsets
48. Ask for a re-usable ceramic coffee cup at Starbucks – no disposable paper and plastic lids while drinking in the store
49. Unplug small appliances (toaster, blender, food processor) when not in use and prevent “vampire energy loss”

CE – worth two “points” on the environmental impact scale   

1. Turn on water to “one-quarter on” rather than “full bore on

“CE – worth three “points” on the environmental impact scale

1. Weather-strip doors
2. Say “our” environment instead of “the” environment – and build a stronger connection with Mother
3. Read books/articles on our environment
4. Talk to friends about our environment
5. …and with apologies to Graham Nash, “teach your children well”  (Also read and learn from Louv’s Last Child in the Woods)

Anything you can do to save water or cut electrical use is good for your pocketbook and the environment.

Some scientists believe that water issues could supplant energy as our greatest concern in the not too distant future.– especially with changing weather patterns. The drier Western states already are aware of this and a large portion of “environmental” litigation is over “water rights”.

As for energy — reduce anyway you can — including unplugging everything you you’re not using. Plugged in electronics are still sucking energy out of the system even when they are turned off.  The way to kill this “living dead” energy vampire is not with garlic or wolfbane — but like Eric Clapton — to simply go “unplugged”.

Another reason is because  electricity’s impact is “invisible”.  Over 60% of our country’s electricity comes from coal.  (Here in Chicago, it’s mostly nuclear-generated, but Com Ed is still buying coal generated electricity on the open market to make up for energy shortfalls.)

You may not see the smoke stacks belching NOx, SO2, lead, mercury or CO2 — but they are there nonetheless – and some where down the line you windup paying part of the indirect costs of all that un-needed and non-sustainable electrical generation — through higher health insurance premiums, higher government Medicare costs and health care programs, and higher health care costs in general.

You may not see it — but somewhere down the line you’re paying for it

Stop.  Think.  Choose….  so make it easy on yourself  — and do the free stuff now so you won’t pay for it later.

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Next Week:  Cheap stuff that requires some “sweat equity” on your part….

All the best,
David
IEMA Certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Eco – Tip™ — Cheap and easy “green”…at work

April 30, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 17

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how our seemingly unimportant individual actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, actually do have an immense impact.

Fact:  There are many ways to be “Green” — some of them both cheap and easy — some a little more costly or requiring more effort on our part….

Discussion:  Just before Earth Day, WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR affiliate, aired a segment on ways to be Green “on the cheap”.  From my own experience, I know that many of the ways to be Green are ”no-brainers” – but I also know that some, free-bies or not, take a bit more personal commitment.

With that in mind,  I’d like to break WBEZ’s concept down a little further, so I’ve come up with five different categories:

1. Free and easy — the no-brainers (CE)
2. Free or cheap — but takes a little more commitment on your part (CMC)
3. More expensive in the short-run — but cheaper in the long run (STE/LTC)
4. More expensive than “normal” all the time — but relatively easy to do (ME)
5. Greatest personal commitment  — regardless of price (MC+)

Commitment is a pretty personal thing.  What’s easy for one person can be excruciatingly difficult for someone else.  So I decided to break it down by — a) stuff you may not have known about before, but that really doesn’t require any lifestyle changes – b) stuff that requires some lifestyle change or financial commitment — and c) those things that require not only more effort, but possibly a complete change of lifestyle.

Who knows — maybe the lifestyle change will be as easy as pie and something you won’t find difficult at all.  One never knows.  The proof will be in the pudding — and you won’t know till you try….  So here are my suggestions for “no-brainers” you can do at work  — followed after that  by how this all helps….

Suggestions:

• re-cycle waste paper (MC–if your company doesn’t have a “blue-bin” program, take the paper home once a week.)
• use disposable pens till they run out (this could be harder than you think)
• re-use old envelopes for any documents that are hand delivered
• print everything two-sided — including letters to clients
• re-use blank side of any old one-sided documents (keep basket for them on desk or a box on the floor)
• re-cycle any cans, bottles, or plastic from lunch or snacks (MC — again bring home once a week if no “blue bin”at work)
• bring re-usable mug/cup to work
• use ambient light when possible rather than turning on light
• turn off incandescent lights when leaving a room
• leave fluorescent lights on if you’re going to be gone for les than 30 minutes
• lower thermostat when office is empty
• unplug radio/disc player at night
• “sleep” — or better if you can — turn off computer monitor at night (MC –unplug monitor from power strip)
• as company policy allows, turn off computer at night (MC — unplug it from the power strip)

Some of these are truly no-brainers that you are probably doing already.  Offices usually are not  — with the exception of paper — resource-intensive — they’re energy-intensive.  Electricity, heating, and cooling are the biggest drains.  Anything you can do to cut down energy use will be both effort and money well spent — including unplugging everything you can.  (Plugged in electronics are still sucking energy out of the system even when they are turned off.  The way to kill this “living dead” energy vampire is not with garlic or wolfbane — but like Eric Clapton — to simply go “unplugged”.

Electricity is the biggest problem, I feel, because it’s so “invisible”.  Over 60% of our country’s electricity comes from coal.  (Here in Chicago, it’s mostly nuclear-generated, but Com Ed is still buying coal generated electricity on the open market to make up for energy shortfalls.)  You may not see the smoke stacks belching NOx, SO2, lead, mercury or CO2 — but they are there nonetheless – and some where down the line you windup paying part of the indirect costs of all that un-needed and non-sustainable electrical generation — through higher health insurance premiums, higher government Medicare costs and health care programs, and higher health care costs in general.

You may not see it — but somewhere down the line you’re paying for it

Stop.  Think.  Choose….  so make it easy on yourself  — and do the free stuff now so you won’t pay for it later.

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Next Week:  The longer list of home free-bies….

All the best,
David
IEMA Certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Eco – Tip — UPS may not be as “green” as we think….

April 24, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 13-R

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how our seemingly unimportant individual actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, actually have an immense impact.

Update:

UPS is apparently not as green as I believed — and in the process of checking out the full story, I may have stumbled upon a flaw in the well-respected and world-wide recognized GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) system of auditing and evaluation of a company’s corporate governance and sustainability.  More on this later….

Since 2009, UPS has contributed $16 million dollars to  ALEC, a conservative (ultra-conservative in my opinion) “lobbying” group backed by the Koch brothers and which promotes “pro-business”, anti-regulation legislation — including legislation that would weaken current environmental  laws and prevent any further strengthening of pro-environmental policies.

While it was shipping “green” — UPS was actually fighting “green” through its political donations.  Greenwashing, in my opinion, at its duplicitous worst.  My thanks to an alert Eco-Tip™ reader for telling me about UPS’ “dark side”.

Stop.  Think.  Choose…. What you do can make a difference.

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

All the best,
David
IEMA certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Eco – Tip™ — Where the rubber meets the road…and our air

April 23, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 16

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how our seemingly unimportant individual actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, actually have an immense impact.

Fact:  Tires wear out.  I know this the hard way as my wallet and I just had to replace all four tires on my car.  My question is — where did all the rubber from my tires go?

The answer — sadly — is into our air and our water system.

Micro-particles of rubber are torn from the body of the tire by friction with the road.  Some of those particles are layered on top the road itself where rain will later flush them into storm sewers and eventually (hopefully after treatment) into our water system.  The “draft” created by the cars and trucks carries the other particles into our air where you and I get to breathe them.

Discussion:  Here’s where I’d like to  open the discussion to one and all.  And while I have some ideas as to how all that air-borne rubber affects us — those ideas are just that –  ideas — not facts.  I have not heard of or seen any research definitively connecting these rubber particles to public health issues.  Have you?

I do have a feeling, however, that somehow, somewhere there may be a connection….

One irrefutable fact I do have is the number of cars, vans, motorcycles, trucks and buses that are on the road.  The DOT’s National Transportation Statistics  (see page 259, Table 4-9) states there were 73,858,000 registered vehicles on the road in 1960.  By 2008, the number of vehicles had more than tripled to 255,916.000.

It’s the health data that’s inconsistent — or sometimes non-existent.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC)(page 1)  states that in 1950 lung cancer was only 3% of all cancer deaths of women.  By 2000, it was 25% and claimed far more women’s lives (67,600) than breast cancer (40,800).  And while cigarette smoking was far and away the greatest cause of the cancers reported, there was still an eight-fold increase in non-tobacco caused lung cancers.  Eight-fold….

In a separate report, The CDC  (page 8) states rates for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)/Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease (CLRD) also grew five-fold from four deaths per 100,000 people in 1950 to twenty  deaths per 100,000 people in 1996.

Yet data compiled by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (page 7, Chart 2-5 and page 63, Chart 4-8) showed a plateauing of COPD/CLRD in men the mid 1990′s which is inconsistent with overall population rates for asthma which continued to climb — as did  lung cancer rates among women.

Also, what seems to contradict my thesis of rubber-related public health issues was another NHLBI report (page 66, Chart 4-14) finding that COPD occurrence was lowest or only moderate in some of our most densely populated States — where the most cars are –but highest in the sparsely populated mountain States (with the notable exception of Utah)  and  in moderately populated Appalachia.  (Could coal a factor?)

I spent a limited amount of time — only ten hours or so — combing through the  multiple sources of “alphabet soup” agencies, all covering this same general subject, yet each with their own emphasis. This seemingly unconnected, multilayering perhaps led to some of the inconsistencies or “holes” I found in the data.

But there are some generalities that I am taking away from it all.

Since 1950, paralleling the three-fold growth in motor vehicles, rates of respiratory diseases, including lung cancer, COPD/CLRD, and asthma have continued to grow, despite the regulations put in place to control air pollution and dips in the number of smokers.  Our air is getting cleaner — and at least among men, COPD/CLRD seems to be plateauing — but there are still well documented rate increases in air-borne, respiratory-related diseases.

What do you think?

Suggestion:  Drive a little as you can.  Walk when possible or take public transportation if available.  And at least till we find a definitive answer, help keep “micro rubber” out of our air and water.

Backstory:  This whole concept of tires and where the rubber went came from a child’s question. They asked — and I didn’t know.  In fact,  I don’t think I ever gave tire rubber a thought until the question was asked.  Keep your eyes and ears open — you never know when an idea may come up and tap you on the shoulder…..

Stop.  Think.  Choose…. cleaning our air and water is a tire-less task

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Next Week:  Green on the cheap….

All the best,
David
IEMA certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Backup Statistics:

All data is from sources linked in the Eco-Tip™ above.  See text above for pages and tables/charts cited

Eco – Tip™ — It’s all in how you say it….

April 16, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 15

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how our seemingly unimportant individual actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, actually do have an immense impact.

Fact:  Hyperbole notwithstanding, this is possibly the most important “tip” I’ve ever written.  It can change your perspective on our environment forever.

Ask any writer, politician, salesman — any actor, lawyer, or lover of literature — our  choice of words and how we use them is crucial.  And while we all know our environment impacts our lives, our words often indicate and reflect a dispassionate relationship, a “disconnect” to our environment — most commonly being the simple word “the”.

“The environment” reflects a separateness, something outside of ourselves, an abstraction.  Conversely, “our environment” reflects a sense of connection, a closeness, a relationship.

Suggestion:  Try using the word “our” when talking about “the” environment.    Build a stronger relationship with your environment by using ”my” and “our” — just as you do when you say “my children” or “our family” rather than saying “the relatives I live with”.

The words you choose and how you say them are a reflection of who you are.  This simple change from “the” to “our” can provide  a sense of connection that opens the door to a new understanding and perspective on everything around you.

Choose your words carefully.  Let them reflect who you say you are.  What’s the best course of action becomes a moot question. If the mindset is there, all the right actions will follow….

Backstory: To paraphrase Dick Gregory — everyone’s imperfect.  Anyone who says they aren’t is arrogantly saying they’re better than you — and since arrogance is no virtue, that means they’re imperfect…

So here I am telling everyone to “Stop.  Think .  Choose.” — and while writing an Eco-Tip a few weeks ago, having a “mini epiphany” and realizing I myself had been acting without thinking while I regularly tossed around the words “the environment”.

As the words leapt off the page at me, I was suddenly reminded me of Zen lessons learned in Japan more than thirty years ago.  “Silly foreigner, there is no subject – object.  It’s all one and the same.”¹  

As Masanobu Fukuoka, author of the natural farming classic One Straw Revolution once said, “The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”²

We are what we do and say — and here I was abstracting my environment to something “outside” of myself as if I had no relationship to it.  So I dropped the “the” and started writing and saying “our environment”.

A “Clever Apes” segment on WBEZ (Chicago’s NPR station) re-enforced this way of viewing and writing about our environment.  The show’s host, Gabriel Spitzer, told of new studies being conducted on how children learn science — studies that compared how Native American Menominee children were learning science to children in “conventional” science classes.

The studies note how Menominee children learn about the inter-relationships that exist in all of science — not just about separate components in isolation from each other — and how this gives them a different — and some people would say deeper — scientific understanding than children in conventional classes.³

Hmmm…..  maybe they’re on to something here.  As in all of life, it’s our relationships that matter most.  With our families, with our friends –  and with our environment.

Stop.  Think.  Choose….  as Ringo Starr famously said, “It’s all in the mind y’ know.”  Now is the hour to start saying “our”….

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Next Week:  Tires….

All the best,
David
IEMA certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Backup Statistics:

¹Paul Reps’ Zen Flesh, Zen Bones was my introduction to Zen Buddhism.  I recommend it highly.  What I came away with after reading Paul’s book is that Zen is not so much a religion as we in the West would normally think of it, but a way of being, a path, as in tao (Chinese) or do (Japanese).

² Though I never met Fukuoka-sensei personally, when not teaching at Kinki University in Osaka, as time permitted I worked with Tim Payne and Bill Dean on their farms in Aotani, a small village just over the mountains north of Kyoto.  Tim would make regular pilgrimages to Matsuyama where Fukuoka-sensei had his farm.  And though Tim, Bill and I were all “naturalists” in our approach to the land, it wasn’t until reading sensei’s book did I finally realize it was much more than thumbing our noses at “industrial agriculture”, but again a do or path.  One Straw Revolution is another book I highly recommend.

³ In Blackfoot Native American tradition, whenever one starts a prayer or speaks before a gathering of the tribe, the speaker starts with the words “Ok’ine k’soku wa” — “greetings in the name of all our relations.”  This is a reminder to both speaker and  listeners that what is being spoken is in the interests of everyone and everything that sustains the tribe — from tribe members, to the animals whose gift of life provides food, shelter, and clothing, to the waters and the plants that sustain them all.  It is a recognition of the inter-dependence and relationship — both physically and spiritually — with all of Creation that surrounds their tribe.

Eco – Tip™ — MMM — how to be greener in May

April 5, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 14

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how our individual daily actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, have immense impact.

Fact:  What are the top three most effective ways to protect our environment and reduce global warming?

1. Drive more fuel efficient cars and trucks (Of course….).
2. Insulate your home (Sounds right….)
3.  Eat less meat. (Really?)

The first two are pretty high on everyone’s list.  But eating less meat– only 3% of people polled selected  this one — and up until recently, that would have included steak-eating me.

But reducing the amount of meat you eat actually does have a high impact .  Here are five of some of the many reasons why:

• raising one kilogram of wheat  needs only 1,500 liters  – but raising one kilogram of beef requires 15,000 liters of water 
• fed lot/industrial-style cattle and hog-raising have a a severe impact on the on the land and water systems, especially in regard to animal waste and changes to the soil/release of carbon from the soil
• “animal gas” may provide a bit of humor when talking about global warming, but it’s impact is deadly serious.  As detailed in an  United Nations Food and Agriculture report (2007) , methane (CH4) is 21 times more “efficient” at trapping heat than carbon dioxide (CO2)
•  approximately 20 pounds¹ of grain are required to produce just one pound of beef
• 20% of all nitrogen fertilizer — a source for Nitrous Oxide (N2O)  – is used for feed grain — and N2O is 296 times stronger than CO2 in its global warming potential.

Suggestion:  Follow the lead of the Alliance for a Greener South Loop and go Meatless on Mondays in May (MMM)…and then try it for the rest of the year and beyond.

Backstory:  

I’m an omnivore.   When I was younger, if it moved, I ate it.  If it didn’t move, I ate that, too.

Over the years, I changed my diet and began eating in a more sensible and healthier way.  Part of it was the eleven years I spent living in Japan where the emphasis was on fish, tofu, veggies and rice.  Sushi and sukimi soba were my all time favorites.

When I returned to the States, though, I added Italian sausage, steak, and Greek style lamb back into my diet, but still more or less kept eating  “Asian style”.

Two things happened recently, however that made me really re-think my eating habits and a couple of weeks ago led me to giving up meat almost entirely — not quite 100% — but really scaled back.

One was a response to my “100 Acts of Green-ness” contest.  (By the way, we have a winner — announcement coming later this week.)  One reader asked — “How come you don’t have reducing the amount of meat you eat on your acts of green-ness list?” — and gave me the link to the McKinsey Quarterly that talked about the un-sustainability of meat.

Since meat was pretty much under my radar already, I hadn’t thought about it in that way.  But I did remember reading Francis Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet back in the ’70′s and so the reader’s comments struck an old chord.  That’s when I began looking up how meat affects our environment.

What I found was astounding.  The FAO report and the Quarterly linked both here and above are absolute treasure troves.

Meat eating is such a part of America culture — much more so than other countries, so I don’t really expect everyone to suddenly give up meat.  But I would ask you to think about scaling back a bit.  Find a comfort zone  you can live with for a while –and then think about gradually taking more and more reductions later on…..

The second “epiphany” was watching the documentary “Forks over Knives”.  It’s all centered around health.  Watch it on Netlix or other “on demand” provider — or rent it from your library.  Pretty amazing film….

Like they say on an airplane before you take off, when the oxygen masks appears, put yours on first before assisting someone else.  You can’t help your seat-mate if you’ve passed out from lack of air.

And we can’t protect our environment unless we protect ourselves.

Stop.  Think.  Choose….  For yourself, for our Planet — reduce the meat you eat

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Next Week:  In observance of Passover and Easter, the next Eco – Tip™ will be on April 16th.

Respectfully,
David
IEMA certified Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioner

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Backup Statistics: In addition to the links above, here are the calculations and sources used to determine statistics cited above.

¹ Canadian Agriculture experts recommend growing steers consume approximately 2% of body weight per day.  According to the US Department of Agriculture, commercially raised beef cows have a life span of two years till slaughter and the average 1,000 pound “live weight” beef cow yields 450 pounds of beef.

Beef cows are weaned at 6-7 months, then eat a diet of grain and fibrous foods till slaughter.  Applying the 2% of body weight recommendation:
2% x 1,000 lbs. = 50 lbs. of feed per day
50 lbs. x 548 days (one and a half years) = 27,400 lbs of feed potentially consumed
27,400 lbs x 33% (time allowance/cow to achieve weight) = 9,042 lbs. feed consumed
9, 042 lbs. ÷ 450 lbs net beef product = 20 lbs. of feed consumed per pound of beef

Eco – Tip — “green” package and freight shipping

March 26, 2012
Vol. 3, No. 13

Eco-Tip™  welcomes your comments and suggestions.  Our goal is to openly discuss environmental issues, to suggest actions that make our environment safer, and to show how our individual daily actions, when totaled-up nation-wide, have immense impact.

Fact:  You can sustain our environment by shipping packages through UPS’ “carbon neutral” program and larger freight shipments by a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified bio-diesel/green carrier.

Alternatively, you can use the Post Office’s shipping formats that support a fifteen point sustainability program.

Note: There is a five-cents per package charge for UPS ground shipments, and twenty-cents per package charge on UPS air shipments (including next-day/overnight express envelopes).

Discussion:
Packages — To improve their bottom lines, the Post Office and major package shipping companies have steadily increased their sustainability by using “fuel-sipping” vehicles and planes.

Additionally, in partnership with the EPA, the Post Office has more than doubled their number of “alternative fuel” vehicles since 2005.

Alternatively, UPS offers a direct, individualized way to sustainably ship your package by offering an optional “carbon offset” program you for each package you ship

The cost of the UPS program is minuscule — only 5¢ for a ground package, 20¢ for air express and 75¢ for international packages.  In addition, UPS will match up to $1,000,000.00 per year the total carbon offsets purchased by its clients.

See UPS’ press release  announcing the program’s start in October, 2009 or see a full description, including ordering services/shipping under their carbon neutral program.

Freight – For larger commercial shipments, the EPA’s “Smart Way” partnership program provides a wealth of information and resources — from how to make your own fleet of trucks more sustainable (as well as your personal car) — to a nation-wide directory of sustainable truckers — including bio-diesel LTL/OTR shippers and “green” local trucking companies.

To find the directory of sustainable trucking companies click on View complete partner list to find trucking companies, freight expediters and logistics firms  that can best meet your shipping needs in a sustainable way.

The EPA also has a regularly updated ranking of carriers based on CO2, NOx and PM (particulate matter) grams/mile and grams/tonne-mile.

Suggestion:  Whether you are shipping small packages or truckloads of material, for little or no additional short-term cost, you can conserve resources, protect our environment, and reduce both long-term and indirect tax costs — for fuel, healthcare, environmental clean-up — all by shipping “green”.

For most of us personally, this will most commonly occur when we ship a package to friends and family.  Using UPS “carbon neutral” only costs a nickel, but its impact is priceless.  And by using the  Post Office, you’re supporting alternative fuels and a fifteen point sustainability program.

If you are a commercial entity, direct your current freight company to the EPA Smart Way website.  The website can provide them tips on how to become more sustainable and improve their bottom line — and they can also learn how to become a Smart Way Partner if they already aren’t one.

But perhaps the most important ancillary action you can take is to let the recipient know how you’re shipping their package to them.  (UPS provides access to special logo’s/labeling materials you can use.)  There are a couple of reasons to do this….

First, to create greater public awareness. If you show you did it, others will learn they can do it also.

Second, for business entities, it benefits your bottom line by building customer loyalty through “greening” their supply chain.  (Wal-Mart, for one, looks at the sustainability of its vendors and their supply chain in assessing which vendors to use.)

Then, after you’ve made your shipment, take a deep breath and know that the air you breathe just got a little cleaner….

Backstory:  Recently our company did a printing job for a very, very sustainably-oriented financial  firm who only invests in sustainable or corporate socially responsible firms.  Yet when talking to them about shipping options, though my contact knew about bio-diesel trucking firms, they were unaware of the UPS Carbon Neutral program.

They were delighted to learn about the UPS program and passed the information “up the food chain”  for possible use by their entire firm, including the overnight packages they send out as well.

The project we did was only 650 postcards that we had printed 100% petroleum and toxin free.  The thinking at our company is if you’re going to manufacture something sustainably, it makes sense to ship it sustainably as well.

For me personally, though, sharing this “green shipping” information was the best part of this project.  By doing so,  now hundreds, perhaps thousands of packages/overnight envelopes may now start being shipped “green” as well.  And to know that we as individuals can have that kind of impact — that feels really good…..

Next Week:  MMM….  One neighborhood’s quest for a greener community

Stop.  Think.  Choose….  Choose a way of shipping that not only delivers your package, but “delivers” for the environment at the same time.

Reduce.  Re-use.  Recycle.

Respectfully,
David

© 2012 Though “open sharing” of this copyrighted material is both permitted and even encouraged between individual family members, friends and co-workers — any commercial use of this material is strictly prohibited and requires the author’s expressed written permission in order to be disseminated in any printed or electronic format including any form of social media.

Backup Statistics:  See links above