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University of Washington
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law

University Testimonials for Recycled Paper

 

"When it came time to re-brand Berkeley Law's collateral, we re-strategized our thinking in regards to how each piece will be used, as well as how it will impact our environment, with much attention paid to minimizing waste. This thinking also enabled us to further align with the long-term sustainability goals of the UC. We revisited format, size, page counts, quantities, and of course, paper. New Leaf [Paper] was at the forefront of our minds when it came to selecting paper that was a perfect match to our objectives. Through making more thoughtful decisions around our choices, we felt that it was a no brainer and win-win all the way around."

University of Texas at Tyler

"With the turn of each page, we wanted our viewbook not only to inform, but also to impart a full sense of the UT Tyler experience, including the park-like beauty of campus, which wraps around two lakes, surrounded by pine and oak forests. We chose bright-colored, uncoated New Leaf Ingenuity [100% post-consumer waste] paper, which holds the ink brilliantly and provides a rich look ant feel."

Washington State University

"At first, I thought it would take too much time and money to get the look right on recycled stock. Our printer was also worried - they thought it would rip on the press and be a nightmare - but the scenario couldn't have been better! We ended up having to make fewer adjustments than we did with our old stock. The printer was also very pleased with the outcome." 

Larry Clarke, Editor, Washington State University Magazine
on using Rolland paper

(see the full interview here)

Baylor University

"The Baylor Business Review (BBR) magazine is the flagship communication of Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business. The 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled paper selection allows the BBR to be environmentally friendly without sacrificing the high quality look and feel readers have come to expect from the award-winning magazine."

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worstcoal
California
worst oil
Deadline August 28: Tell the EPA to Protect Our Water

Scott Pruitt’s EPA is taking aim at yet another Obama-era policy - the Clean Water Rule of 2015. This rule addressed the term "waters of the United States" as used in 1972’s Clean Water Act, and broadened the definition to include rivers, streams, and other small waterways which originally weren’t explicitly addressed in the Act. In fact, it protects about 60 percent of bodies of water in the country. 

When the Clean Water Rule was brought to public comment in 2015, 87 percent of the million people who commented showed support for the Rule. Clean water in big waterways and small, of course, is in everyone’s best interest. At a time when more and more people are concerned about the toxins in their drinking water, loosening regulations on polluters is clearly dangerous to human health. 

Now Pruitt wants to return to the 1972 terms of what the Clean Water Act and explicitly exclude the small waterways that had been protected in 2015. Large businesses, especially in the agriculture industry, argue that the rules constitute government overreach and cause economic harm. If the EPA leaves enforcement of environmental protections to individual State’s discretion, we will inevitably have less and less protection from polluting industries.  

This is just the first step in a large-scale assault on the Clean Water Act. We cannot allow this repeal of the Clean Water Rule to go through. Take action by submitting your comment to the EPA until Aug. 28th, 2017. Use this example comment if you like.

Dear Administrator Pruitt, 

I ___(name) stand firmly by the EPA's Clean Water Rule of 2015. In its current form, streams, rivers lakes and other wetlands are given the necessary protections, and any attempt to weaken these designations is against the spirit of the bipartisan Clean Water Act of 1972. I uphold the Clean Water Rule of 2015 because it ensures us 

clean water and viable habitats for people and animals. Any attempt to limit these protection to will lead industries to recklessly pollute waterways to the detriment of public health and safety. I oppose any and all efforts of the EPA to work against one of its central missions of providing Americans with clean and safe drinking water. 

 

Signed: ______(name) 

Date_______(today's date) 
 

This post is by Eleanor Greene and Mark Rakhmilevich.

How To Pull Your Money Out Of A Big Bank (It’s Not That Hard, I Just Did It)

BY EILLIE ANZILOTTI

Apart from the familial ties that I was born into, my relationship with Wells Fargo may have been one of the longest-standing of my life. Since I was 11 years old, I’ve had a savings account with the bank, linked to my parents’ finances. I don’t remember how old I was when I opened my first checking account, but I assume I was in high school. When I moved to New York three years ago, I set up my first credit card in a Wells Fargo branch office and felt very adult and also concerned about the streak of fiscal irresponsibility the new plastic might unleash in me. What company I banked with felt as inevitable as the family I was born into and the state in which I grew up. Putting my Wells card down on the table at dinner, I often felt a bizarre affection for how it identified me as a Californian.

But despite that sentimentality, Wells and I have parted ways. The decision was mine, and the idea to make it began to percolate earlier this year, as allegations of the bank’s financial investment in the Dakota Access Pipelinebegan to come out. That California-based sentimentality over my account had morphed into something more resembling nausea, knowing my money was funding something I didn’t believe in. But even so, it’s taken me until now (longer than it took the entire city of Seattle) to make a switch.

After I decided I wanted to pull my money from Wells, I had to confront the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. How would I go about finding a new bank I could trust? When should I move my money, and how? It took a series of conversations and months of thought and preparation, but I’m sharing what I learned here to make it clear that it’s not as overwhelming as it seems.

How would I go about finding a new bank I could trust? When should I move my money, and how? [Photo: Flickr user Bill Smith]

DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR BANK?

Where you bank is not fated; it’s a personal choice. Or rather, it should be, but the same forces of apathy, ignorance, trepidation, and laziness that were preventing me from taking my finances out of an institution with which I ethically disagreed prevent too many others from doing the same. When you’ve frequented the same ATMs and logged into the same online bank account for the majority of your life, a move away from that institution can feel rather like stepping off the edge of a cliff.

But it’s a cliff that’s proving increasingly intriguing for many young Americans, who have been losing faith in our large financial institutions. Wells Fargo is not alone in finding itself at the center of a scandal: In 2015, Citibank was ordered to pay back its customers a total of $700 million for misleading credit card marketing; Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is still at the helm of the company despite knowing of and ignoring to Bernie Madoff’s $64 billion Ponzi scheme, largely run through JPMorgan Chase account and considered the most fraudulent financial scheme of all time. Both institutions, along with Bank of America and Wells Fargo, were the engines that both created and punctured the housing bubble that precipitated the financial crisis of 2008. As Robert Jackson Jr., a law professor at Columbia University, told Quartz, “there’s no such thing as a ‘good’ big bank after the financial crisis.”

“Generally and broadly, there’s a lack of trust among millennials in the financial industry, and it’s deserved,” Ariel Anderson, a financial planner at Society of Grownups, a personal finance organization aimed at young people, tells Fast Company. “We constantly read headlines about the missteps of banks like Wells Fargo; we lived through the financial crisis,” she says. And large financial institutions are representative of the capitalist system, which, as Fast Company has reported, has fallen out of favor with more than 51% of the millennial demographic.

Various organizations have tapped into this trend: In 2011, during the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a group of organizers designated November 5th as Bank Transfer Day, and encouraged consumers to move their money into nonprofit credit unions or ethical financial institutions. This past year, Green America suggested that people funnel their Valentine’s Day discomfort into a breakup with their big bank. (Though there are no estimates as to how many people participated, Bank Transfer Day drew around 50,000 members to their Facebook page). Both organizations emphasized, however, that starting the process should not be confined to these designated days: You should begin to move your money whenever you feel ready and able to do so.

So that being said, here’s what I’ve learned from making the switch out of a big bank:

“We constantly read headlines about the missteps of banks like Wells Fargo; we lived through the financial crisis.” [Photo: saoirse_2010/iStock]

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Given that I parted ways will Wells Fargo over an ethical quandary, I wanted to find a new platform that wouldn’t compromise my values. Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) banks and credit unions, generally, target their investments more toward local investments and causes, rather than destructive projects like DAPL. Credit unions are highly localized, member-owned nonprofits that provide financial services to the communities in which they operate; CDFIs are private, for-profit institutions that make loans to underserved communities (read more about them here). The Harbor Bank of Maryland, for instance, recently made a loan to East Baltimore Development Inc. that has gone toward financing new science buildings for local schools. The Opportunity Finance Network, an umbrella organization for CDFIs, has a helpful search tool to use to locate nearby community development banks.

Ethical banks like Aspiration in the U.S. and Triodos in Europe, both of which boast sustainable and fossil-fuel-free investment portfolios, are another alternative. Though less hyperlocal than CDFI banks and credit unions, ethical banks are driven by good–Aspiration, for instance, devotes 10% of its revenue to charity, and charges customers only what they feel is fair to pay–and aim for institution-wide transparency to counteract the labyrinthine structures of big banks.

For the sake of disclosure, after a long and thorough search process, I opened an Aspiration account. Spring Bank, a New York-based CDFI, was a close contender, but another thing to consider about banking with a CDFI is that you ought to be firmly settled in your community to do so–I still have strong ties to the West Coast as well as New York, so I wanted a bank that would offer me more flexibility in terms of location (Aspiration is all online). But give me a few more years to become a a rooted New Yorker, and experienced bank switcher, and I can see myself opening another account with Spring Bank. Both Aspiration and Spring represent another bonus of ethical banking: They reimburse all ATM fees.

CDFIs and credit unions, generally, target their investments more toward local investments and causes. [Photo: karammiri/iStock]

MAKE SOME (VERY CAREFUL) MOVES

Once you’ve analyzed your options and selected a new account that aligns with your ethics, now’s the time for the tricky part: Actually moving your money. This is best done very slowly (the whole process took me about two months). I talked to Andrei Cherny, CEO of Aspiration, after I decided to open an account with them, for some tips; here’s what he recommended.

If you have more than one account open with your big bank–I had two checking accounts and a savings account–consolidate your money into one account, then alert your bank that you will be closing the others. I communicated with Wells Fargo through email, which was surprisingly simple, but you can also visit a physical branch and meet with a representative who will walk you through the process. Then, open your new account–I transferred just $500 to begin with, and most banks will suggest a minimum deposit–and if you’ve been receiving direct deposits from your employer, talk to your HR representative to get a new form to route your checks into your new account. I recommend doing so immediately after receiving a paycheck, so there will be enough time in between checks to link the new account. For me, it took less than two weeks.

While you’re waiting for your new card to arrive in the mail, go through last month’s bank statement from your old account to identify and cancel automatic payments and recurring transfers (some examples: the amount I regularly moved into my savings account with each paycheck; my Optimum bill; my monthly Netflix payment). Then, go through your payments systems, like Venmo and Apple Pay, and make sure those are linked to your new account or card, when it arrives.

When it does, you can do a big transfer from your old account to your new one. To do so, you’ll need to link your old account with your new one. On your new bank’s website, find the “bank transfer” section, select your old bank from a list (you’ll see all the big ones–Wells, Bank Of America, Citi, and so on), and sign in. You’ll then select whatever account you want to link, and how much money to move to your new bank.

It’s best to keep some money in your old account if you’ve missed any automatic payments–you don’t want to be hit with an overdraft fee while you’re trying to financially liberate yourself. And it’s also best to keep that old account open with a small amount of cash in it for a couple of months after migrating, just in case of emergencies.

“Generally and broadly, there’s a lack of trust among millennials in the financial industry, and it’s deserved.” [Photo: aoldman/iStock]

WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, FACE DOWN YOUR FINANCES

I expected to feel good about putting my money into an account that I chose, and I do. But the unexpected benefit to this whole, long process, was the opportunity to get up close and personal with my finances. In addition to a distrust of large financial institutions, JJ Ackles, the director of marketing for Long Game, a prize-linked savings account app, tells Fast Company that young people tend to get trapped in an avoidance cycle when it comes to their money. “It’s like: I feel shitty about my money, therefore I don’t want to look at it, therefore I don’t look at it, therefore I feel shitty about it,” Ackles says.

When you move all your money to a new account, you have to look at it. And that opens the door to considering new ways to handle it. There are apps like Long Game, which reward every time you move money into your savings account with the opportunity to play addicting, lottery-like games and potentially win more money; other savings platforms like Digit help you set up specific savings goals.

And it’s also, says Erin Lowry, blogger and author of Broke Millennial, not a bad time to consider investing, if you haven’t done so already. Though the financial industry has a history of making investing into an opaque endeavor, available only to those with substantial monetary worth and knowledge, that’s actually not the case. New tools now exist that both lower the financial bar to investing, and make it easier to tailor your investments to support causes you care about. Aspiration, for instance, manages two funds with a $100 minimum investment, both of which support only companies with solid environmental and ethical commitments. The startup OpenInvest has a $3,000 minimum investment, but takes the unique approach of asking you what you care about, whether it be climate change or low-income housing development, and builds out a portfolio unique to you. (Fast Company has done a thorough roundup of what you need to know to invest to fit your values.)

Taking your money out of a bank with which you clash ethically frees you to use your money to have the kind of impact you want on your life and on the planet. “People are looking for better tools and better ways to manage their money,” Ackles says. “We want to create a way for people to have a positive interaction with their money.”

And taking that step, Lowry says, will begin to put pressure on the big banks to reconsider their own ethics. “We need to educate ourselves and we need to stop putting our money in institutions that we feel are unethical,” Lowry says. “So many people don’t even bother to do the diligence and just stick with the status quo. That makes it easier for the old banks who have not changed their policies to behave in the way they have always done, just because they can.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eillie Anzilotti is an assistant editor for Fast Company's Ideas section, covering sustainability, social good, and alternative economies. Previously, she wrote for CityLab.

 

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Fast Company
Bioplastics: Benefits and Pitfalls

There are a lot of claims made about bioplastic products. Some are true, some are partly true, many are misleading, and most are unsubstantiated. It’s a bit of a Wild West scenario in the world of bioplastics: producers are trailblazing into new terrain in search of petrochemical plastic alternatives; everything from corn to mushrooms to poop is seen as a polymer source. Manufacturers and retailers are hot to tout what they see as “environmentally safe” plastic. Meanwhile, policymakers and regulators are scrambling to attach real definitions to the producers’ eco-fantastic labels.

There’s plenty to get excited about in terms of finding a good alternative to petrochemical-produced plastics, but we shouldn’t ride off into the sunset with bioplastics just yet.

What are bioplastics?

 

Bioplastics are, in simple terms, plastics made from renewable feedstocks, which can include corn, sugar cane, potatoes, coconuts, mushrooms, wheat, wood, or soy beans to name a few. (Conventional plastics are made from crude oil.) Like conventional petrochemical-produced plastics, there are several types of bioplastics: Some of the most common include poly lactic acid (PLA) derived from corn, wheat, or sugar cane, and labeled with a #7 resin recycling code; bio-polyethylene made from sugar cane or corn, with a #4 recycling code; polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) primarily derived from corn, with a #7 recycling code.

Bioplastics are used to make a lot of so-called “green” products like food containers, cutlery, bags, bottles, foams, electronics casings, medical supplies, and beyond. Many are compostable, a few might be biodegradable, and some are also recyclable.

Sounds great, doesn’t it—a naturally derived plastic from a renewable source that just melts back into the Earth when we’re done with it? We hate to break your bioplastic bubble, but not all of these biomass-produced polymers are environmentally innocent.  

Renewable Isn’t Always Green

You probably noticed that many of the renewable feedstocks used to make bioplastics are agricultural crops—corn, sugar cane, soy beans. Industry cowboys are quick to point that out, too. But what they aren’t so forthcoming about is that much of the corn used for bioplastics is a GM (genetically modified) crop, and that crop requires a lot of industrial fertilizers, pesticides, water, and land to produce. For example, NatureWorks, one of the largest manufacturers of PLA bioplastic in the US (a subsidiary of Cargill, one of the largest suppliers of genetically modified corn in the world), uses—you guessed it—GM corn.

Magnify this process to a global scale: GM crops expanding, huge swaths of land being converted to agriculture but not for food, more deforestation, more fertilizers and pesticides being used, food costs continuing to soar, and food shortages becoming even more of an issue. Suddenly, the scenario isn’t so Earth-friendly. Sure, the stuff isn’t made from crude oil, which decreases use of fossil fuel and the production of greenhouse gases, but it has negative consequences in other ways.

But not all bioplastics use genetically modified corn, or even corn, and innovations using more sustainable biomass, like algae and even chicken feathers, are already underway. There are promising results by a California-based start-up converting sewage into biodegradable bioplastic. There’s certainly no shortage of human waste! According to Heeral Bhalala, a research associate in sustainable plastics for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), even mega-companies like PepsiCo. are greening bioplastics: “[They] are already working on using the food scraps from their food production plant to create 100% biobased bottles for their beverages.”

That said, even if bioplastic companies start using abundant, low-impact materials for their products, we can’t neglect to consider the end-of-life cycle of many of the bioplastics—that is to say, their ability to biodegrade, compost, or recycle.

Beware of Biodegradability Claims

This is the category in which bioplastics theoretically have huge benefits. Bioplastic producers like to hoot and holler about their bioplastics being 100% biodegradable and/or compostable. Not every bioplastic is biodegradable (e.g., bio-polyethylene (#4) is only recyclable), and even those that do biodegrade may only do so in specific environments, if at all. ILSR’s Heeral Bhalala states that most product claims of biodegradability “are usually not true.”

Part of the problem is that there are loose standards for what qualifies as biodegradable, and there’s virtually no third-party verification of manufacturers’ biodegradability claims. The Federal Trade Commission “Green Guide” gives a broad definition for biodegradability for manufacturers to use a guide in terms of marketing, but the FTC is an agency built to protect consumers from deceptive advertising—it doesn’t make environmental policy or set the standards.

ASTM International, an organization that develops international standards across various industries, created pass/fail standards for biodegrading and composting that are generally accepted and trusted. Yet, know that these are voluntary standards; bioplastic products aren’t required to be tested, except in California.

In terms of specific legislation, California passed laws that require products with compostable or biodegradable labels pass ASTM standards. And the USDA’s Certified Biobased Product label, which verifies that a product contains a proven amount of renewable biological ingredients using ASTM standards, just went into effect in February of 2011. Further legislation for marketing claims and stricter definitions of terminology are sure to come either on a federal or state level, or both.

However, even biodegrading bioplastics that pass ASTM standards need to be looked at carefully. You have to ask what conditions are required for that biodegradation? By and large, the answer is an aerobic or oxygen-filled environment (a field, a forest, an ocean) with adequate microbes to start munching away at the stuff. Here’s the hitch: a lot of plastics (petrochemically produced or biomass produced) end up in landfills. The Environmental Protection Agency reports on its Web site that “only 7 percent of the total plastic waste generated in 2009 was recovered for recycling.”

Let’s be clear on this: landfills are designed to be as anaerobic (oxygen-void) as possible—the things are practically hermetically sealed to prevent as much decay as possible. Melissa Hockstad, Society of the Plastics Industry’s Vice President of Science, Technology and Regulatory Affairs and Director of the SPI Bioplastics Council, put it bluntly, “Bioplastics are not currently designed to degrade in a landfill.”

In short, even bioplastics from the most sustainable feedstocks aren’t going to benefit the environment any more than conventional plastics if they end up in landfills. They must be disposed of in a way that allows them to biodegrade or compost.

Coordinating Composting

A biodegrading product is not held to the same standards as a composting product; composting is a more strictly defined, standardized process of degrading. “Biodegradable” means a product will break down and return to the Earth in a “reasonably short time,” according to the FTC Green Guides. They may need the help of a municipal composter to do so.

Composting bioplastics shows a lot more promise than biodegrading. “Compostable,” according to the FTC, means the product will degrade into “useable, compost-humus-like material that enriches the soil and returns nutrients to the Earth.” According to the FTC, they are supposed to degrade just like leaves and food waste in a backyard composter, but due to a lack of oversight with this label, the fact is that many will still need a municipal composter to fully break down.

Right now, consumers probably should assume that current “biodegradable” and “compostable” bioplastics can only be composted in a commercial composting facility with controlled heat and moisture (i.e., generally not the backyard heap). Sadly, these composters are few and far between, the majority do not accept material from individuals, and some may ban bioplastics anyway, since many bioplastics are indiscernible from conventional plastics. A lot of progress still needs to be made simply in terms of public access.

On the bright side, detailed international standards for compostability already exist, and the noprofit Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) created a Compostable Label program that verifies company’s composting claims. Additionally, the Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative (SBC) created a set of guidelines and recognition levels for compostable biomass-based food serviceware called the BioSpecs, which take into account issues of environmental protection, health, social and economic justice, and material resources. Hopefully paving the way for more cities, San Francisco and Seattle implemented   city-wide compost curbside pick-up programs that accommodate compostable bioplastics; Seattle’s municipal composter, Cedar Grove, even has its own approval label on compostable products that reads “Cedar Grove Approved.”

For other ways to get your compostable bioplastics to a commercial composter, Heeral Bhalala of ILSR suggests seeking out the compostable bins at Whole Foods (not all stores have them) and other sustainably minded stores and restaurants, which often have compost-hauling services. And you can look up your nearest municipal composter and see if it’s one of the few that accept waste from individuals on the Web site findacomposter.com.

For home-composters willing to try it, Bhalala says “it’s good to test composting [bioplastic] products in your own backyard compost pile. They do require higher temperatures to compost and are slower to break down, so it helps to shred them to increase their surface area and to put them in the middle of the compost pile.”

Melissa Hockstad, of SPI, states that the US Composting Council is “… working on growing the composting industry in the US such that more people have more access to [commercial composting] facilities, which is beneficial for bioplastics such as PLA and PHA.” But until composting facilities are readily available and accessible, bioplastics could most often end up hauled off to landfills.

Recycling Bioplastics

Recycling bioplastics isn’t always an easy accomplishment. Recyclers fear that non-petroleum-based plastics will corrupt their streams (many bioplastics have lower heat resistance—and that whole biodegrading thing they might do is not desirable in the eyes of recycled plastics manufacturers for fear that the recycled plastic will degrade prematurely).

Most bioplastic manufacturers say recyclers’ concerns are unfounded.  In fact, bioplastics are recyclable; bio-polyethylene (given a #4 resin recycling code) is even accepted in many traditional recycling streams. As for bioplastics PLA and PHA (the #7s), they are generally not accepted by municipal recycling collections, but some manufacturers offer to take back their products for recycling. However, there is no infrastructure for individuals to collect and transport the plastics back to the manufacturers, so for those unwilling to mail their bioplastics back to the manufacturer, in the trash it goes!

In essence, current US recycling and composting facilities just haven’t caught up with bioplastics. And in order to give recyclers and composters the incentive to start to invest in accepting bioplastics in their streams or facilities, there needs to be a significantly larger volume of bioplastics to recycle or compost. Basically, the problem has to get worse before it will get better. The current and predicted growth rate for the bioplastics industry (estimated to be upwards of 40% in the next four years by some experts, like Melissa Hockstad), might make that happen sooner than later.

The Toxicity Question

As we reported in the Nov/Dec 2011 Green American, plastics are rarely just made out of oil—they’re mixed with a host of chemical additives to enhance their capabilities, i.e. make them more flexible or less flammable, to prevent them from degrading or to tint them pretty colors, write Mike Neal and Dr. Anthony Andrady in a 2009 research paper published in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transitions B. The same holds true for bioplastics—they aren’t just made from plants. They may have the same toxicity issues that a conventional plastic does.

In October 2010, a team from the University of Pittsburgh released an analysis of both petro- and corn-based PLA bio-plastics for toxicity and environmental life-cycle impact (from cradle to end use, not including disposal), published in Environmental Science and Technology.  The bioplastics were more toxic than conventional plastics when it came to releasing ozone-depleting chemicals, carcinogens, acidification, eutrophication (contributing to dead zones in bodies of water, usually via fertilizer runoff) and eco-toxicity.

These impacts came largely from fertilizer and pesticide use associated with growing the corn feedstock for the bioplastics, say the researchers. And critics of the study note that it did not take bioplastics’ sustainability trump card—its ability to biodegrade or compost—into account at all in the lifecycle analyses, which may have put bioplastics far ahead of petro-plastics in more categories.

But analyzing the manufacturing of bio-based feedstock into plastics did contribute to the researchers’ toxicity rankings.

In addition to feedstocks, chemical additives and manufacturing processes will differ between manufacturers. Other, more responsible manufacturers not included in the University of Pittsburgh’s analysis have demonstrated far different results when it came to the toxicity of their products.

What consumers can learn from this study is that just because a plastic is plant-based doesn’t make it 100 percent nontoxic.

An Evolving Industry

Responsibly manufactured bioplastics make a lot of sense in many ways. At the most basic level, they aren’t derived from petroleum, and reducing dependence on oil is always a good thing. There’s no question that conventional plastics are an enormous problem for the environment on many levels, from their production to their disposal. Adding urgency to the matter are the expected continued growth of the use of plastics and dismal rate of plastics recycling. Secondly, based on the information we know now about bioplastics, they don’t stick around for hundreds of years, though they probably don’t degrade as quickly as most manufacturers claim—certainly not if they are in a landfill.

At this point, corn, sugar cane, or soy beans may not in sum be significantly better than petrochemicals as a source for plastics, but it’s a start. Bioplastics are still a new industry and it’s evolving almost daily. Nonprofit, watchdog groups (like BPI and SBC) are stepping in where state and federal laws and regulations lag, too. Companies that are using corn, even GM corn today, are already looking to other biomass to produce their bioplastics in the future.

Given enough pressure from consumers, environmental groups, and federal agencies on bioplastics manufacturers, recyclers, and composters to coordinate their efforts, improve accessibility, and become greener, we could end up with a truly biodegradable, compostable, recyclable bioplastic—and live happily ever after.

What to Look for in Bioplastics

In the meantime, the path of least impact is to use compostable bioplastics, especially if you’re able to compost them through a commercial composter or through trial and error in your own compost pile (remember it could take a long time to fully degrade). Heeral Bhalala of ILSR recommends seeking out bioplastics that meet as many of the following criteria as possible:

- Made from biomass, not a conventional plastic with biodegrading additives (e.g. BioGreen Bottles)

- Meets at least a SBC BioSpec Bronze level

- Meets ASTM (D6400 or D6868) or EN 13432 standards of compostability or displays BPI’s Compostable Label or Cedar Grove Approved logo (European companies Vinçotte and Din Certco also have compost labels)

- Made from as much biomass material as possible, preferably displays the USDA Certified Biobased Product label

- Made from GMO-free crops

 

Hang Up On Fossil Fuels: Green America Launches Campaign Urging AT&T, Verizon To Commit To 100% Renewable Energy

 

Washington, D.C.—August 24, 2017— The two largest telecommunications companies in the country – Verizon and AT&T – are being urged by Green America to rapidly adopt renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both companies are currently using less than two percent renewable energy, putting them far behind many leaders in the tech industry, including Apple and Google, which have met their goals of 100 percent renewable energy. Telecom competitor Sprint is also ahead of AT&T and Verizon, with a goal of securing 10 percent of the company’s energy from renewable sources by 2017.

The new campaign is on Green America’s website, Facebook page, and a dedicated action page, to mobilize customers nationwide to call on AT&T and Verizon to make public commitments of 100 percent renewable energy in their operations by 2025.

“AT&T and Verizon are clearly behind the curve when it comes to adopting renewable energy to power their massive data centers,” said Todd Larsen, executive co-director of Consumer and Corporate Engagement at Green America. “As more and more companies recognize their obligations to lower their emissions and help the U.S. meet the goals of the Paris Climate Accords, our two largest cell phone providers are clearly lagging behind leaders like Google and Apple. Now is the time for both companies to make a commitment and provide a timeline to get to 100% renewable energy.”

With clean energy sources growing rapidly in the U.S. and prices coming down, more and more companies are getting on board with 100 percent clean energy commitments,” said Beth Porter, climate campaigns director at Green America. “AT&T and Verizon both recognize the urgency of climate change and the need for action, now we need to see that concern translate into commitments to purchase of wind and solar power.” 

“Customers of AT&T and Verizon expect both companies to be leaders,” said Fran Teplitz, executive co-director of business, investing, and policy at Green America. “As those customers increasingly use data, and drive demand for power-hungry servers, both companies need to move to renewable energy sources quickly to lower the impact of their operations on the planet.”

AT&T uses approximately 15 million MW of electricity per year and Verizon uses over 10 million MW.  Their combined electricity usage is enough to power 2.6 million homes. The combined emissions from operations is equal to nearly 4 million cars on the road for one year.

Last year in the U.S., there were 207 million people with access to data networks via their smartphones. Not only is this number expected to rise to nearly 264 million users by the end of 2021, but each user’s data consumption also expected to increase by a factor of six over the same time period, creating a growing demand for energy to power these networks.

In order to ensure security and accessibility, the servers that store data and keep the network up must be kept running for 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, using massive amounts of electricity. Unfortunately, with only one to two percent of the electricity generated or purchased by Verizon and AT&T comes from a renewable energy source like wind or solar, both companies are relying heavily on fossil fuels for their energy, which contributes to climate change.

Despite rapid growth in cellular data demands over the past several years, both AT&T and Verizon have managed to keep their energy use relatively constant. On their websites, they highlight their efforts to reduce their energy intensity; a measurement of efficiency, which is the amount of network traffic per megawatt of electricity (petabytes/megawatt). While energy efficiency is a crucial step, AT&T and Verizon are still using millions of megawatts of electricity, mostly supplied by fossil fuels, and contributing to the rise in global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

ABOUT GREEN AMERICA

Green America is the nation’s leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today’s social and environmental problems. http://www.GreenAmerica.org

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Max Karlin for Green America, (703) 276-3255, or mkarlin@hastingsgroup.com.

 

How to Green Your College Experience

By: Ayate Temsamani, Better Paper Project Fellow

It can be exciting to start the new academic year in college with brand new supplies! Unfortunately, those notebooks, binders, and papers can generate a significant amount of energy and water waste. Paper products are a classic staple (pun intended) of the most important “Back to School” supplies. But new paper production generates more waste and contributes to devastating climate consequences. Making virgin fiber paper is a resource-intensive process: it is estimated that 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down globally each year to produce paper, not to mention all the energy needed for bleaching, printing and transporting the paper.

 Like any product, paper produces environmental impacts throughout its life cycle (raw material extraction, processing, manufacturing, distribution, use and treatment of waste). Over 40% of the world’s industrial logging goes into making paper, and this is expected to reach 50% in the near future. Forests contain more than 80 percent of the terrestrial biodiversity and represent one of the last refuges for a large number of animal and plant species. This is why deforestation is a disaster for both humans and other species, since it is estimated that 27,000 animal and plant species disappear every year because of it. This loss of biodiversity, which can be irreversible, will eventually deprive us of invaluable services and resources. School supplies can easily turn into a mountain of paper and plastic, hurting your wallet and the planet at the same time.

Here’s the good news…

We’ve put together some tips you can use to green your back to school experience and start implementing some green living habits in college. Here are some simple habits to adopt, which can be both ecological and economical:

1) Give your school supplies a new life!

While many school supplies such as pens are reusable for several years in a row, the EPA estimated that 1.6 billion disposable pens are thrown away every year. If they are not lost or broken during the year: binders, pencils, pens, calculators can all be reused.

2) Buy second-hand

Buying second hand allows us to use resources already produced, while enjoying much lower prices. There are plenty of online used book stores such as Thriftbooks, Powells, AbeBooks.  

3) Compost in your dorm room

A list of things that are found in college students’ dorm rooms can be composted including: Fruit and vegetable scraps, moldy bread, crackers and cereal, tea and teabags, Cotton balls and swabs made from 100 percent cotton, Natural corks from wine bottles, used paper towels, napkins and tissues among other items. There’s likely a garden or Agricultural Sciences Center on campus that will appreciate the donation!

4) Recycle and encourage your friends to do so

Make sure to recycle school supplies including old class handouts, papers, unusable textbooks… Check if your dorm has a recycling program and let your friends and neighbors know about it. You can always help start one in case your dorm doesn’t have a recycling program already in place. Finally, don’t forget to donate your supplies when you leave for the summer, you can use sites like Craigslist and Freecycle, or take them to your local Goodwill or thrift store.

5) Buy non-toxic supplies!

There are lots of non-toxic school supplies that are socially and environmentally responsible. Such supplies can be found at Naturally Playful*, Far East Handicrafts*, Life Without Plastic*, Favor the Earth.* Other products such as corn plastic pens, recycled plastic mugs, recycled paper notepads among others are available at Write Choice Promotions.

6) Make a list before buying

In case there are some items that can’t be recovered from last year, make a list and stick to it while shopping for Back to School supplies. This is a great way to avoid overbuying and it also protects your wallet! You could also look up around how much you will likely spend on supplies, and then take enough cash to cover those items to make absolute certain you won’t overbuy.

7) Look for recycled paper products

If you need to buy new notebooks or notepads, make sure to buy ones that are made of recycled paper: Acorn Designs*, Earth Presents*, Greenline Paper Company*, New Leaf Paper.* For any virgin content, only use fiber from certified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forests.

8)  Use your laptop to take notes

You can start taking notes on your laptop or other digital devices that don’t require any paper. Moving from a paper version to a digital version can be more eco-friendly and requires less energy especially if the laptop is charged with solar power. Moving toward paperless products allow people to reduce their paper waste. In addition to reducing paper waste, taking notes digitally saves space and don’t get lost in your dorm room. It is also a great way to take better notes as more students type faster than they write!

9) Save energy in your dorm room

There are many ways you can save energy in the dorms:

  • Rather than running extension cords everywhere to power your electronic devices, put them all on power strips. Make sure to turn the power strips off when not in use!
  • Use natural plants or place a dryer sheet on the vent to keep your room smelling good at all times instead of plug-in air-fresheners.
  • Share a fridge with your neighbor and consume less energy.
  • Change your light bulbs to light emitting diode bulbs, also known as LED, which use far less electricity and last for a longer time.
     

10) Take action to save One Million Trees!

     We are calling on universities to make the Better Paper Commitment. By making this commitment, universities would be required
     to better their paper practices, starting by switching to recycled paper for its alumni magazines.

     As a matter of fact, if all colleges used 100% recycled paper for their alumni publications, we would save the wood equivalent of 1,000,000 trees, conserve enough water to fill over 700 Olympic-sized swimming pools and cut down 90,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every single year.

     At the start of the coming school year, we are asking students to help us raise awareness about the One Million Trees campaign on campus and help us achieve our goals. See if we are reaching out to your school here – take action urging your campus to move to recycled paper for alumni magazines!

     Overall, these are simple and effective steps to green your Back to School experience! Adopt as many tips as you can and contribute to saving our planet.

 *All the starred businesses in this blog post are certified by Green America for their social and environmental impacts. Search all our green businesses on GreenPages.org.

Tell the communications industry to act on energy justice and clean energy

The communication industry uses millions of megawatts of power for their servers and networks and that's largely coming from fossil fuels.  Energy demand will increase with the ongoing adoption of 5G and AI technologies. 

  • The ten largest communications companies collectively use at least 51 million MWh of energy annually, equivalent to powering 4.3 million homes, which is more households than found in each of 43 US states. 
  • Most of these companies are sourcing less than 10% of their energy from renewable sources, with several companies reporting 0% renewables. 
  • Energy justice, ensuring the communities who are most harmed by fossil fuels are benefited by renewable energy, is poorly addressed by the majority of companies in the communications industry. 
  • Companies need to ensure that the mining of critical minerals that power the renewable energy transition avoids violating human rights and environmental justice. We need renewable energy, but companies also need to use their market power to incentivize a responsible supply chain. 

Read more about company practices and steps companies can take in our latest report

Thank you to Carla Itzkowich for supporting this work.

Campaign Updates (June 2024)

Our Hang up on fossil fuels campaign originally targeted AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. 

Thanks to consumer pressure, since our campaign launched, we've seen significant movement in shifting the telecoms industry to clean energy! 

  • T-Mobile continues is the leader in the industry in the use of renewable energy, reporting 100% renewable energy usage. 
  • AT&T and Verizon are entering into significant contracts for renewable energy. And Verizon now has a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030. 

Campaign Goals

Communications companies must set a goal for 100% renewable energy that puts new wind or solar power on the grid by 2030 and enter into contracts to meet this goal 

Communications companies must set a net zero goal for emissions in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative by 2035.  

Communications companies must ensure that the mining of critical minerals that power the renewable energy transition supports environmental justice and avoids violating human rights 

Communications companies must transparently disclose their energy justice goals and benchmarks to achieve those goals. They must also disclose their sourcing policies, and how they monitor and ensure compliance with those policies. 

Nor-Tech

Green-friendly Nor-Tech is renowned throughout the scientific, academic, and business communities for easy to deploy turnkey computer clusters and expert, no wait time support. All of our technology is made by us in Minnesota and supported by us around the world. In addition to HPC clusters, our custom technology includes workstations, desktops, and servers for a range of applications including CAE, CFD, and FEA. Our engineers average 20+ years of experience and are responsible for significant high performance computing innovations. Where possible, we integrate sustainability into the products and services we offer and encourage others to do the same.

Nature Sustained

Our mission is to inspire conscious living by providing simple and practical ways to live in symbiosis with Mother Nature. We help you take the leap forward from conscious awareness to conscious action in what you consume, whether it be products or information. Our tools will help you navigate everyday life mindfully and have a positive impact on the environment. Nature Sustained is a collective of creative individuals striving for healthier relationships with people and the planet. Everyone in the tribe is on their own journey of personal growth and development, but what we all have in common is the drive to seek information, solutions, ideas and tools that support your growth.

Green Business Network Associate
Jeff Marcous, CEO of Dharma Merchant Services, Named Board Chair of Green America

WASHINGTON, D.C.— August 15, 2017 —Green America is pleased to announce that Jeff Marcous, CEO (Chief Evolutionary Officer) of Dharma Merchant Services in San Francisco, is the new chair of Green America's board of directors.

“Jeff has a long history of engagement and leadership with Green America as both an individual member and as a member of our Green Business Network, and we are honored to work with him in his new role with us,” said Alisa Gravitz, president and CEO of Green America.

Inspired by Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, Marcous first joined Green America in 1988, motivated by the organization's commitment to creating an economy driven by respect for communities and the Earth. His company, Dharma Merchant Services, a payments processing firm, joined Green America's Green Business Network in 2007, earning its Gold-level certification. The company is also a California Benefit Corporation. In 2015, Marcous joined Green America's board of directors and its Green Business Committee, focused on supporting and highlighting innovations in the green business sector.

"I am dedicated to the principals of social responsibility, full transparency, ecological economics, and commerce with compassion -- making involvement in Green America 'a must' for me and my business," said Marcous. “I am inspired by the extraordinary intentions and work of the Green America team to manifest major change in our economy and society and I look forward to playing my part in further advancing Green America's mission.”

Marcous has also served on the Tricycle Foundation Board, Conscious Capital of the Bay Area Board, and frequently volunteers at San Quentin state prison.

Marcous succeeds as board chair Julie Lineberger, CEO of Linesync Architecture Ltd. and CEO/president of Wheel Pad L3C, who remains active on the board. “I'm thrilled that Jeff accepted the unanimous nomination and vote to serve as Green America's board chair,” said Lineberger. “Green America's mission is more important than ever and Jeff has the experience and commitment to successfully advance our goals for an economy that works for people and the planet.”

ABOUT GREEN AMERICA

Green America is the nation’s leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America (formerly Co-op America) provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today's social and environmental problems. http://www.GreenAmerica.org.

MEDIA CONTACT: Max Karlin, (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroup.com.

 

 


 

Charlottesville: We need to take action against hate

The horrifying events over the weekend in Charlottesville are just the latest events demonstrating the rise of hate in the United States.

White supremacists marched through the streets and the University of Virginia, wielding torches and explicitly aligning themselves with Nazis and the KKK, shouting racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant slogans on Friday.  On Saturday, the white nationalists and supremacists engaged in violence against counter-protesters.  A man, who is believed to be part of a white supremacist group, drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring many. Police arrested a suspect, who faces a hearing on August 14.

These events are shocking, and they are just the latest in a growing series of hateful attacks against people of color, women, immigrants, Jews, and Muslims. Just a week before, the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington was bombed, and is part of a growing series of hate crimes against Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has reported that hate crimes against Muslims in 2017 increased 91 percent compared to the same period in 2016.

The lack of an appropriate response to these events from the Trump administration is also deeply disturbing, especially since a number of white nationalists and supremacists explicitly cite the administration as encouraging their behavior.  In response to the horror in Charlottesville, President Trump condemned the violence “from many sides,” instead of calling out the white nationalists and supremacists.  In response to the mosque bombing in Minnesota, the president has been silent, and White House adviser Sebastian Gorka, has suggested the attack was actually a fake.

With the White House failing to address hate, and actually acting as a driver of it,  it is up to us to take action to support people who are under attack.

Vigils are being organized across the country in response to the violence in Charlottesville.  Please join one of them to stand against hate.  

And, take action in favor of acceptance, and support immigrants, religious minorities, and people of color in your communities every day. Green America’s weekly Resistance Summer actions will help you find actions you can take as a community member and with your dollars, for example, supporting minority and immigrant owned businesses.

Together, we can take action to create a country that is open and accepting.

Vote With Your Dollars

All shopping is not created equal — we all have our preferred soaps and phone brands. I’d rather walk a bit further to my favorite grocery store than the closer one at the end of the block.

Sometimes these choices are based on convenience, familiarity, quality, or price. But how often are they based on the impact they’ll make on the world?

Since I started learning about environmentalism, I’ve discovered the dark sides of products I’d been blissfully ignorant of — like that they come from companies with no regard for the environment, or they’re made by people who don’t get a living wage.

With politics the way they are, it can feel like big business will soon be able to get away with anything. It can all seem unbearable, and it’s not possible to campaign 24/7 — making dozens of phone calls a week or marching every weekend.

So how can I make sure my purchases aren’t undermining my values?

By voting with my dollars.

Voting with your dollars can be done every day. It’s a goal, but it’s flexible.

For example, I buy fair trade coffee. It might cost a dollar more, but I know the farmers who grew those beans in Ethiopia, Colombia, or Peru are making a wage they can get by on. Fair Trade works by paying a premium to producers, which is then reinvested into improving the farm or community.

It’s a start at least. I could take another step and buy coffee from a local business instead of the chain I go to. I also shop at a grocery chain, but I could do better by going to local businesses or farmer’s markets more often. I buy organic dairy and eggs, but if I had a bigger budget I’d go all organic.

When I learned that my bank doesn’t treat customers well — and worse, loans money for fossil fuel projects — I changed to a local credit union. It’s not like I’m making so much that a big bank will miss me. But in a credit union, my money goes into home loans, local businesses, and development I support.

Last fall, during the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, we learned that big banks including Sun Trust and Wells Fargo were giving loans to the company building it.

Now at least I know I’m not supporting that project. And if you write or call your bank when you leave explaining why, they’ll know, too.

We can’t expect ourselves to be perfect, but we can push ourselves to be better.

Sometimes voting with your dollar means keeping it in your wallet. Every dollar you don’t spend on junk is a dollar you can put in a community bank or credit union to finance jobs, housing, and social services that every community needs. Or it can be donated to a charity that helps the less fortunate, combats hate or takes action on climate change.

The organization I work for is trying to build a green economy. That means more than trying to avoid supporting harmful corporations — it means actively supporting businesses that adopt green practices, grow local economies and pay suppliers fairly.

Where you shop and what you buy sends a direct message to business owners. If enough of us shift our spending and investments at once, it can force large corporations to reconsider their supply chains and business practices. And it can help small businesses stay afloat.

It can be hard to feel like your voice matters when you vote. But your money has the power to support Earth-friendly practices, fair wages, healthy food and local economies. It has that power every time you reach for your wallet.

Eleanor Greene is the associate editor of publications at Green America. This piece was originally published by OtherWords.org.

Gwendolyn Kennedy
Skip the Slip to Reduce Paper Receipts

 

Campaign Updates and Victories!

(May 30, 2023) Big news on Green America’s Skip the Slip campaign! California state legislation that bears our campaign’s name has passed the Assembly (May 30, 2023)! Assemblymember Phil Ting (D- San Francisco) is sponsoring the legislation that gives customers the option of getting a non-toxic paper receipt, getting an e-receipt, or getting no receipt at all at most businesses in the state.

Assemblymember Ting was inspired by our campaign Skip the Slip and originally introduced a bill in 2019. After listening to the input of businesses and consumers, the bill is back and is headed to the California State Senate. Thanks to all of you who have taken action on this campaign and look for more updates and action alerts soon.


Thousands of you joined our campaign urging CVS to address its wasteful, toxic paper receipts and this pressure led to a dialogue between Green America and CVS on its receipt practices.

Because of our Skip the Slip campaign, CVS Pharmacy, the largest pharmacy chain in the US, worked with Green America to make some real progress on receipts and paper.

  • CVS implemented BPA/BPS-free paper in all 10,000 of its stores.
  • In April 2022, CVS added a new receipt prompt at cash registers so that all customers could choose to receive a printed receipt, digital receipt or no receipt. Four months later, the receipt prompt saved 87 million yards of receipt paper, enough to circle the globe twice.
  • CVS reports phasing out print circulars in 2/3 of its markets, resulting in a 70 percent reduction of paper use.

How Store Receipts Impact People & the Planet

  • Every year, receipt use in the United States consumes over 3,680,000 trees and over 10 billion gallons of water.
  • Receipt production uses enough energy to operate nine million refrigerators and emits the greenhouse gas equivalent to over 471,000 cars on the road each year.
  • Most thermal paper receipts are coated with BPA or BPS - BPA has been banned from other items because it contributes to developmental, reproductive, and neurological problems. 
  • It's estimated that retail workers have 30 percent more BPA in their systems than other adults. Nearly 81 percent of Americans have detectable levels of BPS in their systems, and 90 percent of our exposure to BPS comes from thermal paper receipts.

The Solution: Skip the Slip

Green America’s “Skip the Slip” campaign is one of the first initiatives in the United States to analyze environmental and human health impacts of receipt usage and waste, propose solutions for businesses, and engage consumer action. 

We want to eliminate toxic chemicals from thermal paper and to reduce the waste of paper receipts. Many retailers are already making the choice to offer a digital option and use non-toxic thermal paper, but the majority of stores still need to take action. 

Our new report highlights cost-effective digital and non-toxic solutions for retailers to protect their employees and customers, and reduce impact on the environment. Businesses will walk away from this report with a deeper understanding of the unnecessary impacts receipts have on the environment and human health, and also be equipped with next steps for better receipt practices.

Access our full Skip the Slip report on receipts.  

Since we launched the Skip the Slip Campaign, we’ve seen significant progress in addressing waste and toxic chemicals from major retailers, including CVS, Target, and Walmart.

Our campaign is making paper-based receipts safer for people and recyclable, while also getting retailers to offer and promote digital receipts that are better for the planet.

How do Corporations Rank on Receipts

Ways to Take Action 

  • Sign up for digital receipts on retailer’s apps, websites, or in store.
  • Urge companies to improve receipt practices on social media (#SkiptheSlip).
  • If you're a business owner, check out our report for best receipt practices.
Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator Version 4.0. For more information visit www.papercalculator.org 
Vote to Save Forests
Support Greener Businesses

Make a difference by supporting green businesses.

Take a look at Green America's Green Pages Online to learn more.

 

Vote with Your Bank Account
Vote with Your Clothes
Vote with Your Food
Green American Magazine Guide to Social Investing and Better Banking 2017
Packing a Non-GMO Lunchbox

It is back-to-school time! As the summer comes to an end, it is time to start thinking about what you are going to fill your kid’s lunch box with. Some of the most popular lunchtime snacks and foods have GMOs hidden in them. Other brands like Lunchables and Doritos may have organic options but these products are still far from healthy. With so many great alternatives out there, make sure to educate yourself on what to steer clear of and what to stock up on. Check out our list of concerning items and great alternatives below:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are an old standby when it comes to easy-to-make school lunches. But the most common varieties of jelly are likely to contain GMOs. Smuckers Jam, in particular, contains high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, and citric acid - all ingredients that are most often produced from GE varieties of corn and sugar beets (and these sugars come with their own set of health impacts). Smuckers also contributed to anti-labeling campaigns, infringing on consumers’ right to know what is in their food. Smuckers recently purchased Jif, now owning both the PB & J. A good alternative to traditional preserve brands is Crofter’s, a great company that produces organic fruit spreads and maintains a high level of integrity around the quality of fruit and regularly checking for pesticide residue.

Tuna salad is another common sandwich filling, but it might surprise you that Bumble Bee Tuna contains soybean oil, which is most often produced from GE soybeans. Maybe we can say something like the issues with the fishing industry such as overfishing, unnecessarily killing of other animals, and impact on marine eco-systems. To avoid these hidden GMOs and environmental concerns, switch to another form of protein for sandwiches. This might be a great opportunity to embrace Meatless Monday and explore some alternative protein sources for your family. If you are looking for animal protein that makes for a good salad, try whipping up some egg salad with organic pasture-raised eggs, even better if they are from a local farm.

While you are addressing hidden GMOs in your tuna salad, don’t forget to re-examine your choice of mayonnaise. Kraft Miracle Whip* is one of the most commonly used mayo brands and is filled with GMOs. Also, most mayo brands (even organic) do not address the poor living conditions of egg-laying hens. To ensure that hens are being treated in the best way possible, skip the eggs altogether and try a great alternative to traditional mayo - Follow Your Heart vegan mayo. Check out our mayo scorecard to compare other top brands!

Honey Nut Cheerios* are an easy snack to throw in a bag, giving kids something slightly sweet and crunchy to munch on. But they also happen to be filled with GMOs. Either opt for plain Cheerios which went non-GMO or consider switching to other non-GMO Project Verified snacks like Royal Hawaiian Orchards Macadamia fruit & nut clusters, which are full of nut protein and lightly sweet thanks to pieces of fruit and without any GMOs.

Hummus and carrots can be a perfectly balanced snack if you avoid brands that use soybean oil and citric acid, both ingredients most often derived from GE corn and soy. There are lots of other wonderful hummus brands that avoid these icky ingredients; we’re big fans of Hope Hummus. Check out our hummus scorecard to find out how other top brands match up!

Hopefully, this post will help you think creatively about many more non-GMO and healthy lunchbox items. Happy Lunch Packing!!!

*Follow the brand links above to take action and tell these brands that it is time to change their ways and provide better products for families and kids, free of GMOs and toxic chemicals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

father and daugter 3
Father n Daughter 2
Father And Daughter
Rahel Hailemariam
Small Business Leaders Have Advice for Trump Renegotiating NAFTA

Over 100 small business leaders sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to ensure that the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other global trade pacts does not allow foreign multinational corporations to attack US laws that protect US communities and the environment.

As things stand now, foreign-owned companies are allowed to challenge such laws before tribunals of three private lawyers, according the American Sustainable Business Council and Green America. That, they say, is bad for communities and the environment and also puts US-based small firms at a competitive disadvantage.

In May, Trump notified Congress of his administration’s plans to renegotiate NAFTA, setting in motion a 90-day period before negotiations with Canada and Mexico can begin in August. According to trade legislation, the administration must make public its more detailed plans for the negotiations 30 days before negotiations begin.

Of particular concern to small business is Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) – a provision in NAFTA and other trade deals that enables multinational corporations to sue the US government over laws at the local, state, and federal levels that they claim violate their broad investor rights. These laws, which US small businesses must abide by, are intended to protect the health, environmental, and financial well-being of our nation. As the business leaders’ letter to the president notes, in addition to threatening US laws, the special treatment for foreign investors that the ISDS system allows also incentivizes the offshoring of jobs by removing many of the costs and risks associated with re-locating to low-wage countries.

Corporations do not need these special privileges, according to Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. “We started with one store in Vermont, and now Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is sold around the world,” he said. “This success required a good product and hard work from lots of folks, but not special rights to attack other countries’ laws.”

“Trade that enriches and privileges foreign multinational corporations at the expense of US businesses, communities, labor, and the environment is a bad deal,” said Fran Teplitz, director of Green America’s Green Business Network. “The Investor-State Dispute Settlement that allows multinationals to attack US protections for people and the planet should not be part of any trade agreement our nation joins.”

“While there’s no doubt that trade agreements between nations are important to economic development,” added Richard Eidlin, vice president of the American Sustainable Business Council, “the key question is whether the rules are fair to small and mid-sized businesses and to local communities. We’re concerned that the Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism embedded in current NAFTA and other trade negotiations, tilts the playing field against smaller companies and communities.”

As a presidential candidate, Trump repeatedly denounced NAFTA, calling it “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere.” There is indeed much that economic, labor, environmental, and other civil society organizations seek to change about NAFTA, say the small business organizations. “Trump is now back-peddling on his earlier pronouncements about eliminating NAFTA,” they said, in a statement, “and we are entering a period where the voice of sectors not at the negotiating table must be heeded if a reformed-NAFTA is to be an improvement.”

The Sweet Side of Fair Trade

Sustainability has always been an important value at Food For Thought, the gourmet organic food company Timothy Young started over ten years ago. All of his products—from strawberry preserves to corn muffin mix—include certified organic fruits and vegetables. Social justice has also been a strong part of his mission, so when he saw the opportunity to sweeten his preserves with Fair Trade Certified™ sugar, he leapt at it. FT Sugar

“Choosing Fair Trade, organic sugar was an easy decision for us,” says Young. “The fruit we use comes from local farmers with whom we have direct relationships, so we know that both people and the planet are being treated fairly. Now we can also guarantee that the sugar we use is providing a fair wage to small-scale farmers around the world.”

Young uses Fair Trade Certified sugar to make his unique preserves, and you can use it in our own kitchen. Fair Trade sugar, which made its US debut in 2005, is now widely available to consumers in grocery stores and online—giving people the opportunity to buy white, brown, and powdered sugar that benefits both people and the planet.

Conventional Sugar: Not So Sweet

About 85 percent of the sugar sold in the US is grown domestically, but much of that farming is controlled by large corporations under conditions that harm the environment.

About half of the sugarcane in the US comes from southern Florida, where the sugarcane industry has been encroaching on the Florida Everglades for nearly a century. More than a billion gallons of water are diverted away from the Everglades to the sugarcane fields every day, according to the Everglades Trust Foundation. In addition, phosphorus run-offs from the sugar industry have devastated the Everglades’ ecosystem, and the sugar lobby (called “Big Sugar” by critics) has worked aggressively to avoid responsibility for repairing the damage.

The sugar lobby has consistently worked to postpone the deadlines for cleaning up contaminated water and has shifted the burden of paying for clean-up to tax payers, says Joe Browder, board member of the nonprofit Friends of the Everglades.

“Sugar controls the way water flows through South Florida, both environmentally and economically,” says Browder. “It is depriving the protected Everglades of water in the dry season, and dumping excess water into all the Everglades and south Florida coastal communities in the wet season. When sugar growers need to keep their land dry, they treat the rest of south Florida like a toilet. And those issues are no closer to being resolved in favor of the Everglades.”

US trade policies protect the jobs of domestic sugar farmers, but they result in sugar prices in the US that are usually about three times the price of sugar on the world market, damaging farmers around the world who cannot compete in an unfair US sugar market. High sugar costs also affect manufacturers of food products and beverages in the US, and their customers; a 2003 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that the US sugar program costs consumers roughly $1.5 billion dollars a year.

And these protectionist policies don’t necessarily help small farmers. The OECD estimates that over 40 percent of US policy benefits go to just 1 percent of all sugar producers.

Sugarcane farming abroad does not have a better record. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that, because of habitat destruction, intensive water use, heavy use of chemicals, and polluted wastewater, sugar may be responsible for more biodiversity loss than any other crop worldwide.

And the harvesting of sugar has often been plagued with labor problems. According to a 2018 report by the US Department of Labor, child labor and forced labor are used in many sugar producing countries, including reports of child labor on sugar plantations in Bolivia, Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, and the Philippines. 

Better Options: Fair Trade Sugar

If you want a sweetener that is easy on the environment and supports your local economy, you can look for locally grown organic maple syrup or honey. But if it’s sugar you need, Fair Trade Certified™ sugar is now increasingly available in stores throughout the US and online.

Through Fair Trade, farmers are paid a guaranteed price for their products—a price that covers their living costs while also helping to improve their communities. The Fair Trade price also includes a “social premium,” which is used for social projects decided upon democratically by the farmers, and an additional premium is paid for sugarcane that is certified organic.

“Fair Trade certification ensures that sugarcane farmers receive a fair price for their harvest, helping farmers around the world put food on their tables,” says Anthony Marek, public relations director at TransFair USA, which certifies Fair Trade sugar for sale in the US. “It also creates direct trade links between farmers and buyers, and provides access to affordable credit. And Fair Trade premiums allow farmers to invest in and improve their communities.”

Sugarcane farmers in the Chikwawa district of Malawi have put the Fair Trade premiums to life-saving use. Before the Kasinthula Cane Growers sugar cooperative was certified by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International in 2002, people in the farmers’ villages were beset by waterborne illnesses like bilharzias, cholera, and dysentery. The cooperative’s first project using the Fair Trade premiums was the drilling of two wells, which now provide clean drinking water to two villages and help prevent these diseases.

The cooperative has also used its Fair Trade premiums to bring electricity to the village of Chinangwa, and members are currently at work building a school.

In addition to guaranteeing farmers a fair price, Fair Trade certification also helps farmers use environmentally sustainable farming practices. On Fair Trade farms, producers must adhere to strict standards regarding the use and handling of pesticides; the protection of natural waters, virgin forest, and other ecosystems of high ecological value; and the management of erosion and waste, according to TransFair USA.

And the premiums that come with Fair Trade certification often enable farmers to switch to organic farming—90 percent of the Fair Trade Certified™ sugar in the US is also certified organic.

What You Can Do

Go Fair Trade for your sweet needs by purchasing Fair Trade Certified™ sugar. If your local grocer doesn’t have it, ask that they carry it and order it online until it’s available locally.

Learn more about Fair Trade and take action to promote it by joining Green America’s Fair Trade Alliance and by requesting a copy of our new Guide to Fair Trade.

Peaceful Pets Aquamation, Inc.

We saw the need for an aftercare company that transparently gave respectful and personal care to our pets. When we came down to it, we wanted to be a company run by pet lovers for pet lovers. We also felt that, in today's world, being environmentally responsible is an important part of honoring our pets and protecting our planet. So, we designed Peaceful Pets from the ground up, to take care of your pets in the exact same way we want our own pets to be treated. And, we decided to use the technology called aquamation. Aquamation is water-based and 100% green, providing huge benefits over fire-based cremation. It replicates and accelerates the natural process of decomposition, making it the most natural aftercare available. Peaceful Pets Aquamation has become a world leader in setting a new standard for the care of your pets.

Shrink Your Impact, Offset the Rest

When Ethan Merlin, a school teacher and Green America member in Rockville, MD, had an opportunity to take a group of students to visit Moscow, he had just one regret: by flying roundtrip across the Atlantic, he and his students would have no choice but to each cause the emission of more than three tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
  
“The trip was an amazing learning experience for me and for my students,” says Merlin. “But I also care about the climate crisis, and the world that we are leaving for future generations.”
  
So rather than forego the trip altogether, Merlin helped mitigate the climate impact of the students' trip by purchasing carbon offsets equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their airplane flights. 
  
"I was so glad [to discover this option,]" he says.
  
Carbon offsetting provides a powerful way to address climate change. By purchasing offsets, you help fund a project that prevents one ton of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from being emitted for each ton that you have caused. Carbon offset providers sell the GHG reductions associated with projects like wind farms or methane-capture facilities to customers who want to offset the emissions they caused by flying, driving, or using electricity. 
  
For example, Big Tree Climate Fund sells offsets to consumers from a methane-reduction project in Brazil. The Irani Project, located at a paper and pulp factory in the city of Vargem Bonita, treats wastewater from the plant in a special way, so it degrades aerobically (like compost) instead of anaerobically (like landfill waste). Anaerobic wastewater treatment produces massive amounts of climate-warming methane; according to Big Tree, businesses around the world emit 33 to 44 million tons of methane through anaerobic wastewater treatment each year. Methane is 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, according to the EPA. Because of the innovative methane-reducing technology it uses, the Irani Project has reduced its methane emissions by nearly 56,000 tons each year. It also reduces the paper mill's water use.
  
Over the past few years, the carbon offset market has grown rapidly, directing $705 million in 2008 to carbon-reducing projects worldwide. As the market has expanded, it has also matured—and finding a trustworthy offset provider is easier than ever.

Before you turn to offsets, it’s important to reduce your climate impact first (see box, below). A good mantra when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint is: reduce what you can, offset the rest, and then repeat. Once you’ve taken steps to shrink your emissions, follow these steps to offset what’s left. ...


Do the Math

The first step to offsetting your climate impact is to calculate how many tons of GHGs your activities emit. Most offset retailers provide online calculators (see “Resources,” below). Their estimates will come in about the same, with one exception: there is an ongoing controversy about the climate impact of air travel. In addition to the carbon dioxide that planes emit directly, they leave behind other emissions that ultimately contribute to global warming, in a phenomenon known as “radiative forcing.”

Some carbon calculators multiply a flight’s emissions by a radiative forcing index (RFI), but unfortunately, they multiply by a factor of anywhere between about one-and-a-half and three, resulting in different totals.

So what’s an eco-conscious traveler to do? Until a uniform RFI is in place, it’s best to err on the side of too much offsetting, rather than too little—after reducing your air travel as much as possible. Use a carbon calculator that incorporates a radiative forcing index, like those from offsetters in the resources box. If a carbon calculator offers a check-box to “include radiative forcing” in its calculations, choose this option.


Look for Certified Offsets

Because you can’t see or touch a reduction of greenhouse gases, it’s important to know exactly what reduction you are purchasing, and that the reduction wouldn’t have happened without your purchase. The leading offset providers have developed shared standards for carbon offsets, and their offsets are verified by independent third parties, providing assurance that you’re getting what you paid for.

Look for offset providers that have met the standards of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) or the Green-e Climate program. Both the Alliance and Green-e Climate require their member retailers to ensure that any reduction in GHGs sold as a carbon offset is “real, verified, permanent, additional, and unique.” (Visit www.icroa.org or www.green-e.org for a fuller definition of each criterion.) The Alliance’s members source their offsets from projects that would not have been implemented without offset funding and that have been certified to meet the above criteria by one of five standards: the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation, the Gold Standard, the Voluntary Carbon Standard, or the Climate Action Reserve.


Choose a Carbon-Busting Project 

Once you know how many tons of GHGs you’ve added to the atmosphere, select a certified offset that will reduce GHGs by the same amount. Your offset purchases can support a variety of carbon-reducing projects.

Renewable energy generation: More than half of offset purchases worldwide support renewable energy projects, which help to displace coal-fired electricity. Look for offsets certified to have caused new GHG reductions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. For example, 3Degrees offers Green-e Climate certified offsets from wind facilities in northeastern China and Karnataka, India. Buying these offsets contributes to the viability of these projects, and you are buying new energy generation that is never resold, displacing coal power and reducing emissions in rapidly developing countries. Or, NativeEnergy’s WindBuilders program sells offsets to finance new wind projects. Many promising projects lack the capital they need to get built. So by purchasing a carbon offset that finances new construction, you help build wind farms and solar installations.

Methane projects: Another category of offset products helps prevent the release of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas which has over 20 times the impact of CO2. For example, TerraPass offsets support methane capture at landfills from Maine to South Dakota.

Energy efficiency and other projects: Offset dollars can also support other creative projects that reduce GHG emissions. For example, the CarbonNeutral Company offers offsets from a project to install compact fluorescent light bulbs and other energy-saving devices in hotels throughout Jamaica.

Forestry: In the past, Real Green has urged readers to steer clear of carbon offsets based on tree-planting projects (though trees have lots of other environmental benefits). Trees certainly do “breathe in” carbon dioxide, but it doesn’t make sense to offset emissions from a recent flight by planting trees that only remove that much CO2 from the air over many decades. The good news is that several of the leading offset project standards have developed clear criteria for forestry-based offsets whose GHG reductions will occur on a more immediate timeframe. Some reputable offsets based on forestry projects are available from the ICROA-member offset retailers (listed in the “Resources,” below).


Look for a Reputable Carbon Offset 

If you’re a conscientious consumer who tries to live a low-emission lifestyle, consider offsetting the remaining emissions for which you are responsible. Buying offsets will help you direct much-needed capital to worthy projects that will keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

Then, return to the beginning of the reduce-offset-repeat cycle, and continue looking for ways to reduce the climate impact of your household, workplace, neighborhood, and community.

Reduce Your Impact First 


Purchasing carbon offsets only makes sense for those who have already reduced their emissions by flying less, driving less, eating less meat, and curbing electricity use. For guidance from Real Green on reducing your climate impact, check out our archives.

For a comprehensive guide to cutting your home electricity use in half over the next five years, download the Efficiency First! issue of our magazine.


Offsets vs. RECs 

Warning: Don't purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) as offsets.

Why? When you buy an offset, you should know for sure that your purchase caused a new reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and not all renewable energy qualifies. RECs are typically sold from existing projects to give electricity customers a green power option. But renewable energy that customers purchase to offset their GHG emissions is held to a different standard. Buying a REC does not ensure that your purchase caused a measurable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

To buy carbon offsets sourced from renewable energy projects, look for an offset from an ICROA member or search Green-e Climate’s “Find Certified Carbon Offsets” page for certified renewable energy offsets. These offsets can result from new renewable energy projects, but only those that are beyond business as usual.


How is Our Electricity Generated in the US?

The chart below explains where our energy comes from and what each type’s impacts are on people and the environment. Energy sources in red or yellow have significant environmental and social problems, while sources in green are key to a green energy future. Almost all types of energy generation end up doing the same thing: they turn the arm of a generator that moves strong magnets around copper coils. Copper atoms have particularly “loose” electrons, and inside generators, the steady rotation of strong magnets pumps out a flow of electrons: electricity.

 

Type of Power Source
How It Works
Eco-impact
Coal-fired Power Plants Coal is burned to heat water, which makes steam. The steam turns a turbine, which powers a generator. Burning coal emits massive quantities of greenhouse gases and leaves toxic mercury in the air and water. The mining of coal is unhealthy and dangerous work, and mountain-top removal mining is destroying ecosystems and communities in Appalachia.
Nuclear Power Radioactive uranium heats huge tanks of water. (Precisely “fired” neutron particles cause atoms of uranium-235 to split apart, and this “fission” releases enormous heat and radiation. Every fission reaction in a reactor releases a neutron that causes another fission reaction.) The hot water generates steam, and the steam turns a turbine which powers a generator.

 

Nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gas emissions or other pollution. It does use massive quantities of water, and releasing the warmed water damages ecosystems and wildlife. Nuclear power creates radioactive waste that is dangerous to people and living things for millions of years. It also creates dangerous targets for terrorists and contributes to the proliferation of nuclear materials for terrible weapons.
Petroleum or Natural Gas These fuels are burned to heat water, whose steam turns a turbine that powers a generator. When energy is in high demand, some power plants don’t just burn natural gas to heat water to make steam – they burn natural gas directly to generate vapors that turn turbines that generate electricity. This kind of natural gas power can be quickly dialed up and down to respond to fluctuating demand. Burning petroleum generates nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide, and burning natural gas releases these same chemicals in lower quantities. The burning and transporting of natural gas can emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The extraction of oil and natural gas can disrupt habitats and communities.
Biomass Some power plants burn wood chips or waste products to heat water whose steam turns a turbine that drives a generator. For biomass, the eco-impact varies widely depending on what is being burned. When municipal solid waste is used to create energy through burning in huge incinerators, MSW plants produce nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury compounds and dioxins. Even when stronger air pollution filters prevent these chemicals from being released into the air, they collect in tons of toxic ash that has to be buried in landfills.
Hydropower Generates electricity when the force of water flowing through a dam turns the blades of a turbine which drive a generator. Building new dams can be disruptive to ecosystems and habitats, and can intervene in the migration patterns of some fish. New dams have decimated some communities, such as the Three Gorges Dam in China, and dams in Canada and New England have hurt Native American communities. Once built, hydropower is a fairly clean energy source that does not emit greenhouse gases or other pollution.
Wind farms Collections of turbines sense and turn to face the wind. Wind turns the blades of the turbines, and a gear magnifies the rotor’s speed. This shaft’s turning powers a generator. When sited correctly, wind farms are safe for birds and bats. They can generate completely clean power, emitting no greenhouse gas or other pollution. They have a small on-the-ground “footprint,” leaving the land they are placed on free for agriculture or forest.
Solar Power Photovoltaic panels are made of a semiconductor material such as silicon. When sunlight shines on the silicon, the material absorbs some of the energy, knocking some electrons loose. An electric field concentrates the flow of electrons in a single direction, generating electricity. “Solar farms” —large areas covered with solar panels—function as a power plant, placing power onto the grid for transmission to homes and businesses. Once installed, solar panels generate zero-emissions electricity. Though their manufacture can generate some pollutants, including silicon tetrachloride, which should be recycled rather than dumped, a recent study by the Brookhaven National Laboratory found that even when the manufacture of solar cells is taken into account, displacing grid power with solar power results in at least an 89 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and pollutants.
Geothermal Power In some Western states, heat from the center of the earth is used to heat water, which creates steam, which turns a turbine that powers a generator. Some geothermal power plants release hydrogen sulfide and trace amounts of other pollutants, but overall this is a significant source of cleanly-generated electricity.

Electricity Production in the United States, August 2007 [DOE]

A Power Primer: Electricity 101

Our demand for electricity is at the heart of the nation’s single greatest source of the pollution that causes climate change. Fully half of our electricity in this country is generated by coal-fired power plants and coal power by itself is responsible for 40 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity can be difficult to think about because it is invisible. We see what it does, but not what it is or where it came from. What is actually happening when we plug something into an outlet at home and watch it turn on or light up?

What is electricity?

Everything — you, the clothes you’re wearing and the computer you're looking at — is made up of atoms. Electricity is created when electrons — tiny particles that orbit around the nucleus of each atom—are stripped off and pulled along in the direction of a positive charge.

We use electricity in our homes to refrigerate and cook food, play music, keep the lights on, drive computers and televisions, and power hundreds of appliances large and small. “Plugging something into an outlet and flipping the switch is like opening the water valve,” writes Paul Scheckel in The Home Energy Diet. “Electrons flow from the outlet into the device … the electrons can be manipulated by the circuitry in an appliance in hundreds of ways to turn motors, light bulbs, calculate formulas, play music, record movies, or project an image. The list of uses for electricity is endless and nearly miraculous.”

How do power plants generate electricity?

The force of strong magnets can push electrons off of their atoms and generate electricity. Almost all types of energy generation end up doing the same thing: they turn the arm of a generator that moves strong magnets around copper coils. Copper atoms have particularly “loose” electrons, and inside generators, the steady rotation of strong magnets pumps out a flow of electrons: electricity.

There are many different methods, though, for driving the generators that create electricity. Some have dire impacts on people and the planet; others are clean and sustainable. (See our chart.)

How is "green" electricity different from other electricity?

How electricity is generated has a big impact on people and the planet. But wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear power plants, and coal-fired power plants are all making the exact same thing—the electricity flowing through the grid is a pulsing line of electrons, indistinguishable regardless of how that energy was generated. You can’t choose what sort of energy will come to your house’s outlets from the “grid”—that energy is a generic flow of electrons, created from the “energy mix” of sources in your region.

What is "the grid"?

Electricity is a generic row of electrons pulsing at a given rhythm that enters a common system from many different sources. Electricity can travel up to 300 miles from where it is generated to where it is used. The interconnected system of wires that connects all power generators to power users is known as the “grid.” The grid is interconnected and overlapping across the country, although power generated in one place cannot be used more than several hundred miles away. That said, electricity routinely crosses state or even country lines; and households with solar panels can even create power that they place onto the grid from their homes, which joins the common energy supply for use in their area.

How do I impact this system when I reduce my energy use?

The generation of electricity is driven by demand. Fully a third of the energy generated in this country is for residential use—when you make changes in your household to reduce your energy use, your decision has an impact on the utilities that are generating energy.

Over the short term, fast-acting power plants fueled by natural gas can be dialed up and down to respond to daily changes in demand. Other power generators using coal and nuclear are used for steady demand and can only be adjusted over the long term. Because utilities generally make use of all renewably generated wind or solar power placed on the grid, changes in energy use will eventually reduce coal and nuclear power generation. All of the 108 new coal-fired power plants currently being proposed around the country are being justified as necessary because of projected power demand; and demand for more coal is driving the “mountaintop removal mining” currently taking place in Appalachia. So in both the short and long-term, reducing your own energy use helps to reduce the dirty generation of power.

How does electricity get from power plants to my house?

Generators don’t just pump out a line of electrons flowing towards a positive charge—they flip the charge from positive to negative 120 times and back again every second, so that rows of electrons vibrate in every electric wire. This pulsing line of electrons, called alternating current (AC), can transmit electricity over great distances.

The cycles of alternating current mean that the electricity moves in steady waves of rising and dropping voltage as the electrons cycle back and forth. Most generators generate power in three overlapping phases. Transformer stations “pump up” the force with which the electrons are flowing through the wires to a high voltage, hundreds of thousands of volts, for transmission over long distances.

The huge towers running through rural areas have three wires, one carrying each phase of power at very high voltage, and a top “ground” wire designed to balance the other three. (Some power towers also serve to carry telephone or cable lines.) Somewhere near your house, the power enters a substation that steps down the power’s voltage to much lower levels; typically two wires carrying just one phase of power at 240 volts splits off from the main power line to serve each household.

What happens when I buy green power by purchasing renewable energy credits?

Once electricity generated by a wind farm is placed on the grid, it is indistinguishable from electricity generated by a coal-fired plant. So energy customers who wish to support wind and solar power can do so by purchasing renewable energy certificates, also known as “RECs,” or “green tags.” The day is coming soon when government incentives and shifting market forces will bring the cost of generating zero-carbon power below the cost of burning coal for power. But until then, buying a green tag allows customers to help renewable energy projects by making up the difference between the “grid price” of 1 kilowatt of power and the slightly higher price of renewably generating that kilowatt of power. Purchasing green tags doesn’t directly change anything about what is coming into your outlets, but it is a powerful way of displacing dirty power production by helping to place renewably generated energy on the grid.

The Mystery of Deodorant: What's Really In There?

Lots of people take pride in how they smell, going to great lengths to ensure there's no funk and thinking if they're not always fresh from the shower, nobody will want to be around them. And so many turn to deodorant, making it a $70 billion per year industry. A study from the University of Bristol found that of 117 women who didn’t produce odor, three-quarters of them still used deodorant.  

Conventional deodorant isn’t very good for your body, as many types contain toxic chemicals that may harm human health and the environment. Deodorant soaks directly into skin, so it’s important to know its ingredients and their risks.  

Here are some of deodorants’ most common and toxic ingredients:  

  1. Aluminum: Aluminum is the main ingredient in most antiperspirants. It may alter the balance of odor-causing bacteria in your armpits, which can actually make you smell worse. Aluminum is linked to health issues that affect the liver and kidneys.  

  1. Parabens: These are commonly found in makeup and deodorant and are used to prevent bacterial growth. However, they can interrupt hormonal balance in the body, and they're estrogen mimickers that can lead to breast cancer

  1. Propylene Glycol: Often listed as PG, this ingredient is a suspected skin and kidney toxicant. It's also skin sensitizer, meaning it could result in allergic reactions on the skin.  

  1. Triclosan: Triclosan is a chemical that’s used to help keep the odor-causing bacteria out of your pits, but it can also kill the good bacteria in your body. Killing the good can mean that when bacteria repopulates, the good might be replaced by even more bad, which could make you stinkier or even sick. Consequently, triclosan has been linked to rising numbers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The FDA has issued warnings against this ingredient because of its ability to disrupt the functioning of thyroid hormones.   

  1. Silica: Silica is added to deodorant to help absorb moisture from sweat, but it is also known as a skin irritant. The silica in deodorant may also be contaminated with a compound called crystalline quartz, which has been linked to the development of cancer cells and respiratory diseases.  

Solution: Natural Deodorants 

Opting for a natural deodorant is safer than using a deodorant with one or more of the five ingredients from above. Most natural deodorants use ingredients like baking soda and coconut oil, which have antibacterial properties. Natural products tend to be deodorants, not antiperspirants, meaning they stop the smell but not the sweat itself. Most have essential oils for scent and are gentle on the skin.

  1. Creating Harmony LLC sells the Sage & Rose Deodorant Mist. This mist is made with mineral salts, which helps prevent odor. 

  1. Schmidts Naturals sells Schmidt’s Natural Deodorant Stick, which is enriched with mineral-derived odor-fighting ingredients such a magnesium and baking soda, and has plant-based powders that help absorb wetness without aluminum.  

  1. North Coast Organics offers 100 percent vegan and cruelty-free deodorant in five different scents. Natural ingredients include coconut oil and baking soda. 

Mars Takes Puppy Steps - Removes GMOs from Pet Food Brand

Recently, Mars Inc. relaunched its natural pet food line Nutroannouncing that its dry food would now be made without GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The new product line aims to have “recipes that are simple, purposeful and trustworthy, made with real, recognizable, non-GMO ingredients as close to their native form as possible.”  For the last year GMO Inside and thousands of consumers have been pushing Mars to remove GMOs from all of its pet and human food.  Producing higher quality pet food free of GMOs  is a great first step.

Learn more on the GMO Inside Blog 

Martha Stewart
Getting Scrappy: A New Life for Food Waste

At this Boston company they just love to talk trash -- composting that is!

By Alexandra Lim-Chua Wee

At CERO Cooperative, trash is never really trash. The Massachusetts-based business -- which was recently awarded the Green America’s People & Planet Award -- collects food scraps from local food businesses and turns them into compost. The compost is then delivered to local farms where it can be used to grow fresh produce to be sold and cooked again. 

In Boston, local businesses pay some of the highest rates just to get their trash picked up every day and carried off to landfills. Moreover, for the area’s food businesses, about 65 percent of daily trash collection is compostable. “At the landfills, decomposing food produces the harmful gas, methane, which is then permanently in our air,” says CERO team member, Maya Gaul. “And when you look at food waste as an issue, it is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.” 

When they work with CERO, local businesses receive easy-to-use, industrial-grade compost carts that can be placed in kitchens or storerooms for easy food scrap disposal. At the end of each day, these carts are picked up and replaced with clean carts. Not only does this save businesses the higher cost of normal trash pick-ups -- or hefty fines under the state’s 2014 food waste ban -- but it makes for a greener environment. It’s a win-win-win! 

Another win-win is that CERO is a cooperative. The workers equally own and govern the business, and directly profit from their labor. “It’s important to approach sustainability from all perspectives, from the people to the business, to the planet,” Gaul says. “Not only are we helping to reduce methane emissions, but we’re able to provide local green jobs to the community.” 

Sustainable Computing

I have been coaching Mac users for over 15 years, boosting productivity, erasing frustration, and increasing happiness. I deeply value sustainability, showing up by bicycle and helping you compute more efficiently and with less waste. My clients appreciate my patient, inquisitive approach, ability to meet them where they are, and that I provide the tools so they can learn to help themselves.

Bond & Devick Wealth Partners

An established firm using goals-based planning for 35 years. For decades, we’ve advised clients interested in SRI investing and are local leaders for those interested in aligning their values with their investments.

Five Cool (and Free) Tools for Financial Wellness

Find Out Your Financial Health

Have a bit of time on your hands? Why not check your financial wellness with CNN Money’s financial health calculator? Enter your current debt, emergency savings, retirement savings, and other information for a big-picture look at how well you’re doing with your money. 

Pay Down Your Debt

Have debt? SavvyMoney can help you pay it off ASAP. This app gives you free, ongoing access to your credit score, and provides personalized advice on low-interest ways to pay down your debt and raise your score.  
(PC, Android)

Is Your Retirement on Track? 

Will you have enough to retire? Enter a few important pieces of info, like your age and how much you have saved already, into AARP’s calculator, and it’ll tell you how much you will have saved by retirement age and how much you need to step up. 

Add SRI to Workplace Retirement Accounts 

Do you wish you could choose SRI investments in your workplace retirement plan? Or are you an employer who’d like to offer them but doesn’t know where to start? Green America’s free Plan for a Better Future guide can help you add SRI options to your workplace retirement plan. 

Track Your Spending, Savings,& Investments

If you’ve ever thought being able to track your spending and your investments in one place would be a good idea, wait no longer. The Personal Capital app lets you know where you’re spending money, while helping you analyze the risk level of your portfolio, get advice on your 401(k), calculate what you need to save for retirement, and more. 
(PC, iOS, and Android)