Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Aug 26, 2010
Seventh Generation is the U.S.’s leading eco-friendly household products brand. Based in Burlington, Vermont, Seventh Generation has made a commitment to both green living and green business for the past twenty years. From making products without toxic chemicals to educating consumers about how their individual choices make a difference, Seventh Generation works hard to live up to its environmental mission each day.
Walmart has shifted its direction to be much more aware of its environmental impact. For the past five years, Walmart has focused their energies on reducing waste and energy consumption and on carrying more sustainable products. Walmart now insists on certain environmental ethics and standards from all of its suppliers. It seems like a natural transition that as Walmart tries to become more environmentally friendly and to offer more ecologically sound products to its consumers that it would want to carry one of the best eco brands.
For a long time, Seventh Generation avoided any association with the largest retailer in the world. But when Walmart began to incorporate sustainable business practices into their mission, Seventh Generation co-founder Jeffrey Hollender saw a way to make his products accessible to a wider audience and to potentially make a big difference in educating people about living in greater harmony with our planet.
Walmart has asked Seventh Generation, the Environmental Defense Fund, and others to help in their mission to become a model of green business practices. They are starting to screen the products they sell in order to avoid stocking items that contain harmful chemicals. They plan to gradually introduce Seventh Generation’s green household products to their stores, with a full offering available through Walmart.com this fall.
Phot via joshspoon
Posted by Kelly Smith on Mon, Aug 02, 2010
A lightweight solar-powered plane set records for flying for 26 hours nonstop over Switzerland. The plane averaged a ground speed of 26 miles per hour and reached speeds as high as 78 miles per hour. The plane set records for the longest and highest flight by a solar plane, reaching over 28,000 feet above sea level.
The Solar Impulse plane used 12,000 solar panels to power propellers and four small electric engines. The plane charged during the day and used the stored power to continue to fly through the night. In theory, such a plane could stay aloft indefinitely. Its 208 foot wingspan equals that of a standard jetliner, but this mode of travel is not quite ready for consumer travel yet.
Retired Swiss fighter pilot Andre Borschberg squeezed into the vehicle’s tiny cockpit where he experienced both turbulence and subzero temperatures which caused his water to freeze and his iPod batteries to die. Despite these difficulties, Mr. Borschberg said, “I’ve been a pilot for 40 years now, but this flight has been the most incredible one of my flying career.”
Solar power is a renewable energy source which is growing in popularity worldwide as a source for green power for homes and businesses. Solar power has also been used experimentally to power some cars and commercially to power some boats. Swiss engineers have come up with a car, the Solartaxi, that uses both electricity and solar power to successfully travel on roads worldwide. Solar powered aircrafts are not nearly as common as other modes of transportation.
Project founders for the Solar Impulse airplane next hope to successfully fly a solar powered plane around the world.
Photo via Deutsche Bank AG
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jul 29, 2010
Demand for sustainable products and services worldwide continues to expand. Green businesses are thinking in new ways about how to protect the planet and satisfy their customers at the same time. UPS began a carbon neutral shipping program last fall to serve customers who wish to pay a little extra to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from shipping their packages. UPS was the first package delivery service to offer this kind of green shipping option.
This popular program has now expanded to UPS locations across the United States, online, and around the world. For only 75 cents, a customer can ship a package carbon free from the United States to any international location. Domestically, the optional surcharge is as low as five cents for customers to ship their packages without pollution or guilt. In 2010, customer purchases of offsets will go twice as far, since UPS will match their investments.
UPS currently purchases carbon offets from the Garcia River Forest Climate Action Project. This organization is overseen by The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund to ensure its validity as a provider of reliable carbon offsets. It is important for businesses and consumers to purchase offsets or renewable energy credits that are certified or verified. UPS also plans to support other offset projects worldwide.
Offering a simple and inexpensive way for customers to feel better about the sustainability of their purchases is an excellent idea for any business to increase business and improve customer satisfaction.
Photo via Justinls
Posted by Kelly Smith on Wed, Jul 07, 2010
Codero offers web hosting services that are powered by 100 percent green power for small and medium-sized businesses. Anyone looking to fill their green IT needs should consider Codero, a sustainable business which is based in Kansas City and powered by wind farms in Iowa. An EPA Green Power Partner that purchases Green-e certified green electricity through EcoElectrons, Codero estimates that it offsets the annual conventional electricity usage of 1,255 homes.
Businesses that use Codero’s services get to use the Codero logo to show their customers that they are a sustainable business seeking to shrink their carbon footprint. Research shows that environmentally friendly companies increase customer satisfaction. There are many ways to become more environmentally sound in your business practices.
Becoming a member of the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a good way to network with other businesses and organizations that are concerned about reducing their carbon footprint and fighting global climate change. It is also an excellent way to broaden your customer base. Choosing to patronize other Green Power Partners for your company’s needs, such as green IT services, boosts your eco-credibility.
Over 70 new organizations have decided to join the Green Power Partnership recently. Amherst College; the Indianapolis Zoo; the City of New Haven, Connecticut; the Baltimore Airport Hilton; Madison Computer Works; Biomass Thermal Energy Council; Dutch Mill Catering; and Ogden Publications are just a few of the new members spanning industries from green information technology to sustainable real estate to environmentally friendly health care.
Posted by Rahul Chitrapu on Wed, Jun 30, 2010
This is a guest post by Kyle Mentz. Kyle is a content writer for Alluminare where you can find a large assortment of lighting fixtures to decorate your home.
A famous deity once said, “Let there be light”, and there was, and it was good. And frankly, it’s still good. The sun remains the most eco-friendly way to light your home, whether you choose to install windows and skylights throughout in order to illuminate your space, or if you decide to harness the sun’s energy for clean power to run an entire household. It doesn’t get any greener than using the one and only completely efficient, emission-free, natural form of lighting. However, there are some drawbacks. You may not have the funds to knock out walls or outfit your home with solar panels. Beyond that, a reliance on natural lighting could be difficult for people who live in cooler climates and don’t want to eat dinner in the dark in January. Luckily, there are a number of environmentally friendly lighting products on the market to give your home the luminescence you need to get you through the dark times.
The electric light bulb has been more or less the same since the birth of electricity, which is to say, incandescent. The problem with these bulbs is that they depend on a filament that heats up to produce a glow. Unfortunately, the process requires a lot of energy to begin and sustain. Enter the energy-efficient revolution. For a short period of time, it looked like halogen lights were going to be the wave of the future, using 20% less electricity, but certain drawbacks (fixture replacement, rampant heat production) quickly made them obsolete. Today, newer bulbs like compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) are literally changing the way we see lighting. CFLs have become very popular in recent years due to the fact that they not only work in standard fixtures and produce a ton of light, but also use 60% less energy and last ten times as long as incandescent bulbs. Many also promise to repay their cost (several times over) throughout the life of the product.
LEDs (you may have heard of them…they’ve been telling digital time for awhile) are an even more recent development in home lighting. Some claim to use up to 90% less energy (than incandescents) and last as much as 60 times longer. That’s pretty amazing! Naysayers grumble that LED bulbs are too dim to illuminate a house, but new products continue to come out (in up to 100-watt varieties) in steadfast refute of this argument. The only real drawback with current LEDs is that you will probably have to get new fixtures to use them.
Or, you can always go back to the sun. If solar panels are a bit out of your price range, or you don’t dig the look, you may want to consider a sunlight-transport-device. They bring actual sunlight into your home by gathering the sun’s rays outside your structure, transferring them through fiber optic cables, and sending them to lamps throughout your home. Pretty ingenious, right? Well, during the day, anyway. They only transfer natural light, so when the sky goes dark, so does your luminary. But they are an interesting alternative to cutting a hole in your roof. There are also solar lights, and although they are generally considered outdoor lighting (often used to illuminate driveways, garden paths, etc.), there are portable models that can be charged during the day and then used in place of lamps for soft mood lighting in the evening. Floating models make them a safer bet than, say, floating candles (open flame may be eco-friendly, but it’s always a fire hazard).
Probably your best bet to illuminate your home in an eco-friendly manner is through a combination of some (or all) of the options listed above. Try to use natural light as much as you can (since it certainly carries the smallest price tag at a cost of free), install solar panels if you can afford the initial expenditure (over time, they can actually bring you an income if you have enough sunlight throughout the year to build up a surplus to sell back to the power company), and switch to energy-efficient lighting to cover any additional need. Could you use one last eco-friendly lighting tip? Here’s one your parents told you a million times: turn off the light when you leave a room. You’ll be surprised how much energy you’ll save through a simple flip of the switch.
Posted by Hudson DeWeese on Tue, Jun 29, 2010
Originally the BloomBox, invented by K.R. Sridhar, was designed for NASA to take fuel and electricity to create oxygen by means of a fuel cell to be used on a mission to Mars. Once NASA canceled the mission Sridhar reversed the operation of his invention to use fuel and oxygen out of the atmosphere to create electricity. Sridhar aggressively predicts that the BloomBox will be implemented in every house in America in less the ten years and will effectively replace power plants.
BloomEnergy has reportedly raised $400 million to develop the BloomBox which has been implemented in companies like Google and EBay for over nine months. The companies that have been testing the BloomBox have had little and inexpensive maintenance costs. The effectiveness of the BloomBox has attracted investors like Kleiner Perkins who also funded Google when it was starting out. The BloomBox is getting much attention because of its small size, low noise output and efficiency. It is expected to cost an average U.S. home less than $3,000. It can run on various gasses including natural gas, methane from landfills, and biomass. Mass manufacturing does present a problem as BloomEnergy is only able to produce one BloomBox a day.
Bloombox also saves electricity that is being lost through transmission lines and the power grid. Transmission lines are the large electrical lines that carry electricity from the power plants to our homes. 6.5% of the total power in the U.S. is lost due to the transportation of electricity. If BloomBoxes are implemented in every house, this alone will save the 6.5% of electricity that is wasted annually.
The BloomBox is a revolutionary green energy development. If K.R. Sridhar can mass manufacture the product and drive the price down, the implementation of this device could be the next big thing. Click here to watch a 60 Minutes interview with K.R. Sridhar explaining the function of the BloomBox in more detail.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jun 03, 2010
Both Green-e and Energy Star are certification organizations that help consumers know they are choosing to purchase an environmentally preferable product. Both specifically help consumers recognize products that are better for the climate because they are associated with lower carbon dioxide emissions. Choosing Green-e or Energy Star products is a positive action for consumers who are concerned about climate change. However, the two programs are not the same.
Green-e is an independent certification organization that helps protect consumers and their choice to patronize companies opt for green power. Companies that purchase a certain amount of green power to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions can use the Green-e logo to signify their environmental commitment to their customers.
Any kind of business can purchase green energy and earn Green-e certification. AVEDA personal care products, Choice Organic Teas, Grays Harbor Paper, and S.C. Johnson are just a few of the green businesses that demonstrate their commitment to sustainability through their choice to purchase renewable energy. These green power purchases are verified by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions.
Energy Star, on the other hand, is a certification of energy efficiency that is backed by the U.S. government. The EPA sets guidelines for which products can be labeled as energy efficient products. More efficient products such as refrigerators or washing machines will offer the same performance demanded by consumers while using less energy than comparable products, and thus producing less carbon dioxide pollution. Energy Star certification is most commonly found on appliances, computers, and the like, although the energy efficiency of building products, heating and cooling systems, plumbing systems, and lighting is also verified by the EPA.
Photo via d_true
Posted by Kelly Smith on Tue, Jun 01, 2010
A truly sustainable business must look at the impact of their operations in the short term and in the long term. Technology corporations can have questionable environmental record, simply because of the seemingly constant need for consumers to upgrade to the latest appliance or gadget. Short-term eco efforts can be quickly superceded by the disposable nature of technology products over the long term.
Hitachi is working to change this stereotype. They are hard at work reducing carbon dioxide emissions during the manufacturing and shipping processes to lower their carbon footprint. Hitachi's longer-range plans specifically include a reduction of their carbon dioxide emissions by 100 million tons by 2025. Hitachi already successfully reduced their carbon emissions in their Japanese operations by 14 percent from 1990 to 2009.
Another way that Hitachi will proceed with a more green business model is by making their products greener. They are working on using more recyclable materials for lighter-weight products that are energy efficient and have a long, low-impact lifespan. These products will also use more eco-friendly packaging materials to carry them from factory to consumer.
In North America, available Hitachi products include televisions, camcorders, power tools, external hard drives, and car audio systems.
Specific green technology innovations are also in the works. At Hitachi's 2009 Climate Change Forum in Washington, D.C., the company displayed many of its environment-specific technologies. Hybrid cars, lithium ion batteries, monorail and hybrid railway systems, energy conserving air conditioning systems, wind turbine generators, nuclear power plants, and photovoltaic power generation materials were among the technologies shared with conference attendees.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Wed, May 19, 2010
Popular beverage company PepsiCo is becoming a more sustainable business by increasing their water efficiency and energy efficiency, decreasing their fuel use and carbon emissions, and increasing the recyclability of their products. In the next five years, Pepsi plans to reduce water usage by 20 percent, reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent, and increase energy efficiency by 20 percent. Pepsi products will contain a higher percentage of recycled material in their packaging, and they will be easier to recycle. The Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo is even distributing SunChips in a compostable bag.
Customers are demanding greener business practices across many industries. Pepsi has a fresh new take on going green with their new electronic recycling kiosks, which will be located in places like airports and gas stations. Five hundred kiosks should be operating in California by the end of this month. People can scan empty aluminum cans and plastic beverage bottles, even from non-Pepsi products, in order to earn points that will give them retail discounts and other rewards, like half price hotel stays. This program makes recycling more visible and fun, with tangible rewards for environmentally conscious consumers.
The question is, how does the competition measure up? The Coca-Cola Company plans to reduce carbon emissions by 5 percent in the next five years and increase energy efficiency by 40 to 50 percent by the end of this year. Coca-Cola is also working on developing a diesel-electric hybrid delivery truck that is 30 percent more efficient than standard delivery vehicles.
Interestingly, neither Pepsi or Coke are members of the EPA's Green Power Partnership, although Pepsi has won an Energy Star award from the Environmental Protection Agency several years in a row for their energy efficiency efforts. Coke is a member of the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program. Both companies are obviously making a green go of it. But rather than competing for the better commercial, how about competing to see which beverage giant can make the product with the smallest carbon footprint?
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, May 13, 2010
Now is the time when summer vacations begin to creep into our minds. Even when we have started to shrink our carbon footprint at home and at the office, many of us forget to think about the impact the carbon emissions from our travel may have. Fortunately, it is easier than ever to find green hotels, green rental cars,
green restaurants, and more.
From individual inns to large hotel chains, sustainable hotels are becoming more common. Hotels such as Doubletree are working to get their hotels certified by different environmental organizations and programs by decreasing waste and increasing sustainable business practices. Hotels are investing in energy efficiency, low-flow water fixtures, and recycled paper products to improve their environmental impact and to increase their customer satisfaction. Some hotels are also choosing to purchase green energy. Washington D.C.'s Fairmont Hotel, Austin's Four Seasons Hotel, several locations of Forever Resorts, and a few locations of Hampton Inn & Suites are all Green Power Partners, just to name a few.
Websites such as Responsible Travel are very helpful in finding and booking trips to small, local ecotourism spots around the globe. My husband and I used their site to book an amazing walking holiday through a sustainable travel company for our honeymoon. We stayed in a small villa in Torrox, Spain, and wandered beautiful scenery nestled between the mountains and the Mediterranean.
One looming question is how to get to these amazing green travel opportunities. Sustainable transportation options are not quite as prevalent as sustainable hotels, but they do exist. Rental car companies such as Budget make it easy to reserve a low-impact vehicle such as a Toyota Prius. Southwest Airlines purchases green power to offset its conventional electricity usage for its Texas facilities. Public transportation and car share companies are another viable option. You can also purchase carbon offsets on an individual basis, but make sure that you are choosing a reputable company if you choose to do so.