Mandy Levenberg’s blog: Cause Consumption, Green Consumers and then some

Husband out of town, I got a sitter and went solo to see, “No Impact Man“. I had read all about him when he first stopped using toilet paper ( great NYTIMES piece) and knew there would be some commercial arc to the story when he finished his one year mission to reduce his (and his reluctant family’s) impact.  I won’t go on and on here…but I did have a few takeaways:

-My family does a pretty good job in our house of reducing our impact and I sure as hell hope we don’t come across nearly as pedantic when we talk about it publicly as Colin Beavan did in this film and on his blog.

-The movie/blog/book are good conversation starters (but don’t necessarily require a “discussion guide” as provided on the No Impact Man website).

-So, if they got rid of toilet paper and used cloth and washed their clothes in the tub all together, what??? I’m not above focusing on that issue. I’m just not.

‘Nuf said.

A friend just emailed me today looking for some advice to offset his long commute that is required every day for his job.  He cannot switch cars and thus is looking for some ways to feel better about polluting the earth 5 days a week. He also just had another kiddo- agh, the diaper build up just kills your conscience.

Here is what I offered up:
I would say- think holistically…not just your commute- but your house/office and way you live your life–these things do a lot of offset (mentally and otherwise)…

So to that note- much of which you already do/know:
-CFLS in as much of your house as possible
-Recycled toilet paper/paper towels
-Compost (if your town takes it as yard waste even better and much easier)
-Wax paper bags for your kid’s lunch or even better: http://www.laptoplunches.com/
-Consider:Nature baby care diapers for your new baby
-Stock up on a bunch of reusuable snack bags, lunch bags, Klean Kanteens etc
-Spend some time on this site: http://earth911.com/
-Black and Decker’s energy saver series: for your home
-Google’s power meter: again for your home or office
-Power strips throughout your house – turn them off at night

-Consider offsetting your computer: www.littlegreengenie.com
-Rainbarrels in your yard to collect rain water to water yard
-Grow your own veggies next spring/summer- we’ve been amazed at our yield this year!

And in terms of Carbon Offsets- I don’t know how much I really believe in them other than somewhat symbolically… We did you Terra Pass for a while and of course there is Carbonfund.org (both of which you can also use to offset plane flights)
Finally, here is a guide I found that assesses various carbon offsetting programs.

Anyone have other short cuts to getting greener, feel free to comment.

Seriously, they suck. I recommended them for “People Magazine’s- things to watch in 2009″ , I have been telling friends/colleagues and clients about their products and I have trusted my children and myself to drink from them and they FREAKING lied to us.

SIGG SUCKS- full stop.

Read all about it…

You have got to be kidding me. I tossed all of my Avent bottles (well, donated them and felt really guilty doing it- why should someone else’s kids have BPA if my kids didn’t have to?), spent a gazillion $$ on those damn Born Free bottles and felt all high and mighty and wholesome and now THIS?!??!:

Bisphenol A detected in ‘BPA-free’ baby bottles
By Rory Harrington, 31-Jul-2009
Baby bottles labelled as being free of bisphenol A (BPA) have been found to contain small amounts of the chemical, research from Canadian health authorities has revealed.
A study by Health Canada detected trace levels of the substance in baby bottles marketed as BPA-free. However, memos exchanged between agency officials characterized the findings in two brands as “high readings”.
But doubts have been expressed over the findings as producers of BPA-free bottles dismiss the findings as flawed and Health Canada said the BPA presence – which it believes poses no health threat – could be as a result of cross contamination during the bottle manufacturing process.
The Health Canada study was carried out on nine brands of non-polycarbonate bottles last year following the Canadian Government declaration that it would ban polycarbonate bottles on fears BPA was leaching into liquids.
The results, obtained by Canwest under a freedom of access request, found BPA in a polypropylene bottle “which should contain no BPA”, said a senior scientist. He recommended further tests be carried out on other brands. No brand names were released for fear of the commercial consequences.
But researchers responsible for the report have suggested “traces of BPA found to migrate from these bottles could be artifacts of the manufacturing process”. The government scientists also concluded that since the BPA-free bottles – made from polysulfone, polystyrene or polypropylene – leached less than polycarbonate containers, they should be considered a “reasonable alternative” to PC alternatives.
Health Canada yesterday moved to reassure consumers that the “very low trace amounts” of BPA detected posed no health concerns. The body said the amount of leaching was in the parts per trillion range. It added: “At this time, Health Canada has no concerns with respect to the safety of baby bottles from (non-polycarbonate) plastics.”
“These trace amounts may result from cross-contamination cause by the ubiquitous nature of BPA in the manufacturing environment,” said Health Canada in a statement. “Detection of BPA in the non-polycarbonate plastic bottles may also be due to improved sensitivity of instruments in laboratories.”
Producers of BPA-free drinking containers said they were shocked by the findings and have challenged the veracity of the research.
Kevin Brodwick, founder of thinkbaby, whose products are specifically manufactured to be free of a range of chemicals including BPA and phthalates, rejected the research findings. He said tests carried by three major laboratories on the company’s products every quarter had shown “zero, complete non-detect for BPA”.

This gorgeous lettuce bouquet was grown very near my house and I ate it and it was DELISH.

Just returned from a business trip to Dallas where it was 102 degrees!!!! (I landed at midnight last night and it was 80)… saw the oddest thing en route to the airport tonight…Signs along the highway warning of a RED/ORANGE alert. I was assuming this was somewhere in the range of an amber alert… not even close.

This was the verbage on the sign: RED ALERT: UNSAFE AIR POLLUTION CONDITIONS FOR ALL AREAS.

Agh! Maybe I live in a bubble in Seattle but I have never seen that sign in my town and in doing a tad of research upon landing tonight I found this:

Air Quality Alert

Dallas (Texas)

AIR QUALITY ALERT MESSAGE
TXZ103>105-117>121-131-133>135-252045-
AIR QUALITY ALERT MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX
142 PM CDT WED JUN 24 2009
...AIR POLLUTION WATCH LEVEL ORANGE...
AIR POLLUTION WATCH - LEVEL ORANGE - FOR DALLAS-FORT WORTH.
THE TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (TCEQ) HAS ISSUED A
LEVEL ORANGE AIR POLLUTION WATCH FOR THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA
FOR THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2009.
ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE FAVORABLE FOR PRODUCING
HIGH LEVELS OF OZONE AIR POLLUTION IN THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA
ON THURSDAY. OZONE LEVELS COULD REACH THE LEVEL ORANGE "UNHEALTHY
FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS" CATEGORY.
ELEVATED CONCENTRATIONS OF OZONE CAN ACT AS A LUNG IRRITANT.
INDIVIDUALS WITH CHRONIC LUNG DISEASE, SUCH AS ASTHMA AND
EMPHYSEMA, AS WELL AS THE ELDERLY AND YOUNG CHILDREN, ARE
PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE TO OZONE AND SHOULD ATTEMPT TO AVOID
EXPOSURE.  TO AVOID EXPOSURE, MINIMIZE EXERTION OUTDOORS DURING
THE MID-DAY TO EARLY EVENING HOURS OR STAY INDOORS IN AN AIR-
CONDITIONED ROOM DURING THIS TIME.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OZONE, VISIT THE TCEQ OZONE DATA PAGE:
(USE LOWER CASE LETTERS)

We’ve heard it before, local  trumping organic (yes, maybe it is just better to rinse that apple really well instead of paying for an organic apple to be shipped 1500 miles) , “local is a new form of patriotism”, “work locally and you’ll see national change”, etc… and we are going to continue to hear it again.

Consumers want to keep their money close by, they want to make sure they are helping their “neighbors” and they currently don’t trust many large corporations.

I live in a great little neighborhood in Seattle called Wallingford and we’ve now got a fantastic blog: Wallyhood and even our little Sustainable Wallingford site and increasingly we try to bike, walk, wagon everywhere and with summer here we can and we do-even to our local farmer’s market.

Local = wholesome?

I stumbled on this piece NYTIMES piece from last summer and found it really darn interesting.  There is an ongoing debate about corporate/non-profit partnerships and who really wins from the deal? I tend to believe if you don’t figure out how to leverage the smarts of the corporate sector you’ll constantly be up against it.

Read this piece about how Drs. at the Hygiene Center at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical  leveraged the talents of companies like  P&G to study consumer behavior and then push messages to get Africans to form one of the most important habits  possible:  washing their hands (and cutting off the vicious cycle of disease, diarrhea and death)… super interesting.

Sunchips has a reason to toot their own horn. By 2010, they will produce the first 100% compostable (commercial) chip bag.

Frito-Lay is telling consumers that it is using renewable materials with a print and online ad campaign that includes a Web video showing a SunChips bag crumbling in the earth over 14 weeks, and an insert of a fully compostable package in magazines, complete with directions to toss the sample into an active compost bin.

Sunchips has also partnered with National Geographic (who knew?) and has a “WHAT WOULD/CAN YOU DO?” campaign. Oh and they use some solar power to make the chips and they have some health claims too (“Less salt than you think”???, etc).

The point is, Frito Lay has captured the notion that consumers are taking small steps and want to hear about the steps that companies are taking-even if they aren’t all the way there yet.

Well executed, Happy Earthday Frito Lay.

From the GreenEffect.com site:

SunChips and National Geographic have joined forces to create the Green Effect, an initiative to inspire individuals to spark a green movement in their communities.

YOU could be the one to make a difference in your community—for the planet! Submit a description of your Green Effect idea by June 8, 2009. Ten finalists will be announced July 7, 2009. Online viewers and a distinguished panel of judges will review these inspiring ideas.

We’ll award $20,000 each to five people or groups that have the best ideas for green change. The five winners will also be profiled in National Geographic, and the winners will travel to Washington, D.C., to share their projects with environmental leaders.