Wow. Check out GreenDaily

Been doing some thinking about how the tipping point has been reached and passed on when it comes to cause marketing. The market is saturated and consumers are growing weary with sheer volume of the conversation of “doing better by doing good” and weary of cause advocates- particularly in the green space.

The Onion recently released, Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas of the Planet Earth in which they have a map that tracks Level of Bono Activity world-wide. Leave it to the Onion to mock a man who may get a nobel prize but the message makes sense- people are ready to make fun of his philanthropy because they are choking on the quantity of his good deeds. Remember when Angelina was adopting little Maddox a few years back- the world started paying attention to Cambodia and lauding the actress’s selflessness. This year when Madonna tried to get in on the act of adoption in Africa, folks wanted her locked up for stealing a child from his rightful father. People are getting cause fatigue.

This article from the NYtimes – Green Party- captures it beautifully regarding a dinner party and all of the paralysis that arises when deciding what to serve and how to serve it…more of the same (paper vs. plastic, local vs. organic, etc.).

What is a company to do? How can you be authentic but not overbearing? Real and accessible but somehow have a light touch? If causes aren’t ingrained in your corporate soul (ie:Patagonia, Timberland), how do you connect with consumers in a meaningful way? How much is too much?

(Do I sound like Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sex in the City character with all of my open-ended questions? A really nebbishy, green Carrie Bradshaw.)

Considering that each family in the US generates about 100 pounds of extra waste during the holiday season…

I’ve come across a few (there are a zillion) cool ideas for the holidays this year and I’ll add more as I see them:
-If you live in Seattle: www. wastefreeholidays.com - a ton of restaurants/museums/arts groups are giving discounts if you “give an experience as your gift”.

-If you don’t live in Seattle, consider the Symphony, Opera, Museum tickets.

-The average household receives 41 lbs of junk mail per year. Give the gift of eliminating junk mail:

41 lbs.org and GreenDimes are a few sites that make it easy and offer gift certificates.

-Carbon balance your cousin who drives and SUV: Carbon Fund, Terra Pass

IF You must buy something:

-Check out this “green” gift shop: Viva Terra

-Get some reusable items here: Reusable Bags

-How about some Gdiapers or BumGenius

-Even if you are skeptical of Product RED, check out the Gap’s 2 week t-shirt: “Contributions from this limited edition T are equivalent to the average cost of 2 weeks of medicine which will enable people living with HIV to lead healthy, normal lives.”

Stocking stuffers:

-How about some CFLS?

-A toothbrush that is good looking and recyclable? Preserve even offers paid envelopes to send the brubh

When your kids outgrow their shoes, you are likely to send them to their cousins, give them to your neighbor’s kids or you may even take the time to put them on consignment up the road. When you converted your movie collection to DVDs, you may have given the local library your VHS collection (but held onto one copy of Sixteen Candles) or sold them on Craig’s List or Ebay. Who knew how green you were even if, in your eyes, you were offloading junk and making room for more!?

An online business, Zwaggle, has sprouted up and got some green love on CNET today: Going Green One Crib at a Time

Zwaggle formalizes a system families have been using for years and facilitates trading of used items via a point system (zoints) that is a bit confusing but I suspect once mastered, pretty manageable. Zwaggle offers local pick up options as well as shipping nationwide and the convenience of a printable shipping lable (with postage).  It is true, if we keep our “gently used” puzzles,blocks and kitchen sets moving from family to family we’re all greener for it. We’ll see where Zwaggle ends up but whoever is doing their PR is smart to get them spinning green at the get go.
I’ve encouraged clients in the past to really look at their business and determine what it may be doing inadvertently or overtly make the world better. Freecycle positions itself as a landfill relief group- too bad Ebay hasn’t talked that up more (even on Earthday at a minimum- they could tally how many trades are made on that day alone and create a dollar amount donation to a green .org).

Shipping begs a lot of questions. When we all started shopping from our computers we were struck by the amazing convenience of it all (Zappos wins in that category). I’m now considering the implications of “free shipping”– carbon calculation needed–If I shop from my couch and rather than take my car to the store have the folks at Amazon ship me items on a regular basis, am I doing the earth a favor? I’m not so sure. I pay that nice flat fee to be a PRIME member of Amazon- I can order as many items as I want and have them shipped 2 day mail to me or gift recipients at no charge. Amazon wins because I don’t need to reach a $ hurdle to get the shipping covered and I order more goods on more occasions. What does that mean? More labor, more boxes, more packing materials, more space taken up on airplanes and trucks with more frequency. Are the shipping companies doing a darn thing to get greener? Bio-diesel for their zillions of fleets? More pro-active measures to re-use boxes (to accept them at their storefronts)? As the holiday season approaches, (UPS is expecting 22 million deliveries on its peak day, Dec. 19. )I’m going to look into this.

 Today’s Urban Baby hypes “safe sippers”…

As I’ve mentioned, since we had our first kiddo back in 2005 a lot has changed…or at least we’ve decided to make a few changes that feel like alot.  I couldn’t turn a blind eye to all of the stuff I’ve been reading. One the one hand, the old justification “Our parents smoked and drank while pregnant with us, we stood in front of the microwaves, we used baby oil and tin foil for a fast tan and we’re okay!” can work. On the other hand, if we have access to the info and we have an opportunity, why not get rid of some of those phathalate (face it, it is fun to say) carrying objects in our lives, in  the lives of our newborns in particular.

So about 8 weeks we got rid of the zillion Avent bottles we amassed last time around and invested in two Born Free bottles.  We also were gifted a few glass bottles which we’re using to store milk (also all of the Medela containers are PVC free). We got silicone only binkies too.

Now what should we do next? Get rid of all of the plastic forks and spoons and plates and cups that our older child uses? Is the risk that she’ll break our dishes worth the change? I’d imagine it is.

We go on a huge family vacation- 30+ of us- every year in Boca Raton (we gather around our matriarch 97 yr old grandma there). Every year we purchase dozens of bottles of Kirkland Signature (Costco) water and every year I get very bummed when I see them piling up in the garbage can, laying on the coffee tables unfinished and wasted. This year, instead of making a family vacation shirt (we all have about 15 from the decade+ of trips we’ve been doing), we’re getting everyone Nalglene bottles. Yee haw.

I bought my parents SIGG cups for their anniversary.

I’m buying my sister-in-law cloth (reusable) sandwich bags for Xmas.

I’m also buying my best friend some cloth produce bags to accompany her tote bags when she frequents the farmer’s market each weekend. (I mean why do we bring tote bags and then load up on produce in plastic bags?!)

What’s grinchy about trying to get your relatives and dear friends, the audience with an ear you can bend most frequently, greener? Bah Humbug.

See the NYTimes piece on the subject…

Tully’s Coffee has rolled out their Eco-tainer- 100% compostable coffee cups made with a corn-based lining. I was smiling from ear to ear when I saw the signs in their window and it lured me in (ah, the new marketing tactic worked!). I felt excited to finish my beverage and have such a clear idea about where to put the cup afterward (my yard waste bin). The lid is a different story. Is there a lid that is re-usable that fits on the paper cups that we can carry ourselves? Hmm. And hey, if Tully’s has done it- its time for the other Seattle based coffee company to bust a move. Come on Starbucks-get your eco-cup on!

“Traditionally, hot beverage cups use a petroleum-based lining which prevent the walls from leaking and breaking down when filled with hot liquid. Tully’s new Green Cup uses a bio-plastic, corn-based lining making our cup completely renewable and BPI certified compostable.”

This second kiddo, I decided that putting 5000+ diapers (~60 per week x 2 years) into a landfill that each take approximately 500 years to breakdown was just plain unacceptable. I started to research my options and tried to navigate the cloth diaper route- is it really better for the environment to go cloth? There is a lot of debate out there. Well, I got the owner of Seattle Diaper Service on the phone and by the time we hung up, I was convinced. Reusing cloth over and over, washing them in mass (about 1000 per load), using bio-diesel (starting in 2008) to fuel the delivery trucks, it all sounded good. So I signed up. And then I chickened out- kind of.

The bag of bulky cloth diapers arrived and though I noted that “baby got back” when I put them on her, we started using them. The diapers soaked through in a matter of minutes but didn’t leak and my girl didn’t seem to mind the wetness. Leaving the house with the cloth diapers and having to tote the wet diapers with me throughout the day just seemed to be too much hassle. And the cloth diapers get way too wet at night. So what’s a hybrid mom to do?

I’m using some cloth diapers (about 40 per week, I figure that saves the landfills 2000 diapers a year) and some disposables (yes, they are Seventh Generation).

And it seems to be working- my conscience is at ease and my convenience hasn’t been compromised.

Yep, that’s a somewhat lame (but extremely accurate) biz school term but it is what often happens to me when I’m trying to pick the “right” thing for myself, my family, the planet! IF you forget your SIGG cup, THEN you should just go thirsty when you are out and about OR you can buy a bottle of water and ruin the planet.  We did that the other day- we were out, without a container of water and our daughter repeatedly told us she was thirsty. I tried not to listen but then that seemed mean. And sure enough we had to pull over and buy a dreaded bottle of water. I had not done that in months and it truly felt criminal (but then again depriving a toddler of hydration isn’t too nice either).  And to complicate things further- who are you more worried about- the planet or yourself? I mean we have about 10 Nalgene bottles in our possession which is good b/c we avoid plastic bottles for our water BUT what about the phthalates debate- the leaching plastics and all of that jazz? I mean we’ve been camping many times and pour piping hot water into those handy/durable/plastic leaching bottles, right?! And SIGGs are pricey- but that amortizes right?

As soon as I turned the corner and decided to do some self -auditing about my life, I did what so many people do. I started to think about where I could get greener, what areas were gray and where I was willing to budge. This type of cause auditing is an examination of sacrifice – Greenvenience- how hard is this going to be? Pragmactivism- is it practical?And oh boy can it be overwhelming even paralyzing and when you start to look at your life and where you are willing to budge (or not), you see some pretty interesting things pop up. I am that consumer- the one who was buying all of my produce and meats and dairy at Whole Foods but schlepping to Costco for things like toilet paper, diapers, and cases of Vita water. The one buying a Terra Pass and still driving up the road to the grocery store.

And so, my first big change was: toilet paper. The average roll of toilet paper, in an average household, in the most-used bathroom of the house lasts approximately five days. Consumers use approximately 8.6 sheets of paper per toilet use. This is a total of 57 sheets per day and 20,805 sheets per year (42 rolls of two-ply or 21 rolls of one-ply). So…

I changed our toilet paper to recycled (and have since found that Trader Joe’s is a good bargain and less scratchy than others) It took our family a few weeks to adjust to the 100% recycled toilet paper – it isn’t very white or soft but a year into it, we’re all used to it. It is odd to note that public bathrooms sometimes offer up softer toilet paper than my house does, so be it. My one wish is for the recycled toilet paper producers to offer some praise to semi-greenies for making the switch. If I’m going to pay more for scratchy toilet paper (and to save trees!) why don’t the toilet paper sheets have “100% recycled” screened into them? My guests would know why their tushies don’t get the royal treatment at our house and I’d get a bit of green ego stroking. Is it so wrong to want recognition for a green deed?

Look here to find out how environmental the supposed green toilet paper brands are as ranked by the NRDC.

More to come: The Green Decision Tree: organic vs. local, cloth vs. disposable diapers, phathalates and plastic paralysis, what to do with all of my tupperware, why use eco friendly dishwashing detergent if it doesn’t work? etc. etc.