green consumerism

Yesterday, President Elect Obama vowed to place climate change at the top of his agenda – a move I applaud.  His strongly-worded remarks were both refreshing and reassuring, a sharp contrast against the refusal of administrations, Democratic and Republican, over the last several decades to address climate change in any meaningful fashion.

Impacts of climate change can be felt across borders and across every sector of civic society.  We are living through the dreadful awareness of what happens when we try to manage inter-connected systems with conventional, unconnected governance models.  Who knew that American real estate speculators could help unravel the world’s banking system?  “Environmental crisis” is poised to replace “economic crisis” in news headlines around the world; and for this crisis, no “bail out” plan will rescue us, or future generations, from the real damage being done to our physical environment.  

In addition to Washington putting climate change at the top of its agenda, another complementary, yet elementary, part – if you want a real solution to climate change – is at the cash register you visit every day. As powerful and relevant as the government is, for-profit business has a huge, even outsized impact on the question of climate change. CEOs – yes, that demonized group characterized by greed and self dealing – have the potential to foster huge, positive impact on climate change.  Businesses buy and sell along a value chain that stretches across the globe, from developed economies to developing economies. CEOs can and do have a huge impact on climate change, in the way they run their businesses, in the choices they make about materials, energy use, chemical use, transportation. And if you want to influence those choices – you, the citizen consumer – can.  Imagine if you insisted on organic content in the food you purchase.  Lo and behold – an entire industry springs into action, to deliver organic produce.  Imagine if you demanded that Timberland or Nike or the Gap use organic cotton, rather than pesticide laden factory-farmed cotton.  Just imagine.

I am not saying government doesn’t have an important role in solving climate change – clearly it does.  But if we expect President Elect Obama or Congress to solve the issues facing the environment alone, we’re fooling ourselves.  It will take more effort to reverse the damage being done to our environment worldwide. Citizen consumers have the power to force change, by holding brands and businesses to a higher standard – and in turn many businesses must change they way they currently operate.  With everyday “votes” on what goods and services you buy, you can create a different kind of accountability on climate change.  Consumers can use their purchasing power to hold corporate America responsible for doing more than “working on” climate change.

Jeff Swartz
President & CEO, Timberland

This recent essay on CNN.com by Elizabeth Economy highlights the parallel paths of economic development and environmental crisis in China.  Every day, 14,000 new cars are added to China’s roads and every 7 to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens to help fuel the country’s economic growth.  Although a success story in its rapid development, China also serves as a warning as the environmental costs of that development unfold.

The essay is accompanied by this slideshow of dramatic images from China’s Huai River Basin, a rural area heavily impacted by water pollution, taken by photojournalist Stephen Voss.  The essay and photos also appear in the book “What Matters” by David Elliot Cohen.

Treehugger’s Matthew McDermott blogged about the topic earlier this week, suggesting that in light of the environmental damage that sometimes results from economic development, “we need a new meaning for ‘developed,’ a new measurement of wealth.”  It’s an interesting notion: wealth is so often measured, not just in China but throughout the world, by the amount of material goods you have, the size of your home, the number of cars in your garage … the degree to which you’re able to live excessively.  At present, we don’t live in a world that values conservation as much as consumerism.

We look forward to the day when wealth is measured by the weight of your recyclables … or how small your electric bill is … or the number of miles you log on your feet or a bike instead of in a car.  Until then, our thanks to Treehugger for inspiring us to think about it.

Those of you in the greater Boston area, take note: Now through Sunday, October 19 select restaurants in the area are participating in Fresh From the Family Farm Week.  Click here for a list of participating restaurants, all offering menu items with fresh ingredients from area family farms and donating a portion of the proceeds to Farm Aid and Chefs Collaborative – two nonprofit organizations that support the family farming industry and healthy, sustainable food businesses.

Fresh From the Family Farm Week is a win-win: you get to enjoy healthy, local, good-for-you food … and farmers get a much-needed boost in their effort to provide high-quality, locally-grown food for our tables.

Food for thought.

Odonata is an ecovillage in the making, comprised of a core group of families in the Newburyport, Massachusetts area who are looking to live more simply and sustainably.  While still in the early stages of development, Odonata’s founders have concrete ideas about how to create less burden on our environmental resources in their intentional community — including using green building techniques, clustering homes to conserve land, creating common gardens and purchasing food and other necessities cooperatively, to share resources and reduce consumerism.

We recently caught up with Mark Schultz, one of Odonata’s cofounders, who shared his thoughts with us about living more simply in an age of over-abundance:

The biggest addition ecovillage projects add to the conversation about sustainability is a lens into the social elements of sustainability. The power of technology has really made us an incredibly independent nation – independent of each other – while usually the greatest gains are made in collective action. I have studied numerous alternative technologies with an eye to implementing in our village, or servicing or selling as a side-business. You know what every expert said? The #1 technology for the environment was not a technology: it was conservation. Stop using stuff!

The only way I know how to tame the inner child that wants that extra helping of everything is to be with others who believe the same thing. So ecovillage is built through technology, but it is not about technology, it is about people on the planet. While we are all understandably focused on these incredible, new techniques just within our grasp, saying “it’s not just science” is kind of revolutionary in an evolutionary sort of way.

The next Odonata Exploring Membership Meeting will take place Oct. 19th from 2 to 5 p.m. Contact voice@odonataVillage.org or visit odonatavillage.org for more information.

Today’s Wall Street Journal features an article by Jeffrey Ball about carbon footprinting … an increasingly popular topic in the Earthkeeping space.  The logic is simple enough – if you can calculate the amount of carbon emissions it takes to produce and / or use something – be it a pair of shoes, a new car or a carton of milk – you then have a means of assessing its environmental impact, which can help you decide how badly you want it and whether there’s a less impactful alternative.

Pretty useful information, in some cases.  When you consider that 86% of the carbon emissions from the average car over its lifetime comes from the car’s fuel use, then fuel efficiency is worth examining closely when you buy your next vehicle.  And when you know that the per-family carbon footprint from doing laundry is 10 pounds per week — and that line drying instead of using your clothes dryer can cut that footprint almost in half —  you might just go string up a clothesline.

Where carbon footprinting falls short in today’s marketplace is in providing a meaningful comparison between similar products – because there’s currently no standard for calculating the data (preventing an easy apples-to-apples comparison) and although the market is growing, there are still relatively few products bearing carbon data (tough to compare two products if one has a carbon “score” and the other does not). 

Like so many issues related to climate change and environmental impact, the good news here is that the conversation is starting and interest is building.  And, there are cross-brand initiatives underway to develop standard means of assessing environmental impact – so that one day, the carbon footprint data you find in stores and on shelves will be as universal and comparable as the nutrition labels you see on your groceries.

What if cutting carbon became as popular as cutting carbohydrates has been in recent years?  That’s one diet trend we’d like to see.

Tim Sanders (best-selling author, public speaker and former Chief Solutions Officer for Yahoo!) has just published his third book, entitled, “Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference.”  In it, Sanders discusses the Responsibility Revolution currently underway – as evidenced by increasing demand by consumers and employees alike that the companies they buy from and work for offer social value in addition to economic value.

Huffington Post’s John Tepper Marlin spoke with Sanders recently about his book and the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) moving beyond being a “luxury good” to a more mainstream commodity.  Sanders also shares his thoughts on how to make such a revolution sustainable, what defines pioneers in the space of corporate responsibility and why companies embracing CSR as yet another way to make a buck won’t survive.   You can read the entire interview here. 

We’ve long believed in the premise that making a profit and making a positive social impact can and should live together in the world of business … we’re putting “Saving the World at Work” on our reading list.  If any of you have read it, we’d love your review.

“Cars have been marketed as a person’s pathway to a life of luxury, freedom, excitement, and exploration … cars are a symbol of status, whereas public transportation (buses and trains) are a symbol of an individual’s limits. Every single time someone rides a bus (that is, if they are riding it out of necessity and not by choice), they are reminded of their social and economic class.”

The above insight about one of the pitfalls of public transportation, from an environmental perspective, is from environmental artist Catherine Blackwell-Pena’s blog, Riding Green.  Her point is an important one: while some “green” behaviors have developed a degree of social cachet over time (think of all those celebrities driving hybrids and shopping at their local farmer’s markets), other actions – like riding a bus – have somehow not garnered the same desirable environmental status. 

Blackwell-Pena is working to change the image of public transportation and help raise its green status by designing these Duv-Tal seats – environmentally-conscious, inexpensive and unobtrusive public chairs, installed on light posts commonly found at public bus stops.  The Duv-Tal seats serve to add a level of “visual respect” to the Memphis, TN  area where they’ve been installed (many bus stops here lack adequate seating, leaving passengers to stand or sit on the ground) and messaging on each seat reminds passengers that by utilizing public transportation, they’re serving as positive environmental role models.

To impact real positive environmental change, we’re going to have to move beyond actions that are convenient, inexpensive or popular to tackle those more complex, requiring more effort and perhaps less socially-desirable.  Thanks to the efforts of individuals like Catherine Blackwell-Pena, such actions are getting overdue attention and respect.

Click here to read more about Catherine Blackwell-Pena and the Duv-Tal seats … and thanks to our friends the Canaries for turning us on to her work.

Timberland’s President and CEO Jeff Swartz was recently interviewed for the LifeTips radio program about Timberland’s connection with and commitment to the environment. In the interview, Jeff discusses the challenges of operating a sustainable business – from making environmental consciousness a relevant and powerful proposition for consumers to marrying the brand’s vision (in Timberland’s case, becoming carbon neutral by 2010) with business realities (the fact that our boots aren’t currently biodegradable, for example).

Hear more about Timberland’s approach to practical problem solving and why Jeff believes the best is yet to come us by clicking below. Our thanks to the LifeTips radio team for sharing with us.

Webmaster Radio
	Timberland Going Carbon Neutral Show: Life Tips

So you’re not big on tree planting, can’t figure out carbon offsetting and aren’t ready to retire your current vehicle for a bicycle or hybrid.  Let go of the guilt and remember – even small steps can help to save the world.

Take, for example, reusable shopping bags – they’ve never been more accessible (most grocery stores display them conveniently close to the check-out counters) or affordable (many places charge a buck a bag and some even discount your grocery bill if you use them).  We like the fact that they’re sturdy and hold about twice as much as a standard plastic grocery bag, which means less trips between the car and the kitchen … plus when they’re not doing grocery duty, the reusable bags are great for hauling everything from beach towels and bug spray to snacks and sweatshirts.

If you’re still not sold on the virtues of reusable shopping bags, you might read this award-winning article from Best Life magazine about the Pacific Ocean’s “Eastern Garbage Patch” – a stew of plastic trash twice the size of Texas that endangers sea life and humans alike.  Or, check out Squawkfox’s list of 50 Reasons to Go Green with Reusable Shopping Bags.

Here’s to making the question “paper or plastic?” obsolete.

Alarming graph comparison of plastic resin production vs. percentage of plastic recycled, courtesy of Best Life magazine.

One more reason to love America’s favorite pastime:

Major League Baseball is joining forces with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to support and coordinate environmental stewardship efforts in virtually every Major League Baseball club across the US.  Under the collaborative “Team Greening Program,” Major League clubs will be able to share best environmental practices and information on everything from offsetting carbon emissions from team travel to establishing recycling programs and incorporating environmental language into contracts and purchasing policies.

Our own Earthkeeper Heroes on the Big Green Bus took time out from their cross-country tour to talk with Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, Senior Scientist for the NRDC, about the Major League Baseball partnership … and the incredible potential for environmental education and impact that lives within our nation’s greatest ballparks. 

Click here to read Big Green Bus blogger Andrew Zabel’s reflections on the inspiring conversation … and visit the NRDC Greening Advisor™ website for more information about how your favorite team is working to go green.