Holiday “R’s”

• Replace conventional tree lights with energy efficient LED lights. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if everyone did this we would save enough energy to heat 200,000 homes for a year. LEDs also release little heat, making them safer as well.
• Recycle scraps of fabric, ribbon, buttons and other materials into unique holiday decorations - a fun activity for children.
• If you are giving a gift that requires batteries make sure they are rechargeable.
• Reuse. Save packing cartons and shipping material like peanuts and shredded paper for later use.
• Reduce energy. Turn down the heat before the guests arrive. You’ll save energy while the extra body heat of your guests will warm up the room.

Celebrate the Earth

• Walk or carpool to parties and family gatherings to save fuel.
• Plan serving amounts ahead of time to avoid food waste; if you still have leftovers, freeze them for future meals. Or, give a gift to your garden and compost them instead.
• Create romantic (and flattering) ambient light with groupings of votive candles in attractive cups; they’re long-burning and efficient.
• Give your tree back to the earth. If you choose a cut tree this season make sure you recycle it. Check Earth911 for info on recycling in your area.
• Prune evergreen shrubs and trees and use them as decorations for your holiday table or sideboard.
• Plant some new trees to replace the one you use this season. Visit American Forests to learn how.

Creative Gifting

• Free your inner artist, and make your own gift cards from recycled post cards, magazines, photos or note cards.
• Make the wrapping part of the gift - put personal care items in a new bath towel, gardening supplies in a tote bag, homemade cookies on a beautiful wood platter.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.