Recently in Pollution Prevention for Green Community Category

I discovered a documentary about a sustainable living nonprofit in Washington recently, and upon investigation, discovered the production company that is a sustainable story itself.

Yuba Gals Independent Media production partners Robyn Mallgren and Janaia Donaldson have been producing local video programs for community access television since 2002.

In response to awakened Peak Oil awareness, Yuba Gals began producing the weekly 28-minute Peak Moment Conversations.In January 2006.

Since April 2006 the duo taken have videotaped over 100 Peak Moment Conversations on location in 27 communities between Santa Barbara and Vancouver, B.C.

The Yuba Gals live in rural Nevada City and their business is named for the nearby South Yuba River, a part of the Wild and Scenic river system in California. They live on 160 acres of forest land, in a 1500 square-foot off-grid home using about 10% of the electricity of the average American home (including home office). Their home is heated by a wood stove using deadfall wood from their property. Propane heats the cookstove, on-demand water heater and backup generator (needed only during gray-day periods in winter). Not yet energy independent, but moving in that direction!

Contact:

Peak Moment Television
15504 Lone Bobcat Way, Nevada City, CA 95959
530-265-4244
info-at-peakmoment.tv
www.peakmoment.tv/

April 28, 2008
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

NEW JERSEY MODEL FOR PRIVATIZED TOXIC CLEAN-UPS FAILS AUDITS

Serious Violations Found in More than Two-Thirds of Audited Massachusetts Sites

Trenton — More than two out of three privately supervised toxic clean-ups in a Massachusetts program that New Jersey wants to adopt failed audits with serious violations, according to records released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Despite these red flags, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is rushing to embrace further privatization of its troubled toxic remediation program as a cost-free panacea.

PEER argues that DEP has an unrealistic view of its plan to license private sector consultants to replace state employees in overseeing remediation of contaminated sites program by overlooking –

• The need to hire new state employees to license and oversee the private consultants. DEP is under a hiring freeze and does not have surplus employees to assign to run this new program;
• Privatization does not mean the program is free. DEP has disclosed no plan to plan for financing the program nor is it clear how the state will save any money in its operation; and
• Perhaps most importantly, DEP has failed to prioritize any of its more than 16,000 toxic sites – something DEP is legally required to do and has promised to do for the past two years. Without a ranking system, public health will remain secondary to developer interest in deciding where to invest scarce resources.

Law school professors from across the country are lambasting the plan presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for re-opening its closed libraries, according to a joint letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The law professors fault EPA for failing to fully restore services, guarantee full public access or ensure professional librarian control over valuable collections.

The April 26, 2008 letter, signed by 94 law professors from schools stretching from the Carolinas to California, is addressed to key congressional leaders and conveys the authors’ “profound disappointment” in the six-page EPA report on library restoration submitted to Congress on March 26, 2008, including –

• Political Control. “We view with alarm the absence of any EPA commitment to have all aspects of its library plans subject to review by qualified, non-governmental library professionals”;
• Only Partial Restoration. “We are troubled by the Report’s…failure to explain why and how EPA’s libraries will vary in size, target audience, subject focus and depth of collection….We also decry the Agency’s failure to explain its plan to allow some EPA libraries to be open to the public on an ‘appointment only’ basis.”; and
• Vague Commitments. “EPA’s Report is woefully lacking in detail, unresponsive to many of the criticisms that were appropriately included in GAO’s February, 2008 reports on the Agency’s library mismanagement, and entirely devoid of a needed commitment to restore EPA’s shuttered libraries to the levels of service provided to the public and EPA’s staff prior to their closure.

The law professors’ concerns echo those raised by PEER, the agency’s librarians, employee unions (which are pursuing unfair labor practice charges), and agency specialists, including its enforcement attorneys.

“EPA simply needs to put back everything they dismantled; why is that so hard?” asked PEER Associate Director Carol Goldberg. “The political appointees at EPA should not be deciding, as they are now, who gets access to what material.”

EPA had eliminated access to agency libraries in 23 states, shut technical collections and reduced hours and access in other libraries. This December, Congress ordered EPA to re-open closed libraries. In its March report, the agency indicated that it would complete a partial restoration by this October.

Meanwhile, EPA has launched a series of meetings with media, industry, environmental organizations and “other stakeholder groups” as part of “a National Dialogue…to help EPA document the information needs of various sectors …under the leadership of the Chief Information Officer Molly O’Neill”, in the words of an invitation sent to PEER. This National Dialogue will continue until the end of June.

SOURCE: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

April 28, 2008
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

To Robert Hildreth, the sustainability movement has to move beyond just the environment in order to maintain its momentum. It has to become personal.

The most successful corporate sustainability initiatives operate on a micro level, encouraging individual employees to green their personal environments

...according to Robert Hildreth, vice president of global strategy at green-branding firm Saatchi & Saatchi - which maintains 153 offices in 83 countries with nearly 7,000 people.

Speaking at a conference in Rhode Island, Hildreth pointed to the success of Wal-Mart's Personal Sustainability Project (PSP), which his company developed.

"The green movement in general suffers from one of the largest communications problem that’s out there," Hildreth says. "We need to orient ourselves more around making the problem so compelling that it draws people in."

For example, Wal-Mart's PSP encourages employees to find small ways to green their personal environments, from recycling more to walking to work one day a week. One employee suggested turning the lights off in break room soda machines, a move that now saves the company $2 million each year on electricity bills.

Wal-Mart’s 1.3 million employees were asked to tackle a small problem that was important to them – quitting smoking, losing weight, recycling more, walking to work one day a week.

What doesn't work, according to Hildreth, is creating company "green teams" to develop big-picture programs that don't engage employees on a personal level. Green teams at some companies lack enthusiasm, "Nobody really cares about it; they’re just sort of doing it," says Hildreth.

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Looking beyond the obvious is the heart of greening a business or a business practice. It's not simple or everyone would be doing it...right? But here's one example of how a concerned researcher did her homework and searched for the answer to a pollution problem.

Defining the problem is just step one. Next comes the design and engineering process to replace the not-so-green system with materials and processes that provide human- and eco-friendly solutions.

• Find a calculator or model
• Find scientific reports
• Search for online provider information
• Look for Program/Study examples
• Look for presentations
• Think through the "supply chain"  to identify Total Lifetime Impact
• Share your findings online!

Read the example on this researcher's process that helped solve that pesky pollution problem and shared the solution with her community.  READ THE REST HERE: CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com

Permaculture provides a hopeful view for the future -- with the decline in energy that drives "fast growth", a sustainable way of living and working can adjust cultural expectations. And sustainability thinking is a big part of green marketing!

This thoughtful, hopeful look at strategies for a more sustainable way of thinking can help message making form a thoughtful dialog with the business community...as well as consumers. Diversity, change, and setting realistic expectations for society are all part of our social activities -- energy use, technology, food sourcing, coping with nationalism and coping with natural disasters. They are all part of living in a world of closed natural systems -- a finite globe.

Transportation is being recognized as a major contributor to the carbon footprint of human activity. But how do we market sustainability? Peter Lipman of Sustainable Transport presents his ideas on how to think differently...and face a different reality in the industrial and consumer worlds. Positive feedback loops lead to a cycle of automobile dependency. Public transport is a more sustainable approach to access to mobility. Road transport overshadows air transport in impact. Hydrocarbons -- oil: 3/4 of all oil used is for transportation. Health implications include cost to the health system, as well as suffering and loss of productivity. Personal activity also affects mental productivity. Social issues have changed local streets from a social space to a speeding traffic space. 90% of all trips start at home --- discover what you do, who you go see, why you drive.

Sustainability is an emerging opportunity for the food industry, and FMI's sustainability task force is developing the tools and resources most needed to frame this issue and begin to develop and implement sustainability strategies. The task force has defined sustainability as "Business practices and strategies that promote the long term well-being of the environment, society and the bottom-line".

The Sustainability Opportunity for Retail and Wholesale Executives - A powerpoint presentation for use in company to present the business case -- the "what" and "why" for sustainability.

FMI's Sustainability Starter Kit - Executive Summary - A strategic framework to help companies review and analyze what sustainability means as a business issue for them and practical tips and advice on how to get started in developing and executing their own approach to sustainability.

Sustainability and Recycling in the Food Industry - A report that explores shopper practices and attitudes and how the industry is responding.

The Hartman Group Sustainable Consumer Research - A powerpoint presentation which outlines findings of the new research focusing on consumer attitudes and behaviors regarding sustainability.

New custom research developed specifically for FMI by Catalina Marketing that focuses on the actual shopping behaviors of customers, the value of the "green market basket", and the loyalty of green consumers.

• Catalina Research - Executive Summary
• Full Powerpoint Research Report

Sustainability Resource List - FMI has compiled this listing of resources to help your company identify and connect to some of the key sustainability resources - including organizations, publications, conferences, and experts.

BBMG Meets the Conscious Consumer - New research report by socially responsible branding and marketing firm BBMG uncovers the attitudes and beliefs that are defining conscious consumers, shaping their priorities, and driving their purchase decisions. Read the white paper.

NEW Research Report from IRI - reporting that sustainability is an increasingly important decision factor among American consumers regarding both the products they purchase as well as the stores at which they purchase them.

Research Report from IRI - The Forum For the Future report Retail Futures offers a glimpse of what the retail experience of 2022 might involve. Through four radically different and detailed scenarios, Retail Futures 2022 explores many of the issues the retail sector will have to face in the years to come.


Sustainability Task Force Contact

FMI has begun to assemble some key tools, research and resources on this site. If you are interested in learning more or being engaged with the task force, contact Jeanne von Zastrow, Senior Director, FMI, by email or call 435-259-3342.

http://www.fmi.org/sustainability/

With mandatory product takeback programs in the electronics industry, tech executives are struggling to balance costs with compliance and consumer behaviors.

So what is the driving all this sentiment and is the green boom sustainable? Executives expect green to be an increasingly important factor in the procurement decision. Yet 70% of tech industry executives believe that although customers say they want green products they are highly resistant to paying extra. This consumer ambivalence is taxing the wits of marketers everywhere.

...a separate report from PwC out last month which asserts the ‘going green’ marketing revolution got started in the blogosphere in 2006 and became a pervasive conversation by 2007.

Not totally unconnected, employee sentiment is also a driving issue with grass roots green initiatives increasingly touted as the hallmark of a progressive employer.

When it comes to brass tacks, the top business driver for going green in the tech industry is energy efficiency followed by regulatory compliance or fear of future regulatory action.

SOURCE: ZDNET.COM

PROBLEM: Change has to be paid for by someone. Compliance is the key driver of green strategies today.

SOLUTION: Buy less, buy better, use it longer and throw less away. Consumers will have to vote with their dollars.

There's a window of opportunity for green initiative programs. Being a visionary, a leader and taking early action that includes customers, employees and community messaging gets PR value -- being late just doesn't cut it!

It's all about the "system"!

Wherever people congregate, that community has opportunities to make it easier to go green. If people congregate in the snack room -- supply reusable cups and flatware. If people congregate at the water cooler, use a solar powered water cooler.

And if people congregate in the garage...provide recycling boxes near the elevator and stairs!

A shared system of recycling paper, plastic bags, old clothes, etc. that can be managed by one person or a committee of enthusiasts makes it easy -- and therefore more appealing to busy employees.

Plastic Recycling

Plastic grocery bags, plastic water and soft drink bottles, plastic containers -- plastic is everywhere.

And plastic is now floating out to the ocean and accumulating in the center of the Pacific in such volume that it is endangering the proper function of the ocean biome -- wildife such as birds and fish are eating the bits of plastic, thinking they are food. Plankton is being shielded from sunrays and oxygen production is being affected.

Reducing plastic use is moving in the right direction. Common use of this uncommon material is the first place to start. And when recycling is stepped up, product redesign and packaging can be better understood and improved.

Put your Plastic Bag Program Into Action

Strategy, Vision, Communication and Easy Systems are important parts of your Plastic Bag Initiative. Here are some practical planning concepts.

PROBLEM:Plastic is cheap and everywhere! The system supports waste.

SOLUTION: Provide alternatives through communication of options, charges, and collection. Check out some creative sustainable options!