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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/
Campuses must measure and understand their carbon footprints before they can set goals to become carbon neutral. GHG emission data from the original 391 schools were due in mid September, but so far only 190 have submitted while another 98 campuses asking for extensions.
Julian Dautremont-Smith, associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, says he is not discouraged by the missed deadline because the nature of the commitment requires many decades to achieve.
Checklist of Steps Toward Sustainability
1. Develop concensus of diverse members of the community to work for sustainability
2. Research strategies that fit your region, facility, team and funding
3. Develop goals based on that research
4. Report and communicate those goals and strategies to members
5. Put systems in place for training, communications, measuring and operations
6. Fund it with time, talent and money.
7. Report back on progress...to the members, community and regulators.
8. Celebrate successful milestones...keep motivation high on possibilities and achievments!
The findings from the nationwide survey conducted among more than 3,000 women reveal key insights on the female psyche across topics including health and well-being:
When it comes to health, women are more concerned about
diet/weight (56%) and eating right (36%)
than they are about
cancer
(23%), cardiovascular/heart health (20%), and diabetes (18%)
- Many women are skipping important medical examinations, including annual physicals and cancer screenings
- Less than two-thirds (59%) of all women get an annual physical, even lower among Gen Y women (44%).
- Nearly one-third of Boomer women are not getting their important annual mammograms, cholesterol checks or physicals.
- 62% of women regularly give themselves a breast self-examination, while only 14% of all women get a skin cancer screening at least once a year.
Four in 10 women report that they are more than 20 pounds overweight
- Gen Y women are more likely than Gen X and Boomer women to say they are at their ideal weight (29% vs. 9%, 7% respectively).
- Relatively few (4%) overweight women say they would consider surgery as a weight reduction strategy; a substantial number say they would consider exercise (76%) and improving their diet (75%) to lose weight.
Still, when it comes to achieving a healthy lifestyle, more women
opt for simple strategies like “drinking more water” and “eating more
fruits and vegetables” than more disciplined approaches like
“exercising three times a week”, “lowering calorie intake”, “watching
their sugar intake” and “using portion control”
- Not surprisingly, women are sensitive about their own weight, with 4 in 10 (40%) who say it’s wrong for a man to tell a woman that she’s overweight
- However, relatively fewer women think it’s wrong for a woman to tell a man he’s overweight (32%) or a parent to tell a child he or she is overweight (26%).
Most women think the battle of the bulge starts at the schools at an early age; the majority of moms claim that while their child(ren) eat junk food, it’s “not when I’m around”
Top 10 Health Concerns (across all generations)
1. Diet/weight control (56%)
2. Eating well/nutrition (36%)
3. Allergies (27%)
4. Aging process (26%)
5. Mental health (25%)
6. Arthritis (24%)
7. Cancer (23%)
8. Cardiovascular/heart health (20%)
9. Diabetes (18%)
10. Menopause (18%)
Medical check-ups:
- Less than two-thirds (59%) of all women get an annual physical, while more than two-thirds get an annual blood pressure check-up (67%) and visit the dentist at least once a year (66%).
- Only 44% of Gen Y women get an annual physical, compared to 69% of Baby Boomer women.
- 62% of women regularly give themselves a breast self-examination, while only 14% of all women get a skin cancer screening at least once a year.
- Nearly one-third of Boomer women are not getting their important annual mammograms, cholesterol checks or physicals.
Non-traditional approaches to health & wellness:
To improve health and well-being, some women have taken the following
non-traditional approaches: natural herbs and supplements (26%),
bought/adopted a pet (25%), meditation (11%), acupuncture (4%), visited
a hypnotist (1%).
What Women Want: To Look and Feel Good
Dissatisfaction with physical appearance/energy levels:
While most women like who they are inside and are satisfied with
their “identity and development as an individual” (68%), only 4 in 10
women say they are satisfied with their physical appearance (40%)
and/or energy levels (37%).
Professionals Women Would Want to Hire*
1. Personal Trainer (47%)
2. Personal Chef (34%)
3. Financial Advisor (31%)
4. Live-In Housekeeper (31%)
5. Professional Masseuse (29%)
6. Nutritionist (28%)
7. Professional Organizer to de-clutter your living space or office (24%)
8. Stylist (19%)
9. Interior Decorator (15%)
10. Career Counselor (13%)
*allowed up to 5 choices
Women’s Lifestyles:
Most women don’t want to work too hard to achieve a healthy
lifestyle, opting for simple solutions like drinking more water or
eating more fruits and vegetables over the more disciplined approaches
like exercising regularly, counting calories, and using portion control
(see chart below)
What Women Do to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle*
- Drink more water (80%)
- Eat more fruits and vegetables (70%)Read nutritional labels (49%)
- Avoid foods that are high in fat (47%)
- Make a conscious effort to lower calorie intake (44%)
- Watch my sugar intake (44%)
- Exercise at least three times a week (43%)
• Women with children are especially likely to say that “it is difficult for me to find time to take care of my physical appearance” (28% vs. 22% total women).
Overweight Women:
- The vast majority of American women (84%) feel they are overweight.
- 13% of women feel that they are the ideal weight, while 23% feel they are 21-50 pounds overweight and 16% report being more than 50 pounds overweight.
- Older women are more likely than younger women to report they are overweight and to join weight management programs
- More Gen Y women (29%) feel they are the ideal weight, compared to Gen X women (9%) and Baby Boomer women (7%).
- Gen X women (22%) and Baby Boomer women (20%) are more likely to get involved in weight management programs to improve their health and well-being than Gen Y women (14%).
- On the other hand, Gen Y women (24%) are more likely to do yoga or Pilates to improve their health and well-being than their Gen X (18%) and Boomer (8%) counterparts.
Among women who feel they are overweight, exercise (76%) and improving diet (75%) are the top two strategies for weight reduction, while taking medications and/or dietary supplements (17%) and undergoing surgery (4%) are less popular methods.
READ MORE"It is particularly important for marketers in the health and wellness category to have a clear understanding of women's behaviors, motivations and thoughts so that the messaging they create will resonate and have enhanced impact," said Debbie Reichig, Senior Vice President, Market Development, NBC Universal. “We are thrilled to be able to make this information available to them.”
These new sites compile EPA multilingual publications and materials in Korean and Vietnamese on a variety of environmental issues such as children?s health, indoor air quality in nail salons and dry cleaners, asthma, fish consumption, proper pesticide usage, among others.
These sites also serve as valuable tools in delivering important health and environmental information to the Vietnamese and Korean communities in the United States and worldwide. This initiative promotes environmental protection in local communities as well as the global environment regardless of language.
The launch of these Web sites coincides with the celebration in the United States of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month during May. According to the U.S. Census, over 14.9 million U.S. residents trace their roots to Asian countries.
Visit EPA's multilingual Web sites at:
http://www.epa.gov/vietnamese/
http://www.epa.gov/korean/
http://www.epa.gov/chinese/
http://www.epa.gov/chinese/simple/
http://www.epa.gov/espanol/
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
But in health care -- or any essential product or service -- transparency is about having 100% accountability. And the buyer of the product needs to rely on the system put in place to provide that security. After all, aren't reliable results what they pay extra for? And medicine today certainly charges that "extra" amount that high performance is supposedly offered.
This brings to mind the change in consumer perceptions about health care. And it ties directly into attitudes about "greening".
It's about cures vs. prevention.
Preventative health care has always struggled. Eating less and better just isn't attractive when restaurants place huge helpings in front of you loaded with sugar and fat for tastes that explode on your taste buds. Exercise is just plain hard work and sweat still isn't very glamorous. But a diet pill is easy. Even if it costs $3 a pill. Even if it's made in China?
Consumers so far haven't been willing to pay that extra amount
for green products because they don't offer an instant cure.
Green is preventative:
- Green prevents future increases in your electric bill
- Green prevents future health care crises
- Green prevents water supply shortages
- Green prevents obesity
- Green prevents getting a cold from your co-workers.
But Americans don't like prevention!
They are addicted to instant cures even more than they are addicted to oil! The question facing us is whether we can change that orientation in OURSELVES first, and in our families and offices next.
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.
How do you get employees to buy into change? Even green and sustainable change?
Self-interest always gets attention, and when you couple self-interest with the need for getting comfortable with change, companies have an interesting opportunity to lay the groundwork for workplace greening.
By starting with an employee benefit program that saves money, energy or air quality AT HOME first -- you get personal buy-in.
For example, provide financial support for adding a solar thermal or solar PV system to employee homes. Out of this specification, buying, installing and maintenance process, a few employees will rise as leaders, and more employees will feel comfortable with the technology. And they will tell stories to their coworkers. And you will have stories to add to your employee meetings and newsletters.
There's reason to believe that educational research is applicable to this phenomenon. Siblings and fellow students learn from one another more than they learn from parents and teachers! Coworkers also learn from one another!
Once employees are comfortable with "change" required for the new green initiatives, and they see the savings in their own wallets, they will be willing and able to apply their knowledge at work. Everyone wins, you have happy employees, you have new leaders, and your employees have added new skills and knowledge base to their capabilities.
And you save money and natural resources in not just one place...buy many!
SOLUTION: Personal experience at home is the foundation for change at work.
In 2007 the U.S. EPA fined The Clorox Company $95,000 for allegedly
distributing an unregistered and mislabeled Chinese version of Clorox
Disinfectant Bleach, in violation of federal pesticide law.
The company’s Los Angeles production facility donated the illegal disinfectants to Los Angeles charities in 2005 and 2006. The products were intended for Asian export, so the labels lacked adequate English-language directions for use, hazard and precautionary statements, and the required statement "Not Registered for Use in the United States of America."
"Unregistered pesticides meant solely for export must not be donated, sold, or otherwise distributed in the United States," said Katherine Taylor, associate director of the Communities and Ecosystems Division for the Pacific Southwest region. "Clorox did not give EPA the opportunity to review these labels to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. Recipients of charity deserve the same level of protection from pesticidal risk as all other users."
READ MORENutriFilter scans the nutritional information for the online grocer's 10,000 SKUs and shows shoppers what fits their profile.
Specific dietary needs coded into the product include gluten-free, organic, peanut-free, low-fat and Kosher. Other common diets will be added in the future.
This online technology will clearly empower consumers to use online research to a greater degree for grocery and other products. Peapod shoppers already were able to view nutritional information per SKU by clicking on product images, but initial reactions to the new capabilities may move even shoppers to healthier diets.
Shoppers can go into Peapod's well designed tool and click on low sodium and low fat. Families can even create and store multiple NutriFilter profiles, specific to the desired food attributes of each member.
While the online grocery shopping model has not been widely viewed as a success, new Web 2.0 interactivity and ease of customization with pre-scored customer needs can add a true benefit without incremental cost.
Launching the new free service focuses on email to Peapod's 300,000 regular users in Chicago, Milwaukee and East Coast markets. Since Peapd's online nutrients product is designed to make it easier and faster to select products that meet specific consumer needs, they have not sought nonprofit groups' endorsements, but believe that the quality of the service will attract a number of endorsements.
They are adding Weight Watchers points to each inventory item and may provide SKU-level information for popular diets such as the South beach and Zone diets in the future.
Given the broad-scale epidemic of obesity in America, there are many tie-ins with diet and nutrition programs that could help provide consumers with easy access to customized diet planning. As consumers become more aware of the product nutritional information in their daily shopping, Peapod believes that food companies will have to start relying on simpler, whole ingredients and reducing or eliminating artificial ingredients.
SOURCE: Mediapost.com April, 2008
Peapod
1-800-5-PEAPOD
http://www.peapod.com
