sustainable ideas

eBay Launches World of Good, an "Eco Positive" Marketplace

jplatt — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0400

Looking for goods, products and artwork that help to make the world a better place? eBay is hoping you'll check out WorldofGood.com, built in conjunction with the fair-trade company of the same name, which offers an online marketplace for "eco positive" and "people positive" sellers. Products available through the site include artwork, jewelry, hand-made goods, and a whole lot more.

The site takes a great approach to categorizing its goods: You can browse for "people positive" products, which provide economic empowerment for artisans; "eco positive" products; "animal friendly" products; or by causes that you can support with your purchases.

eBay is doing a great service by helping to launch this site, but that doesn't change the fact that a lot of items available on eBay's auction site skirt around animal conservation laws. The International Fund for Animal Welfare published this damning report: "IFAW has found that eBay accounts for a large majority of potentially illegal ivory sold openly on the web. An IFAW report in 2007 revealed that at least 90% of all investigated ivory listings on eBay were legally suspect. Furthermore, a soon to be released 2008 IFAW investigation has revealed that ivory traded on eBay has significantly increased in the United States since the 2007 report."

Of course, a lot of this problem would go away if Americans would stop buying ivory.

Personally, I applaud the efforts of World of Good, and in eBay for helping them to build this great site. But eBay itself does need to do more to police its listings and take a stand against the sale of illegal goods. That's the green approach, and one that will really do a world of good.

SunLight Flashlights Save Energy, Save Lives

jplatt — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:32:31 -0400

Imagine a rural area in central Africa, with no running water, no paved roads, and no access to electricity. Life there is dependent upon daylight. Once the sun is down, work comes to stop, unless you can afford expensive gasoline, kerosene or batteries.

But what if there's a medical emergency in the middle of the night? How can a doctor help someone he can't even see?

SunNight Solar Enterprises has a great solution with its two new solar-powered flashlights. The SunLight SL-1 ($20) and SL-2 ($25) offer bright, white light through energy-efficient LED bulbs. Their batteries fully charge during the day, and can hold from 5-10 hours of illumination, depending on the model. The SL-2 can also be used as a room lantern, replacing the need for costly kerosene lamps.

The flashlights are rugged and waterproof, designed to be used for years on end without need to replace batteries or bulbs. This makes them perfect flashlights for anyone who needs them, in any situation.

SunNight is committed to getting its flashlights into the developing world, where they are most needed. Not only can you buy one for yourself, they offer a buy-one-give-one program that has already delivered thousands of flashlights to needy areas around the world. They also have a WarLights program, allowing soldiers to give lamps to people in warn-torn areas of Afghanistan and Iraq, and will soon introduce several other giving programs.

So give the SunLight flashlights a try. You'll save money on batteries, and support a company that's going exceptional work in the process. (Me? I think I just found this year's Christmas presents.)

Cold Soda Equals High Energy Costs

jplatt — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:00:00 -0400

When the city of Juneau, Alaska, experienced a severe energy shortage last month, local businesses quickly unplugged some of their most energy-dependant appliances: vending machines.

According to the U.S. government's ENERGY STAR program, the average vending machine costs a business $311 a year in electricity costs alone. But an ENERGY STAR-qualified vending machine costs half that -- $158 -- or less if includes software to further reduce energy use during non-peak times.

When you consider that the average business has several vending machines, you can see how costs can quickly spiral out of control.

There are several ways to green your vending machines, which will help you to save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One way is to replace older vending machines with ENERGY STAR-rated models. Another is to invest in the VendingMiser from USA Technologies. These plug-and-play devices use passive infrared sensors to monitor their surroundings, turning vending machines off when no one is around. The also monitor vending machine temperatures, keeping drinks cool while using less energy. USA Technologies says their VendingMiser makes any vending machine as efficient as an ENERGY STAR device and can save a business up to $150 a year in energy costs, while also reducing annual maintenance costs by another $40-$80.

So the next time you see one of your employees carrying an ice-cold soda back to their desk, think about how much that can or bottle is costing you, and take a small step to protect the environment. Your bottom line will thank you.

Solar-Powered Table Lights Up the Night, Charges Your Devices

jplatt — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:00:00 -0400

The solar innovations keep on coming. This time around it's the SOLo Lounge Table from Intelligent Forms Design. This intriguing indoor-outdoor table features a tabletop array of solar panels which can generate more than 17 kilowatts of power over the course of a year.

What does the SOLo do with that power? It comes with USB ports and standared three-prong electrical outlets so you can use the table to power your laptop, MP3 player, cell phone or just about any other portable device.

The table is also embedded with internal LED lights, providing night-time glow of 16 million possible colors, as well as built-in music speakers.

Priced at $14,000 and built to order, the SOLo is obviously a high-end, luxury device, and probably intended more for spas, lounge ships and other businesses than your average consumer. But just think -- it probably won't be many more years before you can put a table like this in your own back yard. Boy, won't the neighbors be jealous!

Free Mobile Phone Game Aims to Save Gorillas

jplatt — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Mobile games are the fastest growing segment of the electronic gaming market. Now, a new cell-phone game promises fun gameplay while teaching users about the challenges faced by Rwanda's endangered mountain gorillas.

"Silverback," a free mobile game produced for the conservation group Flora & Fauna International, offers game-play that mimics the struggles mountain gorillas face in the wild. The game follows a gorilla through his entire lifecycle. In the first level, you're a young gorilla separated from his family. Later, you have to defend yourself against rival silverbacks, find a mate, start a family, avoid poachers and snares, and find safe food and habitat.

The game is free to download (although your cell provider may charge for the data download). The developers hope that users will donate £5 (about $10) or more to help fund gorilla conservation efforts.

Mountain gorillas are one of the world's most endangered primate species, with only an estimated 700 members left.

Reflections on Earth Day

akronheim — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:53:30 -0400

This week at Ithaca College, and at many colleges around the country, there were Earth Day events on Tuesday. Ithaca College hosted a screening of the 11th Hour that night and during the day hosted a free luncheon with Brooke Hansen discussing Native American Environmentalism. For the entire week we had events and dubbed last week: Earth Week.

Monday we had the Deputy Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, Bill Richardson, (no, not THAT Bill Richardson...) speak, Wednesday we had a vegetarian teach-in catered by a local co-op in Ithaca, Green Star, and Thursday we hosted another free luncheon to discuss Natural Beauty Products as well as a presentation that night from Benjamin Dangl, author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia. Phew!

These events were somewhere ideologically in the middle of the hay-days of Earth Day with ideals about less consumption and the new capitalistic green movement that has come with the evolution of Earth Day. Bradford Plumer discussed on The New Republic's Energy and Environment Blog that in its beginnings, Earth Day was simply promoting less consumption and being eco-friendly, while today large company's like Toyota, Macy's, Lexus etc are teaming up to promote their new green products around Earth Day. I was even on hulu.com where you can stream many popular, commercial media for free, and they publicized that they support Earth Week. Who doesn't support Earth Day? Maybe Hummer? Their still only up to around 14 city/18 highway mpg...pretty far off of the recently proposed 35 mpg fleetwide standard in the Energy Bill this past fall.

Hummers and companies alike aside, I think capitalism has the opportunity to really take off with the green sector and create fewer obsolete products, products that use less energy, renewable energy, and use energy more efficiently. If they do that, and the grassroots sector continues to educate and mobilize people around these issues, the supply and demand will be there; and we'll be that much closer to fighting climate change.

Greener Office Supplies Just a Click Away

jplatt — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

Back when I worked in an office every day, I used to love borrowing the supply catalogs from our department's administrator. Oh, the amazing lists of products I would find inside those magic pages! Papers of all colors, pens of all shapes and sizes, filing supplies for the most obsessive cublicle jockey...

I'm not buying many supplies these days, but if I were still in an office, I'd definitely be pointing my buyer to GreenLine Paper Company, a supplier of "recycled and trade-free papers" and all sorts of other environmentally friendly office supplies. Their paper products use a high percentage of post-consumer waste, including some that are 100% post-consumer, as well as several that are processed without the use of chlorine.

The catalog also offers a wide variety of environmentally friendly pens, kitchen supplies, toilet papers, and recycled toner cartridges. They even sell organic coffee, tea and chocolate for the break room!

GreenLine also takes a responsible path for their shipping, by reusing shipping cartons.

You can request a copy of their catalog by mail, or you can skip wasting that paper and download it in PDF form.

GreenLine doesn't offer everything you might need for your office (no executive nick nacks?), but they're a pretty good solution for anyone looking to make their office more environmentally responsible.

Build a Greener Web Site or Blog

jplatt — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:00:00 -0400

I love reading magazines online. I can instantly surf to the stories I want to read, and there are no paper copies to recycle. Nothing could be greener, right?

But what about all of that energy that goes into displaying a web site on my computer screen? My computer is using power, and so are the computers and servers that deliver that site to me. And if I found the site through Google or some other search engine, a whole new set of energy-burning devices enters the equation. Every click I make means power plants are spewing more carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Meanwihle, I have several web sites of my own, plus a few blogs. All of them burn energy every time someone looks at them.

What's a green-thinking web-surfer/site owner to do?

One solution is CO2Stats -- a free widget you can easily add to your web site or blog (and which I just added to my blog here). The CO2Stats widget monitors how much electricity is being used to power my site. It displays a tiny, unobtrusive advertisement, and the CO2Stats Project uses that income to invest in renewable energy projecs to offset my site's carbon emissions. Meanwhile, the widget displays an estimate of how much CO2 has been offset by my site, and reminds visitors that they can act greener, too.

For businesses who want to green-up their sites, there's also a paid version ($9.95 a month) which is advertising-free and provides detailed analytics of your site's visitors.

Do you have other ideas on creating a greener web site? Let's hear them!

The Graduation Pledge

Julia — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Last year, I served as the Sustainability Chair for the Student Government Association at my college. We came up with all sorts of really cool ideas to implement on our campus that semester, but the one I was most intrigued by was the Graduation Pledge.

The Graduation Pledge alliance states, “I _____ pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organization for which I work.”

By making the pledge, students decide for themselves what it means to be socially and environmentally conscious. It is such a great way to incorporate this idea of carrying the green torch onto wherever you land in the next 5, 10, 20, 40 years. The Graduation Pledge serves as a reminder that you made an oath to protect the earth when you left school.

Students at over a hundred schools across the country are using the Pledge to demonstrate their commitment to the environment. Liberal Arts colleges, state universities, private research universities, grad schools, high schools, and even some schools outside the U.S. (the pledge has made it all the way to Taiwan!) are just some of the institutions that have adapted the Pledge into their graduation rituals.

Each year, more than one million students enter the workforce. If even a small percentage of those students inquired about or attempted to change the ethical practices of their employers, they could potentially make a really positive and significant progression toward what we want to see out of so many corporations in and out of the United States.

The website, www.graduationpledge.com, offers a lot of information on how to go green after graduation, how to find meaningful and socially responsible jobs, and how to investigate potential employers and their code of ethics.

This is such a cool idea. I’ve become really enthusiastic about promoting The Graduation Pledge, and I’m hoping to get it implemented at my college within the next year. I encourage all of you to check out the website. It would be a difficult idea for your school administrators to deny. Good luck!