Thinking beyond recycling.....

A speech (to meet my #9 -Persuade with Passion requirement) I gave at my Wednesday Toastmaster's meeting:

"I think recycling isn’t the whole answer to helping the environment;

That’s right, recycling is not all its cracked up to be, it's only part of the solution;

Recycling is the last best solution to responsibly using our resources.

What’s the best – reduce!

That means making a conscious effort not to buy and to make smart choices at the places you shop;

What, this is heresy?!

After all, our primary role these days is not as an accountant, a mom, a firefighter or a friend, it’s to be one thing – a consumer.

Spend, spend, spend!

Shop till you drop!

Even after September 11th, fearing dire repercussions the tragedy would have upon the economy our President asked us to grieve, pray and requested our "continued participation and confidence in the American economy."

Translation – please continue to spend your money, our economy relies on it.

Recycling as a concept is good; after all we get taught at a young age that recycling is how you can make a positive impact on the environment.

It’s true – did you know that making aluminum can from recycled materials uses 95% less energy in production that making it from virgin bauxite ore?

It’s certainly more efficient to recycle, no doubt.

But what recycling does do is provide a false sense of doing right by the environment – you can continue to buy that bottled water, because hey, you can recycle it. Right?

But, unfortunately the other more efficient players in the loop - "reuse" and "reduce" are delegated to much less fame than our much admired "recycle."

So why is reducing so under promoted?

A conspiracy, maybe?

70% of America’s GDP is based on "consumption." Spending by you, me and everyone else is a major driver for today’s economy.

The gigantic product marketing machine, and a machine it is, is spending billions to get you to buy more stuff.

So recycling taken alone serves our consumer culture well.

Asking people to reuse and reduce does not.

That doesn’t help perpetuate the buying continuum we are pressured to participate in every day of our lives.

What we buy is often a manifestation of our personality, that new tricked out SUV is more than just a machine to get you from point A to point B.

The leather seats ooze luxury – they say, oh yeah, you made it. And don’t get me started on those new shiny rims.

Seriously though, shifting our thinking from that of a "consumer" to what I call the smart shopper is a tough transition to make.

Now I’m not asking you to not go to the grocery store anymore. That’s not realistic; we all need to purchase things to carry on living.

What I am asking you to think about is the environment when you hit the aisles of your favorite store.

Some questions to pose as your stroll the aisles -

Does this item use materials that are scarce?

Does this item come from a manufacturer that has a reputation for abusing and underpaying its workers?

Is the item wrapped in wasteful packaging?

You’ve all seen it - a box, wrapped in another box covered in cellophane encased in a security case wrapped in more plastic cellophane.

Sometimes it means buying strategically or just buying less.

Or, as painful it may be and contrary to popular culture opting to not to buy it at all.

It’s the hardest thing you can do, but the most profound environmental action you can take.

Emphasizing reduction in our daily lives – creates more personal wealth, less debt, a more reasonable use of our natural resources and a readjustment to what is most important in life
– an emphasis on human relationships, not an emphasis on "stuff" and buying as a means to "fit in.".

Live a better and more fulfilling life, buck the "consumer" frame of mind and just don’t buy it."

Sean

Tappening.com sends a message in a bottle (or so) to CocaCola about their wasteful Dasani bottled water

Yesterday, I received an e-mailed press release from Fern from the great anti-bottled water advocacy organization, Tappening.com. They have set up a brilliant campaign, going on for some time, dispelling the myths about tap water and exposing the ugly truth of the bottled water industry - waste, questionable water quality and quite simply a grossly overpriced product, for what it is.

Fern let me know about the most recent effort by Tappening.com to get the attention of one of the biggest bottled water manufacturers, CocaCola, maker of the Dasani brand water. Maybe CocaCola's CEO will see the waste his company causes first hand? One could only hope:

"TAPPENING SET TO CONCLUDE “MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE” CAMPAIGN

With a “Message on a Bag” …and a request -- No more disposable water bottles please!

NEW YORK - Right about now Muhter Kent, the new CEO of Coca Cola (makers of Dasani bottled water), might be trying to figure out exactly where he’ll put the one million plastic water bottles, soon-to-be en route to the Coca Cola headquarters in Atlanta. But he, and the environment, can rest a bit easier now that Tappening -- the group responsible for collecting the million bottles and pledging to send them to the new Coca Cola CEO as a welcome note – has already sent them to a different location: the recycling center.

Founded by Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, longtime public relations and advertising agency owners, Tappening has been making waves in the bottled water industry since its launch last November, as they lead the charge back to tap water. Intent on educating the public on the virtues of tap water, as well as the environmental effects and cost of bottled products, the group recently launched national advertising that has garnered even more widespread support and attention for “the campaign to make tap water cool.”

The group has also been hard at work with their “Message in a Bottle” campaign to send one million empty water bottles to Coca Cola’s CEO Muhter Kent, as a sign of the public’s dissatisfaction with the pollution, cost, and wastefulness of bottled water.

When the bottles started pouring in, Yaverbaum and DiMassimo began to realize there was a far better use for the tons of plastic they were receiving: “We asked the public to send us empty bottles along with a note to the bottled water industry, and they didn’t disappoint,” said Yaverbaum. “Once the bottles started to pile up we decided it would be a terrible waste to just send these to a company that would simply use them to promote their own recycling programs. While we applaud their efforts to recycle, it really distracts us all from the serious problems wrought by the bottled water industry.”

Instead of helping Coca Cola to promote themselves, Tappening has decided to sound an even louder and longer message with their new “message on a bag.” Tappening Co-founder DiMassimo added, “The bags will be on our well-trafficked Tappening.com site, along with pictures of the bottles and messages that we've received from committed members of the Tappening movement -- over a million as of June 19th!”

The founders recycled the bottles they’ve received; to do something better with these bottles that all too often end up in landfills (80% of the time). Yaverbaum explained, “Not only are we ensuring that these bottles don’t end up clogging the oceans for the next thousand years, but we’ve also avoided having to send a convoy of trucks to Coke in Atlanta – which would’ve obviously caused additional pollution.”

Simply recycling the bottles, however, just isn’t enough for a group that has influenced millions to join their bottled water resistance. In an effort to put to good use all of the plastic bottles, the group is now offering re-usable “Tappening Bags” made from 100% recycled plastic. The bags will be sold alongside the wildly popular Tappening bottles on Web site. All profits from the sale of the new bags will go directly towards the continued fight against bottled water.

“We began the ‘Message in a Bottle’ campaign to let companies like Coca Cola know that the public is growing tired of the unnecessary pollution and expense of bottled water,” said DiMassimo. “Now we’re continuing in our mission to make a difference by finding alternative uses for many of the empty bottles created by such a wasteful industry.”

About Tappening: Tappening -- founded by Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum -- is an educational campaign designed to encourage the public to drink only tap water, and to send a message to the bottled water industry about its unnecessary and extreme waste of fossil fuels and resultant pollution of the Earth."

Cheers (lifting my reusable water bottle filled with tap water) to Tappening, keep up the good work!

Sean

Photo credit: Flickr - Mivox

Airlines say, "Enough is enough!"

The airlines, many ailing due to higher fuel prices and the resulting soft economy, shot off an e-mail to their customers recently. Now, I do agree that the current fuel crisis is partly created out of rampant and greedy market specultation, a few taking advantage of the oil commodities market to the detriment of most everyone else. However, I really think the problem is a hybrid, a perfect storm if you will, of many forces - shrinking oil supplies, worldwide demand that is increasing, international tensions in oil rich lands. All that said, I must give the airlines kudos for not standing by and taking it, the speculative oil market needs reigning in, that may be contrary to "free" market forces, but when it is causing such widespread pain, even on the average person, you can't help to think - something has to be done, even if it only help alleviate the problem somewhat.

OK. enough of my take, here is the e-mail they sent a few days ago:

"Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now. For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers. Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation. Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs. Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation.

However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight.

Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper. The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem.

We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

Robert Fornaro, President and CEO, AirTran Airways

Bill AyerChairman, President and CEO, Alaska Airlines, Inc.

Gerard J. ArpeyChairman, President and CEO, American Airlines, Inc.

Lawrence W. Kellner, Chairman and CEO, Continental Airlines, Inc.

Richard Anderson, CEO, Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Mark B. Dunkerley, President and CEO, Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.

Dave Barger, CEO, Jet Blue Airways, Corporation

Timothy E. Hoeksema, Chairman, President and CEO, Midwest Airlines

Douglas M. Steenland, President and CEO, Northwest Airlines, Inc.

Gary Kelly, Chairman and CEO, Southwest Airlines Co.

Glenn F. Tilton, Chairman, President and CEO, United Airlines, Inc.

Douglas Parker, Chairman and CEO, US Airways Group, Inc."

Sean

Photo credit: flickr - Smenzel

Bamboo Geek Interviews: Marlene of Consumer Change

I was recently contacted by Marlene of the web site Consumer Change. She introduced the site to me and encouraged me to register and check it out. First it was free (can't beat that) and once I spent some time looking around, I thought: Brilliant! Consumer Change enables the average person to provide feedback to corporations easily on areas they can improve on in the realm of sustainability. Getting a hotel to offer recycle bins in the lobby for their guests to using recycled-content paper in a mailer, you name it Consumer Change provides an easy way to speak your mind.... and be heard!

In my first Q + A interview, Marlene gives us the lowdown on this exciting new site.......

Have you seen a business practice lately that could be greener? A hotel or coffee shop that does not have paper recycling for your newspaper or a diner that uses plastic cutlery? Consumer Change allows consumers (like you and me) to provide feedback to businesses on their environmental practices. You can also view the corporate responsibility statement (if available) of the businesses, feedback from other users and the businesses' responses. Registration is free and it is an easy way to make a difference.

1. Please tell us how Consumer Change got started? What was the defining moment that prompted you to take action and create Consumer Change?

I had been emailing hotels on the lack of their recycling facilities for guests for a long time. It was time consuming to find their web site, find and fill the on-line contact form only to get a canned response saying they will take my comments into consideration. Last year I was reading a British newspaper which carried a series of letters from employees tattle-telling on their employers' bad environmental practices when I thought there has to be a better way of doing this. That was when the idea of a web-based community site to provide feedback to companies began.

2. What do you think the biggest challenges a consumer faces these days when they want to provide feedback on the environmental practices undertaken by corporations? Are there specific industries that you have found to be the most receptive? Least receptive? Where is the biggest opportunity for consumers to make an impact?

I have not found receptiveness to be industry based. However, by the nature of the site, most of the feedback goes to airlines, hotels, and coffee shops.

The biggest challenge for a user is not to give up after a canned e-mail response. I encourage users to provide feedback even if someone else has already provided the same feedback to the same company. We ask users to provide the month and location they last used the company's services so the business can see that these are genuine consumers. The more consumers raise an issue, the more powerful that feedback becomes and the greater likelihood for change.

The biggest opportunity is the simple stuff, such as availability of recycling, use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, using recycled paper for marketing materials - real simple ideas that are often overlooked by businesses.

3. It seems like corporate responsibility statements and sustainability policies are everywhere these days. Generally speaking, have you found these policies to have substance? Are they mostly window dressing or are you finding some really good companies out there that have made changes as a result of Consumer Change?

I am trying hard not to become disenchanted with corporate responsibility statements. So many say the right things but the statement is not carried through to all levels of the corporation. In March I stayed at a Wyndham resort, their environmental statement says they will recycle but there were no facilities on-site for guests. I called down to the front desk and the person I spoke to was unaware of the policy. Consumer Change has a link to the company's corporate responsibility statement, if it is available on-line, so users can refer to it when providing feedback to companies.

4. What benefit does Consumer Change provide to those who participate?

The main benefit is the ability to make a difference whether that is individually or as part of the Consumer Change community. Registration is free and we have done all the work for users so they don't have to find the company's web site and then look for contact information; they just register on Consumer Change and find the company to contact from the Feedback Directory.

5. Can you tell us about some successes from Consumer Change?

Amicis East Coast Pizzeria eliminated unwanted promotional magnets with their pizza delivery based on one e-mail feedback. That felt good. Amicis has 10 locations and if each one did only ten deliveries a day, that's 36,500 unnecessary promotional magnets a year we have saved. Given their willingness to receive feedback and change so quickly (not to mention their yummy pizzas) they have become my favorite pizzeria.

6. While operating Trash Watch, my anti-litter blog, I have encountered canned corporate e-mails and a lot of avoidance by corporations to deal with the litter that hold partial responsibility for, frankly it can be discouraging. Do you have any words of encouragement for our readers?

I agree, the canned corporate e-mail is discouraging. I believe in strength in numbers. With enough feedback, I believe corporations will realize that they cannot get away with canned feedback any more and start taking their consumers more seriously.

7. If Consumer Change leaves one lasting legacy, what would it be?

It would be to make the world a better place - is that too ambitious? How about put recycling in every hotel room!

Check out Consumer Change at www.consumerchange.org .

Sean

Yuck!

Smoke and heat, not a pretty day here in Northern California. Mother nature has hit us pretty hard with wildfires caused by a massive series of lightning strikes in late June. Today was one of the worst so far.... pictures speak for themselves.

Playing outside in the garden

There is a fairly new initiative here in California that many local governments are adopting, its called the California Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights. Essentially its a positive counter-movement to a growing trend among children and adolescents, more sedentary lifestyles, an increasing percentage of overweight and obese children, and an alarming rise in Type 2 Diabetes among kids.

The California Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights statement is simple, turn off the TV and play outdoors. Beautifully simple and a return to a healthier form of play. The Bill of Rights suggests ten basic ways to exercise a child's outdoor rights:

1. Discover California's Past
2. Splash in the water
3. Play in a safe place
4. Camp under the stars
5. Explore nature
6. Learn to swim
7. Play on a team
8. Follow a trail
9. Catch a fish
10. Celebrate their heritage

These are all good tenets to get kids outside and enjoy the great, outside world, subject only to the limits of their imagination.

I offer one amendment though, like #5 (Explore nature), that all gardners can appreciate - bring your kids (or a young relative) outside with you when you garden. Let them get their hands dirty as they plant their first seed, deadhead the roses or harvest the vegetable garden. Not only does gardening entail physical activity, it teaches patience, an appreciation for nature and all its beauty, and introduces them to a dying skill, becoming a green thumb, a knack for working with plants to help them grow and flourish.

The California Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights is a positive effort to get kids outside. Gardening is just one aspect of this, but an important skill that helps kids keep healthy bodies and minds, as well as a skill that is hard to come by and can only come about from the care and time we take as adults to teach children gardening as a skill.

Cheers!

Sean

Photos credit: Flickr - Robin Horrigan

Trash Watch featured on Simple Living Network newsletter

Thanks Simple Living Network.

If you are into all things environmental, living within your means and simplifying your life in this crazy world we live in, then you should check out the Simple Living Network.

The good folks at the Simple Living Network did a nice excerpt in their newsletter on Trash Watch and what it stands for - taking the battle against litter right to the steps of corporate America, getting corporate America to take part of the responsibility for the litter found in our neighborhoods that has their very own logo on it.

Thanks Simple Living Network for your support of Trash Watch!

I need your stories and photos of corporate- logoed litter found in your neighborhood

I have gotten several e-mails with stories of corporate litter in neighborhoods and accompanying photos. Thanks to those who have sent this information in.

Keep those stories and photos coming. Send me an e-mail with a photo of the litter you find in your neighborhood to sean@madmanbamboo.com. One photo per piece of litter. Please submit photos that have a clear corporate logo on it. List the date found, the street you found it on (with nearest cross street), city, state and date you found it. I will post the photo and story on Trash Watch.

Corporations Hiding Behind Canned Messages and Vacant Corporate Responsibility Statements

So far, here is a list of companies that I have sent e-mails to (along with several of my readers):

McDonald's - Three e-mails from me, several canned responses, final response was: Not our problem, its the franchisee's problem.

Leinenkugel Beer - One e-mail, plus several reader e-mails, response: none.

Next on my e-mail list is 7-11, who is causing a significant litter problem in my neighborhood. I'll likely send out my e-mail this weekend. More to come on this.

Have a great holiday and thanks for your support!

Sean @ Trash Watch