Crowdsourcing to get green

Crowdsourcing is a great way to get input and collaboration on all sorts of things from design, user experience and sustainability from all sorts of people world wide. On October 10, 2010 Springwise newsletter reported on 2 crowdsourcing solutions for those looking for sustainable ideas - Global Forum and Myoo Create.


Global Forum discussed in Springwise on June 25, 2010. According to the site post, Global Forum is a Stokholm based company that matches supply and demand for sustainable solutions. Myoo Create focuses on putting people together to solve social and environmental challenges.


Now if they could just clean and organize my closet and get my cast offs to the Goodwill!


--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh, Renew

Forget the closet. Get a Green Home

Who knew? Philadelphia seems to be the East Coast hub for eco-friendly homes. According to an article by Patrick Pullen in the March/April edition of Arrive magazine, Philadelphia's Greenworks program is an ambitious plan to transform the city into the greenest city in the US by 2015. 

Goals of the program include:
- Lowering city government energy consumption by 30%

- Reducing citywide building energy consumption by 10%

- Retrofitting 15% of homes with insulation, air sealing and cool roofs.

- Purchasing and generating 20% of the electricity used in Philadelphia from alternate sources.

Several companies are helping. Postgreen purchases 18' x 60' infill lots in the city and creates the 100K house, a 1000 square foot, 2 story, 2 bed/1 bath home built on a budget under $100,000. Greenable is a purveyor of eco-friendly building materials. With a design studio in Old City since 2006, Greenable recently expanded into a 3,500 square foot space in Northern Liberties stocking eco-firendly cleaning products, composters, worm bins, paints, countertops, backsplashes, flooring, denim insulation, bamboo plywood, windows, lighting and more. BluPath Design is an architectural firm that has been designing green buildings since 2003 and works in partnership with GreenSteps eco-consultancy.

These are just a few of the companies proving going green is good business.

--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh & Renew

Are emails green?

A new school year means tons of email and the dreaded email attachments.

In a recent Mother Jones article by Keira Butler posted on August 9, 2010, the author discovered, "...that sending an email attachment of 4.7 megabytes—the equivalent of about 4 photos taken on a point-and-shoot digital camera—creates as much greenhouse gas as boiling your tea kettle 17.5 times." 

The basic issue involves the sending and storing of data in email attachments. 'Steve Duplessie says, the important lesson is, "Data is physical. When you have a million copies of the same thing, that's a big problem."' We are sending & storing so much data that the servers are sucking massive amounts of energy.

The good news is we have less need for attachments with virtual sharing through sites like Flickr and YouTube, servers are more efficient and newer technologies allow servers to share the workload.

Keep your emails green. Think about every attachment you send. If it isn't absolutely necessary, don't do it. Post the info once and share the link.

Happy new school Year!

--till next week Restore, Recycle Refresh & Renew

Broken Brolly Follies

I've always considered the start of school the start of a new year so I like to have a good closet clean out at the end of the summer. This year I've found a plethora of broke brollys (umbrellas luv). I've been thinking about how to reuse them and I have had a pretty interesting idea which I had hoped to get to for my Etsy shop this summer, but alas it wasn't meant to be. I'm not going to tell you what it is so you will have to stay tuned;)

Featured in Springwise Newsletter on May 12, 2010, I did find an excellent umbrella re-use project and it is even local to me! Recycling Zychal is a Philadelphia based company that gives broken brollys new life as doggie rain or bad weather coats, kitty catnip toys or human hoods. According to her site, Taryn Zychal hand makes each item and donates $1 to the Morris Animal Refuge for each broken brolly she receives as a donation to her company. 

Environmentally friendly and animal responsible what more could you ask from the brolly that gave her life for you to save that Burberry trench;)

--till next week Restore, Recycle Refresh & Renew

Is your closet under your roof?

Okay this is a stretch and doesn't have anything to do with your clothing closet, but how about your pantry? Budgens, a supermarket in the UK, has started a "Food from the Sky" program in its Crouch End location which just happens to be where I stay when I visit London.

This rooftop garden project is a collaboration with The Positive Earth Project and is designed to bring hyperlocal food to Crouch End - fresh picked from roof to produce section. The first organic harvest has hit the store, tended and harvested by local volunteers.

According to a report in Springwise, "The project is collaborating with the heritage seed library to grow a number of endangered species of food; it also plans to run food growing workshops on the roof and provide seeds from the harvest free of charge to residents and schools."

Proceeds from the not-for-profit venture will be put back into the project. The partners plan to add chickens and follow Fortnum's lead with the addition of bee hives. 

Much more than a green roof, this is soon to be a roof top farm, an innovative way to utilize unused  space and resources - the future of Farm to City;)

--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh & Renew

Are You a Closet Greenie?

A March 16th article from the Daily Telegraph reports that researchers have found that many people buy green in public and then choose luxury when they shop online. The study found that being green relates to status so many people choose a Green public persona in order to be seen as altruistic. The study sites the Toyota Prius as a product that acts as a public "billboard" announcing its owner is an environmentally responsible, caring, altruistic person leading a green life. 

Researchers Vladas Griskevicius, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and co-authors call this Conspicuous Conservation in their paper, "Going Green to Be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation". This is the consumer equivalent of "green washing". Interesting that the appearance of being green has equal cultural capital from all sides.

Are you practicing Conspicuous Conservation or are you truly Green?

--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh & Renew

Sustainable accessories of Note

One of my favorite sustainable living stores is Sustainable-NYC. Located at 139 Avenue A at 9th Street, it is one of the boutiques I was introduce to last year on a Green Shop Tour. This shop offers up a variety of sustainable home and fashion products, as well as, offering workshops and seminars. Here's a look at some new product the shop is featuring for Fall from their newsletter:


"The Mighty Wallet™ made from Tyvek®(think express mail envelopes) is tear-resistant, water-resistant, expandable and, most importantly, recyclable.

-Printed with SGS Certified environmentally friendly Ink. 100% recyclable packaging made from recycled PET plastic.

-2 interior pockets, 2 credit card pockets (holds approx 16 cards) and 2 quick access business card pockets.

The Blow Out Wallet is re-purposed from recycled bike inner tubes from mountain bikes and bike shops around the country.

-Unique, waterproof, non-marking inner tube exterior.

-Interior is made from 100% Recycled P.E.T. equipped with 6 sleeve pockets for cards and ID's 2 full-length bill pockets for cash & receipts.

The OWL Taxi Wallet is made with 100% recycled post- industrial leather, renewable natural rubber, natural tanning oils, and lead-free dyes.

- A clear pocket on the back keeps your ID or transit card handy. An interior security pocket holds credit cards.

- The easily accessible outside pocket is perfect for business cards and receipts. A snap pouch keeps a pocketful of change from jangling in your jeans.

A new line of beauty products has arrived at Sustainable NYC! IntroducingSustainable Fair Trade Skin Care " Alaffia".

Alaffia was founded as a way to empower communities in West Africa through the Fair trade of Shea Butter. Fair Trade is the fundamental foundation of this organization, which is made up of the Alaffia/Agbanga Shea Butter Cooperative in Togo, West Africa and Alaffia Sustianable Skin Care in Olympia, WA USA. Visit us at Sustainable NYC to check out our sustainable skin care."

Good on ya Sustainable-NYC.
--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh & Renew

5 Barriers to Greener Sales

According to an article by Sheila M. J. Bonini and Jeremy M. Oppenheim dated October 2008 featured in the McKinsey Report Quarterly, there are 5 barriers—lack of awareness, negative perceptions, distrust, high prices, and low availability. Overcoming these 5 barriers is crucial if consumers are going to accept and support greener products. While the article did not focus on fashion products, the lessons learned are certainly applicable to the Fashion/Lifestyle industry.

Barrier 1 - Lack of Awareness
Resolution: Consumer Education. Companies, non-profits and government must not only educate consumers on specific products but also the larger issues of pollution, climate change, overfishing, and other environmental problems. The Energy Star program is a successful example of this partnership. Launched by the EPA and the US Department of Energy in 1992, Energy Star educates consumers about the way suitable products can cut energy use, save consumers money, and protect the environment. Every appliance that meets government energy-efficiency standards can carry the Energy Star label, which has gained widespread consumer recognition and trust through the education process.

Barrier 2 - Negative Perceptions
Resolution: Offer well-designed products made with quality raw materials. Fashion is an area that has worked to overcome negative perceptions and our discussion of Sam's Club organic cotton program illustrated this. Although this is not the case, much of sustainable Fashion is still clouded by the perception the 1960's hippie movement. In the Sam's Club case study, we discussed the tenet that green products must be equal to, or better than, conventional alternatives. In Fashion, people make their purchasing decisions based on style, color, hand (the feel of the fabric) and price. Green is the added value.

Barrier 3 - Distrust
Resolution: In an effort to gain the green consumer, some companies mislead consumers by highlighting a single positive product feature while ignoring the negative ones. Bamboo is a great example of this. Bamboo is a sustainable natural resource. It is easy to grow and replenishes itself very quickly, however, the process that makes bamboo into fiber (Bamboo Rayon) is one of the dirtiest processes in the Fashion industry. Companies must come clean about the true environmental impact of their products and their attempts to reduce it.Only then will consumers believe a company’s green claims. As we have mentioned before H&M, Patagonia and Timberland are examples of companies who do this.

Barrier 4 - High Prices
Resolution: This is a difficult one to overcome unless you are a huge company like Walmart or Payless that can keep prices low through the sheer volume of units they sell. Quanitfying the savings and environmental returns for the consumer on their investment is a good start. Creating a design or positioning a brand in such a way that the consumer is known to be environmentally conscious on sight is another way to help them justify the higher cost. For example, a person wearing the Patagonia label will be seen by others as environmentally conscious by wearing that brand.

Barrier 5 - Low Availability
Resolution: Make the products easy to buy. Advertise where they can be purchased. Invest in enough units to make a statement. Display items prominently at retail. Place Green products in prominent locations. On the fixtures, place them in the sweet spot "eye level". Provide educational materials or signage whenever possible. Make sure your employees are aware of the products and where they are placed so that they can help direct consumers through the store.

As a consumer, you have the power to overcome these barriers as well. Educate yourself on green products, production processes and producers. Research new green products for design - especially look and feel in Fashion. Consider the higher price against the benefits. Demand green products from your local retailers and support those retailers that supply them.

till next week --Restore, Refresh, Recycle and Renew