President & CEO Lance Hosey recently delivered a keynote address at the Sustainable Brands 2012 conference on his latest book, The Shape of Green, which was released this past June. In his keynote, Lance makes the case for why beauty is inherent to sustainability and outlines core principles for the aesthetics of sustainable design. You can check out the presentation in its entirety below:
The original version of this video is available on the Sustainable Brands website.
Category: GreenBlue
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Top Five Fun Facts: July
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here.
1. The average vehicle is immobile roughly 95% of the time. This requires about 600 million parking spots worldwide, which is an issue addressed in Eran Ben-Joseph’s book Rethinking a Lot.
2. Some 98% of conventional apples have detectable levels of pesticides. This is some of the latest information observed in the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce.
3. Hydroelectricity accounted for roughly 16% of global electricity generation in 2011. Hydropower has been steadily increasing over the last four decades and produced 3.5 trillion kWh of electricity last year. The average US home uses about 11,500 kWh of electricity annually.
4. Americans consume an estimated 20 billion hot dogs a year. Independence Day accounts for about 150 million of these.
5. In 2010, fireworks caused an estimated 15,500 reported fires, eight reported civilian deaths, and roughly $36 million in direct property damage. There are additional concerns associated with potential exposure to the chemicals and toxins used to create these awe inspiring explosions. Happy 4th of July!
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Make It A Game
I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of media attention on how gamification can help encourage sustainable behavior (for example, see recent articles in Grist, Sustainable Brands, and Mashable). This is not a new concept to me as I was first introduced to gamification when I was about eight years old. It was my mother’s attempt at getting me to make my bed by making it fun. Fast forward to present day – my bed remains disheveled, but the idea has stuck.
Back then, I failed at the drawing board. The game I created, alternating the visible side of my red and blue comforter based on the day of the week, wasn’t actually a game or fun by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe if my game would have been as entertaining as some of the games on www.thefuntheory.com (an initiative of Volkswagen), I would have made my bed this morning.
The underlying concept of The Fun Theory is that something simple and fun is the easiest way to change behavior for the better. Here is one of my favorite videos on the site, the Bottle Bank Arcade Machine that encourages recycling, and a link to game that is a personal favorite of mine, the ConnectFourBeerCrate.
Anybody have a good game for making beds? Or reducing our environmental impact?
We are excited to announce that GreenBlue’s 2011 Annual Report is now available! Since GreenBlue became one of the first sustainability organizations founded to work exclusively in collaboration with business nearly ten years ago, we’ve launched several groundbreaking programs, released numerous landmark research reports, and attracted many uniquely talented staff, Board members, partners and stakeholders. Last year brought several milestones and accomplishments for GreenBlue, and some 2011 highlights include:
- As part of our new Forest Products program, in October 2011 we launched the Forest Products Working Group to bring together leading companies that rely on paper, wood, and other forest products to share their knowledge and develop innovative solutions to support thriving forests and the forest products industry.
- In June 2011, we unveiled a new brand identity that includes a new mission statement, a new logo, and a redesigned website that was recognized in the AIGA (Re)design Awards 2011. We also introduced our new sustainability blog, In the Loop, which provides resources and perspectives from our work in forest products, packaging, chemicals, and other product types, as well as regular features to make sustainability issues accessible to a broader audience. These include documentary film reviews, features on how products are made, music mixes, and more.
- Building on the success of CleanGredients, we launched our newly expanded Chemicals program to develop additional tools and resources for industry to select safer chemicals and materials in product design and manufacturing.
- We announced the How2Recycle Label, a voluntary recycling label for packaging that is being piloted by leading brand owners in 2012, and concurrent www.how2recycle.info website.
- Our first education course on packaging (through our Essentials of Sustainable Packaging curriculum) expanded beyond North America with trainings in Latin America and additional sessions planned in Asia throughout 2012.
- We released an updated version of the Environmental Paper Assessment Tool, EPAT 2.0, to help paper buyers make better purchasing decisions.
- We released more reports than in any other year: Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Biodegradation in Landfills, which explores the generation of greenhouse gases in landfills and the natural and engineered strategies used to mitigate their effects; Closing the Loop: Design for Recovery Guidelines for Aluminum, Steel, Glass, and Paper Packaging, a suite of reports that provide technical guidance on designing packaging to be compatible with common recovery methods; Another Closing the Loop report, entitled Labeling for Package Recovery, which examines what an effective labeling system should include.
You can download the full report to read more.
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Recall Fatigue
Last week, USA Today reported that a rash of product recalls may be creating “fatigue” among consumers, who may be more likely now to overlook or ignore the recalls.
In 2011 alone, 2,363 consumer and food products, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices were recalled by manufacturers. IKEA, for example, took back 169,000 high chairs because the restraint buckle was unreliable. That’s 6.5 recalls per day, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year. The higher incidence is a good thing, say experts, since it results from greater oversight by regulators, better testing procedures, and the use of social media to communicate more quickly and widely.
It’s also a bad thing, of course. Faulty products create risks to health and safety, and, according to a 2009 Rutgers study mentioned by USA Today, only 60% of Americans actually respond to recalls, so the remaining 40%—possibly 125 million people—could be in jeopardy.
Furthermore, recalling products has potentially significant environmental hazards. An increasingly global market requires shipping goods across great distances, expending enormous amounts of fuel, which exacerbates global warming, and putting more pressure on transportation infrastructure. The environmental group Friends of the Earth estimates that just 10 miles of a new four-lane highway creates the equivalent lifetime emissions of nearly 47,000 Hummers. For a recalled product, the environmental impact of its transportation can double, since the good must be shipped back to the manufacturer.
In addition, the resources used to make the faulty products are wasted, since the products didn’t fulfill their intended uses. Some products, such as food, must be thrown out, and others go into storage indefinitely. In Indianapolis, Stericycle, the largest U.S. firm handing recalls, has five warehouses totaling 700,000 square feet—about 12 football fields—where it collects and stores everything from household appliances to sporting equipment to jewelry. “Recalled products come here to die,” Stericycle’s Mike Rozembajgier told USA Today. “If they come to Indianapolis they’re not getting back into the supply chain.”
The drive to make products less expensive increases the likelihood of mistakes that can harm consumers and the environment alike. Factoring in the true costs to public health and the environment, the savings of quicker, cheaper production could be nullified. The best solution is simply to make better products.
GreenBlue CEO Makes Case for Aesthetics in Sustainable Design with New Book
People often equate environmentally friendly cars, buildings, and products with being unsightly. Yet not only can sustainable design be beautiful, argues author Lance Hosey, its beauty can make it more sustainable.
“Conventional wisdom portrays green as not just occasionally but inevitably unattractive, as if beauty and sustainability were incompatible,” Hosey writes in his new book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology and Design (Island Press), out this month. Yet, “long-term value is impossible without sensory appeal, because if design doesn’t inspire, it’s destined to be discarded.”
In his book, Hosey outlines a manifesto for both designers and consumers interested in bridging appearances and doing right by the planet. He identifies three core principles of sustainable design–conservation, attraction and connection–to show how good design and green design can become one and the same. Hosey cites such examples as:
- Cars so aerodynamic they get 80 miles a gallon without new technology;
- Comfortable chairs built from a single piece of plywood;
- Packaging that uses less material while keeping food fresher;
- Electronics so appealing you can’t throw them away; and
- Buildings that adapt to their locations to use a fraction of typical energy needs.
The first book to outline principles for the aesthetics of sustainable design, The Shape of Green does not ask that consumers sacrifice comfort. Rather, it shows how designers can create products that are aesthetically pleasing, environmentally friendly, and enjoyable for years to come. “Can we be as smart about how things look as we are about how they work?” asks Hosey.
Hosey, a nationally recognized architect, designer, and author, is President & CEO of GreenBlue, a nonprofit working to make products more sustainable. Hosey has more than two decades of experience in sustainable design and strategy, and he has worked with some of the world’s leading companies to advance sustainable innovation. Previously he was Director with the renowned pioneer of sustainable design William McDonough + Partners.
“It’s time someone revealed that the oppositions of sustainability vs. style, ethics vs. aesthetics, are false starts. In this book, Lance Hosey helps retire that opposition and shows us what makes beauty and sustainability one and the same.”
—Susan Szenasy, Editor-in-Chief, Metropolis Magazine
Lance Hosey is “an inspirational guide to a future we can’t wait to embrace.”
—John Elkington, co-founder of SustainAbility and founding partner of Volans
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Top Five Fun Facts: June
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here.
1. This year is the 40th anniversary of the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Environment Day. Celebrated every June 5th, this year’s theme is “Green Economy: Does it include YOU?”
2. The US consumed 9.1 billion gallons of bottled water in 2011. This equates to roughly $11 billion in producer revenues.
3. In the last 20 years, the amount of US households with air conditioners has increased from 68% to 87%. It is estimated that $15 billion is spent on energy used to power air conditioners.
4. A recent survey commissioned by Call2Recycle indicates that 57% of Americans have old electronics that they need to discard. The largest barrier to recycling e-waste identified in the survey was not knowing where or how to recycle a product.
5. It is reported that men use between 3 and 10 gallons of water every time they shave. If you ever needed an excuse to grow a beard and help one of the most water dependent industries save water, Budweiser’s “Grow one. Save a Million” campaign may be for you.
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One Paper Towel at a Time
The United States uses 13 billion pounds of paper towels every year. With simple considerations and attention to detail, this number can be significantly reduced with minimal effort. This TEDx talk will forever change the way you dry your hands in public restrooms:
Sustainable Materials Management—being responsible from sourcing to recovery and disposal—extends to all aspects in our lives, and dealing with cat waste is no exception. Most of us in the GreenBlue office have canine and/or feline companions—both of which regularly visit the office—and we have often discussed pet waste and the associated environmental impacts. Now that I have enrolled into a local government-sponsored program, the Rivanna Regional Stormwater Education Partnership (RRSEP), to test pet waste vermicomposting (or composting using worms), the time seemed right to delve further into the sustainability journey of the feline kind.
One widely adopted option is to allow cats to use the great outdoors as their bathroom. However, outdoor cats can cause a number of unavoidable problems, ranging from the threat to a child’s sandbox health to the devastation to local bird populations. Flushing and burial aren’t ideal because of the potential introduction of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii into waterways.
That leaves the litter box as the most widespread solution for cat waste. Most commonly used litter types include clay or silica gel, and there are a diversity of bio-based and biodegradable types made from newspaper, corn, wheat, and pine. This article by Carol Frischmann summarizes well the different types of litter and the associated attributes and drawbacks. While a full analysis is lacking, the negative impact of sodium bentonite mining that produces clumping clay litter renders this material the least sustainable.
Given the volume of cat waste produced annually, including the used litter, which currently goes to landfill—estimated to be at least two million tons—it seems intuitively obvious that composting is the best option for disposal. Enter the RRSEP, who provided us with a “Worm Factory” composter to get started. We were excited when the red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) arrived at the office from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm! They have just been placed into the bin, and we’ll keep you posted on how the experiment with cat, and occasional dog, waste goes. We’ve named the squirm “Vern” (I actually looked up the name for a collective group of worms, and indeed it is squirm).
The internet has many examples of successful composting of all kinds of waste, even including “humanure.” All indications are that composting systems that maintain certain conditions, including a curing phase, take care of potential pathogens. There seems to be much more information available on composting cat litter than on the litter itself, particularly this excellent paper that examines the tradeoffs associated with various composting methods. Using the finished material on non-edible plants and trees is an easy, conservative approach. I think most of us are more interested in responsibly disposing of the material, rather than creation of food-grade compost, and so we feel quite good about our wormy endeavor.
Another aspect of this issue that gets little attention is the extensive use of plastic bags to collect and dispose of litter. Many plastic bags and films are easily recycled at retail stores, which is the preferential route for disposal of bags. A mere second use of a bag en route to the landfill is maybe thrifty, but not a smart use of resources
The most awesome option is to train your cat to go in the toilet—we had a cat once who we almost had trained to do it, I swear! Whatever option you choose, it is likely that we all have room for improvement when it comes to managing pet waste sustainably.
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Top Five Fun Facts: May
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here.
1. During the SPC Spring Meeting in Toronto last month, I was surprised to learn that about 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption is either wasted or lost. This equates to roughly 1.3 billion tons of food waste. North America is reportedly the highest contributor at nearly 300 kg/per capita/yr with roughly 100 kg attributable to consumer waste. Grist has a few suggestions on what to do with your spoils at home.
2. PayScale recently ranked 850 US colleges by 30-year net return on investment. Harvey Mudd College, Caltech, and MIT round out the top three, and while ROI may not be the best performance metric, it provides an interesting perspective on college education.
3. May is National Bike Month. It is estimated that 0.5% of US workers commute to work on bicycles. Over 85% of people reportedly drive to work (with an average of 1.07 workers per vehicle), about 5% of workers utilize public transportation, and about 3% walk.
4. “There are more Barbie dolls on the planet than there are Americans.” This fun fact came to me in a preview of a new documentary project titled “Do I Need This,” of which the underlying theme is to get consumers to make more conscious purchasing decisions.
5. Employee stress results in roughly $300 billion in lost productivity annually. Adequate sleep, regular exercise, exposure to green space, five minute breaks every hour, and setting aside time for vacations can all help lower this number.
