The Daily Green Presents Happy Groundhog Day Video from Glen, the Global Warming Groundhog

Whole Foods to End Plastic Bag Use by Earth Day

According to yesterday's article on sustainablebusiness.com, Whole Foods will discontinue offering plastic bags at checkout effective this Earth Day. The first U.S. supermarket to commit to completely eliminating disposable plastic grocery bags, Whole Foods Market declared January 22 "Bring Your Own Bag Day" and distributed over 50,000 reusable shopping bags to customers at the checkouts to celebrate the announcement. A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer for Whole Foods Market, said "More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides. Together with our shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our environmental impact as we estimate we will keep 100 million new plastic grocery bags out of our environment between Earth Day and the end of this year alone."

We have noticed that many supermarkets like Trader Joe's offer incentive to encourage customers to bring their own bags, such as drawings for grocery certificates. Whole Foods offers customers now a 5-10 cent refund at the checkout, but they would be well advised to offer similar promotions and contests for customers. Do you bring your own reusable bags, and how to you remind yourself each time you go shopping? Is your supermarket sustainable? We have been doing our part all this year by keeping extra shopping bags in the back of the car, and then we are "green to go." Happy green shopping!

Note: we recently read about the largest Whole Foods to open in New York City, in the Bowery, and plan on visiting next time we're in the city. The stores features an eco-friendly refrigerating system, recycled building materials, energy efficient lighting, and electricity purchased with wind energy credits. (There are also discounts on coffee if you bring your own mug and pies when you bring back the plates for the made-from-scratch pies.) At 71,000 square feet, you shouldn't have to worry about anyone bumping into your shopping cart.

Oberlin College Named #1 of Top 10 "Cool" Schools by Sierra Club Magazine

Congratulations to Oberlin College (full disclosure - my alma mater) which was named #1 by Sierra magazine on its list of Top 10 Cool Schools, with criteria ranging from green building policies and energy purchases to "the food served in their dorms," wrote Jennifer Jattan in the article "Go Big Green," published in the Nov/Dec 2007 isssue of the Sierra Club magazine, which has a circulation of 1.2 million readers. One-third of the food served in the dining halls is produced locally; the college hosts the first car-sharing program in Ohio; and a large portion of its electricity is from green sources. Writing about Oberlin, the editors also point out that “a real-time monitoring system tracks 17 dorms and displays how much juice all those laptops, blenders, and iPod chargers are burning at any moment. Last spring Oberlin held its first eco-friendly commencement, with biodegradable utensils and programs printed on 100 percent recycled paper.”

“Many young people see environmental problems—especially global warming—as the challenge of their generation,” write the editors, adding that 400 college and university presidents have signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to make their institutions carbon neutral; Oberlin was the first of its peer institutions to sign the pledge.

Oberlin is followed by Harvard University, Warren Wilson College, the University of California system, Duke University, and Middlebury College.

How does your alma mater rank in sustainability?

Sustainable Book Buzz

Two recent titles are tops on our reading list for '08. The first is Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto." According to the review on Amazon.com: "Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." These 'edible foodlike substances' are often packaged with labels bearing health claims that are typically false or misleading. Indeed, real food is fast disappearing from the marketplace, to be replaced by "nutrients," and plain old eating by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Michael Pollan's sensible and decidedly counterintuitive advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food."

While some of the reviews comment that the book is too short, for the most part the reviews have been favorable, stating that the book is insightful, extremely well written, and highly relevant. We'll get back to you with our official reviews, but in the meantime it looks like a promising read, and particularly important in the days of highly processed foods, food substitutes, and Madison Avenue marketing.

The second book is Gary Hirshberg's just published "Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World," which is being talked about us a must read for any CEO interested in the profitability/sustainability recipe for success. We are big fans of Hirshberg and have blogged about Stonyfield before. Stoneyfield is the market leader in organic yogurt, and his $300 million a year company was built with almost no advertising. Apparently, Hirsberg was inspired by a 1982 visit to the Kraft Pavilion at Epcot, and decided he wanted to have that kind of scope and reach for his audience. Now, ironically, Stonyfield has exceeded Kraft in volume, but also ironically, Kraft is introducing a new line of organics. I'm glad this isn't the traditional "here's how I became a successful green entrepreneur" approach, but has fresh insights about forcing businesses to behave better. Put that in your yogurt and eat it!

5 Eco-Friendly Tips for 2008

Many New Year's resolutions (you know... exercise more, lose weight, save money, eat healthier...) tend to go by the wayside after only a few short weeks. I've been reading lately about how the best way to stick to resolutions is to set goals that are realistic and attainable. In the same way, it is important now more then ever that we set green goals for ourselves that we can stick to. It's not only our health and well-being that's at stake, but that of the planet.
1. Avoid waste at the supermarket by taking your own bags with you when you shop anywhere. Some stores, like Trader Joe's, offer incentives, like a raffle for shopping coupons, if you use your own bags. If you do forget, at least find multiple uses for the bags you do bring home from the supermarket, like storage for items at home, use in your car, etc.
2. Print less paper: try to only print when you really need to, and use recycled paper whenever possible, being sure to reuse your own scrap paper if the quality doesn't need to be perfect. You'll save trees in the process, as well as money buying supplies like toner and cartridges!
3. Walk as much as possible: Bike, run, or walk to do your errands or to get to work, as much as possible, or use mass transit when you can. You'll save on gas, obviously, as well as carbon emissions and pollution, not to mention the cost of filling your tank all the time.
4. Be organic at home. Much has been written about the hazards of chlorine and other harsh chemicals, and there is really no need to use them when items like white vinegar, lemon, and baking soda work just as well. I have been using baking soda all year to freshen the sink and kitchen counters. I also use a combination of baking soda and lemon to freshen my wooden cutting board, and I don't have to worry about chemicals interacting with my food. Also, what kind of shower curtain do you have? If it's the plastic PVC kind, you'll want to switch to linen, organic cotton, or hemp. If you've ever noticed the smell of a new shower curtain, that's the PVC gases being released, and recent studies have shown that these can cause brain damage as well as damage to hormone function. Oh, and be sure to replace your incandescent bulbs (which are going to be phased out in a few years anyway) with CFLs, which are much more energy efficient and cost-effective.
5. Go unplugged...unplug appliances when you are not using them, including lamps, cell phone chargers, toasters, etc. Many people don't know that items such as these burn energy even when not in use, merely by being plugged in. Make sure to connect appliances to a power strip, so you can easily turn them all on or off at once. Help lower your carbon footprint.

Do you have more tips? Let us know and we'll post a running list....And Happy "eco" New Year!

The Daily Green

If you haven't already, visit The Daily Green, an excellent eco web site that features daily green tips, environmental news, recipes, food and green home tips, blogs, forums, and carbon calculators. Thedailygreen.com is the consumer's guide to the green revolution.The site offers information on all aspects of pursuing an Earth-friendly lifestyle. From the latest environmental news to local resources for hormone- and pesticide-free foods, The Daily Green features original content, links to relevant resources, as well as user-generated photos, ideas and eco-tips. The site is run by Hearst Digital Media.

Do you have a favorite green web site? Let me know and I'll include it in an upcoming post.

Video of the Rebuilding Center in Portland, OR

As part of the Dwell Magazine Design Leaders video series, Shane Endicott discusses the genesis and growth of the ReBuilding Center in Portland, Oregon. We thought this was an excellent video with a great story to tell about rebuilding a neighborhood with sustainable materials. From the rebuilding center web site:

* The Five Major Goals of The ReBuilding Center: Contribute to the sustainability and health of our environment by diverting for reuse waste that would otherwise have been discarded into landfills;
* Provide environmentally sound, affordable, quality used building and remodeling materials to people of all income levels;
* Create livable-wage, local jobs for people of all backgrounds in an economically depressed area of our region;
* Educate Oregonians about the environmental and community benefits of diverting waste for reuse and recycling; and
* Provide stable funding for Our United Villages' community enhancement work.

The ReBuilding Center plays an important role in the region's effort to maintain livable neighborhoods, preserve natural resources, and reduce reusable materials from entering the wastestream. With widespread community support, The ReBuilding Center diverts 4.5 million pounds of reusable building materials from entering our landfills each year.

Has anyone heard of any programs like this in your area?