More on Green Labeling
Questions Asked: How green is recycled paper? Does paperless billing save trees?
GreenMedia Connect – Your Social Media Network
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WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
The world is choking!
Don’t bother me, I’m busy.
No, no this is really bad.
Call someone else.
But, we need your help.
I gave at the office.
Emissions are rising.
So what?
The ice caps are melting.
Who cares?
All the polar bears will die.
Bears?
The people in Bangladesh will be flooded.
Bangla what?
Miami will be under water.
That’s their problem.
Dengue fever could break out in the United States.
That only happens in the jungle.
New York could flood.
Get serious.
It could kill your children.
Hey, what did you say?
SustainCommWorld PRESENTS ECOfocus Seminar
For in-house presentation or to sponsor for a group of clients or prospects, we’ve built a set of half day and full day seminars and workshops to aid you in your sustainability program development.
* The Sustainability Toolkit
* Ready, Aim, Fire – Growing Your Green Team
* Sustainable Communication
* Greening Enterprise Events
Call for a brochure now and get the updated, complimentary whitepaper, “Through the Sustainability Lens.” CONSULTING: SustainCommWorld works with individual companies to initiate or further their sustainability programs. Let’s discuss your sustainability objectives and see how we can work together. Call us today. 805 524 6970 or email: [email protected]
resources for your use
We have been building a set of remarkable resources from the various conferences we’ve produced, speaker presentations and files that companies have shared.
White Papers, Sustainability Reports and more
They’re available to you -at no charge – and well worth checking out.
Archived podcasts from The Green Media Show, Conference and Expo, Boston
Archived videos from the Boston
Conference from AlernativeChannelTV
Sustainability Reports, Policies and Statements
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Our Resource Centers at SustainCommWorld sites also have archived Green Media Newsletters.
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Greetings!
Lisa Wellman
We attended the briefing by Rand Waddoups, Walmart’s Senior Director of Strategy and Sustainability on the Sustainability Index. This initiative is significant and all businesses should make themselves aware of what’s involved. The sustainability train has left the station. If you’re a Walmart vendor or a retailer – you had better be on board.
Walmart laid out 15 questions for their suppliers and sent them out months ago. The answers are due October 1 and then Walmart buyers will begin using
the answers as a filter and one of the criteria for picking and supporting suppliers.
Walmart developed the questions with input from suppliers, academia, non-profit organizations, government, and the retail community. They look deceptively simple. They’re not. There’s a 32 page document that drills down with information for answering each question. Complying with each comprises a robust and comprehensive sustainability program. It will take time, money and commitment.
What I took special note of was Rand’s assertion that Walmart views this questionnaire as a key indicator of corporate and product leadership and innovation. Although this certainly will not be the only criteria they will use to select suppliers and position them within their stores, the world’s
largest retailer – the world’s largest company – has gone on the record. Sustainability programs and progress within those programs matter.
We’ve been urging all businesses to get started in developing their own programs. Walmart has the absolute power to drive its suppliers to follow its lead. But even if you’re not a Walmart supplier, the 15 questions Walmart sent out are a great indicator of what you should be looking at. You
would be wise to use it as a template.
Lisa Wellman
CEO, SustainCommWorld
Click here for additional information about the Sustainability Index
OFFICE BUILDINGS: GREEN MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Office buildings can be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage. In major urban areas, like New York City, for example, due to
the relatively small industrial base, 80 percent of its GHG emissions come from these buildings, twice the national average. U.S. buildings alone are
responsible for more CO2 emissions than those of any other entire country in the world except China. There’s a significant impact when existing buildings
are retrofitted.
“In fact, smart owner developers have long been retrofitting existing buildings simply as a good business practice, as well as anticipating legislation,” said Ken Hubbard, an executive vice president of Houston based Hines. “Developers and architects some time ago saw this as an opportunity to get a competitive advantage,” Hubbard said. “The private sector is not waiting for Federal programs.”
We recently visited Adobe headquarters in San Jose. Adobe’s three towers comprise over one million square feet of office space, making it the largest corporate presence in downtown San Jose. Over the past several years, Adobe has initiated over 70 separate energy and conservation projects to improve the
site environmental sustainability.
The effort has reduced indoor water use by 22%, landscaping water use by 76%, electricity by 35%, and natural gas by 41%.
These documented improvements earned the site three Platinum LEED Certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council. But green has to be experienced. The air is fresh, the building smells great and many studies demonstrate the enhanced health and productivity of employees.
The approximately 2,100 employees headquartered at Adobe’s San Jose campus actively engage in recycling and composting programs that divert up to 95
percent of the site’s solid waste from landfill. Paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, cans, printer toner, and batteries are recycled, and food waste is composted.
GREEN LABELING
Myth: You can trust product labels that say “green,” “eco-friendly,” “earth smart” and the like.
Reality: The green-washing machine loves to crank out vague marketing terms, and the Federal Trade Commission has begun to crack down on environmental claims that fail the regulatory smell test (visit www.ftc.gov and check out “Sorting Out Green Advertising Claims“. Manufacturers have begun to improve the labeling, consumer information and advice on their Web sites, including lists and definitions of ingredients. Also look for the EPA’s Design for the Environment label
The FTC issued the Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (“Green Guides”) to prevent the false or misleading use of environmental terms in product advertising and marketing and reduce consumer confusion. For a copy of the Green Guides contact: FTC Consumer Response Center, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20580; 202-FTC-HELP (382-4357); 1-866-653-4261 (TDD for the hearing impaired).
QUESTIONS ASKED:
HOW GREEN IS RECYCLED PAPER? DOES PAPERLESS BILLING SAVE TREES?
QUESTION: Dead Tree Edition has an item called “I’m an environmental idiot!” questioning the use of post-consumer waste in high-quality paper, such as
that used for catalogs and magazines. That contrasts with the leading trade publication for the U.S. magazine industry (Folio:), which recently indicated that green paper and recycled paper were synonymous, as well as with the views of some environmental groups. What do you think? Are some uses of recycled content actually greenwashing?
ANSWER: It is common for the term “recycled” to be used imprecisely, and for the uninformed to equate recycling with sustainability or green paper with
recycled paper.
It cannot be stated categorically that 100% post consumer paper has a smaller negative environmental or social footprint that a sheet made from
virgin fiber. Without using systems thinking and lifecycle analysis many uses of recycled paper can result in negative environmental and social
impacts.
Supply chain practices (including recycling) being advocated by major retail and consumer packaged goods companies are increasingly based on the application design for sustainability, lifecycle analysis standards such as ISO 14040 and performance standards that quantify outcomes in terms of impacts on cost and waste reduction, economic growth, environmental restoration and improved quality of life. Lots of terms are misused and misunderstood. We’re still a long way from nailing down the specs on what exactly sustainability is all about.
In line with the above discussion, you might be interested in the following: Don Carli, Sr. Research Fellow, The Institute for Sustainable Communication and Executive Vice President, Conferences of SustainCommWorld, has written a new Green Report entitled, “Does Paperless Billing Really “Save Trees?” Many companies are offering electronic billing and pitching it as part of their efforts to be environmentally responsible and claiming that switching to paperless billing will save trees.
A 2007 study by Calif.-based Javelin Strategy & Research asserts: “if all the nation’s households just received & paid bills electronically, they’d save 16.5 million trees each year.” We know companies save money by getting customers to switch, but…trees? You’ll want to read this important report.