Frankly Green

Purification That Comes in a Bottle: Water Takes on New Responsibilities

Just when you think you have seen it all! The title of this article could have been, "Marketing That Comes in a Bottle: Water Hype Convinces Unwitting Consumers to Throw Their Money Away." You can't sell snow to an Eskimo, but you could sell melted snow in a fancy bottle with some bogus marketing hype to consumers in wealthy countries like the U.S!

Bottled water can make the world a better place? Ha!!! Let's talk about the huge waste that goes into the transportation of the water and the plastic bottles that end up in a landfill! Does that make the world a better place?

Here are a few facts:

• Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.

• It costs more money to drink bottled water than to put gas in your car--up to five times more--due mainly to its packaging and transportation.

• 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.

• Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

• Studies show that consumers associate bottled water with healthy living. But bottled water is not guaranteed to be any healthier than tap water. In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit.

• If everyone in New York City were to use a reusable water bottle for one week, for one month, or for one year it would make a significant difference in reducing waste.
  One week = 24 million bottles saved
  One month = 112 million bottles saved
  One year = 1.328 billion bottles saved

• See Bottled Water Facts for more

Ms. Brightwater, who calls herself a psychic, healer and medicine woman, and who owns a Native American crafts gallery in Queens, applies the New Age healing techniques she has used on crystals for three decades to transfer what she claims is palpable “good energy” to her water and those who drink it.

I'm all for good energy, but what about the massive amounts of unnecessary energy that go into the bottling and transportation of the water? Are we to believe that that is "good for the soul"?

And what does it say about our society when we are willing to waste $3 to $40 on a bottle of water! Ms. Brightwater claims that “I really believe that spiritual people like myself want to make a change, with all the suffering in the world now” and then adds she asks “the Great Spirit to help feed the hungry children, keep the waters clean and to protect the two- and four-legged on this planet.” Rather than wasting money on bottled water, why not spend it on building municipal water facilities in underdeveloped countries that don't have clean water? That would do a lot more to help "all the suffering in the world now" and "help feed the hungry children."

November 28, 2007
By IAN DALY

Link to Article

Quote for the Day on Cap and Trade Legislation

As my friend Whitney likes to say, "You just can't make this stuff up!"

This quote is in response to a Senate bill that would place limits on greenhouse gases. The bill would cap emissions and gradually reduce them using a market-oriented cap-and-trade system in which allowances to emit greenhouse gases would be bought and sold.

"We believe the bill's proposed greenhouse gas emissions reductions are 'too much, too soon,' " said Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, a trade group of plastic and chemical manufacturers. He warned the bill would "turn energy markets upside down, causing massive reductions in coal usage and enormous increases in natural gas and renewable fuels usage."

Sustaining an Advantage

by Mark Dziersk

Thanks to Joe T. for this great article!

Link to Article

Design has the ability to connect the emotional underpinning of sustainability issues to any business or product and create 'Unique Selling Propositions' that elevate the promise of brands and companies.

It's not often that you actually feel the turning point, but sustainable business practices have hit it. That old chestnut (that when consumers are faced with two choices and one has a green story, it won’t make the sale if they need to pay anything additional) is behind us now. Sustainable products, packages and strategies have become true value adds for companies interested in establishing relationships with customers that last and build loyalty.

...

Consider the success of Whole Foods in the face of a general decline in supermarket companies over the last 5 years, GE’s billions of dollars worth of business created around sustainable designs and offerings, or the intense brand loyalty and shopping commitment of Patagonia customers.

...

Apple, Dyson and Nike, clearly all design driven, will soon be joined by other companies leveraging design as their primary competitive advantage. But sustainable perspectives and the business advantages they bring need not wait for whole companies to be born in order to be employed. Sustainable approaches to creating products need to appear tomorrow in the places they don’t currently exist. Thinking seriously about sustainability can result in smart strategies on both the shopping floor and the manufacturing floor. It’s not a matter of creating a future advantage so much as staying around and competing at any level.

Eco Friendly Potato Chips

I have made previous posts on Pepsi's environmental efforts, but a "green" potato chip? Kudos to Pepsi for their efforts!

Climate Panel Says Immediate Change Necessary

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

 

Link to Article

VALENCIA, Spain, Nov. 17 — Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, describing climate change as “the defining challenge of our age,” released the final report of a United Nations panel on climate change here Saturday and called on the United States and China to play “a more constructive role.”

His challenge to the world’s two greatest greenhouse gas emitters came just two weeks before the world’s energy ministers meet in Bali, Indonesia, to begin talks on creating a global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The United States and China are signatories to Kyoto, but Washington has not ratified the treaty and China, along with other developing countries, is not bound by its mandatory emissions caps.

“Today the world’s scientists have spoken, clearly and in one voice,” Mr. Ban said of the report, the Synthesis Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “In Bali, I expect the world’s policymakers to do the same.”

...

Members of the panel said their review of the data led them to conclude as a group and individually that reductions in greenhouse gases had to start immediately to avert a global climate disaster, which could leave island states submerged and abandoned, African crop yields down by 50 percent, and cause a 5 percent decrease in global gross domestic product.

The panel, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month, said the world would have to reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 to avert those problems and others.

“If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late,” said Rajendra Pachauri, a scientist and economist who heads the IPCC. “What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”

Destination of 'Recycled' Electronics May Surprise You

Destination of 'recycled' electronics may surprise you

    * Story Highlights
    * Gear collected at recycling drives likely to be sent abroad, industry officials say
    * "We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world"
    * Exporting most electronic waste isn't illegal in the United States
    * EPA: U.S. should upgrade recycling standards wherever it takes place

Link to Article

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Most Americans think they're helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they're contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas.

While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

"It is being recycled, but it's being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities. "We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world."

Message in a Bottle

Thanks to Jim A. for this excellent article on bottled water! And Jim also sent me this gem - As the great designer Alan Fletcher spotted long ago, Evian spelled backwards = NAIVE.

Here are some of the highlights:

- Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 Billion.

- One out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water.

- Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water.

- But bottled water isn't healthier, or safer, than tap water. Tap water in this country, with rare exceptions, is impressively safe. It is monitored constantly, and the test results made public.

- If the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.

- In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San Francisco to filter it.

- 24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi.

- It costs as much to ship Fiji Water across the oceans and truck it to warehouses in the United States than it does to extract the water and bottle it.

- The [Fiji] water may come from "one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth," as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.

- We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic.

- Coke and Pepsi put the local water through an energy-intensive reverse-osmosis filtration process more potent than that used to turn seawater into drinking water.

- Americans went through about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year, 167 for each person.

- Our recycling rate for PET is only 23%, which means we pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--more than $1 billion worth of plastic.

- "Where the drinking water is safe, bottled water is simply a superfluous luxury that we should do without,"

-  Worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water.

- Once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it's reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just "Does the value to me equal the 99 cents I'm about to spend?" but "Does the value equal the impact I'm about to leave behind?"

Environmental Observations from the Middle East

My friend John K. shared these observations from his recent travels:

Made it back from the Middle East....whew.  Noted your blog --great material.  The global warming issue is the most important one facing the world--and boy does the world have a long ways to go.  We were in Cairo for a few days --and you just cannot believe the horrible air, water and physical pollution.  Some Very entrenched behaviors must change --and economic disadvantage is no excuse....simply one of attitude. Glad to see you spreading the word.   And don't even ask me about plastic.....while a disposal problem in the developed West, it is an absolute disaster in the underdeveloped countries.  From my many travels in those areas, everywhere you see pink and white plastic bags....in the trees, bushes, river banks, fields, streets, plains..everywhere.  And sadly, those bags will be there for many years to come.  If plastic bags as a basic means of carrying stuff around cannot be eliminated, then why not uv/bio-degradable bags?  I have no idea the cost, but doubt it exceeds that cost/damage to the entire ecosystem.  And here I'm only referring to plastic bags....the overall problem is huge, but bags are a starting (and very visible) point.

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda - Thomas Friedman

The recent climb in oil prices should remind us of the basic lessons learned in Econ 101. We all know that demand has increased due, in large part, to China's rocketing growth. At the same time, supply has decreased due to the war in Iraq and other supply interruptions. The result is that oil quickly approaching $100 per barrel (and if you believe that we have in infinite supply of oil, I have a piece of land to sell you about 20 miles west of San Francisco). We cannot continue using oil at the current rate and hope that technological advances will meet our future energy needs. We need incentives to encourage the development of alternative sources of energy and ultimately end our addiction to oil, which leads us to Friedman's piece....

Greenland's Ice Sheet Melts as Temperatures Rise

Greenland's ice sheet melts as temperatures rise

Story Highlights
Greenland's ice melt area increased 30% in 30 years, one scientist says
The island is now losing more ice each year than it gains from new snow
This melting ice is causing sea levels to rise around the world
Scientists fear low-lying areas could be flooded if seas continue to rise

By Heather O'Neill, CNN

Link to Article

ILULISSAT, Greenland (CNN) -- From the air, Greenland's ice sheet, the second largest on Earth, appears to be perfectly still.

But below the surface, the ice sheet is in constant motion, as ice built up in the interior pushes toward the coast in the form of massive glaciers. During warmer months, ice from these glaciers melts into the ocean.

It's an age-old process that scientists say has speeded up in recent decades because of global warming.

The fear is that melting ice from Greenland and other Arctic areas could cause sea levels to rise enough to flood low-lying cities, such as Shanghai, China, and New York City, displacing millions of people in the process.

A recent report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of scientists from around the world, estimates the sea level rise by 2100 could be as much as 1½ feet.

"That sea level rise is only based on melt from ice sheets, and does not include a new fast flow of ice we have detected in Greenland that is generating additional icebergs," said Dr. Konrad Steffen, a climate scientist with the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Steffen estimates sea levels could rise three feet over the next century, a stark prediction that could wreak havoc around the world if it comes to pass. Greenland holds enough ice to cause sea levels to rise 23 feet if the entire ice sheet melted, a development few scientists expect to happen anytime soon. But global sea levels have been rising at the rate of three millimeters per year since 1993.

...

"Even if we reduce our carbon dioxide output, the climate will continue to warm," he said. "So even by stopping the increase of carbon dioxide today, we will have a warming, we will have sea level increase."