January 6th, 2008
Can Clorox–a brand synonymous with synthetic bleach–green-ify its business? That’s an increasingly important question as major corporations known for polluting the environment try to capitalize on consumer demand for healthier, more eco-friendly goods. For example, L’Oreal, which was recently named one of the 10 worst luxury brands (story here) by environmental measures, owns natural body care lines the Body Shop and Kiehls.
But Clorox is an emblem of the eco shift, having just launched a line of plant-derived biodegradable cleaning products called Green Works to challenge companies like Method and Mrs. Meyers–early success stories in the earth-friendly cleaning business. (Clorox said that Green Works will be in stores this month.) And in November, Clorox bought Burt’s Bees for a hefty $913 million.
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Posted in personal care, home | 1 Comment »
January 4th, 2008
Every day in the United States as many as 426,000 cell phones are retired–either left in a drawer, recycled, or most often, thrown in the trash. Photographer Chris Jordan depicted that daily mass of silver-and-black detritus in his 2007 digitally rendered photo, Cell Phones (at left), which is part of the collection “Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait.”
It seems appropriate that Jordan will be a featured speaker at the Feb. 1 Greener Gadgets conference in New York. Through art, Jordan, a former corporate attorney, tries to help people see the folly of consumerism and excess. And the confab is purportedly set up to encourage the development of environmentally designed electronics.
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December 22nd, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO–The well-heeled set came out in force this week at Global Green’s “Gorgeous and Green” third-annual charity event. Everyone from former Sex in the City actor Jason Lewis to local fashion designer Margaret O’Leary attended the benefit, which was designed to promote eco living ideas and raise money for California green schools and people adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The event, held here at the environmentally certified Bently Reserve Building, was half high society promoting a cause and half a cause promulgating society. Local celebrities and luminaries, who paid anywhere between $250 for general admission to $5,000 for a VIP dinner, were treated to eco-friendly fare including grass-fed beef, fair trade coffee and organic tequila. The entertainment: a henna-tattoo booth, live auctions, models dressed like Marie Antoinette floating in the crowd, and a fashion show of eco-chic wear–items made of hemp silks and recycled tuxedo shirts (this from emerging designer William Good, featured here).
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December 16th, 2007
TOKYO–”Eco” as fashion statement has definitely hit Japan’s capital–a jam-packed city of 8 million-plus, not including outlying areas.
Just visit one of Tokyo’s most eclectic home-shopping stores, Tokyo Hands, located in Shibuya. It’s eight floors of do-it-yourself and oddball items ranging from teak wood slabs for making your own coffee table to plastic toe stretchers. It’s also sprinkled with the latest environmentally friendly goods.
Here I found these “Eco Home Kitchen Bags” from Benetton–a rainbow-colored tastemaker in the 80s. A reusable bag for grocery shopping, the eco sack rolls up into a tiny case that you can port around in a pocket or stick to the refrigerator when not in use. Doubtful you can find this exact product in the United States, but similar gear is common in cities like San Francisco, which just banned the use of plastic bags in major grocery stores.
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Posted in home, recycling, fashion | 1 Comment »
December 12th, 2007
Homeowners and future homebuyers are among those in the best position to make a difference to global warming. That’s because buildings–their energy production in heating and cooling–are the single largest contributor to global warming, producing an estimated 48 percent of the world’s heat-trapping gases, followed by the transportation industry at roughly 30 percent.
That’s why it might make sense to bone up on the tips and tricks offered in the new book, “Green Building for Dummies.”
Admittedly I’m not a fan of “…For Dummies” guides, because on principle it’s not dumb to delve into a subject and learn as much as you can. This book’s author, Eric Corey Freed, a San Francisco-based architect of sustainable living spaces, is highly respected in his field and definitely smart.
Corey Freed says that homeowners can get the most bang for their buck in their home’s energy efficiency by improving its insulation.
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December 6th, 2007
Green gifts are certainly chic this holiday. Every media outlet ranging from House and Garden to Plenty has an eco-gift guide for the environmental shopper. Even chi-chi department store Barneys went green this year, with recyclable shopping bags and an eco-themed catalog. (I’m not sure $1,000 for a grocery-store handbag is the best way to go about conservation, but the idea is right.)
So what is the average eco-minded person looking for in a gift this year? Well, to start with, soap.
Lucas Heldfond, owner of San Francisco’s Spring, a store that sells earth-friendly home accents, said that many people are making their own gift baskets this year with Mrs. Meyers’ aromatherapy dish soap, countertop spray and all-purpose cleaner–products that don’t use toxic chemicals. Given that the packaging should be reusable, too, the products come in a bowl made of sustainable bamboo. The gift is thoughtful and useful, he said.
“What’s nice about green gifting is there’s a very practical side,” Heldfond said. “Dish soap isn’t typically a consumer gift, but this year, it’s chic.”
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December 4th, 2007
What are the names of the new eco luxury? Apart from U.S. carmaker Tesla Motors and fashion designer Linda Loudermilk, they’re largely brands from foreign companies.
The World Wildlife Fund UK, a nonprofit conservation group, uncovered in a recent report that the world’s top 10 makers of luxury brands–the likes of Bulgari, Tiffany, LVMH–have less-than-stellar records on environmental and sustainable business practices. (Story here.) But in the report, it also singled out seven companies that are proving that luxury can be affordable to the eco conscious.
At a recent design conference in San Francisco, Alex Steffen, founder of Worldchanging.org, talked about “guilt-free affluence,” or the idea that you could enjoy the good life (read: having nice things) without knowing that those things came at the expense of a kid in Vietnam. To achieve that guilt-free existence, he said, people must know more about the origin of the products they buy, i.e., how and where is it made? He called that the “back story,” which is something very few companies publicly disclose today.
These are a few companies that are making their back story part of the brand.
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November 30th, 2007
Gucci, Tiffany, Swatch, Bulgari. These luxury brands aren’t what you’d call divine green.In fact, their environmental stewardship scored them Ds and Fs on the World Wildlife Fund UK’s first study on the social and environmental performance of the world’s top 10 makers of high-end goods. (Report here. Beware, it loads slowly.) The top of the list, French cosmetics maker L’Oreal, scored a so-so C+ and was joined by French brethren Hermes and LVMH in the average set.The conservation group scored luxury makers by analyzing the companies’ self-reported data to environmental agencies and investors. It also looked at their overall media reputation for good governance, and social and environmental responsibility (or ESG). It examined practices related to “mining and farming, design, manufacturing, marketing, retail, use, re-use and eventual fate” of products, according to the report, called Deeper Luxury. It then gave each company a score (from 1 to 100) to designate a rank and grade. Read the rest of this entry »
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November 28th, 2007
For every liter of Fiji, Evian or Dasani bottled water that you buy, it takes another three to four liters of water to make the plastic container it sits in.
That unsettling research is from Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, one of the nation’s top water-conservation assessment centers. National Public Radio’s Terry Gross interviewed Gleick on Tuesday for the show Fresh Air. (Interview here.)
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November 28th, 2007
After the kids grow up (or grow out of whatever fit last month), parents are left with a glut of stuff—Baby Bjorns, cradle swings, snuglis. Some parents hand down the bounty to friends or family, while others store the goods in the basement (just in case). But a growing group of parents are turning to grassroots Web sites to unload unwanted items and alleviate their consumer guilt.
Zwaggle.com, which I wrote about here, is a social network designed to let parents donate baby goods to others in need. In exchange for charity, that member will earn points to pick up something else from another parent. Members pay only for shipping for their desired item.
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Posted in baby, home, recycling | 1 Comment »