Recycling: So many solutions, so little unity

I recently attended the 2015 International Fiber Recycling Symposium in San Francisco. That title may sound rather specific, and, truthfully, it is. But not specific as in this is a small scale issue - no, the issue of fiber recycling is MASSIVE.
Through out the week, we heard repeated over and over the shockingly large numbers that have to do with waste in the textile recycling space: "over 400 gallons of water to make a new t-shirt"..."the average America throws away 70 pounds of clothing per year"..."producing 14.3 MILLION TONS of textile waste per year"...
The list went on and on.
Besides the numbers, another thing that struck me was how many amazing, intelligent scientists and thought leaders attended this conference - and how specific each person's area of research was. And how little people seemed to know about what everyone else was doing.
Amazingly intelligent people doing incredibly important things - and as each person got up to give their presentation, the crowd would gasp with amazement at what they were achieving all in the same field.
And that's what conferences like this one are for. The amazement and revelations prove this conference did a good job at connecting people working on similar things and sharing breakthroughs in the field. But I couldn't help but wonder how we couldn't connect these researchers, these scientists, these thought leaders on a daily basis. We live in the most interconnected age in the history of the human race - I can see cat pictures from a blogger in Japan in milliseconds with the correct hashtag search on Instagram, and these people were not aware of each others' research projects?

I am excited. I am excited for the possibility of what will happen now that these people have met. While I hope conferences like these will lead to further collaboration and demand for connection, just the existence of this conference - and what everyone there is trying to achieve - gives me so much hope for real, innovative solutions that are coming in the field of fiber recycling and these difference these solutions will make in the world.


Want to learn more? Check out more here.

Circular Economy linked to constraints of resources

The circular economy is built around the idea of economic flow through services rather than ownership, as materials change forms and move continuously through the economy.
This idea seems to be gaining support in today's economy as a viable business model.  But the idea is not new...
If you think about it: nature is the predominant circular economy- where plants, animals, elements change forms and have different purposes contributing to a healthy bio-system. Another example is one in developing economies where materials are scare and therefore used and used and used again to gain the most value out of something.

The idea of creating first world country circular economies is unique because there is a sense that resources are plentiful and therefore accessing new materials is easier and more efficient than reusing existing materials. So without the constraints of the need to reuse materials, the drive for the circular economy feels more academic or idealistic - instead of necessary. But it is necessary.

Luckily there are many who see the writing on the wall that we are living in a resource-constrained planet and are starting to plan companies, products and systems to respond to this.  And while first world nations may not "feel" the constraints on resources just yet, at some point we will and we will have to reexamine how we use our resources.

So when we design our next economy and prioritize access over ownership - we will see some pretty big shake ups to the business models of today which depend on assumptions that this world is resource-abundant and growth is the most important and often only goal. In order for there to be a sustainable future, we need to decouple growth with material use and the circular economy will be a great asset to do that.

Just when you think all your work is for not...

I have spent the better part of this week in Ho Chi Min City Vietnam visiting apparel factories. And part of that visit has been to look at what traceability and certification of certain materials looks like.  Ever wonder, when a brand says that their apparel is ORGANIC or RECYCLED, how they know it is true?  Is it even true? Luckily, there are really great standards and certifications for these things.
The strange thing is very few brands actually require and use these certifications to ensure that is exactly what the end customer is getting.

So for instance a brand can source ORGANIC and the product gets made and could even be labeled that way.  But few brands take the next step and require proof of that claim. A company that I work with requires traceability for all products with claims. There is an internal system for verifying that what is claimed has proof behind that claim.
The next step is to have that certification go all the way through to the brand and they can then label the products.

This brings me back to my visit this week.  While walking around a factory that makes apparel for many brands in the industry, we reviewed their new garment factory processes to get certified by a certifier next week. At one point I asked who will benefit from this certification and my contact said, "Oh, just your brand."  I was shocked, we are easily the smallest client of this factory.  How could any of our requirements really get heard.
He answered, "It is the right thing to do and we know that more companies are going to start asking and because this is a requirement of working with your brand, it allows us to test the process."

This moment was a win for me, I have been a [sometimes annoyingly] strong advocate for traceability and certifications for environmentally preferred materials. But it has been an uphill battle to get entire supply chains on board. Now I have my case study that I can refer to, even a little company when persistent enough, can make a change.

Step by step the work gets done. 

Upcoming Events 2015

 

As we continue to speed through 2015, we at Sustainability in Review are going to be attending some great conferences. The presence of so many of these conferences with sustainability, social responsibility, and circular economy themes means things are going well in our world! And while we cannot attend them all, we are excited at the ones we can.




Check out:

5th International Fiber Recycling Symposium in San Francisco, CA  June 8-10, 2015

Textile Exchange's Workshop on Recycled Materials in San Francisco, CA | June 10, 2015

Outdoor Retailer - Summer Market 2015 in Salt Lake City, UT | August 5-8, 2015

Textile Exchange presents “Textiles - A Circular Life” A Global Textile Sustainability Conference in Mumbai, India | October 5-10, 2015

Got some conferences you are attending that you would like to share about? Let us know so we can spread the word. If you'd like to meet with us at any of these events, please us the contact us form on our website to request a meeting!

Small Town, Big Ideas, and the Power of Sharing

I attended a locally sponsored, sustainability themed business plan a couple weeks ago in my relatively new hometown of Hood River, OR. It was incredible how diverse the ideas were, how each contestant incorporated the idea of "sustainability" differently into their business model. And it also reminded me how ideas are a resource that is hard to waste, but it is still possible.

There is a magical thing about creativity and ideas - for me it is represented most accurately in Chef Gusteau's motto in Ratatouille, "Anyone can cook" and his true meaning of, "not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere."
Ideas are the same. People are amazing. All over the world, in big cities, in little towns, in hot climates, in cold weather, people are coming up with innovative ideas that can change the world. Whether you define that world as the giant globe we live on or your own tight knit community.

And these ideas, in this new interconnected, somewhat democratized world of social media and the Internet and so on, can be shared. And can grow. It is amazing what you can do with an idea.

And these ideas come so easily into your head. Some are tossed aside. Some wake you up in the middle of the night, and convinced you'll never forget such an epiphany, you decide to not write it down only to wake up sadly unable to remember. But the power of ideas is in sharing. As I saw at the business plan competition.

Sharing ideas is not additive. It is not even multiplicative. Sharing your good idea with the right people is like adding an exponent! And who are the right people? You don't know! Everyone who knows someone who knows someone who knows something about exactly what you are trying to do. The power of great ideas comes in new perspectives and pressure tests and disagreements. And that is a very exciting thing, to live at a time when our ideas have greater access to all these things than ever before.

And while each contestant stood up on stage, and her or his plea in one way or another for the prize money, I realized as each person stepped off stage and were bombarded by people with feedback and networking connections, the power of that night did not exist in the winnings, it existed in everyone being there. Listening. Sharing.

John Oliver has a thing or two to say to the Fashion Industry

If you are in the apparel industry or involved in labor rights, I am sure you spent the 17 minutes to watch John Oliver share his insights into the Fashion Industry on Last Week Tonight in the most recent episode.

If you have not seen the video - check it out here:
JOHN OLIVER - Sheds a little light on the fashion industry

As a person who has worked inside the industry for years, it is great to see some obvious thoughts be called out in mainstream media. First is the fact that intuitively we are SHOCKED at the price of some clothes - there is no way they could be that cheap. Well, that is because there are reasons that they are that cheap.

Some of modern lower pricing is achieved legitimately without harming the people making the clothes or the environment directly; scale does play a large part into reducing prices. (Still, scale has its own set of problems, which I won't go into in this post.)

But the other question is: what corners were cut to make clothing this cheap? Working conditions, safe working environments, workers rights, and environmental harm.

It doesn't mean that just because an article of clothing is expensive that it is made in the perfect factory under the best conditions. So the point is to ask yourself, "what do I know about this brand and are they committing to high standards from their suppliers and holding themselves and those suppliers to those high standards?"

If all of us asked the question and demanded that  respect for human rights was part of our buying criteria, it would change the world. Businesses are lead by their customers. Enough market signals and you get brands to wake up and see what customers are demanding.

So if you are interested in demanding human rights for the people who make your clothes - ask the question to the last company you bought a piece of apparel from. Ask them to tell you in detail what standards they are committing to, and how they are verifying those standards, and even ask them how they are ensuring that the way they practice business does not infringe on those rights.

The company may not have the perfect answer, but you asked the question. And just like our intuitive reaction of shock at how incredibly cheap clothing can be and how it could possibly be made for so little money - you will intuitively know if a brand is committed or not.

REPOST: Care2's "The World of Fair Trade Apparel: A Q&A With PrAna’s Nicole Bassett"

REPOST! Read more at http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-world-of-fair-trade-apparel-a-qa-with-pranas-nicole-bassett.html.

The World of Fair Trade Apparel: A Q&A With PrAna’s Nicole Bassett

Clothes may make the man, but who makes the clothes?

This is the question every conscious consumer asks before they make a purchase. Were the farmers that produced the cotton for my t-shirt compensated fairly? Was it sewn in safe working conditions? Fair Trade Certification is still relatively new in the clothing world compared to the food industry, but the growth in availability and demand is steadily increasing. Companies like prAna, Oliberté, Patagonia, PACT and Indigenous Designs are a few of the companies who have set the scene for fair trade clothing.

We talked with Nicole Bassett, Director of Sustainability at prAna to find out more about their company’s strategies and successes in going from a garage-based business in 1992 to a powerful force of good in the industry.

prAna was the first major company to bring Fair Trade apparel to market in the USA. What was that process like?

It was a bumpy ride. There were a lot of questions we had to figure out to see if Fair Trade could even work in apparel. [We] had to make a product and we needed our customers to want it. Luckily all the pieces came together and we now have a wide Fair Trade product offering. Also major brands like West Elm and Patagonia are now doing Fair Trade.

The positive impact of Fair Trade goes beyond workers to the families and communities behind the products. Where have you seen the biggest impacts?

I have seen firsthand how it has changed workers’ lives—giving them access to communication tools with management and receiving funds to improve their personal lives. In addition, we support Fair Trade Organic cotton farmers, with the goal of ensuring that these farmers see organic farming as a sustainable livelihood and take care of their local environment and communities.

Your business has a three-part sustainability focus—from the materials in your products, to the materials and energy servicing your business, to people and their working conditions. Which area has been the greatest challenge? 

Interestingly they have different challenges, so it feels like we have to create three strategies. For our products and supply chain, the challenges in general come from our size and our ability to effect change.  While we have made a lot of progress to access more sustainable materials and better factories, it is slower than we would like as we don’t have a lot of buying power or leverage to change factories or suppliers.  So we chip away where we can.

The resources to service our business come from getting everyone on board to make different decisions every day—to use better materials and make better decisions. Essentially we are educating the whole company to work differently. This is time intensive on top of making sure the business is running well. So our challenge is getting the time of all employees and using their time well. We have made a lot of progress and have leveraged our early adopters, but we are also human and hard to change!

How important is transparency in your business operations?

This is probably one of the biggest drivers for us to be able to have an honest conversation with our customers and our factory partners.  There are so many issues and questions that come up, so we need to know our supply chain and how to respond to inquiries. Some of our supply chains are much more transparent than others, and we have a lot of work to do to get to where we feel comfortable with every garment, trim, fabric etc. But it is an important part of our sustainability program.

What is your advice for new businesses with a desire to operate sustainably?

Build it in from the get go.  It is actually harder to change your business [to become more sustainable] than if you have strong standards from the beginning.  For example, when a company is used to things costing a certain amount, the cost increase of adding in a more sustainable material, dye stuff, or factory is harder to back in.

My other advice is to go for your ideals out of the gate and leverage tools and resources already developed.  Some really smart people have been working on these issues for years, so ask brands that you admire questions, access information through Textile Exchange or the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and if you are in the Outdoor Industry through the OIA Sustainability Working Group. There is no need to reinvent the wheel!

We were recently featured on Care2's blog! Thank you Andrea Moore and Care2 for the great coverage of an important issue.

Please check out the original post and Care2's website at http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-world-of-fair-trade-apparel-a-qa-with-pranas-nicole-bassett.html

Design with "The End" in Mind

There is a growing movement surrounding the circular economy right now. The subject of blogs, conferences, new business school curriculum, books, morning talk shows (alright, that last one is a little hopeful, but the rest are highly prevalent in at least my own life).

Finally, people are starting to seriously consider where things go when we are done with them. And they are coming to the very real realization that the "away" from when we throw things away isn't as far away as we used to think. There are other options we must develop. We need to spread knowledge of these other options, work to improve the technologies, and - hardest of all - change our behavior.

Regardless of what these options are, there are steps that can be taken in our normal processes to make this change easier.

Designing with "the end" in mind, or design for disassembly (DfD) as some call it, is a design strategy that considers the future need to disassemble a product for repair, refurbish or recycle. Whatever the intended disposal, this new strategic method of design recognizes that the product at hand will one day have an end. As the average product's lifecycle has been decreasing dramatically over the past couple decades, it is amazing this hasn't been more widely practiced. The largest barrier is this idea of "cheap & easy". We as consumers used to buy products with the intent of keeping them a very long time, and when they finally did stop working for one reason or another, we intended to at least try and fix them. Now we want things so cheap, we have cut out the value of repairs. If this one breaks, it was so cheap anyway, just go buy another.


This attitude has left us with a constant "buy-buy-buy" consumer mentality, purchasing behavior to match, and landfills overflowing with underused, broken cheap stuff.

The time to about face is now. And the design phase is an incredible place to start. Questions to think about when you begin to create a new product with DfD in mind:

• Can the product be reused in a new way (upcycled)? Can it be recycled? Can it be downcycled?
• What parts will most likely need to be repaired? How can I make these parts easy to get to and replace?
• Who will repair it?
• How can the process be intuitive and simple?
• Can the end user simply disassemble the parts in need of different methods of disposal or reuse?

Approaching product design with DfD in mind can lead to savings and efficiencies through out the product life cycle. For example, when products are designed to disassemble easily they usually can be assembled easily as well. This saves a company time and money on labor costs. Also, future repairs can be easy to provide. And while a company may think this simply means for time, it will add value to the customer and where value is added, more value (money) can be captured, either in the original selling process or for future services provided. Also, with a design team being motivated to thing much more strategically and intricately about their designs, they often find inefficiencies they were overlooking before.



All in all, the time to act is now. And many are acting.

Check out:

Best Buy's Electronic Recovery Program: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Global-Promotions/Recycling-Electronics/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025
Autodesk's Principles of Disassembly and Recycling: http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/products/disassembly-and-recycling
HP's Design for Environment: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/environment/design-for-environment.html#.VTUMQBPF9sA

Saving ourselves - Technology or Behavior

I am in the middle of an interesting project trying to determine the best type of packaging for shipping products.
The interesting dilemma at hand is how does one make the right decision when you are not comparing apples to apples?

So that you can quickly understand the challenge, I am going to simplify the issue.  Packaging #1 is a recycled paper envelop, while Packaging #2 is a recycled plastic envelop. Sounds similar? Not so much.

The interesting issue at hand is that while intuitively we want to stay away from plastic, the plastic option is actually more durable and seen as a better product. But ultimately this packaging, like so much packaging, ends up in the hands of individuals in our homes and we have limited ways of disposing of it well.

Most waste haulers across the USA don't want soft plastics; in fact only 5% of municipalities will accept it.  This is mostly because of how recycling is sorted in the facilities. Usually there are large conveyer belts that are sorting materials with giant magnets and optical scanners. In this system, soft plastics get caught up in machinery.  And the other issue is that because soft plastics are so light, if they get dirty - that dirt easily contaminates the ability for recycling to occur.

BUT, if there was a way to guarantee we could effectively recapture the large quantities of clean soft plastic, the technology exists to recycle it.

So back to our two options for packaging: Packaging #1 is paper and there for can be recycled (and people already know how to recycle it easily), or worst case scenario is in a landfill and will eventually biodegrade. Packaging #2 - could be recycled forever... but we don't currently have the systems to support that.

Separate bag for sorting soft plastics, next to our kitchen laundry bin

We are living in an interesting time  - where technology and human behavior are needed to work together in new ways to achieve the desired results. And that is part of the equation towards sustainability. All the great technology in the world will not allow us to create better systems, unless we change our behaviors to create those better systems.

So to start: recycle everything you can. And think about which of your systems you can develop -by changing your behavior - to support sustainable change.

5 Creative Ways to Reuse Your Yoga Mat

After a long a fruitful life giving comfort to your soles, knees, and even palms in downward dog, your yoga mat is looking a little run down. What are your options?
PLEASE don't throw it away. There are so many better and more respectful paths to send your workout buddy down.
You can look for a yoga mat recycling program near you. Because of the great correlation between yogis and caring about what happens to the planet, many studios, non-profits, and yoga mat companies have figured out easy programs where you can drop off your yoga mat and make sure it does not add to the landfill.
But before you even do this, are there other uses for your yoga mat where you could keep it around?

DOGGIE DONATION: Let your yoga mat have a new life sitting under Fido. You can use as a seat/back of car liner for when your dog comes for a ride, or many animal rescue groups take donated mats to line their crates.
KITCHEN HELPER: Line your kitchen shelves and drawers with your yoga mat to stop glasses/plates from shifting - especially aesthetic when your yoga mat is a fun color! Also, if you have extra, a little square of yoga mat can be a great grip pad to open a tough-to-open jar in the kitchen. You can even make yourself a no slip mat to stand on while you wash dishes or cook.
GREEN THUMB: Use your yoga mat as a knee mat in while gardening to cushion your knees. Yoga mats can make great liners for under house plants. You can cut them to fit each plant pot.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS: Take it camping to put under your sleeping bag instead of a sleeping pad. Or keep the mat in your car on warm summer days for a nice picnic or beach seat. A nice little cut and folded yoga mat can be great for hard seating at outdoor sporting events.
GIVE BACK THROUGH GIFTING: Cut up to make cute mousepad gifts for your family and friends! Make creative masks for children to play with, or even create the perfect set up for an impromptu baseball or kickball game. Yoga mats make easy to carry and clean bases. Make a cute cork board gift for someone special - or yourself!

Let us know if you have any other creative ideas!

Whatever you do, try to train yourself to think first - could I reuse this or do I know someone else who could use or reuse the thing I am looking to get rid of? Next, research recycling options. If there's nothing available, maybe there is an opportunity for you to start something!

Conservation or Corporate Environmentalism - who's sexier?

So I spent the weekend back up in Canada hanging out with my environmentalist dad and his friends.

Guess what we talked about...
How to save the world.


Their approach - conversation.  They are activists fighting the man, stopping evil corporations from polluting rivers, killing plants and animals.  It was interesting to hear how they are using the grassroots organizing tactics, leveraging laws and government agencies and processes to slow process and engaging residents to take action and use their voices.  It was very inspiring, a great reminder that we all have the opportunity to fight for justice.  But is it also a long and hard fought road, it is painfully slow and tiring to be fighting all the time.

I believe I have similar goals of protecting the environment in my work, but rather than fighting the man, I am the man and I am working within to make change. Companies have the opportunity to make positive impacts with every decision they make.  And that has been something I have been able to help steer.  It does not happen every time and there are often trade offs, it moves slow and gets frustrating, but when change does happen it gets pretty exciting.

I suffer from the grass is always greener on the other side syndrome and get really excited by activism.  This was very evident in talking this weekend. Creating petitions, buttons, creative ideas on how to bring awareness to an issue. I think I just need to reframe my work - creating policies, procedures, excel files and guidance documents... and maybe a button just for the fun of it!

I have come to realize that we need both a activist and an internal change approach towards shifting our world towards more sustainable behaviors.  They feed upon each other, driving change and showing examples of that change shows that good can be done. So to everyone inside or on the outside, continue your great work.

Shout Out at Sustainably Chic http://www.sustainably-chic.com/

I wanted to take time today to give a shout out to someone doing something important and fantastic in the sustainability space today - and that would be Natalie, founder of Sustainably Chic (which you can find at http://www.sustainably-chic.com/).

I had the pleasure of connecting with Natalie over the phone last week, and her passion for sustainability in fashion is only matched by her immense energy put towards making a difference through her website and blog.

Before we spoke, I was already taken with her story (http://www.sustainably-chic.com/about/). To enter college as a fashion major and through the same curriculum that churns out fast fashion devotees by the drove, and instead be driven to make a difference in the way we choose our fashion and our expectations of the industry. Too often the fashion-sustainability relationship is seen as a push-pull, win-lose one. I love that Natalie sees opportunity to make better choices and learn.

Through her shop and blog, Natalie is rendering the world an incredibly valuable service; she is connecting people eager and interested in making sustainable choices in their fashion purchases with amazing businesses that have sustainability somewhere in their core values and in their products. While the blog tells you fascinating stories about these businesses and how they came to be, at the same time Sustainably Chic offers an irreplaceable database for people who want to make sustainable purchasing choices but don't know where to look. I highly encourage you go explore today!

Anyway, it was amazing to speak with Natalie, and I was only more convinced of how awesome her mission is and that she will achieve it. Instead of being frustrated she cannot jump the massive gap between where the industry is today and where we might wish it could be, she is content to make the move from fast to slow fashion patiently and with intention, one sustainably chic step at a time.

Preaching Outside the Choir

Days like this remind me that all too often we are preaching to the choir.

Having just graduated from my MBA program in Northern California, I experienced this realization in another group as well. Now that is a place where people are preaching to the choir! My fellow students seemed to have the same values, wanted to head into entrepreneurship (why? "To be my own boss!", and had similar goals for their futures in general. And I don't even think I went to a typical business school. The program was designed to get us there so we got similar coaching from everyone in career developments, and classes structured by professors based on the long accepted tenants of business.

I remember in one of my favorite classes, my professor putting a quote from Peter Drucker up on the board: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." I love this idea of a giant culture monster snacking on strategy cookies. The best laid plans are only as good as the people who implement them - and if the people trying to implement a new culture or value system or anytime of change have no idea how to speak the same language as the people they are trying to change, change will never come.

Having graduated and gone into my dream field of sustainability, I see this all two often. We seem to cater our work and celebrate our victories with businesses who already "get" why sustainability is important, with students and interns who are willing to take no to low paying jobs to change the world...I want to start communicating with a different audience. Not that we should forget all these good hard working people. It's just that they already get it. And in my experience, there are enough people working with them that no one will notice if I wander off to find a new group to preach to.

That's why I decided to get my MBA. I wanted to speak the language of future CEOs, CFOs and the rest of the C-suite. I want to convince major business leadership that we need to start fostering a culture within our businesses that contributes to society and the environment in a sustainable and real way.

I want this new idea to link more people than it separates. With the new interconnectedness of the global community, revolutions have been started and relationships forever changed. Sustainability can follow this trend and use its overarching connection to everyone to break down walls. Sustainability must be added to how we view holistic business strategy - no matter the department or team or title - we must be asking ourselves, "will this last? Can design a system that recreates what it takes away?"

I think this is very possible. We need more people on board. We need to think that - possibly - sustainability cannot fit into the rigid boxes that Porter's forces drew around how we do business. That when we think about sustainability, it is a pursuit important enough to use teamwork. In the face of sustainability, we need our first reaction to competition to be partnership and collaboration - not a zero-sum game.

I am excited to see where the next few years take us. And can only hope we start preaching - eh, I don't really like the word - that we start the conversation about sustainability with some new audiences, in a language they can understand. 

Hungry for Good | The Plight of Food Deserts

“Please place your tray tables and seat in the upright position and get ready for take off.”

I shifted uncomfortably in my window seat, trying to figure out what to do with my life, both long term and in the short gap of the flight in between take off and that magic point at 10,000 feet when approved electronic devices were allowed to entertain me again.

I pulled the inflight magazine out of the seat pocket in front of me and thumbed to the table of contents.

Food deserts across America, the title of an article read. I remembered sounding it out again in my head, just to make sure I hadn’t missed an extra “s”. Mmmm…desserts.

This article was my first introduction to the phenomenon known as “food deserts”: geographic areas where residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options (namely fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within expedient travelling distance. The concept of food deserts was uncovered when Center for Disease Control (CDC) and census report data revealed a curiously strong correlation between an individual’s cardiovascular health and their zip code.

Guiltily I think of the Whole Foods four blocks in one direction from my house, the Trader Joes three blocks in the other direction, and the Farmers’ Market available twice a week directly across the street from my house. And yet many people have limited to no access to fresh food due to lack of availability. While people are surrounded by corner stores and supermarkets that carry processed foods, or an overabundance of fast food chains selling cheap foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar. Arguably unhealthy eating may seem economically cheaper in the short term, the long-term consequences these consumers are tallying up increase risk for serious even fatal health disorders.

Luckily public awareness on the subject has been growing. Movements like that of First Lady Michelle Obama (“Let’s Move”) include goals of eradicating food deserts by increasing people’s access to healthy food options. Still, awareness isn’t the only battle to be fought; we must start to get creative to eliminate this issue. While utilizing support of government tax benefits or endowments of charitable entrepreneurs is effective, we cannot rely solely on these types of windfalls. Initiatives from U.S. universities have created programs where food trucks deliver fresh produce at affordable prices and some of these trucks can even collect food stamps. There is no easy answer to this problem but with great minds motivated to find solutions, we can expect great victories in the future.

I found a great quote while researching food deserts where University of Michigan Professor George Kaplan commented on the term food deserts, saying “A desert is, of course, a place distinguished by the absence of vegetation, rain, etc., which is the sense in which the word is used in this report. Food deserts are defined as “areas with no or distant grocery stores.” But the word “desert” is also a verb — “to leave someone without help or in difficult situation and not come back.” This seems to me to capture an important dimension of food deserts not conveyed by the noun.”

We need to decide here and now that while some people have been left without help in difficult situations, we are sending help, and with each individual effort to shrink the food deserts, we are coming back.

Trader Joe’s, knowing that 40% of food sold at U.S. grocery stores gets thrown out because of overstocking or being past the “sell-by” date, has arranged a new food discount store called Daily Table the repackages and offers this food at deeply discounted prices. 

Read more: http://inhabitat.com/former-trader-joes-president-plans-to-dish-out-expired-food/ 

Initiatives like “Freshmobile” carry fresh, healthier food options to underserved communities in “pop-up grocery stores” in trailers and traveling food trucks. “The movement first got going in 2003, when a Bay Area group introduced organic food to West Oakland neighborhoods in a roaming solar-powered, biodiesel-burning food truck. Over the years, the mobile market idea gained steam. In June 2011, Fresh Moves, a Chicago non-profit launched its one-aisle grocery store on board a donated Chicago Transit Authority bus, and currently serves Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods. This August, the Seattle-based group Stockbox Grocers will launch its first store in the city’s South Park neighborhood, serving healthy food and to-go meals out of reclaimed shipping containers and storefronts. Residents of Portland, Ore., Kansas City and Baton Rouge are also seeing groceries-on-the-go rolling through this summer.”

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/24/can-pop-up-grocery-stores-solve-the-problem-of-food-deserts/ 

Take a look at your own community and decide what you can do today. 

Our ability to adapt

This has been my 3rd year living in Hood River and it has been the strangest winter yet. I look out my window at one tree and its dying leaves because we got a cold snap so early that the leaves didn't have time to prepare for winter.  At the same time, today, I am looking at daffodils in full bloom. The daffodils don't know it is February, they just know it was warm enough to start blooming.

I wish I could say I have enjoyed my spring - which has felt like summer, but I wonder what will happen yet.  Spring is still a long way from over. In years past there have been storms and cold snaps still to come.  Will that happen this year?  We are all waiting and seeing.

I am actually not going to talk about global warming, but rather about uncertain weather in a time when humans believe that we can mange our businesses and our lives with complete certainty.
If we do get a cold snap in the next month, there is a chance that all of the blossoms, now thriving in full bloom, will die.  Therefore no fruit will grow.

And while we have created mechanisms for uncertainty - like insurance -the impact is significant.  Insurance is for the exception, not the rule.  And each year as the uncertainty thickens we may have to rethink insurance.

So as businesses, we need to start taking into consideration more uncertainty, to take part in more scenario planning, and to broaden the way we look at the world.

As each company goes into their yearly business strategy development, it might be worth taking a farmers almanac in with you and start to look at the world through weather and what this may mean for your business.

Sharing | Collaboration vs. Competition in Business Today

Just a quick thought - about sharing. The activity we have been encouraged to participate in since kindergarten, even earlier if you have a little sister or brother!

But in business, sharing is hardly encouraged. Sharing puts us in danger of losing our competitive advantage and falling behind after we have worked so hard to be a leader in our product/market/industry.

Yet, in light of new movements towards green solutions and sustainability, we see a shift. These "tree-hugging" goals seem to be by nature more collaborative, but there also seems to be real business reasons for erring on the side of sharing over hording information when it comes to making sustainable changes in the world.

One of the coolest examples is Tesla. On June 12 2014, Tesla Motors‘ CEO, Elon Musk, wrote a blog stating that "the company would not initiate lawsuits against anyone who wishes to use their technology in good faith." While this does not mean for free, Tesla basically announced openness to license its unique technologies. This move actually grows the market for Tesla by helping other car companies produce electric vehicles. Here, Tesla saw beyond the immediate goal of "winning" in the car space and made strategic decisions based on growing the electric car market to initiate a complete change of which technology people use for transportation through sharing information.

Toyota has just followed suit. In this case, Toyota is giving other car makers free access to over 5,000 fuel cell patents through 2020. This action that may shortsightedly seem like an over share of confidential information is again dramatically growing the market and Toyota will benefit.

While sharing your one-of-a-kind Grandma's own recipe that brings everyone to your restaurant over all other dining options in town may not be the best idea for business, telling your competitors that you found a great new water-less dishwasher technology that saves you $200 a month on your water bill might be. If you are only concerned about your revenues and profits for the next month being better than theirs, then go ahead and pocket that $200. If you care about the environment, water use, and the sustainable future of your community, start considering what you can share to make a lasting difference.

Green Marketing Best Practices

As consumers turn to greener products, companies scramble to meet these demands. Whether people are motivated by the idea of saving the environment, healthy living alternatives, or higher qualities of products, it has become clear that companies must respond. 

Yet, as companies scramble, they often move too quickly, without strategic forethought or good intentions. Here greenwashing is born. Misleading claims, overstating achievements, and more can take a company's green initiative from beneficial to high-risk. Being perceived as participating in greenwashing will not only damage a company's reputation and credibility, it can also have very real legal repercussions. 

The best way to avoid greenwashing is to know the FTC's guidelines by heart. But for those of use who do not have a couple free months and a law degree to make sure we know every last word, here are a couple tips for best practices in green marketing for your company:

1. Transparency
With new trends of reporting and sharing information skyrocketing, do  your research and share the information. By providing access to details and reporting on progress, companies are avoiding the most dangers reactions to not marketing green correctly. When sharing your information about sustainability, showing that you used third party accreditors will also help add validity to your claims.

2. Live Your Values
When a company truly commits to its values and lives them everyday, it is hard to stray from the true intention captures in green marketing. Communicate your values in your marketing. Sharing what you believe in as a company can help you take a break from traditional sales marketing and share more about why people should become your loyal customers - not just a quick solution or value-add but commitment to a longer relationship because you care about the same things. Educating your own employees can do wonders for making sure your commitments to sustainability are followed at every level and in every department of your company, even ones where involvement is not obvious, but misalignment could lead to greewashing. Also, a visible and active CEO wins trust and shows the way for the rest of the company. While sustainability has to be incorporated at all levels to be successful, a company that does not also have top down leadership in this area will not succeed. 

3. Think About the Whole Life Cycle of Your Product
When companies sell a product, it can be easy to only think about the creation of that product and not the full life cycle of that how product effects the earth and community during use and after its useful life. But if you are going to make green claims about a product, you have to! Minimize life cycle impact by thinking about responsible use and disposal. By considering this larger picture view of your products, your company may find unrealized value that could be captured with helping your customers upkeep their product or in some cases even add more value to customers by helping them dispose of or recycle your products after they are done with them. 

Good luck with greening your marketing practices!

Check out more pertinent information on FTC guidelines:

http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising/green-guides
http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2012/10/ftc-issues-revised-green-guides

These are just some of our thoughts! A great article from GreenBiz goes into much more detail:

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/01/14/five-strategies-avoid-taint-greenwash-your-business 

Sexy Home Renovations - Insulation!

I have been dreaming about renovating our bathrooms ever since we moved in 2 years ago. The house was built in 1982 and well the bathrooms look it.
But the thing is... they work. And yes I would like to update the style, but is that enough of a justification to take perfectly good things like tubs, shelves, counters and hooks and update them?

I have a Pintrest page and have even selected my recycled tile for the shower and floors. But I have a feeling any $ I have saved for this renovation will be going into something more practical and less beautiful.

Yesterday I had a free energy home inspection through Clean Energy Works. And well - our home is pretty efficient, but could be a lot better.  The big wins - Insulation in both our attic and in our flooring. Codes have changed since our house was built and a lot of heat is escaping through our inefficient roof and floors.

This process is one that I preach all the time in my work, so I should walk the talk in my personal life right?
So my bathrooms will wait, I'll buy a plant and call that my design update and focus on making my home more efficient. So next time company comes over, the crawl space and attic will be included in the house tour - I am going to want to showcase my new investment!

Even When Working on Sustainability Initiatives, We Should Follow Our Own Advice

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle + Collaborate

In Sustainability, we are so used to the first impression that we are creating more work for the people. Extra. Excess. MORE.
It is ironic only because that is the opposite of what we are usually trying to do with the physical items we work with. We want to reduce packaging. We want to cut energy use. We want to lessen our effects on the environment.
We want, want, want - but we almost always want less.
And you see when you look at successful case studies about how - in quantifiable terms - sustainability created a net positive for a company, it is always through revealing inefficiencies and showing a company where they could use less and have the same or even a better outcome. Saving money by using less or using what we already have smarter. That is an outcome both sustainability processionals and executive leadership can get behind.

And then it struck me. Rarely as we actually creating more. And if we are, we might be doing it wrong.
We look at current processes and try to innovate and reimagine how they could be done less negatives effects on people involved and the environment. Often we end up looking backwards at older techniques or methods that seemed outdated, but in the wake of new regulations or energy costs. We have a lot to learn from that past. We didn't always pollute and consumer at the rates we do. And not all the old ways are better, but sometimes repurposing an old technique or idea gives us insight we are blind to because of modern solutions.

This brings me to my point. We are always chanting from our soapbox for others to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Perhaps we start framing our ideas in this way. Reduce the amount of new work we are putting on the plate of the operations or design or public affairs department. Reuse and recycle ideas, using a modern perspective and innovation, to transform the way we do business today. Collaborate - it can be hard enough to get one group to listen to your chants about going green, but make sure you know everyone who will be a part of the change you are trying to create and engage them in the decision making process. In other words:

1) Create and Assign Less New, Stand Alone Work

When working on a sustainability initiative, see how you can better the project you are working on as a whole rather than only coming from the side of sustainability. Frame your research and analysis in this manner and you will be able to share with people affected by your initiative that they can change the way they currently do something to a more sustainable method and benefit themselves, instead of having to add a whole new process or responsibility to their job description. If we share that we did not create more work, but instead we created work to support their current work - we can enact better change faster.

2) Look to the Past for Inspiration, Innovate and Repurpose Accordingly

As I said before, we didn't always pollute or consume at the rate we do nowadays. Look back to techniques we used before certain unsustainable technologies came on the scene. Also, Mother Nature - as she so often is - can be a great inspiration for sustainable methods. Check out or previous article on biomimicry to find out how many incredible innovative processes have been created by mimicking how nature has been doing them for eons.

3) Find the Right Fit

Lastly, make sure you are plugged in to the right people and network when presenting ideas. Lack of visibility of goals at organizations can make one department raise an eyebrow at your solutions, which would have been immediately celebrated by one department. When you have an idea that affects many stakeholders, map those affected and see if you can get people representing those different interests all at one table.