This will probably get me drummed out of Greenpeace, but I’m increasingly of the opinion that the greenest thing to do with paper is to use lots of it, preferably printing on it first, and NOT recycle it. Instead bury it somewhere anaerobic, so it won’t decay for a long time. Then grow more trees […]
Paper: Recycle It or Bury It? Read More 👉
Earlier this month in my post “A Cynical Eye on Sprint’s ECO-mittment,” I got razzed a bit by a commenter about my ties to the printing and publishing industry. Do I have a bias towards paper and away from e-media? (I do, but not because I’m involved in the industry. It’s because I think e-media
RISI Seminar Tackles Tough Paper Industry Questions Read More 👉
It almost happened again. I was in Kohl’s and purchased a handful of items — not enough to warrant packing them into a plastic shopping bag — so as the clerk reached below the counter, I stopped her and let her know that giving me a bag wasn’t necessary. There it was, the startled,
What’s Your Policy on Rejected Shopping Bags? Read More 👉
Recently, I stumbled across a stat that surprised me. Sprint ranked #6 on Newsweek’s 2010 list of the 500 greenest “big companies” in America. (Click here for the methodology.) Considering the extent to which I’ve written about e-media as a coal-fired-power-guzzling, mountaintop-removing marketing channel, this stat intrigued me. This score is derived from three component
Cynical Eye on Sprint’s ECO-commitment Read More 👉
Looking for an excuse to visit Berlin? Try EcoPrint, the world’s first exhibition 100% focused on sustainable print production. EcoPrint Europe LIVE 2012 will held in September 26–27 and will focus on print production for retail, interiors, point of purchase, and packaging. While we might think of “sustainable print” as focusing on things like low-VOCs consumables,
Looking for an Excuse to Visit Berlin? Read More 👉
Is global warming taking a back seat to other environmental concerns? According to Nielsen’s 2011 Global Online Environment & Sustainability Survey, it is. According to the survey of more than 25,000 Internet respondents in 51 countries, concern about climate change/global warming among online consumers around the world has taken a back-seat to other environmental issues
Survey: Global Warming Takes a Back Seat to Other Environmental Issues Read More 👉
Want your packaging to be more environmentally friendly? Check out the Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability released by the Consumer Goods Forum last week. The GPPS is part of the sustainability work stream at the Consumer Goods Forum. The aim of the Protocol is to help companies reduce the environmental impact of their packaging by
Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability Released Read More 👉
I received an interesting phone call yesterday. It was a phone bank calling on behalf of my power company, offering to send me a free pack of energy-efficient CFL bulbs. Of course, I’m always a fan of free stuff, but I took this opportunity to ask just how I was supposed to dispose of them.
Who’s Training the Phone Operators on CFLs? Read More 👉
How do we move the larger corporate and business world toward sustainability? Sometimes all it takes is one big supplier to hold its suppliers accountable, and all of a sudden, there is a sea change. That’s the position that IBM has put its suppliers in. As announced at the Eco Forum, IBM has asked its
IBM Calls Suppliers to Account on Sustainability Read More 👉
Every time I go through a fast-food drive-through, I wince at the amount of paper and plastic that comes through the window. When I order a cheeseburger on the fly, I don’t need a paper bag, 25 napkins, and other whatnot. I just want the cheeseburger, then I can use one of the myriad spare
Should Retailers Give Consumers a No Bag Option? Read More 👉
According to new research, what we might call “super green” adults are now 5% of the U.S. population. Since they cluster in the high income bracket, we are likely to see that influence multiplied across the general population as these consumers are targeted by advertisers more and more. That’s a really good thing. New data
“Super Green” Adults Now 5% of the Population Read More 👉
GridWise will be holding a global forum held November 8-10 tackling issues related to the global energy grid. Held at the International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., the forum will tackle topics such as . . . how today’s utilities might evolve and how the value chain from generation to consumption might change lessons learned
Global Forum Tackles the Energy Grid Read More 👉
Two Sides, an environmental advocacy group known for holding greenwashing marketers’ feet to the fire in the United Kingdom, has launched in the United States. One of Two Sides’ successes in the U. K. has been its campaign to challenge what it calls “misleading messaging” related to the supposed environmental benefits of electronic billing (as
Greenwashers Beware: Two Sides Launches in the United States Read More 👉
It’s not often I hear positive environmental news from data centers and others involved in e-media, but this one caught my eye. Google has announced that it’s using sea water to cool its new data center in Hamina, Finland. It’s even produced a video that explains how it works. The water flows in through granite
Google Lowers Data Center Eco-Footprint with Ocean Water Cooling Read More 👉
Those of us old enough to have been addicted to Seinfeld know exactly what I’m talking about. Lanky, crazy-haired Kramer took it upon himself one day to stop all of the mail going into his mailbox. Not some of it. All of it. It was just too annoying. Today I feel like Kramer. I love
Call Me Kramer: Stop the Mail! Read More 👉
In my last post, I began a discussion about e-waste versus print that I want to continue here. The discussion is drawn from a detailed interaction on an industry discussion board on the topic. The question raised was how the waste from electronic products impacts the comparison of the lifecycle analysis of print versus electronic
Are You Taking E-Waste Seriously? Part 2 Read More 👉
As a member of the business community, it’s interesting to see what business owners and executives are thinking about in terms of sustainability and where they are placing their priorities. That’s why a recent online discussion about e-waste caught my eye. An industrial media company in Belgium had suddenly begun looking into the issue of
Taking E-Waste Seriously Read More 👉
When we think about greening print marketing, we often think about recycled paper and sourcing from printers using wind power. But how many of us think about the mailing list? I recent ran across an online discussion in a B2B group in which members were discussing how a list is 40% of a campaign’s success.
Over-Eager Mailing Means “My Bad” on the Environment Read More 👉
Want to find the most eco-friendly shoppers? Don’t look at the 18–34 set. While it’s conventional wisdom that younger shoppers are more “green” than older ones, a new study says nope, it’s ain’t so! According to The Checkout, a shopper experience study currently underway by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research, the demographic with the
Younger Consumers NOT So Eco-Friendly Read More 👉
Last Saturday, I posted about SunChips’ new, quieter biodegradable bag. As I was poking around, looking to see what other people were saying about it, I stumbled upon the discussions pages on SunChips’ Facebook page. One of them caught my eye — “Are you composting SunChips bags?” SunChips bags are promoted as being biodegradable in
Are SunChips Bags Really Biodegradable? SunChips Facebook Discussions Raise the Question Read More 👉
In case you hadn’t heard, SunChips has unveiled its new, less noisy compostable bag. Those of us who wrote about the old one were given coupons for free bags for crunching. I will say, it’s much less noisy than the old one. Still louder than the usual chip bag, but no ear-blistering noise to report.
Thoughts on SunChips’ New, Quieter Compostable Bag Read More 👉
Commercial printing remains one of the three largest manufacturing industries in the United States. Its commitment to environmental sustainability matters — a lot. So where does the industry overall stand on the issue of sustainability? What steps is it taking to monitor, measure, and control its environmental impact? RIT’s Sustainable Print Systems Laboratory decided to
RIT Study: Printing Industry Getting Serious About Sustainability Read More 👉
Who knew? According to research from Resonate Networks, online communities dedicated to environmental issues and awareness are not the best places to find and communicate with green consumers. Now what? Where do you go to find these people? Social networks. As reported in MediaPost, green consumers (defined as those who look for products with an
Social Networks: A Truth Syrum for Green Claims Read More 👉
As corporate marketers and regulators alike evaluate how to communicate environmental commitments and avoid greenwashing, the 2011 Cone Green Gap Trend Tracker (download for free here) tested which of three common marketing approaches was most influential in consumer purchase decisions. Consumers were asked to “purchase” the most environmentally responsible of three generic cleaning products based
Which Green Marketing Approach Is Most Effective? Read More 👉
