eco footprint
Environmentally Friendly Golf Goods
A while back, we had a piece introducing the Mirimichi, the first American golf course to be declared a certified Audubon International Classic Sanctuary. An eco-friendly golf course, backed up by the good name of a popular celebrity. There are of course other golf courses that hold the distinction of being considered as eco-friendly in one way or another across the United States and internationally, and an eco-friendly golf course would strike anybody as a great idea, but what about all those people who want to play but don’t intend to fly to Tennessee or the few select locations that boast their connection to the environment? It can’t be expected that every game be played at a location that meets some picky qualifications, and it needn’t be so.
Biodegradable golf balls and tees made from recycled material give people the ability to at least make an individual effort towards the same ends. With tees that biodegrade within a year or so, and aren’t made of wood, an individual effort can be made to the preservation of trees. And balls that quickly biodegrade in water, instead of leading to the deaths of sea-animals that mistake them for something a little more edible, go a long way to the preservation of marine wildlife. What follows than are a few resources for the avid golfer to upgrade his/her collection: › Continue reading
Rethinking Green Attitude
Photo: Flickr User Beige Alert
I want to reassure you here. I write for a green-living, environmentally conscious website. I’ve committed the past 5 odd years of my life to the study of and immersion into the world of environmental issues, policy, management, social movements, etc. I love the fact that I am likely to see a Prius on my way to work or the grocery store. But still, there was something that was bothering me about the scenario. And it didn’t take long to realize what was at the root of my problem. › Continue reading
Green Silence
Exercise is great for the body, but with the right adjustments, we can off-set the waste we produce in powering our TVs and Mp3 players that help satiate our need for a distraction from the fact that we’re working out, as well as the tools we use for the work out itself (i.e. treadmills). That’s how we normally think of waste anyways. Another form of overlooked waste is something much closer and far more vital to most aerobic workouts, namely, what we’re wearing.
Courtesy Maloney & Fox
A company that’s been heralded as a champion for the cause of athletic footwear with a less noticeable carbon footprint is none other than the local Brooks Sports, inc. Amongst their line up of shoes is one that would catch the eye of any avid environmentalist, the Green Silence. Like similar companies going eco with their shoes such as the New Balance eco shoe and biodegradable Simple brand shoes, these shoes are tapping the athletic market. The shoes, consisting of over 75% post-consumer recycled material, also boast a biodegradable insole and collar foams. For a more detailed listing of features, go here.
PeopleTowels: No they’re not made out of people…
I still remember what I initially thought when I first heard about PeopleTowels. I’m rather ashamed to admit it was something along the lines of “What, are they made of people?” Thankfully, no. They’re made for people, to empower people to cut back on the over consumption of paper towels. As co-founder Linda Lannon puts it, “It is the opposite of a paper towel, it is a PeopleTowel.”
Don’t pretend you haven’t walked into a public bathroom, either at a movie theater or at work, and cringed at the sight of the trash can literally overflowing with crumpled up paper towels. Even the air only blow driers use up a ton of energy and don’t get your hands properly dry anyway. Every once in a while you’ll see the waste-conscious, roller hand towels. But even then, I’ll always wonder whose germs I’m spreading over my freshly soaped and scrubbed hands.
The solution? PeopleTowels: the smart, personal, reusable hand towels. They’re conveniently small, roughly nine by nine inches. They’re well designed and brightly colored. They’re certified organic, fair trade cotton, made with 100% natural and nontoxic eco-friendly dyes. Absorbent, light weight and fast-drying, they come in a number of bright, fun, eco-chic designs. My personal favorite is the “this is not a tree” design, which really brings the point home. By using a PeopleTowel for one year, your actions alone are saving an entire quarter of a tree, conserving 250 gallons of water, and reducing landfill waste by 23 pounds. Those kinds of numbers add up pretty fast. › Continue reading
How Long Does it Take to Biodegrade?
I talk a lot about biodegradable items, biodegradable soaps, and even biodegradable diaper services, but what does ‘biodegrade’ even mean?
In our effort to keep from burying ourselves in trash and waste since we are still very much a ‘disposable’ society, how can we reduce our impacts (other than the obvious re-use of materials?) By making everything biodegradable! Bio-degradation happens to just about everything on the planet to some degree, so lets put things into context, shall we? I’ve collected information on many of the most commonly used items, including so called biodegradable items to really put things in perspective.
An Apple Core
In a landfill: Never*
In a backyard compost: 2 weeks
In an industrial composter: days
In the ocean: 8 weeks
Your Starbucks Coffee Paper Cup
In a landfill: Never*
In a backyard compost: One Month
In an industrial composter:
In the ocean: 6 Weeks
A Biodegradable Bio-Plastic Cup
In a landfill: Never*
In a backyard compost: Unknown
In an industrial composter: Less than 3 months
In the ocean: Unknown
› Continue reading
New Balance 70 Eco Shoe (ME070 & WE070)
New Balance is breaking into the green shoe arena, and we aren’t talking colors. The just released ME070 and WE070 are made from recycled and sustainable materials, designed and developed with a real focus on eliminating waste. Boston-based New Balance is in the process of creating a new eco-preferred collection within it’s Outdoor category, of which the 70 will be the introductory model.
Billed as “part of a larger, corporate-wide sustainability initiative to operate our business in an environmentally sensitive manner,” the New Balance 70s are just the tip of the toe. Developed for eco-fashionable consumers, the New Balance 70 features a new eco-friendly construction with seventy-five percent of the upper components consisting of “environmentally preferred materials.” The laces, webbing, rand, quarter, tongue and saddle incorporate recycled polyester; the foxing and the tip of the shoe are synthetics made with fewer solvents than traditional materials. Rice husks filler in the outsole reduces the amount of rubber needed, thus reducing the amount of petroleum used. Water-based adhesives (rather than solvent-based) are used to join the upper and the sole unit and no paper stuffing or paper wrapping are used in the packaging of 70.
I was lucky enough to be one of the few to test out this new shoe before it hit the market. The first impression of the stylish burnt-orange model (MT070PB) I received in the model was › Continue reading
Eco Friendly Golf Course? Justin Timberlake’s Mirimichi
Goes to show that there are varying degrees of sustainability. The worlds first ‘Eco-Friendly Golf Course’ is opening tomorrow (July 25th, 2009) in Memphis, Tennessee. A brainchild of singer and green celeb Justin Timberlake, the Mirimichi Golf Course is the first golf course in the US to receive the Audubon International’s Classic Sanctuary certification and hopes to gain Platinum LEED certification by opening day.
The former Woodstock Hills Golf Course was purchased by the Justin Timberlake, an avid golfer, in hopes of saving it from development. Feeling that it was “such a landmark for the community” and being the first place he had ever hit a golf ball, he was able to “scoop it and save it.”
Long considered a blight on nature and wilderness due to the intense water use, fertilization, and runoff, golf courses have also been criticized for their lack of native habitat. Mirimichi seeks to change all of that with rainwater irrigation, native landscaping, and a new Natural Resource Management Center featuring state-of-the-art biodegradable treatment of rinse water. It even features native grass areas which frame the holes and reduce the mowable acreage of the course.
“Creating an eco-friendly course was a priority throughout the renovations,” said Greg King, director of golf, Mirimichi. “We wanted to create a world-class golf experience that protected and enhanced nature’s canvas.”
Weekend Green Reads – Books on Sustainability
This weekend seems like a great weekend for reading, so I thought I would share some upcoming green books in my queue. I seem to have a sustainable design theme going, although that should come as no surprise to anyone who regularly reads my blog.
Sustainability in design has always interested me, mainly because so many problems with current products on the market can be solved by a tweak in the design. For many, this can entail looking at a product with a whole new perspective- which can prove difficult in many situations. Take for example one of the books, Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable.
The author, Nathan Shedroff, considers how paper bags may be worse than plastic for the environment or how a Prius may have a larger footprint than a H2 Hummer. Now these are pretty bold statements, so I am intrigued as to how he crafts his argument.
Another book along those same lines, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, explores the cradle to cradle process (or C2C, the ‘birth’ of a product all the way through to the ‘death’ and re-birth of the raw materials) and how it can and should be implemented into the consumer stream.
This is a concept of growing interest (you can tell from increasing products advertising cradle to cradle certification), and with good reason. Our ‘disposable’ society needs a shift and the best way to do that is to make products with their ‘end-life’ in mind.
The two previous books are great reads for everybody, geared towards educating and inspiring with varying layers of depth. As an ecologist, my scientific background begs for more granular depth. At times, I like to see the data, the science behind things, the technical stuff. This is where Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering
Providing “…readers with the scientific principles needed to guide their own sustainable design decisions”, and “written to enable readers to take a more scientific approach to sustainable design”, it will be sure to entice all you architects, engineers and scientific types.
