Eco-friendly Promos

With sky high fuel prices and air pollution problems, the airline industry is notoriously detrimental to the environment. However, in recent years companies have been making great strides in sustainability. Japan Air recently announced their plans for a biofuel test flight on a Boeing 747. They plan to use non-edible oils to avoid trampling on global food sources. Virgin Atlantic, a company with an awesome environmental policy, already made waves this February when they completed the first successful flight to be partially fueled by biofuels; they used coconut and babassu oils. German Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air New Zealand are also researching usage of biofuels. In a few decades, maybe we’ll be able to take eco-friendly planes to our eco-friendly vacations spots!

Ok, the second McDonald’s billboard up there is actually what this post is all about. McDonald’s occasionally tries to market itself as having sustainable business practices, and indeed, they aren’t ALL bad. They’ve launched an “environmental commitment” section on their website, which details their plans to green up their corporation. However, in the last few years they’ve sparked outrage when they gave way 42 MILLION toy hummers in their happy meals. Promoting excessive, gas-guzzling, polluting cars to future generations while the earth is increasingly suffering is unacceptable. In protest, the Environmental Working Group, Clean Cars for Kids, and HybridCars.com teamed up to create a website devoted to raising awareness of this issue. It’s called Ronald McHummer. The site allows you to send in a pre-written letter protesting the toys to execs, as well as generate your own McDonald’s signs condemning them (like we did above!). Try it! It’s actually pretty entertaining. Various clever slogans grace the web. Here are some of the best:

* “Would you like your happy meal hot or just globally warmed?”

* ” I’m guzzlin’ it”

* “Destroying the planet one burger at a time.”

*”Over 2,500 soldiers dead for oil, Hummer with your happy meal?”

“We proudly contribute to heart disease, obsesity, and now pollution”

Two years from now, shopping in LA is going to undergo a big change. Starting July 1, 2010, plastic shopping bags will be banned from stores, leaving customers to pay twenty-five cents for a paper variety or better, bring reusable bags from home. The city expects that the change will greatly reduce clean-up costs for litter in the town’s rivers; plastic bags make up a huge portion of marine debris. San Francisco, leading the green way as usual, already passed and implemented ban.

Green Junk mail may sound like a paradox, but the concept actually falls in line with Friday’s sixth green “sin”: marketing the lesser of two evils. Junk mail, notoriously awful for the environment, has proposed plans to make its practice more eco-friendly, while still using paper. Media blog Gawker lightly criticized this effort, but hey, it’s better than nothing! The newly founded Green Marketing Coalition, combined with a handful of direct marketing agencies and their clients, plan to propose new guidelines for direct mail that will help reduce their terrible environmental impact. They encourage patronage of vendors committed to recycling and adherence to higher waste disposal standards. “List hygiene” is another interesting issue: this involves cleaning off the dead or moved-away residents from the direct mailers list. The United Postal Service is aiming to help them do this buy providing better lists of residencies.

How can the average consumer help? Simple: don’t buy products advertised via junk mail. It’s called junk for a reason. The harmful and wasteful swags of paper mailings will only be around as long as consumers support them. Encourage those close to you to send those pesky mail-outs straight to the recycling bin!

The seven deadly sins are so last millennium. So what should you look out for in eco-friendly times? According to green marketing expert Terra Choice, the six sins of greenwashing! The new wave towards ecologically aware marketing has produced tons of fakers. When shopping for green products, here are some king-pins of green sin to be aware of:

1. Hidden Trade-Off: When a company markets one sustainable aspect to a product that actually comes at a negative impact for another.

2. No Proof: Always check for certification of claims. A surprising amount of products get by without offering it.

3. Vagueness: A lot of meaningless terms are swirling around out there. “Natural”, “Eco-friendly”, “Non-toxic”, “Chemical-free”, and other terms should all be explained by the company or they don’t mean anything. Call the numbers you see on packaging to inquire. Be persistant!

4. Irrelevance: Don’t be fooled by claims you don’t understand. The most common? “CFC Free!” Some products don’t even have CFC anyways…It’s like if a computer claimed to be water-efficient.

5. Fibbing: Some companies blatantly lie..Legitimate certification programs can help. Do some research (google!) on certification programs for the products you’re looking at.

6. Lesser of Two Evils: This “sin” I kind of don’t agree with. Yes, some products aren’t as “green” as they could be but I think it’s better to put in some effort than nothing at all.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by this list but remember: practice makes perfect. Invest in proper green habits and it’ll repay you and the world for the rest of your life! Don’t be intimidated- a little goes a long way.

With sky high fuel prices, travel is tougher than ever these days, making Americans all over nostalgic for the days of road trips and family vacations.How to cope? This summer, learn sustainable travel tips by living vicariously through CNN’s new special: “Cody’s Big Bio-fuel Adventure”. The news program will be chronicling the journeys of two average Americans as they cruise through the country in a biodiesel-powered truck. Don’t just watch- contribute! The travelers are looking for advice on attractions to see and how to stay environmentally friendly on the road. Any ecologically oriented person should definitely check it out!

In late 2007, popular ad agency JWT predicted that blue would become the new green in 2008. In other words, the color and term “blue” would begin to evoke ideas of earth friendliness, as much or more than “green” does. They reasoned that people are coming to recognizing a broader view of the environment, encompassing the blue oceans and sky. How has their prediction panned out so far? Well, we for one haven’t noticed any major switches. Most advertisements for eco-friendly products still seem to utilize green color schemes. However, as far as oceans and skies go, clean air and clean water are definitely top issues right now, especially with controversy over off-shore oil drilling.

Do you know someone who’s headed to college soon? Encourage them to look into living in the most eco-friendly dorm on their campus, or, if there isn’t one available, urging their dorm governments to create one. More and more colleges are offering students green housing options. For example, Northwestern University just developed the GREEN house for students to live in as of fall 2008. The fifty-person residency will utilize low-flow shower-heads, fluorescent light bulbs, and environmentally friendly cleaning products; furthermore, residential requirements will encourage environmental awareness. Potential activities will include mandatory community service to better the wild and informative lectures. Various other universities are jumping on the bandwagon as well. Wake Forest University uses energy-saving devices in most of its housing, and Emory has a special dorm that shows the cumulative energy consumption in one of its lobbies. Oberlin, Middlebury, and most small liberal art schools have options as well. Many of them are pioneered by an organization called SEED (Student Experiment for Ecological Design).Nationwide, Universities are responding to the demand for sustainability, so request one at yours or your Alma matter’s; even a simple request can make a difference.

We’ve delivered lots of information on eco-friendly trends and lifestyles over the last few months…but do you really know how you measure up? Assessment is a key element to change; you need to recognize your problems to fix them. Luckily, when it comes to the environment, there are tons of great resources to help you do so. The following tests are both enlightening and entertaining:

* MSNBC: How Green is your Life Style? This short and simple test provides cute measures of your “greenness”, ranging from Hunter to Lime Green (I scored “tea green”, so I’ve work to do!)

*If you know your household’s energy costs this Carbon Footprint Calculator is a cool one to try. Carbon Counter. org also offers various quizzes along the same vein, and you don’t need to know as many specifics to take them.

* This test from Yale corrects you as you go along, making it a great learning experience. (who knew that recycling one can can power a television for three hours?! or that each American produces around 4 lbs of trash a day?!..yikes..)

* The Sierra Club, as usual, provides some top-quality coverage of this subject. Their “How Green Is My…” section can assess your habits in six areas: Destinations, Getaways, PCs, Screens, Bike Rides, and Laundry. Phew!

Overall, there’s a wide array of resources out there to determine how green you really are. Trust us, you may be surprised!

“Dr Earth wants you to be environmentally aware, but he sees no reason why environmental awareness and hedonism shouldn’t go hand in hand”….Sounds good to us! This quote encompasses the philosophy of   Club4Climate , a  unique company that organizes fun events to promote environmental awareness. Looking to go even greener with your nightlife? You can! There’s a whole club dedicated to sustainable partying! London-based Surya features a dance floor that captures the electricity of its patrons and uses it to power some of the club. It also utilizes low-energy bathroom facilities and other systems. If you’re in Britain, you should definitely check it out. Hopefully other versions will pop up around the world soon!