Sustainablog

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After previewing tonight’s episode of the Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet, I couldn’t help but think that this week’s topic — fashion — tied in very closely with last week’s show on food. After all, we all eat, and we all dress. Our clothes, like our food, generally start off as crops in fields, and the process of transforming those crops into garments typically involves heavy chemical inputs and many miles traveled (especially in this era of globalization). The fashion industry has a heavy environmental footprint, but a number of designers and manufacturers are challenging those norms, and creating clothing that’s both fashionable and sustainable. Take a sneak peak at one of these companies featured in tonight’s episode: Del Forte Denim

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Editor’s note: Localized, distributed electricity grids are a hot topic in the renewable energy world. Today, Joel at Life Goggles takes a look at a product that could make such grids a reality at the neighborhood level. This post was originally published on Thursday, April 3, 2008.

Dutch company Qurrent is developing technology that will enable neighborhood-wide energy networks. Winner of the 2007 Picnic Green Challenge, the system will be used to pilot the concept in the Netherlands.

Because of fluctuating patterns of consumption, homes with wind and solar energy generators can find themselves with surplus energy at some times of the day, but not enough at others. Surplus energy typically gets sold back to the main grid, but as with most electric power transmission, ~30% of it can get lost along the way.

If a group of homes could work together to manage their collective energy generation and use so that higher levels of demand in one home can be matched with surpluses in others, this would help eliminate waste and make it more efficient. Participating homes essentially form a “mini-grid” that shares energy internally before exchanging any with the main grid.

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Editor’s note: Cleaning can be a messy business, with all of the chemicals in traditional housecleaning products. Today, Joel at Life Goggles takes a look at a greener, non-toxic cleaning system (which is reasonably priced, also). And, if you like the product reviews we’ve been featuring from LG, make sure to check out their Great Green Giveaway competition… you might just win some of these cool items. Today’s post was originally published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008.

Eco-Me is a company that provides 100% natural eco kits. I call them “starter kits,” as they’re an easy way to get started using more environmentally-friendly products. In fact, you mix these yourself so you know exactly what has gone into them.

They currently have five kits: Home, Body, Baby, Dog and Cat kits. Not owning a dog or cat (or baby for that matter), it was the Home kit that I was sent for review.

Containing two empty reusable plastic bottles, a reusable tub, a microfiber cleaning cloth, natural fiber scrub brush and a small bottle of Home Blend essential oil, the large box bag it comes in was pleasantly light. The two bottles are for “All Purpose Spray Cleaner” and “Wood Polish Spray Cleaner” with the tub being for “Home Scrub Cleaner.” Each one has really simple instructions on the side and a measurement guide. For example, pour white vinegar up to this mark on the label, water up to this mark, and then 1 unit of essential oil.

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Editor’s note: No, not paper or plastic… we’ve been there. David Shaw takes a look at the environmental impact of hand-washing, and finds there’s a better way… even better than “Press button. Rub hands under warm air. Wipe hands on pants.” David originally published this post to Professor Simran Sethi’s Media and the Environment course blog on Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

I drink at least a liter of water a day, which means I end up using the restroom at least five times a day. In the bathroom at work, we have the fairly standard stack of single sheet paper towels that you pull from the holder one at a time (although sometimes a clump comes out, if they’re packed too tightly). It takes two paper towels to dry my hands thoroughly.

So, on a daily basis I use at least 10 paper towels, or 50 paper towels a week, or 200 paper towels a month, or 2,400 paper towels a year! That is a lot of paper. But, I have to wash my hands and I have to dry them. Yet, every time I grab the paper towels, I feel a tinge of guilt. So, I started trying to find ways to conserve paper towels.

First, I decided to cut down to just one paper towel. Yeah, my hands were still a little damp when I left the restroom, but they air dried within a minute or two. Still, with one paper towel per hand washing, I was using at least 1,200 paper towels a year. Not good enough.

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This post is by Ramon Cruz, Senior Policy Analyst for Living Cities at Environmental Defense Fund.

It’s ironic. In many parts of the world, there is no clean drinking water. Here in the U.S., pure, drinkable water flows out of every tap, and yet Americans buy a staggering amount of bottled water. We pay big bucks for it, too - over $15 billion a year.

Worst of all, the bottles are overflowing our landfills, and contribute to global warming.

Take a look at this video from Doug James, and then check out these surprising facts.

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Editor’s note: We all know shoes leave a footprint, but probably haven’t given much thought to the environmental footprint created by shoe manufacturing. Travis Brown, a student in Professor Simran Sethi’s Media and the Environment course at the University of Kansas, takes a look at the impact of what we put on our feet. This post was originally published to the course blog on Monday, March 10, 2008, and on Triplepundit on Thursday, March 13, 2008.

America has a shoe problem.

2,286,472,000 shoes were purchased in the U.S. in 2005 according to the American Apparel & Footwear Association. There were 297,821,175 Americans alive at the end of 2005. That’s 7.67 shoes per person. Now I realize that I am a man and therefore do not understand the true glory of shoes, but this seems a little absurd. Think of all the different materials that go into making shoes and their packaging. Think of all the different places that those materials come from. Then think of where the shoes are made and how far they travel. In 2005, only 1.4% of consumed shoes were manufactured in America. 84.2% of American bought shoes that were made in China.

Just take a gander at this trend throughout the past few decades.

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Editor’s note: The phrase “greener transportation options” conjures up images of hybrid cars, bicycles, and buses. This week, Adam at Life Goggles takes a look at at yet another option: the Magic Wheel. This post was originally published on Friday, March 21, 2008.

If you ever look what category posts on Life Goggles are put in, you may notice this one says Product Reviews, but also Transport. That’s in the loosest sense of the word as I haven’t been able to go anywhere on this yet.

But I’m jumping ahead. The Magic Wheel, as you can see from the videos and pictures, is a cross between a unicycle, skateboard and scooter. Sort of. It’s a wheel with steps either side (and a shopping trolley/cart wheel on the back) that you have one foot on while you push off with the other like a skateboard until you reach sufficient speed to put both feet either side and glide to your destination. Well glide for a bit until you need to start pushing again.

First of all - it’s trickier than it looks in the promotions video - check out my video for my (embarrassingly, not first) attempts at mastering the Magic Wheel. I know April 1st is coming, so I might as well look at fool. To be fair, I’m not very good at skateboarding, etc., which I think would have helped, but it’s a bit tricky and young, cool kids are probably better at it than me. The package comes with some vague safety instructions and a dvd with some dubious English subtitles. But between them they tell you enough about the product to be able to give it a go.

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Editor’s note: How “green” is your toothbrush? You’ve probably never asked yourself that question. Neither had Joel at Life Goggles until he received some toothbrushes from Radius in the mail and tried them out. This post was originally published on Thursday, March 13, 2008.

I know a lot of readers have been wondering what toothbrush I use…ahem. Well it’s a rechargeable one. I like it as I don’t have to buy a new toothbrush each time when the head wears out, but it does use electricity sometimes. I never really spend much time thinking about the “eco-ness” of my toothbrush, but every little thing helps. Now, the Source toothbrush from Radius may have become my new favorite, but why?

Let’s start from the beginning. I was actually sent two toothbrushes by Radius — the Original and the Source — so let’s take a look at them both.

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Editor’s note: With warmer weather just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, many of us will start looking for opportunities to cook out and picnic. This week, Life Goggles takes a look at an earth-friendly disposable plate from India… made from leaves. This post was originally published on Monday, March 3, 2008.

Ganesha is an alternative trading outfit that markets the traditional industries of India, working directly with the producers. We’ve more about them in our Paisley Park Jute Shopper Product Review.

The sent Life Goggles a pack of 20 leaf plates to test. But where do you start testing a plate? Kev did an excellent review of some plates made from potato starch, so I did what any self-respecting blogger would do: I copied him.

But as it turns out, these are quite different products. These disposable plates are made from sal and siali leaves, from the forests of Orissa, East India. And as you’d expect, leaves can’t hold that much weight, so doing a test like Kev’s weight bearing experiment with apples was a no-goer; in fact it struggles with a knife and fork on it. For an easy comparison, think of the leaf plates as a replacement for paper plates at parties or barbecues, but bigger. They’re about 30cm (12″) in diameter.

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Editor’s note: This week, Adam at Life Goggles reviews a product aimed at “green newbies” in Great Britain: the Green Tomato Kit. This post was originally published on Wednesday, February 27, 2008.

The Green Tomato Kit has nothing to do with tomatoes. Well, sort of. Green Tomato has a simple idea that it’s easy to be kinder to the planet by doing things like not buying those tomatoes on a two for one offer, as you won’t eat them all. They’ve also set up a taxi service in London made up of Toyota Priuses (which, thanks to getting this kit has explained a mystery to me of seeing cars with funny looking apples on the side – they’re green tomatoes).

The Green Tomato Kit is a pack to help those thinking of going green do it a little easier. As regular readers my know, I get annoyed by the packaging of some of the eco stuff I review - it’s all well and good being made of recycled plastic but it’s wrapped in polystyrene. Well, the Green Tomato Kit came in biodegradable packaging made from potato starch and even the label with my address written on is biodegradable — made from corn starch by these guys.

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