{"id":4804,"date":"2009-08-12T21:31:24","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T03:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=4804"},"modified":"2009-08-12T21:31:24","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T03:31:24","slug":"the-science-of-sustainability-green-earth-agri-card-keys-made-from-corn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-science-of-sustainability-green-earth-agri-card-keys-made-from-corn\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science of Sustainability: Green Earth Agri Card Keys made from Corn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Anyone who travels will eventually find themselves returning home with a hotel card key (or two), despite our well-intentioned interest to remember to leave it in the room or drop it by the front desk upon check out. <\/span>Most are made of petroleum-based plastic. <\/span><\/p>\n

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But not the Green Earth Agri Card Keys made by USFI GreenWorks. <\/span>It\u2019s made of a durable, but completely biodegradable corn-based (or plant based) plastic, providing the same appearance and performance, but without the chemicals and waste. <\/span>The product does, however, require industrial composting and not the backyard variety. <\/span>Printing on the cards employs soy-based inks. <\/span>The card is meant to be reusable, not to just be thrown away after one use. <\/span>However, truth be told, millions of hotel card keys never find their way back to the front desk for reprogramming.\u00a0 According to some in the industry, fewer than fifty percent are returned.\u00a0 Some key cards get worn out and have to be replaced.<\/p>\n

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As I write about in ECOpreneuring<\/a>, green businesses do not want to do less harm to the environment. <\/span>They want to create products or services and operate in ways that make the world a better place. <\/span>In much the same way as T.S. Designs<\/a> re-invented the concept of printing on t-shirts using a completely ecologically safe process, USFI GreenWorks reinvented the form the cards take by creating the cards using plant-based plastics.\u00a0 To the extend we can, we need to support these companies and push them to continue to innovate.<\/p>\n

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While there are some products, like land mines, that can never be re-imagined as green, most can — with creativity, eco-innovation and, possibly, the application of a little biomimicry. <\/span>Therein rests the challenge for ecopreneurs: how to make a better product, not just an existing product better. <\/span>For example, the \u201cnew\u201d GM needs to come up with a whole new concept for vehicular transport,<\/a> not just add a few more miles per gallon to the cars they make. <\/span>Amazingly, Henry Ford advocated the development of plant-based materials to make seat covers, dashboards and steering wheels for his 1941 concept car. <\/span><\/p>\n

One challenge in the pursuit of the science of sustainability, then, is to recognize that in nature there is no waste. <\/span>How do we live, work and play in an environment based on this natural foundation?<\/p>\n

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A growing number of green businesses also seek to redefine what their mission is as a business \u2013 and it\u2019s not to just make more profits for their shareholders. <\/span>According to Jodi Slabaugh, USFI\u2019s Production Manager, USFI GreenWorks was started in 2007 as a result of their marketing clients in the hospitality industry asking for more sustainable options for various aspects of their business. <\/span>USFI has been around since 1984, providing services as an integrated marketing firm serving the hospitality and institutional industries.\u00a0 USFI GreenWorks\u2019 mission then became \u201cto serve as a single-source provider of green products that offers the hospitality industry, academic and all other institutions a broad range of product choices and solutions to help reduce your carbon footprint.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Increasingly common among the more ecopreneurial enterprises, USFI GreenWorks purchases their Agri Cards through a contract arrangement from NatureWorks LLC.\u00a0 Specifically, their Agri Cards are made using the NatureWorks LLC Ingeo Biopolymer, or PLA, listed as certified compostable resins by the Biodegradale Products Institute<\/a>.\u00a0 According to the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), resins are the raw materials (typically in pellet form) that are converted in bags, films, food serviceware and, of course, hotel card keys.\u00a0 All BPI-approved resins and products meet stringent, scientifically based specifications.<\/a><\/p>\n

USFI GreenWorks is admittedly experimenting, trying out different approaches to sustainability, some quite viable like the Agri Cards.\u00a0 Others will likely turn out less so. They’re practicing intelligent fast failure<\/a>, as any innovative company should. <\/span>For example, due do the highly toxic nature of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), their bioPVC cards provide little by way of an eco-friendly solution to hotel card keys. <\/span><\/em>According to Center for Health, Environment & Justice, PVC products are dangerous to our health and environment from start to finish — in the factory where they\u2019re made, at home, and in the trash — releasing poisonous chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects. <\/span>That the bioPVC cards biodegrade doesn\u2019t mitigate the toxicity of the PVC itself.\u00a0 Maybe they’ll discover a way to incorporate the proprietary enzymes that break down their bioPVC cards into their biobased Agri Card keys so even backyard gardeners can add them to their compost pile.<\/p>\n

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Biobased plastics are<\/em> compostable, admits the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.\u00a0According to their findings and synthesis of the research, however, these plastics won\u2019t break down in regular landfills or in your backyard compost.\u00a0 They can be effectively composted in a large-scale facility where the biobased plastics will degrade within 45 days. As added bonuses, the production of bioplastics can help contribute to rural economic development by providing new markets for farmers’ crops (I’d love to see the farmers get together and start making these value-added products themselves). \u00a0The biobased plastics also use fewer fossil fuels compared to petrochemical plastics, even after accounting for the fuel needed to plant and harvest the corn or other feedstocks.<\/p>\n

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So, if you run or work at a hotel that uses card keys, it\u2019s time to green another aspect of your guest experience with the Agri Cards.<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re like me, an ecotraveler<\/a> who always fills out the guest comment card at hotels, add a note to every one you stay at. Explain how they can green their operations beyond compact fluorescent bulbs and fair-trade, shade grown coffee offered in the rooms by switching their card keys to Green Earth Agri Cards.<\/p>\n

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Now more than ever, general managers and owners of hotel properties are looking for ways to retain and attract new customers. <\/span>They want to be a part of the solution, not the problem of waste or climate change. <\/span>Why not share a message printed on something that guests use and end up carrying around with them during their entire stay?<\/p>\n

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And if we forget to turn our hotel key cards back in? W<\/span>ell, compost happens.<\/p>\n

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Photography: <\/span>USFI GreenWorks<\/p>\n

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