{"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 <\/p>\n 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 <\/p>\n 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 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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