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Can brands launch sustainable campaigns without being accused of greenwashing? |
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 It's not easy being green--especially if you're a company. Consumers in the United States have cooled on sustainable brands, due primarily to the economy. Most want to do the right thing, but marketers were slow to demonstrate the economic value of some green brands.
And consumers have also become much more savvy about knowing what brands really are green and which ones aren't. So if a company suddenly launches its first sustainable campaign, people get suspicious.
Read more at FastCompany.com>> |
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Takeoutwithout: Refuse, Retake and Reconsider |
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 By Lloyd Alter, Toronto – on Treehugger.com
Americans toss out enough paper and plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times, and K.B. Lee is trying to do something about it. He has founded Takeoutwithout to convince restaurants to encourage and accommodate people who bring their own containers.
Borden Communications and Design, a firm specializing in "eco-logical" services, put together the snappy graphics. TOWO has its own 3Rs, as explained by Ellen Moorhouse in the Star:
Refuse (Do you really need all of those straws, plastic cutlery and napkins?); Retake (Bring your own containers, cups and bags.); and Reconsider (Take a look at your eating habits, and maybe, like Lee, make some changes.)
It is a new campaign, where they are inviting restaurants to encourage people to bring their own containers (many resist, worried about health and safety) and urging patrons to cut back. It is perhaps a good first step, although I would rather see deposits on everything and producer responsibility.
Retake and Reconsider: Two more to add to our seven R's. One might also try the 25 Take-Out Foods You Can Make at Home For Cheaper
But if you can't do that, at least try to bring your own. More at Takeoutwithout. |
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6 ways cars have wrecked our culture and 9 things you can do about it |
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 We've been "carjacked" but it's never too late to fight back.
It's nothing new to Planet Greeners when I say cars suck...but it seems there's an endless supply of ways to prove it. Case in point: Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and Its Effect on Our Lives. In this brand new book, authors Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez effectively and accessibly lay out the social, financial, historical, and of course, environmental impact of America's love affair with the internal combustion engine.
Read more at Planet Green.com >> |
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Monsanto has farmers cornered |
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 By Sara Novak
I've written extensively about genetically modified organisms (GMOS). Farmers are essentially giving up the wheel to corporate entities that research, develop, and mass produce seeds. But a recent story on NPR brings to light how rigorous seed licensing is sticking it to the farmer, or their wallet for that matter.
Monsanto has figured out a system by which the company can take its customers for what they're worth, literally. Once farmers use Monsanto's Roundup Ready, which is a line of designer genetically-modified seeds, they have to continue to purchase the seeds year after year because it's illegal, yes illegal, for farmers to save seeds. Last year alone the cost of these seeds went up 50 percent.
Read more at Treehugger.com >> |
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Why we need a cultural revolution in consumption |
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 "It's no longer enough to change our light bulbs. We need to change our culture."
So says Erik Assadourian, senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and project director of a provocative and timely new book called 2010 State of the World: Transforming Cultures from Consumerism to Sustainability. Its argument is simple: The most important driver of the world's ecological crises, including climate change, is not venal oil or coal companies or indifferent politicians but western consumer culture -- that is, us.
Read more at GreenBiz.com >> |
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