End of Quarter: Eco Footprint Re-Evaluation

Well, we've reached the end of the quarter, and that means it's time to see how I did on reducing my footprint!

After this quarter, my footprint went down quite a bit! I was able to click the box that corresponded with turning off my computer and monitor, which helped to reduce my carbon footprint. I also felt really good about the fact that I have been eating organic produce and that I have quit Kraft mac and cheese. In my first eco footprint evaluation, I had checked "almost never" box, but can now say that I "sometimes" buy organic or sustainably-produced foods.

The one area I felt unsure about was the carnivore/omnivore question in the food footprint. I had originally checked the carnivore box in my first evaluation. This time around, I clicked on the omnivore box, but I didn't feel as though I was eating that well. I did cut down on meat, I was having two meatless meals per week at least (sometimes more because pb&j is so easy and delicious). Even still, I felt that I didn't fit the omnivore description. I feel like there might be a step in between the two. It seems hard to capture the amount of meat you eat in the answers they have you choose from. Oh well... it is still very encouraging to see my progress.

Because I live in an apartment right now and have a very limiting income, there are a lot of things I want to do but have to wait until I can afford/accommodate. Things like solar panels, water recycling system, energy saving appliances, growing my own fruits and vegetables, and raising my own chickens (and maybe cows, we'll see how that goes).

*For my readers*
Thank you for following along with me on this journey. If you enjoyed this blog, then I challenge you to evaluate your eco footprint and make a few attainable and measurable steps to reducing your footprint!

A more sustainable single-cup coffee pod?

Keurig's single-cup coffee machines are owned by roughly 15% of consumers in the U.S., and the waste from the single-cup pods of coffee is a growing problem. In an article from The Guardian titled As the single-cup coffee heats up, a small rival hacks Keurig's machine, it is stated that the total amount of k-cups that have been sold since the single-cup Keurig machine was introduced would wrap around the equator about 45 times if lined up end-to-end! That is a lot of waste! And worse still, Keurig has only made 5% of its k-cups out of recycled plastic, and only a fraction of those pods are fully recyclable. All in all, over 35.5 billion pods have been sold, and most - if not all - are sitting in a landfill.

This is alarming, and steps had been taken to reduce this waste. Third party coffee companies - Rogers Family Coffee and Club Coffee - were producing their own sustainable (compostable) single-cup coffee pods for use in the Keurig machines, thus helping alleviate the problem. Unfortunately, Keurig didn't like the competition, so the company released a new machine (Keurig 2.0) in August of 2014 that would reject any third party pods by scanning to check for a proper Keurig ink stamp on the top of the pod (this even rejected the 1st generation k-cups). This trick was soon hacked by Jon B Rogers, president of Rogers Family Coffee.

Rogers formed a little piece of plastic he dubbed the 'Freedom Clip' so that it could sit between the scanner and the pod, which then falsely confirms the pod as being a Keurig k-cup. Then he made a strategic marketing decision: he offered the Freedom Clip to anyone for free. At first, Rogers sent out 10,000 Freedom Clips to anyone who requested one, along with 3 single-cup pods. However, shipping costs became too much, and he had to decide on another way to distribute the clip. He wanted the clip to remain a free item, especially because it has created immense brand awareness for the company and had also delighted tens of thousands of consumers.

I checked the Rogers Family Coffee website, and the company now sells its 97% compostable pods with a free Freedom Clip inside the package:

This appears to be the feasible way to continue free distribution of the clip. The CEO of Club Coffee, John Pigott, is obviously happy to hear of the success of the Freedom Clip, and has said, "[t]hey've effectively wedged the market open for those people that want choice ... [t]here's nothing wrong with a little competition. I don't know why a company [Keurig's] size is afraid of it." Perhaps Keurig is afraid because sales of the new 2.0 version haven't met expectations.

Beside the underachieving performance of the new machine, Keurig is planning on producing its own sustainable single-cup pods. The company aims to have fully recyclable k-cups by 2020! The goal is heading in the right direction, but 5 years seems like too long to wait for this promise. Imagine the additional waste from 5-years-worth of single-cup coffee pods just sitting in landfills. Thankfully, innovators like Jon B Rogers allow us to use the machine with our own sustainable single-cup pods.

** Both the Rogers Family Coffee Co. and Club Coffee plan to release 100% compostable pods in a few months **

Works Cited

Messinger, Leah. "As the Single-cup Coffee War Heats Up, a Small Rival Hacks Keurig's Machine." The Guardian. The Guardian, 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/feb/24/keurig-2-0-hack-cups-company-freedom-clip>.

Eco Footprint update #4 (week of 2/15-2/21)

This week (or last week, since I am posting this in the wee hours of Monday morning) has been a difficult one. I have been inundated with homework and all the things necessary to find an internship/job/graduate college. This has left me with little time to go grocery shopping or to plan many meals out.

Due to this fact, my goals have slipped slightly.

I have been able to keep up with my meatless meals, though they consisted of pb&js this week (but I don't mind, I have some yummy blackberry jam to spread on). This has been easy for me to keep up with because pb&js are easy and quick to make. Also, when I do make a full meal without meat (meatless tacos or spaghetti), the only difference in cooking is just not cooking meat. What an easy and effective way to make a difference!

The area where I have slipped this week is in purchasing organic produce. Like I said, I haven't had time to go grocery shopping, so I've been purchasing things as I need them. This week, I only bought one piece of organic produce and that was a couple apples for a snack/lunch. I hope to get back to where I was and successfully accomplish my goal.

On the plus side, I have been able to resist the temptation for mac and cheese! Yes, there are days when I feel stressed and tired, and I just want to eat my favorite comfort food, but I have stayed away from the blue box fiend for another week.

And now we've come to the energy conservation goal: turning off my computer's power strip for 3 nights a week. I have made a minor slip in this goal this week. I was able to turn off the power strip for 2 long nights this week, but the 3rd night that I turned it off, I went to bed at 4 a.m., and I wasn't able to save a full night's standby energy usage. Although I was able to turn the strip off 3 nights, I didn't save as much power as I could have, and this feels like a slight failure to me.

Making these tiny steps back makes me feel more determined to achieve my goals next week!

Sustainably-sourced condoms

This week's current event relates to our topic of "greening the value chain" and also ties into Valentine's Day. I found an article describing the efforts of a few German entrepreneurs in making a sustainable condom. But the larger goal for them is to create "a business model founded on open-source information and transparency" (Borromeo).

The company is only currently able to make condoms that are 10% sustainable, but the goal is for the condoms to be 80% to 90% sustainable in 5 years time. While the product isn't one of the most sustainable products on the shelves, the people at Einhorn stress that the goal is to be honest and upfront with customers, offering all information on the company website. There are still many hurdles to jump in order to sustainably source the materials needed. The main genius behind the idea, Waldemar Zeiler, has stated:

"The fact we’re selling condoms doesn’t really matter ... It’s a product and proof of concept for what we are doing. We bring a standard product to an online market, brand it properly, go through its value chain and make everything in that chain as sustainable as we can and then publish all the information about our product online – even the bad stuff because somebody out there will know how to make it better" (Borromeo).

In order to get closer to this goal, the founders of Einhorn traveled to Malaysia to visit farms and learn about the condom making process from Klaus Richter, a man whose family has been in the business for decades. The company says its ultimate objective is to create a natural rubber cooperative; almost all condom companies can't even name the farm that their latex comes from (2 Unicorns).

In addition to changing the way companies detail their value chains, Zeiler wanted to start the Entrepreneur's Pledge, which is based off of the Giving Pledge for philanthropists. The Entrepreneur's Pledge asks serious entrepreneurs "to fund at least one social business and give 50% of the profits to a good cause" (Borromeo). Einhorn has been established in this way, and 50% of its profits go to non-profit projects like youth sexual education (2 Unicorns). Zeiler and Einhorn are ambitiously trying to change the status quo, while at the same time injecting humor into the business plan.

Here is the video detailing Einhorn and its mission:

Works Cited

2 Unicorns + a Dog - Einhorn Condoms. YouTube.com. Einhorn Berlin, 3 Feb. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BtmJCT5RZY>.

Borromeo, Leah. "The Rubber in Your Rubbers: The Condom Company Making Sexy Time Sustainable." The Guardian.com. The Guardian, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsustainable-business%2F2015%2Ffeb%2F11%2Frubber-condom-sex-einhorn>.

Eco Footprint update #3

Things have been going stellar after my reevaluation!

I have been keeping up with my 2 meatless meals each week. This usually consisted of lunch, but the other night I had tacos without the ground beef. It was delicious and I will be adding that as an easy vegetarian meal now.

When it comes to the organic foods, I have continued purchasing organic produce, though this has mostly been my fruit for lunch. In addition, I have been able to resist the urge to eat Kraft mac & cheese so far this week. This is an incredible improvement of my habits. And, as I promised, if I do feel the urge for some comfort food, I will make the choice and purchase the organic box of pasta.

And last comes my initiative to turn off my computer's power strip at night. I raised the pot on this one to 3 nights a week in my reevaluation, and so far, this has been going better than before. I have been able to remember turning it off, but am choosing to do so on the nights that I'm not up til 5am - this way, the action has a greater impact of energy conservation.

I'll check back in next week!

Re-evaluating my eco footprint

At this point in the quarter, it's time to take a look back at my progress towards reducing my eco footprint, and re-evaluate my actions.

The goal toward eating one meatless meal a week is going well. So well in fact that I am going to bump up my challenge to eating 2 meatless meals a week. The most difficult thing about this action is going to be learning new meals/ideas that are vegetarian (like I said last week, the only two meals I know how to make without meat in them are pb&js and salad), but this can be done. Last week, I ate spaghetti without beef or meatballs, and it was just fine (though I do think it tastes better with meat). This is a change that I can keep up, and certainly one that is nice on my budget, as meat is quite expensive.

My action towards purchasing organic produce for one meal per week went well last week, so I'm going to challenge myself further. I will shop for organic produce for 2 meals per week. This may not seem like a big step, but I have a hard time buying organic produce (it always looks worse and is more expensive) and I also don't make too many meals at home anymore this quarter. It has become increasingly difficult to actually plan and make meals at home for my husband and I this quarter, so maybe it will be easier to make more small, meatless meals. There is always an upside, right?

My last action, to turn off the power strip to my computer 2 nights a week. This has been going well, so I will attempt to turn it off 3 nights a week (I'll start there for now).

In addition to these goals, I will add a new action in reducing my footprint. I have a horrible liking for boxed macaroni and cheese, and the 'blue box' Kraft isn't very good for me, nor is it local or organic. There have even been concerns regarding the artificial colors used in the recipe (Yellow #5 and Yellow #6) and the linkage these colors have to attention and behavioral issues in children. This has led me to my newest goal: I will stop eating Kraft mac and cheese, and instead switch to Annie's organic mac and cheese. As this is a good goal in terms of my health, I will reduce my consumption of this product to once every 2 weeks.

I truly hope to keep up with this new goal, as well as my original goals. We will see in a week when I post an update of my progress. Until then!

A More Sustainable Super Bowl XLIX

This week, I've been anxiously awaiting the Super Bowl, as many other fans have. Since I couldn't get the game off my mind, I found an article written by SustainableBusiness.com talking about the sustainable practices going into this year’s big show!

While University of Phoenix Stadium doesn't have any solar (c’mon, it’s Arizona! Utilize that big, beautiful sun!), the stadium is touting energy efficiency in a number of places. This is the first stadium to switch over to 100% LED lights, where 312 LEDs will only draw 310 kW, which will cut the demand for lighting by 75% (“What’s”)! Not only are LED lights more efficient, but they also provide better lighting for fans as they’re much brighter and remove shadows on the playing field. There will also be 500 motion sensors in place to cut energy use, and the stadium will reduce the load of air conditioners as well.

The sustainability doesn't stop there. Fans have been swarming in from all over to Arizona for the week leading up to the Super Bowl and events took place all week long. In considering food waste, this year the goal was to create a zero-waste area of up to 12 blocks outside the Phoenix stadium (“What’s”). Composting and recycling of food waste has been implemented, and – this is personally my favorite idea – the leftover “food will be donated to Waste Not, which will distribute it to facilities that feed people in need” (“What’s”).

So this year, I get to watch the Super Bowl knowing that there are efforts moving towards more sustainable enjoyment of sports. In addition to this, the two teams that are playing on Sunday (the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks) are among the “greenest football teams” (“What’s”). While the Patriots and Seahawks rank 5^th and 6^th, respectively, in terms of solar use in their stadiums, they boast the 3^rd and 4^th most ‘solar-powered’ football stadiums. Check out the chart below, provided by the SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association), depicting the use of solar energy throughout sports stadiums:

Provided by SEIA ("Solar")

The article even gives a special nod to the Green Sports Alliance for growing and encouraging the use of solar energy in powering our sports fields and raceways!

Oh yea, and... Go Hawks!

Works Cited

"Solar For The Win: A Study on Solar in U.S. Professional Sports." SEIA. Solar Energy Industries Association, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-win-study-solar-us-professional-sports>.

"What's Green About This Year's Super Bowl?" SustainableBusiness.com. N.p., 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. 

<http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26128>.

Eco footprint update #2

Well...let's see how I've done this far:

I have stayed on track with eating less meat (one meal a week). Although, I have to admit that my one vegetarian meal I've had the past two weeks has been the same: pb&j. And this is probably because the only other vegetarian thing I know how to make is a salad, and that's not a full meal (though this could be said for the pb&j).

This week's groceries included organic produce for 2 meals and an organic apple for a snack (it's only 2 meals because that's the number of dinners I planned for this week). I was also able to turn off my computer's power strip 4 nights this week (the other nights I pulled almost-all-nighters, forgetting to shut it down entirely when I went to bed [or went to school]). 

It's looking like I will be able to keep up on these goals, but I do need to get better about changing my habits so that "sleepy" me can make the change as well.

Boeing researching tobacco to use for jet fuel

This week, we talked about responsible tourism. I was interested in the idea, so I thought I would find a current event article on the topic, and found this one from the Smithsonian stating that Boeing is researching practical alternative jet fuels from various bio sources. This specific article talks about the efforts put forth by Boeing, South African Airways, and SkyNRG to turn tobacco into jet fuel.

Now, it’s not the tobacco we are used to. This variation of the tobacco plant used for energy, called Solaris, has oily seeds that can be processed and turned into biofuel. The Solaris tobacco plant is also nicotine-free, which is great for the health of farm workers toiling in the fields; a study of Hispanic workers in North Carolina found that about 41% of workers got Green Tobacco Sickness, which is caused when nicotine is absorbed through the skin (“Fact”). Deemed a “win-win-win” by the companies involved, this form of the tobacco plant can replace farms of nicotine-filled tobacco, alleviating the health risk on farm workers while still maintaining tobacco farms in the economy (Willmott). At the same time, it will create a more sustainable fuel for the future, and can reduce fuel prices in the future, which account for about 1/3 of the operating expenses for airlines (tobacco fuel is currently more expensive than ordinary jet fuel, but the costs would come down over time).

This all sounds very good to me, as the need to move away from fossil fuels is dire. However, there is still more that I want to know. Normal tobacco plants need heavy amounts of fertilizers and pesticides, which are damaging to the environment and to the health of farm workers and animals. This practice leaves behind chemicals that can leech into our groundwater. A second concern is that tobacco plants take valuable nutrients from the soil, it is one of the major crops that causes soil degradation. This stresses the need for farmers to rotate crops because the land becomes unsuitable. Another environmental consequence to growing tobacco is deforestation, mainly in farming and curing the tobacco leaves. While this would be slightly alleviated because there would be no need to use wood to cure the tobacco, there still exists the worry that forests will be cut down to meet the demand for the plant.

I haven’t been able to find any answers to whether or not this nicotine-free Solaris tobacco plant has any of these problems associated with its growth; however, if it proves to do the same damage that plagues the common tobacco plant, then I think we should try to find another source of biofuel. Thankfully, Boeing is working on several other experiments in a number of other countries searching for a sustainable bio fuel to replace the current option.

Works Cited

"Fact Sheet: Environmental Impact of Tobacco." (n.d.): n. pag. Multnomah County Health Department, Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2015. <http://www.pdx.edu/healthycampus/sites/www.pdx.edu.healthycampus/files/Environmental_Impacts.3.7.13.pdf>.

Willmott, Don. "Holy Smokes! Tobacco May Fuel Planes in the Future." Smithsonian. The Smithsonian Institute, 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2015. <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/holy-smokes-tobacco-may-fuel-planes-future-180953306/?no-ist>.

Eco Update #1

     Well, it has been a week since I calculated my Eco footprint, and I have to say, it’s harder to stick to some of these goals than I had thought. My first action was to purchase more organic foods, starting with organic produce. I hadn’t quantified this goal in my first post, so I’ll do it here: I will try to buy organic produce for 3 meals a week. I have not stuck to my goal this week as my husband did the grocery shopping and didn’t purchase any organic produce.

     My next goal was to switch off my computer’s power strip two nights a week. I have done this one night this week, but mostly haven’t been able to simply because I have been on the computer all night long! For 3 nights this week, I have been up until 5 or 6 in the morning doing homework, and in my tired state, I’ve been forgetting to change my habits. :/  

     My last goal has been easier to stick to. I chose to eat a meal without meat at least once a week, and found that I did this twice this week, once eating a pb&j, and once eating chips and salsa (both were for lunch). I figured that I might be able to challenge myself to eating a meatless meal 2x per week next time.

     It hasn’t been very easy to change long-standing habits, but then again, nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy.

Coming Soon: grow your own sustainable materials?

     Ecovative calls its business a “material science company” working to make sustainable materials (“About”). The company got its start with Mushroom Material, a material grown from fungal mycelium (a natural glue) and agricultural waste, and that is fully compostable at the end of its usable life. It has been used to make plastics, insulation, and other packaging materials. This material is gold certified as an alternative to plastics by Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.

     The article I found talks about how Ecovative is going to release a grow-your-own Mushroom Material kit in September, yet has already seen some of the possibilities that may come from the new material. Ecovative used social media to reach out to innovators, asking them what they would use the kits to create. A myriad of ideas have come in, including surfboards, pet coffins, lamp shades, and – my favorite – replacement for Styrofoam cups (Knowles). Those who make their own designs using the Mushroom Materials kit will have free license to keep or sell their designs, or scale up production with Ecovative.

     Businesses are catching on to the new material as well. The CEO of Ecovative explains that Mushroom Material is cost competitive, and that insulation made with it is “similar to rigid board insulation, providing a tight envelope with few thermal bridges, resulting in a more energy efficient building” (Knowles). Another benefit of the material is that is it safe and non-toxic, meaning it can be installed without any safety equipment or procedures. 

     The company now looks to make a more environmentally-friendly replacement for wood. Using the fungal mycelium to bind together particles, Ecovative hopes to supplant engineered woods that use a carcinogenic adhesive: urea-formaldehyde (Knowles).

Works Cited

“About Ecovative.” Ecovative. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. http://www.ecovativedesign.com/about/.

Knowles, Victoria. "Say Sayonara to Styrofoam and Hello to Mushroom Materials." GreenBiz. N.p., 9 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. <http://www.greenbiz.com/article/say-sayonara-styrofoam-and-hello-mushroom-materials>.