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!
Monday, February 23, 2015
Saturday, February 14, 2015
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:
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
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>.
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:
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)."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 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>.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
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!
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!
Monday, February 2, 2015
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!
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!
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