Choose Safe Seafood. Back in the day if you craved seafood, the conundrum was: salmon or tuna? Now it’s: wild vs. farmed, is it sustainably caught, and crucially—is it safe? How much mercury (a neurotoxin) and PCBs (chemicals deemed probably carcinogenic by the EPA that persist despite being banned in 1978) do you want to serve for dinner?
Salmon from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
The bad news: our waterways serve as a sewer system for our environmentally destructive behavior–chemical runoff, factory dumping, plastic waste, garbage, settled air particle pollution, and even what we pour down household drains contaminate fish and aquatic life. Some hormone disrupting chemicals have even managed to feminize wild male fish; they’re able to grow eggs.
Give your sushi choices a grilling at blueocean.org!
The good news: there’s no need to give up on lobster rolls! There are still safe, environmentally ok, and tasty choices to be had. The best is wild, sustainably caught, low contaminated, and local (if your waterways aren’t too polluted). Farmed fish is trickier; it may be fed hormones, antibiotics, feed containing animal byproducts, and flesh-coloring dyes.
There is presently no USDA organic certification for seafood. Consulting a safe seafood guide is a must. The best of these blend sustainability and overfishing concerns with government seafood safety advisories. Remember: the pregnant and the young are most vulnerable.
Avoid imported fish from China and countries known to have contaminated waters and unsustainable fishing methods. Check country of origin labels.
Shop where you know and trust your fishmonger. Buying off a boat is ideal. For supermarket counters, consult Greenpeace’s helpful yearly scorecard.
Check the Greenpeace Supermarket Scorecard: easy!
From the Food & Water Watch Smart Seafood Guide
Greenpeace’s Sustainable Seafood Supermarket Scorecard
Supermarkets play a big part in the future of our fragile oceans, so Greenpeace has rated popular supermarkets in terms of their seafood sustainability. Find out how your store stacks up and shop accordingly.
Blue Ocean Institute’s FishPhone
Ensure that your seafood purchase is sustainable by dialing Blue Ocean Institute’s FishPhone. Text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish in question, and they’ll send a text back with their assessment and recommended alternatives. Great for standing in front of a fish counter or texting while reading a restaurant menu. There is also an iPhone app available.
Greener Choices Seafood Buying Guide
Published by the people behind Consumer Reports, this online guide provides recommendations on how to avoid buying contaminated fish and tips on how to buy seafood.
The Environmental Defense Fund’s Pocket Seafood Guide
Your seafood choices matter! Many popular seafood items are fished or farmed in environmentally destructive ways, this handy pocket guide helps you make smart choices about the seafood you buy. It also considers health hazards.
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide
Another great pocket guide that you can download to keep on hand the next time you head to the market. They have a comprehensive list of ‘Best Choices,’ ‘Good Alternatives,’ and fish to ‘Avoid.’
Food & Water Watch’s Smart Seafood Guide
Food & Water Watch analyzed over 100 different fish and shellfish to create a guide that assesses not only the human health and environmental impacts of eating certain seafood, but also the socio-economic impacts on coastal and fishing communities. Download the pocket guide.
- NRDC: Mercury Contamination — A Guide To Staying Healthy
- EPA: Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
- Practically Green Book Pick: The Conscious Kitchen by Alexandra Zissu
- NPR: Author Paul Greenberg On The Future Of Wild Fish
- The New York Times: A Seafood Snob Ponders The Future Of Fish
- Ted.com: Dan Barber — How I Fell In Love With A Fish
- The New York Times: Another Side Of Tilapia, The Perfect Factory Fish
- Consumer Reports: Mystery Fish–The label Said Red Snapper, The Lab Said Baloney
What’s with all the plastic bags caught in trees and bushes lately?
Why not recycle them instead?
(Why not bring reusable shopping bags and stop using these altogether, as many places now require…. Seattle, Long Beach, San Francisco, Washington, Hawaii, New Delhi, Italy, France, China, Tanzania….)
From an illustration by Ben Katchor for "Bags in Trees" in The New Yorker, Jan. 12, 2004
Nearly 1 million bags are used each minute worldwide. Recycling rates of plastic bags hover near 10 percent (only about a third of paper bag recycling). Suffice it to say that we have a long way to go to reduce the number of plastic bags that are thrown in the trash and wind up in our waterways as well as our overstuffed landfills.
In 2010, D.C. businesses began seeing a drastic reduction in bag usage; environmental clean-up groups witnessed fewer bags polluting regional waterways
Unfortunately many curbside recycling programs don’t currently accept plastic bags. If this is the case where you live, seek out a grocery or retail store near you that will accept them for recycling. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to recycle them curbside, make sure your bags are properly secured within the bin. They won’t get recycled if they blow away.
Reduce the amount of plastic bags you need to recycle by not taking them at stores in the first place—use a reusable bag instead. You can even bring reusable produce bags to go inside your shopping bags! Reusing the plastic bags you do have stretches the considerable resources that went into making them.
Our friends at Blue Avocado ease the switch BYO bags, with zippy design & a passion for reducing plastic bag waste.
Check with your town or municipality to see if they recycle plastic bags. If they don’t, ask them to start.
Look online to find a store that accepts plastic bags for recycling near where you live. Double check to see what kind of plastic your bags are; some stores only take back plastic #2 and #4 bags. See if they take produce bags as well as shopping bags.
Keep in mind these guidelines from Waste Management:
Clean plastic bags are accepted in recycling containers at many grocery stores. However:
- Plastic bags are a major cause of litter and waste. It is much better to use a durable shopping bag.
- Plastic bags cause litter, slow sorting and jam machinery at recycling centers. Empty recyclables out of bags and boxes, and put them loose in recycling containers so that they can be easily identified and sorted.
From SimpleHuman: Mount this slim profile storage bin in pantry, under sink, or on wall to keep plastic bags organized & at the ready.
Earth911 makes it super easy to find a plastic-bag recycling drop-off.
At Earth911, choose an item, type your ZIP code...
… and presto! You get info on where to go and how to get there.
Or visit PlasticBagRecycling.org.
We’re not the only ones who see bags in trees everywhere; check out Beth Terry’s blog My Plastic-Free Life, or Windy, the story of the plastic bag caught in a Pennsylvania tree in 2008 (and disappeared during the freak snowstorm of October 2011).
If you’re interested in clean energy, here’s a simple one-time action: Sign up for green power from your local utility.
Click here for a map that shows you what’s available in your region – wind, solar, hydro.
Here’s another map showing the states that offer significant grant programs to reimburse your adoption of renewables—FYI some of these grants are quite significant, i.e., use the $ to take a nice vacation!!
One of many useful (and free) maps at DSIREusa.org
“It’s the simplest thing someone can do to change the dynamics of the electric power grid,” explains Larry Chretien of MassEnergy.org. “It’s the stroke of a pen. Once you sign up, you just enjoy having clean energy power.”
Wind Turbine at Portsmouth (RI) high school feeds into regional power grid
“The average American family uses 500 to 600 kilowatt hours of electricity every month. Our New England GreenStart mix of renewables costs 2.4 cents extra per kWh, so it’s an add of $12 per month to your bill. That extra amount is 100% federally tax deductible. “
According to Larry, the vast majority of Americans have access to green power. If you already take advantage of a program, don’t forget to add a nice fat 200 points to your score!
Purchasing clean and renewably generated power is one of the most effective actions you can take to minimize the environmental impact of your own energy use without purchasing a renewable-energy system for your home.
When you sign up for green power, you are telling your utility that they have to buy your annual usage (if you signed up for 100%) from a renewable source (wind, solar, etc). While the power delivered to your home may not be directly from that source, you have driven up the demand for that clean power, which in turn makes it more economically viable for large-scale renewable projects to be built.
What's powering the lights at your house? (TY Truex Cullins, Burlington Vermont)
Contact your energy utility or utilities (electric & gas) and inquire about purchasing 100% clean, renewably-generated power from them.
Ask as well about the additional cost of buying green power — it’s most helpful to speak with your utility service provider(s) in terms of additional cost, as a percentage based on what you’re paying right now for energy.
To find out which utilities in your state offer green power and what the price premium is for it, visit: http://apps3.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/buying/buying_power.shtml
Avoid idling your car. We know: It’s cold, you’re waiting to pick someone up, they’re late, and you don’t want to turn off the car and get out, or you can’t park it, or both.
Credit: Slate.com
Sometimes it seems easier to sit in that car with the motor on. But the next time you’re tempted to idle, keep this action in mind. That’s all we ask: avoid idling. Not: don’t idle your car under any circumstances! Simply think twice about it, even if you don’t own a car but use one sometimes. Even if you ride in a taxi or an airport shuttle occasionally—and, for example, you notice the driver has the engine running in seasonable weather, with his window open. This way, you’re informed. And you can add 20 points to your score!
Of course, if you have an electric car you can idle all you want. Right?
No gas: no fumes! Volvo XC60 Plug-in Hybrid Concept
Idling is a common—and unfortunate—practice among drivers, although there is little evidence that it has any benefit. Some people claim that idling in the winter is good for warming up your vehicle, but gently driving your vehicle will warm up it up much faster than letting it idle.
Others claim that it takes more fuel to start your vehicle than to let it idle for a minute. This is a myth; according to the Department of Energy, the fuel used to start your vehicle is equivalent to amount of fuel your vehicle uses when it idles for a few seconds. When your vehicle idles, it gets zero miles per gallon.
Idling also pollutes. There are schools that have adopted idle-free zones for dropping-off or picking-up kids so they won’t be inhaling that much exhaust—both inside and outside idling vehicles.
Did you know that children breathe in twice as much air for their body weight as adults? Here's a sign that's available from the Portland (Oregon) department of transportation.
In London, a new campaign urges drivers to 'make a small switch' to help deliver cleaner, healthier air... see www.tfl.gov.uk
Reduce unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions by turning off your car if you’re going to be stopped for more than ten seconds.
During winter, try idling for ten seconds, then start gently driving to your destination.
Consider asking your school or local business district to adopt an idle-free zone.
Why is Eating a Vegetarian Diet worth a whopping 200 points on Practically Green?
Why is this a super-score action, as impactful as Sell a car and don’t replace it and Buy a pre-owned home instead of building new? Eating your veggies is good for your innards, and it’s usually great for your wallet―you know this already―unless your idea of veggies is truffles (see photo please) and Gianduja at Le Bernadin. Here’s why it’s also a top action for Sustainability.
A favorite veggy recipe: White Truffle Grilled Cheese (you only need a drop of truffle oil!); TY Food52 & KarmaCucina
Remember, you’re in charge! You can ease away from your juicy sirloin habit just one day a week, or decide to eat meat only on weekends.
Mark Bittman: "In the USA we eat almost 10 billion chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys each year. And that’s just us! That kind of settled it.... with the Food Matters Cookbook I’ve proven to myself (and hopefully to all who cook from it) that {it} doesn’t feel like a sacrifice & leads to incredibly inventive, delicious food.
A vegetarian diet is an environmentally friendly one. The conventional production of meat–from feed to slaughter to transport—is energy intensive. By not eating meat, you basically eliminate that entire footprint from your personal consumption.
Not all cows are for eating... these Brown Swiss beauties at Shelburne Farms help make award-winning cheddar
The global demand for meat has risen dramatically in the past few decades, leading to an increase in factory farms. The average family of four consumes between 500 to 800 pounds of meat yearly. This kind of mass production consumes enormous amounts of energy, pollutes the air and waterways, and requires increasing amounts of corn, soy, and other grains—often genetically modified and intensively sprayed with pesticides. This has led to the destruction of vast plots of the world’s tropical rain forests. There are many studies comparing vegetarian and meat-based diets. One often quoted stat: a meal of fruits, vegetables, and grains generates 24 times less greenhouse gas emissions than 6 ounces of conventionally raised beef.
Get inspired with tasty veggy recipes at EatingWell.com, like Elise's Sesame Noodles!
If you’re eating conventionally produced dairy, you’re still involved with the factory farm system. Dairy from local, pastured animals—preferably organic–will have a lighter footprint.
The health benefits of being vegetarian depend largely on what you eat–processed packaged foods don’t have the same nutrients as whole foods. There has been some concern about the health effects of highly processed soy. Also, for people interested in eating local foods, soy might not be grown locally.
There is no single type of vegetarian. A classic vegetarian avoids eating animals, even fish, but there are certainly vegetarians who maintain a bacon or a chicken exception.
- Scientific American: How Meat Contributes to Global Warming
- Greenbiz.com: A Meat Eater’s Guide for Easing Climate Change Impacts
- The Guardian: Eat Less Meat/Dairy Diet?
- Practically Green: Vegetarian Cooking And Eating–Try The Weekday Veg Plan With Spring Pesto
- ADA Journal: Production Of Red Meat Should Be Curbed In Order To Conserve Natural Resources
- Bookmark This Site: HappyCow.net
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Effects Of Soy On Health Outcomes
The eagerly awaited update on this classic has easy-to-read tables, figures, menus & food guides to help you determine how to meet your daily nutritional requirements. The book also suggests what plant-based dietary components and factors play active roles in both prevention & treatment of chronic illnesses.
Taking a break for the holidays? Power down before you leave your office/dorm/apartment/house!
The lights are on... but is anyone there to use them?
Here’s a super handy checklist from the University of Chicago’s Sustainability office, complete with links to Practically Green actions for more info, tips – and points to boost your PG score.
What You Should Power Down and Unplug
* * * * *
Holiday lights and other decorative lights
Laptops, computers, and chargers* (or put into sleep mode)
Printers, copiers, scanners, and fax machines
Coffee makers, microwaves, and other kitchen appliances
Televisions, DVD, and CD Players
We’ll add 3 ideas to the list:
Adjust your thermostat so it’s not needlessly heating/cooling your space
Close your window shades so you keep heat in (or out)
Install smart power strip to turn off electronics completely
Ilsa Flanagan, the University of Chicago’s founding Director for the Office of Sustainability
The Power Down program targets “anyone who’s going anywhere for the holiday break,” according to Ilsa Flanagan. “We have students in dorms and off-campus, post-docs and professors from all over the world, and many of them travel at this time of the year. It’s so simple and easy to take a few steps before you head out.”
With over 35,000 faculty, staff, and students at the University and the Medical Center, the energy savings can be impressive! Almost all electrical devices continue to draw power when plugged into an outlet. For example, any device with a remote control draws power while on “standby.” Any charger with an adapter, such as a laptop or phone charger, also draws a small amount of power even when the device is unattached. These small electricity drains add up when aggregated across the campus.
UChicago’s comprehensive green campaign targets plastic water bottles, recycling, and year-round energy usage. More info here: http://sustainability.uchicago.edu/ and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uchicagostudentsagainstbottledwater
Signage promoting tap water
Take charge of your energy usage on Practically Green! Top four Home Energy actions as we write:
Turn off the lights when you leave a room
Install LEDs or CFLs in most light fixtures
Turn thermostat down by 4 degrees in the winter
Click here for dozens more Home Energy actions.
A glimpse of all the Home Energy actions on Practically Green
Checking off those actions, watching your score grow — and comparing progress with friends — is even more exciting when you can also see how much money you’re saving – this month and over an extended period of time. What if your utility sent you a colorful monthly statement that shows how your usage compares to that of your neighbors across and down the street (or hall); wouldn’t you be interested to know how you stack up? Enter Opower, an Arlington, VA-based company that started in 2007 and is growing fast, landing on Forbes Most Promising Companies list a few weeks ago.
Opower partners with every utility they can to make your bill a statement of your cash savings, and performance – against goals you set and (here’s the clincher) vs. your neighbors.
From an Opower-ed bill
As we write, 10 million people get a user-friendly utility bill that Opower process for some 60 utilities in the US. They’ve helped save a total of 525 gigawatt hours and more than $60 million in energy costs across all those customers.
The key is a colorful, informative billing statement that makes data on electricity usage appealing. “We know that people spend about 10 minutes a year thinking about this,” Opower’s Steve Hambric explains. “We wanted to make it easy for people to relate to their own consumption and understand how to control it. We’re trying to make energy usage understandable and actionable.”
Get timely text tips!
Our guess is that customers with an Opower utility are spending more time learning about energy efficient moves they can make, saving money, and enjoying the process more.
Opower monthly statement shows how your energy consumption compares
If your utility doesn’t partner with Opower already, enter your email address and zip code here: http://social.opower.com/. Watch for a powerful Facebook app early in 2012:
…the app will enable consumers who choose to participate to benchmark their home’s energy usage against a national average of similar homes, compare their energy use with friends, enter energy-saving competitions, and share tips on how to become more energy efficient.
The news of Chevy Volts catching on fire does not encourage us to buy one any time soon – regardless of GM’s buy-back offer. We hope it’s an easily fixable glitch (anyone know how to fix a battery-coolant leak?), because the idea of being able to plug in instead of fill up is extremely appealing.
Click here for all of Practically Green’s Green Car actions.
We asked Jeff Evanson of Tesla for the big picture. Jeff’s a former race-car driver. Do these early days of electric-vehicle (EV) development remind him of the early days of aviation, when the Wright brothers et al crashed into cow fields and could not seem to get off the ground?
Wright Brothers Kitty Hawk 1st Flight 1903, McMahan Photo
“It’s not really like aviation,” he explained, “because we’re transforming an existing industry.” It’s more like the invention of the iPhone, which has revolutionized handheld communications and so much more. Tesla launched a two-seat roadster in 2008 at an exorbitant price, and the strategy worked: it’s sold out and is being driven mainly by celebrities and other high-end types. “We wanted to prove that EVs don’t have to drive like a golf cart.”
Assuming electric cars are safe – and Jeff assures us they are – what is so great about EVs?
- they don’t use a drop of gasoline: they plug in
- cost of gasoline: zero
- emissions: zero
- cost of maintenance is also likely to be less, because there’s much less to break: “there are practically no parts replacements, no hot boiling pieces of metal under the hood; no bulky spark plugs…”
Chevy Volt
Battery range varies depending on the battery – and on factors like speed, cargo weight, climate control, and topography – it takes more oomph to drive uphill than on the flat. The Nissan Leaf can go for approximately 100 miles on a single charge; the Volt goes for 35 miles.
The Leaf has a partnership with SunPower solar for residential charging stations; this quick video is the simplest visualization we’ve seen of how the sun can easily power your EV.
Nissan Leaf: solar powered and charging
We’ll confess a crush on the Tesla S series, made in the USA, coming in summer 2012. It ’s available with a range of 160, 230, or 300 miles. Model S will be able to be quick-charged – 150 miles in 30 minutes. (Here is the New York Times’ story about Tesla fast-charging.) The Tesla S will also cost significantly more than a Leaf or a Volt: $57,400, or $49,900 after a federal tax credit for green vehicles. Jeff compares the sedan to a BMW 5-series in size, except it has more cargo space because there’s no engine under the hood!
Tesla Model S
We spoke with Camille Ricketts at Tesla to find out what it’s like to work there. No, everyone doesn’t get a free roadster. But Camille and others who commute to the Palo Alto headquarters can do so in a shuttle van; they can order fresh produce to be delivered at the office; and employees bring their dirty laundry to work, where it’s sent to an eco-friendly dry-cleaning service.
Of course, before you buy a new vehicle, consider a pre-owned one. And if you take an EV for a test drive, please let us know how it goes!
BMWi goes from 0 to 62mph in 8 seconds. Eta, 2013, price tba.
It was very thoughtful of the Wall Street Journal to include a big piece of wrapping paper in its gift guide this weekend.
Full page, 4-color gift wrap: delightful!
Here’s how it looked once I cut it out of the newspaper:
And after wrapping a present!
A decent ribbon helps...
This got me thinking about all the other ways to Wrap a gift using used wrapping paper, boxes, bows, ribbons.
- Snip up a discarded piece of clothing (clean, of course). I’ve found this is an extra-special surprise when the recipient used to wear the item him or herself! The example below was saved from last year – complete with one end still taped in place.
- Leaf through magazines and catalogues destined for the recycle bin or (gasp) the landfill. Our top publishers and ad agencies spend a fortune to make these glossy photos look great; why on earth not use them to wrap presents? (In photo, the two packages next to the small blue box w/ green tie.)
- If you’ve remodeled lately, or if you have an architect nearby, you’ve got access to fascinating white-and-black wrapping paper. Use a bright ribbon to tart it up. (Example below has fresh springs in the bow knot.)
- Maps and nautical charts.
- Paper shopping bags with cool designs.
- Tissue paper from your (we hope eco-friendly) dry-cleaner.
Front, L to R: hubby's shirt, nytimes.com magazine, WSJ; Rear, L to R: recycled building plans, blue box from UncommonGoods, Vanity Fair mag
How’s that for a start? (Don’t tell me you’re already done with your kris kringling!) And what are your eco-gift wrapping tips?
We’ve already applauded Patagonia’s fantastic Black Friday ad on this blog: “It’s a classy reminder: Sometimes, the best Stuff is the stuff you already have. Which is why we have dozens of Stuff-related actions at Practically Green…” — and we loved the comments from readers:
Now two of our favorite and longtime deeply green friends have also blogged about Patagonia’s stunner message, and we wanted to capture them for you.
Wendy Gordon
First, from Wendy Gordon’s piece in The Huffington Post: “How I Spent my Black Friday Selling, not Buying, Patagonia Fleeces on eBay”:
….my plan this year for Black Friday was to sit out the retail game altogether. That was before I saw the ad… ”Don’t Buy This Jacket.” … It went on to encourage readers not to buy what they didn’t need and to sell their used Patagonia products on eBay…. So while I had promised myself I wouldn’t buy anything other than a quart of milk (we’d run out) on Black Friday, I made the transition effortlessly into über-cyber-saleswoman, posting every one of the fleeces my 20-something sons had outgrown on the retail site, along with all those shirts they’d really never liked in the first place.
Oh, it felt good. So good, in fact, that I ended up cleaning out three whole closets. What I couldn’t sell through the Patagonia initiative, I bundled up for the nearby thrift shop.
**************
Jeffrey Hollender
And, from Jeffrey Hollender’s blog, “Don’t Buy This: The Truth About Sustainability”:
Having not broken my obsession with the print version of The New York Times, I was thrilled to greet Black Friday by opening to a full-page ad from Patagonia that urged readers “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”
To the best of my knowledge, Patagonia has never purchased a full-page ad in the Times, and for this, the first time that they did, they are urging consumers to buy less stuff. This exhibits both true leadership and untarnished truth about what it means to be sustainable.
The copy reads: Don’t buy what you don’t need. Think twice before you buy anything.
Click here for Jeff’s complete post.
PGer Nick Rockwell (that IS a Patagonia vest?)
Thanks again to Chelsea stringer and Patagonia enthusiast Nick Rockwell, who told us about the ad before anyone else had mentioned it, and who caught a Cyber-Monday sequel in his email:
When we heard that one of the largest corporations in the world named all of its employees Head of Sustainability, we had to find out more. We spoke with Emma Peacock of Unilever Australasia, and she explained what’s going on down under:
Emma Peacock, Corporate Affairs, Australia & New Zealand, Unilever
Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan is an ambitious set of targets, ongoing globally. Here in Australia and New Zealand, we wanted to define our story and our contribution to the Unilever plan. The plan is a clear vision, and we wanted to put ourselves out there. We needed to unveil the Australia/New Zealand roadmap, and we wanted to do it in a way that would be noticed, and get people on board. It’s such an important part of our business, it’s truly part of everybody’s job! We frankly can’t do it unless everyone is involved. People in finance, people on the factory floor, in nutrition, in product development, all across the company. Everyone plays a role. So we decided that everybody is Head of Sustainability! We printed up 5 business cards for each of the 1800 employees – some of them had never had a business card before! It’s not a whole stack, it’s just 5, to show symbolically that You have a new exciting role.
1,800 employees are the Head of Sustainability, complete with business cards!
We gave everyone a new job manual, a fun piece, saying Here’s why YOU have been selected as Head of Sustainability. It’s really the only way we can achieve the growth we envision over the next ten, twenty, thirty years.
Head of Sustainability job manual delivered to every work station
We made posters featuring 6 different employees and put them up overnight. Each one describes the role of that employee in making a sustainable idea or change happen and why they are therefore the ‘Head of Sustainability.’ This goes with our “small actions, big difference” theme. People do simple things at home, at work here, and as part of a team — it might not feel like a big deal, but they all add up and can have massive impact…. We developed this campaign with the help of an agency Republic of Everyone. Clever people.
Mareana, Production Operator & Head of Sustainability
We’re guessing that other teams at Unilever will come up with fabulous ideas as well, and we look forward to hearing all about them — and being inspired by them! In fact, we’ve already noticed a handy Unilever sing-along shower app on Unilever’s Facebook page, which supports Practically Green’s shorter-shower actions. The app lets you choose length of shower to be timed (2 to 7 minutes) and choose from music that Wakes me up or Chills me out.
We call them UniCLEVER. Be part of it on Twitter with hashtag #SustLiving.
Shorter Shower Ballad app
A Solidly Green PG-er from Chelsea called to point out this full-page ad in The New York Times on Black Friday; thank you, Nick Rockwell! Leave it to Patagonia to explain why Black Friday Shopping deserves a second thought.
The environmental cost of everything we make is astonishing. Consider the R2 Jacket shown, one of our best sellers. To make it required 135 liters of water, enough to meet the daily needs (three glasses a day) of 45 people. Its journey from its origin as 60% recycled polyester to our Reno warehouse generated nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, 24 times the weight of the finished product. This jacket left behind, on its way to Reno, two-thirds its weight in waste.
It’s a classy reminder: Sometimes, the best Stuff is the stuff you already have. Which is why we have dozens of Stuff-related actions at Practically Green, including:
Give experiential holiday gifts (worth 10 points at Practically Green)
Attend a swap event or use a swap site (5 points)
Organize or join a neighborhood tool or equipment-sharing cooperative (10 points)
See all of them right here – and please suggest yours: http://practicallygreen.com/actions/stuff
Patagonia R2 Jacket
If you’d still like to get a Patagonia jacket, you might check the listings on eBay. We saw 205 pages of apparel there when we last checked 5 minutes ago.
Buy something used on eBay or Craigslist (5 points)
I’ve recently been on a whirlwind tour of major cities in the US for Practically Green. Which, I know, is not very green. As half of this travel was on the West Coast (and we’re headquartered in Boston), eliminating the flying burden wasn’t really an option. But I somewhat haphazardly decided that instead of jumping into a cab or renting a car, perhaps I could commit to trying out every other form of green ground transportation in the process. Yes, even in Los Angeles, that last city on this tour.
Knowing my Type A personality that could get a little over-zealous on this challenge, I did commit to three principles:
1. I would not risk missing a flight or being embarrassingly late to a speaking engagement or client meeting for the sake of this green traveling challenge. If time was unexpectedly tight, just suck it up and take a cab.
2. If it was dark and I was alone, in an unfamiliar town/place, I would use good judgment about transportation choices and safety.
3. Boston didn’t count. I live here. I know the options. Some work well (awesome ability to call for a hybrid taxi out of the line at Logan). Some not so great: public transportation from Newton to the airport at 4:30am.
With that, my first stop was Seattle, Washington. My birthplace. And a town not known historically for being super friendly to green transportation choices. Except that now it’s one of the greenest cities in the country and with that has come what might be my FAVORITE new train line in this country–the Central Link Light Rail, which opened in 2009. It’s a bit of a walk from the terminal, but it whisks you right downtown and is extremely clean and light. Had all my meetings and hotel been downtown, I would have been set. Except I was having lunch on Capitol Hill, dinner in Mercer Lake and had meetings in Redmond the next day. Could I get to all of these–and back–on public transportation? This is when I discovered that Google Transit is a green traveler’s best friend–and that Seattle’s bus system is really pretty good. I got to every destination with one transfer or less, the trips were on-time and I felt safe at all times. One city down, five to go!
Next stop was New York City and this is where I had to break the cab habit first. In 10 years of living in New York City, I had never taken public transportation back and forth from LaGuardia or JFK. Which is, in hindsight, totally embarrassing. Fortunately, I was flying into JFK which has the awesome airtrain that connects you into one of two subway lines–the A or the E. It also connects you to the Long Island Rail Road, which runs every 5-15 minutes during peak times. The first trip, I tried the E. It worked very well taking about 45 minutes from airport into the city. The second flight in was on a Saturday and I tried the A. That took forever—probably 1.5 hours–at least 20 of which was waiting for the A. The third trip I tried the LIRR and that’s by far the fastest and easiest. Will definitely choose that option from now on for the times I have to fly in. Once in Manhattan, the subway system is extensive and easy to navigate, if not extremely crowded at times.
Next stop: Austin, TX. This stop prompted one of the funnier responses to my attempts to navigate public transportation.
I arrived extremely late and was staying near the airport so had the shared hotel shuttle to use that night. However, the next day, I needed to get downtown. I asked the desk clerk whether I could get a train or bus into town and got back a completely blank stare. ”A what?” she said. ”A bus,” I said. ”Oh–we don’t have those.” Well, according to Google transit, yes they did. So I ended up taking the shuttle back to the airport and sure enough, for $1 I could take an Airport Flyer bus to a stop one block from my hotel. (For the record, Austin also has a train, but it doesn’t go to the airport).
Next stop: San Francisco. Now this city has not just one, but TWO train systems. BART, which goes to the airports in Oakland and SF and the Metro, which goes around San Francisco. And if the trains aren’t enough, there are also lots of Metro buses to get to and fro. However, San Francisco was also the scene of the first bailing due to being late. One $30 cab ride later, I was kicking myself for not planning better. Not only was green transportation better for the environment, but it was a ton better on my wallet!
Washington DC (Reagan National) came next and they win for “most convenient Metro stop to the airport terminal.” One thing I’d learned about all these public transportation options is that there is a trifecta for making it work as a business traveler: advance planning, flat shoes, and a light bag. I can’t figure out why it’s so hard to build these new stations closer to the terminals, but in many cases they are a 1/4 to 1/3 mile walk. So you do need to be prepared to log some serious mileage. Except at National. Heels allowed.
So now, I’m five cities down and the last stop is the doozy–Los Angeles–the car capital of America–for Opportunity Green. As our team was preparing a mobile application for the event, we asked several friends in LA about public transportation choices and the advice wasn’t particularly encouraging. Concerns were expressed about convenience and safety to the point where we questioned whether we should recommend it to attendees (we did), and I set out to see for myself. Google Transit directed me to the trains, but also said it would take close to 1.5 hours versus 16 minutes for driving. OK–that’s crazy. Landing in LA, the information-counter guy warned me off the trains too. But he explained that there was a non-stop, public bus called the FlyAway that would go to Union Station and from there, I could catch the LA Metro train to my hotel. Simple enough.
But now I needed to get to a meeting in Culver City and time was ticking—OK–resolution #1: don’t be late. So I asked the hotel for a taxi, preferably a hybrid. I didn’t get a strange look at all and a few later, was whisked away in a hybrid. On the way home, I did take the bus back from Culver City to downtown. It was relatively easy to navigate, fast and efficient, but as darkness started to fall, I will admit that it came the closest to feeling risky.
Six cities later, I am very encouraged about the improvements in public transportation in the major cities of America, at least for tourists and business travelers. Admittedly, it’s not Norway or China with rapid transit right into the terminal. And if it were not for Google Transit and nice people at airport information counters, it would be extremely challenging to figure it out. But armed with a smartphone and flat shoes, it is totally doable. It’s also fabulous on expenses. I estimate that I saved at least $500 in taxi and rental car costs for these six trips alone. Just think how much money an entire big company could save if their people were encouraged and motivated to use public transportation for conferences and other business travel! And for those people and companies tracking their footprints, the environmental impact quickly adds up.
If you are a member of Practically Green and want to green your business or personal travel, we’ve added a ton of new actions this fall to get you started:
Take public transportation between events
Take a hybrid taxi or limo service
Select a green hotel when traveling
And now, for the record, I’m signing up for this action for the rest of the year: reduce unnecessary air travel with phone and video conferences. Happy Travels!
SmallBizSaturday falls on November 26, and we can think of at least 12 great reasons to participate:
Shopping street in Carmel, California
1) Pump your precious bucks into the indigenous economy: the cash register rings where you throw down; and it rings throughout the entire network behind the proprietor – think about the bookkeeper, the recycling service, shop employees, employees’ babysitters, coffee shops where you go to refuel while you buzz through your gift list….
2) Get to know your local retailers: the dogged and inspired people who work hard to make their establishments better than the ones you find at the big-box mall or online.
3) Save on shipping and transport expenses — yours and the merchandise’s!
4) See, touch, feel, sniff instead of going online and clicking.
5) Avoid the stress (and time-wasting, gas-guzzling jams) of snarling crowds focused on Black Friday.
6) It’s a party! Many local outfits have chocolatey goodies, music, and other fun enticements – at least, the ones we know do…
7) Uniqueness: if it’s one-of-a-kind you crave, your chances are improved by shopping a stand-alone, one-of-a-kind shop.
8) Three gifts for them, one gift for me…. Enjoy a tasty local lunch or mani-pedi as a reward during your errands.
9) Get outside!
10) Save money: many SmallBizSaturday participants offer coupons, deals and other incentives.
11) Enjoy ancillary activities that your ingenious local retailers dream up. For example, KaightNYC is hosting a Wool and the Gang Knitting Party: “The holidays are just around the corner, what better gift to give than to knit that someone special, something special!”
See? Told you local shopkeepers are serious about having fun this season (refer to point 6 above).
12) Shopping local gives you another reason to bring your reusable shopping bags (see the fab selection from BlueAvocado) and earn Practically Green’s Green Shopper badge!
For more info, including a ZIP-directory, visit the Small Business Saturday Facebook page. And please post your stories and recommendations for Small Business Saturday!
Most of these points hold true for the other 364 days of the year: Shop local businesses regularly!
Say you want to buy a new pair of jeans, and you’d like to be thoughtful about it. Consult the Good Guide, and you’ll find ratings for dozens of brands, from Tommy Bahama to H&M.
Top rank goes to Levi’s, so we called to find out more.
“Levi’s did its first lifecycle assessment in 2007,” Brianna Wolf told us. “We took two of our iconic products, 501 denim jeans and Dockers original khakis. Here’s what we learned: the greatest opportunity for improvement was at the beginning of the cycle – the raw materials stage — and at the end of the cycle, relating to consumer use.”
In the lifecycle of a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans, we’ve found that the largest water impact comes from the cotton growing process and through the laundry habits of consumers, after they leave our stores. But we can’t ask our suppliers and consumers to change their behaviors unless we’re also willing to make some changes ourselves.
Life Cycle of a Jean
Levi’s came up with this consumer care tag, which points to four (ok, five) actions you’ll find on Practically Green:
Wash only full loads of laundry (20 points)
Wash laundry in cold water (50 points)
Donate clothes to a charity (20 points)
Line-dry laundry seasonally (25 points)
Line-dry laundry all year (50 points)
Levi's Customer Care Tag
“We identified another big opportunity area in the cotton field. We joined the Better Cotton Initiative, which makes positive change happen across the supply chain. Our goal is to get better cotton into 20% of our products by 2015. So far we’ve got it in 2 million pairs of jeans!”
This infographic illustrates the process:
Another great reason to wear Levi’s: the water-reducing strategies developed for the Water<Less collection.
Last year, we announced the Levi’s® Water<Less™ collection – denim finished in a way that uses significantly less water. Up to 96 percent less for some products.
As a result of this innovative process, we produced nearly 1.5 million pairs of jeans for this year’s spring line while saving 16 million liters of water.
But we knew we could do more. So we’ve been working with our suppliers around the globe to spread these water-saving techniques.
And we’re proud to say that the Levi’s® global collection now includes nearly 12 million jeans in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Since we introduced the Water<Less collection, we have saved 156 million liters of water around the world. That’s 60 million days of drinking water for communities in need.
Here’s something else you can do with old jeans: insulate your walls! (Levi’s estimates it has 25,000 jeans in the walls of its new San Francisco headquarters.)
Add insulation to your walls (100 points)
What do you think? Will you look for Levi’s the next time you buy a pair of jeans?
*** We’ll update this Corporate Gift Guide in the weeks ahead and hope you’ll continue to contribute your ideas – here, on Facebook, and via Twitter @practicallygrn. ***
From last week’s inbox:
Q: Quick question, what is an appropriate green sustainable corporate holiday gift? It is complicated. We don’t want to purchase sustainable goodies that have to make their way here from Australia. Additionally, we want to be sensitive to the state of the economy and our friends who have lost their jobs. Thank you, Robin Freedman, Waste Management, Inc.
Thanks for asking, Robin! Here are a few ideas to start the conversation.
- Restaurant meal: Especially in economically volatile times, who wouldn’t appreciate a nice meal out? Arrange a gift certificate to a local, sustainable restaurant! Metro New Yorkers will love a certificate to dell’Anima; got a favorite client in LA? Our sources say TrueFood in Santa Monica is the best. Mmm, in Kirkland, Washington, where Robin works, Café Juanita looks like a very good choice.
Eat at a dine green certified restaurant
Eat at a local, sustainable restaurant when traveling
Wine. Find a local wine shop who knows their organic, biodynamic, and natural wines. Ask if they ship or offer local delivery. Our personal vintner, the Wine Bottega in Boston’s North End, has a Farm to Glass case-of-the-month program that’s sure to thrill your recipients! You can request a mixed case to be delivered within metro-Boston or sent via FedEx. Owner Kerri Platt, a Yale-educated biologist, writes an informative brief to accompany each hand-picked selection, which can be delivered via Metro Pedal Power or shipped FedEx. If you can’t locate an inspired sommelier near you, contact the Wine Bottega team: staff@thewinebottega.com.
- Sparkling water maker. Speaking of beverages, we don’t know anyone who wouldn’t love to see a Sodastream Penguin in the office kitchen to make fizzy water from tap:
- Leafy Office Plant. What’s greener than this?! A local nurseryman can fill your order, or consider a super-legit source like White Flower Farm. There’s no more gorgeous (and foolproof) selection than an Amaryllis from White Flower Farm. One it’s bloomed, these can be set outside (once it’s frost-free) and practically neglected; they’ll set up a new blooming display next year. If the Amaryllis doesn’t grab you, review this gift section. Perennial = Sustainable!
- Old school: We called Tiffany & Co. to see if they have anything greenish to offer business accounts, and here’s what they said:
Tiffany IS vintage, Tiffany is durable, nobody throws out a Tiffany gift, nobody even throws out a Tiffany BOX!
We had to admit we agree… we even save empty Tiffany boxes. So, consider this planet paperweight. It might cost less than you’d imagine. And rest assured it won’t go into a landfill.
- Cards and Invitations: Paperless Post is our favorite online resource. Check out their designs – and don’t forget the envelope linings!
P.S. Our friends at The Family Dinner gave this plug on our Facebook wall – and we have to say, the book is amazing and should be in everyone’s kitchen… perfect for anyone on your list who has ever complained about having a decent dinner conversation with their teenagers.
P.S. As you make your selections, please consider these PG gift-giving actions:
Give experiential holiday gifts
Wrap a gift using used wrapping paper, boxes, bows, ribbons
And finally, don’t miss Lisa Borden’s tips for gift giving:
Susan Mazur-Stommen is a cultural anthropologist focusing on how people adopt sustainable, green behaviors. She conducts her research from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy as the Director of Behavior and Human Dimensions, renowned for their States’ Scorecard for Energy Efficiency (see image ahead).
Susan argues that “in order to achieve true, lasting, behavior change in the area of sustainability, we have to use a multi-layered approach, tackling the problem with various tools and media. It’s important to think about the ‘whole person’ when we discuss behavior change, and that includes things like emotions, physical well-being, and how our environment may be affecting us on any given day.”
“For example,” she told us, “some popular ideas for going ‘green’ aren’t always very practical in terms of people’s real lives. Take line-drying, for example. Proponents fail to figure in the cost of the person who has to stand outside for an hour putting all those clothes on the line and then taking them back inside. When you consider the cost of that person’s labor, standing in the heat or cold, line-drying is not the ‘free’ energy saving solution it is often touted as, at least in terms of the individual and their limited time and physical energy.”
Susan gave us a few further insights from the social and behavioral sciences to share with you.
1) Social norms:
Robert Cialdini tested messages about saving water on the cards you see propped up in the bathroom of a hotel. He found that the most successful was one that read, “Two-thirds of our hotel guests decide not to get fresh towels during their stay in order to save water, won’t you join them?”
Reason: People like to ‘stay in line’ or ‘tribe’ with their peers and neighbors, it is a powerful incentive.
Note: Practically Green’s leaderboards encourage you to choose more green actions!
2) Foot in the Door:
Robert Cialdini also tested the ‘foot in the door’ concept, which says that people are much more likely to agree to make a big change if they are first asked to make a very small change. It works like this: if you ask someone for a nickel, and then later go back and ask for a dollar, the people you asked for a nickel will be much more likely to give later (which of course widens the gap between givers and non-givers even more!)
Note: That’s why PG offers so many ’small’ actions, worth just 5 points but still very important! A handful from the Recycling section:
3) Reciprocity:
Offering someone something begins a relationship of give and take that people find extremely hard to resist. This is one of the reasons charities include those address labels in their appeals: they have already given you something, and now you are enmeshed in an obligation to return their ‘gift’ even if you don’t like it, want it, and did not ask for it!
A utility could utilize a combination of ‘reciprocity’ and ‘foot in the door’ in a message. Say at the beginning of summer you want to get people to raise their thermostats in general to reduce peak load, you would send an insert in the mail, or an email that would read:
“Dear John Q Customer, we here at utility X appreciate how you have worked to save energy in your home these past few years. To honor your commitment to energy savings, we have donated $50,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America. All we ask in return is that you commit to turning your thermostat setting up by ONE degree this summer.”
Next summer….the follow-up…
“Dear Customer, we really appreciate how much energy you and your neighbors saved last summer, and to recognize that, this year we have DOUBLED our donation to Charity X in your name. All we ask in return is that you consider turning up your thermostat by FOUR degrees this summer. If you decide to take the pledge, please send in the enclosed BRC. Thank you for your support!”
Now, theoretically, the combination of social norming, reciprocity, foot in the door, and a pledge (whereby you can also evaluate level of intent) should result in some serious savings.
And this leads to the final insight,
4) Grant McCracken’s “Diderot Effect”:
Susan told us the story of the French philosopher Diderot’s new bathrobe:
“He received a lovely new bathrobe, cherry red silk, and he was sitting in his study one evening with it on, and feeling terrific but then he began to notice that the fabulous new robe made the rest of his surroundings seem shabby. ‘I need a better chair,’ he thought. ‘A nice desk…. New wallpaper. The bookcases are a mess!’ The idea is to introduce a disconnect between the consumers’ old selves and their new selves which can result in their wanting to bring all of these parts of their identity back into line, or what McCracken calls, ‘unities’. An example of this might be a new mom who carefully purchases Bisphenol-A free baby bottles, but at the same time drives a gas guzzler which pumps pollution into the air her baby breathes. The disconnect between her decisions begins to gnaw at her and pretty soon she considers replacing it. Thus a whole chain of actions goes into effect. Pretty soon this mom is evaluating her food choices, her indoor air quality, her household waste, inefficiencies at her job. The activity of bringing her lifestyle choices into ‘unity’ with one another is an example of the Diderot effect.
At Practically Green we see the Diderot effect every day: once people begin checking off actions on their dashboard, they begin to get addicted to the process, it takes on significance, they continue and eventually share their accomplishments with their friends and colleagues.
One more story from Susan, who says that simple social recognition can be a powerful driver for change:
“I once met an older gentleman named Frank, a retired maintenance worker. He likes to walk around town, and at the end of his block was a little pocket park that would have been a nice place to sit except that people were filling it up with discarded cigarette butts. He started cleaning it up every day. Eventually he won an award from the city council. They put a plaque up and named the park after him. It wasn’t that complicated, but it made Frank feel great so he got even more involved. He started working at the public library, going to city council meetings. So this social recognition was effective. It was very cheap for the city to recognize Frank’s good works, and at the same time, they reaped the reward of his intensified volunteer efforts!”
Bingo: Practically Green gives badges when you complete sets of actions. For example, here’s the new Conscious Consumer badge. How would you like to join the 12% of PG users who have already earned it!!
Click here for the complete playlist of actions: http://practicallygreen.com/badges/conscious-consumer
Check out the ACEEE 2011 State Energy Scorecard… where are you? Follow ACEEE ion Twitter @ACEEEdc and join them on Facebook.
Water: Got too much? Not enough? What are the coolest new products for conserving water? How do the experts view this precious resource?
** Please join our free webinar on November 16, 1-2pm ET to get expert advice and answers. **
Register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/458003078
Practically Green has 51 Water-related actions, from Wash only full loads of laundry (99% of PG users have done this already; 20 points) to Install a shower timer (Only 1% of PG has done this one! Why is it the least favorite Water action?)
What would happen if the entire country decided to Turn off the faucets while brushing teeth? Or if every Fortune 1000 headquarters Installed a rainwater harvesting system? (150 points!)
We’re hosting an online event for a deep dive on the subject.
Panelists:
• Molly Hislop: Program Director, Green Education Foundation
• Michele Hudec: VP of Product and BizDev, American Standard Brands
• Stephanie Thornton: Community Outreach, WaterSense, EPA
• Martin Wolf: Director of Product/Technology at Seventh Generation
• Peter Yost: Director of Residential Services, BuildingGreen
• Alexandra Zissu: Editorial Director, Practically Green; Author, Planet Home and more
Moderated by Practically Green’s Founder & CEO, Susan Hunt Stevens.
We’ve got a fabulous panel of experts coming to our Water webinar on November 16. Please mark your calendars for 1pm Eastern, full details coming soon!
* * *
Meet Martin Wolf, one of our panelists; he’s the Director of Product & Environmental Technology at Seventh Generation. He also goes by “Scienceman.”
We asked Martin for the two or three most salient points he’d like to address during our Webinar, and here’s one of them:
Our water supply pipes and our drain pipes are connected. What goes out our drain pipes goes into a system, and is brought back into our homes and other buildings through our supply pipes. Knowing this, how should we change our thinking about what we put down our drains?
That got me thinking about my kitchen sink at home, and the drain in the sink that leads to a disposal, which grinds up all our food scraps into… pulp? mush? and then all of that glop goes … where?
To the rescue: Bootstrap Compost, a can-do composting entrepreneur who supplies households and businesses in metro Boston with a cool bin, lined with a biodegradable bag. It has a happy green lid and it looks just fine on the kitchen floor.
Who can resist this message from Bootstrap’s impresario, Andy Brooks?
Bootstrap Compost is Greater Boston’s only year-round kitchen scrap pickup service. We use bikes, trains, hand trucks, and the occasional vehicle to collect and transport compostable material from houses, apartments, dorms, co-ops, and condos. Additionally, we’ll happily collect scraps from farmer’s markets, cafes, restaurants, concerts, festivals, cult gatherings — you name it. And the coolest thing is this: all active Bootstrap customers receive a portion of super rich compost 10-15 weeks after their initial deposit to the Bootstrap Compost bank. The second coolest thing is this: We donate finished compost to urban gardens in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.
I was amazed at all the scraps we had accumulated after one simple dinner for two and a light breakfast the next morning – and this was before we scooped in our coffee grinds! There’s something a bit intimate, revealing, about showing you our compost, but here you are:
Personal compost, after one dinner, half a breakfast, and before coffee grinds
Turns out Andy is not alone: there are compost services in many other cities (go Philly Compost and New York Compost!), some of which are actually provided by the municipality (go San Francisco and Seattle!). And composting isn’t just for home: we know restaurants, companies, and even a major-league baseball team that composts 85% of its waste (go, Seattle Mariners!).
Find out why Compost kitchen food waste is worth a big fat 100 points!
Have you ever considered composting at your home, office, school? This might just be the way to ease into the practice…. Google “NAME OF YOUR CITY + compost pickup” and see what you get!
In a couple of months, the reward: they’ll deliver a bag of urban black gold – worm-processed soil that’s perfect for houseplants this winter.
Thank you, White Flower Farm
Energize Phoenix is a partnership between a city, a local power utility, and a university.
“We can be just as sophisticated about getting you to reduce your energy consumption as somebody selling you a Hummer can be to get you to increase your energy consumption,” says Arizona State University social psychologist Susan Ledlow, as reported by Emily Badger on The Atlantic.com.
Ledlow wants to create the social norm that energy conservation is something everyone does. This is a distinctly different message from “energy conservation is something you should do.” She wants people to hear that many, many people care about this, and that those people are doing something about it. “The more people hear that,” Ledlow says, “the more it becomes a social reality.”
We caught up with Badger on how she became interested in the subject of environmental psychology:
“It’s a relatively new field, the idea of taking marketing best-practices on how to influence people to behave sustainably, increasing their energy efficiencies, for example, as opposed to consuming cars or building McMansions…. There was an existing model that said if you give people the right information about how to make efficient choices, stick it up on a web site, eventually they’ll change. But that’s not enough, and people realize it. Cities all over the country have posted information on how you can get your lawn clippings picked up, but it just sits there! And now there’s a new imperative: with the economic downturn it’s simply not practical for people to be wasteful any more. We’re all looking for ways to save money.”
Emily Badger, Reporter
Susan Ledlow, Social Psychologist
Badger says that real-life energy efficiencies can go viral via the power of peer pressure: “it’s possible to envision a norm that catches on in one block, spreads up the street and eventually to the neighborhood level. Neighbors chat about their retrofits, their bill savings during a rough economy. Then they see a familiar face on a subway ad for happy insulation customers. The idea spreads along the rail line. The average consumption figures on the monthly electricity bill tick down, and the norm expands out regionally.”
“People are far more persuaded by what everybody actually does, even when they say that they’re not,” Ledlow says. “There’s just experiment after experiment where you can get people to change their behavior to match the behavior of the people around them. And then they will swear that that’s not why they did it. Yet we know that happens.”
We know that positive behavior change happens at Practically Green — we hear this all the time; we share user comments on our Facebook page and via Twitter @practicallygrn. And Groups is part of it: registered users automatically join 4 Groups, including their state and zip code Groups.
My Groups (L to R): Facebook, Practically Green Staff, SXSWEco, Zip, State, Country, All of Practically Green
People love to compare their scores with their friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Have a look at the Practically Green Staff Group here.
* * * * *
No wonder we felt a buzz in Boston when this state scorecard was released by the ACEEE last week; for the first time, Massachusetts ranks number 1.
From the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy 2011 Scorecard
Michael Sciortino, Policy Analyst, ACEEE
“In a sour year for the economy, energy efficiency remains a growth sector that attracts investment and creates jobs,” lead author Michael Sciortino says. “It’s just plain smart to invest in energy efficiency, and that’s what the leading states are doing. There are so many things that can be done… energy efficiencies are abundant anywhere in the country. And yes, some states take this scorecard as a call to action.”
Note to States: why not sign up at Practically Green?! That way you can compare your energy-efficient progress with your peers and boost your rank next year!
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