Friday, May 30, 2008

ECO-ORGASMIC!

So I was perusing through the handful of cyber-newsletters I got this morning and going through emails when I found out some pretty cool stuff worthy of sharing and caring about with you green divas:



APPLE FILES FOR SOLAR PATENT

Ever since those bags came out with the solar panel flaps to plug and "juice up" your devices while you carry on (no pun intended) with your day, I always wondered when someone is actually going to put them ON the devices. Looks like Apple is the first to do, as usual! So innovative, I looove that company (wish I could buy stock!).

Can you imagine your iPhone and MacBook going solar? A photovoltaic laptop... How *uber-fabulous* is that?!?!? I can't wait!


ECO2GO: LESSEN YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT WHILE YOU TRAVEL

With airline companies going out of business faster than last season's jeans, and flight schedules more chaotic than my "terrible two"-year-old niece, travel has not been fun lately. In 2007, delayed flights wasted $1.6 billion in fuel alone. Gas is not exactly cheap - my Aunt in Japan says it's $6/gallon, and I said we're not that far behind. How to alleviate the rising cost of gas (and ergo, ticket prices), but more importantly, how to lessen your carbon footprint while traveling or going about your daily routines? The answer: ECO2GO! It's a mobile application that allows you to track and reduce your carbon footprint, share ideas and inspire others from around the world to do the same from around the world. Spread green goodness!

My friend Nathalie is a trend forecaster with the French company Promostyl and specializes in sustainability awareness. She travels all over the world presenting in conferences, both private and within the industry. Before she travels, she told me she studies the public transportation system and map of the area she is traveling to, so when she arrives at the airport she takes the bus to whatever hotel she's staying at that is nearest to where she is presenting, so she can walk to the venue. This is *exactly* what will make her squeal with joy! (Okay, she doesn't do that. I do that.)



MARKS & SPENCER: CRADLE-TO-CRADLE?

Some department stores in Europe and Asia have grocery stores in them. Imagine Nordstroms with a Ralphs (or better yet, a Whole Foods) in it. It's an unusual thought to fathom for us Americans, but hey, speaking of lessening your carbon-footprint, isn't it more efficient? Target already does it. But I digress.

What I'm excited about is how Marks & Spencer, a department store in England, is taking measures to not only recycle and reduce waste, but to achieve the divine nirvana of going green: cradle-to-cradle manufacturing and processing (see http://www.storyofstuff.com/ or my blog on May 17th, "Grab Your Garbage"). Mark & Spencer's Eco-Plan is the stuff my eco-dreams are made of. For one, you know that grocery store they have within the store? Instead of the old food getting dumped, they are going to stop sending food waste to landfills and use it to generate green energy for the stores via anaerobic digestion. Don't know exactly how that works, but it definitely sounds better than the conventional energy we use now. For more eco-orgasmic ways on how this British giant is going to implement its Eco-Plan, click on the Harvard Business Review on Marks & Spencer.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

GRAB YOUR GARBAGE

My friends think I'm crazy. They make fun of me because I'm a pack rat.

A few weekends ago my friend Ben came over to help me clean my second bedroom as I'm in the middle of looking for a new roommate. Well, let's just say we didn't get past the closet. As I sorted out Christmas and other gift wrapping stuff, we came across a box of shopping bags I had stored away. Small, medium, and large shopping bags were separated into piles, along with a bagful of wrapping tissue paper. I swear his face looked like I scratched my nails on a blackboard with each piece I told him to save. The big box I took out went right back in, this time just more organized. Sorry Ben! Thanks though!

As I get older, the more I hate and feel disheartened about throwing stuff away (I think it's more than Catholic guilt these days). I imagine all the trash going onto landfills, decomposing and releasing toxins in the air, with each mountain of trash becoming exponentially larger everyday. All I can think of is climate change, global warming, unbearable heat (100-degree weather in LA this week), wrinkles (aaargh), and more intense nose bleeds for me (not good!).

To illustrate, I was in India a few months ago, and witnessed the unfortunate members of their society living ON landfills. And there were several of these garbage dump villages all over New Delhi. Kids play on top of mounds and mounds of waste as their parents, sitting under a makeshift tent, look on. Bums scurry about and digging through different areas of the piles for something to eat to appease their unfathomable hunger. All this, happening right next to 5-star hotels which throw out precious garbage (for the bums), as air-polluting cars drive about in every chaotic direction, avoiding the cows who lounge in the middle of the roads while flapping their tails to-and-fro to swap away flies and fan themselves from the heat (they are considered sacred and left to do as they please, giving new meaning to the phrase, "Holy cow!").

I certainly don't want to live close to, or much less on, a landfill. My fears and worries are that of the burgeoning awareness which has happened in the last few years: the realization of our planet's mortality and ergo the possible suffering, and perhaps extinction, of humankind. Farfetched, you say? Some species of animals are already extinct or on its way to extinction. Apparently the government is delaying the official confirmation of declaring polar bears an endangered species, as there are those in office who want to drill for oil in the same area these poor bears live on (can't drill if an endangered species live on it). But I digress.

The problem with American society in the last few decades is our ever-growing disease of conspicuous consumption and desire for consistent convenience. With the raising consciousness of dire planetary and human consequences that may very well become realities, the whole "trend" now is to go green. But it shouldn't be a trend. It should be a LIFESTYLE.

These days, before I throw anything away, I do a double take and see if I could find use for that objet de trash again. Or definitely recycle it, if it's recyclable. On a past blog, I wrote about finding new ways to reclaim your waste. Paper products are the biggest percentage of waste. Imagine all that junkmail, credit card offers, catalogues, mailers, etc.! I keep the return envelopes and re-use them to enclose my invoices and put them in clients' packages, as I found out the hard way that you can't use them to mail directly (the post office won't let you, even if you cover up or scratch out the pre-printed address, bar codes and such). Also, I wrote about going to Chinese (or Japanese) food establishments and taking the wooden chopsticks home to clean and reuse. In addition, my Mom breaks toothpicks in half and doubles the lifespan of each pick. From my grandmother, what I thought was once crazy, saving the styrofoam trays your meat and fish products are packaged with, is now a clever way to serve breakfast biscuits onto. I even clean, save and reuse disposable food packaging like those salad take-out bowls from McDonald's (they come with covers), or tv dinner trays you can microwave. My boyfriend even saves and reuses plastic cups (my Mom and Grandma do too - can you say, brownie points???). Who needs to buy dishes and utensils?!? Anyhoo, my friends and family think I'm crazy. But you already knew that.

So albeit my kitchen might look like a hodge-podge of junk, it's stuff that I've managed to save from its inevitable fate of getting dumped on a landfill. Every little thing makes a difference. The problem with our economy in the last few decades is that we've been producing and consuming in a linear pattern, each year progressing faster than the years before. Resources get wiped out and environments are polluted to manufacture products. Consumers buy them, and then throw them away, left to decompose in varying rates, affecting the global climate (some plastics don't decompose for *hundreds* of years!).

Our resources are only so much. And the planet can only take so much. Instead of the linear consumption materials economy, we can be more responsible and create a closed-loop process. Others refer to it as cradle-to-cradle.For my clothing company, eventually I'd like to do a complete cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing process. It's such a specialized niche that it would be hard pressed for my business to survive as demands for this kind of product is low at the moment, not to mention the eco-friendly technology needed to make it a reality (solar energy, biodiesel, and such). Not sure if mass retailers are willing to support such an endeavor as it is challenging at the moment for eco-apparel in general right now, but at least specialty boutiques might be more open to the idea...? And in time, as a consumer, after your multiple use of the product, you have the responsibility and earthly obligation to recycle the product again, or donated to someone else to use. Because you, not landfills, are at the tail end of this divine cradle-to-cradle process. Or you can keep it forever and be a pack rat like me...

P.S.
Must-see: THE STORY OF STUFF. Just half an hour of your time will change your life. *Please* make an effort to see this!!!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Petroleum Rising

So... Gas has finally reached the deplorable over-4-dollar-per-gallon mark. Some friends and family have shelled out $60-$80 for a full tank of gas, and here I am complaining for $50 on mine! To illustrate the effect in the garment industry, it takes energy and fuel to power machines, transport vehicles, etc. I'm talking about sewing machines, to gargantuan dyeing and printing machines, boats and planes that ship/air yarns, fabrics, trims and finished garments, to name a few. Everything costs money, and cummulatively it adds up to something not really nice for your or my wallets.

One thing to reduce costs (and reduce carbon footprint) is to buy local. What farmer's markets and eco-friendly grocers have been preaching has been the same mantra for me, so far (until I get beat up by buyer so much with pricing that I might have to source overseas, eeks, hope not). I purchase locally-knitted fabric, my garments have little or no trims, and my dyehouses, printers, and contractors are either in LA or OC. Made in U.S.A., baby! So SoCal. :)

On another note, a friend tipped me off with a good idea. He experimented and drove his car slower than he normally does, and apparently it saved him some gas! Moral of the story, my friends, is make like a Sunday driver and less of a Speed Racer (hey, the movie is coming out, ya?). I know there's no such thing here in the City of Angels with all the constant head-beating-on-the-windshield traffic, but it doesn't hurt to try if it's less painful for your wallet and mine. Plus I'm curious to hear results, so let's all be more leisurely instead of hurry-warts on the road, and see where it goes (no pun intended). Let me know, ok?