Sustainability on Our Backs

There are so many ways in which sustainability is and should be part of our lives. In fact, we believe that it must be a foundational piece of how we live. Sustainability doesn't need to be difficult or inconvenient either. If we look closely at the systems we have in place for sourcing, producing and consuming it becomes clear that subtle modifications can have huge positive impacts on our collective quality of life. The systems work, they just are misused!

We've got a huge opportunity if we'd just be more cradle-to-cradle in our thinking. Systems thinking is essential to improving our current lives in ways that do not negatively impact our futures!

Take the article we've linked to for this discussion for example, which shows that there is a great demand for sustainably grown cotton. Opportunity to change!! Clothing, and cotton in particular, is a pretty dirty industry.

Some facts: (taken from Wikipedia)

• The U.S. cotton crop was 93% genetically modified (GMO) in 2010;
• The Chinese cotton crop was 68% genetically modified (GMO) in 2009
• The cotton industry relies heavily on chemicals, such as herbicides, fertilizers and insecticides;
• The 25,000 cotton growers in the United States are heavily subsidized at the rate of $2 billion per year;
• Many farmers in developing countries receive a low price for their cotton;
• Some countries are criticized for employing child labor & damaging workers' health by exposure to pesticides.

This is an industry that impacts ALL of us! There are multiple levels of its production where there are opportunities to make the industry better without breaking the bank and with higher quality all around. Making oneself aware of how our consumption contributes to degrading and improving our environment and our quality of life is important.

Visionary Values is getting very close to the unveiling of the first level of our consumer sustainability database that will enable everyone to see these complex processes in much more detailed and more easily accessed formats. We believe in the transparency of processes and in giving consumers the information that can help them make choices of all kinds that benefit our planet, ourselves and the species we share this beautiful life with! Stay tuned!!

Sustainability in Rural Mexico

With six years under its belt, Bosque Village (near Patzcuaro, Michoacan in Mexico) a self-proclaimed combination of a campground, a rustic retreat center, a permaculture farm, and a forming ecovillage, has come a long way!

With its roots in the desire of founder Brian Fey, an expat from Washington State, to experiment with sustainability, a large and diverse collection of creative and enthusiastic individuals have come together to create a confluence of ideas and action. Bosque Village is a concept under perpetual development and a place to inspire and communicate the message of walking lightly on our earth.

Sustainable living is key to the foundation of this magical place. With no water available other than that collected from rainfall, no reliance on outside electricity (all solar powered), Bosque Village returns the gifts nature has bestowed. Propagating and planting native plants and trees is an ongoing process as is the documenting of local flora and fauna. They even grow the beautiful and important agave plant directly from seed!!

We will be communicating with folks at Bosque Village to facilitate the sharing of success and challenges folks around the world are having in implementing similar projects. If you know of other projects such as this, please get in touch with Visionary Values and also, if you wish, directly with Bosque Village.

We encourage you to check them out! We also want to let you know that it is not a dangerous place to visit! We have recently returned from a long-term visit in the state of Michoacan and encountered nothing to fear!

Great Tool For Sustainable Sourcing!

Came across this recent post on Triple Pundit. Tools such at the one developed by Sourcemap.org can be tremendously useful in opening dialogue on unsustainable processes as well as moving dialogue forward when sustainability is in need of some pushes forward. Many certifications of sustainability are not all they claim to be and yet, they are the best we have available. We believe that a full process exchange of needs and desires can benefit everyone! They should be strengthened until they improve or until they prove themselves inadequate. Consumers must make the push to move this forward.

Conscious Coffees - 2011 Micro Roaster of the Year!

Congratulations go out to our friends at Conscious Coffees here in Boulder, Colorado! Earning Roast Magazine's Micro Roaster of the Year is a great honor, doing it by adhering to stellar standards of sustainabiity is quite another. Check out the magazine's article in the most recent issue

It Ain't Easy Being Green in Boulder, Colorado

Moving Forward!

Our efforts to document sustainable businesses and endeavors is in motion now! We are currently in edit mode and should have some excellent interview segments to share with you. Over the past few weeks we have conducted interviews with three businesses: Licious Organics in Boulder, Colorado and Karma Balm and Interiors Green in Bethlehem, New Hampshire. We are very excited to get this project underway!!

Additionally, there has been extensive video documentation of a build site here in Boulder featuring Artesano Plasterers Ryan Chivers & Phil Metzler. This project also features a living roof installed by Andy Creath of Green Roofs of Colorado. We look forward to conducting interviews with these folks as well down the road.

Visionary Values believes that by sharing inspiring stories of individuals and companies working more in harmony with our environment and supporting sustainability, we can encourage others to do the same. After all, we share this beautiful world and all of our challenges must also be shared!

A Link to Sustainable Palm Oil Video

Here is a Bloomberg story on palm oil production and a Liverpool, UK company's efforts to do so sustainably.

What do you think? We believe that consumers should take them up on their promise to source verify their palm oil and present their claims of sustainability in a transparent fashion. Just following up to confirm! If a large enough number of people made this request in an inquisitive and respectful manner, then consumers would have a fully justified reason to support this company's efforts if they are being honest and forthright.

The Palm Oil Conundrum

Palm oil is ubiquitous. It it almost literally everywhere one looks on the grocery shelves. It is also now becoming a key ingredient in the biofuels marketed globally. Indonesia is the world leader in production of palm oil and Colombia, a rising player, is the leader in Latin America. Even Brazil recently announced plans to develop areas of the Amazon for the production of this highly lucrative commodity. They plan to do so whilst minimizing the risk to the environment. Is that possible?

Suffice it to say, the manner in which palm oil is produced is generally massively destructive. Large tracts of virgin forest are clearcut and burned to make way for the monocropped palm plantations. Biodiversity is eliminated and soils are destroyed. In doing so, communities are often alienated, human rights are violated and localized societal unrest ensues. Corporations take complete control and locals are hired on to work the plantations for poor wages.

What is being done? Certainly not enough and not with sufficient haste.

What can consumers do? Check out the following for more up-to-date information on efforts to increase sustainability in palm oil production and to locate ways to identify sustainably produced palm oil:

http://www.greenpalm.org/
http://www.rspo.org/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/forests/3534204/Palm-oil-round-table-a-farce.html
http://understory.ran.org/2008/05/06/let-the-sleuthing-begin-theproblemwithpalmoilorg-goes-live/

Additionally, take a look at the following blog from a small producer with an eye towards small-scale production:

http://mysarawak2.blogspot.com/2010/07/integrated-oil-palm-farming-in-bintulu.html

It Ain't Garbage!

Even though we may be enlightened businesses or enlightened consumers, there are other areas of opportunity to increase one's sustainability. Since we all eat (except for that Indian mystic who claims he doesn't eat or drink), we all produce food waste. What happens to all this organic matter once we have removed the easily accessed nutrients from it? Most folks send it into the garbage bin or into the garbage disposal. Out of sight out of mind or rather, out of sight OUT OF OUR MINDS!!! Seriously, how can a nation of around 305 million do this??

What disappears is an incredible amount of latent energy that is literally black gold! The power of these food scraps once they are converted into compost is immeasurable! What can we do? For folks with yards and with time they can maintain a compost pile and produce valuable nutrients for their yards. For most folks, they either don't have the time, inclination or space. What to do??

A new service called Compost Cab in Washington D.C. is nearing its launch! These folks will get participants to sign-up for a regular curbside pick-up of organic material which will then be composted! An additional cool thing is that this endeavor encouraging municipal composting as well as linking with other community-based organizations like Engaged Community Offshoots (ECO) to make it work. Agricity is the innovator behind this initiative.

Perhaps this is something that YOUR neighborhood could use?!?

This is why we have such a @#$%ed-up energy policy in the USA!!

When folks spew garbage like this it is no wonder we have such a steep climb towards changing our nation's dependence on non-renewable energy sources! Listen, if one looks only at the bottom line and sees nothing else connected to it, a perspective such as this one looks brilliant!

To state that solar only works when it is sunny is just mis-information and simply untrue! The energy production is certainly reduced, but to use this as an argument against solar power is rubbish! Just think of how many people and animals die every year directly and indirectly due to our insatiable thirst for oil and coal! When was the last time someone perished using solar energy?

So, calling an industry "unprofitable" when so little has historically been spent on alternative energy and big oil has spent lots to derail legislation in its favor, is a bit over the top, wouldn't you say?!? Throw in all the tax funded incentives and subsidies they have gotten and the gap is even larger! In fact, as of the middle of last year, investment in green power sources in the US had actually dropped 8% due to our shaky economy.

When hugely successful companies like Exxon spend only around 1% of its profits on alternative energy sources and BP 2.9% (the most of the big five oil companies), where is the money going to come from?? Where is the commitment to sustainability?? NOWHERE!!!

Well, that's not entirely true...WE NEED TO BE THE AGENTS OF CHANGE!!! We will do it through our demands that these tactics change. Certainly in light of the outrage over the recent coal mine deaths and the very recent (and very devastating!!) BP oil spill, we have a GREAT OPPORTUNITY, but perhaps we are not noisy enough!!

Visionary companies need visionary consumers. Folks who demand only the most ethical behavior and smartest decisions. Maybe our standards are too low? Any comments???

Starbucks Shareholders Oppose Expanding Recycling Efforts

In keeping the java spirit of discussion alive why not look at our most capable (yet seemingly least willing to aggressively pursue sustainability measure) purveyor of specialty coffees: Starbucks!

At a recent shareholders meeting, a measure put forth by a minority of shareholders, to increase the company's recycling, was voted down 89% against  to 11% in favor. It seems that they are happy with their efforts to date and do not deem any additional progress necessary. The measure was supported by As You Sow, an organization that has also put forth similar efforts at recycling reform to Pepsico & Coca-Cola.

Clearly, continued activist efforts are needed to move these folks in the right direction.  Quite honestly, as is the case with furthering Fair Trade & Organic purchases by Starbucks, the customers are the only ones who can make a lasting impression!! Why should consumers always look to corporations and governments to tell them what they want or what is best for them?!?

If consumers were more involved in their welfare and not just passive participants in capitalism gone amok, we would not be faced with such catastrophes as the BP Gulf oil disaster!! Let's wake up and make our purchases matter!!

Trader Joe's To Sell Only Sustainably Harvested Seafood

The grocery store chain Trader Joe's has announced it will only sell seafood harvested sustainably by the end of 2012. This comes in response to criticism and a campaign by Greenpeace and also to address numerous customer requests over the years. 

The company said it will begin working with third-party groups to define sustainability, ensuring that canned, frozen and fresh fish sold in stores across the country will come from sustainable sources. They will also create more specific labels for fish, including catch methods and Latin names.

Most of us are already quite aware of the dangers of overfishing around the globe and we can applaud such efforts to change unsustainable and ignorant business practices. We can only hope that the entities that are put in place to monitor and oversee this policy ensure that the entirely of the commitment by Trader Joe's is adhered to.

WAIT A MINUTE!!! Shouldn't we be able to do more than just hope!! We as consumers are the recipients of and participants in all sustainable and unsustainable business practices. So, it is also up to us to play our roles as overseers of these commitments. Clearly, if we believe in something and yet are confronted with red flags indicating conflicting information or claims, we must make it known that we are aware of the "greenwash" and that we intend to hold all up to those standards at all times.

Snyder's Follows Frito-Lay's Lead, Offers Sustainable Packaging

Just a few weeks after Frito-Lay  rolled out the 100% compostable SunChips bag, Snyder's of Hanover has announced sustainability packaging of its own. Like Frito-Lay, the pretzel maker has decided to use plant-based materials in some of its packaging. The polylactic acid resin (PLA)-based bags, produced by Clear Lam Packaging, replace petroleum-based plastic bags in Snyder's line of organic pretzels.

There are a number of advantages to the PLA bags, according to Greener Package. The 90% plant-based bags require half the energy for production and spew 52% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than comparable petroleum packaging.  No word on if the PLA bags are saving Snyder's any cash, however.

Kudos to Snyder's  for following in Frito-Lay's footsteps, but consumers should ask: Why are the PLA bags limited to the company's organic line of pretzels? Snyders reps were away for the holidays and not immediately available to answer. Here's hoping Snyder's ultimately expands the initiative to all of its products.

Whadda Ya Do?!? Damaged Goods?

What happens when transparency slaps you in the face? In the case of the recent admission by the CEO of SIGG, makers of the ubiquitous (at least in green circles!) reusable water bottles, you now have your opportunity to find out. For some reason, the company decided (conscious decision) to not inform customers that earlier designs of their bottles contained "trace amounts of bisphenol A."

Now, we could take the decision to boycott the company (disassociate like Patagonia) and make them pay for their error in judgement. We could also take the time to read through the CEO's explanation and his apology and, if we really feel our power as consumers (feel it rising?!?!?), we could let him know he should never attempt this kind of stunt again. We could then inform him that we definitely approve of his growth as the head of a "green company" and that we will be watching and will encourage him to take a lead in encouraging all businesses to apply common sense safety and health standards to their products. After all, since it is our health and safety we need to protect, WE must take the initiative to hold companies accountable. Sometimes punishment is needed and other times encouragement is the best option.

Here is a link to the SIGG website regarding an exchange program.

Let them know what you think:

SIGG USA
1177 High Ridge Road
Stamford, CT 06905
(203) 321-1220

Transitioning

Here is an interesting video about the sale of Dagoba Chocolate to Hershey's back in October 2006. Although the sale of the company had its critics, especially those who believe bigger ain't better, the goal of the sale was to gain a bigger platform and greater resources for high quality and sustainability. You be the judge!

Video

Here is a link to the website for Dagoba Chocolate:

Dagoba

Tracking Sustainability

Here is an interesting review of the usefulness of applying Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to identify what a company would need to do to capture the purchases of customers dedicated to supporting companies that engage in sustainable practices and produce products that are environmentally friendly.

It is suggested that this simple approach of getting to the core of consumer values can benefit both the bottom line and the sustainability of a company. By focusing on what consumers actually want and not what the companies think they want, everyone wins.

Take a look and let us know how you can integrate this perspective into your operations as a business owner or, how you think this information can be transmitted effectively to companies.

At the end of the day, an approach like this can truly put consumers in the driver's seat! Take advantage and push for sustainable business practices!

Greening Your Business Isn't Always Costly!

Here is a nice feel good story of a small vineyard taking the initiative to become a "certified green" business through Alameda County's (California) Green Business Program. To date, there are over 450 certified green businesses in the county. The Cedar Mountain Winery uses beneficial insects, a contained waste water system, and maintains owl boxes to keep rodent damage to a minimum. These and numerous other efforts have help them achieve this certification by using common sense much of the time. Sure you could spend a bunch of money on major renovations and new technologies. but most of the time, changing the way basic things are done is the best method to attack sustainability. After all, it is a journey!

To be certified by the Green Business Program, all businesses must meet set standards in energy conservation, environmental law compliance, water conservation, waste reduction and pollution prevention. I would love to take a look at their certification criteria to get a better idea as to what levels the issues are investigated and monitored.

Throw Down the Gauntlet!

Hey folks! Here is an article from the folks at GreenBiz discussing responsibility in the food industry. There are a few people quoted in the article who are advocating for purveyors of our nation's food to take the lead in sustainability.

"We need to begin to think of retailers as leaders in sustainability; they help consumers live more sustainable lifestyles and build sustainable consumption into their lives," explained Michele Halsell, the managing director of the University of Arkansas' Applied Sustainability Center. "They are the link between the suppliers and the consumers, [and] taking that approach to your role in the world is the start of an important transformation."

And when retailers do it right, it's a "win-win-win," according to Halsell: the environment, local communities and most of all retailers themselves all benefit from green initiatives.

"You the retailers have bought all the environmental impacts [of the products you sell] at every step along the way," (Jonathan) Kaplan said. "That's a responsibility, but also an opportunity: you can have the biggest bang for the buck and you're in the driver's seat."

Clearly, the point of sale opportunities to educate (if that is what retailers are willing to do properly, honestly & transparently!!) are innumerable and ever-present. We at Visionary Values welcome this potential for every retailer to become a sustainability advocate!

We also must STRONGLY ADVOCATE for increased and consistent consumer involvement and oversight of this process. Initially it would most likely stem from an inherent distrust of these retailers to tell the whole story and keep it truthful. As the process matures however, it could develop into more of a friend looking after friend type of interaction (pie in the sky?!?) where we all look after one another's best common interests. After all, isn't this an essential piece of sustainability?!

As always, we love to hear YOUR opinions! Keep in touch!

Eco-Labels - Legitimate or Greenwashing?

The debate over these labels and the legitimacy of their use and claims will continue. What can consumers do to verify adherence to sustainable business practices?

Check out ecolabelling.org for an terrific overview of the vastness of the world of verification!

Their focus is:

1. To gather all ecolabels in the world onto one common platform,

2. To provide standard data and analysis on those ecolabels,

3. To help companies buy and sell ecolabelled products and services.

And here is a businessinsider.com perspective on the proliferation of these labels.

Thoughts? Proposals? Criticisms? Support?

Are You Confused?

In reading this article one can quickly see that there are really no hard and fast definitions that folks can simply refer to when discussing issues of green and sustainability. Although the concepts themselves are perhaps not that complicated, they do become muddied when those who are not committed to the fundamentals begin to co-opt the use of those terms without applying them with purity.

For those of us who understand many of these tenets of sustainability, it is important to raise a voice in favor of making these definitions understandable and accessible. It is also important that we make sustainability a mainstream reality, not by making it easier through cutting corners, but by helping people understand that we will not survive and lead healthy lives if we ignore the urgency to change our habits and lifestyles.

Pointing fingers and making accusations will do little to create the needed changes. Remember how well you reacted to being scolded as a child, did you ever truly understand the reasoning behind the person confronting you, or did you merely toe the line and do what you were told? This is not how important lessons are learned, not is it how people become better citizens. It is only when concepts are clearly understood and absorbed into one's identity, that they become available in a real and honest fashion.

Let's begin the dialogue that will enable us to share these important issues that will make life happier and healthier for all!