Here I expand on a previous discussion ‘Would it be ethical to burn fossil fuels if it didn’t cause climate change?’ My view is that the debate surrounding the extent to which the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change misses a more fundamental point. That is, fossil fuels are an inherently finite resource. This resource is dwindling at an accelerating rate as economies such as those of China and India expand rapidly. Fossil fuels will run out. Maybe not in the next 10, 20 or 30 years but they will run out. As the scarcity of fossil fuels grows there will be increasing conflict between nations to secure their supplies in an effort to maintain their carbon-dependent economies. At the same time, there is an inexorably growing human population, destruction of rainforests, depletion of natural resources and plummeting biodiversity. Clearly, this situation cannot be sustained in the longer-term.

Yet our capitalist system is based on the principle of economic growth – growth that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and unsustainable practices. Just look at recent events; governments are terrified by anything that threatens economic growth – pouring billions of public money into failing financial systems. In addition, many economists see growth not only as desirable but as essential. They claim it lifts the poor out of poverty, feeding the world’s growing population, supporting the costs of rising public spending and stimulating investment and technological development.

The dilemma is how can we square Earth’s finite resources with the fact that as the economy grows, the amount of natural resources needed to sustain that activity must grow too. I am clear in my conviction that economic growth in its current form is unsustainable. We need a new paradigm that limits (or reduces) the global population, a meaningful shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency and the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles. This will require courageous, co-ordinated and global government policies that ensure we don’t use up resources faster than the world can replace them.

Many will dismiss this as a utopian ideology. But isn’t it a utopian ideology to carry on blithely down a path that will ultimately lead to catastrophe? Yes, it will require a new world-view and radical changes but I think we have several grounds for optimism. Firstly, sustainable economies are more stable – whilst growth may be lower than in traditional economies it will be more durable in the longer-term and less volatile. Secondly, the shift towards a sustainable economy would create new opportunities, jobs and greater stability. Thirdly, the potential for conflict between nations is reduced as our dependency on fossil fuels reduces over time. Finally, there is a growing recognition (albeit begrudgingly) amongst governments that the current situation is unsustainable and the mood seems to be shifting from one of cynicism and self-interest to one of genuine commitment to tackling the problem.

The prospect of a truly sustainable global economy, fuelled by renewable energy sources coupled with a stabilised human population and harmonised with biodiversity is an ambitious yet achievable goal. But it’s a goal that requires a re-appraisal of the current meaning of economic growth.

Hmmm, a tricky question with no easy answer. Undoubtedly, uncontrolled and mass market-driven consumerism isn’t. However, it may be more appropriate to turn the question on its head and ask if sustainability is possible without consumerism. After all, green markets exist because different producers (including fair trade, organic and renewable producers) are able to sell to consumers at a profit. If people don’t buy then the economy stagnates. Clearly the key is to ensure that production is sustainable and fair. That’s where consumer power comes in – if more people can be convinced of the benefits of buying from fair trade and sustainable sources then the larger, more dominant companies have to change their policies otherwise face the consequences. Sustainable consumerism can make an important contribution but we need more people to heed the message.

Dr. Gary Robertshaw

The Green Providers Directory

Frankenstein foods, biodiversity loss, corporate takeover of the countryside. These have all been given as reasons to hate GM. That’s my experience in the UK.

Some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in poorer countries support the use of GM crop. These NGOs see it as another problem: the gap between the rich and the poor, between people that grow in order to survive, and those that grow for profit.

Corporate names like Syngenta and Monsanto have become dirty words for opponents of GM crop. Sometimes options are limited, drought, pest resistant GM crop? or famine? Some can not afford the choice. GM producers need vision to survive. If they want to help create the future perhaps they could identify ways to work closer with local communities to tackle food and environmental challenges together. Perhaps they could grow back the rain-forests, or grow plants on the moon? All companies can pursue ethical profit.

World food prices are on the up. Globally this means more people starve to death. But with that comes resource wars, famine, and mass immigration. Oh and the price of bread goes up in your local shop. (Ahhh – That’s why developing countries like GM crop).

GM food could still provide solutions. such as better use of natural fertilizers and local crop varieties. A UN report in April 2008 called for more local food production (1) . Developing countries will need to adapt quickly to survive in a world without the same levels of trade in cash crops with developed countries addicted to unseasonal, flown in food. I only hope that the World Bank accounts for this in their policy making.

Why do we hate those GM crops so much? Well at heart we’ve always been a nation of farmers in the UK (and many other countries). We can still afford the luxury of non-GM varieties. For the moment I prefer vegetables that haven’t been produced so intensively. Those that have used natural fertilizers, as opposed to those generated from oil.

Developed countries don’t have the same concerns as non-developed ones. We do not have wide-scale hunger and nutrition problems. But we do have a legitimate concern for our environment.

I love those local varieties of crop, those that help regional agriculture and resist the development of crop mono-cultures. They make me feel humble. I’m proud of Jersey Potatoes and British Strawberries. I support fair-trade for our farmers. I don’t want to see one type of wheat, I want choice.

The argument against GM is not one against feeding the needy, its one against the alteration of our national natural environment.

(1) UN report demands urgent action on soaring food prices. The Independent, April 2008.

When talking green, people naturally tend to focus on vehicles, but the fact is vehicle emissions have nowhere near the impact that the building industry does.

Buildings and homes use more energy and are responsible for over 35% of all man made greenhouse gases and energy used worldwide. By “greening” every structure with existing technologies and techniques, the world would see a reduction in CO2 by over 1,800 megatons per year. That is equal to the amount of CO2 released by all planes and vehicles in North America last year.

With energy cost rising at a steady pace, energy efficiency renovations are the most cost effective ways to green a home or building, even more so than investing in alternative energies. Increasing efficiency does not have to be a daunting task, there are plenty of quick and easy things you can do which are not very involved. Below is a list of 10 things you can do to increase your efficiency and they are listed from cheapest and easiest to more expensive and involved.

10 steps to Energy Efficiency:

1. Reduce Phantom Loads – phantom loads are those unforeseen “standby” electrical loads that rob about 11% of annual energy consumption. Most electrical products have standby electrical loads which use electricity even when the product is turned off. DVD players, TV’s, Computers, phone chargers, and many other products all use electricity on a constant basis. The solution is to plug these things into surge protector strips and turn the strip off when they are not in use.

2. Seal Up Leaks – Air infiltration is a major cause of increased energy usage. When a structure is not properly sealed, heat will be lost during the winter and gained during the summer, driving up heating and cooling cost. The solution is to perform a pressurization test to locate air leaks and use some sort of caulk or silicon sealant to seal the air leaks in your walls and ceilings.

3. Weatherize – Weatherizing is very similar to sealing air leaks, however, it is different in that it is applied to moving parts such as doors and windows where a caulk type sealant will not work. Weatherizing doors and windows require special products such as v-channel, foam strips and sweeps. For a more detailed tutorial about sealing and weatherizing your home or business, check out “Air Leaks & Energy Exchange” over at NeutralExistence.com.

4. Change Lights – Inefficient lighting is responsible for not only wasted electricity, but added heat gain. The incandescent light bulbs of yesterday are slowly being phased out to more energy efficient Compact Florescent bulbs and LED lightbulbs. A new energy efficient CFL bulb can save about 150 kWh of electricity annually and save you approximately $37 over the life of the bulb. LED lightbulbs, although more expensive up front, will last much longer than CFLs and use less energy as well.

5. Control Radiant Heat – Radiant heat is the most efficient form of heat transfer and in order to increase a structures heating and cooling efficiency, radiant heat transfer must be stopped. Radiant heat is responsible for excess heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. The only way to stop radiant heat transfer is by using a radiant barrier which is a sheet of low emisivity, high reflectivity foil. Although radiant barriers come in many shapes and sizes, but be sure to find a well made, durable, two sided (for winter and summer protection), perforated radiant barrier. I highly recommend Ra-flect radiant barrier as a cost effective quality product (www.raflect.com).

6. Increase Water Efficiency – Massive amounts of energy are used to treat and move potable (drinkable) municipal water, so reducing water usage very energy efficient. There are a variety of things you can do to reduce your potable water usage such as using low flow faucet and shower fixtures, taking shorter showers, only running dishwashers and washer machines when they are full, not leaving the water running needlessly and using water banks in toilet tanks to reduce water used to flush toilets.

7. New Insulation - Insulation retards the passage of convective and conductive heat and is rated in R-values, which is the measure of the rate that heat energy is transferred through a material. If your insulation has been pressed down over the years or the R-value is not the proper value for your location, re-insulating your home is well worth the expense. In order to choose the most efficient insulation for your home or building check out the Energy Star website to find out: www.energystar.gov

8. Window Renovation – Windows are generally the most significant energy sink in almost every structures due to lack of insulation. Windows come in a variety of configurations such as single pane (not efficient), double pane, gas filled, mirrored, etc.. In cooler climates gas filled double pane windows with high R-values are excellent and well worth the cost of replacing old single pane windows. In hotter climates, these same windows are not as effective as they only reduce convective and conductive heat gain but fall short in stopping radiant heat gain. Stopping radiant heat gain in hotter climates requires exterior shading elements or the use of an energy film which helps to block the suns UV rays. Window energy films are applied directly to the glass with soap and water and will essentially make an existing window perform like that of an energy star rated double pane gas filled window.

9. Energy Star Products – Energy star is a governmental rating system which gives its seal to products, buildings, homes and devices which meet minimum requirements of energy efficiency as compared to the norm. When buying new devices such as refrigerators, washer machines, dishwashers and home electronics be sure to purchase products with the Energy Star seal as they will use less electricity than their competition. For more information about energy star and there rating system please see their website (www.energystar.gov).

10. Build Green – In order to increase your energy efficiency build green instead of buying an already made home or business. The benefits of having an architect design a green home or business for you are too many to count. Some benefits of building green include increased energy efficiency, better interior air quality, higher resale value, higher rental rates and occupancy rates for businesses and not to mention, you get the house or building that meets YOUR needs, not some generic home or building which may not be sized appropriately.

Efficiency IS greener than green

Anyway way you look at it, there is no getting around energy efficiency if you really want to green your lifestyle. Efficiency does not have to stop at your home or business, the idea of efficiency can be used in every aspect of your life, from shopping for products to driving around town, efficiency is the key to being green,

Adam Beazley is a LEED accredited professional and green architectural designer, who focuses on green, energy saving design techniques. He is also the founder of Neutral Existence, which is an environmental website dedicated to helping individuals green their life and save money in the process. The website has a plethora of tutorials, articles and products to help individuals reduce their energy consumption, entire environmental footprint and reliance on non renewable resources.
www.NeutralExistence.com

Guerrilla marketing is one of the most effective methods available to small businesses and nonprofit organizations for increasing sales or expanding the reach of your cause. These unconventional techniques are designed to produce maximum results using minimal resources.

Today, the Internet provides the best medium to use guerrilla marketing in fast and easy ways. The most effective strategies are:

1. Email Marketing

You must give visitors to your website a reason to leave their email address and give you permission to continue communicating with them. Offer a free subscription to a newsletter about your niche within the Fair Trade movement or provide another type of bonus.

Use an autoresponder service to capture visitor sign-ups and send out follow-up messages and newsletters to your list. For my company that sells Fair Trade soccer balls online, I route our emails through the free tools available at Gmail (look at their Vacation Settings for the autoresponder functionality). Be sure to provide valuable information, not just blatant advertising. By developing a rapport with your readers, you’ll build a larger and larger list of responsive subscribers.

2. Blogging

Blogging has taken the online world by storm. Blogs (short for “web logs”) are dynamically editable websites people use to talk about topics important to them.

Post to your blog as often as you want and include links pointing to your website. This frequently changing, unique content and the numerous incoming links are extremely favorable to the search engines.

You can use Blogger.com to set up an attractive template for your blog and post messages right away. The best part, it’s free. I personally use WordPress – an open-source platform with lots of community support – on our blog at www.fairtradesports.com, as well as FeedBurner to make subscribing to our blog fast and easy for our website visitors.

3. Forum Marketing

Forums give people a place online to congregate and talk about what interests them. To find forums in your niche, just Google “[keyword] forum” and see what you get.

Once you sign up for a forum, post messages regularly. This is a great way to build relationships. Post questions. Answer questions. Tell people where to find good information. Putting blatant advertising in your posts is against the rules. But you are allowed to put a link to your website in your forum signature. Consider changing your signature based on the forum to which you are contributing. For example, this is my standard signature for any forum related to Fair Trade:

- Scott James
Fair Trade Sports
Blog: www.fairtradesports.com
Fair Trade soccer balls!

I use a different signature for forums related to the eco-aspects of our sports balls, my work with the abolitionist Not For Sale Campaign, or my work with the sustainable MBA school, Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

4. Direct Link Building

Search engines – Google, in particular – favor pages with lots of incoming links, both one-way and two-way links, because it increases your website’s “popularity” across the Internet.

A simple example of one-way linking is the kind of link you get when you submit an comment on someone else’s blog. Your comment can have a link to your site in it, and the comment can be picked up by related websites and ezines if the topic is interesting.

For two-way links, you can contact other website owners within the Fair Trade movement and ask to trade links. Or, just Google “[keyword] trade links,” and you’ll get back a bunch of sites that are offering to do a link exchange with you. Then, you can add them to a section on your site titled “Related Links,” “Resource Center,” or something similar. It’s that simple.

Go through the list and start asking if you can trade links. Slow and steady wins the race. Do a little every day and pretty soon, you’ll grow your links a lot. The key is to reach out to others with authentic sites doing work to further the Fair Trade movement.

5. Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites are wildly popular with people under 25, and several (like MySpace, Facebook, and Ning) have become some of the most visited sites on the web.

Squidoo.com is different from other sites because you can sell blatantly without worrying about being shut down.

Squidoo lets you create what’s called a lens, which is an information portal about your topic. The secret is to provide helpful information for people in your niche. Along the way, you can point them to your website, getting you laser-targeted traffic. We made one to alert Squidoo readers of Fair Trade products available on the web (http://www.squidoo.com/shopfairtrade).

By implementing these guerrilla marketing strategies, you will be spreading the word about your product, your organization and your cause across the Internet in ways that will have both an immediate impact and a long-term effect for years to come.

by Scott James
Founder, Fair Trade Sports
Bringing you eco-certified Fair Trade soccer balls and more!

According to research behind a recent BBC Panorama programme called ‘Bottled Water – Who needs it?’ (1), a litre of a well known French mineral water, generates 600 times as much Carbon Dioxide as a litre of London tap water.

I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to buying the stuff. Ironically I only buy bottled water for the bottle. One for the gym, one for a walk… I keep them knocking around until I lose them or simply get fed up of the sight of them.

It’s crazy when you think about it. Many developed countries, where most of the bottled water is sold, have safe tap water. Over a billion people on this world do not have access to safe water (2), yet when it is flowing freely in our own taps we still find the need to buy it.

Just as crazy is the bottled rain water featuring on the show. The pleasantly named ‘Cloud juice’, comes all the way from King Island, New Zealand. According to the Cloud Juice website the water comes from ‘11,100 km off the Great Southern Ocean where trade winds evaporate pure, clean water into rain clouds that don’t touch land until they meet King Island’ Sounds like a dream doesn’t it? That’s because that’s exactly what they want you to think. Advertising often attempts to link our emotions to a product. Just read a book on Neuro linguistic programming or advertising, and you’ll find that out. However that doesn’t stop London’s Claridges Hotel selling it for £9 ($18) per bottle.

Here’s my own poetic skew on the sales basics of the bottled water industry…

Plastic comes from oil,
Water is free,
Wrap the water in oil,
And sell it to thee.

It’s worth pointing out at this stage that our America uses more than 70 million disposable plastic bottles a day. Just over 60 million of these end up in landfill (3), and the the market in Britain alone is worth £2 billion.

According to the National Geographic if you imagine your water bottle a quarter filled up with oil that’s how much oil it takes to create the bottle. (4) Recyclenow.com reports that recycling one plastic bottle can conserve up to enough energy to light a 60w light bulb for up to 6 hours. (5)

There are pioneers like ‘Belu’, (6) that have started to make bottles out of corn. Not only that they are the first bottled water manufacturer that doesn’t contribute to climate change, but all their profits go to clean water projects as well. If you feel compelled to buy water, even after the World Heath Organisation has given the water supply in your country the green light, buying from companies like Belu is a step in the right direction. Next time I go to the gym I’ll think twice about the volcanic energy, my drink alleges to give me.

(1) BBC Panorama – Bottled water – who needs it? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7247130.stm
(2) WaterAid – Charity Number 288701 http://www.wateraid.org/
(3) Container Recycling Institute – http://www.container-recycling.org
(4) National Geographic Kids – http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/SpaceScience/Water-bottle-pollution
(5) Recycle Now – http://www.recyclenow.com/facts/interesting_facts/index.html
(6) Belu, Penguin approved natural mineral water - http://www.belu.org/home.asp

A must read for everyone interested in green marketing is Russell Davies’ presentation at Applied Green that took place last year. Russell is the big daddy of planners and communications strategists in the UK as well as globally. He brilliantly discusses potential routes to reinvent consumer capitalism, a cultural and economic phenomena/reality that has such a devastating effects on the environment yet it is fairly naive to hope to eliminate it all together.

Fantastic read.

Good Magazine has a great graphic depicting the economic implications of leaving appliances plugged in for an entire year. We all know that a minuscule amount of energy is being consumed just by leaving a device plugged in – but, an average consumer with a reasonable electronics collection will waste around $300 leaving all those gadgets plugged in year round. Thats 2,500 kilowatt hours completely wasted!

In a recent research published by the Energy Saving Trust they’ve calculated that if one mobile phone charger per household in the UK is left on standby, the energy wasted is enough to provide the electricity needs of 66,000 homes for one year.

Those of you with a plasma TVs, take notice…

Story via the fantastic PSFK

GreenGirlsGlobal have written about the free 100 Ways to Save The Planet eBook which was written by Adam over at our usual website. As not everyone likes to read we’ve turned it into a video. It’s (hopefully) a reasonably short, nice, relaxing watch and another way to get the message out there. Please feel free to send it to anyone and everyone. The link is: http://www.revver.com/watch/501547/.

Not everyone will agree with the points made and some of them are vague and loose as we couldn’t fit more text on there (and have the ebook anyway), so it would be great to hear your comments and any feedback that you have.

Due to feedback we already have from the eBook, we’re now working on the next generation of the 100 Ways which will be followed up by a new, improved version of the eBook in the months to come – there’s no end to the ways you can go green!

Toilet paper is one of those things we generally can’t ‘live’ without. We all buy it and I’m sure those of us who choose to buy a recycled toilet/tissue paper have often happily purchased Nouvelle. Safe in the knowledge that you are doing your bit.

Afterall it has a Woodland Trust badge on it and everything – it must be OK? Surely…

Well, sadly the reality is far more murky. Nouvelle is produced by Georgia Pacific and according to the WWF Report on how companies source fibres for tissue paper they don’t fair so well. For example “Land rights conflicts, forest destruction, irresponsible plantations management and illegal harvesting of timber are key issues associated with many of these forest regions”.

To learn more about the specifics of the tissue industry reports go to the WWF website, the information there is much more in-depth than I want to go into in this post and makes for an enlightening read.

But there is more to this story.

Georgia Pacific is owned by Koch industries and those of you out there that already know Koch industries will understand why this information might lead you to change brands. Surprisingly a lot of consumers have probably never heard of Koch even though they are the largest privately owned company in the world – no, really.

Dig a little deeper.

As ever, the Internet is your friend and you can find out a lot of information on your own – here are a couple of interesting links – both of which are from the U.S Department of Justice:

Koch Industries Indicted For Environmental Crimes At Refinery

Koch Industries To Pay Record Fine For Oil Spills In Six States

Wow! and we are just getting warmed up, these guys have been busy for sure. I don’t think I need to go much further – you get what I’m getting at.

The alternatives.
Getting back to toilet paper then, there are alternatives that do come from managed sources. According to the WWF report, looking for the FSC logo on packaging will help as this is the only standard they recognise as assurance that “If virgin fibres are used they need to come from forests managed to the highest environmental and social standards”.

SCA Tissue produce the Naturalle brand in the UK which is 100% recycled and available to UK consumers.

More information on recycled brands here.

Hopefully the WWF will have a new report soon and we will see if anything has changed in the world of tissue and toilet paper. As we effectively flush or trash 270,000 trees per day this is no place for toilet humour.