How to recognize greenwashing

The Issue

• Which products are “green” and which are “greenwashed”?  Greenwashing, a deceptive use of green marketing, is when companies try to make themselves look more environmentally friendly than they are in actuality.
• TerraChoice Environmental Marketing (http://www.terrachoice.com/files/6_sins.pdf) conducted a survey of six leading big box stores.  The surveys identified 1,018 consumer products making environmental claims, of them, 1,017 made claims that were false or risked misleading the potential buyer.

Be Part of the Solution

How do I know I am buying truly eco-friendly products?

• Ask yourself, does the product focus on only one (or two) eco-issues while ignoring other important ones?  Truly eco-friendly and sustainable products try to address many issues.  For example, a paper company may promote recycled content or sustainable harvesting information but neglect to mention manufacturing impacts such as air emissions, water emissions, and global warming impacts.
• Does the product provide evidence of its environmentally sensitive claim on its packaging or company website?  For example, does your “not tested on animals” shampoo offer evidence or certification of this claim?
• Can the manufacturer back up “organic” claims?  Do they provide certification?  Is the company’s claim so general or broad that its real meaning could be misunderstood by the consumer?  For example, “Green”, “Environmentally friendly”, and “Eco-conscious” have no meaning without further explanation from the manufacturer.
• Taking the last point a step further, could the company be lying about their green certification?  For example, does the “certified organic” product provide evidence of the certification?
• Does the product make a truthful environmental claim that is unimportant in helping the consumers decide which environmentally friendly product to purchase?  For example, does the product claim to be CFC-free?  Being CFC-free is irrelevant since all products are CFC-free as CFC’s have been banned in the US for almost 3 decades.
• Is the “green” claim trying to make you feel better about buying a product that is just not inherently green”?  For example, cigarettes with organically grown tobacco are still cigarettes.

We’re eco-conscious at home, let’s do the same while at work

The Issue
Most of us spend more waking hours while at work than at home, we might as well be eco-aware while doing so.

Be Part of the Solution
What can we do to be more sustainable?  How about:

Turn off you computer at night!  A computer left on 24 hours a day costs your company between $115 and $160 in electricity annually!

Don’t use screensavers.  Instead, set your monitor to turn off automatically after 10 minutes of non-use and set computers to sleep/hibernate after 30 minutes.

If possible, carpool!  You can cut your weekly fuel costs in half if you take turns driving, visit Bay Area Commuter Services (or even better, use HART, PSTA, walk or ride a bike).

Reduce word document margins to .75” and turn scrap paper into note pads.

Use your windows!  Natural light is always better then electric lighting.  If you must use electric lights, turn them off when not in use.

Print double sided and print only what is necessary on paper with recycled content.

Don’t go out for lunch.  Stay at the office and off the road, walk to a nearby café or bring your own healthy, natural and organic lunch.

Consider installing the free Ecofont, a font style that uses up to 20% less ink.

Purchase re-manufactured ink cartridges as they help to divert plastic and metal waste from landfills and reduce the need for oil and electricity to create new cartridges.

Recycle at work.  If your company doesn’t recycle, demand it!

Recycle your mobile phone!  Instead of throwing it away, recycle it a nearby Best Buy or Office Depot, or donate to CASA.

Specify Energy Star products if you purchase electronics and equipment.

Visit 1-800-Recycling to find out where to recycle ink cartridges and other in office recycling resources.

Stop buying bottled water.  Instead of buying bottled water every day, purchase a filter/pitcher like Brita or Pur.  Doing so will keep 230 plastic bottles out of the landfill.

Drink fair trade, organic and shade grown coffee in reusable mugs.

For more tips, or to learn more about sustainability at St. Petersburg College, contact Jason Green at green.jason@spcollege.edu.  Then visit http://www.spcollege.edu/sustainability, join the facebook group and follow us at http://twitter.com/sustainableSPC.

Voting begins for Recycled Innovations Contest

The local elections have been decided, but voting for the City of Largo Recycled Innovations Contest has just begun.  This online contest encouraged innovators of all ages to make a use-able items with the contents of their trash can.

Eligible Recycled Innovations range from kitty litter box hanging gardens to baby food container space savers and more. The innovators went beyond traditional recycling and re-purposed their trash into items that may be reused for daily activities.

Contestants will vie for innovative prizes such a solar/wind powered charges for cell phones, MP3 players and other electronics, environmental board games, and learning toys to name a few.  Prizes will be awarded to the greatest innovators in various age categories: Junior Innovators, Tween Innovators, and Macgyvers.

The winners will be decided exclusively by web-based voters at www.LargoRecycles.com. Voters need not be Largo residents to make their vote count.

Recycled Innovation Contest Winners will be announced via e-mail on America Recycles Day, November 15.  To vote online log on to www.LargoRecycles.com, or for more information call 727-586-7424.

Author discusses leadership for an uncertain time at USF

Presented by the Wally and Louise Bishop Center for Ethical Leadership at USF St. Petersburg, this free public event takes place Tuesday, Nov. 10, in the Campus Activities Center at 7:30 p.m.

A breakthrough thinker in the field of leadership and organizational theory, Margaret Wheatley writes, teaches and speaks about how organizations might organize and accomplish their work in chaotic times.

Wheatley brings her message to USF St. Petersburg during a free lecture Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the USFSP Campus Activities Center, located at the corner of 6th Ave. S and 2nd St. S. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. and a book signing will follow. Guests can park, free of charge, in the Fifth Avenue South Parking Garage, located on 5th Ave. S between 2nd and 3rd Streets S.

She has written four books: Leadership and the New Science (in twenty languages and third edition), Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (in two editions), A Simpler Way (with Myron Rogers) and, most recently, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time.

Her talk’s theme, Leadership for an Uncertain Time, should resonate with business and community leaders in St. Petersburg. Since 1973, Wheatley has worked with a broad variety of organizations; she has worked with large corporations, government agencies, healthcare institutions, foundations, public schools and professional associations. As a consultant, she has helped these organizations as they wrestle with a common dilemma – how to maintain their integrity and effectiveness as they cope with the upheavals and rapid shifts innate to these chaotic times.

Her path-breaking book, Leadership and the New Science, is credited with establishing a new approach to organizational theory. It is a standard text in leadership programs and has won awards, including Best Management Book of 1992 in Industry Week, Top Ten Business Books of the 1990s in CIO Magazine and Top Ten Business Books of all time by Xerox Corporation. Two subsequent editions have been published in 1999 and 2006. Wheatley also co-founded The Berkana Institute, a charitable foundation that works in partnership with a rich diversity of people around the world who strengthen their communities by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions and environment.

Wheatley received her doctorate from Harvard University’s program in Administration, Planning and Social Policy. She holds an M.A. in Communications and Systems Thinking from New York University, and a B.A. in History from the University of Rochester.

October 24 Green Living Expo/Sustainable Science Fair at the Science Center of Pinellas County

The Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council will sponsor a Green Living Expo and Sustainable Science Fair Saturday, Oct. 24 from 10AM to 3PM at the Science Center of Pinellas County, 7701 22^nd Ave. N, St. Petersburg.

The Expo portion of the program focuses on homeowners and other interested parties.  The Science Fair is aimed at middle school students.

There will be several education sessions planned, some of which include:

• Tax credits and incentives
• Sustainability 101 for middle school children
• Greening your home’s interior, including interior design products and cleaning products
• Greening your home’s exterior, including landscaping and lawn care
• Energy efficiency, what it means to be energy efficient and the savings benefits to becoming more efficient

The middle school science fair categories include:

• Energy efficiency
• Green landscaping
• Green home maintenance
• Water conservation
• Natural resource conservation

Booths and tables are available for those who would like to advertise at the Expo.

The mission of the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the United States Green Building Council is to lead the region toward sustainability by encouraging and advancing environmentally friendly knowledge and values.   The Green Living Expo is a free event wherein individual’s and homeowner’s have an opportunity to learn how to save money while doing our part to be more environmentally conscious.

For more information, call Deborah Cerminaro Eldridge at St. Petersburg College’s College of Technology & Management at:  (727)341-3092 or email her at eldridge.deborah@spcollege.edu.

To learn more about sustainability at St. Petersburg College, contact Jason Green at green.jason@spcollege.edu.  Then visit http://www.spcollege.edu/sustainability, join the facebook group and follow us at http://twitter.com/sustainableSPC.

EPA awards grants for students to design sustainable technologies

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded 43 grants to teams of college and university students across the country who will design creative technologies to sustainability challenges in the developed and developing world. The People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Phase I awards for the 2009-2010 competition challenges students, working together on interdisciplinary teams, to design and build sustainable technologies that improve quality of life, promote economic development, and protect the environment.
The competition begins in Phase I with the award of $10,000 grants to student teams who submit applications that focus on a wide range of categories, including water, energy, agriculture, built environment, materials and chemicals, and information technology. After working on the project for eight months, the teams will bring their designs to the 6^th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. At the Expo, the projects will be judged by a panel of experts and a select few will be awarded P3 Awards and Phase II grants up to $75,000 for students to further their designs, implement them in the field, or move them to the marketplace.

More information on EPA’s P3 program: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/p3/

More information on 2009-2010 Phase I P3 Awards: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/p3/current

City of Largo’s recycled innovations contest

Tupperware Lights by Frank Criscione

Eco-Innovators and procrastinators have more time to submit their recycled creation to the City of Largo’s Recycled Innovations Contest.  This online contest encourages innovators to make use-able items with the contents of their trash can.

All entries must be made of 75 percent or more recycled material or material that would otherwise be discarded.  Contrary to a recycled art show, Recycled Innovations are items that may be reused in daily activities. Accepted entries will be functional items made of materials that can be diverted from the waste stream.

The City of Largo’s Recycled Innovation Show will give participants the opportunity to get their designs noticed across Tampa Bay and beyond.  Innovators will be vying for innovative prizes such a solar/wind powered charges for cell phones, MP3 players and other electronics, environmental board games, and learning toys.  Prizes will be awarded to the greatest innovators in various age categories:

• Tiny Innovators
• Junior Innovators
• Tween Innovators
• Techie Innovators
• Macgyvers

Deadline for entry including photo submission and entry description is Wednesday, October 28.  Online voting begins November 1-12.  Winners will be announced on America Recycles Day, November 15.  Interested innovators can apply online at www.LargoRecycles.com or call 727.586.7424 for more information.

Repower Florida grand opening celebration

Repower Florida is having a Grand Opening celebration at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 in their Downtown St Petersburg office.  The celebration will feature local leaders speaking about clean energy technology, community members and Repower Florida supporters who will formally kick off our Repower Florida campaign supporting clean energy legislation.

The Repower Florida Headquarters in St Petersburg is located at 146 Second Street North, Suite 110, St Petersburg, FL 33701. They are located between 1st and 2nd Avenues North, across from the Baywalk parking entrance at the corner of Sunshine Lane.

Click one of the following for a map:

• Google Maps
• MapQuest
• Yahoo! Maps

Repower Florida is educating Florida on the benefits of transitioning to a clean energy economy, including providing a greener future for our children, bringing thousands of new jobs to Florida, and helping to end our deep dependence on foreign oil. Join us for food, drinks, music and help support clean energy legislation.

For more information visit http://www.repoweramerica.org/page/event/detail/4jv2j or contact Lance Orchid at 813.486.1983.

October 17 North Shore Clearwater Beach clean-up

The SPC environmental clubs and Emerging Green Builders club (you don’t have to be a member of either to participate) adopted a mile of beach (Lot 36) on North Shore Clearwater Beach, running from Rockaway St. to 880 Mandalay.

We have scheduled our next beach clean-up Saturday October 17starting at 9am, meeting on the beach at Rockaway Street. Bags and Gloves will be provided, but please remember to wear a hat, sunscreen, closed toed shoes and pants for the dunes, etc.

For driving directions click  here.

So again, plan to meet on the beach at Rockaway Street, October 17 at 9am. Spend a few hours picking up garbage and the rest relaxing on a clean beach.

Please contact green.jason@spcollege.edu or call (727) 341-3283 if you can participate!

SPC “Sustainable Enterprise Planning” students visit Student Services building

On September 16, Sustainabilty Management BAS students in MAN 3786, Sustainable Enterprise Planning, from the College of Technology & Management, took a tour of and held class at the LEED Gold new Student Services building on the St Petersburg/Gibbs campus to learn about the USGBC’s LEED rating system.

During the tour, Jason Green, a licensed architect and St. Petersburg College Sustainability Coordinator, spoke about his education, career, and college wide initiatives.

After students reviewed the various programs and initiatives at St. Petersburg College, they brainstormed opportunities for further improvements:

• Turn off computers, displays, televisions, etc. when not in use
• Use less paper towels in the bathroom by installing hand driers and hand sanitizer
• Use natural light, gray water collection, solar energy, recycling, etc.
• Change dining services to include local food, no Styrofoam packaging, reusable drinking mugs, fair trade coffee, etc.
• Partner with public transportation for buses between campuses
• Paperless course options (i.e. ebooks, library online, rental system with library)
• Smart water irrigation with rain sensors and low flow sprinklers
• Vendor code of conduct to emphasize sustainability practices, products, and services

Sustainable Enterprise Planning teaches students about various sustainability assessments and concepts as students design a mini-assessment to apply on a project of their own selection.   Throughout this project, students think critically about course lessons and ultimately recommend sustainability improvements.  Additionally, students learn various methods enterprises use to improve their sustainability and competitive abilities by considering not just profit, but also social and environmental needs by extending managerial decisions beyond their own building and operations into their supply chain.