Earth Blog

Earlier this month Whole Foods Market announced the early implementation of a drastic change to their seafood departments: they would no longer sell “red-rated fish” or fish that are unsustainable. The new policy went into affect on Earth Day and there has been a bit of opposition.

Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) sent a letter to the CEOs of Whole Foods asking them to reconsider the decision because their actions were going to hurt the New England fishing industry. Despite the outcry the store has moved forward with the policy and released a statement in defense of their actions.

There is another chain following Whole Foods’ lead: the Michigan-based Meijer also announced this month they are starting a “comprehensive seafood sustainability initiative” in their giant retail stores that sell everything from flip-flops to breakfast cereal.

Frank Lloyd Wright died 53 years ago today. That news is certainly not “breaking” but Wright was a groundbreaker and is widely recognized for his contributions in the field of architecture and interior design.

According to The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, founded by the architect himself in 1940,  409 out of 532 of his works are still standing which includes libraries, churches, museums and houses. His two personal homes Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona are maintained by the Foundation and open for tours.  Twenty Wright houses are now open to the public and more than one-third of the buildings he designed are designated as historical landmarks or preserved in historical districts.

Wright was inspired by nature and this is evident in his designs. The “Prairie houses” and the highly-recognizable Fallingwater House in Pennsylvania are examples of Wright’s dedication to the school of thought he passed on to his students: "Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature.  It will never fail you."

The City of Claremont (nickname: “The City of Trees and PhDs”) has been awarded Silver level status by the California Green Communities (CGC) program for their work toward sustainability. Claremont is only one of four cities that have reached Silver status; the others are Monrovia, Riverside, and Santa Clarita.  Seven other cities including Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Ventura are using the program’s criteria to better their towns and earn recognition.

"Our City takes its commitment to sustainability seriously," said Mayor Sam Pedroza.  "It is a priority for the City Council and it is a consideration in every project and program we provide. Achieving the Silver level status validates the tremendous work this community has done."

Over the weekend Whole Foods Market announced that they would be making a major change to their seafood departments. They are going to stop selling certain species of fish because they are unsustainable. This new policy comes a whole year before Whole Foods’ original deadline to begin the practice.

The change will start on April 22nd or Earth Day and it means there will no longer be red-rated, wild caught fish sold in their stores. Examples are: Atlantic halibut, grey sole, and skate. Instead customers will be directed to purchase fish that are similar but sustainable like Pacific halibut which is a Marine Steward Council (MSC)-certified fish. The MSC-certification is on any wild caught, sustainable fish that doesn’t have the color-coded label the store also uses.

The seafood departments stoplight colored rating system, which works well at a glance for quick decision making, was set forth in 2010 by Whole Foods and two non-profit organizations: Blue Ocean Institute and Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

The California Strawberry Commission (CSC) wants to remind you that peak season has arrived! Though strawberries are sold year round the finest examples of one California’s top crops (7th most valuable fruit crop estimated at $2.1 billion) are sold March through August.

Well over 80 percent of our nation’s strawberries are grown in California by a network of more than 500 family owned and operated farms. Together these farms grow strawberries on a combined total of 36,000 acres. This means that 56 square miles of California’s vast size is used for strawberry cultivation or about twice the size of the city of Oxnard, which is considered the “Strawberry Capital of the World.”

All farmers are concerned with sustainability and safety this obviously includes berry farmers. A look at farms and the people working on them in the self-proclaimed capital gives us an idea of the sustainability practices currently in place.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a non-profit organization with a mission “to provide innovative strategies, working models and timely information to support environmentally sound and equitable community development.” They work with communities of varying demographics to spur effective growth and lessen a town’s environmental impact.

One of their areas of focus is the big-box retailer and where there is talk of big-box retailers there is talk of Walmart. 

The ILSR released a report analyzing Walmart’s attempts at sustainability. Needless to say they think the retail giant’s attempts are insincere. Stacy Mitchell, the report’s author and a senior researcher at ILSR, is calling it as she sees it: “greenwashing.”

"Walmart's sustainability campaign has done more to improve the company's image than to help the environment," says Mitchell who is also the author of Big-Box Swindle.

Last night former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich secured a win in Georgia’s primary and gave a speech.  In this speech he said he wasn’t pandering to voters, as fellow candidate Mitt Romney claimed, when promising $2.50 a gallon gas price if elected. He called it leading. A great leader has grand ideas and goals. Another great ability Gingrich possesses is the ability to employ euphemisms. 

Suzy Amis Cameron knows the right clothes are needed to walk the red carpet. She has had to walk several red carpets as the wife of James Cameron, award-winning director of blockbuster hits like Avatar and Titanic.

In 2009 she founded Red Carpet Green Dress to raise awareness about sustainability and environmental stewardship through design. 

The organization recently announced the winner of their annual gown design contest, Miami’s Valentina Delfino, whose dress concept will be worn by actress Missi Pyle on tonight’s red carpet at the 84th Annual Academy Awards. Pyle is not nominated for an Oscar herself but is part of the cast of the heavily nominated film The Artist.

LivingHomes is considered the premier builder of pre-frabricated (pre-fab) sustainable homes.  Founded in 2006 the company features homes designed by Ray Kappe and architectural firm Kieran Timberlake. LivingHomes may be pre-fab but can also be customized and are available nationally. 

This weekend their new C6 model will open for tours in Long Beach at The Long Beach Performing Arts Center and in Palm Springs as part of Modernism Week.

Did you know that white chocolate isn’t real chocolate? White chocolate contains no chocolate liquor which is the main ingredient the treat would need to be considered real chocolate. What it does have is cocoa butter and the FDA says it must have at least 20% cocoa butter and no more than 55% sugar to be called white chocolate. Who other than Willy Wonka could have known that chocolate is a complicated confection?

Dark, bitter and semisweet chocolate is required to have 35% chocolate liquor while milk chocolate must contain 10% chocolate liquor.  Anything less is not up to the FDA’s standards and is likely labeled “chocolate flavored” or could be made of carob. 

Carob has a different texture and taste than chocolate but contains the same amount of calories. It is commonly used in gourmet dog treats to give them a harmless taste of chocolate.

Eco-rewards program RecycleBank, despite its known flaws, is a program that works for many people around the United States and in Britain.

Incentivizing home recycling on a municipal level with coupons for the mundane (buy one bottle of water, get one free) to fantastic (gift cards) would be icing on the cake for homes that consistently recycle. But not all homes do so and some towns haven't always had curbside recycling which means a commitment to one of the easiest ways to be earth-friendly isn’t present in every home. Therein lies one of the problems with RecycleBank.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) released an informative overview about jobs in the clean energy sector for women. The nine chapter guide titled Why Green is Your Color: A Woman's Guide to a Sustainable Career is available in downloadable formats on the DOL website and was produced by the the DOL’s Women’s Bureau (WB). The WB was created in 1920 and a federal agency dedicated empowering and protecting working women and their families.

"Many occupations in the clean energy economy remain virtually untapped by women," said Sara Manzano-Dias, director of the Women's Bureau.  "This guide is an invaluable resource that workforce professionals can use to help women transition into higher paying jobs that serve as a pathway into the middle class.  It is also a tool to help fight job segregation."

Marjory Wildcraft is well-known among people who grow their own food and are interested in homesteading or self-sufficiency. She knows people garden and raise animals for several reasons but she is more interested in sharing her knowledge to help the confused who don’t know where to start in their own backyards.

"I came from a business background and could not keep one house plant alive. But now I grow more than half of what I eat. I've learned what works and what doesn't," Wildcraft says.

In the past sustainable and socially conscious fashion was a bit bland. The misconception must have been: “Eco-conscious people like the Earth so let’s make everything look earthy!” or “Let’s put a whale on it!”  There is nothing wrong with earth tones and t-shirts, plain or printed, but sometimes a shopper is looking for an item that provides more color or fit. Fashion designers have stepped in to fill the need but their items can be expensive. Eco-fashion is a certainly a trend but it’s not trendy: meaning it’s here to stay. 

The company with the corner on the macaroni & cheese market, Kraft Foods, released a fact sheet today to highlight the ways they are minimizing their environmental impact through waste reduction and recycling at their manufacturing plants. The company credits their employees for making “steady progress” across the globe. Overall, Kraft recycles or reuses about 90% of their manufacturing waste.

"We're waging war on waste, one plant at a time," said Christine McGrath, Vice President, Global Sustainability.  "Today, we have 36 facilities in 13 countries that send zero waste to landfills, and we've reduced our manufacturing waste by 50 percent since 2005.  Our strategy is simple: generate less waste and find new uses for the waste we do produce.  And our employees are doing just that."

Is there a packaging material more delightful and entertaining than Bubble Wrap®, especially for children? Perhaps a giant cardboard box? But Bubble Wrap® is an instant hit and can provide hours of fun by popping individual bubbles, rolling around in it or stomping on it gleefully. Now you can bust out the bubbly-wrap for a celebration because today is the 12th Annual Bubble Wrap® Appreciation Day! 

Sealed Air Corporation, a global provider of packaging for a variety of industries, is the maker of official Bubble Wrap® and they have created bubblewrapfun.com to highlight their most popular product. 

The United States restaurant and fast food industry in particular are juggernauts in today’s economy. The fast food industry employs millions of workers and most citizens will be employed by it in some aspect during their lives. Recent focus on the unhealthy aspects of fast food eateries hasn’t managed to bring them down but has forced them to adapt to the market to meet the demand for healthier options. As it is with every industry being sustainable isn’t only about the product sold to public. In response, businesses to help streamline and “green” operations have expanded.

Today BlackGold Biofuels and SLM Facility Solutions Nationwide announced their partnership to assist restaurants in the recycling of kitchen grease. It’s one of those dirty jobs, but someone has to do it.

The ethanol subsidy the United States government has provided for the corn and energy industries quietly expired at the end of 2011. Last year the amount of money payed out was about $6 billion. There were no reports of corn farmers stowing their machinery to storm the steps of Congress, pitchforks in hand, to demand the subsidy be renewed. There would have been no one in Congress to greet the farmers anyway; they had adjourned for the holidays. The tariff on imported ethanols, like Brazil’s sugarcane ethanol, also expired.

For a website about a boat with a mission to clean the ocean we sure talk more about cars and the automotive industry here on the blog. That must be because people drive cars to work and to get their families around town more than they use boats. There is always a focus on what the auto manufacturers are doing to be green. How do their vehicles’ gas mileage and performance compare to each other? How are they streamlining their processes to conserve water and materials?  A car, regardless of whether or not it’s born a greener vehicle, has a life after the assembly line and that life should be green too.

This weekend is a holiday weekend and it’s no secret that people (but not all) like to drink alcoholic beverages on such occasions. When it comes to beer most drinkers don’t do much label reading because beer labels don’t have much information on them in the first place. The labels are required to have the Surgeon General’s warning, the alcohol content, and they have a little summary about the flavor the ingredients lend to the beer- to give customers an idea if they might like it.

There are beers that claim to be “organic.” That wonderful word that tells us we are living green and healthy. But isn’t beer inherently organic? We all know that beer is made of barley, hops, yeast, and mostly water.  We know that brewing is an ancient practice not limited to one specific culture. Is there a difference between beer and organic beer? Yes and it has to do with the treatment of the ingredients and where they originate before they ever reach a bottle.