viva verde

Came home last night from a long night catering for Avanti Cafe and was catching up on the Olympics when I saw a commercial for something that made me pretty pissed-off:

SC Johnson’s new “greenlist” certification.

Guess who is in charge of granting this label to SC Johnson products that, “will help consumers identify products that are environmentally responsible and deliver the performance excellence they trust and expect from SC Johnson.”

SC Johnson of course!

Part of this advertisement was also a visual of the SC Johnson products that they were associating with the “greenlist” label.

(basically they showed these products and others like Ple*ge, Ra*d, Glad* air fresheners…yes you name it name-brand products that we have been seeing for years)

This makes me sick. They haven’t even changed the labels of the products! How stupid do they think we are (i would assume pretty stupid to pull this off). From what i have found SCJ have devised this program back in 2001; funny that we never hear of it until the beginning of 2008.

As part of my on-going efforts to help with the marketing of the large corps that try to greenwash the public i have created a a new logo for them:

please BAN all SC Johnson products!

and please support the companies that have been creating non-toxic cleaning products as 100% of their business!

so i have been reading a little bit about our friends at Clorox and their wonderful, incredible “green” line of cleaning products which, for the sake of this blog i would like to call:

Another Way We Can Make Money off you While We Still Make Money off Bleach

or for short:

Stupid Consumer                        

it is really sad too b/c i have heard that Sara Snow actually talked about it on her show on the Discover Channel. Sara, you should know better. I don’t care how “green” their “new line” of products are, THESE GUYS STILL CONTINUE TO MAKE BLEACH AND OTHER HARMFUL CHEMICALS.

and it is really hard for me to believe that this company is just now realizing how bad/harmful their products are. heck if they really did, they would have stopped making 1/2 their products the day they opened shop.

but maybe i should cut Clorox some slack, be nice and give them a chance. maybe they still don’t know about how bad bleach is…yeah, that’s it. well, i am going to help them! in honor of their new product line and dedication to the health and safety of humans, i am going to help develop a new image for their new line:

don’t worry Clorox, free of charge for my services!

if you haven’t heard already, a while back the Times came out with an interesting article about Clorox’s newest purchase: BURT’S BEES.

yes, no joke, not pulling your leg. the story goes into the very interesting background of how Burt’s started and how after paving the way for some pretty great (love the tinted lip balm) products, were bought out for over 900 million dollars… wait, that’s it!

according to the article, Clorox wants to turn over a new leaf, so to say…become greener. they have a new line of safe cleaning products coming out (which i choose not to mention) and are thinking more about their business practices. well Clorox, i may not be a Stanford Business School alumni, or even close to it..or even close to a neighbor of being close to one, but i have just a couple business suggestions…here we go:

1) STOP making bleach

2)STOP marketing for bleach

3) STOP making bleach

4) STOP making your employees make bleach

5) see 1-4

i am on a green business network, sponsored by the wonderful & fantastic people at Co-op America and several people in the group have been discussing whether SIGG canteens are safe to use.

i normally would not post about our business network discussions (do you have 10 years to spare?), but i found it interesting because many customers ask this question: Are SIGG canteens safe to use?

here’s the scoop:

SIGG has a stainless steel outer-shell, with a inner-shell made of a “water based epoxy resin” with perhaps Bisphenol-A, a chemical that in tiny, tiny amounts can cause cancer. some say that it is no longer an “epoxy”, in fact SIGG removed the word from their site. but some say that they removed it while others who sell it still have it on their sites. now i hear “enamel” that is safe.

my question is: if stainless steel is safe, then why have an enamel/epoxy inside…and does it break into little pieces when you drop the canteen…which you all know will happen at least 20 or so times??

go Klean Kanteen!

no trash week starts tomorrow. what does that mean exactly? that means, DO NOT use anything that could end up in a landfill. based out of Seattle (big surprise!), i would really love to see this happen with the fervor & passion that is displayed at major sporting events, which creates mountains of trash (and i have yet to see a full scale recycling program, use of biocompostables or anything else to help with the waste).

i know what you are thinking: “i can just use glass and cans for the next week, then recycle them”…which i guess is true, but organizers are definitely trying to steer us away from anything like that (note: biodegradable items are OK). the point is: can we actually live for 7 days without any extra waste? can such an advanced society have the capacity to do a couple extra things, think a couple extra steps ahead to not have an interaction with the trash can?

thankfully, the no-trash-for-a-week-people have provided some tips to help with the week ahead. i must admit however that they seemed totally obvious once i read them (making me feel that feeling when you slap your forehead with your hand really hard). it is just so hard to change old habits!

but i am going to try it! i am pretty excited about it too….i will keep you posted.

this guy & biocompostables are the exception!

this past week i went out to collect my trashcans….same old, same old, no big deal right?

at first i thought the paper was one of those routine information flyers that told you what could & could not go in each tub, or perhaps a thank you gift from my trash collector on how proud he was that he was working the route of the only eco-friendly store in the county! perhaps we can trade recycling stories over a soy-green tea lattes.

no what i got was a citation! which could amount to about $50.

i was completely dumb-founded on how this happened, i thought that for sure someone had used our trash cans for IDP (illegal dumping purposes, ie. fast food and beer cans). but when i checked the can all i saw was our biocompostables from an event the week before.

i called Waste Management to explain the situation, that the cups & plates where meant to be in the green can….this was our conversation:

me: the items that were in the green can are actually made from vegetables, they were meant to be composted.

WM: well maybe you should put them in for recycling?

me: i cant, they are meant for composting.

WM: well maybe you should just throw them away with the other trash.

me: that defeats the whole purpose of me having these things!

WM: you should talk to your collector about that then.

…so i guess i am waiting on the curb all day monday until he shows up.

so i get people, every so often asking me about Method cleaning products, you know of them at your local Target store. if you haven’t it looks like this:

now call me picky, hard-core or nerd…but when i think eco-friendly, healthy, non-toxic, safe…i don’t think teal solution w/ fragrance. yes, method has many ingredients that are safe & biodegradable but what about those who are chemically sensitive? i can’t imagine coloring & fragrance being items that make them feel comfortable. and what’s wrong with clean smelling like clean? why does it have to smell like something else?