If anything makes as big a thud on your doorstep as the Yellow Pages books, it has been the JC Penney semi-annual “Big Book.”

The 2009 Big Book - Collector's item?

But the retailer has decided that that thud has outlived its impressiveness and is taking a heavy toll on marketing costs and forests, announcing today that it will no long print the giant catalog. Instead, JC Penney will dedicate its resources to specialty catalogs and online services.

Explained the press release: “The discontinuation of “big book” catalogs aligns with JCPenney’s ongoing commitment to promote the sustainability of forests and other natural resources, and builds upon its legacy of operating in an ethical and socially responsible manner.”

The company expects to use 25 to 30 percent less paper for catalogs in 2010 – which will continue  “a four-year trend of declining paper consumption.”

JC Penney also will be using lighter weight paper in its remaining catalogs to keep down the wood fiber content.

Plano, Texas-based JC Penney is ”keeping pace with consumers’ changing media habits and continued migration to online versus catalog shopping…,” said Myron E. (Mike) Ullman, III, chairman and chief executive officer, in a press release.

“Big book catalogs have become less relevant, as customers have embraced shopping online,” noted Mike Boylson, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, “where they have ready access to our entire assortment at any time on jcp.com, one of the nation’s largest general merchandise sites on the Internet.”

Yellow Pages, the pressure’s on.

From Green Right Now Reports

Star Market at Chestnut Hill in Newton, Mass., recently became the first grocery store in the nation to receive US Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership platinum store award. The advanced refrigeration technology in the new store, which is part of the Shaw’s line of supermarkets, significantly reduces its impact on climate change and the stratospheric ozone layer by cutting the use of refrigerants by 85 percent compared with the typical supermarket.

Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, called the store’s efforts “wicked cool.”

“This store shows that smart design and advanced technologies help us right now to better protect our climate, the ozone layer, and our health,” McCarthy said in a statement.

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry to promote advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

GreenChill partners emit about 50 percent less emissions than the industry average, and have pledged to continually lower them as part of the program. EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the nation joined GreenChill and reduced emissions to the current GreenChill average, the U.S. would prevent 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 tons of ozone-depleting substances annually, and save $108 million in refrigerant costs each year. GreenChill has 46 partners, with more than 6,500 retail food stores in 47 states.

Under the program, GreenChill Partner stores agree to:

• Transition to non-ozone-depleting refrigerants;
• Reduce refrigerant charges;
• Reduce both ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerant emissions; and
• Promote supermarkets’ adoption of advanced refrigeration technologies

Earlier this year, the EPA honored a handful of supermarkets for reducing their use of greenhouse gas refrigerants that deplete the Earth’s ozone layer and contribute to climate change. Awardees included  Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods, and Hill Phoenix.

Sprouts Farmers Market, which owns stores across California, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, received a New Partner Award.

New partners pledge to go above and beyond regulatory requirements by measuring and tracking refrigerant emissions that affect climate change and the Earth’s ozone layer, and then setting reduction targets for these emissions. Partners also agree to use only ozone-friendly alternatives in all new and remodeled stores.

“We look forward to a productive and mutually beneficial partnership with Sprouts Farmers Market,” Keilly Witman, GreenChill Program Manager, said in a statement. “The public wants to do business with companies that share their environmental values. By joining GreenChill, Sprouts Farmers Market is proving to consumers that they care about the Earth’s ozone layer and climate system.”

Whole Foods Market’s newest store in the North Atlantic Region, located at Legacy Place in Dedham, Mass., was recognized for its environmentally friendly design, construction, and operations with the Green Building Initiative’s (GBI) Green Globes certification and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) GreenChill certification.

For the Green Globes certification, the Dedham store was evaluated in six categories, including energy, water, resources, emissions, indoor environment and environmental management systems, and received a three out of four “Green Globes” rating. The EPA’s GreenChill certification program promotes advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

“With the combined power generated from our fuel cell and solar panels, the Dedham store is essentially able to generate almost 100 percent of its power needs on-site with clean energy resources,” Kathy Loftus, global leader of sustainable engineering, maintenance, and energy for Austin-based Whole Foods, said in a statement. “We are the first supermarket to use fuel cell technology in the state.”

By generating most of its power on-site with a fuel cell, Whole Foods’ Dedham store will prevent the release of more than 764 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually, the equivalent of planting more than 175 acres of trees and removing over 90 cars from the road, according to the natural foods grocer. The peak power generated from the photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system is enough to meet the store’s entire lighting power needs.

To achieve a Green Globes rating, Whole Foods used Green Globes’ online and interactive program to monitor the environmentally friendly building upgrades. A GBI-authorized third-party building science expert was engaged to review the building documents, conduct an on-site inspection and assess an official Green Globes rating.

Photo: Nike

In just one year, 300 million pairs of shoes are thrown away. These shoes end up in landfills across the US. Not only do these shoes not easily break down, the glue that holds a shoe together is toxic. So instead of adding to the growing trash problem, give your shoes a new life. What’s old to you, could be a playground for someone else thanks to Nike.

Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program, in partnership with the National Recycling Coalition, takes used athletic shoes and transforms them into something new.  The program, which began in 1990, has collected and recycled over 24 million pairs of shoes. Old athletic shoes are converted into Nike Grind, material that is then used to make:

• Athletic facilities: tracks, basketball and tennis courts, playgrounds, and turf for soccer and football fields
• Clothing accessories: zipper pulls, snaps and buttons
• Shoes: Air Jordan XX3, Nike Trash Talk, Tiempo Super Ligera Soccer Shoe

With grinding facilities in Wilsonville, Ore., and Meerhout, Belgium, donated shoes are broken down into three parts:

• Nike Grind Rubber, made from the shoe’s outsole, is used in track surfaces, interlocking gym flooring tiles, playground surfacing and consumer products, such as new footwear outsoles and trim items like buttons and zipper pulls.
• Nike Grind Foam, made from the shoe’s midsole, is used as a cushion for outdoor basketball and tennis courts, as well as futsal fields.
• Nike Grind Upper, made from the shoe’s fabric upper, is used in the creation of cushioning pads for indoor basketball, volleyball courts and equestrian surfacing products.

Nike’s Belgium distribution center runs completely on wind power. “The facility produces enough power not only to provide energy for the distribution center but also puts energy back into the grid for the community to use,” said Kate Meyers with Nike.

Nike accepts any brand athletic shoe, no matter how worn out, excluding only cleats and spikes. There are over 300 drop off locations nationwide at Nike stores, and if there is not one near you, you can mail your shoes directly to Nike’s distribution facility. Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe also reaches Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Nike has been doing well by the environment for quite a while now. “We take our commitment to the environment very seriously.  We were the first US company to join the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Savers Program where we have reduced our CO2 emissions– 18 percent over what it was 10 years ago,” said Meyers.

But, if your shoes are not totally worn out, there is another option. Just because you don’t think your shoes are trendy anymore, doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t wear them. If your shoes are wearable, there are great charities that you can donate your shoes to such as Soles4Souls. This organization that is “Changing the World One Pair at a Time” gives gently worn shoes to people in need.

“There are an estimated 1.52 billion pairs in American closets that are no longer being worn,” stated Elizabeth Kirk, Public Relations and Marketing for Soles4Souls, Inc. Soles4Souls has distributed over four million pairs of shoes in 125 countries. They accept ALL types of shoes, even a single shoe will taken.  Soles4Souls gives you an opportunity to do good for the environment and for those less fortunate all at the same time.

Check here for a drop off location near you. “We have anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 retail locations that are currently collecting shoes.  We ask that the public clean out their closet, take their shoes to one of these participation locations and in most cases receive a discount on a new pair,” said Kirk.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The Cobb County Water System in Marietta, Ga., and Kohler, maker of water faucets and other plumbing supplies, have won government recognition for their water-conserving ways.

The EPA named them among its “WaterSense” Partners of the Year. The program highlights the many ways in which organizations can advocate for saving water:

• Cobb County water officials teamed up with Kohler, Lowe’s Home Improvement stores and others, to promote Georgia’s tax holiday for WaterSense products. WaterSense products include such things as water sensors for sprinkler systems to stop needless watering; low-flow shower heads and faucets, and toilets that use less water.

• Kohler, of Kohler, Wisc., was named “Manufacturer of the Year” for earning the WaterSense label for 40 percent of the faucets it produces and 25 percent of its toilets. Like the EPA’s EnergyStar program that recognizes light bulbs and appliances that go easy on electricity, the WaterSense program labels products so consumers can select those that conserve water.

• Lowe’s was named Retailer of the Year by the program for training more than 200,000 employees to promote WaterSense products and  increasing the percentage of WaterSense labeled products in its inventory.

The EPA estimates that its 1,000-plus WaterSense partners helped Americans save more than 9.3 billion gallons of water in 2008.

The James City Service Authority in Williamsburg, Va., also was recognized for promoting water conservation, and Brian Vinchesi of Mooresvile, N.C., was named “Irrigation Partner of the Year.”

The EPA urges everyone to think about conserving water.

“Water shortage is a growing concern in the United States. By making just a few simple changes, you can not only save hundreds of dollars for yourself, but trillions of gallons of water and billions of dollars for the country,” says Virginia Lee of the WaterSense program.

For more information on the winners and how you can save water, see the WaterSense website.

Chegg.com, the online textbook rental site, has been helping the environment by planting a tree for every book rented, sold or bought this tear. The company announced today that it has reached more than one million trees planted in 2009 through a partnership with the American Forests’ Global ReLeaf program.

Chegg is celebrating the milestone by having its one-millionth renter, Jarrett Crisp, a junior from Hill College in Burleson, Texas, plant the tree at a wildfire restoration project in the Tahoe National Forest near South Lake Tahoe, Calif., next spring.

By some estimates, more than 20 million trees are cut each year to make new books, so Chegg has built a brand that encourages students to help replenish and protect the environment by renting, reusing and recycling their textbooks. Since 2007 when the partnership with American Forests began, Chegg has planted more than 3,000 acres of forests.

“On average, a student will use one tree’s worth of paper in textbooks each year, so it’s been important for Chegg to give back to the environment by planting trees through American Forests,” Aayush Phumbhra, co-founder and senior vice president of operations at Chegg, said in a statement.  “This incredible milestone could not have been possible if it weren’t for the amazing college students across the country choosing Chegg to rent their textbooks.  We look forward to celebrating our next million trees!”

Chegg is currently the largest tree-planting partner of the American Forests Global ReLeaf program, which helps individuals, organizations and corporations improve the local and global environment. The trees are planted to restore forest ecosystems damaged by natural and man-made disasters. To date, trees planted by Chegg on behalf of students have improved the land in Guatemala, Cameroon and Lake Tahoe.

West Coast Green, a gathering that‘s part expo, part trade show and part thought conference, will be showcasing leading edge green projects when it opens at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco this coming weekend.

One of the largest conferences devoted to the “built environment,” the event attracts speakers with architectural, design and construction expertise from around the nation.

Visitors to the 2009 conference, Oct. 1-3, will be able to see demos of hundreds of products, as well as examples of green design, such as a large hanging garden constructed on a bamboo framework that will be suspended over the bay. The installation aims to show how green can be beautiful and useful, using vegetation to mitigate heat, sequester carbon and improve water and air quality.

The SFH40, an off-grid building for emergency use (Photo: West Coast Green.)

Another demonstration will feature a self-sustaining, off-the-grid building called the SHF40 that could be used during medical or weather emergencies or as temporary housing.

Some 300 exhibitors will be showing green and non-toxic building products; solar, wind and waste reduction technology.

But West Coast Green is also about envisioning what could be, and this year offers several “leadership summits” where participants can learn about retrofitting residential buildings, clean tech and green business opportunities – so they can go forth and pave — or, er, permeable rock path — the way in these arenas. There will also be a “design slam,” a brainstorming session among designers to help green a renovation of a Pier at Fort Mason.

Many notable sustainability experts will be speak, including keynoters:

• Bill Reed, president of the Integrative Design Collaborative based in Massachusetts and New Mexico

• Andrew Winston, founder of Ecostrategies.

• Rebecca Costa, futurist and author, The Watchman’s Rattle

• Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, author of Design Like You Give  Damn

• Peter Darbee, CEO of PG&E, a sponsor of the event and among the companies leaving the US Chamber of Commerce over the chamber’s opposition to climate legislation.

• Ray Anderson, chair and founder of Interface Inc.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom also will address the gathering at the opening Thursday morning. Dozens of other speakers will conduct workshops at the conference, which is in its fourth year.

Another green building conference is fast approaching. The annual GreenBuild event hosted by the US Green Building Council (which administers the LEED certification program). GreenBuild xpects to showcase up to 1,800 products at the Phoenix event Nov. 11-13.

Tesla Roadster

Environmentally-sensitive lifestyles and luxury goods would not, to many of us, seem to go together very well. People who own billion-dollar yachts, for instance, aren’t exactly worrying about their carbon footprint.

But plenty of purveyors of high-end goods hope to fight that assumption. Gathering a few steps from Central Park at Manhattan’s Rouge Tomate restaurant Tuesday, a few dozen companies argued that you can have your lush life and save the planet, too.

Fashion models and a celebrity or two mingled with backpack-toting journalists at the event, but (no offense to the models) the sexiest guest never came in the front door: A Tesla Roadster was parked out front, inviting slack-jawed lust from passersby, right in front of a more modest would-be world-changer, the single-seat NmG from Myers Motors.

Both companies had representatives inside, as did conventional carmakers like Audi and Mercedes-Benz, whose bragging about the 20-something miles per gallon their newest models get sounded pretty underwhelming in light of the plug-ins across the room.

All the autos, though, looked like Earth-savers when compared to the dubious offerings of Greenjets, which is essentially a car-pool in the sky for those who would otherwise travel on private jets. Yes, sharing a plane with a dozen or more of your fellow upper-crusters wastes less fuel than flying solo, but a commercial flight is better still.

In other categories, displays without an obvious environmental link sometimes proved surprisingly compelling. Looking at the many jewelers in attendance, for instance, a skeptic might have rolled his eyes: Beyond donating a slice of sales to green charities, how did any of them help the world? Well, it turns out, some had a pretty good argument. Designer Alberto Parada, for instance, was passionate about the environmental impact of global gold mining (promoting a “No Dirty Gold” campaign that hopes to raise public awareness to equal the controversy over diamond mining) and was proud to say his collection exclusively used gold that had been reclaimed from discarded jewelry.

A plethora of beauty products were available for sampling at Eco-Luxe, from shea butter balms sold through Whole Foods to handmade soaps and a line whose cute packaging described it as “natural beauty for girls”.

Further up the pampering food chain were spas. All offered body treatments with exotic all-natural ingredients or low-impact aspirations, but some went further: Albany’s Complexions spa, which sounds like a much-needed oasis of calm for that politically fractious town, claims to be the state’s “first & only LEED Gold spa & salon.”

For more active recreation, the obligatory array of exercise water bottles was highlighted by one, from The Water Geeks, that did the filtering for you via a screw-in adapter — perfect for carrying around the countryside or urban jungle as you ride an enhanced bike that makes electricity from your pedal and braking action to give you an extra boost when the going gets tough.

Bonterra Wine

And what’s the high life without entertaining? In addition to Rouge Tomate’s quite popular wholesome cocktails (the cucumber one with agave nectar was particularly tasty) were organically produced wines from Bonterra and Korbel and a slew of new flavored offerings from 360 Vodka. Choco-tini, anyone? (A helpful spokesperson at the 360 booth answered a question I’d had about their packaging: Turns out the bottle is “only” 85% recycled content because a higher percentage wouldn’t be strong enough not to break.) And for planning the party to go with all that booze, a designer from Celadon & Celery cheerfully showed off a beautiful “green wall” of succulents planted in materials rescued from a demolished playground.

All in all, the event was far from the greenwashing field day skeptics might have predicted. For every instance of weird aromatherapy or sighting of an evening gown made of cork, there was an entrepreneur who was clearly sincere about making goods that are both desirable and beneficial — or at least not harmful — to the world they come from.

True, almost nothing in the room could be called a necessity. But squeezing through the crush of magazine writers and eco-advocates who mingled, a visitor sensed (and sometimes overheard) a bit of relief that this was less an exercise in easing the guilt of conspicuous consumption than a step toward convincing high-end business that many of their customers care about the long term impact of life’s little pleasures.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Newsweek has launched a ranking of the greenest companies in America and Hewlett-Packard tops the initial list. The Newsweek Green Rankings, based on companies’ environmental footprint, policies and practices, appears in the Sept. 28 issue of the magazine.

The green ranking covers America’s 500 largest publicly traded companies as measured by revenue, market capitalization and number of employees. Companies were ranked based on criteria such as each company’s greenhouse gas emissions, toxic waste emissions and use of other natural resources. Newsweek and its partners also assessed the companies’ management of environmental issues and policies, regulatory compliance and policies concerning climate change. Newsweek said the rankings also factor in the results of a reputational survey of CEOs, corporate social responsibility officers, members of the media, academics and members of key environmental groups.

The top 10 greenest companies in America according to the report are:

1. Hewlett-Packard Company
2. Dell Inc.
3. Johnson & Johnson
4. Intel Corporation
5. IBM
6. State Street Corporation
7. NIKE, Inc.
8. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
9. Applied Materials, Inc.
10. Starbucks Corporation

Newsweek also broke out the list by industry sector, determining the top 10 greenest companies in their respective industries. The top companies from each industry are:

• Banks & Insurance — Wells Fargo & Company
• Basic Materials — Praxair, Inc.
• Financial Services — State Street Corporation
• Food & Beverage — Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.
• General Industrials, Construction and Materials — ITT Corporation
• Health Care Equipment and  Services — Baxter International Inc.
• Industrial Goods and Services — Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Industrial Transportation, Aerospace and Defense — United Technologies Corporation
• Media, Travel and Leisure — Starbucks Corporation
• Oil and Gas — Marathon Oil Corporation
• Personal and Household Goods, Autos and Auto Parts — NIKE, Inc.
• Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology — Johnson & Johnson
• Retail — Kohl’s Corporation
• Technology and Telecommunications — Hewlett-Packard Company
• Utilities — PG&E Corporation

Partners on the survey included environmental research experts KLD Research and Analytics, the lead partner on the project, Trucost and CorporateRegister.com.

Newsweek said it used an expert panel to appraise the Newsweek Green Ranking methodology and review the preliminary and final list. The panelists included Dan Esty, prof. of environmental law and policy, Yale University; Marjorie Kelly, senior associate at Tellus Institute and co-founder and former editor of Business Ethics Magazine;
Wood Turner, executive director of Climate Counts; David Vidal, global Corporate citizenship research director at The Conference Board; and John Steelman of The Climate Center, National Resource Defense Council.

Palm Oil, an ingredient found in most processed food, has been the subject of much environmental debate in recent years over its role in deforestation. It is commonly found in cooking oil and as an ingredient in cosmetics, soaps, detergents, and some plastics. Palm oil also has been considered for use in the production of biodiesel.

There have been many attempts to make palm oil sustainable. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was even established in 2003 to do just that. Unfortunately, six years later, there is still no system that can effectively trace palm oil beyond the processor to the plantation level. Companies that manufacture products using palm oil have little way of knowing where the controversial substance originated — which leaves the question of whether and to what degree palm oil is sustainably farmed up in the air.

This week, a press campaign run by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and aimed at putting the best spin on the industry ran aground when Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned a magazine ad by the Malaysian boosters.

The headline of the MPOC’s magazine advertisement read: “Palm Oil: The Green Answer.”

As if that were not misleading enough, the ad made many more claims, such as:

• “Palm oil is the only product able to sustainably and efficiently meet a large portion of the world’s increasing demand for oil crop-based consumer goods, foodstuffs and biofuel … Malaysia’s forest cover is certain to be maintained.”
• “With the increased attention paid to oil crops, and oil palm in particular, a number of criticisms have been leveled at Malaysia’s palm oil industry, from accusations of rampant deforestation and unsound environmental practices to unfair treatment of farmers and indigenous people. These allegations – protectionist agendas hidden under a thin veneer of environmental concern – are based neither on scientific evidence, nor, for that matter, on fact.”
• “In addition to its green credentials, Malaysia’s palm oil industry also plays an important role in the industrialization of the country and the alleviation of poverty, especially amongst rural populations.”

The advertisement violated substantiation, truthfulness, and the environmental claims sections of the Advertising Standards Authority’s Code, according to the group’s assessment.

“Although we acknowledged that some Malaysian palm oil companies had sought certification from the RSPO [the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil], we understood that the scheme and the certification of biofuels in general was still the subject of debate,” stated the Advertising Standards Authority’s Assessment.

They report explained that “palm oil had played a role in the development of the Malaysian economy in its shift from reliance on rubber and tin mining” and it acknowledged MPOCs assertion that this created one million jobs.

But it also noted that environmental and human rights groups had legitimate complaints about palm oil producers. Friends of the Earth, for instance, contends that palm oil production creates adverse social impacts by displacing indigenous communities affected by deforestation.

Issues over housing and land rights and low wages and poor treatment of workers “compromised MPOCs claim that palm oil had a societal benefit,” the advertisers assessment stated.

The advertising regulators concluded that the magazine ad must no longer appear in its current form.

There is no such thing as sustainable palm oil, at least not yet, according to the ASA.

Malaysian leader presses palm oil’s virtues

The MPOC fired back on Wednesday, complaining that the ASA was relying on FOE’s biased environmental conclusions and arguing that palm oil, being the cheapest vegetable oil, should be available to consumers, especially the poor.

“Today, the ASA ruled that an advertorial in The Economist highlighting the economic importance and environmental sustainability of Malaysian Palm Oil should not appear in any other UK media outlets. The ruling followed a complaint by Friends of the Earth about the advertorial. By censoring our message, this relatively small group of people is blocking the entire British public’s access to a diverse range of views and information about Palm Oil,” wrote the Malaysian group’s CEO Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Yusof Basiron.

“Consumers have a right to have information about the various products and services available to them and a right to determine for themselves which they want. Consequently, we are deeply concerned that the ASA is acting as an interested party in the public debate on palm oil rather than as a neutral and objective arbiter.”

Once, long ago, a winemaker promised to sell no wine before its time. Now, a different company is promising to sell no wine (one label of wine anyway) without helping humans atone for past crimes.

The rhyme may not be as good, but the thought is more altruistic.

Trinity Oaks, a wine brand in the portfolio of Trinchero Family Estates, is pouring itself into this project by partnering up with Trees for the Future, an organization that plants trees around the world, promising that for every bottle of wine consumers purchase, they’ll plant one tree.

The California company also is diverting money usually spent on printed marketing material toward environmental causes, to combat global warming.

“The tree planting campaign, in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Trees for the Future,
helps restore tree cover to tropical landscapes throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America,” said Juliana French-Arnold, public relations specialist for Trinchero Family Estates.

“The purpose of our work is to improve people’s livelihoods in developing countries through helping them restore health to their land, increase their food security, and improving their ability to generate income. This is all possible primarily through planting multi-purpose, beneficial trees in gardens and fields, and on degraded lands. Furthermore–though this was not how we began planting trees twenty years ago, it is of increasing importance presently–planting trees is also the best way we have available to remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere thereby helping to reduce pressures from climate change,” said Gabriel Buttram with Trees for the Future.

“For instance, if Trinity Oaks plants one million trees with us over the course of a year in the tropics they would sequester around 25,000 tons of CO2 each year,” at the beginning of the campaign, Buttram said.

There is no limit to the amount of trees the company will plant. To date, the One Bottle One Tree program has planted more than 1.8 million trees. The campaign that began in the summer of 2008 will run until next summer.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

If it feels like you are finding a new phonebook on your door step every week and yet, you can’t remember the last time you opened one to get a number, listen up. The industry may be walking away, albeit in baby steps, from its paper-wasting ways.

These days there are multiple ways to get a phone number without having to thumb through a directory. With sites like www.yellowpages.com and www.superpages.com many people are turning away from print phone books and using online versions. There are even free phonebook applications for phones such as the iPhone and Blackberrys.

This is a trend that even phonebook providers are waking up to. On August 13, the Yellow Pages Association and the Association of Directory Publishers launched a national opt-out program. “Yellowpagesoptout.com makes it simple for consumers to find information about managing home delivery of print directories,” said Neg Norton, president, Yellow Pages Association.

It is simple. Go to www.yellowpagesoptout.com to enter your zip code. The site pulls up the list of providers for your area. Some publishers have direct links to stop delivery, while others require that you call them. This allows users to lower the number of phonebooks they receive yearly or simple stop all print delivery.

You’ll still be able to get “the yellow pages”.

“Our local data is available in a number of ways, including print phone books, Internet Yellow Pages, Google, and Yahoo! Local, for example.” Norton said. “Whatever way consumers choose to find a local business, chances are the last mile of the search was supported by Yellow Pages – whether the consumer knows it or not.”

There are areas that are testing out a Yellow Pages-only pilot program. A hardcopy of the yellow pages would be distributed to consumers, with a cd-rom of the white pages. Consumers would still be able to request to receive a hardcopy of the white pages if they preferred. ”In areas where the Yellow Pages-only delivery has been tried, an average of 1 percent of subscribers requested paper copies of the White Pages,” said Don Sadler, AT&T Spokesman. AT&T Florida is getting on board with the program this fall in four of their major markets: West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami.

And if you do prefer print versions to virtual phonebooks, you will be pleased to know that the print versions are becoming more eco-friendly. The paper used contains 40% recycled content, while the other 60% is a byproduct of sawmills.

If you don’t recycle your old phonebooks, they are either gathering dust on your desk or taking up space in area landfills, neither of which are desirable.

Need help figuring out where and how to recycle? The Yellow Pages site has tips.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Just in time for the new school year, an environmental watchdog group has issued a report card on paper retailers with forest-friendly policies.

ForestEthics, a Canadian-US non-profit founded in 2000, and the Dogwood Alliance, a defender of Southern US forests based in Asheville, N.C., collaborated on the third annual Green Grades report, which placed FedEx Office and Office Depot at the top of their class.

FedEx Office received an A- and Office Depot a B. Staples got a B- and Office Max a C in the group’s evaluation of the office retail sector.

Forest Ethics assessed these companies’ paper-buying practices to see if they favored Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper from sustainably managed forests; avoided disreputable suppliers whose logging operations damaged protected or vulnerable regions. The report card also considered the companies’ pursuit of recycled materials and their leadership on sustainability.

ForestEthics found that FedEx Office, for instance, avoids paper sourced from delicate caribou habitat, Indonesian forests and has “just made a major shift away from tree plantations in the US South”. The company also was the first to express a “solid preference” for FSC-certified paper and has said that most of the paper used in its copy centers will be from US FSC sources.

Office Depot, according to the report, does the “best job of tracking its forest sources, has the most detailed paper policy…” The company avoids using paper from endangered forests in Indonesia, but some of its paper still comes from caribou habitat in Canada and tree plantations in the US South (which are near monocultures and fail to support wildlife).

Staples received a similar mostly positive report and was cited for its positive “ambitious goals” but dinged for still selling some brands of paper linked to endangered portions of the Boreal Forest and using less-sustainable paper sources at its newly acquired “Corporate Express” units.

Office Max is “improving” and using more FSC paper, but it still has “big gaps” in its sourcing and relies on “weak” certifications like the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. They are still selling too much paper sourced in the Boreal Forest and from tree plantations in the US South.

The Boreal Forest in Canada is a large,  still mostly pristine ecosystem that supports many endangered species, but as important in today’s world, serves as a huge carbon sink, helping to lessen the carbon load of Earth’s atmosphere. The tropical Indonesian forests serve the same role, and also protect many species on the brink of extinction.

This year’s report also looked at “Big Box” sellers, finding that none deserved good marks for positive paper practices. Target, however, is “taking some encouraging steps forward” by phasing out questionable suppliers and paper made from Indonesian forests. WalMart/Sam’s Club has good policies on using sustainable wood for furniture and eco-sensitive packaging policies but “its paper practices” haven’t kept pace, the report noted. The world’s largest retailer still buys from suppliers who log in endangered forests and convert natural forests to less ecologically valuable tree plantations.

The report gave failing grades (an F) to Costco, which sells recycled paper but buys from “far too many” controversial sources; and to Amazon.com, which does not have “a meaningful paper policy.” Both Costco and Amazon did not return surveys from ForestEthics survey so less is known about their sourcing policies, according to the report card.

The report called out two paper manufacturers for destructive practices, including the world’s larger paper and pulp company, International Paper (IP), which it claims has been logging in endangered areas in the Southern US.

IP says in its 2006 Sustainability Report, the latest one on its website, that it does not operate in endangered forests. It notes that it shares the conservation “views” with groups such as the Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense and the World Wildlife Fund and has sold hundreds of thousands of acres of ecologically sensitive lands to conservation groups.

It also condemned Asia Pulp & Paper for destroying endangered wildlife habitat Indonesia.

Asia Pulp & Paper notes on its sustainability web pages that it supports “high conservation value” areas and says its operations do not threaten wildlife. Its mills and management methods are ISO compliant, meaning they meet world standards for humane and resource-mindful practices, and the company is involved in efforts to save the Sumatran Tigers and the orangutans (which conservation groups say are rapidly losing their habitat and lives due to poaching and deforestation by food industries).

Still, ForestEthics reported that many wholesalers and buyers in the supply chain are moving away from these two large supply companies, and watching out for other controversial sources.

The forest guardian group also took a swipe at greenwashing in the industry, slamming companies that “exaggerate or distort claims of being green” while behind the scenes they are helping destroy forests. The group said that paper wholesalers Xpedx , which is owned by International Paper, and PaperlinX, a stationery and graphic paper supplier, were misleading customers with false green claims.

Australian-based PaperlinX says on its website that it follows a sustainability plan involving certification by the FTSE4Good Index Series and sells paper that is dually certified by FSC and another certification body. It reduced its paper-manufacturing carbon footprint by 11 percent in 2007, according to its 2008 sustainability report.

ForestEthics cited two other wholesalers, Unisource and United Stationers, as pursuing a greener path and making “rapid progress” toward using more sustainable paper.

(Photo credit: JD Taylor, ForestEthics, photo of caribou)

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