Green Right Now

By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Today’s daily catch comes from a thoughtful post by John Livesay over at Saving The World.

He points out how Focus Features has a film in production that is greening up the process in every way possible. I’ve heard of green band productions, such as Radiohead or Dave Mathews, but this is a first for me in the film biz.

Away We Go Green: Focus Features Production Embraces More Sustainable Filmmaking

If you are not injecting this type of innovation (thoughtfullness) into your business, what’s your excuse?

Read more from Tim at SandersSays and at the Saving the World at Work site.

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By Barbara KesslerGreen Right Now

With winter weather at its most aggressive about now, it’s hard not to notice all the idlers in our midst. They’re idling at fast food restaurants, outside offices and schools. You find a business, there’s a car idling outside. Some people take their right to idle pretty seriously. Police cruisers idling while they lie in wait will get no argument from me. Ditto crossing guards, for different reasons.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Today’s great catch is fresh from the Consumer Electronics Show:
Moto Goes Green With Entry Level Renew Phone

It’s about time! Up until now, you had to donate your phone via mailing it to a variety of causes (such as phones for soldiers). The rub is that eventually that phone is likely to end up in a drawer, and later a landfill.

This is another innovation on the path to a closed loop system of production. Let’s hope that all phones can be data deleted and recycled someday when they’ve served their useful life.

Read more from Tim at SandersSays and at the Saving the World at Work site.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

Here’s a new feature of my blog: Daily Catch. It’s an article or blog post that I want to share with you. My first Daily Catch is a collection of The 10 Best 2008 Articles from Green Biz.

If you haven’t checked out Green Biz, do it right away. It’s author, Joel Makower, is one of the greenest minds in the world today and his point of view is keen.Read more from Tim at SandersSays and at the Saving the World at Work site.

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Happy New Year! And while it might not seem quite so happy at this moment, with fighting breaking out in Gaza, rising U.S. unemployment and global economic pain, we are always seeking signs of hope and renewal.
Trawling for good news over the holidays, we found these items:

* The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reports that the coral reefs in Indonesia are recovering rapidly following the tsunami that hit four years ago. “Baby corals” are springing up to replace those lost in the Dec. 26, 2004 disaster, which means that the ecosystems needed to support fishing, as well as tourism, in the area are mending nicely.

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

My Christmas came a few days early with a Wall Street Journal article that features my new book, Saving The World At Work.

Cultivating a Green Focus at the Office == WSJ

In this article, I give easy to follow tips for anyone that wants to see their company save some money (jobs) and stay on course with its commitment to the planet. NOTE: I’m linking to the Yahoo! buzz page, please click/visit and get the word out! Think of it this way: Knowledge creates conservation — so share some eco-miser ideas and make your difference today.

PS — If you haven’t already, join the Saver Soldier network (for people that want to make a difference at work). Once you sign up, you can blog to share your ideas or search to find other kindred spirits that can mentor you.

Read more from Tim at SandersSays and at the Saving the World at Work site.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Now that you’ve worn off the magnetic strip on the credit card buying presents for everyone, gotten the letter that your health insurance premiums are doubling and your job is being “redefined,” it’s time to think about those year-end donations. Sigh.

While environmental groups will likely have an easier time on Capitol Hill next year talking policy with a new Administration that sees global warming as a real threat, they paradoxically could be facing headwinds with donors.

Consider first that some of their large contributors may have been dragged down in the Bernard Madoff securities/Ponzi scheme, which savaged many charitable foundations. While the extent of that damage is being assessed, it’s safe to assume that even nonprofits that escaped that five-alarm fire, have been singed by the economic meltdown.

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Good news. Elmo Alive! is, well, alive — and well! And whew, just in time for Christmas.

So if you’ve got an Elmo Alive! under wraps for your favorite toddler, worry not. He might scare a kid or two not ready for a noisy red furball, but he won’t poison them. He’s non-toxic, according to a list just released by Healthy Toys.org.

Healthy Toys compiled a list of most popular toys based on votes from readers and then sent them (the toys not the readers) for lab testing. Tests revealed that none of the popular toys were “high” for toxins. Some were “medium” and many were ranked as “low”, like Elmo Alive!, meaning they contained no lead, bromine, cadmium, chlorine, arsenic or mercury (or in some cases only trace amounts considered safe).

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Need a break from all the seasonal cheer? Researchers at the University of South Carolina have delivered this for the holidays: a detailed “Death Map” showing the weather that’s likeliest to kill us in whatever part of the U.S. we’ve decided to call home.
Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas!
The map, kidding aside, [...]

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work

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By Tim Sanders
Saving the World at Work
This item originally appeared on May 14, 2008

Over and over again, I see marketing announcements by companies that claim that they’ve “gone green!”

How did they do it? They’ve made their business “a little less bad.” If they make cars, they increased fuel efficiency by 20%, so now their SUV is green. (At 19 miles per gallon, that is a laugher). They’ve replaced the ink in their labels with soy, so now they are green. (Again, why haven’t they replaced virgin paper in packaging or eliminated air shipping of the product?)

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By Barbara KesslerGreen Right Now

I thought we’d get ahead of ourselves if we talked calendars, but now that I’ve moved into that zone where I’m noting appointments on little pieces of scratch paper because I don’t have any “January”… It’s time to get set for ‘09.

Let’s first acknowledge that, yes, keeping an online paperless calendar is the greenest way to go. Hats off to my friends and colleagues who have an electronic calendar following them around on their Blackberries. I’m not so deft with tiny keyboards and as the household commissar I must have something a bit less virtual. I am the keeper of the Master Schedule and when teens related to me try to foist off the details of their next band concert or Starbucks tete-a-tete, I direct them to the Master Schedule.

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