Sustainable is Good | Where design, lifestyle and packaging meet

Icelandic Glacial Water Touts Better Carbon Footprint than U.S. Bottled Water Companies

Icelandic Glacial is the first U.S. distributed bottled water to receive the CarbonNeutral® Certification from the Carbon Neutral Company.

The certification means the bottled water is manufactured with a three-pronged approach to reducing its carbon footprint:  assessment, reduction and offset of emissions.  See the specifics here.

The company based in Thorlákshöfn, Iceland appears to be trying to capitalize on the recent negative press bottled water has received in the U.S.  Icelandic Glacial claims its efforts at carbon neutrality go way beyond buying offsets like many companies do. 

The company says because they already use only geothermal and hydroelectric natural energy in their manufacturing facility based in Iceland, their initial carbon footprint is much lower than conventional U.S. bottled water producers.

One key area the company falls sharply behind U.S. based water distributors is in the transportation of its water to the U.S.  Since the water must be transported either by ship or air from Iceland to the U.S. it is unclear how this issue was addressed with the CarbonNeutral® Certification. 

Transportation of water is the same issue that got delegates at the Climate Change Summit in New York this past May into debate when bottled water from Norway was served at the event.  One delegate from San Francisco refused to drink the water instead opting for city tap water because the water from Norway was completely unsustainable due to its transit by ship.

Designer of Procter & Gamble's Swiffer Responds to Claims the Product isn't Sustainable

The designer of Swiffer, Gianfranco Zaccai takes a very direct matter of fact approach when he assesses an item in terms of sustainability. 

“We need to find the best thing to do that many people will do—because it’s enjoyable, beneficial, and engaging for them—and that is economically viable. Unfortunately, human beings have a difficult time seeing the relationship between their behavior and its effects if those effects are too distant in time or space. So people may pay lip service to more eco-friendly behavior—public transportation, for example—but unless that behavior provides short-term gratification, it is not likely to be sustainable,” said Zaccai

Zaccai is the president and CEO of Continuum, the company that designed the Swiffer for Procter & Gamble.  He was recently interviewed by Inhabitant in response to a piece they wrote questioning the sustainability of the Swiffer.

Zaccai raises some very interesting questions in terms of sustainability and mainstream consumers.  His basic argument is that if people won't use a product it doesn't matter how green or eco-friendly it is.  Sometimes its a balancing act for product designers and R&D departments to figure out what type of product a consumer will actually use. 

He said product designers need to focus on three main areas in their design.   (1) carefully analyze the real environmental impact of some activity—anything from taking a bath to generating power, (2) understand what human values and desires are involved in that activity, and (3) find the elegant solution that provides greater value—that means greater physical, emotional, and social satisfaction as well as greater economic benefit—while avoiding harm to the environment as much as possible.

{via} Inhabitant

Microsoft uses New Recycled Plastic in Streets & Trips 2007 Packaging

The packaging for Microsoft's Streets & Trips 2007 with GPS Locator represents the very latest in packaging design and trends which are shifting increasingly more green. 

As the latest issue of Packaging Digest reports, Microsoft used sustainable films and cutting edge industrial & graphic design to create a visually pleasing and highly functional package design.

The main component of the package is made from SmartCycle 150 PETE from Klockner-Pentaplast.  The plastic film is made from a minimum of 50 % post consumer waste recycled bottles.

In order to incorporate the film into packaging Microsoft turned to Transparent Container Co. who specialize in visual packaging solutions.  Dan Ahern, Transparent Container's VP of Marketing told Packaging Digest, "We offer solutions that focus on product visibility within the package.  Microsoft had the idea of creating a reusable carry case for the product's hardware components that would also allow the consumer to see the product inside of the package.  The carry case was to be something that could be used again and again, not treated as a disposable package."

Microsoft's graphic design team created a design for the actual box part of the package that gives consumers the feeling they are actually driving.  Integrating the SmartCycle plastic carry case shell component into the box design so it showed off the GPS locator that comes with the software, was a major challenge.

Scott Ballantine, Microsoft's packaging project manager said of the final product made from SmartCycle, "We wanted to raise consumer awareness about how to use recycled materials in new ways.  We also wanted a carry case that people could use to store the GPS and its components.  The finished package fits in the glove compartment or CD slot of a car.  It is based on a compact, sunglass case design, and for that reason, is value-added because it is reusable.  And consumers can take pride knowing their bottle-recycling efforts have had direct impact in creating this extended-use package."

Bonnie Plants Embarks on Green Marketing Campaign; Backs Up Effort by Switching to Biodegradable Pots

Bonnie Plants, an Alabama-based national plant wholesaler that supplies Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's and many other chains has come up with a significant environmental improvement for the sale of its potted plants.  The company is using biodegradable pots for its plants to significantly reduce waste and eliminate post planting shock for the plants themselves.

Bonnie operates nationally from 33 growing facilities across the country and ships products regionally.

The biodegradable pots are part of the company's "Bonnie's Going Greener for You" effort towards providing consumers with environmentally friendly products.  "We're dedicated to giving our customers earth-friendly products, but products that perform as well as or better than conventional products," said Dennis Thomas General Manager of Bonnie

The company has two biodegradable pots for its plants; one a peatpot and the other a recycled fiber pot.  The plants are sold directly in the biodegradable pots and the consumer simply removes the bottom of the pot (and works it into the soil) and plants the plant, container and all.  The biodegradable pot will simply decompose and the plant will not suffer the common post planting shock as it adjusts to its new environment.

I think this move quiet significant given the tremendous amount of waste plastic pots produce.  The majority of traditional plastic pots are not recycled even though they could be so this new approach from Bonnie is a major advancement in the gardening world. 

The significance of the new pots are magnified when you consider Bonnie supplies plants to nearly every major retailer in the U.S.  When a company with that type of distribution makes an environmental improvement even if its not an original innovation the effects are tremendously positive simply due to the sheer size of their operation.

Bonnie Plants has also added their own recycling facility and worked on improving internal reuse practices as part of the first phase of their Going Greener for You effort.

Green & Black's Organic Responds to Consumer Complaints of Excessive Packaging

Green & Black’s organic, the Cadbury-Schweppes owned organic chocolate brand, has had to defend itself against customer complaints that is it using wasteful packaging for its ice-cream sticks.  According to BrandIndex, Green & Black's organic admitted using excessive packaging to add a “luxury” twist to its products.

In response to our inquiry Green & Black's Senior Brand Manager Gemma Wookey commented on the BrandIndex story.  “As a quality food brand, our packaging needs to strike a balance between protecting the product inside, and maintaining our ethical credentials.  Some of our products are more fragile than others, and we have an obligation to our consumers to ensure that if they pay for a premium product, it will be intact when they open it.  We’re currently conducting an audit of all our packaging, and our consumers can be rest assured that we’ll continue working to find the best packaging materials available, while minimising our impact on the environment.”

According to Christina Hull of Serendipity Communications, the firm that handles Green & Black's U.S. PR, the ice cream sticks that led to consumer complaints in the UK are not available in the U.S. only the brand's pints of ice cream are sold here.

Products similar to the Green and Black's organic ice cream sticks are sold here in the U.S. by other companies.  Most notably Ben & Jerry's who sells frozen ice cream cones boxed and packaged for a single serving.  The packaging on the Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream cones appears to be similar to the Green & Black's organic ice cream sticks.  We are unaware of any consumer complaints regarding the Ben & Jerry's product.  Ben & Jerry's, while not advertising organic products does label all their products as all natural. 

Green and Black's organic is highly rated on BrandIndex, which provides a daily measure of the public perception of more than 1,100 consumer brands.  The company has received high scores for General Impression and Satisfaction. However according to their rankings there has been a slight drop in the brand’s “Buzz” score recently.  "Green and Black's success has been built on its ethical reputation and they need to be carefully not to alienate ethically-aware consumers on issues like packaging," BrandIndex reported.

Coca-Cola and Cargill Partner on Ultra Secret Sweetener

Coca-Cola filed 24 U.S. patent applications on May 24, 2007, covering the use of stevia in combination with a range of natural compounds (i.e., vitamins, minerals, glucosamine), in different delivery formats (i.e., condiments, beverages) and for several health conditions (i.e., weight management, inflammation).

The patent applications are the result of an ultra secret working group between $24 Billion soft drink giant Coca-Cola and food giant Cargill that began to filter out to the public earlier this month.  The working group was part of a joint effort by the companies to develop the "ultimate" sweetener, one they could even call "natural" unlike Splenda or Nutra-Sweet. 

The result is a product derived from Stevia tentatively named rebiana.  In addition to the 24 U.S. patent applications, Coca-Cola will have exclusive worldwide rights to the sweetener for its beverage products.  Cargill will have rights to use the "natural" sweetener in its food products.

"This has been a closely held secret for a while," Zanna McFerson, business director for Cargill Sweetness Solutions told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  The Wall Street Journal reported the project began about five years ago when Cargill assigned 40 employees to scour the globe for the source of the "dream sweetener," said Marcelo Montero, president of Cargill Sweetness Solutions.

The companies plan on launching products containing the new sweetener as early as next year in countries that allow Stevia for food use including China, Japan and Brazil.  Simultaneously under the terms of the partnership Cargill is handling product development and the regulatory approval process for the sweetener here in the U.S.

In March we reported on another sweetener, Splenda and strange marketing PR campaign by its two owners, Johnson & Johnson and Tate & Lyle to buy over two hundred negative Internet domain names related to Splenda. 

Is Arc'teryx's Brand Identity Eroding as Some of its Production Goes to China and Other Countries?

High-end outdoor apparel company Arc'teryx is eroding the strength of its brand by contracting some of its manufacturing overseas and not fully embracing it.

If Arc'teryx is going to source production overseas they need to fully embrace it, just like Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC) did. The company needs to tell consumers about their corporate sustainability efforts, conditions in their overseas production facilities and have audits & accountability for their contractors. 

Arc'teryx's customer base are avid outdoor people.  These people as a group tend to value social responsibility highly when making decisions on buying.  When companies don't provide this information or worse yet offer weak corporate sounding gloss over statements consumers look elsewhere.

Its not good enough any more to tell consumers 25% of the products are made in China and other countries and the remainder is made in Canada.  Eco-consumers want specifics, they as a group do more product research than any other segment of the buying population before making a decision on what to purchase.  Eco-consumers want information so they can make informed decisions.  Be open and up front and consumers will respond and the focus will shift from the country of manufacture back to the quality of the final product.

Arc'teryx Diplomat ST Gore Windstopper® Jacket made from Italian wool.  Made in China
 

Arc'teryx was founded in 1991 in Vancouver and made all of its gear in Canada.  It was known as a highly respected small brand with impeccable quality.   The company started making climbing harnesses and then began making innovative garments known for their construction and fit. 

In 2002 Arc'teryx was bought by Salomon, owned at the time by Adidas.  With the global presence of Salomon and the increasing popularity of Arc'teryx, the company started to out source manufacturing of some of its garments to China and other countries.

Consumers Polled on their Environmental Feelings Towards Major Brands

Marketing Week ran an interesting piece on UK brand identity relating to the environment that I saw on greenormal the other day.

Marketing Week through YouGov polled over 1000 Britons on their environmental reaction to brands in the UK.  Below are the graphic charts of their results, they're pretty interesting.

Q. Ignore any of your other opinions about the brand, company or its products, and think only about its attitude towards the environment. Which of the following brands do you view as trying their best to be environmentally friendly and which are environmentally unfriendly?

Q, Which of the following brands do you view as being the most environmentally friendly and the most environmentally unfriendly?

Sony Developing odo A New Line of Eco-Electronics

stiven over at Sustainableday ran an interesting piece the other day on a new line of products called odo that Sony is developing.

There are a lot of conceptual solar powered cell phone prototypes and hand cranked chargers popping up in response to the strong consumer interest in more environmentally responsible products but in general consumer electronics usually lag behind in the development of green alternatives. In todays world where large OEM’s usually handle most of the manufacturing even for competing corporations, it’s very difficult for a company to deviate from the standard commodity electronic parts such as LCD screens and rechargeable batteries and still stay price competitive in this market.

Sony, traditionally has been a leader in paradigm shifting technology with their large research and innovation design budgets all though they have lost a lot of ground in the last 5-7 years to companies like Apple and Phillips. Today Sony looks to regain some of that innovation leadership through the development of their fresh out of the oven “odo” concept line of environmentally friendly products. The “odo” line of products do not require any AC adapters or chargers because they are mechanically powered. There is the Spin N’ Snap camera “no display”, the Push Power Play viewer, the Crank N’ Capture video camps, the Pull N’ Play headphones, and the solar array Juice Boxes for powering other devices.

My favorite hand cranked consumer electronic product continues to be the first version of the OLPC but with Sony coming into the picture, it probably wont be long before we can actually buy a human powered consumer electronic product.

via sustainableday

Dell wants to Become the Greenest Technology Company on Earth

Austin-based Dell Computers wants to become the "greenest technology company on earth," according to a recent company news release.  The comment comes as Dell has rolled out its Plant a Tree for Me campaign to Europe.

European customers can now have a tree planted for them with the purchase of a new Dell for 1 GBP (1 Euro fifty) for a notebook and 3 GBP (4 Euro fifty) for a desktop system.  The Plant a Tree for Me campaign is designed to offset the carbon generated by the electricity needed to power the computers for over three years.

The campaign, along with comments by the company regarding its greenness, are part of a commitment to reduce the "carbon intensity" of their operations by 15% by 2012, and a pledge to review their suppliers to demand that they too follow green practices.

In the United States, Dell has partnered with the Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org to administer the Plant a Tree for Me program.  It is unclear whether they too will manage the initiative in Europe.