Blogs

Revlon’s eyeliners. Nabisco’s Oreo cookies. Caress’ Tahitian Renewal Silkening Exfoliating Pomegranate Seeds & Tahitian Palm Oil Body Wash.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed guidelines to address the practice of inflating eco-friendly claims for a growing list of products, commonly known as green-washing. Experts are debating if manufacturers should consider minimum standards for sustainable content and recycling practices, among many other factors, in an effort to help consumers understand just what shade of green they get for any given purchase. It’s a worthy effort and long overdue, but the FTC should go beyond green-washing and tackle green fraud.

In New York last week for the Clinton Global Initiative and United Nations Week, I attended a small dinner party late one night that featured film start Leonardo DiCaprio, billionaire philanthropist/investor George Soros, the President of the central African nation of Gabon and the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (PNG), among others.

In parts of the West African nation of Ghana, water has become so scarce that young women ask suitors about the distance to sources of clean water in their communities before accepting marriage proposals.  Where water is hard to find, food is also often scarce, so girls are interrogating potential husbands about their ability to farm and feed a family. Should the rest of the world be taking these kinds of practical inventories of disappearing natural resources too?
 

Last week I visited the Australian state of Victoria, where the Parliament approved a bold plan by Premier John Brumby (of the Labor Party) to cut carbon emissions twenty percent below 2000 levels by 2020.

OK, it’s corny, but I had to smile last week, spreading Philadelphia brand cream cheese on a bagel while visiting Philadelphia (a common occurrence for residents of the City of Brotherly Love, no doubt, but not for a guy from Santa Monica). But what really caught my eye was the label that said the product was made with renewable energy.
 

A science advisor to the UK government predicts the growth of artificial meat in tanks to meet the needs of a burgeoning global middle class and to address the impacts on natural resources from raising livestock in more natural ways.  

In the past few weeks, how many of us have seen (or participated in) that summer staple, the three-legged race?  Two people stand side by side, each placing one leg into a gunny sack, then trying to coordinate movements to stay upright while running to a picnic table at the finish line.
 

I was asked last week what part of my job is most challenging. Working for a non-profit environmental organization the obvious answer for me was raising money.  

On my quest to live a more sustainable lifestyle, I am constantly reevaluating old habits to see if there are ways I can improve.   What I’ve been fixated on recently is packaging.  I’m realizing there are extremely simple ways to cut down our consumption of resources and reduce waste.  Below are 3 simple tips: