The GreenPoma Environmentally Friendly Blog

We are totally in love with AMC’s Mad Men.  Dark, compelling, gorgeous, we can hardly wait for Sunday nights at 10.

Matt Weiner, the show’s creator, is obsessed with keeping the show true to the time period.

Hence the lack of environmental awareness or sustainable business practices.

We’ve come a long way in 40 years, and we’re not just talking about cocktails before noon and free range smoking.

Beginning today, every GreenPoma.com order will be shipped carbon neutral via UPS.

You can read more about it here:   http://www.carbonneutral.ups.com/?VId=CarbonNeutral&WT.mc_id=CarbonNeutral

What else are we doing to green our shipping?

1. Using single wall corrugated cardboard cartons manufactured by Norampac Thompson, Inc.  These cartons use much less pulp than traditional boxes–saving both trees and shipping weight–which means less fuel is needed to get our orders to you.
2. Protecting contents with crumpled paper that has  85% post consumer recycled  content.
3. Printing  all our invoices and office correspondence on 100%  post consumer recycled paper.
4. Collating multi-page invoices with a staple-free stapler.
5. Sealing cartons with 100% paper sealing tape.
6. Marking cartons Fragile or Glass with self-inking stamps made from 80% PC recycled plastic, with vegetable inks.

What are your best green business practices?  We’d love to hear your ideas for reducing our impact on the environment.

Best idea posted here by Friday October 16th will win one of our 3 way CFL spirals. A great green choice for bedside or other reading lamps, these are the only ones the partners of GreenPoma.com use in our homes.  The light is terrific, and the bulbs use 76% less energy than a tradtional, incandescent 3 way bulb.  Guaranteed for 7 years.

A bulb even Betty Draper would love.

Rick Friedman for the New York Times

We read an awesome article by Erik A. Taub last Friday in the New York Times.  Here is a link: Build a Better Bulb for a $10 Million Prize.

It’s pretty exciting stuff.

If you’re a lighting geek.

LED (light emitting diode) bulbs are in use all over the world.  They use very little electricity and last a ridiculously long time.   So long, you might have to account for them in your will.

At this point they are a niche product — trendy and expensive — but LEDs will continue to grow in popularity as the technology improves and the prices come down.  All of the leading manufacturers are devoting tons of money to research and development, prize or no prize.

At GreenPoma.com we feature a few  LEDs as well as loads of beautiful CFLs (yes such things exist) and high efficiency halogens that will help you reduce the size of your electric bill and your carbon footprint.  Click on the links to get a peek at our product pages.

And remember, we are always happy to help you choose  the best green bulbs for the 5 most frequently lit fixtures in your home.  Try our Bulb Finder, or shoot us an email.

Lighting geeks love to share.

In honor of the first day of school here in Concord, a post about lunchboxes.

I really had an Atom Ant lunchbox. Why I picked this one, and not, say, Barbie in 1966 when I headed off to kindergarten will remain forever a mystery. I’d like to think it’s because I was too cool for Barbie. More likely it was on sale.

On the one hand, the old metal lunchboxes had their drawbacks: they were heavy, prone to rusting (especially the bockety snap closures) and the glass lined thermoses rarely lasted through the month of September.

But what they didn’t have was lead.

Unlike the soft-sided vinyl lunchboxes that my kids bring to school each day. It turns out that a group very concerned with the levels of toxins in our environment, the Center for Environmental Health has tested a few hundred vinyl lunch boxes and have found that they can contain lead. According to Snopes.com, the levels of lead found were low, but still. I am sending in lunch because I question the nutritional value of  Batman Hotpockets.  Which are most likely better than lead- laden peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from home.

According to Snopes.com, the amount of lead in the tested lunchboxes is fairly low; a child would have to rub his hands on the box and then lick them, about 100 times a day for 15-30 days for there to be a health hazard.   Ok even my boys couldn’t be dared into that one.  But lead poisoning is cumulative, so for children who live in old homes with traces of lead based paint, it is worth a second thought.

It is possible to use a home testing kit on lunchboxes. It is also possible to check manufacturers’ websites to see if they have taken a lead-free pledge.

Maybe we should be scanning e-bay for some relics.

Over the Fourth of July holiday we took our two youngest on a quick trip to San Diego.

While our main goal was Legoland, dream world for all elementary aged boys, we were able to sneak in a couple hours at the Zoo.

Sure, we got a kick out of the new Elephant Odyssey with up close and personal access to all 20 inhabitants, and yes, Otis, the resident Hippo was suave and debonair,  but I think the exhibit I enjoyed the most was an artful display devoted to conservation.

Tucked in along the pedestrian walkway headed towards the elephants, three towering sculptures rose above the sidewalk.  Carved out of the metal uprights were silhouettes of various components to living life in harmony with our fragile planet.

Each of the towers is accompanied by a plaque with simple suggestions for ways to reduce energy and water use and to encourage recycling.

It is an artful way to promote a green message. I’ve heard it said that humans need to hear things seven times before the message starts to sink in.

I’d gladly take in this message at least 7 times at the San Diego Zoo, especially if it means more time spent gawking at the koalas.

And here is another message: Our 4 round trips between New Hampshire and San Diego generated 6,100 pounds of carbon dioxide. We purchased carbon offsets from Terrapass.com for $41.63, which is less than breakfast for four in our hotel

Photo credit:  The Boston Globe

A few years ago I heard something that stuck in my head:  there is no away.

We don’t get to throw anything away.  We have to burn or bury or sink deep into the ocean all of the crap we use up and don’t want anymore.

None of these disposal options are terrific for our planet, or all that permanent–remember the needles washing up on the gorgeous Jersey shore a decade or so ago?

As a family and a business we’ve been trying to reduce the amount of stuff we have, so that we can get rid of less stuff (and have less stuff to manage and maintain) but we still throw away heaps of garbage every Tuesday morning.

According to www.onconcord.com, the average person in the state of New Hampshire throws away 7.1 pounds of garbage a day, or more than a ton a year.  I shiver to think of the total that my politically incorrectly sized family of 7 is responsible for adding to our landfills every year, even with the huge amount of recycling we haul out to the curb for bi-weekly pick up.

Like a lot of other places, New Hampshire’s state and local budgets are suffering in this economic downturn, and every cost center is being scrutinized for potential savings.

Frankly, it was no surprise to find that here in Concord we are switching to a Pay as You Throw rubbish removal system.  Basically, every homeowner has to buy special purple bags for a dollar or two, and the city will only pick up those bags on trash day.

There was a lot of push back on this proposal.  Some people felt that PAYT is just a fancy name for a new tax.  And sure, two bucks a bag is more than I pay for even the reeeeeally good and stretchy Heftys, but I get that we have to plug a giant hole in the city budget, and I don’t think that maintaining the current level of “free” rubbish removal is worth further cuts to the library or other essential services.

What is great about the program is that it will force more and more people to recycle more and more stuff.

As my darling Republican husband says, government get less of what it taxes.

So if buying the bags equates to paying a tax, maybe we’ll get less garbage and hopefully that will mean more recycling.

Here at greenpoma.com we offer end of life recycling kits for CFLs and recycling kits for regular batteries.

We don’t make much profit on them, but we too are concerned with adding more mercury to our environment and wanted to find an easy and safe way to get rid of their bulbs when they eventually burn out.

We have one of each of these boxes tucked into a corner of the shelf on the basement stairs, and when they are full, we’ll seal the up and send them off, secure in the knowledge that they will be properly dismantled and recycled.

Now if only we could figure out how to put the spinning composter together.

I

Here’s the deal:  if lots of people do a few fairly simple things, we can reduce energy consumption in America by a shocking amount.

Not only will we save money in energy costs and reduce the amount of pollution in our air and water, but we can also reduce the need to increase energy production.

The basic (and brilliant) concept is energy savings as an energy source.

Join us next Thursday at the Red River Theaters in Concord for a special screening of the award winning documentary Kilowatt Ours. This important movie details practical cost saving solutions for consumers looking to reduce their energy use and save money.  By following Jeff Barrie’s simple suggestions, the average family can save about $1,000 per year in energy costs.

“Kilowatt Ours helps ordinary citizens take an active role in energy conservation.” Jeff Barrie said.  “Most viewers are shocked at the scope of the issue and even more so at the immediacy and simplicity of the solution — energy savings as an energy source”.

The special screening in Concord will be followed by a question and answer session, led by concerned local experts including

• Wes Golumb of the New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association
• Jim O’Brien, Executive Director of Granite State Conservation Voters and a Hopkinton town Selectman
• Steven Lundahl of Energy Action NH
• Rob Werner, Concord City Counselor and Concord Carbon Challenge leader.

Peter and I are pleased and delighted that Green Poma can be a part of this event along with the NH Sustainable Energy Association and Stonyfield Farm.

Still need convincing?  There will be door prizes and free giveaways.

Plus our sweet new banner.

Our neighborhood elementary school has a grant to provide fresh fruit  for this school year.

I can’t think of a more welcoming sight than being greeted every morning by this bounty; free and available to all.  And while you can’t see it in the photo, there is a sign on the table indicating which recycling bin is for the melon clam shells.

We take a lot of flack for our lack of ethnic diversity during the presidential primary, but the truth is, here in Concord New Hampshire, our public schools draw children from across the economic spectrum.  Without this program, I wonder how many children at our school would have access to an ever changing variety of fresh fruit.

How great would it be if a table like this were the norm in every school in our great country?

There’s a classic New Yorker cartoon that shows two dogs sitting at computers.  The one says to the other, “on the internet, no one knows you’re a dog”.

That’s the funny thing about the internet; we’re all global, we’re all local, and no one really knows who or what we are.

Peter and I are actual living breathing people who are building this business and raising our family in Concord, New Hampshire.

We are comitted to building a sustainable business; not just in that we hope to sustain our family on the income generated from GreenPoma.com, but that we can support and contribute to the vibrancy our local community.

We’ve just joined Green Concord, an alliance of local businesses in the Concord area that offer environmentally-friendly products and services and that seek to foster a greener way of doing business and create a truly sustainable local economy.  As it says in the brochure, “raising consumer consciousness towards environmental issues and the demand for green goods is leading to many organizations misrepresenting their products or businesses as “green”. Green Concord exists to provide the public with clear and accurate information about environmentally friendly shopping. Our members all share a commitment to green business practices, our products are clearly marked and our staff are well trained. When a customer enters a store that is a member of Green Concord, they can shop with confidence.”

If you are one of our neighbors, please consider supporting member businesses, including Bartlett Design, Cafe Indigo, Concord Food Coop, Earthmade, Gondwana, Little River Oriental Rugs, Lotions and Potions, Real Green Goods, S&W Sports, Works Bakery Cafe Your Home Your World and of course, GreenPoma.com.

We look forward to seeing you!

Celebrate Earth Hour this Sunday, March 28th.

At 8:30 pm local time, join a hoped for billion people around the world as we turn off our lights for an hour to show support for the annual initiative to reduce energy use and greenhouse gasses.

Heck Peter and I’d be happy to do this once a week, if only to get our teenagers to take a texting/facebook break and actually make eye contact with us.

Click through to the official site at Earthour.org to see how people and places around the world will be marking the occasion.  In our home, we will be celebrating with a family dinner by candelight.  And GreenPoma.com will be completely shut down for the hour.

We’ll also be offering a earth hour discount code via e-mail on Wednesday.  Log in to the GreenPoma site to register to receive the coupon.  So that when you’re done flipping off the lights, you won’t even feel guilty.

Excellent Earth Hour posters by Shepard Fairey

This morning the front page of the New York Times has an article by Leslie Kaufman on the ridiculous amount of boreal forest that is cut down every year to make toilet paper.  Brands such as Quilted Northern, Charmin Ultra and Cottonelle Ultra are made from up to 22% virgin tree stock, including some trees that are at least 200 years old.

It is sickening to think that old growth forests, which help clean our air and provide shelter to creatures great and small are literally being flushed down our toilets.

In the US, less than 2% of all TP sales are for recycled product.

In a happy confluence of events, TP made from 100% recycled paper is becoming cheaper and more readily available. If you are looking for things to ve happy about during this global recession, add the plummeting cost of recycled paper to your list.  The reduction in materials cost is making recycled TP price competitive with regular brands.  And new to the market are some brands that are completely normal looking, made from 100% recycled paper and that are not whitened with chlorine bleach, a known pollutant.

When we first made the switch to recycled TP, I set out figuring I would wind up with rolls of scratchy brown paper — it wasn’t that bad but it was far from great.  Our local Co-op stocked one brand.  Expensive, teeny little rolls and, um, linty.  Everyone here hated it.  Without getting too graphic, let’s just say that 7 people go through a lot of TP  and it was impossible to keep enough of the miniature rolls on hand to last between my weekly shopping trips.

It’s hard to feel good about making good environmental choices when you are trapped in the bathroom hollering for backup.

In the past month or so, our local grocery has started carrying the Marcal “Small Steps” product.  It looks, feels and lasts just like Scott,our former family favorite.  Surprisingly, it is a little cheaper, at least here in NH.  Another bonus is that there is no plastic used in the packaging, unlike the pricey shrink wrapped brand I was paying top dollar for at the Co-op.

In a company press release, James Dagosta, Senior Vice President of Sales Marcal Paper Products, LLC explains:  “this brand’s heritage is rooted in conserving resources, protecting our environment and keeping the air our families breathe cleaner and healthier.  Marcal has a longstanding history of addressing the issues of sustainability that face industry”.

A quick glance at the Marcal website promises papertowels, napkins and facial tissues, all made from recycled paper, not from trees.  And, according to the article in The Times, Tim Spring, the new CEO of Marcal is planning a $30 million advertising campaign to introduce it’s recycled line nationwide, and is committed to increasing consumer awareness. “Our idea is that you don’t have to spend extra money to save the Earth” he said.  “And people want to know what happens to the paper they recycle.  This will give them closure”.

Mr. Whipple would be proud.