While growing up whenever our family received a package we would store the cardboard boxes in the attic. Throughout the years those boxes were used and reused and reused- moving in and out of college and apartments, sending packages to others, carting things across town… I am pleased to state that a box handled by the Redmond family usually had a pretty long life span. It was interesting when years went by and we didn’t use many boxes, in this case we accrued an overwhelming stockpile of them. This, if nothing else, was a way for us to monitor our consumption and the items that came in and out of our door. This is a perfect example of how reuse is not only environmentally superior to recycling but its easier, it saves time, and it’s cheaper. Why go out to buy a box when we had ones of all shapes and sizes in storage?

Recycling requires additional energy consuming steps to transform a product into something new that reuse escapes. A new service based out of southern California called usedcardboardboxes.com (the title quite simply speaks for itself) has embraced the concept of reuse and is escaping the steps involved in recycling cardboard to Asia by sending them straight to your front door.

Founder Marty Metro piloted usedcardboardboxes.com as a neighborhood project four years ago. The company rescues quality used, new overrun and misprinted boxes from manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. With the ability to lower the cost, ensure quality, and promote environmental responsibility, Metro is achieving traction in family, wholesale and retail markets. Since the company motivation is so simple and the service doesn’t require any additional work from the recipient, it is a clear way for retail and wholesale markets to boost their environmental profile while saving some trees and consuming less.

The website allows individuals who are planning a move… to purchase kits online based on their needs. The moving kits include tape, markers, and packing materials to minimize trips to the store (yet one can opt to not receive these materials if one does not need them). Beyond household supply, usedcardboardboxes.com fills orders of 3000 boxes+ for companies like Guess Jeans, American Apparel, and FAO Schwartz.

After four years of private/personal financing, usedcardboardboxes.com received is first public investment/funding from Funk Ventures, a Santa Monica based venture capitol firm that funds “highly promising companies that can significantly impact people, society, or the environment in a positive way.” As the company rapidly grows, Metro plans to expand by establishing distribution centers nationwide. Currently they have the ability to serve 42 million households in the west, but with a new financing plan, they expect to provide service to cities including Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

Usedcardboardboxes.com was a top-ten nominee for Co-op America’s 2007 Peoples Choice Awards. They have received quite astounding press reviews and in my opinion it s because of the profoundly simple benefit. There is no trade-off involved here. Why use a new box when you can reuse an old one? The answer is simply- I don’t know; I guess I’d rather save a tree and the energy than kill one.

"Was it a conscious decision or a momentary lapse of reason? How did progress take priority over humankind? Could harnessing the world’s energy that allowed our ascent now be the ledge pan of our down fall?" These are the questions addressed in the PBS ongoing series e2. The most recent episodes, narrated by Morgan Freeman, focus on energy. They look at transportation infrastructure, the auto industry, fuels and renewable fuels, alternative energy solutions and infrastructure, etc. As a result of examining such critical topics, the network was able to land a high-profile guest list for this 6-episode series including Samuel Bodman, the US secretary of energy; Brian Boldemberg, Brazil’s former secretary for the environment; Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute; and Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner. These began airing October 12, 2007

The next set of episodes, narrated by Brad Pitt, will focus on design and innovation. This high profile guest list features designers, architects, and other enthusiasts dedicated to changing the world though socially and environmentally conscious design. Some of the architects include Thom Mayne, architect of the new San Francisco Federal Building, and Adriaan Gueze, the lead architect of the Borneo Sporenburg development in Amsterdam. Other architects and sustainability enthusiasts include Ed Mazria, architect and founder of the Architecture 2030 organization, and William McDonough of Cradle-to-Cradle design.

These projects, among many others, are leading the way in fabricating sustainable design solutions. Whether they work with system management, future projections, or actual structures, these folks are dedicated to creating better design solutions that will last longer. It isn’t only about eliminating the bad anymore. It is about streamlining processes, and creating structures that will last and can multi-function. These architects and designers take you inside processes and reveal involved truths about good and bad design and how they leverage decisions. These episodes begin airing November 23, 2007.

As noted on the website, "The decisions in Washington affect the mountain glaciers in Peru, deforestation of the Amazon affect the heat waves of Paris, the power plants in China effect air quality in Los Angeles …" — we are faced with a lot of global issues that we collectively can have an influence on. PBS has sought out those who are leading others in aiding this progress. "It’s about facing what seem to be insurmountable challenges for what they really are — opportunities to reinvent and redesign." I have yet to see a TV series that touches on so many critical global topics and educates consumers about what is occurring in our energy and construction industries.

In its second year, digital software manufacturer AutoDesk sponsors this PBS project. e2 challenges you to live smarter, live greener, and live with the future in mind. PBS has also build a resource for you to research projects featured in the program. And just for you, they’ve made their own dictionary for the environmentally conscious, as well as a resource for additional independent research.

Our common perception of a graffiti artist is a vandalistic rebel who works through a free venue to spread his message. Although there are many incredible artists who sprinkle our streets and alleyways with colorful, astonishing work, they don’t expect much respect from the common passerby for the work they do- until recently. The public environment, as it always has been, is a venue for artists and people to speak out. Recently artists have used graffiti (or the notion of graffiti) to stimulate thoughtful movement through our public space by addressing topics such as climate change, pollution, and consumerism.

The UK’s Paul Curtis, also known as the "Moose," and Brazil’s Alexandre Orion are taking a new approach to graffiti to convey a sense of "clean," and to inspire pedestrians to keep it that way. Their cue comes from the "Wash Me" message commonly wiped away from the back of dirty semi trucks. They call this reverse graffiti, and they create their work by removing soot, sludge, carbon from exhaust, etc., from the wall to reveal a message.

Moose generated a message in a transport tunnel that reads "Go Gently" to remind drivers of the impact their cars have on the planet. "Once you do this, you make people confront whether or not they like people cleaning walls or if they really have a problem with personal expression."

Orion created a work in a Sao Paolo transport tunnel; his is a series of skulls that also depicts the impact drivers’ emissions have on the planet. As a result of this project, the transit authority washed the wall to remove the public expression. In reaction, Orion created the same artwork on the other side of the tunnel. This resulted in the transit authority cleaning the entire tunnel on both sides. They then continued to resist the public work by cleaning every transport tunnel in the city. Not such a bad idea on all accounts.

Another artist, Edina Tokodi, recently created a work of green graffiti in Brooklyn, New York. Edina saw the idea of graffiti as an opportunity to stimulate positive green thoughts and encourage city dwellers to resurface their connection to nature. She decided to maintain the venue while changing the medium. Her work consists of moss installations adhered to the wall where spray paint might commonly be seen. Using this much less harmful medium, she creates images such as prancing animals, and uses existing imagery to create trees and objects found in nature. The beauty of this medium is that it can continue to grow. As moss receives water from the air, condensation, and rain, it continues to grow as the artwork remains fixed to its site.

Last night, Thursday, October 18th, at the National Design Awards Gala in New York City was the announcement of the Peoples Design Awards. As part of National Design Week, Copper-Hewitt supports an annual competition where people nominate great design.

Voting has been open to the public online since mid September. As it is too late to cast your vote, it isn’t too late to congratulate the winner and find out what people consider excellence in design. The most exciting part of this year’s ballot is that many of the nominees were for projects geared towards sustainable progress. Social sustainability is one of the most important attributes for the public to consider, our responsibility towards sustainability and global issues shows promise.

Last year the public chose the Katrina Cottage by designer Marianne Cusato. Designed with similar dimensions and attributes to the FEMA homes, this project is the alternative. The 308 square foot cottage is constructed with fiber reinforced cement siding and a metal roof to withstand hurricane force winds. Since the launch of the project it has grown to attract habitants for multiple purposes. The cottage itself isn’t necessarily a sustainable edifice, but as it will live through intense natural forces and sustain its structure over time.

Also, similar to this year’s nomination for the LifeStraw (a $2 straw that purifies water while drinking for those who don’t have access to safe drinking water), the Katrina Cottage highlights the need for alternatives regarding current issues. When these alternatives are designed with sustainability, necessity, and in this case affordability in mind, we get closer to practical solutions and functional design for a sustainable, safe and healthy future.

This year’s winner is TOMS shoes. TOMS shoes is a simple project- with every pair of shoes bought, a pair is donated to a child who doesn’t have any. TOMS mission is to simply make life more comfortable. Currently TOMS is running a pledge to get 50,000 pair of shoes to take over to South Africa on November 1. These shoes will be divvied out to children in need. The shoes are not necessarily constructed with sustainable (recycled, reusable) materials, but the project does indeed socially sustain communities by enabling a more comfortable, and healthy lifestyle.

Other nominees on the ballot this year geared towards social sustainability and massive change were Good Magazine, Design Can Change, and Global Green Efforts in New Orleans. Good Magazine is a new San Francisco based publication highlighting projects geared towards social activism and sustainability. Design Can Change is a global campaign put together by SmashLAB geared towards bringing designers together to fight climate change.

Finally, Global Green was nominated for their work in New Orleans geared towards using the opportunity to rebuild in a way that is more beneficial to the environment and the community. Based on these nominations we can say with confidence that there are a lot of design efforts taking place to improve the condition of our health, safety, relationships and environment. Now it is your turn to participate.

Just as certain building products can earn Cradle-to-Cradle Certification, now disposable materials and products can earn a compostable seal. With the adoption of the American Society for Testing and Materials Specifications (ASTM), the Biodegradable Products Institute of New York and the US Composting Council are helping provide consumers with consistent information on materials and compostability. By using standard that are already in place, this allows for other companies to use the same criteria to evaluate materials, and ultimately allow for consistency across the board.

ASTM is an open forum for the development of high quality, market-relevant international standards used around the globe. According to the Biodegradable Products Institute,

…these specifications are the result of 8 years of intensive work by researchers, product manufacturers, composters, and resin producers to identify plastic and paper products which disintegrate and biodegrade completely and safely when composted in a municipal or commercial facility, like kraft paper, yard trimmings and food scraps.

With this rising attention to life cycle analysis of consumables, it is helpful to know if a cup we throw in the trash it is going to sit in the dump for thousands of years or not. Right? As consumers, we need to know what seals and labels are valid in order to trust and respect these claims. We are in a time when these issues such as life-cycle assessment, compostablility, recyclability … are bombarding us daily. If we can’t trust the validity of these claims, or if we see most things as merely greenwashed (to appear as a part of the "trend"), then consumers will lose interest. Then, the "trend" will dissipate or expire and we will be left with the same issues, and more confusion and rebellion.

This sounds terrifying right? Yes. So, it’s important to look for seals that are used on products that come from multiple product companies. If you check out the BPI website, you will see that many companies have come to them to obtain their evaluation and thus their seal to accredit their hard work. This is a good sign.

The interesting aspect to the BPI program is that they have their own private label in which they (at a first glance, anyway) disguise that they use more widely-accepted criteria to award their seal. The problem here is that this doesn’t allow consumers to leverage decisions very easily when everything is (seemingly) evaluated against a different set of criteria, and thus obtaining different seals. I can, although, leave you with the confidence that the Biodegradable Products Institute "compostable" logo is a valid one.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article alerting you to an international activity that took place on September 21 called Park(ing) Day. As predicted, the event, in its third year, was an overall hit. From a little over a dozen parks last year, this year’s international event tallied up 180 parks in 47 cities worldwide. San Francisco, Park(ing) Day’s hometown, accomplished 53 parks and 5 sidewalk plazas, LA boasted 45 parks, and NYC came in 3rd with 25 parks. If this isn’t enough to make your toes tickle, then view the images of participating parks and activities.

This year, the event gained necessary traction to make it recognizable and eventful. People remembered it from the year before, and were less hesitant to step out of their shell and visit with strangers, and many even took the day off or a few hours off to set up their own parks. As a statement of activism, the event stands to highlight how much public municipal space is designated for private vehicular parking. "Why can’t we park a bench instead of a car?" Well, that is exactly what many did.

According to the New York Times, the event’s irony lies in the fact that "This, after all, is the city where people, surrounded by 3,500 pounds of metal, have fought duels over who is entitled to park a 189-inch-long vehicle at 190 inches of curb space." But on National Park(ing) Day, participants are able to forget that, and see parking spaces as something new. Not only do they take a new form but also the scale of the 190 inches is put into a new perspective, and the space is used in a new, interesting, and appreciated way. In a space where one would park a vehicle that on a regular basis only transports a single passenger, up to 10 people can relax and visit.

The most appreciated factor of this day is the community participation. People are encouraged to visit, relax, and enjoy a minute or two of their day. In cities, we are under the impression that we sacrifice living space for more public space. Yet the majority of public space is designated for semi-private or privately owned public space i.e.: restaurants… The amount of city-owned public green space is getting more and more sparse.

So let’s imagine Park(ing) Day 5 years from now. We could transform streets worldwide into ballparks, or networking corridors. What if we could take up a lane on all city roads and designate it for eased foot traffic, or a place to notice your neighbors, catch-up, and sip a cup of coffee while observing the passing of time? Oh how community could grow…

Over the past few years fair trade products have expanded into many new markets. With this trend we inevitably have to reevaluate the micro and macro systems involved in producing and providing fair trade products.

There is a rather large difference between fair trade products and fair trade companies, says Mary Morison, executive director of the Fair Trade Resource Network. Large corporations that sell or promote individual products are likely to have a weaker effect on their overseas labor practice or at least are not dedicated to effecting reform. “Large companies are counting on consumers to make the leap so they look good and can access a particular market segment they’ve been unsuccessful in reaching,” she says. On the positive end, by providing fair trade options in big box stores, more people have access to making responsible decisions and voting with their dollars.

While some debate that big can also be fair, others work hard to keep fair trade small and protect the purity of fair trade programs. Some support the efforts of McDonald’s, for example, which purchase coffee from the fair trade company Green Mountain Roasting Company. This type of opportunity sustains the jobs and wages of those who grow the coffee. On the other hand, some say it dilutes the standards and morals of the movement.

This debate on how far to go with sustainable and healthy products and services is the topic of the decade. Do we go big with organics? Are we willing to sacrifice the intensity of the source to make the product/service accessible to more consumers who could benefit from healthier food?

When I think about fair trade, I think of model companies such as Equal Exchange that goes above and beyond the fair trade model. Since 1986, the company imports organic coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, and chocolate bars. With all their ingredients grown on democratically run farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Equal Exchange is able to play a large role in building democracy in these areas. They are equally passionate about building a fair and responsible work environment as they are supplying great coffee and chocolate to American consumers. “We want more profound transformations than just a kinder, gentler version of the status quo,” says Rodney North, spokesperson for Equal Exchange. “Fair trade’s historic focus has been on bottom-up economic development.”

Rodney North of Equal Exchange also argues that the “entrée of multinational corporations threatens the original goal of the fair trade movement, which was to build an alternative approach to international trade that addresses the endemic poverty, economic vulnerability, and isolation for the millions of small scale farmers who grow most of the world’s tropical agricultural commodities”.

It is hard to say what is good or bad. If we keep in mind that in supporting fair trade practices we are respecting our food and thus respecting all of those involved who bring it to us. This movement is meant to allow consumers to simply and consciously vote with their dollars, and provide fair opportunities worldwide. With this in mind, and we can help to keep the potency of the movement strong.

The majority of these quotes were taken from the Utne Reader’s Fair Trade Tradeoffs

This November 7-9, Chicago will host the largest GreenBuild Expo in history. Put on by the USGBC (United States Green Building Council), this year over 18,000 attendees will gather to learn about the trends in green construction and get inspired about future projects. In a city aiming to be the greenest, this is a monumental event. On top of it all, GreenBuild will be held in one of Chicago’s LEED certified facilities, the McCormick Place West Building.

According to the USGBC, "Chicago mayor Richard Daley has pledged to make Chicago the most environmentally friendly city in the world. Building on its legacy as a center of American architecture, Chicago was one of the first cities to adopt LEED. Today it has the most LEED projects of any city in the world."

Included in the Expo is an international conference with headlining speakers such as Paul Hawken (author), Sadhu Johnston (Chicago Commissioner of the Department of Environment),  Thom Mayne (Founder and Principal of Morphosis), Maria Atkinson (Global Head of Sustainability at Lend Lease), and former US President Bill Clinton. USGBC President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi on is especially excited about Clinton’s planned appearance:

"This is an unprecedented opportunity for our green building community to hear from one of the greatest philanthropic and environmental leaders of this century. The William J. Clinton Foundation is facilitating a series of global action plans that are addressing some of the most intractable problems of our times — AIDS, economic sustainability as a way to eradicate poverty, the elimination of childhood obesity. His framework has shown the power that groups of individuals have to effect real change."

"Reducing the C02 emissions that lead to climate change is another key area of focus, and it’s being addressed by the Clinton Climate Initiative, with green building as a cornerstone of that effort,” Fedrizzi noted. “We are making a difference, and President Clinton’s unique ability to inspire individual action will add incredible momentum to this important work."

The event has a full schedule of networking and educational opportunities. Whether you are a homeowner, a builder, designer, architect, engineer, and, heck, even a programmer or a banker, there is something applicable to everyone’s life. With over 850 exhibit booths displaying the newest products and technologies, the expo itself will be an educational and eye opening experience. If you leave thinking, "I still can’t do it," then you didn’t pick up enough tools while in attendance.

It is that time of year to get on the bus and head back to school. Preparing for class and back-to-school activities is not our most sustainability-focused time or year. We want to buy new clothes, new supplies- a new look. This Fall, some students will be living in style out of an old container.

As some college students in Amsterdam move into their brand new housing, accommodations will be a hip combination of new and old. Rethinking the way we use things, Keetowonen, a student housing project in Amsterdam, is transforming shipping containers into 1000 units for college students. Each container block has one building services container that supplies the block with electricity and Internet. Atop the roof is a different container system that collects rainwater, while providing equal heat dispersal and insulation for the units below.

Our perception of a shipping container might not be of something very spacious since they’re usually packed full of non-perishable products from across the globe. Yet, when emptied and tidied up, they can be made into a quite accommodating space. Each 40 square-foot unit is equipped with all the amenities a college student might need- sink, shower, toilet, kitchen, a boiler for hot waster, electricity, heat, and even balconies. Some end units have windows on the side to allow more sunlight to penetrate their space. The box-in-box construction means that the floors, walls and ceilings don’t come in contact with the external structure of the container. Therefore, the interior space in insulated from thermal change and sound disruption.

Also on the campus, Tempohousing installed a café-restaurant, a supermarket, office building, laundry-mat, and a sporting area- all made out of shipping containers. So, for those of you who simply can’t resist now, here is the skinny on the cost and availability of the containers. The units are rented out by the De Key housing corporation. Additionally, in 2005 the Dutch ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) presented Keetwonen with a formal notice that the units are eligible for housing subsidies. "The amount of subsidy tenants can claim depends on their personal (financial) circumstances." Belastingdienst is the provider of this subsidy contract

The first block of 60 units was completed by September 2005 and was rented out. The last was finished in April 2006. This past April 25th, the project received the Funda Award for "best executed innovation in construction."

"At the award ceremony the jury acknowledged Keetwonen to be ‘bright stars in an otherwise dimly lit market which is acting slow on innovation.’ In the report produced by the jurors fast construction and the fact that the Keetwonen habitats are ready for habitation on arrival were the main focus. The low construction cost was also mentioned as a big plus."

Also on GO:

Urban Options: Group 41 Offers Free Custom Container Architecture

A Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement under the Clean Water Act was written in 1972 to set a cap on the amount of crud that could be dumped into Lake Michigan annually. The law set a limit on how much pollution companies could legally dump into the lake. The law also prevented any company that was dumping under the limit from increasing their dumped pollution.

Well, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently made an exception to this law for the $3.8 billion expansion of British Petroleum’s (BP’s) Whiting, Indiana plant. In exchange, the expansion is said to provide 80 more permanent jobs and 2,000 temporary construction jobs. The trade-off for this socio-economical exchange is 35% more sludge (a total of 4,925 pounds), and 54% more ammonia (a total of 1,584 pounds) pumped into Lake Michigan daily. Even though this increase in pollution is still below the federal and state limits, it is the first decision in years that allows a company to dump more toxic waste into Lake Michigan.
For a company that considers themselves "Beyond Petroleum" by supporting alternative energy development and environmental protection, they certainly are not displaying much attention beyond their own petroleum processing?

This Whiting, Indiana plant (currently the nation’s 4th largest refinery) was originally built in 1889 by John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Co. We are happy that they are using the same facility, but due to the extra crude oil coming from Canada, BP can’t process the expanded volume in the same "small" plant. Therefore, the expansion became the obvious solution. The state excused this severe hike in pollution by saying the project will provide more jobs and security of oil suppliers to the Midwestern United States.

This is what the trade-off actually is: this "toxic sludge" is a cocktail of concentrated heavy metals and suspended solids that does not-so-nicely mix with our fresh-water swimming lakes. The ammonia becomes a problem when it provides a habitat for healthy algae bloom, thus killing the native fish, and altering the aquaculture of the fresh water.

Since the public announcement of the EPA permit grant in mid-June, people are also unhappy with the way these events rolled out. An environmental group, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, filed a petition asking Indiana’s Office of Environmental Adjudication to suspend the permit and reopen the appeal process due to inadequate public scrutiny. When the permit draft was made available for review, many organizations submitted comments on it. Yet, when the final permit was made available, these organizations were not informed on the proper date, nor were they informed of the appeal process. Now the Indiana Department of Environmental Management claims that the appeal process is closed because it is 15 days past the post date of the final permit. Over 70,000 people across the Great Lakes and the nation have signed this petition.

Additionally, Great Lakes supporters spread out over BP stations all over the Midwest region handing out flyers explaining the situation and requesting that customers fill up elsewhere. As this momentum builds, awareness speads, and hopefully BP will either change their ways or admit that they are beyond caring about the Great Lakes. We prefer the former to the later.

To sign the petition yourself go to:
Environment Michigan