Expression GreenExpressing the need for a healthy green lifestyle

Surfers turn autumn green

New startup surfwear retailer, ZooZoo2, is determined to turn
autumn green. ZooZoo2.com founded by 12 year old Molly Luke is
on a mission to convince fellow surfers and snowboarders that
buying organic cotton clothing is the only way forward.

We are what we wear

In these days of global brand loyalty with surfers the world
over covered head to toe in those brand logos we all know and
love so much, it seems true that we are what we wear. But do we
really know or care what we wear, how it is made, what it is
made of and who actually made it?

Unlike many of the big mainstream surfwear retailers Molly and
ZooZoo2 have asked those questions and decided to sell only
organic cotton T-shirts and clothing. Sure it affects the bottom
line, sure it means they cost a little more to produce, but its
got to be worth it.

Surfers the world over experience Natures power and beauty every
time they go into the water. They appreciate its ever changing
and unpredictable behaviour it’s power and well as it’s
fragility. Why is it then that they pay lip service to the
environment when it comes to the surfing brands they wear?

Conventional Cotton is one of the world’s most intensively
sprayed crops. [According to organisations such as the
Sustainable Cotton organisation]

Cotton uses approximately 25 percent of the world’s insecticides
and more than 10 percent of the pesticides (including
herbicides, insecticides, and defoliants). The Environmental
Protection Agency considers seven of the top 15 pesticides used
on cotton in the year 2000 in the United States as “possible,”
“likely,” “probable,” or “known” human carcinogens.

Organic Cotton is the only way to go

Each surfing T-shirt made from one hundred percent organic
cotton saves one-third of a pound of synthetic fertilizers and
pesticides. Consumers who buy organic cotton clothing help
support this fledgling sustainable industry. [extract from
newamericandream.org]

Where do we go now

The lifestyle enjoyed by those living in the world’s
industrialised countries comes at a cost. ‘In the wake of
development and prosperity we see acid rain, greenhouse gases,
global warming, toxic waste, water and air pollution, and a
global dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As
today’s patterns of growth and consumption continue to deplete
the environment, our future welfare is at risk.’ [extract from
eartheasy.com]

Let’s make it count

As surfers we play our part in determining what happens to our
planet by the consumer choices we make. We are what we buy.
Let’s make it count.

With the coming of a new year, we have the chance to better our lives and turn over a new leaf. Why not start by living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Clip this list of green alternatives and see how many you can apply to your daily life. You may be surprised at just how green you can be with very little effort, and who knows, maybe it will be contagious.

Water your garden with a rain barrel. Hook up a rain barrel to your downspout or attach a fancy copper water catcher and start storing water for those hot summer days. Your barrel will weigh over 400 lbs when full, so ensure you find a level place to store it. One quarter inch of rain will yield 200 gallons of water.

Gather your neighbors and start a community garden to grow your own vegetables. This is a great idea especially for people with limited yard space or apartment dwellers.

Set up a composter and treat your garden to free compost. Fill it up with any non-meat food scraps, vegetable peelings coffee grounds, leaves and grass cuttings. Your plants will love it and you’ll be buying less garbage bags.

Plant a tree. Build your own forest by planting trees and seedlings. They look beautiful, provide shade and habitats for animals and birds. They’ll even do their part to improve air quality by filtering out pollution and boosting oxygen.

Find alternatives to insecticides. Fight garden pests with organic means, such as dish detergent and water. Take some Ivory Liquid detergent mixed with water at a ratio of one to two percent and spray your plants to coat bugs and suffocate them.

Use solar power to light your walkway. Save money on bulbs and electricity with solar powered garden lights. You’ll love the wire-free installation. Where solar isn’t practical switch to low voltage or LED lighting.

When landscaping, focus on using native species of plants to help stop the spread of invasive, non-native vegetation.

Make a habitat. Help support our feathered friends by hanging feeders or bird houses, set up a bird bath and plant shrubs that bear fruit.

Let nature take care of mosquitoes naturally. Build a backyard bat box and let them feast on between 500 to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour. That sure beats spraying bug repellent.

Remember push mowers? They’ve become all the rage as an eco-alternative to gas mowers for cutting your lawn. They save money, mess and you get additional exercise.

Don’t forget the mulch. Adding mulch to your garden in the winter protects your plants from the cold and in the summer months keeps the soil cool, prevents water loss and helps to control weeds.

Reduce, reuse and recycle every chance you get. It may take some time, but just by being aware you will increase your practice of the 3 “R’s”. The next time you go to throw out that old piece of lumber, fencing, or light fixture, stop yourself and take a load to the local reuse store. You may also find that reclaimed lumber fits the bill for your next building project.

Intel co-founder Gordon Moore was a great visionary. In 1965, his prediction, popularly known as Moore’s Law, stated that the number of transistors on a chip would double about every two years. More than 40 years later his prediction continues to hold true, as the IT industry continues to develop at an exponential rate.

Many see this as an example of progress and development, however there is a growing concern that the never ending pursuit of technological advancement is taking place without an understanding of the environmental impact of the changes. There are multiple valid reasons for this concern, but one of the main ones is incredibly simple; the more technical devices in circulation, the more power is needed, requiring increased energy requirements and therefore increased CO2 emissions.

Organizations are increasingly beginning to consider the environmental impact of their actions, partly as a result of the increased importance of a green corporate image, but also as a result of the rising cost of energy. The cost of powering a server over 3 years is now more than the cost of the server itself and economic pressures are very efficient levers to direct action. As a result, environmental concerns are creeping higher and higher up the strategic agenda.

Initially, corporations looked internally for sustainability and environmental efficiency, however there is now a growing realization that this concept should be extended to a companies wider organizational eco-system and that responsibility should now be extended to the supplier community that support their business activity. This is particularly relevant to IT suppliers who provide outsourced IT services, often from geographically remote locations, where from an environmental perspective out of sight has previously meant out of mind.

According to a recent study carried out by Brown & Wilson, authors of the “Black Book of Outsourcing’ organizations in North America and Europe plan to continue their outsourcing initiatives while cautiously shifting functional responsibility for corporate environmental concerns to the supplier. However the report also points to an increased appetite and demand from buyers of outsourced services for more comprehensive green initiatives to assure compliance.

The report is based on an independent study of outsourcing industry decision makers and analysts with a survey of 20,000 outsourcing users. Almost half – 43% – of companies choosing to use a supplier for the first time included green factors in their decision making process for choosing suppliers. And more than 94% of executives from listed companies are planning to add “green” clauses in their renegotiation processes, compared with only 36% of privately owned companies.

More than 88% of executives said that the environmental commitment of suppliers would influence their outsourcing selection process. And 21% of US and European companies that already outsource have added green policies and performance indicators to outsourcing agreements this year, according to the research.

Almost 25% of companies are asking their vendors to reduce their carbon footprint to have “zero impact”. Further, 45% of companies expect suppliers to assure public trust by tracking and demonstrably measuring green effectiveness. Over 40% want outsourcers to develop new green technologies, products and services, which reduce wastes, save energy and increase efficiency.

Sun Microsystems has designed new datacenters in US, UK and India to lower the company’s power consumption. Sun estimates that the company’s datacenter efforts will save the planet nearly 4,100 tones of CO2 per year and trim one percent from Sun’s total carbon footprint.

IBM is also following similar initiatives to make computing more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. IBM is committing to spend $1 billion a year on a project named “Project Big Green” and have developed a five step program for companies looking to cut power use in datacenters.

Fujitsu is also setting an example, spending £44 million on a 65,000 square foot London based datacenter facility that has minimized its carbon foot print through the use of the latest IT cooling and processing technologies. Fujitsu predicts that this will save enough electricity to power as many as 6,000 homes annually, equivalent to saving 10,000 tones of CO2 each year.

Rackspace the IT-hosting company is also busy reinventing itself as a green supplier. It is building a new data centre in Slough and is doing as much as it considers practical to achieve carbon neutrality. Rack space gets its electricity from Slough Heat and Power, which switched from coal and gas to wood chips and fiber fuel in 2001. Rackspace is designing its new centre so that separate sections can be cooled independently. It will also draw on external fresh air when conditions allow. Rackspace has also been busy outside; they have been planting trees – some 300 per month – to offset their carbon emissions, as well as using less power hungry computer equipment internally and adopting re-cycling and re-use across their offices.

As consumers become more environmentally aware, retail organizations are improving their environmental campaigns and promotional activity. Marks & Spencer has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2012. The supermarket Tesco plans to include carbon footprint labeling on all of its products. Online bank First Direct has installed new technology to reduce its use of electricity and airlines such as EasyJet are working hard to convince passengers that they can still fly with a clear conscience.

In the retail industry, consumers have ultimate power and retailers will respond accordingly. With outsourcing the consumer is one or two steps removed, but with improved communications technology, an organizations inner workings and standards are easily accessible and quickly distributed. Being environmentally unfriendly is now bad news and this social acceptance together with financial pressure to use less energy has created a real change in the supplier market place.

Outsourced service providers are increasingly beginning to realize that “Green Credentials” are a pre-requisite when it comes to dealing with large corporations and the supplier community companies are now investing heavily in reducing their carbon footprint.

Of the 4540 supplier firms analyzed in The “Black Book of Outsourcing Report” the following 10 organizations are ranked as the most environmentally friendly within their particular area of expertise and given the increased importance of green credentials, this is an accolade that should not be under estimated:

1. Accenture & Accenture HR (Score 9.66) Services: ITO, BPO, HRO, FAO, KPO
2. CSC (Score 9.54) Services: ITO, BPO
3. Hewlett Packard (Score 9.49) Services: ITO, BPO, FAO
4. SAIC (Score 9.41) Ser
5. Logica CMG (Score 9.37) Services: BPO, ITO, KPO
6. IBM Global (Score 9.35) Services: ITO, BPO, FAO, KPO
7. Pitney Bowes (Score 9.30) Services: Document Processing Outsourcing
8. UPS Supply Solutions (Score 9.28) Services: Supply Chain & Logistics Outsourcing
9. Johnson Controls (Score 9.26) Services: Facilities Management Outsourcing
10. Unisys (Score 9.21) Services: ITO, BPO

Purchasing organizations are beginning to flex their environmental muscle. This may be for altruistic, socially responsible reasons, or it may be as a result of rising energy costs and increased financial pressures, either way the tide is turning, awareness is increasing and technology outsourcers are slowly turning themselves green.