In an effort to measure and monitor the progression of consumers worldwide towards eco-friendly consumption habits, National Geographic and GlobeScan recently finished a study that surveyed citizens in 14 countries. The results of the study led to the creation of the “Greendex”, an index of how green the consumption habits of citizens across the world compare.

The Greendex is the first study to measure how consumers are buying eco-friendly products, as opposed to tracking what governments or companies may be doing to support green. Essentially, the Greendex illustrates which countries are willing to consistently pay extra for products that are eco-friendly.                              

So who is the greenest? According to the map, the top 2 countries where consumers have demonstrated a willingness to pay for eco-friendly products are Brazil and China and India. Who is the worst of the 14 surveyed? Go figure, the U.S.A.  

You can download the entire Greendex report here .                                             

In our never-ending effort to expand our product line to fill the need for eco-friendly clothing options, we are in the final stages of preparing to launch some very new and cool products. We work very hard to make sure that all of our products meet certain eco and fair labor standards and that the suppliers with whom we form relationships with support our commitment to providing eco-friendly and fair labor clothing. We also like to demonstrate to the consumer that we take sustainability and fair labor seriously and that’s why we post our organic certificates and fair labor materials online. The new suppliers with whom we are building relationships with are also interested in transparency and have already provided us some of their certifications.

We’re even moving into some new eco-friendly fabrics besides organic cotton. Fabrics made of computer parts, plastic bottles, coconut shells, and hemp. As with all of our product, you can rest assured that everything is made of only sustainable fabrics and in fair labor workplaces in the U.S. and outside. We are also one of the few eco-friendly clothing companies using water-based inks. Conventional screen-printing inks contain PVC, a non-biodegradable plastic that sits on top of the shirt. Water-based inks are eco-friendly and actually go into the shirt and won’t crack or peel off like PVC-based inks.

If you are a retailer that would like to offer stylish, eco-friendly clothing in your store, please give us an email info(at)sattlerclothing.com

Jamie Rector/Bloomberg News

Yesterday a federal appeals court ruled that the lower court judge giving the thumbs up to the merger had in adequately considered the impact the merger would have on consumers. The three-member panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, voted 2-1 that lower court judge, Paul L. Friedman, had rushed a decision in the original hearing. The court ruled that $565 million merger would limit competition and therefore elevate prices for natural and organic foods whereas Whole Foods executives have argued that the merger was necessary in order for the company to compete against much larger competitors like WalMart, Kroger, and Safeway that now sell a large assortment of organic products for consumers.

It is now unclear what will happen if courts determine the merger to be unlawful. Austin, TX-based Whole Foods has already transitioned 27 former Wild Oats stores into Whole Foods stores since the favorable ruling last August. Apparently, the new case has proven to be more than just a legal conundrum for Whole Foods as “documents filed by the Federal Trade Commission revealed that Whole Foods’ chief executive and founder, John P.Mackey, had, under a pseudonym, posted hundreds of messages on financial bulletin boards promoting the company’s stock and criticizing Wild Oats.” (NYT article)

So the real question – will Boise get the 54,000 sq. ft. store we’ve been promised? Whole Foods New Stores List
Also, check out the conversation on SeekingAlpha “Whole Foods: How Many Health Nuts in Boise?”

Amid $4-plus a gallon, rising food and energy prices and confronting what may be the costliest winter heating bills the country has ever seen, U.S. politicians are asked to “re-examine outdated and entrenched positions”.

According to an Associated Press article, a bipartisan group of 27 former political officials sent a letter to all 50 governors, all members of Congress, and presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama, calling them to address the country’s energy crisis that threatens the future security and prosperity of the United States.

Six former secretaries of state, Henry Kissinger, along with former senators of both parties and half a dozen former senior White House advisers and Cabinet officers were among the writers of the letter.

The letter was the brainchild of the Institute for 21^st Century Energy, a group affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that has “embraced largely Republican, pro-business approaches to dealing with energy problems”, according to the AP article. President of the Institute, retired Marine General James Jones, said they wanted the letter to represent the broad, bipartisan support, and a sense of urgency for taking aggressive steps towards eliminating our country’s energy crisis.

Jones hopes that the letter will breakdown partisan roadblocks and streamline efforts to make strides in addressing energy consumption. Jones feels that “There’s an energy tsunami coming, and when you see it coming you better get on top of the wave, or you’re going to get crushed by it.”

The bipartisan letter states – “We demand more energy and complain about high prices, but we restrict energy exploration and production. We embrace the promise of energy efficiency, but we are slow to make adjustments in our energy-intensive lifestyles.”

Former White House Chief of Staff to President Clinton, Thomas “Mack” McLarty, stresses that the letter emphasizes that “the next president is going to have to put energy right at the top of his agenda”.

Brandweek got together with Frito-Lay vp-marketing Gannon Jones about the recent success of a previously less-than stellar (pun intended) product – Sun Chips. Sales for Sun Chips are up 17.6%, or $201.8 million for the 52 weeks ending June 15.

Back in 2006, when Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth came out, (can you believe it has only been two years?!), Mr. Jones says he and his colleagues really began thinking about how to connect Sun Chips with the environment and people’s health. The brand began offering 18 grams of whole grain, low sodium, no trans-fat and installed solar panels at their production plant in Modesto, CA.

What has really made it work for Sun Chips?

As we’ve said before, any company that wants going green to be a profitable, positive, lasting experience needs to make being green a part of daily operations. In this interview Gannon Jones speaks to that same point –

“One thing also learned about green brands and believe very much is that the brands that are most successful in speaking about green make it core to their business strategy. It’s not something you can treat as a consumer promotion and do it for three months and move to the next promotion. Like Prius and Stonyfield Farms who make it core to brand operations, that’s something we believed in. We needed to take a series of steps.”

More on Green Strategies for Business?

Do we Need to Hire an Energy Management Person?

How to Take Your Business Green – Green Strategy

and much, much more you might even read how a PA-based paper company has gone green in Dunder Mifflin Goes Green

A recent survey done by the Shelton Group called “Eco Pulse”, suggests that consumers are confused about what makes a “green” product “green”. One of the questions in the survey, for example, asked consumers to name what features a home would need to have before it would be considered a “green” home. Almost half (42%) had no idea, 28% said it would need some kind of solar power, 12% mentioned using fluorescent light bulbs and another 10% cited Energy Star appliances.

Before we go any further – is this is a surprise? Though many of the eco-friendly products out there have been around for a while, the interest in green products seems to have appeared overnight. Does the average consumer really know anything about the key attributes of a product they buy? What makes a soda “Lite”? I don’t have the foggiest what key component(s) in my Core2Duo processor makes it “blazing fast”. The myriad of certifications, approvals, pats-on-the-back, etc that have shown up to help guide consumers through the maze of green products – has really just muddied the water.

The research continued by asking consumers about the importance of a company’s eco-record. While 49% of the people asked said that a company’s eco-record is important, only 21% said they had purchased a company’s product because of their eco-record with only 7% remembering the name of the product.

Suzanne Shelton, CEO of the firm that conducted the research stated –

“If you were an alien and you landed on the planet in April of this year, you would think that the ‘green’ market was pretty mature because you’d be hearing about it everywhere—every newspaper, every TV show you turn on somebody is talking about being green. But this is not a mature market.”

Some more interesting findings from the report –

- Most Americans put their personal comfort ahead of the environment. When asked, “Given a choice between your comfort, your convenience or the environment, which do you most often choose?” Forty-six percent chose comfort and 31% chose the environment.
- A significant number (40%) admitted to negative or ambivalent responses (”skeptical,” “irritated,” “guilty” or “unaffected”) to increased media attention regarding our impact on the environment, while 60% answered in a positive fashion (”better educated” or “glad”).
- When asked, “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Global warming, or climate change, is occurring, and it is primarily caused by human activity.” Fifty-seven percent agreed or strongly agreed with this statement.

- When asked why most companies that adopt environmentally friendly practices do so, the most common response (47%) was “to make their company look better to the public.” Only 13% believed it was “because their owners/shareholders care about the environment.”

He’s back. The now iconic flick “Who Killed the Electric Car?” is being sequeled. Director Chris Paine is planning a sequel titled “Revenge of the Electric Car” scheduled to hit theatres in 2009. According to Paine “the movie will chronicle the work major automakers are doing to get a second generation of electric cars on the road.”

At the end of the first film, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, we saw the untimely demise of GM’s EV1, a car with a lot of promise – get scrapped somewhere in an Arizonan desert. In “Revenge…”, it appears that we will have a much more happy ending, what with the ginormous turnaround in the auto industry that is putting a good light (and a lot of money) into alternative energy vehicles.

Believe it or not “Who Killed the Electric Car” came out just 2 years ago. What a different world we live in today with Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive, Miles Electric, Phoenix Motorcars, General Motors and other automakers that already have an electric car or will have one in the coming years.

More from Autobloggreen.com

Great Interview with Chris Paine on The Daily Show  

Seems everybody wants to have a “green” convention. I thought that I posted about the plans of the Democratic Party and it’s plans to make their convention eco-friendly but I can’t find it so I must have just read it. Anyways, the Democratic party has plans to, among other things, plant some recycle police at the recycle stations at the Democratic convention and today I came across a PDF outlining how the Republican party plans to make it’s convention in Minnesota more “eco-friendly”. The top of the PDF reads

“The Republican Party is committed to making this year’s nominating convention in Minneapolis-Saint Paul the “greenest” in party history. From transportation, to venue selection, to staff workspace - the Committee on Arrangements (COA), the MSP 2008 Host Committee, and the host cities are working together to implement the best environmental practices in all aspects of planning.”

Just how do they plan on making the Republican convention eco-friendly?

• The COA and Host Committee are working to incorporate flexible-fuel and hybrid vehicles into the pool of vehicles used by the convention.
• The Host Committee has developed a paperless system to recruit and register an anticipated 8,000 volunteers. COA and Host Committee staff members are working with convention venues, including the primary sites of the Xcel Energy Center and Saint Paul RiverCentre, on ways to improve energy-efficiency.
• Staff is also using the internet and alternate means of communication, rather than physical travel, to discuss planning for the convention and inspire supporters
across the country. For example, the COA has launched CONVENTION iNSIDER, an interactive feature that enables supporters and others interested in the convention to submit video and text questions about planning and other aspects of the event. Visit the CONVENTION iNSIDER at www.GOPConvention2008.com/insider.

I don’t know where I read about what the Democratic Convention is doing to have an eco-friendly convention but here are some related links -

Grist

New York Times

Makes you wonder what the Green Party is doing to make their convention uh, er…green.

Phosphorus is one of the most common substances in our environment. Phosphorus is a key component of ATP, the energy-rich organic compound produced during photosynthesis and is involved in the creation of carbohydrates and several metabolic processes. Phosphorus is also abundant in seeds where it catalysts growth until the plant can develop a root system capable of acquiring nutrients from the soil. Read more here, here, and here.

During the 1950’s detergents were developed using tripolyphospate to replace the soap bar and remove the hardness from the water in the washing machines. During the same period of time, 1940’s-1960, the concentration of phosphate in raw wastewater-treatment-plant nearly quadrupled. But detergents were only part of the problem. In 1967 the amount of phosphorus being used for laundry detergent was only one-tenth of the amount being used for fertilizers.

How is a naturally occurring nutrient bad for the environment?

From the USGA site –

“Natural fresh surface water undergoes an aging process called eutrophication (eutrophic: from Greek and German meaning well fed). The process is associated with increased aquatic plant and algae growth, high nutrient content, a reduction in water clarity, and decreased dissolved oxygen content. Increased biological activity ultimately results in sedimentation as dead and decaying plant debris sinks and accumulates on the bottom of the lake or pond. In essence, surface water is transformed into a bog. Excessive inputs of phosphorus accelerate the eutrophication process of lakes.”

Or as described by the U.S. News and World Report –

“Each spring, the cycle of death begins anew. Nitrogen and phosphorus, leached from fertilizer, pass from farmland into streams, from streams into rivers—the Mississippi, the Potomac, the Susquehanna—and then, finally, into some of the country’s great bodies of water: the Gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay. There the chemicals collect each summer, spawning the growth of algae, (sound familiar? See our post on China’s recent algae bloom) which deplete the water of oxygen and lead to ghostly aquatic wastelands. Marine life, if mobile enough, will swim away; the rest will suffocate and die.”

By the end of the 1960’s Lake Erie was referred to as a dead lake and massive algae blooms had severely discolored the lake. The population of the blue pike, which used to make up 50% of a commercial fisherman’s harvest, plummeted between 1954-58 and by 1983 was designated an extinct species.

In 1970 a Congressional Committee recommended that phosphates be eliminated from all detergents by 1972 but the phosphate ban never happened. The Clean Water Act came along in 1972 and set out to measure pollution sources from pipes directly into surface water as well as runoff from agricultural, feedlots and etc. but by the 1980’s the Act merely worked to identify and monitor pollutants entering and leaving water treatment plants.

Today, most of us still have phosphates in our detergents, and these dead-zones continue to grow. The dead-zone along the Gulf of Mexico now measures 8,000 square miles – roughly the size of Massachusetts. In 2004, a UN report identified 150 of these dead zones worldwide. The Land of 10,000 Lakes (Minnesota) is all too familiar with the results of phosphate runoff. Since 2005 the state banned the use of fertilizers using phosphates with few exceptions that require approval by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

How can you go phosphate free?

Buy detergent that is phosphate free. Afraid that eco-friendly phosphate-free detergents won’t work as well as the highly saturated phosphate alternatives? According to a Consumer Reports study done just last August,

“Phosphates help boost the cleaning power of detergents, but they also harm the environment by encouraging algae growth in freshwater. Of the eight phosphate-free cleaners tested for this detergents review, six have enzymes. The Ecover tablet and powder, Citra-Dish, 365 Everyday Value, and Seventh Generation do a good to excellent job cleaning. The last two are reasonably priced, making those eco-friendly cleaners an attractive option.”

Avoid buying products that are grown using phosphate intensive fertilizers. Buy Organic.  Ironically, since the demand for ethanol spiked, farmers are growing more corn for ethanol and dumping more fertilizer on to it for a better yield. So…go hybrid for now until you can go electric or hydrogen fuel cell.  

Good News. Congress recently passed a sweeping farm bill that, for the first time, provides more than $400 million to improve the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. The bill also allots several billion dollars for land stewardship and wetlands. Unfortunately, the bill also dramatically reduced funding for the Conservation Reserve Program which rewards farmers for setting aside land buffer strips and for keeping land unfarmed. This practice alone, prevented hundreds of millions of tons of nitrogen and phosphorus out of waterways last year. Read what town recently banned phosphates in detergents and plans to take the ban statewide in just two years. 

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