As an already reluctant diaper-changer I was leery when the topic of cloth diapers came up. Let me say that my wife and I try to live as eco-friendly as we can – but when it comes to poo – less is more. The less I have to deal with, the better. Some things are better out of sight, out of mind.

I mean, that’s where we draw the line right? From an experienced diaper-changer perspective - what could be better than disposable, non-leaking, easy to take on and off, go anywhere diapers? What’s so bad about conventional diapers, what’s the real dirt on diapers anyways? (pun intended)

An interesting article over at Wired told of a mother who was buying biodegradable diapers from Whole Foods only to find out that they aren’t much better for her baby or the environment.

“These diapers all contain super-absorbent gelling materials,” or AGM, said the latest newsletter from cloth diaper service Tiny Tots. “AGM is linked to an increase in childhood asthma and a decrease in sperm count among boys. Environmentally, these diapers require as much water, energy and fuel to produce as any other single-use diaper. The bottom line is they offer no environmental or health benefits.”

Well,…as much as I would love to use this quote to help me rationalize keeping my regular, uber-convenient diapers, the source is a cloth diaper service - kind of like trusting research funded by a drug company. So how many diapers do you think the USA dumps in an average day? (this time no pun was intended) According to Treehugger, the USA goes through 49 million diapers each day!

The article continues by pointing out that during the 2 years that the average child spends in diapers he/she will go through 5,000 diapers. The last year data was collected about diapers, they made up 3.4 million tons of waste, or 2.1% of the U.S. garbage in landfills where, contrary to popular opinion, nothing biodegrades. The website of the California Integrated Waste Management Board reads, “A landfill is not a composting site. Nothing degrades well in a landfill.” – That’s not very encouraging.

Well, more to come on the diaper but consider this part one of a blogisode about my experience with cloth diapers. One day I go to work, come back and there’s a pack of cloth diapers sitting on the table. My mother in law thinks its great – she’s also not the one changing the diapers. So far, my wife is admittedly much better than me at accepting the change. Stay tuned for our adventure in cloth diapering.

Go Michael Phelps.

If Greenwashing were baseball, Royal Dutch Shell would be on the verge of striking out. Twice in less than a year the company has been called on the carpet for misleading eco-advertising, commonly called greenwashing. The first, and don’t ask me how they thought this wasn’t going to make sense to anyone, showed an oil refinery with flowers spewing from the stacks. Nice.

That ad was brought to the attention of the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by the nonprofit organization Friends of the Earth. The nonprofit group challenged Shell’s claim that it used carbon dioxide emissions to grow flowers – just when you thought you’d heard it all, right. For its’ part, Shell said that an estimated 320,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide was scheduled to ship to greenhouse growers this year. Nice gesture but Friends of the Earth argued that amount represented only .325 per cent of the company’s carbon emissions.

I don’t know the chemistry, biology or whatever is involved in this kind of a deal but it sure sounds like a good thing – why they wouldn’t ship more to greenhouses is beyond me.

Anyways, the ASA ruled that in the absence of qualification the TV ads were misleading and Shell agreed to pull the ad in June of 2007. (Reuters UK)

In a ruling published today, the ASA took issue with Shell’s claims in this print ad that by building what would be the U.S.A.’s largest refinery, and tapping into the Canadian oil sands deposits is somehow environmentally responsible. Yeah, I can see how they would think that would make sense - more oil refineries. Now that is a real sustainable, innovative solution to the energy crisis.

The text of the ad reads -

“The challenge of the 21st century is to meet the growing need for energy in ways that are not only profitable but sustainable. As our 2007 results show, we’re investing heavily in new technology and assets to safeguard the interests of our shareholders and future generations. In Canada we’re harnessing our global network of technical and financial expertise to unlock the potential of the vast Canadian oil sands deposit. In the USA we’re helping to build what will be the nation’s largest refinery. And we’re exploring a new generation of biofuels made from non-food sources. Difficult yes, impossible no”

Difficult to believe, yes. Impossible, yes.

What we ought to be asking is who in the world is making these ads for them and how come nobody pushed the panic button when they saw an ad with flowers coming out of a refinery stack?

http://www.sattlerclothing.com

If someone told you that they would provide you with funding to develop a product and once you’ve developed a sellable product you won’t have to spend your days selling it to retail outlets – instead you’ll have access to 270 retail outlets in 35 countries getting your product in front of half a billion customers per year – would you do it? Particularly if you’re a green tech company with sky-high overheads and consumers aren’t quite lining up for expensive, lifestyle-changing, eco-friendly technology.

Last week, according to Cleantech, Swedish-retailer, IKEA, announced an investment group focused on five key product areas that it wants to see in its stores within the next five years. The approx. $75 million dollars in the IKEA GreenTech fund will go into development of solar panels, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency, and water saving & purification products. The IKEA GreenTech fund will focus on companies able to produce a sellable product within the next four to five years.

IKEA plans to work with five to ten companies and bring their products to market within three to four years with an emphasis on helping the startups reducing their prices and develop better products.

“Really low prices, and they should be of very good quality. That’s the only thing we look at, we would never look at anything else, we would discard anything else that doesn’t fall into those boundaries,” Johan Stenebo, managing director of the fund said. “Whether it’s home furnishings or it’s greentech products.”

Stenebo continues - “We will be very active on the boards of these companies,” he said. “I think we can contribute somewhat in terms of commercializing the product they are developing, and then, obviously, distributing the product as well.”

Got a greentech product that belongs in IKEA? Email them at igt(at)memo.ikea.com. Learn more about IKEA’s fair labor and green way of doing business at a website launched earlier this year at The IKEA Way

Yahoo! Photo

Just hours before Olympic gold medalist and outspoken Darfur activist, Joey Cheek, was set to fly to China for the Smoglympics, he received a call from Chinese Embassy official telling him that he couldn’t go, his visa had been denied. The Olympic games are anything but apolitical this time around it seems. The Chinese government offered no explanation and doesn’t necessarily need a reason to deny anyone a visa but this time the reasons to deny 29-year old, Joey Cheek seemed all too obvious.

At the press conference after winning the gold in the 500 meter speedskating in Turin, Italy Joey Cheek announced that he would be donating all $25,000 of his USOC gold and $15,000 silver award money to the Right to Play organization, which is an international humanitarian organization that “uses sport and play as a tool for the development of children and youth in the most disadvantaged areas of the world”, according to the organizations site.

He also challenged his sponsors to match his donations and so far, Jet Set, Roots, Nike and Gap have done so. Cheek admitted that the money wasn’t very much but he has a goal of seeing the program take root in the devastated Darfur region of Sudan where 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since ethnic African tribesmen took up arms in 2003. Joey is also the founder of Team Darfur, a group of 70 athletes who work to raise global awareness of the human-rights violations taking part in the Darfur region of Sudan where China has military, economic and diplomatic ties. Though Joey Cheek was not going to compete in the Olympics he wanted to bring attention the genocide in Darfur, which critics say Beijing abets through its ties to the Sudan government. (WSJ Article)

According to Eddie Pells of the AP - “One of Cheek’s key initiatives was urging the international community to persuade Sudan to observe the ancient tradition of the Olympic truce during the Beijing Games.”

Of the denial of his visa Joey Cheek said –

“I am saddened not to be able to attend the Games. The Olympic Games represent something powerful: that people can come together from around the world and do things that no one thought were possible. However, the denial of my visa is a part of a systemic effort by the Chinese government to coerce and threaten athletes who are speaking out on behalf of the innocent people of Darfur.”

Chris Chase of Yahoo! wrote

“With the Games getting closer (just two days away now), the world seemed ready to forget about all the Chinese issues in order to focus on the Games themselves. Unfortunately, China’s actions make that impossible. In a time when we should be wondering who will light the Olympic cauldron, whether Michael Phelps can break an all-time record and how Liu Xiang will react to the pressure of 1.3 billion of his countrymen hanging on his every step, we’re instead left to discuss the Chinese government’s reluctance to allow any dissension in their country, despite repeated promises that they’d clean up their act when the Olympics came to town.”

According to an AP article, Joey Cheek had not planned on any Team Darfur events but was planning on attending a United Nations Olympic Celebration and some charity events.

“Of course I would have liked to have been there, advocating for a peaceful resolution,” he said. “But we’ll figure something out.”

The Power of One - Joey Cheek

2006 - Harvard Denies Joey Cheek Admission