Ann DeLaVergne spent time making her own, reusable envelopes via a sewing machine to help in preserving trees and using less paper. She eventually went on to patent ecoEnvelopes with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
The envelopes zip closed, eliminate the need for a separate reply envelope, and are manufactured with paper from managed forests and contain up to 100 percent post-consumer waste content.
DeLaVergne used to be an organic farmer and beekeeper. The environment has always been important to her and she has spent a huge portion of her life devoted to being "green." The ecoEnvelope sort of became a passion and she took it under her wing, perfecting it and sharing it with the world. She received grants from the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance and the Eileen Fisher Foundation and won supporter after supporter, including the former CEO of one of the largest envelope manufacturers in the U.S.
The main objective of these envelopes is so businesses need not enclose an envelope inside your mailed bills and such. If you're not comfortable going paperless with billing then the least you can do is push for companies you deal with to use the environment friendly envelopes. As it stands right now 80 billions "reply" envelopes are sent each year in the U.S. alone and that is just unacceptable.
On February 20, 2008 the USPS finally decided they are going to take this green initiative and legally push the bill. The ecoEnvelopes have received a key National Customer Ruling from the U.S. Postal Service and this is VERY important. "The USPS National Customer Ruling is issued after an official testing and approval process. The ruling provides customers with increased confidence that ecoEnvelopes' unique designs meet the most stringent qualifications for use in the US mail."
"Eliminating return envelopes saves energy, water, and forest resources and reduces the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Every one million ecoEnvelopes used saves an estimated 250 million BTUs of energy and 37,000 pounds of greenhouse gasses. All ecoEnvelopes are manufactured on certified papers from managed forests using up to 100% recycled content."
Once again, the Article 13 team is taking action in support of Fairtrade Fortnight. Beginning tonight and through March 9, 2008 Article 13 has "pledged to make the fair trade choice a conscious one each time we walk down the aisles of our local supermarkets or add items to our virtual shopping baskets."
Article 13 advocates the fair trade choice for two reasons. They believe it makes a positive difference to millions of people in poverty across the developing world. Fair trade products guarantee a minimum price which covers the cost of production, as well as an extra premium for community investment. Secondly, as increasing numbers of people turn to fair trade, governments will take more notice and take concrete steps to introduce just global trading rules.
Article 13, the leading corporate social responsibility, business sustainability and governance consultancy, is a signatory of the UNGC and actively upholds its ten principles related to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
The Fairtrade Mission, "The Foundation's mission is to work with businesses, community groups and individuals to improve the trading position of producer organisations in the South and to deliver sustainable livelihoods for farmers, workers and their communities."
According to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft...
"Cassini has mapped about 20 percent of Titan's surface with radar. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth's oil and gas reserves. The dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth's coal reserves."
The dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth's coal reserves.
Yesterday, the USDA issued the largest recall of beef in U.S. history, the latest action in response to The Humane Society of the United States' groundbreaking undercover investigation of a dairy cow slaughter plant in Southern California.
I cannot even begin to tell you how disgusted I am by this situation. This farm abuse is so intense I just don't even know how these people sleep at night. To have cows so sick they cannot even stand up and walk around. I am in shock, this is criminal!
Specifically these cows had lost the ability to walk since passing pre-processing inspections were slaughtered without an inspector having examined them for chronic illness -- a practice he said violated federal regulations and had been going on for at least two years.
These cows didn't get this way on their own. They have been kicked, beaten, dragged with chains, conscious cows hanging upside down, shocked with electric prods...I just can't even go on. The photo included here makes my stomach sick, but it was the least graphic of the others...
It's important to keep downed cattle out of the food supply because they also may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli or salmonella because the animals tend to wallow in feces and have weaker immune systems, according to AP.
To help make a difference please write a letter and send it to the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Edward Schafer. Make sure to mention how proper oversight from the USDA is ABSOLUTELY necessary all of the time and not just when someone pleads for an investigation. Gosh!
When Mr. Schafer received the nomination for this job, in October of 2007, he said to President Bush, "I thank you again for the opportunity to serve the people of the United States, and if confirmed, I will do my very best to promote, preserve and enhance the mission of the United States Department of Agriculture."
We need to make sure he stands by this statement.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., USDA's Postal Service mailing address is:
U.S. Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20250
Mr. Schafer's e-mail address is: Edward.W.Schafer@usda.gov
"How former miners transformed a pit into an energy village" the headline and reason for this village having received a Silver Jubilee Cup, the Royal Town Planning Institute's highest award.
"An industrial provident society in Nottinghamshire, which has carried out traditional northern doorstep-cleaning on a massive scale, has won the Silver Jubilee Cup, the Royal Town Planning Institute's highest award."
It's really quite fascinating if you ask me and I sincerely hope we see more of these communities cropping up in the future worldwide. "Sherwood Energy Village (SEV) is an Industrial & Provident Society. We are a fully trading company, but our profits are applied back to our Aims and Objectives rather than shareholder benefit."
A former coal mining town community of Ollerton has been made over into wha is now being called Sherwood Energy Village. Offices and homes are built in such a way that they trap and store sunlight. The entire "pit" is running on wind turbines. The energy village also includes rainwater harvesting, and is currently the construction site for some 196 sustainable homes.
I don't want to live in a pit/cult, but you get the idea of how fantastic something like this could be on a larger scale, right?
"Please take a few minutes now to tell the EU you support a ban on seal product trade." - Paul McCartney
That's right Paul McCartney is now contributing to the fight in saving the seals.
Twenty-five years ago, the European Union made history when it ended its trade in products from newborn harp seals. Commercial seal hunting in some countries came to a virtual standstill, and countless baby seals were saved. But the hunters began to kill the pups when they were slightly older -- and the products from those seals are legally traded in the EU. Today, some commercial seal hunts are twice as large as they were when the EU first took action.
I've posted about this before, because I have seen the video footage of how seals are brutally killed. I don't believe in killing animals at all, and I certainly don't feel there is anyway to justify clubbing a baby seal to get its fur. There are rules in regards to "humanely slaughtering" an animal and I can tell you beating it to death is NOT on the rule list.
You can take action in standing up against this by going to BanSealTrade.org.
CSIRO and Monash University have developed a chemical process that turns green waste into a stable bio-crude oil.
The process uses low value waste such as forest thinnings, crop residues, waste paper and garden waste, significant amounts of which are currently dumped in landfill or burned.
As you may have read on here before, or already knew, biofuel to-date has been made of corns and grains meaning a strain on the farming community which is already hurting.
However, the Sustainable Power Corporation still wants to move ahead with using feedstock to make the biofuel and then later try other components including algae. Announced today was he declaration that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (with Haytian Tractor & Equipment Co. S.A. ("HayTrac") located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Memorandum of Understanding is designed to produce Vertroleum green bio fuels that meet all ASTM specifications, including biocrude, biogasoline, jet fuel, marine fuel and other biofuels to be used in the generation of 24 megawatts of power.
While I support the idea of moving forward and finding a way to lessen our dependence on oil, I also believe it should be done in a practical and economically friendly manner. Which means finding the best avenue for making biofuel. It doesn't seem like SPC wants to wait any longer, they want to jump right in and use the feedstock regardless of the opportunities to save the feedstock for its true purpose and use green waste. Why do I care? Because if you need to grow more corn or soybeans or whatever, then you need more fertilizer and if you need more fertilizer you will actually be leaving a bigger carbon footprint in the act of trying to make a smaller one. Fertilizers release the largest amount of greenhouse gas into our atmosphere.
But since SPC has EXCLUSIVE rights to all green energy I suppose its all under their control and who am I to disagree.
Click here to order the poster you see in the image above. The poster will be printed by Greener Printer. They provide environmentally friendly printing services, featuring New Leaf Paper and Climate Cool shipping.
