Stop Junk Mail. Be Eco Friendly. Do Good. The GreenDimes Blog

Ridin' the Green Wave...

I went surfing for the first time last weekend and I can’t stop thinking about it. I know, I know- the fact that I have lived in the Bay Area for two years and that this was my first dip into the Pacific is unfathomable to most of my Nor Cal friends… but I’m from Colorado! I can out-ski you, guaranteed.

So early Sunday morning, four sleepy-eyed friends and I drove to Santa Cruz, rented our wetsuits and boards and hit the beach. I was surprised by how un-scary it was- how warm I stayed, how friendly the other surfers were, how awesome it was to paddle amongst a family of seals and how much fun I had (minus the horrifyingly bruised hip-bones). Granted, I grew up swimming competitively and am super comfortable in the water… I can imagine that if you weren’t it would have been a whole different story. Anyway, there are not many more amazing ways to spend a Sunday, if you ask me.

You can imagine my delight, then, that I came across this article yesterday about how Body Glove has just come out with an environmentally friendly wetsuit. I had heard about how bad wetsuits are for the planet before, and I am thrilled that there will be an option for me as I explore my new-found love. Out with petroleum-based, in with bio-stretch rubber! This ‘eco wetsuit’ claims to use one-tenth the amount of energy as your standard suit. Surf’s up, my green brah.

(Unfortunately, this was not the only surfing news I came across yesterday… YIKES! A shark attack some 35 miles from where I was paddling around like a lame duck? Gnarly.)

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you twice about the long weekend we are heading into… but I can’t wait to get back out there- sharks, bruises and all.

Kendra

www.greendimes.com

*disclosure clause:  if you have never visited ripionary.com you are missing out. Big time.

 

Is The Real World Really Green?

In a press release, MTV announced that the next house to be featured on The Real World is going green. Pretty awesome if you ask me- I can’t imagine a better platform to reach out to our tweens and college students and make a handful of ‘green’ products and behaviors ‘cool’…

From TreeHugger.com, “'The Real World' house will include everything from solar energy solutions to bamboo flooring, recycled glass counters, some sustainable furniture and recycled vintage décor, energy star appliances, a solar heated swimming pool and energy efficient lighting. Additionally, Bunim-Murray Productions has taken measures to reduce its environmental impact by adopting more environmentally-sound production practices on set. They also are working towards making the production and show carbon-neutral by offsetting remaining carbon emissions after these carbon reducing measures are applied. Eco-friendly elements will be added on a regular basis throughout production and within the show, including products seen with the cast and around the house.”

Good work, MTV. Now just make sure that house doesn’t get any junk mail either and we’re on our way…

Have a great weekend,

Kendra

www.greendimes.com

And the band plays on...

After going to VirginFest and seeing how effective the ‘go green!’ message can be when presented to tens of thousands of festival goers, I was psyched to read about another music fest making the most of the opportunity to support the green movement…

The September 14-16 Austin City Limits Festival is slated to be ‘one of the greenest festivals ever!’ Here’s how:

• All food will be served on either compostable or biodegradable paper plates.
• No Styrofoam allowed on site. Nothing can be packed in it; nothing can be served in it.
• Using biodiesel in site generators to the highest extent possible.
• Select site enhancements will be powered by solar energy.
• Using high efficiency lighting as much as possible (including LEDs) and replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
• Will provide incentive programs in place encouraging patrons to participate in recycling program in place for plastic water bottles and beer cups.
• All corrugated cardboard will be broken down and recycled.
• Portalets will be stocked with recycled toilet paper (huh?)
• Handwashing stations will have hand sanitizers rather than paper towels (This was the talk of the festival last year, well not really, but really improved the port-o-potty experience:-)
• Used batteries from stage & production areas will be collected for proper disposal.
• Patrons will be encouraged to bring old cell phones and batteries for proper recycling.

Pretty impressive… I am glad to see this trend taking hold!

Kendra

www.greendimes.com

Free Me! Green Me!

Hey, GreenDimers-

Happy Friday! We at GreenDimes just wanted to take a moment to *thank you* for your very warm reception of our new site! We are thrilled to be able to offer you our Junk Mail Reduction Kit for just $15 one time, as well as offer a new selection of GreenDimes products…

Things here continue to run at an ever-accelerating pace- but also continue to be very exciting. We are taking the junk mail industry by storm and they are hearing us. A huge thanks to all of you who have taken a minute to sign the petition and send it along to your friends, co-workers and family members. The list is growing by hundreds and hundreds every day and it will be no time at all before we are able to present it to Congress and have our collective voice heard.

Keep checking in to see what new ideas we are coming up with and working on. Our team is dedicated to continue bringing you the very best way to reduce your junk, clean up your mailbox and green your life.

Have a great weekend!

Kendra

www.greendimes.com

Encouraging Signs from the Soda Stand

Here is another great story I have been telling friends and co-workers about VirginFest in Baltimore last weekend…

For context, it’s important to note here that the GreenDimes tent was optimally positioned across from a beverage stand all weekend. There were a few reasons we were SO glad to have this spot. The first- have I mentioned how HOT it was? Ok, yes, I have but I still can’t get over it. And beyond the obvious conveniences this afforded us in the heat, the next reason we were so happy to have the drink tent so close had everything to do with the staff in it.

The racetrack had hired a handful of high school age kids for $100 a day to sell water, soda and lemonade. On the first day, Saturday, it seemed like they were having a great time doing it all day long. They were hanging out, chatting amongst each other (I’m sure they all had crushes on each other, but that’s neither here nor there) and interacting with the crowd in a way that would make any parent of a teenager proud. When our CEO walked over to get his own staff some cold water and left them a generous tip, they were absolutely thrilled. Beaming. Glistening with whatever excitement $20 extra bucks buys a teenager.

But something about them had changed by the time we visited them on Sunday. It didn’ t take us in the GreenDimes tent very long to sense a change in their excitable tone, a marked shift in their energy. These kids were bummed out. But why? We asked what was going on- weren’t they having fun today too??

They assured us that they were still having a good time, but they were noticing how many fewer tips they were getting on Sunday. Again, we asked why.

It seems that all of the public announcements the Virgin folks had made about reusing water bottles had taken hold. Nobody was buying water from these kids on Sunday.

But you should have seen the line of people waiting in 100 degree temps to refill their bottles. Just thinking of the moment I put this all together in my own head gives me chills. Something worked. Something in that crowd of 50,000 people had taken hold. People got it.

I tell you this story to encourage the idea that all of the small things we do and change in our own behavior does add up to make a difference. The kids from the beverage tent saw it. I saw it.

It was awesome.

Kendra

www.greendimes.com

GreenDimes at VirginFest!

Yes, it was hot. It was really really hot. And I’m not just talking about the hundred degree weather. The music was hot, the people were hot and the GreenDimes tent was smokin’…

Simultaneous to the launch of our new site (yippee!) was the opportunity for us to get GreenDimes’ new look and feel in front of 55,000 folks with the chance to talk to people face-to-face about our new products, our new website and our new petition at VirginFest in Baltimore last weekend. And what we found was that people were psyched to talk to us, to learn about our mission and to get involved.

Not only were the festival-goers totally into stopping junk mail and planting trees- they were also into making their voices heard en mass. With the help of our fabulous GreenDimes member and volunteer Liz, we signed hundreds and hundreds of you up for our Do-Not-Junk-Mail petition. We continue to be awed by the public support of our mission and draw inspiration from talking to you and hearing how much junk mail is bothering you! Know that we’re on it and that our case is made that much stronger by each and every one of you supporting us…

So for those of you who we met in Baltimore last weekend, it was great to meet you! Thanks for stopping by and make sure you check in often to see what new things we are up to.

Cheers!

Kendra

www.greendimes.com

DRINK. SPEND. DRINK. SPEND. Only in America.

The following information is pulled from a Fast Company article on bottled water. Amazing facts and a compelling point of view. For the entire article, you can see it at

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html

Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 Billion. A journey into the economics--and psychology--of an unlikely business boom. And what it says about our culture of indulgence

Bottled water has become the indispensable prop in our lives and our culture

We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year -- in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic.

Worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water.

Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We--a generation raised on tap water and water fountains--drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we're raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion. We've come to pay good money--two or three or four times the cost of gasoline--for a product we have always gotten, and can still get, for free, from taps in our homes.

You can buy a half- liter Evian for $1.35--17 ounces of water imported from France for pocket change. That water seems cheap, but only because we aren't paying attention. In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35.

Bottled water is not a sin. But it is a choice.

Once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it's reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just "Does the value to me equal the 99 cents I'm about to spend?" but "Does the value equal the impact I'm about to leave behind?"