Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

Every year, even in flush economic times, my family says we’ll pull back on holiday spending — there’s nothing we really need. We all like the idea of giving to charity, but it’s still nice to have something to unwrap Christmas morning, especially for the kids. So here’s a list of five conservation-minded charities the staff of Compete to Conserve thinks make great gifts:

© Davide R. Schrichte. All rights reserved. A manatee nurses her calf.

For just $25, you can adopt the manatee of your choice and keep tabs on your adoptee throughout the year. An adoption includes:

• A photo of your manatee (we have our manatees’ photos framed on our wall at home)
• Your manatee’s biography
• An adoption certificate
• A membership handbook
• Four newsletters throughout the year with updated reports on your adoptee

The club also sells children’s books and plush manatees that make great gifts for kids. Money raised from the club goes toward protecting endangered manatees and their habitat, much of it in Florida.

Adopt a manatee at: http://www.savethemanatee.org/adoptpag.htm

photo credit: Lord Biro

Defenders of Wildlife

We’ve got a soft spot for penguins, but you can also adopt other animals, including wolves, polar bears, snow leopards, sea turtles, and beluga whales. Most of the adoptions start at $25 and include a small plush toy, photo, and fact sheet.

Money raised goes toward protecting imperiled wildlife and wild lands through education, outreach, and political and legal action.

Adopt the animal of your choice at: https://secure.defenders.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=wagc_homepage#AllAnimals

Surfrider Foundation

photo credit: mikebaird

Who doesn’t love the beach and think our coastal waters should be protected for all to enjoy? Even non-surfers can support the Surfrider Foundation’s mission to educate the public about threats to our coasts and to encourage grassroots activism.

For $44, you can give the gift of a membership to the Surfrider Foundation, which includes:

• An organic Limited Edition Surfrider Foundation t-shirt or all-purpose tote bag
• Six issues of the Making Waves newsletter
• A sticker to show your support

Purchase a membership at: https://www.surfrider.org/membership/gift_membership3.cfm?specialGift=holiday

photo credit: nojhan

Heifer International

Heifer International aims to stamp out world hunger through community involvement and sustainable development. Donors may fund a specific project, such as natural resource management in Tanzania, or pay to provide an impoverished family with livestock.

Buy livestock for a family at: http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/
Fund a project at: http://www.heifer.org/site/?c=edJRKQNiFiG&b=3538797&msource=pcb07

Register for the charities you want to support.

Think of it as the philanthropist’s gift card. Changing the present allows you to register for charities, in the same way a bride registers for gifts. If you’re serious about not getting gifts this holiday (or Valentine’s Day, birthday, wedding, any event at all), this is a great way to let friends and family get you something you want — and let them get a tax deduction, too.

Register at: http://www.changingthepresent.org/registries

photo credit: miss_rogue

Wrap rage, the anger, frustration, and, sometimes, injury that occurs when opening a new package will hit its annual peak this December. Instead of kissing under mistletoe or roasting chestnuts, millions of consumers will instead spend time untwisting sharp, poky twist ties and slicing through airtight plastic clamshell packaging that seems better suited to seal off biological weapons than iPods.

For people trying to conserve resources, wrap rage is particularly vexing because, in the end, they’re left with piles of waste that can be neither reused (how many twist ties can one family really use?) or recycled (just because there’s a recycle symbol on a plastic bag doesn’t mean your local recycling facility will accept it). Paying customers are also annoyed knowing that much of this packaging is produced to deter shoplifters. (It’s also designed to make shipping and stocking more efficient.) Remember the terrible wasteful 6×12-inch cardboard box CDs used come packaged in? Consumers complained enough to rid the industry of the boxes. Now a new generation is aiming to put an end to wrap-rage packaging.

Some, fed up with overconsumption and inspired by the “reduce” movement, say that the best way to avoid wrap rage is to not buy anything–or at least not buy anything overpackaged or sealed in a clamshell. That would mean swearing off all electronics and many toys. So while there are merits to this argument, like other abstinence-only pledges, it may not be realistic. The cultural traditions and comforts of giving and receiving gifts during the holidays run strong.

One happy medium suggestion is to reduce the number of gifts you buy this season. Faced with economic uncertainty, many consumers are already pledging to buy less this year (much to the dismay of retailers). In light of mindful holiday buying, Amazon.com is hoping its “Frustration-Free Packaging Initiative” will lure shoppers fed up with overpackaging.

The Seattle-based online retailer has teamed with toy maker Mattel, electronics manufacturer Transcend, and Microsoft to sell 19 products that use less packaging and are easier to open. Amazon says, for example, the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship “is now delivered in an easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard box. The new packaging eliminates 36 inches of plastic-coated wire ties, 1,576.5 square inches of printed corrugated package inserts and 36.1 square inches of printed folding carton materials. Also eliminated are 175.25 square inches of PVC blisters, 3.5 square inches of ABS molded styrene and two molded plastic fasteners.” Transcend memory cards will be shipped in recyclable cardboard rather than plastic clamshells.

Nineteen is an awfully small number of products to choose from. And it won’t end wrap rage overnight. But it’s a start.

1. Compost Your Jack-o-Lantern
You can also save, wash, and roast the pumpkin seeds for a treat.

photo credit: tanakawho

2. Buy a Second-Hand Costume (and Donate It or Use It Next Year)
You can pick up high quality next-to-new costumes at Goodwill, Salvation Army, and other second-hand stores for less than $5. Sure beats paying $40, and you’ll conserve resources in the process. Don’t let your costumes’ lifecycle end there: pass them to a friend next year or donate to a retail charity and use your donation as a tax deduction.

3. Buy Less Individually Wrapped Candy
Let’s face facts: are you really going to get 400 trick-or-treaters? If you’re buying candy to satisfy your own sweet tooth, skip the small individually wrapped candies and opt for something with less packaging.

4. Turn Out the Lights
It adds ambiance to the night and saves energy, too.

5. Look for Any Opportunity to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Be mindful of your consumption during holidays when our desire to celebrate often leads to falling off the conservation bandwagon. Reuse costumes and decorations where you can. Recycle plastic cups, use compostable utensils, or use your regular flatware. Question whether you really need the Halloween merchandise that’s pushed at us each year. And just because something’s small doesn’t mean it can’t make a difference–I’ve even recycled tiny cardboard candy boxes from the kids’ treat bags.

More conservation ideas for Halloween from some of our favorite bloggers:

“Turning Halloween into Zero Waste Hallo-green,” My Zero Waste, October 16, 2008:
http://myzerowaste.com/2008/10/turning-halloween-into-a-zero-waste-hallo-green/

“Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Oh My!” Low Impact Home, September 30, 2008: http://lowimpacthome.org/2008/09/30/halloween-thanksgiving-christmasoh-my/

Endangered by factors such as global warming and pollution (see Sunscreens Killing the Coral Reef, posted on July 5^th), coral reefs are also the victims of another modern plague: rampant consumerism.

photo credit: robertpaulyoung

The United States is the biggest offender, importing about 80% or 400,000 pieces of coral yearly—much of which is used for jewelry and home décor. Indeed, the high demand for, and increasing rarity of, precious red and pink coral is such that jewelry and art pieces made from these corals can sell for as little as $20, or as much as $20,000.

According to a recent report in the journal Science, if the onslaught on coral reefs continues unimpeded, over 98% of the world’s coral reefs could be destroyed by 2050. This would pose a bleak future for the myriad of aquatic life and people who depend on them for their livelihood.

To increase people’s awareness about the need to protect these beleaguered creatures, the ocean conservation organization SeaWeb launched the Too Precious to Wear campaign this past January. The campaign’s launch also marked the start of the 2008 International Year of the Reef—a year-long series of programs and events focusing on coral conservation.

Too Precious to Wear advocates stricter control of the global coral trade, emphasizing the importance of industry and consumer responsibility. The campaign represents a collaboration of scientists, industry leaders, fashion and home designers, as well as celebrities. Tiffany & Co., which hasn’t used real coral in its jewelry for the last six years, voiced its support of the campaign with CEO Michael J. Kowalski declaring “there are much better alternatives that celebrate the beauty of the ocean.” The company’s line of jewelry with a coral-branch motif is one option. Other alternatives include environmentally friendly home décor items such as Pottery Barn’s resin-sculpted coral candle-holders and home designer Michael Aram’s Coral Reef Collection, available in select department stores nationwide.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, founding partner of the Too Precious campaign, argues that “it is up to each of us to make sure corals are protected. If we take good care of the ocean, the ocean will take care of us.” To find out more how you can do this, see

Too Precious to Wear:

http://www.tooprecioustowear.org/_science/overview.html

2008 International Year of the Reef:

http://www.iyor.org/

photo credit: patti haskins

Not all turkeys are created equally. And with Thanksgiving just around the corner, more and more retailers are answering the call for alternative holiday bird options. While Butterballs are the standard fare (not to mention perfectly delicious), an increasing number of turkey aficionados are favoring ancestors of the broad-breasted Tom.

Heritage Breeds, like Standard Bronzes, Narragansetts, and Bourbon Reds, are quietly gaining respect and market placement due to their exceptional flavor and biological diversity. According to the Heritage Turkey Foundation, “They are traditional ‘standard’ breeds of turkeys which have not been ‘industrialized’ for efficient factory production at the expense of flavor and the well-being of the turkeys.”

As industrialization took over the turkey industry, these heritage breeds became all but extinct. Meanwhile, the mass production of Broad-breasted whites developed a quick-to-fatten breed that cannot mate on its own, has difficulty walking, and must be slaughtered before it grows too big to carry its own weight.

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and Slow Food have been working together to increase awareness and availability of the traditional heritage varieties. As a result, numerous retailers are offering heritage breeds for this holiday season. Since some require “pre-ordering,” you may want to hop on this option sooner rather than later. Or you could be sizing up the Butterball section in the coming weeks.

As one of the few All-American, nationally celebrated holidays, why not take the route of celebrating like our own ancestors—alongside a harvest of organic fall veggies, of course? To find a retailer that sells heritage breed turkeys near you, check out: http://heritageturkeyfoundation.org/

photo credit: clownfish

Bleak economic news may be grabbing the headlines, but according to the National Retail Federation, U.S. consumers are set to spend more than ever this Halloween: $5.77 billion, a modest increase from last year’s $5.07 billion.

Sixty-five percent of us are planning to celebrate Halloween by buying candy, wearing a costume, hosting/attending a party, or decorating the house, which gives a good indication of what the nation’s trash collectors will be picking up Monday after the holiday weekend.

The most money will be spent on costumes (net average of $24.17 per person), followed by candy ($20.39), decorations ($18.25), and then somewhat surprisingly, greeting cards ($3.73). (I have to confess, I have bought Halloween cards in the past. If you sell it, they will come, I suppose.)

Here are some more estimates according to the NRF’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey published September 30, 2008:

• Average per person spending (2001): $41.77
• Average per person spending (2008 estimated): $66.54
• Biggest spenders by age: 18-24-year-olds at $86.59 per person
• Biggest spenders by region: Northeast at $70.84 per person
• Least likely to party: Only 30% of those in the West plan to attend/host a party

photo credit: hfb

Given that you can’t enter a store between August and October without seeing an array of fake plastic spiders, severed rubber fingers, sexy angel/devil/cat/nurse leotards, and cheek-pinchingly-cute baby costumes, it’s not surprising that many American consumers believe Halloween is the second biggest retail spending holiday of the year. It is not. The National Retail Federation, an industry trade organization, says:

“Though growing, Halloween remains the sixth-largest spending holiday after: Winter Holidays ($457.4 billion estimated), Valentine’s Day ($13.70 billion), Easter ($12.63 billion), Mother’s Day ($13.80 billion), and Father’s Day ($9.01 billion). Because it is not a gift-giving holiday or an apparel holiday, it ranks lower than other annual holidays in terms of spending.”

The retail industry does not measure holidays in terms of waste, but I think it’s safe to say Halloween can earn a second place title in that category. Overall, consumers are making more purchases (costumes, candy, decorations, food and beverage, etc.) in smaller dollar amounts than they typically make for Mother’s Day (flowers, a gift). Collectively, that adds up to lots more trash.

When considering chic alternatives to paper gift wrap, or even the standard-issue cloth shopping bag that has become de rigueur for all eco-minded consumers, try experimenting with the Japanese tradition of furoshiki.

Furoshiki—literally “bath (furo) spread (shiki, a form of shiku=to spread)”—originated as a way to carry one’s clothes to, and mark one’s territory at, the public bathhouse. The centuries-old custom gradually developed into a stylish and functional wrapping technique, consisting of a square cloth made of silk, cotton, rayon or nylon tied in various styles and shapes to wrap gifts, clothes and other items.

More recently, the Japanese government introduced a campaign to promote furoshiki as the embodiment of the “3Rs” of environmental awareness: reduce, reuse and recycle. Indeed, the versatile cloth can artfully arranged as a shopping bag or purse; as a carryall for your lunch or picnic nosh, doing double duty as a placemat or tablecloth; and as gift wrap, serving as a second gift.

In 2006 the then-Japanese Minister of the Environment, Yuriko Koike, designed the “mottainai furoshiki” as part of the government’s campaign to raise awareness of waste and its impact on the environment. Printed on cloth made from recycled PET bottles, Koike’s “mottainai furoshiki” capitalized on the Japanese concept of mottainai—the idea that it’s a pity for “something to go to waste without having made full use of its potential.”

According to Koike, “furoshiki is so handy that you can wrap almost anything in it regardless of size or shape.” It may be handy but to the uninitiated, it can seem a bit complex. To help modern furoshiki users master the numerous style and shape options, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment published an official “How to” guide.

Furthermore, Koike declared, “As my sincere wish, I would like to disseminate the culture of furoshiki to the world.” As part of that mission, officials attending this summer’s G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, received—among other environmentally friendly souvenirs—reversible furoshiki wrapping cloths.

In the United States, the technique of wrapping with furoshiki has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show and Good Morning America, where San Franciscan Vicki Mihara Avery demonstrated the green wrapping technique in 2007.

To check out different kinds of furoshiki, visit http://www.ecoshikis.com/ and http://furoshiki.com/home.php. Or, see Gift Wrapping With Textiles: Stylish Ideas from Japan by Chizuko Morita.

You can also make your own furoshiki: head to the fabric store to choose your own cloth, or use a scarf or shawl you already own.More

photo credit: How can I recycle this

BBC reporter Christine Jeavans swore off plastics for the month of August, chronicling her trials in a riveting blog. Her self-imposed rules allowed her to keep the plastics she already owns, but she gave up buying any new items made of plastic, in plastic containers, or wrapped in plastic.

It wasn’t easy. Or even realistic. Jeavans slipped up occasionally, and kept a tally of items. While she didn’t lead an entirely plastic-free month, she estimates that her family reduced their plastic consumption by 80 percent, compared to an average month in which she tallied their plastic usage.

Critics of her experiment point out that plastic is a highly convenient, economical material, which Jeavans acknowledges. Sometimes, plastic could even be considered environmentally friendly, because it extends the shelf life for many foods, thus reducing food waste, and its lighter weight (compared to paper) means it takes less fuel to transport.

Jeavans maintains the point of her exercise was not to demonize plastic, but to get people thinking about the consequences of mindless waste. It’s a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. As it stands now, most of the responsibility for waste reduction falls upon individual consumers,  even though the majority of packaging waste comes industry, and consumers are often limited in their conservation choices. What are you supposed to do if your recycling center doesn’t accept plastic lids? Keep them in your basement until the neighbors call the fire department on you?

It’s important for consumers to reduce, re-use, recycle as much as possible, but on a macro level, manufacturers and producers should also think about the life cycle of each and every product they make. Otherwise there’s gonna be more junk than our basements or landfill can handle.

Jeavans wrote a BBC piece about the beginning of her journey and posted a short video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7508321.stm

The BBC published her conclusions here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7591751.stm

The Barkingside 21 blog has a great post regarding “A Month without Plastic” and points us to two articles that suggest rising plastics costs may encourage landfill ming for materials:
http://barkingside21.blogspot.com/2008/08/month-without-plastic.html

photo credit: sutefani in orlando

My three-year-old is in the peak of her “Why?” phase. So when she asks why we have to turn off the water after washing our hands or brushing our teeth, I tell her that we don’t waste water. That, of course, prompts another “Why?” which gives me the chance to explain the interconnectedness of our consumption, the environment, and our own personal budget. (The answer, in case you were wondering, is because wasting isn’t good for the planet and because Mom can’t afford it.)

The same line of reasoning goes for food. That’s why I’m a major proponent of making a monthly menu and a grocery shopping list that I veer from only for fun treats that we consume right away. Since I began the menu/list plan, food rarely spoils in our home. I estimate I save about $25 a week (that’s $1,300 a year)–more if you consider what I’d spend eating out if I hadn’t bought wisely.

In an excellent article posted September 9, 2008, MainStreet.com takes this line of thinking one step further. Wasting food wastes more than food and money. It also wastes water:

“In the U.S., we throw away 30% of our food every year, according to the [Stockholm International Water Institute]. That wastes enough water to meet the needs of every household in North America for a year. It also wastes more than $48 billion a year, the report found.”

For the full MainStreet.com article and more money-saving tips, go here:
http://mainstreet.com/article/lifestyle/food-drink/save-money-food-help-save-world