Lauren shares the success of our team’s latest sustainability challenge.
The Frontier Project just completed a team-wide sustainability challenge: foregoing disposable bags (both paper and plastic) any time we shopped and opting instead for reusable bags (or no bag at all). For the last six weeks, we kept track of our progress by adding a “leaf” to our Reusable Bag Challenge tree for each disposable bag saved.
The grand total? 343 bags that won’t end up in landfills or oceans! It’s a very promising start—if we keep this up all year, it will amount to nearly 3,000 bags saved, a total of about 45 pounds, and the fuel equivalent of about 250 miles of driving. That’s quite an impact for something that requires little effort, investment, or lifestyle change!
Switching over to reusables is a habit that most of us are still working to develop and maintain, but it’s definitely within reach. This small shift can make a huge positive impact, and it’s so rewarding and empowering to do the little things we can individually to help protect our environment.
Here are a few eye-opening facts that break down just how beneficial reusable bags are for the environment*
The average reusable bag has a lifespan equal to that of more than 700 disposable plastic bags.
The average American goes through six shopping bags per week. With a population of roughly 300 million, that means 1.8 billion bags are used and discarded in America every week. Yikes!
It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic bags that the U.S. uses every year.
An estimated one million birds, 100,000 turtles, and countless other sea animals die each year from ingesting discarded plastic.
The U.S. cuts down 14 million trees a year to supply the raw material to make paper shopping bags.
It takes 13% more energy to make a single paper bag than to make two plastic bags.
Paper bags aren’t necessarily a better choice for the environment. They create more than twice as much atmospheric waste as plastic bags.
*Source: reusethisbag.com
Before beginning this challenge, if I forgot to bring my reusable bags to the store I assuaged my guilt by using paper bags rather than plastic. I felt like they were a relatively harmless choice since they’re recyclable—it never really dawned on me just how many resources go into producing them or the impact of the toxins used to make them. But the statistics are sobering. Now, after being diligent for 6 weeks, I’ve developed the new habit of always bringing my trusty reusable bags along for the ride on shopping trips.
Frontier even provided our team with small reusable produce bags—the kind you use to hold individual produce items while shopping—which saved a LOT of little plastic bags from carrying apples and lettuce for approximately 20 minutes before being discarded and heading for the landfill. These netted cotton bags are washable, sustainable, and a fun talking point with fellow shoppers. Plus, now my kitchen trash doesn’t nearly fill up after a shopping trip.
Here’s what a few fellow teammates had to say about their experiences with the challenge:
Kevin: “For me, it highlighted how easy it was to make a small change in my daily routine as long as I was being mindful about it. In fact, using the bags was the easy part. The harder part was making the behavioral shift to always grab reusable bags when going shopping. I can't even count how many reusable bags I have stashed away and didn't routinely use until I made a concerted effort to be mindful about it. That made all the difference in the world, and now it's become second nature to grab a few bags out of the closet before we head to the grocery store. Having the extra reminder of the tree helped too. It's funny how something so simple as getting to put green dots on a tree made me think of grabbing the bags before I left the house.”
Brigid: “During this past month's sustainability challenge, I was able to finally make a habit of using reusable bags. I got into the groove of putting them on a hook near the door when I was done and that made all the difference. It also dawned on me that I should be bringing these bags to more places than just the grocery store. Target, CVS, Home Depot? These were all fair game, and I wouldn't have realized that without the incentive of this challenge. I also loved the visual impact of the tree and how that made me feel connected and supported by my teammates. Overall, A++!”
Ryann: “I learned that I almost always remember my bags once I'm already inside the store, which is frustrating. And also that I can carry a lot in my purse if I need to. I loved this challenge because it made bags so much more top of mind than usual and it helped me hold myself accountable to going back out to the car to grab my reusables even when it was annoying and inefficient.”
Katie: “This simple challenge of putting green dots on a tree led me to learn so much more about my family’s reliance on plastic bags. Where we landed: I didn’t use plastic bags all month! We bought some compostable puppy pick up bags– and though they aren’t ideal– are smaller and we are hopeful they do decompose. My husband used the reusable bags as often as he could, but if we needed a plastic bag or two he did grab one. All in all we reduced, definitely reused, and we did as much as we could to refuse the offering of plastic bags– which is all around us.”
Katherine: “The challenge was a great motivator to cut down on bags at the farmer’s market, where the delightfully accommodating vendors are always offering to bag up produce in plastic bags. I was able to save quite a few bags -- and add a nice number of leaves to our tree -- by refusing each of their offers. It felt good to come home from the market with only fresh produce tucked snugly into my cloth bags. Without the challenge, I may have gotten a little lazy about that.”
It’s inspiring to see how our bag challenge’s final numbers show our progress. We’re dedicated to making sure this reusable bag habit is the new normal—and to extending our efforts even farther with a new sustainability challenge in the fall (stay tuned for that announcement!). We urge you to challenge yourself to develop new green habits with us! Mother Earth (and all her creatures) will thank you.
Try this: A new app for product safety and sustainability
Brigid, one of our in-house sustainability advocates, opens our eyes to an issue we rarely think about.
When it comes to chemicals and pesticides, the United States lags in restrictions for both cosmetics and food. In makeup, there are currently only 11 banned chemicals (compared to Europe, where there are around 1,300). And our processed food is even worse.
Between the multimillion dollar marketing campaigns, the “greenwashing”, and the complicated ingredient lists, it’s hard to know what is and isn’t a safe choice. But let’s get real: who can keep up? Researching the safety of every personal product or food item that you buy can be a full-time job.
For the Environmental Working Group, it is. Creator of the “Clean Fifteen” and the “Dirty Dozen” guides, the EWG has now given us the knowledge we need right in our pockets with its Healthy Living App. (Download it here).
Here’s how it works. The next time you’re in the grocery store or wandering the aisles of Walgreens, open the app to check the “score” of any item before you put it in your basket. You simply scan the barcode, search by category, or enter it into a search bar. Then the app fills you in on all the chemicals and ingredients you’d be exposed to by using this product. It gives it a score on a scale of 1 - 10, so you can digest the information quickly.
We’ve become so smitten with the app, we incorporated it into our High Performance Workplace challenge as a possible way to earn points. The app is just too easy not to use.
We challenge you to whip out the app the next time you’re going shopping and educate yourself on your options--the healthy ones, and the not-so healthy ones.
Our media team just wrapped up a video for Owens & Minor that tells an important story—how the country’s leading distributor of medical and surgical supplies plays a critical role in shaping the healing process of patients everywhere.
Beyond jury duty: pitching in for civic duty now includes getting your hands (and lawnmowers) a bit dirty.
Four days. That’s how long Portugal was able to run off of only wind, solar, and hydro-generated electricity.
In an effort to shift the behavior of its core consumers and boost sales, Apple has redesigned and redefined its Genius Bar. Introducing Genius Groves, complete with trees and park benches.
The stakes are always high. At certain moments--and with the help of creative media--we realize how vertigo-inducing they really are.
What’s happening in Paris over the next two weeks is a commitment to large acts in response to a protracted emergency. Dozens of nations, debating over details, bargaining about brackets, and generally holding the fates of our future progeny in their hands.
What’s happening among our team this week, and every week, is a commitment to the small acts -- those that determine whether we are complicit in a pending catastrophe or co-creators of a recovery. Compostable paper plates. Commitments to no take-out garbage. Terra Pass reimbursements for employees. Car-pooling. Organic foods.
We’re not in Paris. We’re wherever we are, choosing daily whether to heed our better angels. Help us listen to them. We promise to help you listen too.
Coffee. Cocktails. And a Clock built to last 10,000 Years.
The Interval. A project of the Long Now foundation in San Fran. Visit if you can. And ponder, while you sip and stare, what long term thinking really means.
The headquarters of the US Green Buildings Council in DC is even smarter than you'd imagine. The organization that oversees the immensely influential LEED certification, USGBC uses its building as a showcase for what smart, connected design can do when taken seriously. Biophilic design abounds, every desk has a view of the outdoors, sensors adjust heating and cooling in response to sunlight and wind, blinds open and close based on temp and humidity, sound-dampening acoustic tiles make for a happy aural environment, and much more.
But the networked magic doesn't wholly ignore the necessary participation of humans. The USGBC employee app invites those who work and collaborate in the space every day to report a room too hot, a dripping faucet, a light left on, a crack in a window. Crowd-sourcing efficiencies while reinforcing the philosophy behind LEED: better buildings are made by smarter humans.
Worth a tour if you're in DC with an hour to spend near Georgetown. Guarantee you'll leave wondering what small changes you can make in your own workspace.
