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Two entrepreneurs in London started a side business renting live Christmas trees so fewer cut trees end up as waste after the holidays. Families can return the same potted tree each January, and rent it again next Christmas while it keeps growing. When the tree gets too big for pot rental after several years, it is retired and planted in the ground instead of being thrown away.
If the green economy—defined as the group of companies heavily involved in environmental business—were its own industry, it would be the thi
If it was considered its own industry, the green economy would be the third largest in the world.
Companies are considered part of the green economy if at least 1/5th of their income comes from environmentally focused activities. Over the last ten years, green economy companies have regularly performed about 12% better than the rest of the market.
Do people know most paper receipts are harmful to their health?
I'm going to get up on my soapbox for a minute, but do people realize how pretty much everyone is being overloaded with endocrine disruptors like BPA/BPS on a near-daily basis??
I don't think many people understand that ever since most of the world transitioned to thermal paper receipts (cheaper than ink), almost every receipt you handle from the gas station to the grocery store to the Square terminal printer at the local co-op is coated with Bisphenol-A (BPA) or its chemical cousin Bisphenol-S (BPS).
These chemicals have not only been proven to cause reproductive harm to human and animals, they've also been linked to obesity and attention disorders.
Not sure if your receipt is a thermal receipt? If you scratch it with a coin and it turns dark, it's thermal.
BPA/BPS can enter the skin to a depth such that it is no longer removable by washing hands. When taking hold of a receipt consisting of thermal printing paper for five seconds, roughly 1 μg BPA is transferred to the forefinger and the middle finger. If the skin is dry or greasy, it is about ten times more.
Think of how many receipts you handle every day. It's even worse for cashiers and tellers, who may handle hundreds in a single shift. It is also a class issue, since many people who work retail and food service are lower-income and will suffer worse health consequences over time from the near-constant exposure.
Not only that, receipts printed with thermal ink are NOT recyclable, as they pollute the rest of the paper products with the chemicals.
People don't know this and recycle them anyway, so when you buy that "green" toilet paper that says "100% recycled"? Yup, you are probably wiping your most sensitive areas with those same chemicals (for this reason, I buy bamboo or sugarcane toilet paper as a sustainable alternative to recycled paper).
This page from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has some good links if you want to learn more.
As consumers, we need to demand better from our businesses and from our governments. We need regulation of these chemicals yesterday.
If you are a buyer or decision-maker for a business, the link above also contains a shortlist of receipt paper manufacturers that are phenol-free.
If you work at a register, ask customers if they want a receipt. If they don't and you can end the transaction without printing one, don't print one!
As a consumer, fold receipts with the ink on the inside, since that's where the coating is. Some more good tips here.
And whatever you do, DO NOT RECYCLE THERMAL RECEIPTS
Are brand certifications designed to profit rather than to educate? How much should we value, or trust, brand certifications? As a consumer, I've noticed myself instantly checking for the Vegan logo on products, which has been a bit ingrained in my head. While brand certifications provide some insight into the business, I think that certifications should not be the end all be all situation when deciding to purchase products. In the last few years, there has been a massive increase in the business of brand certifications, like B-Corp, GMO-Free, or Fair Trade, and many more in the ESG business space. While certifications are focused on building trust within the brand and consumer, does it build trust from those working within the supply chain? Brand Certifications provide an additional verification role with a whole new set of other interventions, but what does it teach us? Brand certifications distract from systemic issues by making morality a choice. Our focus should not be on individual decision making but on larger systemic changes and issues, which brand certifications can help highlight. Let's put it this way: placing the entire responsibility on third-party credentials to address poor infrastructure, child labor, and injustices at workplaces is another result of a system designed to profit. We can have labor systems that from their conception are designed with the worker in mind, that are not beholden to corporate shareholders but to the workers. One other thing to note is that certifications can cost thousands of dollars for businesses. This makes it significantly easier for wealthy companies to receive certifications compared to small or local means of production. However, small scale businesses are almost always going to be significantly more sustainable than any multinational corporation. On the other hand, certifications have played a role in informing consumers and promoting fair, mutually beneficial systems. For example, when I look for products, I have found that the Vegan and Cruelty-Free logo is what I notice on many of the products I buy, which reassures me that it does not contain any non-human animals. At the same, certifications are often specific and do not measure other potential injustices in the business's supply chains, yet we often rely on certifications to question companies. What are your thoughts? -queer brown vegan
7 Sustainable Ideas for Eco-Entrepreneurs [Visual]
7 Sustainable Ideas for Eco-Entrepreneurs [Visual] by @getvoipreviews #ecofriendly #sustainable #greenbusiness #earthfriendly
The goal of any new business is to make money, but what if you could fill your bank account and help protect the planet? There’s no shortage of benefits to starting an earth-friendly business. Today’s consumer is more eco-conscious than ever and no longer makes purchasing decisions based solely on price and quality. In fact, people are pushing brands to help them be more environmentally aware,…
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Living Deep sells only the world’s most sustainable home goods
Handpicked, luxe interior design by top sustainable architect Jason McLennan.
A mile stone on the way to a sustainable economy.
#PromotionShaming #SmallBusiness + the Absurdity of #OnePercenterism
I recently read a piece which poses this question, i paraphrase : “whether self-promotion is helpful or hurtful to your business.”
As i read the piece at “On Being” - an excellent site for thought and discussion ... A site I respect ... I really grappled with my gutt, mind, heart - reactions to that question.
The below is where I arrived :
The power for us all, will be in communication with each other - not media "worship" / "idolatry" patterned after other forms of "worship." For me, "worship" is very different from what is truly "sacred."
It's time, that those of us with small businesses , where we actually do our work from the ground up . - simply find each other ... and - joyfully support each other however we can / however we wish to lend support. Part of the problem in all media, including social media, public appearances, "talks", "lectures"- even the truly brilliant ones ... - seems to me, to be that :
" 1 - Percenterism " has seeped into that "sacred" education space where "stardom" was possibly - formerly an inside story, known only by the small group ? Perhaps there were stars in universities or think tanks - but i assume ... that before the internet age, most people who were into "stardom" - weren't looking at the universities to express worship ? Geeks were not as "cool" back in those days ? - I went to school during the digital age ... - but still I learned about referencing sources - studied anthropology as well as cinema / performance arts ... and even in the information age - I learned - we have to credit SOURCES ... - footnotes, etc ... We give credit where credit is due ... Hey in fact - I SO enjoy giving credit to others ... but it may come as some surprise - that in spite of "shaming culture" - i EQUALLY enjoy - celebrating my own work / accomplishments ! I don't mean to imply that this came easily LOL ... I had to learn how to do that more freely - but i had GREAT teachers !
Sisters / Brothers : I'm here to "testify" that this too, is "righteous" ! No Need for SHAME unless you've done something terrible ! What's terrible about self-promotion when your business / livelihoods / good works are at stake ? Undeserved shame is actually harmful to everybody around you and to our society ! My next sentence might sound like promotion ... - maybe it is ... but HONESTLY - My upcoming film / album " eVe N'god this female is not yet rated™ " - EVE n' GOD this Female is not yet RATED TM These Are the... - deals directly with this issue of SHAME ... - of-course, because it deals with the concept of " EVE " and we all know about HER shame.
Shaming - is what I hear - when I hear anybody questioning whether it's ok to promote ... OH baby - how do we think ANYTHING EVER gets accomplished ? It's called PROMOTION - ADVERTISING ... - but can it be done ethically ? SURE ! Can it be done with dignity ? SURE ! Should everybody / anybody do it ? Maybe not ? But there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Unfortunately the 1 Percenters might like to hold onto a larger "percent" by any means necessary, even shaming others. In the Information Age - it seems to me ... - that it's apparently acceptable ( even by people who did go to college and did learn about footnotes and crediting sources etc ... ) to take ideas from anywhere and everywhere - then - give credit only toward what will bring some form of "fame" / "worship" or advancement . It's stealing intellectual property, but with a tacit and complicit nod from our current circumstances and a popular "head in the sand" approach - "well, everybody's doing it." Like other "isms" - 1 Percenterism, allows people who are already famous, or those who seek a path to it - with good contacts, money, and a certain "talent" for gathering agreement in the right circles to hire " researchers " , PR agencies, and " interns " to "research" everything that's "new" "trending" etc ... then deliver that information packaged, ready for re-packaging ... so that the celebrity can "stay current" / "fresh" and frankly, "relevant" ... or - for that new kind of information age "celebrities" to forge their pathway to a new kind of "information age stardom" .. ... As such, it's become ok for "stars" to "research" the internet ... where new ideas, diamonds in the rough are posted daily -then credit only the "famous" people / "name drop" - while discarding other sources quite easily, if those sources don't add to the value of the "brand."
Anybody who tries to SHAME you for working your --- off to accomplish your goal ... is messin' with yo' head.
My suggestion is that - "we the people" ... - those of us struggling to get our businesses / projects out into the world ... stop "worshipping" and start helping each other. I've been paving that path proudly and against all odds since 2011. I'll continue to do just that - and I ask for any and all support of my very hard-won accomplishments, as an actress who reacted to #MeToo circumstances, by building my own Hand-Built Woman-Owned Studio for Indie Films, Indie Albums, Poetry, Photography and Books. Please join us everywhere, please support my projects - if we can - we will do our best, to support your business - pending details etc ...
🏄♀️ @ CaliLiliIndies ™ Pictures Words Music In Motion ™ feMt0™studi0 © 🌊🐬🌊 Cali Lili + Cali Lili Indies ™ Pictures Words Music In Motion ™
FYI ... I tried to leave my reflections as a comment at the site of the original article ... but my comments appear to not be accepted by the moderators ... but perhaps they are in process ...
For Reference : I am enclosing the piece i read, which elicited my reflections above : https://onbeing.org/blog/courtney-martin-the-case-for-self-promotion/
