Sustainable is Good | Where design, lifestyle and packaging meet

California Prop 37 GMO labelling Turns into Major Fight

2012-10-16T10:28:07-04:00

Corporations opposed to California's Prop 37 which requires labelling of GMO ingredients in food products have donated more than $34 Million to defeat the measure which could have nationwide implications in terms of food labelling and packaging.

According to KCET's election 2012 site and other sources the companies/grups leading the charge in favor of Prop 37 are

Consumers Union
Sierra Club
Organic Consumers Fund
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps
Nature's Path Foods
Lundberg Family Farms

And those most strongly against it are:

Monsanto donated over $7million to fight
DuPont
BASF
DOW
Council for Biotechnology Information
Grocery Manufacturers Association
PepsiCo
Coca-Cola
Kellogg Company

More info is available from the Cornucopia Institute

Amazon Excessive Packaging

2012-09-14T08:36:09-04:00

Example of excessive packaging send in by a reader. A rake ordered from the online retailer Amazon arrived in a large 5 foot by 4 foot box filled with paper packaging material. The handle of the rake arrived sticking out of the box and was damaged.

Apple Abandons EPEAT Standard Removes all 39 Products

2012-07-10T07:51:23-04:00

Since I started SISG in 2007 I've always been fascinated by the development of green standards and certifications and have covered them extensively. Some of the more influential ones like FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and MSC (Marine Stweardship Council) provide consumers with criteria to help evaluate the sustainablity of products they purchase.

It was a surprise when the news broke that Apple had notified EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) to pull all of its 39 certified products from the EPEAT green products list.

EPEAT like many green standards work by being accepted by consumers and adopted by manufacturers/companies.

EPEAT is widely used by businesses, government agencies and academic institutions as factor in the purchase of new computers or electornic equipment.

The WSJ has reported EPEAT is used as a factor in the purchase of electronic equipment by 222 of the 300 universities with the largest endowments and 70 of those 300 institutions required EPEAT certification for purchase.

Speculation online has turned to the new Apple Macbook Pro with Retina display as the product that may have prompted the move. IFixit published a fascinating piece where they concluded the new Apple laptop is virtually impossible to deconstruct. The ability for a product to be broken down after use for recycling is a key component of EPEAT certification.

So what exactly is going on here? Has Apple concluded design is more important than the enviornment?

Provenance Reuseful gets Packaging Redeign from Jog Ltd, Wins Award

2012-06-19T07:20:23-04:00

Provenance makes homeware products from recycled, reclaimed and renewable materials. The company has high ecological standards. Provenance products are manufactured exclusively from ecological materials: 100% reclaimed teak (100% post consumer waste), 100% recycled glass (100% post consumer waste), 100% renewable cork (100% sustainably harvested).

When the company was looking at redesigning its packaging its requirements were strict, whatever packaging was used must share the same standards as its products.

Provenance turned to London-based Jog LTD to develop its new packaging.

Fiona Hamilton from Jog told SISG by email, "Strong orange is used for the boxes to draw attention to the display, the corrugated board for these boxes is 100% recycled (100% post-consumer waste), and is left unbranded to encourage reuse (but can be easily recycled). It is self-coloured to make any in-store damage less visible, reducing the need for re-boxing."

Branding is restricted to the paper sleeves, which are made from 80% recycled paper (80% post consumer waste with 20% eco-pulp from FSC-certified sources), with minimal ink coverage and no foil blocking to ensure they can be readily recycled. Sleeves minimize waste when adapting packaging to different languages.

Where products are boxed, the sleeve carries a simple line drawing to identify the contents instead of photography for a cleaner aesthetic, as the retailer will always display the physical products. Where possible, cut-outs frame the material of each product, drawing attention to it as much as to the completed product, which should only be one form the material takes in a wider journey of recycling.

Like the products themselves, all Provenance packaging is made from materials that are 100% recyclable.

Jog LTD's work on the Provenance packaging didn't go unnoticed the agency took home a Gold award at the 2012 European Design Awards.

MIT Researchers Develop Liqui Glide Bottle Coating

2012-06-01T06:37:00-04:00

A group of MIT researchers has developed a interior lining for bottles which allows the contents to simply glide out. The product is called Liqui-Glide. There are many food product applications. Check out their website for more videos.

Method Expands Program with Terracycle

2012-05-23T05:40:00-04:00

After launching the Method Refill Brigade® in 2011, Method, a leading innovator in premium, environmentally-conscious household and personal care products, and upcycling/recycling pioneer TerraCycle, Inc. have now expanded the program to accept pumps, triggers, refill pouches and almost any cleaner product packaging, regardless of brand.

Schools, offices, families or individuals can collect traditionally non-recyclable cleaner packaging and send it to TerraCycle to earn money for charity gifts and donations through the newly dubbed Cleaner Packaging Brigade. The collected packaging will be turned into trash cans, coolers and other home goods.

“Packaging sustainability is a core priority built into the design of every Method product,” said Adam Lowry, Method co-founder and Chief Greenskeeper.

“In addition to the recyclable packaging we make from recycled materials, we want every part of a cleaning bottle to be used again, including parts that aren’t accepted by most recycling systems, like triggers and pumps. Our goal with this Brigade is to ultimately collect more triggers and pumps than we actually manufacture, which would substantially improve the packaging footprint of not only Method, but our competitors as well.”

Lowry said he believes that by expanding Method’s partnership with Terracycle to accept packaging from all cleaning product companies, they can work to reduce landfill waste and replace the use of virgin materials while saving energy and carbon emissions.