Newsletters: March - April 2008
What is Green and Sustainable Living?
Natural Times-March/April 2008
By Paul Rutkovsky
Most of us have probably heard about living a sustainable "lifestyle" and buying "green" products. Many farmers, whether they are part of large agribusiness corporations or run small organic farms, can be defined as green only because their crops may be green in color. However, that of course does not mean they are responsibly green and rotate crops, use non-toxic based fertilizers, free- range feed their animal stock and sell their products regionally.
Home cleaning products, gardening, and construction products are increasingly being advertised as green as well. Selling green and sustainable products is becoming big business, and it's a complex jungle for the consumer to sort out which businesses are truly green.
What is sustainable? Simply put, sustainable can be defined as a closed system. The book, Cradle to Cradle, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, has a great title that illustrates the concept of sustainability. A tree in a forest is a cradle-to-cradle organism. It grows from a seed, produces other new seeds, dies, and decays and fertilizes the new trees. The cycle begins again, or actually it's a never-ending cycle unless it's disturbed. Most of our "man-made" or built environment cycles from cradle to grave or manufactured product to landfill. In the past, there has been very little effort to return the product back to its source or to recycle it.
Another definition of sustainable, from Wikipedia, characterizes it as follows: “Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The term, in its environmental usage, refers to the potential longevity of vital human ecological support systems, such as the planet's climatic system, systems of agriculture, industry, forestry, and fisheries, and human communities in general and the various systems on which they depend in balance with the impacts of our unsustainable or sustainable design.”
Goods and services that inflict minimal harm on the environment can be considered green. Many of these products are cradle to cradle and do not end up in the landfill. Products are finally being developed that have "disposable costs" built into the front-end price. In other words, when you buy a kitchen appliance you will be paying extra for the recycling of the plastic, tin, rubber, glass, etc. But if the components of the appliance have very complex plastic compounds or exotic chemical-based additives, the cost of greening the parts will be even more expensive. The complete cost of manufacturing and responsibly disposing of the product should, and eventually will be, part of the point-of-purchase cost.
The biggest task however is identifying which companies are actually ethical and doing what they say they are doing in terms of greening their processes and products. There is very little oversight or regulation of the industry. For instance, there are roughly 80,000 manufactured chemicals in our consumer/business environment of which not even one-fifth have been tested. We are the test site. We use the product (e.g. lead based paint) and later find out that it’s toxic. There are many more examples but not enough space to enumerate. Organic food standards are relatively safe, but the industry is constantly chipping away and eliminating important safeguards. See www.organicconsumers.org for specific examples.
There is much opportunity for those interested in going green and living more sustainable, but it's important to do your homework and not take an advertising claim at face value. Patronize reputable businesses that you trust. Most will research their sources and give out correct information. Also, there is a new business in town—Green Living located at 1020 North Monroe Street. The owner, Lindsey Billesbach-Spear, carries many green products and organizes workshops. Whether you are planning to renovate or build a new home or business, you should visit Green Living and see the actual products
A new residential community and commercial district called Evening Rose is being developed by K2 Urban Corp in Tallahassee. The developers say they are applying for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. This is the most difficult “green certification” to receive and if successful, they will be the first in the region to receive the certification.
Following are websites with information about green products and sustainable living.
Sustainability Institute
www.sustainer.org
Green Guide
www.thegreenguide.com/products
Organic Consumers Association
www.organicconsumers.org
Co-op America
www.coopamerica.org
Low Impact Living
www.lowimpactliving.com
