For the Love of Green

I’ll Have the Can, Hold the Cups Jennifer Schwab, Director of Sustainability

09 February 2011

How to Show You Care in an Eco-Friendly Way

Instead of buying your significant other an overpriced, unrecyclable box of chocolates from the drugstore 30 minutes before your date, why not prepare ahead of time for Valentine’s Day with these eco-friendly gift ideas?

Top Tips

Friendly Flowers. Look for fresh, organic flowers from your local farmers market or at your favorite store. Flowers are often imported from other countries that may not have pesticide regulation which can translate to one dangerous bouquet.

Fair Trade Chocolate. Buy organically grown, fair trade chocolate; this ensures that companies practice responsible work ethics as well as sustainable production.

In this issue:

Tall Tales of

Recycling PG 3

1

GreenCheck™ PG 5 1

Featured GreenCheck™

Providers PG 6

2

Are you a sustainable business with eco-friendly products or services?

Learn more about our GreenCheck™ and Advertising Opportunities.

Sweetheart, Don’t Waste It!

Somewhere over the Grand Canyon at

30,000 feet — I was sipping from a

plastic cup of cool water. The flight

attendant swept by in short order with

a plastic bag to collect the “trash.” Not

an hour later, along comes the metal

cart (keep your knees and elbows in if

you’re on the aisle) with another drink

service, and another hard plastic cup,

including the funky-smelling, sandpa-

per-like logoed napkin. So what was

wrong with the previous ones? I’d

sipped from the cup which was com-

pletely unscathed, and never touched

the napkin. I would have been happy

to hold onto both for an hour to re-use for the refill. Even if I switched to soda, so what?

Apparently this nonsensical system is so ingrained in the flight attendant’s routine that

my request to NOT use a new plastic cup and just give me the can of cranberry juice up-

set the apple cart, so to speak. With a look of mild disdain, she slammed a fresh cup onto

my little tray along with the full can. Well excuuuse me for trying to be green!?

This scenario is played out millions of times per day throughout the world. The net effect

is untold tonnage of plastic and waste paper, some that will be recycled and probably

even more that will end up in landfill. Some finding their way into waterways and oceans.

As we know, clear hard plastics can last seemingly for decades as they just don’t de-

grade. What an unnecessary tragedy of anti-sustainability. One that seemingly would be

so easy to fix.

I have given this a lot of thought and attempted to speak with the airlines to find out why

a better system is not in place. Such as, give people the aluminum cans, wipe off the

tops, and allow them to drink directly from the easily recyclable can. No napkin unless the

customer asks. Thus NO plastic would be needed. For those who don’t want a full can of

beverage, why not paper cups? And if it’s a longer flight with two or more drink services,

why not ask passengers to keep their first cup and simply re-use it. This alone would save

literally millions of plastic cups and napkins per year. Not to mention, save the airlines

sizable costs. Sounds rational, right?

Story Continues on Page 2 Continued on Page 4….

I’ll Have the Can, Hold the Cups

(continued)

Our staff at Sierra Club Green Home contacted several leading airline PR departments, seeking an answer to this seemingly simple

question: why use so many plastic cups, and what happens to them when the plane lands? To our surprise, it was difficult to obtain a

straight answer to this question, and even more difficult to figure out why. Most of the responses we received from the major carriers

talked about recycling programs in varying degrees, as well as their commitments to reduce carbon footprint and save energy. Most

of these initiatives target reducing volume of jet fuel consumed, an appropriate goal indeed. Yet not one carrier would specifically

answer us about why they are compelled to use two or three cups and napkins per passenger instead of one on most flights? Maybe

the cup and napkin manufacturers are the brother-in-laws of major airline CEOs?

There was only one airline that responded to our queries with a professional, well researched series of answers. That was Liz Landau

of US Airways, Corporate Communications. Here are excerpts from our dialog with Landau:

Does US Airways compost food waste, recycle cans, plastics, etc.?

Two thirds of our 104 domestic stations have a recycling program; US Airways participates in 80 percent of these programs.

Aluminum cans consumed in-flight are recycled in many locations. All trash collected off flights within New York state is recycled.

Waste oil, tools, equipment batteries, battery cores, aluminum and other scrap metals from all Maintenance and Ground Service

Equipment (GSE) locations (several dumpsters for collection are readily available) are sent to recycling centers. Radio, phone,

and all miscellaneous batteries are collected and recy-

cled; money generated goes to the US Airways Education

Foundation.

US Airways has a computer recycling program that recy-

cles beyond economic repair hardware including com-

puters, monitors, printers, keyboards, fax machines,

phones, and other accessory equipment (e.g. mice, exter-

nal hard drives, etc.).

How many plastic cups are thrown away on an average, full

capacity, longer distance domestic flight?

On a longer 757/A321 segment, we use an average of

350 cups for a full flight (includes two beverage services).

Why aren’t customers asked to reuse their cups or better yet,

just take the cans on long flights?

We don’t usually ask customers to reuse cups due to hygienic/health risks associated with flight attendants handling the cups a

second time. Additionally, if customers choose to switch beverages, they might not want to mix their leftover tomato juice with a

soft drink.

As it relates to cans, pouring allows another opportunity for our flight attendants to provide excellent customer service. From a

cost perspective, pouring into the cup does save money as we can generally provide two customers with beverages from one

can.

We appreciated US Airways’ thoughtful and detailed replies. Their admirable list of sustainable activities — and there are many that

we are not listing here — is impressive. However, as you can read above, when it comes to plastic cups, there is still a long way to go.

Just yesterday I asked a Southwest flight attendant for just the can, no cup, and I ended up with not one but two cups in addition to a

can of sparkling water. Not sure how that happened?

Continued on Page 4...

Jennifer Schwab, Director of Sustainability

jennifer@scgh.com

Do you have suggestions for content topics?

09 February 2011

Tall Tales of Recycling

Recycling Myths Debunked

Fact: One could go down to their local landfill and find everything they need to furnish a new house, if they wanted to. Old computers,

ragged couches, lamps, and even ovens are thrown into landfills across the country each year. While properly separated recyclables go to

recycling centers, items that are not recycled end up in overcrowded landfills. So why aren’t more people recycling? Could it be they think

recycling is not worth it, too expensive, or too much work? The following are five common recycling myths debunked.

Myth 1: Recycling wastes more energy than it saves

Fact: Recycling actually saves more energy than if an item was not recycled. According to the National Recycling Coalition, reprocessing

recycled materials into usable materials, on average, requires 17 times less energy than creating usable materials from raw materials.

According to the University of Massachusetts’s Office of Waste Management, recycled paper takes 60% less energy, 58% less water, 74%

less air pollution, and 35% less water pollution to produce than non-recycled paper.

Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees and 7000 gallons of water

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for 3 hours.

Every one pound of aluminum recycled saves 4 pounds of bauxite

Recycling one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours

If every plastic bottle was recycled, 2 billion tons of plastic would be saved from entering a

landfill

Recycling one pound of steel saves enough energy to light a 60-watt bulb for a whole day.

Myth 2: Recycling trucks waste energy

Some say that recycling is useless because the trucks that collect recyclables produce more energy

and emit more pollution than recycling can save.

Fact: Waste has to be collected one way or another. If waste is going to be collected, it is better for the environment if that waste is sepa-

rated into recyclable and non-recyclable. The amount of energy and pollution created from recycling trucks is insignificant when compared

to the benefits of recycling. Creating usable items from raw materials requires an enormous amount of energy compared to using recycled

materials.

See all partners

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your clients, old and new, that you are taking the extra steps towards environ-

mental responsibility. Learn more about our GreenCheck™.

Click here for More Myths, Top Tips and Further Information

09 February 2011

For the Love of Green

(Continued)

Other Considerations

Keep them Growing. Instead of buying your Valentine a bouquet of flowers, consider buying potted ones that will last for more than just

a week.

Dine-In Date. Save some gas and forget about going out to eat. Treat your Valentine to a homemade organic dinner- it’s a little more

personal, saves you some money and the Earth.

Green Greetings. Instead of buying a Valentine’s Day card, make your own. And if you do end up buying a card, make sure that it is

made from recycled material.

Benefits:

To your health: Buying responsibly grown products means less exposure to potentially harmful pesticides like DDT for and the people that

grow them.

To your wallet: A potted plant that will last many years can cost you less than a dozen red roses. Dining in can also save you since you won’t

be spending money on transportation, dinner itself and tips.

To the Earth: Responsible and sustainable farming of flowers and cacao mean significantly less pesticide run off and contamination of our

water, wildlife and ecosystem damage which ultimately gets back to you.

Further Reading: Pesticides, Eco-Friendly Thanks, Send the Write Message, or Go Green and Give Green…

I’ll Have the Can, Hold the Cups

(continued from page 2)

Perhaps the most nonsensical response came from United Airlines. “We have looked at the questions and our challenge is one of timing. I

trust you know that United and Continental merged effective Oct. 1, 2010… there are elements of our two operations that we can harmonize

now in advance of the FAA approval. Our approach to recycling and sustainability is one of those areas we begin to harmonize… Bottomline: I

do not have answers for you and the answers are likely to evolve as we harmonize the approaches of our two airlines. My fear is that the

answers will be misinterpreted by readers and they may assume the approach indicated is for both United and Continental, especially since

the Continental brand name is going away,” explained Michael Trevino, PR representative for United’s Chicago headquarters. In fairness,

United’s Corporate Responsibility Report tells an impressive story of what the airline is doing to cut its carbon footprint and consumption of

jet fuel. And they do claim to have a recycling program for on-board waste. That said, what am I missing here? How about an answer as to

how United itself, pre-merger, handled the tons of plastic cup waste? We did ask for this but got more of the same as a reply.

What about Delta, which with its acquisition of Northwest is a dominant international airline? When our team asked “why don’t you force

customers to reuse their cups or better yet, just take the cans on long flights?” Our answer from their Corporate Communications representa-

tive, Trebor Banstetter, consisted of, “We’re swamped with winter weather issues today so I haven’t been able to find answers yet to most of

your questions. We do, however, have robust in-flight and on-the-ground recycling programs. I’ll let you know ASAP if I can find anything else.”

… “Sorry we couldn’t do more right now. Maybe in the future we’ll have an opportunity to revisit the issue.” To be fair, I dug into their corpo-

rate responsibility report and found detailed statistics about the success of their recycling program. The report states, “We instituted the first

comprehensive in-flight recycling program in the industry in June 2007. …”our in-flight recycling program has diverted 4.1 million pounds

(2,053 tons) of aluminum, plastic and paper products from community landfills between June 2007 and June 2009.” … “We currently collect

passenger recyclables on domestic flights into 25 cities.”

Attention airline CEOs and Sustainability Directors: why not do something right now that doesn’t require expensive R&D, or teams of engi-

neers and prototype fuselages and engines? Not to mention, one that cuts costs and increases profitability? I’m sure your Boards and share-

holders would love this idea.

If anybody out there is a flight attendant and can explain why this lunacy continues, please explain, we’d love to hear from you. In the mean-

time, tell the flight attendants you want just the can, no napkin, next time you need a shot of carbonated caffeine while in the air. This is how

we will make the world more sustainable — one small, but in this case significant step, at a time.

09 February 2011

Sierra Club Green Home and the SCGH GreenCheck™

Sierra Club Green Home (www.sierraclubgreenhome.com) is a destination

website designed to educate and inspire homeowners and individuals who

are seeking to live more energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable and

healthy lives. We also connect our users and visitors with thousands of pro-

viders of Green services and products throughout the country by way of our

GreenPages. We are partnered with The Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest, largest, most well-respected grassroots envi-

ronmental organization. Sierra Club is major, competitive advantage as it brings instant credibility in a space where au-

thenticity is crucial! Together, The Sierra Club and Sierra Club Green Home brands collectively hold over 120 years of

environmental experience, activism and trust.

The SCGH GreenCheck™

Many people ask what the requirements of a GreenCheck™ Provider are to become listed within the SCGH Green-

Pages. Before a provider or product is included on our site, an applicant must submit a brief description of their com-

pany and explain why they are a green or sustainable business. We then review their company website and SCGH appli-

cation, and then depending on the categories from our site which they fall under, we look for specific actions in one or

more of the following areas that they must meet:

1. Indoor air quality impact

2. Energy usage

3. Water usage

4. Material usage

5. Waste

6. Customer education

7. Provider health

8. Provider business practices

Become a GreenCheck™ Provider

Being an SCGH GreenCheck™ comes with many benefits aside from advertising to a highly saturated, target-specific

market. Sierra Club Green Home is able to offer you two different GreenCheck™ packages (General and Premium), at

ultra-affordable prices and we even offer a $50 discount to our valued Sierra Club members, or for those who want to

join Sierra Club. Please see our comparison chart on Page 5 to view our different packages and what they include. In

addition to the packages, all GreenCheck™ providers are given the official SCGH GreenCheck™ logo to be used as a

website badge or for any company marketing purposes (flyers, brochures, business cards, etc.) All providers listings

within our site are optimized by Google and GreenCheck™ providers also receive recognition our monthly newsletters.

Getting Started

The easiest way to become an SCGH GreenCheck™ provider is to create a Provider profile on our homepage. Once

you are logged in, you can choose the “Get GreenChecked” tab in your back office to schedule your GreenCheck™ or

simply contact Kris Vann at: kvann@scgh.com or Abi Wright at: awright@scgh.com anytime. The GreenCheck™

itself only takes 15-20 minutes to conduct via telephone with an SCGH GreenCheck™ specialist and can be scheduled

at your convenience. We look forward to your business and appreciate your interest. Please feel free to contact us di-

rectly for more information.

For More Information Contact:

Kris Vann, GreenCheck Specialist, SCGH

kvann@scgh.com

I’ll Have the Can (cont) PG 2

For the Love of Green PG 1

Tall Tales of Recycling PG 3 2

In this issue:

Want to join the Sierra Club Green Home community?

Make a username or a provider account on

www.sierraclubgreenhome.com.

Gaining acceptance through the SCGH

GreenCheck™ process indicates that

the business makes a legitimate and

meaningful effort to offer a product or

service that is more sustainable than

what is commonly sold.

Abi Wright, Ad Coordinator, SCGH

awright@scgh.com

09 February 2011

Sierra Club Green Home is proud to present our featured GreenCheck™ providers Thank you for leading the way in energy efficiency and sustainability!

I’ll Have the Can (feature) PG 1

For the Love of Green

(continued) PG 4

Sierra Club Green Home

GreenCheck™ PG 5

2

In this issue:

GreenCheck™ Packages

Featured Premium GreenCheck™ Providers:

Featured GreenCheck™ Providers:

PayRays, LLC (Premium Provider)

MyEnergyThings.com

Earth Bound Homes

IHS Home Building, Inc.

Star energy construction

DreamSacks Inc.

Energy Beyond Design Inc.

Pacific Sun Technologies, Inc

SealwiZe Northwest

Environmental Systems Associates Inc.

Infrared Diagnostic LLC

Green Dream Group LLC

Green Girl Gift Wrap

eZing Inc

Pure Eco Environmental Solutions

Apple Air Conditioning and Heating Inc

09 February 2011