I love bees. My husband and I started bee-keeping two years ago in Canada to help the local bee population. You may not know it, but bees are an important contributor to our economy. The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service reports that bee pollination provides Americans over $15 billion in increased crop value – about one in three mouthfuls of food in our diet depends on … More
We’re doing it. GreenBlue’s Executive Director Nina Goodrich heard about the David Suzuki Foundation’s challenge to spend 30 minutes outside each day in May. Nina said she was interested and asked us to join her. It seemed a perfect fit for a company dedicated to helping businesses achieve sustainability goals, so most of our staff of 17 said, “Yes.” (It didn’t hurt that those 30 … More
It’s pretty likely that your company’s sustainability goals do not include a commitment to reducing the amount of eutrophication associated with its activities. In fact, I’m willing to wager that most readers might not even know what eutrophication is. That’s okay. It’s a bit science-y, and it doesn’t elicit half as much response from consumers as, say, carbon footprints and waste generation. For the purposes … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. The 2012 Urban Mobility Report found that traffic congestion costs Americans over $120 billion in delay time and wasted fuel. The report highlights that congestion caused urban Americans to travel an additional 5.5 … More
Check out this tremendous idea to clean up the ocean’s garbage patches from Dutch teen Boyan Slat. This is a great opportunity to take action and test an innovative idea to solve a problem long plaguing the plastic industry.
After reading last weeks’s NPR story: In Cyber War, Software Flaws Are A Hot Commodity, I am left wondering how sustainability can be applied to the business case being described therein. The gist of the story is that there exists a perfectly legal market of supply and demand for folks who can figure out holes in security protocol of tier one routing and other network … More
Happy New Year, In-the-Loop readers! In lieu of a resolution, I would like to start 2013 by sharing some of my top sustainability wishes for 2013: Designing for Success I look forward to seeing continued successes in targeting sustainability during the design phase. GreenBlue continues to work to make this process clear and easy so companies can understand the implications of their design decisions and … More
Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here. 1. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, there are nearly 15,000 Christmas tree farms, and over 100,000 full or part-time jobs are created by the industry. The average growing time for a Christmas tree … More
This post-Thanksgiving NPR segment discusses the massive amount of food waste produced by restaurants and their customers. Though the National Restaurant Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the Food Marketing Institute have formed the Food Waste Reduction Alliance to tackle this problem, they admit they still have a long way to go. According to the report, a half pound of food waste is created for every meal served in … More
We are excited to announce that the GreenBlue Board of Directors has appointed Nina Goodrich as Executive Director of the organization. Goodrich will also continue in her current role as Program Director for GreenBlue’s flagship project, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC). “We are thrilled that Nina is taking on the role of Executive Director for GreenBlue, and we look forward to the benefits that her … More