Ecocity

EcoCity THE NEW WORD ON WARMING

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new report in October – read their take on the state of global climate affairs

MAKING WIND EVEN CLEANER

How new technology is making wind energy power plants in California even getting more efficient

CEOS TALK STRATEGY

Environmental activism and big business are often seen as opposing forces.

These 3 CEOs had to say otherwise.

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IN THIS ISSUE THE BIG PICTURE THE BEE ISSUE 16

Why bees worldwide are dying, and what we can do to stop it

IT AIN’T EASY BEING GREEN How environmental politics are a class issue

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES

Environmental activism and big business are often seen as opposing forces. Listen to what these 3 CEOs had to say otherwise.

FASHION

H&M GOES GREEN 12

7 stories from first-time urban cyclists on participating in National Bike to Work Day

SUSTAINABLE CHIC 14

7 stories from first-time urban cyclists on participating in National Bike to Work Day

SHAVE LESS, SAVE MORE 26

Movember can save resources and energy as well as your time and money — and it’s not just for men

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LOCAL

TOP 9 FARMERS MARKETS

Environmental activism and big business are often seen as opposing forces. Listen to what these 3 CEOs had to say otherwise.

#COOLGLOBES

How small businesses are using less resources, buying local, using clean energy, recycling, and still making a profit

THE NEW COMMUTE

7 stories from first-time urban cyclists on participating in National Bike to Work Day

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Farmers Markets every foodie should visit

by Josh Lew

From left to right: scenes from the Dane County, Des Moines, and Hilo farmers markets.

Plenty of food enthusiasts around the country prefer to spend Saturday morning browsing at the local farmers market. These casual events draw home cooks and even world-class chefs seeking ingredients for their next flavor-filled creation, and the odds are good that whatever is for sale will meet even the most stringent freshness and flavor requirements.

For most people, the best farmers market in the world is the one they return to week after week. However, some markets stand out because of their size, diversity or the overall quality of their products. Here’s a selection of farmers markets around the U.S. that true aficionados need to visit.

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Des Moines Farmers Market

The Des Moines Farmers Market is a major event that is held each Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa. This is a great place to find some of the best direct-from-the-producer goods in the Midwest. In addition to a rich array of fruits and vegetables, there are flowers, wines, cheeses, baked goods and dairy products. Special programs, kids events and concerts are also a part of the Saturday morning festivities in downtown Des Moines.

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Santa Fe Farmers Market

The Santa Fe Farmers Market is one of the main events in this popular tourist town in New Mexico. The thriving arts and culture scene here sets the market apart from many of its larger Southwestern peers. Every Tuesday and Saturday morning at the Santa Fe Railyard, artists set up shop alongside vendors selling locally grown produce and artisanal products such as jams, soaps and bakery goods. Musical performances, special events and kid-centered attractions lend the market a festival-like atmosphere. On Sundays the focus is on art during the Railyard Artisans Market, which takes place on the same grounds as the Farmers Market.

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Minneapolis Farmers Market

The Minneapolis Farmers Market sits just outside of the downtown section of this large Minnesota city. Some of the produce and goods sold here are seldom seen in smaller markets (or in any other markets in the Upper Midwest, for that matter), a product of Minneapolis’ diverse population.

Another unique aspect of this market is its dedicated space that is open every day of the week. A satellite market takes place downtown on Thursdays, and special events, including cooking classes and concerts, happen on the weekends.

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Portland Farmers Market

Portland has one of the most organized and well-attended collections of farmers markets in the U.S. Something is going on every Tuesday through Sunday, meaning that residents of this Oregon metropolis can have fresh food on their table daily. The Saturday market, at Portland State University, is the main event. A majority of the vendors and customers are very knowledgeable about the produce and are active participants in the city’s lively organic scene. Samples and cooking information are available and provide visitors with a hands-on experience.

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Union Square Greenmarket

The Dane County Farmers Market in Madison, Wis., claims to be the largest producers-only farmers market in the U.S. Throughout the year, more than 300 growers/vendors sell their goods at the market (when their products are in season). On market days, which are Wednesday and Saturday, as many as 160 vendors set up stalls in central Madison, selling produce, artisanal goods, flowers, meats, cheeses, wines, jams and honey, and an assortment of baked goods.

A nearby cluster of arts and crafts vendors and an assortment of street performers and musicians add to the exciting ambiance.

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Crescent City Farmers Market

The Union Square Greenmarket proves that farmers markets can thrive anywhere, even in a big concrete jungle like New York City.

This Manhattan institution serves up locally grown produce, baked goods and even less common market items like fish and fresh cut flowers. Specialty items like pickles, cheeses, jams, wines and ciders are also on the menu, as are seasonal items like freshly made maple syrup. As many as 60,000 people come to Union Square on market days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of each week). This makes for a crowded but festive scene with many of the customers as knowledgeable about the products as the vendors themselves. Cooking demonstrations and gardening education are also part of the offerings at Union Square.

The Crescent City Farmers Market in New Orleans is home to some of the most unusual produce and the best artisanal products in the Gulf Coast region. Held in three locations on three days, the market is a great place to introduce yourself to the foods of this flavor-filled city. The market is held Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with the Saturday version in the centrally located Warehouse District. In addition to fruits and vegetables, Crescent City features freshly caught [skipwords]fish[/skipwords], artisanal foods and farm-raised meats.

Dane County Farmers Market

Green City Market

Chicago’s Green City Market is another prime example of a farmers market thriving in a big-city setting. This hot spot for fresh food is open year round on Saturdays and is also open on Wednesdays during the summer and fall. In addition to a huge array of food and locally made products, this market has cooking demonstrations by some of the most famous chefs in the city and other cooking and gardening classes taught by local experts and enthusiasts.

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Green City Market

Chicago’s Green City Market is another prime example of a farmers market thriving in a big-city setting. This hot spot for fresh food is open year round on Saturdays and is also open on Wednesdays during the summer and fall. In addition to a huge array of food and locally made products, this market has cooking demonstrations by some of the most famous chefs in the city and other cooking and gardening classes taught by local experts and enthusiasts.

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#COOLGLOBES

Boston’s ‘Cool Globes‘ exhibit promotes environmental awareness

by Grace Hoyt

Isn’t this an awesome globe? It’s commemorating the Boston Marathon and all of the amazing and possibly insane people who run in it. I mean honestly, who just runs 26.2 miles? Crazy people, that’s who. (I’m allowed to say this, because I’m one of those crazy people.)

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Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet, is a public art exhibition designed to raise awareness of solutions to climate change. Cool Globes grew out of a commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2005, and was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2006. Since that time, Cool Globes premiered in Chicago and went on tour across the country from Washington DC to San Francisco, San Diego, Sundance, Los Angeles, Houston and Cleveland. In the fall of 2009, Cool Globes opened the first international exhibit in Copenhagen. From there our globes were in Geneva, Marseille, Vancouver, and Amsterdam. It is our hope that the millions of people who have experienced the exhibit, leave with a vast array of solutions to climate change, and with one clear message….we can solve this.

Rubric Commuters, students and tourists who ventured into Boston last month noticed something a little different about the city: huge sculptures of colorful globes have been installed around Boston Common. These structures are a part of “Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet,” a unique public art project that opened in Boston on Aug. 15 and will continue through mid-October.

Founded by Wendy Abrams in 2006, the first “Cool Globes” project premiered in Chicago the following year. The idea stemmed from Abrams’ desire to shrink the gap between scientific and public awareness of global warming. As she states on the “Cool Globes” website, the idea originated during a casual discussion with friends about “art with a purpose.” They determined that putting globes in public places would help draw attention to an important problem, “forcing people to confront the issues, but in a non-threatening manner.”

And confront they did. “Cool Globes” took off as a non-profit, and installations quickly began appearing across the U.S. and the world, with exhibits in cities ranging from Washington, D.C. and San Francisco to Copenhagen and Jerusalem. Now the exhibition has finally reached Boston — its 15th stop. Forty-eight globes are situated in various iconic locations across the city, including the Museum of Science, the Esplanade, the New England Aquarium, the Massachusetts State House, the John Hancock Tower and Logan Airport. The expansive presence of the project helps the artwork interact and engage with members of the community, whether they see the globes on their way to work or while spending an afternoon in the Common with their families.

Most of the globes, which are five feet in diameter and in some cases weigh 300 pounds, include educational

messages about global warming and other environmental issues through a wide variety of brightly painted designs. Individual artists created the globes, which each feature different messages focused on the same ecological theme.

Directly outside the New England Aquarium, for example, is a globe decorated with images of aquatic creatures, islands and coral reefs. The aquarium encourages all its visitors to look at the globe and consider the importance of “living blue” to combat climate change. A recent update posted on the aquarium’s website publicized the installation: “The Cool Globe won’t be here forever, so come enjoy this lovely piece of art and consider the message behind it: Climate change is real and it’s happening now, but there are ways you can make a difference!”

Despite its temporary nature, the educational opportunities presented by even just this single globe at the aquarium lend a sense of timelessness to the exhibition, making a visit to any or all of the globes sincerely worthwhile.

The Boston Common alone has 26 globes, which typically attract passersby to come up and look more closely at the exhibit.

Even from afar, the globes’ large

sizes and vibrant designs make them easy to see from a distance, something that ultimately leads to a more powerful impact.

“I’ve walked past them a few times on Tremont Street,” junior Alejandra Garcia-Plesch said.

“There are always people admiring and taking pictures.”

What makes these exhibitions different than other types of citywide installation projects?

In an interview with The Boston Globe, Abrams cited two main inspirations for the project: the wrecked cars used by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the painted cow sculptures that lined the streets of Chicago in 1999. Though she believed that both initiatives had a poignant effect, the primary difference between these projects and hers was that she wanted to promote awareness of a specific cause: the environment.

“Cool Globes” does more than just send a message. The exhibition informs audiences of all ages and sparks discussion about a prevalent topic, all while bringing beauty to the streets of Boston. Abrams captures this sentiment well in a statement to the Globe: “It’s hard to use ‘global warming’ and ‘fun’ in the same sentence,” she said. “We manage to do that.”

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Bike to Work Week celebrates commuter cycling with existing commuter cyclists, and encourages new people to try biking to work for the first time.

Our program is fueled by the feedback we hear from you.

Here are some inspirational Bike to Work stories.

Your Stories

from Bike-to-Work Week

Peter

I got fed up with rush hour traffic and paying for a tank of gas and parking every week. I work downtown and live about 9 km away from work. A coworker told me about riding a bike to work and parking in a secure bike cage. It has been 3 years of riding now and we have gone from being a 2 car family to a one car family. We save on insurance, maintenance and care depreciation as well. I work out at a gym 5 days per week but I am getting older and smarter — I need cardio workouts as well to keep my heart and health in check.

Who wants to ride a bike or do cardio inside? Who is going to push me when I do not feel like it? Now I ride to and from work — rain or shine — and I love it. Yes, some days I really feel like riding and some days I feel less like riding but I have no choice now and I always feel better after I finish my ride. My blood pressure, body fat and cholesterol blood levels have all come down and I have saved tons of money. I can ride to work just as fast as driving in rush hour and with no stress or traffic headaches. My wife has started to ride to work as well this year and we are saving even more. We have bikes for all 6 of usin the family (4 kids in elementary school) and we ride all the time.

What else can you do as a family virtually for free and have fun as a family getting exercise and fresh air? We have a bike trailer and a trail-a-bike and training wheels that will be sold soon as we can all 2 wheel it now. Lesson learned: I only take transit in icy conditions (fell a few times on ice!) Bike to Work Week has allowed me to meet and mingle with like minded great people and share stories, good tips and ideas.

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Sarah John

I read somewhere that Albert Einstein got an idea for his theory of relativity while riding his bicycle. I don’t know if it’s true, but it does make a good story.

I like using my bike instead of car or bus for local journeys close to home.

The fresh air and exercise relaxes and makes me feel good.It was a small step for me to rent a bike locker at King George station, so I could ride between home and skytrain on my daily commute. The bike is secure during the day and I never have a problem parking!

It would be nice to use the bike exclusively and cut out transit altogether, but living in Surrey and working on the west side of Vancouver (and not being an athlete of any kind) I figured this was not feasible. When Bike to Work Week came along I signed up anyway, for a bit of fun and to see how far the bike could take me. BTWW was an adventure and an education. I got up super-early, because bikes are not allowed on the train in the direction of the rush between 7 and 9am or 4 and 6pm. If you can’t leave work in time to be at your destination by 4pm, you effectively earn a 2-hour penalty, or risk the wrath of the skytrain commuting public. Taking a bike on the train puts you in uncomfortable situations sometimes. I learned to occupy the smallest possible footprint on the train.

By week’s end, I decided the bike on the skytrain is not a viable option for this commuter. Not until Translink get serious about physical accommodation for bikes and remove the punitive time restrictions. But I did have a better idea! What if I bought a second bike and left it somewhere in Vancouver?

Maybe I could rent a locker at a station in reasonable cycling distance of work. Most Millenium Line stations and six of the Expo Line stations have bike lockers. Main Street is closest to my place of work. There are not many lockers there yet, but one was available for me to rent. It takes a little planning and ingenuity to keep two bikes on the road. But I have been rewarded with a new sense of freedom. No more scurrying from the train to join a soggy line-up at the bus stop. No more earnestly watching the “Sorry Bus Full” signs go by. No limit on exactly what time I step on or off the train and no hassles.

Cycling has opened up Vancouver to me. It is a very satisfying way to explore the city. I feel rejuvenated and my commute time is a few minutes LESS than it was before Bike to Work Week came along.

Thanks Albert, for the inspiration!

Steven Fitzgerald, the President of Habañero, has been an avid bike commuter for over 20 years; he bikes 20 km per day rain, shine, snow, or sleet. As a result, his green habits have been slowly rubbing off on the rest of our company. With each new Bike to Work Week that our company participates in, we’ve convinced more and more employees to embrace bike commuting. We now have close to 30% of employees biking to work, and all are gearing up for your November event.

I’m actually someone who first tried bike commuting during your May-June 2007 Bike to Work Week, and now I’m a complete convert! I don’t think I would have ever attempted biking to work had it not been for your program. I currently bike from Lynn Valley, North Vancouver to downtown (about 30 km per day) three times a week (I work part-time), and I absolutely love it! As my husband also bike commutes, we were able to give up our second car. Bike commuting has now become a huge part of my life and if for some reason I miss a day, I just don’t feel the same!

Another thing to note is that our company has a change room in the office, which a lot of employees use. The company also offers a yearly employee fitness credit, and some employees (including myself) have purchased bike commuter memberships at the gym across the street.

Liane

As a busy single mom working full-time, bicycling to work is the only way I can fit exercise into my day, since I have to spend the time commuting anyway. I feel invigorated when I get home to my three little ones, instead of grumpy and stressed. Bike to Work Week kick-started my initial efforts to commute by bike on a regular basis, and I’m glad of it.

Thank you everyone who makes this event such a big deal!

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Blaine

A year ago (last May) Douglas College was challenged by other local colleges to participate in Bike to Work Week. President Susan Witter sent notice to all college employees to join in the challenge. I have never been much of a cyclist. I grew up on a ranch in Alberta and my favorite mode of transportation was my horse. Although I had a bike, cycling was not very practical. I took President Witter’s encouragement to heart and thought I should support it and as a senior administrator set an example.

I live with my family in Maple Ridge and thought that for the Bike to Work Week I would see if I could make it to our Coquitlam Campus at least once or twice during the week: it is 20 KM one way. With a lot of trepidation I made the attempt. When I did it one day, and enjoyed it I went again that week. I liked it! As a result I decide to try to keep it up. After a few times of “rubber-legs” my fitness improved. I got some advice from other cyclists and within a month I was hooked. I now cycle to both campuses at least 3 times a week putting on about 150 km per week. By Christmas time last fall I decided to upgrade to a road bike and shaved significant time off my commute. In May of this year I convinced my wife to buy a good bike and we both took the VACC cycling course.

She now is working at using it more often. My next project is working on my teenage children!

As the Vice President, Educational Services for Douglas College I have now become the college champion for promoting and improving support cycling for the College employees.

There are times when I cannot cycle but I have reduced use of my car by almost 60%. Commuting home is often faster on my bike than through the long traffic lines on the Mary Hill bypass and through the construction of the new Pitt River Bridge. There are no orphans here.

My initiation into commuting by bicycle has not been without incident. Shortly after getting my new bike I collided with an overhanging tree on a cycling lane in Pitt Meadows that threw me onto the middle of the road just missing the passing cars. It was at night and the tree was at the wrong height so my headlight did not pick it up until it was too late. Aside from bodily injury my bike incurred about $250 of damage and the folks at Pitt Meadows wouldn’t do anything for me.

I photographed the tree and it was obviously overhanging for some time (as the tip of the tree had been hit and all the needles stripped off the end) but the municipality of Pitt Meadows wouldn’t take any responsibility. That laid me up for at least 6 weeks for repairs and recovery. That has not deterred me and I am back full force at it now.

My life, my use of my car and my fitness have all changed dramatically because of Bike to Work. Thank you and thank you to President Susan Witter for issuing the challenge.

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Al Lens

I am a 45-year-old guy who always wished he worked close enough to home to ride his bike to work. Neither my work nor my home status changed, but one day I just decided I would ride to my workplace one weekend to see how long it would take.

Motivated by an extra 30 pounds of fat on my body and no time to work out, I discovered that it was just over an hour (now less than an hour). At first, I thought that two hours of travel by bike compared to an hour to an hour and a half (depending on traffic) by car was more time than I had to spare. Not to mention that I had to stop a few times to get up some of the hills along the way.

I decided that I would give it a shot, anyway. When I got to work, I realized I needed to find somewhere to park my bike. It wasn’t a very expensive bike at all, but still didn’t want it to get stolen. Working on the “better to ask forgiveness than for permission” philosophy, I found an out-of-the-way place inside. To my pleasant surprise, nobody said anything about me parking my bike in the office.

Instead, they were amazed that I rode all the way to work (about 22 km).

It didn’t take long for the pounds to start falling off and for me to be able to cycle up the hills without stopping. Instead of getting home frustrated by traffic, I am now getting home rejuvenated from the exercise, and stress-free as I have time to think about stuff. My eating habits haven’t changed (not for the better, anyway), but my body looks and feels better than ever. My commute is very predictable; if I need to shorten the time, I pedal faster (still without risk of a speeding ticket!). If I’m not in a hurry, I often stop to take photos along the scenic route that I like to take.

About a year after I started riding, the lease came up on our second vehicle. I found myself rarely wanting to drive anywhere, so we took the vehicle back and we are saving on the gas, car payments, and insurance... about $750 a month. Not to mention that I don’t have to pay for a fitness club.

Many of my friends and co-workers were pretty convinced that I would return to driving once the weather turned to rain. I actually find it enjoyable to cycle in the rain. With fairly inexpensive rain gear, I am kept warm and dry. When it rains, traffic is heavier and I often get to work faster than colleagues who drive a similar route.

This past summer, one of my daughters and I went on a cycling trip from Port Coquitlam to Denman Island. It was a very enjoyable trip and a great time to bond with my daughter. It is a rare occasion that I’m in a car, now. I never planned it that way, but like many cyclists, once I got started I was addicted!

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Bike to Work Clothing and Gear Tips Fenders – get your local bike store to install them.

Simple and affordable. These gems keep you drier from down below and they help keep the crud out of your chain and cassette.

Layer

— that way you can stay dry and reduce sweatiness. Try quick drying, insulating fabrics like polypropolene, silk or wool that you can take on and off as you go.

Stay warm and dry. Try waterproof pants, jacket and gloves (or a dollar store poncho/rain cape), a head cozy and/or hood under your helmet, ear warmers, waterproof shoe covers (plastic bags will do in a pinch).

When looking for a new jacket , seek one with good neck coverage, reflective strips, a longer back because when you’re holding your handlebars, you bend at the waist, unlike walking. Look for jackets with pit zips. Even though it’s cold outside, you will heat up quick while riding, and under arm vents are key to comfort and not making the inside of your jacket a temporary sweat lodge. Jacket fabrics that breathe, like Gore-tex will help with this as well. It is often worth the extra investment to avoid cheaper plastic jackets that trap all your body heat and make a damp micro-climate inside your apparel.

Grab yourself some cycling glasses that have orange or yellow lenses — these keep the rain out of your eyes while maintaining your visibility and ability to see contrast on the road.

Find a place to hang your wet clothes

at

work so they will be dry when you go home.

Be visible

– reflectors, vests and lights, lights, lights! LED lights are bright and last a long time.

Small turtle or blinkie lights are cheap and easy to clip on/off.

Use waterproof panniers

(or line your regular ones with plastic bags). There are one-size fits all waterproof covers that you can get for regular panniers or backpacks that are elasticized around the edges.

Sign your workplace up

for a winter riding workshop where they’ll go even more in-depth on these issues and more. Call 604-558-2002 to book one today!

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H&Mby Stephanie Launches Sustainable Fashion Line Hirschmiller

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wedish brand H&M’s Conscious Initiative, around in various guises since 2007, launched the Conscious Collection two years ago. Since then, the range made entirely of sustainable materials such as organic cotton (grown without using pesticides), recycled polyester, recycled polymade and Tencel, has been gathering momentum. Having started out with 30 pieces, it’s now doubled in size, with an additional 20-piece exclusive line of super high end suits and dresses worn by the likes of Chloë Moretz and Helen Hunt.

But really, just how much of an impact is this in the grand scheme of things? This was the question we put to H&M’s Head

H&M will launch a new collection of partywear this spring - an extension on their existing successful Conscious collection. Entitled Conscious Exclusive, the debut range features an array of evening-appropriate clothing and accessories for both men and women.

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of Fashion and Sustainability Communication, Catarina Midby. A former fashion editor at Elle Sweden, she headed up the H&M’s press office before moving into her current role, so is well placed for a circumspect view of the industry.

“I’ve always been interested in sustainability,” she says in her near perfect English, “it’s a Scandinavian thing we have called ‘All Man’s Rights’ (a more ecologically minded version of the American Bill of Rights) which means that nature belongs to everyone.” The fact that the forests are your personal property prevents people from abusing them and throwing litter, she continues.

A major factor in the sustainability

drive spearheaded by Midby was the 2005 tsunami in Thailand. “So many Swedes were there,” she said, “so we all knew someone in Stockholm who passed away.” She and her team began to investigate the processes that had the biggest impact on the environment: “we learnt that cotton was the really bad guy as it’s really chemically intense to produce and it also likes to grow in arid climates where water is scarce.”

All the fabrics developed for the Conscious Collection—from recycled polyesters to Tencel (an alternative to viscose that’s produced from eucalyptus) didn’t previously exist, she explained. The idea is that what starts off as part of Conscious—Tencel for

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instance, recycled polyester, beautiful organza and “a crepe that feels like silk” - can and has filtered through into the main collection sold in stores worldwide.

There are new developments all the time, she says, and come spring 2014, the new Conscious Collection will include pieces made from organic silk, organic leather and a new alternative to cotton made from ethically produced bamboo. She admits that while rolling these out “will take time as it’s quite expensive,” the same was true with organic cotton at the start but “in the end prices even out due to availability.”

Another major environmental impact is at the other end of a fabric’s life cycle, so

H&M launched a global clothes collection initiative earlier this year whereby customers can drop off unwanted garments in every store (two bags per person, each of which earns at £5 H&M voucher). For this, the brand partnered up with Swiss recycling company I:CO and is, next year, launching its debut collection made from garments collected in store: a five-piece capsule denim line to be sold in selected stores.

There’s even a new labelling system in the pipeline: the Clever Care waterlily symbol, currently at pilot stage, is due to be rolled out next year. It’s all about more conscious washing and drying as avoiding tumble drying and lowering the washing

temperature from 60 to 30 degrees halves energy consumption.

“It would make a huge difference,” says Midby, if all H&M’s customers were to adopt these measures. A champion of the “collaborative approach,” she is currently working with former H&M collaborator, Stella McCartney who is keen to apply the symbol to more ecologically sound methods of dry cleaning. “The whole idea is about changing all behaviours for everyone and how we can all participate in this conscious world — working together as an industry and using brand power to help other brands.”

The new Conscious Collection launches in spring 2014.

“I love how this collection has pure glamour and style and is made from more sustainable materials,” said Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M’s Head of Design. “For us at H&M, it’s natural to think about sustainability and to have it at the heart of our work.”

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SUSTAINABLE CHIC

Canadian eco fashion reaching new heights this fall.

Kelly Drennan, Founder and President of Fashion Takes Action, says we don’t need to look far for the best in green fashion:

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ur very own indie designers are using eco-friendly fabrics, safe dyes and repurposed materials to create some of the most stunning sustainable styles around. As increasing numbers of designers ask their suppliers questions about the quality and sources of their materials and choosing products made

or found locally, the stuff of great fashion is getting greener and more accessible. The following suite of Canadian designers are on a mission to create gorgeous clothing, jewellery and accessories that are kinder to the planet. Check out their style statements for fall >>

Thieves This stunning vest is made with a hemp blend with natural hand-knit wool horns and collar. Thieves

by Sonja den Elzen is designed with a focus on the environment, using entirely sustainable fabrics. The tundra was the inspiration for the Fall 2009 collection and a percentage of sales will be donated to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Embody Designer Tara White creates unique garments out of recycled materials that emphasize a confident style with lots of flare.

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Aime The Emma Dress by Aime will be your seasonless staple. The silk shirt dress can be worn with a blazer, tights and boots now. Slip into the shirt dress easily with the side zipper. The silk dress shirt blousons over the attached pleated silk tweed skirt. Unbutton the front buttons to show a little more skin. The skirt has a peek-a-boo silk chiffon trim and is fully lined.

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Bazant Lara Bazant sources rare, reclaimed and natural materials to combine global sustainability with individual style. This bold piece, entitled Fountain of Youth, is a three-in-one convertible necklace, bracelet and pendant set, handmade with reclaimed vintage and fair-trade beads.

Preloved To date, the designers behind Preloved have reused more 80,000 wool sweaters, 50,000 wool trousers, 10,000 dress shirts and 7,000 trench coats in manufacturing their one-of-a-kind clothing for women, men and children.

The main body of the dress is mad from recycled golf shirts that will always be assorted in colours and prints.

Ayla Designer Ayla Khosroshahi bridges her background in Human Rights with her love affair with fashion to create AYLA, a sustainable apparel and accessories company with eco-styling services. It is a forwarding-thinking brand: promoting ‘slow fashion’, maintaining environmentally and ethically sound practices. Ayla believes that conscious consumers do not have to give up on style.

She also promote sustainability as a lifestyle, inspires through communication and empowers though collaboration.

Ferhn Preloved To date, the designers behind Preloved have reused more 80,000 wool sweaters, 50,000 wool trousers, 10,000 dress shirts and 7,000 trench coats in manufacturing their one-of-a-kind clothing for women, men and children.

The main body of the dress is mad from recycled golf shirts that will always be assorted in colours and prints.

Clothing with good bones. Our focus is on what’s truly flattering on you - without noise and gimmicks.

We use a sharp, tailored fit, sophisticated colours and compelling silhouettes to put the focus on you. We believe in making things that last.

We take our time, curating great fabrics and getting it right. Ferhn is designed in our studio from start to finish and brought to life by skilled craftspeople.

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The Dying of the Bees

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Mass deaths in bee colonies may mean disaster for farmers— and your favorite foods

by Bryan Wal sh

Photo by Sevan Matossian

Y

ou can thank the Apis Mellifera, better known

as the Western honeybee, for 1 in every 3 mouthfuls of food you’ll eat today. From the almond orchards of central California—where each spring billions of honeybees from across the U.S. arrive to pollinate a multibillion-dollar crop— to the blueberry bogs of Maine, the bees are the unsung, unpaid laborers of the American agricultural system, adding more than $15 billion in value to farming each year. In June, a Whole Foods store in Rhode Island, as part of a campaign to highlight the importance of honeybees, temporarily removed from its produce section all the food that depended on pollinators. Of 453 items, 237 vanished, including apples, lemons and zucchini and other squashes.

Honeybees “are the glue that holds our agricultural system together,” wrote journalist Hannah Nordhaus in her 2011 book, The Beekeeper’s Lament.

And now that glue is failing. Around 2006, commercial beekeepers began noticing something disturbing: their honeybees were disappearing.

Beekeepers would open their hives and find them full of honeycomb, wax, even honey—but devoid of actual bees. As reports from worried beekeepers rolled in, scientists coined an appropriately apocalyptic term for the mystery malady: colonycollapse disorder (CCD). Suddenly beekeepers found themselves in the media spotlight, the public captivated by the horror-movie mystery of CCD. Seven years later, honeybees are still dying on a scale rarely seen before, and the reasons remain mysterious. One-third of U.S. honeybee colonies died or disappeared during the past winter, a 42% increase over the year before and well above the 10% to 15% losses beekeepers used to experience in normal winters.

Though beekeepers can replenish dead hives over time, the high rates of colony loss are putting intense pressure on the industry and on agriculture. There were just barely enough viable honeybees in the U.S. to service this spring’s vital almond pollination in California, putting a product worth nearly $4 billion at risk. Almonds are a big deal—they’re the Golden State’s most valuable agricultural export, worth more than twice as much as its iconic wine grapes. And almonds, totally dependent on honeybees, are a bellwether of the larger problem. For fruits and vegetables as diverse as cantaloupes, cranberries and cucumbers, polliEcocity // 17

Rubric nation can be a farmer’s only chance to increase maximum yield. Eliminate the honeybee and agriculture would be permanently diminished. “The take-home message is that we are very close to the edge,” says Jeff Pettis, the research leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bee Research Laboratory. “It’s a roll of the dice now.”

That’s why scientists like Pettis are working hard to figure out what’s bugging the bees. Agricultural pesticides were an obvious suspect—specifically a popular new class of chemicals known as neonicotinoids, which seem to affect bees and other insects even at what should be safe doses. Other researchers focused on bee-killing pests like the accurately named Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite that has ravaged honeybee colonies since it was accidentally introduced into the U.S. in the 1980s. Others still have looked at bacterial and viral diseases. The lack of a clear culprit only deepened the mystery and the fear, heralding what some greens call a “second silent spring,” a reference to Rachel Carson’s breakthrough 1962 book, which is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement. A quote that’s often attributed to Albert Einstein became a slogan: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the globe, man would have no more than four years to live.”

One problem: experts doubt that Einstein ever said those words, but the

misattribution is characteristic of the confusion that surrounds the disappearance of the bees, the sense that we’re inadvertently killing a species that we’ve tended and depended on for thousands of years. The loss of the honeybees would leave the planet poorer and hungrier, but what’s really scary is the fear that bees may be a sign of what’s to come, a symbol that something is deeply wrong with the world around us. “If we don’t make some changes soon, we’re going to see disaster,” says Tom Theobald, a beekeeper in Colorado. “The bees are just the beginning.”

Sublethal Effects

If the honeybee is a victim of natural menaces like viruses and unnatural ones like pesticides, it’s worth remembering that the bee itself is not a natural resident of the continent. It was imported to North America in the 17th century, and it thrived until recently because it found a perfect niche in a food system that demands crops at ever cheaper prices and in ever greater quantities. That’s a man-made, mercantile ecosystem that not only has been good for the bees and beekeepers but also has meant steady business and big revenue for supermarkets and grocery stores.

Jim Doan has been keeping bees since the age of 5, but the apiary genes in his family go back even further. Doan’s

The Stats:

Honeybees pollinate $15–20 billion worth of crops annually. Below are the value of a number of American crops in 2006, along with the percentage of their yield that was pollinated by honeybees:

Blueberries Peanuts Peaches Strawberries Oranges Apples Grapes Almonds Cotton Soybeans Ecocity // 18

honeybees other pollinators

father paid his way to college with the proceeds of his part-time beekeeping, and in 1973 he left the bond business to tend bees full time. Bees are even in the Doan family’s English coat of arms.

Although Jim went to college with the aim of becoming an agriculture teacher, the pull of the beekeeping business was too great.

For a long time, that business was very good. The family built up its operation in the town of Hamlin, in western New York, making money from honey and from pollination contracts with farmers. At the peak of his business, Doan estimates he was responsible for pollinating 1 out of 10 apples grown in New York, running nearly 6,000 hives, one of the biggest such operations in the state. He didn’t mind the inevitable stings—“you have to be willing to be punished”­ —and he could endure the early hours. “We made a lot of honey, and we made a lot of money,” he says.

All that ended in 2006, the year CCD hit the mainstream, and Doan’s hives weren’t spared. That winter, when he popped the covers to check on his bees—tipped off by a fellow beekeeper who experienced one of the first documented cases of CCD—Doan found nothing. “There were hundreds of hives in the backyard and no bees in them,” he says. In the years since, he has experienced repeated losses, his bees growing sick and dying. To replace lost hives, Doan needs to buy new queens and split his remaining colonies, which reduces honey production and puts more pressure on his few remaining healthy bees.

Eventually it all became unsustainable.

In 2013, after decades in the business, Doan gave up. He sold the 112 acres (45 hectares) he owns—land he had been saving to sell after his retirement—and plans to sell his beekeeping equipment as well, provided he can find someone to buy it. Doan is still keeping some bees in the meantime, maintaining a revenue stream while considering his options.

Those options include a job at Walmart.

Rubric Doan and I walk through his backof pollen samples taken from his hives yard, which is piled high with bee boxes that indicate the presence of dozens that would resemble filing cabinets, if of chemicals, including the neonicotifiling cabinets hummed and vibrated. noids. He has testified before Congress Doan lends me a protective jacket and about the danger the chemicals pose a bee veil that covers my face. He walks and is involved in a lawsuit with other slowly among the boxes—partly because beekeepers and with green groups that he’s a big guy and partly because bees calls on the Environmental Protection don’t appreciate fast moves—and he Agency (EPA) to suspend a pair of pesspreads smoke in advance, which masks ticides in the neonicotinoid class. “The the bees’ alarm pheromones and keeps impacts [from the pesticides] are not them calm. He opens each box and remarginal, and they’re not academic,” moves a few frames— says Peter Jenkins, a the narrowly spaced One way we can all help lawyer for the Center scaffolds on which Food Safety and is by planting bee-friendly for the bees build their a lead counsel in the honeycombs—check- flowers in backyard gardens suit. “They pose real ing to see how a new threats to the viability and keeping them population he imof pollinators.” free of pesticides. ported from Florida American farmers is doing. Some frames have been dousing are choked with crawling bees, flowing their fields with pesticides for decades, honey and healthy brood cells, each of meaning that honeybees—which can fly which contains an infant bee. But other as far as 5 miles (8 km) in search of forframes seem abandoned, even the wax age—have been exposed to toxins since in the honeycomb crumbling. Doan lays well before the dawn of CCD. But nethese boxes—known as dead-outs—on onicotinoids, which were introduced in their side. the mid-1990s and became widespread He used to love checking on his bees. in the years that followed, are different.

“Now it’s gotten to the point where I The chemicals are known as systematlook at the bees every few weeks, and it ics, which means that seeds are soaked scares me,” he says. “Will it be a good in them before they’re planted. Traces day, will they be alive, or will I just find of the chemicals are eventually passed a whole lot of junk? It depresses the hell on to every part of the mature plant— out of me.” including the pollen and nectar a bee Doan’s not alone in walking away might come into contact with—and from such unhappy work. The number can remain for much longer than othof commercial beekeepers has dropped er pesticides do. There’s really no way by some three-quarters over the past 15 to prevent bees from being exposed to years, and while all of them may agree some level of neonicotinoids if the pestithat the struggle is just not worth it anycides have been used nearby. “We have more, they differ on which of the possigrowing evidence that neonicotinoids ble causes is most to blame. Doan has can have dangerous effects, especially in settled on the neonicotinoid pesticides— conjunction with other pathogens,” says and there’s a strong case to be made Peter Neumann, head of the Institute of against them.

Bee Health at the University of Bern in The chemicals are used on more than Switzerland.

140 different crops as well as in home Ironically, neonicotinoids are actugardens, meaning endless chances of exally safer for farmworkers because they posure for any insect that alights on the can be applied more precisely than older treated plants. Doan shows me studies classes of pesticides, which disperse into

the air. Bees, however, seem uniquely sensitive to the chemicals. Studies have shown that neonicotinoids attack their nervous system, interfering with their flying and navigation abilities without killing them immediately. “The scientific literature is exploding now with work on sublethal impacts on bees,” says James Frazier, an entomologist at Penn State University. The delayed but cumulative effects of repeated exposure might explain why colonies keep dying off year after year despite beekeepers’ best efforts. It’s as if the bees were being poisoned very slowly.

It’s undeniably attractive to blame the honeybee crisis on neonicotinoids.

The widespread adoption of these pesticides roughly corresponds to the spike in colony loss, and neonicotinoids are, after all, meant to kill insects. Chemicals are ubiquitous—a recent study found that honeybee pollen was contaminated, on average, with nine different pesticides and fungicides. Best of all, if the problem is neonicotinoids, the solution is simple: ban them. That’s what the Euro

*So many soybeans are grown in the US, to accurately depict their would have to extend 5 inches beyond the edge of this page.

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Rubric pean Commission decided to do bees imported from South America this year, putting a two-year restriction —and it has killed billions of bees since. on the use of some neonicotinoids. But Countermeasures used by beekeepwhile the EPA is planning to review ne- ers, including chemical miticides, have onicotinoids, a European-style ban is proved only partly effective. “When the unlikely—in part because the evidence Varroa mite made its way in, it changed is still unclear. Beekeepers in Australia what we had to do,” says Jerry Hayes, have been largely spared from CCD even who heads Monsanto’s commercial bee though neonicotinoids are used there, work. “It’s not easy to try to kill a little while France has continued to suffer bee bug on a big bug.” losses despite restricting the use of the Other researchers have pointed a pesticides since 1999. Pesticide makers finger at fungal infections like the paraargue that actual levels of neonicotinoid site Nosema ceranae, possibly in league exposure in the field are too low to be with a pathogen like the invertebrate the main culprit in colony loss. “We’ve iridescent virus. But again, the evidence dealt with insecticides for a long time,” isn’t conclusive: some CCD-afflicted says Randy Oliver, a beekeeper who has hives show evidence of fungi or mites done independent research on or viruses, For all the enemies CCD. “I’m not thoroughly conand othvinced this is a major issue.” ers don’t. that are massing Some beeagainst honeybees, k e e p e r s are skepa bee-pocalypse Even if pesticides are a big part tical that of the bee-death mystery, there isn’t quite upon us yet. there’s an are other suspects. Beekeepers underlyhave always had to protect their charges ing problem at all, preferring to blame from dangers such as the American foul- CCD on what they call PPB--piss-poor brood—a bacterial disease that kills beekeeping, a failure of beekeepers to developing bees—and the small hive stay on top of colony health. But while beetle, a pest that can infiltrate and not every major beekeeper has suffered contaminate colonies. Bloodiest of all catastrophic loss, colony failures have is the multidecade war against the Var- been widespread for long enough that roa destructor, a microscopic mite that it seems perverse to blame the human burrows into the brood cells that host victims. “I’ve been keeping bees for debaby bees. The mites are equipped with cades,” says Doan. “It’s not like I suda sharp, two-pronged tongue that can denly forgot how to do it in 2006.” pierce a bee’s exoskeleton and suck its There’s also the simple fact that hemolymph—the fluid that serves as beekeepers live in a country that is beblood in bees. And since the Varroa can coming inhospitable to honeybees. To also spread a number of other diseases— survive, bees need forage, which means they’re the bee equivalent of a dirty hy- flowers and wild spaces. Our industripodermic needle—an uncontrolled mite alized agricultural system has conspired infestation can quickly lead to a dying against that, transforming the countryhive. side into vast stretches of crop monoculThe Varroa first surfaced in the tures—factory fields of corn or soybeans U.S. in 1987—likely from infected that are little more than a desert for hon-

Hostile Terrain

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eybees starved of pollen and nectar. Under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the government rents land from farmers and sets it aside, taking it out of production to conserve soil and preserve wildlife. But as prices of commodity crops like corn and soybeans have skyrocketed, farmers have found that they can make much more money planting on even marginal land than they can from the CRP rentals. This year, just 25.3 million acres (10.2 million hectares) will be held in the CRP, down by one-third from the peak in 2007 and the smallest area in reserve since 1988.

Lonely Spring

For all the enemies that are massing against honeybees, a bee-pocalypse isn’t quite upon us yet. Even with the high rates of annual loss, the number of managed honeybee colonies in the U.S. has stayed stable over the past 15 years, at about 2.5 million. That’s still significantly down from the 5.8 million colonies that were kept in 1946, but that shift had more to do with competition from cheap imported honey and the general rural depopulation of the U.S. over the past half-century. (The number of farms in the U.S. fell from a peak of 6.8 million in 1935 to just 2.2 million today, even as food production has ballooned.)

Honeybees have a remarkable ability to regenerate, and year after year the beekeepers who remain have been able to regrow their stocks after a bad loss. But the burden on beekeepers is becoming unbearable. Since 2006 an estimated 10 million beehives have been lost, at a cost of some $2 billion. “We can replace the bees, but we can’t replace beekeepers with 40 years of experience,” says Tim Tucker, the vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

As valuable as honeybees are, the food system wouldn’t collapse with-

Rubric out them. The backbone of the world’s diet—grains like corn, wheat and rice— is self-pollinating. But our dinner plates would be far less colorful, not to mention far less nutritious, without blueberries, cherries, watermelons, lettuce and the scores of other plants that would be challenging to raise commercially without honeybee pollination. There could be replacements. In southwest China, where wild bees have all but died out thanks to massive pesticide use, farmers laboriously hand-pollinate pear and apple trees with brushes. Scientists at Harvard are experimenting with tiny robobees that might one day be able to pollinate autonomously. But right now, neither solution is technically or economically feasible. The government could do its part by placing tighter regulations on the use of all pesticides, especially during planting season. There needs to be more support for the CRP too to break up the crop monocultures that are suffocating honeybees. One way we can all help is by planting bee-friendly flowers in backyard gardens and keeping them free of pesticides. The country, says Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a research scientist at the University of Maryland who has studied CCD since it first emerged, is suffering from a “nature deficit disorder”—and the bees are paying the price.

But the reality is that barring a major change in the way the U.S. grows food, the pressure on honeybees won’t subside. There are more than 1,200 pesticides currently registered for use in the U.S.; nobody pretends that number will be coming down by a lot. Instead, the honeybee and its various pests are more likely to be changed to fit into the existing agricultural system. Monsanto is working on an RNA-interference technology that can kill the Varroa mite by disrupting the way its genes are

expressed. The result would be a species-specific self-destruct mechanism—a much better alternative than the toxic and often ineffective miticides beekeepers have been forced to use. Meanwhile, researchers at Washington State University are developing what will probably be the world’s smallest sperm bank--a bee-genome repository that will be used to crossbreed a more resilient honeybee from the 28 recognized subspecies of the insect around the world.

Already, commercial beekeepers have adjusted to the threats facing their charges by spending more to provide supplemental feed to their colonies. Supplemental feed raises costs, and some scientists worry that replacing honey with sugar or corn syrup can leave bees less capable of fighting off infections.

But beekeepers living adrift in a nutritional wasteland have little choice. The beekeeping business may well begin to resemble the industrial farming industry it works with: fewer beekeepers running larger operations that produce enough revenue to pay for the equipment and technologies needed to stay ahead of an increasingly hostile environment. “Bees may end up managed like cattle, pigs and chicken, where we put them in confinement and bring the food to them,” says Oliver, the beekeeper and independent researcher. “You could do feedlot beekeeping.”

That’s something no one in the beekeeping world wants to see. But it may be the only way to keep honeybees going. And as long as there are almonds, apples, apricots and scores of other fruits and vegetables that need pollinating—and farmers willing to pay for the service—beekeepers will find a way.

So if the honeybee survives, it likely won’t resemble what we’ve known for centuries. But it could be worse. For all the recent attention on the commercial

honeybee, wild bees are in far worse shape. In June, after a landscaping company sprayed insecticide on trees, 50,000 wild bumblebees in Oregon were killed—the largest such mass poisoning on record. Unlike the honeybee, the bumblebee has no human caretakers.

Globally, up to 100,000 animal species die off each year—nearly every one of them without fanfare or notice. This is what happens when one species—that would be us—becomes so widespread and so dominant that it crowds out almost everything else. It won’t be a second silent spring that dawns; we’ll still have the buzz of the feedlot honeybee in our ears. But humans and our handful of preferred species may find that all of our seasons have become lonelier ones.

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bees

It isn’t difficult to make your yard, garden or even patio space a haven for beneficial bees. You’ll be helping these important insects, as well as bringing more nature to your back door.

The greater the plant diversity, the more bees and other wildlife your garden will attract and support (including both honey bees, which aren’t native to North America and native bees like orchard mason bees). Always try to choose as many native plants as possible, and consult with local nursery staff or other experts to find vegetation that will thrive in your specific conditions.

And remember, the more bees you attract, the more your gardens will grow, since so many vegetables and flowers require pollination.

Lavender

Fragrant flowers all year in mild climates. Evergreen shrub (annual in colder climates).

Borage (Borago officinalis) Star-shaped flowers appear in summer. Annual; sun or partial shade.

Lantana

Bee balm (Monarda)

Clusters of long-tubed flowers in summer also attract hummingbirds. Perennial; sun, or light shade in hottest climates.

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Tiny flowers in tight clusters all year in mild climates. Evergreen shrub (annual in colder climate); full sun.

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Fennel

Airy umbrellas of yellow florets in summer also attract bees. Annual or perennial; full sun.

Sunflowers

Bright and bold, they’re beacons for honeybees.

Be sure to choose pollen-bearing varieties.

Annual; full sun.

Sweet Alyssum

Honey-scented blooms are, of course, a natural for bees. Annual; full sun or light shade.

Oregano

Draws bees and hummingbirds as long as you let the plants flower. Perennial herb; sun or partial shade.

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Forget Shorter Showers Why personal change does not equal political change

by Derrick Jensen

Would any sane person think dumpster

diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”?

Part of the problem is that we’ve been victims of a campaign of systematic misdirection. Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance. An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet? Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emis-

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sions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide.

Or let’s talk water. We so often hear that the world is running out of water. People are dying from lack of water. Rivers are dewatered from lack of water. Because of this we need to take shorter showers. See the disconnect? Because I take showers, I’m responsible for drawing down aquifers?

Well, no. More than 90 percent of the water used by humans is used by agriculture and industry. The remaining 10 percent is split between municipalities and actual living breathing individual humans. Collectively, municipal golf courses use as much water as municipal human beings. People (both human people and fish people) aren’t dying because the world is running out of water.

They’re dying because the water is being stolen.

Or let’s talk energy. Kirkpatrick Sale summarized it well: “For the past 15 years the story has been the same every year: individual consumption—residential, by private car, and so on—is never more than about a quarter of all consumption; the vast majority is commercial, industrial, corporate, by agribusiness and government [he forgot military]. So, even if we all took up cycling and wood stoves it would have a negligible impact on energy use, global

warming and atmospheric pollution.”

Or let’s talk waste. In 2005, per-capita municipal waste production (basically everything that’s put out at the curb) in the U.S. was about 1,660 pounds. Let’s say you’re a die-hard simple-living activist, and you reduce this to zero. You recycle everything. You bring cloth bags shopping. You fix your toaster. Your toes poke out of old tennis shoes. You’re not done yet, though.

Since municipal waste includes not just residential waste, but also waste from government offices and businesses, you march to those offices, waste reduction pamphlets in hand, and convince them to cut down on their waste enough to eliminate your share of it. Uh, I’ve got some bad news. Municipal waste accounts for only 3 percent of total waste production in the United States.

I want to be clear. I’m not saying we shouldn’t live simply. I live reasonably simply myself, but I don’t pretend that not buying much (or not driving much, or not having kids) is a powerful political act, or that it’s deeply revolutionary. It’s not. Personal change doesn’t equal social change.

So how, then, and especially with all the world at stake, have we come to accept these utterly insufficient responses? I think part of it is that we’re in a double bind. A double

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bind is where you’re given multiple options, but no matter what option you choose, you lose, and withdrawal is not an option.

At this point, it should be pretty easy to recognize that every action involving the industrial economy is destructive (and we shouldn’t pretend that solar photovoltaics, for example, exempt us from this: they still require mining and transportation infrastructures at every point in the production processes; the same can be said for every other so-called green technology). So if we choose option one—if we avidly participate in the industrial economy—we may in the short term think we win because we may accumulate wealth, the marker of “success” in this culture. But we lose, because in doing so we give up our empathy, our animal humanity. And we really lose because industrial civilization is killing the planet, which means everyone loses. If we choose the “alternative” option of living more simply, thus causing less harm, but still not stopping the industrial economy from killing the planet, we may in the short term think we win because we get to feel pure, and we didn’t even have to give up all of our empathy (just enough to justify not stopping the horrors), but once again we really lose because industrial civilization is still killing the planet, which means everyone still loses. The third option, acting decisively to stop the industrial economy, is very scary for a number of reasons, including but not restricted to the fact that we’d lose some of the luxuries (like electricity) to which we’ve grown ac-

customed, and the fact that those in power might try to kill us if we seriously impede their ability to exploit the world—none of which alters the fact that it’s a better option than a dead planet. Any option is a better option than a dead planet.

Besides being ineffective at causing the sorts of changes necessary to stop this culture from killing the planet, there are at least four other problems with perceiving simple living as a political act (as opposed to living simply because that’s what you want to do).

The first is that it’s predicated on the flawed notion that humans inevitably harm their landbase. Simple living as a political act consists solely of harm reduction, ignoring the fact that humans can help the Earth as well as harm it. We can rehabilitate streams, we can get rid of noxious invasives, we can remove dams, we can disrupt a political system tilted toward the rich as well as an extractive economic system, we can destroy the industrial economy that is destroying the real, physical world.

The second problem—and this is another big one—is that it incorrectly assigns blame to the individual (and most especially to individuals who are particularly powerless) instead of to those who actually wield power in this system and to the system itself. Kirkpatrick Sale again: “The whole individualist what-you-can-do-tosave-the-earth guilt trip is a myth. We, as individuals, are not creating the crises, and we can’t solve them.”

The third problem is that it accepts cap-

italism’s redefinition of us from citizens to consumers. By accepting this redefinition, we reduce our potential forms of resistance to consuming and not consuming. Citizens have a much wider range of available resistance tactics, including voting, not voting, running for office, pamphleting, boycotting, organizing, lobbying, protesting, and, when a government becomes destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we have the right to alter or abolish it.

The fourth problem is that the endpoint of the logic behind simple living as a political act is suicide. If every act within an industrial economy is destructive, and if we want to stop this destruction, and if we are unwilling (or unable) to question (much less destroy) the intellectual, moral, economic, and physical infrastructures that cause every act within an industrial economy to be destructive, then we can easily come to believe that we will cause the least destruction possible if we are dead.

The good news is that there are other options. We can follow the examples of brave activists who lived through the difficult times I mentioned—Nazi Germany, Tsarist Russia, antebellum United States— who did far more than manifest a form of moral purity; they actively opposed the injustices that surrounded them. We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.

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In Search of a Sustainable Shave

by Tara Wagner

Shaving is one of those small but impactful habits we can all easily address. From shaving supplies to greener alternatives, we can decrease our waste, as well as our toxic load, all while saving money.

According to the EPA, Americans alone throw out an estimated two billion disposable razors each year. Although the actual weight will obviously vary from brand to brand, that’s still around one billion pounds of waste — a lot more than you think from the small piece of plastic in your hand. But when you remember that little thing called “planned obsolescence” — the purpose-

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ful creation of stuff that is meant to not last in order to increase consumption and revenue — and how quickly these little razors dull or rust, plus the estimation that 90% of male adults alone shave at least once a day, you can tell how quickly it adds up. One razor a week, from age 14 on… it’s a lot of waste. And that doesn’t even include the shaving cream, after shave, water usage, and so on.

The toxicity of most shaving supplies is another concern to consider.

According to the Environmental Working Group, not a single shaving cream

on their list could claim there were no health or ecological concerns. Even of the “cleaner” brands, issues still arose from the use of ingredients such as sodium borate (organic toxicity, including reproductive organs), tocopherols (potentially carcinogenic) or fragrances (linked to everything from immunity and allergies to organi toxicity and ecotoxicology)… even propane shows up on the lists!

And then there’s the cost. With many disposable razors costing $20 for a starter kit and up to $4 or more from replacement blades, it can really add up.

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Even the cheap $1 razors add up when you figure how quickly they need to be replaced.

Everything we’re describing below is not only safe, effective, safe for the environment and your health; it’s actually more affordable — freeing up more of your budget for the things worth investing in (family, fun, organic food, etc).

Eco-Friendly Shaving Supplies

Below are a list of eco-friendly and health-friendly shaving supplies to consider instead.

An Alternative to Disposable Razors A lot of people assume non-disposable razors equal danger but we’ve found that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

After my husband and I switched to a straight razor and safety razor, respectively, we found our shaving experiences improved. For starters, the razor was actually sharp (a surprising fact, when you compare to how dull conventional disposable razors actually are), and our results were cleaner.

Yes, it did take a little getting used to. The straight razor is more of a Sunday morning ritual, than a quick swipe on the way out the door. But the intentionality of the practice was fulfilling, giving my husband time to slow down and enjoy the process. (When he is in a hurry he grabs my safety razor, instead.)

We also found that the initial investment was nothing compared to what we would normally be spending. We paid about $35 for our safety razor, and another $10 for double-edge safety razor blades on Amazon. This was our

only purchase for safety razor shaving and we made it over five years ago. We still haven’t worked through even half of our original boxes of blades! The straight edge razor and sharpening tools was pricier, but also last an lifetime and are still going strong.

So instead of paying about $1,200 over the past five years ($20 a month on average); we instead spent about $200 and haven’t even come close to they end of their usage.

It is, however, very important that you purchase a good brand. Many of the safety razors out there are only stainless steel plated and are liable to rust (something we found out with a cheaper safety razor we tried). Although the blades can still rust on a quality safety razor, the rust itself cleans right off the handle and head. (And properly caring for your razor, as described below, will prevent even that.) If you ever really let it sit and rust, you can still clean the razor (not the blade) with a natural rust remover.

We personally use and recommend our affiliate, West Coast Shaving, for almost all your shaving supplies. They have a great selection and some really great prices, as well as higher-end items and gift ideas. We went with a Merkur safety razor and love it.

And they even have handles that will hold disposable razor heads if you’re not ready to make the full jump but would like a durable non-disposable handle for something like a Mach 3. (Plus if you buy through our links here, you support our website!)

Shaving Cream Alternatives

Ditching conventional shaving cream and its questionable ingredients is an

important step to revamping your shaving supplies for eco-friendly versions.

My first suggestion is to see how your skin does without shaving cream.

Oftentimes, by using a hot towel or shaving after a hot shower, many people will find it’s not even necessary and can save on the waste by using water only.

If you’re skin is sensitive or you find you prefer to use something, try a shaving oil: something as simple as coconut oil (great for skin!) will often protect the skin from the razor and moisturize at the same time. Another simple, one ingredient alternative to conventional shaving supplies and creams is plain ol’ aloe vera, which also assist in the razors glide, protects skin, and moisterizes.

Lastly, the internet is filled with shaving cream recipes. Check out a friend and blogger, Shalom Mama, for some ideas.

Aftershave

The purpose of aftershave is one of those shaving supplies that has always kind of puzzled me, especially growing up watching the kid from Home Alone so badly burn himself. In fact, the real purpose is to prevent cuts or nicks from becoming infected, as well as possibly moisurize as a bonus, but usually resort to alcohols to kill germs (and cause that infamous Culkin scene). Thankfully this can easily be in other, natural ways: • • •

Coconut oil is moisturizing and naturally antibacterial.

Aloe vera is also naturally antibacterial and aids in healing.

Essential oils, especially lavender, frankincense, and many others, are great for the skin, as

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Rubric well as wounds, and have antimicorbial, antibacterial, and antiseptic properties and only require 1-2 drops.

If you’d like the cooling affect commonly added to aftershaves, try a drop or two peppermint essential oil instead.

Be Sure to Extend the Life of Your Shaving Supplies, Too Most razors grow dull or rust before their time.

It’s important to extend the life of your razor be properly cleaning the blade, then thoroughly drying it. Ladies, if you shave in the shower, don’t store your razor there. (And consider not shaving in the shower, since a lot of water is wasted that way.)

In addition to proper care of your razor, you can also extend the life of your razor by using shaving after a shower when your hair is softer and still moist, making it easier to cut and not as dulling to your blade.

Eco-Friendly Shaving Alternatives Stop Shaving

Pretty obvious, right? You can avoid the cost, the toxins, and the endless consumption of shaving supplies by simply not shaving. It doesn’t have to sound as impossible as you think either: • • •

•

Men can grow a beard.

Women can trim underarm hair instead of shaving.

Men and women can embrace their natural body with pride (instead of conditioned disgust).

In the wintertime, most won’t even know you haven’t shaved.

Shave Less

Save time, money, and resources used to produce shaving supplies by decreasing how much or how often you shave. For instance: • •

•

•

Men with goatees only have to shave parts of their face.

Men can have a clean shave every few days or weeks, and sport the “scruffy” look in between.

Women can shave only from the knee down, since thigh hair is often softer, less noticeable, or hidden.

Women can only shave on occasions where it’s noticeable.

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Waxing or Sugaring Waxing or sugaring (a version of hair removal that uses sugar) might be a viable alternative to replacing many of your traditional shaving supplies, especially depending on the resources local to you. Now obviously, if you’re purchasing processed sugar from conventional farms that lend a hurtful hand to deforestation and loss of biodiversity, or your just buying a package of wax from the store, your ecological footprint isn’t getting much better.

But if you have the desire to make your own sugar with sugar beets, or even can access natural wax from local bee farmers, you might have a great alternative that not only costs less but might take less time as well.

Laser Hair Removal

I’m throwing this in here to help answer the questions I’ve received on whether it’s a safe alternative.

In my opinion? The jury is still out, but leaning toward “don’t do it”. Here’s why: For starters, it’s still a pretty new procedure so we don’t really know the long-term effects to either the patient or the medical professionals who perform it. But we do know that it causes a “sunburn”, can cause blistering, and is strong enough to kill hair follicles. That kind of seemingly innocuous damage sounds similar to what they warm us about sun exposure, except in concentrated forms and from an unnatural source. And the fact that it kill a natural function of the body makes you wonder if it’s really something to expose your cells to. In addition to that, an interesting study was done on the toxins it releases into the environment and the threat they pose for practitioners.

So if you go this route, do your research and make a well-informed decision.

Alternatives to AVOID

You most definitely want to avoid chemical hair removal products (like Nair) or products that bleach hair to lighten it and make it less noticeable. These products contain a chemical soup that are reported by the EWG Skin Deep database as being immuno-toxins, eco-toxins, irritants, damaging to the internal organs, cancer-causing, and so on. Ironically, some of the products for “sensitive skin” cause even more of a threat to your health and the environment than the original formulas, so don’t be fooled by a promise on a label.

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OEnergy CT O B E R Action Month SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY 1

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2

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9

20

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Open Shop at The Community Spoke!

(Free Bike Work) 6pm – 9pm 10 Boylston Place, Jamaica Plain

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28 Open Shop at The Community Spoke!

(Free Bike Work) 6pm – 9pm 10 Boylston Place, Jamaica Plain

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SATURDAY 4

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Green Thursdays at 75 Chestnut, Boston 5 pm – 10 pm

LEED 263: Solutions to Challenging Credits 4:30pm – 6:00pm 281 Summer St. 5th Floor Boston, MA 02210

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Green Thursdays at 75 Chestnut, Boston 5 pm – 10 pm

30

Let’s Talk About Food Festival Copley Square

5

12 Composting Together: Breaking Down the Basics 10am – 12pm 12 Saunders St., Allston

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Monthly Planet Southie Meeting 6:30pm – 7:30pm The Distillery Building, 516 East 2nd Street

24 Green Thursdays at 75 Chestnut, Boston 5 pm – 10 pm

Open Shop at The Community Spoke!

(Free Bike Work) 6pm – 9pm 10 Boylston Place, Jamaica Plain

27

FRIDAY 3

5th Massachusetts Green Career Conference 8am – 9am 265 Lakeside Avenue Marlborough, MA 01752

Open Shop at The Community Spoke!

(Free Bike Work) 6pm – 9pm 10 Boylston Place, Jamaica Plain

13

THURSDAY

Walk Ride Day Thurs, Oct 25 Your Commute!

31 Green Thursdays at 75 Chestnut, Boston 5 pm – 10 pm

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The World’s Most Sustainable Companies

by Jacquelyn Smith

Umicore is the most sustainable company on earth this year, according to a new ranking. But what does sustainability mean, exactly? According to Doug Morrow, vice president of research at Corporate Knights, a Toronto-based media company, it’s recognizing that a corporation’s long-term interests are intellectually and financially consistent with resource efficiency, proactive health and safety practices, and responsible leadership.

Sustainability is when what is good for a company is also good for the planet, and vice-versa, adds Toby Heaps, editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights. “It means creating more wealth than we destroy. It means that a company is on balance increasing our overall stock of wealth, grounded in human, produced, financial, natural, and social capital.”

Corporate Knights just announced its ninth-annual list of the world’s most sustainable companies, also known as the Global 100. “It’s important to celebrate the most sustainable companies for two key reasons,” Heaps says. “One, it drives corporate disclosure of core social and environmental metrics, which matters because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. And from an accountability perspective, sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he says. “Two, because the Global 100’s clearly defined methodology is well respected and watched closely during the World Economic Forum in Davos, it pushes companies to compete to see who can best harness their business model to make the world a better place.”

To determine the 2013 ranking, Corporate Knights trimmed down an initial list of 4,000 publicly traded companies to 350, based on financial performance, sustainability disclosure practices, and other criteria.

They evaluated the remaining 350 companies using key environmental, social, and governance performance indicators, including waste productivity, CEO-to-average-worker pay ratio, leadership diversity, and employee turnover. The companies were then scored, relative to their same-sector peers. (A different set of performance indicators was used for companies in each industry, depending on recent reporting Ecocity // 30

trends in each industry group.)

Corporate Knights collected data for the project primarily from Bloomberg and through direct engagement with the 350 companies.

“No corporate sustainability assessment is perfect,” Morrow says. “Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, but in terms of what matters most–transparency, rulesbased, and sophistication–we feel the Global 100 is the most complete sustainability ranking in the world.”

Leading the pack this year is the Belgian multinational materials technology group Umicore. Last year the Brussels-based firm ranked 8th, but thanks largely to its disclosure practices and resource productivity performance, it now holds the No. 1 spot.

“Umicore’s top placement was driven by the company’s strong across-the-board sustainability performance,” Morrow says.

“Relative to its global peers in the materials industry group, the company squeezes more revenue out of each resource input (including energy and water), while generating less externalities (greenhouse gas emissions and waste).”

On the governance side, Umicore has a more equitable compensation structure than most of its peers, coupled with above-average health and safety performance and employee turnover, he adds.

“Umicore’s outstanding sustainability credentials are reflected in the company’s business model. They generate over half of their revenue by selling products that help other firms improve their sustainability performance, such as energy efficiency. They are effectively long on sustainability, which we think is ingenious.”

In the No. 2 spot for a second consecutive year is Brazilian cosmetic company Natura Cosmeticos.

“The main driver here is that the company tends to be highly resource productive relative to its global peers in the household and personal products industry,” Morrow says.

Rounding out the top three is Statoil, a Norwegian oil and gas company.

Statoil’s strong ranking reflects not only the company’s superior environmental practices relative to its global energy in-

Rubric dustry peers, but also exceptional performance on other, less-wellknown (but no less insightful) sustainability indicators, Morrow says. “For instance, Statoil had best-in-class performance in terms of employee turnover, with 1.4% turnover in 2011—and in terms of gender diversity on its senior executive management team, with 40% female executives.”

Last year’s top-ranked company, Novo Nordisk, fell to the No. 5 spot this year. The Danish pharmaceutical firm’s fall from the top position was “mostly a result of improvements that other companies made over the past 12 months,” Morrow explains.

Which countries did best overall? The U.S. and Canada tied for the top spot. Each had ten companies on the list, including Biogen Idec (No. 8), Intel (No. 14) and Cisco Systems (No. 20), and Teck Resources (No. 21), Barrick Gold (No. 40), and the Canadian National Railway Company (No. 57), respectively.

“Generally speaking, U.S. firms score well on the innovation capacity indicator, which measures a company’s research and develop-

ment expenses as a percentage of their revenue,” Morrow says. “One weakness of U.S. firms is the CEO-to-average-worker pay ratio indicator. Relative to their global peers, U.S. firms are notably opaque on this issue. While they tend to disclose CEO compensation, they generally do not disclose total employee compensation, which is inconsistent with global best practice.”

Australia also did well with nine companies, tying France and Britain.

“Considering that the U.S., Canada, and Australia are among the most resource inefficient economies in the world, the results seem counter-intuitive on the surface,” Heaps says. “However, while the U.S., Canada and Australia have inefficient resource-productivity baselines to start, when you take their leaders in each industry, they stack up well against the world’s best. For whatever reason, the best companies in these countries have superior disclosure, better performance against same industry peers, and better performance improvement over time.”

Rank

Company name

Country

GICS Industry Group

Overall Global 100 Score

1 2

Umicore SA

Belgium

Materials

74.08%

Natura Cosmeticos SA

Brazil

Household & Personal Products

73.78%

Statoil ASA

Norway

Energy

70.73%

Neste Oil OYJ

Finland

Energy

69.96%

Novo Nordisk A/S

Denmark

Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology

68.42%

Storebrand ASA

Norway

Insurance

67.78%

Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV

Netherlands

Capital Goods

67.59%

8

Biogen Idec Inc

United States

Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology

67.17%

9

Dassault Systemes SA

France

Software & Services

67.03%

10

Westpac Banking Corp

Australia

Banks

66.12%

11

ASML Holding NV

Netherlands

Semiconductors & Semiconductor

65.53%

12 13

Outotec OYJ

Finland

Capital Goods

65.30%

Schneider Electric SA

France

Capital Goods

64.65%

14

Intel Corp

United States

Semiconductors & Semiconductor

63.58%

15

Sims Metal Management Ltd

Australia

Materials

63.11%

16

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

Germany

Automobiles & Components

61.91%

Adidas

Germany

Durables & Apparel

61.03%

Atlas Copco AB

Sweden

Capital Goods

60.59%

Novozymes A/S

Denmark

Materials

60.20%

Cisco Systems Inc

United States

Technology Hardware & Equipment

58.68%

3 4 5 6 7

17 18 19 20

AG

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