Archive for Green Living 101
New cruse ship sewage ban for 2011
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve never been one who really enjoys an extended period of time in a confined space therefore going on a cruise has never held particular appeal to me. I’ve been on ferries crossing the Irish Sea and the North Sea to visit Ireland and Europe but always using the ship as a method of transport not as a holiday. Naturally without my participation the cruise industry is still huge and growing on an annual basis. While I lived in Los Angeles I marveled at the size of the magnificent ships harboured in San Pedro waiting like sentinels to take their cargo of two or three thousand holidaymakers down the Pacific Coast to various Mexican and Central American ports of call. I never realized until reading a recent article that sewage from these huge vessels was not previously restricted for dumping in coastal waters.
Happily new federal regulations will now ban all cruise ships and larger commercial ships from discharging their sewage within 3 miles of the California coastline according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The laws come into play in 2011 and it is estimated that the results will keep approximately 20,000,000 gallons of sewage away from coastal waters annually. In addition to cruise ships commercial boats in excess of 300 tons will also be subject to the same rulings. The US Coast Guard will also have the authority to charge vessels with sewage violations. Naturally enough when a cruise ship with sometimes as many as 4000 passengers takes to the seas it becomes the equivalent of a small city offshore and all the resultant pollution that goes with that many residents.
Many cruise lines are stating that the ban will have little impact as they already have internal policies which reflect an earlier law that was passed in 2005 with many operators now keeping sewage in large tanks to either dump further out at sea or transferred to wastewater treatment facilities. Nevertheless the impact on commercial vessels should also help the water quality on the Pacific coast that has continued to deteriorate in recent decades. The law makes perfect sense especially when stringent laws have already been passed to reduce runoff from rivers and sewage centers and pipes that are onshore.
I still don’t think it’s enough to make me want to jump on a 10 day cruise and have dinner with strangers every evening but it’s good to see the EPA holding the cruise industry to task when it comes to environmental matters. Surely the best procedure of all would result in banning the discharge of sewage anywhere on the seas rather than just the coastal barrier that has now been more properly enforced. One step at a time but it’s most certainly a step in a positive direction.
Arsenal Football Club’s new shirt a return to tradition and it’s greener too
Posted by: | CommentsThere are few things I obsess over more than football (soccer) and the club I’ve supported since I could walk - Arsenal. The team from North London are one of the better sides in England and boast a tradition that is rich in success and heritage. One thing I’ve noticed in recent years is the home playing shirt moving further and further away from the normal shirt I grew up with. Very simple really, red shirt with white sleeves and a white neck, it’s the shirt they wore with perfect consistency throughout the 70’s,80’s and into the 90’s but recent marketing opportunities (the home shirt usually is updated every other season) has seen stripes on the shoulders, across the chest and down the sides of the shirt. My team were looking less distinctive and many supporters (myself included) were tired of the ‘progress’.
This July the club announced a return to tradition as the shirt manufacturer Nike promised a shirt that would fully embrace the tradition of the club, and yes they really delivered. Better still the Nike shirts are the most environmentally friendly club shirt in world football! Nike also make the shirts for some other teams but we have no need to mention them of course..so back to the shirt.
Theo Walcott (in red) on target this week in Arsenal's new eco-friendly shirt
The new kit highlights Arsenal’s old school design and adds lightweight design and recycled fabric. The shirts use recycled polyester fabric and each shirt uses up to 8 plastic water bottles from waste recycling sites in Japan and Taiwan. After being cleaned fully the bottles are reduced into very small flakes, then melted into a yarn and spun to make the kits. In addition the revised process for manufacturing the shirts is proving to be more environmentally friendly, using 30% less energy versus making traditional polyester shirts and shorts.
It probably comes as no surprise to learn that the shirts being eco-friendly has far more impact than just the 11 players who will be wearing it throughout the season. Replica shirt sales are big business not just in the UK but worldwide, in fact since moving to their new stadium which greatly enhanced revenues Arsenal have moved into third place amongst the wealthiest football clubs on earth and amongst the ten most valuable sporting club franchises in the world. Sales of replica shirts are estimated to reach 400,000 in the UK and in excess of 2 million globally. When you add on those numbers the value of the new kit design from Nike is that much more significant. Indeed there is an entire culture around football shirts, just check this site more information.
Nike have reams of information about how the shirt stretches more and breathes better, though I must say I’m more concerned with how great it looks and the fact that it is a greener product than a year ago. I’ll give my final verdict on the shirt a few months into the season and see how it makes us play. I really hope it’s a lucky shirt, I’d hate to have to shun something so eco-friendly! After two games we’re second in the league so I’m hopeful.
Expedia.com help bring ‘green hotels’ into the marketplace
Posted by: | CommentsThe days of just booking a hotel by calling the chains toll free number have been greatly changed by large online travel agencies who have cornered the bookings part of the market by combining the best in selection, information and pricing - all key factors for someone planning a trip. Expedia.com® have emerged as the largest online travel agency but in addition to value and scope of selection they have also developed 
an online tool that is ideal for the environmentally conscious traveler. Via a very specific approval process hotels can be approved as green properties and customers can now search with that specific criteria in mind .
The Expedia.com Green hotel program has not been activated for very long but new properties keep getting added to the program which now boasts over 2,000 options for the well informed traveler which also is the largest such range of choices amongst online agencies. Tim MacDonald, senior vice president and general manager, Expedia.com adds:
“Expedia.com is committed to helping travelers find the broadest range of ‘green’ properties in the industry, the recent inclusion of Hilton Worldwide’s brands, that use the LightStay system, in Expedia.com’s Green Hotel Program helps fulfill that commitment.”
Expedia expect the choices to grow rapidly in the years ahead as the immportance of a hotel’s practices will soon be akin to their overall facilities and locations as travelers place this ever higher on their list of needs. The company are partnering with a non profit called Sustainable Travel International.org to build even more inroads within the marketplace. Expedia explain part of the approach more fully beneath:
Find green hotels that balance environmental protection and social responsibility—without sacrificing your comfort. Together with Sustainable Travel International, we’ve pinpointed the green hotels that are pioneering green travel practices. Green travel—also known as responsible travel, sustainable travel, eco-tourism, and geotourism—is redefining the travel industry. Hotels and other tourism companies are being challenged to do business in an increasingly environmentally friendly, socially responsible way. This growing demand has spurred many hotels, both large and small, to implement green business practices. To recognize these green hotels, each striving toward the three main areas of sustainability—environmental protection, socio-cultural responsibility, and local economic growth—we’ve compiled a list with the help of Sustainable Travel International!
The example of newly added Hilton’s measurements are a clear indicator of how individual proprerties will be assessed as over 200 operational practices are measured, including housekeeping, paper product usage, food waste, chemical storage, air quality and transportation. Expedia’s purchasing power also means that people who book green are also getting the best available deals for the hotels in question which makes the choice that much easier.
To learn much more about Expedia’s green hotel program please visit for the specific details on their site - or better still bookmark it and use it the next time you travel!!
The Emerald Isle offers its first ‘Green Graveyard’
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s good if a little morbid to know we can still be environmentally responsible after our demise which inevitably happens to all of us. The concept of a ‘green burial’ isn’t new but is gaining rapid popularity in many new places as it is both an eco-friendly end of days but also reduces costs to a great extent.
Blackstairs Mountains in Ireland
A company in Ireland have announced that planning permission has been granted for a 100% natural burial ground along the foot of the Blackstairs Mountains to the southwest of Dublin in a rural part of County Wexford, the first of its kind in Ireland. With the land now secured the processes can be readied for the first burials which are expected to take place sometime this Autumn. The owner of the company has committed to running the company in a completely sustainable method and will be a non-denominational ground so that people of any faith or none at all can be placed at rest in the beautiful location. He chose the site in part for the unspoiled beauty of the location which sits occupying over 7 acres of gentle woodland and soft irish grass.
He also feels the lower costs will make people give extra consideration to the new idea with potential savings of up to $6,000 for a single plot. With pricing for a single plot starting at a price of less than $1,000 he thinks that people who aren’t even environmentally active may participate in an approach that he calls ‘much gentler on the land’. The entire process will be different to tradition in Ireland, for example marble headstones and surrounds will be replaced by the planting of a native tree and a wooden marker. They will offer the alternative of a small stone from a local quarry only.
The owner states that “allowing your funeral to be used as a conservation tool will leave a legacy of care and respect for our planet” he hopes to select other burial grounds soon including one much nearer to Dublin. The first graveyard will allow for about 5,000 burials but he expects the success to mirror what is already happening in the UK where over 250 such facilities exist and ‘natural’ burials account for almost a third of all burials.
He also operates Green Coffins Ireland, which supplies undertakers with a range of “eco” funeral options such as coffins made from willow, cardboard, bamboo and banana leaf. If cremation is preferable they state that each “eco coffin” is accepted and considered suitable by “all the crematoriums in Ireland, North and South” and it also provides “eco-urns” made from “100 per cent recycled paper “ or wickerwork for the storage or burial of ashes.
I expect this option to grow slowly but consistently here in the years to come also, I think it would be a fitting legacy to the land that nurtured us.Learn more about the natural burial concept via their website.