Archive for Bisphenol A
Welcome back for another edition of weekly green news featuring some articles from the past week focusing on the green movement. This week: the world’s most energy efficient office courtesy of Sanyo; Harvard studies BPA levels with canned soup consumption; and prison inmates creating an eco-friendly product line in Eastern Europe. Click on the links to learn more.
Kasai Green Energy Park Photo Credit: Sanyo
Amanda Wills from Earth911 headed just outside Osaka, Japan to check out the World’s Most Efficient Office named ‘Kasai Green Energy Park’. This Sanyo operation “serves as a massive testing facility for energy-saving technology.” The Kasai Green Energy Park includes “1MW Mega Solar System, a 1.5MWh Lithium-ion Mega Battery System with the world’s largest level of capacity, energy management system that efficiently control each equipment, and a smart energy system which combines and coordinates all of the systems above using an SES controller. By using all of these systems to maximize energy efficiency, we are able to reduce approximately 2,480 tons of CO2 emissions every year without sacrificing convenience and comfort.” Amanda took some great pictures of Kasai Green Energy Park during her visit.
Kasai Green Energy Park also features side solar panels on the outside of the Sanyo building, a solar parking lot, hybrid bike recharging stations (popular in Japan), electricity storage at night for use during the day, plus small tables with built-in solar panels that store energy which can be used to charge any electronic device while it’s on the table. Heck it even knows when people come and go to help control air conditioning. The lobby also includes a wall of TV screens indicating the energy savings the facility is currently generating. You can read more about the Kasai Green Energy Park here.
BPA levels soar after lunching on canned soup. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a study in a quest to determine how much canned food will increase the level of the compound bisphenol A (BPA) in a person’s urine. The results were higher than expected. Study participants ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days; they reported “BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study.” Researchers noted a 1,221 percent jump in BPA levels over those who ate fresh soup. “To see an increase in this magnitude was quite surprising,” said study leader Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
In some offbeat green news, Eastern European prison inmates produce and design an eco-conscious fashion line. That’s right, Heavy Eco provides edgier eco-friendly fashion options constructed by prison inmates. Why not turn the process of rehabilitation in prison into an environmental positive? Discarded PVC advertising billboards are recycled and upcycled to make messenger bags, wallets, iPad bags, Mac sleeves and tote bags. Heavy Eco states “Durability and practicality of our bags is most important to us. As a basic bag material we use dead, discarded billboards, made from PVC, that are designed to stand up for any weather conditions, be it heavy rain, snow or wind. We know that our bags last a lifetime, so we feel secure in giving all our bags a lifetime warranty.” They also sell custom designed t-shirts and underwear made from 100% organic cotton from India. Co-financed by the European Social Fund, inmates are paid for their efforts in both the design and manufacturing of the eco-friendly product line.
And that’s a few tidbits from this past week in the green news.
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Posted by: | CommentsAre you and your family enjoying the warm summer months? If you are then you know the importance of sunscreen for both adults and children. It’s really hard to find a sunscreen that matches your eco-friendly lifestyle, but there is a great option available. Canadian company KINeSYS has an extensive line of sunscreens that are “EcoLogo certified, clean, renewable electricity generated by Wind Power.”
In 2008 KINeSYS “made the commitment to purchase clean, carbon-free electricity generated by Alberta Wind Power to offset energy used in their manufacturing process, warehouse and office. This sustainable power is certified by EcoLogo, North America’s oldest environmental standard.” They feel that by offsetting their usage they are helping combat climate change. Everyone remembers the three R’s from elementary school reduce, reuse, and recycle. These principles are the backbone of trying to be environmentally friendly, and the foundation for KINeSYS’ business model. Their “bottles are 100% recyclable High Density Polyethylene (Bisphenol-A-free). They use cardboard that is a minimum of 40% post-consumer recycled board. The company does not use ingredients that accumulate in the body or the environment and print using vegetable-based inks when available. Beyond that they source and manufacture locally as much as possible to reduce fuel use. Conventional self-powered spray cans may not be easily recyclable due to internal bladders and the pressured container can also present special challenges when traveling by air. KINeSYS products have always used manual, finger-powered pumps. These pharmaceutical-grade sprayers disperse an ultrafine mist without the waste of powered sprays and the negatives associated with continuous style sprayers.”
It is not just the environment this company keeps in mind when manufacturing their products, but also animal welfare. They don’t test on animals and don’t use any ingredients derived from animals. “KINeSYS is a member of the Caring Consumer Program created by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to help eliminate animal abuse and cruelty. KINeSYS has joined over 600 other certified companies who have pledged to end unnecessary animal testing.”
Tags: Alberta Wind Power, animal rights, Bisphenol A, BPA, BPA-free, carbon, carbon free, eco-friendly lifestyle, eco-friendly sunscreen, EcoLogo, EcoLogo certified, environmentally friendly, greener lifestyle, KINeSYS, KINeSYS sunscreen, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, post consumer recycled, recyclable, recyclable bottles, Recycling, reduce, Reduce Reuse Recycle, renewable electricity, renewable energy, reuse, sunscreen, sustainable, sustainable bottles, sustainable power, UV protection, wind powerSIGG BPA-Liner Apology – Too Little Too Late
Posted by: | CommentsIn August 2009, SIGG CEO Steve Wasik, posted a letter to customers (scroll to the end of this article to read the full letter) announcing that their former aluminum bottle liner contained trace amounts of BPA (Bisphenol A). SIGG customers were infuriated to learn that they had been duped. Most believed that SIGG was a BPA-free bottle, instead it was coated with an interior epoxy liner with BPA content. Wasik also confessed that they knew about the BPA in SIGG bottles since 2006!!
This month, the CEO has posted a new letter in an effort to diffuse consumer outrage about how SIGG has handled the BPA-liner catastrophe. SIGG finally apologized for misleading customers for over 3 years. You can read the full letter at the end of this article. This is an excerpt from Wasik’s bulletin:
“After reading and responding to hundreds of emails and viewing nearly as many blog & Twitter posts, I realize that my first letter may have missed the mark. What I should have said simply and loudly to all of our loyal SIGG fans is: I am sorry that we did not make our communications on the original SIGG liner more clear from the very beginning.
I have learned much over the past 2 weeks. I learned that many of you purchased SIGG bottles – not just because they were free from leaching and safe – but because you believed that SIGGs contained no BPA. I learned that, although SIGG never marketed the former liner as “BPA Free” we should have done a better job of both clearly communicating about our liner as well as policing others who may have misunderstood the SIGG message. ”
So Wasik declares mea culpa over not being clear about the former BPA liner and everything is ok, right? An apology hardly restores consumer confidence when you feel betrayed. Especially since SIGG launched it’s new EcoCare BPA-free liner in August 2008 – apologies that take a year to deliver don’t result in forgiveness. Plus, SIGG has known since 2006 that it’s former liner contained BPA, so really that apology is 3 years overdue. The lack of honesty doesn’t exactly build trust. Sounds like SIGG did what’s best for SIGG and not their customers.
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