February 22nd, 2008

Where’s the Thrill in Cheap Shopping?

by Julie Hayes

There was a time, not so long ago, when I would meet my two girlfriends for a fuel injected latte at our favorite chain coffee store for one purpose:  to rev up for a super fun, marathon day of Cheap Thrill Shopping.  The Thrill came from the Cheap and the Cheap came from those less expensive stores we often referred to as members of The Vortex – stores such as say, Forever 21, The Gap, Old Navy, Target and H & M, where you could expect to spend an hour (or two), trying on hundreds of clothes, ogling the low prices, giving the yay or no way to your friends and walking out of there with two giant bags full of clothes that cost you less than your cable bill.  

But things have changed.  It’s a new time, a socially and environmentally conscious time.  And that’s really good and honestly, what it should be. But the downside is that the Thrill isn’t so thrilling anymore.  In the “olden days,” it was easy – just stay away from WalMart and Kathy Lee Gifford and you were good.  But my raised consciousness has brought me to a whole new level of awareness that has made it next to impossible to enjoy shopping anymore.  Where I used to get excited by a price tag that read $19.95, I now get depressed by a label that reads, “Made In China.” It’s on every item, in almost every store.  And now that I think I know what that label really means, I can never again shop with the sort of careless glee I once had. 

So what do you do if you are a not-rich-yet, conscious person who cares about the environment and social justice, who loves to shop without breaking the bank but can’t stand feeling like a big ol’ hypocrite?   

Research. Or so I thought. But as it turns out, like almost everything in this new world of green and social consciousness, there are so few standards by which to measure who is good and who is not that it makes it next to impossible to find the truth.  It’s all a gradation of grey.  Some dark grey, some light grey and some darker or lighter than others.  After Googling myself to death, it became clear to me that I couldn’t find out all the information I was seeking from one angle and maybe I had to broaden my approach by looking at it a couple of different ways.  The first one being… 

Who’s been nailed. 

It appears that of the larger, chain companies, the ones who have been “outed” in the past five years for social or environmental violations have better than average standard practices at this point.  Take Nike for example.  After facing constant accusations regarding human rights and conditions for workers in developing countries, Nike now has a well developed focus for its corporate responsibility on improving conditions in contracted factories, aiming for carbon neutrality and making sports available to young people (girls in particular) across the world.   In other words, they got in trouble so they got their act together.  And, if the company continues to be successful, they will continue to be a target and will most like have to continue to work hard to be a positive example of how business should be done. 

So here’s the skinny on some of my old faves.

The Gap Inc. (Includes Baby Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic)

  + 2003 – The Gap Inc. was involved in a class action lawsuit filed by sweatshop workers in
Saipan. The allegations included workers not being paid for overtime, unsafe conditions, and forced abortion policies. 
  + 2007 – Gap Inc. is evaluated as one of the 100 “Most Ethical Companies” by Ethisphere Magazine, a leading, world wide publication that studies the ethical business practices of global companies.   Gap was also ranked 25^th by CRO Magazine on it’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list.
  + Then, on October 28, 2007, BBC outs a Gap factory in
India, airing video of children working in one of their factories.  Gap denies knowledge of this violation and vows to investigate and stop such practices. 

You can bet they are probably more aware and behaving better than ever at this point.

Forever 21

  + 2001 – Factory workers called for a store boycott until working conditions and payroll are improved.  Forever 21 agrees to pay back wages and the lawsuit was dropped.
  + 2004 – Forever 21 agrees to cease selling clothes featuring animal fur after being targeted by PETA.
  + On-Going - High profile designers file lawsuits against Forever 21 for ripping off designs.  Designers include: Diane von Fürstenburg, Gwen Stefani, Anna Sui and most recently, Anthropology.
+ December 2004 – The Garment Workers Center, Sweatshop Watch and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center reach an agreement with Forever 21 on behalf of garment workers.  All remain committed to ensuring that the clothing Forever 21 sells in its stores is made under lawful conditions.

So while it appears Forever 21 may have reached acceptable levels of social consciousness and they do manufacture a portion of their clothing in Los Angeles, they are infamous design thieves and a big question mark when it comes to their environmental practices.

Target Corporation

Okay, some have been nailed and learned from their mistakes and some have not and look pretty good but the details are fuzzy and hard to pin down. Welcome to Target. In April of 2000, Target received the Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award for it’s environmental program. The store has since gained notoriety for extensive community outreach and charitable giving and states impressive social and environmental principles on it’s website. However, there is little previous info available for consumers to evaluate the company’s progress or effectiveness in these areas And let’s face it, any store that takes up that much space can’t be all that great for the environment. Yet, overall, it seems the cuter, cleaner version of WalMart isn’t as bad as we thought it might be and in fact, has signed an agreement with National Retail Federation’s “Statement of Principles on Supplier Legal Compliance,” (translation: commitment to high ethical standards and has stated that they will continue providing environmentally friendly goods that meet customers needs. I recently bought pajama bottoms there and found, when I got home, that they were made from organic cotton!

H & M

Okay, here we go, we have a winner!!! It seems that the Swedish based company has a long history of positive social and environmental practices. Yay! H & M’s Code of Conduct states, “…it’s suppliers must comply with all relevant environmental legislation. In practice, the requirements cover the handling of chemicals, waste management and waste-water treatment.” In January of 2008, an international branding and business think-tank, The Medinge Group, released its fifth annual Brands with a Conscience list and H & M is in the top eight. The goal of the organization is to show that it is possible for very successful, high profile brands to practice business in sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic ways while continuing to build profits.  Not for nothing but skincare giant Aveda also made this list. H & M has also started selling a few organic cotton items for men and women so there’s hope in that department too. The worst thing I could find on H & M was a resistance to their US, in-store workers all forming a union but they are apparently open to talking about it.

SO WHAT’S THE VERDICT?

Things are getting better but they’re certainly not even close to perfect. The best choice is still clothing made by local manufacturers in organic or sustainable materials. And there are hundreds of green clothing manufacturers now in this exploding field, many of them you can find right here in our green clothing section. And for those who still need to get their shopping thrills from finding a bargain, there’s always vintage! Just think how much amazing pre-loved fashion there is out there, just waiting for you! Read our earlier piece on finding vintage and used clothing near you so you can get the deal of a lifetime and still feel great about yourself!

Popularity: 2% [?]

January 9th, 2008

What is the Smell of Clean?

by Jessica Jensen

Cloud Conrad of Maid Brigade, a green home cleaning service, has written an excellent piece on healthy home cleaning. We wanted to share it with you.
*****
Ever since the advent of manufactured cleaning products, consumers have equated the smell of their cleaning products with their efficacy. In fact, consumer focus groups conducted by The Haystack Group identified smell as an important criteria cleaning service customers use in evaluating the quality of the cleaning.  We have confidence that our homes are clean and germ-free because we can smell bleach, ammonia or fragrance additives in other cleaning chemicals and rest assured that we are doing something positive for our families’ health. 

The irony is that these products commonly contain ingredients which can actually be harmful to our health, right down to the fragrances! One in five people experiences health problems when exposed to fragrances, whether in perfumes, air fresheners or other household consumables such as laundry detergent and deodorant. Fragrances in these products can trigger asthma and allergy attacks or worse. Most fragrance chemicals are respiratory irritants that trigger and compound asthma, allergies, sinus problems and worse.

The ingredients in several top household brands of air fresheners include certain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCS), chemicals that keep the fragrance molecules airborne so the fragrances linger longer.  According to the EPA, VOCs are emitted as gases and include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects.  These VOCs commonly include propane, butane, ethanol, and/or phthalates. Propane is a suspected neurotoxin and respiratory toxin. Butane is a neurotoxin. Ethanol is suspected of several human health hazards, including carcinogen, developmental toxin, endocrine toxin, liver toxin, neurotoxin, reproductive toxin and more. 

The potential health hazards associated with air fresheners in particular is not limited to certain VOCs. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) studied 14 of the most popular air freshener brands this past September, finding that 12 contained phthalates, chemicals known to cause hormonal abnormalities, thyroid disorders, birth defects and reproductive problems and possibly cause cancer. The NRDC maintains that there is a lack of regulatory testing for household products prior to bringing them to the consumer market place. Although the Federal Hazardous Substances Act requires cautionary labels for hazardous household products, manufacturers are not required to list all ingredients. The ingredients in household cleaners are considered proprietary information, or trade secrets, and as such the government does not require their disclosure at this time.

As consumers, the only way we can be sure we are protecting our families’ health is to refer to the Material Safety Data Sheets for the air fresheners we purchase. The MSDS sheets reveal the active ingredients in each product. There are many convenient online resources for MSDS sheets. One that does not require user registration to access the data is the Food Services of America’s MSDS database: http://www.fsafood.com/msds. Once the ingredients can be identified, consumers can consult www.scorecard.org, an online resource for identifying environmental and health polluting substances, to learn what health risks may be associated with those chemicals.

From a green standpoint, however, virtually all commercial air fresheners contain VOCs. Green Seal, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment, requires cleaning products to emit low VOCs in order to earn the Green Seal certification for environmentally preferable products.

Medical evidence shows that these chemicals have a cumulative effect in the body and are difficult to purge. In other words, even though the scent actually dies from the air, what has been ingested through the lungs or skin remains in the body. Exposure to fragrance chemicals adds to the “total body load” of synthetic chemicals, which can greatly increase the chance of developing health problems. Continual exposure to these common, low-level chemicals can cause an initial reaction and then a spreading effect where one then reacts to many other kinds of chemicals also present in the body.

Consumers who are interested in providing the healthiest home for their families may eventually forsake air fresheners and other scented household products that previously signaled a clean home. A healthy home should smell like nothing at all. ***

Find healthy, green home cleaning services in your area by clicking here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

November 14th, 2007

A Bright Idea: Sun Run Eases Solar Sticker Shock

by Jessica Jensen

Thinking about getting solar on your roof, but facing sticker shock? According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, solar systems for homes begin around $25,000 but can easily go higher depending on the size of a house and the amount of power they generate. (We wish the government incentives were better for solar– but hey, that’s a topic for another blog.)

We have come across an interesting company that is working to get solar power to more homes and make it affordable for the homeowners.

California-based Sun Run is the first company to make solar power a reality for homeowners who thought they couldn’t afford it. Through a service that works in a similar way to the electricity package homeowners currently have with local utilities, Sun Run owns and maintains the panels, not the homeowner. This approach eliminates the hefty upfront cost for the homeowner.

For example, Redwood City, Calif. resident Francoise Bourzat, an early Sun Run customer, wanted to reduce her family’s dependence on fossil fuels and get solar power on her roof, but struggled with questions like how to go about it, how to maintain it and — most important — how to pay for it?  Sun Run guided Bourzat through the installation process, purchased the best panels for her home and guaranteed maintenance on those panels for 20 years. “We found Sun Run to be the most cost-effective and hassle-free way to go solar,” she said. For Bourzat Sun Run reduced her upfront cost by more than 66%.

Currently Sun Run is only available in Northern California, but they are planning rapid expansion.  You can find more info at their website, www.sunrunhome.com.

Popularity: 1% [?]

October 5th, 2007

Eco-who? Eco-Me. These Green Home Cleaning Kits Are Swell!

by Monica Schenk

Move over Method - we love Eco-Me home kits for so many reasons. These do-it-yourself home cleaning kits empower consumers to make their own chemical-free cleaning products using ingredients found right in your kitchen. They provide reusable containers, scrub brushes, cleaning cloths, essential oil and easy how-to instructions for making your own cleaning products at home.  What makes them so great?  We’ll tell you.

• – We love the creativity and flexibility.
• – If you don’t like vinegar, just use lemon juice (and so on).
• – We love reusing containers. Reusing is 99% more effective than recycling at reducing waste, energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
• – We love the familiarity of the ingredients.  Since 1950, 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environments and only a fraction have been tested for human toxicity, says the Eco-Me news page.
• – We love the essential oil. The combination of tea tree, lavender, lemongrass and rosemary smells like a clean spa oasis.

You can find Eco-Me home kits and other Eco-Me products in our product directory or go to their website at  www.eco-me.com/.

Popularity: 1% [?]