Truthfully, I've never been a fan of a real Christmas tree. From picking it up, to decorating, to finding needles all over the place and finally disposing of - I've always thought that Christmas trees were such a waste.
Bah, humbug! :D
Since this is my blog from Greener Pastures, why don't you pick up a tiny tabletop cardboard Christmas tree instead! It's made out of recycled cardboard, can easily be disposed of (or reused next year), and best of all, it's cheap! :D
Opened in June 2009, McKesson's newest pharmaceutical distribution center (DC) is the company's first to receive LEED new construction certification. Among its environmentally friendly features are its use of recycled building materials, low-flow water fixtures, natural landscaping, motion-controlled lighting and parking for fuel-efficient vehicles.
The new DC is larger than average, with 280,000 sq. ft. of space on the main floor and an additional 60,000 sq. ft of floor space on a second-story mezzanine. It serves more than 1,500 customers.
The DC showcases technology designed to improve the efficiency of warehouse operations. It includes two A-frame units, which enable automated picking of fast-moving products.
It is also the first McKesson DC to use a “Pick-to-Light” system, which guides order fillers down the line by lighting the appropriate product shelves.
“The Pick-to-Light system will make our picking more efficient,” explained Ammie Rabicke, Chicagoland’s director of Operations. “Because it’s so easy to learn, this will be a good place to start new hires.”
Ammie continued, “We’re all extremely excited to move into the new DC, with new technology that will help us provide even better service to our customers.”
we got a brown coffee table (now becoming marigold) and wall art: a wooden quarter-sunshine and welded iron world at our local-organized-recycling-dump
Be Green Packaging has designed a stand alone Compost Tool Kit and training program for its end user customers such as nationwide grocery and restaurant chains. The Compost Tool Kit walks customers through three phases of establishing an in-house food scrap composting program. The Compost Tool Kit provides them with useful information such as how to talk with your local waste management company, equipment needed, and how to receive tax incentives by participating in city food scrap programs where applicable. The reader is also empowered with a step-by-step employee training process.
Though Be Green Packaging is a design/manufacturing packaging firm, it is also a leader in environmental and CSR business practices. Holding the coveted Cradle to Cradle certification is an honor for Be Green and makes closing the loop on their product’s life cycle a priority. Proper disposal is key and by educating its customers, and affecting their customers (the consumer), Be Green increases the chances of their compostable products landing in a commercial or home compost bin. “We are committed to being a triple bottom line company and as such we are both students and educators, always pushing ourselves and the marketplace to do the right thing and balance the priorities of profit, nature, and people”, Vice President of Be Green Packaging, Megan Havrda.
You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. My award for low-tech gadget of the year goes to the simple hanger recycling box. Previously, I was baffled at what to do with those ugly wire hangers from the cleaners. I tried throwing them into a paper grocery bag for recycling later, but they would always become tangled. Now: easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. Hey, sometimes it's the little things.
Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.
Below a snippet from the docu featuring Jonathan Ive, as he talks about the Mac, and specifically the Unibody design of the MacBook/MacBook Air & MacBook Pro.
Disposable cameras have been around for quite some time now. So why not disposable laptops? That's the question designer Je Sung Park is asking with the Recyclable Paper Laptop, which he imagines could be layers of materials and chips that can be easily replaced. It seems like a long shot (or does it?), but I'm digging its brown paper look.
There's no doubt recycling is good, but in many cases, reusing is even better. Aiming to keep its share of reusable boxes out of the recycling bin, Columbia Sportswear recently launched an effort to let customers request that their orders be shipped in boxes that have been used before. When online shoppers reach checkout at Columbia.com, the website gives them the choice of shipping their order in a previously used cardboard box. Since the launch of the effort in August, more than 60 percent of online customers have selected the used box option. Columbia says.
Perhaps even more interesting, however, is that Columbia places a sticker on the outside of each used box that includes a unique code and number. Entering that number or scanning the code via mobile phone into Columbia's "A Box Life" community site reveals a wealth of information about where that box has been. Then, before sending their reused box on its next journey, consumers are encouraged to post pictures of their own to the A Box Life Flickr group and to tweet about their box’s journey by adding the hash tag #aboxlife to Twitter posts when they have something “box worthy” to share.
In this era of transparency and sustainability, it's not hard to imagine Columbia's example setting a new standard for mail-order retailers worldwide. One to emulate sooner rather than later!www.aboxlife.com
