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Timberland Publicizes Its Footprint

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I'm having to do a lot of running around this week with a client whose looking to buy a home to retro-fit green. Congrats to TM Gabrielle of Grand I LLC for wanting to do her part as a first time homeowner. TM plans to retro-fit her purchase totally green and we've decided to document the process in my blog on how easy and cost effective it is to go green. Because the new year is just around the corner, I find myself playing catch up. The campaign that we're promoting in January to our commercial clientale, "Greater Transparency" is finally in alignment with the folks at Timberland who recently took steps towards greater transparency by placing information about the shoe's figurative footprint right on the box. The "Our Footprint" label includes three sections:

* "Environmental Impact"” reports the average number of kWh kilowatt-hours that are used to produce a pair of Timberland shoes and the percentage of renewable energy Timberland uses from sources such as the sun, wind and water. Total energy use (measured in kWh and obtained from each factory's utility bills) is divided by footwear production. Each factory gets assigned a weight according to the percent production they do for Timberland. The weighted factory scores are then averaged to produce an average kWh (or energy use) per pair.
* "Community Impact"” details the percentage of factories assessed by Timberland against its Code of Conduct, the percentage of child laborers in factories'’ workforce and the total number of hours Timberland employees volunteered in the previous year.
* "“Manufactured"” tells in what factory and what country the product was made.

The "nutrition label" will be placed on greener boxes made from 100% post-consumer recycled fiber with soy-based inks and water-based solvents. The company's not stopping there, though. They plan to adopt the "Our Footprint" label for apparel, and are also developing a Green Index (which they compare to an Energy Star rating) for measuring their shoes' environmental impact in terms of climate, chemical use and material use.

Since the apparel industry generally does carry a heavy environmental footprint, this is a bold move by Timberland: they're not just saying "We're green(er)," but giving consumers the numbers by which they can judge that statement.

We at SURELEY Green AC believe that because of the recent efforts to monitor green retro-fits by the USGBC (LEED association), that many individuals will go out of their way to verify the labels? This is where the valued is added and will show so in your appraisal. At an informal gathering with the founding chairman, CEO, USGBC President-Rick Fedrizzi, we talked about the policing efforts of the USGBC to remind commercial and residential owners alike the wholistic approach that's to be maintained when greening a building or home. After all green is a lifestyle that creates a toxic free environment which makes for a healthy home owner and employee. So SURELEY Green AC mission to its clients is always to teach the proper guidelines to be in green compliency. We know this is a genuine show of transparency rather than an attempt to greenwash.

What is Enviromental Stewardship!

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Here's how Environmental Stewardship relates to business, politics, and the broader social justice movement. Siram explains it here:

Eco Q&A with Simran Sethi on the Sundance Channel!

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When: Now-It only takes a couple of mins!

What: An evening starting with an eco-themed webisode followed by a Q&A with one of the world’s most renowned environmental journalists: Simran Sethi

Topic: Eco-Refugees: How can we better react to natural disasters and man made ecological catastrophes?

Where: Sundance Channel in Second Life, in the Main Screening Room

Join the Sundance Channel Group to stay up to date on upcoming “The Green” events in Second Life. Simran will be hosting weekly discussions in world with eco-experts who will be joining her in the forum.

Long Island Towns Adopt 'Energy Star' Standard for New Homes

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A few days ago after featuring a SURELY GReen blog on Green Goddess, Simran Sethi in a "green" discussion with Martha Stewart on how environmental stewardship relates to business, politics, and the broader social justice movement, I missed this energy star milestone that I thought I would share with you. It's definitely still worth covering: the towns of Brookhaven and Babylon on New York's Long Island have made energy efficiency the law, according to the New York Times. Both communities now require that all new houses built adhere to Energy Star homebuilding standards:

The new laws put both Brookhaven and Babylon in the vanguard of towns in New York State that have passed measures requiring a level of "green" home building. They are the first on Long Island to do so, but several other towns are considering identical or similar measures. SURELY Green AC's green energy offering to vanguard towns such as Brentwood, Santa Monica, Venice, Manhattan Beach, Pacific Pallisades, Malibu, Topanga Canyon, looks to help in these towns comply with current laws requiring a level of "green" home remodeling and building in Southern California.

We at SURELY Green AC are encouraging towns in both our Northern and Southern California locations to adopt this measure in and effort to change building codes to require. Neal Lewis, executive director of the Neighborhood Network, a Farmingdale-based nonprofit energy conservation organization that is credited with publicizing the home building standard and encouraging towns to change building codes to require it, was quoted as saying "“We'’re encouraging every town to adopt this measure by encouraging towns to change building codes to require it."

Energy Star homes will save homeowners money on energy costs by requiring, for example, certain types of insulation and installation techniques, and the use of energy-efficient appliances.

Builders aren't convinced this is a great idea yet because it creates different building codes for different towns, and only a handful of inspectors are trained in the Energy Star standards. In response, the power authority is providing $25,000 grants to towns that adopt the standard, and Brookhaven and Babylon have agreed to a three-part phasing in of the new requirement. Builders apparently have a reason to be concerned: another town, Southampton, adopted a similar measure, but it will only apply to moderately-priced homes -- McMansions get a pass... grrr... So you see, SURELY Green AC believes we have to be the change we want to see, here in California

New homes will certainly be built (builders estimate 2,000 in the next year just in Brookhaven and Babylon), so this is a good effort to use energy more efficiently (and to prevent blackouts, a major motivator for the law). According to Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, we already know, of course, that many schoolchildren in the area already have CFLs ready for installation...

Via SustainableBusiness.com

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So, What Does It Cost to Save the Planet?

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We've all heard the argument that the economic costs of fully and rapidly addressing global climate change are just too high: it's been a major argument of the White House's response to critics, as well as other conservatives. On Friday, the UK's Guardian took note of a new study by powerhouse accounting firm PricewaterHouseCoopers that attempted to estimate the numbers. Turns out the costs may not be so high after all:

The world would have to give up only one year's economic growth over the next four decades to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to stave off the threat of global warming, a report says today.

Consultants at PricewaterhouseCoopers offer a "green growth plus" strategy, combining energy efficiency, greater use of renewables and carbon capture to cut emissions by 60% by 2050 from the level reached by doing nothing. Nuclear energy, it says, can play a role, but it is not crucial.
This scenario, which involves little real sacrifice in terms of economic growth, could be achieved only if embarked upon without delay, the report warns.

"If countries adopt a 'business as usual' approach, the result could be a more than doubling of global carbon emissions by 2050," said John Hawksworth, head of macroeconomics at PwC.

"Our analysis suggests that there are technologically feasible and relatively low cost options for controlling carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Estimates suggest that the level of GDP might be reduced by no more than 2-3% in 2050 if this strategy is followed."

A Real Green Goddess!

Simran on Martha Stewart about the simplicity of going Green. Its finally happened! Someone thats bridging the gap on how Environmental stewardship relates to business, politics and the broader social justice movement. And its in the best place to reach americans across the globe-daytime television! It's all happening now...give us a call and let us show you how you can get started today!

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