In Women We Trust

Eco Align helps you buy LESS from their clients

As women, we are the dominate influencers and purchaser for home products and services. Each day, billions of advertising dollars compete to influence our decisions and get us to buy more stuff.

Today, in a reversal of true fortunes, Eco Align released a survey that looked at how to motivate us to buy less from their clients. These are energy clients who are exploring not only alternative sources, but all the secondary products enhancing that effort. I can get behind that. I'd better, I'm going to heating my home on a fixed retirement income in another 15 years.

Let's look behind the curtain and see how the marketers see us. I would love to hear if you agree with their findings.The survey was taken to see how we relate to our own personal energy company.

Eco Align survey'd 1000 people that matched the U.S. population by age, gender, region and ethnicity. That of course means a 50/50 split for men and women. In past consumer surveys, that's where it would have ended, but this report also looked at the decision making differences between men and women.

Their joint overall conclusions weren't mind blowing: A) we want to save money B) SHOW us where we saved money and C) make it easier to understand. (Women, wanted MORE of each.) What did surprise me was that we also want companies to show us their leadership.

That last one was telling. In this vacuum of leadership that we have now, we are turning to the leaders of corporations for inspiration, guidance, credibility and trust.   

Deeper insights can be pulled from the full report here.

1. Discounts are the most popular incentive (85 percent), followed by two-for-one offerings (77 percent, extremely likely/very likely) and coupons (75 percent).
2. The top two "most likely' incentives to be used by consumers to save money on energy costs are discounts (34 percent) and rebates (22 percent). [Women were 10% higher across the board on this one, which indicates we're either more comfortable with these tactics or we're just watching our pennies more. They noted that women in the Northeast were slightly higher yet.]
3. The "Energy Star' label is extremely or very important to 68 percent of respondents. [This is interesting in that a label, not a product, has the highest consumer recognition, and once again women were 5% higher on this topic. BTW, it took years of education before that label name recognition happened. Only 6% of those surveyed didn't "know" Energy Star.]
4. When asked what they would do if they had an extra $200, and could choose from a list of energy saving or renewable offerings, 52 percent of respondents would put an extra $200 in the bank. [Their conclusion was that people are more interested in saving money than investing. Not true, if I could buy an energy saving refrigerator for $200, I'd do it. Many people are moving from their homes. Foreclosure is rampant, I'm sure that's affecting many decisions.]
5. Consumers are most interested in having their utility provide coupons to purchase energy efficient light bulbs (74 percent).
6. Consumers were most interested in receiving information from the utility web site (58 percent).
7. Consumers would like to receive a credit on the utility bill (50 percent) followed by a check in the mail (34 percent). [That's what I would do, a credit is one less thing to mess with.]
8. Consumers would be much more satisfied with their utility if more energy efficiency and/or pricing programs to save energy and utility were offered. 90 percent of respondents overall would be more satisfied than today. [women again rated this higher than men]

Maybe I'm being swayed by the Eco Align name. I like the idea of a marketing company whose name implies a "partnership" between a buyer and a seller, vs. a manipulation. Or maybe it's because they are one of the first Green surveys that are taking women seriously as a buying group - seriously enough to highlight their opinions from a mixed survey.

I see that as real progress not only because they a women-friendly marketing group, but because they are joined at the hip with the Distributed Energy Investment Group which backs new technologies and solutions to the energy crisis.

There are many things to blog about. Today I'm choosing to promote those who are looking to work with women to co-create a better world. 

What WALL-E, Wa$ted and Wall Street have in Common

People keep telling me that women don't want to know the following and yet, every woman I talk to face-to-face wants to know more, not only for her family's sake, but for her retirement investments as well.

Have you seen WALL-E ? (Highly entertaining) It's about an a little robot who was left to clean up the planet after a consumption-driven society. WALL-E's world is not that far off. Today on the Planet Green channel, there's a reality version of WALL-E's beginnings called "Wa$ted". The stars of the show, Annabelle Gurwitch and Holter Gramham challenge one family to clean up by demonstrating how much stuff and dollars they waste every year. It would be depressing except when you see how easy it is to bring down your carbon footprint and save money as well.

What's easy for a family, however, is terribly complex for Wall Street. A family wants to do it for their children's future and that's reason enough; Wall Street needs to have the financial incentives in place or else it isn't worth it to stockholders and then the question of HOW are they going to go about it is asked.

Comparing Green Apples with Green Apples

It's easy to compare financial apples to apples and mitigate financial risk when making an investment, but currently there isn't a way to compare companies and products for their environmental impact. When Enron was caught messing with the books, it collapsed. In the same way, soon enough companies caught messing with their environment records will also be held accountable. 

Who has the rule book?

When it comes to environmental accountability for business it's like they're playing basketball, football, soccer on a baseball diamond - no one knows who's playing which game, they can't keep score and no one knows who to cheer for.

This is scary ground for Wall Street and the other countries, such as the UK, who are watching and waiting for a directional move. Banks are already shaky from the sub-prime housing and a slowing economy. The margin for error is very thin.

What they are trying to do on Wall Street is down to one game, say baseball. At that point business can play on a t-ball or major league level of excellence and everyone knows the rules and everyone know who to cheer for and why. What is also does is lets companies do what they do really well, which is complete.

LCAs are the equivalent of Wa$ted for business.

Product Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) measure and quantifies the pollution and carbon footprint of a product across an entire supply chain. It's the business equivalent of Wa$ted. Just like Annabell and Holter expose places families can reduce or buy greener, consultants work with companies to document their environmental impact.

Once an LCA is conducted, then it's findings can go into a scorecard matrix that provides the rules for improvement.

There are many "rule books" or standards being used now, one of them is the SMaRT Sustainable Product Standard. In that standard, 1200 pollutants and their impact on air, soil, water and atmosphere are measured and scored. Many of these pollutants are on a "get better" list. Some like POPS Persistent Organic Pollutants are banned completely. A product cannot be certified if it isn't POPS free. (POPs are toxic substances composed of organic (carbon-based) chemical compounds and mixtures. They include industrial chemicals like PCBs and pesticides like DDT.)

While this sounds overwhelming, some day talking about the LCA of your purchase will be as common as talking about the MPG on your car. You don't know how they achieved the high MPG, you just want it and you won't know what a company did to be certified as sustainable on a Platinum level, you'll just want that as well.

It's the happy ending for Story of Stuff and the prevention of a WALL-E world.   

To put it all in perspective quickly, go watch Story of Stuff, everything that Annie Leonard outlines in that free 20 minute video goes into an LCA. It's the raw materials, the transportation, the manufacturing methods, the energy consumed, the worker and social impacts... measuring it all isn't easy, but it can and IS being done. Even if you don't believe that climate change is real, waste pollution is certainly tangible and this is where we start to reverse its impact.

Answering the little "yeah, but.." in our head.

At some point the "yeah, but..." alarm goes off. Prius is a high mileage car... "yeah, but what about that battery, what is that doing for the environment..."? an LCA answers those questions with documented facts that are audited by a third party and made available to the public.

As consumers and citizens of the planet, we need to know that when that "yeah, but..." alarm goes off that there is a plan going into place on the macro level that will work with all the multitude of changes we're making in our homes. Your efforts will not be wasted.

A Wall-E and Wa$ted just the kick start I needed for green fatigue

Have you seen WALL-E yet? It's about an out of control, consumption-driven world, and yet you feel good when you leave. Pixar has done it again by giving us a look into the future without pointing fingers.

At Terry Gamer's suggestion, (she's the second from the left in the IWWT banner above} I took my Pixar-loving husband to see Wall-E. We were totally amused and amazed at the level of animation that Pixar continues to produce. Go to the site and see for yourself and then treat yourself to the big screen version.  It's easy to understand why it made ca-gillions the first weekend out. I'm giving Pixar two robotic thumbs up for creating such a delightful way to stay engaged while facing our own scary reality show. The statisticss from the last post, (over 75% of our current wastestream is made up of products) backs that up. Wall-E's world isn't so far fetched.

Wall-E has incredible visuals and an in-your-face look at a world with no place to store it's throwaway stuff. The story line is of a hard-working "guy" robot who a bit rusty around the edges. He spends his days building skyscrappers of scrap until one day a very svelte and sleek gal bot (Eve) arrives on Earth. She is everything his world isn't and he is instantly smitten. Her directive is to find a living plant and bring it back to the mothership. Sifting through a wasteland of waste isn't a happy thought; all that "reality" would turn most people off, but the love story between the two bots is just enough sugar to keep us engaged and watching.

Perhaps it was serendipitous that Terry mentioned the film as I had also just seen "Wa$ted" for the first time this weekend. You'll find in on the Planet Green cable channel. The stars of the show, Annabelle Gurwitch and Holter Gramham take one family and shows them how much they waste every year. That's pretty dispressing, but then they show how just a few changes not only bring down their carbon and pollution footprint, but their financial expenditures as well.

Both shows ask me the question, "If not now, when? If not you - who"?  Do you need a jolt out of green fatique? Watch either one and I guarantee you'll be back on track.

Heidi Sanborn: Pay now, or Pay later in a throw away world

I slid into the the Zero Waste conference last week, just in time to hear Heidi Sanborn talk about the Product Stewardship Council. She gave a terrific presentation on the growing problem and cost of household waste and who is responsible, the manufacturers who make the throw away stuff or the taxpayers who must manage the thrown-away stuff?

I couldn't take notes fast enough. The WHOLE presentation is on http://www.caproductstewardship.org/. If you scroll down, you'll see it at the bottom of the page where you can download the whole thing. It puts climate change pollution into a whole new light. Even if you don't think Global Warming is real, our massive waste problem sure is.

But that's just the beginning of the problem. The bigger problem is that WE pay for it on the front end as consumers AND the backend as taxpayers - and that system could bankrupt most communities.

Heidi believes that putting the burden of creating a safe and recyclable product on the manufacturer's shoulders is the answer. But if you were a manufacturer, where do you start and how do you do it and stay competitive with someone else who carried the same product line?

The more I know, the more I'm impressed with how the SMaRT Sustainable Product Standard works to solve pollution problems in air, water, earth and the atmosphere, BEFORE it hits the landfill.

Heidi, with 17 years in integrated waste management, has seen all the solutions come and go.  Check out her presentation. If you weren't motivated to buy less, or buy sustainably before, you will be after you see it. The section on pharmaceuticals is especially eye opening.   

 

Yes, we can (and must) Save the World through Mindful Shopping

Over on La M, the debate continues in the comment section on whether we can buy our way out of this global warming problem. The answer is not only "Yes," but "Yes, we have to."

[My thanks to Lynn Johnston for capturing in one cartoon why many give up before trying. On some level we all know our good work can be undone in a manufacturing minute.]

The "Smokestacks" are causing the problem and the ONLY thing that will keep the smokestacks happy is profit. Consumer action is half of the solution, the SMaRT Sustainable Standard is the other half. With both not only have we solved the emission problem, but transformed the market safely and kept our retirement portfolios intact. Yes, as Tom Friedman points out, we'll lose MANY products and companies along the way. Detroit's feeling that pain now, but we also will replace them with mindful companies and products we can all live with.

If you want to see how serious business is about change, take a quick read down today's blog at Sustainable Life Media. The stacks want to do it, they just don't know how to do it and they don't know how to talk about it in terms that breadwinners and buyers can understand. Oh, and by the way, it's also required by the EPA.

Not only do we/consumers have to do it, we have to write about our intent before or after we do it. Every time we write about Sustainable products we like, those products stay in the marketing mix and the other ones die.

GM has FINALLY decided that going small and green will bring bigger profits. Why? Because Toyota and Honda made the top ten brands and ate their lunch. You can't go 10 feet in California without running into either car.

Those top ten brands were made inside of buildings which a consumer can also affect - by DEMANDING that the brands are made using Sustainable Standards that certify when a product is in compliance. INSIDE the SMaRT Sustainable Standard are requirements for conserving energy and lowering emissions, VOCs and PVCs (plus over 1200 other chemicals). Not only do the standards cover their buildings, but also the operations and processes for the entire supply chain as well - even if those smokestacks are in China.   

The SMaRT Standard (Sustainable Materials Rating Technology) covers six areas of product development:

• Safe for public health & environment
• Renewable energy & energy efficiency
• Biobased or recycled materials
• Facility or company requirements
• Reclamation, sustainable reuse
  & end of life management
• Product Innovation

Under these areas, products are required to:

• Provide Feedstock Inventory Documentation
• Document No Input and Output Stockholm Chemicals
• Maintain a Manufacturing Facility Energy Inventory
• Inventory of all bio-based and Recycled Content Materials
• Have EMS Environmental Policies and Targets.
• Have Social Equity Indicator Reporting for Manufacturers
• Compete an ISO Compliant Life Cycle Assessment
• Have Operational Reclamation and/or Sustainable Reuse Program
• Meet Product Performance Durability Standards (long lasting products)

And encouraged to keep going until they have achieved:

100% Reduction of Over 1300 Pollutants covering 12 Environmental Impacts
100% Use of Green-e Renewable Power
100% Post Consumer Recycled or Organic/BMP Biobased Materials
100% Reuse/Product Reclamation
Social Equity for Manufacturer & Suppliers (worker's rights)

That's a pretty big stick, but sticks are also fun to chase - especially if you're one of the Big Dogs attending the Sustainable Brands conference.

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After the requirements are met, the Big Dogs can get competitive and earn higher and higher ratings of silver, gold and platinum. Its not impossible, Forbo/Marmoleum and Knoll Life Chair have already have done it. Milliken carpet is on its way.

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But they can't do it alone.

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They and all the other companies trying to go green need buyers for their Sustainable Certified products, people who appreciate the work that has been done on a very high level.  Which brings us back to the first side of the buyer/seller equation - consumers.

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Take a gander at that top ten list again. If you were hired to change the world, which "demographic" would you focus on to make it happen faster? On that list you have, groceries, cleaning supplies, lotion and potions, cars and home appliances. Without doing a massive research project, take a wild guess on which gender has the greater influence either directly or indirectly buying these products?

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In the end, after all the discussions and  the chatter it's going to come down to tightly linking these three tipping points together - women+companies+sustainable standards.

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That's the new balance of power in this global economy. What happens among them happens about the world and it all starts with the heart of a women making the right choices while her purse is open and being willing to talk about them.

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Men can expedite the process by educating the women in their life on the SMaRT Sustainable Standard or other Standards that use a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) across the entire supply chain. While women are the buyers, you are the "sellers." Let's get to work, shall we?

Your continuing ed starts here:

SMaRT Standard Market Overview - for High C's (9 pages)- Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/mts_smart_sustainable_standard_overview_2.1.08.pdf">Download mts_smart_sustainable_standard_overview_2.1.08.pdf

SMaRT Standard Overview - Supplier Education - (slide show) Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/act_smart_presentation.pdf">Download act_smart_presentation.pdf

SMaRT Standard for Consumer Orientation - (slide show)Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/smart_sustainable_standards_102_consumer_orientation_51008.pdf">Download smart_sustainable_standards_102_consumer_orientation_51008.pdf

Forbo Sustainability Report - for High C's, Supply Chain, Distributors, Investors, Consumers (20 pages) Download">http://www.sustainableproductsblog.com/mts/files/forbo_sustainable_manufacturing_and_marketing.pdf">Download forbo_sustainable_manufacturing_and_marketing.pdf

Could Women Preserve Agricultural?

Coral Rose gave me a head's up on this story that asks, Could Women solve the food crisis? It recognizes the women who keep 80% of third world nation's fed. (thanks Coral)

On Tuesday, the United Nations will open a "food summit" in Rome. Leaders and high-level officials from around the world will meet at the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters. The F.A.O. says they will discuss the effects of rising food prices, limited resources, climate change, increased energy needs and population growth. ... The International Center for Research on Women says one answer is investing more in female farmers. ... Rekha Mehra is the director for economic and development issues at the Washington-based nonprofit. She says improving women's ability to get resources and technology can directly increase agricultural productivity.... After all, women produce as much as eighty percent of the food in developing countries.

Coral has been doing her part as well. She's been working in the organic farming for the fiber industry the majority of her career. In her blog post today, she addresses how changing agricultural practices which will be needed to bring down climate change emissions.

"The Rodale Institute’s 23-year findings show that organic grain production systems increase soil carbon 15 to 28%. Moreover, soil nitrogen in the organic systems increased 8 to 15%. The conventional system showed no significant increases in either soil carbon or nitrogen in the same time period. Soil carbon and nitrogen are major determinants of soil productivity.

Over on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, (thanks Diane ) Barbara Kingsolver, Steven Hopp and Camille Kingsolver record what it's like to grow your own the old fashion way. Growing your own was called everyday life when I was 16, now 40 years later I'm still growing things. Looks like the things I learned from my mother, stuck.

Over on Kitchengardners.org, Marge Braker, of Preserve shows us how to make your own small batches of homemade jam in about 15 minutes. Like Barbara, she's preserving more than jam, she's preserving a way to eat better and more backyard local.

The more we change, the more we need to stay the same in some areas. How about you - it's June 1, isn't it time you planted a few seeds?

Can Wall Street Help Your Street?

What does Wall Street have to do with women's green groups? Let's connect some dots, but first let's hear from someone who makes a living managing funds, Mindy Lubber. She is the President of Ceres an organization of investment fund managers.

"Climate change is the mother of all sustainability issues and will have an impact on every economic sector, whether from new regulations, physical impacts of growing demand for climate-friendly technologies. Thus, climate risk is embedded in every business and investment portfolio, which is why more Wall Street analysts are beginning to factor corporate response to climate risk into their evaluations of the companies they cover."

Ceres collectively oversees over $4 Trillion (that's with a T) in investments, Mindy flagged the issue that is quickly becoming THE issue. How do you measure and react to climate risk when it comes to investvestments?

At the same time, women's groups are gathering to manage the effects of their own climate change risk. My thanks to Diane for making me wish I lived in Washington DC. for Creating a Climate of Change: Women, Nuclear Energy and Justice in a Warming World an event on May 6.

"Women often lead the way in their communities in conserving precious natural resources, adapting their food crops to changing soil and climatic conditions, and rebuilding following floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters...Women's experiences, creativity and leadership must be part of the solution if we, whether from North or South, are serious about addressing global warming."

Creating a Climate of Change is hosted by the Nobel Women's Initiative , in partnership with the Green Belt Movement, Friends of the Earth, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), Oil Change International , Action Aid , Feminist Majority Foundation , The International Forum on Globalization , U.S. Climate Action Network / and Heinrick Böll Foundation. I'll be the first to admit that I hadn't heard of many of these groups until Diane's email and yet they are all firmly entrenched and helping women around the world deal with their lack of natural resources.

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On the home front we have womens' groups forming to pro-actively change the world before they have to react to a world without water or food like those do in the above groups need to - Big Green Purse, Eco Mom Alliance, HolisticMoms, eco-chick... thankfully everyday more pop up.

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Can Wall Street fix your street? No, it can't, not by itself. In a twist of irony, it's the women on your street supporting the right kind of big business that will help turn things around. Wall Street depends on the the confidence and attitudes of the general public to keep their portfolios growing.

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Investors need guidelines, consumers need guidelines and that starts with education on both sides. If we don't have guidelines, we will get more websites selling more unsustainable stuff to women and furthering the problem that out of control consumerism has given the world. Begin here Download smart_sustainable_standards_101_5208.pdf. Learn what can keep consumerism in line with our eco concerns.

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Under bloggy disclosure, I'm the editor for www.sustainbleproductsblog.com. (a non-profit in DC)  Along with that I do a lot of volunteer work on bringing Sustainable Standards to women. If your group would like a free webinar, please contact me at Mary@inwomenwetrust.com.

Green Gals Make My Earth Day Memorable

Happy Earth Day. How are you spending your day?

I can't think of a better way to celebrate then with new friends working to implement the choices we have to make.  This weekend, the California Chapter of N.O.W. the National Organization of Women met in West Hollywood, CA. I was honored to be asked to speak on Sustainability Standards and how women can bring them forward. With me was Kimberly Danke Pinkson, the founder of Eco Mom's Alliance (left) and Lani Lee, (right) a recent college grad committed to bringing eco-issues to N.O.W. (Lani moderated our panel.)

Kimberly is a single mom with a six year old son. She developed Eco Mom Alliance not as a business platform, but because it was needed. As she explained to the crowd, if anyone knows about making green ends meet, she does. She knows that making adjustments in our lifestyle is hard, but she also knows that with the help and inspiration of others in a peer group, that it can be done and it can be fun.

She was inspired to create the Eco Mom Alliance one day at a picnic table talking with friends about light bulbs and discussing which ones to buy. Since that picnic table day, the Eco Mom Alliance has grown to over 11,000 on their mailing list.

After meeting Kimberly, it's not hard to understand why she has such a strong following, she is gracious, encouraging and inspiring to be around. The Eco Mom Alliance had been quietly working at making their lifestyles greener and then the NY Times wrote about them. Kimberly said that they have since been deluged with requests from business and non-profits alike. Many want to be a part of their group as a sponsor or partner. That's the power of purses and peers at work.

Lani Lee was amazing as well. Besides running the panel, she also brought gift cards and items made of Elephant dung. Don't squirm, they were very cool paper products and they certainly had a wonderful story to tell. There are about 40,000 elephants in Sri Lanka and 4000 were killed last year because they were interfering with agricultural. To save the elephant, they needed to find a way to make them profitable. It turns out that elephants, as mass consumers of vegetation, they are also mass producers of mashed up pulp (per se) ready to be made into paper products. For a closer look check out www.mrelliepooh.com

If they can turn a profit from, well, recycled goods - think what you can do with a little creative thinking. Write me and tell me about your best way to rally the women and create a bit-o-fun in the process and have a great Earth Day.

WECAI Springs into Earth Day

I am honored and humbled to be the cover girl for the spring issue of WE Magazine for Women. The E-issue is packed with great women with green ideas just in time for Earth Day on April 22.

The publisher, Heidi Richards gave the publication it's new "look" and direction. She also makes it FREE. Download you 68 page copy of the E-zine here http://www.wecai.org/wemagspring08.pdf.

My thanks to the ever gracious Heidi, for putting this Women & Green issue together on top of running several companies while launching WECAI into a thriving organization of 1200+ global women. WECAI, (Women's E-Commerce) it's an organization dedicated to teaching small business women how to become better at conducting business online.

I'm joined with many other women on the same green mission to create a more sustainable world. Suzy Miller questions ethical marketing or is it just greenwashing? Bea Kunz, WE's green editor addresses how we can spend our way to a better world. Teresa Morrow provides Green Cleaning tips. Elizabeth Skronski Supports Mother Earth in a whole new way. Linda Pereria takes on "Are we loving it to Death"?, Jeanne Horak-Druiff wonders if green glass is possible, Diane MacEchern looks inside her Big Green Purse, Green Granny Joyce Emery shares her point of view and Carol McCelland gives green career guidance.

The Issue also has a special Women's Green Commerce Survey. Anyone who participates will recieve a list of hundreds of green resources which Heidi has been collecting over the last year. We'll also give you the results, first! Link to it from inside of the Spring issue or here.

Earth Day is only a marker of greater things to come. It's all about Purses, Peers, Posts and the Power to Move Green Markets. Download your free copy of the Spring E-Issue and catch the green buzz plus hear much more from the many bright women who are out to recreate their personal and business life. http://www.wecai.org/wemagspring08.pdf 

In Women We Trust!

EcoImpact CO2 Food Footprint Calculator

Vegetarians have to feel vindicated, compare the meat with the rice in this widget - almost a 10,000 emission difference. My favorite vice, coffee, is still ok given the amount of cups you get from a 1 pound bag. I'll need to see how they calculated the CO2 and see if they used a Life Cycle Assessment method or not.