I recall being at my NRDC office one day back in 1989 while the Exxon Valdez disaster was unfolding. I was chatting with our organization’s founder John Adams. He said: “They should send every member of the military up there with tissues to clean than mess up if that’s what it takes. Everything needs to be done.”
“Everything needs to be done.”
That phrase seems so applicable today as we watch the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico unfold, a disaster likely to exceed the Exxon Valdez debacle in consequence and cost.
Questions are being raised: Who is to blame? Did BP react too slowly? Did the federal government mobilize fast enough? Yes, BP reacted too slowly. But we as consumers too must accelerate our shift away from filthy oil and coal, the antiquated fossil products still hawked by firms like BP and Massey, acquired from ecologically irreplaceable regions, turning our atmosphere and oceans alike into sewers, demeaning and killing life of all kinds, from pelicans to people.
There is no one single cause of the ecological crisis we confront today. It is not caused only by China, or only by the USA or only by General Motors. No, the ninety million tons of global warming pollution emitted into the atmosphere each and every day, the tens of millions of acres of forest destroyed each year, are the result of billions of ecologically unsound decisions made by billions of consumers and millions of firms. All of us are culpable.
If we want to stop destroying our planet, if we want to stop destroying the organism that gives us air to breathe and water to drink, billions of ecologically smarter decisions are going to have to be made. No law can stop us from undermining the functional integrity of the biosphere. More must be done. We must save ourselves. And no effort is too small.
Which leads me to the greening of the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner.
How do I justify focusing on small efforts like greening a dinner, however famous it might be, when giant catastrophes characterize our ecological era? My view is that no effort is too small to carry out given the problems we face. After all, minor progress is all that most of us can achieve. So, for this WHCA annual dinner we did what every event planner should do. Among my favorite initiatives is this: For the first time, we offset the carbon emissions caused by the Presidential motorcade. I hope it won’t be the last time this is done. The Presidential motorcade includes:
The carbon emissions of Jay Leno’s Lear Jet was also offset (LA to DC = 23.78 metric tons of CO2.)
Why would NRDC get involved in this? It is not merely to offset 50 tons of carbon from the presidential motorcade and Leno’s jet. It’s because offsetting the presidential motorcade holds the poential to send a message to executives throughout our nation that their daily travel also needs to be environmentally conscious. Surely, if we can offset the emissions of the 32 vehicles traveling with the President, more ordinary businesses can arrange to offset the carbon emissions associated with their own limousine use. I hope that all executives follow the WHCA's lead and offset their own limousine travel.
Acquiring local food for the WHCA dinner was given preference, and the programs, the tickets, and the bathroom tissue are made from recycled sources, uneaten food will be donated to charity, and no plastic water bottles will be distributed.
All in all, these smart efforts might result in some minor ecological progress, and minor progress is all that most of us can achieve on a daily basis. But with enough minor progress, day after day, month after month, year after year, larger shifts will occur. After all, given the state of our atmosphere, our oceans and our forests, Everything needs to be done.
]]>I know that is a big statement, but it is true.
As part of Major League Baseball’s ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship, MLB today announced its development of a comprehensive software system designed to collect and analyze environmental data related to stadium operations across the 30 Clubs. Moreover, this software tool will keep track of and distribute best practices related to environmental stewardship across MLB’s 30 Clubs as well. The full roll out of this path breaking program to all the Clubs will happen during this 2010 season.
This is the first time a professional sports League anywhere in the world has taken the step of implementing a software program to collect data for the purpose of documenting environmental practices and for sharing information about environmental best practices at stadiums. I am proud to say that this data gathering tool for environmental impacts was developed in collaboration with NRDC.
Initially, four categories of environmental data will be collected and calculated. Data will collected on: 1. Energy use, including total energy used, sources of energy, and use of renewable energy; 2. Waste generation, including total waste generated, materials diverted for recycling and composting, and cost of disposal; 3. Water use, including amount of water used, water conserved, and cost of water use, and; 4. Paper procurement, including the amount of recycled paper used in Club offices, in stadium restrooms and for yearbooks, game-day programs and media guides.
No League anywhere currently keeps track of environmental data related to stadium or arena operations. Major League Baseball is the first professional sports League in the world to do so.
And this might only be the beginning. Once this system is up and running, League and Club officials are considering the capture of additional data related to transportation, and food and beverage consumption.
In announcing this path breaking initiative today, MLB Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig said:
“Major League Baseball has responsibilities to our fans and society at large that go beyond the playing field. Our Clubs have made a commitment to sustainability and are leaders in their communities, raising awareness and educating fans not just on Earth Day, but everyday about environmental stewardship.”
This is indeed much more than an Earth Day initiative. This initiative is going to change the way stadiums are managed throughout our nation into the foreseeable future, and hopefully this will spread to NBA and NHL arenas, as well as NFL and Major League Soccer stadiums too.
This MLB initiative is meaningful for a number of reasons. First of all, in almost thirty years of working on environmental research and advocacy, I have never encountered a situation where good measurement of environmental impacts has not led to efficiency enhancements. By documenting their energy use, their waste and recycling practices, their water use and paper use, stadium operators will learn how to make their operations more efficient, and at what cost.
Indeed, this has already been going on. NRDC has been working with MLB for many years on its greening program, and already benefits have been achieved in terms of energy efficiency enhancements, solar panels installed, recycling programs developed, water conservation and the use of recycled paper. Literally hundreds of thousands of dollars have been saved, and tons of carbon reduced or offset, simply due to the League’s and Clubs’ measurement of it impacts.
And millions of fans have been educated to the fact that MLB cares about environmental stewardship, a messaging accomplishment that is impossible to quantify.
Another reason this initiative is important relates to the effect it is already having on baseball’s supply chain. All industries meet on a professional baseball field. The chemicals industry helps keep fields well tended, the food and beverage industries feed millions of fans each year, the auto and energy industries are major sponsors of League and Club events. With MLB now saying that not only is it going to encourage teams to reduce their environmental footprint, but it is going to work with Clubs to help them keep track of that footprint, the clear message is being sent to all supply chain industries that environmental criteria need to be a meaningful part of their own business. MLB is promoting the use of non-toxic chemicals on its fields, organic food in its restaurants, high efficiency vehicles and solar panels are being promoted by sponsors, and the use of recycled paper is being publicized.
There is a reason why some of the largest industries on Earth pay millions of dollars to affiliate with professional sports. They do so because they know that is the way to influence the marketplace. Now MLB is saying that their operations, and the marketplace more generally, must keep track of environmental impacts, that global warming is not good for baseball. Indeed, most sports are played outdoors and pollution and global warming, water scarcity and damaged forests are not good for sports of any kind, anywhere.
Baseball is of course our great National Pastime. Hundreds of millions of people watch it and play it each year. And if there is one thing that can be said about baseball, it is that it is non-partisan. So when MLB says that environmentalism in general and addressing climate change in particular matters to its Clubs, we know that our cause has gone mainstream. Indeed, the greening of MLB, and the greening of professional sports more generally, marks a watershed in the history of our movement. No other sporting institution has influenced American culture as much as baseball and MLB is once again putting that influence to very good use. Baseball is a game of statistics and the League’s commitment to systematically document and measure environmental practices of all Clubs at all stadiums underscores the leadership and commitment of MLB to make environmental progress. All professional Leagues should follow this important example.
Indeed, that is another reason why this announcement is bound to be so meaningful. The fact is that the NBA, the NFL, the NHL and Major League Soccer, all have an interest in advancing good environmental practices at their own stadiums and arenas. I am proud to say that NRDC is working with all these Leagues, and I know that they are watching MLB’s data tracking initiative very carefully, with an interest in adopting a similar approach to measuring their own stadium’s and arena’s impacts.
Consequently, as a result of this announcement, we are very likely to see all professional sports Leagues and Clubs in the next few years begin to measure their environmental impacts. As a result, the supply chain and the hundreds of millions of fans of all professional sports will get the message that our Earth, the organism that provides us with air to breathe and water to drink, is in need of better stewardship.
The ecological crises we face are not the result of one single bad actor. The ninety million tons of global warming pollution emitted each and every day results not from one bad actor, but from millions of purchasing and personal decisions made each day by literally billions of people and millions of companies. There is no one single remedy for global warming, nor is their one sinle remedy to address water scarcity or biodiversity loss. All actors in our society must step up to the plate and do…something. No helpful act is too small.
People all over the world love sports. Americans love sports. President Obama has said that at night he doesn’t watch CNN, he watches ESPN Sports Center. And athletes all over the world are influential role models to our children, perhaps second only in influence to parents and other family members. And yet, until recently, environmental advocates have not factored this fact into our strategies for promoting environmental awareness.
Forty years after the first Earth Day brought Americans of all persuasions into the streets to celebrate Mother Earth, the environmental community’s relationship with professional sports has matured. Fifty years ago professional baseball changed America by hiring Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. That opened the door to a cultural shift in assumptions about race relations that reverberates to this day.
Today, Major League Baseball is again breaking a barrier: It is initiating a program to monitor its effect on the planet. Hopefully, this too will shift cultural assumptions about how we work and play, and how we treat the organism that gives us nothing less than air to breathe and water to drink.
Bravo to Major League Baseball. Personally, I’ve always loved baseball, and I’ve played the game throughout my life. But today I feel a special admiration for that great League, and I urge all professional Leagues and teams, indeed all companies and all Americans to follow the lead established by our National Pastime, and take stock of your impacts on the Earth.
(To learn what you might do, go to www.greensports.org/mlb and click on your favorite team. There, you’ll find the award winning MLB/NRDC Team Greening Advisor, and a toolbar on top can guide you as you seek to lighten your ecological footprint.)
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Day-in and day-out they did the anonymous, high risk, difficult and dirty work needed to supply the coal that keeps our homes, schools, and hospitals warm, well lighted and working. They did that work for us until the very last moments of their lives.
Over the past few years those of us working on Appalachian issues have met many underground miners. We’ve met the wives of miners, the children of miners, the brothers and sisters of miners, the parents of miners, and the friends of miners. They are beautiful Americans rightfully proud of the hard work they do to support their families and power our nation.
Their loss is our loss.
There is much to say about the thousands of health and safety violations that the coal company Massey perpetrated at the Upper Big Branch-South mine, and there is much to say as well about this company’s almost singular destruction of so much of Appalachia.
But today and for many days to come our focus is elsewhere: Today we stop to pray and acknowledge those who died in the Upper Big Branch-South mine. We pray for the purity of their souls, and that their families will somehow be comforted in their grief. We pray for their families’ strength and well-being in the days, months and years to come.
May God intervene in their behalf, now and forever.
]]>Kimberly-Clark announced this morning that it will incorporate higher levels of Forest Stewardship Council-certified fiber into the manufacture of its products -- things like toilet paper and facial tissues.
We hope that this new policy will have long-term forestry benefits, and that other paper companies that haven't yet adopted FSC forestry management practices move forward to do so quickly.
But there's a catch to Kimberly-Clark's step forward today and it's an important one for all consumers to know:
Their at-home tissue products are not guaranteed to improve.
Kimberly-Clark's new policy is to ensure that 40 percent of its North American fiber is either recycled or certified by FSC, but in order for Kimberly Clark products to be environmentally preferable, the company needs to announce meaningful targets for increasing recycled and post-consumer recycled fiber in their products. The current policy does not guarantee that Kimberly-Clark will in fact increase recycled content in any of its at-home products, most of which do not currently contain any recycled content at all.
While we appreciate that the company has taken steps towards better products company-wide, the fact is that many competing at-home tissue products -- found on the same store shelves as Cottonelle and Kleenex -- have already found pathways to success while incorporating high levels of recycled content, which will keep these competitors ahead of Kimberley-Clark on the sustainability path.
For consumers that want to do right by the environment, virgin fiber -- even if it is FSC certified -- just won't cut it for home tissue products.
The most sustainable tissue products are the ones with the highest possible levels of postconsumer recycled content -- and fortunately many of these brands are also soft and enjoyable (see Grist's review of some of the most common sustainable tissues here: http://www.grist.org/article/the-wipe-stuff ). We no longer have to choose between the environment and our derrieres -- and the sooner companies like Kimberly-Clark come on board the sooner we'll have even more choices at the marketplace.
But as for now, even with the new policy, the Kimberly-Clark brands are not quite up to snuff.
For a list of top recycled content products, check out our guide to home paper products here: http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp
Related links: http://www.grist.org/article/tp
]]>According to the state's new law, all state agencies and colleges are required to purchase paper containing 100 percent post-consumer recycled content by the end of 2009. Moreover, any building with 25 or more employees must recycle 100 percent of the copy and printing paper produced at the building. To reduce paper waste, those offices must cut printing and copying use by 30 percent by July 2010.
Why is this so extraordinarily important? Why would it transform our planet if governments all over the world followed suit?
The paper industry has a huge ecological footprint: Perhaps no industry has forced more species into extinction, destroyed more habitats, polluted as many streams, rivers, and lakes, and caused as many taxpayer dollars to be spent on ecologically dangerous landfills and incinerators.
Buying paper made from post-consumer recycled fibers, as Washington State now requires, reduces all of those awful impacts. Making paper from paper instead of making paper from wood reduces the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per ton of paper produced, conserves water and mineral ores, saves energy, reduces the need for landfills and incinerators, and helps protect and expand manufacturing jobs.
Double-siding copies of documents, using printer-copiers that can fax and make PDFs without printing, reducing the amount of emails and other documents that are printed, widening margins and using a very slightly smaller font can all help save an organization hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The Warner Music Group has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by reducing its paper use and switching to paper made from recycled fibers.
Other countries use less paper than do citizens in the United States: U.S. citizens consume twice as much paper per capita as do citizens in other industrialized countries, and seven times more paper per capita than the world average. The average U.S. citizen consumes 100 times more paper than average citizens in India. Other nations recycle more of their waste and have adopted recycling policy measures much stronger than anything in place in the United States--this despite the fact that the United States is far and away the largest generator of wastes among all nations on Earth. The United States also maintains the highest per capita use of water and energy, two impacts that would be reduced if we recycled more.
Recycling can help reduce all of these large and adverse ecological impacts, which make U.S. industries less globally competitive and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars annually. And recycling can help us address the other great ecological crisis of our time, biodiversity loss.
Washington State has set a gold standard. It has enacted what is arguably the most ecologically intelligent paper procurement law in the world. The White House--indeed, the rest of the world,--should take note. Paper is something that virtually everyone buys in some form, and changing the ecologically ignorant way it is made, shifting towards ecologically intelligent paper production, can go a long way towards solving many environmental problems.
To learn more about how to improve your paper use and buying practices, go to www.nrdc.org/paper.
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Well, if that chat about toilet paper wasn't enough for you, today I'm writing to you about urinals.
Why on Earth should we be flushing drinking water down urinals? There is a healthier, cheaper and ecologically preferable way to go: waterless urinals.
Water scarcity will undoubtedly rival sea level rise as one of the consequences of global climate change. In fact, it might prove to be a far more serious risk.
In the U.S. the driest states have become some of our fastest growing, including Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and southern California. The flow of the Colorado River is at its lowest levels since measurements began at Lee's Ferry, Arizona 85 years ago. Thirty million people in seven states and parts of Mexico depend on the Colorado River for water. Lake Mead, which supplies virtually all the water used by Las Vegas, is half empty and according to statistical models, it will never be full again. Freshwater shortages are already a global concern in Africa, India and China and in the southwest USA they are inevitable.
The battles of yesterday were fought over land, today they are fought over oil, and soon they will be fought over water as well.
As the world population continues to increase, more people will require more water for the cultivation of food, fiber and industrial crops and for livestock and fish. Not to mention recreation and other industrial uses. Each of the billions of tiny micro-chips in our computers takes anywhere from three to eight gallons of water to make. It takes 26 liters of water to make a one liter water bottle. About 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of water scarcity, and 500 million more people are approaching that situation. Another 1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter of the world's population, face economic water shortage, lacking the necessary infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers. Lack of safe drinking water and sanitation is the single largest cause of illness in the world, contributing to the death of 5 million people a year and about 5,000 children every day. By 2025 one-third of the planet, about 2 billion people, will live in areas experiencing absolute water scarcity, and another 2 billion will be experiencing water stress.
We have a very short period of time to get people educated on what this means. According to the UK Meteorological Office, with no mitigation of climate change the severe droughts that now occur only once every 50 years will occur every other year by 2100. In southern Spain, farmers and developers are so desperate for water that they are buying and selling water on the black market, mostly water obtained from illegal wells. Southern Spain has become a dessert, similar hydrologically to the desserts of northern Africa just to the south.
So why are government and commercial buildings, theaters, stadiums and arenas throughout the world flushing scarce drinking water down urinals when healthier, cost competitive alternatives exist in the form of waterless urinals?
Waterless urinals are healthier: According to research performed by the University of Arizona, "Flush type urinals are far more likely to be colonized by bacteria because of the greater presence of moisture [serving] as reservoirs of disease causing microorganisms, and to cause the widespread dissemination of microorganisms in a restroom because of the generation of aerosols during flushing."
Waterless urinals conserve water and saves money: Prior to switching to waterless urinals, each of the 176 urinals at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles was consuming 44,000 gallons of water each year. The Center pays about $2.95 per hundred cubic feet (HCF) of water it uses (1 HCF = 748 gallons). According to Bill Pottorff, Vice President for Engineering at STAPLES, "We have estimated that we are saving approximately $2,350 per month at STAPLES Center in direct water costs, not factoring sewer charges and any other municipal taxes. Each urinal saves roughly 4.5 HCF per month. We save just over 7,000,000 gallons per year."
What is also great about the ecologically intelligent shift made by the STAPLES Center is that the entire urinal replacement program was paid for by grants supplied by the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water, as part of its water conservation program.
So here is NRDC's challenge to all stadium and building managers, theater and arena operators in the world: We challenge you to save money. We challenge you to make your restrooms less infectious. We challenge you to conserve water. We challenge you to replace your water wasting urinals with waterless urinals.
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