Don’t break out the organic sparkling cider yet, but…

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) yesterday with a title of “ ‘Soot King’ Plays Progressive Tune on Climate’”. Catchy, isn’t it?

According to the article, “Samuel Bodman used to be known as the ‘Soot King’ for the grimy substance, called carbon black, that his company made from incinerated oil sludge.” What a sentence that is—how would you like to be known for that?

Here’s the part that got my attention: “Since then, Mr. Bodman, Bush’s energy Secretary since early 2005, has emerged as one of the leaders of a band of administration progressives on climate change. The group which also includes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, has been quietly pushing for the White House to take stronger action to combat global warming.”

Now I’m under no illusion that this will sway the likes of Cheney or Bush regarding climate change, but, these guys are dyed in the wool, conservative capitalists to the extent that they were put into positions of power in this white house. If these guys are not only “getting it” but taking the risk of pushing this heretical idea on this administration, well, maybe the tipping point is almost upon us.

Paper and Plastic With That?

Plastic-lid boxes are already lining the holiday aisles at our local stores,
with hundreds of paper Christmas greetings to choose from.

But, the 150-year old tradition of Christmas cards just got harder.
According to an article published by USA Today, the “blanket” Christmas card
no longer suffices, as it does not allow for personalization.

Now imagine sending out a small number, like 100 different cards to 100
different people, on top of the shopping that is required for those who are
getting gifts and to make sure Santa has everything on the list.

And now imagine personalizing each card, from the type of card to the
message inside, for each of those 100 people on your list. This small task
just got daunting, didn’t it?!

According to Hallmark, 2 billion paper cards will be sent this Christmas!
Now that is a heck of a lot of trees, wouldn’t you agree?

Other environmentally damaging manufacturing practices are used in
generating paper greetings, and that includes toxic printer inks. There is
also energy being used and pollution generated to produce, deliver, sale and
re-deliver these cards.

So where do electronic greetings fit in? For those who would like to save a
few thousand trees, provide that personal greeting and create a
self-maintained address book/checklist, online greetings are a great option.

In the USA Today article, Jamie Shaw, who lives in Utah and Rio de Janeiro,
says she couldn't keep track of all her friends' addresses to send each a
physical card, and with electronic cards she can customize different e-cards
for different recipients.

So what happens when you receive a paper greeting? Well, if you aren’t a
pack rat, then we recommend that if there is a mixed-paper recycling program
near you, you can just put your old greeting cards in with those old
newspapers and magazines, and join the force of online greetings.

Wal-Mart and Safeway Look To Greener Pastures

There is a lot of news coming out from grocer and retail merchandisers
talking about the green steps they are trying to take when is comes to
corporate sustainability and corporate responsibility.

Safeway, for instance, is already using wind energy to power its on-site
fuel station; and now, they have installed a solar panel atop one of their
locations, which will provide 20% of the energy needed to run the facility.
More information about these initiatives is available at
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/09/safeway.php

Making more steps towards a greener future, Wal-Mart announced that they are
kicking off an initiative to measure how much energy their suppliers use to
produce and provide the products sold at Wal-Mart. The hope is that the
study will reveal ways they can work together more efficiently and reduce
their environmental impact.

Wal-Mart expects the project to reduce overall packaging by five percent and
save 667,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Consumer Consequences: Our Impact Measured… by a Computer Game?

We are all here because we care about the earth and are like-minded in
making steps to reduce our impact and help preservation efforts around the
world.

An article that recently came out on Greenbiz Wire News, introducing this
new game from American Public Media, which tells us what the “environmental
consequences” of our lifestyles are.

The idea for the game is to enlighten its users into redesigning their
current lifestyles to adopt one that is more eco-friendly and can be
classified as “Green.”

As you play the game, you get scored with “Earths” based on your answers.
You don’t want to see that Earth though; even one is one too many, and
however many you get represents just how unsustainable your lifestyle really
is.

This game works as a two-way street. Consumers get to see how big their
impact is, and they can play again and make better choices and get a better
outcome on the game. Hopefully they’ll translate those changes to real
life.

On the flip side, the information that the gamers create is used to
determine how sustainable our consumerism really is.

The end study will be one to watch for, surely; and in the meantime, you can
check out more on the game, and maybe even play it if you are brave enough
to see your results, by visiting www.consumerconsequences.org.

Check out the full article at
http://greenbizwire.csrwire.com/news/9669.html.

Supermarket Chain Starts Organic Farm

From GreenBiz.com

A 71-store supermarket chain called Wegmans, based in Rochester, New York, is now selling organic produce grown on its own 50-acre organic farm.

An article originally researched and written by reporter Karen Miltner of the Gannett News Service on Sept. 10, 2007, reports, and republished on Greenbiz.com reports:

• "The farm is in its first year of production, so the land is not yet certified organic, but the company's CEO, Danny Wegman, said the goal is to use the land not just to grow fresh produce for sale, but to help grow the local food market in the area."
  

• "If the farm takes off, it will be poised to profit from two booming sectors of the food industry: organic food and locally grown food."
  

• "The Organic Trade Association says organic foods have steadily grown in sales by 15 to 20 percent per year since 1997, nearly reaching $14 billion in sales in 2005."
  

• "Similarly, local foods are in the midst of a resurgence: the market research company Packaged Facts estimates local foods have increased sales by 20 percent since 2002, with sales as high as $5 billion in 2007."

Truth Be Known ­ Real Statistics About Earth

Did you know...

Each Minute

• At least 51 acres of tropical forests are destroyed.
• We consume almost 35,000 barrels of oil.
• 50 tons of fertile soil are washed or blown off cropland.
• We add 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Each Hour

• 1,692 acres of productive dry land become desert.
• 1,800 children die of malnutrition and hunger (that makes a total of 15million each year).
• 120 million dollars are spent for military expenditures (making a total of one trillion each year).
• 55 people are poisoned by the pesticides they use; 5 die.
• 60 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the United States alone (that makes a total of 500,000 each year with 20,000 leading to death).

Each Day

• Over 230,000 babies are born.
• 25,000 people die of water shortage or contamination.10 tons of nuclear waste are being generated by the 350 existing nuclear plants.
• 250,000 tons of sulfuric acid fall as acid rain in the Northern Hemisphere.
• 60 tons of plastic packaging and 372 tons of fishing net are dumped into the sea by commercial fishermen.
• Almost 5 species of life become extinct.

But that does not mean that we can't make a change and preserve our future earth. This free climate change card says it all.

Read more stats at http://www.truthbeknown.com/earthstatistics.htm.

Treehugger raves about Three Leaf Cards.com online greetings and the Climate Crisis Free Card campaign

Three Leaf Cards.com gains recognition from its industry through an article
posted by the well-respected green media entity, Treehugger.com

Sharing a mutual love for all things online and all things green, Treehugger
gives Three Leaf Cards a big hug for their Triple Bottom Line focus and
their efforts towards social and environmental causes.

Check out the article!

Would our environmental problems disappear if all of humankind suddenly vanished?

An interesting article recently came out from the Scientific American, who
interviewed Alan Weisman who published a book called ³The World Without Us.²
The article is conveniently called ³An Earth Without People,² and it takes
us through Weisman¹s scientific studies on the effects of humans on the
earth, what it was like before our time, and hypothesizes about what it
might be like if we left it like it is right now, and essentially vanished
without a trace. Would we still leave a trace?

One of the most obvious human impacts that may stick around until the end of
the earth itself is the radioactive and chemical pollutants we have
contributed to the environment throughout the decades and centuries. That
is something Weisman says may never actually go away.

It is interesting to note, however, that nature is a truly brooding force,
and a big city like Manhattan would fall apart in a matter of days without
humans here to constantly ward off the forces of nature.

His book was written to help provide a new perspective on our impacts on the
environment and to give us hope to make a change in the future that we want
so badly for our children, our grandchildren, their children and so on.

Read the full article

Fridge Filling a Factor for Green Living

The ConsciousConsumers at Three Leaf Cards were surprised to learn that the
food you purchase to eat is important, but so is how you actually stock the
fridge.

Today's "Tip of the Day" on The Daily Green website, notes:

* Keeping your refrigerator full, but not to the point of overstuffing, will
allow it to run at max capacity.

* To help retain cold temperatures when the fridge and freezer are less
full, place glass or ceramic pitchers of water in their compartments. Like
using ice in a picnic cooler, this will insulate the interior and keep it
cold.

The tips make sense when you consider the fact that the fridge eats about
one-sixth of all energy usage in a typical home in the United States, "using
more electricity than any other single household appliance," according to
The Daily Green.

Google Making Good

Google launched a major news announcement today. Three Leaf Cards.com found the thread on Joel Makower’s blog, two steps forward.

Here is the “GoogleGram” 9-12-07)

We realize that this type of open call for proposals is not the usual model for investment, but we wanted to use a process that was open to new ideas and new entrants. Part of our goal is to get as many people as possible to work on solutions to our vehicle emissions challenges. We welcome and expect to receive submissions from a wide variety of companies -- from cutting edge battery technologies to innovative service businesses - and from companies of all sizes. We also encourage participants from all over the world to submit proposals. This is a global challenge, and it will take all of us to solve it.

The move is a fantastic example of a company utilizing its resources and strength in online reach to create positive change.

What is Conscious Spending?

It seemed like a good idea to start at the top to speak and explain what Conscious Spending means to us—especially as were are striving to be a sustainable business by providing online greeting cards as an environmentally friendly alternative for “conscious spenders". Like many things in life this post has turned into an unexpected adventure.

I started by defining the parts to clarify the whole. The most appropriate definitions of “conscious” from Webster’s dictionary are: 1: perceiving, apprehending, or noticing with a degree of controlled thought or observation, and 7: done or acting with critical awareness and 8b: being concerned or interested.

So far so good: a conscious spender would make purchase decisions by combining their concerns and awareness of the environment and social justice with a focused and critical decision making process. Or: they would think and reflect before acting.

And then the adventure began: The most appropriate definitions for “Spend” are: 1: to use up or pay out, or 2 a: Exhaust, wear out, b: to consume wastefully. Oops. It seems to me that a conscious person wouldn’t want to purchase something under any of these definitions—consuming wastefully is precisely what got us to where we are today.

Here is where a bit of self disclosure is in order—you may have noticed that the name of our blog is “conscious spending”. In hindsight, this is not a great name. We picked it because we were focused on action (setting up the blog) rather than thinking and reflecting before acting. So we’ve created a fantastic real world example of how not to make a decision and/or make a purchase. If we would’ve done more research we would have come up with another name. Let’s continue the research together:

Some have started using the phrase “conscious consumerism” (as have we at times). Consumerism is defined as “the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable; also: a preoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of goods”. Again this is exactly the theory and behavior that we’re trying to challenge.

How about consumer? I’m sure you already know where this is heading: 1: one that consumes : as a: one that utilizes economic goods b: an organism requiring complex organic compounds for food which it obtains by preying on other organisms or by eating particles of organic matter. Actually not all that bad, we all have to consume (eating and drinking come to mind) but still not quite the message we’re trying to promote. (I had to leave the last part in for some dark humor-the phrase “preying on other organisms” just hits too close to home.)

How about conscious customer? 1: one that purchases a commodity or service. Viola! Finally, a simple and clear definition of the action required to complete a purchase without the added burden of having to do more and more of it.

We’re ALL customers in one form or another and that in itself is not unhealthy to society or the environment. Of course it what and how often we buy that would define us as a consumer, spender or a Conscious customer.

That "Socially Responsible Co-Op" is at it Again...

A new ad campaign debuted from REI. Three Leaf Cards came across it on the
Environmental Leader website.

(Note, the image is not the ad, but the art on the landing page for
REI.com where you can find out more about REI's sustainability initiatives.)

The ad provokes the reader by offering "Organic, Recycled, Natural" as the
three key words. Below them, the ecoSensitive label sits, with a "Buy Green"
button just below it.

Does anyone else think it's fascinating that REI is now calling itself and
Eco-Friendly Co-Op?

If you click on the button, it takes you to the REI page, where you see a spread of
"best sellers" under the moniker: "Take it Easy on Mother Nature."

Eco-friendly car news

Sometimes cars are a necessary evil, and not all of us can afford to shell out five figures for a hybrid. In our travels, we’ve stumbled upon this site: http://www.greencar.com

It’s an aggregate of news as well as features on green cars for eco-conscious consumers. A rolling news feed features topics such as: Hydrogen speed record attempt; Campaign for Plug-Ins; Multiple Vehicle Ownership up; Ready for the Hydrogen 500?, and Biofuels Power Jet Engine, among many others.

The site is attempting to bridge the gap between the car enthusiast and the eco-conscious consumer.

Other recent eco-friendly car news:

Volkswagen to offset projected emissions of Cars

Read the post here:
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/08/30/volkswagen-to-offset-projected-emissions-of-cars/

Summary: Volkswagen of America plans to offset the carbon emissions of projected consumer use. From September 1, 2007, until January 2, 2008, vehicles sold by Volkswagen will have carbon emissions offset for the first year of ownership.

In addition, the Volkswagen site will show the carbon footprint calculation of vehicles alongside statistics on fuel efficiency, speed, and price, when they use the “Build a VW” feature, according to VW.

The offsets, from Carbonfund.org, will support the land acquisition and reforestation of 1,100 acres of habitat in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Louisiana. The offsets will be based on the average annual emissions for each different type of model sold in the four-month period.

Volkswagen says it will encourage customers to continue to offset their emissions via a carbon calculator on a Volkswagen of America micro site hosted by Carbonfund.org.

Ford Motor Corporation To Install Patented Fumes-To-Fuel System

Read the article here
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=35835

According to a company press release, Ford Motor Corp. announced that it would install its patented Fumes-to-Fuel system at its Oakville, Ontario, Assembly Plant, which will convert emissions from its paint shop into electricity.

The system will launch with an internal combustion engine before shifting to a stationary large-scale fuel cell to boost effectiveness. The company will buy the DFC300MA fuel cell from manufacturer FuelCell Energy Inc. The fumes from the paint solvent will get transformed into 300 kilowatts of green energy.

The technology was launched as a pilot installation at the Dearborn Truck Plant using a 5 kilowatt fuel cell. A year later, Ford installed installed technology at its Michigan Truck Plant using a 50 kilowatt Stirling engine to generate electricity.

The Oakville system announced Thursday will launch with a 120 kilowatt internal combustion engine before shifting to the 300 kilowatt fuel cell, which is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 88 percent and eliminate nitrogen oxide emissions completely.

Green Travel

Many eco-conscious people are also interested in supporting tourism in economies. Once you land, it’s local, right? To that end, we’ve amassed a list of tips for the “green travelers” among us. Please feel free to offer your own resources and posts. We really want to compile a great list of beta.

Travel Tips from Michael Shapiro, Special to: The San Francisco Chronicle
(read full article here: )
Friday, April 20, 2007

• Before you leave: Turn down the thermostat and water heater at your home; most have a vacation setting. Put your newspaper delivery on hold.


• Do your homework: Select hotels, tour companies and other travel providers that make a genuine commitment to environmental preservation. How can you tell? Ask them to e-mail a copy of their eco-policy. See if their catalog is printed on recycled paper; for tours, ask if accommodations are at chain hotels or locally owned lodgings. Lonely Planet's book "Code Green" lists almost 100 eco-friendly trips; for advice, see www.lonelyplanet.com/responsibletravel/travel_tips.cfm.


• Reuse towels and sheets: Many hotels now change towels and sheets only when you request it. Towels on the floor are replaced, while those on the rack are left to dry. Even if your hotel doesn't have a card urging you to do this, you can leave a note for housekeeping stating that you don't need the towels or sheets changed. You can also request that the hotel refrain from using chemical air fresheners and cleaning products in your room.


• Beware of 'greenwashing': Many travel companies "cloak themselves in an eco-blanket" but aren't really green, says Geographic Expeditions' Jim Sano. He encourages travelers to ask outfitters how they select tour operators, whether they support local people, and what they do to minimize impact on the areas they visit.


• Choose eco-friendly activities: When visiting a city, you can travel by tour bus or on foot. Walking is not only greener but also opens you to serendipitous encounters. Bike touring, whitewater rafting and kayaking can be green, depending on the tour operator.


• Pack it out: When traveling to remote areas, from mountains to deserts, bring as little potential trash as possible and pack out whatever waste you create.


• Consider the consequences: You might like a cold beer and hot shower after a day of trekking in the Himalayas, but tourist demands can lead to increased deforestation (to heat water) or to the disruption of traditional ways.


• Get online: For a list of top eco-travel destinations, go to www.ethicaltraveler.org/destinations.php.

For eco-friendly adventures listed by country and activity, visit www.responsibletravel.com.

Help make a healthy planet, start at home

As a conscious spender, I try my best to make purchases that last the test of time and are good for people and planet. One of the best eco-friendly buys I made (that I still use today) is the book...Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan. A good friend of mine suggested this book to me in 2000...it is STILL in my arsenal of best eco-friendly purchases. Not only is the book a great read, it offers a wealth timeless healthy-living cleaning tips and household cleaning recipes that 1.) clean your house better than any product on the shelves 2.) are better for your health since they lack ick toxins 3.) save money in the long run.

Our home can be the un-healthiest place to exist because of the toxins floating around...toxins caused by chemicals in our cleaning products. We have choices to make as conscious spenders and little steps can make a big difference. Step one is awareness, step two is education, step three is action. Do yourself and your family a favor, make your house a healthy environment, cleaning does not have to kill you!

Please share any conscious living tips with us anytime...reply to this post or email us at support@threeleafcards.com. Together we can make a difference!

ecard spam scams

As many of you are aware, ecard scams are back (much to the dismay of companies that provide legitimate online greetings services!). Many of you have probably received one of these types of cards. Being in the world of online greetings, this touches home for us so we wanted to address the issue.

Hackers and spammers may use the guise of an ecard message to get you to click on a link that could infect your computer with a virus.

The url itself, when clicked, can start the virus so be mindful of the links in the emails you click on.

Before you proceed, ask yourself:
1. Is the card from somebody you know?
If the ecard does not have a recognizable senders name in the subject line or email message, stop right there, do not be tempted to click on non-certain senders like “an old classmate” or “secret admirer” or words like “someone”, “someone who cares” or very broad like “you have an ecard waiting”

2. Check the hyperlink in the card before you click…is the source reputable?
http://www.threeleafcards.com/viewcard.aspx?recipientid=1545&cardid=2056
http://www.egreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=407092458&m=3207&source=eg992

3. Keep your antivirus software up to date. Anti-virus companies state that these scams are on the rise, so be prepared, be aware and be a little skeptical…

And remember, if your “secret admirer” really wants to reach you, they can pick up the phone!

Help prevent breast cancer - make a pledge to protect your breasts

We are big fans of the Breast Cancer Fund (they are a Three Leaf Cards Nonprofit partner) and are currently even bigger fans of their new campaign called Not My Breasts For every person who pledges to protect their breasts (check out the fun pledge form, you'll be hooked), $1 will be donated to the Breast Cancer Fund by some of their key supporters. Today a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer is 1 in 8. Breast Cancer fund has a bold mission to educate and erradicate the environmental causes of breast cancer, including toxic chemicals and radiation.