Q: Are you supportive of the concept of developing scientifically robust yet user-friendly expanded labels evaluating the environmental impacts of products? Ideally, this "label" would provide us with a "thin slice" of summary information on the product's lifecycle to make it easy and quick to use. -- Deborah Dunning, president, International Design Center for the Environment, Chapel Hill, N.C.Luckily we have just such a place for readers to discuss green issues! Let us know what you think.A: I think this would be fantastic! I love that we're seeing more green certification -- in everything from forest products to fish. Most of our readers say they do want to be better informed about life-cycle issues and manufacturing processes, but they don't have the time or the resources to investigate every single one. I like to think that the transparency such a label would create could make a big difference in how a lot of products are made -- and disposed of. (Campaigns like the recent "Green the iPod" from The Green Guide -- calling for the iPod to be fitted for an easily replaced and recyclable, toxic-free battery -- are great for making people aware of the full life-cycle consequences of ubiquitous products that they might not think about.) The challenge, as you know, is to make green labels and certification affordable for smaller companies. I'd love to know your thoughts on how to address that sticky issue.
Greening you out of house and home
InterActivist Robyn Griggs Lawrence asks readers for input on green certification issues 2
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Posted 4:47 PM on 1 Apr 2005
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Robyn Griggs Lawrence, editor in chief of Natural Home & Garden magazine, answers reader questions about her magazine, the wabi-sabi movement, and getting rid of elder box bugs in InterActivist today. She answers a question about user-friendly labels evaluating the environmental impacts of products and brings up the issue of cost for many small companies:
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jdhlax Posted 10:10 am
01 Apr 2005
BTW, if you must buy wood, buy wood that's certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). It's the only U.S. certification that actually means anything, even though the standards are pretty weak.
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fixitapple Posted 1:44 am
11 Apr 2005
http://www.fixitapple.com
The suggestions to Apple are:
Produce toxin-free iPods
Design iPods so batteries can be easily and affordable replaced
Provide take back and recycling options for iPods and other electronics
With 10 million iPods sold and hefty charges to replace the battery, we will have a big environmental problem on our hands if we don't do something soon!
I don't want Apple to stop selling iPods (I love mine), just to reconsider how they design the battery. Apple is a very environmentally friendly company and if we get enough people we can change their policy. These guys were able to do it in 2001 - http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/ - we can do it in 2005!
So go to http://www.fixitapple.com to send an email to Steve Jobs or you can also call and leave a message about how you feel and urge him to fix the iPod.
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