Anagain, Inc. » green

Companies That Reward Employees For Going Green.

david — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:00:53 +0000

If I were ever to go back to working for a corporation again, benefits that include rewards for going green is the type of thing I would be looking for in a salary package. While rewards for going green or reducing one’s carbon footprint used to only be for fringe “eco” companies, more and more mainstream companies are adopting these kind of rewards for their employees. Benefits like health insurance, retirement plans, flextime, telecommuting, and bonus vacation time are always welcome, but wouldn’t it be cool to see some payback on your efforts to be a sustainable citizen of the world? I know we all do what we can on our own accord, but to have your company recognize your green efforts could go a long way to keeping you happy in your job. So which companies are rewarding their employees for being eco-minded? Let’s take a look at some green job benefits…

Google

Besides offering their workers all the standard fare, Google also offers gourmet meals made of local, organic, sustainable ingredients, use of plug-in hybrid vehicles and bicycles, free shuttles powered by biodiesel, discounts to employees who want to go solar at home, and any employees who bike, walk, pogo-stick, unicycle, or otherwise self-power to work can earn points that translate into a donation from Google to their charity of choice.

Google Plug-In Hybrids

Patagonia

Employees can leave their jobs to work for an environmental group of their choice, while continuing to get their pay and benefits while they are gone.

Clif Bar

These guys take their green rewards seriously. Employees can receive up to $1,000 annually to make eco-home improvements, $500 to apply to the purchase of a commuter bike or to make commute-related retrofits to their existing bike, and a $6,500 taxable cash incentive to use towards the purchase of biodiesel-fueled, natural gas-fueled or high mileage hybrid vehicles. Eligible vehicles include the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Civic GX and any biodiesel compatible vehicle that runs on B100 for at least six months of the year. In addition, employees who commute via foot, bike, or public transportation can earn $960 a year in rewards.

Green Mountain Power

Vermont’s power company offers employees a $1,500 incentive for the purchase of a new car, or a $750 incentive for the purchase of a used vehicle, that is included in the EPA’s Smart Way Elite category. Currently that list includes the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid, and Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Bank of America

Expanded its program to reimburse $3,000 to employees purchasing a new hybrid vehicle.

Does the company that you work for give out rewards/benefits for going green? If so, where do you work and what kind of stuff do they have in place? Is it worth working there for some of those benefits? Let us all know in the comments, so we know where to look for the next job that we need!

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Greenwash Of The Week: Sony And The WWF.

david — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:46:03 +0000

As he always does, my friend Keith over at The Unsuitablog has found an interesting greenwashing case – and he called them on it. Seems he received a press release about Sony and the World Wildlife Fund partnering up on a eco-crowdsourcing project called Open Planet Ideas that aims to discover “how current Sony technologies could be repurposed to tackle environmental problems.” Find it strange and impossible that an electronics company could tackle any environmental problems with all the stuff they market? So did Keith:

To: Clea Gray
Subject: Re: Sony Europe and WWF launch “Open Planet Ideas”

So, Clea, what Sony and WWF are proposing is that all Sony products sold will now have a positive effect on the environment. Yes?

I’m slightly surprised that any high complexity technology that relies on an industrial infrastructure could ever be environmentally friendly, but I’m willing to listen if you could explain the theory.

Thanks

Keith

Keith: “The implication being that something like a Playstation – the function of which, at the lowest level, is to make Sony money; but at a more superficial level, to entertain people, or rather distract them from the real world – can have a net environmental benefit. I would be keen to see Sony’s calculations, as to this net benefit.”

And to be honest, I do wonder how much money and power the WWF gets out of this partnership, considering the fact that their CEO makes $465,427 per year – an insane amount of money for a charitable organization to pay out for leadership. With that kind of pay scale, they must not be hurting for donations, heh? Guess you have to take the all the money you can from questionable partnerships when you can get it, since you have to pay such huge salaries. They are known as one of the most conservative enviro organizations out there and have taken on an “increasingly dubious role in greenwashing the operations of global agribusiness“. With time, they are starting to sound more and more like an organization interested in protecting their financial accounts and not the environment.

I highly recommend you go read Keith’s entire post about Sony and the WWF, and be sure not to miss his recorded phone call with the PR rep. He’s still waiting to hear back from them… hope he’s not holding his breath.

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Weekly Greens – Sept 3rd

Tara — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:31:06 +0000

Image by Joel Bedford It’s been an interesting week…from the oil rig explosion in the Gulf to the mid-week events at the Discovery Channel (thankfully in both cases the workers were okay) and more. Now while I won’t be able to cover or recap everything that happened during the past week, I hope you enjoy [...]

Greenwash Of The Week: P&G ‘Future Friendly’.

david — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:30:57 +0000

Proctor & Gamble’s new ad slogan is “Future Friendly”, but when looking at the products they are branding with it, you have to wonder who exactly runs their ad division – a hired team of greenwashing experts? Non-recycled content toilet paper and paper towels, Swiffer sweepers, chemically-scented body sprays, Febreze, disposable diapers, deodorant with aluminum in it, petroleum-based dish soap… the list goes on… and on… and on. In the paper on Sunday, there was a 32 page insert about how they are Future Friendly and that by buying the products listed you would be investing in a better tomorrow. They even featured a young girl carrying a reusable grocery bag. Oh how green! But if you look at the contents of the bag, that sure looks like a spray bottle full of Febreze sticking out of the top. Yep, a container full of chemicals sure is “Future Friendly”. That is, if your future tends to be one full of nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea.

Please, Proctor & Gamble, tell me how any of the stuff that you sell is in any way, shape, or form “Future Friendly”. I would love to hear the rationalization…

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

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Greenwash Of The Week: P&G ‘Future Friendly’.

david — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:30:57 +0000

Please, Proctor & Gamble, tell me how any of the stuff that you sell is in any way, shape, or form “Future Friendly”. I would love to hear the rationalization…

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Weekly Greens – August 27th

Tara — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:30:37 +0000

Image by allspice1 This week went by fairly quickly, even with the triple digit temperatures that we had here in Southern California. Luckily I was able to get a short mid-week break from the heat when we took our kids to a beautiful green park by the coast. Amazingly enough there was a 40+ degree [...]

::tidbits of green:: from the RYD home front!

La Mama Naturale' — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:27:26 +0000

Hello everyone!

How are ya? I know, I know…. long time no blog! What gives?!

With the end of Summer so near we’ve been sulking up a every last bit of the sunshine and I took a little impromptu bloggy break. The weather has been extraordinarily HOT …today’s temp reached 110 degrees. Our clothesline was gettin’ all the action today. Seriously, wish we had a solar oven, right about now.

It’s on our wish list and what’s funny is our town is known for having the most sun in the nation… 300 days of sunshine through out the year!

A little known fact we definitely need to take advantage of.

I’ve also been busy getting our outbuilding fit for homeschooling and so far so good… I will post separately on that subject soon. Definitely an amazing transformation going on and I’m beyond thrilled to begin our adventure.

Anyhoo… here are some tidbits taking place at the RYD home front…

My grandma always told me… save your pickle juice and pickle hard boiled eggs!

Since we have green beans coming out of our ears so we put a few from some salvaged juice from 2 jars of Bubbies pickles!

Pickled green beans here we come.

can’t wait to fill up some reused glass jars with fresh dried herbs from our garden

:: parsley AND :: basil 2 kinds of each!

using the sunshine to dry our laundry… haven’t used our dryer much this summer!

Clean sheets and towels…ahhh!

Been busy makin’ all things homemade (dry skin salve, deodorant, and toothpaste) including a few other things…

…deets to come!!!!

Mmm, lunch lately… easy peasy & perfect in this summer heat.

with apple slices + almond butter = Mmmm!

an Ani Phyo recipe!

a little love, a little laughter, a little a little … won’t you?

the fair is in town… a really big DEAL around here… we’ve already gone 2x!

Ah, the last of our beautiful Summer desert sunsets… feeling the autumnal shift lately at certain times of the day…

i heart autumn

Change is comin’ on for us and I feel it.

another fun highlight: waiting on pickles that are wildly fermenting

( a NO vinegar recipe)… just a few more days!

& so you know the garden is fairing well and I hope to bring you an update on that soon too!

The last few days of August are going to be busy- busy.

I may be absent … but I’ll be back– promise!

p.s. stomach yuck is just about gone! phew!

What have you been up to?!!

Greenwash Of The Week: Scott Green Naturals Paper Towels.

david — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:30:35 +0000

“That’s Green Done Right” is the amazing greenwash slogan that Scott, AKA Kimberly-Clark, has chosen to trademark to describe their paper products – bath tissue, paper towels, napkins, etc. Their paper towels have, wait for it, a whopping 60% recycled paper fiber. Wow, how green of them! That leaves 40% virgin paper pulp in a product designed to clean up spills and pick up after your pet. Sounds like a proper use of felled trees to me.

While plenty of companies make their paper towels from 100% recycled paper fiber (Seventh Generation and Marcal come immediately to mind), Kimberly-Clark continues to cut down trees to provide paper towels for use around the home. Something in this equation doesn’t equal “green done right”, but maybe it’s just me. After all, it’s not like Kimberly-Clark has been the subject of the Greenwash of the Week before, right?

As an aside, I highly recommend you ditch the paper towels all together – I have a drawer full of rags that I use and wash each week that work just fine.

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

Weekly Greens – August 21st

Tara — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:26:52 +0000

Image by dorena-wm Sorry I’m little late on my ‘Weekly Greens’ edition for this week. I spent the last few days visiting with out-of-town family. It was very nice to catch up and enjoy some quality time with them. Since I’m back now, let’s get caught up on everything from eco inventions to car-sharing tips [...]

Reduce your pool footprint: use reusable swim diapers!

La Mama Naturale' — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:35:47 +0000

Hiya dear friends!

How are ya?

It’s been a whirlwind of busy around here but happy Thursday to ya!!

Were still experiencing triple digit temps and have been cooling off in the kiddie pool as you may have already noticed. hee, hee!

This post may be a little late but for us Summer isn’t over JUST yet. Besides, swim lessons start in just a couple weeks!!

Back up three years ago, when Tristan started swim lessons…

…as a green mama, I’d already thought about the reprecussions of using disposable diapers such as chlorine bleach used to dye the diapers (toxin), absorbent gels (toxin) plastic and human waste (#1 & #2) being thrown into landfills etc. SO after learning such repercussions we turned to cloth diapers as an eco solution to help minimize our worry…

From CleanAir.org…

Diapers: An average child will use between 8,000 -10,000 disposable diapers ($2,000 worth) before being potty trained. Each year, parents and babysitters dispose of about 18 billion of these items. In the United States alone these single-use items consume nearly 100,000 tons of plastic and 800,000 tons of tree pulp. We will pay an average of $350 million annually to deal with their disposal and, to top it off, these diapers will still be in the landfill 300 years from now. Americans throw away 570 diapers per second. That’s 49 million diapers per day.

Holy dirty diapers, eco mama’s & papa’s …

…but then swim lessons … was there a waterproof diaper??

Come to find out … there are many solutions and making a decision wasn’t easy. As a first time mom, I had no idea what to expect with cloth. I was just going with my gut and doing what I thought was best for my son Tristan (the eco tot) and for the Earth.

When I finally made a choice of the i play swim diapers … I loved the fact that my son could wear a cloth swim diaper that was made for water play & swimming without harming the planet. No worries of disposable plastic crud up against his skin either. These could be tossed right into the laundry to be washed over & over again. Plus, i play “swim dipes” are highly fashionable and spark up a conversation in an instant.

Clark wearing i play swim shorts & a UV shirt! Natural born swimmer

This year we went to the local chlorine water park in town (our first visit) and the personnel were impressed by our swim dipes.

Upon entering the park we were handed a note which mentioned only “plastic diapers” are allowed on infants.

Usually it’s quite the contrary. When we signed the eco tot up for swim lessons the local pools policy was fitted cloth swim diapers only.

Nothing with absorbent gels inside that can weigh baby down after being in the pool for awhile.

So, when we read the note we were a little surprised. The note almost made it seem like babies had to be in plastic diapers only because at some point it read ” approved plastic diapers” – I had the paper note saved somewhere but couldn’t find it for this post… lame!

Anyway, we’d ended up going into guest services just to be sure are swim diapers were allowed and low and behold our swim diapers were approved. The women working in guest services actually commented on how nice and comfy they looked on Clark and said she didn’t even know they existed.

It was a great feeling knowing it was one less PLASTIC diaper going into the trash after a day of fun….hooray!

We’ve even traveled with the i play swim dipes to Hawaii and on camping trips- so far, we’ve have had no problems with em’… loved the way they look on … love they way they hold up just like a “sposie”…& FTR, no problems in the poopsies department YET!

*holding my breath

I highly recommend i play swim diapers for your green/eco needs.

No, I’m not being paid to make the last statement.

These are my honest feelings about the swim diapers- figured; I’d put that out there, just in case some of you were curious.

Imse Wimse- eh!

We also have a pair of the Imse Wimse; BUT they’re much, much thinner and not worth the investment in my leettle opinion. They have two side snaps at the hip which I didn’t find easy to put on a wiggly tot and the fit was a little funky in the private area… a little to airy fresh for me.

Wasn’t comfortable with these in case of acccidentes! The i play swim diapers by far exceeded my expectations PLUS they’ve held up for Baby Clark our 16 month old! We have 2 pairs of the i play swim diapers and 2 pairs of shorts with matching UV shirts. Love em, love em’ love em!

Our i play dipes & shorts still look new which is an added bonus! YAY! for swim dipes an eco friendly alternative to plastic/sposies…ugh!

Of course, for regular water play the boys always run bare skivvies but for public places they’re a great solution.

Another reason I chose i play swim diapers is for all their wonderful fun prints. I’m mean seriously? Who doesn’t want their baby lookin’ somewhat stylish?!

Their stylish & NON TOXIC…that’s right… the outer shell of the i-play l is PVC & PHTHALATE FREE!

Reduce your pool footprint – GO reusable!

wOOt!