Last Ecological Footprint Update

To finish my blogging for the quarter, I am doing one last ecological footprint quiz. I will compare it to my first and second one and then talk about whether or not I will continue to try to lower my footprint now that my sustainability class is over and if I will continue following the goals I had set forth on my first two quiz blogs.

So after taking the quiz, I got my footprint down to 3.36 Earths. The table and chart below shows the break down. Because I still drive so much, my carbon footprint is still extremely high. Moving turned out to be a bust. In my future, I know I will not be driving this much. I hate to drive, it's so annoying. So I know in the future this number will decrease dramatically.

The first time I did the blog, I really had to guess on a lot of things and now, having more accurate knowledge about what we do in our household that counts as being "green", what size our house really is, and so on. Things like that helped to decrease my number of Earths as well.

As far as sticking to my goals, I believe that I chose reasonably easy ones that were simply to implement and have become second nature to me. I guess that's why I really didn't blog about it much- I just did them. I believe that if all people made these little goals like I did, they too could lower their footprints. I've been eating healthier, unplugging electronics, and taking shorter showers without even thinking about it.

The only challenge I'm still having is recycling at school. It is really hard to recycle when the bins are clear across campus where I never go. Literally. I have 2 classes in the new building and one class in the comm building. So, in the future this will still be a challenge for me due to the fact that the bins aren't changing locations and no new bins will be added anytime soon.

I truly and honestly believe I will stick through with my other goals. To be ignorant and not change is one thing. But once a person sees how their individual habits affect the world, there is no going back. This is personally true for me. I hope to take these goals and keep implementing them in my life. I would like to keep creating little goals, one or two at a time. My next goal after this class will probably be to convince my boyfriend to do the same thing. In order to live a certain lifestyle you really need the people around you to live sorta the same. Hopefully this will create a chain affect.

Bare Naked

"Looks weird" sip "tastes amazing"

That's just one tag line from the juice product "Green Machine" made by Naked.

So what is it exactly?
The Naked Juice drinks consists of pure fruit concentrate. They are a healthy, filling, yummy way to drink juice while getting the daily recommended servings of fruit. There are no added sugars and many of the drinks contain boosts or whey protein. Perfect for on the go, in the car, or even at home. Here is what is in the Green Machine drink

Will all of these natural ingredients it is easy to see why the color is so weird looking. But one taste, and you will seriously be hooked! I drink one every day for breakfast. They are filling. There are so many varieties to choose from so you won't get bored or burnt out on them. On their website http://www.nakejuice.com/ you can find all of their other flavors, you can search by fruit, taste, name and more. At around $2 each- with 2 servings in each bottle, these drinks won't burn a hole in your wallet like fast food or your morning coffee. 2 bucks for a healthy, great tasting drink, what a deal! They are available at Walgreen of Guide Meridian. What could be better? Keep reading.

This company not only makes great tasting drinks, they are going green. On their interactive site you can find out about their sustainability commitments. Bottle reincarnation is where they make bottles from recycled plastic and those bottles can be recycled into new bottles. They are the first company to be able to do this! This is great because the company is such a natural company and now both in and outside of their bottles they are practicing this. A benefit to the environment is a benefit to them because this also helps with their branding. In class we've talked a lot about being transparent- naked is practically a synonym. "Naked Juice is the first nationally distributed brand to transition to a 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottle."

There are also links about their Rainforest Alliance and their quest to lower their footprint. This is a great company with great drinks, at an affordable price, what more could you ask for?! You're already bored surfing the net anyways so please, visit the website at http://www.nakedjuice.com/.

Unplug your Wallet

In order to persuade Western Students to reduce their carbon footprint, I’ve developed a new marketing campaign to convince them to unplug their small appliances. The target market of my campaign is WWU students who live off campus, due to the fact that they pay their electric bills, where students who live on campus don’t. They do not have strong feelings toward helping the environment. These people will only do things that benefit the environment if they themselves are benefitted in some other way. Using the Makower text, a murky middle might be what these consumers are best classified as. What drives these specific students is money and grades, since their lives are essentially consumed by going to college, possibly working and spending as much time with their friends as they can.

The overall objective of my campaign is to encourage students to unplug their small appliances in order to save money for themselves. The side effect of this will be the positive environmental impact it has. The college students who partake in unplugging their small appliances will not be informed of this benefit because it will not drive them to make a difference. This campaign will create a win-win situation for students and for the environment.
For my campaigns creative strategy, I have decided to integrate the slogan “Unplug Your Wallet”. This expresses the most important benefit to the students, which is their wallet. The catchy phrase will immediately let them know that if they pay attention they can save money. There will also be a phrase that says: Find out how to save $ by only lifting 2 fingers at: http://www.unplugwallet.facebook.com/ where a Facebook page will be. This page will be made for the students due to how tech savvy they are; this will be the most effective and sustainable way to reach them. This of course will also make it easier for them to share the page with their friends, and the campaign will we be highly exposed at virtually no cost. Posters will be placed around campus to spark interest and will direct students to visit the Facebook page where they can learn more. Because this current generation of students doesn’t like traditional advertising, there will be no main website. The Facebook page will be student ran in order to increase credibility and social proof among other students. In order for the page to be student ran, it will be offered as a quarterly internship where the marketing student will be maintaining the page and will have to come up with other campaigns that have the same central sustainability goals.

On the Facebook page, because this is only the first campaign, students will find information about how unplugging small appliances will save them money over time. Savings could be from 5% of the bill to as much as 25% on average, depending on how many appliances a person has plugged in at any given point in time. The main point the Facebook page will address this savings and will put it in a dollar format so that students can easily see just how much they have been saving and they will then be able to conveniently rationalize unplugging their appliances. Also on the page, conversions such as, “These savings could e equivalent to $20 a month which is like getting a week of free lunch!” I think this would be an effective marketing campaign due to the fact that the major benefit that is being promoted is one of the most important things in the minds of the target market. Also, the change from not unplugging appliances to unplugging appliances is simple, easy and once a person gets in the habit it becomes second nature. By providing a way to keep the campaign integrated and student ran will also contribute to the success and longevity.

U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment

I found the website for the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment when I looking for something to blog about it. http://www.usdairy.com/sustainability/Pages/Home.aspx It is interesting to learn about what companies are doing to become more sustainable.

The goals for the Dairy Sustainability Commitment includes reducing green house gasses.

This website is huge and I will blog more later.

Green Lite Motors wins business plan competition

Portland electric-car start-up Green Lite Motors is one of three winners in a new business plan competition focused on Pacific Northwest clean technology companies.

Green Lite is developing a three-wheeled, enclosed, gas-electric hybrid vehicle capable of getting 100 miles per gallon.

It was one of 56 entrants in consideration for the Pacific Northwest Clean Tech Open competition vying for a $50,000 prize and the chance to move up to the national competition next month in San Francisco. The winner of the national event receives $250,000 in cash and services.

The two other winners of the regional competition come from Seattle: Hyrdrovolts, which is developing turbines to generate renewable energy from water without the need for dams; and LivinGreen Materials, which is developing a product called AggraLight to sell to solar manufacturers to boost solar cell efficiency by 50 percent and reduce the cost per watt.

The 10 semi-finalists in the event spent the summer receiving hands-on mentoring from local and national business leaders in an effort to hone their plans.

Each company was judged by a group of venture capitalists, angel investors and other business professionals based on both the scientific viability of the concepts and the ability to make it a commercial success.


Taken from Portland Business JournalPortland

Green Car Company

The Green Car Company is a company I found while browsing the Internet. I was interested in this because we have talked a lot in class about sustainable design, and credit has been give to Toyota for their goal of creating a vehicle that is more than just sustainable for the environment.

Their company goal is to create awareness and educate mainstream America about how transportation choices effect the environment. I think this is a realistic goal, and they are going about it in a very practical way. The website is very stream line, and simple looking, it reminds me of Apple in a way. Since Apple is seen as cool, new and innovative, it's great that The Green Company is taking the same approach. They don't seem pushy with their ideas at all which is great, because that only causes people to rebel against the cause.

On the website, thegreencarco.com you can actually view types of Green Cars and find out all the green on them (as apposed to dirt on them). For instance, the Xebra Ev Electric Vehicle which just so happens to be an alternative fueled vehicle which has zero emissions.

Yes it's a 3 wheeler!

This is just one of the many vehicles the site showcases there are other cars such as hybrids and smart cars, electric bikes and scooters. I was able to find prices for these items, but I'm not sure if you can actually buy directly from this website. It looks more like an info site where people can go to learn about these types of green vehicles, and get the facts.

ecological footprint... again

So, I wanted to track my ecological footprint again to see how achieving my goals is really affecting the earth.



My footprint reduced down to 4.21 earths. My carbon footprint is still really high because I haven't moved yet, so I still live about an hour away. I know once I move, this will reduce my carbon footprint. But I can't fix it right away. I could also work on recycling more. I have kept things longer than I normally would have (one of my goals) but I could still do better when it comes to recycling glass and plastics. The hardest part is finding the bins. Sometimes they are so inconvenient to find- and its just way easier and faster to throw them in the trash can.




Even though I have done a lot to reduce my footprint, I know a large factor of my reduction is due to the fact that I didn't know that many of things I was doing counted as being sustainable. Since this class I have learned that the lights I have are LCD, that washing my hair every other day means using less water. There are many things I've done in the past, and things I currently do that I was doing for one reason (like how washing your hair everyday is actually bad for you)
and it turns out is sustainable. So it's a win-win.


A new goal for myself is to stop being so lazy. I need to just recycle more. There is no good reason not to.