Earth Day is coming up this Thursday. One of the events I’m working on for work is a tree planting day. The trees are being planted to help control erosion, provide habitat for wildlife, and some visual screening between recreation areas (this is all dependent upon where exactly the trees are planted).
I type this as a commercial for a disposable hand towel plays in the other room.
I had a very different post set to go up instead of this one. It was one where I wrote about being torn between my comfort level and what’s good for the environment. It’s a very rough balance and I don’t know what the answer is.
So, instead of me yammering on about carbon footprints, sustainable living, and the like, I’m going to take a minute to showcase a few cool products and companies that are committed to sustainability.
- GoLite’s Take Back program encourages smart buying, maintaining repairing, repurposing, and recycling equipment and clothing.
- New Belgium Brewing Company powers its brewery using alternative energy. They offer tips on incorporating alternative energy into your everyday life. They advocate use of bicycles through the Tour de Fat, Team Wonderbike, and encourage people to give up their cars for a commuter bike. And, oh yeah, they make excellent beer.
- The Yez concept car is a solar car that goes one step further by turning carbon dioxide into oxygen.
- Patagonia encourages environmental responsibility through various programs, education, donations, and their Common Threads recycling program. Common Threads recycles used clothing into new clothing.
- The Freecycle Network keeps used materials out of landfills.
- REI promotes sustainability through education and promotion of recycled, renewable, and organic products.
- Mountainsmith uses ReDura recycled PET fabric in many of their packs.
- And of course, there’s The Story of Stuff Project, which now includes The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Cap and Trade, and the upcoming The Story of Electronics.