Fwd: Work, school and Yvon Chouinard

[Guest guest]

Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TreeHugger looks

at how the world of work and school are

changing, and interviews one of the men

leading the change in how businesses are run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TREEHUGGER INTERVIEWS YVON

CHOUINARD:.The founder of Patagonia

started out when he was little more than a

teenager, selling his home-forged climbing

hardware to "dirtbagger" mountaineers like

himself. Although all he really wanted to do

was travel and climb, he had a knack for

innovation and invention, and Chouinard

Equipment Co. evolved into Patagonia,

arguably the most successful outdoor clothing

company in history. Sample Question:

 

Your are willing to highlight the

shortcomings, the pitfalls, the negative

impacts created by your processes and

products, as well as all the benefits and

positive steps. Where does that attitude come

from?Have you always been so

eager to tell people about the dark side of

the products they're buying?

 

 

We're very self critical here, for one

thing. Because if you're not, you just cruise

along. We're very self-critical and we're

very idealistic, so if we find we're doing

something wrong, we really want to change it.

But I think only by being honest, can we show

the full extent of the problem.

 

 

Right now, there's a lot of green glossing

going on, green marketing. And right now a

lot of companies are saying, "Oh yeah, we're

making sustainable clothing out of bamboo."

Well, we don't use any bamboo, because it

uses really toxic chemicals in that process.

Bamboo itself is grown without chemicals, but

the process of converting it into cloth is

very toxic.

 

And making clothing out of corn, corn is a

disaster as a crop. It uses fossil water

that's millions of years old and not being

replenished, it uses all kinds of chemicals,

it's genetically modified. With people

starving around the world and to be making

clothing out of corn is absolutely stupid.

But there are companies that are saying,

"We're making sustainable clothing out of corn."

 

So there's a lot misinformation out there,

especially right now with all these companies

claiming to be green and stuff like that. So

we want to be absolutely dead honest on how

difficult it is, and that, in reality,

there's no such thing as sustainability. No

matter how clean and green we can be, we're

still net polluters. ::More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take Off, Eh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to do something good for the planet?

Punch out a little early. Take the afternoon

off. Work less. "inhabitants of the global

North can and should opt for a new economic

and social vision based on quality of life,

rather than quantity of stuff, with reduced

worktime and ecological sustainability at its

core."

::More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get Schooled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Education gets dematerialized: The

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

has been getting 1.5 million hits a month on

its OpenCourseWare site.The digital flow of

information helps in two ways: It reduces

material and

energy use, but it also increases curiosity

and awareness.::More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outta Sight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of sight and out of mind, the "Great

Pacific Garbage Patch" now covers an area

twice the size of the continental U.S. and

holds almost 100m tons of flotsam. It all

ends up in the food chain and on your dinner

plate.::More.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tip from Planet Green: Keep PVC and

Phthalates Out of Your Food

 

 

 

Planet Green has covered the dangers of PVC

and phthalates in your home and in

cling wrap; the same advice goes

for the

containers you store food in. Many reusable

plastic containers are hiding the toxic

nasties in their handy, stackable,

leftover-friendliness; harder plastics, like

polycarbonate, can also contain the endocrine

disrupter bisphenol-A (BPA-we mentioned it in

our discussion of choosing

safe baby bottles) which can leach

into

your lunch, especially when you pop it in the

microwave.

 

Instead of rolling the dice with the risks

that come with plastics, we recommend going

for glass for storing and reheating

food. ::More at Planet

Green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is lots to learn about dining on a chemical-free diet at Planet Green! Created by the same savvy folk who brought you the award-winning TreeHugger, Planet Green is your user's guide to living mindfully on this big blue marble we all call home. Greenily, Team TH

 

 

 

P.S. If your diet calls for a pinch more green, have we got a recipe for you: the weekly newsletter, piled high with a whole week's worth of tasty TreeHugger treats. Sign up here.P.P.S. Feed me, feed me, give me more! Get all the TreeHugger, all the time with our RSS feed. It's Really Simple- (That's the RS in RSS) - Just click your little mousie here and overindulge in calorie and carbon free TreeHugger all day long.

 

 

 

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