Green Products Expo 2009

We've just started promoting GPE 2009 last week. The 2008 show in February drew quite a following of interested folks.

It's great to see the environmentally-friendly spirit is still in the mainstream and that consumers are more diligent than before in their purchases.

A lot of issues about inappropriate green-marketing ("greenwashing") have developed, with a growing need for public green standards programs such as the U.S. Green Building Council and the EPA-backed, Green Electronic Council’s EPEAT.

This is the 2nd year since our office has moved to green-friendly. All the "new-ness" of the recycle bins, eco-friendly office and cleaning supplies has worn off, which is good...since an eco-friendly environment should be the norm. Employees use all these "business as usual."

Kevin

Update on recycling

After initially adding a second recycle bin to my home, it's amazing at the amount of recyclables a household of 4 people can generate. It's gotten to be an obsession to review the bottom or back of packages before I make the decision to place them in the bins.

Offsetting

We were approached by a potential Green Products Expo (GPE) sponsor a few days ago who gave us a look into offsetting, a new term I'm unfamiliar with, but found very interesting.

Basically the company would provide enough "renewable energy credits" to offset the carbon footprint of the GPE. All the exhibitors flights to the show, all the fuel used in shipping products to the show, etc.

See more about RECs here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tags

Being more diligant

As we've started working on developing the Green Products Expo, I've researched the "state of green" in our home state of SC. The latest stats from 2006 indicates that our county recylces 18.6% of our waste...whereas our target is 35%. I've read where the residents of San Fancisco recycle 60%-70% of their waste!

So....I went by our local city recycling center and picked up another "blue bin." We already recycle, to some extent at home and at the office. As a Rock Hill, SC city resident we have weekly pickup service for recycling, while at our office in Fort Mill, SC, we have a very large recycling bin for paper & aluminum/glass, but we are required to take it to the recycling center.

I'm starting a concerted effort at home to increase our recycling effort with the 2nd blue bin.