A newly FSC certified company in the United States is recycling old raft logs - so called boomsticks – into a host of fine lumber products. The company expects to sell much of its product line to developers and builders involved in the environmentally sensitive U.S. construction industry.

Columbia Riverwood received FSC chain of custody certification in April 2008. The company’s FSC recycled products will maximize building material points under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.

The Oregon based company acquired over 1 million board feet of floating boomsticks. Over 50 years ago, boomsticks were selected from some of the highest quality logs in order to tow huge log rafts up and down powerful rivers. For decades the river has been covering all but the tops of these logs, preserving the wood.

Each boomstick is lifted out of the river, loaded onto a log truck and transported to an FSC certified sawmill in Mehama, Oregon. Years of accumulated grit in the outer inch of each log requires the use of a large circular saw blade. Once that outer grit layer is removed, the beauty of old growth timber is reclaimed into flooring, window and door stock, beams, molding and one-of-a-kind blocks for woodturners.

“Based on diameter and ring count, our boomsticks range in age from 150 to 350 years old and stood over 200 feet tall before being felled 50 to 70 years ago. Some of the ring counts (more that 30 to the inch) simply can’t be found on the market today,” said Erick Haglund, Columbia Riverwood’s president. “It’s a real thrill to generate an old growth product through recycling.”

Currently, the US recycles only 52% of the aluminum cans being used in the country. Compare this to the global average of 63%, or global leaders like Brazil (94%) or Japan (90%). The US is the world’s biggest consumer of aluminum cans, and we should all be aware of the environmental benefits of recycling them.

According to Greg Wittbecker, Director of Corporate Metal Recycling for Alcoa, the US should appreciate the environmental gains of simply increasing the nation’s recycling rate to 75%. “If we could recover and recycle 75% of the aluminum cans being currently tossed into landfills — 600,000 metric tons of aluminum — we could save 1286 megawatts of generated electricity. That’s the amount produced by two coal fired power plants, and consumed by two aluminum plants,” says Greg. “Replacing this production with recycling would keep 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being generated and released into the atmosphere.” It would also reduce the amount of mercury going into the environment, since power plants emit polluting mercury when they burn coal.”

Recycling aluminum saves enormous quantities of energy, otherwise required to make virgin aluminum. Recycling a ton of aluminum uses just 5% of the energy required to make virgin metal. Every ton of recycled aluminum saves about 14,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.

In Omaha, our single stream curbside recycling program makes it easy to recycle aluminum at home. If your company doesn’t currently offer single stream recycling, then have your facilities manager contact Omaha’s FirstStar Fiber right away.

The latest edition of Canadian Geographic Magazine is printed on paper made from wheat-straw waste using technologies developed by the Edmonton-based Alberta Research Council (ARC).

The magazine is testing the commercial viability of paper made from wheat waste. The June edition, is described as the first North American magazine printed on wheat-straw paper.

“The paper, known as the Wheat Sheet, demonstrates that high-quality magazine-grade paper can be made from fiber other than wood pulp, which is the only fiber that pulp and paper mills in Canada currently use,” the news release said.

The paper contains 20 per cent wheat straw, 40% recycled fiber content and 40% wood pulp.

“Our June issue uses 60 per cent less trees but looks and feels just like any other issue of Canadian Geographic,” said editor-in-chief Rick Boychuk. “We’re delighted by this paper’s performance and hope it will be more widely available for North American publishers soon.”

ARC began studying pulping technologies for agricultural fibers such as wheat straw 10 years ago. “We’re working with the pulp and paper industry to explore additional opportunities to create new agriculturally-based pulps that can satisfy the growing market demand for environmentally friendly paper,” said Wade Chute, head of ARC’s pulp-paper program.

Omaha’s local news reported yesterday that higher prices are hitting Nebraska farmers hard. Higher prices for equipment, fuel, seed and fertilizer (petroleum based) are driving up operating expenses across the heartland. This development is yet another issue exposing the unsustainability of corn-ethanol as a fuel.

According to a KETV story, “In one year, seed prices have doubled, diesel prices have jumped by $2 and fertilizer prices have tripled.” They say that one local farmer’s, “diesel fuel expenses are $600,000 higher in eight months.”

My recent Dirt Rag article on corn-ethanol titled Another Roadside Distraction, highlights the many shortcomings of producing fuel from corn. These problems are being amplified by the fact that rising costs make the fuel even more expensive to produce.

In particular, I want to remind everyone how environmentally harmful corn production is. “As far as green fuels go, corn ethanol is at the bottom of the heap. Corn production in the US demands massive amounts of herbicides, insecticides and petroleum-based fertilizers. Corn creates the most soil erosion of any US crop, and sucks up wetlands throughout corn country. Runoff from the corn industry silts the once mighty Mississippi River, creating a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.”

I’m much more optimistic about conservation solutions that are currently underway. This behavioral change is practical, affordable and meaningful. There are technology changes that are promising, but corn-ethanol isn’t one of them.

The lead story on CNN.com this morning is, As Gas Goes Up, Driving Goes Down. Gas prices in this country are steadily rising and are starting to force behavior changes. This story highlights a Department of Transportation (DOT) report showing March of this year had the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.

“Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less — that’s 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it “the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history.” Records have been kept since 1942.”

This story comes on the heels of a Memorial Day weekend where Americans put their car keys down in favor of a Staycation.

According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to a record $3.93. The roadways are seeing drivers slowing down to conserve, and more people are turning to bikes, public transportation and car pooling to get around.

The world is changing. It is promising to see that people are responding with conservation methods rather than screaming at the government to advocate more drilling and other supply-side solutions.

I went to a volunteer meeting at Community Bike Shop Omaha (CBSO) this morning. The organizers hosted a series of these meetings as a part of their latest efforts to increase volunteer resources and improve the service hours of the shop.

What they do is pretty noble. With the help of grants and local donors, the shop opened up 2 years ago in the somewhat downtrodden Gifford Park neighborhood of Midtown Omaha. The organizers renovated a blighted residential home (a couple of doors South of California Tacos on 33rd Street) and began stocking up on resources to repair bikes for the neighborhood.

The goal of the organization is to empower kids and adults alike with the knowledge and skills needed to keep their bikes in good working order. The group realizes the power of the bicycle as a positive activity for children and an emancipating form of transportation for those without cars.

Each Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon the shop opens their doors and invites guests in to learn how to fix their bikes. Guests work hand-in-hand with volunteer mechanics to fix everything from flat tires to broken cranks. Parents are invited to watch their children learn. The offers a fundamental service, but it also provides mentoring and a positive environment for kids who may not always have these opportunities.

I’m a big fan of what they are doing. I’ve had a near lifelong interest in bicycles, and really appreciate what riding bikes did for me as a kid and young adult. And today, as gas prices rise and the cost of car ownership becomes prohibitive, I also realize the power and efficiency of the bicycle for transportation. As our economy suffers the impact of rising food and energy prices, it becomes clear low income segments of our community suffer the most.

I look forward to my first opportunity to volunteer as a mechanic at CBSO. I want to be a part of the great work that they do.

You Can Help
If you are interested in volunteering, or if you are interested in contributing bikes or money, please visit their website to learn more.

The Omaha Green Coalition hosted a great informational meeting today in Dundee with a series of speakers sharing how to get around the city without relying exclusively on cars.

Clyde Anderson (pictured), a retired Union Pacific civil engineer and transportation planner, started the meeting by discussing varied alternative transportation optionsin the city. He had some insightful and informed commentary on city planning in both the old city and western suburbs. His main focus was clearly on promoting use of the MAT bus system.

A representative from Omaha Community Bike Shop talked about all of the great work that their non-profit was doing to encourage the Midtown community to use bikes for transportation. He talked about mentoring kids and teaching self-reliance. I’ve been to the shop, and will volunteer there tomorrow. It blows me away how great the place is. They have a whole basement full of used bikes that volunteers can earn by donating time to the cause.

Tammy Dodge shared a bit about what ActivateOmaha has going on. In particular she reviewed some of the updates announced recently about cycling and pedestrian initiatives that I talked about in a recent post. She spent some extra time talking about getting bike racks on buses in Omaha and a cool Walking School Bus program that the city is getting involved in. Shockingly, she says that school principals in OPS can dictate their own policies towards kids walking or riding bikes to school. She said that some principals actually restrict kids from doing it at all. How backwards is that? If you want to learn more about kids being kids, and actually getting to school in a healthy and safe way, check out Safe Routes to School.

There was an extended conversation about safe cycling and the Bicycle Commuter Challenge. Recent announcements by the mayor were highlighted as hopeful developments in the city.

There were a couple of guys there talking about their local club promoting self-made biodiesel, and some discussion of the new Metro RideShare carpooling program. I found a great overall review of some of these initiatives in a recent Omaha By Design e-newsletter.

Corey and I walked away very happy with our experience at the meeting. We are also feeling good about our choices to sell our second car and bike or walk to more destinations.

Hewlett-Packard yesterday announced a suite of products and programs aimed and reducing the amount of paper and energy offices use in their daily operations.

HP’s Eco-Solutions line includes a new green label, called Eco Highlights, which identifies the environmental attributes of a product or service - from energy use to duplex-printing features to end-of-life recyclability of the products. The first products included under the label are the LaserJet P4510 and P4015 series of printers and the DeskJet D2545 printer.

The D2545 printer was also announced yesterday by HP. With over 80 percent of the product’s plastic made from recycled material, it is the company’s most recyclable printer, and the cartridges it uses are molded from recycled plastic resins.

On top of that, the overall packaging for the printer is fully recyclable; the printer is qualified for Energy Star certification; and it comes with HP’s Smart Web Printing technology, which saves paper by combining on one sheet the portions of websites that would otherwise take up a full page of paper. The company also plans to introduce another green printer this summer that uses HP’s closed-loop plastic recycling process.

The HP website also includes a helpful Energy Tips page to help reduce energy usage in the home or office.

In one of the most troubled regions of the world, the bicycle offers the promise of jobs for Afghanis wounded or disabled by war. In Kabul, streets are often clogged with traffic, blocked by security checkpoints and hampered by military convoys. Through this chaos, a bicycle can easily weave, getting from point-to-point far more efficiently than a car.

In 2002 a local NGO started the Disabled Cycle Messenger Services (DCMS) which, like any other bicycle courier service, delivers letters and packages, you guessed it, by bicycle. Many ride with one leg, and must strap crutches to their bikes for use when they arrive at their destination. The couriers don’t make a lot of money, and they ride up to 30 km a day, but they are able to put food on the table. In a country where half of the citizens live below the poverty line, any work, especially for the disabled, is a welcome development.

One employee explains, “Of course it’s hard work, even for an able bodied person. . .But the fact that I can work and I don’t have to sit on the side of the road and beg for money and can provide food for my family gives me a big sense of pride.”

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with half of its 25 million people living below the poverty line. The country has also been hit hard by the rising global food prices. In a country hopefully moving towards a future of peace and safety, it is good to see signs of hope.

Procter & Gambler (P&G) has certainly been guilty of creating our consumer culture and our reliance on synthetic chemicals to maintain our lifestyles. It is always difficult to measure the sincerity of a company of this size when they start discussing sustainable initiatives. Are they just Greenwashing?

But regardless, marketers should always be aware of what is happening in the field. And this BrandWeek interview highlights some of the efforts that P&G is putting into sustainable reforms, including packaging reduction and monitoring paper sources.

In the interview, Len Sauers, VP-Sustainability at P&G, shares the company goals. One of the more important elements to consider is that P&G has measured customer behaviors to determine that only ~5-10% of consumers (my least favorite word, followed closely by hate) will accept higher cost for eco-friendly products. While ~50-75% of consumers consider environmental issues important but aren’t willing to pay more.

Mr. Sauers states, “However [consumers] will choose a product that claims environmental benefits if it meets all their other needs: performance, value, cost, etc.”

I believe that customer behaviors are changing, or are being forced to change, faster than P&G anticipates. They have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo after all. But the fact that smart sustainability can reduce a company’s operating costs while still delivering a high quality product is a feather in the cap of sustainable marketing.

Customers want green products, companies want to keep making profits, sustainable marketing delivers a sales message in a way that reinforces green values while keeping promotional budgets in check.

A common topic for me to discuss is direct mail. So many people hate it, mostly because they are overwhelmed by the piles of useless (poorly produced) garbage that shows up in their mailbox each day. I respect the desire to reduce paper use, so I am a staunch advocate of getting the ‘junk’ out of ‘junk mail’. I think that well planned, designed and produced direct mail made from recycled or sustainably harvested forestry can be an effective and sustainable marketing tool.

The Direct Marketers Association (DMA) Director of Corporate Responsibility Serenity Edwards has been promoting ways for marketers to become good corporate citizens and to run a financially sound business. She stresses that one of the real benefits of being environmentally friendly is the positive impact the practice can have on a company’s the bottom line.

She encourages marketers to review The Green 15, which is comprised of 15 environmental practices divided into five key areas:

• List Hygiene & Data Management
• Mail Design & Production
• Paper Procurement & Use
• Packaging
• Recycling & Pollution Reduction

The Green 15 is an excellent primer for any business aiming to implement more sustainable marketing practices in their operations.

A major step in our move to sustainability happened today. Corey and I waved goodbye to our Hyundai Santa Fe SUV. We bought the car new in 2001, and it served us well over the years. When we bought it the mileage was actually pretty good compared to other options, or so we convinced ourselves. But recently the car has been sitting in the driveway providing target practice for passing birds.

Now we aren’t total SUV haters, so don’t get in a huff that I’m excited about selling mine. But Mark gave us a book last month about life without a car. Surprisingly, Corey snapped it up and read it first. She was entranced, constantly rattling off facts that she pulled from the book about how much money we could save and stress we could limit by reducing our dependence on cars. So we set ourselves about selling it.

We tried Craigslist first, with no luck. Then we posted it on Ebay and the darn thing sold without us even having to answer an email. Tonight, the new owners stopped over and traded us a check for the car. They were thrilled. Heck, I even threw in a bike rack because the guy is a bike rider.

After they drove off, we stood at the end or our driveway and looked at all of the open space. Now we just have a little Mazda sedan, we literally feel lighter. We are going to return the plates to refund our licensing fees and cancel the insurance. In all this move is going to save us well over $1000 each year. And I think we will be able to adjust just fine.

I’m planning on documenting our transition. We will be riding bikes and walking, and planning our trips in detail. Life just got much simpler, more affordable and way more sustainable.

I just got a note from Renze Display in Omaha, they have been named the exclusive regional dealer for Eco-Systems Sustainable Exhibits. This is great news. I work closely with Renze on projects for clients all of the time. They have been really responsive to the sustainability initiatives that I’m promoting through Harvest. This development means that opportunities for green-built, portable and modular, exhibit systems have just been greatly increased for my clients.

It is so nice to be able to go to a trusted local vendor, and get the products that we need. I’m really getting tired of combing the internet for all of these suppliers. It shouldn’t be hard to promote sustainable marketing.

What Renze is telling me so far is that Eco-Systems’ exhibits are developed with environmentally responsible materials benchmarked to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System of the U.S. Green Building Council. They are built using a variety of recycled materials, recyclable materials, and materials derived from recycled content. From what I see on their website, they use 100% recycled aluminum, bamboo plywood, sorghum board, water based stains and finishes, biocarpet, Eco-Spun materials, LED lights, and a variety of flooring materials.

I look forward to learning more about these products, and can’t wait for the first chance to help a client implement them.

Natural Source Printing, a FSC Certified and Carbon Neutral source for printing, packaging and marketing materials, has announced they are beginning the patent process on paper made from stone.

The company’s FiberStone papers are tree-free, and have a carbon footprint that is 1/3 that of virgin paper from trees. They say that this product uses no water in processing, no trees, no chemicals, and very little energy to produce. FiberStone paper can be used to substitute traditional papers used in the printing industry, such as Synthetic Paper & Film, Premium Coated Paper, Recycled Paper, and PVC Sheet. Being impervious to water it can also be very useful for outdoor applications.

FiberStone Paper is made from 80% Calcium Carbonate (CaCOз) with a small quantity (20%) of non-toxic resin (High Density Polypropylene is also used by our favorite bottle maker). The Calcium Carbonate comes from limestone collected as waste material from existing quarries for the building and construction industry. It is ground up down to a fine powder like chalk and the HDPE acts as a binder for the Calcium Carbonate. Together these materials create a substrate that is both water and tear resistant. FiberStone Paper can also be recycled in the building & construction industry, waste treatment, steel manufacturing, farming, and glass making.

This product warrants additional research. I won’t jump on the bandwagon right away, since I’m generally skeptical when the bulk of the product information is available only from the manufacturer. Also, I want to learn more about the process of mining the raw materials and the properties of the binding agent.