Greenpeace’s ongoing efforts to pressure governments and companies to stop pollution paid off. Just last month, Chinese authorities blacklisted 20 factories that were spilling toxins into the Pearl River Delta. In fact, three of the offenders were part of an investigation Greenpeace conducted last year in their Poisoning the Pearl report. Which, no doubt played a role in the government’s action.

One of the companies blacklisted was a textile factory. The Qingyuan Top Dragon Textile Company was, according to the water samples collected by Greenpeace, discharging manganese at levels well above the allowed levels. Manganese exposure can lead to brain damage. In addition to the manganese, the factory was spewing arsenic and a whole slew of other metals and pollutants out with their waste water.

According to Greenpeace, “being blacklisted means greater scrutiny on these companies and their industrial discharges which could in the future translate to deadlines by the government for the companies to stop polluting the Pearl River Delta. This is a warning to the factories and it may also affect the company’s financial status in terms of ability to launch a stock market listing or apply for a loan.”

Of course, punishing these 20 companies is only a drop in the bucket. When over 70 percent of China’s water is polluted, it’s safe to say the government has been slow to set regulations and take action against the untold number of factories dumping millions of gallons of polluted, toxic waste into China’s water.

If anyone knows who contracts with the Qingyuan Top Dragon Textile Company, please leave it in the comments below. It would be very good to know if their garments were ending up on the shelves here in the United States.

Maybe it’s just the news we’re watching, but it does seem like carbon footprints, sustainable resourcing, and being eco-friendly are making their way into everyday life. And while, Wal-Mart and Marks & Spencer are making news this week, we’d like to see more attention paid to water footprints. Water is simply not fully accounted for in the same way carbon is.

For example, it takes water to generate energy. Lots of water. After agricultural use, power plants are the second largest water consumer in the country. Of course, not all of it is lost, as in the case of a hydro-power plant where the water continues downstream.

GreenBiz.com reported from last week’s Corporate Water Scarcity Risks and Footprints conference in San Francisco about the widely varying quantities of water needed to produce a kilowatt hour of electricity. Vice President of Engineering at CH2M Hill, Jan Dell, put it this way, “Not all electricity is water equal.”

Here’s how it breaks down according to the article:

• Coal uses 520 gallons of water to produce one megawatt for an hour.
• Carbon and capture coal needs 990 gallons of water for that same megawatt.
• A photovoltaic solar panel uses 30 gallons of water.
• Power from wind only requires one gallon per megawatt hour.

Most energy companies are not even tracking their water footprint but we expect that to change as climate change, pollution, and population continue to make greater demands on the planet’s 2.5 percent stash of fresh water.

Did you know that spring is a popular time for renovations? Must be that we’ve all been cooped up in our homes all winter and are sick of the “same ole, same ole.” So, if you’re thinking about new paint, flooring, or furniture, we’d like to offer a few sustainable product suggestions for your home.

green flooring

There are quite a few choices on the market for sustainable wood floors, our favorites include cork, bamboo, or re-claimed hardwood floors from an old house. But what you may not know is that carpet can be sustainable too. Two companies who are working on environmentally friendly rugs and carpet are Shaw and FLOR.

Did you know that more than 5.6 billion pounds of carpet were discarded? The carpet industry is working on programs to encourage recycling. One of the many carpet companies who want to make sure all those tons of carpet are reused or recycled is Shaw. They have created carpets made from Nylon 6 that can be recycled repeatedly while keeping it’s aesthetic and performance properties.

We love FLOR’s modular carpet tiles–they’re creative, beautiful, and eco-friendly. FLOR’s founder is committed to sustainability and has designed the tiles from renewable and recycled content. Plus when you’re ready to update your room again in a few years, you can return your carpet tiles for recycling.

less-toxic paint

Household paint is full of harmful chemicals. It contains formaldehyde, pesticides, and other potential carcinogens. These are commonly known as volatile organic compounds or VOCs. In the past, low-VOC choices have left quite a bit to be desired as far as quality is concerned. But they manufacturers have been hard at work improving the paint in response to tougher regulations and consumer demand.

In the March Consumer’s Report article on household paint, they found some top-quality low-VOC choices fared quite well. And these paints are easy to find now too. Home Depot  carries a variety of low- and no-VOC paints. Don’t forget to choose eco-friendly paint brushes and rollers too.

sustainable furniture

It’s so tempting to rush out to Ikea and pick up a new living room complete with sofa, chairs, coffee table, lamps, and doodads, for $299.99. But we all know throw-away furnishings is just another one of our planet-killing habits.

Naturally, the best option is to reuse. Check out craigslist before you head to the retail stores. I picked up a great craftsman-style entertainment, complete with glass doors and lighting for $200. You can’t beat that! While I got lucky, my piece only needed to be dusted, you may have to use a bit of imagination, elbow grease, and a trip to the fabric or paint store. A little recovering can go a long way.

Of course, if you just have to have something new, buy a piece that’s going to last and is eco-friendly. Look for sustainably-harvested wood such as bamboo, oak, maple, and others. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification is a great way to spot “green” furnishings. Or find a shop that makes new pieces from reclaimed wood, like the table here from Brooklyn Farm Table. If that’s not possible, avoid pieces made with toxic foam, fabrics, and finishings. Alternatives include natural latex for cushioning and hemp or recycled PET for fabric.

Now that you’re informed: get ready, get set, decorate! We’d love for you to share links to your favorite stores with us here. We’re always looking for more eco-friendly resources.

Cotton accounts for 40 percent of all textile products made each year and carries a heavy water footprint. It’s a fiber we haven’t yet been able to replace. There’s quite a bit of talk about organic cotton, but that’s far from being widely available, much less affordable. And the fact is, organic cotton still uses quite a bit of water for growing and just as much water as conventional cotton for production.

We thought it was worthwhile to take a look at just how much water it takes to produce this season’s fashionable jeans and the rest of the cotton textiles consumed each year.

The best study on the water footprint of cotton consumption we’ve found was conducted in 2005 by the UNESCO Institute for Water Education [download the report as a pdf]. The researchers take a look at the entire lifecycle of cotton and make very interesting points. We wanted to share some of them with you:

1. The Aral Sea lost 80 percent of it’s volume due to water being diverted for cotton upstream.
2. Nearly 70 percent of the all cotton is grown in China (25 percent), USA (17.8 percent), India (10.2 percent), Pakistan (9.5 percent), and Uzbekistan (6.1 percent).
3. Cotton crops in China rely completely on irrigation–severely depleting and polluting fresh water supplies.
4. Cotton is planted on 2.4 percent of the planet’s arable land, but accounts for 24 percent of all insecticides and 11 percent of global pesticides.
5. While 60 percent of the nitrogen applied to cotton fields is removed via harvested seed cotton, 40 percent of it remains behind, mostly in the local fresh water supply.
6. 2.6 percent of the global water footprint is used to grow and process cotton each year.
7. 44 percent of the water used for growing and processing cotton is exported.

What does this all mean to you and me? Well, it means that, with the movement of the cotton around the world, the people who bear the brunt of the water consumption are not benefiting from the products. And you don’t need a study to tell you that the cotton jeans you just bought for $38.95 at the GAP didn’t account for the costs to process the contaminated water downstream or for communities to find new sources of fresh water.

It’s likely that one day we will have to pay for the entire water footprint of that pair of jeans or cotton sheets. We sure hope that by then, we’ve found a sustainable substitute for cotton.

photo credit: Martin Labar / flickr

With all the buzz about the designs and the Haiti Relief show at New York’s Fashion Week, you may not have heard that the whole thing was a carbon-neutral event. While we’ve noticed more sustainable fashion on the catwalk, Fashion Week itself is full of planet-abusing decadence: celebrities flying in from all over the planet, limos shuffling everyone around, extravagant runway designs, lots of lights, and the cases of hairspray.

This year IMG Fashion, the folks who put on the show, didn’t cut back on any of the traditions, but they did commission CarbonNeutral Company  to conduct a carbon footprint audit. Turns out the show produces just under 1,000 tons of carbon emissions.

To offset all that greenhouse gas, IMG has made some on-site changes, such as recycling and using paper water “bottles.” But the bulk of the effort to bring the show to net-zero emissions is from sponsors Tetra Pak and O.N.E. Natural Experience. For example, Tetra Pak is underwriting two projects: a forestry management effort in the Big River/Salmon Creeks Forest in Mendocino, Calif. and the sustainable sourcing of local natural gas at two dairy farms in Idaho.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Fern Mallis, IMG Fashion senior vice president, said, “I think it’s exciting to think that our runways and lights and shows are lighting up a dairy farm in Idaho….It is the socially and politically conscious thing to do.”

photo credit: Lanterna / flickr