In honor of World Water Day, March 22, it’s important for us to remember some important facts about water. In this country we tend to think we all have access to clean drinking water…but it’s not true–10% do not. Also, by 2030, the UN estimates that two-thirds of the world will not have access to clean drinking water. Many poor communities have to spend their limited funds on bottled water, which is a huge shame. Here in America, it’s up to all of us to treat our water usage as a precious resource and not needlessly waste water. We need to support and encourage our municipalities to clean up our water supplies so that all Americans has access to clean water.
This week, there is a lot of buzz about our water crisis and what we can do about it. One major thing we all can do is give up buying disposable water bottles. Only about 10% are recycled; the rest end up polluting our oceans. Plastics never bio-degrade; they just break up into tiny pieces that fish eventually mistake for plankton and eat. A new documentary worth checking out is Tapped (http://www.tappedthefilm.com/) about our water crisis. It also encourages all of us to stop using disposable water bottles. Reduce WaterWeek reusable water bottles were created for this exact reason-to make it easy to ditch the disposables.
The movie follows the water bottle industry and the problems and pitfalls associated with the privatization of this natural resource.
Another water-related cause is from UNICEF. The Tap Project, unites restaurants in the quest to raise money and awareness of clean water issues. During this week, member restaurants will charge $1 for tap water, with all funds going to UNICEF to provide lifesaving water and sanitation around the world. Go out to eat; spend and extra buck, and help provide water around the world. Visit http://www.tapproject.org/restaurants/ for more info.
And National Geographic is offering a free downloadable magazine called “Water: Our Thirsty World” (http://www.natgeofreshwater.com/?of=500204105&bd=1) this week. It highlights the challenges facing our most essential natural resource, water.
World Water Day, part of World Water Week, shines the spotlight on our water crisis, hopefully enough so that our behaviors change, not just for a day or week, but forever.
We work with lots of bloggers, mostly “mommy bloggers” who are just moms who blog about a variety of topics-kids, dogs, food, clothing, life, cool products-you name it, there’s a blog for it. These bloggers are great to work with! We send them products that we think their readers might enjoy learning about-like Reduce WaterWeek-and the bloggers honestly use the product and write a review; we don’t pay for any reviews. If they don’t like the product, they most likely will let us know, include the comments in their post, or just declined the review. But that’s never happened to us! We haven’t met a blogger yet who doesn’t see the benefits of a product like Reduce WaterWeek.
In our on-going journey through the land of blogs-we love “green” blogs as well-we are constantly amazed at what inventive, interesting and caring people are out there sharing their voice with others. There is so much to read and discover (and so little time), that it’s worth exploring. Find one you like, and then you’ll uncover the blogs they like, and before you know it, 2 hours have past by! But, if you’re like me, you’ve learned about a great new product for your kids, husband, dog, you, whatever; you’ve laughed a lot (there are some funny women out there); and you may feel a little more connected to others. Start your
discovery at places like http://www.cafemom/ or visit some of the blogs that have supported us over the last year. Have fun!
With all the awards shows on TV this time of year, I thought it would be interesting to post the top green corporate “winners” according to Newsweek Magazine. They call this their “exclusive environmental ranking of America’s 500 largest corporations”. I’ve listed the top 10 (500 is overkill) but you can see the rest at http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/top500.
What makes a company green? It might seem difficult to determine, depending on the industry, such as paper making vs. banking, but Newsweek takes that into consideration when they calculate the greenest of the green. Each company gets a Green Score, based on their environmental impact, their green policies and reputation. For instance, H-P is number one because it has strong programs in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Dell uses all renewable energy at its headquarters. And #10 Starbucks encourages suppliers to protect water supplies, and it uses recycled paper products and organic and shade-grown coffee.
At ReduceTM, we develop products that help you become more environmentally friendly in your own home. And we also create products, like our MelabooTM and Wild BambooTM, made of extremely sustainable materials; that go easy on the environment. We are trying to do our small part to help us all live a little more “green”.
What’s great about this list is that it covers so many different industries and does the homework for you. If you’re like me, you might find this list very helpful-especially if you need to replace a laptop, buy a running shoe or choose a morning latte´.
