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Greetings!
When you signed the Live Green pledge, you
committed to stay informed and make decisions
that
will positively impact the planet. Each
month, the Live
Green newsletter features a different topic
with tips,
tools and resources to help you achieve this
goal.
Read on for information on how you can
love green this Valentine's Day.
| Did You Know? |
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The average consumer spends $122.98 on
Valentine's Day.
Around a billion
valentines are sent each year globally,
making the day the second largest
card-sending holiday of the year behind
Christmas. One billion cards laid end to end
would stretch around the world 5
times.
Valentine's Day is the top
holiday for fresh flower
purchases.
The floral industry uses
the highest level of pesticides of all
agricultural sectors.
U.S. sales of
organic flowers grew to $8 million in 2003,
an estimated 52 percent growth spurt from the
previous year. Organic flower sales are
expected to grow 13 percent annually through
2008.
A 2002 report from the
International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture estimated that nearly 300,000
children -- more than half of them younger
than 14 -- work in hazardous conditions in
the West African cocoa industry
Sources: www.grist.org,
www.greenlivingtips.com, www.ibizaholidays.com
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| What You Can Do: Love the Earth |
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Make a donation to an environmental
organization on behalf of your
Valentine.
Purchase cards made from
recycled paper. Even better, send paper-free
love with e-cards.
Arrange dinner at a local restaurant
specializing in organic or locally grown
food. Eating locally cuts down on food
miles. Or, create a home-cooked organic
dinner for your Valentine. Bonus: Cooking
together is ultra-sexy.
Choose organic and/or locally grown
flowers. Organic Bouquet
(http://www.organicbouquet.com) is a good
option.
Try fair-trade and certified organic
chocolate brands, such as Dagoba or Green &
Black's, available at gourmet food markets.
Visit
http://www.newdream.org/consumer/cocoa.php
for a list of Fair Trade chocolate
retailers.
The gemstone and precious metals
industries destroys thousands of acres of
habitat each year. Buy Fair Trade jewelry -
it's not just a food thing!
http://www.newdream.org/consumer/crafts.php.
Or, consider pre-owned pieces.
Trying to break the ice? Pop open a
bottle of organic wine:
http://www.theorganicwinecompany.com/
Try eco-friendly lingerie and underwear
for your, ahem, post- wine endeavors. g=9.8
is a great brand...and definitely not your
typical pair of white knickers:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/g98_ecolingerie_1.php
Single? Sign up to volunteer for an
environmental organization on Valentine's
Day. You just might meet an equally
compassionate stranger - volunteers make
thoughtful Valentines!
(Sources: www.newdream.org,
www.greenlivingtips.com, www.washingtonpost.com)
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| Send Congress a Valentine |
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Send your Congressperson a 1Sky Valentine's
Day note, reminding them to love the
environment. All you have to do is provide
your mailing
address. Click
here to spread the love.
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| Take Our Survey! |
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The Environmental Center is working on a new
logo. The goal is to create an image that
reflects the unique role CU takes in global
sustainability efforts - a role that is
largely shaped by your support. That's why
we're asking for your input. What does the
E-Center represent to you? Click
here to take our survey.
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| Upcoming Events |
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February 26 - Sustainability 360:
Wal Mart's Commitment to the Future. A
presentation and discussion with Janelle
Kearsley, Director, Corporate
Strategy/Sustainability, Wal-Mart Stores,
Inc. 5:30-7:30pm, University Memorial Center,
Aspen Rooms.
Janelle Kearsley is Director of Corporate
Strategy/Sustainability for Wal-Mart Stores,
Inc. The Strategy/Sustainability team was
established in 2005 as part of Wal-Mart's
drive to incorporate social and environmental
sustainability into its business practices.
In her role, Ms. Kearsley is charged with
deriving economic value from improved
environmental outcomes by: educating
associates on how to incorporate
sustainability into their businesses;
creating tools to enhance network-to-network
communications; and communicating the
sustainability strategy to internal and
external stakeholders. Event hosted by CU
Environmental Center; Co-Sponsored by Rocky
Mountain Institute and Leeds School of Business.
March 5 - Out of Poverty: Design
for the Other 90%. A presentation and
discussion with Paul Polak. Old Main Chapel,
6:00pm.
In a hard-hitting new book, Paul Polak tells
why traditional poverty eradication programs
have fallen so short, and how he and his
organization developed an alternative
approach that has succeeded in lifting 17
million people out of poverty. Polak's and
IDE's achievements have been recognized the
Scientific American Top Fifty award for
agriculture policy (2003), the Ernst and
Young Entrepreneur of the Year award (2004),
and the Tech Museum award for the design of
IDE's low-cost drip irrigation system (2004).
Articles about IDE and Polak have appeared in
National Geographic, Harpers, Forbes, and
Scientific American. Polak gives frequent
talks and presentations at leading
universities, as well as academic and
professional conferences like the 2006
International Symposium on Groundwater
Sustainability (ISGWAS), the Annual Meeting
of the National Collegiate Innovators and
Inventors Association (NCIIA), the 2006 Aspen
Design Summit, and the 2007 Pop!Tech
Conference. To learn more about Paul and his
work at IDE, please visit
http://www.ide-international.org.
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| Live Green Spotlight |
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Let us know about the creative ways that
you're living green. Each month, the Live
Green newsletter will feature tips submitted
by readers. E-mail us your tips at
livegrn@colorado.edu.
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| Help Us Help CU |
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See room for improvement? Give us your
feedback on ways that CU can become more
environmentally friendly.
E-mail us at
livegrn@colorado.edu.
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A Disclaimer from Cupid |
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When Cupid first began shooting arrows on
Valentine's Day, did he foresee America's
love affair with chocolate? If so, his
chocolate=love metaphor is probably not
progressing as planned.
Over 36
million heart-shaped boxes of chocolates will
be exchanged in the U.S. today.
Why?
Because people
communicate in metaphors, especially
regarding abstruse, enigmatic concepts such
as love.
Cacao trees were first cultivated by the
ancient people of Mesoamerica, who created a
bitter paste from the seeds. This early form
of chocolate proved to be a mystical mood
enhancer, and was incorporated into Mayan and
Aztec religious ceremonies. In fact, the
Aztec king Montezuma drank the pasty
chocolate to enhance his libido: Much like
Prozac, cacao heightens serotonin production
in the brain.
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess
of love and beauty. A charismatic, volatile,
lustful deity, Aphrodite can make anyone fall
in love with her on sight. The word
"aphrodisiac" is subsequently derived from
her name. Given its mystic Mesoamerican
origins and mood-altering, drug-like
properties, chocolate has come to be regarded
as the quintessential aphrodisiac. Hence its
modern connotation as a symbol of love-the
ultimate Valentine's Day metaphor.
As a result, those 36 million heart-shaped
boxes of processed cacao will symbolize
Americans' love today. Cupid shudders at the
metaphor.
Why?
Because chocolate production is very often an
unjust process. Most of the chocolate
consumed by amorous Americans is produced on
the Ivory Coast of West Africa. Cocoa is a
critical economic commodity there. However,
a meager amount of cocoa profit is returned
to the African bean farmers: Roughly one
penny of every 60 cent chocolate bar is
returned.
As a result, African cocoa farmers struggle
to survive off their profits. Cheap child
labor is often employed, drawing children out
of schools. Sometimes, child slaves are
conscripted from bordering impoverished
countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali to
work in West African cocoa farms.
Cocoa production is labor-intensive, as it
takes 400 cocoa pods to yield one pound of
chocolate. Child workers spend long hours in
pesticide-laden fields, hacking pods with
machetes. Rarely are children compensated
for their labor.
Cupid's
chocolate-coated arrow will not reach these
children today.
The environmental impacts of cocoa farming
are also injurious. Rainforest clear-cutting
is required of cocoa plantations, as the
world's ever-increasing demand for chocolate
exceeds the output of existing farms. By the
year 2000, about 14% of Ivory Coast
rainforests had been clear-cut for direct
exposure cocoa farming. Counter to
traditional Mesoamerican and African cocoa
production techniques, where plants were
grown in the shade of existing trees and
crops were rotated to preserve the nutrient
density of the soils, direct exposure farming
eliminates all other plants to capitalize on
the extra light and soil space. Meanwhile,
chemical pesticides are often overused to
ensure optimum cocoa production. The result
is degraded soil, decreased rainforest
habitat and subsequent biodiversity loss, and
land and water contamination.
The chocolate metaphor, then, is
counterintuitive. In Africa, chocolate often
symbolizes injustice rather than love.
As a result, Cupid endorses Fair Trade
chocolate. The Fair Trade Association
ensures that cocoa farmers are adequately
compensated for their produce, requiring that
they be paid $.80 per pound of cocoa beans so
long as no child or forced labor is used in
the cultivation. Furthermore, it entails
sustainable integrated crop management that
does not employ pesticides, and provides a
$.08 per pound incentive for farmers that use
organic farming techniques.
Today, 42,000 farmers in 8 countries-Ghana,
Cameroon, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador and
Belize-produce Fair Trade cocoa. While
mainstream chocolate manufacturers such as
Hershey do not subscribe to Fair Trade, Fair
Trade certified chocolates are prevalent. A
list of retailers and Fair Trade companies
can be accessed at
http://www.newdream.org/consumer/cocoa.php.
A disclaimer from your favorite
chubby-cheeked Valentine's Day metaphor:
"The chocolate you exchange today represents
all ends of the trade cycle. It symbolizes
the love you feel for your Valentine insofar
as it symbolizes justice in its production.
Love your Valentine as utterly as possible by
loving humanity and the earth that sustains
it. Make love with Fair Trade chocolate."
(Sources: http://www.newdream.org,
http://www.greenlivingtips.com.)
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