Green Giants
Apparel & Accessories
Patagonia | Patagonia was a co-founder of The Conservation Alliance established in 1989. Within ten years, $3,808,750 had been donated to independent environmental protection groups. Patagonia collects 12% solar energy and buy wind credit to suplament 50% of their energy usage. Their catalogues are made in part from recycled paper. Patagonia's entire cotton line is organic and in 2005 they started in-store recycling program for Capilene® Performance Base layers, Patagonia fleece, Polartec® fleece from any manufacturer and Patagonia organic cotton T-shirts. They manage storm-water runoff and recently received the LEED gold rating for a building expansion. |
prAna | prAna is always looking for new ways to fold sustainable materials and practices into their collection, working to reduce the impact on soils, water supplies and other natural resources. As a member of the Organic Trade Association, prAna is continually increasing the use of organic cotton, as well as sourcing other natural fibers and innovative recycled/upcycled materials. In 2007, prAna is effectively tripling its support of wind power, adding 100 European and 50 Canadian retailers to the 250 US retailers already participating. The expanded investment supports wind farms in India, China, US and Canada. |
Baby & Toddler
Fleurville | Introducing a line of PVC-free parenting products makes Fleurville a recognized leader. Their recent launch of fabric treatment, Green-LAM and recycled products, Re-Run will further minimize environmental impact. Their PVC-free line has no polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which contains chlorine. Production tends to be far more toxic, more persistent in the environment, and more likely to build up in the food supply and the human body. Fleurville’s Green-LAM was created as a substitute for PVC. It is environmentally friendly polyurethane laminate with superior attributes like moisture-repellency, UV-resistance, and overall durability. The Re-Run line is made from recycled plastic water bottles. Not only does Fleurville produce environmentally friendly products, but they use “green” business practices earning them certification as a “San Francisco Bay Area Green Business” by the County of Marin, CA. |
Grocery & Gourmet
Kettle Foods, Inc. | Kettle Foods, Inc. makes the best potato chips in the world using only safflower or sunflower oil equaling zero cholesterol. Then the oil waste is converted to biodiesel to power some of their company cars. Roof-top solar panels creates 120,000kWh annually and they offset 100% of their additional U.S. energy usage by buying renewable energy credits. They continue to rejuvenate a neighboring 2 acre wetland eco-system and during recent building construction, they earned a Gold rating from LEED. |
Home & Garden
EcoDomo | Every year, EcoDomo keeps 5,000 tons of unwanted leather scraps out of landfills and recycles them into wall and floor tiles. Adding a beautiful decor to any room, EcoDomo's web site also claims extreme durability. "EcoDomo Recycled Leather Tiles are the most resilient leather tiles on the market today". And due to low VOC's (volatile organic compounds), the renewable and recycled content, this flooring qualifies for credits for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. EcoDomo also practices eco-friendly methods of operation through recycling, offsetting business travel with carbon credits, wind-generated energy and a closed-loop water system. |
Epicurean CS | From the professional chef to the at-home cook, ECS (Epicurean Cutting Surfaces) will get you hooked! Approved by the National Sanitary Foundation these cutting surfaces are light-weight, durable, easy to handle and come in every possible size option. Made from sustainably harvested wood they are (believe it or not) dishwasher safe. Though the fiber in recycled paper does not have the strength necessary for this application, much of the wood is post-industrial (meaning the scraps from the mills that process the lumber taken from sustainable forest. Beyond creating an eco-friendly product, ECS recycles their office and manufacturing waste, uses natural daylight for office lighting, natural ventilation in offices and shops, and chooses recycled materials for their own products. |
Interface, Inc. | Interface, Inc. promises to eliminate negative envirnomental impact by the year 2020. The maker of FLOR brand modular carpet systems has made a start with their R&R program. Used tiles can be shipped back to the facility at no cost to the consumer where most are recycled into Fedora, a tile made of 80% post consumer fibers. Additional options offer a 34% corn tile and one that is 65% coir and 35% sisal. Each tile can be removed individually to be replaced or washed by hand elimiating frequent visits from water and electricity draining commercial cleaners. |
TerraCycle, Inc. | TerraCycle has developed the first ever product made entirely of garbage. They collect unwanted spray tops, misprinted packaging and other items that would typically go to landfills. Then they host collection programs to bring in used plastic bottles to fill with ""black gold"". Their wide-vareity all-natural fertilizer is created by feeding organic waste into worm farms. These fertilizers are much safe for the environment than those which are chemical based. The entire process elimates organic waste going to landfills and with an immediate reuse program for used bottles the collecting, cleaning and refilling process uses significantly less energy that the traditional recycling of plastics. |
Manufacture
Cereplast | From take-home containers to automotive applications, "plastics" made from Cereplast resins are a cost-competitive alternative to traditional fossil fuel-based plastics. Their Compostables line rely on sustainable plants, not fossil fuels, and will safely return to nature after disposal. Qualified as “BioPreferred”, Compostables meet new federal procurement guidelines for bio-based content enacted June 13, 2008 by the United States Department of Agriculture. Cereplast Hybrid Resins™ is similar to the price per pound of traditional polyolefin but uses 50% less petroleum to produce. Cereplast's Hybrid Resins™ can be processed at the same cycle time as traditional plastics, but require less energy in the production process by using significantly lower machine temperatures. |
ECCO | The top manuafacture of leather goods recognizes its obligation to the environment. Tanning and dyeing leather is chemical intesive, produces lots of waste and consumes massive amounts of energy. ECCO uses as few chemicals as possible while maintaining advanced wastewater treatment systems to reduce the amount of sludge going to landfills. A recent process called ""Flesh to Fuel"" converts tallow (animal fat) to bio fuel. Towards the end of 2006, ECCO replaced 24,000 liters of diesel with bio fuel reduceing CO2 emissions by 22 tons a month. Continuing to find more options for potentiually useful organic waste, ECCO is experimenting with bio plastics and composting. |
NatureWorks | NatureWorks is the first company to offer a family of commercially available low carbon footprint biopolymers derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources. The cost and performance is competitive with oil-based packaging materials and fibers. Production of NatureWorks polymer requires about 62-68 percent less fossil fuel resources than the entire production process to manufacture a kilogram of PET (SSP grade). NatureWorks® brand resin is ideal for packaging manufacturing while Ingeo™ is an innovative performance fiber ideally suited for apparel, furnishings and nonwovens applications. |
Office & Electronics
Herman Miller | Herman Miller manufactures business products that benefit many office aspects from the lobby to the examining room. In 1991, their internal group, the Environmental Quality Action Team, created Herman Miller's first formal environmental policy establishing zero landfill use as their first-ever environmental goal. Today, all products contain some percentage of recycled material and the final product can be broken down and recycled to some extent. This policy earning them certification from the Cradle-to-Cradle organization. Additionally, Herman Miller seeks at least a "Silver" rating by LEED for new construction or renovation, even in leased buildings. |
New Leaf Paper | October of 1998, New Leaf manufactured the first ever recycled paper approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (50% FSC certified virgin-pulp, 30% post-consumer, 50% total recycled). A leader of recycled paper, they continue to explore non-wood options such as hemp and kenaf. Their manufacturing process is free of chlorine or chlorine derivatives which can produce toxic pollution. New Leaf offers an Eco Audit to detail the environmental savings when companies switch to their paper. |
Retail
McDonalds | McDonald's is experimenting with new ways to dispose of their used restaurant oil. They operate 155 delivery trucks in Britain with a blend of 85% biodiesel and 15% rapeseed oil. They currently operate a campus shuttle for their headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill with biofuel and are working with the Delta Institute, a nongovernmental organization, for more options here in the United States. Up to 31% of their paper packaging is recycled waste. Where possible, they always purchase local and domestic beef with nearly one billion pounds of beef purchased from U.S. producers annually. They imported a relatively small percentage of lean beef from New Zealand and Australia to supplement domestic beef purchases. Suppliers in Australia and New Zealand are subject to the same standards as in the U.S. |
Target Corporation | This nation-wide retailer now offers many eco-friendly household brands such as Method and Seventh Generation and competitively priced organic items. Their internal goal is to reduce waste, conserve energy and operate more sustainable. Their waste reduction commitment to reuse, recycle or rethink, diverts 70 percent of materials previously destined for landfills. Switching to LED signs, using fluorescents and two bulb fixtures they continue to reduce their energy consumption. Starting in 2007, four stores obtained 20% of their power through solar and 14 more stores were scheduled to do the same. For 2008, Target's applied a PVC-free goal to include 85-95% of name-brand shower curtains, placemats and tablecloths and most of their toys. By 2009 four Target stores in Chicago were sheltered by a “green” roof and customers received 5 cents at check-out for each reusable bag utilized. |
Shoes & Footcare
Keen Footwear | Starting in 2007 Keen Footwear introduced the 100% Hybrid Box. Using biodegradable materials this box incorporates natural water-based latex glue, soy-based inks, and weighs 25% less reducing labor, power and fuel in shipping. Best of all, it easily collapses for recycling. But wait until you see their shoes! They have a great selection, some of which host a replaceable jute, cork & natural latex foot bed, plus recycled aluminum eyelets and natural rubber and canvas. And, their new bag line, Hybrid.Transport, features recycled aluminum and rubber reclaimed from shoe factory floors. Leather used in KEEN footwear is purchased from select tanneries that follow best practices for environmental processes as benchmarked by the Leather Working Group. |
Simple Shoes | Some shoe manufactures pride themselves for having a percentage of recycled material in the soles, but Simple brand shoes offer one of the most eco-friendly products on the market! They rely on sustainable and organic crops such as natural rubber, hemp, silk, wool, jute and coconut. All synthetic materials contain recycled content including car and bike tires, plastics from bottles and latex, and packaging includes recycled paper. The suede and nearly all the leather they use comes from factories that have committed to continued efforts to reduce their environmental impact. And, wherever they can, they choose water based cements over petroleum based eliminating VOC exposure to the people putting shoes together. But that’s just the product. The Decker Ethical Supply Chain Guideline includes the environment. According to simpleshoes.com, “We require a continuous effort to improve environmental performance along a defined path towards clean production. We expect our business partners to: 1) adopt environmental management systems that address key business impacts and advance sustainable environmental practices; 2) disclose environmental impacts and activities through regular reporting; 3) reduce or eliminate toxic and hazardous substances from operations and products, in accordance with the Deckers Restricted Substances Policy; 4) increase efficiency and thereby minimize pollution and waste; 5) reduce the use of natural resources including raw materials, energy and water; and 6) take responsibility for proper waste management.” |
Terra Plana | According to their web site, "We at Terra Plana regularly re-evaluate what we can do to minimize waste and toxin use and maximize product use." Terra Plana uses a variety of eco-friendly materials including: Chrome-free and vegetable tanned leathers, recycled materials, pure latex soling materials, recycled rubber soles and recycled foam foot beds. E-leather, an eco revolutionary leather by-product, is a unique blend of leather and textile fibers practically indistinguishable from good quality leather. E-Leather is produced with closed loop water usage and best practice pollution prevention methods. A representative for Terra Plana added, "One of the most 'Earth Friendly' aspects of our products is that we do not use metal in our footwear." So, if they do end up in a landfill (donation or repair is a better option) they will biodegrade. |
Transportation
Honda | Honda has become one of the great leaders in the race for affordable hybrid cars, but according to their web site, “being an environmental leader goes beyond developing products that are safe for the environment. For more than 40 years, we (Honda) have supported programs and projects that focus on maintaining a clean and healthy environment for communities throughout the country.” This statement is proven by their seven-acre man-made wetland in Marysville, OH. This pond holds 20 million gallons of storm water runoff from roof tops and parking lots from an assembly plant for Honda Accord, Acura’s TL cars and RDX crossover. Normally the rainwater would rush into the neighboring waterways carrying pollutants while causing erosion and stream bottom damage. But this effort is not just for the benefit of nature’s eco-system as Honda has proven that sometime you can have your cake and eat it too. The pond serves as a water supply to cool their closed-loop chiller system from April to October. Originally the water was supplied by an underwater source but they have reduced that demand by 40 million gallons annually while reducing cost for equipment and operation of pumps. |
Subaru | Recycle, Reuse, Reduce, Subaru its doing it all at their Lafayette, Ind. manufacturing plant. By recycling all possible plastic waste, sending un-repairable pallets to be shredded into mulch and shipping Styrofoam packaging back to Japan to be reused, they've reduced their waste by 99.8 percent. Though they met a five year waste reduction goal in just two years, they continue to "dumpster dive". One such dive lead to reducing steel waste by 102 pounds per car. Waste that can not be recycled or reused, gets converted to steam for heat by the Covanta Energy's waste-to-energy plant. Though there is ash to be discarded, the reduction is 90% from the original waste load. To further the recycling effort, color coded barrels are located through out the plant for employee waste. |
Toyota | A mega company in the auto world, Toyota strives for and achieves recognition for quality environmental practices. All of Toyota's vehicles are 85% recyclable. And to further demonstrate commitment to the environment, their South Campus Sales Headquarters in Torrance, California is the largest "green" building complex in the U.S. Their U.S. Production Support Center in Georgetown, Kentucky is 100% powered by clean, renewable wind-generated electricity. And the Portland Vehicle Distribution Center is a model for sustainability in terms of location, water efficiency, energy usage, materials, resources and indoor environmental quality. Recently they re-invented a major component to auto production, the paint job. The traditional paint, dry, paint repeat process accounted for 24% of their factory's energy usage. But "3-Wet" eliminates one entire oven-drying process cutting back energy needs by 15%. |