American Apparel's Rededication to Going Green

American Apparel has recently been at the receiving end of some bad press for their ad campaigns, however, one area where the company has really proven they are a positive force are their eco-friendly business choices. AA has long had an organic line of shirts, but this past year American Apparel's CEO decided to further prove the company's environmental dedication by purchasing locally grown organic California cotton.

Often times a company’s decision to “go-green” by purchasing organic products is negated by the distance said products must travel; fossil fuels are burned during the shipping process. AA’s choice to use locally grown organic cotton means fewer fossil fuels are burned.

American Apparels’ plain-but-colorful t-shirts are great for promotional purposes. The company’s attempts to mainstream organic cotton will hopefully lead to more and more organic options.

Urban Restoration Projects - Giving a Truly 'Green' Gift

Growing up as a video gaming-obsessed kid, I never would have imagined that I would one day develop a fondness for gardening. Trees, bushes and other assorted greenery were, after all, just unremarkable background scenery, unworthy of much attention. When my attitude finally changed and I took up this new hobby, I wish I could say I did out of a benevolent desire to help 'green' the urban landscape. To be honest, it was a fascination with culinary experimentation that eventually led to my horticultural pursuits.

My experimentation with the unusual berry known as the miracle fruit was the main reason behind my decision to try cultivating plants. I had gotten addicted to the fruit's unusual properties, but found it too expensive to maintain the habit by purchasing the fruits individually. But from this initial selfish motivation, I discovered that I actually enjoyed planting, so it didn't take a whole lot of effort for friends to convince me to get involved with urban restoration projects such as the NYRP.

The NYRP's urban cleanup and restoration mission is based on the belief that clean, green neighborhoods are fundamental to the quality of life and that parks and other open spaces can play a important role in controlling air, water and noise pollution. It's a highly rewarding project that's worthy of your attention whether you are an individual or a corporation seeking to build a greener image. I encourage all ecologically minded people to look into similar projects in their home cities. Like Green Drinks, it's an excellent opportunity to meet and socialize with like-minded people.

Whether you are a veteran of urban landscaping or amateur hobbyist, why not try to get your friends involved as well? Give a gift of promotional plants or gardening tools to help them get started. If they are leery of the whole gardening thing, maybe you'll have some luck starting them off on these useful and easy to cultivate herbs.

Green Drinks - Green Streets

Are you getting tired of Facebook and MySpace, but can't get enough of social networking? Here is something that all the ecologically-minded people out there can really appreciate. Green Drinks International is a simple networking idea based around meeting people once a month for drinks. The participants are all involved with environmental issues in some way, be it business, government, academia or NGOs.

This social networking movement has become an international phenomenon with more than 350 cities around the world participating each month. For Auckland, NZ's inaugural event, Ecostore organized this green promotion using real lawn, plants and an oil drum.

(Via: Osocio)

Save a Pencil, Save a Tree

Every day millions of half used pencils are thrown away because they are to difficult to write with. In order to rectify the problem and avoid manufacturing tons of new pencils at the cost of precious trees, a simple eco-friendly pencil extension was created that can fit on to any short pencil thus extending its life and the life of trees. Thousands of pencil extensions were handed out at a World Wildlife Fund event called - One Earth, One Future.

The pencil extensions have become such a great promotion that the client is now creating a series of colored collectible extensions. I would strongly encourage eco-conscious consumers to also buy and use eco-friendly pencils made from recycled materials to further prolong the lives of trees. Find out more about WWF's continuing One Planet Future campaign here

(Via: directdaily)

Catch of the Day

Sometimes clever packaging and presentation is all you need to turn incongruous elements into an effective, buzz-worthy awareness campaign. Surfrider, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of oceans and beaches commissioned Saatchi & Saatchi to create some buzz about their ecological message of preservation. The ad agency's solution was to collect beach litter, repackage them to resemble fresh grocery produce and then display the results at a farmer's market.

Each piece of 'produce' featured an explanatory promotional sticker with a call to action, e.g.: "In regions of the Pacific, plastic particles outnumber plankton six to one. Make waves, go to surfrider.org." Catch the video of the promotion in action here.


(Via: Osocio)

Earth Day 2008: Tap Into The City

We have blogged before on the wastefulness of the bottled water craze and we're now starting to see glimmers that tap water is regaining popularity, no doubt helped by the growing number of awareness programs and celebrity endorsements. However, stories like this article on criminal pollution reminds us that the purity of our water supply should never be taken for granted.

Tap Into The City, apparently agreed with that sentiment because we saw them selling promotional water bottles and apparel at the EarthFair a few weeks ago. A percentage of the proceeds from their sales will go to benefit Riverkeeper, the advocacy group responsible for investigating the aforementioned pollution case.

Eduardo Srur Water Bottles

Socially-minded Brazilian artist Eduardo Srur is at again with his latest PET (polyethylene terephthalate) awareness project. For the rest of the month, vistors Sao Paulo may encounter a surreal scene at the Tiete River -- several 40-foot-long inflatable plastic bottles arranged in two rows along the banks of the river.

The giant art pieces, which light up in brilliant colors at night, is intended to raise awareness of the need to recycle and the importance of cleaning up the water in the river. Considering the wastefulness and damage to our environment from drinking commercial bottled water, I strongly encourage people to get into the habit of drinking clean tap water from their own reusable water bottle.