Greenpeace has just issued its annual electronics guide. Given that women buy 14% more electronics than men, the guide can help female consumers make their money matter by favoring the mobile phone, computer, TV and games console manufacturers that have the best policies and practices on toxic chemicals and equipment take-back. Consumers can also favor electronics companies that do the best job reducing their climate change impact.
According to the Greenpeace website, "Companies are scored on disclosure of their greenhouse gas emissions, commitment for absolute cuts in their own emissions and support for the mandatory global emissions reductions that are needed to tackle climate change. On energy efficiency, a selection of each company’s product range is assessed to see how far they exceed the current de-facto global standard, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star. Energy Star sets minimum standards for energy efficiency for many types of electronic products. The overall percentage of renewable energy in a companies total energy use is also assessed.
The climate impact is important, since the information and communications technology sector currently accounts for ...
Presumably, you're not the kind of person who would take a big pile of money out to your driveway and set it on fire, just to watch it burn. But when you burn gasoline, that's essentially what you're doing. And with gasoline prices now bouncing around $4 a gallon, that pile of money you're burning is getting a whole lot bigger.
Big Green Purse lists ten ways you can conserve gas today and save at least $20-$50 every month at the pump. But you can save even more by taking the Drive Smarter Challenge, a new initiative from the Alliance to Save Energy.
What's terrific about the Challenge is that it puts you in the driver's seat – literally. The website simulates you driving, then suggests up to six fuel-efficiency actions you can easily take. If you do (or say you plan to), the website immediately calculates your savings in money, gasoline, and greenhouse gas emissions. ...
One thing the Marketing to Women conference definitely was not about was reducing consumption.
Virtually every presentation given during the two-day confab of manufacturers, marketers and advertising mavens focused on how to get women to buy more ... and more ... and more. Stephanie Ouyoumjian, Director of Strategy at Publicis, encouraged companies to "have a conversation" with women to build market share. "Every 1% of getting her to talk leads to additional millions in sales," she reported. Laura Keely, Director of Consumer Promotion Marketing for Kimberly-Clark, said the key was "relevance." Women will buy more products if they feel they're relevant emotionally, psychologically, and practically. Gigi Carroll, Senior Vice President of advertising agency Draft FCB, reported on the "millenial" woman - the one younger than 30 for whom having abundant choice is a critical marketplace motivator.
My perspective was substantially different. I took the stage with three basic recommendations I urged marketers and manufacturers to seriously consider. ...
Lest anyone doubt that marketing to women is a fast-track way to protect the environment, just review the presentations made at last week's M2W (Marketing to Women) conference in Chicago by Frito-Lay, Motorola, Glam Media (the fastest growing women-oriented site on the Web) and more. Women have the clout to put companies on notice: when it comes to reducing climate change, restoring our air and water, and protecting the health of our kids and families, we can – and will – use our purse to pull manufacturers in a cleaner, greener direction.
Let's do the numbers:
Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases, and we're buying more than cheese doodles and diapers:
The words, “You look just like your mother!” have taken on new meaning in the chemical age in which we live. According to the nonprofit research institute Environmental Working Group (EWG), we mothers pass the pollutants that have built up in our bodies along to our daughters while they are still in the womb. Consequently, our daughters begin life with a “body burden” of potentially cancer-causing chemicals that continue to accumulate throughout life.
Chances are great that our daughters will pass on to our grandchildren some of the same chemical molecules they inherited from us. The estimated age by which a daughter will purge 99 percent of the inherited chemical varies depending on the chemical. It will take a day to excrete the phthalate plasticizers that soften up cosmetics, paint and plastics, but a year to dump mercury. Our daughters will be at least teenagers but perhaps senior citizens before they’re rid of the common flame retardants and stain-proofing chemicals we pass along. They would be 166 years old before they’re free of their inherited lead.
Meanwhile, their own body burden continues to increase. ...
One of the biggest complaints women have about "going green" concerns the challenge of dressing "green," and that means more than the color. Apart from the occasional organic cotton nightgown sold at Wal-Mart, or the jackets and vests Patagonia remakes from recycled soda bottles, it's been hard to find eco-friendly clothes at an actual store – where you can feel them, compare them and try them on. Most "green" clothes shopping has had to be done on-line, an experience that leaves very little to be desired when choices are limited, sizes are unpredictable, and the delivery lag sometimes seems interminable.
Target All this might change significantly in May, when Target, the national big box retailer, and award-winning couturier Rogan Gregory, launch their Go International line, first at Barney's, then in Target stores nationwide.
The Target/Gregory/Barney's collaboration is generating a lot of buzz. Designers aren't the only ones who are surprised that the upscale Barney's and the everyone-scale Target are in cahoots. Shoppers in the market for good-for-the-earth clothes have often been put off by their out-of-this-world prices. The Rogan Go collection will range between an affordable $15 and $45. To buy styles by Gregory, who also designs green apparel for Edun, the clothing company owned by Bono's wife Allie Hewson, adds an added plus to the "cool" column. ...
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