Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

The volume of paper that comes through the mail to us is really overwhelming. Here is a breakdown of the mail we receive:


- Letters and newspaper clippings from my mother (heavy volume, but unavoidable)
- Bills
- Junk mail (largely from environmental groups we support)
- Catalogs


I have attacked the paper incursion before, but it is something that you have to keep up with. To get off the marketer’s mass mailing lists you have to “opt out” with the DMA (Direct Marketing Association). The opting out process with the DMA only lasts three years and I guess the time went by quickly because here I am drowning in junk mail again and opting out again. Today I did three things:


1. Registered for on-line bill pay with my bank. I have resisted this up until now because of my other information management problem- too much email and time spent on the computer. However, I am now banking on the fact that this will save paper and it will be easier to pay the bills online.
2. Registered with catalogchoice.org. This is great- you register and choose the catalogs you don’t want to get. They notify the company and you won’t get the catalog any more. This is an ongoing process of collecting the catalogs you get and selecting them online. Very easy to use.
3. Opted Out from the aforementioned DMA lists. These guys drive me nuts. When I last “opted out” I guess we were still in the stone age because I remember calling them and asking to opt out. They required me to send three separate letters opting out- one each for me, my husband, and my son. My son was then about 10 years old and already receiving a copious volume of solicitations from CitiCard, apparently because he had an American Airlines mileage plus number. But anyway, after sending them their three letters, they sent me three letters back, which we then had to sign and send back.


Now that we are in the technological age of higher enlightenment, I was able to opt out online with the DMA. When I first went to the DMA website, I accidentally clicked on the DO NOT MAIL link, thinking this was the place to opt out. Unfortunately, this was a link leading to the DMA’s issue advocacy against measures in many states to get ride of unwanted mail. The correct link to opt out of junk mail is DMAchoice.org. After some propaganda about how beneficial direct mail is in our lives, I was asked to register online. Cleverly, they have now captured my email address. The registration process required me to enter a verification word. You know, the words written in that scary monster script? My verification word was “Gross”, strangely appropriate. After the initial registration, they thoughtfully offered me the option of receiving “fewer or additional catalogs” or “less or additional promotional mail”.

To make the process even more difficult and un-user friendly they required that I enter my credit card information so they can verify that it is really me opting out of all of the unwanted mail. For goodness sake- it’s not like opting out of marketing mail is an issue of national security. It was easier for me to set up my online bill pay.


But wait- before confirming that I am ABSOLUTELY SURE that I want to opt out, the DMA provided me with important information about the environmental benefits of unwanted mail. This is the message I got after entering my credit card information:


Important: You have selected to eliminate all mailings from organizations participating in the DMA Mail Preference Service.
Are you sure you want to proceed?
The average household can save $1422 dollars per year from marketing offers. By eliminating all mail offers not only will you miss out on these savings, but you’ll miss out on at least 80% of all commercial offers and discounts!
And you will miss the environmental benefits of shopping at home rather than driving to the mall!

When you click here, your name will be removed from future consumer prospect lists and you will see a significant reduction in all catalog and other commercial offers. If you wish to reconsider, click here.


Yes, well, the fact that I could survive the online process of opting out of junk mail (or marketing offers) proves that I am computer literate enough to shop online. Thereby helping to save the 100 million tress and huge amount of energy that is takes to create and dispose of junk mail, as well as the carbon dioxide that I save by not going to the mall. Although, of course, consumer items that are manufactured and shipped to your door have a carbon footprint as well. The root of this problem is not junk mail, it is consumerism. But one thing at a time.


By the way, you can go even further with this. EcoCycle.org is a great resource and goes even deeper into ways you can reduce junk mail.

Sustainability Chronicles continues with Andrea finding a reusable shopping bag she can remember because it is cleverly hidden in the bottom of her purse!

In preparation for a business trip on the East Coast, I needed some new clothes. (I will explore the concept of needs vs. wants another time!) Before upscale resorts located in Hawaii, clothes shopping was something that you had to do at K-Mart. Now, of course, we have on-line shopping and many cool little boutiques in the resort areas. I decided to see if I could find any eco-clothes. I kept my eyes peeled for organic cotton and bamboo, although I am personally partial to organic cotton.


One shop in Kailua-Kona called Eden had a brand called Green Dragon. I can see that the surf industry has finally caught the green wave. Taking a hint from Patagonia, the original, and still the leader in environmentally friendly business. At the surf shops, I found quite a few organic cotton t-shirts for guys from Quicksilver, Local Motion. Quicksilver also has a Choose Your Cause hangtag, which indicates that they will donate 3% of net sales to teh Quicksilver foundation. You can then go online and Choose your Cause. I bought a great t-shirt that was made by a local company called The Organik.


There was limited environmentally friendly clothing options for women in the stores. I also did a pretty good online search, but was not able to find anything that fit my needs for business and organic. I ended up ordering a casual shirt from Patagonia and then went standard for the rest.

I decided to start slowly and just try to stop using plastic bags at the grocery store. Using a canvas shopping bag is Green 101, after all.


My son was home sick with a cold and requested that I stop at the store for orange juice and apples. Standing in front of the apples, about to grab a plastic bag, I realized that I left my canvas shopping bag in the car AGAIN. I was talking to a friend about addiction the other day. Apparently a conversion, similar to a religious conversion is required to break an addiction. Well, my epiphany has not come yet, so I am relying somewhat feebly on my intellect to help me make the change.


So there I am in front of the apple display- I decided just to put the apples directly into my basket without a plastic bag. I don’t even know why I need a plastic bag for apples. Because my mother always did it? Because that is just the way it is done? I can understand wanting your veggies in plastic bags, otherwise they get limp in the fridge. (Note to self to check alternatives to that one! Almost Vegetarian has a good idea for glass containers.) I can’t think of any good reason to keep apples in a plastic bag. Didn’t people in the old days keep apples in their cellars or something?


My friend Terry told me the other day that when he forgets his reusable bags he just wheels the cart out to his car- sans bags. Great idea! That is what I did. Now I aways say, “If you can’t bring the bag to the groceries, bring the groceries to the bag.”


Then, of course, I had to bring the basket back into the food store, which is the same round trip distance had I just returned to the car for my bags in the first place. But wait! There is a point. I was not backtracking, which is important. There is also an important new idea evolving from this. If you have ever (and I know you have) carried multiple bags (paper, plastic, canvas- whatever) into your house from your car, you know that it is a pain. I always try to carry too much, two bags in my arms, one hanging off my pinky finger, cutting off my blood flow. How about an easy to carry, sturdy, re-usable box that I keep in my car? Taking a clue from Costo-they never ask paper or plastic- it is box or nothing.

Most people start new year’s resolutions on January 1st, but this year I started on June 1st. This just happened to be the day that I decided I didn’t want to be a total hypocrite any more. I want to align my life with my inner eco-values. Is that so hard? Actually it is, and that is what Sustainability Chronicles is all about.


In the Sustainability Chronicles I am sharing my personal experience of trying to live a life that is deeply satisfying. A life that is rooted in spirit, my connections to people, and the natural environment. My personal definition of sustainability goes beyond the sustainable use of resources into the values and actions of the humans who live on the land, beginning with the human I think I know best- myself! I believe that all social change first occurs as change within ourselves. As someone who cares deeply about the environment and people, I just can’t understand why I am no farther along in my quest for a natural, sustainable life than I was 20 years ago when I arrived in Hawaii.


In 1989, I was sitting in an Italian restaurant in Boulder, Colorado glumly eating my last bowl of spaghetti. “This is probably the last bowl of spaghetti, I’ll have for a long time,” I remarked to my friend. I was leaving the next morning for Hawaii and was under the illusion that Hawaii was still somewhat primitive, and people lived simple, natural lives. I was 23 and quite naive. In actuality, landing in Hilo in 1989 and being immediately skirted away to Kalapana and Waipio Valley (think naked hippies eating papayas and coconuts) things were pretty simple. But as I expanded my horizons to Maui, Oahu and the rest of the Hawaii Islands, I began to see what one sees anyplace in America- McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, KMart and some years later Borders, Costco and WalMart. My disillusionment was complete. I lost my eco-virginity.


I launched into work, a child, a master’s degree, a marriage (in that order) and found myself living pretty much like most Americans. Two cars (and yes, one is an SUV), 2100 square foot house, huge mortgage, credit card debt, electric garage opener, electric appliances, kid in private school, lots of garbage and recycling, shopping at the food store, etc.. need I go on? This is you too, right? It’s been 18 years and many bowls of spaghetti (bought in bulk at Costo) since I arrived in Hawaii and I am no closer, actually I am farther away from my original vision of a simple, natural life.


I am wondering, does one have to be either really rich or really poor in order to live simply/softly in the modern world? I would love to run my house on solar or wind power, but I do not have an extra $20,000 around to implement that idea. I am sick of making excuses that I don’t have the money or time to align my life with my values. I am someone who cares deeply about the environment, about my carbon footprint, about healthy foods, and yet by every measure I am contributing to the global problem. In addition to being a global problem, this is a personal problem for me on a number of levels.


As I heard Garrison Keiler say on Prairie Home Companion one night- “People who wear Birkenstocks should just not be driving Hummer’s, it’s just not right.” That’s how I feel- eco on the outside, but guiltily consuming resources on the inside because “I can’t help it, its how our society is set up.”


Financial stability is an issue facing many Americans right now. My husband and I work flat out all the time and it is a challenge to keep up with the mortgages (Yes, I have two houses. How eco is that?), health insurance, car payments, etc… Are my consumption habits contributing to our financial stress and our planetary problems? You bet.


I believe that our food supply is not as stable as it seems and that for reasons of food security, health and waste reduction I need to grow more of our own food. Sounds simple, except that I am not a green thumb. Actually I think “black thumb” or “thumb of death” more accurately describes what happens to plants in my care. I was recently speaking at the Hawaii Island Food Summit where everyone before me described themselves as coming from Three Generations of Family Farmers. I am from three generations of family shoppers. I did not grow up on a farm, I grew up in suburban New York. When we wanted food we got it from the food store- duh!


Our reliance on fossil fuel in Hawaii is nearly complete. Living on an isolated land mass, we bring in everything- all of our food, fuel, and consumer goods (the mot important of which is toilet paper!) We have a small biodiesel supply (from recycled restaurant oil) that comes from Maui, but no other alternative transportation fuel and no reliable public transportation. They don’t call it the Big Island for nothing- we do a lot of driving here. About 30% of our electrical energy is generated by renewable sources (wind, geothermal, solar), which is pretty good by national standards, but not even close to meeting the definition of sustainable. And we have the highest electricity costs in the country. Our monthly electric bill for a three person household is $250/month and rising and we don’t use heat or air conditioning.


If I hear one more person say that “saving the environment” is important because “they are not worried about themselves, that are worried about the kind of world they are leaving for their grandchildren.” I am going to scream! While I appreciate the sentiment, true seventh generation consciousness dictates that we make decisions NOW based upon what is environmentally sustainable seven generations from now. Too many people today are simply pushing the responsibility forward by not making the hard choices for themselves today.


I invite you to join me on my journey as I try to figure out how I can attain and maintain a sustainable lifestyle. A lifestyle that encompasses spirit, people, nature and work- and that functions within our modern American reality. I want to arrive at a place where my beliefs and my actions are the same thing.