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.

I know it’s a sin, but I love drying my clothes in the dryer. Unlike my husband who grew up enjoying the Yankee pleasure of stiff, abrasive towels, I grew up in suburban Long Island where my towels were fluffed in the dryer. I am still getting used to being exfoliated after every shower but am finding that I use the same towel many more times. The towel softens up after a while and the thought of going through the stiffy phase again is a deterrent.


It’s 9:40 at night and I just realized that I forgot my wet laundry in the washer. With a sound akin to a whine I said to my husband Topher, “Can you put my clothes in the dryer?” In his authoritative, bossy voice, he answered- “Honey, you got to walk the walk and talk the talk.” I was so tired but Topher talked me down and offered to come and help me. So there we were hanging laundry at 10 pm at night in the dark. It was certainly a lot more fun doing it together. Hell- I guess it was so cool that I am writing about it now. I wouldn’t be writing about what it was we were sacrificing. Most likely some form of mindless entertainment. Ahhh… another eco diva’s delicate morals not defiled.

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

My eco action for this week is to ban Styrofoam and other take-out containers from my life. I bought these great glass containers at Wal-Mart and will keep them in my car to use when I have leftovers or take-out at a restaurant.

Week three of taking one eco-action per week finds me preparing for a trip to New York- for the weekend. When you live in Hawaii, there is no better way to ratchet up your carbon footprint than leaving the island. The total lack of reliable and comprehensive public transportation on the Big Island also means that we drive in our cars a lot even when we are on the island. Since so many Hawaii residents have family on the U.S. mainland, travel to the mainland is unavoidable.


I was fantasizing about arriving into New York harbor, after a hard month at sea on the deck of a clipper ship, but unfortunately there was not a sailing vessel packed with hardened travelers and vermin departing to get me there on time. This snarky comment just prompted me to check and see if there is actually a way to sail to the U.S. mainland on a clipper ship. To my surprise I found that there are majestic sailing ships at sea, although at this point they are employed to take people on luxury vacations as opposed to utilitarian travel. More in alignment with what I am talking about, I found out about the journey of Junk- a sailing raft made of plastic bottles. They are sailing from California to Hawaii to raise awareness about the amount of plastic in our oceans.


Arriving in Penn Station and ascending up to street level outside of Madison Square Garden, the first thing I saw was a huge bottle of Ranch dressing suspended from the side of a building. Being that my primary focus is trying to be more green, my first thought upon looking around was “we’re fucked”. That is until I remembered that our brothers and sisters in Manhattan actually have a lower carbon footprint than those of us righteous rural dwellers- 30% less. My next thought was “Wow, Andrea, you self-righteous eco-elitist, get a grip.”


At any rate, I clearly needed to do something to offset the carbon generated by my trip. If you are still on the fence about offsetting your carbon, check out David Suzuki’s website, which is one of the most informative sources that I have found on the whole topic. There are a number of websites where you can calculate and offset your carbon from traveling: Planetair, My Climate , TerraPass. However, I chose to offset my carbon with Evolution Sage, a local Hawaii company that invests in renewable energy right here in Hawaii. My trip alone contributed 4,305 pounds of CO2, but I decided that I should just offset the whole enchilada right now- my home and home office. I have previously offset my travel to and from work, so I left that out of this calculation. I would like to offset more, as I know that I am barely making a dent by offsetting our electrical and transportation. What about the carbon impact of all of our consumption? But, I will need to save that for another day. For $258 I offset the 31,600 pounds of CO2 that my family spews into the atmosphere. If we make another trip to the mainland this year for a family wedding- it will be back to the carbon calculator for me. Am I now guilt free? Do I have a license to pollute? No and No. I continue to look for ways to reduce our electrical and transportation fuel consumption. Show me the clipper ship. Or the alternative fuel jets.