Letters For Earth

Nestle has been under fire from greenpeace, and rightly so. Nestle products sometimes source palm oil. Palm oil has the potential to be a renewable resource if properly managed. The way not to do this is by cutting down the rainforest. Cutting down the rainforest is pretty bad in terms of destruction. 1st, rainforest have SO much carbon in them, when they are cut down the carbon dioxide is released back into the air (decomp or fuel) 2nd, rainforests fix so much carbon dioxide, they have a net fixation of CO2, so it slows climate change due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide. 3rd lots of cool stuff live there - cool stuff that deserves to live and could provide us with medicines. On the 16th of April, at the Nestle AGM, they were asked about palm oil and they had some good, but distant targets. Yay for change boo for time frame.

This went, hopefully, to the chairman of the Board of Directors, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.
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Dear Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe,

First, I would like to applaud you for recognizing the value of the rainforest and acknowledging that Nestle needs to take steps to reduce its consumption of palm oil. I do realize that Nestle is not a major consumer of palm oil, both within the company and relative to global standards.

Second, I believe that the role of Nestle could be much greater. Nestle is a large and near ubiquitous company and the effects of your company will have a ripple effect and other companies will join suit. They must join suit, because concern for the environmental effects of deforestation is only growing. It's also a pretty good catch-all. Rainforests contain most of the world's biodiversity, many large charismatic animals live there, and they are huge carbon stores. Protecting areas of rainforest has a huge effect on many different environmental concerns.

I know that economically feasibility is often in contrast with conservation. Allow people to vote with their dollar, change one Nestle product to 100% sustainable palm oil (please don't do this by reducing the amount of sustainable palm oil in other products). Brand it as such, and allow people to support your initiatives while benefiting your company. I'm a big believer in purchasing items based on company policy but how am I to show that these are the items that I want to buy if they are not available?

Are there any upcoming products that I can purchase and feel good about purchasing, knowing that it contains 100% sustainable palm oil?

Thank you,

Today we get a guest blog, Jordy really was diplomatic and didn't make mention of my neuroses like the stack of paper to be recycled or the refusal to turn up the heat!
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Living with an Environmentalist

Hello, I’m Jordy, Lauren’s boyfriend. We’ve been dating for almost 4 years now and she asked me write about coexisting with an environmentalist like herself.

Before I met Lauren, I wasn’t exactly a menace to the planet but I wasn’t the best for it either. I’d happily forgo vegetables for more meat, toss a pop can into the garbage, etc. Lauren’s awareness and consideration for this Earth has helped me changed my attitude and be conscious of what I do and how it might negatively affect the environment.

The changes weren’t radical. You can’t just expect someone to change immediately. But after awhile your habits will sort of rub off on one another. I now notice when stuff is local, and may choose one brand over another based on how close to home it was produced (price is still the major motivator for me though). I feel good when I take the new hybrid metro buses whereas before I might have cared less. I find myself being more disgusted with trash lying around in gutters and being more enthused with doing stuff like vermicomposting (worm composting and harvesting their crap for fertilizer. You can read more about this fun process in Lauren’s previous blogs).

It’s been a change for the better. If everyone in the world was able to make the relatively small attitudinal changes that I did the impact would probably be pretty impressive (a billion or so less cans thrown in the garbage, for one). So thank you Lauren, for helping me and helping the planet as well!

Why can airlines never respond to me the way these companies that I've contacted so far do? SecondCup responded nicely and noncommittally.

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Dear Lauren,

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us your feedback. I would like to firstly mention that Second Cup has a nation wide standard policy that when you bring in your own travel mug, you get a $0.20 discount. This standard is written right on the menu board. Therefore would it be possible for you to tell me which campus location you are referring to? I want to make sure that they are providing the proper discount.

Secondly, as for the biodegradable cups, I will certainly send your concern over to the person responsible for product development to see if they will be interested in looking into changing our cups in the future. I can't guarantee it will happen, but it definitely does not hurt to send your suggestion.

I sincerely hope that you will continue being a loyal guest for years to come.

Kind regards,

I like coffee! I bring my mug most places, but sometimes I forget. I'm human. Though I try to say that I don't need it, sometimes I really want it and get a disposable cup. It's like a diet - everyone slips once in a while! I usually go to the JustUs! cafe which has ceramic mugs for 'for here' and compostable cups 'to go' but sometimes SecondCup is closer!
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Hello Second Cup Customer Care!

Second Cup coffee is really good. Your lattes have helped me through many exams! I try to bring a mug when I get coffee but sometimes I forget. When this happens, I have two choices, I can go to a coffee place which has compostable cups or I can go to Second Cup and get a plastic-lined cup which will not biodegrade. Some of my choices are based on environmental factors and since the price is not different between places - if I'm going to get a throw-away cup, it should be compostable. For this reason, I don't go to Second Cup as often as I could, or would, if there were compostable cups.

Why does Second Cup not use compostable cups? Are there plans to implement them? What steps are Second Cup taking to reduce waste? At my local Second Cup, there is only a 10 cent discount when a mug is brought, but this may be a special case as it is a campus-wide policy.

Thank you for your time,

Lauren Dombowsky

Worms, or vermiculture, as a method of composting is a pretty interesting compost. Not for the scoleciphobic (fear or worms - I learned a new word!), vermiculture apparently allows you to compost in a small apartment and make really good quality fertilizer.

I hate compost bins. Stinky and fungus filled, I hate opening them when I'm cooking for fear of getting spores everywhere! It's one environmental thing that I hate doing (along with cold showers). I don't have a backyard compost heap and I don't fill up the compost bin fast enough to avoid nastiness. I tried the paper liners. I gave up as I walked outside with icky grossness and the bottom of the bag burst because it was wet and got the icky grossness everywhere. My compost bin is sitting overturned outside because I do not want to wash it because it's nasty.

Apparently vermiculture will fix that! It doesn't smell and the worms turn it over too fast for fungus to develop into supergrossness. I made a DIY kit based on instructions from a book called "The Urban Homestead: Your guide to self sufficient living in the city". It was two walmart bins that I had kicking around from the last time I moved. We borrowed my landlords drill and drilled holes according to the instructions. I ordered worms and they are on their way!

They should get here.... tomorrow? I ordered them like two weeks ago but the folks I got it from responded to emails like once a week (who does that anymore?:P) !

Free range chicken at Sobeys? But they said they didn't have any! So I went looking! I didn't find free range chicken, but I did find a whole free range turkey!

It exists! Normally (as I am prepared to pay a premium price for organic, free range food) I try and purchase these items. I like to vote with my dollar! But the turkey was SO BIG it would not fit in my stove or my freezer! It was huge! I couldn't justify the purchase because it was enough meat to last me a month!

Perhaps when I get a bigger stove and freezer and have a holiday feast!