27th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I drink an average of 3 cups of tea a day, so I was excited when I saw some tips from in.gredients website about being green when you make a cup of tea. In case you don’t remember, I’ve posted about in.gredients before, a store that, once it opens this fall, will be the first package-free store in the U.S. (very exciting!) You can learn more about them from their website here.
Recently I noticed that they have a really nice blog with green news, tips, and store updates, and so, given my tea habit, this blog post about being less wasteful in the tea making process was pretty cool. Here are some of their tips:
When it comes to tea, don’t let those cardboard boxes and and single-use disposable bags cramp your style – you don’t need ‘em! Here’s how to cut them out of the picture (and the trash can):
- Buy tea in bulk (in.gredients-style) and store it in a reusable container – a mason jar works great; so do tins and other jars.
- Use muslin tea bags – these are washable and reusable! Plus you have control over how much tea you want to steep, and can add other ingredients if you like.
- Go bag-free by using a tea pot with a built in tea infuser (like the one pictured above), or use a french press.
When finished, spent tea makes great compost!
You can also get a tea infuser/ball for a single cup, and that way you don’t have to wash out a tea pot as well once you’ve made tea for yourself.
Check out their website for other helpful tips!
19th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Austin 360 has this article about a new reusable cup made by Austinite Adreinne Oujezdsky. The article explains that Adrienne noticed that runners and walkers were going through hundreds of the paper cups that are set out along with jugs of water on the Lady Bird Lake trail (RunTex, which supplies the water, estimates that an average of nearly 8,000 cups per day are used on the Austin trail.) So Adrienne created SipECup, which has the same small cone shape that the disposable paper cups have, but is locally made using plastic and can fold up easily and be stored in a pocket of your running shorts. I think it’s a really great idea and hopefully will raise awareness of how many paper cups are thrown away each day on the trail.
The article also notes that you don’t even need to spend money to be greener while on the trail – there’s a new water fountain on the trail near the Mopac Bridge. There article doesn’t go into the locations of other existing water fountains, but there are quite a few – I believe there’s one near the pedestrian bridge on the North side of the river, one near the pedestrian bridge on the South side of the river, one on the North side of the river just West of the I-35 bridge, and one of the South side of the river just East of Riverside.
Another green option is to but a water bottle at a running store, which is more bulky, but allows you to run in areas that aren’t guaranteed to have water. Many of them come in a little carrier that can be strapped around your waste, and some have a pouch so you can carry keys, money, etc. Just one more idea!
Here’s an excerpt from the 360 article about Adreinne:
Adreinne Oujezdsky, 28, grew up running the downtown trail. The idea for reusable cups popped into her mind after she ran past the water coolers three years ago and wondered how many cups she’d use in her lifetime.
That led to some research on how many single-use cups are used at races around the country. She found out that the top 50 U.S. races alone generate more than 660,000 pounds of disposable cups, which mostly wind up in landfills.
“I’d love to see a day when the cups aren’t overflowing the trash bins — both on our trail and our streets after local races,” Oujezdsky says.
Oujezdsky, who has a background in advertising, dug into her bank account and begged friends and family for seed money, eventually collecting $46,000 to pursue her idea for an easy-to-carry cup that could be used over and over.
She purchased a molding machine from China and had it shipped to Boerne, where the cups are now made.
She calls her invention the SipECup. (E stands for environment.) The cone-shaped cups look similar to the paper ones available now on the trail, only they’re made of flexible material similar to what’s used in the yellow LiveStrong wristbands.
Eventually, she’d like to see race organizers use the cups at events. Sponsors could advertise on them, and runners would either keep or toss the cups, which would be gathered, then washed or recycled.
She hopes runners think about the environment the next time they stop for water.
“I wanted it to be easy. Being an athlete is hard enough. It should be easy to do good,” Oujezdsky says.
The blue SipECups sell for $5 for a pack of two and are available at RunTex, Rogue, Mellow Johnny’s and Bettysport. Expect to see a pink version at the Komen Race for the Cure next year.
2nd December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Community Impact has an article I saw today that says about a new car wash going in in Northwest Austin:
Once it opens in April 2012, the new Palms Car Wash will have the ability to recycle 100 percent of the water it uses.
Austin’s second full-service Palms Car Wash is under construction at 13695 US 183, next door to the former Hooters of Austin, which is being transformed into Cover 2 restaurant and bar. The car wash will feature an exterior drive-thru express wash and interior and detail services. Customers may also use 12 vacuum stations free of charge.
“We want to be as eco-friendly we can,” said David Beseda, co-owner of Palms Car Wash with Russel Moore. “We use non-toxic, biodegradable cleaners. It is a complicated, expensive process [to recycle water].”Beseda and Moore own the Palms Car Wash at 6811 Brodie Lane. Alone, Moore owns several car wash locations in Austin, but this is the second location the pair will have opened.
23rd November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Today the Statesman has an article about TreeHouse, a new eco-friendly home improvement store in Austin off of South Lamar. The article says:
The emphasis at TreeHouse, 4477 S. Lamar Blvd. , is on green products — everything from nontoxic paints to reclaimed wood floors to insulation made of recycled denim, newspapers and beer and wine bottles.
“We thought Austin deserved its own home improvement store,” co-founder Kevin Graham said. “This is very Austin — the Whole Foods version of a home improvement store.”
Products were selected after a careful, months-long vetting process that examines their performance, sustainability and impact on a user’s health and the manufacturer’s record of corporate responsibility.
“It’s a very intricate process that uses a database with a lot of questions,” co-founder Jason Ballard said. “Behind every product on the shelves, there’s some good-hearted person trying to save the earth.”
“We’re truth tellers and green promoters,” co-founder Evan Loomis said.
Check out their website here and learn more about their products and services. I’m definitely curious to check it out!
21st October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
It’s been awhile since I posted a new way to cut down on stuff, i.e., a way to cut down on buying new consumer goods to avoid creating more “stuff” in the world, but I thought I’d share my positive experience at the Austin Shoe Hospital with you and hopefully others will give them a try rather than trashing their old shoes.
Generally I wear black pumps to work every single day, although sometimes I’ll change into black flats if I’m going to walk to lunch or even just walk to my car. Still, even with mostly just indoor wear, the heels of my pumps generally don’t last too long and before I know it, the rubber tip on my heels start to wear away and the metal post that makes up the heel of a pair of high heels eventually starts to show through. At that point the metal post can get caught on carpets, dent hardwood floors, and just looks pretty bad in general.
This happened somewhat recently to a pair of black, chunky, Steve Madden pumps. Since I had worn these shoes comfortably for almost a year and a half (!) before they started to look really bad, I thought it would be worth trying to save them. I also had a pair of sandals whose soles were separating, so one day at lunch I stopped by the Austin Shoe Hospital on Congress to see what they could do with these two pairs.
I was told that it would cost $20 to fix my sandals, and advised it probably wasn’t worth it. Even repaired, the sandals would have still been very flimsy and impractical for long walks, so I decided to take their advice and not fix them. I appreciated that, rather than try to make $20, they were upfront about the value of fixing them. Instead, I agreed to just have my pumps fixed, which they said they could fix for $10 – since those shoes had always been so comfortable (or as comfortable as high heels can be), it seemed worth it to have them fixed.
My shoes were ready in 3 days, and they look good! You can still tell by looking at the inside of the shoe that they’re old, but from the outside they almost look like brand new shoes. Not only did they fix the heels, the people at Austin Shoe Hospital shined my shoes as well. Good as new, and if they last for another 1.5 years it will certainly be money well spent!
11th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Edible Austin had an article in its newest issue that spotlights a local business, Organics by Gosh, which for the last 20 years has been composting food scraps as well as landscaping scraps in Austin. It’s a very well written article that you should check out here, and I think it’s wonderful there are businesses like this in Austin. Here’s an excerpt:
Composting isn’t a new idea, of course, but few people may know that for more than 20 years, Organics by Gosh has been the leader in commercial composting in Central Texas—offering service to a variety of businesses and industries from hotels, schools and cafeterias to manufacturers and grocery stores. The company hauls just about anything that was once alive, including plants, trees, grass, shrubs and food. They collect it and place it in mound upon mound of composting earth. The finished product results in an entire retail selection of potting soils, fertilizer and decorative “stone,” much of which is sold to landscaping companies as well as area nurseries and large home-improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Owner Phil Gosh has been in the composting business most of his life—taking over his father’s Houston-area business in the 1970s and launching Organics by Gosh in Austin in 1995. For Gosh, the business is simply about managing our resources well. “We’ve created a program that allows us to take a product and create a higher value out of it,” says Gosh. “All of our composting material comes from within a 30-mile radius to keep our energy local. Instead of trash, it’s a resource…a treasure.”
Just this year, Gosh’s business became the first in Central Texas to receive the necessary permits to compost meats, fats and dairy products, and has since launched a food waste-diversion program to service restaurants and hotels. “This has put us into a much bigger arena,” says Gosh’s organic recycling coordinator Gina Spratt. “Food coming out of our waste stream is a big deal. It’s the next big step, besides single-stream recycling, and we’re excited to put that onto the plants of Austin instead of having these things going into our landfills.”
Making a difference in Austin is a primary goal for Gosh. The City of Austin has an official goal of diverting waste from landfills and incinerators by 75 percent by 2020, and 90 percent by 2040. Organics are believed to make up between 50 to 70 percent of our overall waste stream. Taking everything from backyard land debris to food waste out of the general waste-disposal stream would leave significantly less to pile up in landfills.
Read the whole article!
26th September, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to meet Katie Schon who with her husband Rick have started RK Re-Purposing, a very cool Austin business that specializes in finding new uses for old things.
So far the business primarily focuses on making rain barrels out of food-grade barrels (see above) and garden planters out of old fencing. But they’ve also started designing some furniture, like this sturdy bench, also made out of old fencing, which would be perfect in a backyard garden. (Check them out on facebook and “like” their page and you’ll also be able to see an Adirondack chair Rick recently built out of old fencing, which I’m really coveting.)
The fencing they use would otherwise be burned or hauled to a dump (like now when we’re in a severe drought), so it’s great they’ve found a new use for it. Visiting their stand made me really want to get gutters on our house so we can have a rain barrel! The rain barrels Rick and Katie make sell for $45 each, which compared to what you see at garden stores and Whole Foods, is a much better price. Check them out at the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market, or contact them if there’s a special project you have in mind!
31st August, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I rediscovered this really useful website today called Texastakeback.org, which looks like its been updates quite a bit since I last checked it out. It’s very thorough and is a great resource for figuring out what you can recycle in your area and where you can go to recycle it. Browsing through the website I found this page on Styrofoam recycling, which had this wise advice on Styrofoam aka polystyrene:
[P]olystyrene is petroleum-based, contains potentially carcinogenic components and takes eons to biodegrade. Currently, recycling markets for polystyrene are extremely limited, so using less—or none at all!—is the best policy. For instance, take home your restaurant leftovers in a reusable tupperware container. Use your own to-go coffee mug for that mocha latte.
But there are some recycling options. If you get a package with polystyrene peanuts, take them to a packing store such as FedEx orUPS. These folks love free product…and you’ll love keeping those plastic non-legumes out of the landfill.
The website also had this link to Austin-based Cycled Plastics, which will accept some types of foam for recycling at their public drop off site at 10200 McKalla Pl, Austin, 78758 (if you have take out Styrofoam boxes you’d like to try and recycle, check the bottom of the box first before you make the drive to make sure its one of the types of foam they accept). Here is some more info from their website:
Cycled Plastics maintains a public drop point at it’s facility in Austin. The following items are accepted Monday through Friday, 7am – 5pm. (click here for a map)
- Packaging Foams free of dirt or food contamination (EPS #6, PP #5, LDPE #4)
- #2 HDPE curbside bottles that have been rinsed with caps removed
- #1 PET curbside bottles that have been rinsed with the caps removed
- #2 HDPE flower pots that have been lightly washed to remove most of the dirt
- #4 LDPE bags that have had no food contact and have no paper contamination (labels, stickers)
19th July, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
This article from the Statesman is so irritating. It discusses several companies that have cropped up in central Texas that sell bottled rainwater, claiming that it is purer than municipally treated tap water. Is that even true, and anyway, who cares? It’s doubtful any of the minimal health benefits outweigh the waste created by all of those plastic bottles, many of which are not recycled and end up in a landfill. One company, Agana, proudly stated in the article “In a normal year, we’d get 31 inches of rain…That’s equal to about 3.5 million gallons of rain, or 24 million bottles.” 24 million bottles!?!?! Just drink tap water, people!
Meanwhile, the Statesman article explains the dubious health benefits:
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says that rainwater is better for plants than chemically treated water. But Doug Pushard, a founder of HarvestH20.com, a website that encourages rainwater collection, warns, “Rainwater is generally free of harmful minerals, and in most cases chemicals, but can be adversely affected by air pollutants.”
As it falls, rainwater can pick up soot and other airborne microscopic contaminants. On the roof, rainwater can be exposed to herbicide or pesticide sprays that have adhered to leaves, or it can be tainted by animal droppings.
And is Texas air really that great? Don’t we have a lot of coal plants emitting pollutants? Meh? (check out “Texas one of the top four states for mercury emissions”)
I’m also disappointed that Whole Foods sells bottled rainwater from a Austin company that collects the water in Oregon and then ships it down here. This conflicts with WF’s value of “caring about our communities and our environment.” Contact them here if you would like to encourage them to not support bottled water.
8th July, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I’ve posted before about articles covering in.gredients, the package-free store that is currently in the fundraising stages and will hopefully open this fall in Austin, becoming the first store of its kind in the US, but the Tribune had a really nice article about it today with more info from the brothers (Christian, Joseph and Patrick Lane) who are behind the idea. Here’s an excerpt:
The novel idea is in.gredients’ “package-free” aspect, which Joseph
“If you go into a regular store, it’s very hard to find a product without packaging,” Lane said. “Like your cereal — why does your cereal have to have a box around it?
So far, there are no signs of an all-out green grocery war in Austin. But Dan Gillotte, general manager of Wheatsville Co-op, cautioned that opening a new grocery store is challenging, especially in a
So far the brothers, along with Chris Pepe, their business partner, say they have raised more than 60 percent of their goal, but that even without investors, they have the money to finance their dream. If it takes off, and their store draws local vendors to fill the bins with goods, and regular customers to empty them out, Lane said, expansions could be in order.
Check out the whole story for more info and the in.gredient’s webpage.
30th June, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I saw a short Statesman clip on Little Pond Design, a new Austin business featuring eco-friendly furniture, including some really cute vintage and upcycled pieces I love. You can check out their online store here, and also inquire about decorating consultation. I like the idea of an online store that displays used pieces that are tasteful, because while you can find some really nice pieces on craigslist, it can be very time consuming to click through all the not-so-nice and out of style items people post there.
The Statesman clip explains:
Trying to live more consciously? Want to know about the environmental impact of your next furniture purchase? Cut through the mumbo jumbo with help from Little Pond Design. The eco-friendly Austin-based interior design company (809-1672, little
ponddesign.com) has launched an online retail store, showcasing new furniture with known enviro impact, one-of-a-kind accessories (not all are green certified or organic), and raw vintage or “upcycled” pieces “to encourage people to find and reuse interesting items when decorating,” says founder Rebekah Gainsley. Little Pond also offers additional services, including staging, restyling (using mostly what you already have), color consulting and resource shopping.
And here are two “upcycled vintage” pieces to give you an idea of the kinds of things they carry:
Here’s one of their vintage pieces:
And here’s one of their new pieces, a couch described as “made using wood certified from the Forest Stewardship Council, fabrics that are nontoxic, and soy-based foams that are degradable as well as renewable”:
Check out the website!
16th June, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
The Statesman had this article yesterday, which states:
A group of Austinites is hoping to open a zero-waste grocery store in East Austin this fall that, unlike traditional stores, doesn’t sell food in disposable packaging.
Customers at In.gredients will be asked to bring in their own containers or use the store’s reusable ones to buy items shipped in bulk instead of pre-packaged in boxes, bags or plastic.
In.gredients has started getting the word out about the project through its website, Twitter account and Facebook page.
Marketing director Brian Nunnery says that in order to open store as planned in October, they need to meet several fundraising goals before then. They have started taking contributions through Indie GoGo, but will be hosting other fundraising events later in the year.
Sounds like a very innovative idea, and in.gredients’ website says that if successful, it will be the first zero waste, package free grocery store in the US!
Their store model would work like this, according to the website:
- Bring clean, re-usable containers from home.
- Weigh your containers.
- Fill them with the stuff you need.
- Weigh your filled container at the counter.
- Select a charity you want a part of your purchase to benefit.
- Pay (weight of filled container – original [tare] weight).
- Take your goodies home.
- Come back to in.gredients when you need more! Don’t forget your containers…
Check out their website here. It is REALLY well done and informative!
14th April, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
ABJ had this article today that surprisingly states:
Whole Foods Market Inc. seafood was ranked below Target and Safeway on a recent Greenpeace sustainability ranking.
Mega food chain Safeway took the top spot for sustainable seafood practices, while Whole Foods was No. 4. Safeway, the nation’s fourth-largest supermarket chain, was praised by the environmental group for discontinuing the sale of unsustainably caught fish species, known in the industry as “red list” seafood. This year, that includes orange roughy.
Greenpeace officials contend Safeway’s approach needs to be duplicated by other retailers to salvage the world’s rapidly declining fish populations. It said most seafood merchants still focus on large, predatory fish — such as cod, sharks and tuna — even though global populations of these species have dropped by up to 90 percent.
The ranking comes less than a year after Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFMI) began phasing out seafood considered over-fished or unsustainably-caught. The company also adopted an in-store, color-coded sustainability rating system for wild-caught seafood. All red-rated species will be removed from stores by Earth Day 2013, including swordfish, Atlantic cod, sole and tuna, among others.
Central Texas-based H.E. Butt Grocery Co. came in No. 14 on the list, below Walmart and Costco.
Read more: Target seafood more sustainable than Whole Foods, Greenpeace says | Austin Business Journal
14th March, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Johnson’s Backyard Garden, an organic garden in Austin, recently started distributing weekly boxes of organic fruits and vegetables at my husband’s work place, so we decided to sign up to get a box for the next 4 weeks (however, when my husband paid for 4 weeks, the people at Johnson’s emailed him and said he would get a 5th week for free.) You can read about my previous experience trying the Greenling box here - Greenling is another local company that distributes boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables in Austin. I think the JBG box is similar in quantity and price to the Greenling box, but at the time I tried out the Greenling box maybe I had too high of expectations and that’s why I didn’t have as good of an experience. Anyway, so far we’re enjoying getting the JBG box (although we’ve only gotten one so far) and we’re not finding it super hard to use up the contents of the box. (I gave up meat and seafood for lent though, so that’s probably making it easier to go through all the fruits and veggies.)
Here’s a pic of the contents of the box (a cost of $32):
It came with 5 or 6 small turnips, probably 15 very sweet carrots, a small bag of lettuce mix, cilantro, parsley, 2 grapefruit, 4 oranges, a small bunch of spinach and rainbow chard, brussel sprouts, and scallions.
The grapefruit was really good. I don’t think I had ever eaten a whole grapefruit before, but I’m trying to be healthier and I don’t want to waste any of the food. It was a messy but delicious experience. I used the cilantro in chicken tikka masala I made for my husband, and then made a couple of Indian side dishes -one with the carrots and one with the turnips. One night we sauteed the spinach and it turned out well. And my husband made this dish with the brussels sprout greens (we still have the actual brussels sprouts left over):
1 bunch brussel sprout greens (or any greens)
2 T butter
salt, pepper, pinch nutmeg
2 T flour
1 c milk
4 oz (about) cream cheese
1 c orzo, uncooked
Cook orzo according to package directions. While it’s cooking, bring about 4 c salted water to a boil. Roughly chop the greens, add to the boiling water, and cook until tender (about 2-4 minutes). Immediately transfer cooked greens to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. When the greens are cool enough to handle, squeeze the water out by hand. Puree greens in a food processor.
Melt butter in a large saucepan (the one used to boil greens, cleaned). Add pureed greens. Sprinkle with flour and stir to keep from sticking. Slowly add milk, stirring the entire time. This should leave a thick green mixture. Add cream cheese and stir over low heat until melted. Add orzo. Top with bacon crumbs or Parmesan.
It looks a little funny but it was good!
One really nice thing about JBG is their website. My husband found the above recipe on their website – prior to this we didn’t know that brussels sprouts had greens or that you could eat them, but here was a recipe that made use of the greens. Plus every Tuesday they post a picture of what will be included in your box (pretty accurate quantity depiction of what you will get) which is very very helpful, and you can click on each item in the box you are going to get and find tips on how to wash/prepare/store that item and how to cook it. It’s a very well designed website
16th February, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article today about a new partnership between Greenling ( a company that will deliver local and organic food to your door) and Whole Foods:
Starting today , Whole Foods customers can sign up for Greenling via electronic kiosks in the Austin and San Antonio stores.
Both companies say the partnership is a way to help strengthen the local food supply — a core mission they share.
For Whole Foods, the initiative is a way to support local growers, giving them another avenue to sell their goods, said Chris Romano , produce and floral coordinator for Whole Foods’ Southwest region.
Small farms that can’t supply enough to stock a Whole Foods store could sell that smaller amount to Greenling, Romano said.
“If we make the local food economy stronger, that benefits all of us as a community,” Romano said.
This is the first time Whole Foods has partnered with a local home delivery service, although it has other programs to help local food providers, such as a loan program.
It’s also a way for Whole Foods to tap into Greenling’s network of local farms. Although Greenling doesn’t exclusively stock local produce, it gets produce and other goods from about 40 to 50 local farms throughout the year.
Through the partnership, Greenling co-founder Mason Arnold said his company can now commit to purchasing certain quantities of goods and then sell the excess to Whole Foods.
So basically, it sounds like Greenling will still buy from the same farmers as it has been, but Greenling can now place larger orders from those farmers with the safety net of knowing that if they buy too much and can’t sell it all through their own business, Whole Foods will take the excess.
To learn more about Greenling, click here.
14th December, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
ABJ has an article today that says that Austin Solar LLC will break ground tomorrow for its $200 million solar farm, which will be the largest solar farm i n texas when built. The project is expected to create 350 jobs over the next 2 to 3 years. Check out the whole article for more details.
4th November, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The ABJ has this article today, which says that Whole Foods and Dell are among the top Fortune 500 companies using green power. Whole Foods gets 100% of their power from renewable resources, making it 3rd nationally in green power use, and Dell gets 29% of its energy needs from renewables, and is ranked 29th nationally.
30th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
Last weekend I visited Boggy Creek Farm for the first time. If you’ve never been there, it’s a fairly large farm considering it’s in the middle of the city, on the east side on Lyons road. All of the food the farm produces is organic, and you can see what’s for sale every Saturday and Wednesday. I went on Saturday, and got there shortly after it opened at 9AM – I’ve heard that they can run out of food quickly so you should get there early. They have a nice selection of peas, squash, herbs, salad, okra, peppers, cucumber, and eggplant, as well as some fresh bread, eggs, and dairy products. It’s fun to just walk around and look at the gardens and chickens and then pick up some fresh produce.
I didn’t take pictures of the stand area where they were selling food, but I bought some zucchini that were really good quality – not dented all over with a dry aging skin like the ones at HEB – the ones I picked up were really plump with no signs of rough handling, and the skin was taught like they had just been picked and not sitting around very long.
Here are some pics of the farm:
fields in the back
fields in the front
chickens!
28th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Austin Business Journal had an article today that said:
Austin battery maker ActaCell Inc. is preparing to commercialize its electric power system for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
The company has engaged gasoline, diesel, alternative fuel, electric and hybrid powertrain system developer AVL to help test its lithium-ion battery technology several years in the making. The pilot project will simulate using the battery in a variety of settings and test the viability and efficiency of selling the product.
Read more: ActaCell revving up to commercialize electric truck battery – Austin Business Journal
13th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
ABJ has this article today, which says that Whole Foods is “phasing out seafood considered over-fished or unsustainably-caught” and that:
The move is part of the Austin-based natural grocer’s efforts to better inform customers about fish and shellfish sources…. [T]he company has adopted an in-store, color-coded sustainability rating system for wild-caught seafood. Whole Foods has also committed to phasing out all red-rated species by Earth Day 2013, including swordfish, Atlantic cod, sole and tuna, among others.
Seafood color-coded green, or “best choice,” indicates the fish is part of an abundant population and is fished in an environmentally-friendly way. A yellow-coded offering means a “good alternative,” or having some concerns about population or fishing methods. The red, “avoid” category signals the species is suffering from overfishing, or that current fishing methods harm other marine life or habitats.
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