Consumer Change

Did You Know

Despite forward-thinking statements on web sites and in annual reports, many businesses do not follow sound and sustainable environmental practices. In some cases, companies may not be aware of how their practices affect the environment or that consumers notice. We believe that consolidating the voices of consumers can make a positive impact and change the way companies conduct business.

Below are some common areas that we suggest you provide feedback on. Small changes have an impact. To illustrate, we have provided some statistics courtesy of The Green Book. For more information on The Green Book please visit www.readthegreenbook.com.

Hotels:

In-room recycling facilities for guests, especially paper recycling
Using compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of traditional light bulbs
Eliminating the small toiletry bottles except for guests who request them
Keeping air conditioning at a reasonable temperature (not ice cold)
Eliminating turn-down service to save energy
Changing sheets and towels only before check-in or upon request.

Have you stayed in a hotel where there was a lack of environmental practices? Go to our Feedback Directory and ask the hotel to change their practices.

The average hotel room consumes more than two hundred gallons of water per day, or as much as your entire household typically uses in a day. Trimming the amount of water used by washing sheets and towels can save up to 40 percent of a hotel’s water use. *

A single three-hundred room hotel in Las Vegas uses more than 150,000 plastic bottles of shampoo per year. *

Seventy-five percent of the energy in a hotel room is used when the bathroom lights are left on for more than two hours – mostly when it’s unoccupied. *

Every ton, or 220,000 sheets, of paper that is recycled saves approximately seventeen trees.*

Dining:

Using ceramic cups, plates and proper silverware for customers dining in
Using compostable cups, plates and plastic ware for those dining out
Using environmentally friendly to-go packaging (appropriate sizes, not stryrofoam)
Turning off/dimming lights after hours
Providing recycling options for cans, bottles and paper
Napkins made from unbleached paper
Locally grown food
Organic food
Seafood from sustainable sources – see guide for details (www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.asp)

Did you eat out at a location where there was a lack of environmental practices? Go to our Feedback Directory and ask the restaurant to change their practices.

Even one office worker using just 1 plastic knife a day could add up to 250 a year. If every other worker used just 1 a day, it would amount to 15 billion plastic knives a year, enough to create a plastic blade 1.5 miles long.*

If each worker used just 1 fewer napkin per day, it would save about 150 million of them from the trash – enough to provide a napkin to every person who eats a hot dog on July 4.*

Retailers:

Provide environmentally friendly options for bagging
Not overpackaging goods
Turning off/dimming lights after hours

Have you shopped at a retailer where there was a lack of environmental practices? Go to our Feedback Directory and ask them to change their practices.

If just one out of ten products you bought had little or no packaging, it would eliminate more than fifty pounds of waste per household per year. This small reduction could also save you at least $30 annually as $1 of every $11 that you spend at the supermarket pays for the packaging of the products you buy. If every household did this, 5.5 billion fewer pounds of waste would enter landfills. This is enough garbage to cover all of New York City’s Central Park to a depth of twenty-seven feet.*

If you’re asked, “paper or plastic?” at checkout, choose paper. While neither is an ideal choice – it’s best to sack your groceries in reusable cloth or canvas bags – grocery baggers usually fill paper bags with more items than they do plastic bags, and paper bags can be easily reused. Moreover, paper bags have a better chance of being recycled.*

Airlines

Notwithstanding that air travel is a heavy emitter of carbon dioxide, things that airlines can do for their consumers include:

Food, beverage service in environmentally friendly cups, plates and cutlery
Recycling paper and cans
Donating unused/unopened food

Have you flown in an airline where there was a lack of environmental practices? Go to our Feedback Directory and ask the airline to change their practices.