Gonink - Design & Print

We all remember or have heard of Chicken Licken (or Chicken Little for some) who was eating lunch one day and thought the sky was falling because an acorn landed on her head. She then tells her king and enlists the help of other animals, also with similar rhyming names, and their quest begins to tell everyone that “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” But what if that acorn was, get this, an elephant?

Well just recently Dave Schlafman won first place in the “:60 Seconds to Save the Earth” Ecospot Contest with his video Sky is Falling. In the animated 60 second clip, Schlafman compares the amount of carbon released into the air annually by Americans with falling elephants. In 2005 Americans released 6.1 billion tons of carbon into the air. That is the equivalent of 1.2 billion elephants. And as Schlafman says, “It’s time to stop ignoring the elephants in the room.”

I know I don’t ignore the elephants, but for non-metropolitan areas it’s hard to overcome some of the carbon releasing we create because of our lifestyles. For instance, I live out in the country and in a very small town where traveling via car is just necessary. That is, unless you don’t mind walking or riding your bike 20 miles to the nearest city. Or even in my case 2.5 miles of up and down country roads with curves and even the occasional unfriendly farmers dog nipping at your heals. And to add even more discouraging facts to my lifestyle, to that of a city dweller, I live on a fairly decent sized piece of property that takes all of 3 hours or so to mow.

So how do we non-city-type people go about not ignoring the elements, but still maintain our country life?

This weekend I followed my family tradition of assembling the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, opposed to those other fruitcakes who battle crowds, traffic and even sometimes the weather to save a few bucks here and there. But as I put up the tree I wondered which was more environmentally friendly.

My first thought was the artificial tree because it allows other trees to grow naturally and provide oxygen and remove toxins from the air. But then I realized that this artificial tree that stood before me was full of plastics and other materials which are created with toxic practices. So which is better?

Well considering most live trees are now taken from tree farms, who normally plant two trees for every one that is cut, that seems like a safer bet to me. But again, I discovered that this isn’t entirely true. Many tree farms use pesticides and other chemicals to help growth and prevent disease. These chemicals in turn get into the ground and water resources. So you also might want to consider a tree farm that grows their trees organically.

And even though the artificial tree seems to be the lesser of the two evils, don’t forget that having a real live tree in your home/office might be hard on those who have asthma or allergy problems.

Let me first say that we have consecutive posts because of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and I don’t plan on being here Friday. Notice how I said “plan on” being here? In this business you just never know when you might end up in the office unexpectedly. But I digress.

So a green tree, not all that far fetched of an idea is it? With the exception of the changing of seasons, all trees are green, but this year the idea of a “green tree” takes on a new meaning.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is going “greener” with energy saving light bulbs, replacing old-fashioned bulbs on the towering evergreen this year.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he hoped the change to the midtown Manhattan display will inspire the tens of millions of New Yorkers and tourists who see the tree every year.

Just by replacing the 30,000 light bulbs with multicolored light-emitting diodes, or LED’s, they will reduce their electricity consumption from 3,510 to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day. That’s the equivalent of a 2,000 square foot homes consumption in a month.

A “greener” tree? You better believe it!

Let’s face it, being more environmentally friendly is just that - a new life. We’re doing our very best to change things so that future generations have a new life. One that is free (or mostly free) of pollutants, wasteful practices and a consumption society based on buy, throw away and buy again.

Well a new lease on life for gas guzzlers is more than just buying the latest hybrid or electric car. It’s the idea of taking something old and making it new and better. Whats even better is the idea that it doesn’t have to necessarily be old to breath new life.

Take for instance an Escalade that first has it’s engine completely removed and replaced with a diesel engine that takes it from 400HP to 1,000HP, all the while running on bio-diesel and not from petroleum products. Or Neil Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental that has been transformed completely into an electric car. So what’s the catch, you might ask? You guessed it. Cost. “It’s not cost-effective for someone to run out and spend $40,000 to double the fuel economy, but I have no shortage of customers,” Goodwin says.

And even though the cost(s) seem outrageous, just remember what the first calculator cost and how they’ve evolved. Remember what it was like when cell phones first came out and how big they were? These are all evolutions of technology and breathing new life into an old concept.

To me it seems a little strange to list an organization like the EPA and a paper supplier in the same sentence and only because the two have never really “played well” until now.

But I’d also like to mention that the paper industry has a lot of catching up to do along with us printers.

For the second time the EPA has Mohawk Fine Papers for its commitment to the use of renewable energy sources. On October 22nd , the EPA presented Mohawk with a 2007 Green Power Leadership Award in the category of Green Power Partner of the Year.

The annual award recognizes leading national green power purchasers for their contribution to helping advance the development of the nation’s green power market.

I for one have always loved Mohawk just because of their wide selection of digital print papers and how well it displayed colors. Now I can love them even more because they’re just a bit more green than anyone else.