Did you know what Target, Safeway & Costco all do better than Trader Joe’s? The seafood they sell is rated higher by Greenpeace in terms of sustainability.
I was driving by Geary & Masonic today and saw a crew of red hawaiian shirted young people holding up this, and I had to find out more:
They held an action today to highlight Trader Joe’s failure to address Seafood Sustainability in their business practices. Trader Joe’s does not have a Sustainable Seafood Policy, and a “Greenpeace Survey found that Trader Joe’s sells 15 of 22 red list seafoods, including Chilean Sea Bass, Tuna, and Swordfish.”
Seafood is a tough one for people wanting to live the sustainable lifestyle. How do you know the fish you are eating is harvested with respect to the environment? Is that species being over fished, or worse, has already crashed? Does it matter?
It does matter; it is not simply one or two fisheries crashing, but entire ocean ecosystems. From dead zones to garbage patches the size of Texas, to the impacts our individual homes make, our ocean’s are under assault. When it comes to the fish stocked on our store shelves, we are literally eating the sea to death. It happens far away, out of site, but if we do not recognize our direct connection to this problem we are screwed.
The average consumer is going to have an extraordinarily hard time trying to figure out what types of fish are ok to eat: even pro’s confess to being stymied. Grocer’s like Trader Joe’s need to do their part to be good stewards of the environment and help their customer’s make sustainable choices in the fish available for sale. Trader Joe’s does not seem to think so, and that is a shame because they could be great partners in this effort. It is a little weird to think that Wal-Mart does a better job, but Wal-Mart is ranked number 7 on Greenpeace’s list of Supermarket Seafood Sustainability Scorecard, and Trader Joe’s is number 17!
One greast resource is The Marine Stewardship Council which tracks various fisheries and verifies their sustainable business practices, much like the Forest Stewardship Council does for wood. Another is the Montery Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch. But when you are running into the market to grab something fast for dinner, you need a hand. Professional buyer’s like Trader Joe’s should be helping their customer’s out.
“After being engineered in Germany and used throughout Europe for over 30 years, a completely sustainable plastic piping system for potable water use has finally hit California.
Made from recycled material, using less than 1/3 of the energy to produce and completely non-toxic, polypropylene piping systems is the most environmentally friendly pipe in the world.
Made in Germany by Aquatherm, polypipe is nothing new to the plumbing industry; what makes Aquatherm innovative is how it has engineered its polypropylene piping with glass. The fiberglass composite layer embedded in the pipe reduces linear expansion by 75% while adding structural integrity and insulation.
Cheaper than metal pipes and stronger than CPVC or PEX are only some of the environmental benefits to using Polypropylene with glass over conventional piping systems. Aquatherm is approved by Greenpeace and applies to 9 different LEED categories and is listed by UPC, UMC, NSF and IAPMO.”
If you would like to learn more about polyproylene pipe and how to incorporate this system in your green building design, feel free to contact the manufacturers Bay Area rep:
I checked my inverter about midday today and saw that the solar PVC panels were generating 2067 volts. Not too shabby for the Sunset District of San Francisco (if you are reading this from Minnesota and do not know, the Sunset district is infamous for being a foggy mess in the summer, a detail not wholly grounded in reality) I am guessing the panels will produce at least 15 kilowatt hours today, so my eco pride is flowing. How apropos that this weekend is in fact Pride Weekend in the city.
I did visit the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in downtown San Francisco last week. PCBC is the premier trade show of conventional builders on the west coast, complete with vendors hawking their wares at a modern and far more “civilized” closed air bazaar, workshops, keynotes, little plastic badges and a crew of dancers from the gold club handing out coupons. I guess the recession is hitting everyone.
The floor was grim to say the last, it looked like half the number of sellers from last year, and for every regular guy like me walking around there seemed to be 20 people with listless eyes staring out from their respective booths. Whirlpool was jumping, they have Martin Yan every year doing cooking demos, but even he only had about 20 or so bodies when I passed by. The dye is looking a bit orange in his hair, they should have pinched better lighting from one of the LED booths nearby.
Toto had a new to me marketing push called “Totology” they are using to push their water saving line of fixtures, toilets and the like. Props to them, I bought 3 new Aquia Dual flushes this week for some bathrooms I am doing. Lots of the vendors were pushing their Sustainable Credentials with FSC labels, I like that. I met a guy from the Sustainable Forrestry Initiative. Rob Worthington, who was spinning his group’s angle as being a more local/North American oriented type of FSC group. They were originally an industry sponsored group, though he claims they have spun off to be 100% independent. Frankly I do not believe that, any industry group that claims to be “independent” instantly strikes me as bullshit, but I am going to keep my eye on them and see what I see, who knows, maybe they really are trying to do the right thing and balance our lust for wood with responsible forest management.
In general I thought most people were green-washing their products as opposed to really giving a crap about the environment and sustainable building. This is no west coast green to be sure, but even green-washing is to a degree progress. It is just that we need more.
Being an active global citizen takes work. Here is something you can do right now, call your representative and tell them you support the clean energy bill that is before congress. More information available at Repower America.
Sorry for the lack of posts this week, but my family and I have officially taken up residence in the Green Sunset home I rebuilt. I plan on keeping track of our escapades in green living here at SustainableSchmidt; tracking our water & power use, how the various sustainable features are working, and what I would have done, and will do, different. One decision I have come to is to create an urban farm in the backyard area – it is a fairly deep lot and I believe that it will support some serious cultivation. Artichoke plants, strawberries and rosemary are all obvious choices for a Sunset Backyard, as well as some lettuce – I will keep you posted on the rest as frankly I haven’t a clue =) All I know is the landscape architects wanted $60,000 – $70,000 and that ain’t sustainable for my pocket book.
I am off to PCBC this afternoon, I will report back on what the fine folks there are doing. I went to a “Green Builders Forum” a few years back, and I was so disappointed I wrote a letter to the president of PCBC telling him how much it sucked ass. They refunded my money – so props to them. Here is hoping 2009 is better.
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