Arbor Teas has begun to receive Japanese tea from the 2011 harvest. We’ve pulled together some important facts which we hope will help our customers understand the status of this issue (and, without diminishing the significance of this event, perhaps relieve some concerns).

1) No Japanese tea – either freshly picked or packaged – has been discovered to be contaminated by radioactive particles. (Update 6/1/11 – Unfortunately this is no longer true.  Radioactive cesium in newly harvested tea has been detected. Shipments of all the tea from the area were suspended pending additional tests. Please see comments below for more details.  We are working with our suppliers to have samples of their 2011 crop tested for radiation and will post them when available.)

2) Virtually all of Japan’s tea is grown at least 200 to 300 kilometers south of the radiation source. Tea grown in Kagoshima, the nation’s second largest growing region, is on the island of Kyushu, thousands of kilometers away from Fukushima – a distance equivalent to traveling from New York to Denver. Arbor Teas sources the majority of its Japanese tea from the Kagoshima Prefecture. Below, we’ve provided a list of the prefectures from which each of our Japanese teas originate:

Organic Bancha Green Tea — Kagoshima Prefecture
Organic Genmaicha Green Tea — Shizuoka prefecture
Organic Genmaicha Extra Green Tea – Kagoshima Prefecture
Organic Gyokuro Green Tea – Kagoshima Prefecture
Organic Houjicha Green Tea — Kagoshima Prefecture
Organic Kukicha Green Tea – Kagoshima Prefecture
Organic Matcha Green Tea – Aichi Prefecture
Organic Sencha Green Tea – Kagoshima Prefecture

3) The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant is along Japan’s eastern seaboard. Prevailing winds blow east, pushing the fallout over the Pacific Ocean away from land and tea growing areas.

4) Japanese inspectors are testing foods at the source. Japan banned the export of any food products with unusually high readings, despite the fact that these readings are generally below health damaging thresholds. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on April 27 that 39 food samples were tested by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in late April from eight prefectures (Chiba, Fukushima, Gunma, Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Niigata and Yamagata). According to the IAEA, “Analytical results for all of the samples of various vegetables, mushrooms, beef, seafood and raw unprocessed milk indicated that I-131, Cs-134 and Cs-137 were either not detected or were below the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities.”

5) The 2011 tea harvest is well underway, and processing facilities, port authorities and food inspectors in various importing countries are checking for radiation. Stocks of teas that were packaged and stored distant from the fallout zone have been checked.

6) Arbor Teas sells tea that is certified organic under the USDA National Organic Program, which requires far more testing and scrutiny than conventionally-produced tea.

Reference: World Tea News, April 25, 2011

Fossil Fuels: What & How

We use biologically-based fossil fuels to power most of our locomotive machineries. Fossil fuels are naturally made from the anaerobic decomposition of dead animals.  In fact, the ones we use today are typically millions of years old (some fossils exceeding 650 million)!  When animals and plants decompose, they release carbon into the atmosphere at an incredibly slow rate. However, when fossil fuels are burned in order to make fuel energy, the carbon from the decomposing organisms are released at a much higher rate. So, the amount of carbon that should have been released over the span of tens of millions of years is ultimately released in the span of a few hundred years. This extreme release of carbon as carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses drives the greenhouse effect responsible for climate change. While it would be difficult to regress back to environmentally “healthy” shipping options such as horse and buggy, it is important, as a consumer, to know your different shipping options and their individual impact on our fragile environment.

Up in the Air

Airplane rides are not just for that family vacation anymore. Tons of cargo is being shipped world-wide everyday with the help of these mechanical birds. Unfortunately, planes require a lot of fuel to keep them up in the air. Plane fuel consumption depends on the size and weight of the aircraft as well the altitude and duration of the flight. When you consider all these factors, a plane that flies internationally, such as the Boeing 747, may burn approximately one gallon of fuel every second.  These fuels used to power the plane are responsible for the plane’s CO2 emissions. Researchers now believe that in 2025, aviation CO2 emission could reach 1.5 billion tons!* While planes are very helpful in facilitating world-wide commerce and trade, shipping a gift by plane for your Aunt Susan two states over may not be the most eco-friendly option.

Choo Choo’s and CO2’s

Depending on where you live, you may not see a train very often. However, these railroad bound locomotives are still actively used in the movement of cargo and goods. Train fuel consumption is based on the train’s maximum speed and stopping patterns. A higher speed is directly related to more fuel usage. Also, a greater number of stops a train has along the way are also directly related to more fuel usage. This is because there is a greater input of fuel to get the initial motion of the train. Train transportation is considered to be one of the more efficient ways of shipping. On average, a train emits only .1 kg of CO2 per ton mile compared to the .81 kg of CO2 per ton mile of air cargo emissions.**

Trucking along the USA

Even though most trucks use diesel, they are not exempt from the growing number of harmful CO2 emissions into our environment. Vehicle transportation in general constituted about 27% of the United States total greenhouse gas emissions in 2005.*** Between 1990 and 2003, CO2 emissions increased by 20%, despite the many automotive improvements to increase fuel efficiency and decrease CO2 emissions.**** However, trucks emit less CO2 than cars per pound of vehicle mass. Trucks are also considered a better shipping alternative to airplanes emitting fewer CO2 per ton mile.

The Educated Consumer

As climate change becomes more and more evident, it is up to us to take an active role in decreasing CO2 emissions and eliminating our individual carbon footprints. With this important role in mind, Arbor Teas offers the Earth Friendlier Parcel Post Shipping option. Parcel Post shipping through UPS is a ground shipping option that eliminates air travel (making it a greener option) and is available in the lower 48 states. While this shipping option may delay the arrival of your order of delicious organic tea by about a week, this shipping option greatly reduces shipping fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. With Earth Friendlier Parcel Post Shipping, you can sip your tea in confidence knowing that you selected a greener option in its delivery.

* “Airline Emissions: Even Worse Than You Think”, Wired, http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/05/airline-emissio/
** “Transport and the Environment”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_and_the_environment#Rail
*** “Truck: Environmental Effects”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck#Environmental_effects
**** “Truck: Environmental Effects”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck#Environmental_effects

Carpool and Minimize/Consolidate Trips

So you’ve decided to go to the mall – a popular activity this time of year! More than likely, your friends and neighbors need to do a little shopping too, so why not team up and carpool? They may even have gift ideas that you hadn’t considered. But if you already know what you’re going to buy, be sure to plan your route to minimize unnecessary, gas-wasting travel.

Bring Your Own Bag

This is also pretty familiar to many, and applies just as much to holiday shopping as grocery shopping. Reusable bags and totes are all the rage these days, because they cut down on waste from plastic shopping bags. There’s also something kind of satisfying about walking into a store with empty bags, and walking out with bags bursting at their seams!

Reusable Gift Bags

Gift bags are a better alternative to wrapping paper because they can be reused again and again with minimal waste. They also allow you to easily ‘wrap’ multiple gifts at the same time, thereby reducing the total quantity of wrapping material that you use! If you have to purchase new bags, try to buy gift bags made from recycled materials.

Tree-less Gift Wrapping

If you haven’t been saving your wrapping paper for re-use (save bows and ribbons too, they can be used several times at the very least), then you may find yourself buying wrapping paper. But just because you’re buying wrapping paper doesn’t mean that you can’t get eco-friendly or tree-less papers! There are a bundle of companies that produce wrapping paper from 100% post-consumer content and even a few that make wrapping paper out of unexpected things, like banana peels.  Also, consider other less conventional wrappings, like newspapers (if those even still exist in your community!), and cloth or other colorful textiles.

Scrutinize Your Online Shopping

This may be a surprise coming from an online retailer, but a recent UK report suggested that buying online may not be reducing your carbon footprint, but rather, increasing it! Here’s the idea: unless you’re ordering a bunch of stuff from the same place, all those different packages need to be trucked and/or flown to a bunch of different places before they head to your doorstep. And if you need to return something and have it re-shipped to you, then you’ve basically just tripled your carbon emissions! But fear not: Arbor Teas carbon-offsets our entire business operation, including all product shipping through the entire supply chain (from origin to us, and us to the customer). Read more about how we’ve made our entire operation the greenest possible.

Additionally, if you’ve decided to order online, consult with your friends about combining orders! If it all comes in one box, it lowers the amount of fossil fuel emissions and packaging waste used in shipping.

We hope you’ve found these tips helpful. Now you should be ready to take the holiday shopping season by storm! Think of anything we’ve missed? Leave your idea in a comment below! We’d love you to add your two cents to make this the best, most complete compilation of green shopping strategies it can be.

• Drought in China leaving low-lying plants covered in dust, blocking crucial sunshine;
• Intense rainfall contributing to erosion of slopes and loss of plantings in India;
• Unprecedented frost in Rwanda, causing loss of 70% of leaves;
• Erratic rainfall in Kenya, with drought occurring twice as frequently;
• Higher temperatures in China contributing to increased pest populations.

NASA has noted that the effects of La Nina (the counterpart to El Nino that causes some cooling effects) will probably muddle the data for the rest of the year, bringing the year-long average close to the record setting temperatures of 2005. If 2010 were not a year affected by La Nina, NASA scientists believe that it would undoubtedly be the hottest year on their records. But even with the cooling effects of La Nina, 2010 will at least parallel the temperature anomaly of 2005.

NASA scientists suspect that continued global warming is to blame for this year’s incredible heat – they don’t believe it to be a chance occurrence. Additionally, NASA warns that “global warming has an effect on the probability and intensity of extreme [weather] events,” such as hurricanes, tidal waves, and droughts.

Although the peak temperature anomalies affected Eurasia, the Eastern United states (including Michigan, Arbor Teas’ home state) was also unusually warm – and we’ve definitely noticed! As disturbed by this troubling trend as ever, we’re doing our part at Arbor Teas to combat global warming: we continue to carbon offset our entire operation with the help of CarbonFund.org, while also participating in DTE Energy’s GreenCurrents program to promote the generation of energy from renewable resources.  Read more about our dedication to mitigating global climate change and promoting the health of the environment.

According to the American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM), compostable plastic has to be ‘capable of undergoing biological decomposition (..) such that the plastic is not visually distinguishable and breaks down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass, (…) and leaves no toxic residue.’ Additionally, it needs to break down at about the same rate as paper.How is this different from biodegradability? For a plastic to be biodegradable, it merely needs to degrade due to the functioning of some living microorganism. But biodegradability standards do not address the amount of time the material takes to degrade, nor if it leaves a toxic residue. Unfortunately, most biodegradable waste (such as plastic cups made from corn starch), are buried in landfills too deep for the bacteria responsible for biodegrading to survive – there’s just not enough oxygen. And when there isn’t enough oxygen present, many of these biodegradable plastic release methane (a potent greenhouse gas) while degrading. Even worse, many of them can leave behind toxic residues such as heavy metals – which are harmful to plants, animals, and humans (Source: GreenLivingTips).

An even weaker environmental standard would be degradable plastics. For a plastic to be ‘degradable’, it simply needs to be able to be broken down through chemical reactions in a man-made environment. Usually these plastics are oil-based; a byproduct of gasoline production.

Arbor Teas’ new packaging rises above all three of these standards – the next-generation material we use is backyard compostable. In addition to all of the requirements for compostability set forth by the ASTM (as described above), backyard compostable materials need to degrade relatively quickly in a natural environment. Many products labeled as ‘compostable’ only break down under industrial conditions – usually large metal containers with computer-controlled aeration, humidity, and oxygen levels that provide optimal conditions for microorganisms to break down the material (Spellman 79). But backyard compostable materials, like those implemented by Arbor Teas, can break down in a natural environment – like a compost pile behind your house – turning into viable, usable soil that is free of any toxic residues.

ABOUT OUR BACKYARD COMPOSTABLE TEA PACKAGING
Our exciting new packaging is composed of a cellulose film made from wood pulp sourced from sustainably-managed trees. Most compostable packaging available in today’s marketplace is only truly compostable in industrial settings optimized for rapid breakdown. By contrast, the films used for Arbor Teas’ new packaging can actually breakdown in a backyard compost setting.

Because of greater variation in moisture and temperature, backyard composting environments have historically been incapable of breaking down so-called “compostable” packaging materials (e.g. corn plastic cups and take-out containers and the like). However, the material chosen for Arbor Teas’ new packages requires a less optimized environment for biodegradation, representing a major advancement in low-impact packaging.

The film is certified to both the European (EN13432) and American (ASTM D6400) standards for compostable packaging, and has been submitted to an additional independent test protocol (Miti Test ISO14851) confirming its biodegradation at ambient temperatures and in aqueous environments, relevant for home composting in bins or compost heaps.

MORE TEA, LESS PACKAGING!
Not only are our new packages compostable, they’re also lighter than their predecessors. In all, our latest shift in packaging materials reduced the weight of Arbor Teas’ packaging by over 60%! This translates to a meaningful reduction in the carbon footprint of Arbor Teas operations. And, in response to customer requests, the new packaging accommodates more tea than ever before. On average, Arbor Teas packages contain 27% more tea than they did previously. The result: MORE TEA, LESS PACKAGING!
Individually, these may seem like small improvements. But taken together, they add up to the greenest option for tea lovers anywhere!

• using business as a tool for social change;
• “values-driven,” not simply profit-driven;
• socially and environmentally responsible in the way they source, manufacture, and market their products, and run their offices and factories; and
• committed to and employing extraordinary and innovative practices that benefit workers, communities, customers, and the environment.

We are deeply honored to be included in this select directory of the nation’s most progressive businesses, and view it as further validation of the intense focus Arbor Teas maintains on matters of sustainability and social justice.  Arbor Teas is proud to be working with Green America to advance their mission.

So Earth Day 2009 is nearly upon us, and that seems like a good enough reason to show off what we’re doing here at Arbor Teas to reduce our impact on the planet.  We’re not usually ones for the “hard sell,” but this may be the one time of year that we’ll make an exception.  The degree to which we’ve minimized our environmental “footprint” is a real source of pride for us here at Arbor Teas, and every once in a while we can’t help but brag.  So, in case you were looking for a few more reasons for Arbor Teas to become your tea source (or if you just want to take comfort in knowing that your source for tea is doing everything it can think of to reduce it’s envirommental impact), here you go!

Reason #1 – Exclusively Organic Teas:  We are deeply committed to organic agriculture, offering an entire catalog of organic teas and tisanes. Organic farming excludes the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), resulting in a variety of benefits to flora and fauna, air and water qulity, and our climate. Arbor Teas offers one of the largest catalogs of USDA certified organic teas available.

Reason #2 – Green Packaging:  Our packaging is specially designed to minimize its “environmental footprint,” relying on parchment-lined paperboard and glassine-lined kraft paper instead of tin-plated steel.  This shift reduced the carbon emissions associated with our packaging by over 80%!

Reason #3 – Green Printing:  We take a green approach to printing, which means we keep our printing minimal, use post-consumer recycled paper, and use low VOC soy- and/or water-based inks whenever possible.  It’s unlikely that you’ll ever see a printed catalog published by Arbor Teas.

Reason #4 – Reuse/Recycling of Materials:  We aggressively recycle our solid waste, reusing office supplies and packaging materials wherever possible. These efforts have been recognized through our partnership with the Washtenaw County Waste Knot Program.

Reason #5 – Reclamation of Materials:  In addition to recycling boxes for shipping our orders, we reclaim packing materials (peanuts, paper, bubble wrap, etc.) from local businesses and the local Materials Recovery Facility. Don’t be surprised if your order shows up packed in a hodgepodge of packing materials that have been given a second life!

Reason #6 – Green Energy:  By participating in DTE Energy’s GreenCurrents program, we promote the generation of energy from renewable sources, preventing approximately 10,000 pounds of carbon from being released into the atmosphere each year.

Reason #7 – Bicycling Hauling:  In an effort to further reduce our carbon emissions, all of our outbound packages are delivered to the post office (or other shipping carrier) by Dave Askins and his bicycle-powered hauling company, HD Hauling. 

Reason #8 – Earth-Friendly Shipping:  Although all of our shipping (both to and from our facility) has been carbon offset through CarbonFund.org (see below), our customers can elect to have their orders shipped via USPS Parcel Post, which doesn’t rely on air transportation (except to Alaska and Hawaii). Air transit generates far greater greenhouse gas emissions than ground transportation.

Reason #9 – Carbon Offset:  For those carbon emissions that we just can’t avoid (yet), we’ve teamed-up with CarbonFund.org to offset them by promoting the development of green energy, energy efficiency and reforestation. 

Reason #10 – Tips for Green Living:  To help our customers keep the environmental impact minimal once their tea arrives at their door, we do our best to provide helpful, relevant tips and information for earth-friendly tea enjoyment!

We hope you’ll consider making Arbor Teas your Earth-friendly source for organic loose leaf teas!

This holiday, Dave had to contend with somewhat more generous snowfall than we’ve seen in recent years.  And of course, on the morning of our last day of shipping for Christmas Eve delivery, we got a major dump. Even before the City could clear the streets, Dave arrived to haul away the last of our holiday deliveries.  And although many, MANY cars and trucks found themselves mired in the snowy mess that day, our packages made it through the first leg of their jouney to our customers safe and sound.

By hiring HD Hauling to help our packages reach their destinations, we not only support a cool local endeavor, but it stands as one more small way we’re working to reduce the carbon footprint of this little tea company of ours. So, next time you place your order with Arbor Teas, think of Dave!