Archive for the 'Sustainability' Category
It’s so easy nowadays- just point, click and buy. Depending on where you bought from and the availability, you could have your item delivered to your house in about a week. Sounds easy, simple and energy free, right? Well, sort of. While you didn’t necessarily power up your car and drive from store to store scavenging for the perfect item, a lot of fuel energy was probably used in your delivery. So, if an item is being delivered to you what is the best method and why?
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.
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March 18 2011 | Energy and Green Business and Sustainability | 1 Comment »
As an environmentally conscious consumer, it can be tough to reconcile the material excess of the holiday season with one’s concern for the planet. But how do you cut down on your environmental impact without sacrificing the joys of the season? It’s easier than you think, actually. Aside from sticking with gifts that are inherently more Earth-friendly (such as organic, recycled/recyclable, carbon-offset, etc.), here are some ideas to get you started:
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.
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December 03 2010 | Green Business and Sustainability | No Comments »
Tea is a relatively energy-efficient beverage. A cup of tea, made by boiling only the amount of water you need, produces only about a tenth of the carbon footprint generated by a large cup of cappuccino (Source: “The World’s Water, 2008-2009″ by Peter Gleick, et al, www.waterfootprint.org). To put this into perspective, if you drink four cups of black tea every day for a year, you would have only used up as much energy as a single 40-mile car ride. On the other hand, the energy involved in a three-a-day latte habit is equivalent to flying halfway to Europe!
What Does Carbon Have To Do With Cold Brewing Tea?
Actually, there is even more you can do to reduce your CO2 emissions when it comes to tea-making. We covered a variety of “green brewing” techniques in a previous post. These are certainly great ways to reduce your carbon footprint, but there is yet another easy and practical alternative to the regular brewing process: cold-brewing! As its name suggests, this technique involves making your favorite tea with cold water, slashing energy consumption by eliminating the water-heating process.
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November 06 2010 | Energy and Sustainability and Tea Preparation | 1 Comment »
If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re an environmentally-conscious tea drinker like us. While we’ve made big strides towards comprehensive sustainability (by sticking with organic tea, carbon-offsetting our business activities, using backyard-compostable packaging, etc.), buying your tea from an eco-friendly company such as ours is only part of the equation – the tea still needs to be brewed! Because we live in a world with limited freshwater resources and a dependence on fossil fuels for energy, we need to do all we can to minimize waste in our daily rituals – including tea drinking! With that in mind, we’d like to offer five quick (but hard-core) tips to help out:
- Measure Then Fill. Start the process by filling your kettle with the water you intend to use for brewing, pouring in only the amount of water required to fill your teapot. This way, you’re not wasting any water, and you’re not expending any more energy than necessary to bring the water to the right temperature. If you don’t think you’ll drink a whole pot, then fill the amount of cups you intend on drinking with water and pour those into your kettle instead.
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September 29 2010 | Sustainability and Tea Preparation | 5 Comments »
Earlier this week, NASA released a report confirming the meteorological speculations: 2010 is expected to be the hottest year on record, based upon the temperatures witnessed so far this year. NASA’s report, which can be found here, states, “2010 is likely, but not certain, to be the warmest year in the GISS record.” GISS refers to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NASA’s program for studying global change. This is bad news for tea lovers – whether you’re environmentally-minded or not! In recent history, the tea producing world has encountered serious trouble from the onset of global warming, from a variety of climate-related hardships. Here are a few examples from our prior post on the impact of global warming on tea production:
- 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.
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August 22 2010 | Green Business and Sustainability | No Comments »
Starting a compost pile in your backyard is a simple and effective way to lower your home’s impact on the planet. Not only does it significantly reduce the amount of waste going into landfills, but it provides an outstanding source of nutrient-rich soil, which might facilitate you growing your own hyper-local food. And if composting became the norm, it would also lessen the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere by garbage trucks and trash processing facilities. So let’s get started!
Building your own compost bin at home can be simple!
The first thing you’re going to need is a place to start piling up your compostable materials. This can either be on the bare earth, or on pavement. If you choose to have your compost pile on pavement, you’ll want to put a couple of inches of moist dirt on the bottom as a base layer for your compost pile – this helps to retain moisture, which is very important for the composting process (Source: Groundwater.org). Although not entirely necessary, many people choose to construct or buy a compost bin – something to keep the composting area tidy and prevent any animals from searching for food in your pile. This can be as big or as small as you’d like, depending on how much compostable material you will have available. It’s very easy to construct a compost bin out of materials like chicken wire, shipping pallets, cinder blocks – whatever you’ve got!
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July 18 2010 | Sustainability | 7 Comments »
In today’s steadily expanding ‘green’ market, there is a lot of confusion among ethical consumers about what exactly some of the labeling means – and with good reason. There is an incredible amount of new terminology coming to the marketplace. A good portion of the terminology has to do with the packaging materials, which are a major concern now that the amount of waste being dumped in the oceans and third world countries has become public knowledge. To help clarify things, we’d like to explain the difference between ‘compostable,’ ‘biodegradable,’ ‘degradable,’ and the standard of our own packaging material, ‘backyard compostable.’
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June 30 2010 | Green Business and Sustainability | 9 Comments »
Beginning on Earth Day 2010, Arbor Teas became the first tea company to deliver its full line of organic loose teas in 100% backyard compostable packaging! With the release of this next generation packaging, we at Arbor Teas advanced our environmental mission, continuing to lead the tea industry through our staunch commitment to sustainable business practices. For the first time ever, tea drinkers are now able to compost their tea leaves AND tea packaging together in their home composting system!
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. continue reading »
April 22 2010 | Green Business and Products and Sustainability | 4 Comments »
Wondering what’s happening in the Fair Trade Certified tea estates that supply Arbor Teas with its exceptional organic teas? Here is an update on the Singampatti Oothu Estate which supplies Arbor Teas with an organic, Fair Trade Certified black tea that is full-bodied, smooth, and subtly sweet with light to medium astringency. It is one of our favorites!
The Oothu Singampatti Tea Estates cover the rolling hills of Tirunelveli in the Nilgiris district of southern India. The group of estates are surrounded by the tropical evergreen forests of the Kalakkad and Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. Situated at the southern end of the Western Ghat mountain range, the Oothu Tea Garden is surrounded on all sides by rainforest that hosts a rich diversity of unique wildlife. Jungle corridors among the tea fields have been carefully preserved in order to maintain this rare natural ecosystem. A pioneer in sustainable tea production, Oothu was the first tea garden in India to adopt biodynamic principles and among the first in the country to become certified organic. Fair Trade Certified since 1995, Oothu Singampatti continues to make a significant social impact on the community
The Fair Trade price has enabled workers at Singampatti Group to establish various programs, including:
1) Education — The Oothu Singampatti Estates provide scholarships, focusing on deserving children and those from the most impoverished families within the organization.
2) Health — Health programs, implemented with Fair Trade revenue, contribute to primary care and also allow for specialized treatment that was previously unavailable to estate families. Additionally, life insurance now covers all workers and their families, and funeral expenses are provided.
“Fair Trade has reduced my burden by providing me the finances, which help me put my son in special care. I am thankful to the consumers who pay the extra premium, which reaches people like me and makes a difference.” — Sita, Oothu worker with a son diagnosed with cerebral palsy
December 30 2009 | Fair Trade and Sustainability | No Comments »
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%!
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April 21 2009 | Green Business and Sustainability | 1 Comment »
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