I thought so too. And keeping fuel costs to a minimum not only makes sense for the planet, but should also help FedEx save some money. Then I saw a tracking record for a package that was being shipped to me from a city around 40 miles from my home:

According to Google Maps, the FedEx Oakland location that the package arrived at last night is 7.5 miles from my home, the package’s destination. Around 6:30am today it left there, and I assumed it would be on one of their delivery trucks heading here. But no, look where they sent it – Memphis, Tennessee!

Somebody at FedEx in Oakland actually loaded a package for delivery to an address less than 10 miles from where they stood on to a plane, and then flew it approximately 1800 miles to their hub in Memphis. At some point today, probably without even considering the stupidity or cost (to the planet and to FedEx) of these actions, another worker at FedEx in Memphis will load the package back on a plane, and send it back to Oakland – another 1800 miles.

So, my little package will have travelled around 3600 extra miles. Nothing green about that, and no matter how fuel efficient your vehicles, this is never going to be the right thing to do.

I actually called FedEx to see whether this was some kind of mistake. Perhaps the web site tracking information was wrong, or perhaps the parcel had accidentally been put in the wrong box. But no, from what the very kind customer service person told me, it seems that it is normal to route packages through their hub in Memphis like this.

Do other shipping companies work this way too?

Many new flush mechanisms for residential use are coming with a dual flush option that can be used to save water. Typical modern single flush toilets will use 1.6 gallons of water per flush (gpf), or 6 litres. That is already a big saving on older units that could use as much as 5 gallons per flush). A dual flush unit adds a 0.8 gpf option for flushing liquid waste.

While the savings at home can be significant, the savings in a commercial installation are much higher since we spend so much more awake time at work than at home in general. So, installing dual flush options for office facilities and in other commercial buildings makes a lot of sense. If done right.

The photo shows the sign affixed to the wall above a new, eco-friendly flush unit installed in the building where my office is located. All sounds good, but I have two problems with this particular installation:

1. The reduced flush option is activated by pulling the handle up, which means most people will continue to use the full flush without even thinking about it.

2. It was fitted to a urinal, which should never need the ’solid waste’ option.

The combination of those two flaws makes this particular installation essentially useless. A regular 1 gpf urinal flush mechanism would probably have been a better choice for this location, especially since most people will press the handle down.

Supermarket Bags
If you own a store that uses plastic shopping bags, why not switch to BioBag shopping bags? You’ll be able to do something good for the environment, without needing to persuade your customers to change their habits! If you work for a store, try suggesting to your employer that they switch to these greener bags.

Composting System
In addition to making compostable bags, BioBags also has a solution to help make composting your organic kitchen waste a little easier, and odour free.

[Via The Daily Green]

Amazon Green, a new store from Amazon, focuses on listing environmentally friendly products. Included already are eco-friendly cleaning products, EnergyStar approved lighting products and office electronics.

Currently, they’re also asking customers for their Green 3 products: the three green products that they wish everybody had. The current top three are reusable shopping bags and a couple of different CFL bulbs (fourth is a push reel lawn mower).

One of the most innovative companies in the green space is TerraCycle. Initially producing natural fertilizer from worm poop, and bottling it in old plastic soda bottles that they pay schools to collect, the company has now branched out into all kinds of innovative products made from trash.

Cleaners
In addition to their lawn and garden products shipped out in refilled soda bottles, TerraCycle is now shipping household cleaning products in the same refilled bottles. Everything from an all purpose cleaner to a drain cleaning product. All the cleaners go beyond eco-friendly and have in fact been certified as environmentally responsible by Environment Canada.

Bags & Office Products
More recently, TerraCycle has begun to make reusable bags from plastics that would normally find their way into the landfills simply because they are too costly to recycle. Calling this upcycling, the company is collecting cookie wrappers, drink pouches, yoghurt containers, corks and more. Better still, they pay for each one you send in (as long as you send in enough in each batch). This makes a great project for schools or other groups to participate in.

For the office, there are a couple of garbage/recycling containers made from e-waste, more bag options and even binders and folders, all made from stuff that was heading for the landfill.

In some countries the outlets have individual switches, making it simple to really switch off equipment. For countries where this is not the case, think about using a simple power strip with a switch on it as a way to avoid having to keep unplugging things.

Home Entertainment Systems

High on that list of remote controlled electronics are all those home entertainment components. Some of them might need to be left on (for example, a VCR or DVR that is set to record programming while you’re out), others can be switched off at the wall.

Regular (non-DVR) cable and satellite receivers should probably also be left on, otherwise you will need to wait for them to authorize and download the programming guide each time you want to watch something.

If you are using a power strip for a home entertainment system, consider getting one designed for A/V equipment.

Computer Equipment

Much like home entertainment systems, computers can be switched off at the wall when not in use (after being shut down properly of course). Using a sleep or hibernate mode will use less power than when the machine is on, but it will still be using electricity.

The same goes for printers, scanners and all the other peripherals that we connect to our computers. Switch them off at the wall (or unplug them) when they’re not in use.

The only real exception to this for the home office are the DSL or cable modem box and, if you have one, a wireless router or access point. The former is best left on because it maintains a connection to your ISP (in some cases it might even be monitored by them). The wireless wants to be on because you don’t want to have to switch that on each time you want to surf from your laptop. If you’re going on vacation though, unplug them both too. Also, if you’re signing up for new service, see if you can get a single box that provides both functions as that will reduce the overall power consumption.

A handy alternative to the power strip that copes well with the proliferation of wall transformers is the PowerSquid type connector with individual cables for each device. If you already have a power strip, but can’t use all of its sockets because of overlapping transformers, then you can get short extensions to convert any power strip into something like a PowerSquid.

If you are willing to spend a little time setting it up, consider getting a smart powerstrip instead. These have a master socket, which remains on all the time, and a set of slave sockets that will be turned off when the device on the master reduces its power consumption. They normally have one or two always on sockets too for those devices that must remain on (see above). When you first set this up you will need to adjust the power level at which the slave sockets are turned off, but once done you should be able to sleep your computer and have the monitor, printer etc turned off automatically.

Satisfy Your Inner Geek

All that is great in theory, but how do you know how much you are saving? Well, you can always get an electricity usage monitor and measure the power being consumed by your devices when on and off.

Mowers

First up, the most expensive of your lawn care products will almost certainly be the lawn mower. There are three green options for cutting your grass, and which you choose will probably depend on the size of lawn, and the amount of effort you’re willing to put into it:

• Human powered classic reel mowers like the Scotts 20-Inch Classic Push Reel Lawn Mower;
• Electric mowers that plug in to the standard household electricity supply, like the Black & Decker Lawn Hog Electric Mower (the mower I chose to maintain our front lawn here in Alameda);
• Cordless electric mowers like the Neuton models or the Black & Decker 19-Inch Cordless Mower.

Any of those options will help make your lawn mowing simpler (no need to worry about buying fuel; no back-breaking cord pulling to get the mower started). They also help reduce air pollution and noise pollution. The folks over at Neuton Power provide these statistics comparing electric mowers to conventional gasoline powered ones:

• Mowing for 1 hour with a gasoline mower produces the same pollution as driving a typical car 50 miles.
• Over 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year refueling lawn and garden equipment – more petroleum than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
• According to the EPA, gas mowers are responsible for nearly 5% of our nation’s total air pollution.
• Over 800 million gallons of gasoline are used mowing lawns in the US every year.
• If you operate a gas mower for more than 15 minutes, experts advise you to wear hearing protection.

Still not convinced? Just remember next time you’re walking behind that conventional mower that your basically breathing its exhaust!

Edging

Much like the lawn mowers, there are several green options for lawn edging too:

• The manual options ranging from half-moon edgers like the WOLF-Garten Half-Moon Edger to more sophisticated rotary edgers like the Flexrake Lawn Edger;
• Electric edge trimmers like the Black & Decker Edge Hog;
• Cordless edge trimmers like the Black & Decker Cordless Grass Hog String Trimmer/Edger.

The Neuton cordless mowers also have an optional edge trimmer, so if you went with the Neuton for mowing the lawn, why not use its edge trimmer as well.

Fertilizing & Weed Killing

Aside from cutting and trimming, feeding and weed management are also things you’ll probably need to think about. Rather than using chemical fertilizers that can burn your lawn, causing more harm than good, why not try some organic lawn care options.

• Garden Way “Nature’s Touch” Organic Lawn Fertilizer
• Espoma Organic Lawn Food
• Ringer All Natural Lawn Restore

For the ultimate in green lawn care, check out the TerraCycle Lawn Fertilizer which is made from liquified worm poop, and then bottled in old 1 litre soda bottles collected by one of TerraCycle’s Bottle Brigades.