Imagine Christmas morning. If you are like many families, there will be mounds of gift-wrap and packaging taking over your living room. There are countless amounts of decorations and unused gifts. Then think about the meal. Some resort to prepackaged food or paper products if there are not enough dishes or to make cleaning easier. It is an eco-friendly nightmare. The holidays can increase waste by 25 percent. Amazon.com provided a few ideas to make your holidays a little “greener” this year:

• Gift Selection. Try to pick out a gift that you know the recipient will use. Handmade gifts are always thoughtful, as well as spending time with the person or performing a service for them. Amazon allows you to search for eco-friendly gifts, as well as has the option of “Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging”, which features recyclable boxes that are easy to open and free of excess materials such as hard plastic clamshell cases, plastic bindings, and wire ties. If you don’t know what to get, try a gift certificate. Then the recipient can get a gift they know they will use, and it uses less packaging.

• Gift Wrapping. Gift wrapping makes up a large portion of the waste during the holidays. Much of it is not recycled or is not recyclable. Reuse gift wrapping or consider buying or making reusable cloth gift bags. You can use materials from around the house for gift wrapping, or even try wrapping the gift in another gift, such as a t-shirt, pillowcase, or towels.
• Decorating. Some people do go overboard with their holiday decorations, but you do not have to give up festivity for eco-friendly. Find decorations that you will reuse for years to come. Think of things around your home that remind you of the holidays. You could even create a collage of photos or string photos on yarn in place of streamers.
• Preparing the Meal. Prepackaged food may be more convenient, but think of the benefits of a home-made meal. Not only would it use less packaging, but home-cooked foods are generally more healthy and flavorful. Also, try to stay away from disposable dinnerware. If you do not have enough dishes, you could ask guests to bring extras, or you could purchase reusable dinnerware for special occasions. Cloth napkins are also an eco-friendly option. These options bring a little extra work of washing, but it is worth it to know you are helping the environment.

The holidays do not have to be an environmental disaster. You can still be eco-friendly without giving up your traditions and festivities. Try some of these helpful tips to make your holidays a little “greener” this year.

Your company decides to be more eco-friendly and use energy-efficient IT products, but how do you decide which products actually use less heat, cut energy bills, and reduce the company’s carbon footprint? I read an interesting article in eWeek titled, “The Green Seal of Approval” that touched on this issue.

There are many certification programs that will analyze the products for you and eWeek focused on the three most common certifications:

• Energy Star.

This is one of the most familiar environmental certifications and it is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy. Some of the products they rate are monitors, printers, scanners, desktop computers and notebooks. The products have to meet specific energy-efficiency standards, which include consuming less than a defined amount of power during use and entering into a low-power mode when not in use. The point is to save energy and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Find a product with the features that you need, and then look for an Energy Star model with those features.

• EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool).

This certification applies to desktop computers, notebooks, and monitors. EPEAT defines 51 criteria in eight areas. It is notable for covering an unusually wide range of issues: reduction of environmentally sensitive materials; materials selection; design for end of life; product longevity and life extension; end-of-life management; and packaging. Depending on how many of the certification’s criteria a product meets, it could receive one of three levels of ratings: Bronze, Silver, or Gold.

• ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances).

This is the European Union’s instruction for the restriction of the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. The products must meet the EU’s limits on levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, and other substances harmful to the environment. This does not mean that the products do not have any of these hazardous substances. There are exemptions for specific uses without alternatives and there are permissible limits allowed.

With the growing trend of eco-friendly products, it can be difficult to determine which IT products are actually energy-efficient. If you want to find the products that use less heat, cut energy bills, and reduce the company’s carbon footprint, look for IT products with these certifications.

It’s been a while since we’ve featured a post on eco-friendly products, so I thought I’d tell you about one of our newest clients who are very passionate about our environment - Green Earth Construction Group out of Tampa, Florida.

Their name says it all. They build residential and commercial buildings using environmentally-friendly methods and materials.

Don’t forget: Sunrise offers a recycling “take-back” program for all products that we make. Once you are done using it, you can send any product we make back to us and we will break it down to its component parts to be recycled.

These environmentally-friendly name tags made from cardboard are beautiful!

Recently, they hosted a symposium on green construction and they wanted their event to be as environmentally friendly as possible. That’s why they decided to use our eco-friendly name badges

The name tags are made from recycled chipboard and steel magnets. The name badges are beautifully printed using dry toner on a digital printer which is part of Sunrise’s vibrant recycling program. The name tags can be taken home and re-used, kept as a memento, or both parts can be detached from each other and recycled.

For more information on Green Earth Construction Group or for dates of upcoming symposiums, contact Virginia Grabowski at 813.241.0222

• On the web: greenearthgroup.net
• On the phone: 813-241-0222
• Direct phone: 813 579-0018 direct

There is an increasing demand for environmentally-friendly products. Many artists and record companies have been working to meet this demand for their products. The most environmentally-friendly option may be iTunes, which is to purchase the albums as digital files. But many customers would still prefer to physically own the CD and album artwork to have as their own. This brings the need for eco-friendly packaging.

Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour, released his first carbon-neutral CD in 2006, “On an Island”, which was Columbia Records’ first album to be released under eco-friendly guidelines. The album was produced with biodegradable cardboard packaging, environmentally friendly inks, and water-based lacquer. They had to change the manufacturing process to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. They also offset the carbon dioxide release by paying for alternative energy sources and planting trees. Columbia Records contributed money to a hydroelectric power plant project in China’s Sichuan province.

Many record companies are jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon. This past spring, Universal Music Group released more than 20 CDs in Wal-Mart stores in recycled paperboard packaging. These CDs also included an insert that offered three free digital downloads. That insert could then also be used to plant wildflowers. Universal also released its Millennium Series in recycled packaging with biodegradable PaperFoam trays, which held the discs.

Sunrise Packaging can help make this possible. We develop creative packaging that is both recyclable and reusable. In order to create an eco-friendly album, we use environmentally-friendly inks, papers and glues for the cover artwork and apply it using biodegradable chipboard. The interlocking trays are made out of recycled plastic or a bio-plastic, which can then have 100% recyclable rings added to complete the album. Sunrise Packaging can give your product the added touch of creativity and offers the social responsibility of an eco-friendly product to attract new and existing customers.

(Pictures taken from Sustainable is Good).

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