Trusting the New Year has treated you kindly!

In review of this month, we asked you to take the Cynergreen Eco- Challenge and start the year off making a commitment to take care of you. Hopefully you found new ways to nurture yourself in spite of the difficult time our country is facing and you are feeling strong and healthy.

Other topics we covered:

Early last month, our very own Riley Hoffer of CGKidz.com presented the Alain L. Locke elementary school with a “Green Club in a Box”. The box was filled with everything needed to start an environmental club at the school including a monetary donation for additional supplies (click here to learn more about Riley’s presentation at Alain L. Locke).

These same special kids were recently featured in Newsweek magazine after their teachers asked the students to write several letters to President Obama about how this moment in history changed their lives. To read some of their letters, visit Newsweek magazine. You can also see a live video feed with the children sharing their thoughts using their own words.

We are proud to know and be affiliated with such a progressive and caring group of young people and want to commend them for their efforts. We support their mission to reach President Obama and wish them good will with achieving their goal!!

How can your school join Alain L. Locke and become a green school?

If you would like to learn how your school can receive your very own “Green Club in a Box,” visit CGkidz.com for more information.

In next week’s posts I will share an interview I did with Vicki Dabrowka, a teacher at Gibson Island Country School located in Pasadena, MD (www.gics.org), about how their mission to go green has transformed her life and what their experience with CGKidz was like!

We are often asked what the differences are between the various types of materials that are used to make water bottles and other common household products.

We thought we would outline the differences so you, the consumer, can make an informed decision about which products you choose to use in the future:

Plastic
• Depending on which kind of plastic it is, it will leach a chemical called Bisphenol A which is harmful to our bodies. (BPA) Just google BPA, scary.
• It’s made from petroleum – not a good product for our body’s to consume.
• Seen your local landfill lately? The mounds and piles of plastic water bottles collecting is unacceptable. It takes one plastic water bottle 700 years to decompose in a landfill. Americans use somewhere around 38 billion plastic water bottles per year. Less than 14% are recycled.

Aluminum
• In recent studies there has been a link between aluminum and Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Aluminum bottles (we hope) have what they are calling a food safe liner. That liner has been reported to:
o Break down over time
o Leach BPA
o Mold if not properly washed or closed before drying

Stainless Steel
• No liner, made from 304 virgin stainless steel (CynerGreen bottles)
• BPA free, toxin free
• Cap is #5 polypropylene – the safest plastic to date, non leaching
• Heavy duty, light weight
• Recyclable, Reusable

As a leading manufacturer of stainless steel water bottles, and a green organization, CynerGreen takes extra steps to ensure it’s bottles are manufactured safely, toxin free and with fair labor standards in place.

Hopefully we have provided you with enough information to make an informed decision about which product material you choose to use in your personal life!

As a continuation of yesterday’s post about “greening the planet with kids”, we looked at ways parents can teach their kids to respect the earth and what she provides us with in our day to day lives.

So what does the earth need from us to ensure a safe and healthy future?

Like all living beings, our planet needs to be nurtured and cared for. The most effective way to accomplish this goal is for parents to teach their children how to be green. Of course, we also have to learn to become more eco-friendly ourselves; to be the model our children and the planet need us to be.

Because the earth has limited resources, it’s important that we learn to conserve what we have. Some of the ways you can teach children to conserve are:

One of our primary goals as parents is to teach our children to respect all living things. One way to do this is to educate them to care for the planet as the largest living organism of all.

How can we do this? Teach our children to green the planet!

Begin by teaching them what it means to be green; how they can become a friend to planet earth. Sit down with your child and discuss all of the things the earth provides for in our daily lives; things we need to live, be safe and stay healthy.

Some examples of ways the earth provides for our daily needs are:

ENTER FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN 5 FREE STAINLESS STEEL WATER BOTTLES

Take the Pledge. Stop the Madness.

Did you know that it takes one single plastic water bottle 700 years to decompose in a landfill?

Our “tell us your story” contest was such a big hit, we decided to do it again. Here’s how it works:

1.) Take the “Break the bottled water bad habit Pledge”
I pledge to Break the Bottled Water Habit by drinking from a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. I also pledge to support the efforts of local officials to stop spending public funds on bottled water and prioritize strong public water systems over bottled water profits.

2.) Tell us your personal story about how YOU are making a difference and living a greener life.

We just might select you to win 5 free stainless steel reusable water bottles along with a featured interview on the GREEN GAB blog.

Contest begins:
TODAY, Janurary 22^nd and runs monthly through April 2009.

A congratulations to our previous contest winners:
Betty Avary and JoAnne Neal

Runners up:
Kelly Mencke and Melinda Spencer

Watch for their stories and interviews to appear on our blog, coming soon!

Recently, Cynergreen attended an ASI conference in Orlando, Fl. and the number one question they were asked is “what does it mean to have a green product?” They wound up spending 90% of their time at the conference educating people about what it means to be “green;” people supposedly there to represent eco-friendly products.

I asked Danelle Hoffer, vice president and co-founder of Cynergreen, what has surprised her the most about the green movement since they’ve been operating an eco-friendly business? Here’s what she had to say.

“Attending different conferences, there are several products labeled “green” but when you ask people who represent the company why they consider their product to be green- often they can’t tell you. I guess my point, especially within the industry, is it’s even worse to promote a product that isn’t eco-friendly and not even understand the difference.”

I went on to ask Danelle if she has seen this within their own specific niche market of promoting healthy alternatives to plastic water bottles. She had more than enough to say on the subject of plastic.

“There were people promoting lots of plastic personalized water bottles saying that they were “recyclable“. We know they are recyclable but do people recycle? No, not really.

“People still don’t recycle the way they should and it takes petroleum to create the piece of plastic in the first place, which is the even bigger issue. They wouldn’t address the issue of BPA either which we all know is a danger and one of the most talked about issues when using plastic water bottles.

“Overall the issue of even promoting a plastic water filled bottle or a bottle that is plastic when you don’t understand what type of plastic it is, isn’t the way to go.”

The rule of thumb when seeking environmentally friendly products is to check all labels and ask questions. If the company can’t answer your questions, perhaps you need to do your homework to see if what they are promoting truly is an eco-friendly product.

Cynergreen prides itself on their commitment to being a green company, educating others about what it means to be green, and encouraging others in the industry to go green which is why the practice of “greenwashing” has become a source of frustration for many companies who truly are using eco-friendly materials and practices.

So what is greenwashing?

According to Wikipedia, the term greenwash is used to describe the practice of companies spinning their product lines as being environmentally friendly as a means to appeal to consumers, persuading them to buy that product rather than another or accept a change in a product. This can mean misleading a customer into thinking an aspect of the product is good for the environment when in reality it is merely a cost cutting method for the company, such as insisting people use less toilet paper in order to save trees when in reality the company does not want to buy as much toilet paper.[1] It is a deceptive use of green PR or green marketing. The term green sheen has similarly been used to describe organizations that attempt to appear that they are adopting practices beneficial to the environment.[2] See more about greenwashing at Wikipedia.com

As a long time consumer of green products, I can attest to this method being used by companies jumping on the environmental bandwagon.

While shopping at Wal-mart one day, I was looking for an eco-friendly cleaning product and saw a new line of so called “green” products manufactured by a company we are all familiar with. I picked up the all purpose cleaner and checked the ingredients to see if in fact they were environmentally safe and as with so many other products on the market, I confirmed my suspicions that in fact the product was NOT environmentally friendly. I was disappointed, because if the bigger company’s would start manufacturing eco- friendly products it would encourage more people to use them at more affordable prices. Oh well, one major shift at a time.

Make sure you check product labels and if they contain ingredients you can’t pronounce or have never heard of before, chances are it is not a “green” product.

In an earlier post about Cynergreen’s safe manufacturing practices, we highlighted a new law put in place to ensure that products produced in the U.S. don’t contain high levels of lead, especially with regard to children’s items (note: Cynergreen’s products do not contain any lead). Here is a release put out by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission with regard to the law and when it takes affect:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In February 2009, new requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) take effect. Manufacturers, importers and retailers are expected to comply with the new Congressionally-mandated laws. Beginning February 10, 2009, children’s products cannot be sold if they contain more than 600 parts per million (ppm) total lead. Certain children’s products manufactured on or after February 10, 2009 cannot be sold if they contain more than 0.1% of certain specific phthalates or if they fail to meet new mandatory standards for toys.

Under the new law, children’s products with more than 600 ppm total lead cannot lawfully be sold in the United States on or after February 10, 2009, even if they were manufactured before that date. The total lead limit drops to 300 ppm on August 14, 2009.

The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban. Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.

The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.

When the CPSIA was signed into law on August 14, 2008, it became unlawful to sell recalled products. All resellers should check the CPSC Web site (www.cpsc.gov) for information on recalled products before taking into inventory or selling a product. The selling of recalled products also could carry civil and/or criminal penalties.

While CPSC expects every company to comply fully with the new laws resellers should pay special attention to certain product categories. Among these are recalled children’s products, particularly cribs and play yards; children’s products that may contain lead, such as children’s jewelry and painted wooden or metal toys; flimsily made toys that are easily breakable into small parts; toys that lack the required age warnings; and dolls and stuffed toys that have buttons, eyes, noses or other small parts that are not securely fastened and could present a choking hazard for young children.

The agency has underway a number of rulemaking proposals intended to provide guidance on the new lead limit requirements. Please visit the CPSC website at www.cpsc.gov for more information.