Did you know that each year Americans throw away around 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags? Less than 0.6 percent of those are recycled. And that Americans buy 28 billion disposable plastic bottles of water a year?

When we’re on the go it’s easy to forget about the real impact of our choices, especially when it comes to plastic. The ease of buying an occasional bottle of water or packing groceries in a plastic bag when you forget your reusable one might not feel

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Tags: bottled water , disposable bags , fee for plastic bags , PET bottles , plastic , plastic bag fee , plastic bags , plastic bottles , reusable bag , single-use plastic , Thailand , Wal-Mart

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The Sustainability Across America Tour is a journey to bring the eco-movement to the people in a grassroots, human kind of way.

I’m Laura Jones, a writer armed with my curiosity, my laptop and a VW van. I’m traveling around the USA to deliver this movement from the ethereal marketing-wash to the you, the people. This is a mission to connect the dots between the movers and the shakers in this emerging economy and developing philosophy, to share the wisdom of the pioneers and to crowd-source inspiration with the powers of …

Tags: Cradle To Cradle , Eco Working Group , Laura Jones , Outdoor Industry Association , REI , SUST , Sustainability Across America , Sustainable Product Index , Wal-Mart

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Wal-Mart is taking big steps to give a measurable definition as to how green their products are with an initiative to put eco-labels on everything in their stores worldwide, from t-shirts to bicycles.

The idea is to give products a simple, standard rating that allows everyday shoppers to determine at a glance how sustainable a product is, similar to a nutritional label on food.

Understandably, this is a huge endeavor and many wonder if the megachain will be able to accomplish it. If it succeeds, this will change the future of retail …

Tags: Coral Rose , Eco Innovations , Energy Star label , fair trade , Footprint Chronicles , Green Index , green rating system , Love Earth Jewelry , Nike Considered , Sustainability Consortium , Sustainable Action Leadership , Wal-Mart

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Day 1

Many of us struggle with the ethical questions raised when eco-clothing gets cozy with mega-corporations like Wal-Mart, Target or Payless.

I stumbled across an article praising Norma Kamali for her work with casual and career clothing for women for Wal-Mart. While she’s doing organic tees for the retail giant right now, not all of her clothing is from sustainable fabrics.

Why not go all organic?

Kamali considers designing at a different price point (according to her site) perhaps “the most exciting opportunity of her career,” and a chance to promote women’s “self-esteem”. …

Tags: Coral Rose , Eco Innovations , Future Fashion White Pages , Norma Kamali , organic cotton , Wal-Mart

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The more I talk with designers, the more I want you to know what they’re thinking. Here’s some insight.

I recently asked nine various shades of green designers what they thought about the question:

“Does collaborating with big names like Target, Kohl’s or Wal-Mart sound enticing to you?”

Heyne Bogut: I think in order to make that work you need to have a very packaged and defined product that can be understood and categorized quickly and easily. I’m always up for a challenge …

Tags: AK Vintage , Alison Kelly , aster and sage , cmarchuska , Dahl , Harper Della-Piana , Heyne Bogut , Kohl'e , Mociun , mothlove , souchi , Target , Wal-Mart

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