Environmental awareness. Green Lifestyles. Saving the planet is a multi-billion dollar industry, fuelled by giant corporations and spurred on by the mainstream media.

Not that any of that is a bad thing. Well, maybe the part where “going green” gets so over-hyped by the media (we’re all gonna DIE!) that it makes people panic and then run out and spend more money on all the “green stuff” so the giant corporations can make more money. Maybe that part.

But most people’s intentions when it comes to the environment are good, and this post isn’t about mass media and giant corporations.

It’s about loving our planet.

After all, it’s the only one we’ve got.

I remember back in the 80′s, the environment became a really big deal. We were encouraged to start recycling, to lower our thermostats, to turn the lights off – and we did. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle became the mantra of the decade. In school, we learned that plastic was bad, pollution was worse, and that our landfills were filling up. People finally started listening to guys like Dr. David Suzuki about the perils of clear cutting forests.

And I thought that finally, we were learning to respect the Earth.

The only Earth we’ve got.

But then, in the 90s, we all suddenly got distracted. Maybe it was TV. Perhaps our jobs and our families tied us up too much. It became more important for us to have a lifestyle of convenience than one of environmental responsibility. We all but forgot about the commitment we’d all made the previous decade to save our planet. Suddenly, ads on TV were pushing disposable everything – plastic zipper bags for your food, in 400 different sizes. Those ridiculous toilet bowl cleaners where you attach a disposable scrubber, swish it around the bowl and then, as they say in the commercial, “just throw it away!”. Soft drink companies started putting tap water in plastic bottles and promoting it as part of a healthy lifestyle. Our tech gadgets came hermetically sealed in thick plastic, non-recyclable blister packs. I could go on.

Suddenly, the planet was taking a back seat to us having more handy ways to do things.

And it’s the only planet we’ve got.

Fortunately, the 21st century (and maybe partly Al Gore, after he was finished inventing the Internet), has brought about a well-needed shift in our sensibilities. Unfortunately, like most things, it was a real “oh crap!” moment for most people. We realized that we’d again become a disposable society, and that as much as we’d all long been in the habit of turning out the lights, we were now up to our ears in TVs, computers, and other energy sucking electronic gadgets. As much as we used our blue recycling bins, we were throwing out more stuff than ever.

Finally, our collective compact flourescent lightbulbs went on, and we realized, almost at once that…

This is the only planet we’ve got.

Billion dollar industries aside, this time I think there’s not only been a behaviour shift – there’s been an outright culture shift. Green lifestyle isn’t just a choice any longer, it’s a necessity. Does it take a conscious commitment? Absolutely. We need to make decisions for ourselves, our families, and our companies about how we want to change the way we do things – whether that’s giving up bottled water, switching to CFL lightbulbs, or opting to work from home more often. It’s also still about recycling and composting too.

But perhaps most importantly, it’s about keeping our planet in the forefront of our minds. It’s about respecting this beautiful Earth we’ve been given, and appreciating it.

So get out there, and give our planet a big hug. Show it some love. Not just today. Every day.

After all, it’s the only planet we’ve got.

[photo credit: NASA]

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I am totally pumped about this. I mean really. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about….

…a browser plugin.

Hot off the presses, the DoGooder plugin was released to the world this morning, and in my opinion, it IS going to change the way we think about online advertising.

The concept is deceptively simple. You install the FREE plugin, which takes about 10 seconds, (compatible with Safari, Internet Exploder AND Firefox) and suddenly, all of the ads in web pages you visit change. For the better (way better!).

You see, the ads don’t just change to anything. They change to everything that’s good – as their web site says,

“…thoughtful green initiatives, philanthropic calls for action, and health and wellness ideas to help make the world a better place.”

The ads are simple, clear and interesting. Things like “An urban garden is a pretty GOOD idea.” “Hugging a tree? Not so good. Planting one? A GOOD idea.”. The long term plan here is to also incorporate “green” advertising and ads for charities. For now, the wonderful messages just make me feel GOOD. And that’s a GOOD thing. And, you can keep track of the GOOD ideas you are seeing as you browse – a small icon in the lower corner of the browser window diligently keeps count of the GOOD you’re doing.

The best and most brilliant part of the DoGooder plugin is that 50% of all of the profits from DoGood go directly to charitable organizations. Yep. The guys at DoGood are not only promoting doing good – they are DoGooders themselves.

Now before you start jumping up and down and saying “but wait – they are REMOVING ads from my page? Can they get away with that?” – this plugin is totally adaptable to your browsing needs. At any time you can right click on a page and see the actual ads on the page, or exempt a web page from DoGood. You can also email them directly and suggest a new cause to support.

So how does this potentially change advertising? Well, until the Web, advertising was a forced thing. As a consumer of media, I have no say in who advertises on the TV shows I watch or radio programs I listen to. Even on the web, I don’t typically get to decide which ads I see. With tools like DoGood, the choice is put in the hands of the consumer, which is great for the consumer, but also a tremendous opportunity for advertisers. They can target messages directly to the people who are interested in seeing them. If I’ve installed the DoGood plugin, it automatically means I’m interested in seeing messages with an environmental or philanthropic twist. Now, the advertiser KNOWS they have a captive audience.

I wish the guys at DoGood all the success in the world with this project – they are the very definition of changing the game.

Download the plugin here – and start doing some GOOD.

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All this talk about the environment. Landfills filling up, global warming, going green…it’s the underlying theme of society these days. It’s not a bad thing that everyone is talking about it…in fact, it’s vitally important. As Canada’s most famous environmentalist, Dr. David Suzuki says:

“We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.”

Here’s the thing that really ticks me off. As we are bombarded with messages about all of the horrible things we are doing to the environment, big companies continue to make products that are harmful. Here’s just a brief list of stupid inventions that I think are just plain wasteful:

Microwave Steaming Bags. Think about it. Do you really need a plastic bag to steam your food in the microwave? How did you do it before the microwave steaming bag was invented? What’s that? In a container? In a pot on the stove? In fact, studies have shown that veggies steamed in the microwave lose up to 97% of valuable nutrients like antioxidants, so there’s not really much point in nuking your veg in the first place. Throw that broccoli into a salad instead. You’ll be healthier and so will the environment.

Disposable Toilet Scrubbers. So, I can go to IKEA and buy a toilet brush for $1.50. Or I can go to the grocery store and buy a pack of throw-away toilet scrubbers for $5.99. The toilet brush works just as well, and I can use it over and over. If it gets dirty, I can soak it in a bit of bleach and voila! It’s like new. The toss-away toilet scrubbers are just about the silliest invention I’ve seen. Just slap it on, scrub away then toss it. The commercials even say “Then just throw it away!” What kind of attitudes are we developing when we allow advertisers to tell us just to toss away anything we don’t need? Again, we got along just fine for years using an old fashioned toilet brush. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Plastic bags full of ads that get stuck on my doorknob. This is about the most ridiculous invention ever. I’m not sure about where you live, but where I live, there’s this company whose sole purpose is to fill up these plastic bags with a bunch of glossy, un-recyclable papers advertising various, mostly useless products I can buy in my neighbourhood. They hang the bags on the doorknobs of everyone’s house. It happens about once every 6 weeks or so. Let’s say they distrubute one to even 50% of the households in my city. That’s about 250,000 houses. 250,000 useless plastic bags full of useless, non-recylable paper, about 8 times a year. That’s 2 million plastic bags over the course of a year, most of which end up being tossed in the garbage without even being looked at. Sad, isn’t it.

Why do companies keep creating these products? Because we keep buying them. If we are truly going to start making positive changes, we need to stop being such a disposable society, and we need to start taking a stand against these kinds of senseless, wasteful products. Here are a few proactive things you can do right now to start along this path:

1. Stop buying this crap.
2. Write to the companies making these products and tell them you are going to stop using any of their products until they stop producing harmful things.
3. Write to your government representative and tell them you want tougher regulations put in place with regards to how people distribute and advertise these kinds of products.
4. Stop buying this crap.

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