Impressão Verde: evitando o desperdício

Me deparei com um software muito interessante que, além de fazer economizar nas impressões e abraçar a causa “verde”, é muito útil.

O programa orienta o usuário a gastar menos papel na hora da impressão. Uma situação comum é sair aquela última página apenas com uma ou duas linhas e acabar indo pro lixo. Ou então, pior: ao imprimir no Excel, por exemplo, saem várias páginas com pedaços da sua planilha e nada se aproveita, seja porque esquecemos de ajustar a área de impressão ou de dar uma pré-visualizada pra ver como ia sair. Em resumo, desperdício atrás de desperdício!

E não só de papel, de tempo, também. Agora imagine esses casos multiplicados diversas vezes por dia e em todo o mundo. Quando começamos a fazer as contas: tantas pessoas em casa mais tantas empresas com tantos funcionários… parecem assustadores os números de papéis jogados fora por inobservância de detalhes de configuração.

Então, para tentar dar um basta ou, ao menos, reduzir significativamente essa condição agressiva à natureza, o fabricante GreenPrint Technologies criou um software capaz de identificar essas situações desastrosas e corrigi-las. Com o GreenPrint World esses casos corriqueiros tendem a ser coisa do passado. E a natureza agradece.

Como funciona?

O programa se instala como uma espécie de impressora virtual, bem semelhante àqueles programas que geram PDF. Na hora que você mandar imprimir pela impressora criada pelo GreenPrint World, se ele notar que uma página vai ficar com pouquíssimas linhas, faz o alerta: mostra em vermelho quantas e quais páginas são potenciais desperdícios. Porém, deixa a seu critério imprimir tudo ou descartar o apontado como desnecessário, apesar de -por padrão- considerar a impressão sem perdas. Outra opção é imprimir para um arquivo PDF ou enviar o PDF por e-mail. Dessa forma, economiza-se -mesmo- 100% de papel.

E ainda, se você desejar participar do envio, anônimo, das suas estatísticas de impressão, elas vão alimentar o contador de emissão evitada de CO2 e de páginas e árvores economizadas globalmente por todos aqueles que já baixaram e estão fazendo uso do utilitário. Até o momento da publicação deste post, evitou-se o desperdício de aproximadamente 5,7 milhões de páginas; 1,9 mil toneladas de CO2 e 686 árvores foram poupadas da ceifa.

Fica aí a dica para reduzir os gastos e proteger o meio ambiente ao mesmo tempo! Lembrando que a versão World do software é gratuita: baixe agora.

Postado por Gabriel dos Anjos

Mother Nature cries

This July 16 photo, made available Sept. 2, 2009, shows a "crying face" in an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet, in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. The "tears" in the natural sculpture were created by a waterfall of glacial water cascading from one of the face's "eyes" and painted an alarming picture warning the world about the effects of global warming. Marine photographer and environmental lecturer Michael Nolan captured this picture while on an annual voyage to observe the glacier and surrounding wildlife. "This is how one would imagine mother nature would express her sentiments about our inability to reduce global warming. It seemed an obvious place for her to appear, on the front of a retreating ice shelf, crying," Nolan told the U.K.'s Telegraph.
(BARM/Fame Pictures)

Fonte: ABC

A New Economic Paradigm for a Sustainable Society

Imagine a society without ownership. Imagine how efficient that society could be. Imagine a system in which reuse and recycling were the norm. These are the ideas behind product-service systems and the functional-service economy.

A product-service system is a simple concept. It basically refers to the rental system models we have today (car rentals, tool rentals, etc.); meaning that a customer pays for the use or function of an item, rather than buying the item, itself. However, taken a step further, as a man named Walter Stahel has done, it becomes a full-fledged economy based on service and function of products rather than ownership. He has dubbed it the “functional-service economy”.

What are the benefits of a functional-service economy?

The current system in the Western developed nations of the world can be described as a “throw-away system” wherein the great majority of the things we purchase everyday (including the packaging) is simply thrown away within a very short time span (6 months to a year). This, of course, points to a huge flaw in our production-consumption system; the fact that it’s a linear, through-put system. On one end, we are extracting natural resources, on the other we are simply dumping the resulting waste into landfills or burning it. (Not to mention all of the pollution and waste created throughout the production, processing, transportation and use phases of the products). Looking at the entire “life” of the products we use is called a life-cycle perspective and it is a very necessary way of looking at our system if we want to improve it and find pathways to sustainability. When Walter Stahel looked at the status quo with a life-cycle perspective, he saw just how linear it was and he also saw the places where there are opportunities to create loops. For instance, reusing packaging materials. After a customer used the product s/he’s rented, they bring the product back in the same packaging. No waste. The product is reused and maintained and loaned out to other customers. When a product no longer functions, the parts are reused in other products. The economy functions based on payment for services. It uses the 3 Rs in the right order.

There are obviously many barriers to implementing such an economic model. For instance, there are some strong emotional and psychological ties in modern cultures to ownership. It has become ingrained in our personal sense of identity in many cases. In fact, entire associations are formed around the common experience of owning a particular thing (eg- a certain make of car). There is also not any existing infrastructure to support the functional-service economy in most places. And there are numerous other challenges to realizing this idea. However, it is obvious that we are in great need of a paradigm shift and any such shift will doubtlessly entail great obstacles. It’s just a matter of setting course and finding ways of steering around them.

In a world with a growing population and dwindling resources, we cannot afford to waste, especially not at the current pace. We need innovative solutions and we need to put them into practice. My hat off to Walter Stahel, for developing such a brilliant idea! And now it’s up to us, as consumers, as citizens and as educated professionals, to make the changes happen in reality.

For more information, see:
http://www.unep.fr/scp/design/pss.htm
http://www.indigodev.com/Stahel.html
http://www.lumes.lu.se/database/alumni/06.08/thesis/Jennifer_Hinton.pdf

Fonte: SustainabilityForum

October 21 is Love Your Body Day

Molly Edmonds

Tomorrow, Oct. 21, is Love Your Body Day, sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW) Foundation. On this day, NOW wants us all to fight back against images in the media that make us feel bad about our bodies. Instead, we should demand images of real people, of all shapes, colors and ages. And to celebrate our bodies, NOW suggests activities like indulgence parties (a night to wear sweats and eat decadent food without guilt), staging “real women” beauty pageants and watching movies with strong female characters.

Now, I love to watch “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” as much as the next person, but I wish some of NOW’s tips were a bit more practical for actually improving body image. For example, this page suggests canceling magazine subscriptions as soon as offensive ads are run and boycotting shoe manufacturers that dare to make high heels that ruin our feet. For most people, these tips aren’t realistic. While we should speak out against those images that really do offend us, and opt out of things that don’t make us comfortable, like high heels or make-up, most women want a happy medium, in which they feel good about their body while wearing cute, if slightly impractical, shoes. I mean, the models on “Project Runway” are very skinny, but I’m certainly not going to stop watching the show.

So in honor of Love Your Body Day, I found some tips for how to improve body image on a personal level (no boycotting of shoe manufacturers required). A few of them may sound like simple clichés, but sometimes the easiest way is best.

• Treat your body to something nice — new, flattering clothes, a bubble bath, an impromptu dance session, chocolate are but a few ideas.

• Be realistic. There is no “one” standard body size to aspire to, no matter how many times you see a certain body style in a magazine. Remember that if someone’s in a magazine, they’ve probably had tons of help from stylists, trainers and personal chefs. Their appearance is their job. To me, that does not sound like a fun job.

• Consider the things that get you down. Like I said, I’m not going to quit watching “Project Runway” just because of skinny models (catty drama is much more important), but it’s good to be aware of the things that make you feel bad about your body, be it magazines, television shows or your daily weigh-in. Then, you can consider whether these things are worth keeping in your life.

• Keep a list of things you love about yourself that have nothing to do with your appearance. Add to it all the time.

• Work on your appearance from the inside-out — you’ll likely have more things to add to that list I just mentioned if you’re constantly challenging yourself. Not with new diets, but with new hobbies, new responsibilities at work or new friends. An interesting and interested person is a happy, beautiful person, no matter what the scale says.

• Appreciate all the things that your body can do, no matter how basic. If you’re self-conscious about a scar that you got from playing soccer in the fifth grade, be grateful you had the ability to play soccer in the first place.

• Surround yourself with positive people. Almost everyone complains at some point about how their thighs are looking a little big or that a six-pack is turning into a keg, but if there’s a person in your life who’s constantly judging him or herself, then you’ll be more likely to judge yourself.

• Consider your health, not a number on a scale. There are times when people really do need to go on diets and exercise for health reasons, but as long as you’re eating healthfully and exercising regularly, there’s no need to define your life by the numbers, be it a number on a scale or a size in a dress.

What do you guys think? How do you maintain a good body image in this crazy world of ours?

From: HowStuffWorks

Vegetable soup for everybody!

Fonte:Sustainabilityforum.com

Serious problems sometimes require innovative solutions. More and more, western food consumption habits are becoming a serious environmental problem. I was keen to hear some of the (not always serious) solutions offered at a workshop run by the Sustainable Consumption Institute (Manchester University). What can we do to make sure people eat healthier and less meat (the latter being a huge problem in terms of gas emission and devouring much of our water and land resources)?

Sustainable food = use of less finite resources in food production, emit less greenhouse gases (environmental), treat those in food chain better (social), make money for further investment (economic).

The workshop started with a breathtaking presentation on sustainable food policy by Professor Tim Lang. Apart from being the world's only professor of food policy (City University), I learned, Tim Lang is also the Natural Resources and Land Use Commissioner within the UK Government's Sustainable Development Commission. He fears that many governments and businesses believe that sustainability means merely to reduce carbon emissions. This is complete rubbish, as Tim pointed out. Sustainability is about much more. It is the conviction that only when ecological, social and economic principles work hand in hand, lasting success will be achieved. He also outlined how slow public institutions are in analyzing the effect of meat consumption or any other food policy issue in the UK. Sometimes it would take years for think tanks or government to come up with the right methodology for their research. Even the European Commission would generally keep very silent about ecological food policy. So, who is in charge – government, companies or consumers? "I will if you will". We are trapped. What can we do?

Eat less meat.

Following up on Tim Lang, Dr Unni Kjaernes from the National Institute for Consumer Research in Oslo, Norway, raised the so important question: "Should we eat meat in the future?" Neo-liberals would probably say yes and advocate for technocratic fixes to the meat production system. After all, animals could be bread that fart less (no joke, that is a big issue as those gases go right into the atmosphere). However, Unni fears that modernization (new farming methods, new "production" technology etc.) would only augment demand for meat and hardly reduce it (rebound effect). On the other side, the state could step in and control meat production through regulations, quota, taxes etc. That might help to reduce meat consumption (or make the black market expand...). Just, who would vote for a party, which advocates for unpopular tax and meat restriction? Unni finished her presentation saying that there is no obvious solution to the problem of excessive meat consumption (and its consequences to the environment), although some promising development is taking place in terms of consumer awareness and strategic consumption.

After a short coffee break that I used to digest some of the theory confronted with, Professor Jukka Gronow (Uppsala University), Dr Johanna Mäkelä (National Consumer Research Centre, Finland), Professor Elizabeth Shove (Lancaster University), Dr Dale Southerton (Manchester Uni) and Professor Alan Warde (Manchester Uni) went on to present some innovative ideas for reducing meat consumption on a practical level. Proposals went from subsidizing Italian restaurants in the UK (Mediterranean cuisine is healthy!) to abolishing the main plate (as it is usually meat) and fostering urban gardening + community eating-places. The winning idea came from Dale, who suggested only refunding people's lunch expenses (particularly in the public sector), if they went to a green-labelled restaurant or shop! To his horror, Dale then learned from Tim that such initiatives were already under way.

Conclusion: Excessive meat consumption does not only harm your personal health but society as a whole. There is no easy solution in sight to change people's behaviour (political parties will not) but increasing awareness is there. Strategic consumption, consumer choice. And: Don't forget to ask your favourite Italian restaurant for an extra bowl of soup next time you're there!

Sustainable Consumption Institute: http://www.sci.manchester.ac.uk

15 de outubro - Um dia sem sacolas plásticas

O Ministério do Meio Ambiente anunciou que amanhã, 15 de outubro será o Dia do Consumo Consciente. Para mobilizar as pessoas sobre a questão o Governo lançou a campanha "Um da sem sacolas plásticas".

No Brasil, cerca de 1,5 milhão de sacolas são utilizadas por hora no Brasil. Ou seja, 36 milhões por dia. Essas sacolas causam são extremamente prejudiciais para o meio ambiente:

• Causam problemas para animais aquáticos, que as confundem com comida e as ingerem, ou ficam presos dentro delas;
  
• Voam para as ruas e entopem bueiros e canos, contribuindo com enchentes;
  
• São feitas a partir do petróleo, recurso natural finito, que poderia ser usado na fabricação de itens realmente necessários;
  
• São utilizadas para guardar lixo, e demoram cerca de 100 anos para se decompor, trazendo problemas para os lençóis freáticos.

Estão amanhã, nada de usar sacolas plásticas. Coloque sua sacola retornável na bolsa ou mochila amanhã. Vamos evitar que o nosso planeta "vá pro saco".

Sites que estimulam nossa consciência

O Google lançou um novo site de busca na internet, chamado eco4planet, com a mesma tecnologia e qualidade de busca, mas muito mais sustentável.

As novidades:

• A cada 50.000 consultas uma árvore será plantada, e fica disponível no portal o número de mudas atingido.
• O fundo preto da tela, que a princípio gera estranhamento, gera uma economiza 20% da energia do monitor, além de ajudar a descansar os olhos.
  

Considerando que o Google realiza por dia mais de 2,55 bilhões de buscas com tempo médio suposto em 10 segundos por pesquisa e a proporção de monitores por tecnologia utilizada, um buscador de fundo preto geraria uma economia anual de mais de 7 Milhões de Kilowatts-hora! Esse valor equivale à:

• Mais de 63 milhões de televisores em cores desligados por 1 hora;
• Mais de 77 milhões de geladeiras desligadas por 1 hora;
• Mais de 175 milhões de lâmpadas desligadas por 1 hora;
• Mais de 58 milhões de computadores desligados por 1 hora.

A iniciativa é nova, a contagem das árvores começou em agosto de 2009.

http://www.eco4planet.com/pt/