US Mechanic Rolls out Green Label
Grease Monkey to Green Monkey.

Here’s an interesting interview with the CEO of AAMCO. A US auto service centre chain that just rolled out an eco label for their franchises.

They decided to roll out the programme after looking into biofuels conversion kits. Even though there’s controversy around biofuels at the moment it’s an interesting example of a positive side effect of interest in alternative fuels.

AAMCO can and looks to be doing a lot to improve overall fleet efficiency. That’s important because it tends to be older cars that have higher emissions. It’s good example for auto-makers and service centres around the world.

No Comments » | Tags: carbon, cars, market gaps
Posted by Jacob on Monday, February 11th, 2008 | Permalink |

More Than Just a Pretty Face
Phthalates? C'mon L'Oreal throw us a bone here...

Fresh-Faced Eco-Consumers - New York Times

16 year old Erin Schrode hits the nail on the head when she says “Organic sells, natural sells, but what do those terms even mean?” in today’s New York Times. That’s why we started this site.

For Ms. Schrode we recommend looking out for the Leaping Bunny (yes there is seriously a leaping bunny label) that prevents cruelty to animals in combination with the biodegradable products institute label and perhaps a USDA organic to round out her cosmetics purchasing strategy. Wow. I’m starting to feel like I’m on “Green eye for the polluting Guy” or something.

Of course the cosmetics industry could just develop a meta-label that requires obtaining all three of the above and then market that so their consumers don’t have to figure out what phthalates are and then harass them about it, but maybe they like the attention?

No Comments » | Tags: consumerism, cosmetics, market gaps
Posted by Jacob on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 | Permalink |

Nothing for cars?
A global ecolabel for cars would help avoid lemons.

We’ve been working on this project for about six months and haven’t seen anything for cars.

Forbes built its 2007 ranking based on air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and came up with a list of twelve top performers.

Cardiff University Business School just came out with this report that puts small light cars at the top of the ranking using a “fuller set of criteria” than just emissions.

It’s hard to compare the lists because one is for the North American market and the other is for the EU. No one appears to be looking globally at this stage.

Window shopping for a car while in LA some months ago I came across federal emissions classifications like “ultra low emission vehicle” but as Cardiff notes emissions isn’t the whole picture. How much juice went into building the car and how long will it last?

For such a fundamental part of our lives we were surprised to find no independent international labelling system for the total environmental impact of automobiles. Would be great to see a dream-team of the manufacturers of the twelve greenest cars and a leading environmental group team up on something like that.

I’d much rather see a label and know a car is green so I can get back to choosing one based on whether or not it will help me with the ladies.

1 Comment » | Tags: cars, market gaps
Posted by Jacob on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 | Permalink |