12 Companies Offering Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Products

(ref: Greenpeace Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide, greenpeace.org)

Recycled tissue products help protect ancient forests, clean water, and wildlife habitat and it’s easier on the Earth to make tissues from paper instead of trees.

Greenpeace created a product guide ranking various tissue products based on three criteria:

1. 100% recycled content
2. At least 50% post-consumer recycled content
3. Bleached without toxic chlorine compounds

Green Forest, 365, Earth Friendly, April Soft, Atlantic, Cascades, Natural Value, Seventh Generation, Fiesta/Fiesta Green, Trader Joe’s, Marcal Small Steps, and CVS Earth Essentials are companies producing at least one product meeting these three criteria. Here’s the breakdown of these companies by product category.

TOILET PAPER

1. Green Forest
2. 365
3. April Soft
4. Earth Friendly
5. Fiesta and Fiesta Green
6. Natural Value
7. Seventh Generation
8. Trader Joe’s

PAPER TOWELS

1. Green Forest
2. 365
3. Earth Friendly
4. Natural Value
5. Seventh Generation
6. Trader Joe’s
7. Marcal Small Steps
8. CVS Earth Essentials

PAPER NAPKINS

1. 365
2. Atlantic
3. Cascades
4. CVS Earth Essentials
5. Green Forest
6. Marcal Small Steps
7. Natural Value
8. Seventh Generation

FACIAL TISSUES

1. Green Forest
2. 365
3. Natural Value
4. Seventh Generation

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Founded in 1971, Greenpeace is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

Check out the book Low Carbon Diet: A 30 day program to lose 5000 pounds available at Reach and Teach.

20 Green Jobs (and what they pay in California)

(ref: Green Jobs Guidebook, www.edf.org/cagreenjobs)

Here’s a partial list of jobs that can help save our planet while providing opportunities for career growth even in a struggling economy.

1. Solar Lab Technician — Performs a variety of tests on solar devices, examines test samples and reads blueprints, diagrams, instruments and operational instructions. Salary: $19-$25/hr. Minimum education: Associate’s degree in a related field.
2. Solar Energy Engineer — Perform site-specific engineering analysis and evaluation of energy efficiency utilizing building simulation software. Salary: $75K – $80K. Minimum education: Bachelor’s Electrical Engineering.
3. Wind Turbine Sheet Metal Worker — Perform all operations necessary to make, install, and repair a wide variety of sheet-metal products related to wind turbine production. Salary: $14-$22/hr. Minimum education: Apprenticeship or Trade School.
4. Wind Turbine Mechanical Engineer — Responsible for design, development, testing of all aspects of mechanical components, equipment, and machinery. Salary: $90K+. Minimum education: Bachelor’s Mechanical Engineering.
5. Biologist – Marine/Fisheries — Plan and conduct evaluations of factors affecting California’s fish populations and provide oversight of fisheries monitoring programs. Salary: $25-$32/hr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Biology
6. Environmental Health and Safety Lead — Ensure compliance of plant operations with federal and state requirements relating to air emissions, solid waste, hazardous waste, waste water treatment, and chemical management. Salary: $81K-$96K/yr. Minimum education: Master’s or equivalent in Environmental Science, Environmental Management, Environmental Engineering, Chemistry or Biology.
7. Soil Conservation Technician — Provides technical assistance to land users in planning and applying soil and water conservation practices. Salary: $16-$24/hr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in a related field.
8. Forestry Conservation Worker — Perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect forest, forested areas, and woodlands, and build erosion and water control structures and leaching for forest soil. Salary: $15-$22/hr. Minimum education: HS or GED.
9. Forestry Restoration Planner — Collaborate with field and biology staff to oversee the implementation of restoration projects and to develop new projects. Salary: $73K-$84K/yr. Minimum education: Master’s in Ecology, Biology, Environmental Science or other related areas.
10. Energy Conservation Representative — Inspects homes of utility customers to identify conditions that cause energy waste and suggests actions. Salary: $20-$32/hr. Minimum education: HS or GED.
11. Energy Efficiency Finance Manager — Project-manages energy efficiency projects and policies and conducts relevant market analysis and research. Salary: $90K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in accounting, finance, business administration.
12. Civil Engineer — Deals with overall design, construction, and maintenance of green buildings. Salary: $73K-$84K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering.
13. Commercial Green Building and Retrofit Architect — Participate in all phases of design for commercial and educational buildings. Salary: $90K-$107K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Architecture.
14. Commercial Energy Field Auditor — Conducts energy audits in commercial businesses and identify areas of improvement. Salary: $12-$14/hr. Minimum education: Associate’s degree in Building Materials, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Energy Management.
15. Train System Operator — Work as a train conductor or train system engineer. Salary: $20-$24/hr. Minimum education: HS diploma or GED.
16. Climatologist — Conducts climate change research and data analysis. Salary: $65K-$85K. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in scientific or engineering discipline.
17. Environmental Scientist — Conducts research to identify and abate/eliminate sources of pollutants that affect people, wildlife, and their environments. Salary: $65K-$85K. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in scientific or engineering disciplines.
18. Recycling Center Operator — Performs daily operations at a Recycling Center, including materials processing and customer service. Salary: $11-$18/hr. Minimum education: none.
19. Environmental Technician — Develops methods and devices used in the prevention, control and correction of environmental hazards. Salary: $40K-$53K/yr. Minimum education: Associate’s degree in Engineering.
20. Geothermal Operations Engineer — Collect and process information on geothermal field and plant performance and diagnose problems with geothermal wells. Salary: $70K-$80K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Engineering.

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You can read more about these and other Green Jobs by visiting the Environmental Defense Fund website at http://www.edf.org

Also try checking out 35 Colleges with a Strong Concern for Social Justice and Service-Learning.

10 Steps to Green Your Small Business

(ref: San Francisco Chronicle article by Ilana DeBare, 6/8/2008 )

Wondering how to make your business more environmentally friendly? Here are some beginning steps that can be taken by many small businesses:

1. Consider your biggest impacts. Does your business devour paper? Guzzle gas? Use toxic products? Focus on areas where you will have the most effect.

2. Change the lights. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, or older T-12 fluorescents with energy-efficient T-5 or T-8 fixtures.

3. Recycle. In addition to providing bins to recycle business materials, allow employees to bring in batteries and compact fluorescents from home for recycling.

4. Minimize driving. Provide incentives for employees to carpool, bike, take transit or telecommute. Letting people work from home even one day a week can help.

5. Buy paper with recycled content – at least 30 percent and ideally 100 percent post-consumer content. Bay Area office supply stores like www.waldecks.com or www.thegreenoffice.com specialize in green products, but even big chains like Office Depot now carry high-quality recycled paper. For more information on environmentally friendly paper choices, see www.conservatree.org.

6. Look for the federal government’s Energy Star label when buying office equipment. For computers and monitors, there’s also a new program called EPEAT that gives bronze, silver and gold rankings to equipment that meets a variety of environmental criteria. See www.epeat.net for a list of approved models.

7. Turn off lights and computers at night. Make sure the power management settings are activated on your computers, allowing them to enter “sleep” mode when not in use.

8. Switch to less-toxic cleaning products. The federal government has information on green commercial cleaning products at www.ofee.gov/gp/greenjanitorial.html.

9. Cut waste. Buy supplies in bulk rather than small packages; minimize printing and mailing; eliminate nonrecyclable packaging.

10. Patronize other environmentally conscious businesses. You can find a list of Bay Area certified green businesses at www.greenbiz.ca.gov. [Ed: Also check out the National Green Pages, a project of Coop America, www.coopamerica.org ]

Want more info? You can find information on becoming a certified green business at www.greenbiz.ca.gov. Some local utilities and government agencies also offer rebates for becoming more energy efficient.