Big City Small Footprints

Monday 8 June 2009

Bowl Patrol

The nice folks at Method sent us a free bottle of their toilet cleaner, Bowl Patrol. Thought we should make that clear in case you think that changes what we say about their product. Incidentally, it doesn’t. If we thought the product was bad, we’d probably write a bad review and send them an apologetic email (or maybe not write the review at all - either way, any opinions we publish are always our own).

Method’s toilet cleaner uses natural lactic acid instead of the regular harmful chemicals you find in toilet cleaners. I’m reliably informed by Method that they harvest the lactic acid from children hung upside down.* I suggested that this might not be the most efficient way of doing things, but I believe its more in keeping with their ethical policy.**

The first thing you notice about the product is that it’s in a simply stunning container. It just looks great: curvy and suggestive, simple and yet arresting. The next thing you notice is that there’s no lid - it’s just a nice twist design. This makes the product pretty easy to use.

Once squirted into the toilet, Bowl Patrol seems to do the trick. I’ve used a couple of the other eco brands and found Method’s to deliver the most satisfying results so far. That’s, ultimately, the most important thing: there’s no use buying eco friendly stuff that doesn’t work very well. You could end up using twice the amount or just end up wasting it. To really compare, I’ll need to try it on some hardened limescale (where I’ve had poor results from other brands), but right now I don’t have any.

Method’s active ingredient is lactic acid, which you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever had muscle cramp. Of course, this comes from plants (not children). I can’t tell you what all the other brands use as their active ingredients, but do know that some use citric acid. So far, on an entirely unscientific basis, I’ve not found those to be quite as good.

Fragrance wise, I like the Bowl Patrol more than the Ecover version. However, one of the team here asked whether if contained synthetic perfumes. The answer is ‘yes’ - it has both natural and synthetic fragrance, but Method say that its ingredients must all have been shown to be non-toxic, non-allergenic, non-irritating and also biodegradable. So most people shouldn’t worry too much about that.

Method has around 15 products that are Cradle-to-Cradle Silver Certified, but unfortunately, Bowl Patrol isn’t one of them. Of course, none of its competitors are either. Further, you may wonder whether that’s something to rely on or not (see our previous post).

Click here for a list of the ingredients in Bowl Patrol.

* This may not be true.

** Also extremely unlikely to be true.

Where to find it:

You can find Bowl Patrol at the Method Shop on BigGreenSmile.

Method Products are also available at Ethical Superstore.

Posted in London, house, life | Tagged cleaning | Comments (3)

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Cradle to Frying Pan

I’m always slightly conflicted when I find out that people we revere are not all they are made out to be. On the one hand, I’m a stickler for finding out as much about things as possible, so I’m almost always skeptical about things I hear. On the other hand, you need heros and role models. Where would we be without those?

I think the first time it happened was when I found out that Ben Johnson had been caught cheating with drugs in the 1988 Olympics. I would have been 10 years old and just starting to enjoy sprinting. I can still remember watching the final, and the deflated feeling of realising he had cheated. I’m sure we can all think of other examples of our heroes disappointing us.

To be fair, for sports starts it’s not their fault. At least, it’s not their fault that they are heroes. They’re just off doing what they want, maybe cutting a corner here or there to get there - but they’re doing it for themselves. They don’t really care that we respect and revere them over others. But then other people are different.

Think about the MP expenses scandal that’s going on right now. These guys should know better. They are role models and in the public eye - it’s one thing to think that they’re pinching from the public purse, but more disappointing is that we want them to have a certain level of integrity, and they’ve failed us. Unlike, say, our sporting idols, these guys know that we expect that, and yet can’t live up to it.

So, you wonder, what on earth does this have to do with green living? (notice I didn’t say ‘ethical’ living). Well today, I was shown an article about William McDonough, co-author of ‘Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things’. Along with Michael Braungart, he was responsible for helping to popularise a vision of a society which uses closed loop manufacturing. For many, this is a real way to tackle environmental issues whilst maintaining an increase in quality of life. Now, I’ve never met or heard Bill McDonough speak, but I have heard Michael Braungart. Braungart was hugely inspirational and entertaining - he made me want to go out and do things better. So, I’ve always figured that McDonough must be pretty special for Braungart to have partnered with him. Well, Fast Company’s article is worth reading - the title is ‘Green Guru Gone Wrong” - it’s a story of self promotion and greed from a visionary leader, and it shows we always have to cast a critical eye at environmental claims, regardless of who is making them. One person commenting on the article said he deserves our thanks not our scrutiny - I disagree. I think he deserves both (just like some of those MPs).

Posted in green building, life | Comments (1)

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Natalie tells us we’re all Neighbours

You may have guessed I was struggling to come up with witty titles at this stage. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Ecover’s latest campaign is a project with Water Aid to help supply villages in Ethiopia with access to water. To help promote the project, they have Natalie Imbruglia telling us how important water is and that it is a shared resource.

Following on the heels of the Energy Saving Trust video we talked about last week, it seems that using videos to communicate sustainability messages is a pretty effective media. If a funky music video or famous singer helps you watch the video, then so be it. Getting the message out there is the key.

Of course, I hardly recognised the blond version of Natalie Imbruglia…

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

Tuesday 26 May 2009

JayZ: turn off the lights

When was the last time MTV Cribs went round a celeb’s house and they pointed out how few lights they had, and all the ways they saved energy? Probably, er, never. Usually it’s, ‘here are my 5 cars and my giant jacuzzi’. Which I guess, it what most people would like if they had a ridiculous amount of money. We all love consumption, it seems.

Anyway, I’m not tackling that big question today. I just think it would be nice to see one of those shows where they went round telling people how cool their energy saving appliances were, and their low consumption car or what have you. Although, I’m pretty sure my visitors start to ignore me when I tell them how little water our toilets use. Seeing as MTV Cribs aren’t about to make that episode any time soon, the Energy Saving Trust have made their own version. Have a look. Comic genius or comedy moment? That’s for you to say. I chuckled.

Posted in action, changes, energy, green building, heating, house, life, recycling | Comments (1)

Monday 6 April 2009

Ethical questions about microfinance

Lofty title, but unfortunately this is not going to be a philosophical debate about developing world aid and whether you should give it. I just make the assumption that if you can, you should.

No, I have recently been awakened to a different set of issues. Let’s start with saying that my favourite way of giving is through Kiva. I’m seriously in awe of the what they’ve done here. I once spent some time working for Unicef (another organisation I really believe in) and realised how difficult it is to deliver aid for true sustainable development. One reason? Giving is simply not enough. What you need to do is to give people the skills and ability to make their own future. You may have heard the Chinese proverb: “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” So that’s what impresses me about microfinance projects. They are focused on small scale projects and designed as loans, rather than handouts. So you can help someone start a shop or help a farm buy a new cow. Kiva achieved something special by using the web to allow individuals to get involved in mircofinance directly. You can literally choose where you want you loan to go - so you are directly funding another individual or group somewhere else in the world.

Now, I’ve been pretty happy with the loans I’ve made. I choose them on the basis of my own criteria. However, there has been a massive increase in the amount of funds available on Kiva as people have flocked to the concept. On top of that, Kiva made it easier for you to get your money back during the term of the loan - which most people then re-loan to another project. By making the funds accessible earlier, there was a sudden increase in supply of funds. A result of both of these factors was that there were not enough projects to fund. Clearly this was something Kiva was working on already, as they had been adding more field partners - who are the ones that actually manage the projects on the ground. However, with all this massive supply, I’m sure there was pressure to get new field partners going and get more projects going really quickly. And that means that it becomes much harder to maintain the quality of projects on offer to lenders.

So what I’m worried about - thanks to an ongoing conversation on the Kiva forum - is the question of quality. I’ve been happy to assume that someone at Kiva looks at each project and says, “yup, that meets everything our funders want.” After all, Kiva (like Ebay or Amazon) are a brand that we’re trusting. Unfortunately, Kiva is just a small organisation that assists us to get out money into projects. They’re non-profit and leanly staffed. So even though they have checks and policies, not everything can be checked to the same degree of certainty. The question everyone on the forum’s been talking about is - are some of these loans unethical? With limited descriptions, you have to rely on a lot of trust. You also have to rely on the field partners being diligent. How do you know your funds aren’t helping narcotics, terrorism or something else equally bad? It may sound far fetched, but just think about it. Imagine you live in a developing country and you hear about field partners looking for projects. Overseas money is being handed out to help improve businesses. How long do you think it will take for those involved in illegal activities to start looking at getting their hands on some of that?

Obviously, this is where Kiva and its field partners are important. However, my concern today was about the ‘grey’ areas. Things that aren’t illegal (and so not immediately excluded by Kiva policy), but that you may not really want to support. One Kiva supporter highlighted a loan for chicken feed that looks like it might be raising cocks for cock fighting. It may be illegal in the US and Europe, but in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam (and many other parts of the world) it’s a pretty popular ’sport’. At first, I was questioning whether the person that raised the concern was really just blowing hot air over some poor chicken farmer, but after reading her points, I have to say it looks like she was right. And that leads me to my starting point. Is it ethical to fund these grey loans? Just because we’re doing something ‘ethical’ (microfinance) does that mean it has to meet various other ethical standards too? Not everyone that believes in ‘doing good’ believes the same things about animal cruelty. I don’t have the answer, by the way. My thoughts are that it’s extremely difficult for Kiva to start banning loans for projects that aren’t illegal in the country of origin, but that maybe the descriptions should be clearer and should come with warnings about the activities you may be funding.

So you do need to place your money carefully on Kiva - look at the track records of the project/field partners, not just the borrowers. Watch out for discrepancies on the Kiva site (repeated loan listings, incorrect pictures, or things that just don’t make sense). I’m not going to stop lending, but I’m going to start taking more care to read about what I am funding.

Full disclosure: Here is my lending page so you can see what I’ve funded http://www.kiva.org/lender/jtw