You've created the World's Greenest Product, and you're shipping it off to your first big customer. You've made it from the most environmentally sensitive materials, using only renewable energy. It's the pinnacle of eco-friendly everything. Special delivery. Photo: iStockphoto. So what are you going to pack it in, cardboard or plastic? And how are you going to keep it safe: Styrofoam, newspaper, popcorn, peanuts, Crackerjacks? Last month, this column reviewed the impacts of shipping by plane, train, and automobile (and ship, of course). This time we dig a little deeper, looking at the impacts of the actual packaging materials that …

My wife, who is in the coffee business (and an unreconstructed coffee snob), is fond of saying that it's misleading to call Starbucks a "coffee shop." Starbucks' primary beverage product is milk. Coffee is just one of the flavorings -- along with chocolate, syrups, chai, and lord knows what else -- they use in their warm milk. So while it's laudable, the focus on Starbucks' use of fair-trade coffee (and semi-recycled coffee cups and wind energy) misses the area where Starbucks could have the biggest and most profound effect. That's why I was happy to see (obviously a little bit …

Organized labor and environmentalists -- engaged in an on-again-off-again flirtation for years -- may finally be getting to third base. Greens and blues are shaking things up. Photo: iStockphoto. Last week, Carl Pope, head of the Sierra Club, and Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers (USW) union, announced the formation of the Blue/Green Alliance, linking the nation's biggest industrial labor union with the nation's largest environmental organization. Their motto: "Good jobs, a clean environment, and a safer world." "The Blue/Green Alliance is one of the most important initiatives undertaken by the environmental movement in decades," said Pope at the …

Jeffrey Hollender. What work do you do? I'm president of Seventh Generation, though lately I've been referring to myself as the Inspired Protagonist, providing the vision and inspiration to carry the company forward. How does your work relate to the environment? Photos: Seventh Generation. Our company provides nontoxic cleaners, recycled paper towels and tissues, and other alternatives to unhealthy conventional household products. But those products are really just the vehicle for promoting an idea called the Precautionary Principle, which says that when it comes to things that could affect the environment, we should take a good look before we leap …

What goes around, they say, comes around -- or, in this case, hops about in a blue waistcoat, munching stolen radishes. Our subject today is no visionary CEO, but Peter Rabbit, probably the best-known creation of children's author Beatrix Potter. Peter, ever the rebel. The World of Beatrix Potter™ © Frederick Warne & Co., 1902; 2002. By turning the spotlight in Peter's direction, we hope to illuminate some lessons in the game of responsible global branding. You see, SustainAbility has been called in to advise Frederick Warne & Co. -- a division of Penguin Books, which owns the Peter Rabbit …

Insurers must address climate change or face trouble, big U.K. firm warns Lloyd's of London, the world's oldest insurance market, yesterday warned U.K. insurers that they are in danger of being "swept away" by future global warming-related financial claims. In a report punchily titled "Climate Change, Adapt or Bust," Lloyd's encouraged insurers to adjust coverage-calculating strategies to factor in future climate-change scenarios instead of basing them on historical data. Some risks, like flooding in vulnerable coastal areas, are likely enough that the report suggests providers restrict or entirely withdraw coverage in those areas. Swept away, indeed. "If we don't take …

I hear from my inside sources -- and by that I mean a press release I was sent -- that a company called Champion Motors of America is going to start manufacturing and selling a line of electric vehicles: The company envisions its vehicles as workplace alternatives to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. The line, which ranges from a 2-person personal car to a 14-passenger shuttle, will be offered to the public as well as to anyone interested in becoming a distributor/dealer. The small vehicles can be used for a number of duties calling for a light vehicle such as quick trips …

Don Shaffer. What work do you do? I'm executive director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and co-owner of Comet Skateboards. What does your organization do? BALLE is a growing alliance of more than 5,400 entrepreneurs and small-business owners from across the U.S. and Canada who are dedicated to building Local Living Economies, and to a different way of doing business that enhances community life and natural systems. These entrepreneurs are committed to the long-term health of a particular place -- whether it's a big city like Philadelphia, a medium-sized town like Grand Rapids, Mich., or a rural …

Wal-Mart looks into selling ethanol As part of its newfound determination to jump on the eco-bandwagon, Wal-Mart is considering selling E85, an ethanol/gasoline blend, at the gas stations it owns and operates. The mega-chain held an alternative-fuels summit for auto-industry reps, oil companies, government officials, and biofuel producers in Washington, D.C., this week. Still, Wal-Mart spokesflack Kevin Gardner stressed that Wal-Mart is not yet ready to commit to anything. Despite ethanol fanfare from federal lawmakers and steady manufacturing of flex-fuel cars that can run on E85, only about 600 of the nation's 170,000 retail gas stations sell the ethanol blend. …

Bush's voluntary emissions-reduction programs not amounting to much Are you sitting down? We've got some earth-shattering news: the Bush administration's voluntary programs to reduce industrial greenhouse-gas emissions aren't working. A report issued yesterday by the Government Accountability Office stated that many industry participants in the U.S. EPA's voluntary "Climate Leaders" program and the Department of Energy's voluntary "Climate VISION" program were not setting specific emissions-reduction goals or inventorying or reporting on their emissions. According to the report, as of November 2005, only 38 of the 74 participants in the EPA program had set reduction goals; an EPA spokesflack responded that …