Dangerous Daily Care

I decided to examine one of my most often used personal care product, a large bottle of Garnier Fructise Daily Care Shampoo. I couldn’t wait to find out what toxins I was covering my body with every morning in the shower. The ingredients listed on the back of the bottle are as follows;

“Aqua/Water; Sodium Laureth Sulfate; Cocamidopropyl Betaine; Cocamide MIPA; Dimethicone; Distearyl Ether; Sodium Chloride; Behenyl Alcohol; Niacinamide; Saccharum Officinarum/Sugar Cane Extract; Sodium Methylparaben; DMDM Hydantoin; PPG-5-Ceteth-20; Polyquaternium-10; Camellia Sinensis/Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract; Linalool; Pyrus Malus/Apple Fruit Extract; Carbomer; Pyridoxine HCl; Citric Acid; Butylphenyl Methylpropional; Citrus Limonum/Lemon Peel Extract; Laureth-2; Parfum (Fragrance).”




All this is packed in to a seemingly harmless off-the-shelf shampoo. Now to examine the ill-effects of my daily care ritual. According to the Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews website some of the substances in my shampoo have been linked to cancer, reproductive problems, neurotoxicity, allergies, and multitudes of other cellular level changes. Generally, the shampoo was given a 5 out of 10 on the hazard scale on the website, indicating a moderate level of danger associated with its ingredients. In regards to the Table on toxicity featured in the Okala Design book, I couldn’t find direct connections between the toxins they listed and the ones cited on the other website. I assume that the wording on the ingredients list on the back of the bottle may be a little different than the toxins listed in the Okala book, but they still describe the same compounds. I also noticed the supposed “data gaps” that were listed on the website, I was really confused by these. How can “fragrance” have a highly dangerous score of 8 but feature a “100%” data gap on its information? I wonder how the account a score to a substance without any information on it?

Even so, there are a lot of terrible things in my shampoos and other body care products. After realizing how many terrible things are in a lot of the regular use products I own, I have definitely started evaluating other alternatives. I spent a little time browsing the Environmental Working Group’s database and found a moderate rating on most of my products, but also found a lot of replacements for my products that were much safer. While I know that I cannot just stop using deodorant and shampoos, I now know the harmful side effects that these everyday items have on human and animals in testing situations. It is slightly terrifying to find that products like these are sold to consumers constantly and there is not that much outcry from the public… In light of my new found knowledge, I definitely plan on switching to daily care products that were rated on the 0-1 range on the informative EWG’s database. What is still throwing me off is that even products with a 0 rating, such as “Healing-Scents Pepperminty Shampoo/Body Wash” include substances linked to cancer, what hasn’t been linked to cancer? Is there any way to escape these types of toxins? I feel like you could drive yourself crazy attempting to rid your lifestyles of these toxins… Also, a concern of mine is buying these lower-risk products. Just take a look at the Healing-Scents website which is flat out terribly done. Albeit, possibly erroneous, this can illustrate an inferior product and furthermore makes me uncomfortable with purchasing their products. I simply don’t want to transfer my credit card information over that website. It just leads a little bit of credence to the notion that alternative, ecological products are somewhat inferior. Presentation is still important, even if the company is ecologically friendly.

Why Can't Anybody be as Green as They Seem

Like most people in the class today, I was extremely impressed with Bill McDonough and the initiatives he described in the video that was presented. His passion for the subject, and astute knowledge of green practices, were clearly evident while watching. I was very interested in finding more information about the cradle to cradle cities that he had designed for the Chinese and went on a Google-led quest right as class broke up.

What I found was a lot of good propositions and developments that William McDonough had been a part of but also many dismayed organizations that he had worked with over the years. A few articles had not-so-nice things to say about the man.

The image of Mr. McDonough that is portrayed through these outside sources is far from what I thought; portrayed as a man that has selfish interests in heart and claims untruthful things about his past business partners. Why can't anybody be what they seem? I am frustrated with the portrayed images and excellence of people that are eroded so easily with just a simple Google search. One thing that has become extremely depressing and disenfranchising through the actual study of environmentalism and other social justice-type missions is the innate human flaws that permeate. An overarching shadow of greed, transgression, or insincerity tends to follow these once noble pursuits. It is so easy for me to see the fatalist views of youth in our culture, what else are we expected to think? Without people able to cover their tracks as well as they once did, forms of the objective truths in this world are finally being brought to attention and it is heartbreaking. Many seemingly innocent organizations and institutions have been sullied by the flaws and foibles of high-iconic figures within them; take a look around. Religious zealots preaching the existence of a 'hell' to be saved from have created that on Earth for countless sexually molested children; the atrocities hidden by the veil of ignorance created by their once-faultless image. People shouldn't be allowed to hide behind false sugar coated securities and claim to be something they aren't. Until the evils of man are espoused from social institutions, it will always be hard for me to put any faith in something man-made.
This is more of a rant than anything, and features blurbs from sources that I didn't provide. I apologize for that, I guess the point is to not just trust everything you see once or even twice, there is often more lurking in the background than you will ever know.

HP Has Big Plans of the Green Nature

While browsing the GreenBiz website, I stumbled upon a few very interesting articles. One that I chose to discuss was that of Hewlett-Packard's newest attempts at being a more green machine-maker. 2008 was a huge year for HP's environmental impact reduction. The article describes numerous ways that HP was able to reduce carbon emissions by a relative 13% over 2007 -not a figure to dismiss lightly. Another notable fact, their new e-waste objectives led "HP... to 1.7 billion pounds (850,000 tons) of total electronics recycled" that would have otherwise gone directly to landfills. I think that these socially responsible activities are very poignant in business today. Electronics companies seem to have become a ridiculously large source of waste by requiring mostly virgin materials for construction, the short useful lifespan of products, and the small rates of recycling done with the products afterwards.

I think the most interesting aspect of the article centered on a Wal-Mart sponsored green design challenge in September of 2008. (Wal-mart sponsored?? Atleast the green bandwagon is one that everyone should jump on.) In regards to packaging for a laptop, HP was able to reduce the materials needed by 97%! How you reduce packaging to 3% of what it used to be is astounding to me... By doing so, HP was able to fit 3 laptops per average shipping box instead of 1 like before, this means huge savings for HP and for the environment. Why wouldn't electronics companies want to do this? By using recycled materials and a lot less foam, HP is able to change the world one laptop at a time. If there was a design challenge on all products think of how much negative impacts on the globe could be suspended? Truly mind-blowing.

First Post and 3 Goals

Hey there, so this is my first post on my sustain-abili-blog. Say it with my now, Sustain- Abili- Blog! (It truly rolls of the tongue, surprised it wasn't already taken...) Through the use of this blog, I hope to transform from current careless college student to eco-friendly and environmentally aware young adult. You can watch as I become cocooned and eventually spread my green-wings throughout the course of the quarter.

During the first class session of Marketing 488: Strategies for Sustainabiliy, we were asked to go home and calculate our "Ecological Footprint," after completing the activity, I was told that it would take 4 Earth’s to sustain my sort of lifestyle. First off, I can’t believe that, I felt like my carbon footprint was somewhat low due to use of public transportation, recycling, and very infrequent driving and when done often accompanied with a passenger… I guess I still have a lot to learn about my actions in regards to the ecosystem.


After realizing my wasteful ways of living, I came up with a few simple goals to help me reduce my negative impacts on Mother Earth.

My plans to reduce my carbon footprint this quarter:


1. Replace a meat-based meal with a nice, healthy peanut butter and jelly sandwich

My first action that I plan to enact centers around the PB&J campaign. I realized after using the EF calculator that a lot of my meals centered on meats, and after visiting the PB&J campaign website I learned how a subtle change like eating a plant-based meal over a meat-based meal can drastically reduce my personal footprint. I wholeheartedly accepted this challenge. I have already replaced two normal sandwich meals with PB&J and feel like this will be a simple and successful step in my personal sustainability efforts.

2. Reduce buying of non-essential new consumer goods

I want to reduce my purchases of new consumer goods. As of now, I don’t buy every new gadget or anything but I have replaced a few computers and big purchases like that before it was completely necessary. In such a fast moving industry there is no way to keep up anyways, especially in regards to consuming responsibly, and it gets individuals stuck in a cycle of trying to keep up for seemingly no reason. Also, in regards to clothing and other unnecessary comforts, I would like to continue buying second hand and possibly force all my purchases to be second hand in this area.

3. Reduce household energy consumption simply, by unplugging unused appliances

Reduce energy consumption in my house. Living in an antiquated house with 3 other men in a college environment is possibly a carbon-reducers biggest nightmare. While we are pretty good about recycling and keeping water usage low, we have never been very good at unplugging electronics. In a house with 4 college kids, there are probably 4 phone chargers in at all times, 4 laptop chargers, 4 huge power strips connected; all while we are out and about all day… It takes a little persistence to end these wasteful activities and I plan to not only utilize the power switch on my surge protector much more efficiently but also my roommates’ as well.