McEachern - Big green purse: use your spending power to create a cleaner, greener world
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- Book:Big green purse: use your spending power to create a cleaner, greener world
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- Year:2014
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Read Diane McEacherns posts on the Penguin Blog. Protecting our environment is one of the biggest issues facing our planet today. But how do we solve a problem that can seem overwhelming-even hopeless As Diane MacEachern argues in Big Green Purse, the best way to fight the industries that pollute the planet, thereby changing the marketplace forever, is to mobilize the most powerful consumer force in the world-women. MacEacherns message is simple but revolutionary. If women harness the power of their purse and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world. Spirited and informative, this book: - targets twenty commodities-cars, cosmetics, coffee, food, paper products, appliances, cleansers, and more-where womens dollars can make a dramatic difference; - provides easy-to-follow guidelines and lists so women can choose the greenest option regardless of what theyre buying, along with recommended companies they should support; - encourages women to spend wisely by explaining whats worth the premium price some green products cost, whats not, and when they shouldnt spend money at all; and - differentiates between products that are actually green and those that are simply marketed as ecofriendly. Whether readers want to start with small changes or are ready to devote the majority of their budget to green products, MacEachern offers concrete and immediate ways that women can take action and make a difference. Empowering and enlightening, Big Green Purse will become the green shopping bible for women everywhere who are asking, What can I do
McEachern: author's other books
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Table of Contents
To my mother, Ann MacEachern
INTRODUCTION
CAN THE WAY WE SPEND OUR MONEY BRING BACK THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO?
In 1983, the first time I visited this iconic mountain, it sparkled with glaciers and frosty trails. By the time my husband and I took our children back in 2000, we were stunned. The ice fields capping Africas best-known landmark had shrunk so much, the dome looked more like a minefield than the sky-high cupcake wed promised the kids. Now scientists are saying the snows will be gone altogether by 2020. Ive spent years urging Congress and companies to adopt policies that would reverse global warming, a key cause of Kilimanjaros snowmelt, to no avail. Im ready to try something new.
Shopping, anyone?
Normally, the mall would be the last place Id go if I wanted to solve an environmental problem. After all, runaway consumerism has played a significant role in the collapse of the planet, given the energy, water, land, and other resources required to produce all the stuff people buy... and buy... and buy.
But women spend eighty-five cents of every dollar in the marketplace. According to Connie Glaser, author of The Womens Market Rules, between the $2.7 billion a day we collectively earn and the additional billions we manage at home, on the job, or for volunteer organizations, womens buying power exceeds the economy of Japan. When we pay for goods, manufacturers pay attention to us.
Why not use that consumer clout to pressure companies to save energy, protect forests, use safer ingredients, and otherwise become more responsible environmental citizens? I could buy no-VOC paint so my family wont have to breathe harsh chemicals, you might say, and Ill persuade other paint manufacturers to eliminate VOCs from their products, too. Or, The sustainable-wood furniture I buy will not only decorate my home, it will help save forests, as well. And, I can buy wind power not only to meet my energy needs, but also to encourage utilities to switch from the fossil fuels that cause air pollution.
Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World shows women hundreds of ways they can make their money matter and protect the planet, too.
Whats at Stake?
Womens consumer spending affects virtually every aspect of the environment.
Were major purchasers of cars, electronics, tools, appliances, furniture, and sporting equipment, let alone food, clothing, and cosmetics. Even if we dont actually lay out the cash ourselves, we influence the way others in our household do. (Who among us doesnt regularly send our spouse to the store with a list?) Fifty percent of purchasing agents for companies now are women, which is why were also buying fleets of vehicles, reams of paper, mountains of office supplies, and boatloads of desks and chairs.
All this consumer clout puts us in a unique position to create the world we want. Good thing, because the world weve got needs some fixing. Its not only Kilimanjaros melting glaciers we need to worry about. Coral reefs in the tropics, wilderness in the Rocky Mountains, and agricultural croplands that define Americas heartland are at risk, too. Air pollution is increasing childhood asthma rates. Mercury from power plants is contaminating our food supply. In the long run, well have to deal with the collapse of entire ecosystems. Were already paying more for groceries and making more trips to the doctors office.
Tropical rain forests are disappearing at the rate of six soccer fields a minute. The annual loss amounts to an area of rain forest the size of New Jersey. Some scientific models predict that by the end of this century, the Amazon basinwhich generates20 percent of the planets oxygen, contains 15 to 20 percent of all life on earth, and covers 2,722,000 square miles in nine countrieswill have been so burned, logged, and drilled, it will look more like the parched savannas of Africa than the Eden that has allowed it to serve as the lungs of the earth.
Our female biology makes us extremely vulnerable to toxic exposures. When we are pregnant, the fetus is particularly susceptible to chemicals that can cause birth defects. As nursing mothers, we feed our babies dangerous compoundslike pesticides and even rocket fuelthat have accumulated in our breast milk. As we age, we face a one in ten chance of contracting breast cancer from causes that are increasingly being linked to environmental contaminants.
Millions of women hold jobs in the cleaning professions, at hair and beauty salons, and in manufacturing industries. Their exposure to poisonous industrial solvents increases their risk of cancer, reproductive failure, and other health problems. But you dont have to be a maid, janitor, professional housekeeper, or beautician to be at risk. Using household cleaning sprays and aerosol fresheners just once a week can increase your chances of developing asthma by 30 to 50 percent, according to scientists at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona.
Think about the places in nature that you love. Do you have a favorite forest that offers you haven? A lake that refreshes your body and soul? A meadow or marsh that reminds you how many birds there are, and the different songs they sing? Pollution, encroaching development, and resource exploitation are taking their toll here, as well.
The threats are real and the outlook is grim. No denying, weve helped make it that way. Whether were buying too much or just enough to meet our needs, as consumers weve been part of the problem, by purchasing products that devour energy and natural resources as if there were no tomorrowwhich there wont be if we all keep this up.
But manufacturers havent been much help, either. Well-heeled industry lobbyists prevent the passage of environmental legislation that would help bring global warming and other environmental problems under control. In the political arena, public officials frequently put expedient compromises (and political campaign contributions) ahead of the health and welfare of the planet and people like you and me. As responsible ecocitizens, our first obligation is to follow the three Rs: reduce how much we buy, reuse what we have, and recycle what we can.
But the three Rs get us only so far. Whether weve been paring down our purchases for years or are greenhorns when it comes to a green lifestyle, on some level we still need to shop.
Thats where our pursesand our power to protect the planetcome into play.
As much as manufacturers oppose environmental legislation and regulation, they embrace what happens in the marketplace. They have to. Consumer dollars are their lifeblood. Corporate need for profit gives consumers power. And because women spend eighty-five cents of every dollar in the retail marketplace, we have a whole planetful of power.
Weve already made organic food the fastest-growing sector in the food industry. Weve turned natural personal-care products into a booming business, too. Were transforming the clothing industry with our pesticide-free cotton and hemp purchases, and saving rain forests by buying furniture made from recycled wood.
But we have to do more. Despite the ballyhoo about organic produce, only 3 percent of food sold in the United States is grown without toxic chemicals. Fewer than 5 percent of vehicles hawked on your neighborhood car lot are highly fuel efficient. Only 2 percent of coffee is shade grown, meaning its raised naturally beneath a rain forest canopy that protects songbirds rather than on estates that have been clear-cut and doused with pesticides.
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