Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Check Out Line: Bring a mug, get free Starbucks java, save the world
Check out how Starbucks is working to persuade you to help save the planet by using fewer of its iconic paper cups.
On Thursday the company, which hands out about 4.75 million cups a day, is giving away free coffee to everyone who brings in a reusable mug or travel tumbler.
This latest promotion from the world’s biggest coffee chain comes as it works to hit its goal of serving one-fourth of its beverages in reusable cups by 2015.
The ubiquity of Starbucks coffee cups make them a powerful advertising vehicle. But the company’s popularity also has a dark side — discarded Starbucks cups contribute to pollution by creating tons of trash.
Check Out Line: P&G shows its sustainable side
Check out Procter & Gamble’s environmental and social efforts.
P&G was added to the Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable corporations in 2009. On Monday, the household products powerhouse released its latest sustainability report, “Designed to Matter.”
The report comes seven months after P&G raised its 2012 sustainability goals.
P&G said that since 2002 it has cut water consumption by 52 percent, energy usage by 48 percent, carbon dioxide emissions by 52 percent and waste disposal by 53 percent in its operations.
Check Out Line: A greener eBay?
Check Out eBay’s steps toward becoming more environmentally friendly.
The online auctioneer announced its first greenhouse gas emissions reduction target on Monday, saying it has committed to a 15-percent cut to its corporate emissions by 2012, over a 2008 baseline.
EBay said it will achieve that target through continuing investments in renewable energy and promoting “sustainable” habits tied to the travel and personal energy use of its 15,000-strong workforce.
Molson Coors-sponsored survey finds water pollution key concern
What is the latest and most important environmental concern these days? Global warming? Disappearing ice caps and rain forests? Reliance on non-renewable energy?
Wrong. According to a new survey sponsored by Molson Coors Brewing Co, water pollution ranked No. 1, followed by fresh water shortages, depletion of natural resources, air pollution and loss of animal and plant species.
The greening of Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart, which helped promote the adoption of those funny-looking “green” lightbulbs, is making more room in its Sam’s Club warehouse stores for environmentally friendly products — including a water-saving toilet that has one button for flushing liquids and another for flushing solids.
Employees at a Sam’s Club in the discounter’s home town in Bentonville, Arkansas, have emptied shelves of things like power tools to make way for a variety of green products. Similar efforts have taken place in Sam’s Clubs across the United States.
For Father’s Day, suit shows greener side of Sears
Hey guys, this isn’t your pop’s polyester.
Just in time for Father’s Day shopping, Sears will roll out a line of men’s suits made of the first high-tech fabric that blends wool with polyester spun from recycled plastic soda bottles.
The suit separates, sold under Sears’ Covington Perfect brand, will be on racks in about 500 U.S. Sears stores in May. Price: $175 for the jacket and $75 for the pants, according to Tim Danser, vice president of marketing for Bagir Group Ltd., the Israeli manufacturer that tailors the garments for Sears’ private label.
Did you power down for Earth Hour?
The Las Vegas strip (below) and other global icons went dark on Saturday for Earth Hour.
McDonald’s powered down in Chicago. Twitter was alight with Earth Hour tweets.
Target uses “People” to get people to go green
We’ve all seen stores touting reusable shopping bags. They’re a trendy way to ditch those regular plastic bags and they’re often pretty cheap — 99 cents at Target and some supermarkets, 50 cents at Wal-Mart and sometimes they’re even free.
Now, Target is taking the reusable tote idea to a new medium. The discount chain took out ads on the inside front cover and the back cover of the latest issue of People touting green ideas. The most intriguing one if you’re in the market for one of those bags is to use the cover as an envelope, send in five plastic Target bags and get a coupon for a free Target tote.
Readers don’t even have to pay for the stamp — Target and TerraCycle, the company that made the “Retote” bag, already paid the postage.
How green is your coffee habit?
Despite the wide range of organic and other “green” coffee on the market, 67 percent of coffee drinkers who frequent coffee shops admit to discarding used paper cups into a regular trash can rather than a recycling bin, according to a new survey of 1007 Internet users conducted by Kelton Research and commissioned by Tata Group’s Good Earth Coffee.
That means about 28 billion cups (100 million pounds of paper) end up in U.S. landfills every year.
The study also showed that 42 percent of Americans believe it takes less time for a paper coffee cup to decompose (20 years) than a newspaper (2 weeks). Not to mention the fact that many paper coffee cups can’t be recycled or composted because of the materials with which they are coated.
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