catbird’s world

At the tweet-request of @msmari, here are 5 things I think Whole Foods is doing right. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think WF is perfect. But I do think it’s miles ahead of other chain grocery stores.

1. Customer Service:
If you read my blog or tweets, you know I’ve had quite a bit of interaction with Whole Foods customer service. WF recognizes customers as key to the company’s survival and therefore treats them with respect, listening to suggestions or complaints and trying to rectify any problems. As a part of the WF customer service plan, they generate a feeling of (dare I say it?) community among customers through feedback channels, in-store events, and general friendliness of the staff. Good customer service is so important to a successful business and WF really gets it.

Where I live (in northern NJ) friendly grocery store employees are few and far between so I really appreciate the friendliness (real or contrived) of the people at Whole Foods.

2. Employees:
For the past 12 years that Fortune Magazine has been generating the Top 100 Places to Work list, Whole Foods has been on it. Ranked at 22, it isn’t the only grocery store on the list. Wegman’s is 5 and Publix is 88 and both of those have been on the list all 12 years as well. Do I think it’s all sunshine and rainbows to work there? Probably not, but they must be doing something right.

3. Local products and suppliers:
Whole Foods is doing a great job bringing in local products and suppliers. In almost every department, there are signs for locally caught, raised, or produced food. Sure, it might be better for me to drive to the various farms or artisan shops to get these products (emphasis on “might”), but as long as we have grocery stores, I’m glad there is one collecting local products under it’s roof for me.

4. Green Mission
Whole Foods has Green Mission Specialists and they actually do stuff. Like listen to customer requests for reusable containers for bulk foods, or setting up special bins for compostable waste in the dining area, or getting rid of plastic containers in the prepared foods area, or… well, you get the idea.

5. Sustainablity
Okay, I know it’s such a buzzword right now, but it is important. Whole Foods thinks about products from “farm to fork”. Might not be perfect yet, but at least they are *thinking* about it.

These are just five things I think Whole Foods is doing right. I’ll reiterate: I don’t think WF is perfect, but I do think it’s the least of all evils with regard to grocery stores.

catbird :: Aug.23.2009 :: customer service, food, green :: Comments Off

Last weekend we went to the local pet store to buy dog food only to find there had been a price increase, from $46 to $60 for a 40 pound bag. Wow, a $14 increase! We purchased a bag, but, out of curiosity, we checked the big chain store for a price comparison: $46. Plus, while we were there, a salesperson gave us a $2 off coupon, making the price difference $16.

I believe it’s very important to shop local. When you shop local, you’re supporting your neighbors who own the business and you’re developing relationships that make your community a better place to live. More of the money you spend stays in the community through profits, jobs, and taxes. Local businesses are more accountable and are more likely to utilize other local businesses. They also hire local people who provide better service to others in the community, who happen to be their neighbors.

No one can deny that shopping at a local merchant is more satisfying than shopping at a big box store. And who wouldn’t rather live in a town with a Main Street full of local merchants rather than next to a highway littered with strip malls?

As satisfying as it is, however, I do have limits. When a book I wanted to get my husband was $30 more at the local bookstore than at Amazon, I didn’t hesitate to buy it online. So, how much more am I willing to spend to buy local? It seems it depends on a number of intangible elements. But I do know I’ll continue to buy from my local merchants whenever possible. Whatever that means.

catbird :: Jun.30.2009 :: customer service, green, socio-pop :: Comments Off

I buy bulk food from Whole Foods about twice a month and each time I come home with my plastic bag full of rice, beans, popcorn, cous cous, or whatever, and transfer it into a glass jar. Sure, I could reuse those plastic bags for diapers, dog poo, or car trash, despite the light coating of grains and husks that always remain inside. But I always thought it would be great if I could take my own container with me to fill and eliminate the plastic altogether.

A quick call to customer service in the Millburn/Union store confirmed that I can bring my own container and have it weighed first. Having to visit customer service first each time is a clunky solution for both me and customer service. Which is probably why WF doesn’t promote doing this.

The better (really fabulously better) solution, I found out at the Whole Foods live blog, is one implemented by the the Green Mission Specialist at the Whole Foods in Santa Cruz: A program providing Ball jars to customers for a $2 deposit, to be used for purchasing bulk foods. Excellent!

While my emails to the West Orange and Millburn stores, sent through the Whole Foods web site, went unanswered (as of three weeks later. yep. three weeks), my phone call directly to the Green Mission Specialist at Millburn resulted in a quick reply.

Lisa Heimbuch, the Green Mission Specialist in Millburn sent me an email saying she wasn’t familiar with the program but would get more information. I followed up with the name of the Santa Cruz Green Mission Specialist and an offer to help in any way I can. In our last email, Lisa said she’d see about getting a similar program going in Millburn, and also see whether customer service can weigh my containers in the meantime.

Lisa was so enthusiastic and helpful — and seemed genuinely interested in implementing the program. I was impressed with her quick and personable responses, as well as her genuine commitment to the WF Green Mission.

Now for phase two of my plan…. get in touch with the West Orange store Green Mission Specialist.

It would be incredibly great if the second store to implement the Ball jar program was in NJ. Who will do it first… West Orange or Millburn?

Stay tuned!

UPDATE 5/23/09

I received an email from Lisa Heimbuch today about a new program at the Millburn/Union store:

I’m happy to tell you that we have come up with a program for you & your friends to be able to bring in your own containers for use in our bulk department. It’s actually very simple. The only thing you will need to do is to go to our Customer Service booth before you fill your containers. They will weigh the empty container & put two pieces of masking tape on it, one will have the tare/weight of the container & the other is for you to write the product item number on. When you are finished shopping you then will be able to go to any cashier & they will know how much weight to take off of your bulk purchase.

While this is similar to what I was originally told by customer service, I’m excited that it’s being called an actual Program, which means I can count on it every time I buy bulk foods. Maybe I’m irrationally excited about it, but anything that helps reduce the number of plastic bags in landfills sounds really great to me.

I hope everyone takes advantage of this program… and I hope other Whole Foods follow suit. (Do you hear me West Orange?)

catbird :: May.11.2009 :: food, green :: Comments Off

This TIME article about Club4Climate implementing a piezoelectricity dance floor to generate electricity reminded me of my post about using power generating equipment on playgrounds. Coincidentally, just before I read it, I was talking to a friend about how great it would be if kids could generate power, not just by spinning on those spinny merry-go-round things, but also on the swings.

Maybe it’s an idea whose time has come. The question is, who can build it?

catbird :: Jul.16.2008 :: green :: Comments Off

Just one day after reading that scientist James Hansen believes Earth is near the climate change tipping point, I read this interview with Michael Pollan in which he discusses farming, environmentalism, and ways to combat the current food and energy crises.

Pollan talks about the connections between, well, everything: what we eat and how it’s grown or raised and how those things are related to skyrocketing oil prices, food shortages, obesity and the increase in food prices. He outlines three things we need to do… I won’t spoil it for you but let’s just say it has to do with fewer subsidies and more solar-based agriculture.

Here’s a taste:

You can compare conventional beef production to a grass-based system of beef production, which is how we used to produce beef. Cattle are evolved to eat grass — they have rumens so they can digest it. So when they [cows] are getting grass, you have a really exquisite and sustainable food chain — where the sun feeds the grass, and the grass feeds the ruminant, and the ruminant feeds us. They are not competing with us for food, and it doesn’t take vast amounts of fossil-fuel fertilizer to produce that food. It takes none, until you start trucking the animal off of the ranch.

The problem with that system for the marketplace was that it’s a slower way to produce beef, and it takes more skill. It’s a lot easier just to put them on a feedlot, give them lots of corn, give them antibiotics so they can survive the corn, give them hormones to speed up their growth. Suddenly you take a two-year process and get it down to 13-14 months. Time is money, so we moved that way.

Wow. I think I have a little geek-environmentalist crush on Michael Pollan.

catbird :: Jun.26.2008 :: food, green :: Comments Off

President Bush wants to allow offshore oil drilling in previously protected lands off the U.S. Coast. Doing so could yield 18 billion barrels of oil.

“That would meet current U.S. consumption for about 2-1/2 years, but it would likely take a decade or more to find the oil and produce it.”

<sarcasm>Brilliant.</sarcasm>

Meanwhile, here in NJ lawmakers are considering a different question:
“The bill would allow the owners of preserved farmland to construct, operate and install solar or wind energy facilities or equipment on their farms. The generated power could be used to operate the farm or be sold to a utility company.”

Why not? Solar panels are unobtrusive and don’t take up extra space. Even windmills are soothing to look at (at least I think so.) Seems like a win-win.

catbird :: Jun.18.2008 :: green :: Comments Off

I finally figured out that we can compost our shredded bills and such. Cool.

We still don’t have usable compost. Sometimes I give the dog compostable food scraps instead since he is a much more efficient source. The poop composter generated soil for flowers and shrubs but the pyramid composter is still working on things (no doubt due to our lack of attention to mixture and such.)

catbird :: Jun.13.2008 :: food, green :: Comments Off

Samba writes a blog about, well, overdevelopment in West Orange. Specifically the (in)effectiveness of the town council in protecting trees by adopting a tree ordinance.

catbird :: May.06.2008 :: green :: Comments Off

Steve is on a Quest for the Perfect Cup of Coffee. It’s been going on for about 6 years now, and I’m just here for the ride. Believe me, if it was my quest it would be more like the Quest for the Perfect Porter or the Quest for Eight Hours of Uninterrupted Sleep.

But no, it’s Steve’s quest for a home-brewed cuppa joe that’s consistent and hot from first sip to last and from first cup to last, as well as convenient to make and environmentally friendly.

It started when we switched from a regular old Mr. Coffee machine to a Krups machine with a built in carafe in order to keep the coffee hot from first cup to last. This stage also dictated the end of spoons to stir since the metal spoon created a “heat sink” that cooled the coffee to an undrinkable temperature.

After four years, this system was deemed unsatisfactory. Our second (and third) cups were too cold and we were wasting a lot of coffee and water on full pots that got thrown away. (Let it be noted that during this stage we had kids, so I only get one hot sip of coffee followed by room temperature dregs an hour later anyway.)

So now we have a Keurig single cup brewer. This meets most of the criteria — each cup starts off hot and fresh. But the k-cups are anything but environmentally friendly. When we first got the machine I had visions of a growing pile of k-cups in a landfill somewhere resulting from my caffeine addiction. So we used a filter with our own coffee. For each cup of coffee, we had to clean and fill the single use filter. Talk about inconvenient. We could use fair trade coffee and compost the grounds, but making coffee became a tedious chore and if the coffee wasn’t ground just right or filled to the optimal amount, the result was, well, less than consistent in taste from cup to cup.

Steve still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. So now we have this thing called a pod holster (yes, I’m still talking about coffee) in which we can load a coffee pod. Pods are fully compostable. So it would seem we have met all the criteria. Each cup is consistent, hot, convenient, and green.

Except, I said to Steve, we can’t get Fair Trade pods. In fact, it’s hard to even get organic pods.

So what’s next you ask? Why, a Perfect Pod of course! So now we’ll buy our own Fair Trade coffee (from Grounds for Change, by the way), make it into pods, use the pods in our pod holster, and conveniently create the perfect cup of hot coffee every time.

Hopefully.

catbird :: Mar.30.2008 :: food, green :: Comments Off

So our kitchen waste/yard waste composting is going okay, but not great. We can’t seem to keep a good balance. Plus, squirrels chewed a hole in our composter. (Note to self: don’t compost pumpkins until squirrels are completely finished snacking on them.)

But our dog poop composting is going great. We read about it on this gardening site. We’ve been doing it all winter and have some good soil for growing some plants in the back — non-food, of course. Pet waste composting (along with the gDiapers) has really cut back on our garbage output, too. Our yard is pretty small, though, so our neighbors might appreciate us taking a break from poop composting during the hot summer months. Wow, that could be stinky.

catbird :: Mar.11.2008 :: food, green :: Comments Off

While our house isn’t super old, our plumbing certainly isn’t new. When flushing gDiapers, we noticed that the recommended “swish once” method left our poor toilet struggling, leading to frequent multiple flushes.

One day, just by accident, I realized that if I keep swishing in the opposite direction of the water flow for most of the flush, everything goes down without a problem. Now I do that every time and multiple flushes have become a rarity. (As an added bonus for our poor old plumbing, now that we have a composter, we can compost the pee diapers when they start to pile up.)

catbird :: Nov.13.2007 :: green, mommyhood :: Comments Off

Just picked up our new composter today. Although I’ve done some research about how to compost successfully, this will really be a big experiment and a lot of learning by doing. I’ll be interested to see if we have some good soil to use for planting next spring.

Hopefully composting will become a habit just like g-Diapers did. This page about what can be composted will come in handy.

catbird :: Oct.20.2007 :: food, green :: Comments Off

This guy can’t possibly be as much of an idiot as he sounds, right? Encouraging people to bike and walk seems like a superb idea in a nation where obesity is called an epidemic, global warming is just being acknowledged by the general public, and alternative energy sources are being pursued.
If McHenry was really smart, he would have pointed out, however, that now we need to build the infrastructure to make it safe to bike and walk to work, the store, school, etc. Bike lanes (or at least wide shoulders!), walking and biking paths, and more communities with pedestrian-friendly shopping areas would make it a lot easier for people to leave the car at home when commuting or doing errands. Those things will require more money than the tax incentive will cost, that’s for sure.

But are they worth it? Absolutely.

catbird :: Sep.05.2007 :: green :: Comments Off

I found these degradable dog poop bags while doing research into a pet waste composter. about $100 for 2000 bags. That’s $.05/bag and 200 bags will last almost three years.

Even better are BioBags. Made from corn starch polymer, they are 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable. And a little more expensive: 600 bags cost $70.00. That’s $.12/bag — more than double the Dogipots. The other option is 3000 bags for $300 ($.10/bag). Is it worth it for a biodegradable bag vs. a degradable bag?

According to Vincenze’s Pit,  biodegradable materials “are broken down by microorganisms that use the plastic as a food/energy source.” Degradable materials “are broken down by the elements, heat, moisture, sunlight etc and don’t require life as such to help the process.” He also points out that while biodegradable materials are better for composting, most landfills are designed to suppress the kind of microorganisms needed to break biodegradables down. Since we aren’t currently composting, it seems like the Dogipots might be the better option for us (and our bank account).

catbird :: Aug.23.2007 :: green, woof :: Comments Off

By next spring, I would like to have a rain barrel system set up to collect water for the yard and garden.

Rain Barrel Guide: Why collect rainwater, estimating how much will be collected, how to get started (this site also has a link to compost guide).

Clean Air Gardening: large selection of rain barrels for purchase including a cool 60 gallon one made of a recycled food-grade barrel.

Gardeners.com: More rain barrels.

Composters.com: rain barrels, and also pet waste composters and other composting supplies

catbird :: Aug.23.2007 :: green :: Comments Off

The Consumerist writes about increasing dairy and meat prices due to the increase in corn prices. How are the two linked? All those cows (pigs, chickens, etc.) eating corn and turning it into milk and meat. The double whammy is that transporting and growing all that corn requires a lot of petroleum for gas and fertilizers. The Consumerist suggests we should cut back on driving to reduce our gas usage. Well, um, thanks Captain Obvious. The more I read what Michael Pollan says about grass farming, the more I think it’s a solution that would have a major impact. There would still be the transportation part of the equation (while I’m always trying to buy more local, could my family really give up things like bananas?) but less corn, less petroleum-based fertilizers, and a more sustainable approach sounds great to me.

catbird :: Jun.14.2007 :: food, green :: Comments Off

Can we save money while living more environmentally-friendly? Obviously if we use less electricity, natural gas, and gasoline we will spend less money and help the environment. But when it comes to our other consumption habits, to be greener we have to spend more. Cleaning products, paper products, diapers, food…. all the more environmentally-friendly options are also more expensive. Granted, we are eating less since we started eating better, but our grocery bill is still pretty high. I guess unless I’m willing to track everything down to the penny in Microsoft Money, I’ll never know the answer. And I guess I just have to tell myself that saving money isn’t as important as saving the planet.

catbird :: Jun.05.2007 :: green :: Comments Off

Why not put playpump style equipment in the playground and have spinning, running, climbing children generate some electricity for us. Hmmm… child labor or wisely utilizing our natural resources.

catbird :: May.31.2007 :: green :: Comments Off

Super-cool and super-environmentally-conscious flooring company Interface now offers Flor Rug in a box at Target. A six-tile box is $59.99 and it’s offered in four styles. What a great way to bring hip and environmentally friendly flooring to the masses.

Although I had heard of Flor, I found out about Interface from the eye-opening film, “The Corporation.” 

catbird :: Mar.16.2007 :: green :: Comments Off

Sure we feel good about all the fluorescent bulbs we’re using, but we didn’t think about how it would affect the paint color on the walls. When we picked paint colors, we were using regular old incandescent bulbs. Now our warm cream color now looks a bit institutional. Something to think about for the next paint job.

Update:

Eric from Real World Green clued me in to buy the CFLs that say “Warm White” on the package. I guess as the kitchen bulbs burn out that’s what we’ll replace them with. Curse the long life of the CFL! Now I’ll spend years in my institutional-colored kitchen! Or I could just move those  8 or so bulbs somewhere else.

catbird :: Mar.16.2007 :: green :: Comments Off