Green Economy Blog Response

Most Americans are aware of the current environmental state of earth and the necessity for change for the future. However, “the risk of catastrophic climate change itself is not enough” for most people to change their lifestyle. Common sense ecological-economic concepts would be hard to sell that would need a huge amount of popular support. A majority of Americans over consume products and are considerably ignorant about the environmental costs of their actions such as the non-re-usability of products. Companies such as Ecovative make a conscious effort to positively impact the world through helpful environmental change. For those who don’t know, Ecovative is a company started by previous RPI students who make packaging materials from mushrooms that biodegrades as a substitute for Styrofoam, which sits in landfills for years. Even small changes such as these can make a large impact as everyone’s effort from manufacturing to consumption add up to make a difference.

In addition, if a product was manufactured or sold in the U.S., then it should come with reduced packaging, be manufactured without toxic or hazardous materials, be a proportion of recycled materials to keep pace with supply of recyclable materials, be recyclable, reusable and/or compostable, be returnable at the end of its life-cycle, be manufactured with renewable energy and provide a label with country of origin. This list of improved manufacturing procedures is extensive to reduce a product’s environmental impact over the course of its life-cycle, but is important to mention. Although this list creates what one might call perfection, it is necessary to see all of the required steps. Each step makes a difference, and can be slowly implemented or added to create this “perfect” environmentally friendly life-cycle. This will take time and effort at both the end of manufacturer and consumer, but through the effort of both, can have increasingly positive changes on the earth’s environment.