By MJ Deschamps
With fast fashion and quick turnover key commercial ingredients of today’s garment and apparel industry, excess textile production is prompting the sector to gravitate towards more recycling and re-use of materials, to conserve energy, increase sustainability and lower raw material costs. Read the rest of this page »
Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are defined as infections not present and without evidence of incubation at the time of admission to a healthcare setting. As a better reflection of the diverse healthcare settings currently available to patients, the term healthcare-associated infections replaced old ones such as nosocomial, hospital-acquired or hospital-onset infections.[1] Within hours after admission, a patient’s flora begins to acquire characteristics of the surrounding bacterial pool. Most infections that become clinically evident after 48 hours of hospitalization are considered hospital-acquired. Infections that occur after the patient is discharged from the hospital can be considered healthcare-associated if the organisms were acquired during the hospital stay. Read the rest of this page »
Spalding Hospital sits on Boston Harbor in Charlestown. (Photo: Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
In an effort to stabalize energy costs hospitals nationwide are investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Host Steve Curwood checks out the innovative design of the new Spaulding hospital with John Messervy Director of Capital and Facilities Planning for Partners’ HealthCare. Read the rest of this page »
News Release
University of Guelph researcher Atsuko Negishi is investigating a novel and unlikely source of natural fibres that may one day lessen our dependence on petroleum: hagfish slime.
The textile industry needs an affordable, sustainable alternative to oil-based polymers, and a recent study shows that hagfish slime protein threads have the potential to be spun and woven into novel biomaterials.
Hagfishes are an ancient group of eel-like, bottom-dwelling animals that have remained relatively unchanged for more than 300 million years. When threatened, hagfishes secrete a gelatinous slime containing mucous and tens of thousands of protein threads. These threads belong to the “intermediate filament” family of proteins, and they have remarkable mechanical properties that rival those of spider silks. Read the rest of this page »
Sims Municipal RecyclingChildren from P.S. 63 in the East Village exploring the Recyclarium’s exhibits on disposal and sorting on Tuesday.
As a state-of-the-art recycling plant rises in Brooklyn, a mobile educational space known as the Recyclariumwill be making the rounds this fall to give young New Yorkers a taste of what’s coming.
The trailer, revealed on Tuesday at P.S. 63 in the East Village, offers exhibits and interactive games that explain the ins and outs of recycling, from disposing of the materials properly to processing what eventually emerges as the recycled product. The city’s schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, was on hand for the affair, which also featured a composting event.
The trailer accommodates 10 to 15 children at a time and takes about 30 minutes to explore.
As for the new recycling plant, officials with Sims Metal Management Municipal Recycling, the company that recycles the city’s metal, glass and plastic, say it will open on the waterfront in Sunset Park and include an education center with classroom space to promote recycling.
The city’s Department of Sanitation is paying the costs of the Recyclarium in the hope of spreading the idea of minimizing trash to children and young adults. Recycling is far less ingrained in New York City than it is in cities like San Francisco or Seattle.
The department also recently created the position of deputy commissioner to help the Bloomberg administration meet its goal of doubling the city’s recycling rate of 15 percent by 2017.
In addition to interactive games, the trailer presents dozens of recycling facts. Among the factoids: New Yorkers throw away 146,200 tons of glass per year. If all of it were recycled into sand, it would be enough to fill 718 sand volleyball courts, one for each elementary school in the city.
Article courtesy of MIREYA NAVARRO with the NYtimes http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/on-the-move-a-recyclarium-for-new-york/?utm_source=Kazi+Media+Group&utm_medium=Kazi+Media+Group
View full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/barrington-ri-plastic-bag-ban_n_1732887.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000040
BARRINGTON, R.I. (AP) — Answering the question ‘paper or plastic’ could get a lot easier in one Rhode Island town if local leaders support a call to ban plastic shopping bags.
Hundreds of residents and more than a dozen business owners in Barrington are pushing to scrap the sacks, which they say take up valuable landfill space and litter streets, streams and shorelines. But critics — including an alliance of plastic bag manufacturers — say prohibiting the ubiquitous bags would only reduce consumers’ options while doing nothing to help the environment.
The Barrington Town Council voted on Monday to direct the town’s solicitor to draft a proposed ban. The move follows a recommendation by the town’s Conservation Commission to prohibit plastic shopping bags to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bag. Under that recommendation, shoppers could also purchase paper bags for 5 cents each.
“It wouldn’t be a big deal to me,” said Linda Alves, who was shopping for home office supplies Wednesday in Barrington, an affluent town 20 minutes from Providence. Alves opened the trunk of her car and pulled out two reusable bags. “I have so many of these things, who needs the plastic?”
San Francisco was the first U.S. city to ban plastic shopping bags back in 2007. Several cities have followed, including Los Angeles and Seattle. The bags are banned throughout Hawaii. Westport, Conn. is the only New England community with such a ban.
“It’s a matter of changing habits, and that’s not always easy,” said Jonathan Cunitz, a member of Westport’s Representative Town Meeting and an advocate for the ban, which went into effect in 2009. “But people are now more conscious of the environment and we don’t see plastic bags on the street or on our waterfront.”
But an organization founded by plastics manufacturers to fight proposed bans argues that outlawing the bags could threaten more than 30,000 plastic bag manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Donna Dempsey, spokeswoman for the Washington D.C.-based American Progressive Bag Alliance, said the plastic bag has gotten a bad rap.
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/07/26/nike-walmart-levis-launch-sustainable-apparel-index/
Walmart, Nike, Target, JC Penney, Levi’s and fellow members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition have unveiled the group’s index for measuring the environmental impact of apparel products across the supply chain.
The Higg Index is an indicator-based tool for apparel that allows clothing manufacturers and brands to evaluate material types, products, facilities and processes based on a range of environmental and product design choices.
This 1.0 version of the index was developed for apparel products and measures environmental outcomes in water use and quality; energy and greenhouse gas; waste; and chemicals and toxicity.
Future releases of the index, slated for 2013, will include footwear products and social and labor impact areas, the coalition said. The index eventually will be expanded to include quantitative data and metrics and feature an improved scoring method.
The current version of the Higg Index asks practice-based, qualitative questions to gauge environmental sustainability performance. It’s based on the Eco Index and Nike’s Apparel Environmental Design Tool. However, the Higg Index has been significantly enhanced through the pilot testing period, the coalition said.
The tool includes a Materials Sustainability Index, a cradle-to-gate assessment tool to give designers and the global supply chain information on the environmental sustainability of materials.
A group of 30 manufacturers and retailers launched theSustainable Apparel Coalition last year to improve the environmental and social performance of the apparel and footwear industry, from water consumption and chemical use to waste and embedded energy in products.
Last month, Nike partnered with Random Hacks of Kindness in the Open Challenge for Sustainable Materials, an initiative that asks apparel designers and developers to use sustainable materials listed on the Nike Sustainable Materials Index.
Article by Marc Gunther at Greenbiz.com: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/26/behind-scenes-sustainable-apparel-coalition?utm_source=E-News+from+GreenBiz&utm_campaign=21c7056b94-GreenBuzz-2012-27-07&utm_medium=email
The story of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition begins with a letter designed to get the attention of even a busy CEO. At the top: the logos of Walmart and Patagonia. John Fleming, who was then Walmart’s chief merchandising officer, and Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, signed the letter, which invited chief executives of some of the world’s biggest clothing companies–fierce competitors, ordinarily — to join together to develop an index to measure the environmental impact of their products.
Their pitch, in part, read like this:
Creating a single approach for measuring sustainability in the apparel sector will do much more than accelerate meaningful social and environmental change. Standardization will enable us to maximize sustainability benefits for all buyers without investing in multiple sustainability technologies and certification processes, and ultimately empower consumers to trust claims regarding sustainably sourced apparel.
Finally, as an industry, we will benefit from the unique opportunity to shape policy and create standards for measuring sustainability before government inevitably imposes one.
…The time is right and the need is great for the apparel sector to move forward now, without further delay, in unison, with strong partners like you.
It was a risky proposition. What if it turned out that a competing company had a better sustainability story to tell? Would consumers be given access to the index? NGOs? Regulators? Most big retailers knew that they had very little visibility deep into their supply chains. Did they really want to find out, for example, that a supplier to one of their suppliers, in a factory they had never visited in China or Vietnam, exploited workers or dumped pollution into a nearby river? Any meaningful index would require companies to ask tough questions and, eventually, face demands from others to share what they had learned.
The letter went out on October 1, 2009. Less than three years later, despite those risks, the apparel industry has made major progress towards creating a global sustainability index, the Higg Index, to measure and score products, factories and companies. A first version was released today by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the nonprofit group that developed the index.
Its vision? Nothing less than “an apparel and footwear industry that produces no unnecessary environmental harm and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its activities.” The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) hired an executive director, Jason Kibbey, in January, and today it has more than 60 members, representing brands, retailers and suppliers who together account for more than a third of the global apparel and footwear industry.
Here at MantraMeds, our scrubs are made from recycled plastic but we like to emphasize that making our planet a more sustainable place means practicing all 3 R’s: Reducing, Reusing & Recycling. Here is a great article from HuffPost Green on reducing use of plastic on all your fresh summer produce!
I started shopping at my farmers market this summer. I’ve noticed people putting fruits and vegetables directly in their totes, without taking the plastic bags some vendors offer. But how do you keep produce fresh in the fridge without the plastic?
-Raina
Not long ago, I asked myself that same question. I had recently invested in a large set of organic cotton reusable produce bags, and while I was feeling mighty proud of myself each time I ventured out to the market (look how eco-friendly I am! Who needs those wasteful plastic produce bags?), the scene in my fridge a few days later was less than pretty.
Stored in plastic, fruits and vegetables would have normally stayed fresh for at least a week. But left in my new reusable bags, all my beautiful produce fast turned into a wilted, spoiled mess. (Even the “crisper” bin seemed to do just the opposite, no matter what the setting.)
I’ve written before about the enormous environmental implications of wasted food; needless to say, my cloth produce bags were not coming close to offsetting the yearly 34 million tons of food waste to which I was now contributing.
But obviously, there were reasons to avoid the plastic bags, too (wildlife-destroying pollution, needless oil consumption, endocrine-disrupting chemicals). They also didn’t seem necessary: After all, plastic produce bags only came into being in the 1960s; plastic grocery bags, a decade later. There had to be a way to keep my fruits and veggies fresh without them.
Enter Beth Terry. As author of the blog My Plastic-free Life and the recently released book Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too, Terry knows how to keep everything from persimmons to parsnips fresh with nary a plastic bag in sight: She’s lived plastic free (and not just in the produce department) since 2007.
Terry’s storage methods come largely from Ecology Center Farmers’ Markets in Berkeley, CA, which createdthis guide on how to store more than 60 kinds of fruits and vegetables. But being the plastic-free pro that she is, Terry of course had some suggestions to add. With her help, I’ve created a condensed version for you that includes her input, below.
*Note: While the Ecology Center guide occasionally calls for paper products, Terry tries to limit these; she opts for cloth bags or plastic-free reusable containers instead. (“While plastic is truly problematic, all single-use disposable bags and wrappers have an environmental footprint,” she says.) She suggests a variety of different bags and containers on her site.
This is a guest post from Tom Szaky, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCycle, which provides free waste collection, and then turns that waste into sustainable products. View our previous post about TerraCycle here: https://mantrameds.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/terracycle-outsmart-waste/
Widely quoted estimates suggest that 90% of the ‘stuff’ we buy is discarded within 6 months of purchase. What’s worse is that 10% of this “stuff” ends up going to some type of waste-to-energy facility, while the remaining 90% of America’s waste ends up in a landfill.
With over 360 million Americans and counting producing on average about 4 pounds of waste a day, it is clear that our recycling systems need to be expanded to accept a wider range of materials, and fast. Worse yet, even commonly recyclable packaging formats such as PET and HDPE plastic bottles are only recycled at an estimated (and paltry) 25%.
Great article from Organic Authority’s Lacy Boggs Renner
http://www.organicauthority.com/health/superbetter-video-game.html
What happens when Jane McGonigal, one of the world’s preeminent alternate reality game designers and experts in game theory, suffers from a traumatic brain injury? Well, she designs a game to get better, of course. And not just better; Superbetter.
Superbetter is an online, social game designed to help you build up resistance in four categories: mental resistance, emotional resistance, social resistance and physical resistance. And by building yourself up in these areas, McGonigal believes that you can overcome just about anything, from depression to obesity and anxiety to PTSD. In other words, this is few steps beyond playing Angry Birds or Draw Something.
Superbetter is an alternate reality game, which incorporates online and real-world tasks. So, for example, if your quest in the game is to lose weight, you might battle a bad guy after dinner every night—namely, mindless munching in front of the TV. Whenever you defeat your personal bad guys (I’ve nicknamed mine Evil Dr. Chocolate Bar), you can log that on the game website and earn yourself points.
It’s definitely a fun way to think about working towards a goal, but does it actually work? In a word, yes.
In 2009, McGonigal had what seemed at first to be a minor accident, but which quickly morphed into a concussion with serious repercussions. Her brain injury sent her into a bout of deep depression, social isolation and anxiety. When her doctor told her that she might never get better if she didn’t see improvement within a year, she turned her passion for game theory and the psychology of positive emotions into a game for getting better. She became the hero in her own quest, enlisted friends and family members as allies to give her challenges and award her points, identified the bad guys that were her triggers, and made healthy choices that were her power-ups.
Today, she is completely recovered.
The SuperBetter website provides a framework, based in real science, for anyone to follow McGonigal’s strategy to work on their own quests. Although there are some common quests pre-programmed with challenges and bad guys, like losing weight or even working on a positive body image, the program is extremely customizable, making it an amazing free tool for every hero out there looking to slay a few personal demons.
As August nears, we’re all scraping to hang onto these final weeks of summer. Thinking about taking a picnic to the park, packing a lunch for a hike, or hosting an outdoor bar-b-q? Careful, with the heat wave being experienced all over the US, it doesn’t take long for the warm air to spoil your food. Organic Authority gives us 6 helpful tips to avoid getting food poisoning this summer.
Written by Lacy Boggs Renner
You only need to have food poisoning once to know how incredibly awful it can be—and to become committed to doing everything possible to prevent further foodborne illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that every year, 48 million Americans—nearly one in six—will get sick from a foodborne illness.
We’ve rounded up our six best tips to keep your summer picnics and barbeques safe and healthy. Read about them here: http://www.organicauthority.com/health/tips-to-avoid-food-poisoning.html
In this article, Organic Authority brings you 7 deciding factors for what to wash and how often. A twist on sustainable clothing! Enjoy
View full article here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1xK9Sj/www.organicauthority.com/sanctuary/7-tips-to-rewear-clothes-before-washing.html
Image: Magic Madzik
Someone had to ask, right? Is it sustainable or just plain gross to re-wear outfits before washing clothes?
The average American household does some 400 loads of laundry per year, using as much as 40 gallons of water per load, according to the Consumer Energy Center. With fresh water becoming a seriously scarce resource, that’s a huge number to take into consideration, especially when clothes are frequently and unnecessarily washed. In the not-so-olden days just a century ago, it was a given that clothes were going to be worn several times, if not dozens before washing. And even then, they were low-impact hand-washed and air-dried.
The home washing machine drastically changed all that in the 1950s. Suddenly, we could have clean clothes with little effort—a necessity that became a luxury—but in our modern efforts to decrease our consumption of resources and our impact on the environment, it’s important that we choose to develop new habits. We didn’t always look at the bottom of containers to determine whether or not they were recyclable, now it’s a habit for many of us. So is shopping at local farmers markets to support our regional economy and decrease the distance between where our food is grown and our mouths. But what about what we wear? Is just using an environmentally friendly detergent enough? Check this list of tips on re-wearing clothes to decrease your impact on the environment and make your clothes last longer:
View the 7 tips here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1xK9Sj/www.organicauthority.com/sanctuary/7-tips-to-rewear-clothes-before-washing.html
4 Foods that Prevent Sunburn—from the Inside Out
| Written by Lacy Boggs Renner Organic Authority.com |
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We all know that it’s important to do our best to avoid sunburn altogether, but it seems inevitable: at least once a summer you end up forgetting your sunscreen and… ouch. But, if you bulk up on these foods even before you set foot outside, your body could be better equipped to prevent sunburn (and heal when you do get burned). Green teaStudies have shown that drinking two cups of green tea per day could provide your body with (a little bit of) sunburn-fighting abilities! The catechin compounds in green tea are thought to help protect the body from the sun’s radiation. Bonus: the tannic acid in tea can help fight sunburn pain, so put cool teabags on a sunburn to feel better after the fact. (Click here for more natural sunburn remedies.) PomegranatesThis wonder fruit is packed with ellagic acid, and a study from Texas A&M University found it can help protect skin from cell damage caused by UVA- and UVB-rays. GuavasNothing says summer better than tropical fruit, and this one has up to five times the amount of vitamin C—a skin-healing antioxidant—than your average orange. In fact, working any vitamin C-rich foods into your diet could help add an extra layer of protection. TomatoesThese summer gems are jam-packed with lycopene, which can help protect you from sun damage. In one study, volunteers who ate five tablespoons of tomato paste showed 25 percent more sun resistance! Image by chrisjohnbeckett You can follow Lacy on Twitter @lacylu42 |
Why not escape this record-setting July heat by taking a tour of your local brewery!? The Daily Green brings us this great slideshow highlighting the top ten eco-friendly breweries!
Go to the following link or click on the image below to “develop (yet another) iron-clad excuse to drink a cool beer… ‘I’m not just drinking, I’m saving the Earth!'” http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/latest/organic-brewery-0625?click=main_sr
Green power: The fine folks of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. allow anyone visiting their Website to see their on-site power consumption whenever they like. Over 10,000 solar panels and four co-generation fuel cells allow Sierra Nevada to power nearly their entire facility in an eco-friendly way. So feel no guilt, Mr. Thoughtful Drinker—your beverage of choice was made with the awesome power of the sun.
Revolution is sometimes necessary, if never comfortable. Thomas Jefferson knew this when he and his revolutionary colleagues laid out their grievances before dissolving the bands that connected them with the King of England. We celebrate the success of that revolution every year, and for good reason.
This Fourth of July, a couple hundred years later, there’s another revolution afoot, with the potential to shake up the way America does business, interacts with other nations and pursues happiness. “Green” is more than a buzzword. It’s a path forward for a great nation seeking to produce its own energy, shore up its security and provide sustainable prosperity for its people.
Jefferson didn’t spend a lot of ink on energy policy in the Declaration of Independence, but a selective reading of his “indictments” against the King almost sound like a treatise on sustainability. (At least, the whole argument for untangling ourselves from that rotten King of England is framed as aligning human behavior with natural law and the “powers of the earth.”)
So, this Fourth of July, start participating in the next revolution, one that embraces good-old American ingenuity and hard work on the path toward a brighter future for our great nation.
Read more about how to Declare Your Independence from Oil, Waste, Factory Food, & Suspect Chemicals: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/declare-independence-47062306#ixzz1zUmsAlEd
It’s easy to see why this new hit is up to 1.5 million views on Youtube. Beautiful song written by an aspiring male nurse who happens to be a talented songwriter.
Click image below or go to following link to view video: http://youtu.be/txCUwSKo1kg
While I’m not an RN yet, I’ve been along side my mom as she’s worked in nursing homes and the home health setting before she passed away at the young age of 39. I have recently started a cna job. As a male, people are often shocked when they find I’m pursuing the nursing field.
One day after my mother had passed away, I had been by to cut the grass of a 101 year old lady that she helped take care of. My grandmother who took over her care, needed to run to the store, asked me to feed her dinner while she left. The lady was going downhill pretty fast and hadn’t been In her right mind or speaking for weeks. All of a sudden as I’m feeding her, she grabs my hand very tightly and opens her eyes wide, and says “you’re mother would be really proud of you”. These were the only she had spoken in over 6 days. from that day, I’ve knew my calling.
I believe this song explains my journey and hopefully some of you others can relate to.
Thanks to Allnurses.com for sharing!
Loving this idea to get you through the July heat!
Make your own vitamin water. Add fruits instead of sugar for a natural sweetener for your H20. Cut the fruit into paper-thin slices or small chunks. Combine ingredients with water. Refrigerate 4-6 hours and serve over ice. So delicious and very refreshing!
This great idea was brought to you courtesy of Homesteading.
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At their recent commencement, more than 5,000 graduates at George Washington University joined hundreds of thousands of other students across the country in forgoing traditional polyester gowns for versions made entirely from bits of melted plastic.
By Maggie Fazeli Fard, The Washington Post
When George Washington University’s Class of 2012 marched across the Mall in D.C. to accept its degrees recently, the nation’s backyard was transformed into an eco-fashion runway.
Sure, the men wore dress shirts and slacks while the women donned colorful spring dresses and shoes that wouldn’t sink in soft soil. But on top of these outfits, each GWU student sported the newest trend: gowns made from plastic bottles.
More than 5,000 graduates at GWU joined hundreds of thousands of other students across the country in forgoing traditional polyester gowns for versions made entirely from bits of melted plastic.
“The ‘green’ gowns look and feel the same, and the students were really excited,” said Robert Blake, the manager of the GWU bookstore and a member of the university’s regalia committee. “For us, this was really a no-brainer.”
The eco-friendly fashion statement is part of a larger effort by colleges and universities to reduce the carbon footprint of commencement ceremonies.
Read full article here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018289998_greengowns27.html
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Wellness at Work – Walking Expert Visits Wellsource, Inc.
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Walking adds years to your life, reduces stress, and doubles productivity PORTLAND, Ore. – When Robert Sweetgall left his high-paying job as a chemical engineer almost 30 years ago, he knew he was staring death in the face. His father, aunt, and uncle, all died at an early age of heart disease. And his greasy, high-cholesterol diet wasn’t doing him any favors. So he did what any sane, single bachelor would do who questioned the meaning of life. He put a few things in a fanny pack, opened the front door, and started out on an 11,028-mile walking journey that would take him across the United States seven times. Known as “The Real Forest Gump,” Robert Sweetgall shared his experience, walking tips, and health and wellness advice at Wellsource, Inc., on May 17, 2012. He is the founder of Creative Walking Inc., author of 17 books, and a longtime advocate for improving physical activity. One Step at a Time In the three decades since he walked off the job, Sweetgall has taught and inspired millions of people to be more physically active. He’s appeared on the CBS Morning News and National Public Radio, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, and others. At 65 years old, he’s still trim and quick on his feet. And he continues to exercise regularly and share his message that he hopes will inspire others to get moving. Wellness at Work During Sweetgall’s cross-country adventures on foot, he wore through scores of custom-made shoes. He developed his own treatment to care for his feet. And he meticulously tracked the food he ate as part of a study for the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He lost 11 pounds of body fat during his first journey across the country on foot, burning an estimated 1.6 million calories by putting one foot in front of the other. Walking an average of 30 miles a day gave him a lot of time to think about the message he wanted to share with people. “If you want to add years to your life, reduce stress, and double your productivity, take a five or 10-minute walk before work or school every day,” Sweetgall said. “Park your car at the far end of the parking lot, and walk to the store instead of circling around in your car. Just do something to make physical activity a part of your life. Then take it one step at a time.” About Wellsource, Inc. |
MANTRAMEDS - Scrubs Reinvented 