Archive for July 2010

Rahway High School Water Champions and Green Earth PR Network Client Team Up for Water Conservation

by Nora DePalma on July 20th, 2010

From last Sunday’s  New Jersey Star-Ledger:  Teens at Rahway High School audited their school’s water consumption, with a little help from Rutgers, and figured out a way to save 1.6 million gallons of water a year.

After a presentation last Tuesday to executives from American Standard, the historic plumbing company agreed to donate more than $60,000 after the  Rahway Water Champions demonstrated that the school could save  an estimated $6,500 or more a year by upgrading to the newest water-saving toilets, faucets and urinals.

Post-installation water usage reports will be monitored by the students and reported by  American Standard Brands, as well as The New Jersey Water Savers Program, a partnership between the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program, the NJDEP and the EPA.

Read more from the NJ Star-Ledger.

Read the American Standard press release.

American Standard is a client of Green Earth PR consultant O’Reilly/DePalma.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Green Policy
No Comments »

Air conditioning and its impact on American life and culture – latimes.com

by Nora DePalma on July 18th, 2010

Today’s LA Times article makes a number of good points about what our air conditioned culture means:

  • We feel hotter when we go outside, actually changing our expectations for what hot weather feels like.
  • Our attire for the workplace is dependent on the endless cool stream of air.
  • Our cars have to be similarly cool.

In America, we never want anyone to see us sweat.  Read more on the impact:   Air conditioning and its impact on American life and culture – latimes.com.

Tags: ,
Posted in Green Building
No Comments »

Green Earth PR in PR Tactics Magazine

by Nancy Rogers on July 7th, 2010

Amy Jacques, Public Relations Tactics news editor, sought comments on CSR best practices from Green Earth PR Network consultants along with communication pros from Ben and Jerry’s, Eastman Kodak and Microsoft.

The industry trade publication “interviewed communications leaders at a variety of companies to find out why CSR is more important now than ever and how they are conveying their socially conscious mindset to their clients and to the community at large.” GEPR responses addressed our values as well as tools and tactics including social media. Please join the conversation and add your comments at
http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/8700/1017/Socially_conscious_Companies_share_CSR_best_practi.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Green Business, Social media
No Comments »

Dual Flush Toilet Retrofit Kits: When Small Steps Lead to Bad Outcomes

by Nora DePalma on July 7th, 2010

H2Option Dual Flush Toilet

The key to conservation for most people is not making it feel like conservation.

Another key is, as always, saving money.  People will generally conserve when it saves money and doesn’t feel like a sacrifice.

Problem is:  if the low-cost solution really doesn’t work and product performance suffers, so does conservation.

One of our clients makes dual flush toilets, which are really good: you literally press 1 for 1 and press 2 to flush, well, number 2.  These toilets can can reduce water usage by up to 67 percent.   Unfortunately, there are now so-called dual flush retrofit kits that promise to turn your existing potty into a dual flush model.

One big problem:  changing the amount of water going into a toilet bowl doesn’t change how the water behaves in the bowl in terms of how it powers out waste and water (or worse, doesn’t).

At that point, users are not going to be terribly enthused about additional conservation measures.   Which ultimately hurts good new technology like dual flush toilets, some of which have received top independent ratings for their ability to flush solids cleanly and completely.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Green Building, GreenEarth PR Products
No Comments »