Plastic Packaging: a follow-up

As we become more sophisticated about how we use the web for both communication and purchasing, the opportunities to actually have an impact by voting with your wallet grow commensurately.  Social media and web evolution are teaching us to group and organize quickly and effectively, and at the same time they are simplifying the opportunity to speak up and have a place in the conversation.

One of our readers clued me in to a recent initiative that is a result of direct feedback from individual shoppers:

http://www.amazon.com/frustration-free         (click on the 'learn more' link)

It seems that Phillips Electronics was really getting pasted in their user experience feedback for their impossible-to-open plastic packaging.  They took the feedback to heart and have started to redesign their packaging to make it more user-friendly, and are paying close attention to the user feedback on the changes. One can only hope that the feedback also stressed environmental friendliness so that the new designs incorporate both.

My point is that even without an organized virtual ‘initiative’ or ‘movement’, people taking the time to provide feedback on things that are important to them in their purchasing lives have a rapid and direct impact on suppliers. So when you actually vote with your wallet and take the time to speak up and let folks know what you’re up to, good things happen.

It’s great to be home.  All that green obscures my view of the sky.

Vote with your wallet.

Steph

Plastic Packaging - letting companies know how you feel 07-17-11

One of the key components to making voting with your wallet an effective means of social change is informing your target(s) of the actions you are taking. As an individual you have limited impact – one user disappearing is not a concern (and indeed probably not even noticed), however as a vocal consumer with the ability to bring multiple users along with you, your influence grows. So when you vote with your wallet be sure to say so.

I recently received a note from one of my readers asking for ideas on how to go after companies that are contributing to global environmental ills by using excess plastic packaging on their products.  She suggested mailing the excess packaging back to the company - an idea I absolutely love. However if that seems like more time/energy/money than you can devote, here’s a  classic opportunity to vote with your wallet.

In this case that means not purchasing products that you feel are packaged in an environmentally unfriendly manner, and taking the time to contact the companies who over-package to let them know that their actions are having a negative impact on their bottom line.  My method is to go to the company’s website and look for a name, preferably CEO or Marketing/Sales VP, and send and email directly to those individuals. However if you can’t find a name, generally there’s a “contact us” or “consumer relations” link on the website that you can use. And don’t forget that snail-mail is also still an option.

Below is a sample communication that I use…with appropriate variations…to announce my intentions regarding my various vote with your wallet actions. It is easily changed to meet the specific need (i.e. instead of “because you are contributing to ruining the environment” your rationale could be “because you are supporting right-wing lunatics” – change the words to suit the occasion).  By including the fact that I will be broadcasting the boycott request to my social media contacts I increase the impact of my words and actions which (hopefully) creates a greater sense of urgency. Please feel free to use my verbiage exactly or change it to suit your own style. The key is that communicating your actions is as critical as the action itself.

So vote with your wallet…and say so!

SAMPLE LETTER: 

Dear _______

I have in the past been a satisfied consumer of your product ________. However today when I looked at ___ in the store I found that you are using excessive plastic packaging in your presentation.  I will not support a company that does not care about their environmental impact, and based on the way you are packaging your products you do not. Therefore I will no longer purchase _____  and I will ask my friends and social media contacts to do the same using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and email.

It is my hope that once you realize the negative impact your packaging is having on the environment that you will find more environmentally friendly ways of presenting your products, and at that time I will gladly return to using them.

Tracking Current Boycotts 07-04-11

We are each others’ best resources.  I sent a note asking for advice on how to find current boycott info, and one of our colleagues sent me this website:

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/Boycotts/CurrentBoycottsList.aspx 

Based on the information available here, the Target boycott is alive and well (sorry mom), but Best Buy is not on the list anymore.  

I’m getting pounded by the national Democrats for money – don’t forget that the money you give to the nationals can go to anyone with the nerve to call themselves a Democrat, so target your political donating activities to candidates who really support your beliefs. I’m sorry to say there are some folks out there these days who have taken advantage of the Democrat “big tent” philosophy to climb under the awning and call themselves Democrats in spite of exhibiting the political leanings of Attila the Hun.

There’s no such thing as climate change, but Tucson just broke the 4^th longest dry spell since we started keeping track.  And this year’s wildfires are among the biggest and worst on record (the one that nearly ate Los Alamos was the biggest in New Mexico history). And the folks in ND saw the highest flood levels in history. And there seem to be an awful lot of tornados…but no, there’s no climate change - it’s a socialist plot to scare people. It’s caused by the evil Healthcare Bill.

(ok, sorry – I’ll stop ranting now)

Congrats and all the best to Justin and Dana – be happy.

Boycott Kansas 06-23-11

Time to start reading labels really carefully and if Kansas is involved in any way with the growth, manufacture or distribution of the product you are considering, DO NOT BUY. And be sure to contact the company from whom you are not buying and let them know why.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/06/22/251493/no-abortion-in-kansas/

Voting with your wallet influenced Orbitz 05-25-11

How do you know that voting with your wallet works?  Because last week the Courage Campaign – one of my regular resources – put out the word that Orbitz has been advertising on Fox (which was to be the topic of my next note to you), and in just a few days 40,000 people contacted Orbitz demanding that they stop supporting Fox News. Today I received the following from the CC (Courage Campaign) folks: “On Monday night, Bill O'Reilly devoted his program to attacking all 40,000 of you who called on Orbitz to stop funding anti-gay Fox News, and he defended Orbitz, saying they have "courage."”  The CC folks go on, of course, to ask for donations – they are a gay political org, so they are putting together an ad that specifically targets gay markets to inform the readers that they should not be giving money to Orbitz – but the point is that the impact was so immediate and significant that Mr. O’Hatebluster felt compelled to address it on the air!

My message here is that when you vote with your wallet you double down your effectiveness by letting your targets know what you are doing and why. We are stronger than we know, so stick to your ideological guns and keep up the good work.

Vote with your political donations 05-05-11

Today’s topic: There’s more than one way to vote with your wallet.

Voting with your wallet doesn’t just mean paying attention to who you are buying from, it also means paying attention to who is receiving your donations. As of this year I will no longer give any money to the National Democratic Party, The Democratic House Campaign Committee, or the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. Why? Because the money you give to those organizations goes in part to helping reelect such sterling Democrats as:

Senator Ben Nelson – who rather than support his leader and the majority of his party, held the Healthcare Bill hostage until he got a clause inserted that was specific to Nebraska.

The following 15 Democratic congressmen (no women, of course) who just voted for HR3 The No Taxpayer Dollars for Abortion bill  which, among other things, narrows the definition of rape so that statutory rape and rape where the victim is drugged would no longer be defined as rape for the purposes of abortion funding. Here’s a list of those wonderful guys:

Jason Altmire

Dan Boren

Jerry Costello

Mark Critz

Henry Cuellar

Joe Donnelly

Tim Holden

Marcy Kaptur

Dale Kildee

Daniel Lipinski

Jim Matheson

Mike McIntyre

Collin Peterson

Nick Rahall

Mike Ross

Heath Shule

So when the National Dems call for money I tell them very clearly why I will only donate to individual candidates who support my views, and won’t enable them to provide indirect support for people who are disgracing what I believe the party stands for.

And that’s my rant.

Voting with your wallet works 04-09-11

Why is voting with your wallet important? Why should we continue to do this?  Because it works!

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer – Wed Apr 6, 7:13 pm ET

NEW YORK – Glenn Beck later this year will end his Fox News Channel talk show, which has sunk in the ratings and has suffered from an advertiser boycott…

Oh yeah, and –

·         Despite late winter storms and unrelentingly high gasoline prices, the nation's retailers did well in March with same-store sales that rose more than 2 percent. Target, however, was not among those reporting March sales increases….  Star Tribune (Twin Cities) staff writers

Boycott impact? Dunno – just sayin’….

Each of us can and does make a difference when we vote with our wallets.

Avoiding the ubiquitous Koch Brothers 01-22-11

One of the folks on my mailing list reminded me that the Koch brothers founded the Tea Party and are funding many ultra-conservative issues, and suggested that they are prime fodder for boycott initiatives. Needless to say we are not the first folks to think of these sterling individuals – below are a couple of links to information on boycotting Koch Industry products.

The bad news: You may find a bunch of Koch products in your shopping cart. I’ve provided you with an abbreviated list of products you may be using today, and it’s going to be hard to avoid some of them – especially the fiber products. But fight the good fight with your wallet, and keep sending me requests for information you would find useful.

Keep the faith - Hit ‘em in their pockets

Steph

Koch boycott websites:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9013598

http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2010/09/boycott-koch-industries-products.html

Koch Industries subsidiaries:

Invista (http://www.invista.com/) fabrics – products/brand names:

·         Stainmaster carpet

·         Lycra fiber

·         Antron carpet fiber 

·         Comforel - used in bedding products such as pillows, comforters and mattress pads

·         Coolmax  (http://www.coolmax.invista.com/) 

·         Cordura (http://cordura.com/en/products/index.html) –is a canvas-like nylon used in luggage and clothing (check before you buy your next backpack). Here’s a partial list of brands that use it: Eastpak, JanSport, Manhattan Portage (uses Cordura Nylon in their bags), European workwear clothing brands, Snickers clothing brand

·         Dacron 

·         Polarguard  

·         SolarMax 

·         Tactel 

·         Thermolite

Georgia Pacific (http://www.gp.com/) products/brand names:

Paper products

·         Angel Soft toilet paper,

·         Brawny paper towels,

·         Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups

·         Demak'Up – dry cotton pads, wipes, eye products (http://www.demakup.ie/?page_id=146)

·         KittenSoft tissues and toilet paper· 

·         Mardi Gras napkins and towels

·         Quilted Northern toilet paper

·         Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper

·         Sparkle napkins

·         Vanity Fair napkins

·         Zee napkins

·          European paper products: Colhogar,  Lotus, Okay, Moltonel, Tenderly, Tutto

Construction products

·         DensArmor Plus – gypsum wallboard 

·         Plytanium plywood

·         ToughRock gypsum board

Petroleum and mineral subsidiaries:

Koch Chemical Technology Group · Flint Hills Resources · Koch Pipeline Company · Koch Minerals · Koch Fertilizer ·

And also:

 Koch Supply & Trading · Matador Cattle Company

Turn Off Fox - 01-15-11

I was both surprised and gratified at how many positive responses I received the e-mail I sent last week suggesting fighting political/social ills by targeting where you spend (or don’t spend) your money. One of the wonderful things about sending such a communication is the discovery that other folks are doing similar things, and that there are lots of resources out there to help. The following was forwarded to me by one of last week’s recipients. It is a link to an organization that has a whole process devoted to reducing advertising and dollars spent on/for Fox News (Fox News…now there’s an oxymoron).

https://secure.colorofchange.org/turnofffox/sticker/

I love the idea of having conversations with your local businesses when you see Fox being broadcast in their operations (one of my friends has been complaining for ages that whenever he goes to the gym Fox is what’s showing for the treadmill gang) in addition to targeting your spending.

I was also reminded that positive reinforcement is as important as negative, so I am currently researching lists/web pages that provide information on companies that are socially and politically responsible. If you know of any that would be appropriate please send along.

The First Communication: 01-11-11

Recent events have made me realize that I have not done enough to actively fight for my beliefs about the changes that need to happen in this country. I intend to change that in any number of ways, and one effective way to make our voices heard is by targeting where we do and don’t spend our money.

Here are links to lists of the companies that sponsor Bill O’reilly and Rush Limbaugh.  I can’t think of anyone I’d rather NOT buy from. Help corporate America learn that it matters where they put their money. There are a couple of products/businesses on this list that I will be very sorry not to use, but I won’t have my money going anywhere near these wingnuts where it will be used to continue the Beck/O’reilly/Limbough constant spewing of hate and intolerance. Please join me, and don’t forget to write each sponsor letting them know what you are doing and why (email addresses are included on the lists).

http://foxnewsboycott.com/fox-news-sponsors/bill-oreilly-sponsors/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/15/825644/-Rush-Limbaughs-Sponsor-List

Vote With Your Wallet

I have gotten multiple requests to put my Vote With Your Wallet updates into blog format, so here we go. 
I will go back and post my existing archived emails and I know that there's the capability to e-mail you when I post a new one, so stay tuned and I'll get it figured out.