3p Contributor: Marn-Yee Lee
Recent Articles
Seafood Guide on iPhone
I love seafood. I grew up on a tropical island with fresh sea or ocean-caught fish that one buys in a wet market. The uncomplicated choice of eating seafood has now (rightly) given way to so many health and sustainability concerns that I feel guilty purchasing seafood without knowing more. But it is a complicated issue. The answer to the question “is this fish sustainably harvested, and is it good for my health” vary by seafood type and seafood origin.
Sustainable seafood issues include:
- mercury accumulation in the ocean food-chain, which plagues larger fish
- overfishing
- unsustainable farming practices
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has an excellent handy pocket seafood guide (one per US region). I get them at green events but they always end up lost, no matter how many copies I replace (not a very sustainable habit). I’ve never been able to conveniently refer to it when it is most needed (while seafood shopping or ordering seafood at a restaurant). Perhaps it is due to women clothings not having pockets… or… our pockets just being too full as it is!
“CO2 Tracker” – Travel Emissions Tracker on iPhone
Yesterday while commuting on the train to the city, I decided to track my carbon footprint for the trip using the Carbon (CO2) Tracker (personal edition) application on my iPhone.
Why bother? CO2 emissions cause a greenhouse gas effect in our atmosphere that leads to climate change. Al Gore’s movie, The Inconvenient Truth explains the cause and effect of climate change really well. Since transportation is a major source of emissions, it is vital every one of us becomes aware of our carbon footprint. Even though I have been immersed in sustainability for two years now, it is still hard to really figure out my personal carbon footprint by activity.
Carbon calculators are a dime a dozen, and they all return varying data. But because this app comes from Clear Standard (that I am familiar with from a corporate susty job where I had to evaluate enterprise GHG management software), I had high hopes for it. It turns out v.1.0.0 has pretty limited functionality. Here’s my experience using it…
3rdWhale – A Location-Based Green Business Finder
During my honeymoon in Hawaii, I had used Yelp Mobile extensively to locate good restaurants, but was constantly exasperated at seeing un-green practices (styrofoam even for eat-in, seemingly healthy-sounding restaurants in Yelp reviews serving imported fish, etc.). So I was really excited to find 3rdWhale, a location-based green local business finder app.
I met the Chief Beluga Officer of 3rdWhale, Boyd Cohen at the SF Green Drinks recently and learned that they have big plans to make this a really useful application. I am excited, and really hope that they succeed.
Why?
I am very aware that my daily purchasing decisions have the power to influence where businesses are headed. I am also quite picky about certain eco-criteria when it comes to restaurants and cafes. Here’s an app that allows me to shop with conscience, without having to be too planful about my day.
Businesses operate within the context of community and environment. Their choices of inputs (e.g. raw materials) and their treatment of outputs (e.g. waste from operations) create direct impact. If businesses go green at a big scale, they could become a real force for change, just by virtue of their collective buying power. However, businesses will only go green if it makes economic sense or because their customers demand it. Allowing consumers to easily favor green businesses as they go around town could create the tipping point.
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