November 17th, 2008
Have you noticed little green “Bravo”or “peacock” bugs on your TV screen? Did you see Ann Curry from “Today” at Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania?
What’s going on? Well, it’s Green Week at NBC and its various channels. Here’s the history:
In November of 2007, NBC Universal launched its first official Green Week. Throughout the week, NBC Universal presented over 150 hours of environmentally themed content across multiple platforms. Then, in April of 2008, NBC Universal celebrated Earth Day with over 100 hours of green-themed content over multiple platforms during what was coined Earth Week 2008.
Now, NBC Universal is proud to present Green Week 2008. With a new theme and message of “Green Your Routine,” NBC Universal has set out to provide actionable content and entertainment for its viewers and users across multiple platforms.
According to this article, while NBC is promoting a good message, it doesn’t rake in the ratings for it. And it ups its carbon output tremendously by flying its stars around for the “Ends of the Earth” series.
In case you miss all the PSAs, you can see them online, like this one. Thanks, Bo, for telling me to turn off the faucet. That’s the most “Days of our Lives” I’ve seen since high school.
[flashvideo filename=”http://www.nbc.com/Green/video/clips/turning-off-the-tap/172518/@@download.flv” /]
November 17th, 2008
No, I’m not talking about dating. I’m talking about business, started by one business in particular.
The IMEC, or Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center, has started the nonprofit Waste-to-Profit Network in the Rockford area.
IMEC’s mission is to assist manufacturers in taking waste out of their processes, including inefficiencies.
So it makes sense that it has created a way to connect companies with byproduct synergies. Translation: One person’s waste is another person’s raw material.
Mary Hallock, IMEC’s manager of sustainable development and this program’s manager, said the network is mostly in recruiting phase right now.
For example, a glass manufacturer makes a special glass for appliance ovens that is coated to prevent melting. It was more cost-effective to dump leftover glass in a landfill than use the one recycler of that product in Pennsylvannia. But a countertop company now uses its broken glass for a product of its own.
Hallock said “several good things happened with this” beyond the eco-benefit of recycling 900 tons of tempered glass. For one, the glass company, Engineered Glass Products, is getting paid. For another, the countertop maker, Gilasi/Innerglow Surfaces, has a new product and meets green building requirements it hadn’t before.
“This is just a really exciting thing for us,” Hallock said. “It has a lot of potential.”
One less visible but tangible result could be attracting the next generation of workers, which resonates in the Rock River Valley. “Plus, it’s just the right thing to do. Someone has to address the problem that we’re pulling more out of the Earth than we can possibly replace.”
This is getting long for a blog post. Wait for part 2 until Tuesday …
P.S. We wrote an editorial about this initiative in September.
P.P.S. I wrote about a different green network here.
