Category Archives: Environment

How to Reduce Kitchen Waste

Posted on by by Earth and Money
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Have you ever thrown away food because it was spoiled or past its expiration date? We have all done this at some point in our lives, but it may happen more often than you think. Did you know that Americans throw away 40% of the food they buy? Not only is that terrible for our landfills, but it’s also hard on our wallets!

My best friend and his wife are all about saving money, which is why they became members of Costco, a large wholesale store. Here, they stock up on cereal, chips, breakfast sandwiches, milk, eggs, snacks, basically anything you can think of. They do not have any kids, but yet, they have a pantry that is overflowing and a refrigerator that’s nearly spitting food out it’s so full!

When I go over to their house to visit, they urge me to help myself to any food they’ve got, so I gladly get up and start raiding the cupboards and the fridge. First, I pull out some Wheat Thins and can already imagine the great flavor that I will soon pop into my mouth. “Don’t eat those! They’re stale” I hear from the living room. I set them aside, somewhat disappointed, and reach for something else. “Where did you find those? That’s probably been in there for years! I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.” My friend’s wife is standing next to me now, trying to help me find something that won’t leave me violently ill.

Sure, they may have gotten a great deal on all the food they bought, but when they end up throwing away more than half of it, it’s suddenly not such a great deal.

1)      The best way to avoid food waste is to buy only what you need from week to week. If you plan out your meals ahead of time, you can limit your food purchases and therefore eliminate your waste.

2)      If you don’t like leftovers, don’t make large meals. We all have great intentions of eating those leftovers, but for some reason nuking it in the microwave just takes away that great flavor from the previous day, so there it sits in the refrigerator. Make small meals and eat it all up. You’ll have much less waste.

3)      Keep your refrigerator and pantry organized. In order to keep your food from spoiling, you must know what’s in there! Plot out certain areas for your pastas, your snacks, your cereals, etc. etc. Also, be sure to always keep the oldest food toward the front of the pantry so you eat it first.

4)      Make your leftovers more appealing. I’m sure you know that the microwave basically kills all the flavor in your meal. Why not try to reheat your meals in the oven instead? Sure, it takes a little longer, but when it comes out, that great taste is still in your food.

If you are successful in wasting less, I’m sure you’ll notice that you have more cash at the end of each month as well. If my friends bought only what they needed, I bet their grocery bill will reduce by 40%!

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The Value of the Corporate Social Responsibility Label

Posted on by by Earth and Money
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Do Something Good Every Day | Source: HowardLake on Flickr via CC BY-SA 2.0 LicenceThe following is a condensed, less academic excerpt of a paper I recently wrote for my final graduate course. It also represents the completion of Task #3 on my 9-Week Productivity Challenge and the beginning of a series of posts here on Earth and Money related the social and environmental impacts of our investments. The series began unofficially two weeks ago with a look at an emerging type of investment vehicle, community bonds, and Monday, introduced how we might be funding our own demise.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a major buzzword in the corporate sector. It is generally defined as the integration of social, environmental and economic concerns into the values and operations of a company, in such a way that all three are given equal weighting. In a 2012 study conducted by Taiyuan Wang and Pratima Bansal at the University of Western Ontario, they defined a socially responsible corporation as one whose actions “further the social good, outstrip the firm’s economic goals, and go beyond the legal requirement”.  They also explored relationship between CSR, financial success, and long-term versus short-term corporate orientation. They found that corporate social responsibility activities tended to result in negative financial outcomes in the short-term, but that this negative outcome could be negated by long-term corporate orientation, and that such long-term outlook was positively correlated with financial success.

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Are We Funding Our Own Demise?

Posted on by by Earth and Money
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Daisy Demise | Source: jumpinjimmyjava on Flickr under CC By 2.0 LicenceThe following is a condensed, less academic excerpt of a paper I recently wrote for my final graduate course. It also represents the completion of Task #3 on my 9-Week Productivity Challenge and the beginning of a series of posts here on Earth and Money related the social and environmental impacts of our investments. The series began unofficially two weeks ago with a look at an emerging type of investment vehicle, community bonds.

Basic economics would dictate that public demand drives the success and failure of various enterprises. A company can only sell a product if someone desires it (though through good marketing, they can manufacture that desire as well). However, while average Canadians make greater strides towards environmental consciousness, they may be undoing their own efforts by bankrolling the very companies they are boycotting or attempting to avoid with their investments. In a nutshell, Canadians (and quite frankly, citizens worldwide) are funding their own demise by supporting companies which create unhealthy environments. This, in and of itself, is a major environmental health problem that has been grossly overlooked in the current environmental movement. When a consumer goes out of their way to purchase organic foods, what purpose does that serve if they have their money invested in companies that seek to produce unsustainable, pesticide-laced foods which only drive up the price of the very organic foods that they want to purchase?

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