Living Healthy On A Healthy Planet

“Go Green” is the motto at Beachbody and Million Dollar Body parent, Product Partners. This year we decided that we would focus on making sure that our activity as a company and as individuals does not “take” from our host (Planet Earth), but instead contributes to it’s ability to sustain life.It’s a pretty incredible thing, when you think about it… that this planet has everything we need to live. Our job as guests is to make sure we don’t kill it in the process. But in general, mankind has managed to expand and use up resources at such a rate and in such a way that we’re actually making it LESS inhabitable.

Well, just like Product Partners creates products and services that help people achieve their goals to lead a healthy fulfilling life, now we’re making sure that our activity as such supports that in every way. We have hired a great guy named Rob Kramer to work with us to help transform the company into an eco-conscious, sustainable (meaning – all our efforts contribute to the planet’s livability, rather than undermine it), “green” company that collectively reduces its impact on our environment and our health.Jon Congdon and my desire for making Product Products green is significant and personal. We like to do stuff outside, in the actual sun. We like to enjoy the water. We like to breathe. We like to drink water and eat food that doesn’t poison us. We like animals. We like toys without lead in them. We like the way the “unknowable genius” behind the ecosystem works. Together, we will take the Core Values of Product Partners and apply them to creating sustainable practices, purchases, products, packages and resources throughout the company.Whether it’s converting all paper products to 100% recycled materials, reducing energy consumption through new systems, materials or procedures, or transforming product packaging into the first environmentally-sustainable DVD products in the health and fitness market, we have an enormous opportunity and responsibility to TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW. The investment will be real, and real significant.To that end, I appreciate your willingness and support in working with Rob and the rest of the Product Partners staff to turn the company into THE most sustainable, eco-conscious company in our industry, if not ALL industry. (Step away from the copy machine!)One of the ways we started was to improve our recycling habits. Another way was to replace the holiday card mailing with an eCard. And to everyone who sends us the traditional bottle of holiday wine as a gift, we have asked that in lieu of gifts that they dedicate a tree or a grove of trees to the spirit of the holidays at Tree People.

Even my seven year old daughter Ava got into the act. When I described to her what we were doing, and how important it is for us to conserve energy and reduce pollution, she came up with the idea of asking Santa not to waste paper wrapping our gifts, and instead to use gift bags that we would leave next to the cookies. (I apologize if Santa is late to your house, since he’ll need to stop to stuff gifts into bags ant my house… but hey – it’s for the environment!)

You can do a lot too. From time to time I’ll be posting Rob’s suggestion’s on this blog, including these tips he published to our company this week:

Tip 1: Buy LED Holiday Lights. These use 90% less energy, have a 50,000-hour bulb life that’s 40 times longer than regular bulbs.

Tip 2: Use Biodegradable Bags for your trash, such as biobags. Purchase at Eco-Products.

Tip 3: Use Compostable Plates/Utensils for your holiday party. Purchase at Eco-Products.

Tip 4: Use Soy or Beeswax-based Candles for your celebration, rather than paraffin wax candles, which require fossil fuels in their production and often have lead in the wick. (Plus – when you burn paraffin candles, it’s like a Mac truck is running it’s fumes throughout your home… “deck the halls with CO2 emissions!” Purchase at FindSoyCandles.

Tip 5: Wrap Gifts in eco-friendly ways such as using reusable fabric, using recycled wrapping paper, or reusing magazines, paper, and bags to make your own wrapping.

Tip 6: Give Eco-Friendly Gifts and fair trade handicrafts that support good cause. Purchase at Eco Friendly Gifts or The Y Catalog.

Tip 7: Make Plenty (HEALTHY) of Food and fill up your freezer with the leftovers, as a full freezer requires less energy than a partially full freezer.

Tip 8: Use Eco-Friendly Green Cleaning Products after your party. Purchase at Eco-Products.

Tip 9: Serve Organic fair trade coffee to your guests.

Tip 10: Carpool to events and parties.

Tip 11: Recycle. The Product Partners recycling bins have arrived. Please get in the habit of using them to recycle paper, glass, cans, ink cartridges, etc.

Tip 12: Buy Organic Meat for your holiday cooking (OR) Eat Lower on the Food Chain and Cook Vegetarian. A vegetarian and organic diet requires thousands of gallons of less water, and no harmful pesticides and chemicals in the soil.

Tip 13: Shop at the Local Farmer’s Market for your holiday cooking needs, and bring your own bags. The less far a product travels to get to you, the less fuel was consumed to satisfy that demand.

Tip 14: For Cards, Invitations, etc., choose alternatives to virgin tree fiber paper such as recycled paper or hemp paper. Purchase at Green Field Paper. Of course, the best invite is an Email Invite or Evite.

Tip 15: Use Recycled Objects to make crafts and ornaments with your children.

Tip 16: Ask for Eco-Gifts that will help you lead a more healthy and eco-friendly life.

Tip 17: Choose Less Consumption and more giving this holiday season. Do a Community Service Project.

Please note that these are just suggested options and stores we are not in any way affiliated with or officially endorsing any of these options.

Posted by Carl Daikeler on December 19, 2007