Posts Tagged ‘Alternative Consumer’

Restaurant Calorie Disclosure

Friday, March 26th, 2010

The new health reform law requires restaurants with 20 or more locations to list the calorie counts of offerings on menus, at drive-thrus and on vending machines.

I like the idea — transparency and making informed decisions are high on my list of virtues. That’s what ElegantRoots.com is all about for eco and fair trade gifts. Elegant Roots tells you what you need to make an informed decision about a meaningful gift.

Menu disclosure has already been going on by local rule in some places. I’ve been to a few. At a California Pizza Kitchen I was shocked some of the salads were over 2000 calories while some of the personal pizzas were under 1000. Info is power but I had two reactions: immediate — I finally settled on a selection that I otherwise would have passed over; and longer-term, I’m not so anxious to go out to dinner having now learned that immense calorie counts can seemingly be hidden anywhere.

What will the consequences be, intended and unintended, of this new rule? The restaurants with 20 or more locations will probably begin offering selections that are not absurd — like those 2000 calorie salads might give way to something more reasonable. A few restaurants will tout the “I-don’t-give-a-damn” reaction. But will business be affected overall?

What about the one or two-location restaurants? LOHAS consumers are perhaps more interested in the ingredients than the calorie count. But judging by the number of diet plans, books, and schemes, there are an enormous number of people weight-watching at any given moment. Will a weight-watching restaurant-goer opt for the chain when otherwise they might have visited an individual restaurant? Subway seems to have a lot of success with their Jason dieter’s sandwiches.

Will this rule drive out non-chain eateries? Some may adopt the menu disclosures voluntarily, but that’s not feasible for the great majority?

Let’s hope consumers will use the info to make healthful selections and that restaurants will evolve to offer more and more appealing healthful selections. I’m happy to have the info but I sense unintended consequences lurking.

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Posted in Health & Wellness, Informed Consumer, News | No Comments »

Eco-couture at GreenShows

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Check out the runway models wearing eco-friendly couture designed by London-based Gary Harvey at the Valentine’s Eve GreenShows in NYC.

The dresses are made from re-used, or repurposed, materials and they’re pretty stunning in that certain runway sort of way.

Check out the one that looks like the model sat down on a park bench somewhere and emerged with a mass of crinkled newspapers. Not the best look — but funny and eye-catching and it makes a point about reusing materials — I’m just not sure what point exactly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5z1PYFPdM0

Alternative Consumer has a good article on this: http://bit.ly/9r4MHL

Kudos to Mr. Harvey and GreenShows.

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Posted in Green Entrepreneurs, Sustainable Fashion | No Comments »

Is Twitter a killer of human contact?

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

This morning mr. happy posed this question on the Alternative Consumer — “is Twitter a global catalyst for social activism and digital communal living, or is it another mutation of a behavior that’s undermining our social fabric and weakening our interpersonal connections? I’m just asking.” http://bit.ly/z3jqX

But mr. happy is not happy — he concludes that Twitter and social media are killers of warm human contact.

Do internet organisms like Twitter really facilitate a lack of interpersonal contact? I don’t think so. I think they actually can increase — get you in contact with people you’ve lost touch with. And allow you contact over things that wouldn’t justify a phone call or a lunch, keep you up to date for when that phone call or lunch happens. And, as often as not, will make the happening of that lunch or phone call more likely.

I bet when the old land-line telephone was first invented people said the same thing — it’ll inhibit real contact. Of course, it actually is a convenience that facilitates warm, human contact.

If you want to find the real culprit in reducing actual human contact, look toward the TV. (Actually, look away from the TV, please).

What’s the average number of hours a person spends watching that passive, momentum killing, attention sponge — that sapper of energy and initiative — that purveyor of faux human contact?

When Oprah or Conan or Colbert or House or Olbermann or O’Reilly qualify as your best friend, it’s time to off the power and get real. Check Twitter — see if anyone’s around and go have a glass of wine.

Hasta Later — Friends is on. You know, the one where …

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Online Shopping is greener

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Trusted site, the Alternative Consumer, today reports a study that shows that online shopping results in lower carbon emissions. //www.alternativeconsumer.com/2009/03/17/shopping-online-more-energy-efficient/

This is great info and we’re pleased to see an empirical representation of what we’ve long believed — and what we’ve based our eco-gift, online boutique on. Apparel, or anything sized, is definitely in a different class — the ill-fitting possibility multiplying the return probability. Gifts purchased at the mall, however, if for a distant recipient, require an additional drive to UPS or USPS after wrapping — additional carbon expenditures compared to online, direct delivery.

In our eco-gift, online boutique, we’ve tried to minimize the ill-fitting problem by not offering sized products (except for babies).

And we’ve minimized the packaging problem by making our custom gift boxes in the US relatively near our warehouse (as local as we can get) and by supporting box and paper makers who used recycled and other green practices. We use 100% American grown and manufactured organic cotton ribbon. Our gift boxes are unbranded to encourage reuse. I’d love to know how these steps further reduce the carbon emissions of an online gift.

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Posted in Eco-Friendly Packaging, Informed Consumer, News, Sustainable Lifestyle | No Comments »

the Alternative Consumer and Consumer Evolution

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

A Consumer Evolution — that consumers learn to expect info on which to base an informed, conscious choice  –  is at the very core of Elegant Roots. That’s why we designed “our 4Ws” to show on every product page Who made a product they are considering, Where, of What, and Why, beyond function and beauty, it is a worthy purchase. Because it is at our core we also extensively profile every artisan/designer/manufacturer. That makes it personal, which accords confidence, and, in turn, peace of mind.

All this is background for why we found so relevant the Alternative Consumer’s post about Ten Questions To Ask Before You Buy. http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/2009/02/24/10-questions-to-ask-before-you-buy/#more-8478.

the Alternative Consumer has long been one of our daily reads — it is simply incomparable. And “it’s a lifestyle thing” that matches perfectly our lifestyle, or at least our ideal lifestyle. No one’s perfect, but we strive to improve. If we all tried to improve, the aggregate improvement might be astounding.

If we all simply asked ourselves the 10 questions recommended by the Alternative Consumer before buying, we would go a long way toward improving. And that dovetails with another core Elegant Roots value: Buy Less, But Buy Better. Your well placed purchasing dollars can bring joy to you and everyone along the line back to the artisan/designer who created it with care and pride. There’s a valuable connection between the maker and the user that the Internet can serve to make more direct with its unprecedented “long tail” of commerce. These are interesting times.

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Posted in Informed Consumer, Sustainable Lifestyle | No Comments »