December 2009
Monthly Archive
Check out Hig and Erin’s NY Times article
Posted by Tawny on 31 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Press
of photos in the book
Hig and Erin were featured in the New York Times today! We’d like to welcome everyone visiting for the first time. Enjoy!
Shameless plug: Don’t miss our webstore!
Welcome to our new stores!
Posted by Tawny on 29 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: New stores
Just in time for the New Year, I’d like to welcome the newest stores to carry Sundrops.
In California, where we’ve recently acquired a sales representative - can you tell? (You’re great, Kevin!):
In California, where we’ve recently acquired a sales representative - can you tell? (You’re great, Kevin!):
- Staff of Life is a long-time natural foods market in Santa Cruz, complete with Sushi bar.
- The Garden Company is a plant nursery and gift store. Just the mention of fall and winter herb and vegetable gardens on their website made me jealous here in Minnesota!
- Homeless Garden Project is made up of a 2.5 acre organic garden, edible plants nursery, and organic produce store. They provide free lessons on organic gardening, job training for the homeless, run a CSA, and more.
- Kerin is a brand-new eco-fashion store that just opened in November. They’ve got a 25% off grand opening sale going on right now!
- American 3B Scientific primarily makes and sells anatomical models and fitness/therapy equipment. They sell Sundrop Jewelry through the gift section of their online catalog.
Paper and Printing: An Update
Posted by Tawny on 21 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: paper, Sundrops impact
Back to analyzing the environmental impact of Sundrop Jewelry…
Our old jewelry cards
Erin’s orignal post about paper calculated our impact using the Environmental Defense’s Paper Calculator. Our original cards were nothing special in terms of environmental friendliness, so we used the default national averages for paper (pulp composition, bleaching process, etc.). Doing the same calculation today gave me slightly lower numbers than Erin reported - the national average is improving!
Our new, improved, better-than-ever jewelry cards
When the time came to order new cards, we did some serious research and ordered something well-nigh perfect: a card half the size of the old card, printed by a local printer using soy-based ink on 100% post-consumer recycled content cardstock, which was whitened without chlorine. As you can see below, our impact is only a quarter to a third of what it was before in every category - except wood. No trees were harmed in the making of our jewelry cards.
Environmental impact of our old cards vs. our current jewelry cards
for 1000 pairs of earrings.
Printing
This graph does not include the impact of printing, only the paper it is printed on. According to the Energy Information Administration, the printing industry uses about 4% as much energy as the paper industry on a national level. In addition to energy use, there are VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and other toxins in standard petroleum-based ink.
We had our printing done by a local printer in Northfield, MN: Engage Print. They used soy-based inks, which produce a lot fewer VOCs, make it easier to recycle the paper they are printed on, and are renewable (mostly - there are things other than soybean oil in the ink). However, I presume that the amount of energy required to print the ink on paper remains mostly unchanged whether petroleum or soy ink is used. Although we cut our card in half, we now print both front and back, resulting in roughly the same amount of ink and printing process per card.
Our old jewelry cards
Erin’s orignal post about paper calculated our impact using the Environmental Defense’s Paper Calculator. Our original cards were nothing special in terms of environmental friendliness, so we used the default national averages for paper (pulp composition, bleaching process, etc.). Doing the same calculation today gave me slightly lower numbers than Erin reported - the national average is improving!
Our new, improved, better-than-ever jewelry cardsWhen the time came to order new cards, we did some serious research and ordered something well-nigh perfect: a card half the size of the old card, printed by a local printer using soy-based ink on 100% post-consumer recycled content cardstock, which was whitened without chlorine. As you can see below, our impact is only a quarter to a third of what it was before in every category - except wood. No trees were harmed in the making of our jewelry cards.
for 1000 pairs of earrings.
Printing
This graph does not include the impact of printing, only the paper it is printed on. According to the Energy Information Administration, the printing industry uses about 4% as much energy as the paper industry on a national level. In addition to energy use, there are VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and other toxins in standard petroleum-based ink.
We had our printing done by a local printer in Northfield, MN: Engage Print. They used soy-based inks, which produce a lot fewer VOCs, make it easier to recycle the paper they are printed on, and are renewable (mostly - there are things other than soybean oil in the ink). However, I presume that the amount of energy required to print the ink on paper remains mostly unchanged whether petroleum or soy ink is used. Although we cut our card in half, we now print both front and back, resulting in roughly the same amount of ink and printing process per card.
Personal Update
Posted by Tawny on 18 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Since it’s been a VERY long time since we’ve posted to this blog, I thought I should give an update on what we are all doing here at Sundrop Jewelry.
Shaun and I moved to Minnesota in mid-January 2008. He is working for his old Carleton College professor as a Senior Software Developer at Ultralingua, where he writes dictionary and translation software for the iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows, and enough other platforms I can’t keep track of them all. I’ve been holding down the fort keeping Sundrop Jewelry going from day to day (making sundrops, filling orders, updating our webstore, etc) and dealing with all the pesky problems that crop up in anyone’s life. Sundrop Jewelry is verging on getting too big to make all the drops ourselves, so we experimented with hiring a couple contractors to help us last summer. While not terribly productive overall, we learned a lot about what to do (and not do) next time.
Click image for slideshow
of photos in the book
Hig and Erin finished their trek from Seattle to the Aleutians in June 2008 and settled down in Hig’s home town of Seldovia, Alaska (also Shaun’s hometown). They built a yurt, where they live with their baby boy Katmai, who was born in February. Erin wrote a book about their trip that came out in October, “A Long Trek Home: 4,000 Miles by Boot, Raft, and Ski”, and we had an enjoyable few days visiting when they came through Minneapolis on book tour.
I’ve got some updates coming on the progress of our survey of the environmental footprint of one pair of Sundrop earrings, including recycled silver, our new jewelry cards, more on the impacts of shipping, a move away from silver chain for our necklaces, and more.
Shaun and I moved to Minnesota in mid-January 2008. He is working for his old Carleton College professor as a Senior Software Developer at Ultralingua, where he writes dictionary and translation software for the iPhone, Palm Pre, Windows, and enough other platforms I can’t keep track of them all. I’ve been holding down the fort keeping Sundrop Jewelry going from day to day (making sundrops, filling orders, updating our webstore, etc) and dealing with all the pesky problems that crop up in anyone’s life. Sundrop Jewelry is verging on getting too big to make all the drops ourselves, so we experimented with hiring a couple contractors to help us last summer. While not terribly productive overall, we learned a lot about what to do (and not do) next time.
of photos in the book
Hig and Erin finished their trek from Seattle to the Aleutians in June 2008 and settled down in Hig’s home town of Seldovia, Alaska (also Shaun’s hometown). They built a yurt, where they live with their baby boy Katmai, who was born in February. Erin wrote a book about their trip that came out in October, “A Long Trek Home: 4,000 Miles by Boot, Raft, and Ski”, and we had an enjoyable few days visiting when they came through Minneapolis on book tour.
I’ve got some updates coming on the progress of our survey of the environmental footprint of one pair of Sundrop earrings, including recycled silver, our new jewelry cards, more on the impacts of shipping, a move away from silver chain for our necklaces, and more.