What+Does+Going+Green+Really+Mean

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 * 1. A summary of the work done in your city group**

We are individually researching at least two resources about our group topic, which is "Going Green" Across The World. Also, each group member is asked to put the information they found to this Google Docs presentation slide. Here's the link. []

So far, 3 out of 6 members of "New York" group has made contributions to this Google Docs presentation slide, including myself (Kim). Rest (3 out of 6) of the members did not add any contribution to the project, yet.


 * 2. Additional information that you found on your own**

So far, I just researched some examples of "Going Green" outside the U. S., and already added to out Goole Docs presentation slide--Examples of England & S. Korea.


 * 3. Annotated resources (links, videos, articles)**

Links are mentioned at the last slide of the Google Docs presentation slides, as .  Lexology (2009). South Korea’s “low carbon, green growth” initiative spurs renewable energy. [|www.lexology.com] Rees, C. (2010). England: Seven Ways to Start Going. //Green Action Project// [|http://greenactionproject.com]


 * 4. Your opinion about a country's responsibility**

I believe that a country has a very powerful responsibility to set up the law or the policy, so the states, cities, or other smaller and local level can follow, adapt, and encourage their community to follow. If a country's government set up the most fundamental law/policy and the possible consequences, each state or local community will decide their own, detailed rules.

Individuals should follow the law, policy, or the rules decided by their country, state, or county, and also encourage others to do so.
 * 5. Your opinion about an individual's responsibility**

=**Washington Group: **=
 * 1. A summary of the work done in your city group **

Our group is researching the overall topic " **Going green can mean eating organic foods, because they are not grown with pesticides which are harmful to the environment." ** Each person is answering an aspect of this. One person is looking at **What are the positive effects on the environment? What are the negative effects? ** Some one else is looking at **What are the economic costs/benefits for consuming and producing organic foods. ** I will be looking at the question **What are the health benefits for eating organic foods? ** In my group, it is myself and 2 others doing the work. They've posted their material on the Ning, and we were beginning to work on our own wiki. Here's the link to our wiki: []

So far, I've just researched the health benefits in the US.
 * 2. Additional information that you found on your own. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">3. Annotated resources (links, videos, articles) **

SITES USED- This is a great, nicely-organized site with a lot of information on why organic food is better for you and the environment. It answers questions about what really happens to organic food before it hits the stores and what are the benefits to your health by eating the organic food. This site tells more about the price difference between organic food and conventionally-grown food and why organics are so much more expensive. It is organized nicely in Question and Answer form. This website comes from a top newspaper, the New York Times, giving a high-ranked opinion of organic food. It also discusses the price differences of organic food versus conventional food. In question and answer form, Nutiva.com answers all types of questions on everything from organic farms and what they do, to the nutrients in organic food. · This website gives a lot of information on the advantages of organic food on the environment. It explains many things from organic foods promoting biodiversity to promoting clean water and soil because of the absence of pesticides. - "Measuring and Communicating the Environmental Benefits of Organic Food Production." //Plant Management Network//. Web. 19 Mar. 2010. [] · This website was very informational about the positive effects of organic food on the environment. It is very credible and references studies. This website gives advantages and disadvantages of organic food on the environment. It was helpful because it gave evidence of the disadvantages of organic food on the environment when most other websites only focus on the advantages.
 * @http://hubpages.com/hub/OrganicFoodBenefits - Organic Food Benefits
 * - @http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/organiccost.htm - Why Does Organic Food Cost More Than Conventional?
 * - @http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/business/18organic.html - Sticker Shock in the Organic Aisles
 * - @http://www.nutiva.com/nutrition/organic.php - Organic Food Benefits
 * - "Advantages of Organic Food Production & Consumption." Web. 19 Mar. 2010. <http://www.all4naturalhealth.com/advantages-of-organic-food.html>.
 * - "Motivations for Organic Agriculture -." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 19 Mar. 2010. [].

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">4. Your opinion about a country's responsibility **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">

I feel that country's responsibility for going green and specfically organic foods, is to regulate laws about organic foods, standards, and harmful pesticides.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">5. Your opinion about an individual's responsibility **

We feel an individual's responsibility is to buy organic foods when possible to help reduce the pesticides that are introduced into the environment.

=BERLIN GROUP=


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">1. A summary of the work done in your city group **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">

We researched recycling in Tokyo and Doha, Qatar. The two high school students helped with links to interesting information about recycling. The student living in Doha gave a nice summary of what his school does to recycle paper. Jennifer looked into what Tokyo does to recycle and decrease its trash.

We do not have a google doc or wiki of our own. There was so little activity the first few weeks that I was waiting to see if the assignment was changed or the presentation method. We are using this wikispace to present our information.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">2. Additional information that you found on your own

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">See below: The links and information about Qatar come from what I found, hoping Hadi would respond and add first person information to it. **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">**3. Annotated resources (links, videos, articles)**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Qatar
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Unesco created a recycling campaign in Qatar titled Rashid and Dana to encourage Qatar citizens to recycle. By using children as the spokespeople and models, Unesco targeted younger Doha citizens to "actively contribute reducing, reusing and recycling waste products. Since only 3% of the 80% of recyclable waste products are actually being recycled, there is much room for improvement. []

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">In order to apply for the 2016 Olympic Games, Doha started a "Doha 2016" campaign. They are determined to recycle materials, use less energy, conserve the environment and created a Ministry, in 1984, to look at their efforts.@http://www.doha2016.org/en/our_bid/building_the_vision/enviroment/

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Nick and Joce are residents of Doha. In 2008, the local government finally started to place bins around town to recycle. They purchased bins and placed the bind in the lobby of their apartment to see if the residents would recycle. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 13px;">@http://nickandjoce.blogspot.com/2008/10/recyling.html

Tokyo:
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 13px;">The main area that Tokyo is currently recycling well is their business structure. There are multiple laws in place that require businesses to recycle the smallest things. The largest areas of waste found were in construction and technology. There are many plants and buildings that have been constructed to deal with the waste problem and has made a major difference. This link here is an excellent PDF file that explains the construction waste problem and all the steps that have been made to reduce that problem. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/kouhou/english/pdf/Waste%20Managem...

The technology waste is the next major problem that is working on being ratified. Hitachi is the current leader is reusing old and wasted technology. Tokyo Eco Recycle is not the major recycling company that process around 350,000 re-usable appliances. These appliance range from computers, refrigerators, tvs, a/c units, washing machines, etc. The Electrical Appliance Recycling Law passed in 2001 started all this work. It is estimated that the CO2 production will be/ is being reduced to 12,000 tons for the processing of 13,000 tons worth of materials annually. The link below shows the processes that are taken to recycle and the effect it is having. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">http://www.hitachi.com/environment/showcase/solution/appliances/rec...

Besides these two areas, Tokyo has also focused on reducing the waste production of every major company. Hospitals are also a major waste producer and all their materials are graphed to the smallest detail of what can be recycled. Sewage waste is 75% of the waste problem and Tokyo has created large water treatment facilities and compost facilities that deal with this problem. They have also started to create plants that work on re-using food waste. They are working on converting this waste into conservative energy. They are creating garbage drying plants for food waste and other materials near harbors to try and make this work. Below is a PDF file that explains all the details companies must go through in order to recycle their materials. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/kouhou/english/pdf/Waste%20Managem...

As far as the local efforts to encourage recycling, not much is different than the U.S. Recycling information is handed out, and trucks are sent out to pick up everything. An interesting bit of information was found on a blog site. I cannot vouch for its credibility, but it was still an interesting thing to consider. According to him, neighborhood recycling was placed into two categories: burnable and non-burnable. Things that could degrade like paper was considered burnable. While plastic and such were considered non burnable and were buried in landfills. Neighborhoods see the poor logic in such a system and are working to change this. They have started a new system that they are trying to implement that will re-work this problem. They want to keep from being buried in their own waste. For a country that is so focused in big company recycling, it is interesting that they were missing it so in this local area. This was posted in 2007, he said that a recent pamphlet was sent out to educate the local areas on the new recycling effort. Below is a link to the blog and the pamphlet sent out. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">http://seoul-man.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-action-day-recycling-in-japan.html

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">4. Your opinion about the government's responsibility

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">We believe that a country has a duty to provide opportunities for individuals to recycle. Since trucks, bins, etc are very expensive, the local government should take the responsibility to use their resources to purchase such large items. Also, the country needs a strong PR push to promote what their goals. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;"> To combat large recycling issues--such as at construction sites or government offices--the government needs to have enforcable laws and policies which require private/government groups to recycle and keep landfills--run mostly by municipalities--from filling too quickly. Our findings indicate that the government needs to promote recycling, provide opportunities to recycle, and enforce laws dictating recycling. **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">5. Individual's responsibility

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-weight: normal;">Individuals need to actually recycle. If a government or business has set up a system to recycle--provides bins, pick up, etc--obviously it will only be successful if individuals actually put recyclable material in the bin. The idea of individuals making recycling efforts successful is true in Doha, New York, and Tokyo.

Sao Paulo Group** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">1. A summary of the work done in your city group

Our group is researching unconventional ways to go green and any incentives that encourage these less recognized methods. The task was broken into specific categories and each member was supposed to find two or three examples of the category. At this point, only two people have completed the research. We have information regarding household items (appliances, furniture, cleaning products) and construction/building. Additionally, we have my research which focuses on every day items or practices that could be changed to “go green.”

2. Additional information that you found on your own

I provided websites for our group to use to research their category. Additionally, I researched the green technology for the category – daily items. My research is listed below.

3. Annotated resources (links, videos, articles)

[] This website provides a variety of tips and ways to go green that are very cost effective and easy to implement in on a daily basis. One of the examples providing is borrowing and sharing. For example, borrowing a book from a library saves money and resources. Additionally, they suggest borrowing power supplies or tools from neighbors instead of buying your own.

[] This website provides daily updates about ways to go green. There are many resources listed here. One of the articles focuses on going green for spring.

[] This source provides a wide variety of “how to’s” for going green including how to use natural skin care. There is such an expansive wealth knowledge and information about the green process for every day items that one may or may not think about using.

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[] Green schools place a greater emphasis on student and facility health. The buildings have displacement ventilation, sky lights, and light enriched windows. The Alliance’s Healthy Schools Program reaches out to 7,800 schools across the U.S. and advocates and encourages healthy environments with physical activity and healthy eating practices. Healthy schools mean more concentration, attendance, and an increase in student performance. Reducing costs for energy and water allows more money to be spent on academics. Not only do green schools reduce the overall impact to the environment but they set an example for future generations. On the other hand, green homes have a net zero energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

[] One acre of forest trees is necessary to supply the materials needed to build a typical sized home in the U.S. Statistics like this show the strain that building/construction put onto the environment.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> 4. Your opinion about a country's responsibility

A country’s responsibility is to promote, endorse, and advertise the many “green” methods that exist. Many people do not know all the different ways one can green. A country should help make their citizens aware of the variety of methods that exist. Additionally, a country should help provide incentives to research andcreate these different methods, approaches, and technologies. A country should help regulate this industry by making green products affordable and regularly accessible while also appealing to their citizens by providing incentives for the use of the green products. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> A country is responsibe for making “going green” an affordable and realistic practice for individuals. For example, tax credits should be offered to individuals who purchase environment friendly vehicles or energy-efficient products. The government could offer an environemntal sales-tax free day once a year to encourage people to purchase products that are environment friendly. In addition, a country should publicize and sponsor environmental programs to spread the word about the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">5. Your opinion about an individual's responsibility

An individual’s responsibility is to utilize the green technologies that are relevant to his/her life. This process starts by becoming aware and conscious of different ways to go green. There are many basic, common sense ways to do this, but can also be done in greater depth by researching the topic and speaking wither others. In connection to this principle, an individual should live within their means and not use products in excess. Additionally, an individual’s job is to try to promote the going green philosophy to other people in their community by being an example to others. By doing this going green becomes a regularly practiced component of one’s life. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Reduce, reuse, and recycle!