New App Connects Rejected ‘Ugly’ Food with Charities

Up to 40% of food in the US is wasted, tons of which is produce that is too “ugly” to sell in supermarkets. Luckily some conscious consumers are working to give truck loads of ugly produce a second chance.

Innovators continue leveraging technology to solve huge problems that shouldn’t exist. Thank you to all the entrepreneurs working to solve critical issues. Our collective efforts (big and small) is the key to progress.

Original article from Huffpost Green:

An app wants food waste to ride off into the sunset.

Food Cowboy connects for-profit food distributors who have truckloads of rejected fresh food — which typically ends up in the trash — with charities and food banks that desperately need that grub.

The problem is rooted in the U.S.’ aesthetic standards for attractive food. Many retailers, wholesalers and food service companies will reject a large and perfectly good shipment of food because a single box or carton is crushed, or fruits and vegetable are simply “ugly.”

ugly produce

Finding a charitable organization to take the food on the fly — so the producers of the food can avoid extra transport costs — was a tall order. Truckers typically unload cargo late at night when most nonprofits are closed for the day.

“There are typically 22 pallets on a truck, which is what helps keep food costs low in this country,” Gordon told The New York Times. “But if no one is going to pay the bill for all that, the easiest place to deliver it is a dumpster.”

This act contributes to a disturbing statistic found by the Natural Resources Defense Council — that Americans trash up to 40 percent of our food supply every year, which is equivalent to $165 billion.

food-cowboy-inventor

The problem got Gordon’s wheels turning — a platform in which retailers and nonprofits could communicate would certainly help.

And thus, Food Cowboy was born.

The app sends alerts to its current roaster of 400 charities — food banks, large kitchens, shelters and pantries — whenever a rejected shipment needs to be rescued. The app also keeps tabs on details about loading docks, refrigeration and other equipment to help with the whole coordination process, which — believe it or not — is more important than you would think.

“We once had a situation early on where a church at the end of a one-lane road agreed to take a delivery from a 53-foot-plus tractor-trailer,” Gordon told NYT. “They thought the word truck meant something like an F-150.”

There are also perks for everyone involved. Donors get a tax deduction — but pay Food Cowboy a 15 percent commission on the face value of that deduction.

Soon truckers will be able to enjoy “cowboy points” for every donation they drop off. These points can be used for coupons for free food or showers at truck stops. The company is also developing an online system in which truckers can document their mileage while making a donation.

Recipients face no charge whatsoever for the service.

Beginning this fall, Food Cowboy will donate two-thirds of its revenue — or up to $50 million a year — to Food Cowboy Foundation, which will use the funds to help charities cover the costs of retrieving donations, extend their receiving hours and purchase and install coolers at recipients’ locations so food can stay fresh longer.

food-cowboy-1

Most importantly, truckers seem to like to app. Although they have to check with the food distributor before making a donation, having a place to unload the food from their trucks so that can continue on their route and pay less for gas to keep the food refrigerated, is pretty good incentive to use the app.

 

Images: 1) MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images; 2,3) NBRBIZRPT

How Overfishing Can Stunt The Growth of Our Forests

Some trees love (and need) salmon…

Organisms are complex beings made up of hundreds to millions of units working together to form a whole. If one unit goes down the whole organism can be impacted. The organelles of a cell, the cells of an organ, the organs of an animal… the species of an ecosystem.

We generally don’t think of ecosystems as living organisms, but scientific research continues to convince me we should.

To understand the link between salmon and the growth of a forest we need to dig into the story of an unexpected player: fungus.

The invisible underground network

An unbreakable bond: Fungus and Trees

Trees and fungi form a symbiotic relationship that has been evolving for over 400 million years. Without each other, neither would be able to survive, but together they thrive.

In the temperate forests of Canada, biologists have been researching this relationship and its role in the health of this wooded ecosystem as a whole. You might assume that studying some of the other native species such as the bald eagle or grizzly bear would be more interesting, but what they’ve discovered underground is pretty 😲  !

Amongst the tree roots lives an almost invisible fungus (about 1/10 the size of an eye lash), which forms an extensive underground labyrinth. Tiny fungus tubes intermingle with tree roots, branching out in a vast network of tunnels like an elaborate subway system.

This hidden transportation hub is remarkably vast. One study found up to 7 miles of this threading in just one pinch of dirt, and it spans the subterranean soil connecting trees and shrubs like an internet for plants.

Why do the trees and fungus need each other?

On the surface, the relationship between fungus and plant is a simple exchange. The tree has carbon (the sugar of life), the fungus provides valuable nutrients. But underneath this basic principle of symbiosis scientists lies an impressive level of complexity.

Trees contribute carbon > fungus contribute minerals and nutrients

Trees soak in sunshine, carbon dioxide, and water, and through photosynthesis they extract the carbon and release oxygen. Trees turn this carbon into sugar which it uses to make its trunk, branches, and other critical tree parts.

Carbon is an essential building block of life, but alone it’s not of much value to vegetation. To achieve their great might, trees also need minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, copper, etc., all of which can be found in the soil. Without these critical nutrients trees would struggle to grow taller than a foot.

But trees aren’t as good at absorbing these vital nutrients as we all believe. Trees can only soak up these minerals and waters through the tiniest tips of their roots which isn’t nearly enough to meet their needs.

Enter fungus.

Fungus has mastered the transportation of nutrients and water with its vast network of tubes (and as we’ll see in a bit, they’ve also mastered mining, hunting, and scavenging for nutrients). But fungus can’t just live on soil nutrients and water. It needs the sugar of life too.

Because fungus can’t photosynthesize, they rely on trees to do the work. So, in an underground economy of sorts, trees and fungus trade sugar for water and nutrients. (We are almost to the part about salmon!)

The great exchange

To initiate this essential relationship fungal tubes stretch up toward new tree roots and start a chemical conversation of sorts. The chemical signals emitted by fungi prompt a tree’s roots to soften, allowing the fungus to intertwine itself into the plant’s foundation.

This interconnectivity of the two species allows them to exchange packets of sugar, water, and nutrients on a cellular level. One sugar for one nutrient. One nutrient for one water. And so on…

How do the fungi get the minerals?

Symbiotic relationships are awesome, but this one gets even better. The most fascinating part of this story lies in the way fungi hunt, mine, and scavenge for the nutrients they need in order to hold up their end of the deal.

Mining

Fungi are expert miners. Their tubes worm their way back and forth through the soil searching, until they bump into some soil particles – packets of minerals. Once they strike rock they secrete an acid that starts to dissolve the mineral.

The fungus continues this process, tunneling inside the rock to reach little packets of minerals they can then mine and transport. When you look at these rock particles under the microscope you can actually see the little tunnels bored out by fungus.

Hunting

Fungi are hunters too. Their main target (in this northern temperate region) is a small insect called a springtail. Springtails are flea sized insects that spend most of their time munching on leaves of the forest floor. They get their name from their curly appendage on their backside that allows them spring themselves into the air… really high. Fun fact: their self-catapult is equivalent to a human jumping over the Effeil tower.

Springtails also eat is fungus, however, which is what prompted an experiment in which scientists gave springtails some fungus to eat. Their results were unexpected. Instead of eating the fungus, the fungus ate the springtails.

With closer examination, the scientists saw little tubes had grown within the springtails. Furthermore, several of the springtails that had the tubes inside them were still alive! Fungus were mining nitrogen from the living.

In a similar study scientists found that 25% of the nitrogen from springtails ended up in the trees. But springtails aren’t the only source of Nitrogen.

They’ve also traced nitrogen in tree rings back to salmon, which is why scientists also refer to fungi as scavengers.

Scavenging

Bears on the northwest are famous for their salmon fishing abilities. After a catch they often wonder into the forest and find a place to sit and enjoy their meal.

Bears can be pretty picky eaters when they have a plentiful supply of salmon. They’ve been observed peeling the skin off fish to reach the fillet and even opening the stomach to reach an egg sac, leaving behind the rest of the fish.

The result of this seasonal feeding frenzy is a transportation of salmon from stream to forest floor (and eventually up into the canopy).

This is where fungus comes back into the picture.

After the carcass has seeped into the soil from decomposition the fungus sucks up the nitrogen into its network and distributes it to the trees. Salmon are such a rich source of nitrogen for vegetation. In some areas up to 75% of the nitrogen in the trees originated from fish.

If you take away the fish, you take away an essential building block for vegetation.

Closing remarks

The more I learn about our earth’s ecosystems, the more I see our world as one big organism. As with any organism, whether it be a cell, organ, or species, if we neglect the health of it’s components we neglect the health of our planet.

This story of fungus, trees, and salmon is quite simplified, but even a broad understanding of how our world helps us make conscious decisions in our daily lives. Are we going stop to contributing to the problem or just keep ignoring it? I don’t suggest we stop eating fish, but maybe it’s time we widen our perspective and be more aware of the impact our decisions have.

For even more detail on the underground network of fungus see Radio Lab’s podcast From Tree to Shining Tree. Their half hour narrative is worth every minute.

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Fuel Efficiency: Planes vs Trains vs Automobiles

Planes, Trains, Cars, & Buses – What’s the most fuel efficient way to travel?

The quick answer (for the US) is buses, but as you already know there’s more to it.

Here’s a quick overview:

  • For domestic travel buses are by far the most fuel efficient (in the US).
  • For long distance travel planes can actually be the most efficient.
  • The key measurement that impacts efficiency is miles per gallon per person. Variables that impact this include:
    • How much fuel is needed to move the vehicle
    • How many people are being transported
    • How far you are traveling
  • If you’re in a hurry: Action items for being conscious about fuel efficiency while traveling are included at the end of this post.

The full explanation of fuel efficiency by vehicle type:

To understand the fuel efficiency of planes vs buses vs trains vs cars, we need to look at two variables:

  • How much fuel does it take to move the vehicle
  • How many people can the vehicle carry

Cars (especially modern fuel efficient cars) burn less fuel than buses, trains, and planes, but they also carry a lot less people. Planes burn a tremendous amount of fuel (especially in take off) but they can also transport quite a few people. Trains and buses also take a lot of energy to move because of their size, but can move many people at once.

Public transportation tends to be more eco friendly, but as always this isn’t a straight forward comparison. To determine which mode of transport is the most fuel efficient you’ll need to consider a few things.

How far are you traveling?

It turns out that a big distinguishing factor to determining the greenest way to travel is distance. Although planes burn fuel at an aggressive rate, their ability to carry a large number of people can actually make them a more fuel-efficient mode of transportation over long distances.

A generalized estimate for a Boeing 747 (from How Stuff Works) says that this plane burns about 5 gallons of fuel per mile, but with a capacity to transport over 500 people the miles per gallon per person is more like 100. Smaller planes aren’t as efficient and due to the large fuel consumption of take off, shorter distances bring that average down.

What’s the deal with the fuel efficiency of trains?

In the fuel efficiency information provided below you’ll see that trains are unexpectedly low, but this data can be a bit misleading because it’s from research that only studied trains in the US. There are two things to note:

  1. Americans don’t utilize trains as a mode of transportation very much in comparison with European and Asian countries. This brings fuel efficiency down because there are less people being transported per train moving.
  2. Trains have varying fuel efficiencies themselves. They are powered by either a normal combustion engine using diesel fuel or an electric motor. The efficiency of electric trains is highly variable because of the source of electricity. Electricity from a coal fired power plant will be much less efficient then renewable resources such as hydroelectric, wind, or solar.

The information provided below is from a study of Amtrak trains in the US, most of which are diesel powered, which brings their fuel efficiency down considerably.

The data

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) is a non-profit that seeks to provide research and analysis to environmental regulators. They have some great information about fuel efficiency on their site and I’ve summarized a bit of it here to help you get the big picture for how different modes of transportation stack up against each other. (More info on the ICCT in the footnotes)

This graph shows an estimate of miles per gallon per passenger. It’s important to note that this data is a comparison for domestic travel, specifically intercity travel within the US. Despite the limited scope it serves as a good overall approximation.

Trains in countries like Japan are predominantly electric and transport a much larger number of people per cabin than trains in the US. While it’s difficult to broadly compare trains between regions it’s safe to say that trains in European and Asian countries are far more fuel efficient than those in the US, making them a leading option for travel.

In most cases outside of the US, trains are probably at least as efficient as buses and are much more efficient than cars and planes.

Your general guide to traveling:

  • Planes are okay for long distance travel but inefficient for domestic travel.
  • In the US: Buses are best for domestic travel.
  • In the US: Cars are generally more efficient than trains when there are 2 or more people traveling.
  • Outside of the US: Trains are likely the most efficient mode of travel, but varies based on distance and train type. Buses are the next best thing and are potentially better in some instances.

Notes:

About the ICCT – their Mission statement

The International Council on Clean Transportation is an independent nonprofit organization founded to provide first-rate, unbiased research and technical and scientific analysis to environmental regulators. Our mission is to improve the environmental performance and energy efficiency of road, marine, and air transportation, in order to benefit public health and mitigate climate change.

Project JUST is Changing The Way We Shop

Post by: prch

Project JUST is a non profit that offers a great tool for conscious consumers. Their brand guide is a wonderful resource that makes shopping ethically easier and less stressful.  They offer pros and cons for each brand (currently 75 listed) along with info on the following categories:

  • Size & Business Model
  • Transparency
  • Labor Conditions
  • Environment
  • Intention
  • Community
  • Management
  • Innovation

Overview of Project JUST:

Project JUST is building a community to help shoppers learn the stories behind their clothes. Their online platform features brand profiles researched by ethical, social, and environmental factors and a magazine of features including shopper profiles, neighborhood guides and styling posts to help shoppers put their values into action. They are committed to fostering transparency in the industry, and to growing a community of shoppers, journalists, brands and retailers who can positively exercise their knowledge, ultimately, championing the farmer or worker at the bottom of the supply chain.

To Support Project JUST:

Project JUST is working to expand their guide of brands and have started a crowdfunding campaign to add another 100 brands. If you’d like to support them, visit the Project JUST Indiegogo campaign page.

The Sustainability Game: Put Me in Coach!

It’s too easy to ride the bench…

When you look at sustainability as a whole, it’s overwhelming. The scale of such an immense problem as global warming makes us, as individuals, feel powerless. I’m 1 out of 7 Billion people on this planet. There really isn’t anything I can do except wag my finger at those corrupt politicians and fat cat businessmen making money off the destruction of our planet.

That’s why, year after year, despite our desire to be involved, we hang on the sidelines.

Yes, I’m guilty too. The truth is, I don’t have the time, energy, or know how to fight every battle. If you work and have a social life and want to have some free time to do the things you enjoy, you’re not left with a ton of time to be an effective activist for more than a few causes.

But that’s okay. You don’t have to play every position and be the MVP. You can be a role player and still enjoy success.

Sustainability is a team effort that won’t be solved by one global treaty or a new sustainable clothing brand. We need everyone tackling the issues they can. Let the politicians be politicians and the revolutionaries be revolutionaries. Let’s stop wagging our fingers and start using our talents to drive change.

Yes, some things are out of our control. But we can control the things we buy, the causes we support, and the habits we form. We can make an effort to do good in the work we do. We can donate some of our free time to a good cause. We can be informed citizens that make good decisions.

We should be confident that our actions make a difference and even if you don’t truly believe that, maybe you can take comfort in the fact that you’re making an effort to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

If you’re ready to get off the sidelines and into the game, do two things.

  1. Be generally informed. Read a few books, watch a few documentaries. You’ll learn something new and be glad you did. Understanding makes doing way easier.
  2. Do what you do best. It’s not enough to just be informed, you have to take action. A common finger wag is that people think they don’t have anything to contribute. They are wrong. No matter what your job or talent is, there is a way to utilize it to have a positive impact on the world.

Here are a few examples.

  • Activists – Many are weekend warriors, standing up for what they believe in by attending events and rallies in their spare time. Together, they raise awareness and promote change on a grass roots level. You don’t have to quit your job and join the Sea Shepherd crew to have an impact. Find a cause you believe in and join a group on meetup.
  • Social Media Managers – SM is very influential. If you can’t get clients who are doing something good for the world, volunteer some of your time to a cause that you believe in. They need your help.
  • Teachers – Today everyone has the chance to be a teacher. People around the world are sharing their knowledge over the web to collaborate and help others solve problems. You can start a blog or YouTube channel and become a teacher today. Are you making your own soap? Upcycling pool toys? Eating local? You can influence others.
  • Artists – Inspire and raise awareness through your art.
  • Waiters – The food industry is huge and it’s moving toward healthier, more sustainable options. An informed waiter can help educate customers about local or sustainable options on the menu and an inspired waiter may even be able to influence what gets added to the menu or where the restaurant sources its ingredients.
  • Admin Assistants – Assistants make a large proportion of decisions in an office and they can take the initiative to “green” it. Initiate recycling, buy fair trade coffee,
  • Researchers – Add your name to the ledger of human progress. Every piece of information we gather about our world contributes to our overall knowledge that we can leverage to make better decisions. Follow the rules of science and make your results public so others can continue to build upon it.
  • Businessmen – Profit isn’t the only bottom line. Make sustainability a priority in your business or lend your knowledge to a worthy cause as an adviser/volunteer.
  • Sales Reps – Work for a responsible company like Patagonia or start convincing people not to buy your product. If you get fired, go get a job at a responsible company.
  • Engineers – Build sustainability into your projects. Tech engineers can join startups or attend hackathons in their spare time to help solve some of our pressing problems through tech.

Let’s get in the game. Let’s be generally aware of how our actions impact the world and let’s act on the causes we are passionate about. Just because we don’t have time to start a community group doesn’t mean we shouldn’t join one. There’s room to make an impact in every aspect of our lives, and it adds up quick.

Chances are, your actions will inspire others around you too which will further increase your impact, so you can stop wagging your finger in disappointment and start raising your fist in triumph.

Get in the game!

Essential Documentaries for Conscious Consumers

Education for the conscious

The hardest part about being a conscious consumer is staying informed. While brands may change their environmental stance, social movements will rise and fall in popularity, and governments will sludge along, the core motivations behind my purchasing decisions remain the same. I configure my daily habits to support the change I want to see in the world.

Documentaries haven’t been the sole source of my education or motivation for being conscious, but some have made a considerable impression on my world view. These three documentaries were especially influential and they represent pivotal moments of understanding in my journey to becoming a conscious consumer.

This list can easily be extended, but in minimalist fashion, here are the essentials:

1. The Century of the Self

  • 2002 British documentary series by Adam Curtis
  • Time Commitment: almost 4 hours
  • Watch on YouTube: The Century of the Self

If you want to get up to speed on the history of consumerism, this is your documentary. The Century of the Self covers the evolution of our consumption based culture, drawing a direct connection between psychology and techniques used in advertising and public relations. The documentary does a tremendous job of outlining the history of our relationship with products and offers a rational explanation for why we have developed a superficial culture around fashion and commodities.

The Century of the Self is particularly intriguing if you’re interested in science. Through its four parts, this series digs deep into how Sigmund Freud’s psychological theories on our subconscious ‘primitive’ decisions have been used by public relations professionals to manipulate the public. Tied in with industrialization, this new understanding of human nature has been used to shape a consumer culture and offers a shocking explanation for where we are today.

If you really want to dig deep on the psychology of decision making, I recommend the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. He explains the two parts of our brain’s thinking process: 1. Fast, instinctive, and emotional 2. Slow, deliberative, and logical.

2. The Story of Stuff

  • 2007 Animated documentary by Annie Leonard (now the executive director of Greenpeace)
  • Time Commitment: 21 minutes
  • Watch at storyofstuff.org: Story of Stuff

This quick documentary is a great way to learn about the lifecycle of consumer goods. If you’re wondering where all the “stuff” we buy and throw away comes from, where it goes, and how it’s impacting our environment, this film will answer your questions.

The Story of Stuff has almost 4 Million views on YouTube. If you missed the viral sensation when it was first released, now is a good time to go back and get caught up! And if the last time you watched it was when it went viral, you may want to take another look. It’s an inspiration for conscious consumers to take action and the movement has evolved into much more since the documentary’s initial release.

3. Food Inc

  • 2008 documentary by Robert Kenner
  • Time Commitment: 1.5 hours
  • Watch at pbs.org: Food Inc

In an hour and a half Food Inc exposes the problems of industrial food production and shows viewers the solutions we can support. The film inspects the environmental, social, and economic impacts of industrial food production, revealing how unsustainable it is. The film dives into both the industrial production of meat, and grains and vegetables, highlighting the many unsustainable characteristics of each.

Food is our most frequent purchase and has one of the biggest impacts on the world. If you want to be an informed consumer and make conscious decisions about the food you buy and eat, this documentary is a much watch. Similar to Story of Stuff, Food Inc has also carried its momentum into a movement and offers several ways to get involved.

 

There are a plethora of documentaries covering environmental, social, and economic movements that would be great additions to this list. But as far as documentaries go, I consider these three to be the most influential in my education as a conscious consumer and I think they make a good base of education for anyone interested in understanding consumerism.

CITRUS House – Training Ground for Sustainable Urban Living

Sustainability Education Off Campus at Santa Clara University

Guest Post by: Blair Libby

In the neighborhoods surrounding colleges and universities, a growing number of houses are dedicating themselves to environmentally-conscious and sustainable living. At CITRUS (Community Initiative To Restore Urban Sustainability) House, students from Santa Clara University are practicing a cooperative and eco-friendly lifestyle.

CITRUS House began in 2005, when “House Mama” Lauren McCutcheon (class of ‘03) and her roommates decided to create a community hub for sustainable living. Under the mantra of “think globally, act locally”, CITRUS residents began to invite neighbors and students to documentary showings, potluck dinners, gardening parties, and on occasion, spontaneous jam sessions. The founders’ vision was to go outside of the college cocoon and seek human engagement, the most powerful element of a low-impact, community-building lifestyle. Sharing, contributing, and celebrating are the key aspects of life at CITRUS.

In the spirit of collaboration, CITRUS has most recently worked with SCU’s Food and Agribusiness Institute to host workshops on sustainability in the kitchen, organic gardening, and composting. The home is also a frequent host for LOCALS (Living Off Campus and Living Sustainability) and BLEJIT (Bronco Leaders for Environmental Justice Investigating Truth).

Situated in an urban area (outside the city of San Jose), CITRUS helps demonstrate to students that no matter where you end up, it’s possible to live with reverence for the planet by living intentionally and respectfully. Some of that urban sustainability is realized in the San Jose Bike Party. Every 3rd Friday, a group of nearly 30 students meet at CITRUS to bike to downtown San Jose, where they join up with the thousands of other community cyclists taking part in the ride.

In addition to growing backyard tomatoes, leafy greens, peppers, herbs and fruit trees, living in CITRUS means making a commitment to cultivate sustainable eating habits. The kitchen is stocked first from the garden, then from the local farmer’s market to buy what’s in season. When residents include animal-derived foods, they try to obtain them from farmers and ranchers who are certified humane, organic, and the like.

Practicing vegetarianism or veganism become habitual for most tenants. According to current resident Jordan Webster (class of ‘16), “eating and shopping at farmers’ markets changed my diet dramatically – I went from eating meat daily to a mostly vegetarian diet.” And all those red plastic cups? They’re washed and reused too.
Besides food, taking shorter showers, air-drying clothes, and using green cleaning products or natural alternatives are crucial to a sustainable community. As students come and go every four years, they leave behind furniture, dishes and other household tools, some of which can be inherited and shared between generations of residents. Whatever is discarded is picked up and offered to incoming students and neighbors around Santa Clara.

CITRUS’ vision is that it continues to be a “training ground” for sustainable living in the urban environment. The students who live and visit there have an opportunity to educate, share, and experience a culture that’s often missing from college students’ lives. In inspiring others, CITRUS acts as a seed for lifestyles that tread more lightly on a beautiful planet.

About the Author: Blair Libby is a senior at Santa Clara University, studying Environmental Science and living in CITRUS House.

Consciously Consuming Media

Give your attention to the good stuff…

Voting with our wallets is great, but there’s more. We have the power to do good and change the world in almost everything we do. Beyond the physical things we consume, we should also be conscious of the digital media we consume.

The apps, the websites, the subscriptions… although much less tangible, money is changing hands in the digital world too. We support businesses most directly through the apps and subscriptions we purchase, but we also support business with the attention we give them. Our time spent in an app or on a webpage drives the statistics they use to set the price of their advertisements.

Advertising is the easiest example, but it’s not the only way companies make money through digital mediums…

A quick overview of how our attention translates to cash.

After working in the tech space for two years – trying to raise money during most of it – I became acquainted with the “important” metrics to determine the monetary value of an app or website.

  • How many people are using your app
  • How often are they accessing your information
  • How well can you classify your audience
  • How are they interacting with your app

All of these metrics are meant to get to the true question: How much money can you make from the attention your app/website is attracting? The more eyes on the screen and the more defined your users are, the more valuable the advertising space is.

More users and more interaction is also the basis for other ways of monetizing. Users can simply pay for a service by buying an app or buying things within an app. Some apps like DuoLingo (the language learning app) even have their own currency. The more you play the more ‘lingots’ you get, allowing you to access more features of the app, and of course you can buy credits with real money if you want to jump ahead.

Another popular model is a subscription or premium (aka freemium or upsell) service like Pandora.

Sites and apps can also make money through affiliate marketing. This is a popular strategy for fashion blogs. You blog to build a following, recommend a product, and share part of the revenue when you send your readers to an ecommerce site.

Not everything has to be about money all the time though, so big ups to those out there who develop and blog just because they love it.

The upside to consciously consuming media.

Understanding how an app or website is making money helps me decide which ones to support and which ones to boycott. Almost just a valuable on an insight, this knowledge also helps me develop habits to prevent myself from binging on mindless content and losing chunks of my life to bad YouTube videos and news about the Kardashians.

A few perks of consciously consuming media:

Support companies that are doing good – Just like voting with my wallet when I buy things from the store I’m voting with my time when I visit sites or use apps.

Save time so I can do more of the things that make me happy – Get off the screen, out of the chair, away from the desk, and into the world. Yes.

Learn new stuff and meet new people – There are so many great communities to join, people to meet, and interesting things to learn. When I’m not tied up in junk content I have time to explore valuable places of the interwebs.

Improve my outlook but consuming less mindless content and more inspiring content – Substitute the status updates from people you haven’t seen since high school for an inspiring nat geo article about a project to clean up the pacific ocean garbage patch and you’ll have a better day.

How to consciously consume media.

Manage your subscriptions.
I make conscious decisions about how to manage the apps and digital subscriptions I have. I’m continually unsubscribing from email lists I no longer find useful which really helps cut down on my inbox clutter. Rather than delete that stupid email every week, take the extra 30 seconds to unsubscribe.

I also go through my subscriptions every few months to make sure I’m actually using them. Too often we get excited about a cool new service, sign up, and forget about it. Meanwhile the auto payments are chipping away at our bank accounts. Save time and money with a little housekeeping every now and then.

Turning off notifications is huge.

Apps want to ping you as much as possible without totally pissing you off, “Come back and spend some time with us!”. That’s why notifications are automatically set to notify you anytime anything happens. I don’t need to know every time someone likes, retweets, or mentions me on Twitter. I just check my feed a few times a day and see them all at once so my day isn’t chopped up into fifty tiny distracting Twitter sessions.

When I download a new app I’m excited to jump in and just start using it. But if I can, I try to setup the notifications and sharing settings right away so I don’t have to do it later. Sometimes I’ll go back and make adjustments if I’m getting too many notifications.

Paid vs Free – the real value.

I always used to use the free version of apps and fight through the ads, but I didn’t save much money and it devalued my experience. Back in the day when I used Pandora I would set my birthday to 1930 so they thought I was an old man and the ads were less intrusive, but even with little tricks like that the ads are still there interrupting your music stream.

For the most part, paying for no ads (there are usually other upgrades too) is worth it. I justify the $10 a month for Spotify premium with beer. A pint of craft beer in most cities is going to run you about 7-8 bucks with tip, maybe $12 if you want a Sculpin. I forego 1 beer I would have otherwise had once a month and I put that money toward Spotify Premium. I have no problem skipping one beer, on one day, for a month of ad free music.

 

Media is something we often just accept as part of our daily lives and we don’t realize how much of an influence it can have on us. While I love using the tools my iphone and laptop give me access to, it’s a lot of work to keep myself in check. It’s easy to slide down the slippery slope of mindless entertainment, but by understanding the world of digital media and developing some simple habits we can do good and improve our quality of life.

How College Loans Exploit Students

Have we put college degrees on a pedestal?

We are becoming ever more conscious about the products we consume and the companies we support. It might be time we do the same for higher education.

When I graduated high school in 2007 skipping college would have been unfathomable. Everything before college was framed to be preparation for the real deal, the true test, the big leagues. If I didn’t pursue the golden bachelors degree, my parents would give me the old, “we’re not mad, just disappointed” talk and I’d be flipping burgers at the BK Lounge for the rest of my life.

While high school grads may still have similar expectations, many could still be working at The Lounge after graduation – with an extra serving of $20k of debt.

For many millennials this right of passage has become a burden. Today’s cost of higher education and the job quality a degree earns has diminished the value of a degree and rightfully has us questioning whether going to college is really worth it the investment.

This TEDx from February (12min) succinctly covers the productization of our education systems and offers a consumer-driven approach to revolution. Find a brief summary of the talk below.

 

“Even a bankrupt gambler gets a second chance but it’s nearly impossible for a student to have their student loan debts discharged.”

How College Loans Exploit Students for Profit, Sajay Samuel

Q: Why are college grads returning home to live with their parents after graduation and working at coffee shops?

A: Our education system is driven by profit which has turned a college degree into a product and undermined the reason we go to school. It’s taken a toll on the passion of learning and

Summary:

Three main points:

  1. Higher education is a consumer product
    1. Today we talk about higher education as an investment as if we are economists.
    2. Degrees have become a way to classify students as they graduate so employers can hire them more easily, not a pursuit of knowledge or passion.
    3. The US News and World Report ranks colleges just as The Consumer Report ranks washing machines.
    4. The industry refers to teachers as service providers and students as consumers.
    5. Sociology, Shakespear, soccer, science… are all content.
    6. The whole package is profit-driven.
  2. Student debt is profitable
    1. Student debt fattens the profit of the student loan industry.
    2. Sally Mae and Navient (two student loan giants) – posted a combined profit of 1.2 Billion in 2014.
    3. Just like home mortgages, student loans can be bundled, packaged, sliced, and diced, and sold on wall street.
    4. Colleges and universities that invest in these securitized loans profit twice. Once on your tuition and once again on the interest from your debt.
  3. Diplomas are a brand
    1. “When students are treated as consumers, they are made prisoners of addiction and envy”
    2. Upselling education “college is the new high school” but why stop there. People can be upsold on certifications, re-certifications, masters degrees, and PhDs.
    3. Higher education is marketed as a status object. Buy a degree, much like you do a Lexus or a louis Vuitton bag, to distinguish yourself from others, so you can be the object of envy of others.

The Facts About The American Education System:

  • In 2015 40 Million Americans were indebted for their passage into the new economy.
  • From 2000 to 2012 state and federal funding for education decreased by 18.5% per student.
  • Between 2000 and 2012 higher education costs increased by 62%.
  • Average annual wages have declined for every educational category.
  • 45% of students who enroll in higher education do not complete it in a timely fashion.
  • 33% of college graduates remain underemployed.

The Bottom Line:

  • Tuition Costs Are Up
  • Public Funding is Down
  • Family Incomes Have Diminished
  • Result: 25% can’t make their student loan payments

It’s time to demand to know what we are paying for. Maybe education should have a warning label that helps potential students make more informed decisions. When you buy a car it tells you how many miles a gallon to expect. But most students go into college blind on the recommendation of others that education is a must.

Why would you pay more for college if you aren’t going to earn more when you get out?

If consumers start treating education like a product:

  • Administrators would be incentivized to manage costs better.
  • The cost of majors would change depending on how much a student can make with their degree upon graduation.

Whenever we buy anything else we consider the return we will get for our money… It’s time we do the same with higher education.

 

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Why I Say No To Swag

I feel like a living billboard and no one is paying me…

Commonly referred to as swag, promotional products have infiltrated my life. Companies seem to love printing their logo on generic products like pens, cell phone accessories, koozies, hats, bags, thumb drives… you name it. They hand them out everywhere, always trying to give them away so their brand can become part of my daily life and it seems like people can’t get enough.

Going to the beach? Don’t forget that Rockstar Energy Drink hat a rep gave you at Coachella last year and those Bank of America sunglasses you got when you dropped in to make a deposit. Grab a cold beer from that free Miller Light cooler you picked up at the ballgame, and don’t forget to bring the Geico koozie they gave out at the car show.

A little bit about the promotional products industry

ASI Central, the promotional product industry’s largest membership organization boasts that promotional products are a $22.2 billion industry. The industry, made up of suppliers and distributors, is so big there are conventions and online platforms to connect the two. Suppliers source the blank promotional products from manufacturers; distributors take small batch orders from businesses, customize the promotional products, and deliver them to their clients.

While certainly a popular marketing technique today, promotional products date as far back as 1789 when commemorative buttons were first used. But the movement really gained momentum in the late 1800’s when a newspaper owner, Jasper Meek, started giving out branded hand bags to school children for their books. The marketing message was blatant, “Buy Cantwell Shoes”. Sales increased, brands quickly realized the value, and soon large companies such as Coca-Cola joined the rush.

Today, the industry is running stronger than ever. Globalization has made it unbelievably cheap to source promotional products from overseas so just about anyone can join in on the bonanza. And they do. I even received a bag of swag from my dentist the last time I went in for a cleaning…

The (negative) impact of swag and getting past it

If you want to see the impact of the promotional product industry on clear display, head to a sporting event. The last few games I attended were prime examples.

At the Gulls game they gave out a free hat; the Bruins game it was a plastic hand; the Padres, a towel. At every entrance the excitement of an unexpected gift was beaming from the faces of attendees, but at the end of every game swag cast its shadow over the stadium, littering the rows and walkways.

In a span of hours you can see the full life cycle of promotional products. An event-goer is enticed by a free product, sports it for a short period of time, then loses interest and disposes of it. Cradle to grave. These products are made to be disposed of and are simply a cheap investment with a potential for huge rewards for a brand.

These seemingly free products have an impact on the way we feel too.

Have a free pen, have a free hat, have a free this, have a free that. But, all this free stuff takes its toll. Obviously the environmental impact of all this producing and throwing away is terrible, but what about the price we pay as recipients?

Once I accept a promotional product I’m a walking advertisement. I’m a brand advocate just because someone handed me a free piece of swag. But that’s not me. I’m selective about the things I buy and the types of companies I support.

I support brands that are responsible, brands that are conscious about their social and environmental impact, not brands that use cheap marketing tactics to drive sales. So when I accept a free piece of swag I’m contradicting my personal beliefs.

Nothing causes more stress than dissonance between your beliefs and your actions – when what you’re doing on the outside is incongruent with what you believe on the inside, stress builds up.

That’s why I deny promotional products and I feel good about it. For the last two years I’ve been denying swag and I’ve been pretty surprised at the reactions. Really? It’s free… you don’t want it?

Nope!

The social awkwardness is by far trumped by my resulting peace of mind. I don’t miss the empty feeling I used to get when I reached that inevitable moment of throwing the giveaway in the trash – or even worse, leaving it on the ground of the stadium. I’m no longer an advocate for a brand I either don’t support or know nothing about. Most importantly, I’m taking a stand to show that swag has gone too far and I’m not going to perpetuate its effectiveness as a cheap marketing tactic.

When we stop accepting promotional products we prevent ourselves from becoming walking advertisements for brands and promotional products lose their value. I live swag free and I’m happier because of it.