Some questioning and a few answers...

Here are some of the most frequently brought up arguments when talking about sustainability and "green" in general. Just click on the to reveal the answer. If you have any others, please email us!

	That little plastic I threw away doesn’t amount to very much – who cares!
	Yes, that’s a very small piece of plastic but here are a few examples which you may be able to associate with: If you have tools and you use them, you know for a fact that it takes just 30 extra seconds to put it away when you’re done or else it will take you 5 minutes or more to find it if you just set it down at the most convenient spot upon using it. It may be easy and convenient at the onset but the repercussions are frustrating. If you do laundry regularly, you know it takes a few extra minutes to fold, sort, and assemble piles at the laundry than if you were to dump all of them in the hamper upon drying and you take out wrinkled clothes or unmatched socks 5 minutes before you need to be out the door. Again, a little pre-effort goes a long way. If you work in a taller office building, it feels good to push the elevator button in the morning and the door opens right up without a wait. Perhaps it was because the last person using it pressed the “down” button upon exiting knowing it would save others time. It took a tiny forethought, no extra effort, and saved time for many others. You probably understand the point – it takes very little effort to throw that piece of plastic in the right bin as it makes a drastic difference down the road. Just a little forethought, tiny to no extra effort, and a knowledge that you’ve done your part in making this world a better place. Chances are, others are watching and they’re learning to do the same.

	It’s very expensive to go “green.” Technology is still too expensive, biodegradable products are hard to find (and are expensive), and I have better ways to spend my money.
	For the most part, you may want to check out the answer to the last question on this list with the "Three R's." It can actually be cheaper to go sustainable! To maintain everything of what we want and what we're comfortable with, it can be slightly more expensive. Here’s the “but” that you’re looking for. BUT the costs have to be factored throughout the lifespan of use, not just the cost of purchase. You also have to figure in that regular purchases may be cheaper, but are more expensive to use or you buy it more often – offsetting the cost of what you just bought. Remember the old saying “you get what you pay for?” It holds true in most cases and this is one of them. Biodegradable means it will disappear into something useful – so we paid for something to make it go away – TRULY make it go away, not just from our sights! More expensive technologies such as compact fluorescents and cold compact fluorescents are more expensive but have cost offsets far greater than if we were to buy traditional lighting. As to better ways to spend money - you most likely invested money in your education (your future), perhaps purchased renters or home-owners insurance (plausible future), and you perhaps bought a good reliable car (to last into the future). You have spent large amounts of money for all types of your future; real, plausible, lasting - what's the difference? It probably doesn't matter which paper-plate manufacturer gets your money for the picnic-items, the plate that serves your future is the one you need to get. We buy and invest for what we need. If we need peace of mind (insurance) that we are making a goal (education) to maintain a healthy future (reliable), we're not doing anything different than what we've already been doing.

	Sustainable cramps my style - it's too "way out there!"
	Way out where? Oh, you mean it doesn't appear to "fit in" with the "stereotype"? Well, we all live in a stereotype whether we like it or not. These names were created by people living opposite lifestyles. Yuppie, hippie, suburbanite, city-dweller, blah blah blah. Sustainable-living, eco-friendly, "green", etc. has nothing to do with labels placed upon us. It has to do with what we want to see out of our tomorrow - wherever we are. We do notice advertisements and billboards with a "hippie"-type character when advertising organic, leaves and flowers associated with eco-friendly, and perhaps it became part of a political campaign. We understand that everyone is constantly bombarded with images and associations from commercials to campaign speeches, but that's all they are - wrongful associations established by others. They are wrong because of one fundamental reason - sustainability is about you, your family's and our world's prolonged health. It has nothing to do with labels, politics, or any other peer-pressure associations. They may be placed there for ease of understanding, but in reality it has no association with anything other than health. So it really has no style whatsoever! It's not something to do, but a way to be.

	Eco-friendly products don't work very well.
	We believe that you need to prove this to yourself. We can list statistics, testimonials, and scientific data proving otherwise but it will not matter until you perform the tests yourself. For example, vinegar mixed with water has time and time again proven to be a more effective cleaner than harsh chemically-laden solvents - but as you notice, vinegar mixed with water doesn't have the financial backing to create pretty bottles and expensive commercials telling us what to buy so naturally we do as we're told. As amazing creatures as we humans are, so are the amazing natural resources that have existed for thousands of years. It's only within this very short industrial revolution that we have convinced ourselves that human-made chemical-products surpass and even benefit our natural being. From cleaners, to plates, to clothes, and to buildings - a revival of natural material use are a direct response to our long-term needs. We know they work because we are here to talk about it, but we don't have millennia of evidence to prove what man-made chemicals do to us. Is that a risk we are willing to take?

	I have a very comfortable life, I know what I like, and I wouldn't even know where to begin since I barely have enough time using the system I have established already!
	We're not here to complicate your life - it's filled enough already. So with that, let's take things back to the basics and give you three letters. R, R, and R. See, it's that simple. Reduce, Re-use, and Re-cycle. The whole concept of sustainability is about making better use of the things we do have so we create less waste and spend less. Sandwich bags, for example, can be replaced with a re-useable container. You only buy once, don't throw anything away, and save money by not having to buy the same thing over and over again. Tinfoil can be used more than once, silverware vs. plasticware, glass vs. plastic cups - and on and on. Simple and easy using trash as our guide of what we could have actually re-used or replaced. You will be amazed how little trash we actually generate when we follow these simple rules. Whatever your motivation - whether saving time, money, the environment, or all three at once - we can start by not buying more of the things which actually complicates our lives. We can show you how here.

	It's cold outside - Global Warming obviously does not exist so what's with all the fuss?
	If you open your freezer right now and stick your hand in there - you'll find that it's quite cold in there - so cold that its bound to freeze water into ice cubes! But if you leave the door open, you'll start to notice that the ice is having a harder and harder time to freeze - maybe to the point where it can't even freeze. The instantaneous cold you're feeling outside is you putting your hand in the freezer. Global Warming, in very simple terms, is leaving the freezer door open. Global Warming, by its wording, only suggests warmth - but has other effects which are a result of warming of a small increment over a large scale. Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming Photos and historic comparisons suggest that there are obvious changes in our midst. Our industrial revolution, being only 200 years old, is a very short time in the big scheme of global evolutionary scale. We know our impact, we don't know the repercussions. The question becomes, is it worth the risk? By "it," we mean maintaining the status quo of a way of life. How do we know it's the "proper" way to live? Just because we're comfortable with it doesn't make it right. Sustainability makes us aware of re-use and overall consumption. As we develop to re-adapt to this concept (something which our grandparents and even parents lived with everyday to where it wasn't a concept but a way of life), the measured impacts will be less from our hands and again, more from nature.

	Global Warming does not exist - it's simply a giant hoax that we're being fed to take away our freedoms and wealth.
	Oh boy - this one's a biggie! When confronted with this argument, you're likely dealing with a very passionate individual who is extremely comfortable in their lifestyle and is very defensive if a perceived threat wants to take that away. The key word here is "perceived." "The Kyoto Protocol excludes major polluters such as China and India - therefore it's simply a measure to take wealth away from the U.S." Notice that the large-scale world environmental sustainability has been transformed into a tiny single political and economic proposal. This is apples to oranges manipulation at its finest. That's like saying "you can't go swimming because people drown in water." If we do take the path of this "wealth re-distribution scheme", let's look at what sustainability is. We looked at this in our who does sustainability benefit segment. The short answer was that it benefits us individually and the market adapts to what we want - not the other way around. A perfect example of this is the recent housing-bubble where US mortgage defaults caused a great ripple effect in the world economy. Why? Because banks started selling our mortgages to other investors throughout the world for more profit. When we stopped paying, investors lost money. The banks learned their lessons and will start owning our mortgages once again - not re-distributing it and losing control like it did. The market adapts. GreenOfaKind is not a scientific research facility which has access to data and solutions that control the earth's climate. What GreenOfaKind does promote is sustainability through action. Sustainability is not a hoax - it's a natural evolutionary cycle which exists in the observed nature just outside our door. We are a human race that finds answers in what we can see and measure. The problem is that we cannot measure something which is in the prospective future, just guess through advanced mathematics. We cannot measure impact which has not happened yet and if we cannot measure it, we can argue against it. What we can measure is that nature has been here for a long time before us. We can measure what we produce, what we throw away, and what our emissions are. We cannot measure what our products, waste, and emissions do to us in the future because it hasn't happened yet. The industrial revolution is a very young game in the large world we know of. It's only been around 200 years yet the last ice age was over 10,000 years ago. We are only human and humans make mistakes - like history showcases. Tobacco was only "recently" proven to be a leading cause of lung-cancer - even though it was promoted not that long ago. What we are saying is that one cannot reduce global sustainability into an unrelated industrial revolution. If we dis-join this notion from the two, we would be seeing a much more robust action towards global health.

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