Four Green Steps

Last updated
Four Green Steps
Founded2008
Headquarters Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s) Bill and Jaye Yarrow
Industry Education, Eco-friendly products, News
URL fourgreensteps.com

Four Green Steps is an internet environmental organization based in Montreal, Quebec. [1] The organization was founded in 2008 by Jaye and Bill Yarrow. The business has been active for three years, but the official launch was held in October 2011. [2] The organization consists of four sections: School Program, Community, Marketplace and InfoZone. [1] Four Green Steps contains information on various environmental topics such as green living, sustainable products, and corporate responsibility. The site also provides an environmental curriculum for various schools of different ages. [3] [4] ... [5] [6] The organization celebrated 'Unsolicited Acts of Kindness Week' in August 2012, celebrating by donating used office equipment and pledging to plant a tree for anyone who does a good deed during Kindness Week. [7]

Contents

Services

School program

Four Green Steps school program was developed in an effort to encourage a younger generation to become interested in environmental sustainability. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] The school program is a comprehensive, multipurpose organization dedicated to bringing awareness and solutions to our shared environmental problems. [14] The School Program has a universal curriculum and activities for primary and secondary schools. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] The program features a curriculum of various assignments that will entice students to use their creativity and imagination, learn sustainable habits, take initiative, and develop a sense of environmental responsibility — all while fostering a sense of community and interaction among students the world over. [20] [21] The site also offers opportunities for students to share their projects and ideas online as well as compete for incredible prizes. [22] The School Program is offered for free and available in five different languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. [23] The curriculum's environmental focus includes the following subjects Animals/Wildlife, Biodiversity, Climate Change/Weather, Conservation, Creative Arts, Ecology, Energy, Gardening/Composting, Habitats/Ecosystems, Litter, Nature Awareness, Plants, Pollution, Recycling/Waste Management, Sustainability, Team-building/Problem-solving, Water. [24] It was first launched in October 2009 and was used by 40 schools in 15 different countries that year. [25] They also host an environmental science fair and ‘one-day’ curriculum designed for substitutes or special events. The school program has engaged hundreds of schools in more than 55 countries worldwide. [26] [27]

Community

The Community section is made up of blogs, videos, events and recipes related to the environment. The public can also contribute their own ideas. [28] [29] Four Green Steps was an official partner of the LA Green Festival [30] Actor Booboo Stewart and sister Fivel Stewart joined the Four Green Steps team in 2011. [31]

Marketplace

The organization sells products that are certified organic, fair-trade or are listed that they are produced in a more sustainable way. Products include clothing, food, furniture and household products. [28] Four Green Steps launched their marketplace at the Los Angeles Green Festival in October 2011 [32]

InfoZone

The Infozone contains articles discussing environmental issues in various subject areas including science and technology, business and world news. [33]

Reception

Ethical products and services are becoming increasingly popular, especially in the United Kingdom where $12 billion ethical products were sold in 2008. [34]

As of August 10, 2010, there are schools in 72 different countries registered for Four Green Step’s School Programs. [25] The School Program is also recognized by the New Zealand Ministry of Education., [15] as well as the state of New Jersey [35]

Four Green Steps collaborates with students at universities in Montreal such as McGill University [36] [37] and Concordia University [38] [39] [40] on environmental initiatives and research.

They are recognized by ECO Canada as an environmental organization. [41]

Booboo Stewart of Twilight [42] and his younger sister Fivel are both involved with Four Green Steps [43]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenwashing</span> Use of the aesthetic of conservationism to promote organisations

Greenwashing, also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly. Companies that intentionally take up greenwashing communication strategies often do so in order to distance themselves from their own environmental lapses or those of their suppliers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmentally friendly</span> Sustainability and marketing term

Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes, are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that claim reduced, minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green building</span> Structures and processes of building structures that are more environmentally responsible

Green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building also refers to saving resources to the maximum extent, including energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, etc., during the whole life cycle of the building, protecting the environment and reducing pollution, providing people with healthy, comfortable and efficient use of space, and being in harmony with nature Buildings that live in harmony. Green building technology focuses on low consumption, high efficiency, economy, environmental protection, integration and optimization.’

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecolabel</span> Labeling systems for food and consumer products

Ecolabels and Green Stickers are labeling systems for food and consumer products. The use of ecolabels is voluntary, whereas green stickers are mandated by law; for example, in North America major appliances and automobiles use Energy Star. They are a form of sustainability measurement directed at consumers, intended to make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping. Some labels quantify pollution or energy consumption by way of index scores or units of measurement, while others assert compliance with a set of practices or minimum requirements for sustainability or reduction of harm to the environment. Many ecolabels are focused on minimising the negative ecological impacts of primary production or resource extraction in a given sector or commodity through a set of good practices that are captured in a sustainability standard. Through a verification process, usually referred to as "certification", a farm, forest, fishery, or mine can show that it complies with a standard and earn the right to sell its products as certified through the supply chain, often resulting in a consumer-facing ecolabel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certified wood</span> Wood product from a responsibly managed forest

Certified wood and paper products come from responsibly managed forests – as defined by a particular standard. With third-party forest certification, an independent standards setting organization (SSO) develops standards for good forest management, and independent auditing companies issue certificates to forest operations that comply with those standards.

A sustainable business, or a green business, is an enterprise that has a minimal negative impact or potentially a positive effect on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. They cluster under different groupings and the whole is sometimes referred to as "green capitalism." Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. In general, business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria:

  1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.
  2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replaces demand for nongreen products and/or services.
  3. It is greener than traditional competition.
  4. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental education</span> Branch of pedagogy

Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, ecology, earth science, atmospheric science, mathematics, and geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eco-Schools</span>

Eco-Schools is an international programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that aims to “empower students to be the change our sustainable world needs by engaging them in fun, action-orientated, and socially responsible learning.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable city</span> City designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact

The sustainable city, eco-city, or green city is a city designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact, and resilient habitat for existing populations, without compromising the ability of future generations to experience the same. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 defines sustainable cities as those that are dedicated to achieving green sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. They are committed to doing so by enabling opportunities for all through a design focused on inclusivity as well as maintaining a sustainable economic growth. The focus also includes minimizing required inputs of energy, water, and food, and drastically reducing waste, output of heat, air pollution – CO2, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register, a visual artist, first coined the term ecocity in his 1987 book Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future, where he offers innovative city planning solutions that would work anywhere. Other leading figures who envisioned sustainable cities are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, as well as authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities.

Green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. It incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, sustainable packaging, as well as modifying advertising. Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are environmental marketing and ecological marketing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable Forestry Initiative</span> North American forest certification standard

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a sustainability organization operating in the U.S. and Canada that works across four pillars: standards, conservation, community, and education. The SFI was founded in 1994 by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA). SFI is the world's largest single forest certification standard by area. SFI is headquartered in Ottawa and Washington, D.C.

This article includes information about environmental groups and resourcesthat serve K–12 schools in the United States and internationally. The entries in this article are for broad-scope organizations that serve at least one state or similar regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Booboo Stewart</span> American actor

Nils Allen "Booboo" Stewart Jr. is an American actor. He is known for playing Seth Clearwater in The Twilight Saga, Warpath in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jay in the Disney television film franchise Descendants, Luca in Good Trouble, and Willie in Julie and the Phantoms.

The Green Council (GC) is a non-profit, non-partisan environmental association of Hong Kong formed by a group of individuals from different sectors of industry and academics who share a vision to turn Hong Kong into a green city for the betterment of the future.

Green Action Centre (GAC) (formally known as the Recycling Council of Manitoba and the Resource Conservation Manitoba) is an environmental non-profit organization based in Manitoba, Canada. It includes promoting greener living through environmental education for households, workplaces, schools, and communities. It also develops and advocates environmental policies for the Manitoba communities. Its primary areas of activity include; green commuting, composting and waste, sustainable living, and resource conservation.

A sustainability organization is (1) an organized group of people that aims to advance sustainability and/or (2) those actions of organizing something sustainably. Unlike many business organizations, sustainability organizations are not limited to implementing sustainability strategies which provide them with economic and cultural benefits attained through environmental responsibility. For sustainability organizations, sustainability can also be an end in itself without further justifications.

A green guide is a set of rules and guidelines provided for the use of a general or selective population to achieve the goal of becoming more green or sustainable. The guide serves to direct individuals, agencies, companies, businesses, etc. to resources that can help them become more sustainable, as sustainability becomes a more popular and growing lifestyle choice. Guides are available in many ways, but the most popular being through websites to avoid using paper. There has also been a surge of guides in university websites to encourage students towards a more sustainable way of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Zigen Fund</span> American non-profit

The Zigen Fund promotes human-centered sustainable development. It is a U.S. registered 501(C)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization founded by Pat Yang in 1988. A sister organization, China Zigen Rural Education and Development Association, is among the first fully registered nonprofit organization in China in 1995. The two organizations cooperate to support grassroots efforts of the impoverished people for life improvement and sustainable local development. Other Zigen sister organizations, in Taiwan (1990), Hong Kong are also locally registered as non-profit organizations. The network of Zigen organizations conduct fundraising and outreach activities locally, and collaborate on program support in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change education</span> Education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change

Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Climate change and climate change education are global challenges that can be anchored in the curriculum in order to provide local learning and widen up mindset shits on how climate change can be mitigated. In such as case CCE is more than climate change literacy but understanding ways of dealing with climate

Eco Femme is a women-led social enterprise in Tamil Nadu, India, that produces organic washable cloth pads. Eco Femme was founded in 2009 in Auroville by Kathy Walkling and Jessamijn Miedema who started by producing, applying and selling these washable menstrual pads in Auroville. The aim was to produce pads that are both affordable and free of plastic. They were also interested in designing a sustainable alternative to disposable pads for the women of India as well as setting up self sustaining initiatives in cloth pad production for women from the neighbouring villages. All commercially sold pads are organically certified under GOTS and Eco Femme is the first in this space to have achieved this certification. The cloth pads are mostly made out of organic cotton and can last up to 75 washes or for three to five years from the time of purchasing. These pads are sold in more than 20 countries across the world. By 2022, Eco Femme has distributed over 1 million cloth pads which consequently saved more than 75 million single use disposable pads from reaching landfills.

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