Re: sustainable swag

Caroline,

Many thanks for this.

> ISO 9001 and its various
> sibling standards are listed
> for sale here:
> http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnum
> ber=21823
> If you scroll past the list
> of parts for sale, you will
> see a short overview of the
> standards.
>
> They cost a fortune

This is one of my pet peeves: government regulations that we're all 
supposed to conform to (in some cases, *have* to conform to) that are 
neither easily accessible nor FREE of charge for all those to whom 
they apply.

I'm thinking here of local building codes in the States (which we do 
*have* to comply with in order to pass the various stages of 
government inspection on all construction and home remodeling 
projects). In this case especially, you need a copy of the code 
on-site, and not buried away in the non-lending "Reference" section of 
your local university library.

In the old, pre-Internet days local governments in the U.S. had at 
least some sort of an excuse because of the cost of printing up the 
standards (and not on recycled paper, either! ;-), but mostly the 
paperwork was costly and copies hard to locate because it was in the 
interests of those profiting from "helping" you comply that this was so.

These days (of supposedly "accountable" and "transparent" government), 
there is absolutely NO excuse for this!


> I try to avoid responding
> to tenders as much as
> possible.

Amen to that! ;-)

This particular project is my own brainstorm, so I don't have to 
conform to any standard I don't want to, and I obviously won't be 
using costly policy guidelines as a model, either.

I'm more concerned with making real, but gradual, changes where I can, 
and am willing to experiment so as to learn what "green" solutions 
work and what don't for the sorts of things I want to do. Above all, I 
don't want one-size-fits-all regulations, but options & choices so I 
can make my own situational trade-offs.

E.g., if someone can recommend a recycled paper stock that we can use 
for fine art prints & posters, great.

If not, we'll do the best we can with what's available, so as not to 
compromise the integrity of the reproduction ... explain to everyone 
why we made the choices we made ... and keep on looking for "greener" 
approaches & solutions. (E.g., I'm certain that there are plenty of 
trade-offs to be made during the design stages of a poster that would 
make a big difference in the environmental costs of production, and if 
anyone knows what these might be, please do share with us.)

Granted, this kind of piece-meal approach to what is a huge and 
pressing problem is not ideal, but it's the best I can do.

(As they say, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.")


And ditto for dogs.

As a life-long human partner of dogs, I'm not switching to "pet" 
hamsters or goldfish, either.

And certainly not turning to my neighbors for the sort of 
companionship I enjoy with my dogs. Yikes! what a thought!

(Yes, I finally managed to access the amazon UK link for _Time to Eat 
the Dog?_....)


OK, end of rant.

Thanks again to Caroline.

You saved me a lot of wasted time researching this, which I very much 
appreciate! <bg>

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]

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