Peddler's Wagon - Our Green Practices

Green Business Practices

OUR SHIPPING PRACTICES

Our materials used for packaging—boxes, peanuts, bubble wrap and newsprint material—are reclaimed post-consumer material and salvaged from shipments, other companies and individuals. The paper used for inserts, invoices, brochures, etc., is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper as often as possible.

OUR GIFT CERTIFICATES

Our paper gift certificates are printed on and shipped in tree-free or 100% post-consumer recycled paper. It's so natural, it can even be composted! But even the most eco-friendly papers use resources, so we also offer downloadable and e-mail gift certificates!

ZERO WASTE

Peddler's Wagon is a successful “Zero Waste” company, where any perceived materials that might be regarded as waste are either recycled, re-used, composted, reclaimed, or brought back into the production cycle.

Everything is collected and sorted for proper reclamation including: the backs of labels, plastic bags, scrap metal from barrels, poly-woven bags, herbal refuse material, buckets, oil, and much more!

Because of our unwavering commitment to absolute environmental stewardship, we have enthusiastically embraced what is known as the zero waste paradigm. This ideology strives to eliminate all waste by re-thinking and re-designing the current business model to create a more dynamic approach to resource recovery, product design, and recycling.

It is our hope to emulate and follow the cycle of the natural world, which produces no waste, and utilizes all outputs as needed and vital inputs to continue the cycle of life. Zero waste produces a mutual interdependence that every living thing can benefit from. We have integrated the ideology of zero waste to reduce, reuse, and recycle in every area of our business. By re-injecting perceived waste back into our business model, we not only help sustain the fragile bond between man and the natural world, but have also helped in the creation of jobs and the saving of money.

COMPANY VEHICLES

Our commercial fleet consists of approximately 10 bicycles, one Xtracycle, one Burley bike trailer, and a single vehicle that runs on homebrewed biodiesel made from used vegetable grease.

ENERGY USAGE

Peddler's Wagon operates on 100% renewable energy. Our solar panels supply our electricity used in the office, which is sometimes supplemented by municipality provided green wind power. Wind and other renewable power sources run our website server. But, although we use only "green energy," we have instituted an aggressive energy reduction program with strict practices.

In our office, lights are used minimally—natural lighting in the day, no artifical light at night. If we are doing something that requires the use of electrical lights, all of our lamps are either fitted with LED lightbulbs or CFLs that consume little electricity. Batteries for cameras or other necessary electronics are rechargeable.

All electronics (with the exception of our low energy network/router, phones, and energy star certified printer/fax machine) are switched off when not in use or at night and phantom loads killed by the use of power strips. If we have to step away from a computer briefly, our computers are programmed to switch into low-energy use hibernation mode.

Other practices implemented in regards to office electronics are upgrades to LED flat screen monitors instead of traditional CRT monitors, which use about 65% more energy and generate nearly five times as much heat. All computer purchases are to EPEAT certified models which have been Gold Star rated for their environmental attributes, including energy conservation, the amount and type of packaging used to ship and house the computer, and the refusal to use harmful materials in the construction of the computers. The construction of these computers were offset through the carbon fund program.

We use no other "extraneous" office electronics—that is, automatic stapler, pencil sharpeners, paper cutters, etc. We have no air conditioning and, during extreme cold snaps, generate heat with an EPA certified clean-burning wood stove fueled with scrap wood and logs from non-native trees obtained from local tree-trimmers.