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ECOLOGICAL
By Nicole Sweeney Etter Photography by Kat Berger
Just glance at magazine covers, television ads and the aisles of your local grocery store, and it's obvious: eco-friendly products and initiatives are hot as a compost heap at peak activity.
The solution to greener cleaning
As a formulation chemist, Matt Pliszka, Arts ’87, made sure his cleaning products worked. But when he moved to chemical sales, he started to wonder if they were working too well. He watched third-shift workers in sweltering, vapor-filled factories eschew gloves even though the cleaners scarred their skin. “The chemistry was very harsh. It was overkill,” he says. “I thought, ‘What if we made the chemistry so that it would work the same but not hurt people who use it?’”
It wasn’t easy. “I had to throw out everything I learned as a formulation chemist,” he says. Rather than a cleaner that chewed through dirt (and everything else), he needed something that would get under the dirt, like a spatula.
Pliszka started experimenting in his kitchen, and in 1993 he launched Environmentally Sensitive Solutions, a line of neutral-pH cleaners for the manufacturing industry. In addition to being kinder to the workers, the improved products reduce waste water and hazardous air emissions. Soon Pliszka’s products were serving clients such as Harley-Davidson and Kohler Co., and today they are shipped to metal parts manufacturers as far away as Japan.
In 2004, his company won the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Environmental Performance for eliminating 85 million pounds of hazardous materials over five years. Then he and his wife had twins, and Pliszka took a closer look at what was beneath his own kitchen sink. Troubled by the realization that those common household cleaners were more toxic than his own industrial products, he went back to the bench and created NEU, a line of upscale, pH-neutral home cleaners.
But Pliszka wanted to match — or even beat — the price of traditional cleaners. So he simplified the packaging, dropped the fancy scents and unveiled a new line called “Simply Safe.” A 32-ounce bottle of all-purpose cleaner retails for less than $3. “We set out to be the first affordable green cleaning brand,” he says.
Simply Safe uses organic, biodegradable ingredients instead of hazardous ones like bleach, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid and formaldehyde. That makes it safer to use around children and pets and reduces indoor air pollution and hazardous waste water. Simply Safe is sold in some local grocery stores and will be distributed nationally later this year.
“My dream, as corny as it sounds, is that one day all cleaners will be green,” Pliszka says.
“Change your shirt, change your world.”
That’s the ambitious claim of Teecycle, an online retail venture created by Tim Cigelske and his wife, Jessica Zakszewski Cigelske, both Comm ’04. At www.teecycle.org, shoppers can peruse the Cigelskes’ latest finds from rummage sales and thrift stores. Shirts go for $7 plus $3 in shipping, and $1 of each sale goes to Milwaukee’s River Revitalization Foundation. Teecycle is just a side project now, but it allows the couple to share their environmental philosophy with a wider audience.
“It takes shirts that would go in a landfill and puts them in other people’s hands,” Jessica says. The concept appeals to shoppers who like quirky conversation pieces but don’t want to spend hours scavenging sales racks themselves. So far, Teecycle has received orders from as far away as London.
Tim has always scoured thrift stores for unique and funky items. “I’ve always liked used, recycled, old things with a story rather than something on a shelf that’s next to 30 of the exact same thing,” he says. “I like the fact that it’s one of a kind.”
As a lifelong recycler, Tim is a little conflicted about a marketplace that is suddenly flooded with claims of “green” this and “organic” that. “A critique of the whole green movement lately is it’s just producing more stuff to sell, and that’s not really helping anyone,” Tim says. “It’s definitely a double-edged sword. I’m really glad that people are becoming aware, but it’s almost becoming a fad. Just because something is labeled as green doesn’t necessarily mean it’s beneficial to you and the environment.”
So what makes the cut for Teecycle? Anything that’s out of the norm or that makes the couple laugh. “Why would someone not wear something like this?” Tim says with obvious glee, holding up a T-shirt that reads Nintendo Rehabilitation Clinic. “Why should that languish in a basement or in a drawer just because someone got sick of it?”
Hammering home green
Green was the word when Steve Servais and his wife, Ellen, Grad ’03, built their home in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. A small footprint; passive solar design; bio-based, spray foam insulation; a pellet stove; steel roof; rain barrels and a rain garden.
Now Servais, a Marquette doctoral student in environmental history, shares his grasp of green as a principal of Pragmatic Construction.
“Building is something that’s often neglected when we talk about being green,” Servais says. “But more than one third of greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings.”
Pragmatic Construction reflects this down-to-earth philosophy about green living. Once out of reach for the average consumer, “green” building techniques now cost about $130 per square foot, compared with $110 to $150 for conventional building.
Steve, who served two stints in the Peace Corps, previously worked in construction and loved rehabbing houses. He always dreamed of owning a green construction firm, and, in 2006, he and partners decided the time was right. “It really went with my environmental and activist ethos,” he says. “We actually do want to revolutionize the building industry.”
The company got off to a fast start. It has already scooped up numerous industry awards and has more business than it can handle.
“We didn’t anticipate this much demand or work this early on. It’s a nice challenge to have, but it’s one we’re still grappling with,” Servais says. “We have four employees right now and could hire eight more tomorrow and have work for them. But at the same time, we want to control that growth and make sure that our quality is maintained.”
The firm tries to focus on urban infill on vacant city lots. “Urban infill is one of the most green things you can do,” Servais says. “Having walkable communities, access to public transportation, building small, goes a long way.”
Servais and his partners also offer consulting services and “deconstruction,” which involves taking down buildings by hand so that the materials can be reclaimed and donated to a nonprofit. Although it costs more than simple demolition, customers can write off the donation on their taxes.
“What I’m proud of is taking subcontractors, clients and architects and moving them in the direction of green,” Servais says. “Giving them that kind of epiphany that a lot of things are achievable, they’re important, and a lot of times they’re easy. All you have to do is have that first aha moment.”
Let there be light
Chuck Swoboda, Eng ’89, wants to make traditional light bulbs obsolete. Swoboda is CEO of Cree, a semiconductor manufacturer in Durham, N.C., that has spent years perfecting LED (light-emitting diode) technology. Today its light fixtures have the power to change the way people light homes and businesses. A little more than a year ago, Cree started the LED City initiative to recognize municipalities that were experimenting with LEDs in parking garages and other public places. “We knew the LED was more efficient than a light bulb, but nobody else did,” he says. Word started to spread: Raleigh, N.C., became the first LED City, and as others joined, the initiative garnered coverage in The New York Times and BusinessWeek.
“We really weren’t thinking about lighting per se, but along the way the technology got better and better,” says Swoboda, who is also a Marquette trustee. “We’ve built a better light bulb, literally.”
Traditional light bulbs are woefully inefficient: 95 percent of their energy is lost as heat. “It was a great idea in 1879,” Swoboda says.
An LED downlight uses 11 watts, compared with 25-30 watts in a compact fluorescent bulb and 75 watts in a traditional bulb.
Although an LED downlight costs significantly more — it retails for about $100 — it lasts 20 years and, unlike compact fluorescent lights, doesn’t contain mercury. “So you not only save energy every day, but you save landfill space,” he says.
Cree estimates that widespread LED deployment by 2025 would save $115 billion in electricity and eliminate 258 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.
“Now you’re talking about not just a tremendous business impact, but also an environmental impact,” Swoboda says. “Lots of people talk about wanting to do something that’s green, but by trying to save energy we found a way.”
More recently Cree launched the LED University initiative, and Marquette was one of the first universities to pilot the program. Marquette started with LEDs in the Office of Administration and is considering using them in pedestrian walkways and future building projects.
Says Swoboda, “We want to say we actually helped fundamentally alter the energy equation not just in the United States but around the world.”
Marquette is also committed to being a good steward of the environment. Learn more about how we’re living green.
Healthy home tips
Not sleeping well? Your carpet, walls or furniture might be to blame. That’s the theory of DeAnna Radaj, Bus Ad ‘86, an interior designer who specializes in healthy, eco-friendly design. “If you can make the healthy, socially responsible choice, why wouldn’t you?” says Radaj, who owns Bante Design, an integrative lifestyle company. “Choices in paint, carpeting and household cleaners can affect your sleep patterns, aggravate upper respiratory issues and cause headaches for all occupants of your space, including kids, adults, the elderly and pets.”Radaj grow up in a family passionate about conservancy, and after graduating from Marquette, she worked with the World Wildlife Fund and Rainforest Alliance as director of operations for a chain of nature and science stores. When she decided to go into interior design, she knew she wanted to incorporate a healthy, environmental philosophy.
Radaj offers these tips for alums:
• Become aware of what you're bringing into your home. Look at the label: Do you know what all the ingredients mean and what they do? Educate yourself and buy accordingly.
• Consider your flooring. Did you know that new carpet releases gasses into the air for up to five years or that wool carpeting is self-extinguishing in a fire? Consider natural flooring options such as paper fiber, sisal and agave plant. If you must have wall-to-wall carpeting, buy wool or another natural fiber with a rubber pad, which will extend the carpet's life.
• Don't buy things just “to fill up empty space.” Ask yourself: Do I love it? Will I use it? Do I need it? If you can’t answer “yes,” it needs to go. Remember the motto: reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose.
• Incorporate nature. This doesn’t mean you have to make your home a jungle, but try using greens in the color scheme, natural textures (brick, stone, clay or tile) or pictures of natural settings, landscapes or animals. You can also bring outdoor furniture and lighting inside to create a different ambience.
• Use plants to help detoxify air. You should have one live plant for every 100 square feet of living space. Plants that are fairly easy to keep are spider plants (especially by computers/copiers/fax machines), philodendrons and English ivy. Stay away from plastic and dried plants.
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