I’ve seen a lot of commercials lately for products that are being touted as environmentally-friendly that don’t really hit the mark (example: “Ford F-150, the most fuel-efficient truck in its class”).  I roll my eyes and hope that the American public doesn’t fall for the fake sell. With gas prices in flux, I doubt they will.

While misleading advertising can make a skeptic out of me, I have also heard recently of some corporate and grass roots-led campaigns that are making simple adjustments which produce a positive environmental impact.  Case in point: Recent drought concerns and food price hikes have spurred two giant food services companies, Sodexo and Aramark, to pull food trays from hundreds of college campus dining halls around the nation.  Trays, you ask?  Indeed.  Early studies at U.S. college campuses have reported that, without trays, students throw away up to 50% less food waste due to the inconvenience of having to make multiple trips for extras¹.  In addition, an immense amount of water is saved from taking tray-washing out of the equation– 470,000 gallons per year, in the case of the University of Florida².

Another campaign called “Change the Margins” was started by one woman with a simple idea.  The organization is pushing for one three-pronged goal: convince Microsoft, five prominent corporations and five large universities to set or sanction smaller margins (.75″) as the default for word processing documents.  This change would result in a 4.75% decrease in paper consumption when replacing the current 1.25″ default margins³.  Brilliant.

Do you have any “small change, big difference” news to share?

1. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-07-22-trays-college-cafeterias_N.htm [↩]
2. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26390055/ [↩]
3. http://changethemargins.com/ [↩]