Little Big Steps - simple ways of greening your life

You do have the power to change the world.  Maybe not all at once, but little by little you can make this a better place.  It turns out the little choices add up.

Naked Binder encourages you to do one thing a day to help lower your impact on the planet. One thing. It is crazy to think that everyone can change to super green overnight, but we can all start down the path.

A couple of ideas for today:

Bring your coffee cup to work or the coffee shop

Use the last few pages on that pad of paper instead of recycling it now.

Go to lunch with a co-worker instead of all driving separately.

Use a water filter instead of plastic bottles.

Today, recycle everything.

What will this do??

Using less is a huge win win situation.  Lets say you save 2 gallons a week in gasoline.  That isn't huge.  Now lets say, 150 million people do that. That is 300 million gallons of gas a week, 15.6 billion gallons a year. Consider the impact on the environment of not extracting, transporting, processing, transporting and then using 15 billion gallons of gas. Hmmm....

Every item you use takes energy to get the raw materials, create, transport and dispose of.  By eliminating just a few things that you can do with out you can see what the potential impacts might be!

So who are you?

Us?  Naked Binder believes the products you use should be better designed to last, inspire and do better in the world and the workplace. We make recycled 100% post consumer waste 3-ring binders, folders and tab sets that last longer, look better and have a much smaller impact on the planet. 

We are a part of 1% for the Planet, donating a part of our sales to saving and creating wilderness and open spaces.

No longer do your proposals, storage and architectural records need to be toxic and ugly.  Naked Binder is offering an elegant and eco friendly 11x17 3-ring binder - the Architect Binder.

These tabloid binders are crafted from 100% post consumer waste binders board and come with an option of having a 100% cotton book cloth spine wrap.

These 11x17 binders are 100% recyclable on top of being many time stronger than the vinyl binder you are using now. We have tested the hinge of these binders to 250,000 flexes without failing. If you used it 20 times a day for 34 years you would still have a working binder.

For Architects working in and designing LEED certified buildings, these binders can help meet your ongoing LEED credits.

For Sustainable Purchasing Policy for ongoing consumables the guidelines are

• Purchases contain at least 10% post consumer and/or 20% postindustrial material.
• Purchases contain at least 50% rapidly renewable materials.
• Purchases contain at least 50% materials harvested and processed or extracted and processed within 500 miles of the project. (map)
• Purchases consist of at least 50% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)–certified paper products.

Your Solid waste management policy has to cover ongoing consumables. The guidelines that pertain to Naked Binder are:

• Reuse, recycle or compost 50% of the ongoing consumables waste stream (by weight or volume).

These sustainable 11x17 binders offer an amazing alternative to the toxic and ugly vinyl binders you are probably using now. Recyclable, recycled and strong, these tabloid size binders can help you meet your goals for sustainability as well as high design for your proposals and office.

We all get cought up in the minutia of our lives - lists, deadlines, rushing, stressing. Remembering that these things are NOT our lives is the hard part.  Developing the skills to see these for what they are is important for mental and physical health.

Naked Binder has been getting caught up in the stress, the crazieness and the worry also.  Yesterday, was an eye opener when we all realized that we were fueling the same unhealthy and not very productive stress.

So here is our advice to you.  Deep Breath. Go outside.  It doesn't matter if it is raining, or sunny (it may matter if there is a tornado warning).  Once your brain has slowed down a bit, then you can take a moment to go over those lists for what is really important and find smarter ways of doing the things you need to do.

While not everything can be solved by calming down and rethinking what we are doing and how, it allows you to be smarter about what needs to be done and when. 

Remember why you do the things you are doing.

And take a deep breath.

It’s official.

Naked Binder will be included in the Center for Health, Environment and Justice’s  “Back-to-School Guide to PVC Free School Supplies” which is scheduled for release the end of July.

What did they like about us? What's not to like?

Our Eco Friendly Naked Binder uses 97-100% post consumer waste, 100% recycled and recyclable board that is PVC free.  Most of our products are FSC certified. (See our materials here)

On top of that we have been tested free of Phthalates. Phthalates are the esters of phthalic acid and are mainly used as plasticizers (substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity). They are used primarily to soften polyvinyl chloride. Phthalates are being phased out of many products in the United States, Canada, and European Union over health concerns.

Check out CHEG’s PVC Campaign and look for our name in the upcoming  Back-to-School Guide!

What is the best way to customize your recycled 3-ring binder? 

Whether you are customizing binders for proposals, in office use, or for home and scrapbooking you want your binder to be unique, beautiful, professional and memorable while not destroying it's recyclablility.

We will keep adding to this page as new ideas (and photos) come into our hands.  Eventually, we hope to have a vast resource to help spur your creativity and push your custom binders to greater heights.

Customizing binders

Labels

The simplest way to add high quality graphics and printing to your 3-ring binder is using a label.  You can customize one binder or  500 quickly and cheaply.  The only limits are your imagination.These can print on either ink jet of laser printers.

Naked Binder offers an assortment of print-to-edge labels to make your life easier, but almost any label will work.  Wrap them onto the inside of a binder for extra messages when the binder is open.

Screen Printing

If you have access to equipment (or someone who does), Screening is a great way to cusomize a binder. All of our eco friendly binders can be screened on and have been by everyone from Haworth Furniture to UrbanPosture.

Transfers

This trick has been used in photography for years and I have used in in various projects in the past to get accurate images to work with on unprintable surfaces.  First, print the image/text you want on your binder on an ink jet printer with the image reversed (this is important).  Place the image face down on the binder where you want it. Take a damp sponge and wet the back of the paper evenly and rub over image a bit.  Remove paper.

To finish off my binder, I took a pen knife and scraped the text a little to rough it up.  The texture is kind of cool, though may be impracticable if you are using this for a long term and much used project. Think Gordon Matta-Clark.

 Hunting for sustainable office supplies is a confusing at best and deceptive at worst.  There are a few guidelines that can help you sort through the noise and find what you need.

Ideally, a sustainable product is economical, works well for longer than the alternatives, is sourced in a reasonable manner and is easily recycled.

Recycled content means that some percentage of the material used to make a product has been diverted from going to the waste stream to make your product. This is good.  Post consumer waste is waste that had been used for it's intended purpose and then made into something else. Even better.  

What is recyclable is another matter.  The makers of vinyl claim that their product is recyclable.  In theory this is true.  The problem is that there is no infrastructure in the US to recycle vinyl so it all gets routed to landfill.  About 4 billion pounds a year of it. Highest estimates on how much vinyl gets recycled are around 2% - and that is all industrial waste - probably directly off the line and back in a vat.  You may need to check with your waste collection group to find out if they have facilities for compostable plastics, or bio-degradable plastics.  If not, they are just trash.

How easily recycled a product is also counts.  Are you willing to take the time and energy to do what it takes? Does the manufacturer tell you how, or do you have to figure it out?

Where it was made matters.  Even if your product is made from recycled materials, shipping it half way around the world is not helping the sustainability factor.  It takes a lot of energy to transport a product 3-5000 miles.  Try to source locally when possible.

We are putting together a guide for sustainable and recycled office and school supplies.  It will at least help start your research and find possibilities.

We received a question:  Can you grow seeds on a Naked Binder? 

We decided to test this theory.  Off we went to get Chia pet seeds.  They grow on a head of Homer Simpson, so why not on a Naked Binder? 100% post consmer waste, recycled and recyclable 3-ring binders should be the perfect platform for in house gardening.

We took a binder and planted the words Naked Binder on it.  We thought it looked great.

We watered it.  And watered it.  My 3 year old watered it (we lost some seeds there). Since it kept drying out (as opposed to a chia pet which retains water) we thought that putting it in the garden would help.

Turns out, that if you get a few inches of water in a short period of time, it washes your binder clean.  Oops.

On the other hand, we are learning about the compostability of our binders now, since that is where that one went.  Two weeks of rain had not made it the happiest shape (being drapped over some rocks did not help).

We will try again so stay tuned.  These eco friendly binders will become little gardens  - maybe.

Architects the world over have been asking about our 11 x 17 tabloid format Architect Binders.  Combining 100% post consumer waste board with elegantly minimal form, these binders are both a workhorse that will last but the perfect offering for proposals or as a coffee table book.

Available with a black or red spine wrap or bare board natural.

1" or 1.5" D-rings hold 220 or 350 sheets of paper.

Whether you are working on a LEED certified building proposal, or green projects for the government, the architect binder can help you.

Using 100% post consumer waste board it has the highest PCW possible and much more than other binders on the market.

The Naked Binders have been tested to 250,000 flexes with out fail.  The is the strongest binder on the planet.

Our 11 17 3-ring binders have slight debosses that run the length of the binder offering an attractive visual and extra strength on the large panels.

In the mindset of  #followfriday on twitter where people shout out about people they think are great, we at Naked Binder would like to give a shout to groups we think are doing amazing work for you and the environment.

Leave No Trace - For everyone who has carried 20 pounds of other peoples trash out of the mountains and especially for those new to the back country, Leave No Trace has a clear and beautiful message. An educational and community reasource they teach  how to Plan Ahead and Prepare, Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces,  Dispose of Waste Properly , Leave What You Find, Minimize Campfire Impacts, Respect Wildlife, Be Considerate of Other Visitors. 

Your mother if she was John Muir.  If you are new to the back country or just want to know a whole lot more - check them out.

Rainforest Action Network - Rainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action. Protecting forests, tracking corporate responsibility addressing global warming and more RAN is super active.  Your rainforests are not forever unless you do something about them.

Surfrider Foundation - Not just for surfers, Surfrider Foundation protects our beach access, clean water, protects special areas and works on beach preservation.  Every tried to find access to the beaches in certain areas of California? Oddly impossible and yet the beaches are not private property.  They are in parts of New England. Surfrider advocates for free, low impact access to beaches and waves for everyone.

Follow them, support them, celebrate them.  These people are working so you can get out and do the things you love easily and in beautiful places.

Much love,

The Naked Binder Team.

The 3-ring binder you are probably using now is slightly embarrassing (or should be).  It is a lot like the binder you used when you were 8  and nothing else existed. Gladly that state of affairs is over and you can hold your head high again.

Your Have Choices.

These days a binder is a bit more of an accesory. Dress like you want to be seen.  A very cool eco friendly, recycled 3-ring binder with a great color over a round spine makes a very different statement than does an ripped and toxic vinyl binder.  You are an adult.  You think about what you do/use.  You have some style. You would rather not add to the pollution and landfill.

You Are Cheap.

An eco friendly Naked Binder will last and last.  An independent laboratory tested them to 250,000 flexes without failing. That is 34 years of 20 uses a day.

We also ran them through dishwashers.  Still working.  Currently, a bunch of Naked Binders are riding firetrucks in New York state.  We'll see what they do to them.  We saw what happened to their vinyl binders...ouch.  We have a dairy in Wisconsin testing a batch also.

What this means for you is that you will buy less binders.  A lot less binders. Which saves you money. Lots of money.

You Want to Live a Long Time.

Vinyl is toxic to make, use and dispose of.  We use no vinyl, plastics or laminates and as a result our 3-ring binders are 100% recycled board, and 100% recyclable.  Also, non-toxic.  Win, win, win.

So look around at what you have in your office, home or hand.  You can do better on so many levels and now is the time.  click here:  Naked Binder

Over the years, we have tested Naked Binders for strength (250,000 flexes and still going), Phthalates (none), water resistance (run through a full dishwasher cycle with soap - still works fine).

Given the toxicity of vinyl, we wondered what would happen if you take an recycled, eco friendly 3-ring binder and make it a mini-garden. Is 100% post consumer waste board conducive living things?  So we are going to find out.

We figured chia pets grow easily and well so we got seeds for those.  We wet the binder in a Naked Binder text and added seeds. While some scattering is inevitable, we expect more than usual as our helper in misting the seeds is 3 years old.  Over the next few weeks, we hope to show a fine growing garden of a green binder.

OK that is overstated.  Switching to a recycled and recyclable 3-ring binder won't save the earth, but it will take a lot of pressure off of it.

Vinyl is an petroleum based product that is very energy intensive to create.  It is also toxic to create, use and dispose of.  That vinyl binder on your shelf is actually emitting PCV - known carcinogen- through it's entire shelf life. The by products of making it are also toxic.  On top of this, only about 2-3% of the 8 billion pounds of vinyl manufactured every year is recycled.  The rest of it goes in to your landfills where it continues to leach toxins. Keep in mind that there are about 8,500 landfill fires every year also.  Now that is a toxic cloud.

Naked Binder makes a 3-ring binder from 100% post consumer waste paper board and a stainless steel ring. It is 100% recyclable.  No logging is needed, no new roads into the wilderness, no trucking of logs, no milling and pulping of wood. Instead, curbside waste is picked up and pulped in a much more energy and water efficient way than virgin wood could ever be processed.

Sustainably made, with recycled, non-toxic materials is a good start to stopping the madness. But we went farther.

Our Naked Binder will out last any of our competitors.  We have had our binders tested to 250,000 flexes - that is 20 uses a day for 34 years - and they did not fail.  There is a reason we call them the Strongest 3-Ring Binder in the World. Anyone who has used a vinyl binder knows that is not going to be true of vinyl.  This allows you to use fewer binders thereby stretching our recycled paper resources even further.

Being 100% recyclable means not using landfills at all. Reuse is a much better use of materials than burying it in a hole in the ground for eternity.

Naked Binder, a better way to go for you and the planet.

Naked Binder will be showcaseing our eco friendly recycled 3-ring binders, pocket folders and tab dividers at the HOW conference this year!  If you are in Design work, you know about this and are probably itching to go if only because it is in Denver and who doesn't want to go to Denver?  Oh those mountains are sooooo close....

The HOW conference is all about expanding your professional knowledge so you can better merge the art and the business of design.  Lets face it, those two parts of the brain can be worlds apart. How has a list of reasons to convince your boss to let you go:

Whether you need a creative boost, tools for working more effectively or specific instruction on design software, you'll find what you need at the HOW Conference. But if you need to convince your boss, manager (or yourself) that HOW is a valuable investment, here are a few compelling arguments:
• you can completely customize your program to target timely, relevant information geared directly to you and your type of work
• you’ll learn new processes, techniques, tips and tricks to help you be more productive and creatively prolific

While you are there, check out booth 507.  We make the best and most eco friendly 3-ring binders and recycled pocket folders on the planet: 97-100% post consumer waste, super strong, 100% recyclable and really good looking. This is no joke.  We redesigned the binder so it works better for you and the planet and is something you can be proud of.