Recently in Being Green Category
blog4/22: Make Earth Day Every Day
- tip of the day
- Make Earth Day Every Day
- got a minute?
- Check the water safety at your favorite beach. An annual report released by NRDC, Testing the Waters, rates the 200 most popular U.S. beaches. The most recent installment concludes that beach water quality is not improving. Not only does every coastal state suffer from polluted and contaminated beaches, but those problems resulted in more than 20,000 closing and swimming advisory days in 2008 alone. Unlucky beachgoers can suffer infections, rashes, stomach flu, hepatitis and worse. Before heading off to the beach, check out the Testing the Waters interactive map to see how safe your favorite beach is.
- got a morning?
- Keep fish safe from nurdles. Recycle plastic bags. You can help to reduce the bioaccumulation of toxins in fish by keeping plastics out of the ocean. Make it a point to bring your own bags every time you shop. Recycle plastic bags responsibly. Check earth911.org for nearby drop-off spots. And urge your city council members to ban the local use of plastic grocery bags--as San Francisco, a top-ranking Smarter City, has done.
- got a month?
- Get involved in your town's environmental planning. Attending city council meetings is a good start. Your first step should be to determine if your city has a comprehensive environmental policy that is embedded throughout city departments, as it is in Madison, Wisconsin. You can see an example of such a policy here. Should you find that your city doesn't, contact officials with a draft text, and write to your local newspaper urging that one be implemented. If you have the time, identify stakeholders in your community who might be enlisted for support, particularly if they would feel impacts from such a policy. The more community members you can ally with, the more likely your ideas will be acted upon.
- more info
- For more tips on making Earth Day everyday, visit http://www.simplesteps.org/.
blog4/25: Suze Orman - Ease Pain
- tip of the day
- Ease your pain at the pump
- got a minute?
- Check your tires' inflation pressure every month, filling the tires properly can improve gas mileage and reduce pollution.
- got a morning?
- Try out carpooling or public transportation to get to work one day out of the week. Besides saving money, you may find that you enjoy reading the newspaper and not having to sit in traffic.
- got a month?
- Examine your driving habits and make a concerted effort to become a smooth driver. Limit speeding, unnecessary idling and aggressive acceleration and your gas tank will last a lot longer.
- more info
- For more tips on saving money on gas, visit http://www.simplesteps.org/.
blog4/24: Arbor Day
- tip of the day
- Be like the Lorax and speak for the trees
- Got a minute?
- Stop the waste. Support an opt-out for paper phone books. Did you know that up to 5 million trees are cut down each year to create the white pages phone book, and that taxpayers are spending $17 million a year to have these books recycled? Online directories, social networks and mobile phone applications now provide many alternative ways to get the contact information you need. So if you don't want the printed version of the phone book, you shouldn't have to get it.
That's why banthephonebook.org is urging you to sign a petition requesting an opt-out delivery program for the white pages phone book. Once you've signed the petition, which takes only seconds, share the link with your friends. Just think of all the resources (trees, energy and money) our communities will save by not having to print, deliver and recycle the millions of volumes of white pages produced each year.
Ready for another way to save the forest and reduce paper waste? Find out here how to reduce the junk mail that's clogging your mailbox.
- Got a morning?
- Save the CO2-absorbing forests. Stop junk mail. The average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year, according to 41pounds.org, a Web service that will stop unwanted catalogs and junk mail from being sent to you. Assuming that one tree makes about 170 pounds of paper, and that recycled content makes up only a small portion of the mail, 50 million or so trees are felled to keep Americans buried by mountains of unwanted mail. A single tree absorbs about a ton of CO2 over its lifetime, which means that roughly 50 million tons of the heat-trapping pollutant is being released annually into the atmosphere to make America's junk mail, almost half of which gets dumped unopened.
Take a morning, or even part of a morning, to just say no: no to junk mail, no to wasting trees, no to global warming. The aforementioned 41pounds.org and a number of other Web services can help you reduce your mail by getting your name removed from mailing lists you don't want to be on. Even the Direct Mail Association recognizes that there is a problem and wants to help you. It's easy, so start today by signing up with one or all of these excellent services: 41pounds.org, CatalogChoice.org, and/or DMAChoice.org. 41pounds.org charges $41 for five years of service; CatalogChoice.org welcomes donations; and DMAChoice.org, which can also help you control the flow of commercial email, is free.
- Got a month?
- Love music? Save the tonewoods. Choose FSC-certified wood. The future of the guitar and a number of other wooden instruments may be in jeopardy, because many of the forest species that give them their unique sound are in jeopardy. According to the conservation group Fauna & Flora International, more than 200 species of trees are used to make musical instruments, and 70 of those are threatened with extinction. These include mahogany, Honduras cedar and Honduras rosewood, all of which are used in guitars.
In response, major guitar manufacturers like Gibson, C. F. Martin, Fender and Taylor have joined forces with Greenpeace to launch the Music Wood Campaign, an effort to increase the supply of tonewoods certified as responsibly harvested by the Forest Stewardship Council. Gibson and Martin already make guitars from certified woods.
What can you do to help? Start saving your pennies. Groups like Greenpeace and Fauna & Flora concede that musical instruments alone aren't depleting precious stocks of endangered woods. Most of the wood goes for construction materials and furniture. If you're planning major renovations or redecoration projects, start a savings account so you can purchase furniture made with Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood.
- more info
- For more tips on saving trees and the environment, visit SimpleSteps.org.
blog10/30: Saving water makes your life just a little easier
- tip of the day
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Save water and the environment
- Got a minute?
- Check the water safety at your favorite beach. What is the water like where you swim--not the temperature, but the quality? An annual report released by NRDC, Testing the Waters, rates the 200 most popular U.S. beaches. The most recent installment concludes that beach water quality is not improving. Not only does every coastal state suffer from polluted and contaminated beaches, but those problems resulted in more than 20,000 closing and swimming advisory days in 2008 alone. Unlucky beachgoers can suffer infections, rashes, stomach flu, hepatitis and worse. Before heading off to the beach, check out the Testing the Waters interactive map to see how safe your favorite beach is.
- Got a morning?
- Save water. Give your car a waterless carwash. Whether you live in a drought-prone area or not, dumping buckets of water to clean the car seems a little extravagant. How extravagant, you wonder? With most garden hoses spraying about 10 gallons of water per minute, the average driveway wash uses 80 to 140 gallons of water. That's a lot, actually--and in places now forced to restrict usage so there will be water to drink at summer's end, it probably wouldn't be allowed.
Fortunately, you can give the car a good scrubbing using less water than it takes to brush your teeth. Spray on a waterless car wash, which breaks down grime and can be wiped off without a rinse. Eco Touch's Waterless Car Wash uses just 4 to 6 ounces of water per wash and polishes as it cleans (www.ecotouch.net). Lucky Earth's Waterless Car Wash (www.luckyearth.com) will give you seven to ten washes per bottle.
- Got a month?
- Reduce stormwater runoff. Plant a rain garden. Stormwater runoff, a major cause of beach pollution, is something we can help prevent through simple changes around our homes. Cities such as Burnsville, Minnesota, are encouraging residents to install rain gardens, often consisting of hardy native species planted in depressions that collect rainwater as it runs off driveways, roofs or other areas. By modifying the curbside, rain gardens can help divert rainwater from streets. For help planting your own, see this guide from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
- more info
- For more tips on saving water and the environment, visit SimpleSteps.org.
blog4/21: Boost Your Eco IQ
- tip of the day
- Demand more efficient lighting
- got a minute?
- Tell the Energy Department to save money and energy by strengthening lighting efficiency standards.
- got a morning?
- Take a look at the lighting in your office and home and see if you're using older, inefficient bulbs. BR type bulbs, with a slight bulge designed to focus light where needed, rae exempt from efficiency standards.
- got a month?
- After you've replaced incandescent bulbs with CFLs in your home and office, consider replacing older specialty lighting with new lamps. You don't even have to remove the old fixtures, just add another, more efficient light source.
- more info
- For more tips on saving energy at home, visit http://www.simplesteps.org/.
blog4/23: Use Less Hot Water
- tip of the day
- Use less hot water
- got a minute?
- Set your water heater to 120 degrees or less. It'll keep your water hot without wasting energy.
- got a morning?
- Replace old showerheads with new water-saving designs and install low-flow aerators on your faucets.
- got a month?
- Add insulation to your water heater and hot water pipes. A fitted water heater blanket can pay for itself.
- more info
- For more tips on saving water, visit http://www.simplesteps.org/.
blog4/19: Save TV Energy
- tip of the day
- Saving Energy, One TV at a Time
- got a minute?
- Reduce the brightness setting of your television and look through your television's menu system for energy- or power-saving modes.
- got a morning?
- Use power strips to switch off televisions, home theater equipment, and stereos when you're not using them or when you go out of town. If you're buying a new TV look for a unit that includes a built-in DVD player and POD slot, they usually consume less energy in standby mode than separate components.
- got a month?
- Make your entire home more energy efficient; start with our tips for the kitchen, living room and laundry room.
- more info
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For more tips on saving energy at home, visit http://www.simplesteps.org/.
blog4/26: Future Earth, Garden
- tip of the day
- Growing your garden
- got a minute?
- Use natural fertilizers, such as compost, on your garden. Minimize your use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.
- got a morning?
- Landscape with native plants. Native vegetation needs less water and is less likely to require as much fertilizer and herbicide.
- got a month?
- Place naturally pest-repellant plants, such as mint, garlic, chives and coriander, next to plants that are susceptible to pests.
- more info
- For more tips on growing a better garden, visit http://www.simplesteps.org/.
blog11/03: Eating & Saving Green
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tip of the day
Eat at home, save money!
- Got a minute?
- Make a salad using vegetables from your garden. Not only does this cut back on waste from pre-packaged salads and vegetables, but it also saves you money.
- Got a morning?
- Use loamy soil in your garden. Sandy soil in warmer climate may need more water to deal with the higher drainage and evaporation levels. Clay soil in a cooler climate may need less. Loamy soil has the perfect properties for growing many vegetables found in salads.
- Got a month?
- Grow organic vegetables. Not using chemical pesticides makes eating from your garden even healthier for both you and the environment
- more info
- For more tips on how we can affect the environment, visit http://www.greennature.com/.
blog11/21: Green Giving
- tip of the day
- Green your giving this holiday season.
- Skip the crowds, the long lines and the search for parking by shopping online. Not only is it more convenient, it's more efficient. And the ease of online ordering will sooth a few frazzled nerves. Or consider giving something that won't end up cluttering the closet like a fun activity, subscription, cooking class, service, trip or something edible.
Here are a few of our favorite websites for unique, sustainable and fun gifts. Don't delay, find that perfect green gift now and select ground shipping -- it's six times more efficient than overnight air shipping which means less pollution.
Don't buy out of desperation, get something you know they'll love and if you're not sure, make sure it can be easily exchanged or eaten - everyone loves tasty treats!
Here are some sites to get you started::
- etsy.com
A marketplace for anything and everything handmade, Etsy is the place for find lovingly crafted items from hundreds of thousands of artists. From traditional crafts made hip to housewares and fine jewelry, Etsy is a wonderful place to find custom and one-of-a-kind items for anyone on your list - especially those hard to shop for people who are too cool for anything mass-produced.
- greenfeet.com
From apparel to appliances, Greenfeet selects only natural, long-lasting products for your home and has a great selection of housewares, including colorful bamboo bowls.
- more info
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For more tips on green living through the holidays, visit http://www.simplesteps.org/.
