Everyday Green in 4 Simple Steps

Here an interesting article by Terra Wellington about being eco friendly:

Many super-busy parents cringe in fear when they see the words "go green," thinking they don't have the time or the money to do it, especially in this economy. But the reality is, there are simple ways for families to begin to ease into green living. It is possible to find a way to make healthy choices and protect the planet within the resources we have at our disposal.

So, what are the next steps? There are many things that most of us already do each day that can be slightly altered to inspire you to create eco-habits, instead of eco-obligations. Here are some ideas:

Veg Out 
Try eating less meat -- especially red meat. Cows require a lot of feed or grass to survive, they pollute water with their waste, and produce a large amount of greenhouse gases. For you and your family, eating a lot of meat can be strenuous on your digestive system and disagreeable for your overall health. Since you have to shop for food and make meals anyway, why not change it up and eat vegetarian a few times a week. Again, it's about habits.

Simply Recycle 
Each piece of your trash has a final destination. You have landfill trash, recyclables, compostables, green waste, and donations. Create an easy way for everyone at home to sort their trash into one of these five areas – all on the fly. Make the process painless by having a simple system in place: regular trash bins, recycling receptacles, a bowl for compost items next to the kitchen sink, the green waste bin outside, and a box for donations in the garage.

Slow the Flow 
While it's great to encourage family members not to waste water, a nearly effortless way to improve on those results and also help your bottom line is to install low-flow fixtures and low-flow toilets. You can easily exchange your showerhead for a water-saving variety that saves a gallon of water a minute. A faucet aerator for the kitchen or bathroom is a cheap replacement and can immediately cut water consumption in half.

Those Shoes are Made for Walking
Are you used to jumping in the car just to pick up milk from the corner store? Before you grab the keys, consider walking instead – to run errands, to get exercise, to go to the park for recreation. Have your children go with you. And as your children get older, they can take on these errands themselves. Walking is free, saves energy, produces no emissions (unless you count the production of the clothes and shoes you wear), and keeps you healthy. Viva la green!

Click here to learn more.

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Eco Dance Club in UK

Came across an article today on how a dance club in the UK uses it's dance floor to generate tho clubs electricity! So people would pay to go dancing and they end up being the producers of the clubs electricity. This is truly an amazing technology!

Imagine if we were able to put those type of floors in our homes. we could generate our own house electricity just by walking around in it.

Click here see the article.

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Go Green! 50 Actions You Can Take Today

Here's a good article on how to be green.

 

What can you and your family do to be kind to the environment TODAY? Here are 50 simple, earth-friendly actions.

 

1. Buy eco! Super cool and environmentally friendly shoes, purses, skateboard earrings, platters, picture frames, batteries, cars, and more are readily available these days
2. Recycle electronics, including computers, printers, cd players, and toys
3. Build a garden using native plants
4. Incorporate Integrated Pest Management practices into your garden
5. Buy groceries in bulk
6. Take a reusable bag to the grocery store
7. Ride a bicycle to work or to take care of errands around town
8. Watch environmentally themed movies such as Sacred Planet
9. Carry a reusable mug, everywhere
10. Use recycled-content copy paper
11. Purchase remanufactured toner cartridges
12. Research ways you can help the environment
13. Practice Environmentality with your family
14. Buy recycled office products
15. Unplug electronics when they are not in use

 

Click here to continue reading.

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Shut the Refrigerator Door, Save 7%

Don't keep the refrigerator door open any longer than you need to and avoid the cold air from flowing out the door.

The next time you find yourself craving a mid-afternoon snack, make some time to think about what your stomach is asking for before you open the fridge door and stare mindlessly at its contents. The food inside isn't going anywhere and I doubt that anything new will appear in the time it takes you to mentally fix a snack. However, every time you open the refrigerator door, the cold air that keeps your food fresh is running out the door and the warm air from the room is taking its place. This is a problem because now your refrigerator's compressor is going to work hard to drive all that warm air out and bring the temperature back to normal, elevating not only your monthly energy bills, but also your environmental footprint.

Click here to learn more.

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Disco pub gets electricity produced by people dancing at specially modified dance floor

All the flashing strobes and pounding speakers at the dance club are massive consumers of electrical power. So Bar Surya, in London, re-outfitted its floor with springs that, when compressed by dancers, could produce electrical current that would be stored in batteries and used to offset some of the club's electrical burden. The club's owner, Andrew Charalambous, said the dance floor can now power 60 percent of the club's energy needs

 

Click here to read more.

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The Land of Giants Wins Award, But No Build Date

Here’s a great solution to the NIMBYism that building new transmission dredges up, commissioned by Landsnet, a public company that owns and runs the electrical transmission system in Iceland.

Elegant transmission pylons that look like Art.

“Like the statues of Easter Island, it is envisioned that these one hundred and fifty foot tall, modern caryatids will take on a quiet authority, belonging to their landscape yet serving the people, silently transporting electricity across all terrain, day and night, sunshine or snow.”

The competition required that entries give specific consideration to the visual impact of the pylons,  especially near urban areas and also in the wilderness.

The pylons had to be able to use identical construction technologies, enabling mass production using a library of pre-assembled parts.

These would be as mass-produceable as any pylons now made. Yet small variations among these tall imposing and iconic figures will give them uniquely human attributes. Some would seem to be glancing at each other as they pass. Ones near cities will bow down considerately, (while still being within the specs for safe pylons, of course.) 

The honorable mention entry, halfway between Art and Science, Land of Giants, designed by Choi+Shine Architects, is typical of the future oriented, optimistic style of the firm.

 

Click here to learn more.

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Green Remodeling with Eco Friendly Paint

Here's a great tip for remodeling your home and staying green at the same time:

 

Looking for a way to make your house beautiful?  There are many ways to update an old home, but whether you’re tearing down walls or just adding a little color, one thing you’ll definitely need is paint. 

Virtually hundreds of paint choices fill the shelves of your local hardware store, so selecting a healthy, dependable, and eco friendly paint can take a bit of time, unless . . . you are equipped with the knowledge of a few key qualities that set eco paints apart from the rest.  Before we dip our brushes into that bucket, let’s look at some reasons why run-of-the-mill paint can be hazardous to our health and to the environment.

Potential Hazards of Paint

According to the EPA, the concentration of pollutants inside your home is several times higher than what you’ll find outside, due to the lack of ventilation in rooms compared to the open spaciousness of the great outdoors.  Without proper ventilation, airborne chemicals collect indoors and eventually cause damage to our bodies.  Headaches, dizziness, fatigue, asthma, cancer, and heart disease are all potential side effects of indoor air pollution.  Although the contamination cannot be attributed to any single source, paint and paint-related chemicals play a significant role inside a typical home. 

 

Click here to learn more.

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CINCINNATI REDS E-WASTE COLLECTION DRIVE

About the E-Waste Collection Effort:
Players for the Planet is proud to have joined forces with Global Environmental Services and some of Cincinnati’s leading corporations to bring attention to the community wide effort of recycling. After a successful eWaste event at two Kroger locations in greater Cincinnati, Players for the Planet is looking forward to working with other players, ball clubs and cities in organizing future events. Volunteers from the various companies and environmental organizations can come to meet players from their respective home teams, who are out to support Players for the Planet and to help collect the items from the public, sign autographs, and provide information about how individuals can make their own environmental changes at home, work and school. Accepted items include televisions, radios, computer monitors, hard drives and parts and all other electronic items.

 

Click here to learn more.

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Untitled

Here are some interesting facts and statistics about sports:

 

The Environmental Impact of sports equipment is huge. Bats, helmets, balls, gloves, skin pads and other sports equipment is made primarily from plastics that are not easily recycled.

A side issue is the amount of water (bottles) energy bars (packaging) Night Lights (energy) and equipment going into landfills every day.

I Just Gotta Tell Ya:

• 30 Million new balls are made every year
• 2.5 Billion gallons of water/day are used to water golf courses
• 2 Million barrels of oil per day in wasted energy from over illumination (night lights
• 70% of the worlds sports balls are produced in Pakistan – where 30% of the population lives below the poverty line.

 

Click here to learn more.

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Josh Dorfman's Tips for Going Green on a Budget

Here is an article to help you go green:

Going green doesn't have to cost a lot of green! Use these simple tips to make a positive impact on the environment while keeping your wallet intact. It's easy, even for the laziest of environmentalists.

• Shut down and unplug electronics. Make small changes to use – and pay for – less energy, like shutting down your computer when you're not using it and plugging your cell phone and other electronics into power strips so you can turn several devices off with one switch.
• Wash your clothes in cold water. By using cold water instead of warm, the average household can avoid emitting 1,281 pounds of carbon dioxide annually and save on energy bills.¹
• Fill your bottle with filtered tap water. Choose the greener solution by using a reusable bottle, like the FilterForGood bottle, and filling it with filtered tap water. If you use a Brita filtration system you can make another responsible choice by recycling your pitcher filter when you replace it, which should be about every two months (or every 40 gallons). Find out more about recycling Brita filters here.
• Update your wardrobe for less. Instead of consuming new products, trade fashionable clothes, accessories, cosmetics and shoes for free (you only pay for shipping). By swapping merchandise you can lower the amount of harmful emissions caused by the manufacturing process. Check out swapstyle.com to learn more.
• Exchange CDs, DVDs and books instead of buying. Now you can avoid purchasing new products without forfeiting your entertainment needs. Visit swapacd.com, swapadvd.comand paperbackswap.com for access to thousands of CDs, books and DVDs.

 

Click here to learn more.

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Greening the World Bank

Here is a great green earth article: 

When I think Green Living, my first thought is not about what the World Bank is doing. But because they are behind so many international infrastructure, lending and development projects, how they view green development protocols and initiatives is important. Recently they took what I think is a big step forward in appointing Daniel Kammen, a UC-Berkeley energy professor, to lead their push for alternative energy programs in developing countries. His role will be as the chief technical specialist for all renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and was newly created for him “amid unprecedented demand from developing countries for support to address development and climate change as interlinked challenges.” The overarching goal of his position is to address difficulties in getting the 1.5 billion people who do not have clean, reliable and affordable energy services.

  Kammen is the founding director of Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and has done extensive research and consulting on design and implementation of renewable energy systems. His new position will complement the appointment of Andrew Steer as the World Bank’s first special envoy on climate change earlier this summer. Steer is in charge of over $6 billion in projects through the World Bank’s Climate Change Investment Fund, and Kammen’s new position will provide the technical direction for the projects.

 

Click here to continue reading.

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Did You Know You Can Get Free Solar on Your Home in Eight US States?

You are lucky if you live in one of these 8 states and want to go green:

There are now at least eight states in the US where you can get a free solar system to supply your home’s electricity at a lower rate than your utility does. These eight states allow private companies to compete with their utilities that sell power by the kilowatt hour, through a “lease” or a power purchase agreement, or PPA.

The three companies that stepped in to offer these $0 down options are Solar City (OR, CA,TX),SunRun (CA, AZ, CO, NJ, MA) and Gro Solar (PA, CA). Sungevity also offers yet another PPA, providing yet a third option for Californians.

Typically, the way they do this is to find investors or banks who will front the money for a large number of installations, and they own the system, so you don’t have to apply for a bank loan to put solar on your roof.

Once installed on your roof, you either make lease payments or just pay monthly for electricity by the kilowatt hour, the same way you pay your current electric utility.

Companies offering leases or PPAs can in many cases offer $0 down. You get a free solar system and start paying a lower monthly rate than before.

Click here to read more.

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When Should I Buy Organic?

Here are some eco tips:

We all want the best for our kids, but going completely organic can be daunting. Compromise by choosing organic where it really counts. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group ranks 46 fruits and vegetables according to pesticide content (go to foodnews.org for details) — the greater the pesticide load, the greater the reason to consider buying organic.

Here, you'll find a quick round-up of which fruits and veggies are best to buy organic and which are OK to buy non-organic. Download our printable guide to keep this information handy -- tape it to the refrigerator or bring it with you to the market to make smart produce shopping a breeze.

Click here to view more.

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Eco-Friendly Tips

Here are some tips to keeping our planet green:

 

Bike, use public transit, carpool to work, drive slower, keep your tires inflated

One-third of all traffic is commuters. Use alternative transportation when possible. If you must drive, go slower with proper tire inflation. It saves both fuel and tires, and lowers emissions. It also saves lives.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Compost

Reusing packaging material saves more energy than recycling. By avoiding extra packaging, you save both energy and landfill space. Yard and kitchen waste (leaves/grass/vegetable scraps) are 30% of trash. Reduce this amount by composting. Also be sure to re-use plastic bags, or better yet... refuse plastic bags when you really don't need them.

 Conserve water

Don't let faucets run. Never water your lawn at midday. Place a brick in old toilets. Take low flow short showers. Run the dishwasher only when it is full. Let grass grow longer. Plant native or drought-tolerant garden plants.

 

Click here to view more.

 

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50-MW for Washington

It looks like Washington is looking greener:

 

The 50-MW Linden Wind Project in southern Washington has completed construction. The wind farm consists of 25 REpower MM92 turbines in Klickitat County, and has been under construction since November 2009.

Member of SCPPA serve more than 2 million residential and business customers in southern California, representing a population of about 4.6 million people.

The project, developed by enXco and owned by the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), will bring cleanly generated power to the SCPPA generation portfolio on behalf of participating members Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and the City of Glendale.

The utility will receive 90% (45 MW) of power from the wind farm, representing about 0.5% of its renewable portfolio goal of 20% by end of 2010. The project will use existing transmission to deliver the power to the Los Angeles area.

 

Click here to see what others are doing to help this planet.

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Wallpaper Tree

Here is a cool decoration idea for crafting your home with recycled products:

 

Any blank surface becomes an enchanted forest with this patterned mural made from wallpaper scraps. Using this photo for reference, sketch a basic tree trunk on the back side of a sheet of wallpaper (you may want to practice first on butcher paper). Once you have your desired shape and height, cut out. On the back of another piece of the same wallpaper, again using this photo as a guide, draw branches of various sizes and shapes — including a group of three attached limbs for the treetop. Cut out the branches. Apply the paper trunk, then the branches, to your wall with ready-made paste. While the tree dries, trim remnants of other brightly patterned wallpapers into leaf shapes — you'll need about 60. Paste these to the wall so they appear to be sprouting from the branches.

 

Want to see more ideas? Click here

 

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Eco-Friendly Wedding Tips

The term “green wedding” refers to weddings that are more eco-friendly and eco-conscious. According to a survey conducted by David's Bridal in 2009 almost half (48%) of the brides surveyed stated that they were committed to going green, this included registering for eco-friendly products. The wedding industry has ebbed and flowed into a sleek and stylish way to leave a smaller footprint on the Earth while still having a glorious wedding.

Here are a few ideas to go green for your wedding:

• Use recycled paper for the invitations
• Soy candles can be used instead of beeswax. Soy candles burn longer, slower and emit less soot than paraffin candles.
• Use a vintage wedding dress or find a designer that is made of cotton, hemp, and other organic blends.
• Serve an organic and local menu.
• Local wildflowers will also be a beautiful addition to adding nature to your special day

 

For a complete guide on how to have the wedding of your dreams while being green check out The Everything Green Wedding Book, published by Adams Media.

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