skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Today's green idea comes from Teresa who is my friend Zach's mom:
GreenDimes.com (they have a great blog too!) is a site that also gets you off catalogs' mailing lists--it is fee-based ($34 per year), however, they also plant 10 trees, anywhere you choose around the world, with your "donation/fee"! so you're not only saving trees via saving paper, you're also planting replacements!
It has taken a full year, and, in some instances, i additionally had to call a few of the persistent companies and demand that they stop sending the catalogs, but....i am happy to say that i now receive ONLY the cataglogs that i WANT to receive (which is about 3 or 4). Yayy!!!! We used to get HUNDREDS a year.
Remember, when you place an order with a company online, you AUTOMATICALLY go back on their mailing list unless you tell them, in no uncertain terms, to NOT put you on the mailing list. If you go on their list, you go on others, for they share/sell/trade your info with others. The vigilance, however, is worth it.
Thank you, Teresa!
My friend Strath sent me this simple green idea:
It sounds like such a basic thing—most good ideas are—but walking as much as possible is good for the environment and good for you. In New York we take the subway or bus, which is much better than driving, but sometimes just hoofing it doesn't take much longer. For example, it takes me 40 minutes to walk from Fort Greene to the Lower East Side (only 15 minutes longer than the subway) and I get to check out that relic of NYC grittiness, the Manhattan Bridge.
When my wife Emily and I bought a place in Seattle last fall, which we're currently renting out but will eventually move to, a major consideration was the neighborhood's walkability. There's a website called walkscore.com that can help you calculate just that: type in your address and it brings up a map with shops, libraries, bars, restaurants, and other services and businesses within walking distance. Best of all, it gives you a "walk score" (hence the name) so you can easily compare the walkability of different locations. Go here to try it out: http://www.walkscore.com/
Strath has a very cool blog called Pacific Standard, check it out!
image: walkscore.com
My friends Mary and Chris from Maryink are big soda fans, but they don't drink the store-bought stuff, instead they make their own with this gadget from Soda Club. It is about the size of a blender and doesn't require electricity, it costs only 50 cents to make a liter of soda, and the best thing is you no longer need to buy bottled beverages anymore, all you'll ever use are those 3 bottles pictured here, great for the environment! The down side is you do have to order everything online. But since Chad prefers drinking seltzer and I am just an occasional soda drinker, we probably won't think it's a hassle.
Here is how it works: fill a bottle with cool water, screw it into the carbonator, press the fizz button five or six times, add the flavored mix to the bottle (or you could do without the mix if you're making seltzer), close the bottle and shake a few times, and within a minute, you have a home-made bottle of soda!
As for the mixes, they have lots of flavors available- all the fruity flavors, cream, vanilla, and flavors that are similar to Mountain Dew, Coke, 7-Up, and Dr. Pepper! You can also make egg-cream with it (seltzer and chocolate syrup). As a creative person, you know I'll be mixing flavors and experiment with other beverages like coffee and tea, wonder if I can make frothy milk shake or orange juice with it???
image: Engadget.com
Erin and Zach are my dear friends living in Tokyo, they are both teachers at a Montessori school there. Because most people live in tiny apartments in Tokyo, they are experts in eliminating unwanted waste that would clutter their homes. (Note: The house below is not their home, it's a house near their apartment) Here are some of their great tips:
Erin
We have learned a lot from Japan. Here, instead of using paper towels, most people carry a small washcloth to dry their hands. Saves a lot of paper!!
Also, we carry our own bags to shops and if we do happen to get a plastic bag, we use it as a trash bag (instead of buying new trashbags).
Have a clothes trading party. Everyone brings their old (or new) clothes that they are tired of wearing/haven't worn in a long time/don't fit and puts them on a table or in a huge pile on the floor and then people just take what they want. The extra clothes get donated to charity.
Zach
See your CO2 footprint at one of these sites:
https://sustainabletravelinternational.org/
http://www.climatecare.org/
How many planets does it take for us to live like we do? SEE (My favorite):
http://ww2.earthday.net/
Become a virtual marcher:
http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/
Check the happy planet index "Economics as if the people and the planet mattered.": http://www.happyplanetindex.org/index.htm
Watch the documentary Planet Earth. Absolutely amazing!
Or, if you still haven't seen it, An Inconvenient Truth.
Oh, and PLANT A TREE!!!! wooo hoooo!
Thank you, Erin and Zach!
To celebrate Earth Day, I asked some of my good friends to share their tips on ways to help save the earth. Keep in mind that we're city busy dwellers and we're not active environmentalists, so what we practice are easy and sensible for everyone!
• Eliminate unwanted catalogs (basically all of them) sent to our home by signing up for CatalogChoice.org. It's easy, once you sign up, you can choose from a long list of catalogs that you wish to opt-out. You can also call the customer service numbers on the back of the catalogs and ask to have your info removed from their mailing lists.
•Turn the lights out when you leave the room for more than 5 minutes. and buy CFL or LED bulbs.
•Unplug electronics, rather than just turning them off, if you aren't using them regularly. vampire consumption adds up. anything plugged in draws electricity.
•Use environmentally safe cleaning products, recycle your trash at home AND at work. Treehugger has wonderful Buy Green Guides that will help you live healthier, live better and live more efficiently.
•Go vegetarian! Greening your diet is better for the earth than greening your car. Livestock production is not just cruel but is one of the top two polluters in the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/vegetarian-is-the-new-pri_b_39014.html
Thanks: Chad, Gal, and Nicki
images: CatalogChoice.org, Treehugger.com
Open Space Gallery in Beacon NY has a wonderful Tote Bag show featuring over 100 artists' customized tote bags. Each artist was given the same natural canvas tote bag, and I am amazed by the caliber of the artists (shown here: Caroline Hwang, Dan Funderburgh, and Upso) that generously donated their time and creativity, and what amazing designs they came up with! Each bag is $100, but it is for a really good cause...
90% of the proceeds from the sales will go to the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a New York-based organization committed to environmental education and advocacy. Its mission is to protect the Hudson River, its tributaries and related water bodies, and to create public awareness of the estuary’s complex relationship with the coastal zone. A magnificent natural design blending the freshwater streams of the Adirondacks with the salt tides of the Atlantic, the Hudson is a prime example of an estuary’s ecosystem that, as a type, ranks second only to rain forests in biological productivity.
A good reason why you should go see the show- it's in Beacon, NY. What a good excuse to leave the city and while you're up there you could also go to DIA!
images: openspace.org
My home office is in my living/dining room which is not very pretty to look at. I'm trying to find a partition that lets in sunlight and is made from sustainable material, so I found this Nomad Modular System. It is made from recycled double-wall cardboard that lets you adjust the configuration however you like to fit your space, Each set comes with 24 modules, enough to make a 4.5 square ft. wall. I like how once it's disassembled it is flattened and is 100% recyclable, the same way you would recycle cardboard boxes. However, I am not sold on the look, maybe it's because the samples shown on the website are not my favorite, but I do see the potential and it might work in my apartment.
photos: mioculture.com
