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Green New Year's resolutions (and how to make 'em stick)
If you resolve to do all kinds of little frilly green things in 2011, you'll probably fail miserably — and even if you don't, you still won't make much of a difference. So let's talk about a few big things you can do, and how to actually accomplish them.
The single best thing you can do for your health and the planet is to drive less.
Flickr user Skippy 13
Here's how to do it: Calculate how many miles you drove in 2010. Now figure out how many miles you will drive in 2011 if you drive 15 percent less. Write down what your odometer will show when you've driven that many miles. Now, do not exceed that number. If you fail to pace yourself in the early part of the year, you'll be forced to go cold turkey later in the year. But either way, you'll have made real progress on your driving habit.
Individuals also make a substantial contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by wasting food. Americans waste 30 percent of the food they buy. Surely we can waste less than that, right?
Here's how to do it: Stock up on items that last longer, but buy only enough produce and milk to last half the week or so. Then make a second trip to a nearby store (or ride your bike) to buy the second half of what you need. It also helps if you plan what you'll cook and set aside the time to do it. Make sure not to forget ingredients, or the ones you did buy will languish in the drawer of your fridge. Finally, if all else fails and the food rots in your fridge, suck it up and compost it instead of tossing it in the trash.
You can also make a big difference by saving energy at home and work.
Here's how to do it: At home, the bulk of your energy use comes from your dryer, fridge and heat. Tighten any drafty door frames and windows. If you own the home, make sure you've got good insulation and windows. Invest in EnergyStar appliances, and you'll pay yourself back in PG&E; savings. If you're a renter, ask PG&E; if you qualify for a free energy audit: I got a new EnergyStar fridge for free! Also try air drying some or all of your clothes. If you can't manage that, run small dryer loads consecutively to reuse the heat.
At work, you can be a leader by asking for policies that require employees to shut down computers and turn off lights at night. Motion sensors for lights can be a good option for certain rarely used office spaces and for restrooms. Also leave fax machines or any equipment that's not in regular use off until they're needed.
Another environmental big problem for which we as individuals are largely responsible is plastic waste. Plastic takes eons to biodegrade, and tends to end up swirling around in giant trash gyres that kill wildlife who mistake the the colorful bits for food. Fear not, all you've got to do (this year) is stop buying bottled water.
Here's how to do it: Get yourself a couple of aluminum or BPA-free plastic water bottles and put them in useful places so you'll always have one with you — put one in your bag, say, and another in your glove compartment. You'll probably lose them periodically, but figure that whoever finds them will also be reducing their plastic use, so it's good karma. Of course, writing your name on them won't hurt, either.
As far as your own health goes, the first and most obvious step to take is to give up artificial fragrances, which are completely unregulated chemicals, including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.
Here's how to do it: First, use natural cleansers. You'll get rid of fragrances and a lot of other nasty stuff and save money, to boot. Here's a TGL primer on greener cleaning. Second, stop buying products whose ingredients include artificial fragrances. Trader Joe's carries natural deodorants, laundry detergents, soaps and shampoos that are reasonably priced, but you can also find artificial fragrance-free products at Rainbow, Whole Foods and even Safeway.
Good luck, and Happy New greener Year.
| December 30 2010 at 12:47 PM
Really last minute green gifts
It may be too late to get that hot item you'd dreamed of getting, but it's not to late to give a charitable gift to someone you love.
Here are a couple of great ideas you can still pull off in time for Christmas!
Volunteer for or with that animal-loving special someone at the Macy's Holiday Windows pet adoption center. Since 2005, more than 2,000 animals have found homes by way of Macy's, and an additional $250,000 has gone to the SF SPCA. The window is there through New Year's. Cost: free!
You could also name your loved one a Humane Hero for a $20/month donation to the Humane Society.
If you buy a must-have practical gift through World Vision, the item you choose goes directly to a community in the developing world that has requested it, and your friend or family member gets a card saying the gift has been made in their name. Gifts cost as little as $5.
If you act quickly, you could probably still get a gift card in the mail from Feeding America, recognizing your donation in your giftee's name. Just $25 feeds an American family of four for two weeks.
Charities will take your money whenever you're willing, so you can also still give the charitable gifts I mentioned in my first gift guide. From Heifer International, you could go for a Hope Basket full of chickens and rabbits, which will multiply quickly and feed a family. (Cost: $50)
Carbon offsets from Belgrave Trust are good whether or not you get the card by the 25th — but the company says you still can. And offsets for common gadget use are surprisingly cheap!
WWF will send you an instant email certificate of adoption if you indulge in the organization's adopt-a-species donation campaign. The stuffed animal will come later, but for $25 on December 23, you can't ask for more!
| December 23 2010 at 06:30 AM
Last-minute green gifts that are sure to please
There's no shortage of green gift guides this year — but how many of them recommend gifts that someone other than the most passionate environmentalist in your life might want?
Never fear! Your green blogger has picked through lots of list and found the gifts that have broad appeal without losing their green credentials. (Personally, I don't think it's green to buy someone a knickknack they're likely to throw away even if it's made sustainably.)
So, without further ado, here are the gifts.
Hello Rewind offers a laptop sleeve made from your giftee's old or outgrown T-shirt, and the labor is done by people rescued from sex slavery. Reducing landfill waste from clothing, making your electronics last longer and helping those who really need help? This one's a winner, and it costs just $49.
Gadget fans will also love the Voltaic Amp Solar Charger that will fire up your cell phone, iPod or camera. It weighs just a pound, making it easy to tote around in your backpack, and it goes for $99. Guilt-free gadgets? Priceless.
Speaking of backpacks, if you give your loved one a FEED pack, for $125, the company will donate a second pack to a community health worker in Africa and load it with the medical supplies that enable their medical work.
Try stuffing the backpack with the coolest green water bottle available, the Bobble. The BPA-free bottles hold up to 34 ounces of water. They're made from recycled polyester and are recyclable. What really sets the Bobble apart from other reusable water bottles is that it comes equipped with a filter and it's got a cool design courtesy Karim Rashid. Prices run from $9 to $13.
For the homebodies in your life, try some character-rich vintage dinnerware from Replacements.
Of course, the greenest gifts go to those in need. If you're willing to make the leap and make a charitable donation rather than giving a thing, there are a few that are concrete enough to give a real sense of satisfaction.
For instance, if you adopt a species through the World Wildlife Fund, you'll get a stuffed animal version of your species, a color photo of the real-life adopted animal, an adoption certificate, a Species Spotlight card filled with interesting facts and a drawstring gift bag. Your giftee will hardly feel do-gooded out of a gift! The adoptions go for $50.
Heifer International donations don't come with the schwag, but they aren't just a cash donation either: The organization allows you to purchase a sheep or goat, chickens or honeybees for a families in the developing world to allow them become self-reliant.
Alternately, you could wrap up the Hello Rewind laptop sleeve and pair it with a laptop donation to a child in the developing world from Laptop.org. At $199, it's likely the cheapest laptop you'll ever buy.
Or, buy offsets for your friend or loved one's gadget use. (This also makes a great accompanying gift if you're giving electronics!) Belgrave Trust lets you calculate the carbon emissions and purchase offsets. $10 will offset the carbon footprint of a MacBook for its lifetime, and you can get a nifty sticker to put on the computer that shows that it's carbon neutral.
Perhaps best of all, any of these gifts will spare you a trip to the frenzied mall, and the carbon emissions to boot.
| December 17 2010 at 12:05 PM
Turkey: fiction and fact
With the holidays approaching and having recently bought some "turkey breast" slices for my dog, I started thinking about how turkey is raised.
Farm Sanctuary
I have a vision of the big, ugly birds plucking around in a grassy area, which I think I must have picked up in public school somewhere. But there's way too much turkey for sale for that vision to be accurate: Upwards of 250 million birds are raised for slaughter every year in the United States — 46 million of those are for the last Thursday in November alone.
According to the animal rights group Farm Sanctuary, turkeys are raised in warehouses, where they get three square feet to live in. To limit the damage done by fights in such crowded conditions, poultry farmers clip off the birds' beaks and toes without anesthesia. Turkeys and other birds are also excluded from the Humane Slaughter Act, which requires that animals be stunned prior to slaughter.
We've genetically engineered the birds to grow unnaturally fast and unnaturally large. Farm Sanctuary cites an article in an agricultural newspaper: "If a seven pound [human] baby grew at the same rate that today's turkey grows, when the baby reache[d] 18 weeks of age, it would weigh 1,500 pounds."
As a result of their unnatural size, the birds suffer from cardiovascular disease and "cowboy legs," a condition in which their legs, unable to support their weight, bow out.
Hardly the happy picture evoked by the multi-colored, hand-shaped birds your kids bring home from school.
So what are your choices? As with chickens, a "free range" label doesn't mean much. The World Society for the Protection of Animals suggests that you look for "pasture-raised" birds, ideally also bearing a "certified humane" label.
And, of course, there's always Tofurky.
| October 22 2010 at 10:16 AM
Brown paper packages tied up with string: If only!
As you wrap presents today and unwrap, and then battle with their packaging, tomorrow, it may be a good time to reflect on packaging. (H/T Mother Jones.)
Nikita Rogul / Shutterstock
Nearly a third of Americans' trash is packaging. Because it's often made from higher-numbered plastics, less than half of packaging gets recycled.
How much packaging is that exactly? 520 pounds per person per year, as of 2007.
10 percent of a given item's price is its packaging. And the excess packaging is no accident: many packages are designed to be difficult to open to reduce shoplifting.
Even armed with scissors and a box cutter, it took Consumer Reports testers more than 3 minutes to successfully open the Oral-B Sonic Complete Toothbrush Kit.
In 2008, clamshell packages sent more than 5,700 Americans to the ER.
Between Thanksgiving and New Years, Americans toss an additional million tons of garbage per week.
Here are a few things you can do to reduce your waste this holiday:
- When wrapping gifts, cut the wrapping paper to be just a little longer than the length of the gift and a hair wider than the the sum of the gift's width plus depth.
- Reuse wrapping, or wrap gifts in old newspapers or junk mail.
- You might even forgo wrapping altogether in some cases: It costs $4.99 to have a book from Amazon.com giftwrapped.
More than a third of Americans would like to have less packaging on the products they buy. Nearly half of consumers worldwide would be willing to sacrifice convenience for more sustainable packaging.
Last year, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) wrote a bill requiring the EPA to find ways to reduce packaging by 30 percent over 10 years. It was tossed aside for lack of cosponsors.
| December 24 2009 at 10:42 AM
Last minute gift idea
Buying green has come to mean not just buying products with a lesser environmental impact, but buying products whose production creates a fair working environment for those who make it.
In that vein, here's a nice gift idea: a silk scarf. That's right, we're not talking about some hemp shopping bag with a nonprofit logo on it; we're talking something really nice.
The scarves in question come from Mekong Blue, a a project of not-for-profit organization in Cambodia that helps the women and children of Cambodia's impoverished Stung Treng region learn to weave as a way to overcome poverty and illiteracy. I'm not an expert in the sustainability of silk production, but the extreme poverty of this region—which is such that women have nothing to sell but their bodies—makes it hard to believe that this project isn't an improvement over the status quo.
You can order scarves online at bluesilk.org. Ordering online is more eco-savvy than buying in person, and these scarves ship from a distribution center in Nashville, Tenn. Sure, it probably won't arrive in time for Christmas, but what a great story you'll have to tell.
| December 23 2009 at 11:45 AM
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