Fresh Greens
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7 More Ways to Save Money and Go Green This Thanksgiving
Continue reading… 2 CommentsIt's time, once again, for Americans to give thanks and enjoy a bountiful meal. It's also a day to watch what you eat—and not just in regards to your waistline. The year 2009 was notable for an emphasis on greener, more sustainable eating, from the White House garden to the movie Food, Inc. Last Thanksgiving, I wrote about saving money, starting traditions, decoding turkey labels and defending your vegetarianism. Here are seven more money-saving tips for a green Thanksgiving.
[Slide Show: 10 Money-Saving Green Thanksgiving Tips.]
1. Use a slow-cooker. Fall is the season for slow-simmered soups, so there's no better time to bust out the Crock Pot. As an added bonus, the slow-cooker is one of the most energy-efficient devices in the kitchen. According to Planet Green: "When compared to a conventional oven which uses 2.7 pounds of CO2 for one hour of use, a slow cooker uses .9 pounds of CO2 for seven hours of use." The Daily Green offers some slow-cooker Thanksgiving recipes here.
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The Safest Cities for Walking to Work
Continue reading… 0 CommentsEarlier this week, my colleague Matt Bandyk listed the 15 best cities for people who crave shorter commutes and less time in the car. And while, to most people, that means hopping on a train, bike, or bus, Matt was good enough to highlight arguably the most difficult of those options: walking. In many of the communities highlighted, residents get themselves to work in less than 20 minutes via the lowest-impact method of all: their own two feet. But they are a rarity. Our communities have been designed for cars, not pedestrians, so in many places, it's all but impossible to walk safely to work.
Transportation for America has issued a report on the safety and walkability of America's biggest cities, and some of their findings are cringe-worthy. In the past 15 years, more than 76,000 American pedestrians have been struck and killed on our roadways. Children, the elderly, and minorities are disproportionately affected. Transportation for America has developed a Pedestrian Danger Index that accounts for the pedestrian fatality rate of a metropolitan area weighted by the amount of residents who walk to work, since cities wth more pedestrians are likely to have higher fatality rates. The more pedestrian commuters in a city, the safer is it likely to be for them. Therefore, the cities with the fewest pedestrians and the highest fatality rates are considered the most deadly for these commuters. -
Sharing is Green (And Good for Your Wallet)
Continue reading… 7 CommentsIt's one of the first things you're taught in preschool: Sharing is caring. Be nice. A recent crop of sharing websites has proven that sharing is nice for the planet, too—not to mention our wallets. Think about it: Each website that hooks you up with a loaner dress, car, or tool will save you cash, eliminate needless purchases, and reduce waste. Check out these sites that help facilitate sharing.
Transportation: Zipcar is old news. For urbanites in Washington, D.C. (and soon, Boston), bike sharing is the new way residents are getting from point A to point B cheaply and healthily. Like car sharing, anyone can pay for a membership and can pick up bikes at depots scattered throughout a city—Washington's year-old system has more than 10 ports. Bike sharing is picking up speed: D.C.'s program is receiving extra funding for more stations and bikes, and unlike European bike-shares, the system has had few incidents of theft or vandalism.Office space: Small business owners or solo entrepreneurs need not toil away in solitude from a home office. The practice of coworking allows individuals and small businesses to share office space, and with it, resources like copiers and printers. Many who cowork love the collaborative aspect of it—sharing space, and also ideas. EcoSalon recommends this site as a resource for finding a coworking space near you.
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The Green War on Pets
Continue reading… 10 CommentsPeople who care about the environment are often people who also care about animals—the kind of folks who take in stray cats and adopt shelter dogs, driving them home in a Prius. But over the past month, the tide of green opinions seems to have turned against those sweet-faced puppies and kittens, which some environmentalists view as a waste of precious resources. Instead of having a pet, you may as well get an SUV.
Much of the impetus for this anti-pet sentiment comes from Robert and Brenda Vale, scientists and authors of “Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living.” In it, the Vales argue that cats and dogs consume resources, devastate wildlife populations, and contribute to pollution and the spread of disease. Thanks to their calculations, we get this graphic from New Scientist, which displays the footprints (pawprints?) of hamsters, cats, large and medium-sized dogs, a Toyota Land Cruiser, and a Volkswagen Golf. As you can imagine, you're better off seeking companionship with rodents, based on the amount of resources they consume. Cats are second best, but owning either of the vehicles is better than having a dog—mostly for the amount of meat they consume. Also unnerving is this chart from Wired, which displays the amount of land required to produce food for all of the pets in America, versus land needed for enough solar panels to power the whole country. Turns out, feeding Fido takes up 17 times more land than meeting our entire electricity demand. -
Michael Pollan's Prius-Hummer Blunder
Continue reading… 6 CommentsWhat a soundbite it was, for all of two days: Michael Pollan, sustainable food guru and author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," told the crowd at the 2009 Poptech conference, "Our meat eating is one of the most important contributors we make to climate change. A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius.”
That line was blogged and tweeted countless times over the next few days. The only problem? It isn't true.
Reuters' Adam Pacisk refuted the claim shortly after, and here's his math: -
22 Tips for Minimizing Trash
Continue reading… 1 CommentIt's been said before that the most important of the three R's—reduce, reuse, and recycle—is the first. The best way to keep garbage out of landfills is not to make so much of it in the first place. It's a notion that's starting to take hold across America, where some communities and restaurants are going waste-free. According to the New York Times, the community of Nantucket has a stringent recycling and trash sorting program that has caused the percentage of residents' trash that is landfill-bound to drop to 8 percent, compared with 66 percent for the rest of Massachusetts. Their mentality is similar to that of many Europeans, who generate far less waste than Americans: After all, if your trash was only picked up a few times a month, you wouldn't want to make much of it either. Restaurants and corporations are getting in on the act, too, by composting their food waste, and Honda has jettisoned their dumpsters at eight plants—recycling has eliminated the need.
The Times' waste-free story was fortuitously timed to coincide with the first No Impact Week. You'll recall Colin Beavan, the New Yorker who tried to live with the smallest possible impact on the planet for a year, taking his wife and daughter down the rabbit hole with him, and emerging with a book deal. Beavan found that a waste-free lifestyle with a tinier footprint actually made him a happier person. He thinks it could make you happier, too. So with his non-profit, the No Impact Project, Beavan has designed a one-week program that encourages anyone to replicate his feat (or stunt), and decide how they feel: inconvenienced? satisfied? restricted? relaxed? Each day has a different focus, from food to transportation to energy. And this week—the Inaugural No Impact Week—Monday's focus was on eliminating trash. Another blog, EcoSalon, has accounced the beginning of "Trashless Tuesday" to encourage waste-free living at least one day a week (The day is a companion to "Meatless Monday," an initiative that goes back to World War I).
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Bisphenol A: Another Reason You Don't Need Your Receipt
Continue reading… 11 CommentsIt's been found in baby bottles, water bottles, and cans, but here's a new item to avoid that contains the estrogen-mimicking chemical Bisphenol A: paper receipts. Science News reports that John C. Warner of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry has found that both carbonless copy papers and the thermal imaging papers that form most receipts today are coated in a powdery layer of the chemical. He believes that our exposure to BPA through receipts is many times greater than through bottles or cans.
So why should you be concerned about BPA? Recent studies of the chemical have found that, when ingested, it is linked to diabetes, heart disease, liver toxicity, and birth defects. Warner told Science News that BPA found on receipts is dusted off on the fingers, where it either makes its way to food, or is absorbed through the skin.
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For Quick Cash, Drop Your Gadgets at an EcoATM
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIf dropping off old cellphones and iPods were as easy as taking cash out of an ATM, recycling rates for these devices wouldn't be so absymal. Enter EcoATM, a machine that will buy your old gadgets for you, instantly determine their worth, and spit out cash or coupons for your effort. The very first EcoATM has been installed in Nebraska, but a larger rollout is slated for Texas, Washington state, Vermont, and San Diego this year.
Before EcoATM, the process of recycling gadgets responsibly could be time-consuming—and inertia kept many from giving up their old technology. The average household has five unused gadgets lying around. And if their owners were too busy to mail them in to a service like Gazelle or BuyMyTronics, they would be forgotten in a drawer, or simply be thrown away. But when high-tech toys make it into a landfill, they can leach hazardous chemicals into the ground and water—so that's why recyling these items is worth the extra effort. The extra spending money it will put in your pocket certainly won't hurt.
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The G-20: 5 Green Things You Should Know About Pittsburgh
Continue reading… 7 CommentsThere were chuckles when Pittsburgh was announced as the site of the G-20, but no one's laughing anymore: It's been made quite clear that, though Pittsburgh is no London or Beijing, it was selected as a symbol of the American ability to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Obama has a crush on Pittsburgh because the city is a symbol of recovery, and of how a green economy can be a force of revitalization. (Full disclosure: I was born and raised there.) So why is Pittsburgh deserving of its host status? Here are some of the ways that the city is green.
1. It's not the smoggy steel town it once was. Though the steel mills that inspired the name of the city's championship football team remain an important part of its history, their decline made Pittsburgh a cleaner place to live. These days, employment in Pittsburgh is dominated by healthcare and education. Those smog and smoke-spewing factories downtown have been turned into condos and lofts with waterfront views of three clean rivers. -
Say 'Yes' to the SurvivaBall
Continue reading… 4 CommentsWhen the planet heats up, it will be time to slip into something more comfortable—like the SurvivaBall. A self-heating, self-cooling and self-powered pod, the SurvivaBall is designed by top scientists to weather all of the effects of climate change to keep its user alive through catastrophe. Even though it makes its occupant resemble a giant tick, it's also luxurious—"Like a gated community for one," claims the SurvivaBall's site. And only for the low price of $100 million! The folks at Halliburton love them.
But even if the cost wasn't prohibitive, you won't be seeing the SurvivaBall for sale any time soon. That's because the global warming protection device is just a twinkle in the eyes of the culture-jamming pranksters the Yes Men. An environmental and corporate ethics activism group, the Yes Men have had an active week. First, they distributed a million spoof copies of the New York Post with a climate-themed bent in time for the U.N. meeting—and even though the paper was fake, the group insists that all of the details within are fact-checked and accurate. Then, when Yes Men were demonstrating a model of the SurvivaBall in New York, leader Andy Bichlbaum was arrested for an old parking ticket charge when police were giving summons to other demonstrators for disorderly conduct.
Check out a video below. There's more at SurvivaBall's YouTube Channel—the device's defensive capabilities are particularly impressive.
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Check Out These Green Genius Grant Recipients
Continue reading… 2 CommentsEvery year, the "Genius Grant" recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship span the disciplines, including scientists, poets, painters, historians, physicians, mathematicians and activists, among others. Of this year's varied group (the full list can be found here) several of the winners of the 500,000 grant, which honors individuals that have demonstrated exceptional creativity in their work, will be putting that money towards good environmental use. Check out this year's green geniuses:
Peter Huybers, Climate Scientist, Harvard University
Why he's a genius: Huybers has taken on a daunting task—his work attempts to explain global climate change throughout time, beginning with the Pleistocene era. Huybers has studied the cycle of glaciation, including its relationship to volcanic activity. He's also studied the skewing of seasons.The season skewing means that the hottest and coldest days of the year come about two days sooner than they did 50 years ago, according to a study published in the Jan. 22 edition of the journal Nature. The study also found that the difference between average winter and summer temperatures shrank in the same 50-year span, indicating winters are heating up faster than summers. The change coincides with the rise in global temperatures, which could suggest a link to human-induced global warming.
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No Impact Man: "Think Enhancement, Not Sacrifice"
Continue reading… 2 CommentsColin Beavan gave up lots of things during his year-long trial in urban asceticism, which resulted in the blog, book and recently-released movie "No Impact Man." And those things—like electricity, meat, carbon-based transportation and even toilet paper—are what have made the public and media continually fascinated with him, ever since his experiment in 2007. But to Beavan, it's not about what he gave up, it's about what he gained—and by that, he doesn't mean a book deal.
"What would be really great is if people don't talk about sacrifices. What we could talk about is enhancements to the quality of our life," said Beavan. "On a micro level, when we did the 'No Impact Man' project, we gave things up, but at the same time, we were your typical rush-around New York media people, stressed and anxious. We would get home, shovel take-out into our mouths while watching TV, and we'd wake up in the morning and do it all over again. When we got rid of the TV, and when we got rid of the take-out food and replaced it with local food, what happened was that we were sitting around a table, talking as a family, and before you knew it, friends started dropping by to eat with us. We ended up eating healthier food and having more friends and community."
Happiness through simpler, greener living is the aim of the No Impact Project, a new non-profit that Beavan has started as a companion to the book and film. One component, which will be making its debut later this fall, is a week-long No Impact experience for communities to try. The site will lead people through cutting back on waste, carbon-based transportation and meat, among other things, placing "a particular emphasis on monitoring how they feel," said Beavan, "so that at the end of the week they can say, 'I feel better, so I'll keep doing it.'"
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9 Green Things You Can Do on 9/9/09
Continue reading… 1 CommentIt's a good day to get married. Or play the lottery. Or boycott the prevalence of adorable cats on the internet. But whether or not you're a numerologist, today's unusual date can be the inspiration for some green acts. Here are 9 green things you can do today, compiled from across the web.
1. Recycle your old sneakers. Running shoes are among dozens of items that aren't obvious fare for recycling, but that doesn't mean they should head to the landfill. The Daily Green lists them here.
2. Start a community garden. If your neighborhood doesn't already have one, it may seem like a daunting task—especially for a city-dweller. But the Nation makes it easier, with a step-by-step guide to getting fresh produce from your block by next year.
3. If you aren't already paying your bills online, what are you waiting for? You'll save paper, money on postage, and your transactions will be secure. While you're de-papering your life, take it a step further and get off of the various junk mail and catalogue lists that deluge you with useless paper each day. The average household recieves more than 800 pieces of junk mail a year. The Do Not Mail Registry is one of several organizations that will stop the flow of paper junk.
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5 Ways to Green Your Fall Clothes Shopping
Continue reading… 3 CommentsProject Runway is back, Fashion Week is coming up, the weather is getting cooler, a documentary about the September issue of Vogue is in theaters, and there is an abundance of back-to school sales. All of these factors are conspiring against you to spend money, and lots of it, on clothing before the leaves even begin to turn. But the annual fall shopping spree is beginning to look as dated as an Ed Hardy t-shirt. Even the September Issue, filmed in more lucrative times, looks gauche to many critics (this year's September issue was 300 pages smaller than the 2007 issue featured in the film). Here's how to update your look, save money, and be mindful of the environment.
0. Despite being the greenest way to outfit yourself this fall, this is non-shopping advice: Consider not buying anything at all. For inspiration, look to Michelle Conlin, wife of Colin Beavan, a.k.a No Impact Man, in the upcoming movie of that name. If Prada and Marc Jacobs-wearing, commerce-obsessed Conlin can do it for a year, you can make it through one season. Here's how to get through it with a fresh look: Spend some time digging through your closet to pull out little-worn items that have gotten lost in the clutter, and vow to wear them more often. Play an adult game of dress-up with your own clothing, putting together combinations that you hadn't yet considered, to make an all-new outfit out of old stuff. Or, you could get a book from the library about how to transform old clothing into unique, new stuff, often without sewing.
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What Would You Do For a Low-Carbon Klondike Bar?
Continue reading… 1 CommentThe ice cream of the future won't be cryogenically-frozen beads (sorry, Dippin' Dots) or freeze-dried and chalky (thanks, but no thanks, for the astronaut ice cream). Rather, it will be melted—or never frozen at all.
Unilever—proprietor of such brands as Ben & Jerry's, Good Humor, Popsicle, and Klondike—recently announced that they are developing a low-carbon ice cream. Because the process of freezing and storing ice cream is very energy intensive, this means that the best way to make the sweet treat eco-friendly is to make and transport it at room temperature. Consumers would then freeze the "ambient" ice cream, as the company calls it, at home. But now everyone is wondering—will it be as delicious as the Cherry Garcia we all know and love? -
Philippe Cousteau, Jr.: 5 Green Things My Grandfather Would Have Wanted You to Do
Continue reading… 13 CommentsThe grandson of famous explorer Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the heir to his deep-sea-diving family's throne, Philippe Cousteau, Jr. would like you to think before you shop—but not just about the oceans that three generations of his family have lovingly worked to protect. Think instead, he said, about yourself. "Bono said, 'Shopping is politics.' I wish I had come up with that," said Cousteau. "[Consumer issues are] one of the most important places we intersect with choices that make a difference—not just for the environment, but for our health, for our kids, and for our families."
Cousteau is upholding his family's legacy in research, conservation and exploration through his nonprofit foundation, EarthEcho International, and his work as a television host on Animal Planet and Planet Green. He and his sister are the hosts of Planet Green's month-long Blue August programming, which focuses on water conservation. But you don't have to have the last name Cousteau to protect our oceans. Philippe sat down with U.S. News to share five green things that his grandfather and father would have wanted everyday consumers to do to protect our oceans and planet.
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Bottled Water Demand Beginning to Empty Out
Continue reading… 8 CommentsLike an empty bottle in a recycling bin, demand for bottled water appears to have drained: Both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post are reporting that the country's largest seller of bottled water, Nestle, has reported a decline of almost 3 percent in its bottled water division (which includes Pellegrino, Poland Spring and Perrier and Deer Park) for the first half of the year. As usual, the recession is to blame.
But penny-pinching consumers who have discovered the money-saving benefits of reusable water bottles aren't the only source of the slowdown. Analysts also credit the decline to environmentalists' campaigns, such as Take Back the Tap and TapIt, to encourage consumers to avoid bottled water. Their encouragement has also led cities from Takoma Park, Md. to San Francisco to cut bottled water out of their budgets, to the tune of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just this week, the Guardian called out the BBC for spending more than $600,000 per year on bottled water.
If mainstream bottled water companies are struggling, that doesn't bode well for niche bottlers, who market pricier bottled waters as though they were rare vintages of wine (remember the water sommelier micro-trend? No?). Same goes for the opposite of the water sommelier, Tap'd NY, which bottles local New York City water straight from the tap.
Have you cut back on buying bottled water this year?
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Climate Inaction: It's All In Our Heads
Continue reading… 2 CommentsThe biggest deterrent to going green is, for most people, a simple matter of habit: We're used to doing things a certain way, and it's hard to break the pattern. That fact is among the findings of an American Psychological Association study of the reasons Americans are resistant to changing their behavior to become more environmentally-friendly, despite recognizing that climate change is a serious issue. The APA's study examined the psychological impacts and barriers of climate change, and found that several factors were to blame. Among them:
- Uncertainty – Research has shown that uncertainty over climate change reduces the frequency of "green" behavior.
- Mistrust – Evidence shows that most people don't believe the risk messages of scientists or government officials.
- Denial – A substantial minority of people believe climate change is not occurring or that human activity has little or nothing to do with it, according to various polls.
- Undervaluing Risks – A study of more than 3,000 people in 18 countries showed that many people believe environmental conditions will worsen in 25 years. While this may be true, this thinking could lead people to believe that changes can be made later.
- Lack of Control – People believe their actions would be too small to make a difference and choose to do nothing.
- Habit – Ingrained behaviors are extremely resistant to permanent change while others change slowly. Habit is the most important obstacle to pro-environment behavior, according to the report.
In other words, even though 75 percent to 80 percent of respondents in a Pew poll said that climate change is an important issue, indecision and shortsightedness are among the reasons that respondents ranked it last in a list of 20 important issues. But habit is deceptive—it seems to be the easiest to change, but may be the hardest. That's why there are campaigns designed to help people remember their reusable bottles in lieu of buying bottled water, as well as the entrepreneurs behind Bagnesia, a system of reminders to bring reusable bags to the store.
One classic way to break a bad habit is to provide an incentive. Saving money is one major motivation, and the design of various smart meters, which tell people how much they're spending on utilities as they go, has been successful in encouraging people to turn down the thermostat. Competition is also a powerful incentive, and other utility companies have pitted neighbors against one another in energy efficiency, with positive results. How would you break a bad environmental habit? -
Will Cash for Clunkers Exceed Environmental Expectations?
Continue reading… 4 CommentsThe program was once derided as "Handouts for Hummers" by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Susan Collins, who argued for stricter fuel-efficiency standards for the trade-ins. But Cash for Clunkers, the nickname for the Car Allowance Rebate System, has proved to be extremely popular, necessitating a $2 billion boost from Congress. And while some Democrats may have objected to the less stringent environmental rules, their fears may be assuaged. Says the New York Times:
The Transportation Department reported that of 120,000 rebate applications processed so far, the average gas mileage of cars being bought was 28.3 miles per gallon, for SUV’s 21.9 miles per gallon, and for trucks, 16.3 miles per gallon, all significantly higher than required to get a rebate.
“The statistics are much better than anybody dreamt they would be,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who, with Senator Susan M. Collins, Republican of Maine, was the author of an early version of a “cash for clunkers” bill that would have required bigger improvements. The actual mileage gain seen so far, she said was not due to the details of the law but “the good judgment of the American people.”
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10 Unexpected Uses for Common Items
Continue reading… 7 CommentsHere's a brand-new website that combines good financial and environmental sense: AltUse, a social-media-inspired repository of home remedies and household tips that are all-natural, and can also save you money. Many home uses are handed down from previous generations, before we could buy products to solve all of our household needs. Back then, if we had puffy eyes, people wouldn't head for the beauty counter - they'd put tea bags or cucumbers on them. Dirty kitchen surfaces weren't cleaned with a multitude of chemicals - they were scrubbed down with vinegar and some elbow grease. Users can turn to the site for natural alternatives to traditional cleaning and household care solutions, many of which will save them money, or for quick help when they're in a bind with a certain type of stain. The site isn't just useful for housekeeping, though - you can learn lifehacks for pet care, beauty and fitness, as well.
Since the site is brand-new, the design is a little clunky, but the idea is solid: Allow anyone to submit their home remedies, and rate others'. That way, only the most effective alt-uses will get a mark of approval from the site.
Check out 10 unexpected uses for common household items submitted by users, below. Think you have a better one? Sign up for the site and rate the solutions, or add your own.
