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Happy Labor Day Weekend! Your daily Green Tip will return on Tuesday, September 4th.
Next time you peel your oranges, tangerines or citrus fruits, instead of
tossing the peels or composting immediately, place in a small dish and leave in
your bathroom for fresh and fragrant natural potpourri.
-- Submitted by
Nina Zimm
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Grow your own tomatoes! Growing your own tomatoes will not only reduce food miles and save money, but will also help you connect with the earth. And you won't believe the taste!
What do you grow in your garden?
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Even in cold climates, homes can be weaned off fossil fuels with a remodel that integrates passive solar techniques. A sunroom, double-paned south-facing windows, and overhangs can create a bright, efficient abode. The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association provides good resources at nesea.org/buildings/passive.
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Why burn coal every time you flip a light switch? Find local providers of renewable energy at green-e.org.
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Clothes dryers use the equivalent of 58 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year nationally. Why not give a clothesline a try? Get tips from Project Laundry List.
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If it's been quiet around here lately, it's because I've been getting ready to go on vacation, and won't be posting again until the middle of next month. In the meantime, we'll keep sending out the green daily tip, and look for some material from the new issue of Sierra starting in September.
What's on this weekend:
And, since I'm feeling guilty about my not-so-ecofriendly travel plans (a dear friend's wedding in Istanbul), which will cancel out most of the benefits of my apartment-dwelling, public-transportation-taking, maniacally-recycling day-to-day life, I leave you with an entertaining new way to confess, discuss, or revel in your own enviro-guilt: True Green Confessions: Because saving the world ain't easy.
While we have focused on recycling and re-using, many of us have ignored the importance of reducing. Consider what goes into making the products we thoughtlessly buy and the impact they have on the environment. Do you really need another coffee mug?
-- Submitted by Geoffrey Hall
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A hefty portion of the 100 million pounds of household pesticides Americans purchase each year is poured on their lawns and yards and can end up in streams and groundwater. Find out how to tend your turf organically at safelawns.org.
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Americans use 400 million miles of toilet paper each year. Look for recycled rolls with at least 20 percent post-consumer content.
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Can a documentary about environmental catastrophe compete at the box office with more typical 
summer fare of teenage wizards, slapstick humor, and amnesiac assassins? If it's produced and narrated by Leonardo diCaprio, it can at least hope to get as much buzz, and The 11th Hour is off to a good start. After premiering in New York and Los Angeles, where critics called it "a harrowing account of the planet's current condition," that also offers "just enough optimism that I didn't want to run home and stick my head in an energy-efficient oven," the film opens nationwide later this month. A companion website fleshes out some of the ideas introduced in the film and offers ways for individuals, businesses, and schools to make a difference. In this action movie, the heroes have to be us.
View the trailer and get more info:
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Too inconvenient to take transit to work? Start or join a carpool: Reducing the number of cars on a congested road by 5 to 10 percent through ride-sharing can minimize delays by 10 to 30 percent.
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More than 2.5 million tons of electronic waste is dumped into landfills each year. Find a responsible recycler for your old computer at www.computertakeback.com.
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Red and gold are the colors most commonly associated with fall, but it's easy to make back-to-school season a green one for your kids. From school supplies to lunches to special gifts, you can find cool alternatives that reduce waste and lessen toxic exposures:
I've been trying, when possible, to bring my own containers when we go out to
eat. That way, we can avoid using any disposable containers to bring home
leftovers.
--Submitted by Sandra Moskovitz
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Those of us who live in places with lots of older buildings are probably a bit resigned to the idea that we've been exposed to lead from the chipping paint in that shabby-chic Edwardian rental we shared with a multitude of roommates. But the recent recalls of more than a million lead-contaminated toys--
including this karaoke Elmo--were still shocking. In yet another unintended consequence of globalization, the toxic ingredient that the U.S. banned from paint in 1978 has come back into our homes in the form of die-cast cars, action figures, and children's jewelry, most of it made in China.
The Sierra Club has been trying for a while to get the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the EPA (which was not so long ago toying with the idea of dropping some of its health standards for lead air pollution) to crack down on lead in children's products. The CPSC is now making noise about a ban, but until that happens, here's what you can do:
For more tips and information about the health effects of lead, visit sierraclub.org/healthycommunities/lead.
Only 10 percent of cosmetic ingredients have been screened for safety. Find out what's in your favorite brand at safecosmetics.org.
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It's time to vote--no, not for Alias and Ellen, but for the best, most environmentally friendly building and building-component concepts. This clever, student-designed modular row house is just one of dozens of easily disassembled, reused, or adapted innovations up for a public-selected award in the Lifecycle Building Challenge. The winners of this national competition will be announced on September 20 at the West Coast Green ecobuilding conference in San Francisco, but to have your say, you have to vote today!
Hungry? Grab an apple or some carrot sticks. The average American eats only one-third the recommended amount of produce each day.
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It seems fitting to show a movie about global warming using the energy of the sun instead of fossil fuels. But everything from comedies to retro sci-fi to early Scorcese is fair game for the Solar-Powered Arts Festival in Manhattan. Starting tomorrow night with the new climate-change documentary Everything's Cool, the SolarOne center will follow its dance and music events by hosting outdoor screenings of six films, with audio generated by the building's 88 solar panels and tasty snacks for sale from the organic gourmets at Build a Green Bakery.
The main solvent used in dry-cleaning, perchloroethylene (or perc), is a likely carcinogen that also contaminates our soil and water. Opt for greener alternatives like wet cleaning (a kind of high-tech version of hand-washing) and liquid-CO2 dry cleaning. Or just avoid clothes that require dry cleaning in the first place.
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Change a light, change the world: If every U.S. household replaced its most commonly used incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, we'd cut our electricity use for lighting in half -- and lower our annual CO2 emissions by about 62.5 million tons.
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If you're in the Detroit area this weekend, grab your bike, roller blades, or just your walking sneakers and head on out to the suburbs on Saturday to join the Green Cruise, a people-powered alternative to the city's annual "Dream Cruise" of classic cars. The pre-cruise bike ride starts at 11 a.m. and tours Ferndale, Huntington Woods, Royal Oak, Berkley, and Oak Park before the main parade at 1 p.m.
Participants can also choose to sign the Green Cruise Pledge:
"In an effort to save money, keep myself personally fit, and make our air
safe to breathe, I promise to walk, rollerblade, hike, run, canoe, kayak, and/or
ride my bike at least once a week."
Even if you don't live in Michigan, why not give that a try?
(Photograph by Jay Pliskow)
Using cloth napkins made from 100% cotton is an alternative to using paper napkins or paper towels. I have been making cloth napkins as gifts for people when they move into a new home or for other gift giving occasions. They are simple to make. Cut an 18" square from cloth and turn all edges under 1/4" and zig zag a hem.
-- Submitted by Kathy Loser
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Life imitates art once again: Actor Alec Baldwin, who played a marine biologist on a manatee-themed (though not especially funny) episode of The Simpsons, has recorded public service announcements for the Save the Manatee Club. The spots will be distributed to radio stations nationwide by the Jimmy Buffett-cofounded group, which works to protect the imperiled (and inexplicably adorable) sea cow.
Be energy-aware at work: Setting your monitor or laptop to go into sleep mode automatically during short breaks can cut energy use by 70 percent. Then be sure to turn off your computer and monitor -- and the power strip they’re plugged into -- when you’re done for the day.
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I know I haven't been posting much lately, but I've been snowed under researching sustainability efforts on college campuses for the November/December issue of Sierra, an inspiring, but exhaustive (and exhausting!) task. Hope the daily tips have been keeping you entertained. Hang tight, we'll be back on track soon.
In the meantime, what green things have you been doing this summer? Talk amongst yourselves in the comments section!
Get in touch with nature while you get in shape: Exercising outdoors, exposed to the elements and uneven terrain, can burn 30 percent more calories than hitting the gym.
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The average house creates double the greenhouse-gas emissions of the average car. Audit your home’s energy use -- and see how you can reduce it -- at http://hes.lbl.gov/.
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Need some nails? Hit the local hardware store instead of Home Depot. A dollar spent in a locally owned business is worth three times as much to the local economy as one spent in a chain store.
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Tune into Sierra Club Radio on Saturday for the scoop on plug-in hybrid cars and this weekend's big marches to stop global warming, plus some tips from me on remodeling green. For more on that last subject, check out "Remodeling Right" in the July/August issue of Sierra.
I am always looking for ways to conserve water. So much water is wasted when people take their showers. So instead of washing my hair in the shower, I wash it at the sink before getting into the shower. In the summer, when I take a shower, I turn off the water while I wash and then turn it back on to rinse off. Another suggestion is that when I rinse fruits and vegetables, I save the water in the dishpan and take it outside to water my plants. It is amazing how much water can be saved if we are more conscious of our actions.
-- Submitted by Lisa K. Long
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A roundup of news worth noting from the past month or so:
BUSINESS/MONEY
* GE jumped on the green-credit-card bandwagon with its GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, which must be applied for online or by phone (to save paper, don'cha know). Boosters and doubters weighed in.
* A Portland startup has developed software to reduce paper waste while printing.
GRAPEVINE
* Actress/activist Daryl Hannah is working to green this weekend's Virgin Festival (sponsored by the media company, silly) in Baltimore. Music-lovers coming to see the Police, the Smashing Pumpkins, and dozens of other acts will also find plates made of sugarcane, biodiesel-run generators, and "green angels" monitoring waste disposal. Don't miss Explosions in the Sky, y'all. They totally rock.
* Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro has joined the campaign to preserve the island's Northeast Ecological Corridor. (Yeah, the article is in Spanish and from April, but even old news is worth reporting when it comes to Benicio.)
If you drive a car, keep your tires inflated to the recommended pressure in your owner’s manual. Underinflating tires by as little as five pounds can cut your gas mileage by 2 percent.
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C'mon now, don't be shy. We see the clever tips you submit to our mailing list and we know there have got to be other ReadyMade and Make aficionados out there in Green Life land. So if you've got an eye for the DIY, why not share your brilliant, environmentally friendly ideas with the world? Instructables, Popular Science, and Treehugger are sponsoring a "Go Green" contest and they want to know "how you're reducing your environmental footprint, and hopefully saving some cash in the process! Are you modding your gear, simplifying your life, or building something awesome? Tell us what you're doing to go green, and teach us how." Enter by August 19 for your chance to win a Breezer bike or a Solio solar charger. We'll be rooting for you!
Still paying your bills the old-fashioned way? Consider switching to electronic statements. If all American households received and paid their bills online, it would eliminate more than 800,000 tons of waste each year.
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