Earth Day tips

Happy Earth Day!

50 Green Tips for Earth Day and Beyond

by Kathleen J. King

(From DivineCaroline.com) - It doesn’t have to be Earth Day for me to think about how I can make an impact (or less of an impact) on our planet. Here are a few of my favorite tips:

1. Lower your thermostat. Buy a programmable thermostat.

2. Reuse your water bottle. Avoid buying bottled water. In fact, reuse everything at least once, especially plastics.

3. Check out your bathroom. Use low-flow faucets, showerheads, and toilets.

4. Start a compost in your back yard or on your rooftop.

5. Buy foods locally. Check out Eat Local Challenge (www.eatlocalchallenge.com) and FoodRoutes (www.foodroutes.org) to get started. Buy locally made products and locally produced services.

6. Buy in season.

7. Buy compact fluorescent light bulbs. You’ll find more on energy-efficient products and practices at Energy Star (www.energystar.gov).

8. Turn off lights and electronics when you leave the room. Unplug your cell phone charger from the wall when not using it. Turn off energy strips and surge protectors when not in use (especially overnight).

9. Recycle your newspapers.

10. Car pool. Connect with other commuters at eRideShare (www.erideshare.com).

11. Consider a car sharing service like Zipcar (www.zipcar.com).

12. Ride a bike.

13. Walk, jog, or run.

14. Go to your local library instead of buying new books.

15. At holidays and birthdays, give your family and friends the gift of saving the earth. Donate to their favorite environmental group, foundation, or organization.

16. Get off junk mail lists. GreenDimes (www.greendimes.com) can get you started. They’ll even plant a tree for you!

17. Buy products that use recyclable materials whenever possible.

18. If you use plastic grocery bags, recycle them for doggie poop bags or for small trashcan liners.

19. Bring your own bags to the grocery store. Given a choice between plastic and paper, opt for paper.

20. Buy locally. Find farmers–markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food near you at Local Harvest (www.localharvest.org).

21. Consider organic cleaning products (www.divinecaroline.com) like vinegar, borax, and baking soda.

22. If you have a baby, consider using cloth diapers. To sign up for a diaper service to do the dirty work, check out the National Association of Diaper Services (www.diapernet.org).

23. Consider buying a fuel-efficient car or a hybrid.

24. Landscape with native plants. Check out the article on the EPA website (www.epa.gov).

25. Opt into a clean energy program. Check out the Green Power Network (www.eere.energy.gov) at the US Department of Energy.

26. Go paperless. Consider reading your newspaper and magazine subscriptions online. Switch to electronic banking and credit card payment, too.

27. Teach kids about the environment.

28. Take your batteries to a recycling center. Earth 911 gives you the scoop (www.earth911.org).

29. Turn your car off if you’re going to be idle for more than one minute.

30. Do full loads of laundry and set the rinse cycle to “cold.”

31. Recycle. If you’re not at home, take the extra steps, (literally), to find that recycling can.

32. Reuse. Plastic food containers make good crayon and marker holders. Use padded envelops more than once. Buy your toddler or preschooler’s clothes from a thrift shop and give away those that don’t fit to friends. Goodwill (www.goodwill.org) or the Salvation Army (www.salvationarmyusa.org) can help.

33. Limit the length of your showers. Even better, take a “navy shower,” shutting off the water while soaping up and shampooing.

34. Don’t run the water when brushing your teeth. Learn about water scarcity (www.unwater.org).

35. Wash towels after several uses.

36. Purchase one case of water and provide clean water (www.charityis.com) to 24 people (for over twenty years).

37. Give away your goods and find new ones at FreeCycle (www.freecycle.com).

38. Recycle your technology. Dell, Hewlett Packard, Apple, and IBM, among others, offer recycling programs.

39. Go zero! Log on to the Conservation Fund’s Carbon Zero Calculator (www.conservationfund.org) and in less than five minutes, you can measure and then offset your carbon dioxide emissions by planting trees.

40. Put your money where your mouth is–invest in green investments. Web sites like Co-op America’s National Green Pages TM can help.

41. Learn about threats to ocean life and help Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org) take action.

42. Whenever you can, try using green cleaning products.

43. Find your local watershed and learn how to protect it.

44. Build a greener home.

45. Opt for eco-friendly and holistic health products.

46. Good to the last drop. Switch to fair trade coffee.

47. Go paperless at work. Distribute company information and post company material online.

48. Eliminate junk mail at work. For no fee, the EcoLogical Mail Coalition will eliminate the junk that former employees receive at work.

49. Plant a forest and feed a family while you’re at it.

50. Shop smart. Choose eco-smart products

What we’re wasting energy on

A lot of people are talking about Peak Oil, and some people are talking about Peak Coal, Uranium, etc. too.  Scary that we are running out of cheap energy sources, but it would certainly last a lot longer if we weren’t wasting it on junk.  Here some some examples of energy-wasting (yet funny!) products compiled by Do the Green Thing:

Record Vacuum, Motorized Ice Cream Cone Turner, USB Pillow, a Hand-held Machine that Smells Food for You and Tells You if it’s Bad, USB Heated Gloves, Noodle-Cooling Mini-Fan (chopstick attachment), Electronic Food Tumbler (for marinading, of course!), and an Electric Wine Opener.

Check out more useless items from Do the Green Thing’s “Should Have Been Plugged Out at Birth” follow-up post.

NY Transformed: Visions for a Sustainable City - 04/23

NY Transformed: Visions for a Sustainable City
April 23rd, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
The Arsenal, Central Park (at 64th St. & 5th Ave.)

New York City is at a pivotal moment in history.  Our city grapples with energy, population and environmental issues.

We have a once in a lifetime chance to promote the creative solutions that are needed to tackle our ever changing environment.  Now is our chance to lead by example.

Join the Sierra Club and the NYC Parks Department in picturing how to make New York a more sustainable city in the future.

Four of this city’s leading visionaries will paint a sustainable picture of NYC - describing long-term goals and the first steps toward them.
Our speakers include:

Dickson Despommier, Ph.D., Professor of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University
Paul Mankiewicz, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Gaia Institute
Kieran Coleman, Founder of PolisWind
Joel Towers, Dean of Parson’s School of Design Strategies, specializing in cities, services and ecosystems

Closest subways are the R,W,6,F
Seating available on a first come basis
Light refreshments will be served

Dickson Despommier, Ph.D., Professor of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University
Despommier is a microbiologist/ecologist by training, but has a great interest in sustainable urban life, where he has invented new approaches to the raising of food within the confines of a large urban center.  Dickson has established The Vertical Farm as a theoretical construct to look at the possibility of agricultural sustainability within cities.

Paul Mankiewicz, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Gaia Institute
Mankiewicz holds a Ph.D. in Biology.  His philosophy, which provides the foundation on which the Gaia Institute is based, holds that human communities and natural systems can coexist to mutual benefit. This rests on the hypothesis that where the flow of ‘waste’ materials from human activities can be cleaned and utilized to create habitat, human industry can be coupled with conserving and creating landscapes that provide an abode for life.

Kieran Coleman, Innovator and Entrepreneur
Coleman is the founder of PolisWind, a green technology company conceived with the goal of integrating renewable energy into the urban ecosystem; transforming cities into producers, and not just consumers of energy.

Joel Towers, Dean of Parson’s School of Design Strategies, specializing in cities, services and ecosystems
Towers is a practicing architect, he holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from Columbia University and has served on the faculties of both City College and Columbia. He was the project director for The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability in the office of William McDonough Architects prior to co-founding SR+T Architects in 1992.

chance to check out LEED gold building in NYC

Sorry for the short notice!

Green Healing Starts at NYC’s Hope Lodge

Event Date: 04/17/2009
9:30am - 10:30am

Celebrate the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge NYC LEED gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

LOCATION:

Hope Lodge NYC
Jerome L. Greene Family Center
132 W. 32nd Street
New York City

Please join us in honoring Durst-Fetner Residential for helping make Hope Lodge NYC the first green facility of its kind in the nation.

RSVP to Desiree Davis, (212) 237-3916 or desiree.davis@cancer.org

Talk on NYC’s Local Food Movement

via NY League of Conservation Voters:

Talk On NYC’s Local Food Movement

Event Date: 04/21/2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm

“Eat locally” has become the new byword of the sustainable food movement. Farmers markets, community gardens, urban farms, and innovative restaurants all play an integral role in promoting fresh, seasonal produce and in supporting local and regional economies.

Join Dan Barber, Executive Chef/Co-owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Blue Hill; Michael Hurwitz, Director of Greenmarket; and Ian Marvy, Director and co-founder with Michael Hurwitz of Added Value and its Red Hook Community Farm, for a panel discussion on being a “locavore” in the country’s largest metropolis. Gabrielle Langholtz, editor of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn, will moderate the conversation.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED

NYLCV members should call the Museum’s public programs office to reserve tickets at the discounted price: 917.492.3395, or 212.534.1672, ext. 3395.

$6 NYLCV and Museum Members

*A two-dollar surcharge applies for unreserved, walk-in participants.

Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street

Queens electronics recycling day

Queens Electronics Recycling Day

Event Date: 04/18/2009
10:00am - 4:00pm

The Lower East Side Ecology Center, in partnership with Con Edison and Sims Recycling Solutions, is sponsoring an Electronics Recycling Day at Travers Park in Jackson Heights, Queens, on the south side of 78th Street between Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue.

The following will be accepted in working and non-working condition:

Computers, monitors, printers, keyboards, mice and cables, TVs and VCRs (no wooden consoles). Please note - no microwaves or toasters.

For more information, call (212) 477-4022 or visit www.lesecologycenter.org

plan to up NYC’s terrible recycling rates

New York City Re-Examines Recycling Law

Submitted by Elizabeth Mooney on Thu, 2009-04-16 16:03.

Citing a “recent study,” Crain’s New York Business reported that, in five years, New York City won’t pay more per ton to recycle its trash than to dump it, primarily because landfill costs are rising. Nevertheless, the city only recycles just 17 percent of its residential waste today, despite a law requiring it to reach a 25 percent level by 1994.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council are negotiating over revisions to Local Law 19, with the mayor seeking to eliminate recycling goals and the council  “interested in broader reform…to strengthen the program and enhance its cost-effectiveness,” Eric Goldstein, a senior attorney and urban program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Crain’s.

The New York League of Conservation Voters recognizes that the way New York manages its solid waste matters a good deal when it comes to the city’s collective carbon footprint. As part of our 2009 New York City Council Policy Agenda, the League urges the City Council to revise Local Law 19 to expand the types of items eligible for curbside recycling collection as well as public education efforts. It also supports the mayor’s plan to impose a fee on plastic bags and use some or all of the resulting revenues for recycling.

Environmental wins in the 2009-2010 NY state budget

The good news comes  via the NY Sierra Club:

Environmental Protection Fund
The Environmental Protection Fund was funded at $222 million, which is $17 million more than what the Governor proposed. The majority of the Real Estate Transfer Tax was preserved as the main funding source, at $199 million, and the balance is made up of new fees, such as a new wetland permit fee.

Bottle Bill
The Bottle Bill expansion compromise is a solid win for the environment. It expands the nickel deposit to water bottles, including any flavored water or nutritionally enhanced water, except if it contains sugar. This inclusion makes up 70% of non-carbonated beverage containers. Additionally, the expansion directs 80% of the unclaimed nickels to the state’s general fund, with the remaining 20% going to bottling companies.

OJ surpise

“Two quarts of gasoline and a thousand quarts of water are required to produce a quart of Florida orange juice.”

-from Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, & L. Hunter Lovins

Earth Day - Green Apple Festival

This is the biggest Earth Day festival in the US - definitely worth checking out!

http://www.greenapplefestival.com/

In NYC:

Activities take place parks, beaches, schools and forests. Actions will focus on climate change solutions like tree planting, energy efficiency retrofits, water protection, urban gardens and forest restoration. Produced with the participation of leading environmental organizations, along with city parks and recreation departments, the activities address current challenges and will help get important work done.

Suitable for individuals of all ages, including children and families

Lots of fun activities to choose from!

I would really love to get a bunch of Curious people together for this - to attend and show support or to volunteer!  Would be a great way to spend the weekend.