Thinking about buying a new car? Perhaps your SUV gets 12 miles to the gallon? Or your 1985 Chevy won’t pass the emissions test? Consider this tidbit from Wired:
“Pound for pound, making a Prius contributes more carbon to the atmosphere than making a Hummer, largely due to the environmental cost of the 30 pounds of nickel in the hybrid’s battery.”
Once you pull up to the gas pump, on the other hand, it’s a whole other story.
We’ve been trying something new for about a month. Publix sells "reusable grocery bags" for around $1 per bag. The same or very similar bags are also sold at Target, Wal-Mart, and Whole Foods and appear to differ only in color and logos.
My wife picked up 10 bags at Publix about a month ago, and I have been pleasantly surprised at the results, in spite of the initial cost.
I found a very interesting blog by Fiji. If you have not heard of Fiji bottled water, it actually does come from Fiji. It is a favorite of my mother in law (in spite of filtered tap water at home), and does taste pretty good as water goes.
The blog is Fiji Green Blog and highly recommended. The back and forth between commenters and Fiji Green Gal are entertaining and surprisingly informative.
Personally, I am not a fan of bottled water and agree with many of the posters that tap water in a mug or thermos is just fine and a good glass of iced tea or mug of hot coffee is even better. But, if you are going to drink bottled water, Fiji Green Gal makes a strong case why Fiji water should be your choice.
I have not yet found a comparison of other bottled waters, but will keep looking. Please share any stats, links, or other information in the comments about beverage choices and their greenness!
You may have missed us over the last few weeks as vacation time rolled around and we really took advantage of it. To kick back off, I put together a few real life tips from our trip to the beach of little things that can help make your vacation just a little greener.
| CarbonRally.com is a neat site that we’ve mentioned before. It tracks actions you take to reduce your carbon consumption and impact on the environment. We’ve created a group called “greenho.ws” that is open for everyone to join!So far, with just three team mates, we have climbed to the second page on the leaderboard and would like to go higher!
Join with us to take simple, often obvious, and generally easy actions to help keep the environment green. It’s easy to sign up: just click the “JOIN MY TEAM” link to the left. If you are not already signed up with CarbonRally.com you will be prompted to create a user name and ID. Quick path to join us would be to click again on the link at left, or look for us in the teams section (at the moment, we are on the second page). Full disclosure here: I did NOT sign up to go vegetarian for two days. It’s tough to pass up those burgers at Five Guys! |
I haven’t had my morning caffeine yet and already a half dozen green articles or ads have jumped out at me. I am gain surprised at how quickly interest in the topic has grown.
Here’s a sample of what I’ve seen so far today, with some comments:
There are three paths we can follow to a greener country. One of based on the "where have you been?" and "why haven’t you done more?" philosophy. Another follows the path of denial by saying "what problem?" And the third falls somewhere in between.
In many ways, the first two may do more harm than good.
If you compared auto insurance rates, you might think green drivers are safer drivers! The reality is, all* insurance companies offer some form of discount to green drivers, although the discounts are not always labeled as green. It takes just a little research and preparation to ask the right questions when talking to your insurance provider.
I found three green chances to drive my auto insurance costs down.
Wow, eco-tourism looks fun, interesting, and educational. You get to travel a long way, get a great view of minimally touched nature. If you do it right, you get to feel good about not leaving any trash behind. But all that travel generates a lot of pollution getting there.
Lately, I have been reading about plastics. More specifically, I have been reading about BPA, PVC, phthalates, and the effects they may or may not have on us. I have not seen any definitive research that settles the question of how poisonous they are, although some countries have labelled them as carcinogens. So, there is a strong argument that continued exposure to plastics and associated chemicals has an effect on human health.
Regardless of the argument, here’s how I feel about these: I do not like the idea of plastic in the food I eat, the drinks I drink, or in the air I breathe. We did not evolve eating plastic. Regardless of how little we ingest from one little plastic item, we handle a hundred every day. Surely the constant exposure accumulates.
So, what to do?
In January, I wrote about online tools you can use to calculate and even reduce your impact on the environment. Since then, we’ve been using two of the tools and it’s been interesting to see the results.
The summer concert season is almost upon us. If you live near an outdoor arena, you know how fun it is to be outside listening to a little music with a few (thousand) friends. A big problem with concerts, indoors or out, is the amount of waste they generate and the impact of all the traffic to and from.
There are a number of musicians trying to do something about it. Here’s a few examples:
This week we talked about several project ideas, from world wide to right at home. On Green Products News we talked about what to use and on greenHo.ws we gave suggestions on how.
Here are some projects we said talked about last week:
We covered more than just projects with a few posts with tips, a little education, and more:
After many weeks of encouragement, cajoling and even a little harassing from EcoDaddy, I have decided to finally give blogging a shot. This morning while commuting to work with my two EcoBoys in tow, I watched a well-groomed, twenty-something gentleman zoom passed us in his brand new BMW. The boys were excited by this sleek, speed machine. As they argued about whether the car more closely resembled Lightening McQueen or the Batmobile, we watched a plastic wrapper come flying from the driver’s side window. It was followed by a cigarette, a second and then third piece of plastic.
This is a short post to offer an opinion on something that surprised me a lot today. While wandering through Costco (buying in bulk to save time and energy getting to and from stores), I spotted a magazine with “Green” in the title.
I was surprised when it turned out to be Green Guide from National Geographic.
There has been buzz over the last few months as news hit about how much power is used by new technology TVs. Specifically, plasma and LCD TVs constantly use power and significantly more power than traditional tube TVs when turned off.
There have been lots of tips out there on how to handle this, like unplugging the equipment or using a power strip. But there are some factors to keep in mind when taking these actions. Here’s a short guide on how to green your electronics and entertainment center power consumption.
Do you have plans yet for the weekend? Great! Here’s a few more ideas:
and here’s one I missed last week:
Would you believe that businesses overstate the green-ness of what they sell? And that many of those overstated claims are on products you and I pick up every time we go to the grocery or big box store? What if you found out that 99.9% of products labeled “green” were not?
Often, one of the first steps in finding a new house is finding a real estate broker. It is kind of a weird experience, as I usually try to avoid sales people. In my search, I came across a green approach some brokers are taking to differentiate themselves in a tough market.
Almost everyone loves a party. Parties mean music, food, friends, and sometimes lots of friends. And with all of that comes consumption: food, drinks, electricity(!), and even some basic household supplies. The good news is that it is possible to have a lot of fun and be green at the same time.
I spent a few minutes talking to my wife about some ideas for minimizing the impact of a party. She’s planning one now, and did a little digging into options. Together we found some good news and bad news.
