Step Into the Earth Lab

As a person who is always looking for ways to be more efficient, the idea of finding out my exact carbon footprint and ways to reduce it is very appealing. There are carbon footprint calculators galore on the Internet, and in an effort to find more ways to reduce my emissions, I have been perusing many of them recently. A tip from my friend Marah over at The Blue Ocean Institute led me to Earthlab.

Here's why Earthlab is worth a visit:

1. Requires Very Little Patience - As they say on their website, it really does take only 3 minutes to calculate your carbon usage.
2. Covers All the Bases - The calculator evaluates 6 basic facets of how we live - home, energy, commute, travel, work, lifestyle.
3. Score Means Something - Once you are done (let's say during minute 4), you get a score from 150-900 (150 means you are a carbon-saving rock star), and you also are able to compare your score to other people in your city, state, and country.
4. Tangible Ways to Reduce - No matter what your score, there are specific pledges you can take to reduce your carbon emissions further. For example, in the energy section, you can pledge to air dry your dishes, start composting, or turn off lights whenever you leave a room.
5. You Can Track Your Progress (think of it as an alternative to Facebook when looking for a way to procrastinate at work) - You can visit your account at Earthlab regularly to report your progress, update your score, and make new pledges.

Earthlab offers tangible actions that you can start taking today. So stop reading this blog and go save some energy!

A Movement in a Few Parts - The Final Countdown

For those of you following our move (and more importantly our quest to avoid the landfill by creatively disposing of belongings we don't want to cart 3,000 miles...again), we are days away from the arrival of the moving truck.

It should be noted that due to both environmental and budgetary concerns, we have also tried to consume as little space as possible on a carbon emitting moving truck. After some research, I found a company that rents smaller spaces on large trailers, and so we were able to rent the smallest size - 6 x 8 x 9 - further emphasizing the need for "net reduction".

So we've had our moving sale, we've made a few trips to Goodwill, and we've swapped our books, but what about the X-Box player that doesn't work, or the CDs that have long ago been burned into our Itunes library? We don't have room for them in our precious square of truck space, and we still don't want to hit that dumpster.

There are two resources that I have been using constantly to find lists to aid me in my quest. The first is Earth 911's recycling locator. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am a contributor to Earth 911). The locator allows you to find places to recycle anything from fluorescent bulbs(don't throw these in the garbage - they contain a tiny bit of mercury and can be recycled at all Ikea stores among other places) to old phone books just by entering in your zip code. It is one of the most comprehensive databases out there.

The second resource that I often use is a blog by Coop America titled "21 Things You Didn't Know You Could Recycle" with links to recycling agencies for everything from CD jewel cases to appliances.

Here are a few tough-to-recycle items we recycled using the suggestions from the list (and a little creative thinking too!):

Beanie Babies - No idea where these came from. I know they are not mine, and my husband is also pleading ignorance. No matter, we plan to sell them on Ebay. Craig's List is also a good (and free!) place to post items for sale.

Broken X-Box, Stereo, and Speakers - Used Earth 911's recycling locator to find a place to recycle these. Some electronics stores like Best Buy have recycling "events", which are days when all broken eletronica will be accepted for recycling.

Technotrash - In our case, this included CD jewel cases, various chargers, music and VHS tapes, and an old cell phone (cell phones are incredibly easy to recycle as well as useful for someone else - Collective Good refurbishes cell phones and sells it for use in a developing country: 770/856-9021. Call to Protect gives cell phones to victims of domestic violence. For a fee of $30, Greendisk will send you a box that you can fill with up to 70 pounds of technotrash - totally worth it.

Televisions - We were able to sell both of our sets, but with the switch to digital slated for later this year, there will be a lot of people interested in upgrading their sets. Televisions can contain up to eight pounds of lead, and some municipalities have already banned them from the landfill. Start with Earth 911's recycling locator again, and look for a subsequent blog with complete details on what to do with your old television!

Old Athletic Sneakers - When you are a size 12 (yes, dainty me), these add up quickly when you are talking about cubic feet in the landfill! Luckily, Nike will take back all old athletic sneakers and will recycle them into Nike grind, used to make playground and other sports surfaces.

CDs - We found a CD store that bought used CDs and sold them - I guess this confirms that my husband has good taste in music. Those that were rejected were listed and swapped at Swapacd.com. You can do the same with DVDs at Swapadvd.com.

Books - Paperback Swap! For more on their services, check out the previous blog.

Lightly Used Litter Boxes and Cat Toys - These went to our local no-kill animal shelter - we cleaned them of course! Animal shelters are in constant need of supplies.

Batteries - Single Use and Rechargeable - We ordered a recycling kit from Battery Solutions.

If you still find that you have items to dispose of after perusing my blog, Earth 911, and Coop America, then post your goodies at freecycle.org or bring them to a local Goodwill.

Off to load (..tightly!) those 432 cubic feet with all of our worldly possessions.

A Movement in Several Parts - A Reading Intermission

Happy 4th! With our move now less than two weeks away, I have decided to tackle the bookshelves.

While we are trying to lighten our cross-country load as much as possible, I refuse to part with the majority of my books. I admit it; as a writer and avid reader, I am also a book hoarder. Perhaps there are support groups for people like me?

I did a little searching on the good old world wide web of information, and while I did not find a support group, I did find the next best thing - a place to swap the books I am willing to part with - And yes, there are a few, like From Myst to Riven (which has something to do with two video games, and which seems to be a treasure for someone since it has already been requested). By the way, that book totally belonged to my husband, which, while earning me points for taste, earns me no points for reducing my book pile.

From Nerd to Super Geek

Still, once I make the tough choices (do I really need three copies of Pride and Prejudice?) the process of swapping these books couldn't be easier. Here's how it works:

• Join Paperback Swap and post the books that you would like to swap. Books on CD and hardcovers can be swapped too -I guess Paperback, Hardcover and Book on CD Swap is a bit of a mouthful.
• You will be notified by email when other members have requested your books.
• Print mailing labels from the link provided and send your books off using the media mail rate (it's the cheapest). You pay for postage on your end and another member pays postage when they mail a book to you.
• As soon as your book is received by the requester, you receive one credit towards a book of your choice on the website.
• Check out the millions of books listed (2,308,700) at the time of this writing, and request that they be sent to you. In our case, of course, we will wait to request any books until we reach Seattle!
• If you don't see a book you want, add it to your "wish list," and you will be notified as soon as another member posts the book to swap.
• For the price of postage (generally between $1.50-$3.00), you have millions of new books to choose from - of course, you can see why the book hoarder likes this service!

Our Green Relocation - Overture

Who can resist the allure of the parrot poster? It had him at hello.

Countdown! For those of your following this series, we are now officially less than 3 weeks away from our move from NY to Seattle. We have made it our mission to make this move as environmentally friendly as possible. Our first goal has been to reduce as many of our belongings as possible, and while the move is a good impetus for passing on unneeded possessions, the idea of responsible net reduction is one that almost anyone can embrace.

In addition to the usual avenues for reuse - Goodwill, local charities, etc., we have also made it a point to recycle even those hard to deal with items. With the clock ticking towards our departure date, it has become progressively more tempting to dispense with our outmoded possessions at the landfill, but we have been resisting the urge...

Before you deem your unwanted possessions "junk" see if they are treasures for anyone else. Here are a few tips for a successful sale:

• Plan a date when you know people will be around (in our case, this meant the last day of school meetings since we live on a campus)
• Advertise! Send out an email to your friends, those in your community, and/or consider placing an advertisement in a local paper.
• Put up signs. Even if the yard sale has been well-advertised, a little nudge from a sign on the day of the sale, may be just what people need to check it out. And, of course, signs will catch the attention of those passing by.
• Display everything in an attractive and neat manner. You are less likely to buy items in a store when everything is in a heap - the same goes for a yard sale.
• Be prepared to haggle...but not too much. Of course, there are always those looking for a deal - hold your ground with prices only if something has significant value. Otherwise, the point of a sale like this is to rid yourself of excess possessions, so let them go!

Our moving sale was hugely successful - obviously it doesn't hurt to have a feline sales(person?)!

Slacking again? Back to work!

We sold about 2/3 of our "inventory" and all of our big ticket furniture items.

Net reduction strikes again, and with three weeks to go before the move, we continue to avoid relegating anything to the landfill.

To see if our quest to avoid the dumpster is successful, stay tuned for the next installment...

In the meantime, isn't it a beautiful weekend for a yard sale?

Our Green Relocation - A Movement in a Few Parts

Yes, we are moving. And like many in our demographic (youngish, no kids, a few moves already under our belts), and despite our vows to do otherwise, we have managed to accumulate too much stuff....again!

Our last move from Los Angeles to New York was certainly not - we drove 2 cars cross country, used a moving company that should have been featured on a Dateline NBC scam expose, and we brought WAY TOO MUCH STUFF.

So this will be our second move across the country, and since we are definitely older, and therefore would also like to consider ourselves wiser, we have vowed to embark on the most environmentally-friendly relocation possible. The bottom line is that our goal is to lighten our load considerably, but also to throw away as little as possible.

In this series of blog installments, I will candidly detail our experience, offering tips along the way for those of you also facing a move (or just looking to get rid of some stuff without the help of the local landfill). Feel free to follow along and find creative ways to reduce and reuse your belongings as well!

Phase One - Net Reduction

I borrow this phrase from a dear friend, and over the next few weeks, we plan to become rock star net reducers, ridding ourselves of anything we don't consider crucial and/or sentimental. I am planning on a few arguments with my husband over the definition of sentimental - he still has a collection of stuffed animals from when he was a wee tyke as well as every cassette mix he's made or received since middle school.

Flock of Seagulls and Men Without Hats?
Together on one mix? Sweet!

We have started the net reduction process by going through our belongings in storage. You know, the ones you forgot you even had and mostly wonder why you kept in the first place?!

Our quest for less began where else - the basement! In our case, not in our basement, since we live in an apartment, but in my husband's grandfather's basement. We got started by making some piles:

1. Keep - see criteria above

2. Sell - still in good shape, but not worth the expense or carbon footprint created by a 3,000 mile transport.

3. Give Away - There are plenty of charities like Goodwill ready and willing to take anything you can't easily sell. There are also several internet groups like Freecycle that allow you to post your belongings for the taking.

4. Recycle - And I'm not just talking about the usual stuff either - paper, plastic, glass etc. I'm talking about cd covers, computer parts, a stereo, and even some of my exercise DVD's.

"Not the comic books!!"

5. Toss - Yes, sadly some products like household hazardous waste and old medications (which somehow always end up stored together) will have to be thrown out. I will cover how to safely do that, too.

Next week, we start the process officially by having a moving sale and swanky stuff swap of all of our "precious belongings" marked to sell or give away. I will detail both of these "events" in subsequent blogs, so stay tuned for more of our green moving adventures!

What's Your Waterprint?

While there has been a lot of attention paid these days to the containers that we choose for holding our water - see my previous few blogs about plastics for starters - awareness is also starting to grow about the planet's water shortage.

There are currently an estimated 1.1 billion people in the world who lack clean water. Why is this? Is there a shortage of water or just a shortage of wells and a lack of infrastructure for transporting safe, clean water?

The answer is both. Only .03% of the water on Earth is potable, and according to Peter H. Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute, "As many as 76 million people -- mainly children -- will die from preventable, water-related diseases by 2020 even if current United Nations goals are reached."

So what can we do?

• Help to set up wells and other infrastructures by donating to organizations like Charity: Water and Unicef, which are working to bring clean drinking water to all.

• Help to conserve the precious drinking water we have left by reducing the water you use every day. Here are a few suggestions about how to do so:
  

Get Educated about your water footprint - go to H2O Conserve or Waterfootprint.org (Personally, I'm a sucker for the cartoon characters over at H2O Conserve) to calculate your water footprint.

You will be asked questions about where you live, how much of your power comes from solar or wind energy, whether or not you have low-flow devices on your showers, toilets, and faucets, how much laundry you do per week, etc.

While it may turn out that you are indeed a water glutton, take heart because each question serves as a new idea for a way to save more water. For example, not yet letting "it mellow?" Might be time to consider new flushing policies in the household! Post-asparagus voids get an exemption - phieew!

In addition to these standard questions, there are many more that concern your virtual water footprint, one that must be taken into account if you truly want to curb your daily water consumption. According to the recent Discover magazine article "Everything You Know About Water Conservation Is Wrong" by Thomas Kostigen, "Virtual water is a calculation of the water needed for the production of any product from start to finish."

So while it is important to turn off the water while brushing your teeth and to take shorter showers, it is crucial to be mindful of your virtual water consumption. For example, consider all of the virtual water lost in the food we throw out or used in the goods we buy - almost everything takes water to produce.

According to Kostigen's article and Waterfootprint.org, "The virtual water footprint of a cup of coffee is 37 gallons; an apple, 19 gallons; a banana, 27; a slice of bread, 10; a sheet of paper, 3; and a pair of leather shoes, 4,400."

And in the United States, we are really thirsty for our virtual water. Our annual average usage per person is 656,012 gallons, more than double the world average of 328,410 gallons.

So go ahead, install those low-flow shower and faucet heads, buy only what you need, and throw away even less. It will leave a lot more water for all of us to drink.

For more water conservation tips, see "H2O: One Glass at a Time" in this month's Green Guide.

Composting Carnivale

On a recent trip to Davis, CA, a bike-friendly haven just west of Sacramento, I met some very interesting co-eds. A friend, who is doing her post-doc in neuroscience at UC Davis, offered to show me around the campus (on a bike of course).

If there's a way to look cool on a bike, I have yet to find it.

What I found were inspiring microcosms; small, student-run organizations that have formed communities, which work together to effect real change in the world. Rather than just complain about waste and inefficiency, they are changing their lifestyles. I'm certainly down with that.

The first little stop on our bike trek was what I will call composting central; it was located at the back of a few of the houses where members of The Co-op live. In their own words, The Co-ops are "an ecologically-conscious culturally diverse student community dedicated to alternative living. We power our homes with solar energy, we grow some food organically, and love to compost and recycle."

No more guilt over scrapping your broccoli

What's more, some of these students run Project Compost, which is a student-run and funded initiative that both educates the university population about compost through free composting workshops, and picks up over 1000 pounds of food refuse daily from all over campus.

Sign Reads: "Crank Lever to Mix Content"
Leigh: A+ (Nice Form!) Steve: F (At least hold the sign!)

True to their mission, the composting area was both educational and functional. It had several different types of bins along with explanations about how each system worked. Some required sifting, rotating racks, or spinning, and we were happy to get down and dirty with them all.

"Behold, the composting power of worms!"


"Holy Hell, that is a stinky business!"

Where does all of this nutrient-rich (and alarmingly bug-infested) compost go? Right next door - to The Co-ops bountiful organic gardens.

So if these college students can pull this off, why can't those of us with a college diploma do the same thing? And most importantly, why are so many of us still dumping biodegradable matter into the landfill where it creates methane emissions (yes, that's one of the types of gases that causes global warming).

Lastly, with the cost of food ever on the rise, why not start growing a little bit of your own? For more info on the UC Davis composting program, visit the website. If you are a college student, look around at how much food waste is being generated each day - I guarantee you will be horrified - and then consider starting one of these projects at your school. I'm sure the UC Davis crew would be happy to offer some pointers. They do attend an agricultural school after all, and these students obviously have been staying awake in class.

8 Reasons to Love '08

Thanks to many of your efforts, a lot of the issues explored in Weekly Way '07 blogs have been addressed by increased awareness and action and/or new legislation. Here's to continuing to support positive change in environmental, humanitarian, and political issues in '08!

It's a new year and twelve months of growth, education, improvement, and adventure lie ahead. Here are 8 reasons to get excited about '08, and the best news is that this is just the start!

1. There will be a presidential election! Please remember to register and vote.

2. You can join the Free Hugs campaign. At the very least watch the video. Trust me.

3. Thanks to organizations like Cross Cultural Solutions and Globeaware, you can can spend a week or more volunteering in countries all over the world.

4. President Bush just signed the the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act (SADA) into law. There is still much more to be done to stop the genocide, but this is a very good start.

5. Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore's Dilemma, just published another book, In Defense of Food, with gems like, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

6. Almost every bill you can create (credit card, electricity, mortgage, phone etc.) can be payed online. What are you waiting for, paper hog? Go to their websites and switch to e-bills today, and while you are at it, don't forget to switch to electronic bank and investment statements too! You might even be able to save some money. Got a college loan to pay off? Sallie Mae offers interest rate reductions from .25-.375% on many loans if you change to electronic payments. That little bit pays off in big savings over time.

7. It is easier than ever to live in a cool city. Check out Sierra Club's list to see if your city made the grade. Either way, see how you can get involved and help keep your city cool.

8. The 2008 Smart Car ForTwo just became available in the United States.

Spring Cleaning

Wouldn’t it be nice to open your mailbox and find only the mail that you want? Have you ever fantasized about throwing a yard sale but you either A. Don’t have a lawn or B. Don’t feel like haggling all weekend over the cost of your old desk or hula girl coffee mug? Well, thanks to two organizations, a free ad and a small fee will allow you to get rid of both the unwanted junk that arrives at your home on a daily basis and the unwanted junk that you’ve been accumulating for decades.

According to 41pounds.org, “The average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year.” The organization offers a service that costs $41 and last for 5 years which will:

• Save time by eliminating 80-95% of your daily junk mail
• Save trees – 100+million trees destroyed annually for junk mail
• Save water used producing and recycling junk mail
• Reduce global warming – energy used for producing junk mail
• Support your favorite charity – they donate when you sign up

Now that your junk mail is taken care of, let’s turn our attention to that old printer. Freecycle.org is “a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns."

Each Freecycle group is moderated by a volunteer. You can follow the links on Freecycle’s website to find the group closest to you. If you can’t find a group near you, you can start your own group by following the instructions on their site. It’s a great way for anyone from college students to bi-coastal wanderers to both find and discard those precious home goods.