WHAT CAN YOU DO?
LITTLE THINGS ADD UP
Green Lighting:
Change your lightbulbs: We’ve seen billboards and commercials, advocating those funky twisted lightbulbs called compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs,) which use less energy to provide the same amount of light as luminescent bulbs. Many of us have gone out and bought them. Now, CFLs come in many different shapes, to accommodate different light fixtures and décor. To maximize energy savings, choose the product that provides the most lumens for the least wattage.
Use natural light: During the day, turn off all unnecessary light sources, and open the curtains. Hanging mirrors will reflect light throughout the room, and lend a more open feel.
Light patrol: Assign a small child to “light patrol,” asking him/her to travel around the house, turning off all unused lights.
Green Power:
Unplug you appliances: Standby mode still uses power that is not necessary if you are not even using the appliance, in addition to increasing danger of an electrical fire. To avoid this, unplug your appliances. If it is difficult to get behind the entertainment center all the time, plug the appliances into a power strip, so you only have to unplug one thing.
Energy-efficient cooking: Most stoves and ovens heat so fast that preheating them only wastes energy. When you do bake, take advantage of the additional heat and turn your furnace down a bit. Use a properly-sized pot, covering all of the burner, as unused burner space equals wasted energy. Also, try to eat in ways that use no heat, such as salads, chilled soups, and raw food. It’s also much healthier!
Install a fan: A good fan can circulate heat from a furnace through the room, preventing it from just rising up through the ceiling.
Work with the seasons: During the winter, stop drafts with insulation and place plastic over your windows, creating a vapor layer. In the summer, open the windows at night and turn off the air conditioner (if you live upstairs or in a safe area.)
Buying new computers: Computers alone use an average of 394 kilowatt hours of electricity over the course of a year, and those 70 million new computers alone add up to over 18 million more tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Before choosing a new computer, become familiar with certain terms which will help you identify how much power the computer will use. “Energy consumption in idle” tells you how much power is used after the computer is turned on, but when you’re not actively using it for tasks such as powering your MP3 player. The EPEAT ranking was created by the Environmental Protection Agency to determine how acceptable a computer will be for recycling. The Energy Star label is applied to computers and monitors that use 20-50% less energy than non-rated counterparts.
Green Eating:
Buy food locally: If you live in a sustainable area, try to buy your food from a farmer’s market. Not only does this support the local economy, it also reduces the carbon footprint left of harvesting, packaging, and transporting the food to your area.
Buy and cook in bulk: If you find the right stores and the right sales, you can save an incredible amount of money by buying in bulk. Just remember to use everything you buy, and price-check to be sure you are actually getting a deal. When cooking, eat leftovers the next day, or freeze them for later.
Cook from scratch: Buying fresh produce and preparing it yourself not only eliminates the energy and packaging used in preparation of frozen foods, but you are not using the energy necessary to thaw and rehydrate foods.
Buy organic: Think not only of the chemicals you are not putting in your body, but about the chemicals that are also not going into the soil or water systems. Is organic too expensive: Look for sales on organic canned goods, and buy in bulk. Specific stores, like Trader Joe’s in the Reno area, specialize in organic foods at low prices.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Bags): If your shopping trip is small, saying no to a plastic bag keeps fewer of them out of landfills. Get a reusable tote, or just reuse your old plastic bags.
Ignore Advertising: Just because the product was featured on television, or comes in the pretty packaging, does not mean you should be eating it. Researching your body’s specific dietary needs, and trying to make your food yourself, reduces the amount of packaging used and the preservatives and trigger foods you ingest.
Ease up on the meat: Producing meat requires huge amounts of water, grain, land, and other inputs including hormones and antibiotics, and leads to pollution of soil, air, and water. Try adding in a few meat-free meals to each week. If you can’t stand tofu, that doesn’t mean you will fail. Research vegetarian recipes, which use beans, lentils, or cheese as protein alternatives for your veggie days. Not only are you helping the environment, you are increasing your nutrient consumption and reducing your cholesterol consumption.
Carry your own drink bottle: Much of the bottled water on the market is a scam: it is no cleaner than regulated tap water, and often contains styrene from the packaging. Instead, get a good-quality, non-porous bottle and refill it yourself. This also keeps all those little bottles out of the landfills, and even cuts out the recycling costs.
Reuse your dishes: Stop using paper plates and cups, even if you abhor washing dishes. The water use for a load of dishes is lower than the environmental impact of creating/recycling paper or plastic plates. At the office, encourage each employee to bring his/her own cup or bottle, and get rid of Styrofoam coffee cups.
Buy sturdy equipment: Items that last a lifetime won’t be tossed into a landfill like that Teflon frying pan that lasted two years before the coating started flaking off into your food. Buy a cast iron skillet, or sturdy utensils instead of cheap wooden/plastic spoons, and knives that you can sharpen yourself. The same holds true for furniture and clothing. It costs more initially, but there will be less or no replacement cost.
Compost: A composting bin can be bought at your local gardening or hardware store. Place plant-based food products, layering dry “brown” products with fresh “green” products, in the bin. Lots of things you'd otherwise throw away can be composted, including wine bottle corks, cooking oils, certain types of foam packing peanuts, used paper towels, dryer lint, etc. If it is natural, you can probably compost it without trouble! When the compost is done, mix it in with outdoor soil, or offer it to a gardening friend or a greenhouse. It will be heartily accepted.
Buying chocolate: Have you been to the candy aisle and seen the chocolate bars in fancy packages, with odd terms like “certified organic,” “fair trade,” and “rainforest alliance?” Here is how to decode them:
"Certified Organic" chocolate must be grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers on land that was free of such chemicals for three years prior to certification. To be certified organic, the farm must also utilize a sustainable crop rotation plan to prevent erosion, the depletion of soil nutrients and control for pests. The USDA's National Organic Program is the primary organic certifier in the U.S., but you may also see a USDA-accredited certifier such as Quality Assurance International, that abides by USDA's criteria.
The "Fair Trade Certified" label is a third-party certification administered in the U.S. by TransFair USA, a member of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), and it means that cacao beans were purchased directly from growers or their cooperatives at a price higher than the commodity market rate. Both growers (including producer groups and cooperatives) and importers can be certified, and certification ensures that the price paid per pound of beans never falls below $0.10 more than the current market price. Currently, Fair Trade-certified farmers are paid the FLO-established price of at least $0.80 per pound, $0.89 if it's certified organic. Certification also imposes some environmental-protection standards on growers, including a ban on the most hazardous pesticides such as DDT, methyl parathion and lindane, and the use of integrated pest management techniques, such as growing cacao under shade canopies. Fair Trade-certified importers must also provide pre-financing credits to growers when needed to help them comply with certification requirements. The higher wages allow farmers to invest in health care, education, community development and environmental stewardship. Keep in mind that Fair Trade certification on a chocolate bar guarantees that the cocoa beans have been certified but not necessarily other ingredients like sugar.
Combining aspects of the certifications above, the Rainforest Alliance (RA) focuses on how farms are managed rather than how beans are traded, covering all aspects of production including environmental protection, worker rights and welfare and the interests of local communities. Certification requires that at least 40 percent of the cacao-growing plantation has to be covered in shade at all times in areas where the original natural vegetative cover is forest, which allows for wildlife preservation and a reduction of pesticides, but they do allow the use of some agrochemicals when pest-related damages would be greater than the farmer could cope with economically. They do, however, prohibit pesticides that are banned by the EPA, the EU and those that are on the Pesticide Action Network Dirty Dozen list and a few other international environmental program lists. RA-certified cacao farms must also pay workers, including minors, at least the local minimum wage, provide safe working conditions and implement measures to reduce minors participation in the harvest. While only a minimum of 30 percent certified content is required for products to display the "Rainforest Alliance Certified" label, retailers are required to state the percentage of certified content next to the label.
Green House:
Dispose of medications properly: A five-month-long Associated Press investigation has found pharmaceutical drugs in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas from Southern California to New York City, which provide water to 41 million Americans. Instead of flushing medications down the toilet, pour both solid and liquid medications into strong plastic bags, crushing the pills. Add kitty litter or coffee grounds to the bags, and place the sealed bags with your household garbage. Remove all labels (your identity) from the bottles, and place the bottles in a recycling bin.
Reuse, then recycle: Before you toss your newspaper into the recycling bin, consider using it for other purposes first. Use it to clean windows, replace packing peanuts, cushion fragile dishware, use them to start your barbeque (avoiding lighter fluid,) or spread them out on the table, under messy meals or projects.
Clean naturally: Baking soda removes odors; salt is an abrasive; baking powder’s effervescent qualities can dissolve caked dirt and scum, and vinegar kills bacteria. Plus, none of these items will harm a small child if he/she ingests them.
Trade: If you have something you have finished using, but is in good or repairable condition, either offer it to an organization/family in need, or trade it for something you need. Goods can be traded for services, and vice versa.
Green your personal hygiene: A growing number of manufacturers offer products that are either chemical-free or are made from sustainable resources. Don’t be taken in by words such as Natural, Organic, or Hypoallergenic on the packaging; you need to make sure that the product has a certified label. You can look for the Eco-Cert label as well as the USDA Organic seal, which is used in 80 countries around the world. As an example, Aveda is not only fully sustainable, it is a leader in environmentally-responsible packaging, uses organic materials in most of its products, and is powered by 100% certified wind power.
Re-landscape: By choosing locally appropriate plants, you are reducing the amount of water necessary for keeping up your garden. In Reno, Dry Creek Garden Company specializes in plants sustainable in the local area.
Harvest your rainwater: Place a container under gutters to catch water that would go into the storm drains. Reuse this on your plants.
Save water in the bathroom: Many of us have heard about turning off the water while brushing our teeth. But you can also use an egg timer to cut down the length of your shower, or stop using your toilet as a trash can for tissues. “Warm up” water, which runs without use of soaps before you get in the shower, can be collected and poured on your plants or lawn. Fix leaky toilets or faucets. You can even fill a small milk jug with rocks and place it in your toilet tank to displace water, reducing the amount needed to flush.
Take "green" literally: Some houseplants actually clean the air. The top ten air-cleaning houseplants are the areca palm, English ivy, peace lily, cornplant, weeping fig, rubber plant, dwarf date palm, Boston fern, chrysanthemum, and gerbera daisy. To a lesser extent are the dumb cane, spider plant, pothos, philodendron, and various ficus and dracaena species. Pollutants taken from the air by houseplants are usually formaldehyde, toluene, xylene, acetone, and methyl/ethyl alcohol. Plants cannot remove cigarette smoke or pet dander.
When choosing houseplants, remember that many can be toxic if ingested, so be extra careful if you have young children or pets in your home. Staff at the local garden center should be able to advise you on nontoxic choices, or contact your local poison-control center for guidance.
Play outside: Find recreation with a low environmental impact, like baseball in the park or a hike in the woods. Spend time with family and friends, or read a new book.
Green Transportation:
Green your car: If you can’t afford a hybrid right now, you can still save time and the environment with a few practices. Get regular oil changes, to reduce the amount of emissions. Regular tune-ups will also reduce emissions. Sudden stops and starts lower your MPG, as does speeding. Carpool, walk, ride the bike, or take public transit. Roll down the windows and turn off the AC. And, if possible, telecommute.
Walk to the store: If you live close to a grocery store, or even a 30-minute walk away, combine your workout time with your shopping time. Take a friend, and add in social time.
Green at Work:
Advocate at work: Set computers to “energy mode” and shut them off completely at the end of the day. Try to do more work digitally, sending emails instead of printed memos. Buy recycled paper. Carpool to work. Replace lightbulbs and use natural lighting sources. Encourage coworkers to bring reusable coffee cups. Set up bins for cans in the break room, and for paper in the office. Share your efforts with like-minded employees, to get more people on your side.
Green-Minded:
Educate yourself: Make eco-friendly practices a new interest. Whether or not you want to tout your interest to taunting friends is your choice. The more information is locked into your brain, the more conscious choices you will make each day, with less effort.
Choose the right plastics: Have you taken a look at the plastic code on the bottom of your containers, that number surrounded by a triangle made of arrows? Knowing your codes can help you decide if you can reuse your plastics, and if you can recycle them.
The healthiest plastics are codes 2 (HDPE,) 4 (LDPE,) and 5 (PP,) but while code 2 is commonly accepted by recycling systems, it may be difficult to find someone to take your code 4 and 5 plastics. Code 1 bottles are fine for single use and widely accepted for recycling; however, since this plastic is porous, it is not recommended for refill since the pores can harbor bacteria.
Plastics to avoid are code 3 (PVC,) code 6 (Styrofoam) and code 7 (polycarbonate,) none of which are easily accepted for recycling. PVC, which is often used for cling wraps in meat, contains carcinogens and hormone disruptors. Styrofoam can leak styrene into food, which is a possible carcinogen. Polycarbonate, which is found in baby bottles and 5-gallon water bottles, contains a hormone-disrupting chemical which has been linked with cancer and obesity.
Another “plastic,” polylactice (PLA,) is made from renewable resources such as potatoes, corn, and sugar. While you cannot recycle PLA, it decomposes in only 12 days, unlike the 100 years it takes for most other plastics. You can generally find PLA containers in health food stores.
Spread the word: If you’re green, tell other people. Many people want to help the environment, but are unsure how. You could be the inspiration for their change, leading to the reduction of another carbon footprint.
What impact do you, personally, have on the environment?
Calculate your carbon footprint.
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What can be recycled?
Where, in Reno, can you find an eco-friendly business?
What resources can you find on the web?
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