10 Things NOT to do on Earth Day

We could yap to you all day about things you SHOULD do on Earth Day – like planting trees, attending an Earth Day Brainwashing Festival and cleaning up litter in your neighborhood– but you already know all that. Green consumer expert Diane MacEachern, founder and CEO of Big Green Purse, has a great list of 10 things to avoid doing today as you (hopefully) try to be a little more eco-conscious than usual.

1) Don’t drive like a teenager, speeding up and slowing down and weaving in and out of traffic. Such aggressive driving can lower fuel efficiency by 33%. Accelerate gently and stay with the traffic to save gas and money.

2) Don’t use cleansers and personal care products that contain triclosan or other antibacterial agents. Public health officials worry that antibacterials (in cleansers, window cleaners, and soaps are causing us to become resistant to antibiotics. Use simple soap (like Dr. Bronner’s castile soap) and hot water for cleaning, and body soaps and lotions that do not say “antibacterial” or “fights germs” on the label.

3) Don’t go shopping without a list! According to the U,S. Department of Agriculture, people waste about 30% of their household food budgets buying groceries that eventually expire and have to be thrown out. Know what you want to buy before you hit the store aisles – you’ll buy less, buy more of what you’re likely to use, and reduce the impact your shopping has on the planet. Then put your list on your refrigerator so you don’t forget what’s inside.

4) Don’t leave the lights on when you leave the room. You could save as much as $100 a year in electricity costs by turning off a 100-watt lightbulb when you’re not using the light.

5) Don’t leave the computer on if you’re going to be gone longer than two hours. Don’t leave the monitor on if you’re going to be gone longer than 20 minutes. If you plug your electronics into an energy-saving power strip, you can reduce the energy they use by as much as 40%.

6) Don’t leave the water running when you brush your teeth. Turning off the tap when you brush your teeth can save up to 8 gallons of water a day, 240 gallons a month, saving hundreds of dollars on your water bill each year.

7) Don’t buy “snack packs” that come wrapped in cardboard and plastic. Small individual packages use more energy and resources to manufacture and transfer, and are often twice as expensive as the same product sold in a larger bag or box.

Don’t use so much shampoo, soap, lotion, make-up, gel and perfume. More than 25% of all women and one of every hundred men use at least fifteen products daily, according to a survey of 2300 men and women, exposing people to hundreds of chemicals during the course of a day. Can you reduce the number of products you use by at least three?

9) Don’t buy anything new. Remember the 3 R’s of eco-friendly living? They begin with “reduce” (the other two are “re-use” and “recycle”). If you need to shop, start with EBay.com, Freecycle.org, the  neighbor’s yard sale, or the community vintage or thrift store.

10) Don’t sit at your computer all day. Get outdoors for at least an hour to remember why Mother Nature is worth protecting. Besides, if you’ve done all the other don’ts on this list, you deserve to take a break!

Diane is author of the book Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World, and was recently named an ‘Eco Hero’ by Glamour Magazine.

For a humorous list of 10 more things NOT to do on Earth Day, check out Olivia Zaleski’s 2008 Huffington Post article which includes such classics as #4, Feed a cow beans, and #7, buy a polar bear fur coat.

Link [Big Green Purse] + [Huffington Post]

Eco DIY Project: Make Your Own Rain Barrel

Why pay money to water your garden when you could simply harvest the free rainwater that runs down your gutters? Rain barrels are a great way to capture and store water, and while there are many (pricey) pre-made versions out there, it’s really easy to make one yourself. This DIY eco project is super easy, and 55-gallon food-grade barrels can often be acquired for free from restaurants. So, your total cost can be as low as $20!

The video below, by Penn State Cooperative Extension, illustrates the process – and you can get more detailed step-by-step insructions at DIY Life, Instructables or GreenTerraFirma.

Link [DIY Life] + [Instructables] + [GreenTerraFirma]
Photo credit: CasaSugar + Apartment Therapy

Urban Gardening: You Can Grow Food, No Matter Where You Live

(image via: Flickr user iamterris)

Gardening is regaining popularity as a pastime for all types of people across the world, with gardens popping up in the most unexpected places. While the traditional image of a garden may not exactly fit into the reality of most urban environments, the fact is you can grow your own food whether you live on a rural farm or in a tiny Manhattan apartment. Urban gardening is all about using space wisely to regain a closer connection with your food and beautify your home or neighborhood.

There are a handful of different types of urban gardens, and the ones we’re going to focus on here are indoor gardening, container gardening, community gardening and guerilla gardening.  Perhaps you’ve got a tiny townhouse yard, a balcony, a south-facing window – or perhaps you live in a basement apartment that won’t support anything but mold. You can still grow enough of your own food to save a considerable amount of money and enjoy the freshest, healthiest produce possible.

Container Gardening – Growing Food on a Small Scale

(images via: Technology for the Poor)

Container gardening allows urban residents with small yards, patios or balconies to grow practically any plants in practically any container that will hold soil. One of the most fun parts of growing food in containers is that you can get incredibly creative with coming up with new uses for old junk. Wine barrels, used tires, feed sacks, kiddie pools, buckets, leaky watering cans and even shoes are among the items intrepid container gardeners use – and that’s just the beginning. You can also build your own self-watering containers, as illustrated in the video below.

(images via: PathtoFreedom.com)

Raised beds make a great alternative to containers and allow you to grow a lot more. Like containers, they can be placed on hard surfaces like concrete slabs or rooftops and are great for smallish spaces or yards where the soil quality isn’t so great. Raised beds are freestanding structures typically made from wood, stone or concrete that are filled with soil and compost. Most often, they’re constructed of planks of wood screwed or nailed together in sizes typically ranging from 3’ x 8’ to 5’ x 20’ and are between 8” to 3 feet in height. They keep soil warmer, provide better drainage and require less maintenance than traditional gardens.

For amazing eye candy, inspiration, tips and info about growing food in raised beds on a small lot, check out the journal at PathtoFreedom.com. ‘Path to Freedom’ is the urban homestead of the Dervaes family, who grow almost all of their own food – plus enough to sell to local restaurants – on just 1/10th of an acre. They also raise goats, chickens and ducks, keep bees, brew their own biodiesel and basically live as self-sufficiently as possible on their tiny parcel of land in Pasadena, California.

Beginners and experienced urban gardeners alike will also enjoy FreedomGardens.org, an online social community of gardening enthusiasts “digging their way to a free and secure food future”.

Indoor Gardening – Apartment Dwellers Can Grow Food, Too!

(image via: Flickr user ramsey everydaypants)

Okay, so growing pumpkins, corn or zucchini indoors probably isn’t all that feasible. But, any window that gets at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day can support leaf crops like lettuce, endive and arugula as well as small-crop tomatoes, peppers, root crops and even bush beans.

Growing vegetables indoors requires different soil requirements, watering, pollination, and pest control techniques than doing so outdoors. You must also consider things like air circulation and ambient temperature. You may need supplemental lighting – cheap shop lights from the hardware store work just as well as expensive grow lights.

If you’re a total novice and growing veggies in your kitchen window seems intimidating, try herbs first. Chives, basil, parsley, oregano, cilantro, peppermint and rosemary are among the herbs that do well indoors and they’ll add lots of fresh, pesticide-free flavor to your meals.

For tips on indoor gardening, including planting requirements, potting media, how to hand-pollinate with artist brushes and which varieties will be most successful, check out GardenGal.net and this article by the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Community Gardening – Rent a Plot in Your Neighborhood

(image via: Flickr user jeffschuler)

If you don’t have any space at all to grow plants, community gardening may be your best bet. Most cities have some kind of community garden program, where residents can rent a plot of land for a nominal fee (it’s even free in some places). There are an estimated 10,000 community gardens in the U.S. alone, allowing people who don’t have land of their own or who simply want the community experience to grow food, relieve stress, connect with the environment and interact with other members of the community.

In community gardens, residents share the responsibility of maintaining and managing the garden. Some community gardens are communal instead of divvying up land between members, so everyone shares in each others’ efforts.

To find out if your city has a community garden or to start one, check out the American Community Gardening Association.

Guerilla Gardening – Who Cares if it’s Someone Else’s Land?

(images via: Flickr user ubrayj02)

For those with no access to land at all, or people who would just prefer to put their efforts into beautifying forgotten public spaces, guerilla gardening will satisfy your impulse to dig in the dirt. Guerilla gardening is planting vegetables, fruit, herbs or any other plants in land that’s not yours – whether it’s a vacant lot, a park, a median, the side of the highway or those sad little strips of dirt between streets and parking lots.

Also called ‘pirate gardening’, the essential goal of guerilla gardening is to improve public spaces and make sure perfectly good land doesn’t go to waste. Some guerilla gardeners surreptitiously sow and tend patches of vegetables or flower gardens under the cloak of night, ready to run for it if cops or the property owners appear. Others get permission from landowners or the city and openly garden in spaces that aren’t technically theirs.

There are lots of different ways to guerilla garden. Some people secretly plant food – like strawberries, melons, zucchini or tomatoes – among ornamental plants in city-tended gardens. Some take over vacant lots altogether, or simply throw ‘seed bombs’ anywhere that plants could potentially take hold. Seed bombs are little balls of soil, clay and seeds – check out our video below to learn how to make them yourself.

GuerillaGardening.org is a great resource for anyone interested in greening up their neighborhood on the sly. Get tips, see photos of guerilla gardens around the world and meet fellow guerilla gardening enthusiasts in your area.

Green Jobs 101: How to Snag Eco-Employment

Looking for a green collar job? You’re far from alone. Even with the tanking economy, lots of people are putting their hopes into the prediction that millions of green jobs are coming our way in the next few years – especially since many believe that green jobs and economic recovery will go hand-in-hand. Here’s EarthFirst’s guide to green jobs, helping you learn more about what’s out there, how to get training and where to apply.

What exactly is a green collar job?

A ‘green collar job’ is generally defined as a job that pays a livable wage, provides opportunities for advancement along a career track of increasing skills and wages and helps the planet, whether by cleaning up the environment, providing renewable energy, advancing eco-friendly technology or some other tangible improvement.

Green collar jobs range from what we know as ‘blue collar’ to ‘white collar’, with most of them falling squarely in the middle. They tend to require more than just high school education, but not necessarily 4-year college degrees. With adequate training, even low-skilled and low-income workers can get a job in a green industry.

Green collar jobs also tend to be local jobs. Check this out, from Green for All:

Much of the work we have to do to green our economy involves transforming the places that we live and work and the way we get around. These jobs are difficult or impossible to offshore. For instance, you can’t pick up a house, send it to China to have solar panels installed, and have it shipped back. In addition, one of the major sources of manufacturing jobs — a sector that has been extensively off-shored — are components parts for wind towers and turbines. Because of their size and related high transportation costs, they are most cost-effectively produced as near as possible to wind-farm sites. Cities and communities should begin thinking now about ways their green strategies can also create local jobs.

What are the hot industries with lots of jobs available, and what does the future look like for green jobs in general?

The hottest sectors for green jobs are solar thermal, solar photovoltaics, biofuels, and fuel cells (in terms of revenue growth). Hot job areas include electricians, mechanical engineers, welders, metal workers, construction managers, accountants, analysts, environmental scientists, and chemists.  The vast majority of jobs created by the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries are in the same types of roles seen in other industries.

In other words, you won’t necessarily even have to change fields to get a green job. Green companies will be seeking factory workers, IT professionals, marketing professionals, administrative assistants and other employees. Nearly any job can be green.

The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) forecasts the creation of 37 million jobs from renewable energy and energy efficiency in the U.S. by the year 2030. Of course, ASES warns that this scenario will only be possible with strong government support – but we’re counting on President Obama to live up to his promises to put the creation of green jobs at the forefront of his priorities.

So far, California and Colorado stand out in terms of availability of green jobs and growth potential. California is becoming a “cleantech epicenter”, with employment in the sector spiking 10 percent between 2005 and 2007. More than $3 billion in venture money was invested in California cleantech companies in 2008, representing over 57 percent of all U.S. investments in the sector. California has also produced the highest number of patents (607) in the solar, wind and battery industries. Colorado, on the other hand, is a hotbed of renewable energy opportunities with about 6% of the U.S. wind market, nearly six percent of the photovoltaics market, and about 5% of the biofuels market.

The green jobs field is still very much in flux, according to GreenBiz.com. After years of promise led to a crash in expectations in late 2008 as the global economy faltered, many were unsure of how things will shape up in 2009 – and though it’s still unclear exactly when and where the green job boom will take place, there is definitely promise. All signs point to the Obama administration jump-starting America’s clean tech sector. Employers will have to catch up to the 21st century, though, and stop requiring applicants in brand-new fields to have years of experience. Training programs will be necessary to prepare workers for these new roles.

Where can I learn more about green jobs training?

If you’re out for a green job, prepare to be competitive. While not all green jobs require special training, many do – especially the cleantech and renewable energy industries. Here’s a list of green job training programs for various fields.

Green Corps 2009-2010 Field School for Environmental Organizing – In Green Corps’ year-long paid program, you’ll get intensive training in the skills you’ll need to make a difference in the world. You’ll get hands-on experience fighting to solve urgent environmental problems — global warming, deforestation, water pollution and many others — with groups such as Sierra Club and Greenpeace. And, when you graduate from Green Corps, we’ll help you find a career with one of the nation’s leading environmental and social change groups.

Green for All Academy – The Green for All Academy trains leaders and gives them the tools they need to communicate the promise of the green economy and to engage disadvantaged communities in support of green jobs and climate protection strategies. Academy participants are on-the-ground leaders in the movement to create an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. After receiving their initial training, participants work with Green For All to advance policy, communication, and organizing goals over a one-year fellowship period.

Sustainable South Bronx – The Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program is one of the nation’s first and most successful green-collar job training & placement systems. Students graduate with several certifications, job readiness preparation, and a powerful environmental justice perspective on all of the important work they are qualified to do. Nearly all of the students were on some form of public assistance, and about half have prison records. This 14-16-week program is free to qualified applicants. SSBx also has a 10 to 13 week pilot job training program in basic building construction, energy retrofits, and home energy audits.

Oakland Green Jobs Corps – Providing “green pathways out of poverty,” the Oakland Green Job Corps will serve young adults who face barriers to employment – poverty, lack of work experience, limited education, cultural and language barriers, or history with the criminal justice system. The teachers at Cypress Mandela provide wraparound services and work with the students to help them achieve basic literacy and math skills, pass their GED, learn personal finance, get their drivers license or clear their driving record, and pass their weekly drug tests.

Solar Energy International - Solar Energy International (SEI) is a USA non-profit organization whose mission is to help others use renewable energy and environmental building technologies through education. SEI teaches individuals from all walks of life how to design, install and maintain renewable energy systems, and how to design and build efficient, sustainable homes. SEI offers trainings online and in 22 locations around the world.

Solar Living Institute – Established in 1998 as a spin-off from Real Goods Trading Company, the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, CA, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization whose mission is to promote sustainable living through inspirational environmental education. The Institute provides practical, education by example and hands-on workshops on renewable energy, green building, sustainable living, permaculture, organic gardening and alternative, environmental, construction methods.

DC GreenWorks – DC Greenworks is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) social enterprise that serves the Washington, D.C. community by providing training, tools, and technologies that utilize, advance, and protect the environment. DC Greenworks sees a vital connection between ecology and economy, between employment potential and environmental sustainability. We actively seek to discover, promote, and deliver cutting-edge solutions that are cost-effective, eco-friendly, and socially beneficial.

There are lots more green job training programs available locally. To find one near you, contact your local chamber of commerce.

How do I prepare?

Before you start applying for green jobs, there are some things you can do to improve your chances of getting hired. First and foremost, go green in your own life in any ways that you can. Read green blogs, join local green groups, communicate with other greenies online – make contacts and build your knowledge about the green movement in general. If you’re unsure of what kind of green job is right for you, this can be a great way to learn which topics pique your interest.

Consider your strengths and think about how skills you’ve acquired in previous jobs can help you perform a new green job. Put these on your resume – and speaking of resumes, beef it up with green volunteering. It’ll show that your heart’s in the right place, which can help you stand out in a crowd of applicants.

Where should I apply?

Here are a few of the top green job boards. Check them regularly – instructions for applying to each job are typically included in the listing.

Green Jobs
Treehugger Job Board
Green Dream Jobs
Green Jobs Network
Green Careers by MonsterTRAK
Green Gigs
GreenBiz.com Career Center

Of course, if you’re the entrepreneurial type, your best bet may be starting your own eco-friendly business. Learn more about how to do that at Entrepreneur.com.

Recommended Reading

The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones
Ten Best Green Jobs for the Next Decade
Top 25 Green Gigs & Their Salaries
Get a Job: Top 10 Guides to Finding the Perfect Eco Career
Great Green Careers
Opportunities for Green Growth: Myths and Realities About Green Jobs
Why Obama’s Green Jobs Plan May Work

Photo credit: Green for All

7 Green Ways to Lose Friends and Alienate People

You may take a lot of pride in being deep, dark green – but what you see as shining examples of eco-sainthood may come off to the rest of the world as rude, condescending and downright disgusting. Nobody wants to be friends with a sanctimonious bastard that looks and smells like he just rolled out of a dumpster. If any of these 7 greener-than-thou missteps apply to you, it might be time to tone down the smug and improve your personal hygiene.

7. Giving unsolicited green tips while in someone else’s home

Are you an eco consultant? Great! People will pay you good money to tell them what’s not green about their home and how to fix it. Otherwise, shut up. Going to a friend’s house and nitpicking everything you see that’s less than spectacularly eco-friendly is a fast-track to a lot of unreturned phone calls.  Skipping the ‘suggestion’ part and simply walking around their house turning lights and electronics off is a great way to end up with a boot in your ass.

Sure, you’ve got some golden nuggets of green wisdom to share and you hate to see people throw their money away and harm the environment. If it comes up in conversation, offering your tips is great – but critiquing people’s habits and possessions unprompted will get you branded as an eco-snob.

6. Hoarding in an attempt to cut back household waste

You cut back the amount of trash that you send to the curb every week by 75%. Congratulations! Now, if only you could make a tunnel through all of those plastic bottles and packing peanuts to get to the bathroom…

Holding on to stuff like electronics, batteries or light bulbs long enough to make a trip to a recycling center is cool – but hoarding tons of trash just so you can say you didn’t throw it out doesn’t accomplish anything. It’ll get thrown out, eventually – when your neighbors realize they haven’t seen you for weeks and the cops discover your body under a pile of rotting food, junk mail and used condoms. The idea is to cut back your consumption of throwaway stuff in the first place, not to turn your home into a public health hazard.

5. Ungraciously refusing gifts that aren’t green enough

So, Uncle Ted gave you a Wal-Mart gift card for Christmas and the look on your face when you opened it didn’t exactly convey the gratitude he expected. You were horrified, and decided to make your righteous indignation loud and clear so everyone in the family could learn a lesson about how Wal-Mart is an evil corporate virus that’s destroying the environment. That’s a great way to make everyone think you’re a stuck-up asshole who has no appreciation for nice gestures.

Take the gift card (or whatever), thank the person who gave it to you and donate it to someone who really needs it – or use it in any green way you can possibly think of. Letting people know, especially ahead of the holidays, that you prefer eco-friendly gifts is cool – but not right after receiving something that doesn’t pass muster.

4. Being the Green Office Nazi

Suggesting green changes in your office is a great way to spread sustainability. Taking it upon yourself to ration office supplies is not. Guarding the supply closet like it’s Fort Knox and snatching paper out of the secretary’s hand because she’s already used 3 sheets today isn’t going to win you any green converts.

Instead of loudly berating your co-workers for using paper cups and tossing used batteries in the trash can, put your well-meaning energy to work in a way that might actually accomplish something. Talk to your bosses about how going green could save them money and they’ll be more than happy to provide some recycling bins, refillable pens, recycled paper and other eco-friendly supplies.

3. Mistaking gag-inducing body funk for pleasant ‘natural scent’

It’s true that not everyone needs to wear deodorant. Some people are blessed with armpits that don’t knock other people over with noxious clouds of funk – but others seem to think that body odor is cool as long as you’re going deodorant-free to be green. If people’s faces are melting in horror and disgust when you pass them on the street, it’s time to address your problem.

We’re not suggesting that you douse yourself in AXE body spray. But seriously, a little deodorant can be a really good thing, and despite any frustration you may have experienced in the past with natural deodorants that don’t work, there are some that do. Kiss My Face Liquid Rock, for one, works just as well as conventional brands and is very safe and gentle.

2. Conserving water… by not showering

Throwing personal hygiene out the window in order to be green just isn’t necessary or fair to the people who have to be close to you at any given time. Going without deodorant is bad enough, but deciding not to bathe altogether ventures into Howard Hughes territory. When your hair looks like you could squeeze out enough oil to fry up a batch of hush puppies and your ears start to smell like parmesan cheese, you’ve taken it much too far.

We’ve all got to bathe, and with low-flow showerheads, timers and biodegradable cleansers, you can keep yourself passably clean without too much guilt.

1. Forcing guests to use “Family Cloth”

To follow the mantra “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down” in your own home is a fine way to cut back on use of resources in the bathroom. Even putting a sign up for your guests is okay, though some will be too squicked out to comply. However, ‘family cloth’ takes bathroom eco-friendliness a bit too far when it comes to guests.

For those unfamiliar, ‘family cloth’ is a term for washable fabric wipes as an alternative to toilet paper. Yes, it’s ultra-green, especially considering that most toilet paper is made from virgin tree pulp – but your friends probably don’t want to share ass-wiping cloths with you. Provide backup toilet paper for guests, for the love of all things holy.

President Obama, a Few Green Habits You Could Pick Up in 2009

President Obama, we here at EarthFirst are incredibly proud and excited to watch your inauguration today and we’re so very hopeful about what you can do for clean energy and the environment during your time as our country’s leader. The next four years are a crucial time, when we must ramp up our efforts to fight global warming and help our economy recover through the creation of green jobs.

When it comes to greening America, we already know that you believe that changing a few light bulbs in your home isn’t enough – and you’re right. We all need to do more than that – and as much green change as you’ll be pushing through on a national and international level, there are some things you could do in your own personal daily life that would be a boon to your health and an inspiration for billions of people across the world.

1. Quit smoking. You set out to quit during your presidential campaign, and then admitted to falling off the wagon. It’s a tough process, but we’ve got faith that you can handle it. And, quitting this dirty habit will not only set a better example for your two young daughters, but will enable you to stop contributing to pollution and deforestation (wood is used in just about every step of cigarette production). Tobacco production in developing countries uses child labor and causes food shortages by diverting farmland usage, not to mention all those noxious chemicals left behind in butts that litter virtually every corner of every state in America.

2. Become a vegetarian. Factory farms are among the worst polluters in the world, and generate disgusting quantities of waste filled with bacteria, diseases, pharmaceuticals and other contaminants. Ranching is a major driver of deforestation worldwide, overgrazing has turned a fifth of all pastures and ranges into desert and the impact of methane emissions from all those cows is greater than that of CO2 from cars. A cruelty-free diet is easy to stick to when you’ve got an uber-talented White House chef who can prepare healthy vegetarian meals for the whole family.

3. Plant a White House victory garden. Instead of that vast expanse of useless, resource-hogging grass, the White House lawn could be home to an organic farm that provides fresh produce for the White House kitchen with the remainder going toward local food pantries. We’d love to see a Victory Garden replanted at the White House to serve as an example for all of America and provide food for needy Washington DC communities at the same time.

4. Evaluate & improve energy use in the White House.  In your December interview with Barbara Walters, you stated your plans to green the White House and conduct an energy efficiency evaluation as soon as possible. We’d like you to not only follow through on that but make the results public so we can all see how making small changes can use fewer resources and save us money during tough economic times.

Green DIY Crafts: Turn a Shopping Bag into a Shipping Envelope

Admit it – you sometimes forget your reusable bag and come home with paper or plastic ones. But, that’s okay – if you’ve got a few disposable bags sitting in your recycling bin, you can give them one more good use before they’re ready for a new life by turning them into shipping envelopes. Team Eco Etsy has a great tutorial that shows us how, and they come out looking very professional – perfect for sending off those last-minute gifts.

From Team Eco Etsy:

So I start with a brown paper bag from Whole Foods (who have forsaken plastic altogether) and a light-weight plastic bag from Stop & Shop (they still offer plastic).

The plastic bag is used simply as a moisture barrier and is not always needed, but in variable weather I like to play it safe. So the first thing to do is neatly wrap your product in the plastic bag – no need for tape – it’ll stay neatly wrapped in your finished envelope (and by not taping it, your customer can re-use the plastic bag yet again).

Cut the paper bag on its seam and lay it flat, then place your product on top and start folding. Make the envelope big enough for a little wiggle room plus about a half inch on each side for stitching. Cut away the excess paper (you know – the bits that don’t look like an envelope) and fold the left and right sides closed. Run a line of machine stitching down each side. If you want to get creative, use a nice embroidery stitch – I used a straight stitch for this example.

Get the rest of the instructions over at Team Eco Etsy.

If you don’t have a sewing machine or don’t know how to sew, you can still use this idea – just glue the seams down. This ‘Amazing Eco Glue’ has less than 1% VOCs, no hazardous air pollutants, no animal derivatives, is water resistant and comes in recycled packaging.

Link [Team Eco Etsy]

Start 2009 Off Right with a Green New Year’s Eve Party

If you’re planning on throwing a New Year’s Eve bash, The Daily Green has the guide you’ve been looking for that explains just how to pull off green, cheap and chic. Sent out cute e-vites, decorate creatively with recycled and re-purposed materials, set the table in style and make some delicious organic hors d’oeuvres.

Check out the first two here and then head on over to The Daily Green for the other 6!

Setting the Table

The easiest and cheapest way to get enough seating for your guests is to borrow from your neighbors (this might mean you’ll need to invite them to your party, so be prepared). If you still need more supplies, try renting them from a party supply store. You can get glasses, china and tablecloths as well. If you’re going the disposable route, try some eco-disposable options. BiodegradableStore.com has a plate made from sugarcane, an annually renewable resource. At $6.95 for a pack of 50, the price is pretty sweet too. Green Party Goods has great options for festive napkins, or take a look at Plum Party’s eco-supply section.

Invites

Keep it simple and free with an e-vite or e-card. Find “cards” at Evite or MyPunchbowl. Try Someecards if you want to get hilarious responses.

Link [The Daily Green]
Photo credit: someecards

Most Eco-Unfriendly Holiday Décor

While you’re putting up your holiday décor, trimming the tree and wrapping your gifts, the environment may not in the forefront of your thoughts. But during the holiday season, we create more waste and consume far more power than any other time of the year. You may not have covered your entire house in blinking lights that stay on day and night, but there are still common elements of holiday décor that aren’t exactly eco-friendly. Here’s Newsweek’s list of the most environmentally damaging holiday paraphernalia:

Artificial Christmas Trees. While the upshot of fake trees is that you can use them for many years, when it comes time to toss them, they’re tough to recycle. Most are made of nonbiodegradable polyvinyl chloride (PVC.) It’s better to buy a real tree, says Lori Bongiorno author of the environmental guide “Green, Greener, Greenest.” But she warns that not all live trees are equally eco-friendly. “Buy live trees from a farm as close to home as possible so you cut down on emissions for transportation. If you can find a tree that’s both local and organic that’s even better,” she says.

Tinsel. This shiny silver stuff needs to be removed before you can recycle your tree, but it can be tricky to pick all of it off the branches. “Christmas trees are composed or mulched and tinsel won’t break down in this process,” says Bongiorno. “If you send a tree that still has tinsel on the branches … your tree will probably go straight to the landfill.”

Conventional Incandescent Lights. These traditional outdoor bulbs burn up to nine times more energy than light emitting diode lights (LEDs.) Though they cost a bit more, LEDs produce less heat, last longer and shine brighter from one holiday to the next.

Store-bought Ornaments. Those shiny new glass balls and plastic reindeer figurines might be relatively cheap to buy, but when you tally up the raw materials, manufacturing and (usually international) transportation they require, they’re environmentally costly. If your tree is bare, you’re better off buying local, trimming the tree with homemade ornaments or scouting for natural decorations by hanging painted pinecones or berries.

Wrapping Paper. It’s may be pretty, but it’s wasteful to spend a lot on something that ends up torn and crumpled on Christmas morning. Some alternatives to fancy wrapping: use newspaper or old cereal boxes to conceal gifts. Danny Seo, author of “Simply Green Giving” suggests using brown paper bags decorated with red, black and white electrical tape. With a little creativity and craftiness, he says “the end result looks like Burberry gift wrap.”

Electric Window Candles. These need to be plugged in, so they burn energy all through the night (especially if you have lots of windows.) And they’re a dangerous if placed too close to curtains. Bongiorno suggests using LED candles instead. “They’re difficult to break, last a long time, and they don’t get as hot as conventional bulbs so they’re less likely to cause fires.”

Spray-On Snow. Even if you’re yearning for a white Christmas, frosting your windows with faux snow can contribute to air pollution. “[It comes in] an aerosol can and is made from chemicals,” says Seo. Need we say more?

Inflatable Lawn Ornaments. Kids love them, but these giant billowing figures require a constant stream of electric-fan power to remain upright. According to the nonprofit green consulting firm, Efficiency Vermont, it’s best to cut the electricity when dark falls, let Santa deflate overnight, and plump him back up again in the morning.

These are decent tips, but I’ve got a quibble or two: please don’t use electrical tape to decorate brown kraft wrapping paper. Talk about wasteful. Reusable baskets, bags and boxes are a far better choice.

And instead of just shutting off your stupid inflatable lawn ornament at night, how about not buying one in the first place? Then you have a valid excuse not to stand in your front yard in the freezing cold wrestling with and swearing at a giant floppy piece of plastic.

Link [MSNBC]

9 Easy Ways to Green Up Your Life

(image via: Ecorazzi)

Greening up your life can seem really overwhelming at first. There are so many tips out there that it seems impossible to do them all, and really, where do you start when you own 7 homes, 13 vehicles, a private jet and 2 restaurants? Forget the vulgar suggestions that require you to lower yourself to the level of the unwashed masses, like drying your Valentino suits on a clothesline. Maintain your dignity by using these 9 easy ways to green up your life instead.

(image via AutoFriends)

9. Get a Tesla Roadster. This is the best place to start, and since the Tesla is both green and extremely sexy, you’ll be eager to drive it as often as possible. Not too often, because you don’t want it to look like you only own one car. But it’s 100% electric and only costs $100,000 – a small price to pay for the good publicity you’ll get in that Ecorazzi write-up.

(image via HollyScoop)

8. Use Richard Branson’s new bio jet fuel in your private plane. What’s good enough for Virgin Airlines is good enough for you, and on those occasions when only your private jet will do, now you can fly without using fossil fuels. It’ll really come in handy when you need to transport your stylist from LA to Rome for the night and would otherwise feel a twinge of guilt.

(image via: Politico)

7. Try to cut down on your travel. Think about flying to Europe instead of the Far East for New Year’s Eve. Just imagine the thousands of pounds of CO2 you’ll save by flying from LA to NYC for a quick lunch instead of going across the Atlantic to Paris. It does involve some sacrifice, but you’ve got to be willing to adjust your lifestyle in order to help the planet.

(image via: CelebChefs)

6. Have your private chef use locally grown vegetables and meat, and possibly even consider buying an existing organic farm. Build a bakery off the service kitchen so your personal baker can bake fresh bread, biscuits, and pastries. Make sure you’ve got enough space for your personal cheesemaker to work – you’d be surprised how much room cheesemaking requires. All of this will ensure that your food barely needs to travel at all before appearing on your plate.

(image via: Ecorazzi)

5. When going on vacation, consider renting Johnny Depp’s eco-resort island. If you’re a pal, you can get it for only $10k a week, so call in that favor. Have your assistant anonymously tip off the paparazzi so they can get plenty of grainy shots of you and your entourage enjoying organic cocktails and lounging around on a solar- and biofuel-powered yacht.

(image via: AutoBlog Green)

4. When car companies send you SUV’s using FedEx Overnight, buy carbon credits to offset the flight. Otherwise, you might get bad publicity. Carbon offsets are such an easy way to erase those ‘oopsies’ when you forget that you’re supposed to be conserving, reducing and recycling, and let’s face it – you just can’t avoid having those moments every now and then.

(image via: DailyKitten)

3. Reuse your dental floss. Just kidding, we thought we’d throw in an utterly disgusting tip that only coarse patchouli-scented proletariats would do to see if you were paying attention.

(image via: Ecorazzi)

2. Put solar panels up on top of all your houses, guest homes, horse barns, recording studios, basketball courts, and merry go-rounds. Sure, the initial expense is high, but you can afford it – and you’ll get your money back over time. All those buildings sure do use a lot of electricity, and with solar power, you won’t have to feel guilty leaving the lights on in unoccupied rooms all the time.

(image via: PopSugar)

1. Have your nanny use public transportation to cut down on her carbon footprint. Obviously, you wouldn’t deign to step foot on a bus or subway (eww, vagrants and coughing plebeians), but there’s no need for the help to be wasting resources and polluting the earth by driving in a private car. Firmly explain the benefits of public transportation and why it’s so important for her to use it – she’ll likely understand. If she doesn’t, there are plenty of nannies out there that don’t even own their own car. See? Easy!

Big thanks to our former editor Shea Gunther for his creative input!

Can Animals Save the Planet?

Environmentalism doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom. “Animals Save the Planet” is a humorous animated series featuring tips from animals on how to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. They were produced by Aardman Animations studio for Animal Planet. Here are our favorites:

Meercats & Traffic

Supermarket Bags

Jellyfish

Save Energy: 10 Ways to Winterize Your Home

The greenest way to keep your home warmer during the winter is to make sure you’re sealing out all that cold air. Proper winterization can cut way back on the amount of heating fuel you need, saving you money and preventing you from unnecessarily consuming tons of resources. MSN has a 10-step guide to making sure your home stays cozy during the winter months, from adding more insulation to your attic to wrapping pipes.

From MSN via Budget Ecoist:

1. Clean those gutters

Once the leaves fall, remove them and other debris from your home’s gutters — by hand, by scraper or spatula, and finally by a good hose rinse — so that winter’s rain and melting snow can drain. Clogged drains can form ice dams, in which water backs up, freezes and causes water to seep into the house, the Insurance Information Institute says.
As you’re hosing out your gutters, look for leaks and misaligned pipes. Also, make sure the downspouts are carrying water away from the house’s foundation, where it could cause flooding or other water damage.

“The rule of thumb is that water should be at least 10 feet away from the house,” says Michael Broili, the director of the Well Home Program for the Phinney Neighborhood Association, a nationally recognized neighborhood group in Seattle.

2. Block those leaks

One of the best ways to winterize your home is to simply block obvious leaks around your house, both inside and out, experts say. The average American home has leaks that amount to a nine-square-foot hole in the wall, according to EarthWorks Group.

First, find the leaks: On a breezy day, walk around inside holding a lit incense stick to the most common drafty areas: recessed lighting, window and door frames, electrical outlets.

Then, buy door sweeps to close spaces under exterior doors, and caulk or apply tacky rope caulk to those drafty spots, says Danny Lipford, host of the nationally syndicated TV show “Today’s Homeowner.” Outlet gaskets can easily be installed in electrical outlets that share a home’s outer walls, where cold air often enters.

Outside, seal leaks with weather-resistant caulk. For brick areas, use masonry sealer, which will better stand up to freezing and thawing. “Even if it’s a small crack, it’s worth sealing up,” Lipford says. “It also discourages any insects from entering your home.”

Get the remaining 8 tips over at MSN.

Link [MSN] via [Budget Ecoist]
Photo credit: Flickr user chiacomo

Which is the Greener Christmas Tree: Faux, Fresh Cut, or Potted?

Does buying that new, freshly cut live Christmas tree contribute to deforestation? Is buying an artificial tree made of petrochemicals worth the reusability benefits? Is buying a live potted tree really the best option? Eco-conscious consumers readying their homes for the holidays have these kinds of questions swirling through their minds as they try to prep for the season and stay true to their values.

There are pros and cons to each choice. The Chicago Tribune has a rundown:

ARTIFICIAL TREES

PROS:

An alternative for those with allergies or asthma. Some people are allergic to terpene, the substance found in the oil or sap of Christmas trees, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Durable. They last about six years.

Affordable. They’re generally cheaper than cut trees because you can use them more than once. Trees with polyethylene (PE) needles are more expensive than polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Some come with warranties. Home Depot (homedepot.com) sells trees ranging from $39.99 to $2,499. Target sells a 3-foot Willowstreet Fir artificial tree for $9.99.

Easier to assemble and maintain. Instant Plaid Pull-up Trees ($179) come with decorations in place. Simply pull the tree up over a metal stand and plug it in. Plastic trees don’t shed their needles and don’t need to be cared for.

No risk of a Charlie Brown tree. Artificial trees come in an astonishing array of sizes and appearances. Pre-lit trees save time in assembly, take-down and have been credited for reducing domestic squabbles.

CONS:

Gigantic carbon footprint. Artificial trees are usually made from petroleum and shipped from China; the pole and branches are primarily made of steel while the needles are made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), also known as vinyl, or polyethylene (PE).The American Christmas Tree Association sponsored a study that shows artificial trees are healthier for the environment over a 10-year period due to the costs of transporting a real tree from a lot to someone’s home. Still, some beg to differ. “That’s absurd,” said Rick Dungey of the National Christmas Tree Association. “How big is the carbon footprint of the cargo ship that carried the fake tree across the Pacific ocean? OR the 18 wheeler that carried it froma port on the Pacific Coast to a store in Chicago.?”

PVC is not biodegradable. If incinerated, the PVC in the trees emits dioxins and other carcinogens. The manufacture of PVC also creates dioxins. Major retailers including Target and Toys “R” Us are phasing out products with PVC.

Lead is often used as a PVC stabilizer. Lead, a toxic metal that can cause damage to the brain and nervous system, is more dangerous for children. University of North Carolina researchers tested the lead content in branches, on hands after contact and in dust under the tree. They found that “while the average artificial Christmas tree does not present a significant exposure risk, in the worst-case scenario a substantial health risk to young children is quite possible.”

No natural scent. Some people solve this by using aerosol sprays or pine-scented air fresheners, but the fumes from most products contain dozens of chemicals, including several classified as toxic or hazardous, according to a University of Washington study.

Check out the Chicago Tribune’s assessment of freshly cut Christmas trees and potted trees as well.

Of course, you could always go for a mod look by decorating some branches with lights and ornaments, or simply decorate a tree in your front yard. Check back with us throughout December for tips on eco-friendly holiday decorating!

Link [The Chicago Tribune]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Green Your Office Holiday Party

Parties are already a major bane to the environment; they produce mountains of waste. Holiday parties are even worse, what with all the discarded wrapping paper and packaging. Considering the current economic conditions, many office parties will likely get scaled down this year from frou-frou corporate dinners to casual disposable tableware-laden get-togethers.

As usual, Grist.org has an excellent set of tips for making sure your company’s office party is as green as it can be.  Here are a few of our favorite pointers:

Work the pretty. When it comes to decorations, keep it simple. Buy a few plants, gather up some others from around the office — yeah, even the half-dead ones — and cluster them for an outside-in décor (just be sure you know whose desk they go back to). Ask staffers to contribute a favorite holiday item or their kids’ artwork to brighten up the scene (just be sure you know whose kid they go back to). Or use food as decoration — it’s pretty, it’s colorful, and when it all gets eaten, your Decorations Clean-Up Subcommittee will be happy. For lighting, try LED strings or candles (the non-yucky kind) — or have your party in the daytime so lights aren’t necessary.

Cut the crap. Don’t give out pewter pens or umbrellas stamped with your company logo to every staffer — it creates waste and inspires frustration. Instead, if you have that money to spare, put it into the next paycheck or a gift card. If staffers are pushing to uphold gift-giving traditions, consider a white-elephant exchange, and make it the kind where you bring an item from home, not purchase something new. And if custom dictates that you absolutely must give something to your (greedy, planet-fucking) clients, look into green options geared toward corporations (see Resources, below).

Get the rest at Grist – ‘The Frill is Gone: How to Green Your Office Party‘.

Link [Grist.org]

Conan’s Green Tip: Walk, if You’re Not Famous

During their ‘Green is Universal’ themed programming last week, NBC had celebrities appear in clips they called “Green Your Routine”, offering their suggestions for living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Most of what viewers saw was the same old ho-hum tips about light bulbs, reusable bags and taking the bus. One clip that caught our attention, however, was Conan O’Brien advising us that one of the best things we can do is walk instead of driving.  Of course, that tip doesn’t apply to him – he’s famous.

How many celebrities have said basically the same thing, without a hint of humor, when explaining why they don’t practice what they preach? Gotta love the old ‘I’m too famous for that’ excuse.

The funny thing is, Conan does walk around NYC all the time by himself and hardly anyone who sees him even blinks an eye. But, that doesn’t stop posts like this ending up on the internet: Red alert! Conan O’Brien eats at Subway alone! I guess some people care.

Link [Huffington Post]

10 Tips for a Green Thanksgiving

Holidays are hardly known for being the easiest times to lead an environmentally friendly lifestyle. There’s all the travel, the trash, and of course, the mass consumerism, all of which rack up a big carbon footprint and add to the problem of waste management in this country. Thanksgiving isn’t quite as bad as that other holiday coming up, but still, it’s easy to make missteps.  However, careful planning can help ensure that your Thanksgiving celebration is just as green as any other day in your home. Here are 10 tips to make Thanksgiving as eco-friendly as possible.

Stay close to home, or take the train – Thanksgiving is traditionally a time when airports and highways are jam-packed with travelers trying to make it to Grandma’s house. Why not skip the headaches and save some carbon by sticking close to home? Make a new tradition with your friends and family that live in your area. Or, if you must travel, consider taking the train – it’s far better on the environment than air travel or personal vehicles.

Keep it simple – Don’t feel like you have to amaze your friends and family with a gourmet magazine-worthy spread rife with exotic ingredients flown in from around the world.  Nor is it necessary to provide a 6-course spread with choice of 14 side dishes. Most people aren’t looking for novel culinary fare on a day like this – they’ll be happy with traditional dishes that celebrate the bounty of the local harvest. Keeping it simple will also reduce the amount of electricity you use while cooking, which can be considerable on this holiday.

Buy local – Many of the veggies you need for your side dishes probably grow within 100 miles of your home. Check out your local farmer’s market for fall goodies like squash, greens, potatoes, yams, pumpkins and evergreen herbs like rosemary and sage. And don’t forget to check your local free-range farms for that centerpiece of the Thanksgiving piece, the turkey (unless you’re vegetarian, of course…).

Go vegetarian – If you’ve been thinking about trying out a vegetarian diet, Thanksgiving is actually a great time to do it. You’ll be amazed at how many options there are – you won’t even miss the turkey. Livestock put a huge strain on the planet, and factory farms do abominable things to those poor little animals before they end up on your plate. Check out vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes and meal ideas at VegWeb.com and The Veggie Table.

Serve organic beverages – Pick up some local libations if you’ve got nearby breweries and wineries, especially if you have guests coming into town – it’s a great way to show off regional specialties. If you don’t live near any craft beer or wine producers, pick up a few bottles of organic brew – there are dozens of varieties available at most health-food stores.

Use what you have – This is one of the easiest, cheapest ways to go green any day of the year, and it works on Thanksgiving, too. You don’t need fancy dishware – your regular tableware will do just fine. If you’re the Martha Stewart type and feel like everything must match perfectly, consider renting tableware, chairs and linens – it costs less than buying new.

Get extras at the thrift store – If you’re in need of a gravy boat, a vase for that organic bouquet centerpiece, a few extra glasses or a table runner, check your local thrift and consignment stores. Consignment stores in particular tend to stock up on things they think will be in demand during certain times of the year, so you might be surprise at the selection. It’s always better to buy secondhand!

Decorate with natural materials – There’s absolutely no reason to run out to the mall and purchase a bunch of Thanksgiving-themed junk that was made in China and will fall apart by next year. Skip the cheesy seasonal décor and take a cue from nature.  Many people like to place pinecones in a bowl or basket as a centerpiece, or wind a string of white lights around some branches in a planter or tall vase. You could also purchase a living plant that can go into the garden next spring, or pick up a bouquet or organic blooms from your local independent florist.

Illuminate your home with beeswax or soy candles – No need to turn on every light in the house for your guests. Create a romantic atmosphere without adding to your electricity bill by placing beeswax or soy candles around your home. Avoid paraffin candles, though – they’re made from petroleum and emit nasty fumes into the air.

Compost your scraps –  Don’t toss those potato peels, celery tops and carrot ends into the trash! If you’re not the type to save them for soup broth, toss them in a bucket along with a handful of shredded paper, leaves or other carbonaceous material. If you don’t already have a compost pile or bin, now’s a great time to get a head start on next spring’s garden by creating free, fertile compost. Here’s how to easily start your own (non-stinky) indoor compost bin.

Be Green, Get Rich: Money-Saving Tips Good for the Planet, Too

There’s a definite upside to this whole mess with the economy. It’s simple: nearly all of the tips we’re getting from experts on how to save money also benefit the planet.  It’s a matter of consuming less.  We’re reigning in our big-spending habits and instead reusing things, cutting back and doing without. In the process, we’re reducing the amount of junk that’s piling up in landfills, using less energy and consuming fewer resources.

Grist noticed this when checking out budget-saving tips from TheStreet.com.  Among the tips were:

You care what your car looks like: A car is a means of transportation to get from one place to another, but many people don’t view it that way. Instead, they consider it a reflection of themselves and spend money every two years or so to impress others instead of driving the car for its entire useful life and investing the money saved.

You buy things you don’t use: Take a look around your house, in the closets, basement, attic and garage and see if there are a lot of things you haven’t used in the past year. If there are, chances are that all those things you purchased were wasted money that could have been used to increase your net worth.

Your house is too big: When you buy a house that is bigger than you can afford or need, you end up spending extra money on longer debt payments, increased taxes, higher upkeep and more things to fill it. Some people will try to argue that the increased value of the house makes it a good investment, but the truth is that unless you are willing to downgrade your living standards, which most people are not, it will never be a liquid asset or money that you can ever use and enjoy.

After so many decades of pointless, debt-amassing excess, we’re finally learning that small is beautiful, and less is more. Perhaps this shift toward a simpler way of living will help people detach themselves from the obsession with image that has gripped our society for too long.  I won’t hold my breath, but it’s a nice thought.

Link [The Street] via [Grist]
Photo credit: Flickr user Refracted Moments

The Latest Thing in Kitchens: Less Remodeling, More Cooking

With the economy the way it is right now, people are looking for ways they can trim their budgets in order to sock away some extra money.  Green Daily caught a recent article in The Washington Post by Elizabeth Razzi, which offered up some simple money-saving tips, and noted with amusement one that said “The latest thing in kitchens: less remodeling, more cooking.”

It may seem absurdly obvious, but it’s definitely true that over the last decade or so, people in America have gone crazy over kitchen remodeling.  It was a craze that snowballed into panic attacks over “ohmygod my appliances are white, MUST HAVE STAINLESS STEEL” and “if I have to look at those ugly cabinets one more day I’m going to the bell tower with a shotgun”.  Luckily, the current economic conditions have calmed people down so they are taking a moment to realize that commercial-grade stove hoods and granite countertops are not exactly the smartest thing you could be spending your money on right now.

Think of the green angle of this: all of that debris from annihilated 80’s kitchens isn’t continuing to pile up in landfills.  People aren’t ripping down perfectly good (albeit dated) kitchens like having a brand new modern kitchen is going to save them from a zombie invasion or something. And that’s definitely a plus.

Link [Green Daily] + [The Washington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user rtgregory

Who’s Who in Green: Sean Daily

Sean Daily is the co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of Green Living Ideas, a website that provides ideas, tips and info to help people improve the sustainability of every aspect of their lives, from consumption of energy at home to waste recycling. If you’ve ever had a question about how to ‘green up’ just about anything in your life, chances are, Green Living Ideas has the answer – it’s the most comprehensive source of green living tips on the web.

Sean is also host of the popular Green Talk Radio podcast, which is a play-on-demand audiocast that brings all of Green Living Ideas’ tips to the airwaves. Listeners tuning into Greek Talk Radio will get a plethora of green tips through interviews with experts, authors and owners of green businesses around the world. Topics on Green Talk Radio run the gamut from making smart purchasing decisions to the latest green technology.

Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Sean Daily is an internationally recognized expert on technology publishing and enterprise information technologies. Before he founded Green Living Ideas, Sean founded and served as CEO at RealTimePublishers.com, which is a leading web-based publisher of books, community portals, videos and other media. That experience undoubtedly gave him a lot of practical knowledge and inspiration for Green Living Ideas, which is brimming with information written by a team of ‘green gurus’.

Wondering how to battle household pests in an environmentally friendly way? Green Living Ideas has the scoop. Looking for eco-friendly gift ideas? Check. Seeking information about sustainable seafood, or tips for removing toxins from the air in your home? Check and double check. Recent articles illuminate the ways you can choose investment stocks according to the companies’ social concerns, how to find a greener plumber, an overview of eco eyewear and how to achieve healthy, organic soil to grow veggies in. We told you it’s comprehensive!

Through providing the public with such a huge volume of incredibly useful green info, Sean has put the power of living sustainably into the hands of anyone who can access the internet. That’s big – and it’s testament to how much this podcaster, entrepreneur, writer and visionary can achieve in the years to come.

Sean Daily’s Green Score: 22,332

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