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

7 Depressing Environmental Stories

If our recent article – 7 Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought – didn’t get you down enough, here’s a whole new set of 7 from The Daily Green that are almost just as scary. Much as we wish that we could report on cool eco gadgets, sunshine and rainbows all the time, the fact is that there is a lot of crappy stuff happening in the world right now. The good news is, learning about them might actually give us all the motivation to do something about it.

From The Daily Green:

1. Detroit May Kill The Electric Car (Again)
Facing the prospect of financial ruin, the Big Three American automakers, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, may abandon fledgling efforts to create electric cars, according to Reuters. It’s a speculative article, but when one considers that tackling global warming or freeing ourselves from dependence on foreign oil will almost certainly require electrifying the vehicle fleet, it’s a depressing setback.

2. The Largest Forest Infestation in North American History
The infestation of mountain pine beetles is growing “exponentially,” according to the New York Times, with tens of millions of acres of Rocky Mountain forests from New Mexico through Canada succumbing. It’s called the largest infestation in the known history of North America. Drought, global warming and fire suppression all play a role in the outbreak, and the death of trees will make the region susceptible to more violent wildfires, among other ills.

3. Highly Polluting School Buses May Not be Upgraded
The economic crisis will likely prevent many school districts, states and even the federal government from continuing to pay for the upgrading and replacement of old, dirty diesel school buses, according to Environmental Health News. These pollution nightmares pump out 90% more pollution than their cleaner counterparts, including fine particulates and cancerous chemicals that tend to build up inside the bus, where children are sitting.

Check out the rest – which include Bush opening land to shale development, Desert Storm vets with Gulf War Syndrome, dying soil and half the world going without clean water over at The Daily Green.

And, don’t just collapse crying into your bowl of Cheerios. You may not be able to personally address any of these problems, but you can use that energy to start doing whatever you can to help out on a local level. Contact your local Sierra Club chapter or other environmental organization to find out how you can assist with environmental activism in your area.

Link [The Daily Green] + [The Sierra Club]
Photo credit: MIT

Natural, Organic, Ecocert – Which Eco-Labels Can You Trust?

In a society where greenwashing is rampant, it’s easy for well-meaning people to simply trust that the labels on the products they’re buying actually mean something.  By now, there are so many ‘eco-labels’ out there that purportedly certify products as safe and natural, it can get pretty confusing as to what they even mean.  While you definitely shouldn’t trust a product that merely calls itself ‘natural’ without any kind of certification, an official-looking seal doesn’t necessarily make the product all that great either. So, which ones can you trust? The Daily Green has taken a comparison created by David Bronner of Dr. Bronner’s castile soap fame and added text that explains them.

From The Daily Green:

USDA “Organic” – ***** (5 Stars)
When you see the word “organic” you know what it means. U.S. standards back it up. If the entire product is labeled USDA Organic it contains at least 95% organic ingredients, and any ingredients that aren’t organic are included only because organic versions don’t exist in a commercially viable quantity or quality. If the labels says “made with organic,” it has at least 70% organic ingredients.

As Bronner writes, these products have “no synthetic preservatives or petrochemicals” and the statements on labels are backed up with “rigorously enforced compliance.”

NSF ***+ (3.5 Stars)
NSF International, a U.S. not-for-profit, develops standards and certification for products. Its rating system is a “responsible compromise” between the makers and consumers of products and the cosmetics industry, according to Bronner. It allows a few synthetic preservatives that are identical to compounds found in nature, according to Bronner.
The rest of the certifications rated include ‘Natural Products Association’, ‘Ecocert’, ‘Certified Natural Cosmetics’ and four more.

Check out The Daily Green for the full list!

Link [The Daily Green]

Conservation, Recycling, Local Food: How College Campuses Are Going Green

An EarthTalk reader wrote in to ask how college campuses are working to reduce their carbon footprints, and the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine had plenty of answers. Seems like college campuses are doing more every day to contribute, from taking small steps that add up to taking on large projects and initiatives.

From The Daily Green:

Foremost on the minds of green-leaning students today is global warming, and many are joining hands to persuade their schools to update policies and streamline operations so that their campuses can become part of the solution. Largely a result of student efforts, for example, nearly 500 U.S. colleges and universities have signed the American College and University Presidents (ACUP) Climate Commitment.

This agreement requires schools to put together a comprehensive plan to go “carbon neutral” in two years of signing. (Carbon neutral means contributing no net greenhouse gases to the atmosphere either by not generating them in the first place or by offsetting them somehow, such as through tree-planting or by buying “offsets” from companies that fund alternative energy projects.)

ACUP also commits schools to implementing two or more tangible (and easily implemented) policies right away, such as improving waste minimization and recycling programs, reducing energy usage, providing or encouraging public transportation to and from campus (and switching campus buses over to bio-diesel fuel), constructing bicycle lanes, and implementing green building guidelines for any new construction.

Schools that sign the agreement also pledge to integrate sustainability into their normal curricula. Student-run organic gardens like those of Yale University and Warren Wilson College provide another great way to green up campus food services, as do recycling programs and water conservation efforts.

For a roundup of additional green college initiatives, see the full post at The Daily Green.

Link [The Daily Green]
Photo credit: Warren Wilson College