06.30.07
Posted in weekend census at 11:01 am by greengirl
This week’s list is of environmentally and socially responsible investment funds. I haven’t done any research on the accuracy or extent of their claims besides making the list years ago, so do your due diligence.
Eco-minded Investment Funds
Socially Responsible Investment Bond Funds
SRI Stock Funds
More helpful investment resources:
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06.29.07
Posted in education, shopping at 9:31 am by greengirl
I have stumbled across the coolest website. I think I either heard about it on the radio or saw it online when I was looking for somewhere to recycle my broken scanner. It’s called the Center for the New American Dream. It’s a very content-rich site, with so much information I couldn’t possibly go into all of it here. Overall, their goal is to redefine the American dream - to make it about quality of life and surroundings, time with friends and family, and living consciously rather than the big house, big car and big credit card lifestyle. They have an off-shoot site called Responsible Purchasing Network, giving you all kinds of information on how to exercise the power of your dollar. I highly recommend checking it out.
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06.28.07
Posted in home & garden, recycling, water at 9:14 pm by greengirl
Did you know that it is probably your toilet, not your washing machine, that uses the most water in your house? If your toilet was installed before 1993, it uses between 3.5 and 8 gallons per flush. Newer, high-efficiency toilets are required to use 1.6 gallons or less per flush. Not up on when your toilet was installed? Check for a label under the tank lid. (thanks to h2ouse.org for the info)
If your toilet runs frequently or is leaking, it’s usually a simple matter to fix it. This may be your only option if you’re a renter or can’t afford a new toilet. A silent leak can waste between 30 and 500 gallons - PER DAY! There are some simple ways to check for a leak in your toilet. Replacing the flapper is a relatively simple job and the parts are pretty cheap and obtainable at any hardware store. I know because we just did this at our house because the toilet was running and jiggling the handle did nothing. H2ouse.org has some great information on how to fix leaks, replace the flapper and recycle your old toilet.
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06.27.07
Posted in home & garden, pollution at 4:03 pm by greengirl
It’s not news to say that our world is full of chemicals and preservatives. But, you can try to limit them in your house. World Wildlife Foundation has some guidelines for reducing your exposure to toxic chemicals. I’m a big fan of the one about lawn care - green up your lawn through natural methods rather than something so toxic that it requires signs to warn people off your lawn. Use compost and mulch (like grass clippings and hay) to promote soil health. Plant herbs that are insect and pest resistant. Marigolds and nasturtiums, in addition to being very pretty and easy to grow, help keep rabbits and other furry friends from using your garden as a salad bar. Mints, chives, basil and mums are all insect and disease resistant (though be careful with plants in the mint family because they will quickly take over your flower bed - planters are a better choice for mints).
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06.26.07
Posted in energy, ecotravel, pollution, global warming at 11:59 am by greengirl
Several months ago, I watched a really interesting documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car?. It followed the story of the EV1 in the 90’s, a car sold mostly in California that was recalled by GM and summarily destroyed.
Apparently, GM may be realizing it’s mistake because it launched the Volt at an auto show in Shanghai in April. According to the Marketplace report, it won’t be ready to go into production until the end of the decade, but at least they’re now moving in the right direction. Plus, the Volt can go 300 miles on a charge, rather than the 100 that the EV1 could go on a charge (if I’m remembering the documentary correctly).
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06.25.07
Posted in fair trade at 1:59 pm by greengirl
I was watching PBS this weekend, since regular television is just golf tournaments and big gas-wasting car races. They had a program on called America’s Heartland. Despite the fact that it turns out to be sponsored by that monster of GMO seed lawsuits, Monsanto, it was a really interesting program about small farms throughout the US.
One of the particularly uplifting stories was about Harvest for Humanity, an organization started by a couple now living in Immokalee, Florida that believe that agricultural workers should be paid a living wage. They have a blueberry, peach, plum and orange farm, pay a living wage about $3/hour higher than nearby farms, and offer ownership to their workers through a stock purchase plan. They also offer low-interest loans to their workers to buy homes in their Jubilation subdivision, giving families an opportunity at home ownership. They don’t have much information on their website about how to buy their products, though they say that they are sold through local speciality grocers under the Harvest Blueberries label.
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06.23.07
Posted in education, weekend census at 4:21 pm by greengirl
In lieu of an actual post on the weekends, I’m going to copy one of my favorite blogs and do a list of various things each weekend.
This weekend’s list is of post-secondary environmental education programs. I’m sure it’s not an exhaustive list, but it’s a list of schools I’ve come across in my explorations.
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06.22.07
Posted in energy, global warming at 12:29 pm by greengirl
Being nearly a conjoined twin to my computer, I’ve written previously about the energy consumption of computers. While it saves 67% of the yearly energy use to reduce computer use to 8 hours a day, there’s been more than one time that I thought I’d turned off my computer only to find that it was on all night asking if I wanted to save a document before it would shut down. Well, now Local Cooling has a cure for that. Local Cooling is a free application from Uniblue Labs that claims to reduce your computer’s power consumption. Actually, according to Treehugger, it just monitors your energy use by looking at the power options in the control panel, but it is fun to see how much you’ve saved by having your monitor switch off in 5 minutes instead of 10.
Another program that has more use than Local Cooling is GreenPrint. I also found out about this from Treehugger. This one isn’t free but does have a 30-day trial download version and may be worth it in the amount of paper and ink that you save (their site says that average user saves $90 per year, at $0.06 per sheet). It shows you the document before you print and allows you to remove any pages that you don’t need to print (the last 3 lines of a stupid signature file in emails, for instance). It also creates PDFs so that you don’t need to print to paper at all. This is a nice, cheap way to get the PDF writing benefits of the relatively expensive Adobe Acrobat, with their price of $35 stacking up nicely to the hundreds of dollars that Adobe costs. It’s Windows only, but OSX users have always been able to print right to PDF.
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06.21.07
Posted in habitat at 2:24 pm by greengirl
The Bald Eagle will be removed from the Endangered Species list on, appropriately, July 4th. At their lowest, their numbers were at 500 nesting pairs, and they’ve now resurged to 10,000 nesting pairs. Environmental Defense points to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as a big part of this success. They’re also using it as a stepping stone to increase support for new legislation (the Endangered Species Recovery Act) that will give tax incentives to landowners who protect imperiled wildlife. Now that the bald eagle can be happily removed from the list, hopefully this new act will help to support the many animals still in danger of extinction.
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06.20.07
Posted in home & garden, pollution, water at 12:22 pm by greengirl
Given that I rarely (read: never) wash my car, it never occurred to me that car washing can be environmentally harmful until I stumbled across an article on environmentally safe ways to wash a car. Run-off from your car wash goes directly into the storm drains, rather than through the wastewater treatment plant that your household water goes through.
A safer alternative to washing your car and washing all that oil, dirt and gasoline residue into your storm drain is to wash it at a commercial car wash. They’re required by law (in the US and Canada) to drain their wastewater through septic systems, like your household water. And, according to the International Carwash Association (who knew there was such a thing?), commercial car washes use 1/2 to 1/3 the amount of water that you use at home, with self-serve car washes using the least and in-bay car washes (the ones where you drive in and your car just sits still while machines wash it) using the most. This is largely because many commercial car washes filter and reuse their rinse water and can reduce water output on their high pressure nozzles.
If you absolutely can’t bear the thought of not sudsing your car at home, park it in your lawn so that run-off is absorbed into the soil rather than running directly into storm drains. And use a biodegradable soap, like Simple Green’s biodegradable car wash.
Okay, okay, so I’ve been slacking on the entries. I have a plan. Really. I do. Third time’s the charm, right?
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