The Green Week in Review

In the news – A pair (hopefully a breeding pair) of Giant Pandas are given to the people of Hong Kong to mark the anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China.

In the LOCAL (as in right here, in my home…) news, I got the oil in the car changed to some super duper turbo gas saving stuff, and had the tires inflated to the proper PSI. I’ve learned that I am not as smart as a second grader. Nine year old Savannah Walters studied the Arctic ice caps and figured out that by having tires inflated to the proper pressure, Americans could save lots of fossil fuel. Pump 'em UP! Says With properly inflated tires...

1. Americans could save 4 million gallons of gas each day.
2. Americans could save hundreds of dollars each year on gas and extend the life of their tires by 25%.
3. Americans could all breathe cleaner air because we’d be burning less gas.
4. Americans would be able to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge forever!

And that’s just for starters, kids. How simple is that? Get the pressure checked on your tires, and make a contribution to the environment. Who knew being greener was so easy.

The power bill arrived, and I giggled like Jerry "The King" Lawler . It appears that I’ve managed to reduce my carbon footprint by another 10 KWH per day from last year. So, I offset my impact on the environment by contributing to carbonfund.org and I feel better. The gas bill also reflected savings, both personally and environmentally. I attribute the reduction to my lowering the thermostat (again) on the water heater, not using the dryer at all, and baking in the solar oven.

Also in this week’s mail, my http://www.shaklee.com/ Shaklee Get Clean Deluxe kit arrived. The Oprah special cost me $55.00. The same amount of “cleaning” supplies (read – caustic chemicals that suck the life out of everything they ever touched and will continue to touch for a half life of about a billion years) is valued at about $2000.00. As an added incentive I read this-

When you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit instead of the stuff you probably buy:

• You keep 108 pounds of packaging waste out of landfills
• You eliminate 248 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions

Get Clean products offer cleaning choices that are Green, and here's why:

• Sustainably sourced natural ingredients
• Biodegradable surfactants
• Recyclable packaging
• Recyclable wipes
• Recyclable dryer sheets
• No chlorine bleach
• No volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• No phosphates
• No nitrates
• No borates
• No animal testing

I spent a good deal of Saturday cleaning house and I have to shout out how clean it smells. I can’t vouch for the dryer sheets yet, although I applaud that they are recyclable. Instead, I continue to use the hybrid dryer. See Project Laundry for details on creating your own work of art, sustainable hybrid clothes dryer. No load too large, no risk of fire, no dryer sheets to buy.

And with that, I leave you to attend the Green Thumb Festival. I’ll report back later.

Ciao Greenbaby

Solar Brownies and Bike Rides

Car mileage- ZERO

Bike mileage – Downtown to the Saturday Morning Market for organic veggies, a very cool ride indeed with the bike lanes on 1^st North and South making me feel rather safe, then to Sweetbay on 22^nd and 34^th later in the day. The concept of crossing 22^nd Avenue North is daunting, so I took to the sidewalk to get to the front of the grocery.

Between trips I experimented with solar baking by putting together (with the help of my assistant, 11 ¾ year old Tara from Fall River) No Pudge Fat Free Brownies and the warmth of the sun. I’d found instructions to make a solar oven from a pizza box, which looks mighty interesting, but we didn’t have a pizza box and I wasn’t going to ride across town to get one.

I trotted around like a mad scientist looking for the necessary components whileTara mixed the batter. We needed: dark pans, a container with some sort of glass cover, and something to reflect the sun’s rays onto the surface of the pans.

We filled the order for the pans by putting the mix in one eight inch cake pan, and flipping its’ partner over as a lid. We placed the pan inside a wok, covered the wok with a large glass inverted bowl, and placed both on a heatproof pad that anchored my kayak’s emergency blanket – a sheet of shiny silver plastic. The upper corners of the blanket were clothespinned to the ‘hybrid’ dryer…. AKA the clothesline.

Several hours later, we could smell the minty chocolatey gooey brownies. Alas, the day was so windy we hypothesized the temperature wouldn’t get high enough to finish them by sundown, so we resorted to finishing them off in the Advantium speed cooker, which combines microwaves and halogen lighting to cook up to 4 times faster than conventional ovens.

It was enough to redline my eco-meter, to have a young person concerned about the environment, and interested in thinking about what we might do to reduce our impact upon it. Tara told me of a recent science project she’d done, turning empty water bottles into water containers for small mammals, like hamsters and gerbils.

As we worked together on the solar oven, Tara and I were contemplating the possibilities for converting the gas grill to a solar grill, the possibilities of using a great big magnifying lens, and how to make a solar slow cooker.

The brownies were fantastic. The fun even better.

As we close in on Earth Day 2007

As April 22^nd, Earth Day 2007 approaches, I’m giving some thought to what changes I’ve made and things I’m thinking about changing to reduce my footprint on the landscape. I'm also giving some thought to what I'd like for my birthday. I'd like to win that nifty Reware solar power juice bag from Ideal Bite. Alternatively, someone could just buy me one.

Selling Books

Once I’ve read them, off they go to half.com. The reasons are numerous.

1. The books get recycled.
2. It opens up space in my shelves and mind for new ideas.
3. I ride my bike to the post office to ship them off.
4. It generates income which will be used to offset the purchase of a more energy efficient refrigerator.

Green Authors

Regarding books, authors, and ecorazzi’s Authors can be green too column of April 19, 2007, another author to add to the list – Sara Gruen , author of Water for Elephants, Riding Lessons, and Flying Changes lives with her husband, three children, four cats, two goats, and a horse in an environmental community north of Chicago.

Those of us who realize the fastest way to make our voices heard, the strongest vote is how we spend our money will soon be considering making choices about what books to read, what movies to watch based on the environmental stand of the artists involved. We’ll be doing business with the stores who give credits for those of us who bring our own bags, reading books written by green authors, getting our hair done by stylists who ride their bikes to work.

Speaking of hair….. any idea how much those boxes of hair color contribute to landfills? I’ve not colored my hair in over two years now. Just for the sake of round numbers, let’s call it 24 months.

I formerly colored my hair every 6 weeks. In 24 months, that’s SIXTEEN glossy boxes, each containing two plastic bottles of synthetic, oxidative and petroleum based dyes (containing lead acetate) and hydrogen peroxide, a sheet of plasticized paper with plastic gloves bonded on the back.

Do I miss having each hair the same color as its’ neighbors? Not so much. In fact, I appreciate that I can swim in chlorinated pools without fearing that my hair will be a different kind of green, and not the good kind.

Lawn Solutions – my front lawn could be mailed with a .39 cent stamp, my thighs; not going to say, at least not in writing. Solution, an old fashioned push mower

Makes me look like a convict, but a green convict.

Transportation

Yesterday’s car miles – zero. Bike miles; about 12.5 with a funky derailleur , on a ride that included trip to post office to drop off books, CD’s, and DVDS, then to Mazzaro’s for picnic fare, followed by a trip back home to drop off said groceries, followed by a trip to the best bike service in the universe, ABC Bicycles to get said funky derailleur out of its’ funk. Rick fixed it up in about three seconds and gave me some tips to prevent reoccurrence. It’s likely the cable got knocked from its’ moorings when I was loading or off-loading Carol’s bike and my bike for our recent ride of Fort DeSoto.

Electricity

Another SIX light bulbs retired to storage by replacing them with CFL’s. Only the lights in the kitchen and dining room remain…. Rarely used, but still there, a grim reminder from the department of ‘WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!’

Natural GAS It’s meter reading day! I anticipate a huge reduction in the gas bill, since I’ve turned down the thermostat on the heater, and washed in strictly cold water.

I’m doing all I can. Really.

Back To M.A.C.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love makeup? Have I mentioned my career pack M.A.C. eye shadow obsession? Any clue how much I love StudioFix? Did I reveal that Zoom Lash is my all time fav mascara?

Here’s yet another couple of reasons to love M.A.C.

1. The Back To M.A.C. program where I bring back six empties for recycling and get a free lippie (every color BUT Viva Glam, because that is reason number two….

2. The M.A.C. AIDS Fund gets the total profits from all sales of Viva Glam I through IV.

Virtually Green Baby Showers and Life Partner/Bridal Showers

Imagine the benefits of hosting a virtual green baby shower. Those who are environmentally motivated would receive gifts they actually wanted, and the givers of the wonderful gifts would have an opportunity to learn something about products that had reduced negative impact on the environment. By hosting a virtual shower, you can include friends and family all over the globe.

Here’s how it works:

1. Have prospective adoptive – birth- foster parents, about to become life partners, or the bride and groom register online at websites that provide wishlists, like Shirts of Bamboo..
2. Send email invitations to the guests with the links to the wishlists. Let them know the time and date of the shower, and set up a room for instant messaging so they can participate in the activities.
3. Have one of the local guests bring a video camera to the actual event and put the video on the Internet for those who cannot attend. Alternatively, a camera attached to a computer could bring those from far away to the party itself.

For adoptive parents and those anticipating the arrival of babies, Shirts of Bamboo offers an adorable Onesie, baby blankets, hooded towels, socks, and beanies to keep little one's head warm.

For couples, towels, soaps, matching robes would make wonderful gifts to start a new life together.

For everyone, the benefit of reduced plastic shopping bags, wrapping paper, wasted gas to return duplicates or unwanted items.

Get Green, Get Your Money Back

In national news, Larry Hagman, of Dallas fame, has launched a fantastic campaign to support such green causes as Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF). RefundsForGood will show you how to get money back from the IRS and donate it to do some real good for the environment.

In local news Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio drives a hybrid Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, please consider moving across the bay and running for office. Mayor Iorio has signed the Conference of Mayors For Climate Protection agreement. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker has not.

St. Petersburg’s Mayor Rick Baker’s approach to development, and his lack of enthusiasm toward any efforts for recycling are often criticized, and rightfully so. In fact, our esteemed Mayor, Rick Baker was instrumental in getting the Val Pak Coupon Printing Plant to be built in St. Petersburg. Expectations are that the plant will be able to produce 54-million coupons per year, up from 24-million. Imagine, billions of packages of unsolicited coupons dumped into mailboxes and then trash cans all over the country will come from my very own back yard. Way to go Mayor Baker!

Greener every day

Here’s the skinny, the lowdown, the continuing saga of me trying to get off the grid. Currently, the only juiced things operating are the refrigerator, the pool pump, and the computers.

• I looked at the coffee maker recently, then at the stove, and then the microwave. All three have digital clocks. All three clocks are within a three foot square space. How many clocks do I need to reassure me that I’m already late? I unplugged the coffee maker.
• All light bulbs frequently used have been changed to CFL’s.
• I got out the gas grill, cleaned it, used it, loved it all over again. Propane is cleaner than charcoal, and is less harmful to the environment than using the microwave. Also, since its outdoors, I don’t heat up the kitchen, so I don’t need to turn on the fan. I intend to become one with the grill this summer. Picture it, a girl and her grill, turning out dozens of meals of grilled organic veggies.
• I turned off the power to the bar bath water heater and the bar refrigerator.
• The dryer has been broken for two weeks, giving me the opportunity to relearn the fine art of solar drying. I fell in love with sun dried sheets all over again. We are experiencing a second honeymoon.
• Speaking of laundry, I’ve gone cold. I’m using cold water only.
• The average KWH per day this time last year was close to 40. I’ve been watching the meter and have cut that amount in half. Most days I top out at around 20 KWH. Some days, less. One day I am proud to report I managed to use only 14 KWH.
• I had a radiant heat barrier installed in the attic – www.energyhomeshield.com in 2006 and have seen the KWH average go down significantly.
• Pella windows replacing leaky old windows on the west side of the house have made a dramatic difference. More windows will be replaced as finances allow.
• I’m working on energy conserving Roman shades for the big honkin’ bay window in the dining room. They’ll soon be sporting Warm Window Insulated Shade System, www.warmcompany.com shades. The packaging has a customer quote that claims her electric bill is 30% less than her neighbors since installing the Warm Window system.

On other fronts –

• I’m buying organic when I can, to reduce the pesticide usage as much as possible.
• I’m turning 2 liter soda bottles into candle holders for distribution to my peace rallying pals. The bottom of the bottle gets cut off, the neck of the bottle is fitted with a candle, forming a nice wind shield to prevent candles from blowing out.
• Speaking of candles, I’ve put all family and friends on notice that if they give me candles as gifts, to be sure they are soy or vegetable. No more petroleum based wax candles for me, thank you very much.
• I’m using up all the bits and pieces of fabric left from other projects in a “trash quilt.”
• I’ve been busy sending emails to everyone who sends me unsolicited mail requesting they remove me from the mailing list.
• I rinse and reuse plastic bags, like Baggies. Also, those bags they provide for veggies in the grocery. I rinse them out and hang them up to dry.
• I bring my own canvas grocery bags with me, and smile at anyone who asks why, before I tell them.

And tomorrow will be even greener.