Girl Scouts Forever Green

I took the Girl Scouts Forever Green pledge. The girls have pledged reduce waste, save energy, and build rain gardens. Additionally, the Girl Scouts official website encourages people to “Take Action”, just like the SouthCoast Energy Challenge does!

The Girl Scout “pledges” in Eastern Massachusetts have eliminated 2,536,973 pounds of CO2, which they calculate is equivalent to emissions from 226 cars per year. I love the way these statistics are converted in an easy to understand way.

Join the girls and pledge HERE

Soccket Balls by Uncharted Play can capture and store kinetic energy and then use it to power a light!  They can also include an emergency cell phone charger and an energy tracking device.  Amazing!

Soccket balls by Uncharted Play

Read the full story from Time here:

Visit Uncharted Play here:

Its great when being sustainable saves you money.

I came across Ecofont the other day. Ecofont is a font type that, when printed, saves a significant amount of ink, especially when used in large scale printing. Their more sustainable version of the Arial font saves 28% more ink and toner. The font works by putting tiny holes in the lettering,something which is nearly unnoticeable while reading it.

www.Ecofont.com allows you to download a free sample of this font by clicking on “Download” and then “Free Ecofont Vera Sans.”

How Ecofont works

Public transportation is a necessity for creating sustainable communities–a good public transportation system means fewer cars on the road and fewer toxins in our air. I think transportation issues in Southeastern Massachusetts are often left out of environmentalist discussions, likely because public transportation in this area is used out of necessity, not choice.  Bus riders in Southeastern MA are, more often than not, low income minorities, immigrants, students, seniors, disabled members of the community and the working poor. The public transportation system in Southeastern Mass  is also horribly underfunded and lacks extended service into the evening and on Sundays. However, this might also be a result of the public transit system being under-utilized.  So, if you can choose to ride the bus, why wouldn’t you?

Here are some reasons to switch to using public transportation:

SAVING ENERGY! Want to decrease our dependency on foreign oil? If just 10% of Americans switched to using public transportation the U.S. reliance on foreign oil would decrease 40%.

IT’S SAFER! Riding a bus is about 80x safer than riding in a car, and riding a train or subway is even safer.

IT’S BETTER FOR YOUR HEALTH! Studies show that people who switch to using public transportation regularly tend to be healthier than people who don’t, because of the exercise they get walking to and from bus stops, subway stations and their homes and offices.

USING  PUBLIC TRANSIT CAN SAVE YOU MONEY!  According to an APTA study, families that use public transportation can reduce their household expenses by over $6,000 annually, more than the average U.S. household spends on food every year.

For more about this check out:

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/reasons-public-transportation-environment.htm

For more on the local bus system check out: www.srtabus.com

Did you know:

“Becoming vegetarian is one of the most important and effective actions you can take to ease the strain on our Earth’s limited resources, protect the planet from pollution, prevent global warming, and save countless species from extinction”?

Breading animals for food consumes huge amounts of water, grain petroleum, pesticides and drugs.

The meat industry is a major cause of fresh water depletion. According to Ed Ayres, of the World Watch Institute, “Around the world, as more water is diverted to raising pigs and chickens instead of producing crops for direct consumption, millions of wells are going dry. India, China, North Africa and the U.S. are all running freshwater deficits, pumping more from their aquifers than rain can replenish.” [1]

According to Ayres, “Pass up one hamburger, and you’ll save as much water as you save by taking 40 showers with a low-flow nozzle.”

In addition, the rainforest is being destroyed at an alarming rate in order to make room for cattle ranching.

“It is estimated that for each hamburger made from rainforest beef, members of life forms from approximately 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammals, and reptile species are destroyed.”

Click here for more info on how vegetarian diets help the planet:  http://www.chooseveg.com/environment.asp

Above: a six-pack resued as a condiment carrier.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  We’ve all heard it, but what does it really mean.  If you’re like most people you’ll toss your empty can and bottles in the recycling bin, and try to use less paper plates.  However we always seem to forget about Reuse.  Like instead of tossing an old T-shirt that is stained, you could make it into a grocery shopping bag (See the first link below).   There are a lot of fun and creative ways to resuse items, just check out the links below.  And next time you go to throw something out, because it’s old, ruined, served it’s purpose, or no longer needed, try to be creative and think of a way that you or someone else can reuse it.  I’ve included some links with pictures and ideas of ways you can reuse objects.  Enjoy, and be creative!  Let us know if you try any of the ideas below, and how they worked for you.

http://www.instructables.com/id/FASTEST-RECYCLED-T-SHIRT-TOTE-BAG/

http://twistedsifter.com/2012/06/creative-ways-to-repurpose-reuse-and-upcycle-old-things/

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/01/50-life-hacks-to-simplify-your-world/

Across the country on February 17th there will be a massive uprising, standing up to big oil. Thousands will gather in Washington, DC for a monumental action lead by 350.org, The Sierra Club, and the Hip Hop Caucus against the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that will extend a pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast . Will you be there? It is time to stand up to big oil and special interests once and for all. The American public does not need decades more of investment in foreign oil and dangerous extraction projects that will only lead to more spills, destruction of the natural environment , and natural disasters.

We must stand together and tell Obama, Congress, and anyone else who hasn’t rejected the pipeline’s plan that drilling for MORE oil and endangering MORE of the natural environment are not the solutions to the energy crisis. The solution is investing in renewable energy like solar, wind, rain, geothermal, waves, and tides. We must take greed and corporate lobbying out of the discussions about the future of energy and change the conversation to include what is most sustainable, renewable, and environmentally sound for generations to come. Will you be there?

*When: February 17th, at 12 Noon
Where: The National Mall, Washington D.C.
Who: 350.org, The Sierra Club and the Hip-Hop Caucus

Why: To tell Barack Obama it’s time to lead in the fight against climate change, beginning with the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. 

For more information about rides, housing and answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit http://forwardonclimate.org

*http://act.350.org/signup/presidentsday

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ” -Margaret Mead

Many people feel that their isn’t much they can do to save energy and help save the planet.  Common excuses I hear while at events are, I don’t own a home (I rent), or I already replaced my windows, or had a home energy assessment.  However there is a lot more that you can do.  There are many actions that anyone can take, see some of our challenge actions for examples, or watch the video below for more simple tips on what you CAN do to save energy, money, and the planet!

A while ago, I saw an instructional video in the explore stream on Google+ on how to use paper towels.  At first I thought it was a joke, another funny video, but I was wrong.  It was actually a video on how to dry your hands using only ONE paper towel!  Just remember shake and fold.  Try it, it really works!

What is your preferred search engine?  Google?  Yahoo?  Bing?  Did you know that there are search engines that donate portions of their profits to helping the environment?  And that these search engines are powered by the same great search engines you already know?

EcoSearch is powered by Google and donates to and supports the Sierra Club, TreePeople, National Resource Defense Council, Heal the Bay, and the Rainforest Alliance.

Ecosia is powered by Bind and Yahoo, and donates to World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) to help save the Rainforest in the Amazon.

Ecosearch.co is powered by Google, that planets trees based.  They also planet 2 trees for each like on Facebook, so like away.

Below is a video on how Ecosia works, for more information visit each search site!