How To Green Back-To-School

Greening Up Your Back To School

First Published Date: June 25, 2010

When kids start going back to school, it can mean a lot of extra costs for the parents. Parents have to think about the cost of school supplies. School supplies can run up the pocketbook, but another concern is their environmental impact on the world. Every year, billions of pens and crayons are bought; millions of binders and hundreds of billions of sheets of paper are purchased. That is a lot to take away from the Earth, so it is important that parents look at green alternatives for school. What are some things that they can consider?

First of all, forget about buying new pens and pencils. There are plenty of recycled options out there. You can also look at getting refillable pens and pencils that can be used over and over, for many years to come. In addition, another alternative is to have biodegradable pens made from corn. These pens are cheap, and will degrade away when they are thrown out.

Second, instead of buying new paper, you should get recycled paper. Recycled paper is very affordable now and it looks almost like regular new paper. The great thing is that it does not take away from any forests to make, so you can never impact the planet by just buying recycled paper over and over again.

Third, binders made from recycled products are very popular these days. They carry a green message and many are made from diverse products including old plastic bags and plastic bottles. Since fashion is important for kids in school, these binders are made to look good so your child will be happy to use them.

Fourth, instead of buying new ink cartridges, you should look at just refilling ink cartridges. When you buy new ink cartridges, you are wasting the plastic and ink that was used to create those cartridges. There are many businesses all over the country these days that will provide you with a refill. You can use your old ink cartridge and you will spend a fraction of the price as a result.

Fifth, look at getting calculators that are made from recycled products and other calculators. Many manufacturers are reusing parts to save money and to help you save the environment as well.

Lastly, consider buying backpacks that do not contain any PVC. PVC-free backpacks and lunchboxes are important because when they are thrown away, the PVC leaches out into the environment and there are some studies that show PVC backpacks may be causing some chronic diseases in children. Speaking of lunchboxes, instead of buying new plastic bags every day to hold sandwiches, you can use a reusable sandwich container instead. That way, you prevent plastic bags from making their way out into the environment where they can do immense harm to animals that mistake them for food.

These are just a few of the things you can do to help the environment, help your children and help save some money, especially when you don’t have to keep buying new products over and over again.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on June 25, 2010.

Do You Know What You Can Compost?

What To Compost

First Published Date: June 25, 2010

Composting is something that is incredibly good for your garden and for the environment. When you compost, you keep waste from being thrown away and you give your garden and plants the vital nutrients it needs to grow strong and healthy. Composting is very easy to do. Essentially, all you do is take organic waste, mix it up with dirt, throw in some mulching worms and keep rotating the compost every few weeks and you will have great compost for your garden. As for what you can compost, there are plenty of different things you can compost.

One thing you can compost is your hair and nails. These items are organic and will disappear over time but if you put them in your compost you can give your garden a big shot of nitrogen and calcium, which is very important for your garden. So, when you have a haircut, or cut your nails throw the waste into the compost and help your garden out.

You can compost your jeans and cotton shirts. This is because denim and cotton are organic and will break away over time. All you have to do is cut up the pieces of the clothes and throw them into the compost. They will disappear over time and give your garden lots of great nutrients and minerals. All that will be left eventually are the buttons and zippers, and you should probably just remove those when you throw the clothes in the garden in the first place.

Vegetable waste, fruit waste and any other type of food can be thrown into your compost. This gives your compost many vitamins, nutrients and minerals that will help your garden grow very strong. Now, it is important to note that you cannot put meat or egg shells into your compost. Egg shells do not break down so you have to mash them into a powder so that it can biodegrade. Meat runs the risk of getting maggots into your compost, which will cause your compost to be ruined.

If you rake the leaves on your lawn, then you will be able to compost the yard waste. Many homeowners now leave leaves on their lawn through the winter because it helps to provide the lawn with nutrients and you can use that same concept in your garden. Just take the yard waste and mix it into your compost and the following year you will have a very healthy garden.

Animal waste, specifically manure from horses and cows is extremely high in nitrogen and a good way to help your garden out. You should only use the manure of horses and cows, unless you have a special composter that can handle human or dog waste. Done right, you will help the garden with minerals and nutrients that come from the food the animals eat.

Compost is something that can help your garden greatly and it is essential if you are going to be doing any sort of organic gardening.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on June 25, 2010.

How To Green Your Office

Greening Up Your Office

First Published Date: June 25, 2010

When you want to go green, you often look at how you can go green within your own home. However, we spend eight hours a day at the office, so it is important that you also look at greening your own office. There are many ways that you can do this, but here are the easiest that will not only save the environment, but save your office money as well.

1.    When computers, copiers, printers and other equipment are not being used, make sure they are turned off. Over the weekend, be sure to unplug things that are not being used because that will save you even more money. At the very least, ensure your electronic devices go to standby so they use much less power.

2.    Whenever you use paper, recycle it. This is one of the easiest things for a company to do and all it involves is putting out a recycle bin near where people will use it. It is very easy to do it and it will save the environment a lot of wasted paper.

3.    You should buy 100 per cent recycled paper, refillable ink cartridges, non-toxic highlighters and more in your office. Environmentally friendly office products are cost-effective and very good for the environment.

4.    Look at the possibility of telecommuting. Many companies are now allowing their workers to telecommute because it can save them money. This generally means that you work from home so that you do not have to drive to work. This increases the amount of time a worker is available, and it also cuts down on car pollution.

5.    In the office, encourage car-pooling, public transit use, as well as walking and biking to work. It is a good way to help your employees get to know each other, get exercise and help the environment at the same time.

6.    Don’t print off your e-mails unless you absolutely need to. Often, we have copies of e-mails printed off and on the computer and there is no reason for this. Just keep e-mails backed up on the computer and ask others that they don’t print off the e-mails you send them.

7.    When you have coffee and food in the office, promote buying local and organic food. You can do the same with coffee by buying organic and fair-trade coffee within the office. You should also ask that employees bring their own mugs so that disposable coffee containers are not being used within the office.

There are many things that you can do in the office if you want to save money and the environment. The ones mentioned here are just the easier ones and the ones that you can do right now without a lot of cost. Other things you can do include putting in skylights that you can use to bring in more natural sunlight, changing the heating system within the building and more. The office is a great place to go green when you know how to go about it

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on June 25, 2010.

How To Reduce Fossil Fuel Consumption

Energy deficit – Sun to our rescue

First Published Date: November 6, 2014

What is it that is so abundantly available on our planet, something that is filled with heat and energy? The answer is solar power or the rays of the sun touching our planet which only seems to be growing in intensity and heating up our planet further. When one speaks about using solar energy the first thing that pops to the mind is huge investment required in putting up solar panels.

The truth is not all utilization of solar power requires investment. There are many methods in which solar energy can be used without spending any money. Some of them in fact are quite primitive but have been lost in this fast paced lifestyle.

When building your home, position your windows such that you make maximum use of sun’s rays entering your home. This will be especially useful in winter season and by doing this you can drastically reduce your electricity expense required for heating rooms. To avoid the entry of heat in summer time, you can either grow a big tree (most trees will shed leaves in winter and thus not obstruct the winter sun) or put up an awning. The great news is over 10000 American homes are powered entirely by solar energy and over 200,000 American homes utilize photovoltaic solar energy in some way or the other. Some of the developments during construction level include installing solar roof shingles, opaque glass PV facades etc.

Sun dry your clothes as much as possible. This is not only healthy but also saves on your electricity bill. With minimal investment you can install solar systems in your home that will help you heat water or power your lights and fans. While the initial investment may seem a little on the higher side the amount you save annually on your energy bills will more than make up for the initial investment. Not to mention the pride you get for having contributed your bit to saving planet earth

These are of course primitive ways of using solar energy. In the modern day solar energy is converted to storable energy through photovoltaic cells and this energy is used to light up the home at night. There is also the solar pool heating systems that helps eliminate heating expense in swimming pools and also extends the season of swimming benefiting the pool owners in many ways.

Apart from producing energy to meet their own needs Americans can also benefit from the “net metering”. When you install solar system in your residence and have excess energy produced that you do not find any use for, you can sell it back to the utility company and actually earn money.

We all need to contribute our might to save fossil fuel and instead of passing the buck, if every individual could take up the onus of doing their bit, a lot could be save not just in hard currency but in many other green ways.

The Copenhagen December 2009 Environmental Summit

Copenhagen – Get Your Pessimism In Early

First Published Date: Oct 24, 2009

In December this year, the Danish capital Copenhagen will play host to the most important environmental summit of the past decade, and the most intensely-awaited since the Kyoto summit of 1997. Kyoto has come in the eyes of many to symbolise the greatest missed opportunity to turn back the tides of environmental damage, as the protocol set down in the agreement which was signed at the end of the summit have failed to be adopted by some of its signatories, and even those who have adopted them have as yet failed to make all of the required adjustments. The hope is that Copenhagen will see the attending administrations make good on the essential failures of Kyoto – but already there is doubt as to how likely that is.

The signs are not good, if you believe the sounds being made after US President Barack Obama spoke at the UN to a one-day summit on Climate issues. Although he was strident in his words, and spoke like the born orator many believe him to be, something was lacking. He gave his commitment to push through cuts in emissions and called for focus from all leaders in trying to bring about a solution to climate change, but his speech was lacking in specifics. If Copenhagen is to achieve anything in terms of driving back climate change, there will need to be a broad consensus before the parties sit down to negotiate. Otherwise, all we can look forward to is “talks about talks” with the likely outcome that another convention will have to be summoned before 2010 is out.

Perhaps unfairly, there has been a lot of criticism directed towards the relatively new American administration in the aftermath of Obama’s speech. Yes, it was light on specifics beyond a reiterated commitment to his existing initiative to cap carbon emissions at a commercial level – but there has been precious little in the way of bright initiatives from anyone else at the same time. A recent, and bold, Australian government bill aimed at cutting emissions has failed to win parliamentary support, and with PM Kevin Rudd threatening to dissolve Parliament and call another election rather than moderate its terms, the picture is one where consensus is going to be hard to find in sole countries let alone worldwide.

It could be that all of this pessimism leads to something good, however. Although the prospects for success at Copenhagen are deemed to be poor, this pessimism may ironically drive the negotiations to be more searching and less posturing. A result from Copenhagen is not impossible until the final days of the conference, and if the leaders show goodwill between now and then a deal is not out of the question. However, the deal has to be right. If all we see is another fudge like Kyoto, we cannot afford to wait another twelve years before we sort that one out. There are two months to go before the politicians begin to sit down. Will they take the chance to work on something meaningful? We can only hope.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Oct 4, 2009