Blogs

EcoGeek's guide to saying 'thanks' to Dad

Raegan Payne — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:00:33 PDT

Fatherâs Day is June 15 and if you havenât gotten a gift yet, itâs time to start scrambling. Here are a few suggestions for those of you who would like to make Dad and the planet happy.Â

If you have a dad who hasnât jumped onto the Inconvenient Truth bandwagon yet, try a new approach by giving him "Go Green Live Rich: 50 Ways to Save the Earth (and Get Rich Trying)" by financial guru and best-selling author David Bach. Bach outlines 50 ways to align environmental values with monetary success like getting a green audit, driving smart (hint: fuel efficiency), and investing in emerging eco-companies.Â

To save trees give, your dad a paperless book reader. Sony and Amazon are battling this one out, so you can take advantage of low prices on both the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader. The Sony Reader is more stylish but its book-buying system is cumbersome, whereas the Kindle easily allows you to buy and download books directly to theÂ device with no hassle.Â Â

No one likes the current gas prices and everyone could use more exercise, so why not help your father with both by hooking him up with a foldable bicycle? He will never again worry whether his bike will fit in the car, subway, garage, or corner of his office. The Slingshot Foldtech is a high-performance mountain bike that will run you about $800. The design will leave him speechless and thatâs before he finds out it can fold. For more folding bikes, check out this story.

Does your dadâs cell phone die all the time? Help him. The Solio solar charger is pocket-sized, charges a number of small devices, and stores energy up to one year. Solio will even gift-wrap the charger in 100% recycled, post-consumer paper for a small fee.

If your father is of the paranoid variety or a survivalist a la Bear Grylls from âMan vs. Wild,â then the Lifesaver Bottle should be your gift of choice. The bottle âremoves bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and all other microbiological waterborne pathogens without using chemicals like iodine or chlorine.âÂ

For how it works youâve got to go to the website. The cross-section of the bottle looks like a diagram of the Space Shuttle, so Iâm not even going to attempt an explanation. He'll never have to buy bottled water again!

A modest proposal: an extreme green Valentine

Vera H-C Chan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:19:20 PST

The day is upon us.

The annual homage to St. Valentine thrills millions, but this is when I go into one-day winter hibernation. As a pragmatic sort of female, I'm not especially prone to romantic swooning or succumbing to the pink-festooned blandishments of Valentine's marketers.

Instead, every February 14, I go around scowling at perky salesgirls armed with perfume atomizers, blowing out candles at romantic restaurants, and watching action flicks in the dark of my living room.

Don't mistake me: I'm not entirely without a sentimental streak. Rather, romance to me should be spread like fertilizer on topsoil throughout the year, rather than having it dumped ceremoniously on a single day. Plus, these yearly demands for a tangible reassurance of affection seem, well, suspect in these environmentally sensitive times.

Has that rose bouquet lain in a bed of pesticide? Did the chocolate flourish by clear-cutting habitats of twittering birds and hissing reptiles? I'm not even going to get into non-recyclable Mylar balloons and politically conflicted diamonds (and how schlocky that Leonardo DiCaprio movie was).

Surely I'm not the only one who warms hearing her love's declaration, "I'm not getting you anything for Valentine's Day." Still, eco-psycho as I may sound, I grudgingly see the desire for a heart's spring thaw. So, I present to you three, bold, outside-the-gift-box ideas to celebrate this day:

Clean out the garage
Or fix the gurgling toilet. Or donate those Hooters T-shirts, stat.

Chances are, your beloved has been hounding you about that environmental cesspool of undone deeds. History (or at least the History Channel) may back you up, as the ancient Romans "ritually cleansed" homes in February.

In one fell swoop (or over a series of weekends), you can express your devotion, restore harmony, and wrangle a tax donation receipt out of the whole venture.

Recycle your exes
Probably a very compelling reason exists as to why your former love interest(s) is (are) in the past tense. Then again, you always hear tales of reunited high school sweethearts... and haven't your years of hard-fought romances put true love into perspective?

Besides the very meta-nature of this romantic philosophy, contemplate the savings: A second go-around cuts down on the flowers, cards, and other courtship fripperies. You've already seen each other at your best and your worst, so you can skip the extraneous wooing process and go right into hard-core relationship.

And yes, after a five-year breakup, ex-boyfriend number four and I have been wed for nearly six years now. Savings so far in avoiding divorce proceedings: priceless.

From dust to diamonds
Who says romance is dead? Well, actually, a mortal coil can be used to immortalize your eternal love.

The Illinois-based LifeGem "capturesâ the carbon from cremains to create a diamond -- anyone from great-aunt Bertha to your late Rottweiler Peaches.

A six-foot body can produce about a 100 stones, but if you'd prefer not to have the Grim Reaper be your ring bearer, a lock of hair will do. Make that a fistful, just to be safe: According to Dean VandenBiesen, one of the LifeGem founders, five grams can yield three one-carat diamonds.

Nursing a rock, however, takes anywhere from six months to a year depending on carat size. You'll have to wait until next year to give this gift -- but now you have some time to cultivate maximum hair crop.

Last-minute Valentine's ideas

Trystan L. Bass — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:09:34 PST

Valentine's Day is almost here, but you forgot to order a dozen VeriFlora-certified roses in time for delivery. And diamonds, conflict-free or otherwise, aren't in the budget. What's a love-struck greenie to do?

If you're a tiny bit creative, you can still shower your sweetie with earth-friendly goodies. Here are some ideas I've found around the Web ...

The New American Dream site helps you whip up a dreamy Valentine's Day, greenly but without spending a lot of green.

I adore this one: Give your date a box of 40 dates. Write down 40 ideas on slips of paper and wrap them up in a pretty box (maybe recycle a fancy candy box). Each idea is for a future date together -- things like cooking a favorite meal or taking a candlelit bubble bath.

Make the dates simple, fun things instead of wildly expensive or complicated. Check out the Dollar Stretcher's ideas to go beyond dinner and a movie, plus use the list of 25 cheap or free dates (many of which get out into nature).

Bankrate.com has more suggestions for inexpensive sweet gifts you can create. The list is geared toward guys impressing gals, but most anyone should appreciate it.

And since they don't increase landfill garbage or require buying goods harvested under questionable conditions, these ideas are fairly eco-friendly too.

For example: Detail your Valentine's car. A clean car runs more efficiently and can use less fuel, so this is a treat for your sweetheart's wallet and the planet too.

While you're at it, be sure to inflate the tires -- which can save up to 9 cents per gallon. Check for clogged air filters (could save 31 cents per gallon!), and consider replacing it with a lifetime filter for maximum savings.

Our pal Hank Green, aka EcoGeek, is a closet romantic too. Or at least, he knows how to catch a green girl's eye. Tips include:

Donate to a local wildlife refuge, land trust, or wildlife rehabilitation center.
Save water by showering together.
Save energy, turn down the thermostat, and warm up the bed the old-fashioned, earth-friendly way.

Now you have no excuse not to celebrate your love in an earth-friendly fashion!

How sweet is that message?

Trystan L. Bass — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:02:25 PST

"Be mine." "Hot stuff." "Kiss me." Cute messages of love on a classic Valentine's Day candy -- the biggest selling sweet other than chocolate for February 14th.

But not the sweetest message you could give to the planet. Here are the top three reasons why Valentine's conversation hearts are not eco-friendly:

#1 -- Sugar

Did you know that sugar production around the world is damaging natural treasures like the Great Barrier Reef off Australia's coast and the Everglades wetlands in Florida?

According to WWF International, 121 countries produce the annual 145 tons of sugar the world eats. And unfortunately, this sugar cane and sugar beets are grown with plenty of pesticides and create toxic runoff into soil and water.

The Sugarcane Production and Environment Report (PDF) notes that it takes a whopping 1,500-3,000 liters of water to produce just 1 kg of sugar. Refining factories regularly belch out soot, ash, and other solids, while ammonia is released during sugar processing.

Better management practices could make sugar a cleaner product. But until cane growers agree to be sustainable, consumers might want to make more informed choices.

It'd be great if we could find more fair-trade sugar, but in the meantime, it's not a bad idea to cut back on sugar. Easier on the waistline anyway.

#2 -- Corn syrup

Next in the original recipe for Necco's Sweethearts Conversation Hearts is corn syrup. Now, we're not positive if this is the awful high-fructose corn syrup that's in so many of our processed foods (and has been linked to the American obesity crisis). But any kind of corn syrup has little to recommend it.

Corn is massively over-farmed and subsidized in the U.S., and this is causing a host of environmental problems right on our doorstep. Grist points out that corn farmers pour 10 billion pounds of fertilizer on their fields every year, and this junk washes down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. The waste creates a giant algae bloom known as the "Dead Zone" that kills fish and marine plants.

#3 -- Gelatin

Number three in the recipe and the third reason these seemingly innocent treats aren't so innocent for the eco-minded is the stuff we usually associate with wiggly-jiggly Jello. Gelatin is often used in candies and desserts as a stabilizer or to simulate the mouth-feel of fat.

If you weren't aware of it already, gelatin comes from animals. Specifically, it's the boiled-down collagen from connective tissues, bones, and skin of cattle and pigs.

As we've noted before, raising livestock for food is pretty inefficient and produces far more greenhouse gases than eating a plant-based diet. You don't have to be hardcore about it -- just cutting back on animal products a few days each week for a more flexitarian lifestyle is earth-friendly.

Intstead of conversation hearts ...

Want some alternatives to those candies? If you're the sentimental type, buy a pack of recycled-content pink construction paper, cut it into big heart shapes, and write your own sweet messages on each heart.

Scatter them around your Valentine's house, tuck one in your honey's briefcase or purse, sneak one in the car before your loved one drives off to work -- this will be a Valentine's Day to remember!

Or if your sugar prefers something edible, go for fair-trade or organic chocolates. That'll guarantee a gift that's rich, decadent, and sweet on Mother Earth too.

Vegan cupcakes take over the world

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:13:59 PST

Want to try something new with your Valentine? Try baking up some sweet treats that avoid animal products. Raising dairy cattle uses a ton of resources, so when we cut back on consumption, we can reduce our carbon footprint as much as if we drove a hybrid car.

Baking without dairy, eggs, or butter may seem like a contradiction in terms. But you'll find tons of cookbooks and websites to help. The Post-Punk Kitchen has a handy vegan baking 101 tip sheet to start you off.

Eggs can be replaced with silken tofu, soy yogurt, finely ground flax seeds, even a banana. Milk is easily swapped with soy, rice, or almond milk. And of course you can use margarine instead of butter, or use vegetable oil in a reduced amount.

One of the most popular desserts around is probably the cupcake. It's so trendy that specialized cupcake-only bakeries have opened up around the U.S., and brides are ordering cupcakes instead of wedding cakes. The book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World has taken this fad and made it eco-friendly and so have many green bloggers.

Want some inspiration before you hit the kitchen? Check out the luscious-looking vegan cupcakes photo pool on Flickr or the vegan baking pool. Now that your mouth is watering, let's get cooking.

The Bittersweet Blog has yummy recipes such as classic chocolate cupcakes and root beer float cupcakes. The only unusual ingredient in these is soy milk, which most major grocery stores carry. For people with Celiac disease, there's even a wheat-free version of the root beer float cupcakes.

Chocoholics will be tempted by the name of this recipe: too much chocolate for you, cupcake. These rich treats from the Have Cake, Will Travel blog use Dutch-process cocoa, plus chocolate chips. The same site has a more subtle recipe for low-fat rosewater cupcakes.

The Vegan Feast Kitchen whips up a almost-no-fat chocolate cupcake (earth-friendly and waistline-friendly!). And the Vivacious Vegan combines two great tastes into a banana peanut butter cupcake.

And if you're all cupcaked-out, how about some other Valentine's Day sweets? Start with heart-shaped strawberry muffins for your love.

Then try these surprisingly easy dark chocolate truffles. Even simpler are puff pastry chocolate 'ravioli' -- so elegant and charming, you shouldn't save them for just February.

If you're really ambitious, give authentic (and still vegan) petit fours a shot. Your loved one will be truly impressed.

Advice for the Lunar New Year

Vera H-C Chan — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:52:44 PST

Red and gold may be the auspicious colors of the Lunar New Year, but you can glean a little green wisdom from some ancient holiday customs.

Obviously, China hasn't set an exemplary environmental model in the last few decades. The country's accelerated growth has blackened its skies, gummed up its waterways, and endangered its food supply.

However, recent changes pushed by coal mine accidents, food safety, and the upcoming Beijing Olympics point to a more environmentally informed policy shift.

Perhaps a better example is to explore the principles behind long-held Chinese traditions and apply these to modern-day scenarios.

Lunar New Year customs differ across regions, countries, and in Diasporas around the world, but let's analyze a few and see how we can use them to celebrate our environment every day.

The vegetarian feast
The family gathers on New Year's eve for a table groaning with dishes, the homonyms of which evoke prosperity, fortune, and fertility. Some families adopt the Buddhist tradition of a meat-free meal to honor the notion of not taking a life on the New Year and cut those animals some slack.

By now it's well-documented that animal agriculture sucks up fossil fuel resources in their care, feeding, and transportation. One United Nations report estimated personal veganism was more emissions-friendly than driving a hybrid. You may not go whole hog (so to speak), but taking one day out of the week to be meat-free could be a good compromise.

Watching the spread
A traditional Chinese diet incorporates soy, greens, fruits, and fungus. It has also long emphasized fresh foods, and the New Year takes that cornucopia to an extreme. Sweets, while important, aren't as prolific either.

For those families who do serve up meat or fish, they are served up whole. Interpretations vary, but many feel that sliced foods present a "broken" dish, while whole foods represent family unity and reinforce notion that an animal's sacrifice deserves to be recognized. In other words, you gotta look that fish or duck in the eye and give thanks.

Pay off your debts
This may be little tough in our credit card culture, but the practice does apply to personal debts as well as business ones. If you knew you had to pay off your debts by the New Year, you'd likely rethink how you spend your money in the first place.

This is another way to assess personal consumption, especially when you throw in the whole newfangled concept of carbon footprints and offsets.

The flow of presents
In American culture, giving cash used to be considered a crass etiquette breach. Gift cards these days have become a suitable next step, but as most cards are unrecyclable plastic, that makes paper money comparatively far less offensive.

Enter the red envelope (called lai see or hong bao) and the tradition of giving crisp bills to all single folk (including children) and employees. The red envelope also gets passed around on birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings.

Eliminating the middle man (i.e., an unwanted gift) could cut down on gas consumption in getting or returning junk to stores and also allows the recipient to direct the cash flow into experiences (a honeymoon, sports tickets) or larger purchases (a house, college savings) rather than a collection of well-meaning but disposable goods (Hula Hands salad scoops). If your upbringing can't embrace giving green, consider other New Year's offerings like fruit and plants as earth-friendly presents.

Other practices stem from folk superstitions that no luck should be accidentally thrown out, so no cleaning that day (sorry, you still have to scrub in the days leading up to New Year), and you shouldn't wash your hair. The daily shower habit really is a 20th-century American luxury, but I'd leave that decision to your personal hygiene -- and to the people who have to put up with you.

Sun neen fai lok (as they say in Cantonese), and happy 4706.

Recycle wrap or not?

Trystan L. Bass — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:40:04 PST

The holidays are over, and a mountain of brightly colored papers is piled around your house. Do you chuck it in the garbage or can any of this mess be recycled? Unfortunately, the answer isn't easy. It depends on what kind of wrapping paper you have and where you live.

If you can rescue any of the pieces, do what my mom always encouraged -- reuse the paper next year. Carefully take off the bits of tape, roll or fold the paper up, and store it for the following holiday. Ribbons and bows (especially fancy ones) are easy to save and reuse too, and paper gift bags are the hardiest of all.

But if the kids ripped the wraps already, start by sorting out the metallic and foil papers. Those are the ones least likely to be recycled. Also remove tape, ribbons, bows, and any of those cute decorations some folks attach.

Now, can you recycle? Ultimately, you'll need to ask your local waste management utility because acceptance can vary on a state, county, and city level.

For example, the whole state of California lists gift wrapping paper as recyclable. West Valley Collection which serves parts of the south San Francisco bay area in CA specifies "no metallic/foil" wraps.

Wake County, North Carolina recycles wrapping paper (no bows or foil), and so does Greenville, North Carolina.

Wrapping paper gets recycled in New York City and Onondaga County, New York.

Even tissue paper is recycled with wrapping paper in Roswell, Georgia, and Montgomery County, Maryland. This is rather unusual because, as Eco-Cycle in Colorado notes, tissue paper has weak fibers and doesn't provide much to recycle. At least someone's taking it.

However, no wrapping papers at all are accepted in the recycling bins of Austin, Texas; Dakota County, Minnesota; Louisville, Kentucky; and Springfield, Massachusetts.

These are just a few municipalities I found on the Web. Search for the name of your recycling department online or look in the phone book. And next holiday season, consider eco-friendly wraps that lessen the garbage from the outset.

While you're at it, don't forget to recycle your Christmas tree -- Earth 911 lists places to do this nationwide.

Regifting is good for the environment

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:38:07 PST

Recently, the Motley Fool's Dayana Yochim wrote a rather disdainful list of do's and don'ts of regifting. "Regifting" is, of course, the process of giving someone a present that has been previously given to you.

I guess a finance guru thinks you look cheap if you indulge in this practice, but to me, regifting is simply another word for "recycling," so it's good for the planet.

You're keeping something out of the garbage and hopefully giving it a useful new home.

Some of Yochim's regifting tips that we greenies might want to ignore include:

"Don't confuse barely used with brand-spankin' new." Sure, if a garment is stained, it's not an appropriate gift. But mismatched twist-ties on cords are hardly valid reasons to not pass along a working electronic toy to a kid.

Another nonstarter: "Make sure all original packaging is intact." Who cares? Packaging is wasteful to begin with, so if you've already recycled it, don't worry about not passing along that problem to another person. You don't need to give shrink-wrapped gifts -- sentiment is not measured by plastic (especially when the plastic will just clog up the ocean).

Here's another one that's a bit iffy: "Wrap it like it's new." Yes, it's nice to wrap a gift to show you care. But you can always reuse wrapping paper (my family has been doing it for decades; not with the exact same paper, though!), and high-quality fabric ribbons and bows last a long time. Check out our previous blog post for eco-friendly wrapping ideas.

But we can all agree with this advice: "Give with good intentions." Think about who would really appreciate your second-hand gifts the most.

Because if they don't want it, those things still could end up in a landfill, and that's the kind of gift our planet doesn't need.

Sharing an Earth-friendly Christmas feast

Trystan L. Bass — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:04:05 PST

As family and friends gather for holiday meals, you might consider creating a deliciously eco-friendly spread for the table. Some traditional dishes require a lot of resources, but it's pretty easy to find alternatives.

Here are some ideas for an Earth-friendly Christmas dinner:

Look for sustainable, locally grown foods and go organic when you can. Search Local Harvest and the Eat Well Guide to find stores and farms in your area that have fresh produce and meats raised without antibiotics.

The holidays can be a time of over-indulgence, but we can have our treats without going crazy too. The Vegetarian Kitchen has useful tips for eating healthy at holiday meals, including ingredients to substitute in recipes so you get flavor with as much fat.

If your Christmas guest list includes vegetarians and omnivores, the Good Karma CafÃ©'s tips for feeding vegetarians will come in handy.

In fact, a semi-vegetarian or all-meatless meal is quite festive and kind to the planet. Meat production creates as much greenhouse gases as driving cars, so why not skip the Christmas ham this year and make savory harvest pot pies or rich spinach lasagna?

The Veggie Table has a host of Christmas recipes including roasted chestnuts, winter squash risotto, eggplant gratin, and ginger-brandy cheesecake.

VegSource lists separate menus for an American country Christmas, an English-style Christmas, and a Christmas Eve in southern Italy.

And nothing compliments a good meal like a fine glass of wine. Low Impact Living explains the designations behind organic wines, so you'll know what you're buying.

Yahoo! Food also recommends 12 great biodynamic wines. These are vintages grown as part of a harmonic ecosystem without pesticides.

Don't forget dessert -- About.com has dozens of yummy vegan cookie recipes!

No more stuff

Trystan L. Bass — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:46:04 PST

You want to give a little something as a holiday gift. But either the person "has everything," or you feel bad about adding clutter and eventually garbage into a landfill.

Why not give a gift that has no stuff attached? One that is a gift of your time, thought, and consideration. Here are some examples from around the Web.

Grist has a big list that starts with buying carbon offsets and ends with organic beer. Hey, we can support those suggestions!

In between, Grist does suggest more modest gifts like I.O.U.s for babysitting or guitar lessons, give zoo memberships, and sign up with a community-supported agriculture farm.

Ideal Bite has some gift-certificate ideas that are more about giving experiences than junk. Massages and spa treatments, iTunes, and even Green Dimes' service to get off junk mail lists.