I know that I’m harping on the subject (oh, just here, here and here, that’s all), but it’s whatever it takes to spread the word about how invasive-ly nasty water bottles are for our environment. We’ve all fallen for the pure-spring-fed-mountain-fresh bozo claims of water bottlers, but NO more.

And here in a movie-is-worth-a-thousand-words, is Tapped the Movie, which will help the message sink in:
“From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the [...]

With all the talk about Green, Ecological, Environmentally-Friendly, Sustainable, Renewable, Recyclable, Earth-Friendly, Fair-Trade, Waste-Reducing and Organic labeled products, how can we tell what’s really green? As we are approaching Earth Day 2009 (Wednesday, April 22), I thought it would be timely to address the question.
And, here’s a fantastic resource for that: BuyGreen.com has become a trusted source for green products. Allison Huke and a partner started the company a couple years ago when she found it difficult to find all the green products that she needed and trusted for her family and her home. She certainly solved that problem! BuyGreen [...]

Some 18 million people are now practicing yoga in the U.S. (well, some more regularly than others) and that means that there are a whole bunch of used yoga mats out there. Just as runners need to replace their running shoes every now and then, so do yogis need to replace their mats. So, what happens to all these unwanted mats?
Until now, perhaps nothing except for seeing the bottom of a trash bin. That is, until Stephanie Stano launched “Recycle Your Mat”, a clearing house for used yoga mats which sorts and processes mats for manufacturer re-use.
The nascent Recycle Your [...]

We are having our office Christmas sendoff party tomorrow. With the economy in its present lamentable state and its nagging determination to bring down our holiday spirit, we decided to have a White Elephant Gift Exchange to inject a little humor and fun in our party. As I was presenting the idea to the group, I realized that many did not know what this was. So here is how we have done a White Elephant Gift Exchange in the past, with a few simple rules:
For the gift:

One gift per attendee
The gift cannot be purchased
It must be in serviceable condition, [...]

We all know to use draft mode to save ink when printing documents. Printer ink is expensive AND it is made from finite resources – plastic (petroleum) and metal. Recycling printed paper requires a de-inking process. The more ink, the more impact on our land and water.
So then, how ingenious of the SPRANQ designers to have created this “holey” ecological font that saves 20% of the ink simply by omitting to print certain filled parts of the letters. The Ecofont is free to download HERE. It is based on the aesthetically pleasing on the Vera Sans, an Open Source letter.

If you haven’t already seen the “Story of Stuff” video by Annie Leonard, today’s your day. Gather your family and friends (or send them the link) and watch it NOW. It’s so important.
Mostly, we are all well aware of our over-consumption and the consequential impact on the environment, but this video does an outstanding job at distilling the alarming information into digestible nuggets… even provides us with usable soundbites to easily relay the information to others.
You may watch a teaser below (only a minute long) and you will want to click on this link to get access to the full [...]

Ok, so, I pride myself on NEVER having re-blogged anything from Daily Candy. Ever. That would just be too obvious and not original in the least. Except for this feature for YellowPagesgoesGreen.org to sign up and stop the delivery of unsolicited telephone books. This one totally needs to be passed on (I know that not EVERYONE is subscribed to Daily Candy?!?!?). For one, I systematically put every new phone book in the recycling bin as soon as it arrives. I can’t even remember the last time I actually consulted a yellow or white pages directory. There is just no need [...]

My daughter school held a screening of “Garbage! The Revolution” on Earth Day this last week.  This fantastic and highly digestible documentary has made us all much more aware of our over-the-top consumption habits. I thought that my family was well versed on the topic of trash and recycling. Not even close. If you think you know everything about our trash problem, think again… or watch the documentary. As a society, we are largely ignoring the problem because of the typical “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome. When our trash is hauled away, we don’t really need to think [...]

Wow, look at what I just found: www.CatalogChoice.org. Now you can get your name and address off catalog lists thanks to this new service. I have a noticeable feeling of guilt every time I open my mailbox and shift through all the unwanted and unsolicited catalogs. Some I got because I ordered something, once,  years ago and they continue sending. Others because my name was sold to a mailing company. Regardless, I don’t need catalogs. I can find anything I want by going online.

So, I was quite thrilled to find out about this new, a sponsored project of the Ecology [...]

An excerpt from today’s Ideal Bite… bite ( I love this daily newsletter):

MAILBOX OR MAUSOLEUM?
Unwanted mail crowds out invites and tax refunds, and uses up valuable natural resources like trees, water, and energy. Point, click, and put to rest credit-card offers and catalog clutter once and for all.
The Benefits
Keeps you out of the sanitarium. Each American receives almost 560 pieces of junk mail per year – more than enough to drive you crazy.
Saves energy. Junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars every year.
More trees. Annually, 100 million trees are used to make junk mail.
More free time. Americans waste [...]