KeepGreenGoing

It’s one idea to talk about buying a hybrid car and/or riding you bike to work everyday. But for some people, these two options aren’t realistic. Instead of making such a drastic change in your life, what would happen if we simplified the solution? What would it look like for everyone to take one small step that held one big impact?

Think about it this way - What would happen if each of us decreased our demand for gas by %5?

On average, Americans consume about 386 million gallons of gasoline each day. Over the course of a year, that adds up to just under 141 billion gallons of gas. That’s a lot of gas.

If all of us were able to reduce our gas consumption by 5%, we’d save 7.05 billion gallons of gas each year.

Decreasing your gas intake is easy to do:

• Drive 1 less day out of the week.
• Carpool to work with a co-worker.
• Take you lunch with you to work so you don’t have to leave during the day.
• Do all of your errands in 1 trip out, rather than multiple trips throughout the week.
• Have you kids ride their bikes to school instead of driving them. Read on»

Every wonder why people “go to the extreme” of being vegetarian or vegan?

The philosophy behind veganism stands on the precept that we, as humans, do not have any right to “use” animals for anything. Furthermore, our use of animals, which have no choice in the matter, is a form of exploitation. A vegan lifestyle avoids, to the extent that is possible, all forms of that exploitation. A vegan chooses to avoid using or consuming animal products including dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool, down and cosmetics or chemical products tested on animals.

So why would someone concerned about the earth be concerned about what they eat? Let’s take a look at some of the facts:

Raising animals for meat has its consequences. It leads to rain forest destruction, global heat rising, water pollution, water scarcity, desertification, misuse of energy resources and world hunger. The use of land, water, energy and human effort to produce meat is not an efficient way to use the earth’s resources.

Since 1960, some 25% of Central America’s rain forests have been burned and cleared to create pasture for beef cattle. It has been estimated that every four-ounce hamburger made from rain forest beef destroys 55 square feet of tropical rain forest. In addition, raising cattle contributes significantly to the production of three gases which cause global warming, is a leading cause of water pollution and requires a staggering 2464 gallons of water for the production of each pound of beef. It only takes 29 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes, and 139 gallons to produce a one pound loaf of whole wheat bread. Nearly half of the water consumed in the United States goes to the growing of feed for cattle and other livestock.
Read on»

If you’re like me, you get sick of hearing about how to go green. Everyday there’s companies pushing messages at you about what you should and shouldn’t be doing to go green. With 3000 messages hitting the average person a day and $620 billion spent each year in advertising… that’s a lot of greenness to take in.

Well, when you’re going through the closets and doing your spring-cleaning, don’t toss it, GIGO it! Here’s a company that takes a new approach to recycling - a practical, realistic and effective way to reuse things you don’t need.

Gigo it (’gi-gO it) is a two-word phrase comprised of the words “gigo” and “it”. “Gigo” is pronounced “Gi” as in gift and “go” as in the word go. Gigoit.org is a free online service designed to help people get rid of reusable items by putting them in the hands of people who want them. The catch? There is none. Anyone who post on Gigoit.org is offering the item up for free. The end result keeps usable items out of landfills and in the hands of people who need your stuff. Essentially, it’s an online donation community. You can search by distance from your location or view the most recently added items. Read on»