Guy Goes Green

Wannabe green guy going green

Posts Tagged ‘earth’

Looking back at the first month of going green

November 22nd, 2009

I am in the fifth week of this project and thought today would be a good day to do a recap of what I have already done and any updates on what I have done since. Here is an overview:

Week 1: Online Knowledge

During the first week, I found all sorts of awesome sites like My Zero Waste and Franke James. Since then, I have slowly been adding to my green site repertoire and have found some really neat websites like Little Homestead in the City and Tap It. I am continuing my progress and every week I find new sites about every topic. This week I even found a site completely devoted to shutting NASCAR down. Let me know if you have any great sites for me to follow!

Week 2: Stop Junk Mail

During the second week, my task was to learn about junk mail and do my best to get them to stop sending it. I learned that 100 million trees are cut down every year just for junk mail and over 40% of that goes straight into the garbage. I have taken steps to remove myself from the lists, but I think this is going to be a marathon rather than a sprint. I have used the template I created several times. I think the junk mail is slowing and I am continuing to follow up with companies, but the effects might take a while. The part that REALLY torked me off was that I removed myself from receiving phone books, the respective companies contacted me and told me I was off of their list, then within 2 weeks I received 2 phone books from the very same companies. I have followed up with them further, wrote a letter to our local paper (has not been published yet), sent this topic to a local radio personality that I hope he will cover and been generally ornery on the topic.

Week 3: Saving Water

I learned this week that I would needlessly waste well over 100,000 gallons of water in my life if I continued what I was doing. I learned some super easy ways to save 54 gallons of water on any given day. So far, I think this challenge has caused the most dramatic daily change I have made so far. I used to take 2 baths every day. Now I only shower or bathe once a day.

Week 4: Food Waste

I learned quite a bit last week. I learned that food waste creates a large amount of methane, which is far worse than CO2 as far as greenhouse gases go. We can help reduce the greenhouse gases by better using or planning food/meals, donate what we not use, or compost food waste. I also was exposed to Freeganism, which still

Food Bank with Marcia Paulson

fascinates me. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with our local Solid Waste Utility Manager and he schooled me on the awesome things Fargo is doing to reduce waste and reuse energy.

I also learned about the food bank and what is happening locally to help recover and redistribute food that would otherwise go to waste. Ashley and I were fortunate enough to take a tour of the Lutheran Social Services Food Bank headquarters which is shown in the pictures. Marcia Paulson, Director of Marketing and Development, showed us around the warehouse and helped show us the great things they are doing for the people of our state and area (in addition to helping with the environment). Paulson pointed out that they work with over 50 restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, colleges, and bakeries to help recover food. One chain of grocery stores alone, Hornbacher’s, provided over 100,000 pounds of food last year PER STORE. Although the Food Bank is doing some really great things, Paulson indicated that there is always ways to improve.

Visit to the Food Bank and the huge shelves of food

Not only have Ashley and I become more aware of our food waste, I think we have become more aware of the process and what is going on in our community. We just volunteered to help out at the food bank and will update you all when that happens. In this case, going green has other implications.

Summary

It has been a really cool month and I appreciate everybody that has stopped by to take a look. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions… leave them in the comments area below.

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Posted in General Green

Tags: earth food waste forest green junk mail summary water

Great Read: Raising Baby Green by Alan Greene

October 23rd, 2009

I recently read a book called Raising Baby Green by Alan Greene. This is a book that I am proud to shelve within my collection. It is a reference guide for parents that desire a green environment for their children. And what a good point too, to start early. I intend to be greener throughout my future pregnancies because that is the first contact your children will have with food, and any other chemicals (which I’d like to avoid).

This book begins with a chapter called “The Womb.” It goes through what foods are safe to eat, what to avoid and other ways you can affect your baby via air or skin. One thing I distinctly remember in this chapter is that you should eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables because your children will develop taste preference even before birth. Amazing! I have always been a picky eater, but after eating this book, I decided to start trying new foods. I even eat broccoli and tried brussel sprouts. Not because I like them, but because I want to make sure I get all of the nutrients I can from the foods I eat for our future children.

The sequential chapters go through the house room by room to determine a healthier way to live. Like the best choice of floor coverings would be FSC certified flooring or bamboo. They do make sustainable carpets, but even these inhibit allergens from your pets or the outdoors. You may think that this book is like other “green” reference books, but I think it goes a step further by protecting the most vulnerable humans.

I won’t give out any more details so I can leave some suspense, but if you or someone you know is thinking about starting a family, I suggest checking out this book. It is a book that will give you guidance in your going green journey. Living a healthy life starts before birth. Pick up Raising Baby Green or let me know of any great green books you would recommend.

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Posted in Ashley's Posts

Tags: earth green green books

Introducing Ashley – knowledge is power

October 21st, 2009

Knowledge is power. That is a very important statement. We don’t stop learning when we complete our education. I always thought my mom was weird when she said she learns something new every day. Back then I was eager to finish high school so I didn’t have to study anymore, to learn anymore. Now I know what she means.

When Ben told me he was going to create this blog, I was ecstatic. Not only is this a topic that is very important to me, but is something that is deeply rooted in me since I was very young. My cousins and I created a “Save the Earth Club” maybe 15 years ago. We didn’t know what we were going to do with it, but knew what needed to be done. We created flyers and handed them out to neighbors, and even cleaned up a park a little bit. Soon that fizzled away, like many childhood hobbies. However, I still had that sense of responsibility; to do something to make this world a little better.

I have always liked helping my parents with the recycling. This is something very basic, and almost everyone does it, or should do it even if it’s the bare minimum. Some states even require it. I am not going to get into statistics, because that is what Ben will probably do, but to know and understand what is going on in this world not only nationally but internationally WILL get things done.
We compete in the marketplace to find a better way to make things, to find efficiencies or to bring the cost down. This applies to the whole concept of going green. Companies are implementing ways to bring down overhead costs by using wind power, solar power or using less packaging. When I found out my company’s new addition was going to include geo-thermal heat, this made me love my job even more.

The whole purpose of this blog is to learn. Ben is a novice at anything environmental, but that will change. It will not only be him that learns, but also me. There are things that I have hesitated at doing because it was inconvenient or expensive, things that I didn’t know or even resources that I didn’t know existed. Anyway, hopefully you will join the cause and us while we go through 52 week of going green.