Community Gardens: An Excellent Way to Celebrate Earth Day

Community Gardens are a great way to do something positive for the community and the environment, and would be a great event to kickoff on Earth Day 2011 if you're looking for an eco-friendly event idea for your community. I recently checked out a local community garden known as Tucson Village Farm, The working urban farm is maintained by local kids through the organization's seed-to-table program. Children (and adults) are taught the benefits of healthy eating while helping to maintain crops that include vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. "Growing Forward” is their K-5 state standardized agriculture literacy program. Hands-on learning stations include: farming, composting, worms, pollinators, and nutrition.

Junior high school art students have created more than a dozen colorful signs that educate visitors as well.
I'm lucky. I get to enjoy the ongoing fruits of their labors every time I walk to Trader Joe's. A neighbor's 5-year-old daughter often comes with me - I think it's just so she can see the progress... or because they have a full-size tractor, hay bales, a very wormy-y compost bin and a big red barn!

Saving the Earth means the World - Shopping Bag by UponRequest

A Billion Acts of Green : Earth Day 2011

A Billion Acts of Green® is an ongoing commitment to Earth Day designed to prove the idea that real change occurs best when millions of people commit to it with their actions. Every Act registered will be counted toward our ultimate goal of amassing one billion actions in advance of the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Are you, your group, your town, your team registered? If not, now's a great time to join the approximately 78,000,000 around the world that have registered their unique commitment.

Need ideas? Check out Act.EarthDay.org for more information. You'll find upcoming events like city-sponsored Earth Day hikes, or pledges by others registered that include a wide variety of commitments, from changing to CFL lightbulbs in their home to building a community garden.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. 

~Henry David Thoreau

5 Ways to Support World Water Day

Today, World Water Day will be celebrated around the globe in an ongoing effort to increase awareness of safe and clean drinking water. It is estimated that 1 in 8 people lack access to water that is free of disease-carrying bacteria or other known safety concerns. The United Nations reports that around the world, more people are dying from unsafe water than from violence. Here are five ways you can help support World Water Day:

1. Use your social network profiles (Twitter, Facebook, etc) to spread the word.
2. Donate to a charity that is committed to providing safe drinking water, especially in Third World countries.
3. Get educated. Find out more facts about water and sanitation here. Get the FAQS on World Water Day.
4. Start your own Clean Water campaign.
5. Protect our oceans, lakes and streams from toxic pollutants like the chemicals used to manufacture plastic water bottles and Styrofoam.

More resources:  World Health Organization's Advocacy Guide, World Water Day - Wikipedia

It's A Good Time to Green Your Indoor Lighting

Many of us have already switched out the fluorescent bulbs with eco-friendly CFL bulbs in our living rooms, dens, offices and other well-used spaces within our homes. However, now is a good time to check the areas that are often "out of sight" like basements, attics and closets to ensure they're as green as possible. If you're like me, you may find that some of these areas have been overlooked when doing a lighting upgrade. CFL bulbs are not only better for the environment, they're cost effective, which is a great reason to switch them out now, when so many of us are dealing with increased utility bills that are associated with colder weather.

Eco-friendly bulbs can be purchased at a variety of hardware and big box stores for under a buck a piece. I've even found them at discount stores like the 99¢ store. Online, they tend to be a bit more expensive, however, if you are looking for a specific type of CFL bulb, like an indoor floodlight, online stores and websites are a great resource.

Did you know Home Depot has a CFL recycling program? Find out more details here

America's National Parks - Free (and Green) in 2011

Yosemite Falls - courtesy NPS.gov

Beginning this coming weekend, January 15-17, the U.S. National Park Service is offering five opportunities for you and your friends and family to enjoy the beauty of some of the best national parks available, throughout 2011. To read the details of this special offer, click here.  Not only does it rejuvenate the spirit, but spending a few days in one of these parks definitely reinforces one's efforts to be more eco-friendly and leave a smaller footprint!

This special offer affects 100 national parks that normally charge some sort of entrance fee (however, there are also another 390+ that never charge).  Time to start planning that vacation of weekend getaway!

Not sure which one to choose? Check out this list of the Top 5 National Parks in the U.S.
 

Sharing Earth: Community Gardening Resources

Wikipedia defines Community Gardening as:

a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people.

which pretty much sums up the basics of co-op, shared earth, community gardening or any of the other phrases that are often used to describe this trend that is making a comeback. If you, your community, school or neighborhood are interested in either joining a garden co-op or starting your own, here are a few resources to get started:

SharedEarth.com is a great website for community gardening. Land owners that are willing to share parcels of land that can be used for gardens, can submit a listing as can gardeners and farmers looking for land to use. Listings are available throughout the world and searchable by city, state, country or zip code.

American Community Garden Association (ACGA) is is a bi-national nonprofit membership organization of professionals, volunteers and supporters of community greening in urban and rural communities. You can subscribe to their newsletter, explore their database of community gardens, check event listings and more.


P-Patch Trust While the P-Patch is specific only to the Seattle, WA area, it's a good website to check out for inspiration and other resources.

Huntington Beach Green Expo - September 2010

Mark your calendar and join in the fun September 18, 2010 at the Huntington Beach Green Expo. This is the 3rd year for the annual event, which will be held at the Huntington Beach Pier Plaza on Pacific Coast Hwy., from 10 am to 4 pm. It's a fun and eco-friendly event for the whole family (and a great way to get to know more about local green businesses and ways to incorporate more green practices at home.) Did I mention it's FREE?  For more info and a list of vendors and sponsors, check out HuntingtonBeachGoesGreen.com

5 Cool and Eco-friendly Back-to-School Items Under $20

It's Back-to-School time for some and rapidly approaching for others.  Here are a few eco-friendly products you might find useful - and all under $20.

1. Recycled Backpacks and Book Bags - there's a growing number of companies big and small that are creating backpacks and book bags from recycled materials including juice boxes, food wrappers and denim.
   
   
2. Stainless Steel Water Bottle - these water bottles can easily replace plastic bottles, and come in a variety of sizes from 8-40 oz.
   
3. Insulated Lunch Bag - Skip the plastic baggies and paper bags with an insulated lunch bags and a couple of containers to store sandwiches and other lunch items.
4. Recycled Binder - Post-consumer materials including paper, corrugated cardboard and bamboo are a few of the materials now being offered as alternatives to the standard 3-ring binders.
   
5. Sugarcane Paper Journal - my favorite on the list! These journals are perfect for keeping notes or for daily journaling.
   

A few recent trips to big box stores like Target, Staples, WalMart and others confirmed that they are also offering a growing selection of back-to-school supplies that are greener.  Every step counts!
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Who Says Chic and Sexy Handbags Can't Be Eco-Friendly?

Chic & Sexy Recycled Seashell Bag from UrthBags.com

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Monica Ralli, the founding force behind UrthBags.com. Two minutes into our phone conversation and I knew she was the "real deal" - as passionate about making a difference in this global community as she is about her beautiful eco-friendly handbags "designed with a purpose". My favorite chic and sexy handbag is pictured here - the "Elaine" (MSRP $82), but there are lots of other beautiful/smart/sexy designs available to go with every fashion style.

Of course, in my opinion, the bags are much more beautiful because they are not only made from eco-friendly materials (recycled shells, magazines and juice boxes for example) but they also help sustain women working worldwide.  You can read more about UrthBags's vision, help save the world,  and... oh yeah, purchase a chic and sexy handbag for yourself or another savvy fashionista (whatever color of "green" they may be) by visiting their website. 

**Facebook Special** Don't forget FB fans receive 15% off any UrthBags purchase! Just use coupon code: FBFAN15 at checkout.

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Beach Cleanup Day: Look What's Left Behind

Today was Beach Cleanup Day at Newport Pier, here in Newport Beach, CA.  It's just one of the dozens of volunteer-powered beach cleanups organized by Kim Masoner and the other dedicated staff of Save Our Beach, a local non-profit group that spends hours and hours every month helping to keep our beaches (from Seal Beach to Newport) clean. This cleanup was specifically designated to remove the leftovers from 4th of July celebrations.  The pic is a shot of just one bag of trash I picked up. While I wasn't shocked to find the fireworks remnants, plastic bottles, the one lone flip-flop,discarded cigarette butts and plastic wrappers, I was surprised to see the number of shredded balloon pieces and brightly colored ribbons that were entangled in pile after pile of seaweed that had washed up on the shore.  After a while, I found myself concentrating on just the seaweed, to untangle and remove as much of the balloons and streamers that I could get my hands on without taking a pound of seaweed with it. That's when it dawned on me that these balloons weren't just from this holiday weekend -- I started seeing coordinating colors that I recognized... as in the coordinating colors of nearby high schools. I realized that much of what I was seeing was the leftovers from graduation celebrations. Ugh! I wonder how many people stopped to consider the danger that their party leftovers poses for the marine animals that call the beach their home.

So to all of you that graduated: "Congratulations"...to all that use the beach to celebrate a birthday, a holiday, or another special day with friends and family: "I hope you had a WONDERFUL time"... now please, please, leave the balloons at home next time. 







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