Friends For A Green World educates and inspires each one of us to do what we can to make the transformation to sustainable living. How can we be more eco friendly? What is an eco friendly life? Are there great green products to make this simpler? Friends For A Green World will highlight stories and advice on how to be more environmentally friendly.
Remember: Doing a little is more fulfilling than thinking that a little won't matter.
If you love the ambiance of candles and you are interested in a healthy home environment you will want to check these out: SparxCandles.com.
I met the founder, Ally, and learned that she developed pretty serious asthma from her exposure to unhealthy candles. This personal experience led her to develop a product that is healthy, beautiful and environmentally friendly.
Burning unhealthy candles puts poisons into your home or office air - things like lead, petroleum, zinc. It may seem like a small thing, but if you are concerned about a green world, even the small things matter and each time everyone makes a small difference, it adds up. These seem like excellent holiday gifts - pretty, aromatic, useful and clean for your home.
Always remember, doing a little is more fulfilling than thinking that a little won't make a difference.
This past Friday as my daughter and I left our downtown bookstore I spotted a young volunteer with a clipboard. Now, I'm involved, I believe in walking my talk, and yet when I saw that clipboard I veered off to the right (how Freudian) in order to not be spotted.
Luckily for me, Brenna hailed me down. Turns out she was visiting our sleepy burg on behalf of Greenpeace. Wow, haven't thought about them for awhile - I'm all NRDC, WeCanSolveIt.org, solar, geothermal.........
After we spoke, I happily pledged my $15 and signed on as a sticker sporting Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior and then came home. This morning while cleaning out my bag I came across the pamphlet I'd received and decided, yeah, I'll write about Greenpeace, see what they're up to now.
There's plenty of material on YouTube and the video above is a great trip into history - remember when those people put their lives in danger to protect whales, seals, oceans, forests, you and me? I do.
I just haven't thought about them because today's activism happens more in a courtroom than jumping from a dinghy onto the harpooned body of a whale out in the deep international waters of our oceans. Today, I sign up online, blog online, join in the petitions online. All good things to do. It's given me a pipeline to activism that lets me keep my day job (or would, if I had one).
So, while you and I are making our uncomfortable and inconvenient sustainable lifestyle choices, let's remember two things:
Check out this very good blog by Kris in Indiana about CFL's. We've heard about 'em, we've read about 'em - they make alot of sense, economically and environmentally. In San Luis Obispo County the Integrated Waste Management Authority has a unique "SLO Take Back Program". If your local waste management agency doesn't offer this, forward this on to them and inspire them to get started.
Remember, doing a little is more fulfilling than thinking that a little won't matter.
I'm contacting our local waste management agency to see what headway I can make in our local government agencies converting to sustainable water for their offices and sustainable trash bags.
Meanwhile, I read that San Francisco, a miracle of sustainability-minded government, announced a challenge on September 30, 2008. According to sfenvironment.org, Mayor Newsom challenged SF businesses to go solar by this time next year!
If you thought Al Gore's challenge was, well, challenging, take a look at SF's plan to make it not only possible, but attractive for businesses to get on board.
According to the release, the 1,500 businesses who have been invited to join the Solar Founders' Circle "have the potential to install 170 megawatts of solar on their roofs - more than 30x's the amount of solar currently installed in SF, and enough to power 42,ooo local households."
It sounds like an exciting initiative and I'll be checking in to see what's become of this. This is exactly the kind of sustainability leadership that will make Al Gore's 10 year goal achievable.
What can YOU do? Send us YOUR story. What choice did you make today to live a more sustainable life? Send your first name, last initial, general locale, and what the greentech was. You will educate and inspire others to make the changes they can and more that they may have thought they couldn't. ALWAYS REMEMER DOING A LITTLE IS MORE FULFILLING THAN THINKING THAT A LITTLE WON'T MATTER.
