Greendimes.com

An easy, free way to reduce your consumption that's sure to feel good is to take your name off of mailing lists you don't want to be on.

Don't use the grocery store circulars because they don't feature organic and non-toxic products?
Catalogs you instantly recycle?

Go to Greendimes.com and you can remove your name and mailing address from each specific type of junkmail provider.

The results take awhile, about 90 days, and Greendimes says to check weekly to confirm the removals. There are trees that will be planted in addition to the trees you'll preserve by not letting unwanted junkmail to come to your mail box.

Another free and fun way to plant trees - go to JogoGreen.com. The crew at Jogogreen have created a fun way for anyone to help them in their mission to plant trees. Answer 10 environmental questions and a tree is planted. You can also contribute questions. Watching the tree icons grow at the bottom is rewarding and motivating. Have fun!

The History of Hemp

Okay, not to belabor the point, but here is a brief history of hemp in the US. This crop has the power to help our country make the transformation to sustainable energy with the 10 years set out by scientists and called for by Al Gore in his speech, Repowering America.

Hemp, hemp, hemp - Nature's miracle

This is an interesting video that gives insight into the benefits of hemp - economically and nutritionally. Why hemp in an environmental sustainability blog?
Besides offering a complete, healthy alternative to animal products, legal hemp farming and processing in the US would create thousands, possibly more, green jobs. Hemp is also a fantastic source for plastic and materials used in the construction of automobiles. It is non-toxic and biodegradable (not while you're driving around, mind you).

A Sustainable Diet

At first blush this title sounds like it might be the holy grail of dieting - you know, sustaining that diet that made you drop 30 pounds in 2 months.

It also sounds like the latest nutritional best seller - The Sustainable Diet. I checked Amazon, nothing yet. Maybe I can write it.

Although I'm not a nutritionist, dietician, chef or even a 'foodie', I've had an awareness of my diet since childhood. My mom was the only one I knew who gave her kids Royal Bee Gelly and Ginseng Tea (no sweeteners!). We were the only ones without white bread and Hostess was completely absent from our home. We still had occasional treats like cheesecake, but candy bars and nutritionally empty snack foods laden with preservatives were never available. Sodas and junky breakfast cereals? No way!

I don't think my mom thought of herself as progressive, but lucky for me, she had the right instincts about nutrition. It gave me the ability to think outside the mainstream when it came to food.

Earlier I talked about the amount of oil used in the production of beef. Letting go of eating beef seemed very doable for me, and all the findings suggest that it's actually more healthy. Will I ever eat beef? Sure, if my host or Hostess has graciously prepared it, or if the restaurant I'm patronizing has free range, organic, psychologically happy, humanely slaughtered beef.

But what about all the other animal food products? The hardest core environmentalists (in my opinion) assert that to be a true one you must be vegetarian, vegan, even. This is such an extreme concept to most people and even with my awareness about it, to me, that at first I rejected it utterly.

Deep breath.

Didn't I just read that Hemp Seeds provide all the proteins necessary for human nutritional needs? Yup, but how can a bunch of little seeds possibly be as satisfying as chicken? I decided to give them a try and have been pleasantly surprised. They taste good and I actually feel satisfied after eating them on my salad or yogurt. I've also experimented with the Organic Hemp Milk, how crazy does that sound?

So, that takes care of the poultry, now what about those morning eggs I had grown to love and count on. I've always believed eggs were a terrific food, even when everyone wanted me to give up the yolk. However, in my experiment with a sustainable diet I had to try a vegetarian alternative. I chose OPTIMUM POWER BREAKFAST cereal. The box is impressive and empowers me just by looking at it. It also does a fantastic job of keeping my energy level up until lunchtime.

I encourage each of you to try to substitute one thing this week - be bold, you never know what you might like. Just like Mikey.

Kermit The Frog Isn't The Only Green Celebrity

Installing a home solar system is pretty pricey. The estimates for an average 2,500 square foot home which probably requires a 3 to 4 kW system are $25,000 to $36,000. It isn't something many average home owners can upgrade to. Industry wisdom says it's always better to include it in the original design. That's if you can invest in designing and building your own home.

What about someone living in low-income housing? There is a fantastic partnership between the Enterprise Foundation, BP Solar Neighbors and the Environmental Media Association that is worth checking out. It's the brainchild of actor, Edward Norton who, when installing his own system proposed an idea to BP Solar. For every celebrity who joins the BP Solar Neighbors program and purchases a system (every 6kW qualifies) a matching system is donated to a low-income family. The Environmental Media Association's purpose is to link "the power of celebrity to environmental awareness, EMA believes that through television, film and music, the entertainment community can affect change in a positive way. EMA’s work is widespread, from subtle messaging on the screen to promoting sustainable lifestyle choices and educating influential people on the power of “green,” our goal is inspiring the path to a healthier planet."

Here's an excerpt from an interview with Slate.

"Edward Norton: I can't give you a total number of panels. We're getting close to having donated over 100 kW worth of free systems to low-income families. About 50 families have received systems and we've done two large systems on affordable housing rental buildings or homeless SRO projects. This doesn't count the celebrity participation which is probably another 100-200 kW worth."

This is an example any community or any high profile group of people can follow - it isn't just actors and musicians who can create this kind of positive change. What if each community negotiated with a local or national solar company to work out some form of donated system to benefit everyone? What if government buildings, schools, or large chain retailers invested in solar with the promise that their purchase would ensure the installation for a low-income family?

Things to think about.

In the meantime, send us your story. Include your first name, last initial, general locale and what YOUR sustainable choice was today. Make your voice heard; educate and inspire. The effects of your choice will be magnified and made more powerful when you share it with us.

The Future of Greentech

Now, greening our world is about more than, well, being green. It's about a thriving economy; it's about 2 or more million new jobs in greentech. There are challenges, to be sure. Those who lose jobs in obsolete fields won't necessarily be the ones getting the new jobs. The new greentech jobs may not all be the highest quality. Fortunately, these aren't issues that need to stand in the way of this multibillion-dollar growth industry. These are concerns to be monitored and addressed with foresight and forward thinking.

There are serious issues at stake and as ILO Director-General Juan Somavia says, "As the report makes clear, building a low-carbon economy is not only about technology or finances, it's about peoples and societies. It's about a cultural change to a greater environmental consciousness and opportunities for decent work." Read more at Environment News Service's website.

Even more exciting is a recently released report discussed at the Center for American Progress. The findings give one a great deal of hope, and, motivation to be involved in whatever way one can to bring about this greentech revolution.

Here is an excerpt:
The $100 billion fiscal expansion that we examined in this study provides the infrastructure to jumpstart a comprehensive clean energy transformation for our nation, such as the strategy described in CAP’s 2007 report, “Capturing the Energy Opportunity: Creating a Low-Carbon Economy.” This paper shows the impact of a swift initial investment in climate solutions that would direct funding toward six energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies:

* Retrofitting buildings to increase energy efficiency
* Expanding mass transit and freight rail
* Constructing “smart” electrical grid transmission systems
* Wind power
* Solar power
* Advanced biofuels

This green recovery and infrastructure investment program would:

* Create 2 million new jobs nationwide over two years
* Create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry and 300,000 more jobs than a similar amount of spending directed toward household consumption.
* Create roughly triple the number of good jobs—paying at least $16 dollars an hour—as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.
* Reduce the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent from 5.7 percent (calculated within the framework of U.S. labor market conditions in July 2008).
* Bolster employment especially in construction and manufacturing. Construction employment has fallen from 8 million to 7.2 million over the past two years due to the housing bubble collapse. The Green Recovery program can, at the least, bring back these lost 800,000 construction jobs.
* Provide opportunities to rebuild career ladders through training and workforce development that if properly implemented can provide pathways out of poverty to those who need jobs most. (Because green investment not only creates more good jobs with higher wages, but more jobs overall, distributed broadly across the economy, this program can bring more people into good jobs over time.)
* Help lower oil prices. Moderating domestic energy demand will have greater price effects than modest new domestic supply increases.
* Begin the reconstruction of local communities and public infrastructure all across America, setting us on a course for a long-term transition to a low-carbon economy that increases our energy independence and helps fight global warming. Currently, about 22 percent of total household expenditures go to imports. With a green infrastructure investment program, only about 9 percent of purchases flow to imports since so much of the investment is rooted in communities and the built environment, keeping more of the resources within the domestic economy.

For the full article visit the Center for American Progress's website.

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.

Always remember: doing a little is more fulfilling than thinking that a little won't matter.