It's Easy Being Green

It’s that time of year again where high school students begin to fret over who they’re going to prom with and what they’re going to wear. I remember how stressful that one event was or at least how stressful we as high schoolers perceived it. My how things change! Prom can be a wasteful event, especially when it comes to the $100+ girls will spend on special shoes and a formal dress that might not ever be worn again. The guys have it easy when it comes to renting their tux. It’s eco-friendly since that penguin suit is worn again and again for multiple occasions. But, when it comes to the one-time worn prom outfit that looks hot on the girl, it’s not so hot for our environment.

What can you do you ask? It’s easy! After your big night, donate your outfit. I know it might seem harsh but just think of the amount of girls who might not be able to afford all that glam to go to her prom next year. Across the country there are dozens of organizations that take donations of dresses, shoes and unused makeup and provide them totally free for other girls. The Fairy Godmothers of the Flagstaff Elk’s Ladies is one such group that collects hundreds of dresses each year and racks them up for a big weekend event. Girls who pick a dress out will even return it after their prom is over, giving that special dress another chance to shine again. The Glass Slipper Project also offers a list of organizations that do similar things in other states. You can also Google your state and “prom dress donations” to find other community groups on the same mission.

It’s a fun, easy way to be green and help another girl enjoy the experience of going to prom.

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While the snow has all but left us here in the mountains of Northern Arizona, the weather has still been pretty cool. That’s how it should be this time of the year. It may warm up into the 60’s during the day but temperatures quickly drop off into the low 20’s overnight. That’s of course too cold for a garden going outside. Despite the fact that I’ve got spring fever and want to get my veggies on their way outside, I have to give them some gentle nudges inside, first.

Two weeks ago I planted two seed starting flats worth of tomatoes and other veggies which will require some time to get themselves established before they actually produce anything. More than likely I won’t be able to get any veggies outside until sometime in May so the few weeks they have to begin sprouting inside and forming root systems will be beneficial. My first flat of tomatoes has sprouted but the seedling are already too leggy. With tomatoes you want to keep replanting them fairly deep, allowing roots to grow off their main stems every time you replant them. This ensures your tomato plants will grow strong and healthy. They’ve already outgrown their little seedling flat so now it’s time to transfer them into small pots so they can continue their growth.

If you happen to save all those little plastic nursery pots you probably don’t have to worry about what you transplant your seedlings into. As it turns out, the last time we moved we through most of those pots littering our potting shed into the recycling bin. So, I turned to some newspaper to form little transplant pots just like the peat pots you could buy at the local nursery. It’s cheap and allows you to put the newspaper to another use, recycling it before it’s demise. Just like the peat pots the newspaper pot is biodegradable and will eventually just disappear into your soil. I found a great video showing how to make some newspaper transplant pots, so take a look below.

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Okay, maybe you’ve decided you want to live a healthier lifestyle but going vegetarian just isn’t looking to good to you right now.  How about going Kosher?  Apparently there is a new movement in the world of Kosher food and people are buying it a lot lately.

You might be asking why would people buy Kosher food if they weren’t Jewish?  The answer is pretty simple.  Kosher food is supposed to be cleaner and more friendly when it comes to killing animals for meat.  Jewish law says pain has to be minimized when the helpless animal arrives for slaughter which is music to those ears who love a good steak but want the cow to be coddled before death.  For those who are trying to wean themselves off meat and maintain a vegetarian diet, look for labels that say “Kosher pareve”.  That label indicates the product was made without any meat products.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kosher food, head over to the Chabad Kosher Guide.  Be on the lookout for those “K” or “parve” symbols on your next trip to the grocery store and go Kosher!  You can join the 75% of the public purchasing Kosher products who aren’t Jewish.

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Clothing manufacturer Patagonia has made another interesting move, showcasing their social responsibility to our planet.  The company just launched a new website called The Footprint Chronicles.  The interactive website allows people  to see the good and bad affects of manufacturing the clothes they buy like Synchilla fleece vests and rain shells.  In a press release about the new website, Patagonia company officials said they’re determined to be candid and forthright about its impact on the environment and created the site to encourage dialog with customers who are concerned about the environment.  Five new products will be added to the site on Earth Day 2008.  The site showcases more than 35 filmed interviews and slide shows of factory workers, owners, designers and third party auditors.

Patagonia has increasingly tried to become a more environmentally responsible company.  Since 1996 they’ve used only organic cotton in their outdoor clothing line.  Just recently the company also launched their synthetic fiber-to-fiber recycling program.  Patagonia takes back worn-out polyster and nylon clothing and recycles it, making it into new clothing.  The process forever captures the raw materials used in making virgin fibers.

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Scientists are beginning to prove many of the benefits behind eating organically grown produce. Researchers at the University of California, Davis just wrapped up a study that’s lasted 10 years. The group compared flavonoid levels in tomatoes that were grown conventionally and organically. Conventional farming uses fertilizers and insecticides to help the plant grow and maintain production. Organically grown produce zeros in on soil health through composting and manure applications and not using any chemicals. As it turns out, the organically grown tomatoes had a much higher level of flavonoids.

Flavonoids are known to help protect against heart disease, cancer and other age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. One of the lead scientists on the project says the way our produce is grown has everything to do with how much good stuff it brings to our dinner table. The study’s authors, Alyson Mitchell and Alexander Chassy theorize that plants grown in an organic way devote more of their energy to producing flavonoids which in turn provide more protection from pests. But, Mitchell says there are some exceptions and not all organic tomatoes will contain the same amounts of flavonoids. She says that’s because soils, stresses and growing methods will widely vary between different organic farms.

This research goes a long way to prove that organically grown produce is much better for your health and in the long run. To read more about Mitchell and Chassy’s research, please click on this link.

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You can join millions of people around the globe Saturday, March 29th by participating in an event showing awareness and support for our planet. Started by the World Wildlife Fund last year, the event is a simple one to join. Beginning at 8pm your time, wherever in the world you may live, turn off all your lights for an hour. If you’re at home turn out all the lights in your house or if you’re in an office…work in the dark for an hour too!

The City of Phoenix was chosen as a participating city and will show their support by shutting off all the lights in their city run buildings. U.S. Airways Center (home of the Phoenix Suns) and Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks) will also go dark during the event tonight. So, join in with millions of your fellow humans around the globe showing your awareness about climate change tomorrow night….at 8:00pm.

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Have you ever thought about just how much goes into producing a tiny staple?  It’s one of the many surprisingly small items that when you look at the big picture, have a fairly large impact on our environment.  Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group, says if 10 Million office workers each used one less staple a day it would save 120 tons of steel a year.  120 tons!

So, how do I use one less staple you might ask?  Well, you could use a product you use over and over like a paper clip or you could simply dog-ear the pages you want to stick together.  Or, you could use a handy staple free stapler created by a company called Made by Humans.  The small gadget cuts a hole in the stack of papers you want to attach together and then stitches the flaps down on the back of the last page as you pull the stack out.  You get five color choices and it will attach up to 5 sheets of paper together.

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