Go Green

A cool book recently crossed my desk, “True Green @ Work: 100 way you can make the environment your business.” (National Geographic Books, $19.95). It outlines in quick tidbits of information simple steps you can take as an employee or employer to help the environment. Here are a few:

1. Turn off your computer. That box of information sucks up nearly 1,000 kilowatts of electricity, which results in more than two tons of carbon emissions each year if left to hum in the dark all night. If you shut down every night before you head for home, you can cut that down to less than 250 kilowatts each year.

2. Get a plant. An indoor plant works like a natural air filter. They absorb pollutants and computer radiation and turn all that carbon dioxide you breath out in the form of hot air back into sweet oxygen. They also cool the air through a process called transpiration and can possibly protect you from germs. Research suggests that a plant can reduce incidences of fatigue, coughs, sore throats and other cold-related illnesses. And if that was not enough, plants are noted as having a stress-reducing effect. So buy a fern and relax.

3. Bring your own cup. Stop using the company’s Styrofoam cups and bring your own coffee mug. It is not only environment, but gives you the opportunity to show off your personality a little. Using your own mug can reduce your coffee-related waste 30 times over what you’d toss using paper products, which translates to 60 times less air pollution.
- Lindsey

One of the commendable efforts consumers have made in the name of living green has been to switch to natural or organic cleaning products. With Earth Day today, perhaps even more consumers will make the switch. And it’s a good move. If we can avoid washing nasty chemicals down the drain, why not? But here’s a heads-up: All those cleaning products that claim to be “organic” or “natural” might not be all they’re cracked up to be.

A recent study by the Organic Consumers Association (a news report on the study can be found here shows that as many as 50 percent of products tested contained a detectable level of the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane. Some of the more well-known offending brands include Method and Seventh Generation. Officials with Method said they never claimed to have organic or natural products, just that their products are “naturally derived.” Fantastic bit of spin there. If you’re wondering, some of the worst products tested were body washes and dish soaps.

Many brands, including Clorox’s new Green Works line, had no detectable amount of 1,4-dioxane, which has been known to cause cancer in lab animals. A listing of all the products tested is available here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/DioxaneResults08.cfm.

- Nick

There’s big bisphenol A news coming out of Canada this week.

What is bisphenol A, you might ask, and why should we care what Canada has to say about it? Would you be more interested if I told you that bisphenol A is a harmful chemical that is almost assuredly in the systems of babies all over this country?

Bisphenol A, also referred to as BPA, is a chemical commonly found in food and drink packaging, including in cans of baby formula and even in baby bottles. At higher temperatures (read: those used when heating a baby bottle) the chemical is leached into a bottle’s contents (read: milk or formula). The chemical has been linked to early puberty in girls and prostate and breast cancer.

So where does Canada come in? According to newspaper reports from our northern neighbors, the Canadian health ministry is ready to declare BPA a dangerous substance. It would be the first example of a country making such a declaration.

Pressure is mounting for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take similar action. A recent study by the National Toxicology Program, a branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, asks that the FDA “reconsider its view that the chemical bisphenol A is safe in products for use by infants and children,” according to news reports.

The National Toxicology Program’s study said: “There is some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures.”

The American Chemistry Council has weighed in with its spin, saying the NTP study confirms human exposure to BPA is extremely low and that there is no direct evidence that exposure adversely affects development in humans.

Doesn’t sound like a convincing argument that BPA is indeed not dangerous in any way. Really people, try any dangerous chemical you want, just make sure your exposure is extremely low and you’ll be all right. No thanks.

See the news report on the National Toxicology Program study here.

If you’re interested in safe baby bottles, you can go with glass or look for plastic bottles that specifically say they are BPA-free.

Also, see this NewsOK.com article: Nalgene to nix BPA bottles due to consumer concern

- Nick.

That is not a new challenge or bit of advice. Bringing your own lunch can save money and calories. Or it is supposed to anyway. But only if you compare that to eating out.

If you are buying prepackaged microwaveable or sandwich-kit lunches you may be doing neither and moreover you’re not making a healthy choice for Mother Nature.

Now this isn’t a scientific research study, just my guestimation. So you’re going to have to give me a bit of a break. But let’s think this over. I can make a sandwich with slices of lunch meat, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onion or whatever floats my boat tucked between two pieces of whole wheat bread. Toss it in a reusable container and I’ve got a nice healthy meal containing servings of fresh vegetables, dairy, fiber, etc. It’s filling and full of flavor. Call me Joey Tribbiani, but I love a good sandwich.

Now if you go this route, you’ve created no extra waste and you can even get bonus points if you’ve bought any of the ingredients from local food producers. It is possible to find bread, ham, cheese and veggies locally. You can pronounce and recognize the ingredients in your lunch. You have done something good for your body and the Earth. All this at a very low price.

Or you can buy a prepackaged microwaveable or sandwich-kit-type lunch, which are good and convenient and possibly good for you, too. I’m not a nutritionist so I have no idea about the specific nutritional benefits of any of these meals. But I do know that I like to eat, and lean and healthy cuisine choices leave a lot to be desired. I’ve never been one to fill my body with calories just because I need to. And have a strict rule that a meal should be enjoyed, not endured. But that is beside the point. Let’s examine the environmental implications of these.

Most microwaveable meals come in a plastic tray covered with cellophane wrap packaged inside of a cardboard box. That’s the simple kind. There are those new steamer entrees with all of the above plus an additional plastic strainer.

My favorite though is the sandwich kit. Inside of a cardboard box, there are three or four items individually wrapped in plastic, a cup of Jell-O sometimes, a plastic fork and napkin again wrapped in plastic and a condiment pouch.

These convenience lunches are trucked to your local megamarket from Northfield, Ill., and get additional checkmarks by their name for not supporting local food producers.

Now that being said, I’m a total fan of South Beach’s grilled chicken Caesar wrap and I dig the Southwestern-style chicken wrap. And being a wife and mother of two little ones with a full time job and a laundry list of extracurriculars, there have been days that I might not have eaten at all if it weren’t for meals wrapped in cardboard, because sometimes there isn’t even enough time to whip up a sandwich.

But sandwich fixings can be had for about $10 and that will get you through a week or maybe longer, with minimal addition to our local landfills and possibly helping out a local family and economy through the support of local foods. Now, for that same price you get only two to four days of cardboard lunches.

So I challenge you to a sandwich. Let’s encourage frozen lunch- and sandwich-kit outfits to incorporate less-is-more into their packaging philosophies. Write notes to your favorite lunch company and tell them how you feel. Another suggestion while we’re at it: change out that Jell-O for some chocolate pudding. That couldn’t hurt either.

— Lindsey

It’s Earth Day on April 22nd and the Earth Day Network is encouraging us to make some noise and make people uncomfortable - sounds good to me.

Earth Day’s on a weekday, so your local legislator’s office will be open. Write a letter, call or e-mail your local legislator with your concerns about the environment (whether locally or globally. For Oklahoma, you can find the contact information for your representative here.

If your legislator sends you a response, please share that with us at the Go Green blog - we want to know who has been responsive and who hasn’t. We want to know what your local representative has planned to make your neighborhood more environmentally friendly.

The Earth Day Network are also encouraging you dedicated greeners to go to Washington D.C. to march on the mall and have your voice heard.

- Linds

My wife and I recently took up the cause of going green in our everyday life. It’s been a little difficult so far and we’ve cut some corners, but it’s all about changing habits. Changing habits that are a long time in the making.

1. All new light bulbs: Sure, it cost a little extra money, but the savings should be noticeable soon and our carbon imprint has gone down. And if you dig deep enough in the Sunday paper, you can find good prices for the energy friendly light bulbs.

2. We’ve stopped buying large plastic bottles of water or soda. We only buy aluminum cans, because they are easier to recycle and are reusable if you can find a place to return them. Another way to stop buying the plastic water bottles is to buy a water filer and a water container. If you drink a lot of water, bigger container might be in order.

3. The final quick-fix we’ve made is to buy the canvas bags that are available on the internet. There are also earth-friendly reusable bags available at Target, Wal-Mart and even Home Depot. Basically, it means you don’t have to use the bad plastic bags that you carry groceries home in.

Here are a couple of other sights on the net that could help you make your life greener.

They have a way to go green for just about every part of your life.

A place to find canvas bags. They may be a bit expensive, but they last a long time.

- Matt

1. 5 is the number of planets we would need if everyone lived like the average North American.
http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/opl_brochure.pdf

2. Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags per year. This translates to about 150 bags a year for every person on earth.
http://www.algalita.org/pdf/Action-sheet.pdf

3.83 percent of Americans now say global warming is a “serious” problem.
This is up from 70 percent in 2004.
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=30085

4.4. According to some calculations, eating just 3 burgers a week can add between 941 and 1,023 pounds of greenhouse gases each year.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/the_carbon_foot_1.php

5.The average American has about 2.5 times the ecological footprint of the average Italian.
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/index.php

(from Treehugger.com)

- Matt

OU’s student congress is holding a green week, according to this hub article.

It’s an exciting move and a bold statement for the green issue.

Do you know of any other campuses working to be more environmentally aware/friendly?

- Linds

If you are a Food Co-Op member, and you should be if you are not, don’t forget that April ordering opened on Tuesday, April 1. You have until next Friday, April 11 to make your selections. If you are wondering at a glance what might be fresh now consult the Oklahoma Produce Availability chart

Or go directly to the Food Co-op Web site www.oklahomafood.coop and see what’s for sale.

Don’t forget to buy fresh and buy local. It helps your neighbor family farmers. Invigorates local economies by keeping dollars local. Cuts down on the number of petrodollars spent to produce food. It’s fresher. And it taste better.

— Lindsey

I love my dog. Correction. I ADORE my dog. She’s a one-year old smelly, snorting, flat-faced pug named Pearl.  Pearl is like my child. She goes everywhere with me, sleeps in my bed with me and eats my leftover food. She’s about as spoiled as spoiled gets.

So imagine my excitement when I learned there’s a way to spoil her even more, and a GREEN way at that! An article I found on prevention.com tells readers how to become a green pet owner.

When it comes to the little (or big) messes our pets make, former veterinary technician Rebecca Skioot says dealing with acts of nature naturally is the best way.

She recommends flushing pet waste down the toilet, not putting it in plastic bags and throwing it in the trash. Flushable Bags are a brand of pooper-scoopers that dissolve in water. If you don’t want to hold onto the bag until you can get to a toilet, Skioot recommends biodegradable bags like PoopBags, available at www.poopbags.com.  There are also environmentally friendly cat litters and litter pan liners, like Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat Litter or BioBag Cat Pan Liners.

Pet owners can also buy green toys and collars made of hemp, recycled plastic and other materials on sites like greatgreen-pet.com.

The site also has green cleaning products like Nature’s Miracle Stain and Odor Remover, which is an enzyme-based product that cleans up the mess without chemicals.

Also, buy organic pet foods that don’t use pesticides to grow the ingredients.

The most important way you can go green when it comes to your pets is to go “Bob Barker” and have them spayed or neutered. Skioot says overpopulation of dogs and cats causes tons of uncontrolled waste and can take its toll on wildlife. Spaying and neutering will reduce the number of unwanted pets and increase chances that strays will find homes.

While Pearl may be the most spoiled pet I know, she is not my family’s only animal. We also have a corgi named Mable, a jack russel terrier named Lady, a cat named Jellybean and two horses, Ella and Topper.

I’ll have to look into going green for my horses, but for now, my house pets are about to start seeing green.

- Lisa