Ways You're Already Green
Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 15:00 CDT
WAYS YOU'RE ALREADY GREEN
-You get your coffee from Starbucks. The company may be super-corporate, but they offer Fair Trade coffees, which ensure that coffee farmers are paid a fair price, and invest in social programs in coffee-growing communities. If you prefer supporting non-chain coffee shops, ask them to offer Fair Trade selections.
-You download music to an MP3 player. Have you stopped buying CDs? You're already cutting waste.
-You buy or sell on eBay. You get rid of stuff you don't need without trashing it, and you reduce the amount of packaging used to make new products.
-You don't rinse before putting dishes in the dishwasher. Consumer Reports tests show rinsing first doesn't improve cleaning. By skipping this step, you'll save up to 20 gallons of water per load, or 6,500 gallons per year.
GREEN GLOSSARY
Being "green" means being aware of your responsibility to the environment and to the community. Here are other common green terms and their meanings:
-Organic: Organic food is produced by farmers who place an emphasis on renewable resources and soil and water conservation, and use minimal pesticides as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. The term "organic" must be certified by the USDA. Visit www.ams.usda.gov/nop for more information.
-Fair Trade: Fair Trade helps family farmers in developing countries gain direct access to international markets, allowing them to compete fairly and receive a fair price. This also deters cost-cutting practices that diminish quality. Look for the fair trade certification on products, and visit www.transfairusa.org for information.
-Shade grown: If you buy Fair Trade certified coffee, tea and chocolate, it is usually shade-grown. This means that the products you buy provide shelter for migratory birds and help reduce global warming.
-Sustainable: A method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.
-Biodegradable: The product has the ability to break down, safely and relatively quickly, by biological means, into raw materials of nature and disappear into the environment.
TAKE IT BACK
We can't all be green all the time, but there are ways to offset the damage we do. TerraPass (www.terrapass.com) helps reverse the global warming impact of your car's CO2 emissions. You pay a certain amount a year ($29.95 for a hybrid, $49.95 for a standard size vehicle, $79.95 for an SUV), which helps fund clean energy projects that reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions. You even get a windshield sticker to show others your do-gooder side.
WHAT'S YOUR IMPACT?
Visit www.myfootprint.org and fill in your information, such as ZIP code. The site does the calculations to tell you how big an ecological footprint you're leaving on the Earth. In other words, how many acres of land are you using up? The results may surprise you.
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