As the shift to a greater ecological consciousness continues out of the necessity of long term survival, you might be wondering just what it is that you can do to help out the effort. Here are a few things to get you started on reforming your life in tune with the balanced harmony of our planet.

Garden

The first thing that you can do is plant a garden. By growing your own food, you cut down on the energy required for transportation. This eliminates the need for petrochemicals to be created in order to be sprayed as fertilizers. Best of all, you get to eat fresh, organic food and gain the satisfaction of knowing that you have the ability to feed yourself.

Washing Machine

The second thing that you can do is upgrade your washing machines. Consider buying an energy efficient washing machine if your old one uses up too much water or too much energy during the washing process. Top manufactures such as Beko washing machines make some fantastic energy saving machines now so it’s a great time to get a new far more eco-friendly washing machine.

Use cold water or a cool wash with your washing machine. Heating water during a wash cycle uses up a lot of electricity. Since electricity is overwhelmingly created by burning fossil fuels, this also cuts down on the carbon emissions being released. With modern eco laundry soaps hot wash cycles are a thing of the past.

Get Bargains

To get great bargains and help the earth a good thing that you can do is stop buying new when you can get “new to you”. Check out Craigslist, Freecyle, or your local thrift store to find quality used goods for a fraction of the price of new things. This prevents resources from being used to create new items and extends the life of ones that already exist.

Bulbs

An illuminating idea to be greener is to swap out your old incandescent light bulbs for CFLs. This decreases the energy which is used to power the lights that brighten your life. Although it is a small step, many small steps are necessary in a journey of a thousand miles.

Power Down

An important step to become slightly more ecologically friendly is to turn off your computer whenever you aren’t using it. This saves electricity and it saves you money. This is yet another example where helping the planet can also help you.

Thermostat

You need to make sure you lower your thermostat in winter and increase it in summer. A difference of a few degrees can vastly lower your electricity costs. Plus, it means less coal and natural gas needs to be burned in order to provide you with unnecessary levels of comfort. This also lowers the amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants floating around in the atmosphere, contributing to the severity and speed at which our shared climate is changing drastically.

Home Office

When you work from home, not only do you eliminate the commute to and from work, but there is an immense amount you can do to make sure you are working green. Use recycled copy paper, for web work use a green web hosting company that uses eco-friendly ways to power the servers, don’t print unless you have to and print double sided if you can. Check out these eco office articles for more ideas such as this one on cutting out plastic in the office.

There are many other things that you can do to cut down on your environmental impact. To get more ecologically preferable ideas look around on blogs like treehugger.com, and thedailygreen.com to help you on your path towards a more sustainable life for yourself, our planetary habitat, and future generations.

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

7 Ways to Be More Eco-Friendly at Home 2011

Dear EarthTalk: It seems like more products are being packaged in #5 rather than #2 plastic today, and my local recycling agency won’t take #5. I’ve also heard that #5 plastics are more toxic, which concerns me more than the recyclability issue. Which plastic is the better choice?

– Janice Shaffer, Chillicothe, MO

Polypropylene, which is marked with #5 inside the “chasing arrows” symbols on the bottom of plastic containers, is a lighter-weight plastic resin commonly used in dairy and deli packaging. Some companies have chosen this lighter plastic because it has a lower environmental impact to produce and transport.

High density polyethylene (HDPE), which is marked with #2, is a stiffer resin used to package cleaning products and also some dairy products. The most widely used resin type for consumer food products is polyethylene terephthalate, or PETE, which is marked with #1 and used for soda and water bottles.

According to Consumers Union’s “Greener Choices” website, all three of these plastics are considered safe for their original use, though any of them can leak toxins when reused repeatedly. And all three can be recycled, though a lagging market leads some recycling locations to limit what they’ll accept. There is also concern that widespread plastics recycling encourages more use of plastics, and that efforts would be better spent getting consumers to buy fewer plastic-encased products. Some even criticize the chasing-arrow labeling system for implying a higher level of recyclability than is presently available.

Why is a lighter-weight plastic better? According to dairy company Stonyfield Farm, their #5 one-quart yogurt container uses 30 percent less plastic than a #2 cup. Since it takes less material to make a thinner container, it reduces the amount of resin that needs to be manufactured. Stonyfield estimates that the use of #5 over #2 prevents the manufacture and disposal of more than 100 tons of plastic per year.

But savings comes from more than manufacturing. The heavier #2 plastics require more energy to transport. It’s not only getting the yogurt from Stonyfield’s plants to your store, but also getting the containers from the plastics manufacturer to their dairies. In fact, the company cites a packaging study by the Boston-based Tellus Institute which found that 95 percent of the environmental costs of packaging lie in production and less than five percent are associated with disposal.

According to the website Earth 911, a national directory of recycling outlets, the best thing consumers can do is to choose items with less packaging and buy in bulk when possible. So the next time you reach into the dairy case, grab the quart or gallon-size yogurt instead of the single-serving cups. Then, make sure you recycle only the allowable plastics so you don’t contaminate the lot. While recycling is important, it may be okay to landfill a product’s packaging if it was created with an environmentally responsible plan.

Besides seeking alternatives to plastic packaging, consumers can affect overall plastic use by supporting legislation that would require manufacturers to take back their plastic packaging, which would encourage “cradle-to-grave” practices. Further, you can support legislation that mandates more use of recycled plastic content, which would reduce the overall amount of virgin plastic produced in the first place.

CONTACTS: Stonyfield Farm’s Earth Actions, Consumer Reports’ Greener Choices, Earth 911.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

bitzcelt, courtesy Flickr

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Is #5 plastic safe?

Hosting websites takes HUGE amounts of energy.  You may not think of it when you sit in your home office and your host serves is located in some other state.  However, if you ever have a chance to go to a corporate office that has their own servers, take a walk in the room.  I guarantee…. it will be sub zero in there, bet you thought I would say hot right? No, they keep it climate controlled at super cold levels so the servers don’t over heat.

Many people choose their web host for various reasons.  Cost, uptime, features available, etc.  Although, you may not take the time to consider where the energy comes from when you are deciding.

There are several options for green hosting, here are a few for you to check out:

HostGator: When I started Eco-Office Gals, HostGator was recommended because I was going to be using WordPress for my platform.  However, when I checked out the site and saw they  had recently made the move to wind powered hosting, I felt it was a good fit for me. My choice has been very satisfying, they have top notch customer service and were quick to follow me on Twitter and offer assistance when I sent out a question to my followers!

The basics:

• 130% Wind powered from local Texas wind farms. They’re not just neutralizing our environmental impact, they’re reversing it!
• Green-e Certified RECs: All of HostGators REC’s have been registered, verified, and retired from the market.

Read more…

Sommer of Green & Clean Mom picked Solar Powered Web Site Hosting provided by AISO.Net

Many hosting companies use carbon offsets or some of their hosting efforts are “green” but with AISO they are 100% solar powered. I had reservations, thinking I would have down time and it wouldn’t be reliable. This isn’t the case but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been glitches. I’ve had WordPress issues that happened to be simple code changes and when there was an issue, I made a call got a human being to talk to and it was quickly fixed. AISO runs on solar panels that run their data center and office. Solar tubes bring in natural light from the outside during the day, making everything about AISO green. Read more here. Besides being solar powered, they are friendly and quick to reply.

Jenn of  The Green Parent uses Dream Host for her hosting:

“Love, Love, Love Dreamhost!  Their service is easy to use, even for folks (like me!) who don’t know their FTP from their PHP.  Their customer service is outstanding, and as a greenie, I’m thrilled that they offer green, carbon neutral hosting.”

Dreamhost, the Basics:

• purchases Renewable Energy Credits and neutralizes unavoidable emissions by investing in Emission Reduction Credits (a.k.a. “offsets”) which guarantee their remaining impact is effectively erased.
• Green-e Certified RECs

Read more here…

All options have plans that run around $5-$10 per month so cost isn’t a factor.  Finding a host that suits you needs and cares about the environment is what matters!

Do you have a green hosting company you recommend? Share some green wisdom below and let us know about it!

All the best,
Jen

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Green Options: Web Hosting

Mission:

To provide Eco-Friendly and Paperless Virtual Assistant Services, WordPress Design and resources for businesses interested in making a lighter environmental Impact.

Eco-Office Gals strives to build businesses green and paperless.  Our blog site compiles information about sites and products that we find safe and useful for our environment. Our services include Virtual Assistant services, WordPress development and green web hosting in our effort to help small businesses become paperless by using various forms of electronic media and communication.  Additionally, we offer eco-alternatives when tangible products are a must.

Eco-Gal Jen:

Jennifer brings 10 years of real-world Administrative experience to your business venture.

From 1997 – 2002 Jennifer worked in the private sector at Oxbow Corporation in West Palm Beach, Fl.  For 5 years she provided support to 30+ employees of the Finance Department at Oxbow including, but not limited to document production, call screening, data entry, and file organization.

Life events caused her to move to Greenville, SC. She spent the next 5 years (2002 – 2007) employed in the public sector as the Administrative Assistant to the OMB Director of the City of Greenville.  At the City she provided support to the OMB Director, OMB Assistant Director, Risk Manager, Budget Director and Accounting Department.  During her final year at the City she also re-designed and maintained the City’s Intranet, resulting in receipt of the City’s Innovation Award and a new found love of website design.

After a decade of unloved jobs, Criminal Justice, Literature and Teaching credits, Jennifer still couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do when she grew up. When nothing seemed to fit right, she figured out she’d take all the skills she had learned and loved to do and figure out how to make it work. Love of design, learning and teaching – frustration of wasted paper and discovery of the VA wold started the steady growth of what is today Eco-Office Gals.

Awards & Accomplishments:

• City of Greenville Innovation Award – Voluntarily transformed the City’s outdated Intranet into a more user-friendly, engaging, interactive and reliable tool for internal communications.

• Provided Leadership in the City’s United Way Campaign; served one year as City’s Campaign Coordinator.

• Participated in special project committees, such as Employee Recognition & Awards Program, Christmas Float Committee, Accommodations Tax Committee and Affordable Housing Committee.

Contact Jen

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

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