by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

If you’re here, you know the many ways that you can save resources, create less trash and use less energy. You will also know that I am a fan of No Impact Man - and last week he offered a list of changes he made over the last year to green his life and the planet. Although he went back to using a refrigerator and washing machine, he found at least 42 green habits that are just too simple to ever give up. I can say I’ve joined him in all of them and yep, they are darn easy. And, as NIM has been reminding us, the best news is that all of it has made me happier and healthier in the process.

Below are a few more resource-saving ideas that I’ve discovered along the way. The best part is that it’s been a kind of thrill to figure out these things and realized how much of it is common- sense-simple. See what you think below

** You can now recycle your cds, dvds, jewel cases, cell phones, electronics, printer cartridges, and videos through Greendisk.com. I just sent in a whole box of dvds and videos for only the cost of a mailing label. They also provide recycling services to businesses with high volume.

** If you use a vacuum cleaner, try reusing the full bag by simply emptying the dust bunnies out the top (put your fingers in and pull). It works fine, is not as icky as it sounds, saves money and resources. Those bags are thick and durable and will go through many uses if you are willing to take this extra step.

** If you use cotton balls, remember to save the stuff that sometimes comes in the top of the vitamin supplement jars.

** When the ink runs out, don’t throw the entire pen away - save the cartridges. You can take them to most office supply stores and purchase or order refills. I collected about 25 in one year and was able to get replacements for most. Same thing for scotch tape! If your local store doesn’t carry refills - encourage them to do so.

** If you have a hole in your sock, try your hand at darning - I’ve rescued a few of my wool pairs. If that doesn’t work, cut off the foot part, make a few stitches to create a thumb space and you have half-gloves.

** Athletic shoes too worn to donate? Recycle them through Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program or check in with your local powers that be for shoe collection events. Oh, and be sure to take out the laces - they are most likely still usable. There may be Check here for recycling programs for sports shoes.

** Save water by rinsing lightly, but NOT washing recylables until squeaky-clean. It’s on the record - the process handles a percentage of excess “contaminants” just fine.

** Use yogurt-style plastic tubs as planters for spring seedlings or house plants - just poke holes in the bottom.

** Rainy day? Put on rain gear - or a bikini - and wash your car - use a little bio-degradable soap and a rag and let the rain give it a good rinse.

** Clothing that is too worn for donation make great rags, gift wrap, reusable napkins and dishtowels - just get out the scissors.

** A plastic bag dryer is on of the few “gadgets” that is worth its weight in green - I’ve rinsed and reused plastic bags, that hold my vegetables, dozens and dozens of times because this simple design allows them to dry completely and quickly. It works for used plastic wrap or foil as well. Order one here.

I’m sure I’ve missed some things. Please send me your ideas! Thanks and happy greening.

by Tao Oliveto

Solar panels already in place on Town Hall, council members in Woodstock, NY, passed a resolution to become the first American community to become carbon nuetral within a decade (as reported by correspondent, William Kemble on DailyFreeman.com). The resolution, approved unanimously by the Town Board in 2007, will allow a task force to pursue this goals by increasing recycling, implementing green building standards, establishing land-use policies to reduce sprawl, tree-planting for shade, promoting renewable energy sources, such as methane and wind and promoting fuel efficiency with an anti-idling message.

Locals of this forwarding-thinking town will be encouraged - through tax and other incentives - to change light bulbs, drive less, recycle more and improve energy efficiency on homes. Community by community, individuals and groups, it’s a familiar movement that is available to us at this kind of grassroots level.

If it all sounds familiar, take a look back to the revolution of the Sixties. After all, the hippies may have temporarily lost the battle to runaway consumerism, but they got plenty of things right. As Mark Morford points out in his San Francisco Chronicle column,

“All this hot enthusiasm for healing the planet and eating whole foods and avoiding chemicals and working with nature and developing the self? Came from the hippies. Alternative health? Hippies. Green cotton? Hippies. Reclaimed wood? Recycling? Humane treatment of animals? Medical pot? Alternative energy? Natural childbirth? Non-GMO seeds? It came from the granola types (who, of course, absorbed much of it from ancient cultures), from the alternative worldviews, from the underground and the sidelines and from far off the grid…”

Peace and Love (repeat when necessary).

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Not surprisingly, in public opinion surveys, ‘women express higher levels of environmental concern than men, Riley Dunlap, a professor of sociology at Oklahoma State University’, as reported in NY Times last month. Motherhood can and does stir up feelings about protecting and nurturing offspring, and that includes protecting the environment around them, the food they eat, the air they breathe, their future on the planet.

Granted, things seemed to backslide when mothers decided to trust television commercials before their instincts. Like many kids, I grew up with Tide, Windex, Velveeta and Jello. (More recently and more shocking, I witnessed doting new parents holding a can of Coca-cola to the lips of an infant.)

But moms are waking up and when they talk, the world - and the market - listens. EcoMoms Alliance is a growing organization with 11,000 members from all over the world, dedicated to greening motherly ways and more. Sign on with EcoMoms and you are immediately asked to take 10 First Steps for A Sustainable Future - a challenge which includes changing lightbulbs, changing your driving habits and composting. But don’t expect to stop there. These Earth Mothers talk the walk - from local living, smaller cars, smaller houses, clothing swaps, natural cleaning products and water reuse. The mission is to share, support, teach and learn - not just with each other, but within schools, neighborhoods, communities and beyond.

The organization, founded and led by Kimberly Danek Pinkson, includes an extensive and impressive team, including experts in areas of environmental medicine, waste management, eco-gardening and more. Not just for the SUV-driving soccer moms, the Alliance reaches far and wide with educational outreach programs, campaigns and training for a new generation of women leaders. With celebrity members like Robin Wright Penn and corporate sponsors, Native Energy, Method and Sustainable Websites (to name just a few), EcoMoms Alliance is poised and ready to join the mainstream and be a force for good.

by Tao Oliveto

Some things are so simple.

For instance, clean-up at public urinals is a disproportionate problem in many places. Then someone in Europe decided to strategically place a small drawing of a fly inside the basin as a “target”. The problem decreased by a measurable 80%.

Hmm. This makes me think of the issue of plastic bag use. Years ago, Whole Foods stores started offering a nickel back for bringing your own bag and over a decade, has encouraged approximately 20% of their customers to reuse. Ho Hum. As an new and enthusiastic employee back then, I suggested that charging a nickel for bags instead would be a stronger motivational message and decrease bag use even further, saving waste and the company dollars. I also thought we should sell our reusable canvas bags at cost in compensation for any perceived “inconvenience” to customers. Nobody agreed.

Wouldn’t you know it…a decade later (as reported in Fast Company), Ikea stores in the UK decided to charge their customers 5 cents for every bag they took. Plastic bag use dropped by 90% in less than two years! When the same policy took effect in U.S. stores in Mid-March, 2007, bag use dropped by 50% in less than one year - more than anyone expected. Ikea also dropped the price of their re-usuable bags to 59 cents at checkout - and those sales increased 10 times.

Can green guidelines live happily with customer service and profits? It sure looks that way.

For better or worse, we humans are a predictable bunch - and more willing to Change than marketers realize.

Simple as that.

by Tao Oliveto
Bats are dying in mass numbers in at least 6 states in the Northeast. Reports show 40% dead in 4 caves in New York State alone, predicting a loss of approximately 1/2 million in the region.

A mysterious fungus, showing up on the noses of the dead and dying bats, is thought to be a symptom of what is still an unknown affliction causing the mass extinction. Ten laboratories are working on the issue, studying what could be causing the fungus as well as what appears to be a severe decrease in body fat on the bats which normally provides the warmth and nutrients needed during hibernation.

Since bats migrate hundreds of miles and colonize by the thousands, the disease can and is spreading rapidly. Decreasing populations at this rate is compounded by the fact that female bats give birth to only one pup each year.

Scientists wonder if recently introduced pesticides are contributing to to the the problem, either as a toxin causing illness, depleting immune systems, or by decreasing their natural food supplies. Read this NY Times article for details.

Nobody is yet talking about global warming in this issue, but, as revealed in both West Nile Virus and the tree-eating beetles, it’s bound to link up in some way. I don’t know about you, but I keep hearing Mama Earth saying, “Can you hear me now?”

Bats play a large role in keeping insect populations balanced, protecting crops and people and are an important part of our fragile eco-system. You can help protect bat populations in your area by decreasing light pollution and providing safe nesting sites by hanging bat boxes. In return, they will decrease your populations of bothersome insects. Besides that, you’ll barely notice them as they are clean animals who work the night shift.

I recently purchased a bat box at my local hardware store - a small, affordable, specially-designed box that is easily attached under your roof line or to trees. I’m now thinking of getting a few more. You can read all about bats and bat boxes here.

by Tao Oliveto

What did you do with your lightbulb-free hour on Saturday night? After working on those all-important hug and cuddle skills, we took a walk around our magically dark and quiet neighborhood. Although at first I fidgeted with the idea of an imposed hour of darkness, I discovered it felt great to have an opportunity to slow down and be more still. Jerry and I made a pact to try our own candlelit earth hour every weekend and see what happens.

The event, called “Earth Hour,” started in Sydney, Australia, last year, when 2.2 million people and 2,100 businesses turned off their lights. Organizers say that this year it spread to about 380 cities and towns in 35 countries. This simple group action reduced the city’s energy consumption by more than 10 percent - the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour.

More than that, it provided another way to get people thinking about how small acts in large numbers can affect the world.

WE can all make a difference.

by Tao Oliveto

My voice is a bit shaky today, but I’m determined to still find a way to use it to write this post.

I’m feeling stuck and baffled by the line culture has drawn, somewhere in the proverbial sand, that says something like, green is good, but talking about it isn’t. I’m frustrated by a culture that says, atta boy, keep up the good work saving our water, our air, our health and our animals - we need you out there - just please don’t tell me about it - or ask for my help. And for God’s sake, don’t preach - it’s really annoying and gets in the way of everything.

On the other hand, I’ve patiently listened to people rant and judge each other over taxes, high gas prices, being cut off in traffic or the loud music from the neighbor’s house. I’ve also listened politely while they boast about their new car, house, computer or ipod.

Yet, somehow, reacting to the ways we are all wasting our limited supplies of water, polluting energy or abusing animals and land at factory farms - is simply not acceptable. And you’d better not get too excited - in public, anyway - about that rain barrel or your reusable grocery bag…

Just today, No Impact Man wrote, “To be enviro, these days, is to be cool, ethical, caring and driven by values. And as people become aware that enviro-concerns are really human concerns, that toxins in our environment mean toxins in our bodies, and that a happier planet makes for happier people, the importance of green…is only going to increase.”

I believe this on most days. That people will begin to understand that it’s about taking care of what will all need to survive and be healthy and be willing to listen and talk to each other about Change. Not so much today - today I don’t feel so “cool” in my enviro status. I feel confused about how to walk that line between saying too much and saying too little.

The good news, as I was also reminded this morning, is that I do feel “ethical, caring and driven by values”. And I really want people to be happy and healthy.

Maybe things will be alright after all.

Brian D. McLaren is an author, activist, speaker and pastor. His life, work and experience has convinced him that everything must change, mostly the way we live as consumers.

“Consumerism is the notion that the more we consume the better off we will be. As I explain in Everything Must Change, it’s the supreme idolatry of our times. It places my temporal wants at the center of my own little universe. As the dominant way of deriving meaning, it is responsible for countless neuroses fed by corporations whose shareholders insist on ever-increasing profits, and it is responsible for near runaway exploitation of this earth’s natural resources.”

In my experience, living more sustainably has been a kind of relief - an opportunity to slow down, to quiet the runaway ego and gain perspective on what I really want from life. Living smaller, slower and with less “convenience” has left me feeling more whole, healthy and in tune with life than ever.

Paul Hawken says living sustainably should be easy and natural - like “falling off a log.” No Impact Man says it’s harder if you have less money or live in a community that does not support a sustainable way of life. I think they are both right. Simplifying your life by driving, buying and wasting less is available to everyone. Everyday in my town, I see people who are willing to share space, share cars, ride bikes and have less. And they seem to do it while working less, nurturing relationships, pursuing goals and having fun. But it’s true that sustainable alternatives to necessary goods and services need to be made available to everyone in order for real change to happen quickly.

We can have a life that’s more authentic, happy, healthy and sustainable by forgetting about what we have and focusing on what we do. It’s not about the money or the sacrifice. But it is about changing our own habits and then supporting each other in doing what it takes to push our culture into a place where it is easy and natural to change.

“After ending one year or living without electricity and creating no trash, NIM says And so, I’ve decided that for myself, in choosing my path forward in my continued experience as No Impact Man, that my individual attempts at environmental living are not sufficient. As much as I’ve come to believe in the incredible power of a life lived in integrity with one’s values, and as much as I’ve seen evidence of the differences each of us can make with our life choices, I’d also like to think we have the power to make those same choices and benefits available to everyone. “

He’s talking activism, of course, making yourself heard. We’re getting greener and cleaner. We’re starting to talk to each other. Let’s take on the next step and get together about schools, communities and cities and groups being a force for change. Use your talents, use your passion and use your voice.