As I was looking through the ReDirect Guide, sustainable living business directory & resource guide, I found an ad for ECOpdx and it reminded me of the beautiful table and chairs my friends had bought from them a while back.

ECOpdx, a small business founded on the belief that quality craftsmanship and personal attention are the cornerstones for a successful company, sell Tropical Salvage furniture.

Tropical Salvage, a Portland, Oregon based company, recycles salvaged timber from several different islands of the Indonesian archipelago, and produces the most beautiful household furnishings.

None of the wood comes from standing trees. The wood they use is old, some a thousand years old. It beautifully expresses its history as wild-growth grain figure, mineral accumulation, and the effects of nails, seasoning cracks & bore holes are evident in many pieces. They are a wonderful testament to the wood’s historical richness and new life.

Tropical Salvage believes in Creating job opportunities in areas of economic hardship, promoting environmental health and education and raising consumer awareness. Old-growth tropical forests are disappearing at an alarming pace—averaging 13 million hectares per year, equivalent to about 50 football fields a minute. Tropical Salvage is a working model of positive change. By creating a responsible and sustainable business model through which to bring popular products to market, Tropical Salvage enables consumer choice to become a tool of activism. If a consumer is given a choice between similar and similarly-priced products, one deriving from a responsible business model, the other from an irresponsible business model, the consumer will choose responsibly.

Tropical Salvage, collaborating with The Institute for Culture and Ecology, is helping to fund and implement a conservation, education and reforestation project in Jepara. To date, about five-hundred trees have been planted, representing thirty-five species. For more information on the Jepara Forest Conservancy click here.

ecoShuttle™ is a new transportation company that offers environmentally friendly transportation for a new travel industry. By utilizing 100% bio-diesel, a non-toxic, biodegradable, carbon-friendly fuel to power our vehicles, customers can truly enjoy trips, guilt-free.

Here are some of the advantages to using the ecoShuttle for your early morning commute:

• Each vehicle has a mobile wireless internet (WiFi) router. Making it possible for passengers to check their email and get an early start on their workday.
• They offer an eco-friendly dry cleaning service.
• They also offer a variety of complimentary organic choices, including tea, coffee, morning muffin, and fresh fruit for those that didn’t have time for breakfast.
• Eliminates parking problems and reduces the overhead costs associated.
• Eliminates the stress of driving in rush hour traffic.

They also have an eco-entertainment service which offers an earth friendly way of traveling to your favorite destinations. Let ecoShuttle cater to your club or organization by providing the best travel amenities with superior service. Special events such as:

• Weddings
• Field Trips
• Concerts/Festivals
• Corporate Events
• Art/Gallery Shows
• Sporting Events
• Golf Outings
• Or customize your own!

So for your commuting pleasure or your next outing, check out ecoShuttle to get you there with less hassle, less stress and the eco-friendly way.

While much of being green means, walking or riding your bike to and fro, there are still times when you need a car to get you from one place to the other. So for those instances its best to keep your vehicle running at peak performance, which in turn reduces your emissions.

Below are 10 tips to maintaining a car in a more sustainable way.

1. Maintenance – Keep current with your vehicle maintenance, such as tune-ups and oil changes. By replacing the oil and oil filters, it improves the fuel efficiency and helps the vehicle to last longer. Make sure and recycle old batteries when they need to be replaced.

2. Acceleration – When possible avoid quick accelerations and speeds above the posted limits, as these actions reduce gas mileage.

3. Proper Oil Disposal – Call the local government waste management agency or visit earth911.com to find out how and where to dispose oil properly.

4. Reduce Drag – Remove extra items attached to a vehicle that create drag, such as roof racks, to reduce car weight and improve gas mileage.

5. Tires – Check the air pressure in a car’s tires regularly; under inflated tires require an engine to work harder and use more fuel to maintain a given speed. And make sure the car is in alignment, unaligned tires wear out faster.

6. Tighten or Fix the Gas Cap – A loose, cracked or missing gas cap lowers gas mileage and emits harmful emissions. Make sure and tighten your gas cap after every fill-up.

7. Air Filters – Check the air filter. A dirty air filter can reduce gas mileage. Also, air filters, usually made of plastic, steel and paper, can be recycled.

8. Limit Drag – Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more gas and causes more pollution than simply restarting your engine.

9. Reduce Care Use – Group errands together to eliminate unnecessary driving.

10. Choose a Sustainable Auto Shop – When choosing a mechanic look for one that is dedicated to sustainable practices and participates in general and metal recycling.

Memorial day weekend is known for barbecues, picnics and all things outdoors. Sitting at my desk I have watched 100 or more RVs and trailers go rolling by. Memorial day marks the beginning of the warm weather. Essentially its the first time of the year for most to take their campers, trailers, and tents out.

But all this traveling, camping, rving can really be hard on the environment.No matter what you do this weekend, try to implement some of these tips to make your carbon footprint a little lighter.

Barbecue

• Mow the lawn with a push mower.
• Purchase an electric grill powered by wind energy or a solar powered grill.
• Use natural cleaning products to clean up your lounge chairs and table.
• Use lump charcoal made from natural and sustainable wood and try to avoid using lighter fluid.

Picnic

• Use biodegradable utensils, bowls and cups.
• Have a recycling bin handy, next to the trash.
• Use cloth napkins.
• Use organic bug spray and repellent to keep those pesky mosquitoes at bay.

RV and Trailer

• Add solar panels to your RV. This can help save on shore and/or generator power usage.
• Replace incandescent bulbs with LED lighting, even the running and parking lights.
• Use paper plates instead of plastic, reducing landfill decomposition time. Picking up some plates from the goodwill and keeping them in your RV/Trailor is the best sustainable option.
• Use GEO method for controlling odor in your holding tanks rather than holding tank chemicals.

Camping

• Recycle what ever items you bring in with you.
• When shopping for your trip, think ahead about what you will have to throw away. Think of ways to reduce your waste while camping.
• Be conscious of nearby water sources. Make sure and keep your waste out of the water, use the bathroom when possible.
• Stay on the designated trails. Traveling off the path leads to soil erosion.

Driving home from the store my daughter spotted a Jet flying across the sky with the white trailing behind it and with her little mind always working she asks. “do airplanes cause pollution?”. And as I looked up at the airplane, seeing the white stream clouds flowing from the back of it, I said, I don’t know.

How much does an airplane pollute? Some quick facts: Air Travel causes 0.17kg/km/per person, compared to driving a car which causes 0.14kg/km/per person.  The worlds 16,000 commercial jet aircraft produce more than 600 million tonnes of CO2 annually, almost as much as the entire African continent. A return flight from London to Miami produces 2,415 kg of CO2 per passenger, more than 2,255 kg produced annually by the average British motorists 16,108 km.

In an article from USA Today they address the Concern over pollution from jets.

Aircraft emissions pollute the air and threaten by 2050 to become one of the largest contributors to global warming, British scientists have concluded. With the projected explosion in worldwide travel, air pollution from aviation is a growing concern among scientists, and it’s drawing increased scrutiny from governments, particularly in Europe.

To read the complete article click here.

What can we do about it? Airplane travel is not going to stop. People are always going to have the need to get to another destination in a quick manner. So you ask, what can we do to lessen our impact on this earth? We have to think of the things we do daily and attack those. The best way to lessen your carbon footprint would be to walk, bike, ride the bus and carpool when you can. If traveling inside the US, take the train instead of flying, when possible. Another way to help offset the CO2 emissions is to buy carbon credits/offsets, which in turn contribute to projects meant to help reduce global warming caused by burning fossil fuel.

Next time you are thinking about flying, see if there are any other options for your travel and try to keep your carbon footprint to a minimum.

Since the weather has been so nice the last few days, everything spring is on my mind. Over at Earth 911 they have a post that is perfect for Spring, 8 Ways to Green Your Spring.

1. Lose Weight and Feel Great – Has your living space become inundated with items such as holiday gifts you’ll never use, magazines with recipes never cooked and chunky attire used to brave the elements? While clutter-clearing, make it easier to sort items by creating four piles: Keep, Donation, Recycle and Trash.

2. Spring Cleaning – Be ware of what you use while spring cleaning, some of those cleaners and polishers contain nasty chemicals. If you’re really feeling green,  make your own cleaning products  with vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, borax and water. Also, cut back on  paper towels and opt for a reusable cloth.

3. Deep Clean – One of the simplest things you can do to improve indoor air quality, while reducing energy bills, is replacing furnace filters on a monthly basis. Cleaning off coils on the back of your refrigerator to scatter heat away from the unit and sealing gaps with weather-stripping or caulk around windows and doors to prevent warm air from entering your home.

4. Dirty Laundry – If you have an Energy Star washer, you’re cutting energy costs by 33 percent and water usage by 50 percent. If you don’t own one of these machines, then you can reduce costs by washing clothes in the coolest water possible.

5. Car Care – If you do an at-home car wash, you may be doing more harm to the environment than you think. Water and contaminants from your vehicle flow freely down the driveway into the storm drain and into rivers, lakes and streams without first being treated. On the site they have 4 tips to help you with greening your car care.

6. Rainwater Preservation – It seems like such a waste to have excess water one month and a shortage another. Luckily, rainwater harvesting has gone mainstream, and it’s easy for homeowners to take advantage of recapturing “lost” water with a rain barrel.

7. Green Thumb – Weeds: Pull weeds by hand instead of using chemicals. Bugs: Spray them with water and if that doesn’t work, try an insecticide soap.

8. Enjoy – Now that you’ve greened your spring, enjoy the fruits or your labour and kick back and relax.

For the complete article and all the tips and tricks for helping you “Green your Spring” click here.

From the magazine Fast Company, I ran across this article, The 2009 Green Gadget Buyer’s Guide. Its meant to make you laugh but the products are definitely worth using and will save you energy, money and help you become more environmentally friendly.

Wall Mounted Efficiency Toggle(the light switch) – This device can achieve a 100% reduction in power usage and activate the natural light in any room.

ioAerial Garment Purifier(clothesline) – Engineered in Switzerland, this razor-thin cord harnesses wind power. Set up is a snap: Arrange wet garments along the ioAerial to initiate dehydration. Cycle completes in 3-4 hours.

Subaquatic Flow and Volume Regulato(Brick) – Made from recycled material, the regulator is the new tiger in your (toilet) tank. Simply drop it in and enjoy substantial savings on water usage.

Smarter Car(bike) – Introducing the only human-powered, zero-emissions vehicle on the market! SmarterCar is based on proven technology handed down from the 19th-century German artisans.

Eco-Friendly Textile Restoration Kit(needle and thread) – Lose a button? Don’t toss the entire suit. Cut your waste – and your wardrobe budget – with this chemical free textile-refurbishment tool. Handheld, user-friendly, and compact, this precision instrument allows you to reattach buttons, mend holes, adjust waistlines and even Eco-convert entire outfits into reusable shopping bags.

Onpipe Rehydration Service(Drink from the faucet) – Scientist have discovered that not all H2O is produced in Fiji or France and the small mountain principality of Dasani. OnPipes proprietary high-bandwidth network delivers always-on, in-home renewable  drinking water from local sources. OnPipe Premium offers both cold and hot services.

Anti-Solar Panels(vertical blinds) – The anti-solar movement first began in exotic and ball-of-fire-hot Aruba. Combining special opaque paneling, an adjustable vertical axis, and a full 120-degree variable angle for light displacement and absorption. Anti-Solar Panels will be all the buzz this summer. Fully compatible with the Wall-Mounted Efficiency Toggle.

Population-Density Moderators(condoms) – These little wonders pay for themselves almost immediately. Over population is the single most significant contributor to carbon emissions, resource consumption, and road rage. Reduce your ecological footprint and save hundreds of thousands of dollars without compromising your lifestyle.

I came across an interesting video this past week upon recommendation by a professor of mine in a class I had recently. The title of the video is called “The Story of Stuff”. The Story of Stuff has some really interesting things to say about our consumer culture and the way in which our economy has structured itself around our incessant need to consume.

While I may not buy into all of the political jargon in the video, the video outlines some important and staggering truths about our culture and what it has become. It illuminates the linear structure by which our production and consumption is set up and the potential danger of that linear system within a finite planet.

Some of the staggering statistics illuminated in the video are:

-Over 99% of the products that we buy are in the trash after six months of use

-Companies and industries often manufacture products to break easier and sooner, forcing us to buy more

-People are working more and more in our culture and have less leisure time, and the two things we most commonly spend our time doing in free time is watching TV and shopping

-The average American sees over 3,000 advertisements a day. We see more advertisements in one year than a person in the 1950s saw in their whole lifetime.

It is important to consider what we are buying and why we are buying it. Are we buying it because we think it will satisfy some sort of desire or happiness? What do we do with our products once we are done with them? Do we throw things away before we need to?

These are things that we here at GreenGlancy are trying to understand and to live out. Check out the video and let us know what you think in the comments section.

The average family of four wastes 122 pounds of food each month by tossing it into the trash can according to the New York Times.

In the article, One Mans Table Scraps, Another Country’s Meal, The New York Times made this interesting representation of the average Americans monthly waste. Click on the image to view full graphic.

These statistics should sadden you and make you want to change the way we all live and stop abusing the food we are so fortunate to have. People all over this world are starving and we have so much food that its ending up in the garbage? What is that about? Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes–one child every five seconds. And not to mention the environmental impact of wasting food. If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road.

So what can we do to be better stewards of the wonderful food we have? Here are some easy and practical ways you can stop wasting food.

1. Use what you’ve got. Try some of the wonderful recipes at LoveFoodHateWaste.com.
2. Don’t make too much. Check out the Perfect Portion to know the exact amount to make.
3. Keep the fridge at a cool 35-40 degrees and chilled food will last longer.
4. Check out these Reviving Tips before you trash it.

For more Storage, Menu and Money saving tips, visit LoveFoodHateWaste.com.

While at my regular Tuesday meeting at our local Starbucks I saw this new sign which read:

A lot of good and a FREE drink.

Made from at least 27% post-consumer recycled material. Every time you refill it, you’ll save .10 – and you’ll save another paper cup. Even better, your first drink is our treat.

• 8 fl oz $8.95
• 12 fl oz $9.95
• 16 fl oz $10.95
• 20 fl oz $11.95

Starbucks Shared Planet

You and Starbucks. It’s bigger than coffee.

USE A TUMBLER.

You’ll save .10 and another paper cup every time.

The new tumblers are very eye catching and green, but I would be more inclined to use what I already have and not buy a new tumbler just because they are pretty. I do like the idea that you will save .10 every time you use a reusable tumbler or mug when purchasing coffee at Starbucks. So start reducing your carbon footprint and use a reusable tumbler or mug on your next purchase at Starbucks.