There's a lot of great information in this post and I encourage you to read through it ... however, if you don't have the time right now, you might find the following quick links helpful:
The first step in making a positive, environmental change is identifying areas to work on ... and that's what we did last week. We suggested new challenges and/or identified our personal struggles to living green.
The Honor Society are those people who help us spread the "green" word by writing an article about our challenges and/or leaving pertinent comments. Here's what they had to say:
Jacqueline offered this challenge idea: " I have a suggestion that benefits both our planet and our health. Pick a food item that you buy in a package still and find an alternative such as beans, cereal, tomatoes, etc. Your challenge is to utilize that alternative and tell us how you did!"
In this POST Argentum Vulgaris gives us an update on his waste audit activities ... and wow, he did great!! He also suggested a challenge ... one which we haven't done or even come close to yet. You'll be seeing it, here, but if you want a preview before it goes "live", hop on over and check it out!
Cat gives us an update on her waste audit in Reduce Waste ... can you guess what the number one item in her trash bin is? And that prompted an excellent challenge suggestion. Stay tuned for that on in a future #CTWW.
EcoGrrl offered up an interesting activity:
"1) My suggestion would be to focus on what we do when we're out at restaurants & cafes - do we use their paper napkins or do we bring our own with us (a friend of mine makes them out of scraps of cloth)? Do we accept their plastic fork or do we have our own (I keep a bamboo spork in my purse)? Are we thinking as hard about being green when we're dining out as when we are dining in?
2) The above would be my challenge as well. Certain restaurants I know are really sustainably focused who I go to but others I realize that I never really think about if their cheese, meat, produce, etc. are organic/local/etc." Ooh ... that's a good one!
Over very own Green Gal suggested a terrific challenge and then took it on for the week. Wowee! She first outlined her idea HERE. Then, she gives us an update on how her week went in this POST. I just love her enthusiasm and effort ... and yep, we'll all be tackling her challenge in the future!
Welcome back to brand new mommy, Kris! We're so happy to see you!! Kris has a challenge idea which should resonate with all parents ... you'll find it HERE. She also talks about one of her own green struggles and I'm guessing that a lot of us share it (I do). How about you?
We have a brand new Honor Society member ... welcome to Steve (he has a great blog). Here's his challenge idea: "As a business graduate and a small business owner myself, I'd like to suggest that we try and conduct a SWOT analysis on our whole green living lifestyles. This is normally a business planning exercise and basically means listing your:
S = Strengths (your own strengths)
W = Weaknesses (again your own)
O = Opportunities (external factors that might allow you to be even greener)
T = Threats (external factors that threaten your green living)
Doing this allows you to focus in on the areas that need improvement and try and safeguard against threats that might arise. More info on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis" Thanks, Steve ... I like it!
Ann suggests a lovely challenge via photos & a few words: Save the world: Save trees. Nice!
Simple ... Direct ... and Powerful! That's Katie's idea which you can see HERE. It's going to be fun to see how this one plays out!
Alicia has a great idea for us: " Since our business is products that you put on your skin my suggestion is to see if you can go a week without putting any chemicals on your body. That means reading the labels on all of your beauty products like lotions, creams, lipsticks and make-up as well as deodorants, toothpaste, shampoos, conditioners, shaving cream and hair styling products. We sometimes don't think to check these products thoroughly and when we do are amazed at the hidden chemicals lurking there. Remember your skin is the largest organ and we absorb so much of what we put on our skin into our bloodstream so we want to be aware of what we are absorbing.
The big thing that we have a challenge with is because we live so far out in the country we have to do a good bit of driving to get most anywhere. I would love it if our cars ran on biodiesel!" Excellent activities to work on, Alicia!
Our Twitter friends had some great ideas for us as well:
From @anitaadamsnc
- Challenge: Recycle everything & see what really ends up in the garbage? It's amazinging small! :)
From @givetreegifts
- "Going Green" Is So Last Season: The Future Is Zero Impact onforb.es/OJKEHp
- The Challenges of Building a New Green Home vs. Upgrading an Old Home bit.ly/NfbYQU
- Green Divas Guide to Eco-Friendly Hair Removal bit.ly/QIXBUT
From @nonmom
- My #CTWW: I am using the water in my wading pool to water my gardens. I don't want to waste it so why not use it? :)
- We're in a drought so I don't want to waste any water so I thought that made sense 4 #CTWW :)
From @gwened02
- the litter pick challenge was my favourite!
From @lissygreenbean
- Want a #CTWW challenge idea? Say no 2 eating out, esp places w wrappers or ketchup packets. Then make a list of the trash ur avoiding!
The #CTWW Gang are those folks who share our challenges on twitter using the hashtag #CTWW. If you're a Twitter member, I highly recommend following them ... they have a lot of great things to say. Let's meet them:
My Final Thoughts:
Before starting this blog, I'd watch programs on the environment and listen to experts tell us how we needed to do better ... that it was up to each and every one of us to make a change. But they never told me what to change or how to go about it ... they just pointed their fingers. I personally believe that people want to do the right thing ... but we need the tools. This challenge gave us the first tool ... a direction. Now we'll focus our efforts and make a difference ... together!
Thanks, everyone! If you wrote an article, I have Stumbled, Tweeted, Facebooked and posted it on Google +. You can help spread the "green" word by using the share feature at the bottom of this post.
This Week's Challenge:
We're going to jump right in and get started on one of the suggested activities. This comes from Argentum Vulgaris and is perfect for this time of year. Here you go:
This week take a look at your yard for toxic and/or non-environmentally-friendly materials. For example, does your garden hose contain lead? Is the pool, yard toys (slides, swings, doll houses, etc.) made of plastic? How about buckets, tools, garden pots .... or window netting for insects ... are they made of harmful plastic? Identify the materials used for the things you have in your yard and then, make plans to replace those items with Eco-friendly, safe versions. NOTE: we're not asking you to run out and replace everything in your yard ... but simply to evaluate items and replace as you can or deem fitting.
Or ...
Don't have a yard, patio, etc.? Then your challenge is to look indoors. Focus on one room and do the same ... identify any harmful, non-Eco-friendly materials and make plans to replace them. This might include paint with harmful ingredients or a plastic shower curtain. Other ideas include plastic decor, light bulbs, etc.
Don't have a yard, patio, etc.? Then your challenge is to look indoors. Focus on one room and do the same ... identify any harmful, non-Eco-friendly materials and make plans to replace them. This might include paint with harmful ingredients or a plastic shower curtain. Other ideas include plastic decor, light bulbs, etc.
This ought to be interesting ... can't wait to hear about what you find!
Just add the banner below to your blog by
copying the code & pasting it into your site!
Until next time ...
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!
I always giggle as your post comes out on Tuesday night here on the West Coast :)
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming my garden hoses are lethal weapons but here's the cool thing - I've only used them a couple times and that was to give my (RIP) pup a bath, as my rain barrel & rain cistern provide all the water for my garden now (woo hoo!). Both are 'food grade' containers but who knows what that really means, ya know.
I don't use netting - pineapple sage around my berries is my guard as the hummingbirds that love the sage keep the bad birds away from the area.
Other than that, the only bad thing is probably my old plastic watering can. I'd seen in a magazine that Terra Cycle has ones made of recycled plastic but their shopping website is just terrible. Eventually I'll recycle the current one and replace with something out of recycled materials (metal products are not any more eco than plastic if it's made from virgin materials). I've got some old camp chairs that I'd like to replace with adirondack chairs - maybe a DIY project for next summer? (I refuse to spend several hundred bucks on two wooden chairs..)
Great challenge this week!!
When I first read the challenge, I thought "oh man, but I'm living in a dorm!" Then I realized that doesn't excuse me from owning things that could be replaced with more environmentally friendly/healthy things or paying attention to my surroundings. So, I accept the challenge and will take a look at the things I own that are so necessary to my life that I brought them along with me for summer session--those things I come in contact with daily, and thus should be the healthiest things I own! So it actually works out well. I also challenge myself to take note of what other things on this campus are made of and where improvements could be made. If I find things that really concern me, I will bring them to the attention of those who can make decisions about replacing them with better alternatives. Love this challenge! Let's see if I can handle blogging about it + 12 units of summer classes + studying for the GRE + editing a green guide. I can so do this!
ReplyDeleteTHanks SF; this is a fantastic challenge and I can't wait to get stuck in. I joined in with last week's challenge too. I think I'm forgetting to leave a comment, so perhaps you're missing my posts! Sorry about that!
ReplyDeleteHere it is if you want to take a peek:
http://littlegreenblog.com/blog/family-news-blog/when-you-struggle-to-be-green/
http://annsnowchin.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/jurong-bird-park-king-of-skies-show.html
ReplyDeletea place to educate old and young about protecting birds.
I am having trouble with blogger, that is why there are few words, which is a pity, because I prefer to write.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why, I am too jetlagged to feature out what is wrong with the formatting.
CTWW is up and running on:
ReplyDeletehttp://ecocrap.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/change-the-world-wednesday-1st-august/
I forgot to mention in the post that many garden things are 'recycled' plastic, but I wonder if the plastic they are recycled from is a safe plastic...
AV
We have pretty Eco Friendly garden tools but I am not sure about the garden hose. We try to stay away from plastic as much as possible and try to use recycled when we do.I agree with AV that you don't know if the plastic they used to recycle was safe in the first place though. Our grandson got a pool for his birthday and he also has a slip and slide so I am going to have our daughter-in-law check them out.
ReplyDeleteFascinating challenge; it took me ages to peer into everything and I still haven't covered everything; it gets quite obsessive when you start! However I've written about some of the larger furnishings and ended up chucking out some toxic candles - so thanks for the fantastic nudge this week! http://littlegreenblog.com/green-home/environment-issues/is-your-home-making-you-sick/
ReplyDeleteI came up with a couple of things.
ReplyDeletehttp://outwardlypleasant.blogspot.com/2012/08/ctww-looking-around-outside.html
I took a look around the yard and realized I have too many plastic planters, granted those get re-used for several years, but I'd like to find attractive, space saving alternatives to using them. Any ideas?
ReplyDelete