Planning for your next vacation? Consider booking a room at an eco-friendly hotel. There are numerous things to think about ranging from organic linens to environmental certification. The truth is that being organic means a lot more than recycling and eating organically.

LEED certification

This certification is the gold standard for hotels, restaurants and other buildings. It stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The certificate is meant to tell whether a facility fulfills rigorous sustainability standards regarding material and water usage and energy efficiency. There are some other seals as well that you could be thinking about.

(photo by www.sheknows.com)

Linen reuse

One of the simplest things that the hotels and motels can do is not to change the sheets on a daily basis. If you are looking at the offers of a given hotel, you should check whether it has a towel and sheet re-use program.

In the majority of the cases they have a system where you can signal whether you would like to have your sheets and towels changed or not. Just consider that such a simple thing can save a lot of energy and water.

Recycling

It is important to know whether the hotel that you are planning to stay at has a recycling program. Usually the hotels recycle paper and plastic, but some of them also recycle gray water. This is the water used in the kitchen and laundry room. It can be recycled to water the grounds. Otherwise it would be discarded as waste.

Non-toxic cleaners

One of the things that a hotel could do to become an eco-friendly one is to opt for non-toxic cleaners. The customers shouldn’t be shy about asking about such things. If the hotel uses cleaners of this kind most probably they have some information about it on their website and they will be more than happy to tell you about it.

Restaurant

This is the place you should check out if you want to learn more about the sustainability of the hotel. If they use local and organic produce or if they have a rooftop garden, if they recycle frying oil or if they have any other kind of eco-friendly projects they will surely advertise it. If this is the case most probably the hotel has the same practices.

These are some of the guidelines that you should consider when choosing your next vacation destination.

We can all benefit from a coffee in the morning, right? If you are one of the people having coffee regularly, there are some things you could do in order to turn this habit into a green one that will help you enjoy your beverage and help the environment in the same time.

1. Reusable filters

There are many different kinds of reusable filters to choose form, including the organic ones, the ones made of stainless steel and those pleated with gold. Whichever you choose you can reduce the carbon footprint and the waste of the coffee machine. There are some machines that come with permanent filters, which are the best to choose.

2. Coffee

Not all coffee beans are the same. It is best to go for the organic coffee beans that are shade-grown and fair-traded.

Organic coffee is the one that has been grown according to the standards without the use of fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Fair trade refers to the coffee that has been purchased from the producer at a higher price than the standard one.

3. Coffee mug

Plastic and paper cups should be switched with your own coffee mug, no matter whether you use it at home or at the office. The majority of the coffee machines allow you to use cups of this kind. If you are faced with a machine that uses paper cups, you should suggest changing it for another model.

4. Energy consumption

Some of the machines turn off automatically once the coffee is ready, while others make it possible to put them on a timer. Usually the small coffee machines use less energy than the larger espresso machines and they need less energy to brew and grind the coffee. This means that getting a smaller one is a better choice.

5. Chemicals and cleaning

The simple and small coffee machines can be cleaned with vinegar. The more sophisticated coffee machines usually come with their own cleaning solutions that usually are filled with different kinds of chemicals. This is something to consider before buying a coffee machine.

6. Reuse the coffee waste

The majority of people throw away the used coffee grounds, but there are many different ways to reuse it around the house. For instance, you could use them as fertilizer in the garden and all you have to do is to mix it with soil. Also it acts as repellant against snails and ants.

As some form of penitence, we can give up on various types of luxuries or commit to fasting during Lent. However, let’s see what we can do that does well for the environment and not just for us. While six weeks is not a long period, a collective confession has huge potential considering greenhouse gas emissions.

By working together, we can make improvements opposite to ignoring and going by our lives as if nothing is ought to happen. Lent should fill us with Hope since Easter is coming and should help us instill a mindset throughout the year.

Save money by saving our planet

One of the major global warming causes and source of pollutants are electric power plants. We should get accustomed to give up on a few degrees we can make a big change for both our pockets and environment. Do not forget to turn down the heat when leaving the building. Make use of your thermostat.

Dress warmer during winters, snuggle under cozy blankets, and save up hundreds on 2 degrees of difference. If hot weather is your season, don’t use the air conditioning unless necessary.

Save trees by changing the toilet paper type

It’s rather funny but if every home from the United States would buy just once a four-pack recycled toilet paper instead of conventional bath paper, around 1 million trees would be saved. Their prices are roughly the same. Here we must also mention paper towels. Look for recyclable ones but if possible use microfiber towels that can be washed as many times as you want. This way you minimize waste.

Never leave your home without shopping bags

We’re always caught off guard when it comes to shopping bags. Then we opt for either plastic or paper bags right at the cashier or grocery store. They are not so good unless we are reusing and recycling them. A better option is choosing mesh-like plastic or some sort of nylon-based durable bag that you can use many times. Grab a few of those and take them around with you everywhere.

More things you can give up on

As a habit we can try to condition ourselves to stop buying bottled water. Aluminum water bottles are better for both your health and environment. Some plastic materials are suspected of containing toxics and they are made into baby bottles as well.

Maybe if you could, or at least try to read the fine print regarding the fabrics of clothes—then perhaps avoiding to purchase clothing that require dry cleaning wouldn’t be a problem, would it? Dry cleaners contain toxic chemicals that remain on the fabric after cleaning. Hang them in the open air when you really need to use dry cleaning.

When people think about New York City, they think of skyscrapers, shopping, and business. Very few people know that this region is surrounded by nature which has a lot to offer.

(photo by: patashley)

Habitat

Forests were cut to make way for the city, but though this is one of the most crowded cities of them all, a lot of space is designed to be open.

A lot of people take the time to visit one of the largest undeveloped areas of the city, Central Park. The park opened in 1857 as a response to the need of people for recreational spaces. It is now made up by ponds, streams, swamps and woodland.

Species and diversity

Bird lovers come to the park to observe them in their natural habitat. Here you can see the rare peregrine falcon. Botanists also like the park because here they can find the American elm that was almost extinct because of the Dutch elm disease.

Although the city looks like a concrete jungle, you may be amazed of how many different species of plants and animals you can find there. The city is home to over 2,100 species of plants, that is more than the total number of species of Great Britain and some of them are pretty rare.

Unique plants

As an example Staten Island is home to the threatened Torrey’s mountain mint, which is now found in only about 20 locations of the world. The once abundant American chestnut can also be found in the region.

Staten Island is home to some other interesting species as well, such as blackjack oak, and if you take a walk here in the summer, you will see that although the region seems to be arid, it is abundant in blackberry trees. Queens is home to a tulip tree that is said to be 400 years old.

Being green is a major trend on its own, but there are some tips that are gaining more and more popularity. In case you would like to make sure that this year will be greener, you should adopt some of these tips.

Make the most of it

Although it seems something minor, you should think about all the toothpaste that you have to throw away because you can’t get it out of the tube. When it seems to be empty just cut it in half and you could use all paste that is left for a few extra days. Just add up all the toothpaste that you threw away until now.

Reduced scale

Another thing you could be thinking about is to be using less of everything including shampoo, toothpaste, and conditioner. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use any.

Just reduce the amount a bit and you will find that the same products will last longer.

Composter

While you are using a worm composter, you could use a regular one too. In this case in case you have too much food for the worms or you have something that they can’t eat, you will have something to do with it.

Old toothbrush

Once you aren’t able to use the old toothbrush anymore, there are some other uses that it is just great for. There are all sorts of things that you could use them for, such as cleaning the tracks on doors and windows, the edges of the bathtub and a toothbrush can even be used to clean jewelry.

Flush it

Usually the water that is used by the washing machine goes down the drain. Nonetheless if you place the hose into a bucket and you save the water, you could use it to flush the toilet and so you will need less clean water for this purpose.

Bags

You don’t need to buy new bags every time you go to the supermarket. Instead you should make sure that you have some reusable bags in a larger bag in the car or in the messenger basket of the bike, and reuse the ones that you already have.

Turn it off

You don’t need light for every activity that you do, so try to use electricity as little as possible, For example you don’t need light for meditating or doing yoga. For sure there are some other activities of this kind as well.

A green job refers to a workplace that helps to restore or preserve the quality of the environment. These jobs are just perfect for the people who would like to feel like they make a difference in the world and who opt for living an environment friendly life.

1. Farmer

At the moment the average age of the American farmers is of 55. Sustainable agriculture is a very important field at the moment, and there is need for more urban gardeners, CSA coordinators and farmers market, not to mention artisanal cheese makers.

2. Forester

Forestry in the modern meaning of the word is a combination of conservation, international project finance and development. According to official information, at the moment there are about 1.6 billion people who earn their living from the forest, and this is a field that is responsible for the carbon emissions.

3. Solar power installer

Nowadays there are about 770,000 jobs in the field of installing and making solar power systems. The good thing about this workplace is that it comes with a relatively high wage of 15-35 dollars per hour in case the person in question also has some construction skills.

4. Energy efficiency builder

About 48% of the greenhouse gas emissions and power use is due to the buildings. There are 43,000 accredited professionals to green the buildings. This is a work field that requires engineers, architects, retrofitters and workforce offering a job to lot of people.

5. Wind tube fabricator

When it comes to alternative energy, the majority of the people are thinking about wind. This field created about 300,000 workplaces all over the world. Since the turbines are made of metal, this field offers a workplace for autoworkers and some other manufacturers.

6. Conservation biologist

At the moment it is very important to maintain the integrity of the ecosystems and so a lot of opportunities are created regarding teaching, field work and research for the departments of the government, private companies and nonprofit organizations.

7. Entrepreneur and green MBA

The majority of green jobs are offered by the fields of legal, consulting and research. These fields have offered 400,000 workplaces. In this field there is a wide range of activities that can be performed. In case you are looking for a green job, these are some options you might want to consider. Before you decide upon a job you should consider the knowledge and expertise that you have in some field.

There are more and more people talking about world hunger, and this is a matter that the specialists have to address. It looks like they have managed to come up with an idea to feed the ever growing population in the form of a special building that would produce food.

This building became Polyculture Tower and it makes farming possible, along with the other related activities even in urban settings. With the help of this special building it will be possible to meet the needs of food of people and the best thing about it is that all this happens in an environmental friendly way without having any carbon emissions.

(photo credit: www.ecofriend.com)

We can be sure that a building that has so many advantages and does so good will be quickly adopted by the population. It has been created by an architect from Savannah, called Connor Nicholas. The design of the building is a more special one since there are almost no straight lines in the design. Even more we could say that the building looks like a twisted oversized bottle.

We have to admit that the design is truly remarkable. The entire structure is supported by a log column found in the center that can be found in the entire structure. The angularity of the building is given by the criss-cross structures.

The end result is quite tall and it also comes with several geopods. The main source of inspiration for the building has been the idea of polycultures that is a common agricultural practice. This means that different kinds of products are grown in the same place. The system makes it possible to control the living area of the products, and thus makes the process environmentally friendly.

This building could become an important part of the urban areas of a coal-free world. The best thing about the building is that it can be run on renewable energy.

This revolutionary concept of the solutions for food production isn’t the only one that the architect came up with since he showed a clear interest in this field of architecture. His main focus is on the urban areas, in making them more functional and less damaging for the surrounding areas.

There are some other concepts as well that people should give a thought, such as the ‘Urban Sponge’ or the ‘Tea House Pavilon’ that basically all have the same environmental concept.

Toxic wastes are also known as hazardous wastes and these are dangerous in case of humans and animals, since they can lead to death. The worst thing about them is that they can spread to their surrounding areas and they can contaminate the soil, rivers, air and so on.

(photo credit: http://www.ecofriend.com)

Activated carbon cloth

This is something that the scientists came up with 30 years ago. This is an inexpensive way to deal with cleansing and management of toxic elements. There are various kinds of clothing that could be made of this material, and at the beginning it has been created for soldiers in order to protect them against chemical attacks. Nonetheless there are some other uses of this material as well, such as filtering toxins and drugs from drinking water, or the filtering of the air or cleaning the toxic spills.

Cleaning gel

It is a well-known fact that the tsunami that hit Japan this year resulted in a lot of toxic waste. The biggest threat has been represented by the nuclear plants that have been hit by the tsunami and thus there were some toxic substances that were leaking from these plants. In order to make sure that such spills will never occur again in the future, a new gel has been created that got the name of DeconGel.

The company that produces it says that at the beginning it comes in the form of a liquid, and it can be added to any kind of contaminated surface. Then the liquid turns into a gel that traps the radioactive particles and other dangerous substances like chromium, beryllium, PCBs or mercury. It is quite easy to remove the gel and then people just have to discard of them.

Worms

It has been found that the regular earthworms can process and digest the toxic substances that come with toxic metals. These can often be found in the surroundings of old industrial plants. We could say that the worms are actually digestive systems that can move around and we have a lot to benefit from the fact that they can transform the organic matters into nutrients in the form of enriched soil.

According to the latest studies, these worms can be used in order to get rid of metals and other toxic materials. The researchers managed to produce worm soil also known as vermicompost that is able to absorb waste water that has been compromised.

Are you aware how big is the carbon footprint of a Christmas shopping spree? The studies show that it is quite considerable especially because we tend to buy a lot of stuff and spend the cash on things that will increase the landfills.

Although the majority of the people think that the Christmas holidays need to be expensive, there are many ways to decrease the expenses that you are supposed to have. All you have to do is to think a bit outside the box.

Christmas cards

In case you don’t really have a budget for Christmas cards this year, you could wait for the sales that the stores have in December. Keep in mind that the longer you wait the bigger savings you are going to make.

Another alternative is to send the cards through the internet. These usually don’t cost anything.

Wrapping paper

If you don’t have money for wrapping paper, you could be using the pretty pages of magazines. In the same time, you could be using newspaper as well. Another thing that you could do is to use the artwork of children that they created on plain paper.

In case you thought about this the last year and saved some wrapping paper, you could use that paper this year. If you are going to wrap smaller gifts, nobody will notice the folded lines.

One of the most inexpensive options you have is to use tissue paper. This could be decorated with Christmas trees and other motifs, and you could write on it ‘Merry Christmas’ and add some glitter if you have some at hand.

Gift tags

You don’t have to be thinking about expensive gift tags, because pieces of postcards work just as well or you could be using wrapping paper folded in two.

Decorations

Having decorations around your house isn’t a must. In case you want to, you should be looking for the sales that stores have around the holiday or even after. This way you can save a lot of money. In the majority of the cases children do some artwork at school around the holidays, and in case you save them for a few years, you can fill the house with pretty little paper decorations which are both green and unexpensive.

For sure you must have heard about the garlands that are made of popcorn. For this, all you need is to pop some and add them to a string. You could also be using the elements of nature, such as acorns and pinecones. In order to make your home nicer, you could also add some pine scented oil. The organic one is quite inexpensive, especially if you buy it at local shops.

There are a lot of inexpensive things that you could use; and keep in mind the less money you spend the greener will your Christmas be.

We have all heard about the theory that it is better to get artificial Christmas tree because this way there is no need to chop down the real trees. Still at this point things change again and scientists say that it is better to have an actual tree because the carbon footprint is 10 times smaller than in the case of an artificial tree.

How much does it cost us?

If you opt for an artificial tree of about 6 ft., it is just as damaging as if you toasted 5,222 slices of bread or you drove 120 miles in a car of average size. On the other hand, if you opt for the real trees, it is equivalent to toasting 418 slices and driving a bit less than ten miles.

Why get the artificial trees?

It is said that the advice to do away with the artificial trees comes from the company called Carbon Trust that belongs to the government. The company comes up with ideas that would make it possible for people to cut back the carbon emissions.

Christmas time

According to official information, the carbon footprint of the consumers increases by 6% during the winter holidays. This is because of all the gifts that they buy, the car trips that they have to visit their family and friends, and the extra food that they buy that ends up going to waste.

The main idea behind the artificial trees has been for the consumers to be able to reuse the same tree year after year. There are some people who really took this advice because up to now about 300,000 trees have been sold in only one store.

Although these trees are reusable, you need to use the same tree for ten years to make it better than the real trees. It is said that in case the artificial tree gets to the landfill, it will produce emissions equivalent to 40 kg of carbon dioxide while a real tree has emissions equivalent to just 3.5 kg of carbon dioxide.

Naturally there are some other ways as well for you to get rid of your tree. As an example, you could chip it and shatter it around the garden or burn it. It looks like everything is better than the fake trees. At this point the choice is yours.