The following post is for Blog Action Day ‘09. Blog Action Day is a yearly event where bloggers write about one global issue on a chosen day to bring awareness and inspire change. This year’s topic is climate change. Track other Blog Action Day posts on Twitter by searching “#BAD09.” Read the rest of this entry »
Kids find new uses for FIJI bottles.
Summer is in full swing and my girls and I are loving the outdoors! I particularly love that my house stays cleaner. My kids are 2½ and ready for my little art lessons I dreamed of when I was pregnant. I thought I’d teach them about recycling. What better way to practice than Read the rest of this entry »
As May is National Bike Month, I thought this would be as good a time as any to tell you about my shiny red bike! Besides, I love my bike, and I love talking about it. Yes, it’s the beautiful bike you see above — a K2 T-Nine Breeze.
I bought my shiny red bike last November (prime cycling season, haha!) and haven’t been able to get enough of it since. I’m lucky enough to Read the rest of this entry »
It occurred to me this is a wonderful place to share some of how I live a little healthier and greener, and in turn, improve what I’m doing by learning from our readers!
Nothing I do is extraordinary or time consuming, but I feel good about my little part. Here’s a list of what I do:
I’d love to hear little steps you take that help you live a healthy, greener life!
FIJI Green Gal: Here’s an update from Fiji courtesy of Molly, our FIJI Water Foundation coordinator…
FIJI Water and its hundreds of employees in Fiji were proud to join Fiji’s Earth Hour celebrations this year. On March 28th from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, the factory in Yaqara shut down bottled water operations and used critical lighting only, as did the logistics, finance, and foundation offices in Lautoka and Suva. We encouraged our employees, friends, and neighbors in the communities around our factory to do the same, supplied water to Earth Hour volunteers in the West, and also assisted in the collection and recycling of those donated bottles.
Elsewhere in Fiji, landmark buildings turned off their lights, restaurants held candlelit dinners with live guitar serenades, and at resorts guests were guided to their rooms by tiki torch.
Participating in this year’s Earth Hour is a part of our ongoing commitment to energy efficiency and the environment. As we work on big projects – cutting emissions across our products’ entire life cycle, promoting local recycling, investing in forest carbon and renewable energy projects- we also remember that there are small things we can all do every day to make a difference on our planet.
For more information about Earth Hour, visit www.earthhour.org and see how you and your community can be a part of next year’s celebration.
We’re delighted to announce that FIJI Water’s Los Angeles office has received LEED Silver certification! We’re proud to be “a pioneering example of sustainable design,” as the official letter from the U.S. Green Building Council phrased it. A tremendous amount of thought and effort went into this renovation, and it’s been amazing to see how many details go into making an office that’s good for people and good for the environment.
FIJI Water is proud to announce a wonderful new partnership with Ecco Ultra Lounge, Hollywood’s first eco-friendly lounge! Located in the heart of the popular Cahuenga Corridor, Ecco sets the standard for an eco-friendly nightlife experience by minimizing and neutralizing its impact on the environment.
Celebrities like Hayden Panettiere and Nicole Richie have been spotted at Ecco, and Discovery Channel’s Planet Green – recognizing the eco-friendly milestone Ecco will establish in the nightlife industry – will feature the venue on its show “Alter Eco,” hosted by “Entourage” star Adrian Grenier.
Ecco serves FIJI Water as its exclusive bottled water and also offers two cocktails made with FIJI Water:
So the venue is a place to see and be seen, the water tastes great, and the cocktails are yummy. But what makes Ecco eco-friendly? Well, it features (among other things):
It’s amazing to see how many details the club owners, designers, and operators thought about as part of their effort to minimize Ecco’s environmental impact. Click here to learn more!
Some months ago, I asked for advice on how best to adjust to the demise of my microwave, as I wasn’t doing such a good job of it on my own. People sent me some outstanding ideas, all of which have helped me eat more, sleep more, and reduce my carbon footprint. And when I can achieve all three goals, life is good!
I figure there’s no time better than the food-filled holiday season to update you on my progress. Some great ideas that readers shared with me included preparing food that tastes good as cold leftovers, going for raw foods, incorporating ingredients from the local farmers’ market, and just eating cereal sometimes (thanks to dropofkim, CatieB, and Betty!). (You know, I love eating cereal with fruit for dinner. It’s yummy and nutritious, and it reminds me of college! Can’t believe I’d forgotten that was an option, so thank you for the reminder.)
Especially during summertime, it was lovely to pull together simple but delicious salads, use the abundance of gorgeous produce to make vegetarian entrees that taste good without reheating the next day, and have more light and refreshing options in the warm weather. And of course, with my eating less meat and using less gas and electricity to heat food, my carbon footprint dropped too. One of my favorite dishes is a simple cannellini dip that takes five minutes to prepare, tastes amazing and flavorful, and is even better after a day in the refrigerator. With some pita bread for dipping and salad and fruit on the side, it makes at least a couple of easy and satisfying meals.
But with the colder weather settling in, I’m eager for warmer dinner options. Apart from substituting oatmeal for cereal, I now know how to reheat food properly on the stove, thanks to dropofkim: Add a little water and heat on low. And I’ve found doing this means the food heats up evenly and stays hot much longer than when warmed in a microwave. I’ll also visit favorite restaurants from time to time to enjoy a good meal. Especially with the economic downturn, I’m feeling keen to support neighborhood businesses where I can.
I haven’t given up entirely on getting a microwave. There’s still a lot to be said for the convenience! But I’m going to keep in mind jcwindsor’s suggestion to find an EnergyStar appliance and CatieB’s suggestion to find a kitchen cart made of recycled and/or repurposed materials. In the past, I’ve found some gorgeous furniture for great prices at consignment shops, garage sales, and the like – I love finding antiques and artisan pieces at bargain prices! Now, I suspect “antique microwave cart” is an oxymoron, but I still like the idea of finding a way to repurpose materials and keep them out of landfill. Another option could be to find a cart made of rapidly renewable resources like bamboo, which also looks beautiful.
Thanks again for all the great suggestions – I love the creativity, the variety, and most of all the delicious results!
A while back, I wrote in this space about the demise of my microwave and its impact on my eating habits, sleep schedule, and carbon footprint. A big thank you to all of you who wrote in with suggestions – there were so many good ideas, many of which I have since adopted. I’ll update you soon with more details about the recipe ideas, stove reheating tips, appliance and furniture shopping guidance, and more that I received from several readers.
I also appreciate the concern of those who felt skipping dinner would be unhealthy. Believe me, I am the last person in the world to advocate not eating as a way to lose weight. Apart from the obvious health implications, I just love to eat. So even if it were a good idea, I couldn’t ever pull it off!
That said, I do believe there are many food and beverage choices we can make that are healthier for us and for the environment. For example, over the past few years, more people have chosen to drink bottled water. While some environmentalists have expressed concern that these people are replacing tap water with bottled water, beverage sales data show this simply isn’t true. People are replacing sugary packaged beverages – not tap - with bottled water, a much healthier and less carbon-intensive option.
Over the past few years, the increase in bottled water volume has closely mirrored the decline in carbonated soft drinks and sugary fruit drinks. In other words, people are substituting bottled water for other packaged beverages that are less healthy and have a higher environmental impact. Soft drinks and fruit drinks use lots of refrigeration energy, result in agricultural impacts (e.g., energy, pesticides, fertilizers) from growing sugar, corn, and other ingredients, and require manufacturing of flavors, preservatives, and other chemicals. (You’ll recall from the Wall Street Journal article that refrigeration is a major carbon emissions source for beverages that require chilling.) Soft drinks also require extra packaging to hold in the bubbles.
So as people choose bottled water instead of soda or fruit drinks, they not only contribute to the overall greening of the beverage industry, but also do so in a way that is healthier. In fact, the switch to bottled water has eliminated about a trillion calories from the American diet over each of the past couple of years.
Trillions of calories – now that’s a lot of weight. Personally, I think FIJI Water tastes much better than the sugary stuff, so I’ll happily choose that when I’m on the go. And if it helps me cut out a couple hundred empty calories, doesn’t need chilling because it tastes good at room temperature, and avoids the conversion of land to agricultural use and the manufacture of preservatives (who needs those?), so much the better!
In September I went home to visit my mom for the first time in six months. I was a bit surprised when she told me that I absolutely must join her at an interfaith meeting being held at a church across town. With only a day and a half at home, I hadn’t expected to spend Saturday morning with a new church group.
As usual, mom knew best. The meeting was hosted by a church (I won’t mention the name in the merits of privacy but they should feel free to chime in!) whose members had spearheaded the effort to calculate their collective carbon footprint. They started with electricity usage and converted these kWh into greenhouse gas equivalents (which you can try here). Next, they looked at emissions from their parishioners’ travel to services. To do this, the green group asked church members to volunteer their home addresses; these were used to create a map of the area with thumb-tacks showing where people commuted from. For those who chose not to provide a home address, the average distance of the sample group was used. By taking the total distance traveled by all members and dividing by the average car’s fuel efficiency the faith group calculated the amount of gasoline used. Their final step was to translate this amount of gasoline into carbon dioxide (which you can do here).
Needless to say, I was impressed. They had gone beyond examining the church’s stand alone emissions to include the environmental impact of the parishioner’s travel to church as well.
As it turns out, my mom had brought me there to offer advice on carbon footprinting. Trying to do my part, I suggested they take an entire life cycle look at their operations. That is, in installing new patio doors, what type of wood was used? Was it certified sustainable? Where was it shipped from? How will this affect the insulation of the building? Throughout the morning, other members with a wide range of expertise educated us on topics including wave energy, waste vegetable oil as a diesel substitute, Equal Exchange Coffee, compostable packaged goods and the carbon footprint of meat.
It was refreshing to see a small but very diverse group coming together to address local environmental stewardship. Political debates about the effectiveness of a carbon cap-and-trade program versus a tax and other issues related to climate change could take years to settle. In the meantime, we need to act – and this is something that people across many faiths recognize. As Gandhi said, “When the people lead the leaders will follow.” The Interfaith group is planning a second meeting this Winter – I may have to take another trip home.
