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Environmental Challenge Day 6: Waste & YERDLE

Saturday, April 27th, 2013


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Photo Credit: Suzy Skye

On Earth Day, we launched our first Earth Day Challenge, a full week of “daily” challenges, that gets us thinking about things we use, buy and eat – where it all comes from – and why we need to be mindful about many of the things we in the developed world often take for granted. Check in with ClimateMama each morning to see what the next day’s challenge will be. Remember to have a quick family meeting at breakfast or dinner to discuss the daily challenge and see what the kids in your life have to say about it.

What did the kids in your life think about “Meatless Monday” “Take Care of Yourself Tuesday” “Water Wednesday?” “Try a New Recipe Thursday?” and “Foodie Friday?”

Today is Satisfied Saturday

Photo credit: Shutterstock

When we consume things, be it products we buy or foods we eat, we generate waste. Waste comes from wrappers, packaging, things we no longer want or feel we need and leftover food. If you’re feeling like going the extra mile, carry a garbage bag with you throughout the day and see how much you accumulate; a challenge for the kids in your life today? At the very least, ask them to consider these facts today every time they throw something away – on food waste alone:

• 1 billion dollars is spent a year just to dispose of food waste in the U.S.
• The Environmental Protection Agency says food leftovers are the single-largest component of the waste stream by weight in the United States.

While we are talking about waste, let’s talk about all the “stuff” we each accumulate every day, week and year and all the “new stuff” that you and the kids in your life buy that we may or likely may not really need. Stuff for a day at the beach, for one season of soccer or lacrosse, clothes for that “special party,” a new costume for Halloween, or decorations for your table for a dinner party you are giving. Did you know that for every pound of new goods produced, 71 pounds of waste are generated during manufacturing? This Earth Week, NBCUniversal is partnering with the sharing site Yerdle to help you minimize your impact on the planet by sharing your stuff. One person’s stuff is another person’s story! We thought we would share this fun program with you, as we challenge ourselves to be more mindful and carrying for our planet Earth.

Here’s how it works.


Our friends at Yerdle, a new mission-driven California Benefit corporation, are out to help people share with their friends rather than buying things new. On Yerdle, Facebook friends post items they’re willing to give away or loan, search for items they’re looking to get, and nab the things they want. Simple. Are you up for the challenge? Introduce your friends to Yerdle, have some fun and help do something good for our planet.

1) Join or host a Share & Tell Party
2) Post your stuff to share with friends. Discover other items that are up for grabs.
3) Tell the story of your sharing experiences on your favorite social media site using the hashtag #ShareandTell, and make sure to share your story with us at ClimateMama so we can share it with others too.

The decomposition of waste in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in our atmosphere, which accelerates climate change. According to the EPA, pound for pound, the comparative impact of methane on climate change is over 20 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period.

Remember, our challenge ends tomorrow with, Slow Down Sunday, so tune in!

Yours,

Climate Mama

Eating with the Environment in Mind was developed by Michelle Aboodi.

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Posted in Climate Mama News, Earth Day is Every Day, Food, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle & Fun, Recycling | No Comments »

GOING PAPERLESS IN 2013: A Resolution & Personal Way to Fight Climate Change

Thursday, January 10th, 2013


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Paperless2013. What does that really mean to me? I was born into a generation where we “touched and felt” everything, including what we read and what we wrote. In fact, something wasn’t real or proven unless you physically “had it” in your possession. For example, as a Representative of the International Monetary Fund at the United Nations, when I was covering the annual

Credit: Shutterfly

United Nations General Assembly, if I could get a “paper” copy (there were no other kinds of copies then….) of a head of state’s speech, before it was delivered live by that country’s leader, it was considered an incredible “coup.” I would then rush back to our office to make “paper” copies and hand out to “key contacts” or “fax” it around the world, one paper at a time, so we could share it with our staff abroad. I hate to tell you how many years ago that was though, as it definitely “dates” me.

Now I am the mother of two teens who use “paperless” social media to share their work and play on an “every minute” basis via their smart phones, tablets and computers. As the founder of a website and blog, I see where and how technology has moved us, whether we were ready or not, to a time where “digital information” is key – information which we can transmit, save, share and store electronically. As an environmentalist, I regularly remind people that when they do use paper to consider where it came from and it’s recycled content, from toilet paper to paper towels at home, and then for all office supplies, mailings and paper they use in their office – large or small.

When I was asked to support a New Year’s campaign called Paperless2013, a move to advance in a real way the ”paperless office,” I didn’t think twice and just said, “sure, I’m in!” The program has been created by a group of Silicon Valley companies I admire, including and among others, Google, Hello Fax, Manilla, Xero and Expensify. As someone who runs a small education and advocacy business on climate change, you would think I would have figured it out by now, but unfortunately I am still “swimming” in a needless pool of paper. As I see it, Paperless2013, a pledge to go paperless in our offices, is what I need to jump start my year, and “unfreeze me” from the state of panic I find myself in every time I walk into my office. I need to steel myself to look away from the piles of paper that envelope me, many of which I haven’t looked at thoroughly in months.

The Paperless2013 campaign is a simple one, sign up at Paperless2013, pledge to go paperless and begin receiving a short list of tips and ideas on how to be successful. Use the #paperless2013 hashtag, follow Paperless2013 on twitter and facebook. Be one of the first of your friends or colleagues to join this new campaign and let some of the “experts” in going paperless help you manage your family or small “business” paper load today! Let us know if you sign up and how and if you think going “paperless” is important and will help you.

I will keep you updated on a regular basis on my progress here at ClimateMama as I work to “clean up” my act and organize my own office and life!

As an aside, I have to say that as I researched this program, I was surprised that this simple “feel right” and straightforward campaign has generate an uproar and strong attacks from some voices in the printing industry. There is a need and requirement that certainly still exists for paper and it doesn’t seem to be disappearing anytime soon.

However, in many developed countries the paper industry is often the 3rd or 4th largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation has many problems, not the least of which is our planet’s loss of trees – trees which act as important carbon “sinks” or “absorbers” of the carbon dioxide we humans emit. Every industry, as technology and times change, should revisit its mission and business practices and figure out how to be more effective and efficient. It would be foolish for us not to consider how to better store, use and save our documents. And in this regard, it is also important for those companies that do help us be more effective in the digital world, to think about their carbon footprint and energy use too.

Grab the kids in your life and tell them about your PAPERLESS2013 pledge today. Ask them to share their thoughts with you on paper, going paperless, and being more energy efficient and energy wise…

Yours,

Climate Mama

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Posted in Climate Mama News, Lifestyle & Fun, Nature, Recycling | 2 Comments »

Top 3 Back to School Supplies: Binders, Treats, Books

Sunday, August 19th, 2012


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What’s the relationship – Treats, Books, Binders and Climate Change? In fact the relationship between all three and climate change is KEY if we hope to get a handle on reining in the worst impacts of climate change – We MUST learn how to adapt to the human caused changes happening to our climate that are already with us, AND mitigate the impacts that are coming our way – So, the types of treats we give our kids, where we source their back to school supplies (and all the products we purchase) and the messages and information we share with our kids about climate change are all important for our planet and serve as valuable life skills and lessons for our kids. We need to learn and model how to live our lives with a “lighter footprint” with less impact on our planet. The kids in our life are never too young, nor too old to learn these life lessons.

Check out our “Top 3” back to school items that we see as ways to help connect the dots for you and the kids in your life between how we live our lives and empowering us all to take action on climate change.

BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES: We LOVE our Naked Binder school and office supplies! Last year was the first time we tried out these supplies. Over the course of the year, my kids “Naked binders” were personalized, and “made their own” standing up incredibly well to the test of time, wear and tear! The binders and folders were often the topic of conversation amongst their friends and teachers, helping everyone see how we can be

Credit: Naked Binder website

“school cool” and mindful and caring of our planet at the same time. Naked binder makes pocket folders, tab dividers and 3 ring binders from FSC certified, 100% post-consumer waste binder board, 100% cotton cloth, a FSC certified papers and metal rings – no plastics, vinyls or toxins. All Naked Binder products are made and sourced in the US.

Naked Binder “thinks sustainably” and makes sure it’s clear from the moment you visit their website. They define a sustainable product as: one that is economical; efficient to create; crafted from renewable non-harming sources; works better for a longer period of time; and it’s easily returned into the recycling stream. Sounds good to us! You can buy the products directly from their website, also making your footprint smaller as you do less driving around!

TREATS: Our friends at Healthy Child Healthy World have turned us on to UNREAL, a new type of candy that is “UNJUNKED.” I know the “candy” caught your attention. Candy and back to school?? Yes, we all try to teach our children that healthy snacks are important. And while I am all for promoting organic whole fruit, veggies and nuts as snacks, sometimes I just want my CHOCOLATE (and I know my kids occasionally feel the same way TOO!) So, as you start planning those after school treats, consider stocking up on some Unreal candy.

Unreal was started at the behest of a kid, Nicky, who wanted to find treats that were free of things he couldn’t pronounce and contained ingredients that he knew, recognized and were made out of “good” things, not junk. Unreal uses real cane sugar, real milk from grass eating cows, no artificial flavors, no corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, fats or artificial preservatives and twice the cacao as other leading brands. The ingredients used are non-GMO and are sourced responsibly. Unreal tells us they are ready to compete, head to head, dollar to dollar, taste test to taste test with leading brands of candy.

My kids and official taster friends loved the cool design on the packaging (which Unreal is working on making in a more sustainable way) and thought the candy tasted amazing. But was it actually better then the regular chocolate bars and candy coated chocolates and peanuts they sometimes eat? The verdict – certainly as good and maybe even better, so as a replacement it was a home run! Unreal seems to have all the right “ingredients” down to the people that are working at the company, and the right game plan to encourage other companies to unjunk their food too!

BOOKS: A shout out to author and our new friend, Chuck McCutcheon. A while back we wrote a post about our chat with Chuck and his book: “What are Global Warming and Climate Change? Answers for Young Readers.” As one friend recently told me: “Talking to my kids about sex was easier then trying to explain climate change!” So as with the sex talk, having a great book that serves as a reference for your discussion is key. Chuck’s book helps you answer many of those tough questions. In honor of the second anniversary of the publication of his book, Chuck is offering a giveaway: Simply buy one copy on Amazon.com, notify him via his website and he will send a second copy to you or to anyone you want for free!

This post is in solidarity and in support of the Green Mom’s Annual Back School Carnival! Check out Mindful Momma for a full listing of supporting blog posts and a wealth of information on how to make your kids transition to school “greener” and a little more “sustainable!”

Yours,

Climate Mama

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Posted in Climate Mama News, Food, Lifestyle & Fun, Product Reviews, Recycling, Schools and Colleges | No Comments »

Green Kid Crafts: Help it Grow, and Grow and Grow!

Friday, August 10th, 2012


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Many of you met our Climate Mama Penny Bauder, Founder of Green Kid Crafts a few months ago. Penny is amazing; an example of a mom

Photo used with permission: GKC Founder

being there for her kids, running a business and raising attention to climate change, all at the same time. (Makes us tired just watching!) Help us support Penny and the wonderful company she has founded, Green Kid Crafts, which as been selected by Green America as one of the finalists in the Green America People and Planet Awards. Join us and vote for Green Kid Crafts today. If you let Penny know you could even win a Green Kid Craft box.

I took a Green Craft Kid box with me on vacation this summer. I joined my brother and his family and we spent several weeks in the wilds of western Canada. We had kids of varying ages to entertain. Not a problem on sunny days, when we stay outside, playing in the sand and water

Photo used with Permission

all day, but on stormy days, living in tight quarters with 12 people, we were constantly looking for games, new crafts and new recipes to try! Internet access is spotty and we try to stay away, as best we can, from electronic toys.

I was curious how the Green Kid Crafts would go over with our kids, who ranged in age from 8-12. While the 12 year old won’t admit it, one of the crafts (the scrapbook) kept her and several of her cousins entertained for almost an hour and my 8 year old nephew loved the pirate project. From the packaging down to each of the inputs that goes into each craft, Penny has thought how best to remain mindful of our planet, and help our children play, learn and explore at the same time. Our kids decided the crafts we had would be “best enjoyed” by kids 6-10, but we found the older ones seemed to enjoy helping the younger ones just as much as the younger ones loved creating the projects with their older cousins! Check out the site.

As we acknowledge the realities of our changing climate and look to adapt to these changes, letting our children learn and play, but in a conscious way that shows them they can have fun and be mindful at the same time is extremely important. Helping our kids learn to utilize, create and enjoy items they find around them, make use of recycled materials, and build and imagine things that last and that they can use and come back to again and again, is critical for our future.

Yours,

Climate Mama

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Posted in Climate Mamas & Papas, Games & Toys, Lifestyle & Fun, Recycling | No Comments »

Turning Garbage Into Energy: Guest Post by Ashley Halligan

Monday, July 30th, 2012



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As we try to figure out how to meet our increasing energy demands in a

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

more sustainable way and as controversy grows about opening up drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic and off-shore, an interesting local option is a byproduct produced by our landfill garbage – methane gas! Methane is a “greenhouse gas” that is 23 times more potent then carbon dioxide as a “heat trapping gas,” so discovering ways to capture what is being released from our landfills, and “reusing it” to keep our “lights on” is not only innovative, but it is crucial to helping curb climate change!

Grab the kids in your life (this is for the ones that are in middle school or above) and learn more about this interesting relationship between our garbage and the power it can create, in the following guest post by Ashley Halligan!

Resource Recovery Facilities: An Economic And Efficient Energy Supply

Landfill gas (LFG) projects are growing in momentum as landfill facilities, environmentally conscious organizations, county departments, and even universities bond to reduce municipal solid waste (MSW)–which amounted to 250 million tons in 2010. Landfill gas can be collected via wells scattered throughout a landfill, tapping methane produced from the decomposition process.

Having had the opportunity to interview experts from two sustainable resource recovery projects, David Specca, Assistant Director for Bioenergy and Controlled Environment Agriculture at the Rutgers University EcoComplex, and Barry Edwards, Director of Engineering and Utilities at Catawba County, I learned about the symbiotic relationships these partnership types can form.

Catawba County, North Carolina’s EcoComplex is an 800-acre site serving as an example of a multipurpose facility stemming from their waste reduction efforts. Wells tapping methane throughout their site produce enough energy to supply 1,500 residences; meanwhile, heat energy is piped to Appalachian State University to be converted into biodiesel.

The site also has a unique partnership–an on-site lumberyard whose

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

scraps are converted into pallets by a pallet company which also happens to be a part of the Complex.

Edwards explains, “Our industrial park is employing industrial ecology symbiosis by combining waste management, energy production, and university research. The EcoPlex incorporates shared, mutually beneficial relationships between industry byproducts and required manufacturing resources.”

Another example of organizations working together finding opportunity of landfills, is the Rutgers University EcoComplex. Having a 100-acre site, methane wells capture enough energy in the landfill to produce energy for multiple facilities–including a greenhouse producing more than ten thousand plants each month.

Specca elaborates, “Because LFG generally converts 25-30 percent of energy in the gas to electricity, we’re promoting technologies that can utilize heat for other purposes such as heating a greenhouse or warehouse–this can essentially transform a resource recovery center into a renewable energy center for a cluster of industries that can take advantage of the heat and electricity.”

The experts agree that these types of symbiotic relationships will continue form as more facilities realize the mutual benefits. Edwards says, “Applied industrial ecology to waste management will become the predominant waste management method–so you’ll see many similar projects in the immediate future. In fact, we average two tours per week at our complex–that’s the current level of interest shown by others.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is also encouraging landfill operators to undertake such projects, launching a Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP)–hoping facilities can distribute energy to communities, utilities, or other facilities.

Do you have experience working on this kind of project? Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences below.

Ashley Halligan is a market analyst at Austin-based Software Advice, a consumer resource. Connect with her via LinkedIn or follow her travels on Facebook.

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Posted in In The News, Recycling, Renewable Energy | No Comments »

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Welcome to Climate Mama

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You are a mother, a father, a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt, a teacher or a child at heart. When you hear the Native American saying, “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”, it makes you stop for a moment and think. You love nature, travel, adventure and believing in a world that is special and unique. Climate change and global warming are words that alarm you, that often seem too big to get your arms around. You care about what’s happening to the world and notice small changes in your own life that seem to point in the direction of a threatened environment. But you wonder if these changes are real, and if they are you can’t imagine what you can do to help change what is happening.

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Climate Change so often seems too big to get our hands around. We wonder where we can start and how we can actually make a difference. Each one of us has a different path that we will follow. Some of us cut a wider swath than others, but each of us has a role to play. We would like to introduce you to some amazing individuals, Climate Mamas and Papas who are making a difference, who are, through their daily lives, affecting the lives of all of us. They inspire us, empower us, and challenge us to reach for the stars, to strive to do the best we can to help change the crash course we are currently on with our environment. Lets meet some of these amazing people and find out what inspires them. Meet our featured Climate Mama, Desiree Di Mauro today!

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The Climate Reality Project is one of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to mobilizing action around climate change. With a global movement that is more than 2 million strong and a grassroots network of trained Climate Leaders, Climate Reality is "spreading the truth and unleashing the cultural momentum to solve the climate crisis."

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