This is your invitation to activism.
We don't follow hype of going or being "green". Instead, we've looked into the future and see the world being transformed by millions of everyday activists who are rooted in love.
Here, we bring this future of activism into the present, to press us toward creating daily lifestyles of practical, tangible, relational and compassionate action. Because real change is found in the simple, everyday action of people just like you.
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This message is in partnership with Levi’s®
When water is easily accessible, it’s hard to remember just how crucial it is for human life. But for nearly one billion people today, finding safe water is a daily struggle. An estimated one in eight people don’t have access to clean water and nearly 2.5 billion people don’t have access to improved sanitation.
Lacking access to clean water isn’t just inconvenient, it has a devastating impact on communities throughout the developing world. Each year, 3.5 million people die from water-related diseases. Nearly 84 percent of them are children.
Today, groups like Water.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to water and sanitation accessibility, have simple, cost-effective tools to bring safe water and sanitation to people who desperately need them. Levi’s and Water.org are teaming up and, with your help, hope to bring a lifetime of clean water to 8,000 people.
Help them reach this goal by clicking here and pledging your support for water accessibility for all. Spread the word and tell your friends—reaching 100,000 Facebook pledges will bring safe water to 8,000 people, changing their lives for good.
Save 10 Gallons of Water with a Brick in the Toilet
The old folk wisdom that says place a brick in your toilet’s water tank is partially correct: It’s an effortless way to save water, but a brick isn’t the best choice of object. Use a plastic bottle filled with water instead.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to turn hippie and “let it mellow if it’s yellow” in order to save clean water — which is an increasingly scarce resource. Most toilets will flush perfectly well with a little less H2O. The average model uses three to seven gallons per flush. A bottle in the tank will displace enough water to save half a gallon to a gallon each use, or up to about 10 gallons a day in a typical home.
All you have to do is drop a little sand or some pebbles into a bottle, fill it with water, and put it in the tank, making sure not to disturb the toilet’s working parts. Many toilets flush well with a submerged 2-liter soda bottle, but experiment to find out what size bottles fit best and produce the best flush.
What’s wrong with a brick? They have been known to disintegrate in toilet water over time, leading to damaged plumbing. If you are a mason or otherwise determined to use a brick, wrap it in a sturdy plastic bag first.
You can also look for kits at local home improvement stores to convert American-style flushers to European-style dual-flushers, offering a half-flush option for liquids ($20 at homedepot.com). When it comes time for a new toilet, look for one with a WaterSense label. And, of course, be sure to fix leaks, which can cost $20 or more in wasted water.
A Food Label That Actually Teaches You About Food
The design concept above, by San Francisco-based Renee Walker, recently won Rethink the Food Label, a competition that asked designers to make the health info on packaged goods easier to understand. Mounted by the UC Berkeley j-school’s News21 program and Good magazine — with powerhouse jurors, including “liberal foodie intellectual” Michael Pollan and anti-sugar crusader Robert Lustig — the contest isn’t part of any official push to revamp packaging but could serve up a heaping of inspiration to the FDA, which is in the process of revising the national nutrition label.
Read the whole article on Fast Company Daily.
Don’t throw them out just yet!
If you’re like me, you like to have a cup a joe every once and awhile, or everyday. So what do you do with those coffee grounds after you get your caffeine fix? Throw them in the trash? Compost? Either way, there are some pretty neat things you can do to reuse coffee grounds. Here are just a few…
1. Fertilize plants. Old coffee grounds are nutrient-rich for plants that thrive in an acidic soil.
2. Soften and add shine to hair. When washing your hair, rub coffee grounds through wet hair and rinse. For brown hair, coffee grounds add highlights.
3. Use coffee grounds as an exfoliant for skin. Rub into skin and then rinse. (I love when my face smells like coffee)
4. Deodorize a freezer. Place a bowl with used coffee grounds in the freezer to remove unwanted odors.
5. Put some dried coffee grounds in your favorite pair of stinky shoes and watch the odor drift away. (ok, maybe you won’t be able to see it)
6. Use your morning brew to fight cellulite. Mix the grounds with vitamin E oil and massage onto the area where cellulite exists. Repeat 2 or 3 times and rinse in the shower.
7. Rub coffee grounds on your pet before bathing to repel any fleas. (Love this one)
8. Remove furniture scratches with wet coffee grounds.
9. Use coffee grounds to repel ants. Cinnamon is also good for this.
10. Keep cats from leaving a little surprise in your garden by spreading used coffee grounds and orange peels throughout your beds or vegetable garden.
Drink up!
charity: water
September is coming and you can throw a Charity Water Party and raise money to build a well!
There are a billion people living without clean water. charity: water uses 100% of the money raised to build water projects. So far they’ve helped over a million people get clean water. Watch the Trailer.
Here are the big three:
1) Buying local foods cuts the distance that the food takes to get to your plate. This means that it omits a lot of the harmful emissions that are associated with transporting goods (via truck, plane, boat, etc.) Additionally, it reduces the invisible waste materials that are used to package and ship.
2) It supports your local economy by giving business to small farmers. Faced by aggressive competition from large food distributors, small local farms often don’t do as well. Supporting their products promotes the national economy as well as their business. Plus it adds a personal touch to your plate!
3) Local food is better in both quality and taste. Getting food from a local distributor gives you better odds of receiving fresh seasonal products, rather than anything genetically modified or injured in transport. Plus, local food is less likely to contain harmful preservatives or have been frozen.
Making a loan on Kiva is so simple that you may not realize how much work goes on behind the scenes.
Kiva works with microfinance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. One hundred percent of your loan is sent to these microfinance institutions, which we call Field Partners, who administer the loans in the field.
Kiva relies on a world wide network of over 450 volunteers who work with our Field Partners, edit and translate borrower stories, and ensure the smooth operation of countless other Kiva programs.
Learn more about how it works.
For a less environmentally destructive way than air-conditioning to stay comfortable in the heat, choose a portable or ceiling fan. Fans use 90% less energy than central air, and make rooms feel seven to ten degrees cooler because of the process of evaporation.
Sure, central air feels great, and, yes, it can help save the lives of the elderly or frail, who are sensitive to high heat. But it is also extremely energy intensive, and still typically relies on ozone-damaging fluorocarbons. Central air-conditioning is also prohibitively expensive for many who live in old structures or who are on tight budgets.
The best choice is an Energy Star-rated fan. Those ceiling fan/light combination units that receive the federal designation are about 50 percent more efficient than conventional models and will save you $15 to $20 per year on your utility bills. See a list of thirty companies that offer them here.
Most modern ceiling fans can also be run in reverse when it’s cold, pushing warm air down from high spaces. Learn more here.
Don’t forget to turn your fans off when you aren’t using them.
