In Our Homes
Recipes   |    Assess & Balance    |   Kitchen & Bath    |    Paper or Plastic?   |    Energy & Electronics    |     Home & Personal Goods   |    Structure & Yard

Assess & Balance

• What's your ecological footprint?  Measure yours through this quick quiz.
• Learn Your Carbon Footprint.
• Buy carbon offsets  (According to Carbonfund.org, carbon offsets [a.k.a. renewable energy certificates or green tags] "enable anyone to reduce their climate footprint by supporting projects, typically energy efficiency, renewable energy, sequestration, biomass, etc. that reduce carbon dioxide emissions to offset one’s own climate footprint.")
  • Carbunfund.org (founded by UUs) Their motto is "Reduce What You Can, Offset What You Can’t.^TM"
  • Net Green
  • Native Energy
  • Renewable Choice Energy
  • American Forests
  • US Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnerships: Learn about green power, and use the EPA's Green Power Locator to find green power to support in specific areas of the country.

Kitchen & Bath

• Support fair trade coffee, tea, and chocolate by purchasing Equal Exchange products from the church.
• Instead of using plastic utensils, carry portable bamboo flatware (an easily grown and sustainable plant) from To-GoWare.com
• Organic flowers, fruit, herbs, and chocolate from CaliforniaOrganicFlowers
• Earth-friendly household cleaning products:  read this article from the WorldWatch Institute, and check out Seventh Generation (the leading brand of non-toxic household products).

Paper or Plastic?

B.Y.O. Bag!  Bring reusable bags and say "Neither!" to "Paper or plastic?"   The US uses 100 billion plastic bags annually (that's 4.4 million tons), consuming about 12 million barrels of oil.  Less than 5.2% of those bags are actually recycled. The rest end up in landfills, as pollution and trash in our communities, and in lakes and oceans killing up to 1 million seabirds, 100,000 whales, seals, and turtles, and countless fish worldwide every year.  If you want to learn more about the problems with plastic bags, visit Reusablebags.com. 

The solution?  Use reusable bags. We buy them in bulk at BHUU, and we're trying to spread the word locally.  To buy reusable bags from us, click here.

• Grocery Bags:  Use Ecosilk grocery bags (100% nylon parachute silk) for your groceries, and the small drawstring bag will hold up to 6 grocery bags in a tiny, convenient bag you can leave in your car or carry with you.
• Produce Bags:  Ecobags' produce bags (lightweight, natural cotton) come in small and large sizes.

Many local grocery stores offer 5-cent refunds for each reusable bag you use. If your local store isn't among them, ask them why not!  They have to buy their plastic bags, so reusable bags save them money, and they should do their part.

Energy & Electronics

• Use only Energy Star appliances (a government-backed program for energy efficiency)
• Choosing earth-friendly TVs and computers from The Green Guide: The Green Living Source for Today's Conscious Consumer
• EnergyStar's information on compact fluorescent lightbulbs: a wide variety of bulbs of all types, including the hard-to-find dimmable bulbs (plus, get a free bulb with $35 purchase); Energy Federated Incorporated also sells a wide variety of CFL bulbs
• Use a programmable thermostat to be as make your heating and cooling system as energy efficient as possible (They're easily under $50 and easy to install.)  Also, change your heating and cooling air filter frequently, and wrap your electric water heater in a water-heater blanket.
• Use solar outdoor lights, if you use them at all
• Focus on Energy:  lots of tips and programs for increasing our energy efficiency and use of renewable energy
• Recycle old cell phones, batteries, PDAs, and pagers at Staples, who'll donate a portion of the proceeds to the Sierra Club
• If you bring your household batteries to the church, we'll periodically take them to a recycler
• Learn about and use alternative energy systems

Home & Personal Goods

• Reduce your junkmail by subscribing to GreenDimes or 41Pounds.org
• Shop for home goods at EcoChoices, EcoMall, Abundant Earth,
• Sustainable furniture from Vivavi
• Organic apparel (socks, tights, shirts, baby clothes, camisoles) made from a fair trade cooperative in Nicaragua from Maggie's Functional Organics
• PeaceToys (Hug-A-Planet, Adopt-a-Foundling)
• Beautiful Suvyapar pillows and other goodies (recycled and hemp bags, teapot sets) available through the Global Exchange Fair Trade store, an organization committed to fair trade, fair wages and good employment opportunities for disadvantaged artisans

Structure & Yard

• Harvest rainwater (affordably) at least for lawn and garden watering, but you can also use it for bathing, cooking, and drinking
• Learn about and use green building materials

In Our Communities
Do               |              Learn

Do

• Find a Community Supported Agriculture farm near you via the Sierra Club's CSA search engine (The Good Luck Farm isn't listed there, but Nancy Chick and Peter Davidson have been satisfied customers since spring 2006, and their house is the Rice Lake pickup location.  Contact John and Sue at thegoodluckfarm@yahoo.com.)
• Freecycle ("Changing the World One Gift at a Time"):  join the local grassroots network of individuals who promote waste reduction by giving (and getting) stuff for free in their local areas
• Act on the Ten Tree Challenge
• For office supplies, shop Green Earth Office Supplies

Learn

• The Unitarian Universalist Association's Ministry for Earth
• The Sierra Club's Zoomer:  Find useful tips and news about the environment in your neighborhood by entering your zip code
• Do you shop Wal-Mart?  Here's an interesting article from Seventh Generation's Non-Toxic Times Newsletter about Wal-Mart's approach to sustainability.  (It may not be as black-and-white as most people think.)
• Find, review, and share eco-friendly and socially responsible products and services in your community and on the internet via FiveLimes

Beyond Our Backyards
Do               |              Learn

Do

• Vote for the environment:  use the League of Conservation Voters's National Environmental Scorecard to look up the scores for specific members of Congress
• Again, Learn Your Carbon Footprint and buy carbon offsets.
• Make a donation to American Forests: they'll plant trees where they're most needed

Learn

• FuelEconomy.gov: A comprehensive site from the US Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency providing information on energy efficiency and renewable energy 
• Understand more about hybrid automobiles via HybridBlog, a Q and A format of the Union of Concerned Scientists
• The website referenced at the end of An Inconvenient Truth, including many ways you can take action

As We Give Gifts
Holiday Tips        |        Gifts for Children       |       Gifts for Adults

Holiday Tips      

• Compact fluorescent lightbulbs as stocking-stuffers
• Choose energy-efficient LED holiday lights, which use 80% less energy.
• Select alternatives to wasteful paper gift-wrapping: scarves, cloth (here are some by Hanna's Dream), kids' artwork, newspaper, previously used wrapping paper, reusable boxes, tins, jars, or earth-friendly grocery and produce bags. If you buy paper, always choose recycled, and save wrapping for re-use.
• Shop early and avoid overnight shipping.  Ground shipping saves more fuel than air shipping.
• Buy a living tree, and plant it after the holidays.
• Recycle your tree--even if there's no mulching service in your town.  Mother Earth News has some great ideas!

Gift Ideas: Children

• Stop Global Warming bracelets to support the Stop Global Warming fund
• Earth-friendly computers and TVs
• Kenana Knitter Critters has hand-puppets knitted by women in rural areas of Kenya with natural dyes and wool
• Tree Blocks has wooden toys, blocks, tree houses, & dollhouses made from discarded wood derived from paper forests and orchards at the end of their productive cycles with a flax oil finish
• PeaceToys' stuffed animals and earths
• International Children's Digital Library provides freely available online versions of children's books from around the world to help them become members of the global community; uses an easy interface designed for kids 3 to 13
• A Greater Gift has lots of fair trade handcrafts and food from around the world, as do the Global Exchange, Ten Thousand Villages, and World of Goods

Gift Ideas: Adults

• Buy cards made from post-consumer waste material, preferably from a charitable organization, or send holiday email greetings. 
• Equal Exchange fair trade coffee, tea, and chocolate
• Earth-friendly grocery and produce bags (They also double as good gift bags!)
• Organic flowers, fruit, herbs, and chocolate
• Earth-friendly computers and TVs
• Perhaps the most unusual and important gift you can give:  buy carbon offsets
• Make a donation in someone's name to plant trees where they're most needed
• Make a donation to another charitable organization, consuming no resources while making the world a better place
• Gift the gift of an experience, rather than material goods, and save resources:  theater and concert tickets, museum memberships, season tickets to sporting or arts events, memberships to green organizations, such as the following:
  • a CSA (community-supported agriculture farm) membership
  • a membership in 41Pounds.org or GreenDimes to dramatically decrease the junk mail every person receives every year (GreenDimes also plants a tree monthly for each member)
• The DVD and book of An Inconvenient Truth
• Stop Global Warming: The Solution is You! book
• Organic wine from Bonterra Vineyards or The Organic Wine Company
• Shop for recycled gifts from art to clothing at Green With Envy
• If you're thinking of buying gold and/or diamonds, this article will steer you towards socially and environmentally responsible purchases.
• Organic apparel (socks, tights, shirts, baby clothes, camisoles)
• More ideas from the Natural Resources Defense Council's "Great Green Gift-Giving Guide," including tire gauges, bat houses, National Parks passes, bicycle ideas, etc
• More ideas from Treehuggers' Green Gift Guide 2006 (scroll down a bit), including kitchen composters, bambu kitchen utensils, organic olive oil, cast iron cookware, great kids' gifts, etc
• More ideas with tons of links to green businesses from EcoMall
• Jewelry, bags, and other gifts made from recycled, reused, and natural materials from Eco-Artware.com
• Eco- and animal-friendly bags from HER Designs
• A Greater Gift has lots of fair trade handcrafts and food from around the world, as do the Global Exchange, Ten Thousand Villages, and World of Goods