Archive for the ‘sustainability’ Category

Sustainable craft brewing and organic beer

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Photo credit: cizauskas

I grew up in the Northeast, where there were a lot of microbreweries, so I got past drinking Bud and Coors pretty early on. Since I’ve been with my girlfriend who used to work at one of the best beer pubs in San Diego, I’ve been introduced to even better beer. I’ve since learned two things about San Diego that I didn’t know before. 1) It is home to one of the biggest craft beer markets in the country and 2) it is well known for producing some of the hoppiest beers in the country. My college days were spent in breweries back east, and now almost ten years later I have gotten my second schooling on beer; not in breweries but in brew pubs, and have been introduced to some of the tastiest beers that not only […]

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Obamas to Plant White House Vegetable Garden

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Thanks to Grace for alerting me to the fact that the Obamas are planting a vegetable garden at the White House!

I think this is great, it promotes self sustainability, local and healthy eating. Congrats to the Obama’s for doing this and setting a good example for the rest of us.

Quick Green Office Tip — eliminate cubicle and desk trash

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

At home and when I’m out I always try to avoid wasting plastic bags, and actually I try to not even use them when possible. But when I do get them, I always re-use or return them to the store for recycling. I can not ever bring myself to throw an empty plastic bag into another plastic bag, which is usually lining the trash!

In my office, each desk has a trash can, and each trash can is lined with a plastic bag. Well, recently I realized that if I put anything into the trash at my desk, even just a tiny little piece of trash, that it gets replaced at night by the cleaning crew. It just seems so wasteful to replace that bag every night, especially when I work so hard to avoid ever throwing out plastic bags.

So here is my tip for all you […]

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Organic Valentine’s Day Flowers

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Today I had the pleasant surprise of stumbling upon a flower delivery company that specializes in organic and sustainable flower bouquets. I will admit that I am not a huge fan of commercialized holidays such as Valentine’s Day, however when it comes down to it I still do these silly things that you’re supposed to do when you are in a loving relationship. So needless to say, as I was browsing Google to see what my options were for the big day, I saw this site, Organic Bouquets, which stuck out when surrounded by the others; FTD, 1800flowers, and ProFlowers.

Knowing quite a bit about the organic market, I assumed that these flowers would be pricier than the other sites, however I was proven wrong. The selection was just as good, and when it came to prices and shipping they were very competitive.

Also, it appears as they are […]

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Charitable Gift Giving

Monday, November 10th, 2008

It’s getting to be that time of the year again where the holidays are rapidly approaching and the though of gift giving is looming. Typically my family goes small on the gifts, just a little something for each person, but nothing extravagant. We are a simple family, and we don’t really need anything. So, I have decided that this year I am going to attempt to do some charitable gift giving, and rather than give a material gift, I am going to donate in the recipient’s name instead. But I want to match the donation to something meaningful. So my girlfriend who loves animals may get a donation to the Humane Society in her name, my mom may get a letter stating that she helped provide two families with seeds to cultivate a family garden or that she gave a family an Earth Basket with bees, honey, and seedlings. Has anyone done this before? Do you have any charity suggestions?

Biodegradable and Eco Friendly Trash Bags

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Eco friendly trash bags? A contradiction?

I had written an article on another site that continues to have quite a bit of interest, so I am putting an updated version of the article about eco friendly and biodegradable trash bags here.

Typically for my trash I actually use extra bags that find their way into my home, however I have had great luck using these eco friendly biodegradable compostable three gallon trash bags. They are called BioBags and I use them for collecting kitchen scraps and then composting, so I can vouch for the fact that these bags actually do biodegrade very quickly.

According to the product description they are “manufactured from GMO-free corn” and “are 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable. The 3 Gallon Kitchen bags work well in a small trash container or composter, but are also great for food storage. Since Biobags […]

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Easy Organic Garden

Friday, September 26th, 2008
See my recommended gardening guides!“No Dig Garden”Raised Bed Gardening!~~Bootstrap Market Gardening

I had been inspired to initially write the post by a trip back to Connecticut to visit my mother last year. She has a nice size yard, just a little over 3 acres, and over the years has had some very nice gardens. Even back before it was popular, she was growing organic gardens, without the use of any fertilizers, pesticides, or chemicals, if anything at all she just amended the soil using compost. Oh and not to mention the chickens that would peck through the dirt all day, fertilizing as they went along. While she does still grow some vegetables each year, many of the areas of garden have just sort of taken on a life of their own.

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Apartment Composting – How to Compost when you live in an apartment

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

There are many sites out there that explain composting in detail, how to do it properly, how it actually works, all that good stuff. There are also plenty that talk about apartment composting, all the equipment you need, and I’m sure that is all well and good. I’ve even listed a few below in the related links. But I decided to write this article to explain how I do it, what I have learned, and the equipment that I use. I am by no means a pro at this, and I’m not even claiming that I know what I’m doing, however I feel like I have been mostly successful with my apartment style composting, and want to share. However if you are reading this article it is likely that you don’t.

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