Saving Some Green

Hooray! I have finally moved closer to work!

I now live in the way-hip city of Royal Oak and have therefore increased my awesomeness factor by about a bazillion. True that.

Here's the deal:

In one fell swoop, I managed to cut my drive from from 17 miles (each way) to 6. That, by the way, means I now get to sleep in until the time I used to leave for work.

Uber cool.

After doing some quick calculations, I should save roughly two tanks per month in gas - that's about $100 dollars and 26 gallons of crude.

Sometimes it's the small changes, and sometimes it's the big - but if we all make sure that being "green" is our focus, it'll make an enormous difference.

I'll post some pics of my new digs soon - check back!

(For kicks and giggles, find out how much money and gas you could save if you lived closer to work... it may surprise you.)

Cheerio!

A Mac & Cheese Memoir

It was a typical Wednesday afternoon. I was cooking my [sophisticated] lunch in the microwave: A bowl of Easy Mac.

The microwave bing-ed. I grabbed my bowl and started to head to my desk when a co-worker stopped me in my tracks. She looked up at me, looked down at my bowl, and gave me this threatening look, like 'you should be ashamed of yourself'. What on earth was I doing that was so wrong? (Besides the fact that I am 20-something years old and still eating mac n' cheese.) She proceeded to tell me that it was a bit odd, or "hypocritical" if you will, that I was using styrofoam bowls and coffee cups at work when I am officially this green girl. I felt like someone had just sucker punched me in the gut, or worse, that I had accidentally shown up to work pants-less. Utterly ashamed. Then I got over it. But I did decide to start bringing in my own bowl, silverware, and coffee travel mug.

But if I am gonna have to use the same stuff daily, then it's gotta be cute. Mission: Find dainty coffee mug.

Pimp My Prius

So, as I was running after work the other day, I got stopped at a light. Typical... As I was bouncing around to keep my calf muscles moving, I noticed a green and white Prius rounding the corner. Again, typical. (I work in a town of fairly affluent people - lots of people drive swanky eco-friendly cars.) And then it hit me like a six foot wave on the lake - this Prius was a cab!

Nifty, I thought to myself.

The website on the car said http://www.migreencabs.com/, so I decided to check it out. This was pretty cool: "For every 150 old Crown Victoria’s we send to the recycle bin we can save 1,200,000 gallons of fuel per year. Traveling the same distance as the old Crown Victoria’s we are also reducing pollution and green house gasses by over 70 percent with our Hybrid technologies."

Way to go GreenCabs.

I'm on a mission now, btw, to find more of these GreenCabs... my current spot rate is 3.

So, in the immortal words of Big and Rich, "Save some gas, ride a GreenCab"...

I sooooo want one...

Ok, so I truly see no legitimate purpose for this "eco-friendly" product from our Japanese friends, but I really want one.

Wait! I know!

If I need to see something in the dark, after getting out of bed, and don't turn on the lights, but use my solar powered bustier to see... it could work.

Also, apparently the device can power small electric objects, so theoretically I could listen to my iPod while I sleep and not worry about the battery draining?

What other crazy "green" products do you guys know about? Let us know!

Catchier Story - Phelps or Pollution?

Each morning, after I get to the office and begin preparing for the day, I log onto Google to check the latest Olympic's stats. (I watch them when possible, but events after about 11 p.m. are definitely cutting into my bedtime.)

Usually, the first thing to pop up is yet another Phelps gold medal. Good for him - the man's a genetically superior machine. (I personally would rather root for the underdog - Ryan Lochte. He's good-looking and doesn't seem to be quite so cocky. I was definitely cheering when he won the backstroke event over Piersol. But, I digress...) *Random factoid - Phelps is neighbors with Gawky. Rumor has it he's moving to Baltimore soon though, so don't go stalking him in the Ann Arbor area.*

What isn't popping up, at least not as much as I think it should, is the fact that China's smog levels are flat out ridiculous and unsafe. It gets mentioned, but that's about it. "Today's PM10 levels were close to 400. That's 8x higher than the U.S.' safety standards. Children have been forbidden to play outside until levels improve. In other more important news, Michael Phelps proved that once again he is an unbeatable super-human. Let's go live to the Water Cube."
Make no mistake, China has improved its air quality substantially since learning it would host these games - but that doesn't mean that things are all fine and dandy yet. Just look at what China considers to be a "Blue Sky Day":

Yep, looks blue alright to me...

Is it any wonder that several of the cyclists on the U.S. team arrived wearing masks? It makes sense to me. The were reprimanded however - apparently protecting one's self from smog was considered to be rude.

China's got a long way to go in curbing their pollution levels, but they're certainly not the only place. (Oh yes, I'm including my good old U.S. of A. too.) My hope is that with the increased media attention the awareness of this huge smog problem will be raised.

I'm certainly not an expert on air pollution levels and such, so I'd love to hear from you guys. What are your thoughts on the olympics and China's smog problem?

I’ve Got Soul, but I’m Not a Soldier.

Check out my boyfriend's new camera strap. As awesome as it is, it's even awesomer after you find out what it's made of. No no, not gramps' old flannel shirt. It's actually made from an old seatbelt. Okay, so you've probably never seen a seatbelt with that much flare, but if you'll notice in the top right corner of the photo (on the underside of the plaid) you'll see the seatbelt part. The thing was handmade by a company called Souldier. After experimenting with all sorts of mediums and materials, the Chi-town chick who started the company and who still handmakes them to this day, came up with this superb idea as an "ambitious" gift to her guitarist friends. Flash forward 2 years and there I was purchasing the camera strap from one of their stores. If camera straps aren't your thing, don't fret, they make guitar straps, belts, dog collars and plenty more.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

So, due to an unfortunate circumstance for a friend (and by default a fortunate circumstance for me), an extra ticket to the Tigers game bacame available last night. Therefore, down to Comerica Park I went! (Just an FYI, I love baseball - seriously. My first heart-break was over Mickey Tettleton, a Tiger's player, when I was a kid. He got traded to Texas. I cried. For days. Ok, maybe not days...)

Anywho, there's little need to describe the game - we lost. But what does bear describing is the way the stadium looked post-game: Trash EVERYWHERE.

For some reason this irritated me more than just the vast lack of recycling bins available (for those who buy pop bottles/or adult beverages in glass). Comerica is a beautiful stadium. Keep it that way. It takes you 30 seconds to grab those three $6.50 beer cups you chugged and throw them in the trash as you exit. Really now.

So, what did I do? Amuse my friends by taking not only our trash, but the trash from the people behind us, a few rows up, etc. Basically, until my hands were full, I collected cups, cardboard pizza boxes, etc and disposed of them.

My friend Jeff, who happens to be abnormally logical, politely mentioned that there were people at the stadium who got paid to do what I was doing. Well, that may be true, but they shouldn't have to. Besides, it gave me the chance to mention my recycling and trash clean-up views to any random person who asked (which they did).

Access: Green Cruise

Four years running, the Sierra Club sponsored Green Cruise, taking place in downtown Ferndale, MI, is a tribute to the mantra "Actions speak louder than words."

Participants, ranging in age from toddler to elder, showed off all sorts of green transportation - foot, Rollerblades, cycle,s Flintstone Mobiles, Coconuts (Think Monty Python!!!), a giant erector set mobile, scooters, and tandems.

The parade followed a route to Geary Park that started at Woodward and Nine Mile. A run and bike race preceded the event and a rally, complete with music, culminated the day's activities.

According to a release by the Sierra Club, Detroit ranks as the fourth most-polluted region by year-round particle pollution.

The Green Cruise is simply a way to celebrate solutions that improve air quality and promote eco-friendly activities.

For more on this year's Green Cruise and what's happening next year, click here.

Check out my adventures at the Green Cruise through the videos and pics.

Rock. Roll. 'N Recycle.

Lollapalooza 2008.

(Description: Me @ Lolla's Green Street. Please note my new reusable bag I purchased at Lolla! A practical souvenir created by Whole Foods...it reads "Rock & Recycle." The 'recycle arrows' are guitars. Loveeee.)

To set the scene...me, the boyfriend, Tom and his lover carpooled from good old Michigan to Chi-town.

While the music was expectedly excellent (Radiohead and Girltalk being my highlights), I was pleasantly surprised by the festival's effort to go green.

How Lolla went green:

• Green Street: The coolest and most bad-ass green thang there was Green Street--a little market area filled with strictly green trinkets. They had Whole Foods giving out free Cliff Bars, ice cream and organic tortilla chips. Plus there were the myriad of fun places selling fair trade fashion like Autonomieproject, Greenheartshop and Mata Traders. But my favorite one there was Revive because I fell in love with some of their bags (like the clutch made of pop tabs, the tote made from recycled water bags by women in Ghana and the wristlet made in Mexico from candy wrapper). The green continues:

• Good Eats: All the food vendors were supposedly organic and local. But one place totally worthy of mentioning was The Bleeding Heart Bakery, which sold Honeydew Limeade, iced coffee, cookies and cupcakes....yummmm. The guy running the station told me it was the only completely organic bakery in the U.S.
• Schwaaaag: If you collected loads of water bottles and plastic beer cups lying around, like 5 or 10 pounds worth, you could trade it in at a station to get free stuff like t-shirts and reusable bags. And there was also the super green staff who were walking around doing the dirty work--collecting recyclables from us slobs while rockin' organic tees.
• The BeGreen Fan Tag: These stickers were sold prior to the concert and onsite: a $5 donation bought renewable energy credits from sources like wind power to help "neutralize" or offset some of the very large carbon footprints attending the concert. They said the $5 investment was equivalent to something like not driving 757 miles or not flying 1,700 miles.
• Styrofoam BANNED: All food and drink was served via paper or compostable plates.
• Use of biodiesel for energy: All generators and light towers ran on it.
• Paper-less: TP, food napkins, marketing crap etc. all made from recycled paper.

And so on...however, the greenness of the festival definitely had its critics, like this dude (click link to read his negativity on the matter). Perhaps to somebody who has been to multiple green events or someone who is married to the environment, the festival's attempt to go green didn't seem like much--sure, maybe it felt like an "afterthought" rather than a primary goal. But from an average person's perspective (say from somebody like myself), the green felt there--more so then I would have expected.

You think festivals, you think trash--pounds and pounds (times thousands of pounds) of trash. You think Lollapalooza, and you still think of a trashed park. But at least some of it was biodegradable, recyclable and organic. Right?

Unintentionally Green (Part Deux)

So, after spending a week with 45 CRAZY high schoolers, I decided that an actual week of vacation was in order - to my family's cabin on Torch Lake I drove! Hooray!

One week each year, my mom's sister's family joins my family at the lake for a highly-anticipated time of fun. Smores, swimming, kayaking and late-night giggle fests galore are all part of a well-balanced vacation diet.

So, what's the caviat?

How to do vacation the green way.

Hmm... well, for me, that's not really an issue. I sub-consiously think about what I can do to be more eco-friendly. But my family members... they thought I'd gone a little nutty.

I mean really now, all I did was go behind them and turn off lights, unplug unused electrical equipment, turn off the TV if they were napping, and pick up pop cans carelessly thrown in the trash bin and not the designated trash bag. (I almost forgive the last one, my relatives are from Ohio and they don't get a refund on cans - it's not natural for them to save the aluminum.) ... Does that really make me a wacko?

I think not.

This year, my aunt's family did not bring up their jet ski due to the high price of gas - and you know what? Nobody (but my 16 year old brother) complained. We all did what we used to do - we swam, kayaked, built sandcastles, trial hiked, sun bathed and enjoyed nature. We did everything we could think of that didn't involve the need for gasoline. Pretty cool. Come to think of it, we had an even more fun time than last year... Go figure.

On my drive back home, I made it a point to keep my speed fairly moderate. Usually, I drive 65 on the freeway - I like not feeling rushed, and I like watching my gas mileage improve even more. However, since I had my awesome new sit-on-top kayak strapped to the top, I dropped my speed to between 55 and 60. By going even slower, I kept my wind resistence minimal and managed to keep my gas mileage at the same height that it would have been minus the kayak at 65. Yay for me.

Overall, the past two weeks on vacation were phenomenal. It was great to not have to think about work for a while, and simply enjoy life.

How about you? What are some of your vacation memories from this summer? How did you keep things green?

Unintentionally Green (Part 1)

(Please put in Eminem's CD and sing along...)

Guess who's back? Back again. Gingy's back, tell a friend! Guess who's back, guess who's back, etc...

(You know you can't not sing that song.)

As Gawky's mentioned in previous posts, I have indeed been off on a two week whirlwind adventure. I spent one week counseling at Camp Lake Louise and one week at my family's cabin.

Unfortunately, Internet access at both places is relatively limited. So, Gawky was kind enough to pick up my blogging slack! Thanks, girl!

Since so much happened over my vacation, I want to break things up by week.

So, here goes the adventures of Gingerly Week 1!

Let's set the stage:

Camp Lake Louise is a rustic youth camp set in beautiful Boyne Falls, MI.

Each summer, hundreds of kids aged pre-elementary to high school grad spend a fun-filled week interacting with others, learning new skills, and experiencing God. (Yes, I know, I'm green, republican and Christian - all at once! It's groundbreaking! Anywho, I digress...)

Now, when I say rustic, I do mean rustic. (We'll mostly rustic - there is running water, bathrooms, showers, etc.)

Cabins are bare, with merely bunk beds and a table. A curtained off section of the cabin creates a nice changing area and a place for counselors (such as yours truly) to sleep. There are two electrical outlets for the entire cabin - these are generally ignored. Except, of course, on "homecoming night" - Picture a cabin full of senior high girls and one hour: it's amazing what can be done with two curling irons, bobby pins, and handheld mirrors.

Virtually all camp activities are eco-friendly. Swimming, paddle boating, kayaking/canoing, blobbing (A giant balloon in the water - one person jumps off a diving board onto the balloon, bouncing the person sitting on the edge of the balloon into the water below. Fabulous!), archery, hiking, Frisbee, rock wall climbing, etc.

Electric devices, such as lap tops, MP3 players, cell phones, etc are pretty much discouraged. Imagine, 45 campers minus their precious stuff for a week! Not a huge dent in the electric outlet, but still a nice chunk.

Need to dry wet towels or clothes? No electrical dryer for you, my friend. Hang it on the line!

And talk about recycling! I'm so proud of the campers - anytime they had a plastic bottle or aluminum can, they put it right in the recycling bins! After camp fires, if a recyclable object was left behind, it was immediately picked up and discarded appropriately.

You see, being green on vacation is easy.

High school students can do it - that basically means there's no excuse for any of us!

What vacations have you been on that turned out to be unexpectedly green? I'd love to hear about them!

(I'll post my week two adventure in a couple days - check back soon!)