Greener by Choice with The Green Up Girl®

Joining us is Denise Hamler from  Green America. An organization who's vision is to work for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the bounty of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come. www.GreenAmerica.org

Today’s conversation is with Christina O’Brien from SISR Architecture located in Marlow, NH. They provide sustainable building solutions for a healthy environment, innovative planning and design ideas, and socially Responsive answers and advice to their clients' questions.

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA demonstrates that it is possible to operate a top notch hospital while also going green. With a lot of people that want to do what’s right. Changing how things are done. It comes down to scrutinizing every choice and purchase for the right reasons. Visit GreenerbyChoice.com to discover more.

Did you know the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. That’s a total of nearly 3.7 million tons of copy paper used annually in the U.S. and it translates to over 700 billion sheets. Discover some simple ways to reduce your paper usage at work.

Let’s talk about what it means to be a Humaneitarian. Basically a Humaneitarian is a person who eats meat from humanely raised animals.   If you like to eat meat but also care about the treatment of farm animals, you’re in good company. A growing number of meat eaters are turning away from factory farms and buying meat from farms that raise animals with dignity.   And joining me today is Caroline Abels from humaneitarian.org to enlighten us on this amazing movement.

Studies reveal that each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas waste in the U.S. increases 25%. That means more than 1 million tons of additional waste is generated each week nationwide over this holiday time. Here are 11 key ways your can reduce your holiday impact and add less waste to your local landfill and keep the world a happy jolly place. www.GreenerbyChoice.com

Why are you spending so much time out shopping this holiday season? That’s a silly question,  cause you love your family and friends and want to buy them special gifts they can cherish for years to come.   But would you agree, it’s also important to buy from reputable companies that treat their employees fairly, sell quality products produced in an ethical manner, and of course a company that cares about their impact on the community and world around them.   Discover some amazing earth-friendly companies to support and buy your gifts from. www.GreenerbyChoice.com

Thanksgiving is upon us and folks will be coming together to celebrate. As you give thanks for all the amazing people and things in your life; family, friends, health, employment, etc., remember to also give thanks for Mother Nature and the amazing world around us. After all without the environment there would be no food on your plate.   Along with all this celebration comes lots of trash; everything from paper & plastic plates, utensils, beverage cans & bottles, uneaten foods, and the list goes on. Thousands and thousands of pounds of waste will needlessly end up in the local landfill by the end of the day.   The mission of today’s podcast is not to take away your fun, but in fact to expand your joy. Think of how nice it can be to enjoy the company of family and friends by hosting a green and grateful Thanksgiving. One that uses minimum disposable items and generates barely if not any waste that is put into the landfill.

Talking Hergonomics™ with Ann Adams and Liz Brensinger owners of Green Heron Tools. Discover why these tools designed specially for women are easiest, safest, more comfortable, and most effective for women.   Let’s Face it, Women’s bodies are different from men’s and our tools should be, too. Ladies, this means no more struggling with heavy cumbersome tools that are hard to use. Listen to this podcast to learn more.

Joining us today is Tam Hunt, owner of Community Renewable Solutions, a consultancy and law firm specializing in community-scale renewables.   I came across his article 5 different ways to invest in renewable energy at green tech media.com and thought it would be a great topic for us to learn more about.

Ok Ladies, No more mooning everyone around you just cause you need to pee.Join us today is Krista Eickmann promoter and distributor of the PStyle. This revolutionary invention allows women and trans men to stand up and pee without removing any clothing. It's super easy to use, reusable, and eliminates the need for toilet paper. And best of all no more mooning everyone around you just cause you need to pee.

Here is an amazing way to get your community involved in reusing unwanted building supplies and good, while also support local families.   Shop Demo Depot is based in Mt. Pleasant, PA and their mission is to reduce landfill waste and promote the resale and reuse of goods, while financially supporting Community Action initiatives that help those in need.   Shop Demo Depot accepts tax-deductible donations of surplus and reusable building supplies from businesses, manufacturers, and the general public. We inspect all materials and will decline unsatisfactory, broken, or items with missing parts. Since our mission is to reuse these materials, they must be in sale-able condition.

Join us today is Gia Machlin, founder of EcoPlum a green shopping rewards site with eco-friendly products and green living ideas that makes it fun, easy and rewarding to go green.    She carefully selects stylish and unique green products from vendors who earned third party sustainability certification, carry notable eco-labels, or make products primarily from recycled materials.   Gia and EcoPlum have been featured on Green is Good Radio, WOR Talk Radio, Crain’s New York, and many other business publications. Plus, EcoPlum is a Green America approved business.

SaveOurShores.org states that ”80% of plastic pollution that enters the ocean originates from land. Common sources include: recreational beach users, people who drop litter on sidewalks and streets, plastics manufacturers and transporters, illegal dumping, and areas with inadequate trash receptacles. All land-based plastic pollution has the potential to become ocean pollution. Plastics easily blow into the ocean or washed down storm drains that flow directly to the Bay, and oceans around the world.” Discover 3 Ways to help protect Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles, and Fish.

“Ocean pollution affects over 267 species worldwide, including 86% of sea turtle species, 44% of all sea bird species, and 43% of marine mammal species.”   Human consumption of plastic is spiraling out of control. We are using a material that technically lasts forever to manufacture items we use for less than 30 minutes. For example: plastic shopping bags, beverage bottles, plastic cups, eating utensils, etc. Discover what you can do to protect marine mammals, turtles, and fish.

Missy Schenck, executive directory of Green River Preserve is a non-competitive, coed summer camp connecting children with nature. Located on a 3,400 acre private wildlife preserve in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, this extraordinary natural setting inspires campers to have a greater understanding of themselves, their environment, and their fellow man. Designed for bright, curious, and creative children, their program nurtures character development and fosters skills like perseverance, curiosity, communication, optimism, creativity, and GRIT. The signature of Green River Preserve’s program is the mentor hike. Led by mentor naturalists, campers explore forest, streams, and hidden valleys of the Preserve. Filled with adventure, discovery, and a heightened appreciation of the natural world, campers learn to use all of their senses as they play under waterfalls, crawl into caves, explore archeological sites, track wildlife, and taste edible plants. Green America approved business and they strive for excellence in environmental sustainability and social justice.

Recycling is a terrific way to help reduce the amount of trash you dump in the landfill, but without proper planning piles of old newspaper and plastic containers can sure mess up your home or office. This episode shares ideas of how to set up a recycling area to hold everything in nice, neat bins.

There are many benefits to performing a trash audit in your home or office. Discover an easy process will help you evaluate the amount and types of trash being generated. Plus, you’ll benefit by cutting costs and saving money, improving your waste management systems, and Increasing your recycling efforts.   SO STOP THROWING EVERYTHING AWAY.   Discover the 3 simple ways to turn a trash audit into a treasure hunt.

This weeks podcast topic is how to prevent tons of trash from entering your local landfill and I’ll be sharing 3 simple ways you can make this happen.   In 2012, Americans generated over 251 millions tons of trash and recycled and composted almost 86.6 million tons. Diverting about 32% of waste from landfills. "“This prevented the release of approximately 168 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the air in 2012 — similar to taking 33 million cars off the road for a year.” "Imagine if we increased our recycling rate to 60%. It could save an equivalent of 315 million barrels of oil per year.”   Today’s simple green up action step: Take a look at each item you are about to throw out. Can it be recycled, composted, reused, or up cycled? If so, don’t throw it out. 

Sunday marks one week after 400,000 people from all around the country marched in NYC and called for action on climate change. This march was part of a series of 2,600 events like this one taking place in 56 countries.    What’s great is more and more people are finally recognizing that climate change does in fact exist and together we need to explore ways to re-balance the earth.   Visit GreenerbyChoice.com to discover a couple of ways you can help make a difference.

Joining us today is Richard Sundance Owen, founder and executive director of the Environmental Cleanup Coalition. Today we’re talking about how Plastic Pollution is affecting our oceans, food chain and the health of marine animals, as well as our own.    Did you know “An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped in the world’s oceans every year. And worst of all most of it is plastic.”   What a horrific amount of trash. Today, let’s discover how the Environmental Cleanup Coalition’s helping to reduce this and what we as everyday people can do to help make a difference.

Highlights from the Mother Earth News Fair   Last weekend I attended the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA. Wow,What an amazing weekend. First for those of you who may not know about Mother Earth News, they are a magazine that has been helping folks live self-reliant, sustainable, meaningful lives for more than 40 years. With an audience of more than 3 million readers worldwide, it is the largest and longest-running environmental lifestyle magazine on the planet.     Second, I’d like to share a few of the talks I really enjoyed: Pickin’ Chickens: An introduction to heritage breeds with Jeannette Beranger from The Livestock Conservancy and Earthen Building with Rusty and Walker Orner of Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living.

It’s a green road trip   It’s 5:30am in Wilmington, VT and I’m getting ready to head out the door and travel to Seven Springs, PA for the Mother Earth News Fair.   I am so excited to be spending the weekend with hundreds of Green Movement Leaders, learning more about their products and services, and sharing their stories with you over the coming weeks. Stay tuned!   MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine has been helping folks live self-reliant, sustainable, meaningful lives for more than 40 years. With an audience of more than 3 million readers worldwide, it is the largest and longest-running environmental lifestyle magazine on the planet. The MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIRS are fun-filled, family-oriented sustainable lifestyle events that feature dozens of practical, hands-on demonstrations and workshops from the leading authorities on: Renewable Energy, Small-Scale Agriculture, Gardening, Green Building, Green Transportation and Natural Health.   Check out full details at http://www.motherearthnews.com/fair/about.aspx#axzz3D5pePuEU

Protecting nearly 200 breeds of livestock and poultry from extinction. Eric Hallman executive director of The Livestock Conservancy speaks with The Green Up Girl.   Now, you may be scratching your head and thinking, “but I see cows and chickens all the time, how can they be endangered?” Just like there are endangered species such as pandas, tigers, and elephants, there are also endangered livestock and poultry BREEDS. Specifically, 21% of the world’s 8,000 livestock breeds are in danger of extinction. Just like there are heirloom seeds that need saving, the Livestock Conservancy works to protect heritage breeds – for the security of our agricultural system.

Do you believe that if a few a passionate people come together they can create change? Well according to the email I just received from Green America, the voices of conscious citizens have been heard by the Apple Corporation.   “Apple announced that it would ban benzene and n-hexane — two dangerous industrial chemicals — from its first tier factories in China starting September 2014.” This is a very important first step and I’m so glad to hear they are listening. Apple is saying that it took the action because they heard from thousands of consumers voicing their concerns.   So that’s the good news, now for the bad news.   The China Labor Watch and Green America’s undercover investigators found harmful chemicals being dumped into the groundwater, locked safety doors, and other violations. If you lived in a community where your ground water was being poisoned, would you want someone to step in and help? I’m hoping yes, discover how you can easily assist.

Misty Reilly founder of RocknSocks started her business because her husband was always forgetting to pack his socks and would have to borrow hers when they attended music festivals. It got her thinking about the fact that you can get a whole new wardrobe from independent designers at these music festivals, but not some basic accessories. It all came together, when she decided to bring funky and fashionable eco-friendly socks to rock-n-roll music festivals. RocknSocks was born.

The reality is we all are going to die someday. I know it is sad to think about this topic, but all amazing things and creatures must pass on at some point. You can’t live forever, even though you may want to.   Besides the emotional trauma, many folks are worried about the possible environmental pollution a burial can cause. From the poisonous embalming fluid, to the chemically treated caskets, and cement burial vaults.     But what if your burial could be handled in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way? Discover more about green burials.

Wood pallets, old fencing, and beat up pianos are turned into finely crafted, cherished pieces of furniture thanks to the work of Casey Muldoon from Custom ReWorks.These materials would have other wise ended up in the landfill. Instead Casey uses his creativity to give them new life and purpose. View many of projects at Facebook.com/CustomReWorks.

Stop Junk Mail From Polluting Your Mail Box. What a waste "More than 100 million trees are cut down every year to produce junk mail.”  Discover the simple 5 ways to protect the trees and keep your mail box empty. Receive resources; mailing addresses, email and website addresses to contact the right sources. Visit GreenerbyChoice.com.

Joining us today is Jane Jones, founder of Magical Earth Retreats, a non-profit organization that connects children and adults with nature. Magical Earth Retreats is on a mission to bring as many children and adults to the mountains to experience mother earth in order that they understand our connectivity with everything while creating love and beauty in everyone’s garden of life.   I’m also proud to be a board of director for Magical Earth Retreats and witnessed first hand the joy that Jane and her staff bring to the children that attend these many programs.

Beyond podcasting about green issues and bringing you interviews with Green Movement Leaders, I’ll now be creating a community so you can receive simple action steps, engage in conversations, and gather the resources you want to enjoy living a greener lifestyle. This new community will go live on September 1st and will offer you: Live workshops & Google Hangouts, Downloadable action steps & green up tool kit, Live Meet Up Events (Right now at locations around the US and then we’ll expand around world, Guided travel to conservation centers and even a few safari trips. Visit GreenerbyChoice.com to learn more.

Stay tuned! Greener by Choice is expanding.   I’m so excited to share my weekend’s adventures with you. I’ve been in Dallas, Texas attending Podcast Movement 2014. It offered training for Podcasters by Podcasters. The conference was beyond amazing and I am so excited to expand and improve the “Greener by Choice” podcasts I’ve been producing for you.   My key take-a-ways from the conference are that in addition to featuring green issues and bringing you interviews with Green Movement Leaders, I want to also facilitate a community so you can receive simple action steps, engage in conversations, and gather the resources you want to enjoy living a greener lifestyle. We’ll do this through both online podcasts and in-person activities.   More details coming tomorrow.

Today let’s talk about Giving Back. We all know there are many benefits to giving back; you feel better, set a good example, and the world benefits. Plus, part of living a greener lifestyle involves how we care and give back to others that share our earth. Protecting our earth for future generations is going to take a team effort. If we all come together, one step at a time, we can make a difference.     Giving back does not have to be about money, giving of your time can be just as valuable and sometimes more valuable. Discover over 100 ways you can give back to your community.

The plastic shopping bag debate continues. In episode #27 we talked about how Americans use approximately 102.1 billion plastic bags, creating tons and tons of landfill waste. This number breaks down to the average American family using almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year. And worst of all less than 5% of these bags are recycled.     Thank you for all your comments and emails listeners, that podcast stirred up quite some interest and I’d like to share some of the comments with you.

Lauren Taylor Director of U.S. Public Relations for TerraCycle an international recycling company. TerraCycle converts difficult-to-recycle packaging and product materials into innovative, affordable products. Its partners are among the Who’s Who in the CPG, retailing and manufacturing industry. Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, L’Oreal, Entenmann’s Bakery, Kimberly Clark and Colgate-Palmolive are among the companies running community-based collection fundraisers through TerraCycle that function both as innovative packaging reclamation initiatives and cause-related marketing programs.

Cooking off the grid. No need to turn on the electricity or gas. Use the sun to cook your next meal. In this episode, I’m going to make cooking with the sun simple and easy by sharing some more tips and tricks. A solar cooker is simply a devise that uses direct sunlight to heat and cook your food and they come in all sizes depending upon how much food you want to cook and how many people you are feeding. You have an outside oven to attract the sun and an inside container to hold the food. The whole set up is of course place in direct sunlight for best results. Discover more about cooking temperatures, food prep and more.

Mark Curran is founder of Black River Produce. Since its inception in 1978, Black River’s main focus has been distributing locally grown product throughout New England. They now partner with 200 growers and producers with a team of 170 employees. Mark has served on numerous boards including the Vermont Fresh Network and currently serves on the Vermont Agriculture and Forest Products Development Board. This year Black River Produce completed renovations of an abandoned Ben & Jerry’s plant into a state of the art meat processing facility providing market opportunities for Vermont farmers.

Do you ever get frustrated when you’re shopping at the grocery store, clothing store, hardware store, or any store for that matter and the clerk asks the person in front of you, “May we bag your order in plastic? and they answer yes. Am I the only one who wants to yell, no please don’t choose plastic, those bags are polluting the earth. Do you ever speak up and tell them how much their choice is harming the world or do you stand their quietly and say nothing?   Let me share some very important facts with you; every year, Americans use approximately 102.1 billion plastic bags, creating tons and tons of landfill waste. This number breaks down to the average American family using almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year. And worst of all less than 5% of these bags are recycled.   Discover how to make a difference by sharing your shopping bags.

Nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, but only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. and just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. Discover 6 more simple ways to conserve water including a link to find your very own shower buddy.

How often do you eat out at a restaurant and find that you can’t finish eating the whole meal? Are you someone who wastes the food or brings it home in what we call “the doggie bag”? According to restaurants.com, “As much as 33 million tons of food is wasted each year in the United States alone.” That is way too much wasted food, don’t you agree? Together let’s rebrand the Doggie Bag.

Eco Dogs and Cats specializes in offering eco-friendly, humane, vegan products for cats and dogs including, vegan and Non GMO food, toys, beds, vitamins, and many other amazing earth friendly products. Eco Dogs and Cats grew out of the lifestyle Delta Farrington's practices and her desire to offer those same healthy and humane products for cats and dogs.

Is it possible for our earth to run out of water? Yikes, yes it is, the earth has less water than you think. According to National Geographic, “nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields.” I don’t know if this scares you, but it sure scares me not only for my lifetime, but for future generations. Discover a few simple ways to you can join in to effectively conserve water.

What if you had to pay for the air you breath and the rain water that comes from the earth? We really seem to take these items for granted along with the natural capital of the earth. Pavan Sukhdev’s talk at TEDGlobal 2011 - he states that  "Every day, we use materials from the earth without thinking, for free (like air and water). But what if we had to pay for their true value: would it make us more careful about what we use and what we waste?"

Discover more about Don Jones, The Wizard and his inspiring collection of children’s stories. The stories help achieve our mission to provide the space, place and opportunity for children and adults to reconnect with mother nature. Our goal change the destructive route of the human race one child/person at a time with love, peace and creativity.

Joining us today is Julie Lineberger managing partner at LineSync Architecture. They are a company that designs high profile innovative municipal, corporate and unique residential environments with a green and sustainable emphasis and she is also the board chair for Green America.     I was in awe the first time Julie and I met. We were at a sustainability conference and she was sharing how she and her team track their water and energy consumption. It was pretty cool how off the top of her head, she was quoting exact numbers of what she and her staff use. Plus, best of all they had set real life goals to reduce her consumption. I remember thinking wow, this is pretty inspiring, I need to connect with her to learn more and I’m hoping you will be as inspired as I was.

Have you every thought about using the sun to cook your next meal? In this episode we’ll talk about solar cookers and I’ll share plenty of resources so you’ll be cooking with the sun in no time. Part 1  

Did you know that Americans produce 30 billion gallons of urine annually. (Containing over 5,000 grams of fertilizer per person). Sure seems like that is a lot of value just being flushed down the toilet. Kim Nace founder Rich Earth Institute is dedicated to advancing and promoting the use of human waste as a resource. The Institute was founded in 2011 and they are conducting the first controlled field trials in the US using source-separated human urine as a fertilizer.

Summer is here and folks will be coming together with family, friends, and neighbors to enjoy picnics and celebrate the joy of summer. But, that means lots of trash will be generated; everything from paper & plastic plates, utensils, beverage cans & bottles, uneaten foods, and the list goes on. Thousands and thousands of pounds of waste will needlessly end up in the local landfill by the end of summer. Discover the 7 Simple Steps to a Zero-waste picnic.

Spotlighting Lanette Findrych, founder of Cycle Dog Earth Friendly Pet Company™. A company that produces products from post-consumer recycled materials like bike inner tubes. Did you know every year, millions of bike tubes end up in landfills, what a waste. Cycle Dog has stepped in to the rescue and recovered tens of thousands of these tubes and transformed them into pet collars, leads, toys and more at their facility in Portland, Oregon. The goal at Cycle Dog is to create the world's best dog products with a focus on the environment and to raise awareness of the millions of bike tubes thrown into landfills every year.

Summer is here and folks are coming together with family, friends, and neighbors to enjoy picnics and celebrate the joy of summer. But, that means lots of trash will be generated; everything from paper & plastic plates, utensils, beverage cans & bottles, un-eaten foods, and the list goes on. In fact, Last week I went to the lake for a picnic with a group of my friends to attend a mini-high school reunion. It  was so much fun to connect, meet some of there new family members and just catch up on things that have been happening in life since the last time we saw each other. Yummy foods and fun conversations. But, the one thing I noticed was a few plastic shopping bags clipped to the end of the picnic table and folks were filling them with trash; paper plates, plastic silverware, leftover food and soda cans. Hear the rest of the story.  

Christine Mann is the founder of Wick-it Cool Candles. These handmade candles are eco-friendly and made from 100% soy wax, a renewable resource grown in the US. They burn cleaner and longer than other types of wax. They also have lead free cotton wicks and are poured into recyclable glass jars for the most eco-conscious consumers. These candles have also appeared at the Boston Flower and Garden Show. And have Won the “Innovation Rocks” award presented by the NH division of economic development in coordination with Rock 101 (WGIR-FM) to celebrate the creativity and ingenuity of NH innovators.