Implementing Action: Working from Home, by Chelsea Gladden

A guest post to that left us flabbergasted and impressed. We wanted to share it with you immediately. Hope you agree that Chelsea has done her homework on this action and definitely deserves the 150 points you get for Work From Home and Eliminate Your Commute!

Chelsea in her home office near San Diego, California

One of my favorite realizations when taking the Practically Green quiz was how many of the action items I already do without even realizing I get environmentally conscious points. In fact, a year ago I was looking for a job I could do from home. To be perfectly honest my intention was not to cut back on commuter congestion, it was to save time and have flexibility.

As a mother of five (yes, five), flexible work hours would make it easier to teach Kindergarten art once a week, drop off/pick up my kids from school and sports–all the while getting my work done on my schedule.

It seemed like a pipe dream at the time, but I decided to join FlexJobs just in case there might be an opportunity. Fittingly, there was and it was working FOR FlexJobs! Since becoming a part of the team, I am now well aware of the many “green” benefits of working from home, especially cutting back on CO2 and reducing my carbon footprint, and including reduced office energy, roadway repairs, urban heating, office construction, business travel, and paper usage.

Chelsea & family. Taken on a set at Disney, right? Wrong: this is actually where she LIVES! No *wonder* she wants to work from home.

As well as sustainable benefits, there are also cost savings to employers for allowing their staff to telecommute. 71,324 companies participated in National Telework Week in March. They saved a combined $5,651,890! According to the Telework Research Network, big companies are taking note of the benefits as well. Deloitte reported a 10% staff increase and a 42% decline in real estate costs; Sun Microsystems reported 19,000 teleworkers saved $96 million in real estate, electricity and IT; and Oracle BV said they reduced 248 square feet per person to 140 square feet.

[Telework Exchange and Cisco are compiling a report on the success of Telework Week 2012 to be released May 2.]

If you are interested in implementing the Practically Green action to work from home, try these steps with your boss:

1. Ask for a trial run for a few days. Showing how well the flexible or telecommuting arrangement will benefit your employer is the most compelling argument you can make. During the trial run, show that you will work diligently from home and can stay in touch with colleagues in the office.

2. Take baby steps. Ask to telecommute part-time (e.g., one day a week) to start out with, even if you would eventually like to work virtually full-time.

3. Before you even start to telecommute, suggest web-based tools and resources that your team can use to communicate, manage files, and share schedule information. Test them out even if you are all working in the office together. Get used to communicating in ways other than face-to-face conversations (make note of how much time you save!).

For those looking for a new position, be wary of too-good-to-be-true offers, scams, ads disguised as real job postings or companies that ask for personal information such as bank-account or social-security numbers. If you suspect a fraudulent posting, try googling the company or positions–often times you will find others who have reported it as a scam. That said, professional jobs that offer telecommuting do exist and FlexJobs has seen a 400% increase in positions available in 50+ career fields from medical to marketing to education and everything in between.

Whether you plan to pitch your own boss or, like me, plan to search for a new position that is home-based, know that earning your Practically Green points for implementing the work from home action item is within reach!

And P.S., FlexJobs is a great resource. Thank you, Chelsea! We look forward to your next post. What’s next? Install a wind turbine?

The woman in this photo bears a striking resemblance to the Founder of FlexJobs, Sara Sutton Fell of Boulder

We love being able to challenge friends and colleagues on Practically Green. For instance, Turn off computers, personal equipment, and lights when leaving the office daily.

I’m going to challenge my desk mate, PG intern Nikita:

Challenging effectively doubles the impact of the action! Twice 20 points = 40 points! Imagine if everyone in the whole city signed on?!

Action shot: Nikita is ready to accept the challenge and click off the power strip!

We all know that turning electronics off saves energy and money. Still, there is some confusion about what’s better: powering down your computer and all personal equipment when you leave the office daily, or leaving electronics in sleep or hibernate mode. The long and the short of it is: power down. According to the eco powers that be, including Energy Star, this will save the most energy as well as cash. If you work at a big corporation, the impact can be tremendous. How much saved depends on the computers and equipment being turned off.

11pm: Boston skyline seen from PG headquarters in Kendall Square. Do all those lights really need to be on?

Keep in mind that just because you turn your equipment off doesn’t mean zero energy is being used. Printers, docking stations, cell phone chargers, and more all use energy even after they’re turned off. This is called their phantom draw. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75 percent of electricity used for home electronics is consumed while these devices are turned off. This statistic holds true for offices, too.

New product tip: Bracketron eco-mushroom looks like art, shuts OFF after the phone is charged. Magic?

Ask office management to supply everyone with power strips (or cool gadgets e.g. Bracketron, pictured at left!) to reduce the use of phantom energy. Some of these have digital timers on them–excellent for forgetful employees. Put a surge protector in the office kitchen for the coffee machine and microwave; it all adds up.

Places signs up around the office reminding everyone to power down and turn off power strips at the end of their day.

Plug electronics that might need to stay on (fax machines, cable modems) in a separate power strip or outlet.

• Microsoft.com: Do You Need To Turn Off Your PC At Night
• ConsumerEnergyCenter.org: Should I turn Off My Computer When I Leave Work

It’s not your sunny imagination dazzling you: solar installations are up 109% annually in the US, with California, New Jersey, and Arizona leading the way. In 2011, New York jumped from #11 to #7 on the U.S. Solar Market Insight scorecard just released. New Jersey? New York? Chances are your state offers attractive incentives for solar installation, and companies like Sungevity and Real Goods Solar are making it easier than ever to switch to this renewable clean energy source.

Interested? Here’s more:

Solar-electric systems use the ultimate renewable energy source, sunlight, to power part or all of a building or home’s electricity needs. Any energy generated replaces other forms of electricity that have much higher negative environmental impacts, particularly in parts of the country where coal or fossil fuels are used.

Some concerns exist with respect to the manufacture and disposal of solar panels and the water required to support solar power generation. Fortunately, some solar-panel manufacturers have made it a priority to reduce the waste generated and energy used to manufacture solar panels on one hand, while working to recycle the main components of solar panels at the end of their useful lives.

An investment in a solar-electric system is substantial, but the payback can be relatively quick if your building receives decent sunlight and the system should last for 25 years. It is valuable to evaluate other renewable energy options (wind, geothermal, co-generation) in parts of the country where wind is viable or sunlight isn’t as prevalent year-round. You may find other renewable choices can produce more energy for less cost.

Your choice of an experienced contractor, with all the necessary certifications, licenses, permits and insurance, will be vital to the success of a project of this scale. Many financial incentives exist for installing solar systems, and taking advantage of them requires that the contractor understands how each works and how best to take advantage of the range of available incentives.

Some important considerations, with respect to your situation, include the orientation of your building or home (i.e. south-facing is best), the amount of shading it receives, whether net metering is available, and zoning/historic considerations.

One final important note: Performing a wide range of energy-efficiency measures before installing any renewable-energy system is essential for such a project to make sound investment sense.

• Solar power that sticks to the roof
• Solar Energy Basics for your Home

Planning a move — from your home, your office, your dorm room? There’s one way to do it, involving towers of cardboard boxes and pop-wrap galore that then go into the dumpster and who knows where from there. And, there’s another, Practically Green way to approach your move.

Moving is a drag. It’s also not the eco-friendliest experience. To lower the eco-impact of your move and save some trees—not to mention tape—try renting reusable plastic moving boxes.

For those planning a move in the San Francisco Bay area, you are in luck! ZippGo rents out reusable plastic box and they deliver--so you won't have to waste time hunting for cardboard boxes. Better yet, they say their boxes are made of 100% recycled plastic.

Plastic boxes aren’t perfect. They’re heavy—which adds up when you load them into a gas-guzzling truck. They’re made from a nonrenewable resource (though some are recycled plastic) and must be carefully recycled at the end of their useful life. Some companies say their lifespan is 200 uses, others claim 400. But on average they’re a better bet than cardboard boxes, even ones containing recycled content—whether you take them from your local supermarket and liquor store or you buy them new. Recycling cardboard does eventually produce waste. And there’s a considerable amount of shipping involved between recycling plants, cardboard manufacturers, and the stores that sell the boxes.

RentAGreenBox.com sounds awesome, e.g. compostable packing cubes made from 100% recycled newspaper sludge; it's the replacement for petroleum based Styrofoam packing peanuts or corn based bio-degradable packing materials. Most newspaper sludge is either dumped in a landfill or burned at a local incinerator. They have a better, greener solution by using this waste to make their famous recocubes. Easy to fold, tear, bend around large household furniture/decor items

There are added benefits to reusable bins that cardboard can’t match. First, if it rains, you’re in luck. Plastic bins don’t get soggy. Second, rental periods are usually a few weeks, which means you have a set unpacking date. No more leaving boxes unopened for months post-move! And no more breaking down and recycling empties.

Find a local reusable moving box company. They’re easier to find in cities. Rental fees are similar to buying cardboard boxes, depending on where you live. The system works best if you’re moving close by. It’s trickier if your move is cross-country.

Opt for towels and clothes for packing fragile items, instead of bubble wrap and other disposables.

• The New York Times: Rent-A-Box Services Make Moving Easier For Some
• Treehugger.com: Moving? Box Rental Company Good Boxes Delivers And Eliminates The Cardboard Waste
• Treehugger.com: Quick Tips For Green Moving
• San Francisco Chronicle: Great Green Ideas–Reusable Moving Boxes
• PewSocialTrends.org: Who Moves Who Stays Put

BPA is a monogram you might want to know, especially if you love small children.

Last time we checked it produced 34,300,000 results on Google, so you’re not the only one wondering what it is and why you should care.

• — BPA stands for Bisphenol-A, and not the Better Plastics Association.
• — On Friday, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration denied a petition from the National Resources Defense Council to ban the substance from food and drink containers, despite widespread concerns.
• — Parents and childrens’ rights activists are in motion to spread awareness, because the smaller you are, the more likely a toxin is to affect your health.

We discovered ThinkBaby's BPA-free products on NatureMoms.com

Ninety-three percent of Americans have traces of BPA in their bodies. BPA was first made in 1891 and used as a synthetic estrogen in the 1930s. In the 1950s commercial manufacturers started putting BPA in hard plastics. Since then BPA has been found in many common products, including dental sealants and cash-register receipts. More than a million pounds of the substance are released into the environment each year. (“Puberty Before Age 10: A New ‘Normal’?” The New York Times magazine 3/30/12)

You’ll find 28 actions about plastic on Practically Green, including Use glass instead of plastic in the microwave, and Replace bottled water with filtered water. But what about BPA? We focus on the youngest consumers who unknowingly drink from plastic cups and bottles made with this controversial stuff.

Dr. Brown's, recommended on Practically Green. Dr. B. makes bottles and pacifiers, too!

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an industrial chemical used to make, among many other things, polycarbonate plastic resins. It makes the plastic shatterproof, but it’s controversial stuff. Many countries and states have banned it due to links to developmental and reproductive impacts, but there is still no overarching federal ban. There has been so much governmental back and forth on the safety of BPA, it’s hard for the average consumer to know where it stands. Suffice it to say that The National Institutes for Health, the Endocrine Society, and the US National Toxicology Program have all expressed concern about the chemical. Congress has now moved to ban some uses for it.

A glimpse of the many BPA-free cups and bottles available from SproutSanFrancisco.com

Also recommended on Practically Green: Klean Kanteen's kids' line

Interestingly, consumers didn’t wait for our government to push companies to take BPA out of products. Parents were so vocal about not wanting it in products that it’s now easy to find baby bottles and sippy cups purporting to be BPA-free. Keep in mind that there is no government office regulating what is and isn’t BPA-free, it’s just a claim some companies make. For the moment, it’s up to consumers to decide what to trust.

In the numbers in those recycling arrows on the bottoms of plastic containers, BPA falls under the number 7. Confusingly, not all plastic number 7 contains BPA. If you’d like to use plastic, #2, #4, and #5 are the plastics currently considered safest by the scientific community.

Glass, stainless steel, and lead-free ceramic are BPA-free. They won’t leach other chemicals of concern found in plastics, either.

• Rodale.com: Certain Plastics May Hurt Male Sexual Functioning
• Rodale.com: BPA-Free Products May Still Contain BPA
• Rodale.com: Finally! FDA Considers BPA Plastic In Your Food A Health Risk
• Greenbiz.com: China, Malaysia Become Latest Nations To Ban BPA
• ConsumerReports.org: California Joins 10 Other States In Banning BPA From Infant Feeding Containers
• NRDC.org: NRDC, FDA Reach Settlement In BPA Lawsuit
• Wired.com: We Should Have Banned Bisphenol A Twenty Years Ago
• EPA.gov: BPA Action Plan
• Bookmark This Site: I Am Not A Guinea Pig Campaign
• PG Blog: Banish Chemicals in Everyday Life

Tens of millions will honor Earth Hour by turning off the lights and unplugging from 8:30 to 9:30 PM. We encourage all Earth Hour observers to join Practically Green to find lots more efficient and energy-saving things to do when the lights go back on!

For more info, visit EarthHour.org

For example, let’s take a look at the top Energy goal for Practically Green users. At 50 points, imagine the collective impact if Earth Hour participants chose to do this one!

While we all have the ability to set and monitor the temperature on our thermostats, we never really know how much money we’re spending until we get our bills. If you’d prefer not to have your gas or electric bill be an unpleasantly large surprise at the end of the month, install a home energy management device. These allow you to monitor the amount of energy as well as cash you are spending throughout the month. When you see you’re spending more than you want to, you can take steps to reduce your usage. Some companies selling energy monitoring devices say you can save around 10 percent on your bills once you start keeping track of your usage.

At first glance you might think home-energy monitors are not sexy and way too expensive — not to mention they sometimes need spell-check. Cough. But think about it this way: a little gadget like this one will help you save thousands of dollars

Home energy monitoring devices are widely available at big electronics stores and are generally easy to install. Some versions attach to the outside of your electric utility meter where they read the amount of electricity your household is consuming in real time and transmit the information wirelessly to a power monitor. Others devices don’t require wiring during installation and display electricity use in your home minute by minute in dollars and/or kilowatt hours.

Be prepared to spend $100 or more on a device. It sounds like a lot but your energy bill will never be an ugly surprise again—and you’ll likely make up the difference in savings once you reduce usage.

For a less expensive monitor, try a watts meter. These measure usage by outlet or device.

• TLC.HowStuffWorks.com: How To Choose A Home Energy Monitor
• PracticallyGreen.com: Energy Vampires 101
• PracticallyGreen.com: Smarter Energy Tools Coming Soon
• GreenLifestyleConsulting.com: First Days With A Home Energy Monitor
• Businesswire.com: GE Smart Home-Energy Panel Tells Customers What’s Happening With Their Power Profile

Between us, the home-energy-monitor industry could use a 21st-century designer (see the Nest thermostat, below, for a forward-thinking example)

Genius programmable thermostat from Nest.com

Exciting news!! We have just launched a new and improved Practically Green! Please have a look!

Thanks to fantastic suggestions and very smart advice from all of our advisors, teammates, friends, and, of course, you, we have an all-new and improved site. By compiling the wisdom from all of these sources—and doing a fair amount of tweaking—we’ve created a site that will give you the best PG experience possible!

In addition to a totally new look, here are some outstanding features:

ENHANCED SOCIAL FEATURES: Have you ever wanted to pat someone on the back or comment when a friend does something great? Now you can! You can also add comments to products, post thoughts and opinions with user ratings, and keep track of what colleagues, friends, and family are doing. Here’s a recommendation for Weleda’s Pomegranate Firming Day Cream, a recommended product on Switch to natural anti-aging creams.

SET GOALS: Sometimes you need a little help getting an action done. We get it. And what’s more motivating than a deadline? We’ve added a goal-setting feature so you can choose and commit to deadlines on the actions you really want to accomplish.

CHALLENGE YOUR FRIENDS: You now have the power to influence others! The fun new challenge feature enables you and your friends to do just that. You can also collaborate to complete actions.

So while much is new, the core foundation of Practically Green remains the same. Our mission is to make living healthy and more sustainably easier, faster, and way more fun. Our proprietary points system is based on solid scientific research. Our 400+ actions make it easy to discover what to do and why it matters. Our products are still recommended and rated by you, but vetted by a specialist to ensure they are really green. And yes, we still pat you on the back for accomplishments–whether you earn a Gold badge in health or a Green Date Night badge.

If you have any questions about the changes, please check out our Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.practicallygreen.com/faq), contact us, or post a comment here! We are eager to hear what you think!!

Spring coaxes even the most obdurate gym rat outdoors, and what better rationale to unplug/green-up your exercise routine!

Try to exercise unplugged and outside – running, gardening, splitting wood, swimming in a natural body of water. Hiking outside or even running the stairs in your apartment or office building requires no electricity, doesn’t involve the manufacture of a stair master, and uses less resources than going to a gym. At home you can also avoid towels washed in conventional detergent and chlorine bleach, conventional cleaning products, and other less-than-eco amenities offered in most membership gyms. You can also play whatever music you want to listen to, without resorting to buying a new MP3 player or earphones that may or may not contain PVC.

Charlie Gasparino, center, chooses to shape up by using the urban landscape: “Exercising outside in the city is interesting, free & effective." NYTimes.com

You might not ever entirely give up the elliptical; bad weather happens. But try to sweat unplugged every few times, working up to doing it all of the time.

Set yourself up for success. Choose workouts that require the least amount of equipment or equipment that uses less energy. Did you know treadmills use a lot more energy than stationary bikes and ellipticals?

Seek out dip and pull-up bars in local parks.

• Health.com: Green Your Workout
• Planet Green: Green Your Workout
• Bookmark This Site: TheWalkingSite.com
• Washington Post: Some pieces of gym equipment are more eco-friendly than others

Faced with the choice of organic blueberries from Chile or apples from New York state, which do you choose? Food miles is one of many salient topics on the agenda at Tuesday’s #YourMealMatters online event co-hosted by GoodGuide, Roots of Change, Greenovate, EatingWell, and Practically Green. See you there at 12:30 EST.

The debate about the environmental impact of food flown from far away vs. locally grown rages on. It’s especially murky when it comes to items produced locally in winter in greenhouses or with extensive cold storage. Until a standardized way of measuring total impact exists, if it ever does, it’s a challenging comparison.

People interested in reducing food miles can look for COOL (country of origin) labels on their food. If something came from too far away, swap in a more local item. In the middle of the winter, blueberries may be air freighted from Chile, while regional apples or pears stored from the fall harvest or kiwis trucked from California likely have a lower transportation impact, depending on where you live—and they’re equally tasty.

Being aware of the environmental impact of your food choices as you shop will help you select differently and lower the impact of what you eat.

YUM! Produce display at the new Whole Foods store in Plymouth Meeting, PA

Got local veggies? Need a tasty recipe? Try EatingWell.com...we've never been disappointed!

Taking food miles into account as you grocery shop isn’t always easy. Treat it like a game. Read packages and labels as you go. It’s an eye opener to see how much of our food is produced very far away.

Try to substitute the farthest-flung items for more local ones. If this is simple and everything tastes good, add more local items the next time you shop.

Eating completely locally may not be feasible year round in some climates. Still, avoiding items that have been flown from far away—domestically or internationally—is a reasonable to step to take.

If you’re one of the millions of people who compost at home, at work, and even when traveling; or if you’re considering launching a compost program this season, consider this: 7 percent of household waste, on average, can be composted. If every family, hotel, business, restaurant, and school were to compost all 81 items on this  list of Things You Can Compost, from Networx, that percentage multiplies impressively. Who knew that you can compost dryer lint, tea bags, stale chips, expired jam, Q-tips (not plastic ones), matches, nail clippings, and even condoms (not latex), and dead flies from your windowsill?

Here’s more, from Practically Green’s Compost Food Waste action, worth a tidy 100 points.

Nature Mill's bins get a thumbs up from urban composter Lexy Zissu

It’s nothing short of miraculous to literally watch your garbage bag deflate–as if on a diet–simply because you compost scraps rather than send them to a landfill. Food is biodegradable (well maybe Twinkies aren’t), but in order for it to break down in a landfill, it needs access to a basic combination of air, water, light, microbes, and enzymes. Unfortunately these aren’t readily available in an overstuffed landfill. As kitchen scraps struggle to break down in non-optimal conditions, they create methane, a greenhouse gas at least 20 times more heat-absorbent than CO2.

It’s far better to collect the scraps and turn them into valuable humus for plants and gardens.

What you want to compost will affect the kind of system you’ll set up. For veggie scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, and other uncooked food, a simple system will do. If you want to compost meat, fish, or cooked food, you’ll need a hot composter, bokashi system, or worm bin.

Coolest Compost Bin might just be this one from PriscillaWoolworth...

Compost pros advise worms: lots. WORMS? If you want to bypass the wrigglers, purchase their castings by mail from WormLadies.com

You can make your own composter or buy one at a garden center or online.

Urbanites can compost! You don’t need a yard. Worm bins tuck into most corners with no smell or mess. There are also automatic composters ideal for apartment dwellers.

A fantastic no-fuss option is compost drop-off. Increasingly–especially in urban areas–there are community drop off points and even municipal pick up. Check with your farmers’ market or community garden for local details.

• Practically Green: How To Avoid Mountains Of Holiday Garbage
• PG Picks: Lead in toys, the 2011 green jobs conference, composting without a yard, the economic injustice of plastic, energy-saving charging stations, and small green homes
• Practically Green: Composting Guide For Girls Who Don’t Like Worms
• Celebrate Earth Day all Month Long! #4 Top Action: Healthy Green Kitchen Compost, with Tips from Laurie David
• YouTube: How A Bokashi System Works
• YouTube: How To Worm Farm Compost
• EPA: Basic Information — Composting
• Practically Green: Kitchen To Garden –Compost Basics
• Earth 911: Composting While Cooking — A Guide For The Kitchen

If you’re in the mood for spring gardening we’ve got lots of ideas, from reacquainting with local farmers’ markets, signing up for a share in a CSA, pot up a few containers of herbs or veggies, or even plant your own garden or participate in a neighborhood garden!

Why not have fresh veggies handy at the office? Here's a green salad with asparagus & peas from "Top 10 Most Popular Spring Recipes" at EatingWell

Can’t possibly have a garden at home because you don’t have a good spot, or because practically live at work? Maybe you can organize a vegetable garden AT work! PG user Jakob Barry wrote in to recommend an office solution: “No, I don’t mean the occasional salad bar but a real thriving workplace garden either within an industrial park, courtyard, or on a balcony.”

Gardeners Supply Company is a favorite on-line shop for tools and planning

Jakob points out 5 key advantages to an Office Garden:

Less waste. Office gardens reduce waste: people pick their own vegetables on-site and mix them up in a reusable bowl. No disposable packaging waste! (And don’t forget to compost!)

Less money. A package of seeds costs a dollar or two and provides an abundance of sustenance. An office garden takes some effort to maintain but will reduce overall expenses.

Less pollution. Food transport can be fuel-intensive. Buying local solves part of the problem. Growing local in an office garden helps prevent a few less puffs of smog from dirtying the world.

Better air quality. Plants promote air quality, indoors and out.

It will inspire: Once employees taste the fruits of an office garden as opposed to the sometimes rubbery make up of fast-serve salad, a few may even be inspired to make their own gardens at home!

We’ll add a sixth: happier, healthier, more relaxed & more productive workers. How about it? Can you imagine starting a vegetable garden at work? Do you have one going already?

Next up, we’ll chat with Kristee Rosendahl, the creator of Smart Gardener, an intuitive and interactive platform for gardeners of all levels that’s so eerily reminiscent we’re ready to nickname it Practically Green for Gardeners!

Jakob Barry, whose idea for Planting a Garden at Work may just become a new Practically Green action for Spring!

You’ve cruised Practically Green’s 453+ actions, chosen the ones that make the most sense for you. Did you know you are invited to submit ideas for green living that we haven’t thought of? Please do! And now, we have a special challenge: participate in the #YourMealMatters event on Twitter, Tuesday 3/27 at 12:30 EST, come up with a new on-topic action for Practically Green, and you’ll be part of the fastest growing and most influential database of sustainable next steps around.

Details from GoodGuide’s blog (please read to the end!):

Do you think that sugary breakfast cereal is only going to affect your waistline (and maybe lead to an energy high that will crash by lunchtime)? Think again. Did you know that your daily bowl could also be contributing to unethical working conditions, the destruction of nutrient rich soil or other environmental and social downfalls?

Food production has changed dramatically over the past several years, making food cheaper at the expense of our health and the environment. While some would argue that the industrial food system has brought efficiency and reliability to our food supply, the changes in how we get our food have resulted in a major disconnect between consumers and the rest of the food system. However, there is a growing movement to address this disconnect, bring mindfulness back to eating, and show people that their meals do indeed matter. We’re getting in on the action, and so can you: now is your chance to learn how small, simple changes to your everyday meals can have a big impact on your body, the environment and society.

Join the “Your Meal Matters” Twitter chat party on March 27 at 9:30am PST/ 12:30pm EST to learn how. GoodGuide (@GoodGuide) will be partnering with organizations across the globe including Greennovate  (@Greennovate), Roots of Change (@RootsofChange), EatingWell (@EatingWell) and Practically Green (@PracticallyGrn) to share ideas about how each of us can make an impact. We will spend an hour discussing everything from what to do with your leftovers to how to navigate the grocery store. Just follow the hashtag #YourMealMatters to join in!

The party doesn’t stop there! To add to the excitement, we will pick the best tips to be featured as Practically Green actions after the chat. If you have a great idea about how to (easily!) make healthier and environmentally friendly food choices, it could be broadcast to the entire Practically Green community and help thousands of other people make better meal choices.

Partners include:

Greennovate: A sustainable consultancy that aims to raise environmental awareness by providing innovative educational programs such as this “Three Meals That Matter” video.

Roots of Change: Works to develop and support a collaborative network of leaders with interest in establishing a sustainable food system that share a commitment to changing our food thinking, food markets, and food policies.

Practically Green: A community for people striving to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Provides tools that make green actions much simpler, more personal and fun.

EatingWell: A bi-monthly national food and health magazine and website that provides the inspiration and information people need to make healthy eating a way of life through recipes, cooking tips, health information and coverage of food news and sustainability issues.

We are also excited for organizations including Meatless Monday (encourages going meatless on Mondays to improve the environment and personal health) and Sustainable Table (educates consumers on food-related issues and works to build community through food) to join in the chat and lend their expertise. Let us know in the comments section if you will be attending also!

Stay tuned on Facebook and Twitter for unfolding details! We are eager to field your ideas for new actions that everyone in the PG community will love to check off and add to their goals.

Spring Cleaning might include tidying up your medicine cabinet and getting rid of all your outdated and unneeded prescriptions and other meds. Wait! Before you toss those pretty pills into the trash, please read this:

Got a medicine cabinet filled with unused pills and expired half-taken prescriptions? Think before you toss them! Medication can pollute our waterways, interfere with the reproductive systems of aquatic life, and circle back as unwanted residues in tap water. While some drugs can be put in household trash or flushed down the toilet, it all depends on the medication.

If there is no proper disposal label or instructions on your pill bottle, call your pharmacy for advice. They may even run a take-back program. If your prescription is safe for household trash, you’ll need to do some precautionary work first including removing the label and hiding the pills so no one will take them (children, adults, or raccoons)—accidentally or on purpose. You can do this by mixing them with a non-edible substance (kitty litter, dirt, coffee grounds) in a sealed bag. Grinding or crushing the pills isn’t advised as inhaling the resulting dust could be unsafe.

Image courtesy New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation, www.dec.ny.gov

Check for community drug take-back programs in your area. The Drug Enforcement Administration sponsors take-back days throughout the U.S. On one day in 2011, they collected more than 377,086 pounds of unwanted or expired medications at 5,327 take-back sites.

Several national pharmacies also offer mail-back programs.

If what’s in your medicine cabinet is a controlled substance, it’s considered household hazardous waste and will need to be disposed of accordingly. Call your municipality or look on Earth911.com to find a hazardous waste collection site near you.

• The Associated Press: Pharmaceuticals Found In Drinking Water
• WholeLiving.com: Ask Mindy — How Should I Dispose Of Medications?
• Bookmark This Site: DontFlushDrugs.org
• New York State Dept. Of Environmental Conservation: Drugs In NY’s Waters
• FDA.gov: How To Disposed Of Unused Medicines
• US Drug Enforcment Administration: Drug Disposal–National Take-Back Initiative

Cleaning Green is pretty simple, really.  You can postpone major dirt purges by having a few rules about Taking Shoes off at the Front Door and not allowing Food outside designated eating areas. You might even ask the smokers in your life to desist in your space.

Easy tip: Take off Your Shoes! These spiffy flats can be admired from across the room — no need to tromp them all around indoors!

Think about it: if everyone’s eating meals at their desk, or while standing up walking around, or grabbing pizza while splayed out on the sofa—to say nothing of smoking a butt here and there–your place is bound to get messy. Fast.

Once you’ve made up your mind to clean, here are few guidelines:

1) Be picky. As in, be selective about your cleaning products: read labels and don’t use anything containing ingredients you can’t pronounce. You might be surprised how easy it is to use natural ingredients for great results. Ingredients like vinegar, lemon, and hot water. (As our editorial director Lexy Zissu likes to say, you may feel as though you’re mixing salad vinaigrette, but trust us, these ingredients are effective!)

To clean microwave: lemon + vinegar + glass bowl + damp cloth

2) Be careful. If you absolutely must use a strong chemical product to get rid of a horrendous stain, then be careful about it: open windows to let fresh air in, and wear protective gloves/goggles if need be. Do not let your pets or kids nearby.

Fresh air is Mother Nature's cleaning secret (Andrew Wyeth painting "Love in the Afternoon")

3) Be mindful of how much water you use when you clean. Must you use hot water, or would or lukewarm do? A few degrees can make a big difference to your energy bill. Think about what happens next to that water. If you use natural cleaning products, can you reuse the greywater to water plants or rinse off your driveway, balcony, front gate, or dog?

4) Plan ahead. Do you go through a six-pack of paper towels when you tackle a cleaning project? Are they made from recycled paper? Consider a reusable cloth rag or towel instead.

We’ve got 19 green cleaning actions on Practically Green, and we’d love to have 20. Check out Switch to a natural all-purpose cleaner and Stop dry cleaning your clothes (or never start); or Clean your microwave safely and the DIY favorite Make your own cleaners, including laundry detergent. Try one and let us know how you do! If you have an idea for green cleaning action #20, we’d love to hear from you.

Note:  This post is repurposed from Cuddledown’s blog, “The Bedding Snob.” If you’ve ever wanted to create a comfortable night’s sleep for yourself, you may already know about Cuddledown, the Maine company that offers topnotch bedding stuff — sheets, pillows, down comforters, pjs, much of it organic.

So what’s in it for us? Well, Practically Green is working hard to get all 400+ actions up on our new Pinterest site. A huge task! Please have a look and let us know what you think! Our hope is to become the most fun and interactive green initiative in the Pinterest community.

As we speak, we are developing a board where you can pin your favorite green products. How cool! That’s right, we are interested in what you are interested in — and what better way to express that than using Pinterest? Here is an example of my favorite green products that I will be posting on the new board:

Yummy Applegate Farms products that are healthier and more sustainable for our future!

My favorite go-to natural cleaner that is great and eco-friendly!

Instead of using plastic bags, I use this great product for my grocery shopping: Urbanista.

To conclude, here are the necessary steps for you to be involved with this popping new trend. Step one: GET A PINTEREST ACCOUNT! Step two: follow us! Step three: say goodbye to your family, friends, colleagues as your life will be consumed by pinning and repinning every chance you can get. Step four: Please be sure you either own any images you pin OR have permission from whoever does. Copyright, it is called. Step five: go wild!

So this is me, Nikita Sahgal. Practically Green intern. Lover of all things Indian. Environmental fanatic.

In celebration of the 4th annual Fix a Leak Week, here’s a set of water-saving actions you can tackle at home — or ask your building management to address.

Did you know that an American home can waste, on average, more than 10,000 gallons of water every year due to running toilets, dripping faucets, and other household leaks? Nationwide, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year. That’s why WaterSense reminds Americans to check their plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems each year during Fix a Leak Week.

Today, Fix leaky faucets and valves:

Guess what? In the average American home, the amount of water wasted from leaking valves is almost as much as is used to shower! That translates to over 3,000 gallons of water—not to mention money—possibly wasted yearly per house. No joke.

If you decide to replace faucets, look for the WaterSense label, which certifies both water efficiency & the ability to provide adequate flow.

While water has traditionally been a cheap and easily obtained resource, the future is less clear. Decreasing the amount of water wasted by leaks helps to maintain a natural balance and save water for future use. This is smart even in places that currently have no droughts. A least 36 states expect water shortages within the next five years.

Park Howell is a water champion in Arizona, with zillions of no-brainer ideas for saving water in drought-prone climates: wateruseitwisely.com

If you have a leaky faucet, fix it!

Check for hidden trickles of water by shutting off all of your faucets and checking the reading on your water meter. Leave the faucets off, and after a few hours check the reading again. If the number has increased, you have a leak. Time to play sleuth to find out where it’s coming from.

Check and double-check your faucets and showerheads for stray drips of water. If they’re the culprits, it’s a pretty simple fix.

To check your toilets, put a couple drops of food coloring in the tank. If the bowl begins to turn the color of the food coloring, you may have a leak.

Professor Toilet from American Standard blogs on water-saving tips. Follow him on Twitter @ProfessorToilet!

Thank you, Practically Green user Peggy Isham, for telling us about the Green Streets Initiative, which invites Boston-area groups to participate in a Car-Free Challenge on the last Friday of every month beginning March 30th! A pack of local retailers offer a variety of specials on these Fridays (we haven’t gotten beyond the free class at O2 Yoga, personally). Corporate sponsors range from the American Heart Association to Zipcar.

How about it? Is there a challenge like this where you live? Email GreenStreets for tips on how to get started in your town!

Grand Central Station sends millions of commuters in and out of New York City daily

We are going to assemble the Practically Green team for this challenge… even if our inveterate car commuters complain, we can ask them to join us for a part-way leg! (Already wondering if Working from Home counts.)

For more info on the Boston-area Walk/Ride Day Corporate Challenge, click here. Follow them @walkridedays and on Facebook.

What do people do on the subway to work?

For more info about why Taking Public Transportation to Work is so impactful, please read on.

Not near a bus route? Could you possibly Walk to Work? Bike to Work? Carpool? Imagine if we all did this once a month, as the Green Streets Initiative suggests. What if we did it once a week? Every day?

Over 50 percent of Americans have access to mass transit, but only 4.5 percent use it regularly. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) found that the most energy efficient households are located within close proximity to a bus or rail line. The members of these households drive an average of 4,400 fewer miles annually than people in similar households with no access to public transit.

It all depends on where you live... and work. Santa Barbara offers scenic mass transit

When you take public transportation, you reduce congestion, emissions, and energy. It’s also kind on the wallet; APTA says an individual can save $9,293 annually commuting via mass transit. A family with two commuters can save more, or downgrade to one car and have one person using mass transit to get to work or school. Every trip counts, if you’re using it once a week, several times a week, or daily. The more you do it, the bigger the eco-impact. Added benefits to letting someone else get you to and from work: there’s time to read and respond to emails.

It is significantly easier to rely on public transportation when you live and work near a station or stop. If you’re in the market for a new home or apartment, prioritize access to public transportation. Or park and ride.

Even proximity can’t eliminate some of the challenges that come with public transportation: coordination, schedules, and service. Thankfully many employers are supportive of (and get incentives for) public transportation use. Speak with your manager to find out what your company offers.

• PublicTransportation.org: Riding Public Transit Saves Individuals $9,293 Annually
• About.com: Public Transportation–Fast Track To Fewer Emissions And Energy Independence
• PracticallyGreen.com: My Love/Hate Relationship With Public Transportation
• American Public Transportation Association: Access To Bus And Rail Lines Reduces Driving

If you think race car  drivers aren’t green, think again.

Leilani Munter

Leilani Munter is one professional race-car driver who personifies champion performance at the track — and environmentalism. Known as “Carbon-Free Girl,” she’s working for tire recycling, racetrack composting, energy-efficiencies like LED lighting, and bio-fueled cars. Leilani has been thinking and acting sustainably for years – and she’s been eating that way as well. Last month at Daytona she launched an eco-education program to “educate and engage the 75 million race fans in the USA and inspire them to rethink their day to day habits for our planet. Each time my car hits the track we address a different environmental issue and have a specific call to action.” Since 2007, she’s adopted an acre of rainforest “every time I sit in a race car, since the emissions are always a question.” Leilani plans to run a “Fueled by Veggies” car later this season.

“The incongruity is part of what makes going green in this sport so impactful,” said Michael Lynch, Nascar’s director of green innovation. “There’s a bias that the sport is not green and therefore the fans aren’t green.” (NYTimes.com) We’re impressed with the organization’s sincere efforts to recycle, conserve, and even using sheep to mow the grass!

We caught up with Leilani Munter between races recently.

“I’ve always liked to go fast. The more races I win, the more people will listen. I know what you’re thinking: race-car driving is not green. I completely agree, And that is exactly what I intend to change.”

PG: Why is eating vegan so important to you?

Leilani: Everyone associates carbon footprint with fuel – cars, trains, ships, racecars, but 40% more greenhouse-gas emissions are coming from livestock raised for food.

PG: What’s you favorite Practically Green action?

Leilani: I’m a big supporter of MeatFree Mondays. I love the one-day-a-week approach. It’s really not so hard to make the change. I love cooking for people using fake meat. People come over to my house and they’re shocked! What appears to be a grilled sausage with grilled onions on top, is not!

Plunge into mouth-watering recipe database to find meatless recipes, like this Savory Roasted Orange Tofu & Asparagus from EatingWell.com

Leilani echoes NYTimes “Eats” writer Mark Bittman when he says, “My point here is to make semi-veganism work for you. Once a week, let bean burgers stand in for hamburgers, leave the meat out of your pasta sauce, make a risotto the likes of which you’ve probably never had — and you may just find yourself eating ‘better.’”

Try Mark Bittman's "Recipes for the Semi-Vegan" — this collection appeared in The New York Times on 1.29.11

PG: What tips to you give people who are interested in shifting to a more plant-based diet?

Leilani: People always ask me, What new cookbooks do I need to get? My answer is You don’t! There are so many great meat substitutes out there, just start trying them. You do not have to change everything in your house! When a recipe calls for ground beef, use vegan ground meat. When It calls for milk, try almond milk. People say, You mean I can have white-wine mushroom chicken risotto? And I say, Of course you can! Just use a chicken substitute! I have people over and cook them Tofurky tacos and they say, WOW I’m eating tacos! It looks and tastes like meat!

Find out more about Leilani at CarbonFreeGirl.com, follow her on Twitter @LeilaniMunter, and check her out on Facebook and YouTube.

Blog PotLuck! Please share your favorite meatless dishes, recipes and ingredients…. Chef Bittman raved about Savage River Farms “real fake chicken” in the NYTimes yesterday.

Bittman was fooled by this “chicken” wrap from Savage River Farms.

Part of living sustainably is knowing what’s IN things, and on Practically Green that means house-paint, crayons, milk, furniture, mascara, bed linens, toothpaste, teddy-bears, and on and on.

If you're going to hug a teddy bear all night long, best it's an irresistible & organic one like this guy from NunoOrganic... but does he have a label to tell you what he's made of?

By now we’re accustomed to squinting at tiny ingredient labels–on tubes of sunscreen, on wine bottles; on chocolate bars, coffee, jars of strawberry jam–because it turns out there can be some pretty unsavory items included in normal everyday products. Usually, those ingredients are remarkable for their many syllables and acronymic or otherwise unpronounceable chemical-sounding names: Polybrominated biphenyl ethers (PBDEs), Bisphenol-A (BPA), Methylparaben, you know… that sort of name.

Major players are finally beginning to make this easier for the consumer:

• Walmart has a new “Great For You” icon to “help customers instantly identify food options that are better for them” — e.g., with reduced sodium and added sugars. Watch for this in April:

Items with the “Great For You” icon must meet rigorous nutrition criteria informed by the latest nutrition science and authoritative guidance from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Institute of Medicine (IOM). Developed in consultation with food and nutrition experts from the public and private sectors, as well as leading health organizations, the icon represents a collaborative and transparent effort to develop a trusted and reliable system for consumers.

• Chevy is introducing an enlightened label for its 2012 Sonic and plans to affix to 2013 Chevrolet vehicles later this year.

This new Ecologic label from Chevrolet includes info about fuel-efficiencies, end-of-life recyclability, and responsible manufacturing... not just horsepower and cylinders!

More on both initiatives and others as they roll out.

For today, try this new action: find inspired labels on any three items and tell us what they are!

Hint, we already blogged about Levi’s customer-care tag a few months ago, Conscious Shopping: When Blue Jeans are Green.

Levi's partnered with Goodwill on this tag to keep billions of pounds of unwanted clothing out of landfills. Kudos!!

Is there a Home You and a Work You? Do you tend to recycle more at your house, or at your office? If you’d like to green up your working environment, consider this action:

Use Eco-Friendly Office Supplies

Offices don’t tread lightly on the environment. Think of a conventional, cubicle-filled setting and all of the paper, computers, phones, printers, pens, pencils, and lighting involved. Imagine the resources and electricity needed to keep it all running.

Can you find the 10 items in this office that could be more eco-friendly? (Thank you @GreenisUni for excellent photo archives!)

While there are broad changes that can be implemented in any office to reduce this impact—minimizing electricity use, purchasing only the greenest electronics, instituting a recycling program—smaller changes are important, too. Buying eco-friendlier and recycled office supplies can help.

Most of us have a sense of why virgin paper has such a heavy impact—the harvested trees, the manufacture, the bleaching and dying, and eventually the staggering amount of paper that never gets recycled at the end of its useful life—adding more waste to our already overstuffed landfills. But have you ever considered what you’re writing with? By some estimates, more than 14 billion pencils are produced every year—many made from wood from ancient forests. Add to that the billions of pens, highlighters, crayons, and markers used in offices–and never recycled. That’s a lot of resources.

Are your office lights on all night long, when nobody's there?

Ask your office manager to switch to greener supplies, including recycled content notebooks and printer paper. These are widely available. Form a green committee to advise if need be.

Add reusable plates to the office kitchen—or at least paper plates and napkins containing recycled content.

Pens and pencils made from recycled materials can be purchased. There are also pencils manufactured from FSC-certified wood. Some pens only require refills rather than entirely new pens when they run out.