Eating local when gardens are abundant is one thing, but what about eating local in Boise, Idaho in January? That’s exactly what two friends named Randi and Janet challenged themselves to do.

Janet: “I had a few goals going into this challenge, including a transition to healthier local food habits and reducing my recycling by focusing more on “pre-cycling.”

Randi: "I was in a sustainable frame of mind... I wanted to do something significant. Healthy for me, my family--and less impactful on the planet."

Practically Green: How did you ever decide to do this?

Randi: Janet and I had lunch in early December. We got the idea to develop a personal challenge for 2012 and support each other. I’d just completed a class at Northwest Earth Institute called “People, Place, and Planet,” so I was in a sustainable frame of mind… I wanted to do something to appreciate where food comes from, something that would be healthy for me, my family, and the environment. I was questioning excessive packaging and what really was available from local sources. I wanted to now begin to answer those questions, and better understand what was available organically, locally, especially this time of the year.

Janet: It’s one thing to eat local in Boise during the gardening season – and Randi and I both have vegetable gardens. But in the dead of winter? We decided to try it at an intense level for the month of January.

Randi and Janet did their homework in December. They interviewed local experts and researched local food offerings. They aligned their primary focus around foods/products locally grown and produced in Idaho, and they also included Oregon and Washington.

IdahoPreferred.com has this keyed map of local food sources; there's likely to be a similar resource for your region

PG: Any a-Ha moments?

Randi: One tip, set aside time on Sunday afternoon and cook for the week. Potatoes, legumes, hearty soups and stews.

Janet: Before the January challenge, I didn’t really enjoy cooking or planning meals.  When we initially discussed the challenge in December, my hands were sweating at the thought of doing this challenge. I knew I needed to develop healthier habits around food, but prioritizing the time and making it happen seemed like a big undertaking. But to my surprise, there are many local options to choose from in Idaho. The transition was much easier than I anticipated and I actually do enjoy planning meals and cooking now. I also find I’m not wasting food (at the end of the week) by adopting easy strategies and investing this time. These are habits I’m carrying forward past January.

Randi: I was amazed at how wonderful this was from a community perspective. Everyone at our local farmer’s markets was so helpful, supportive and interested in what Janet and I were doing.  Not only was it eye-opening and fun to discover the variety of delicious local food sources, it was enriching to meet the people behind them all.  These connections and relationships will be ongoing. The other thing “that’s next” for me is to learn how to can, freeze, and preserve all the bounty from my husband’s organic garden this summer and fall… so we can enjoy during the winter months next year.

Janet: My family drinks a lot of milk. I calculated: we consume an average of 140 or 150 gallons a year. I recycle the plastic jugs, but one of my goals in doing this challenge is to also reduce the amount I’m recycling and focus on “pre-cycling,” i.e., eliminate the demand on resources before I use them. I’ve transitioned to now local milk bottle exchange and I have completely eliminated the need to recycle the plastic. It was so easy to make the transition and it’s another outcome I’ll continue moving forward too.

Mid-month they began craving organic strawberries; Janet started texting Randi, “I miss lettuce!”

It helps to have an enlightened food-services team at work: "HP Cafeteria board in Boise with some of our local farms & produce listed available in the cafeteria daily. The board is located just inside the entrance of the Cafeteria. It’s a great reference for considering options to everyone’s daily diet."

What’s next for these two? They’re thinking about a blog and we’re urging a cookbook. Enjoy their recipes below. We’ve included local sources for you Boise residents, and to inspire others to seek out Winter Farmers Markets and CSAs in their areas. (Community Supported Agriculture programs are hopping–even in winter in New England! See FarmFreshRI’s excellent directory, and You Go Wishing Stone Farm!).

Local find: Zursun Idaho Heirloom Beans

Note: Janet writes a blog as a result of her expedition to Antarctica last year. Go there for details on this January Local Expedition!

Get inspired! See all of Practically Green’s Locavore actions:

• Buy local produce seasonally
• Plant a vegetable garden
• Plant containers for herbs or vegetables
• Shop at a farmers’market
• Shop local businesses regularly
• Sign up for CSA (community supported agriculture)
• Use a sustainable caterer

Order Idaho White Cheddar from Ballard Cheese in Gooding, Idaho

Janet sourced tasty flour tortillas from Casa Valdez in Caldwell, Idaho

A few recipes/menu options from Janet and Randi:

– All-Idaho Breakfast or Lunch Burrito

• Local farm eggs, scrambled in CloverLeaf butter
• ½ Idaho potato, cubed, with diced Idaho onion (to taste)  and sautéed in CloverLeaf butter til tender
• Applewood-smoked bacon, diced and sautéed from Porterhouse Market (optional)
• Shredded cheese from Ballard Farms
• Flour tortillas from Casa Valdez

Note:  You can also add or substitute in your favorite legumes as well.

Place ingredients in center of slightly warmed flour tortilla and fold to make burrito.  Further warm in low-heat oven (wrapped in foil) or in microwave (not wrapped in foil).

Ingredient sources: Local eggs: fairly plentiful here; I bought mine at Stonehenge Produce. CloverLeaf butter: Buhl, ID. Potato: same as eggs; Idaho potatoes are in every major grocery store here. Applewood smoked bacon: purchased in Eagle, ID at Porterhouse Market. Cheese: Ballard Farms, Gooding, ID. Casa Valdez tortillas: Caldwell, ID. Legumes: Boise Co-op and Stonehenge Produce

– Quick Flavorful Favorites…

Local Butternut squash (cooked, 1-inch slices). Squash purchased from Capital City Farmer’s Market (Boise) in November. Preparation Note: Peel, cut in half length-wise and bake for 40 minutes on 300 (or until tender).  Slice in 1-inch pieces. Enjoy immediately or store in the refrigerator to reheat for healthy snacks during the week.

Large bowl of local Fuji apples for easy family access. Fortress Brand from Fruitland, ID. Purchased from Stonehenge Produce (Boise)

Toasted local potato bread, Zacca Red Pepper Hummus (spread) and top with Purple Sage Herb Farm fresh basil. Hummus and Basil: both local and purchased at the Boise Co-op.

Potatoes aren't the only tasty item on Idaho's menu in January!

All Idaho Breakfast – French Toast

• Potato Bread from Café de Paris (local bakery)
• Local farm eggs
• Local red potatoes
• Idaho Huckleberry Syrup
• Cloverleaf Butter and Milk
• Lavender pepper
• Applewood smoked bacon (optional)
• Apple slices

Mmmm... bet Dorothy's wild Huckleberry Syrup is delish

Ingredient sources: Local farm eggs: Stonehenge Produce, Boise, ID. CloverLeaf butter and milk: Buhl, ID (available through Stonehenge Produce in Boise). Lavender Pepper: Starlight Brand from Star, ID. Purchased at Porterhouse Market Eagle, ID. Potato: same as eggs; Idaho potatoes are in every major grocery store here. Applewood smoked bacon: purchased in Eagle, ID at Porterhouse Market. Apples: purchased at Stonehenge Produce, Fortress Brand from Fruitland, ID. Huckleberry Syrup: Homemade by Dorothy brand, Boise, ID purchased at the Boise Co-op.

No matter what you’re celebrating, family time and school vacation means a busy kitchen!

Cooking Quesadillas ChopChopMag.org

You can tell we’re obsessed with great healthy food on Practically Green. We follow lots of foodies to stay inspired and informed @practicallygrn; e.g., @EatingWell, @WholeFoodsPR, @CKummer, @barry_estabrook, @Food52, @famdinner. We can never resist a new cookbook. Some of our favorites this year:

The Art of Eating Well won 2011 James Beard Award for best Healthy Focus cookbook

Check out Alice Waters’s EdibleSchoolyard project

Thank you, Corby Kummer, for pointing out two excellent books for leftovers, aka recycling food:

And one from last year that’s truly stained/beloved by now:

We had a Q & A with Sally Sampson of ChopChop magazine to get psyched to involve friends and relatives and have a great time in the kitchen this season–not just eating and drinking but also dreaming up menus and helping to prepare.

PG: Lots of families will be home together during the school vacation and what better time to get cooking! Please give us a few pointers.

ChopChop: Cooking is one of the best ways for families to bond. It’s also a great way for kids to take ownership of their health. ChopChop’s mission is to educate kids to cook and be nutritionally literate. The first step in this process is getting kids excited about spending time in the kitchen and making them an integral part of meal preparation. To draw them in, let them pick what you will make together.  Show kids what to do, and then let them do it themselves or with help, when necessary. Even very young children can measure, pour and stir. Make sure each young chef has an age appropriate task that let’s them feel that they are part of the process.

Baked Veggy Frittata

PG: What are some recipes that families can do together for fun meals — e.g., dinner where everyone does something, even smaller kids.

ChopChop: Recipes that involve everyone are the most exciting for families. Our Baked Vegetable Fritatta is an example of this. An older child can help chop vegetables and grate cheese (organic, if possible!). A younger child can measure out ingredients and help crack the eggs. Either can help stir the vegetables and add ingredients. Adults can move the dish from stovetop to oven, and everyone can eat it.

PG: Looking ahead to the New Year, what are some great recipes and strategies for bringing delicious lunches to school and work?

ChopChop: Try this great recipe for lemony hummus (from White House chef Cris Comerford) spread onto a wrap and filled with turkey and cheese. We also had a romaine lettuce roll up filled with hummus, vegetables, pumpkin seeds and rice. Many of these wraps and sandwiches can be made with leftovers right after dinner. Salads are always easy, but make sure the dressing is in a separate container so it doesn’t get soggy. Remember that salad doesn’t have to be just lettuce and vegetables.

Lettuce Roll-Up

Don’t give your kids food you don’t think they should be eating! Sit down with them and make a list of what they want and plan lunch options together. Put in a few different textures and flavors for variety-some crunchy (carrots or peppers), some chewy (dried fruit), some sweet (apple sauce) and some spicy (like our spiced pumpkin seeds).

Many of these recipes are available under the lunch section at chopchopmag.org.

Getting ready for some serious year-end partying? Consider using biodegradable or recycled tableware!

No matter what you’re celebrating, you can kiss goodbye the cheezy paper party supplies. SustyParty has amazing hand-stamped and colorful compostable plates and cups, just in time for your year-end bashes.

Every once in a while, reusable plates are truly not an option. Unless you have a lot of like-minded guests who would be happy to BYO table settings (a rare but fantastic group of people!), the next best option is to look for party goods made of recycled plastics or bio-based materials. Choosing either minimizes waste as well as the consumption of fossil fuels, a non-renewable resource.

Compostable hand-stamped star cup made of sugarcane bagasse

Heart cups “These babies are also tough: microwave, freeze or put boiling liquid on 'em”

Jessica Doubilet and Emily Holsey met each other at a party (where else) in New York, and they’ve teamed up on a terrific inventory of cool party products that won’t add stress to groaning landfills.

“We wanted to bring FUN to sustainability.”

Plates are compostable & recyclable. Colored w/ natural dyes. Made of tapioca, potato, and grass.

At the end of the day, we ask ourselves: Will this product be good for the environment, the people who made it, and the people who will use it? We also screen our products for these specific standards.

Organic party crown is machine washable, comes w/ a pack of attachable felt shapes: critters (see fish in photo), flowers and numbers 0-9. Update age year after year!

All products must meet at least three of these attributes: renewable (made from a renewable resource); compostable (it biodegrades in 180 days); recycled (made from mostly recycled content); regulated (3rd party verifications and certifications such as Fair Trade or B Corp or Cradle to Cradle); green energy (produced by green energy); made in the USA; durable; non-toxic; artisanal producer.

Shop by color, theme, category, or material

Picture one of these non-toxic, biodegradable straws in your next peach rum colada!

Watch for an expanded product line in 2012 (hint: wedding) and check out their blog for updates; join SustyParty on Facebookand follow them @sustyparty.

P.S. Don’t forget to recycle the corks!

And click here for a quick reminder of 11 sustainable party tips:

Close friends of Practically Green know the story: Susan’s son Hunter was diagnosed with myriad allergies, she went crazy trying to find reliable clear information to make her household healthy and green, and she decided to create a LEED for Life: Practically Green.

Challenges remain. For example: how to stock up on candy and special treats that are safe for everyone, family, guests, visitors. Ta Da! A few weeks ago, Susan found a wonderful site called the Natural Candy Store. This small California company is run by two sisters, Dawn and Irene, and their mom Molly. You can see their favorite candy here.

For example, Caramella Vegan Salted Caramels, $13.95. Ingredients: Organic unrefined cane sugar, organic coconut milk, organic agave nectar, organic cocoa butter, organic dark chocolate (organic cocoa mass, organic unrefined cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, sunflower lecithin, natural vanilla), organic coconut oil, sea salt.

Our customers have a variety of lifestyle and dietary needs – natural, organic, vegan, gluten-free, allergen-free, corn syrup-free, kosher, food dye sensitivities, fair-trade, GMO-free, etc…. they pay very close attention to ingredients. We work hard to provide as much information as possible about each item, including a complete ingredients list…. We want to make it easy for anyone, whatever their special dietary requirement, to find candy they can eat and feel good about eating.

The increasing incidence of conditions like ADHD and autism is also a significant factor. Many parents find that a diet free of artificial ingredients reduces symptoms, with research suggesting artificial colors and preservatives do indeed increase hyperactivity in children.  Sugar always gets blamed for making kids hyper, but the research has never supported that — it’s probably all the artificial, petroleum-derived artificial colors and flavors that usually goes along with sugar that’s the real culprit!

Find out what food you buy regularly that contains artificial sweeteners (5 points on Practically Green)

Find out what food you buy regularly that contains artificial colors and flavors (10 points)

Find out what food in your house has artificial preservatives in it (5 points)

Choose organic or natural candy as a treat (10 points)

What makes this frosting blue? Cabbage!

Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans w carrot juice concentrate

Let’s stop talking and start ordering and enjoying! Dawn promises excellent customer service, and expedited deliveries are available for last-minute types.

Bonus: choose free samples with every order.

Cruise through the Candy Store guided by this key

Did we mention salted caramels? From Dawn’s description:

Enrobed in award winning milk chocolate & sprinkled with grey sea salt. Wrapped in festive holiday label! This simple & beautiful caramel highlights the richness of true Madagascar vanilla beans. From the first and only organic & fair trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the US!

Size Information: Each 1.83oz/52g box contains 4 caramels.

Ingredients: Sugar**, cream (milk)*, non-GMO corn syrup*, cocoa beans**, milk powder*, butter (milk)*, cocoa butter**, grey sea salt, ground vanilla bean*. *Organic **Organic & Fair Trade

Organic info: USDA Certified Organic

Theo Salted Caramels, Organic & Fair Trade

Last but not least, the Hangover Drops from England are miraculous, according to Dawn: “These all-natural, curative candies taste like yummy fruit punch (non-alcoholic, of course!).” Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup, citric acid, ginseng, natural flavors: bramble, lemon, orange, raspberry, rosehip, natural color: beetroot red.

Find them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @cleancandy

Perfect timing: just when we were beginning to obsess about all the egregious waste and outright landfill tossing that happens at this time of the year, along comes Robin Freedman with her tips on Waste Management for the Holidays:

Robin Freedman

“If each of us took a few small steps to reduce the waste we produce or increase the amount of materials we recycle during the holidays, we’d save a large amount of materials, energy and landfill space. There’s tons of ways to cut back on waste at this time of the year, or in any season!”

Robin works for Waste Management, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. It’s the largest “environmental services provider” in North America, so they know a thing or two about trash. WM looks at waste as a resource, focuses on how to turn around materials in the waste stream, and finds ingenious ways to repurpose waste – into new materials, as energy, and via conversion technologies. Here are her ideas for bringing waste management to your life, with links to Practically Green so you can watch these actions contribute to your score.

1) Composting can reduce the amount of organic waste produced in the home. Holiday meal preparation can generate a large amount of potato peels, fruit rinds, coffee grinds, other vegetable waste and eggshells, that can all be composted. A new compost bin filled with homemade treats can make a great gift for those looking to take recycling to the next level.

2) If you have a fresh tree, garland or wreaths, be sure to recycle them when the holidays are over. Check Earth911’s Christmas tree recycling center for local tree collection and recycling opportunities.

3) If getting your holiday decorations out of storage makes you ask yourself where you’ll find space to put them away in January, maybe it is time to clean out the attic or basement. Before you throw things away, consider whether an item still has a service life and is acceptable for donation to an organization such as the local Value Village or Goodwill Services.

4) Thousands of paper and plastic shopping bags end up in landfills every year. Reduce the number of bags thrown out by bringing reusable cloth bags for holiday gift shopping. Tell store clerks you don’t need a bag for small or oversized purchases.

5) When packaging gifts, consider reduced or no-waste wrapping options. Put a reusable bow on the gift; place the gift in a reusable bag such as a backpack or purse; or package small, themed gifts in a larger item – such as plates or tableware in placemats or a tablecloth or kitchen utensils in an apron or decorative dishtowel. Also, you can use last year’s wrapping as packaging material.

6) Make your own wrapping paper by using old maps, posters or pages from the newspaper or magazines. Recycled-content wrapping paper is also available.  Save bags and bows to use again and be sure to recycle the newspapers or brown paper shopping bags after the gift is opened, or use it for padding when shipping gifts.

7) Consider giving no-waste gifts, such as music or sports lessons, memberships to a gym, the philharmonic or a museum, favors like babysitting or tickets to a sporting event or concert.  Find out the gift recipient’s favorite charity and make a donation in his or her honor, or commit to volunteering with that organization.

With a little imagination and commitment, we can use this holiday season to create new traditions that help preserve the environment. For more information about Waste Management’s comprehensive list of recycling services, visit www.thinkgreenfromhome.com.

Truck picks up the Bagster, literally!

P.S. if you’re still looking for a very special gift for that certain someone, consider a Bagster – WM’s Dumpster in a Bag! It’s a 4’ x 2’ x 8’ collection bag, perfect for the DIY guy or gal on your list. Why’s it green? It takes the place of a metal dumpster, which has to be fetched off your premises one at a time; a truck can haul off 12 Bagsters in a single trip for proper disposal. Find out more at Bagster’s thriving Facebook page.

Taking a break for the holidays? Power down before you leave your office/dorm/apartment/house!

The lights are on... but is anyone there to use them?

Here’s a super handy checklist from the University of Chicago’s Sustainability office, complete with links to Practically Green actions for more info, tips – and points to boost your PG score.

What You Should Power Down and Unplug

*   *   *   *   *

Holiday lights and other decorative lights

Computer monitors

Laptops, computers, and chargers* (or put into sleep mode)

Computer speakers

Printers, copiers, scanners, and fax machines

Office AV equipment

Phone chargers

Coffee makers, microwaves, and other kitchen appliances

Clock radios

Televisions, DVD, and CD Players

We’ll add 3 ideas to the list:

Adjust your thermostat so it’s not needlessly heating/cooling your space

Close your window shades so you keep heat in (or out)

Install smart power strip to turn off electronics completely

Ilsa Flanagan, the University of Chicago’s founding Director for the Office of Sustainability

The Power Down program targets “anyone who’s going anywhere for the holiday break,” according to Ilsa Flanagan. “We have students in dorms and off-campus, post-docs and professors from all over the world, and many of them travel at this time of the year. It’s so simple and easy to take a few steps before you head out.”

With over 35,000 faculty, staff, and students at the University and the Medical Center, the energy savings can be impressive! Almost all electrical devices continue to draw power when plugged into an outlet. For example, any device with a remote control draws power while on “standby.” Any charger with an adapter, such as a laptop or phone charger, also draws a small amount of power even when the device is unattached. These small electricity drains add up when aggregated across the campus.

UChicago’s comprehensive green campaign targets plastic water bottles, recycling, and year-round energy usage. More info here: http://sustainability.uchicago.edu/ and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uchicagostudentsagainstbottledwater

Signage promoting tap water

We’ve already applauded Patagonia’s fantastic Black Friday ad on this blog: “It’s a classy reminder: Sometimes, the best Stuff is the stuff you already have. Which is why we have dozens of Stuff-related actions at Practically Green…” — and we loved the comments from readers:

Now two of our favorite and longtime deeply green friends have also blogged about Patagonia’s stunner message, and we wanted to capture them for you.

Wendy Gordon

First, from Wendy Gordon’s piece in The Huffington Post: “How I Spent my Black Friday Selling, not Buying, Patagonia Fleeces on eBay”:

….my plan this year for Black Friday was to sit out the retail game altogether. That was before I saw the ad… ”Don’t Buy This Jacket.” … It went on to encourage readers not to buy what they didn’t need and to sell their used Patagonia products on eBay…. So while I had promised myself I wouldn’t buy anything other than a quart of milk (we’d run out) on Black Friday, I made the transition effortlessly into über-cyber-saleswoman, posting every one of the fleeces my 20-something sons had outgrown on the retail site, along with all those shirts they’d really never liked in the first place.

Oh, it felt good. So good, in fact, that I ended up cleaning out three whole closets. What I couldn’t sell through the Patagonia initiative, I bundled up for the nearby thrift shop.

**************

Jeffrey Hollender

And, from Jeffrey Hollender’s blog, “Don’t Buy This: The Truth About Sustainability”:

Having not broken my obsession with the print version of The New York Times, I was thrilled to greet Black Friday by opening to a full-page ad from Patagonia that urged readers “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”

To the best of my knowledge, Patagonia has never purchased a full-page ad in the Times, and for this, the first time that they did, they are urging consumers to buy less stuff. This exhibits both true leadership and untarnished truth about what it means to be sustainable.

The copy reads: Don’t buy what you don’t need. Think twice before you buy anything.

Click here for Jeff’s complete post.

PGer Nick Rockwell (that IS a Patagonia vest?)

Thanks again to Chelsea stringer and Patagonia enthusiast Nick Rockwell, who told us about the ad before anyone else had mentioned it, and who caught a Cyber-Monday sequel in his email:

Sometimes when we want the advice of a chic, worldly, bossy big sister, and we mean that in the best possible way, we turn to blogs like Dominique Browning’s Slow Love Life, Zem Joaquin’s EcoFabulous, and Ronnie Citron-Fink’s EcoNesting, … and, Priscilla Woolworth’s Almanac.

These women are stylishly green, intelligently and brilliantly green: they’re strict about ingredients, family, and process; they seem to travel everywhere and know everyone; they always have fresh flowers; and they are ready with sharp poison daggers to stab greenwashers. Also, they almost always have a French grandmother.

From SlowLoveLife.com

We recently caught up with Priscilla for a Q & A. (The first in a series, if you like the idea!)

Q. How did you get started?

A. I started developing the concept for my store 6 years ago, when I couldn’t find the non-toxic cleaning products I needed when I was at my house in Maine in the summer. I started shipping them from Los Angeles to Maine a week before I was leaving! Just nuts! Also, my friends were always asking me where I bought things or asked for advice about my lifestyle. I never imagined having my own store, let alone online and I discovered it was the most natural thing for me to do. Maybe it’s in my genes…

(Ahh, yes… that Woolworth!)

Golden Rules painting by Priscilla Woolworth, 24" square, on wood

Q. What makes you bounce out of bed in the morning?

A. How did you know that I bounce out of bed in the morning?! I can’t wait to get to work, especially if I’ve just read something fantastic in the newspaper. I must share it right away. I am a compulsive sharer of good, inspiring, exciting information and all of it is connected to my mission of educating and inspiring the public to make changes they can feel good about.

Penguin egg cosy (or puppet?), made of carpet remnants. $12

Q. What’s your mission?

A. My mission is twofold: to provide my favorite practical non-toxic, organic, energy-saving, water-saving products in my store; and to be a trusted resource for information about living a more sustainable lifestyle. I am my own best customer and use most of the products I sell. The market bags, reusable produce bags, stainless steel compost pail, African kettle, olive soap, glass water bottles and Valentina outdoor composter are a few of my products I use every single day.

Here’s the “delightful Kettle”: “I keep it by my kitchen sink, where I pour water from unfinished glasses, or saved water from washing lettuce, etc. Do not put any soap in it, only water! When it’s filled up, I use it to water my potted plants outside my kitchen.”

African Water Kettle made of salvaged plastic. $12

Q. I’m interested in your big thoughts on why sustainable living is important. Why bother?

A. Sustainable living is the way we all need to live if we are going to have a chance at leaving our world a livable and hopefully better place for our children. People need to know that they don’t have to sacrifice their lifestyle but instead can transition easily to something as easy as using reusable market bags or water bottles. I have heard people say that anything we do won’t make a difference, and I strongly disagree. We all have the power to change the world by what we buy… if we all support, for example, the companies that make non-toxic cleaning products or the ones that use recycled paper for paper products, the more those products will become the norm rather than the exception. The awesome United States is a consumer society, so we as the consumers have a lot of power we don’t even realize. Everything we buy is tracked, and when more people spend their money buying non-toxic cleaning products rather than the traditional brands, those environmentally products will become more available and more affordable.

I am inspired so much by my French grandmother, who at 93 years old, has explained to me the way everyone used to live, decades ago: people bought local and produce in season, using market baskets or cloth bags. Very little was wasted and people lived more simply and were content with less. I feel there is a movement to aspire to this kind of lifestyle.

Priscilla's Valentina Outdoor Wooden Compost Bin

Q. We would love your personal recommendations for products and services that make the process easy and terrific.

A. The easiest recommendations are for things we do on a regular basis, such as shopping for food and personal care. Bring your own market bags with you, buy organic food whenever you can, and buy paper goods made with recycled paper. If you live in an area where water is getting scarcer, get in the habit of keeping a bucket in your shower to catch as much wasted water as possible and use it on your plants instead. EWG.org is a great resource when it comes to checking the safety of beauty products and suntan lotions. Check with your local DWP (Department of Water and Power) and find out what energy saving programs they are offering, and learn ways you can reduce the energy and water wasted in your home, and save money. Add indoor plants like a Spider plant, which acts as natural air cleaners, busting indoor air pollutants in your home or office.

Priscilla on a building, location TBA

Q. What are you doing posted on the side of that huge building?!

A. Just hanging around…

You can find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @ecowoolworth.

When we heard that one of the largest corporations in the world named all of its employees Head of Sustainability, we had to find out more. We spoke with Emma Peacock of Unilever Australasia, and she explained what’s going on down under:

Emma Peacock, Corporate Affairs, Australia & New Zealand, Unilever

Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan is an ambitious set of targets, ongoing globally. Here in Australia and New Zealand, we wanted to define our story and our contribution to the Unilever plan. The plan is a clear vision, and we wanted to put ourselves out there. We needed to unveil the Australia/New Zealand roadmap, and we wanted to do it in a way that would be noticed, and get people on board. It’s such an important part of our business, it’s truly part of everybody’s job! We frankly can’t do it unless everyone is involved. People in finance, people on the factory floor, in nutrition, in product development, all across the company. Everyone plays a role. So we decided that everybody is Head of Sustainability! We printed up 5 business cards for each of the 1800 employees – some of them had never had a business card before! It’s not a whole stack, it’s just 5, to show symbolically that You have a new exciting role.

1,800 employees are the Head of Sustainability, complete with business cards!

We gave everyone a new job manual, a fun piece, saying Here’s why YOU have been selected as Head of Sustainability. It’s really the only way we can achieve the growth we envision over the next ten, twenty, thirty years.

Head of Sustainability job manual delivered to every work station

We made posters featuring 6 different employees and put them up overnight. Each one describes the role of that employee in making a sustainable idea or change happen and why they are therefore the ‘Head of Sustainability.’ This goes with our “small actions, big difference” theme. People do simple things at home, at work here, and as part of a team — it might not feel like a big deal, but they all add up and can have massive impact…. We developed this campaign with the help of an agency Republic of Everyone. Clever people.

Mareana, Production Operator & Head of Sustainability

We’re guessing that other teams at Unilever will come up with fabulous ideas as well, and we look forward to hearing all about them — and being inspired by them! In fact, we’ve already noticed a handy Unilever sing-along shower app on Unilever’s Facebook page, which supports Practically Green’s shorter-shower actions. The app lets you choose length of shower to be timed (2 to 7 minutes) and choose from music that Wakes me up or Chills me out.

We call them UniCLEVER. Be part of it on Twitter with hashtag #SustLiving.

Shorter Shower Ballad app

Tailgate to heaven: grill, beer, food! There’s two months of football to go on the schedule, and SoCal Jocelyn Anne has some fantastic ideas on how to green up your tailgate festivities!

GREEN TAILGATE, by guest blogger Jocelyn Anne

Our guest blogger enjoys her tailgate in Southern California

We’re particularly excited about the opportunities for going even greener than years prior! It may mean digging a little deeper, stretching our brains, and perhaps investing a little more time than normal, but it also means bigger pay off than ever before, and I think, even more delicious samplings and drinks to be had!  So here’s to the greenest tailgates yet. Whatever team colors you’re rooting for, we’re all rooting for green around here.

First Things First: The BBQ

What tailgate, really, is complete without a barbecue?  So, let’s get the real answer when it comes to what’s green and what’s just not. If you have the budget for it, a hydrogen grill is about the very best because it produces zero emissions. Solar is probably a close second, but let’s face it, sun is a pre-requisite and it’s pretty time consuming (neither points good for tailgates). My fave is the corn grill: 100% efficient and burns a 100% renewable resource. Plus, no gases, creosotes, hydrocarbons or chemicals. And, bonus: it’ll never explode!  But, okay: benefit of the doubt, college student without the budget for a new-fangled green grill. What you do need to know is that propane beats out charcoal. In fact, charcoal has a footprint about three times greater than propane. I’m also a very big fan of the FlameDisk by uGO. You get 40 minutes of burning per recyclable disk, and it produces 90% fewer pollutants than a charcoal grill. And, if you already have a charcoal burning grill, you can easily make it a greener bbq by replacing the charcoal with eco-friendlier briquettes.

Even Before First things First?  The Beer

Let me preface, I’m not a beer drinker. But, I hear from the “crowd” that any real tail-gater gets started on the beer first. If you’re going to go green here, your very best option is to brew your own. I’ll let you research that on your own if you feel so inclined. Following brewing your own, the next best thing is to drink organic and locally brewed beer. We just so happen to live in a time when we can not only find beer made in an eco-friendly process, with locally grown organic and chemical/pesticide free hops and barley; but also, the buildings themselves are becoming more eco-friendly. Plus, for you beer drinkers, the good news is that the bigger the container, the better; in this case, we are keg approvers! Kegs eliminate glass bottles that don’t always get recycled and they can be re-used over and over.  Even better, they require less energy to keep cool and can often be found locally distributed. If you need a list of green-approved bottled beers, try these:  New Belgium Brewery, Sierra Nevada Brewing, Full Sail Brewing, Alaskan Brewing, and Great Lakes Brewing. (And don’t forget to submit your favorites on Practically Green!)    

Truly Most Important: The Food

This is basically why I go to tailgates. To go greener, consider ditching the burgers and dogs, at least traditionally speaking, and try some Boca burgers or Tofu dogs. Personally, I think the soy versions taste better, not to mention they should be better for you nutritionally speaking. Mix things up and do veggie shish ka bobs. Make some killer guacamole. Veggie tacos, anyone?  Or, a personal favorite: vegetarian chili. Some chips and super hearty chili, and I’m set. My favorite idea of all? Shop at the local farmer’s market before the game! Nothing like some warm, freshly baked pitas to go with that local hummus!

YUM!! Rosemary-Thyme pita chips from Food52.com (photo: Sarah Shatz)

The Bottom Line

Going green at a tailgate is really actually just as easy and simple as you want it to be.  Remember to go local and organic as much as possible.  Forget the disposables and bring your own dishes.  Recycle when you’re done and clean it up like you were never there.  If you can do that, Team Green will win every time!

Note on the author:

Jocelyn is a native Montana ranch girl who recently made the move to California, where she’s found it especially important to incorporate her green roots into her new city life.  She now works as a writer for Air & Water, an appliance e-retailer, where her research has greatly awakened her to just how much energy a single house drains in a day and how imperative it is to cut back and start conserving.  She’s vowed to skip central heating this year and opt for small, eco-friendly infra red heaters when she needs extra warmth this winter. But, if she does have to use central, you can bet she’ll be turning it down two degrees lower than standard room temperature. And if she isn’t convincing friends to unplug appliances and use low-flow faucets, she’s probably dragging them out to the farmer’s market to teach them about real food!

10 Rules for Conscious Eating, by Chris Keenan

Chris in action in the kitchen

• 1) Eat the colors of the rainbow. Not only is this good for your health, the more fresh fruits and vegetables you eat, the less meat and processed foods you eat, which are not as sustainable or environmentally friendly.

• 2) Plant a garden. You just can’t beat the taste of homegrown, garden fresh vegetables, but did you know having a garden is also environmentally friendly? A healthy garden is good for the soil, and it creates an environment for bees and other insects that play a huge role in our ecosystem.

Eat the Rainbow! (Photo credit: karimian @flickr)

• 3) Buy local. Organic is appealing to conscious consumers, but remember that the bulk of organic produce is grown thousands of miles away and must be flown in. Instead of buying organic, buy local, which traveled a much shorter distance.
• 4) Cook more. Preparing meals yourself is not only a great way to save money and eat healthier, it’s a great way to reduce waste. Plastic utensils, metal or paper containers, plastic bags and paper napkins can all be eliminated when you cook at home.

Rule 4: Cook More! (credit cheesy42@flickr)

• 5) Pack an eco-friendly lunch. Most brown bag lunches generate a lot of trash. The brown bag itself, plastic baggies that hold food, and the food containers themselves (i.e., yogurt). Use Tupperware containers instead of plastic bags and buy in bulk rather than buying individualized items. You can store your bulk items in the garage, just keep them away from the garage door and closer to the home. Also, keep everything sealed or you will attract bugs and rodents.
• 6) Kick your soda and bottled water habit. Recycling is good, but not having to recycle at all is even better. Say “no” to beverages that come in cans or bottles.
• 7) Participate in Meatless Mondays and eat more vegetarian meals. The less meat we eat, the greener we’ll be.
• 8) Buy green products. Whenever you have the option, chose brands that use recycled paper or are otherwise committed to environmentally safe practices. Support eco-friendly companies whenever possible.
• 9) Bake your own cookies. Instead of buying a bag of cookies, bake some. Processed foods, like cookies, are mass produced on equipment that uses a lot of energy. Then they are packaged in materials that you ultimately throw away and are then distributed all over the United States. Be green and bake.

Rule 9: Bake Cookies! (credit marshsu @flickr)

• 10) Buy free range, grass fed, and humane animal products. Factory farming is cruel and wreaks havoc on the environment.

Join in the discussion in the comments below and/or share the piece.

Chris & Rachel

About the Author: Chris lives in New Jersey with his wife Rachel and their baby boy. He works at a Mom & Pop operation.… He says “being middle middle class, living green and healthy can be difficult but we do our best. We mostly concentrate efforts on the mantra reduce, reuse, recycle; avoiding wastefulness; and keeping our energy consumption to a minimum — even if it means getting an earful from parents every time it’s cold out on why we won’t raise the thermostat higher. We run a food blog, thekeenancookbook.com.” Chris also writes for Precision Garage Door, and he maintains a personal house and garden blog.

Say you want to buy a new pair of jeans, and you’d like to be thoughtful about it. Consult the Good Guide, and you’ll find ratings for dozens of brands, from Tommy Bahama to H&M.

Top rank goes to Levi’s, so we called to find out more.

“Levi’s did its first lifecycle assessment in 2007,” Brianna Wolf told us. “We took two of our iconic products, 501 denim jeans and Dockers original khakis. Here’s what we learned: the greatest opportunity for improvement was at the beginning of the cycle – the raw materials stage — and at the end of the cycle, relating to consumer use.”

In the lifecycle of a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans, we’ve found that the largest water impact comes from the cotton growing process and through the laundry habits of consumers, after they leave our stores. But we can’t ask our suppliers and consumers to change their behaviors unless we’re also willing to make some changes ourselves.

Life Cycle of a Jean

Levi’s came up with this consumer care tag, which points to four (ok, five) actions you’ll find on Practically Green:

Wash only full loads of laundry (20 points)

Wash laundry in cold water (50 points)

Donate clothes to a charity (20 points)

Line-dry laundry seasonally (25 points)

Line-dry laundry all year (50 points)

Levi's Customer Care Tag

“We identified another big opportunity area in the cotton field. We joined the Better Cotton Initiative, which makes positive change happen across the supply chain. Our goal is to get better cotton into 20% of our products by 2015. So far we’ve got it in 2 million pairs of jeans!”

This infographic illustrates the process:

Another great reason to wear Levi’s: the water-reducing strategies developed for the Water<Less collection.

Last year, we announced the Levi’s® Water<Less™ collection – denim finished in a way that uses significantly less water. Up to 96 percent less for some products.

As a result of this innovative process, we produced nearly 1.5 million pairs of jeans for this year’s spring line while saving 16 million liters of water.

But we knew we could do more. So we’ve been working with our suppliers around the globe to spread these water-saving techniques.

And we’re proud to say that the Levi’s® global collection now includes nearly 12 million jeans in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Since we introduced the Water<Less collection, we have saved 156 million liters of water around the world. That’s 60 million days of drinking water for communities in need.

Here’s something else you can do with old jeans: insulate your walls! (Levi’s estimates it has 25,000 jeans in the walls of its new San Francisco headquarters.)

Add insulation to your walls (100 points)

What do you think? Will you look for Levi’s the next time you buy a pair of jeans?

Susan Mazur-Stommen is a cultural anthropologist focusing on how people adopt sustainable, green behaviors. She conducts her research from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy as the Director of Behavior and Human Dimensions, renowned for their States’ Scorecard for Energy Efficiency (see image ahead).

Susan argues that “in order to achieve true, lasting, behavior change in the area of sustainability, we have to use a multi-layered approach, tackling the problem with various tools and media. It’s important to think about the ‘whole person’ when we discuss behavior change, and that includes things like emotions, physical well-being, and how our environment may be affecting us on any given day.”

“For example,” she told us, “some popular ideas for going ‘green’ aren’t always very practical in terms of people’s real lives. Take line-drying, for example. Proponents fail to figure in the cost of the person who has to stand outside for an hour putting all those clothes on the line and then taking them back inside. When you consider the cost of that person’s labor, standing in the heat or cold, line-drying is not the ‘free’ energy saving solution it is often touted as, at least in terms of the individual and their limited time and physical energy.”

Susan gave us a few further insights from the social and behavioral sciences to share with you.

1) Social norms:

Robert Cialdini tested messages about saving water on the cards you see propped up in the bathroom of a hotel. He found that the most successful was one that read, “Two-thirds of our hotel guests decide not to get fresh towels during their stay in order to save water, won’t you join them?”

Reason: People like to ‘stay in line’ or ‘tribe’ with their peers and neighbors, it is a powerful incentive.

Note: Practically Green’s leaderboards encourage you to choose more green actions!

2) Foot in the Door:

Robert Cialdini also tested the ‘foot in the door’ concept, which says that people are much more likely to agree to make a big change if they are first asked to make a very small change. It works like this: if you ask someone for a nickel, and then later go back and ask for a dollar, the people you asked for a nickel will be much more likely to give later (which of course widens the gap between givers and non-givers even more!)

Note: That’s why PG offers so many ’small’ actions, worth just 5 points but still very important! A handful from the Recycling section:

3) Reciprocity:

Offering someone something begins a relationship of give and take that people find extremely hard to resist. This is one of the reasons charities include those address labels in their appeals: they have already given you something, and now you are enmeshed in an obligation to return their ‘gift’ even if you don’t like it, want it, and did not ask for it!

A utility could utilize a combination of ‘reciprocity’ and ‘foot in the door’ in a message. Say at the beginning of summer you want to get people to raise their thermostats in general to reduce peak load, you would send an insert in the mail, or an email that would read:

“Dear John Q Customer, we here at utility X appreciate how you have worked to save energy in your home these past few years.  To honor your commitment to energy savings, we have donated $50,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America. All we ask in return is that you commit to turning your thermostat setting up by ONE degree this summer.”

Next summer….the follow-up…

“Dear Customer, we really appreciate how much energy you and your neighbors saved last summer, and to recognize that, this year we have DOUBLED our donation to Charity X in your name. All we ask in return is that you consider turning up your thermostat by FOUR degrees this summer. If you decide to take the pledge, please send in the enclosed BRC. Thank you for your support!”

Now, theoretically, the combination of social norming, reciprocity, foot in the door, and a pledge (whereby you can also evaluate level of intent) should result in some serious savings.

And this leads to the final insight,

4) Grant McCracken’s “Diderot Effect”:

Susan told us the story of the French philosopher Diderot’s new bathrobe:

“He received a lovely new bathrobe, cherry red silk, and he was sitting in his study one evening with it on, and feeling terrific but then he began to notice that the fabulous new robe made the rest of his surroundings seem shabby. ‘I need a better chair,’ he thought. ‘A nice desk…. New wallpaper. The bookcases are a mess!’ The idea is to introduce a disconnect between the consumers’ old selves and their new selves which can result in their wanting to bring all of these parts of their identity back into line, or what McCracken calls, ‘unities’.  An example of this might be a new mom who carefully purchases Bisphenol-A free baby bottles, but at the same time drives a gas guzzler which pumps pollution into the air her baby breathes. The disconnect between her decisions begins to gnaw at her and pretty soon she considers replacing it. Thus a whole chain of actions goes into effect. Pretty soon this mom is evaluating her food choices, her indoor air quality, her household waste, inefficiencies at her job. The activity of bringing her lifestyle choices into ‘unity’ with one another is an example of the Diderot effect.

At Practically Green we see the Diderot effect every day: once people begin checking off actions on their dashboard, they begin to get addicted to the process, it takes on significance, they continue and eventually share their accomplishments with their friends and colleagues.

One more story from Susan, who says that simple social recognition can be a powerful driver for change:

“I once met an older gentleman named Frank, a retired maintenance worker. He likes to walk around town, and at the end of his block was a little pocket park that would have been a nice place to sit except that people were filling it up with discarded cigarette butts. He started cleaning it up every day.  Eventually he won an award from the city council. They put a plaque up and named the park after him. It wasn’t that complicated, but it made Frank feel great so he got even more involved. He started working at the public library, going to city council meetings. So this social recognition was effective. It was very cheap for the city to recognize Frank’s good works, and at the same time, they reaped the reward of his intensified volunteer efforts!”

Bingo: Practically Green gives badges when you complete sets of actions. For example, here’s the new Conscious Consumer badge. How would you like to join the 12% of PG users who have already earned it!!

Click here for the complete playlist of actions: http://practicallygreen.com/badges/conscious-consumer

Check out the ACEEE 2011 State Energy Scorecard… where are you? Follow ACEEE ion Twitter @ACEEEdc and join them on Facebook.

We’ve got a fabulous panel of experts coming to our Water webinar on November 16. Please mark your calendars for 1pm Eastern, full details coming soon!

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Meet Martin Wolf, one of our panelists; he’s the Director of Product & Environmental Technology at Seventh Generation. He also goes by “Scienceman.”

We asked Martin for the two or three most salient points he’d like to address during our Webinar, and here’s one of them:

Our water supply pipes and our drain pipes are connected.  What goes out our drain pipes goes into a system, and is brought back into our homes and other buildings through our supply pipes.  Knowing this, how should we change our thinking about what we put down our drains?

That got me thinking about my kitchen sink at home, and the drain in the sink that leads to a disposal, which grinds up all our food scraps into… pulp? mush? and then all of that glop goes … where?

To the rescue: Bootstrap Compost, a can-do composting entrepreneur who supplies households and businesses in metro Boston with a cool bin, lined with a biodegradable bag. It has a happy green lid and it looks just fine on the kitchen floor.

Who can resist this message from Bootstrap’s impresario, Andy Brooks?

Bootstrap Compost is Greater Boston’s only year-round kitchen scrap pickup service. We use bikes, trains, hand trucks, and the occasional vehicle to collect and transport compostable material from houses, apartments, dorms, co-ops, and condos. Additionally, we’ll happily collect scraps from farmer’s markets, cafes, restaurants, concerts, festivals, cult gatherings — you name it. And the coolest thing is this: all active Bootstrap customers receive a portion of super rich compost 10-15 weeks after their initial deposit to the Bootstrap Compost bank. The second coolest thing is this: We donate finished compost to urban gardens in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.

I was amazed at all the scraps we had accumulated after one simple dinner for two and a light breakfast the next morning – and this was before we scooped in our coffee grinds! There’s something a bit intimate, revealing, about showing you our compost, but here you are:

Personal compost, after one dinner, half a breakfast, and before coffee grinds

Turns out Andy is not alone: there are compost services in many other cities (go Philly Compost and New York Compost!), some of which are actually provided by the municipality (go San Francisco and Seattle!). And composting isn’t just for home: we know restaurants, companies, and even a major-league baseball team that composts 85% of its waste (go, Seattle Mariners!).

Find out why Compost kitchen food waste is worth a big fat 100 points!

Have you ever considered composting at your home, office, school? This might just be the way to ease into the practice…. Google “NAME OF YOUR CITY + compost pickup” and see what you get!

In a couple of months, the reward: they’ll deliver a bag of urban black gold – worm-processed soil that’s perfect for houseplants this winter.

Thank you, White Flower Farm

Energize Phoenix is a partnership between a city, a local power utility, and a university.

“We can be just as sophisticated about getting you to reduce your energy consumption as somebody selling you a Hummer can be to get you to increase your energy consumption,” says Arizona State University social psychologist Susan Ledlow, as reported by Emily Badger on The Atlantic.com.

Ledlow wants to create the social norm that energy conservation is something everyone does. This is a distinctly different message from “energy conservation is something you should do.” She wants people to hear that many, many people care about this, and that those people are doing something about it. “The more people hear that,” Ledlow says, “the more it becomes a social reality.”

We caught up with Badger on how she became interested in the subject of environmental psychology:

“It’s a relatively new field, the idea of taking marketing best-practices on how to influence people to behave sustainably, increasing their energy efficiencies, for example, as opposed to consuming cars or building McMansions…. There was an existing model that said if you give people the right information about how to make efficient choices, stick it up on a web site, eventually they’ll change. But that’s not enough, and people realize it. Cities all over the country have posted information on how you can get your lawn clippings picked up, but it just sits there! And now there’s a new imperative: with the economic downturn it’s simply not practical for people to be wasteful any more. We’re all looking for ways to save money.”

Emily Badger, Reporter

Susan Ledlow, Social Psychologist

Badger says that real-life energy efficiencies can go viral via the power of peer pressure: “it’s possible to envision a norm that catches on in one block, spreads up the street and eventually to the neighborhood level. Neighbors chat about their retrofits, their bill savings during a rough economy. Then they see a familiar face on a subway ad for happy insulation customers. The idea spreads along the rail line. The average consumption figures on the monthly electricity bill tick down, and the norm expands out regionally.”

“People are far more persuaded by what everybody actually does, even when they say that they’re not,” Ledlow says. “There’s just experiment after experiment where you can get people to change their behavior to match the behavior of the people around them. And then they will swear that that’s not why they did it. Yet we know that happens.”

We know that positive behavior change happens at Practically Green — we hear this all the time; we share user comments on our Facebook page and via Twitter @practicallygrn. And Groups is part of it: registered users automatically join 4 Groups, including their state and zip code Groups.

My Groups (L to R): Facebook, Practically Green Staff, SXSWEco, Zip, State, Country, All of Practically Green

People love to compare their scores with their friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Have a look at the Practically Green Staff Group here.

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No wonder we felt a buzz in Boston when this state scorecard was released by the ACEEE last week; for the first time, Massachusetts ranks number 1.

From the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy 2011 Scorecard

Michael Sciortino, Policy Analyst, ACEEE

“In a sour year for the economy, energy efficiency remains a growth sector that attracts investment and creates jobs,” lead author Michael Sciortino says. “It’s just plain smart to invest in energy efficiency, and that’s what the leading states are doing. There are so many things that can be done… energy efficiencies are abundant anywhere in the country. And yes, some states take this scorecard as a call to action.”

Note to States: why not sign up at Practically Green?! That way you can compare your energy-efficient progress with your peers and boost your rank next year!

If you live in Georgia, and especially if you work in the metro-Atlanta area, you probably know about The Clean Air Campaign. The Clean Air Campaign works with commuters and employers such as Coca-Cola, UPS, Aflac, and hundreds more to reward employees for kicking the ‘drive-alone’ habit.

In the past 10 years, more than 32,000 Georgians have participated in the Cash for Commuters program, one of just a few rewards programs the non-profit offers. Click here for details and here for a sample application.

While we don’t offer cash at Practically Green, we do award mega-points and badges for changes like these ones:

Walk to work regularly (200 points)

Take public transportation to work regularly (150 points)

Carpool to work regularly (100 points)

Bike to work regularly (200 points)

Carpool to school one day a week (50 points)

We even have a Low Car Diet! http://practicallygreen.com/actions/low-car-diet

October 24-28 is Clean Commute Week, which encourages students throughout the state to get to class by bus, bike, on foot, or via carpool. To date, The Clean Air Campaign’s Clean Air Schools program has worked with more than 300 schools in 30 counties throughout Georgia … impressive. You can follow the progress of Clean Commute Week on Facebook.

We were curious about how the Clean Air Campaign got started, so we called its (aptly named) Director of Communications, Brian Carr. It turns out that the Atlanta Olympics were the catalyst, in 1996:

“We were focused on the twin problems of extreme traffic congestion and poor air quality in Atlanta,” Carr explains. “We were worried about millions of people visiting: the athletes, dignitaries, VIPs, and about our citizens, who were already having a tough time commuting to work. A diverse group of private-sector and public entities emerged to solve the problem – the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the Department of Transportation, the Sierra Club, Georgia Power, Georgia Pacific, a number of businesses downtown – all trying to address it. It was remarkable — and it was ironic, frankly — because some of these groups were suing each other, but they wanted to collaborate, to do something about the link between transportation and air quality challenges.”

The Clean Air Campaign was born, a non-profit supported by all of them.

“We came up with ways for people not to have to come downtown to work while the Olympics were going on. It was a huge success: during those three weeks commuter traffic declined and the air quality improved substantially. The number of emergency room visits related to lung, breathing issues dropped 37 percent. From there we established the financial incentives program and we showed that habits could be made to stick, that the white-knuckled single-person commute didn’t have to be the norm. We consult with our partners, really listen to them, and we develop benefits to commuters that employers can call their own.”

Telework begins to take off: up from 4% in 2009.

Telework is another impactful strategy. Luiz Montoro, project manager for Coca-Cola, is a fan:

According to the 2010 Metro Atlanta Regional Commuter Survey, teleworking has overtaken carpooling as the number-one commute alternative … more than 600,000 metro Atlantans telework at least occasionally, a 20 percent increase since the last survey in 2007.

Why?

Some employers may be motivated by the fact that Atlanta loses $2.7 billion annually in productivity due to traffic congestion, and that the average Atlanta household spends more on transportation costs than on food. Numbers like that tend to grab your attention.

They sure do! Check out The Clean Air Campaign’s website for calculators, resources, checklists, and other tools for employers, commuters, and schools. All of these are free of charge.

http://www.cleanaircampaign.org

Follow them on Twitter @CleanAirGA

Please forgive us for being a little obsessed with the new mobile app we created for the SXSW Eco Challenge. Hundreds of SXSWEco participants are going after this badge right now!

SXSWEco Challenge on iPhone (also available on Android)

Have a look at the Group on PracticallyGreen.com:

Not in Austin at the SXSW conference? No worries, you can get this badge too. Simply check off any 12 of the actions: http://practicallygreen.com/badges/sxsweco.

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We asked our friend Bethany Stephens to pick one of the Eco Challenge actions to write about.

For more on Beth, the Ozark National Science Center (she’s the executive director), and the sweet spot that is Bentonville, Arkansas, read on!

Eat Locally When You Eat Out

Beth and family eating out, local-style

It’s pretty simple to feel good about how green we are in the controlled environment of our homes. We congratulate ourselves on our use of CFLs, our recycling prowess and our minimal water and energy usage. So, what happens when we step out into the world? Suddenly, it’s harder to control waste, transportation, and the habits of others.

Before you throw up your hands in despair, remind yourself that there is one tiny step you can take today with mighty impact: simply eat locally when you eat out.

In theory, local food is safer food (fewer pesticides and contaminants) that traveled a shorter distance (lessened transportation and therefore less environmental impact). However, these may be assumed benefits since there is no guarantee. I prefer to eat locally on several less scientific theories: relationships, knowing my food, a little less processing and fewer preservatives, better variety and a positive effect on the local economy.

1. Better relationships: Here in my own backyard, I know Kno over at Taste of Siam, David and Shane at The Rail: A Pizza Company and Sara over at The Green Bean personally. They know me and my family and share a passion for food that makes me feel good just being in their establishments. However, the same advantage exists when I travel – from my old favorite Cuc Tran Cafe in Wenatchee, Washington to Wintzell’s Oyster House in Mobile, Alabama – eating locally feels and tastes good. These are the places that share the vibe of a community, its food and its passions.

2. Know your food: While we may not interact with the proprietors of local restaurants any more than we would at a chain, we’re guaranteed to have a little better feel for what we’re served. No matter how high the customer count, your food is usually prepared in the back by hand. Yes, plenty of local establishments may use food service companies, but most are not mass producing hamburger after hamburger to the point that their heart and soul and original recipes have vanished.

3. Better variety: Variety is certainly the spice of life, and ethnic food makes my world go round. In San Antonio, there is no shortage of puffy taco locales and taquerias. Taco Taco did something different – it’s hard to put your finger on it, but you’ll leave the city craving and attempting to replicate its loveliness. Admittedly, Taco Taco is now expanding – the real test will be whether the feel and taste that made it special will keep it alive. The point is that local options are the best options for exploring both ethnic and homestyle food. Expand your boundaries and walk in the doors of a place where you don’t necessarily speak the language: you’ll likely be rewarded with great food and memories. Challenge yourself when you travel to try the local places off the typical tourist or business traveler path.

4. Positive effect on the local economy: Perhaps most rewarding of all, a far greater percentage of dollars you spend locally stay in the community. Chains send large portions of revenue back to headquarters, but dollars spent locally are more likely to go straight to staff wages, utilities or rent/mortgage. I like knowing that paying my check means I have directly invested in helping my friend or neighbor’s business thrive, and when I travel, it feels like a small expression of gratitude that I pay that community for my experience.

From farmer’s markets to u-pick establishments to local restaurants, local food means a local investment. However, a quick disclaimer: let’s not be so quick to demonize every chain restaurant, food service company, big box retailer or discount club. Often, we forget that their volume savings also help the small, local establishments we love stay in business. They may not be doing everything right, but every effort is a commendable step in the right direction.

As for me, I try to concentrate on what I can do better (and greener) every day rather than worry about others – just like Mom taught me. And now, I’m hoping to dash over to my favorite local establishment for a little lunch.

Bio: Beth Stephens is the executive director of the Ozark Natural Science Center, a nonprofit field science and environmental education facility on 500 acres of Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission land in the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas. ONSC delivers life-altering overnight school excursions, summer camps and group programs, weaving conservation messages and its mission of enhancing the understanding, appreciation and stewardship of the Ozark natural environment throughout its programs. ONSC has served more than 45,000 children since it was founded twenty years ago, often providing them their first significant outdoor experience and a lasting connection to the natural world. Connect with Beth via email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or her personal or food blogs, and learn more about ONSC at www.onsc.us or via Twitter or Facebook.

On the Trail! School program at the Ozark National Science Center

Background: The Ozark Natural Science Center serves the rather unique northwest Arkansas community, a five city (Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville, Siloam Springs) area which is home to the global headquarters of the world’s largest retailer: Walmart.  Northwest Arkansas is also home to Fortune 500 ranked Tyson Foods as well as J.B. Hunt Transportation.  The business climate in this small corner of Arkansas is unprecedented, but often escapes national recognition.  In an effort to better serve their largest customers, Walmart and warehouse powerhouse Sam’s Club, literally hundreds of the world’s top brands maintain offices in northwest Arkansas.  ONSC has benefitted greatly from this “sweet spot” by developing corporate partnerships with companies such as Cargill, GE Lighting (check out their intriguing Ecomagination site), Shell, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Heineken and SC Johnson (especially their Off! Botanicals brand).  Northwest Arkansas is also home to the University of Arkansas’s Applied Sustainability Program, which resulted in the jointly-administered Sustainability Consortium with the University of Arizona’s Global Institute of Sustainability.  The Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas works closely with Walmart (which has staggering sustainability goals) and other industry leaders on sustainability issues specific to the consumer packaged goods industry.

It’s tailgate time! Do you have a tired collection of coolers and containers that do not begin to reflect your enthusiasm for getting together with family & friends to cheer your favorite teams?

Enter BlueAvocado. This is a very cool company, founded by two sisters and their best friend in Austin, Texas.

Paige David, Amy George, Melissa Nathan of BlueAvocado

At first we set out to change just one thing – the way you shop. So we built a company run by women for the good of everybody. Then we designed a mixable family of lifestyle products light on environmental waste and heavy on sass, style and inspiration. Featuring certified recycled REPREVE fibers, all of our products are durable, lead free, washable and include a carbon label to track environmental impact.

You can buy BlueAvocado at the Container Store, select Bloomingdales, and via Practically Green — just scroll down to the products section on any of the related actions.

Personally? Craving a Boxey Lady set for transporting snacks to games and events this season:

Paige has five additional product recommendations.

• Big Chil – ideal for hauling food to tailgates:

Big Chil

• Clutch Kit: For a more fashion forward approach and some extra accessories for snacks for the kids in our (re)zip and dips insulated in our boxes.
• Hip Chil: Messenger style to keep items insulated.
• Hip Pod: Perfect for sunscreen, sweater or other items.
• Lunch Tote: The perfect daytripper,
• Mini chil clutch.

Check out the Green Shopper badge on Practically Green! Complete nine of these actions to earn your badge.

{When you’ve earned your badge, enter in the coupon code ‘balovespg10′ for a 10% discount at BlueAvocado.}

Hmm, these reusable lunch bags look awesome – think of all the money I’ll save on zip-loc bags, AND I’ll finally check this action off my PG plan!!

Switch to reusable sandwich bags:

WaterSense is Common Sense, by Veronica Blette

Many people find the sound of running water to be soothing.  That may be true if you are in the woods having a picnic beside a babbling brook, but it isn’t when you are entering your house after a day of work. One day last winter I came home and found that the flapper on my toilet had become stuck in the open position, which led to its earnest, yet futile, efforts to fill the bowl all day long.  Not soothing at all to realize that while I was at work focusing on advancing a nationwide ethic of water efficiency, water was running down my drain. My water bill saw a big jump and I was shocked when I pulled information from my local water utility and saw how much water had actually been lost during that day of wasted toilet filling.

Veronica's water bill

Turns out, I wasn’t alone – the average American house wastes 10,000 gallons each year through leaks. How many of us have heard the ghost flush that happens in the middle of the night?  Well, it turns out that those flushes add up!  Across the country, easy-to-fix household leaks add up to more than one trillion gallons of water lost annually, robbing homeowners of 12 percent of their water bill.

Less than one percent of the Earth’s water is available for human use, and managing water is a growing concern in the United States. Using water more efficiently and avoiding waste helps maintain supplies at safe levels now and for future generations.

That’s where WaterSense comes in – we’re trying to make it simple for consumers to save water through water-efficient products, homes, services, and tips for around the house.  Over the past five years, WaterSense has helped Americans save 125 billion gallons of water and $2 billion in water and energy bills.

Besides finding and fixing leaks, there are lots of other things you can do around the house to save water.  Getting started is as easy as 1-2-3…just check-twist-replace!

1. Check toilets for silent leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank and seeing if the color appears in the bowl before you flush. Don’t forget to check irrigation systems and spigots, too. (Click here for Practically Green’s efficient-toilet suggestions!)

2. Twist and tighten pipe connections. To save even more water without a noticeable difference in flow, twist in a WaterSense labeled faucet aerator or showerhead. (Fix a leaky faucet; Install low-flow valves in all faucets)

3. Replace the fixture if necessary. It may be as easy as replacing a toilet flapper, but if you need a new fixture, look for the WaterSense label, which signifies the product has been certified to save water and perform well. (Upgrade older faucets & shower heads (older than 1994); Upgrade toilets that take more than 1.6 gallons per flush to standard toilets)

Veronica (at left) and her friends -- on the job!

Want to do more? Join my team and thousands of your neighbors by supporting the We’re for Water campaign. Visit the website to take the I’m for Water pledge, “like” WaterSense on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

About the author: Veronica Blette leads EPA’s WaterSense program. Veronica has been with the Agency for more than thirteen years and, going forward, will always make sure the toilet is not running before she goes to work.

Applegate’s Sausage Fest Contest ends on Saturday, October 1, and we’re so lucky to have a sneak peek at one of the entries! Jennifer O’Connor lives in central Massachusetts, and she submitted a recipe that she says is perfect for her son’s fall high-school crew meets (“they row in ALL kinds of weather”), which she learned from her mother. “It’s a real cozy meal for the turning-colder weather.”

Crew Race

It‘s a cozy, delicious dish – and it’s one that can win a kettle full of PG points! Each one of these actions is worth 50 points, which tells you how impactful they are:

1. Buy meat that is raised using sustainable farming methods
2. Buy organic beef regularly (ditto)
3. Buy organic pork regularly (ditto)
4. Buy antibiotic- and hormone-free meat regularly

Submit your culinary genius and win a practically unending supply of Applegate sausages (and we promise, they are delicious!). Here goes!

*     *     *     *     *

Jennifer’s Recipe Entry

Hello,

First I’d like to thank you for making such yummy hot dogs that are natural and organic! I hadn’t eaten a beef hot dog (or any “meat” hot dog in over a decade until I tried yours. Please continue making wonderful organic meats available forever and ever!!

Next, I’d like to submit my recipe for your Sausage Fest contest. Being a New Englander and proper Bostonian, I must submit a recipe for homemade baked beans with bacon. Then turn it into good ole Franks’n'Beans!

Jennifer & her family

Baked Beans Recipe:

The Northeast’s famous baked beans are traditionally made with molasses, but here they are sweetened with another New England classic: maple syrup. One pound of dry navy beans will yield enough hot topping for a crowd…and then some.

• 1 pound organic dried navy beans
• 4 Organic Applegate Bacon slices
• ¹⁄₂ cup pure maple syrup
• ¹⁄_3-1 cup barbecue sauce
• ²⁄₃ cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tblsp prepared mustard
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 packages of Applegate Great Organic Hot Dogs

Rinse beans well. Place in large bowl and add enough cold water to cover the beans by 2 inches. Let beans soak 8-12 hours (longer is fine, too).

Drain and rinse beans; place in heavy kettle (cast iron works great). Add enough cold water to cover the beans by 1 inch. Bring to slow simmer, skimming the surface often to remove foam. While beans are simmering, heat oven to 300-325 degrees. Cook bacon in a skillet; drain strips on paper towels, reserving the fat in the pan (if desired).

After beans have simmered slowly 20-30 minutes, chop the bacon and add it to the beans. Stir in some or all of the reserved bacon fat, if desired. Stir in maple syrup, barbecue sauce, onion, mustard and salt. Return mixture to a simmer. Cover pot tightly and bake until beans are fully tender, 3-4 hours. You want to end up with very tender beans in a thickened sauce. If there’s too much liquid at the end, transfer pot to a stove burner and cook beans over medium high, stirring constantly, until liquid is reduced. You can also thicken them by pressing some beans against the sides of the pot.

You may serve the beans right away, but they will taste even better if you: a.) leave them in a warm oven for a couple hours; b.) let them cool down completely and then reheat them; or c.) cool and refrigerate them overnight.

Once you have your tasty baked beans, slice up your hot dogs so they look like coins. Toss them into the prepared baked beans and let them cook on medium heat for about another 15 minutes. If you have a crock pot, it is easier to put the beans and franks in it – that way if you are going to tailgate or a potluck, you can safely transport and keep this hearty healthy meal warm and ready!

I like to make batches and freeze a whole bunch. It keeps very well, and can be reheated in oven, on stove, or in the microwave. I think it is a great meal that warms your belly and keeps it felling full. Lowfat, organic, and scrumptious are my description for my submission. Thanks again for providing such quality ingredients! I love you, Applegate!

Jennifer O’Connor