Congratulations to our Winner of the TerraCycle Juice Pouch Lunchbox

After careful deliberation and thoughtful examination of over 500 entries (ok, we used random.org to randomly select the winner)...and the winner is Ashley R. from California.  She will be receiving her TerraCycle Juice Pouch Lunchbox. If you didn't win, you can still get great TerraCycle products by clicking on the lunchbox below or checking at Walmart through April 29th.  We've heard of mixed experience finding the products on the shelves at Walmart.

TerraCycle Lunchbox

I would like to extend a special thank you to TerraCycle for providing this wonderful prize and to Freebies4Mom.com, CouponGeeks.net, giveaways.momcentral.com, thegiveawaygal.net and easyecotogo.com for promoting our giveaway.  And I can't forget to thank all of our great twitter friends out there who spread the word.

• YourOrganicLife
• cmarchuska
• GreenBlossoms
• PracticallyGrn
• Maybelline_V
• simplebutta
• MeridaHome
• TerraCycle
• ReapingWhatISow
• 4evamamii
• TimMCahill 

Thank You! 

Now that the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day is behind us, let's get back to living green every day.

Happy Greening!
Jon and Alicia

Where do you use the most energy?

Where do you use the most energy?  Is it heating your home?  Powering the refrigerator? Heating water for showers and dishes? Powering your entertainment center?  In order to really understand how you use energy, you will need to install some sort of home energy monitoring system like the TED-5000, but you can extract an amazing amount of information from just reviewing your energy bills, e.g. natural gas, oil and electricity.

We have been logging our energy usage and costs since before we bought our home.  What can I say, Alicia likes tracking things and looking at data.  This is very simple to to do, she just maintains a spreadsheet where she puts in information from the gas and electric bill each month.  We also track our bi-monthly water & sewer usage on the same spreadsheet, but today we're focusing on energy usage.  If you want to do this your self, the data we find useful to record every month is:

• Date (note it is usually a separate billing date for gas and electric bills)
• Therms of natural gas used (you can always convert to cubic feet later)
• Cost of Gas (total cost including supply and distribution)
• What we actually paid (we have an average billing plan to even out the cost month to month)
• Repeat for electricity substituting kWh for therms and Cost of Electricity for Cost of Gas

In terms of usage, most utility bills have the usage for the past 13 months somewhere on the bill, so even if you just have your most recent bill, you can get a year's worth of usage data.  Oil is harder to track because you don't get a monthly bill or a record of the previous year's usage, though you should ask your oil company as they might be able to provide this history.  I was preparing for an energy audit at my church and our oil supplier was able to give me the past 12 years of data.  Chart 1 shows our energy usage for the past 5 years and the progress we have made in reducing our usage.

Chart 1: Overall Household Energy Use from 2005-2009

So, what sorts of things can you tell just from having your electricity and gas usage?  Here is what I figured out from our data:

• Natural Gas usage makes up 58% of our total home energy usage (does not include gasoline for transportation)
• Heating water is about 21% of the Natural Gas consumption over the year.
• We have reduced our energy usage over the past five years by a total of 40% averaging about 10% per year. (last year alone we reduced energy usage by 23% and are on pace to do it again this year)
• Air conditioning is about 10% of our annual electricity consumption
• $ for $ in our home it has been better to focus on saving natural gas than electricity

To find out how I can tell this, read beyond the fold.

Read more »

Environmentally Friendly Food in a Surprising Place

When you think of shopping for healthy, organic and environmentally friendly foods, stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, as well as other specialty stores, come to mind. While these are great places to find huge selections of organic foods, and as companies, they have very strong environmentally friendly philosophies and policies, they can also be pricey. For people living on a budget, yet trying to do what's right for their families and the environment, it's hard to just switch to doing all your shopping exclusively at these stores. While I have found some things, like bulk foods, to be less expensive and more readily available at Whole Foods, overall their prices are pretty high.

Luckily, I have found that one of our regional chains carries a large selection of organic, healthy and environmentally friendly products. Their prices are VERY good (well, for the Greater Boston area) and they have high quality store brand alternatives for many of the staples. This chain is Market Basket (also known as Demoulas Market Basket, and according to Wikipedia, they do not have a public website).

In the past few months I have added a number of healthy and environmentally friendly reasons to like it as well and today's trip really reinforced my satisfaction with Market Basket.

As an aside, I will say that you really can't beat Whole Foods for the way they benefit the environment, everything they do from sourcing food, working with growers, how they treat their employees and cooperating with CSAs, make them a wonderful and admirable company. However, I have two problems with Whole Foods: there are some regular staples/junk food that we're not ready to live without that they don't carry, and I cannot afford to just start buying everything there all at once. If I'm going to increase my grocery budget, I have to decrease my budget somewhere else, and that takes time.

Wide selection of cow's milk
alternatives at Market Basket

Currently I cannot drink milk because of my infant, some people choose to not drink cow's milk because of the environmental impact of raising dairy cows. Many of those that do not drink cow's milk, myself included, like to have alternatives and turn to soy, rice, almond, oat and even hemp milk. As a result, I have become very aware of the many brands and choices in this arena. On previous trips to Market Basket I became aware of both the large selection of rice and soy milk in aseptic packaging they carry, as well as the great price on Market Basket branded rice milk: $1.39/quart. You can't beat that price! However, I have recently found that with coupons, I can beat that price with refrigerated almond milk, my favorite alternative. Today I was very impressed by the large selection of refrigerated milk alternatives carried by Market Basket. They

Selection of organic milks at Market Basket

also had a very large selection of organic milks.

A few other things came to my attention today. I had noticed that while they carry Earth's Balance buttery spread, they did not have the soy free version that I need (baby can't have soy either). When one of the dairy staff joked with me that I didn't have many dairy items in my cart, I asked them about carrying this spread, so I wouldn't have to go to Whole Foods just for that item. He said he'd contact his distributor and find out if he could get it.

Later, as I was looking at the brown rice selection and I commented to the staff person there that I was really pleased with how many healthy and organic choices they carry,  he replied that that was because he made a point of ordering foods like that.

Some other things I've noticed in Market Basket:

• They are better at clearly labeling where their produce comes from than Stop & Shop, Shaws or even Whole Foods.
• They have local alternatives (for a fun example click on the Chelmsford label above) and options for much of their food, including packaged items as well as produce.
• They carry a variety of ethnic and unusual foods. For example, my infant loves "Mum Mum Crackers" which I have only been able to find at Market Basket & Whole Foods, and not at our "giant" supermarkets.

 The next time you are in your local market, look at their selection of organic, locally grown, and healthy food.  If you can't find something you are looking for, ask someone who works there as they may have it and are often willing to get it.

Happy Greening!
Alicia

Saving the Planet: One Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie at a Time

Using a small toaster oven saves energy if you
are only making a few cookiesOur family has been trying to eat healthier and eat in ways that are better for the environment.   These are actually two different goals, but they are often compatible and many people interested in one are interested in both, like we are.  Some of the things we have been doing are trying to eat more organic foods, more locally grown foods - or at least stick to foods grown in the US, more whole grains, less high fructose corn syrup, and have more of the eggs and chicken we consume be cage free.  In the process we are trying to cook more and eat less processed food.  We've never eaten a lot of beef, maybe once every week or two, so we don't really need to cut back there.  On top of all of this, I've had to cut all milk & soy proteins out of my diet because of the baby's intolerance.

All of this is a tall order and we certainly aren't going to be able to change our habits, or our budget, overnight.  We're trying to take it in small bites and do what we can, when we can.

Today's effort is homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I've always made these cookies from scratch, but today I am trying to incorporate some of our family's healthy and earth friendly goals, including  replacing some of the store-bought store-brand double- stuffed Oreos we typically eat with these cookies.

To meet the high-level need of having a convenient cookie quickly, I'm making 2 double batches, I'll put cookie-sized balls on wax paper, and freeze them.  Once frozen I roll them up, put them in freezer bags and store them in the chest freezer to be available to bake on demand.


We have a counter top toaster-oven convection-oven that I can use to cook up to 8 cookies at a time in just about 15 minutes.

My basic recipe is the old stand-by Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. The entire recipe as I baked it, is below,  but here are some of my "changes":

Flour: half white flour and half US Grown Premium 100% Whole Wheat Flour (in this case, King Arthur Flour)

Wheat Germ: I put wheat germ in with the dry ingredients for the extra nutritional benefits like Vitamin E, folic acid, zinc, magnesium, protein & fiber. As a bonus, it adds a light nutty flavor to the cookies.

Butter substitute: Since I cannot have butter, I use half Crisco and half Earth Balance natural buttery spread, soy free  (they have many varieties, I have to use the soy free variety)


Eggs: Cage free

Chocolate chips: Unfortunately, Nestle chips have milk in them, so I used Baker's Real Semi-sweet Chocolate Chunks.  I suspect that this is a place we could improve, with a fair trade variety of chips,  such as Guittard Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.    I just did some quick research on fair trade chips and I could write a whole post on why I should use Guittard chips.  I got some at the Christmas Tree Shops about a year ago, and based on what I just learned about the company, I wish I had bought all they had!  The short is: family owned, San Francisco based, works directly with chocolate growers, semi-sweet & dark chocolates are dairy-free.  Now I just need a reliable local source!

Now for the recipe.  I did a double batch in my KitchenAid mixer (I don't recommend doing a double batch with a hand mixer), here is the recipe as I made it:

Healthier Ingredients for Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 cups Whole Wheat flour (US Grown)
• 1/2 cup Wheat Germ
• 1 tsp basking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup earth balance buttery spread (soy free)
• 1 cup crisco
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large, cage-free eggs
• 3 cups (18 oz) Bakers chocolate chunks (dairy free)

With Kids Sidebar: Baking cookies is a great opportunity to spend time with your kids. Even the youngest can dump in the ingredients you hand them. At any age, start talking to them about reading the directions, measuring the ingredients and learning cooking skills. My daughter helped by doubling the recipe and even cracking the eggs (into a little bowl first to check for shells). My son helped by tasting and counting cookies.

Steps

• Combine flour, wheat germ, baking soda, and salt in small bowl & set aside.
• Beat buttery spread, Crisco, sugar, brown sugar & vanilla until creamy
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each one.
• Gradually beat in flour mixture, beat in chocolate chunks.
• Bake a few cookies for eating today for 9 to 11 minutes on stone in convection toaster-oven, 375 degrees.
• Place rounded teaspoon-fulls on wax paper on a cookie sheet.
  You can put these very close together, just not touching.  Because you are freezing these, you don't need room for spreading.   Put the sheet in the freezer.  After about an hour, take out and roll the paper up so the balls aren't touching each other, put in freezer bags or other freezer storage.  Label the bags with the date and put in the freezer.  When I empty a bag I keep it in the freezer, then the next time I make the cookies, I just take out my cookie bag and fill it up again, being sure to change the date!
  
  These cookies can go straight from the freezer to the toaster oven, or straight to the mouth (if you're not worried about the raw eggs in them. To avoid the problem of raw eggs, you could use egg beaters which are pasteurized, but I don't believe they come in a cage-free version.)

My family loves these, they are very popular with both the children and my husband.  Now my goal is to  keep enough on hand so they don't dig into the processed cookies full of high fructose corn syrup!

Happy Eating Green!

Alicia

For more thoughts on high fructose corn syrup, see Jon's post How we came to be Corn Fed Americans inspired by the movie King Corn. Another inspiring movie worth seeing is Food, Inc.

The Consequences of Science Denial

Michael Specter, a staff writer for the New Yorker, gives a great talk about the consequences of science denial in his TED Talk: The danger of science denial.  He eloquently expresses my feelings about why the objections to genetically modified organisms (GMO) and vaccines are stupid and harmful.

Vaccine-autism claims, "Frankenfood" bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public's growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter. He warns the trend spells disaster for human progress.

I cannot help but draw parallels to the climate change denial campaign that is underway today.  Question the claims, debate the magnitude, and challenge the scientific rigor, certainly, but that is part of what it means to be peer-reviewed, and the scientific evidence is clear: Humanity is having a drastic negative impact on the climate, which will continue to get worse until we address the issue!

Think before you blindly accept some non-scientific statement like "vaccines cause autism."  It may just save some lives.

Happy Greening!
Jon

What Impact Does 1 Watt Have?

One watt (1W) is not a lot of power.  It can't charge your cell phone or even an LED night light.  So why should you care about eliminating vampire loads of one or a few watts?  The answer is that every little bit helps and that 1W on all day everyday does add up to something.  Also, if you know how much 1W costs you and the environment, then you can easily figure out how much 10W or 100W will cost you, or better yet save you if you can eliminate them.


Math warning - a little bit of multiplication

Calculating Energy - 8.76 kWh

• Power X Time = Energy 
• 1 W x 8,760 hours ( 24x365 hours in a year) = 8.76 kWh (1 Watt for 1 year)
  note the division by 1,000 to go from Wh to kWh (the unit you see on your electric bill)

So, 1 W on all the time uses about 9 kWh of electricity a year.

Estimating Cost/Savings - $1.43

• Energy X Cost of Energy (electricity in this case) = Cost  
• 8.76 kWh x 16.36 ¢/kWh (MA residential rate from 10/09) = $1.43

So, 1W on all the time costs about a dollar fifty per year.  You can find out the average retail price of electricity in your area from the US Energy Information Administration's report.

Estimating CO2 Emissions - 11 lbs CO2

• Energy X lbs CO2/kWh = CO2 Emissions
• 8.76 kWh X 1.263 lbs CO2/kWh (for MA in 2005) = 11 lbs CO2
  (Updated Data - 0.93 lbs CO2/kWh for NPCC New England (NEWE))
  You have to do a little math to convert from lb/MWh to lb/kWh provided by the EPA's eGridWeb. 
  Just divide by 1,000 or shift the decimal point 3 digits to the left.

So, 1 W on all the time generates about 11 pounds of CO2.

Adding it All Up

One Watt (1W) by itself really isn't that much, but when you consider you probably have dozens of devices that are needlessly drawing 1-30 W all day, everyday, you should be able to find plenty of savings opportunities.  Three big ones to look at are old VCRs, Cable Boxes and PCs.

Below are some numbers I measured using a watt meter (kill-a-watt meter or watts-up pro for smaller device).

Power and Energy Consumption Around the House

	Power (W)	Annual Energy Usage (kWh)	Annual Cost	Annual CO2
VCR - left on	8 W	70 kWh	$11	88 pounds
Cable Box - "turned off")	25 W	219 kWh	$36	277 pounds
Personal Computer (Desktop) - left on	75 W	657 kWh	$107	830 pounds

So while 1 W may only almost light up an LED, adding all the unnecessary ones together around the house they can add up to tons of CO2 emissions every year.  Go around your home and find the things that do not need to be plugged in all the time and unplug them.  If you have a kill-a-watt meter make a list of everything plugged in and measure how much energy each device really uses.  Hint, start with the easy to reach outlets and big appliances and work your way through the house.  Before long you will be savings lots of energy and money.

Happy Greening,
Jon

TerraCycle Juice Pouch Brigade and a Lunchbox Giveaway

A few months ago, after my kids got a taste for Capri Sun juice pouches in their lunch, I started a TerraCycle Juice Pouch Brigade at our Church.  Their school wasn't interested in dealing with the collection and storage, so I chose another worthy cause to support.  I registered at TerraCycle.net for my own account and setup the Collection Team for my church.  I got the 501c3 information, like tax id numbers, from the church office and was setup in a day or two.  With a few announcements on Sundays and inclusion in the Monthly Newsletter we were off and running.

We have a small plastic bin in the kitchen next to the recycling that is labeled for juice pouches where people drop them off.  At first several of the kids were bringing in only the juice pouches they consumed at lunch time, but then they got creative and started asking their friends if they could recycle their juice pouches as well.  Now each of the kids brings a couple plastic grocery bags (which we do recycle afterward) full of juice pouches into church each week.

After collecting for a month and a half, we sent in our first box of juice pouches to TerraCycle using the postage label I printed out from their site.  Within a few days we had received credit for 655 juice pouches for $13.10.  It was extremely easy.  This time I'm not going to bother counting each juice pouch before sending off as I learned that they weigh them.

So what do they do with all these used juice pouches?

They make useful things out of the trash.  From the juice pouches they make messenger bags, pencil cases, backpacks, and  lunchboxes.  And for the month of April, you can buy all these products and 50 other TerraCycle goodies at every Walmart across the country OR you can win a TerraCycle juice pouch lunchbox  right now by entering our contest!

TerraCycle Lunchbox

TerraCycle has donated a lunch box for us to give away through our blog.

Fill out the form below telling us your favorite Green Lifestyle Consulting article between now and midnight EST on April 25, 2010.  

One entry per person. We will use a random number generator to choose the winner.  We will only use your email to let you know whether or not you won and to arrange to have the lunch box sent directly to you from TerraCycle. If you check the box to subscribe to our blog, then we will add your email to our feed. If you have trouble filling out the form below, please email us at info@greenlifestyleconsulting.com letting us know your favorite post.


4/26/2010 - The contest has concluded - We will announce the winner shortly. Please check out the great articles we have on the steps you can take to living a greener lifestyle.

Good Luck!
Jon

Free Samples and the Environment - Good or Bad?

Since I have started blogging I have also started reading other blogs, particularly "mommy blogs".   I've noticed that a lot of them promote coupons, freebies and ways to save money.  As a mom trying to make ends meet,  I find these things particularly appealing.  As someone trying to live as environmentally friendly a life as possible, I had to ask myself if these things are good for the environment.  My answer?

Sometimes.

It depends on the situation, the freebie, what it is and even how it arrives. 

Here's my thinking:

Free sample of a cereal flavor
we wanted to try

Free products received through the mail:
If you're not sure if you will like a product, but you'd like to try it, a sample-sized freebie is a great thing.  If you don't like it, then you haven't wasted a lot of product, along with your money.  Great examples are new granola bars or flavors of coffee. My favorite site for finding out about freebies and samples is Freebies 4 Mom.

If you know you like a product and they're going to send you a sample size through the mail for free, it's great for you, but bad for the environment.  Think about the added packaging and transportation costs to send one tiny package to you.  It's particularly bad if we're talking about something heavy, for example, a liquid such as dish washing soap. 

If the product in question is a sample of something you know you don't like, then you should really ask: Why are you having it mailed to you?  Are you collecting things to give to the poor?  Do you know your sister uses the item? Consider whether there might be more ecologically friendly ways to get these things without spending a lot of money, or in the case of giving things to the poor, would it be better to just give a couple of dollars?

Read more »

Find TerraCycle Products at WalMart For Earth Month (April)

A couple months ago, I setup a TerraCycle Juice Pouch Brigade at our church to collect and upcycle juice pouches.  This is a real win-win idea as it provides money for non-profit organizations and diverts reusable materials from the landfill.  It is also a great project to involve the kids since they are the biggest consumer of juice pouch beverages like Capri Sun.

Our kids as well as several others in the church bring home not just their own juice pouches, but also those of their friends at school.  Think about the lessons and opportunities they are having to engage with their classmates and encourage them to do the responsible thing.  So far, we have collected over 1,000 juice pouches, thus diverting over 4 kg (almost 9 pounds) of waste material from our landfills and sending that instead to be remade into cool products while at the same time raising a little money for a good cause.

Where can you find those cool products?

Well, for the month of April, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, you can find over 60 TerraCycle products on the shelves with related products at all Walmart stores across the US.

Even though we don't usually shop at Walmart, I am going to have to visit one soon to check out the products including kites, folders, planters and much more.  I need to get a little something to thank those young leaders at my church for their efforts.

Happy Greening!
Jon

Amazon's Special on Diapers, Wipes and Formula for April

As we've mentioned before, we are big fans of cloth diapers. Pretty much all brands of cloth diapers have been developed by moms who work out of their own homes, including the brands we recommend below.  We typically recommend that you purchase them from their sites, or sites developed by other work at home moms, like The Diaper Lab and Kelly's Closet.  However, we would like to let everyone know that  Amazon also sells cloth diapers and is having a special on shipping for all diaper products, both cloth and diposable.
During the month of April, Amazon will provide free 2 day shipping on all qualifying purchases of Diapers, Wipes and Formula.  Plus, sign up for Subscribe and Save and save an additional 15%.  Now would be a good time to add to your cloth diaper supplies, stock up on environmentally friendly wipes and other baby related products from Amazon.com.


FuzziBunz One Size
Cloth Diaper
BumGenius 3.0 One-Size
Cloth Diaper
We highly recommend the BumGenius and FuzziBunz cloth diapers.  Check out our Amazon Store for more cloth diaper recommendations and supplies:

Green Lifestyle Consulting: Cloth Diaper Store

For the complete line of baby care products from Amazon follow the ad below:

Happy Greening,

Jon & Alicia