The Goodness of Crocs

This past weekend, Jordan and I went to the Green Street Fair in Plymouth, MI where we learned some new stuff and met some great people. Amongst the many small independent vendors (which was great) were some of the larger corporations, including the beloved shoe company, crocs. Though I'm not a participant in the crocs craze myself, I was pleased to hear about a great initiative the company is taking part in, called SolesUnited.

It's pretty simple. A crocs owner can take a pair of crocs that are on their way to croc-heaven and mail them in to a crocs recycling center or drop them off at a participating retail location. These old crocs will be ground up into tiny pieces and made into new, SolesUnited recycled shoes. These new recycled shoes are sent to approved non-profit organizations all over the world. This year, SolesUnited anticipates donating a total of 2 million pairs of shoes to Armenia, Cambodia, Chad, Darfur, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Philippines, Romania, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Watch this info for more information on this guffly initiative:

Guster is Green

I've liked the band Guster for awhile now, but it was only today that I learned the they make a point to be more eco-friendly on their tours. Watch the fantastic video below from the Sundance Channel for info on Guster's guffly practices and some concert footage, too.




I knew they were extra special.

Think Outside the Space

Is anyone else tired of Myspace? I have to say that I am. I've recently noticed that Myspace doesn't add any value to my life or business. I write blog articles and post them onto my profile; and nobody reads them. In fact, most of the friends that I have don't even write in their blogs at all. I guess it's cool for the person that just wants to keep up with some old friends; but for people who actually want to educate--and be educated--there are far more effective ways to communicate online.

Take the Gaia Community for example. I also have a profile on Gaia with about seventy-five percent less friends than Myspace. Of course, I have eighty percent less page views on Gaia than I do on Myspace; but the Gaia page views are much more valuable. More people on Gaia are interested on what I'm doing; thus they leave me great feedback. I also find Gaia to be much simpler to maneuver through than Myspace.

Another useful networking site that I found is the Earth Day Network (EDN). The members of this site are dedicated to doing their part to better the world. I know that my friends on (EDN) are interested in guffly living, so I know to focus my time more on them. The functionality of (EDN) is even guffly. It was so easy to register and set up my profile. It literally took me 5 minutes to register, add photos, music, and widgets to my profile page.

The point is this: if you're trying to share knowledge with people over the Internet think about other online networks than Myspace. While Myspace is fun; there are other networks--in any area of interest--that are way better channels for transferring information.

Happy Earth Day!

Eat Better

I found this guide, "Organic Foods and More: 30 Days to a Greener Diet," on The Daily Green. I like this list of simple ways to eat better because you can incorporate just a few of the tips and still be more sustainable and healthier than you were before. Instead of cramping all these tips into one month, I suggest you take one or two of the tips and just work on those those for a week or two. Then, as you progress and get used to your new habits, you can take on a few more of the tips.
The tip I'm going to start with is "Get Real with Sweeteners." When I'm at a coffee shop I usually go for the natural sweeteners, if they're available. However, not all coffee shops give you that option. So, I usually end up using 4 or 5 Splenda packets in my coffee or tea. Gross, right? Part of the reason for this is my calorie-phobia. But, I think I can commit to switching my 4 packets of Splenda for one (ok, probably two) packets of natural sugar. My plan is to keep a few on hand in case the shop I'm at doesn't have any, and to do a 100% switch to natural sugar at home.

Which tip will you work on?

Eco-Tips to You

As some of you know, Guffly living is all about simplicity. If a product or practice can help us become more responsible people; and doesn't require us to drastically change the way we live, then that's Guffly. I found a service that is just that.

Ideal Bite has a service that emails their members a daily tip for becoming more eco-friendly. According to the About Us page on the site, each tip was selected because it is a "small change that adds up."

Signing up for the service took me about 25 seconds; and it was super-easy. Now I'll get a daily tip to help me on my quest in living responsibly. You should get it too.

Less Baggage is Better

Just as dating is much better with no baggage, shopping is too. So, I was happy to read over at A Greeniac's World (a blog you should indeed check out when you have the chance) that Ikea is creating less plastic bag waste. It turns out that Ikea is going all the way by completely eliminating plastic bags in their stores. Instead, customers can purchase a reusable bag for $0.59 or choose to not use a bag at all. By eliminating the plastic bag option in its US stores, Ikea is saving the world 70 million wasteful plastic bags a year. Check out the entire article here.

Get Productive While Getting Guffly

Whether you work from home, dwell in the typical cube farm, or have a luxury corner office, there are things you can do to make your work experience a little better for the world. Soon I'll be looking for some new office gear myself, so I've been on the lookout for helpful tips and products that have a positive eco-impact. One thing that I plan on doing for my new office, which isn't so simple necessarily, is buying a used desk. I hope to find a funky old desk from the thift store that I can paint and make my own. It'll be cheaper and have much more character then anything I can find at Ikea.

If you're not in the market for a new work station, but just want to incorporate some simple practices for a better workspace, check out this wiki article, "10 Ways to Be Greener and Happier at Work," on Huddler.com. I like this article because it doesn't ignore the basics, like reducing your energy usage by turning off your computer. Likewse, it has some pretty creative ideas, like creating a carpool calendar for your office.

Food that Moves (Less)

For many people, making the choice to buy organic started in the kitchen. I started buying organic milk before anything else. Soon, most of my dairy items were organic, followed by some fruits and veggies, and then I incorporated some organic grains and snack products, too. Though not all of my food purchases are organic, a decent portion are. Likewise, the more that organic versions of my food staples become more available in my area, the more I'll purchase them.

Not only would I like to incorporate more organic products into the mix, but I would also like to purchase more locally produced products. According to http://www.sustainabletable.org/, in the U.S., the average produce travels 1,500 miles between the farm where it was grown and the refrigerator it ends up in. Likewise, about 40% of our fruit is produced overseas.

And going beyond produce, what about the packaged organic brands I know and love? I found this infographic that shows the companies behind some of the most popular organic brand names. By looking up the company behind the brand name, it's likely you can get an idea of where the product is coming from.

All in all, our food uses a lot of gas to get to our plates. "How can I do something about that," you ask. Well, I have two suggestions. First, find the organic grocers in your area and ask them which products they carry come from your state. Second, participate in community supported agriculture (CSA). This is when you buy directly from a local farm. CSA programs vary greatly, but many allow you to pay an annual fee that provides you with a weekly or monthly assortment of fresh produce from the farm - some will even deliver. To find a CSA program near you, just put your zip code into this database.

What Can You Do With An Hour In The Dark?

I found this website that describes a new movement taking place globally. It's called Earth Hour and cities around the world are participating. In short, people are encouraged to turn off their lights for one hour on March 29, 2008 from 8:00pm to 9:00pm. Check out the video below for an in-depth look at Earth Hour.



Sydney, Australia was the site for the inaugural Earth Hour trial in 2007. In that one hour, the amount of energy that was saved was 10.2%; surpassing the goal of 5%, set by the World Wide Found for Nature-Australia. This year there are 20 cities participating so there's no telling what the "energy saved" number will be.

Earth Hour is guffly because I don't have to do anything to make a contribution. All I have to do is turn off the lights! In that hour I can walk my dog, plan my next day, do yoga, and even have an hour of conversation with a friend. Which is great because I don't have much time for conversation these days.

Clean Your Mailbox!

If you're like most people, you probably spend spend about 20 seconds a day filtering "junk" mail from "your" mail. That's 7,300 seconds or 121 minutes per year spent doing nothing. Your time is extremely important; after all, it's the one thing in this world that you can never get back.

Aside from taking up our precious time, junk mail also takes up valuable space in our landfills. According to Forest Ethics, by 2010 50% of the solid mass that takes up our landfills will be paper and paperboard waste. And each year, state and local governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars collecting and disposing of bulk mail that has not been recycled.

I haven't even gotten to the poor trees yet. It takes more than 100 million trees to produce the total volume of junk mail that arrives in American mailboxes each year (Forest Ethics). That's the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.


So I found this guffly little business called 41 Pounds; and what they sell is a clean mailbox. The Ferndale Michigan based business promises to rid you of 80-95% of your junk mail for five years. According to the FAQ's section of the website, they can't stop 100% because some marketers simply ignore requests to stop mailing.

The 41 Pounds service is $41.00 for five years. That $41.00 covers an entire household. So mom, dad, the kids, grandma, and even your crazy uncle Larry can be covered; if everyone resides under one roof. And if you decide to move, 41 Pounds transfers their service to the new address.

There's one more feature of 41 Pounds that makes it special. For each new client that signs up for the service, 41 Pounds donates a third of that $41.00 to an organization--with environmental interests--that the client selects. If that's not guffly, I don't know what is.

To me, $41.00 is well worth it, as long as I don't have to waste my time on junk mail anymore. And the bonus is that I'm contributing toward better health for our Eco-system. I'd pay $8.20 per year for that.

Let the Music Play

I admit it. I'm an iPodoholic. I love my iPod and it pretty much goes everywhere I go. While walking to class and listening to my music the other day, I started thinking about the effect that iPods (and mp3 players in general) must have on the environment. So I started researching. I found this Greenpeace video on the toxins used in Apple's latest, the iPhone:



I've also found some blogs and articles regarding the "obsolescence" business strategy used by Apple and many other tech gadget companies. You can check out this 2006 interview with Giles Slade, author of Made To Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, or the more recent EcoGeek posting on unfixable gadgets, for more information on the woes of disposable tech. To be fair, I think it is also important to recognize Apple's approach to environmental responsibility. Their website explains their methods of reducing their impact through a timeline of taken actions. Regardless of which "side" you take on this one, you gotta love deliverables! However, there still must be something we can do to partially offset the impact of the beautifully crafted iPods we buy. That's when I found Tunes for Trees!

Tunes for Trees is fantastic. Instead of buying your iTunes through the iTunes Store, simply use this site to search for and buy your music. For every 10 iTunes that are downloaded through their site, one tree is planted. The music is in exactly the same format, completely compatible with your iPod, and costs the same as buying it through the traditional iTunes Store. Nice, right? The project launched just under a year ago and over 2,600 trees have been planted to date. This is another small thing we can do that directly effects the bigger picture.

As a wise person once said, "the inches we need are all around us."

Things That Make You Compost

I stumbled upon this really cool blog called Things That Make You Go Green. I read an article that discussed the benefits of composting.

The article entitled "Composting Benefits" recognizes that there are two main benefits to composting:

• You reduce the amount of waste you send to the landfill, which takes up much needed space.
  

• Compost allows the soil to retain more water. This saves money you money on your water bill, and adds more nutrients to the soil; which promotes healthier plants. Finally, healthier plants decreases the need for fertilizers, which saves you money and reduces the risk of water contamination.

Also read "How To Build A Compost Bin" for simple instructions on how to build a bin.

After reading Things That Make You Go Green's take on composting, I'm convinced. Composting can be an easy and cheap practice to integrate into my life and business. With that being said, I find composting to be worthy of becoming a Guffly practice, and the folks at Things That Make You Go Green are some Guffly kind of people.