Earth Day has come and gone and there have been lots of activities going around the last few weeks.  And you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the ads, promotions and information you gathered and read online and off.  Now that the official day is over and we are back to our regular routines, now what?

Here are a few simple and sustainable thoughts I have about how to keep it going for Earth Day, any and every day.

10. Spend a few minutes outside to decompress by taking three breaths. Be present to the sounds and sights the world has to offer be it your own backyard or nearby park.

9. Spend time in your garden truly appreciating the efforts you have put forth or visit your local farmer’s market to pick out your own fruits and vegetables. In either case, farm to table is kinder to the environment, as well as to your body and soul.

8. Take a walk in a different park or take a walk with a neighbor around your block. If you see any litter, pick it up to make the scenery even more enjoyable and then send good energy back out to the one so that they may think twice about their actions next time. You never know what you might pick up.  I found a 20th Anniversary Earth Day Poster at someone’s curb…how ironic is that!

7. Now that the days are longer, unplug and turn off the lights and enjoy the natural lighting in your home.

6. Think precycling as well as recycling. Is there another option with less packaging? Can the item or packaging materials then be recycled? Make sure you know all the acceptable items your City will take.

5. Celebrate freedom from plastic bags with a reusable tote. In fact celebrate freedom from any disposable item when you can bring or use a reusable instead like water bottles, coffee mugs, utensils, cloth napkins and dishtowels.

4. Be thankful for the abundance of clean water available at your fingertips compared with so many across the world.  How can you conserve your water usage, even by just a little.

3. Grab a blanket and or lawn chair and watch the clouds go by on sunny day. Do this with a child for added imagination and fun. Take in the warmth and be witness to the power of the sun.

2. Don’t run from or swat at that bee!  Take a moment to realize everything is interconnected and plays a part in our ecosystem.

1. And if you are with me, I’d love to know how you are keeping it simple and sustainable each and everyday too. Send me a tweet @GreenSamaritan, share  on Facebook or leave a comment below.

Spring is here!  Time to get out and enjoy all that nature has to offer.  If you didn’t know, April is National Gardening Month, not to mention Earth Month, so a great reason to think about ways to either grow or buy the healthiest and freshest fruits and vegetables for your family.

Here area  few thoughts to help you grow into healthier produce.

• Community Garden: Consider participating in a community garden.  Through the American Community Garden Association, you can search for gardens in your area.  A great opportunity to connect with experience gardeners for advice and beginners for support.  If you are not ready to take on an entire plot, perhaps you can find another friend, neighbor or family to share one with and work together.

• Container Gardening: Many fruits and vegetables do well in containers such as strawberries, blueberries, cabbages and cucumbers. Consider picking just one to start with. Our son brought home a small cabbage plant from the school garden and we were amazed at how well it did in a larger container. If you are a city dweller with no access to a backyard, check out the Urban Organic Gardener for advice and tips on how to grow and maintain a garden regardless of the space available.

• Home Garden: Perhaps you do have the space, sunlight and determination to do this at home.  While we participated in a community garden last year to get us going, we are gardening at home this year.  Review this article from the Helpful Gardener to help you get started and visit the National Gardening Association to view this how-to video on maintaining your garden.

• Herb Garden:  Maybe you just need to keep it simple with herbs.  Fresh herbs like chives, parsley, basil and oregano are fairly easy to grow and maintain. They can be grown outdoors as well as indoors for year round flavor.  And when you are at the end of the season there are several ways to store them for later use, like blending with a little olive oil, and freezing in an ice cube tray.   Once frozen, just pop out a cube to spice up dishes later on.

• Farmer’s Market: So you are not into or ready for gardening, that’s OK.  Check out these resources for nearby options to either pick your own or at LocalHarvest.org, to search for the farmer’s market closest to you and help keep those food purchases within your local or regional communities.

• CSA or Home Delivered Produce: Community Supported Agriculture otherwise referred to as a CSA, has been around for many years.  It’s another way to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Simply put, a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to a group of buyers.  The share consists of a box of vegetables and maybe other farm products too. Via a membership, buyers purchase a share and in return receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.  The weekly share may vary, and in some cases you can pick and choose what you would like in your box as well as have a home delivery option.
  

• Organic Produce:  If growing anything is difficult for whatever reason and a farmer’s market or CSA is not an option, take a closer look at the produce at your grocery store and especially at those sticky labels which will tell you if the produce was grown in a conventional or organic manner, or if has been genetically modified.   Download this shopper’s guide from the Environmental Working Group – The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 or the Essential Organic Guide which both will advise you on what produce is best to buy organic.  And keep an eye on where the produce comes from too.  USA or Chile?  More regionally located or from the other side of the country?  Sometimes there is no choice, but sometimes there is, and something to keep in mind.

However you choose to grow, it’s all good for your body, soul and world around you.

Happy Spring!

“Each generation takes the earth as trustees”          J. Sterling Morton, Founder of Arbor Day

In my home state of  North Carolina,  Arbor Day is recognized on the first Friday after March 15th.  Though the national day is the last Friday in April, the date can vary by state based on the best time of year for tree planting.   Regardless, the mission of the Arbor Day Foundation is the same – to “inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees”.

With Spring in the air, here are a few ideas to get you going.

• Plant: Aside from your local nursery, The Arbor Day Foundation offers a wide variety of trees as well as great information as to what is the best type of tree to plant for a certain geographic area.

• Give Locally: If you’d rather give a tree,  there is TreeGivers , offering a nice way to honor someone.  TreeGivers will plant a tree in the state of your choice plus send an acknowledgment to the recipient. From my personal experience, customer service was top notch and very prompt.

• Give Internationally:  Mokugift enables anyone to plant a tree for a friend for $1. The company is an official partner of the United Nations Environment Program and the trees are planted in Central America, Africa, and Asia.  The experience is like sending an e-card. The recipient can display their trees online on Facebook and other popular sites.

• Volunteer: If you have the time, there are plenty of volunteer opportunities with your local tree planting organization.  Check in here to search for opportunities in your state.

• Explore: Finally, what trees are right in your own backyard, neighborhood or wherever you might be traveling?  Grab your child and download an app to help identify what’s in your area.  Leafsnap is a free iPhone/iPad app that allows you to take a picture and then searches its inventory of trees to match up.  Arbor Day Foundation offers What Tree is That? app for $4.99.  The Audubon Society also offers a Tree Identification Guide app which will also allow you to track and annotate your sightings in the Journal feature. Geolocate your sightings on a map, record date, add notes and then share with friends via Facebook and email.  We are old-fashion fans of the hard copy version of the Audubon Field Guide to Trees and I enjoy watching my son sift through the pages to find the answers he is looking for.  Whatever your guide of choice, this is a great way to spend a little time in nature with your children or grandchildren.

What other ideas do you have to honor Arbor Day in your neck of the woods?

February is a busy month!  Not only in terms of Valentine’s but more importantly as Heart Month.  Here’s a round up of heart healthy tips for you and for those you love this month or any month of the year.

The CDC has launched the Million Hearts campaign to empower everyone to make heart-healthy choices.  Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and also one that with smart choices, can be avoided. The Million Hearts™ Initiative seeks to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by the end of 2016 by encouraging proper nutrition and exercise and improving care for those that need it.

As a Million Hearts partner, the American Heart Association is a national voluntary health agency to help reduce disability and death from cardiovascular diseases and stroke.  Check out 28 tips for a heart-healthy Valentine’s Day, like writing a poem to show how you feel for your loved one, finding quality time to spend with them, or engaging in an active outing.  If you do receive chocolate, consider freezing it so you eat less and can enjoy longer.

From an article last year, it’s worth a replay from the Huffington Post  - 5 Heart-Healthy Tips – highlighting key plays from the Steeler’s nutritionist.  Making sure you get 25 grams of fiber a day, reducing saturated fat by replacing butter with olive and canola oils,  and choosing lean meats, poultry, fish and beans instead of higher-fat meats are a few ways to keep yourself in all-star shape.

Down To Earth, shares 5 Ways to Raise Heart-Healthy Kids.  With the path to heart disease beginning in childhood, introducing the concepts of good nutrition, exercise, outdoor play will lay the groundwork for healthy choices throughout a child’s life.

And if you need a little help to revamp your current at-home menu, the Mayo Clinic provides an easy, two day menu for heart-healthy eating to get started.  Bottom line for top line success is to create a daily meal plan that emphasizes whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and limits high-fat foods like red meat, cheese and sweets and canned or processed foods which are loaded with  sodium. If you can stick to healthy eating habits on a daily basis, an occasional indulgence is fine and can be enjoyed and savored even more.

Happy Heart Month!

Have you asked yourself lately what’s essential in your life?  Nordic Naturals wants to know and is sponsoring the What’s Essential contest to get people like you and me to share what’s essential in our lives and connect with others about what’s most important in theirs.

A trusted partner of Healthy Child Healthy World, Nordic Naturals is committed to delivering the world’s safest, most effective omega oils to help provide the essentials of a healthy life.  Nordic Naturals offers more than 150 omega-3 products in a variety of flavors and formulations all with leading safety, efficacy and sustainability standards.  With many health benefits of omega oils,  to include lowering  triglyceride levels, improved heart health, and my personal favorite, improved brainpower and memory, Nordic Naturals is committed to delivering the world’s safest, most effective omega oils, so you can do more of what you love with those you love.

The “What’s Essential” campaign and contest is designed to encourage you to think about what’s essential—what matters most in your lives. Is it spending time with friends and family? Is it walking the kids to school? Is it making a healthy, home-cooked meal once a week?  Or is it sharing information to help others along their path towards good, green and healthy living?

The contest that will run from January to April 2012 with prizes to get you motivated and musing!  Share your What’s Essential story, and enter for a chance to win some fun prizes.

How to Enter.

1. Like Nordic Naturals on Facebook or visit www.whatsessential.com
2. Submit your What’s Essential story and accompanying image.
3. Tell your friends, and their friends, to share their What’s Essential story, too!

Top Prizes!

The What’s Essential Contest will award 19 prizes to the top What’s Essential entries.

• Grand Prize Winner: One winner will receive a trip for two to Santa Cruz, California with all the trimmings, including airfare, car rental, hotel, spending money, Nordic Naturals award winning omegas and more*!
• Second Prize Winners: Each of the six Second Prize winners will receive one Canon® Vixia HF M400 camcorder and a one-year supply of Nordic Naturals award winning omegas.*
• Third Prize Winners: Each of the twelve Third Prize winners will receive a one-year supply of Nordic Naturals award winning omegas.*

*See official rules at whatsessential.com.

Share, inspire and win!

Are you basking in the afterglow of catalogs as a result of your online holiday shopping?  Or for whatever reason, you are still getting unwanted junk mail and catalogs?  I’ve said before (twice actually here on TGS) and will offer it up again on how to “take me off your list!“

Quick Recap:

• Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers, which uses 53 million trees and 3.6 million tons of paper.  The average person receives over 500 pieces of junk or unwanted mail each year.
• To produce this volume of paper requires 38 trillion BTUs, enough to power 1.2 million homes per year!
• The energy used to produce catalogs contributes 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars!

Luckily, there are a few easy ways for consumers to reduce their paper consumption and mail clutter by requesting removal from mailing lists:

• The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse offers a pretty deep fact sheet including how to get off all lists by contacting the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service (MPS). For a $1 fee, sign up with the MPS, to receive only the catalogs you actually want.

• Directmail.com – register at no cost here to get your name taken off direct mail lists.  You do have the flexibility to request removal of your name from everything or select by category. While DirectMail.com primarily serves to provide mailing lists to companies, it stresses that as direct marketers, they know their clients don’t want to waste money sending mail to people who don’t want to receive it.

• Catalog Choice  – Here you can request free removal from specific catalogs that participate with their program as well as invite friends to do the same.  If a company does not participate, Catalog Choice will contact them on your behalf to request removal.

But what  about when you actually want to peruse a catalog without the clutter and waste of a real one.  Enter Catalog Spree.

• Catalog Spree is  a free catalog shopping app for your iPad that offer the same experience of more than 150 catalogs from brands like Nordstrom, Chico’s, and Coldwater Creek.

While it’s convenient, easy and eliminates all that clutter, for someone traveling down this road of greater eco-awareness, therein still lies the question of how to green that non-green clothing purchase.  So while you are at it, download the GoodGuide app to check out how that retailer stacks up.  Either way, Catalog Spree is yet another step in the right direction for eliminating unnecessary waste, energy and everything else that goes into all those paper catalogs.

If moving from disposable to reusable is on your list of resolutions this year, cutting out the use of plastic straws is an easy start.  We used to buy bags of straws for the drinks and smoothies in our house, but once we started thinking about what an unnecessary waste that was, we switched to stainless steel straws.  Easy, affordable, dishwasher friendly and the  kids love them!

I have been aware of Glass Dharma straws for sometime but the thought of glass straws in my house with two boys just sounded like a recipe for disaster that only I would be cleaning up!   When the company reached out to me to sample, I expressed my concerns and they said “think Pyrex”.   Well, that changed the tune so I was willing to take the risk.

When the straws arrived nicely packaged in recyclable materials, the only disaster was the feuding between the kids on who would get to use the angled straw first. Arghhh!  Anyway, somehow they came to a compromise and nothing broke in the interim.  Along with that troublesome  “Beautiful Bend”, we also received a wider smoothie size long straw, a standard size “Elegant” straw and my favorite – a “Decorative Dots” sipper.

Over a month later, no breakage and each has survived the playroom and kitchen floors, in between the sofa cushions, being used as drum sticks, the dishwasher, microwave and flatware drawer where they are tossed in along with the stainless steel straws.  Glass Dharma uses borosilicate glass because it is the strongest commercially available glass on the market. It is the same type of glass that your vintage glass coffee pot or your Pyrex® casserole dish is made from.  This alongside their lifetime guarantee against breakage, certainly alleviated the kinds of concerns (or doubt) I had early on.

With several different sizes, widths and purposes, you are sure to find a straw for your particular needs.  Great for wedding, new home or hostess gifts to encourage other along the way too.  I’m sold and if they can survive our house, they can survive anything!

Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly what foods are most important to buy organic, especially during the winter months as well as year round too? To help protect you and your family this winter season, The Organic Center (TOC) has developed an easy, downloadable pocket shopping guide, called Organic Essentials, which is designed to help shoppers reduce their pesticide risk, eat foods that contain the most nutrients and avoid GMOs.  The mission of the TOC is to focus on the science behind organics and offers clear and easy to understand information to the consumer.

Sara Snow, a green lifestyle expert and author of Fresh Living, serves on the Board of Directors for The Organic Center.  She has also appeared on the Discovery Health Network and has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Natural Health.  During the holidays, I had a chance to speak with Sara to learn firsthand on how to use the guide and gather additional tips for healthy shopping.

Highlights of the Organic Essential Guide

Organic vs Non-Organic:

Not all of us can buy 100% organic to due budget constraints, so TOC has listed the top nine fruits and vegetables that consistently rank highest for pesticide residue and suggests those as the organic purchase. Everything else, then can be a conventional purchase if need be.

Super Foods:

The Organic Essential also lists of the top super foods with the highest nutrients per serving so if you are looking for extra punch, consider these options for smart, healthy shopping:

• Fruits – Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Pumpkins, Mangoes, and Papayas
• Vegetables – Kale, Collard Greens, Artichokes, Turnips, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, Asparagus, and Avocadoes

Genetically Modified Organisms:

Though those sticky produce labels should tell us if something is organic, conventional or genetically modified, you can reference this list of conventional foods to avoid buying due to the likelihood that they are genetically modified or contain GMOs:

• Corn, Canola, Soy Beans, Cotton, Hawaiian Papaya, Sugar Beets, Yellow Crookneck Squash, and Zucchini.
• The same holds true for processed packaged food items too. Buying organic will ensure no GMO’s.

Some additional shopping tips Sara provided include:

• If the fruit or vegetable is recommended to buy organic fresh, it is also suggested to buy frozen.
• Organic milk has a longer shelf life and freezes well, so if your store has a special or if coupons are available, stock up to save money.
• Trust the generic organic brand. Often times it is a well-known brand that is privately labeled with the grocery store.
• Make trade-offs to help balance the budget.  Buy in the good-for-you items in bulk, and buy less of something not quite so healthy in order to help justify that organic purchase.  For example, the cost of one 12-pack of sodas can easily offset the additional cost for organic milk.
• 75 – 80% of packaged food may contain GMOs and while we have yet to see the effects of genetically modified foods, you are guaranteed no GMOs when you choose an organic product versus a conventional one. Consider your cereal, peanut butter as choices to make organic.

The Organic Essential Pocket Guide can be easily downloaded or accessed on your smartphone and taken to the store to reference while shopping.  A great New Year’s resolution to get off to a green and healthy start for 2012!

Whew! With households generating an additional 25% in waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, that another 6 million tons of trash floating around.  Here are a few quick tips to help reduce your excess waste and impact on the planet.

• Recycle all corrugated boxes and chipboard.  If a box is brown on the inside your local municipality  may accept it. Check the website for all acceptable materials and any nearby drop-off locations.  Our recycle bin is full and our pick up isn’t until next week, so rather than leaving the excess boxes to clutter up my garage, off to a drop-off today!

• Keep and reuse any gift bags and boxes for next year. If possible, do the same for any wrapping paper and bows.

• Recycle Christmas cards (except for photos) or tear off the front of the cards and send to St. Judes Children’s Hospital.  They will in turn create and sell new cards with proceeds going back to the hospital. You can also reuse the front of the cards as gift tags or other decorations.

• Keep photo cards to enjoy for future holidays.  Punch a hole in the corner and put on a key ring or any larger metal ring for easy storage and review.

• Donate your Christmas tree to your local zoo. Our local center will place in the exhibits and hide treats in the branches for the animals.

• Plan ahead for next year.  Consider buying gift bags to include cloth that can be reused and wrapping paper made from recycled materials and earth-friendly ink.  Forgo the bag of bows and use fabric ribbon that can also be reused.

What other ideas do you have to share.  Leave a comment below!

It’s Christmas Eve Eve!  My list has been checked off and I consider myself done.  I’ve done my best to lighten that holiday shopping load and wrap as earth-friendly as possible by reusing gift bags from last year to include more made of cloth this year.  I’ve pondered the packaging involved before making the purchase, and I’m ready to recycle all that I can afterwards.

Though my holiday gifts may not be 100% perfectly “green”, here are some final gift suggestions for all of us to consider.  No production, shopping, shipping or packaging involved.  You can’t be any kinder to the environment around you than that.

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

Author unknown

So wherever you are and whatever it is you celebrate this season, I wish joy and peace to you and those you love to help make our world a brighter place forever.