I have mixed feelings about Earth Day. On the one hand, I think it is worth reminding people to think more about whether they are doing all they can to avoid wasting our planet’s precious, and limited, resources. On the other hand, every day should be Earth day. We shouldn’t a special day to do the right thing for our planet, and one day a year isn’t even close to sufficient anyway.

So what should we do every day? Here’s a few of my tips – feel free to add more in the comments.

No Bottled Water
If you must carry a personal supply of water with you, buy a nice stainless steel water bottle and fill it from a tap. If you’re not sure about drinking the tap water directly, buy a filter jug (or have a more permanent one fitted to your house plumbing) and fill your bottle from that.

Aside from saving all those plastic bottles, you’ll also save money and your water will stay cool longer as well. We took a polished stainless bottle to Hawaii, and found the water in that stayed cool all day, even when left in the parked car.

No Paper Cups
Like that Starbucks latté in the morning? Me too. But how about bringing your own mug rather than taking it in the paper cup? Each cup you save means one less cup, plastic lid and heat sleeve will be used. Plus you get to use your own mug. Choose an insulated one and your coffee will stay hot longer. And, as if hot coffee from your own mug wasn’t enough, many cafés will give you a discount for using your own cup; Starbucks will knock off 10¢ in the US. If you need the cup rinsed out from your first cup, they’ll be happy to do that for you too.

Sitting down for coffee rather than taking it to go? Ask if they have china mugs you can use. Outside the US, this is common, but I’ve started to see places here doing it too.

By the way, Starbucks is also doing a free brewed coffee or tea promotion for Earth day this year. More information on their blog.

Take Public Transit
Not just on Earth day, but as often as possible. Believe me, I know it is not as comfortable as your nice car, but it has other advantages. Here’s a few of the things I get by taking a ferry and a train to work that I wouldn’t get by driving:

• Interesting, and often thought provoking, conversation from a group of people I would never have met otherwise.
• The chance to read my email & even respond to some of it, before I get in to the office. The days I have to drive, I really miss this.
• Free daily exercise from walking between home & the ferry terminal, and from the train station to my office.

Sure, it’s not all roses (don’t get me started on BART again), but it is generally less stressful than rush hour driving, and it means I get to keep driving my car for pleasure (not to mention keeping the miles down – I’m under 5K per year now).

Reuse and Recycle
Most people have worked out the recycling thing now, but how many are reusing things? Don’t waste money on disposable plastic containers for keeping your leftovers in, use the ones you bought with things like cheese, salsa, dips or yoghurt in them instead. Same for those glass jars your pasta sauce came in.

How about the back of the print outs you accidentally forgot to do double sided? Use them for note pads around the house, before recycling them.

Glenn Fleishman (of Wi-Fi Net News and TidBITS fame) has a good write up over at WorldChanging on the Green Plug solution to the phantom power problem.

Their solution is based on an the idea of standardising the power connector that is used by electronics on the standard USB connector. They have developed a variant of it for devices like laptops that need more power than a regular USB connector can deliver. This seems like a smart move since that connector is already becoming a de facto standard for low power electronics like cameras, phones etc. Additionally, USB power outlets are appearing on aircraft and even in airport lounges now, allowing people to power and recharge their small devices easily with just a cable.

(more…)

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games has started in China, and with a very impressive ceremony both in terms of scale and execution. But as well as the opening ceremony, the sporting events and the inevitable political commentary that will surround the games, this year there is also a focus on the environment.

Earth2Tech has a list of ten companies who have provided some eco-friendly equipment for the games. Everybody from LED lighting experts Cree, who provided LED displays for the swimming cube and the bird’s nest National Stadium, to companies like GE who are involved in all kinds of projects at the games, including wind turbines, solar lighting and even rainwater recycling.

(more…)

The Sierra Club is organizing house parties across the US for next Thursday, July 17, 2008 to help send the message that in order to help solve the problem of global warming it will take more than just changing light bulbs (although that’s a pretty good start, and a simple thing for everybody to do!).

(more…)