Grapes

In the words of Ed Begley, Jr., "pick the low hanging fruit".  By that he means to make the easiest green changes first.  Well, today I sorta took that advice literally, yet by accident!  I chose Rainforest Alliance Certified http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/agriculture/certification red grapes at the grocery store.  They are delicious and nutritious, and by happenstance, they are also sustainable, which is of course a win/win for all.  I wanted to learn more about the Rainforest Alliance Certification, so I looked it up and was surprised to learn that more than two million farmers, farm workers, and their families directly benefit from the Rainforest Alliance Certification.  Rainforest Alliance Certification ensures that those who are certified address the three pillars of sustainability "environmental protection, social equity, and economic viability."  To become Rainforest Alliance Certified™, farms must be audited by the independent international certification body, Sustainable Farm Certification, Intl., which certifies to Sustainable Agriculture Network standards.  Oh, and did I mention, that the holey plastic bag (so that the grapes can breathe) is also recyclable #4 LDPE or Low-density polyethylene?  You can bet it will be returned to the grocery store on my next trip and placed in the recycle bin near the entrance door ;) 

H is for Home Improvements

Of course I mean green home improvements!  Over the last few months we've been doing some green home improvement projects that are helping us reduce our carbon footprint and save money in the process. One of our favorites comes in the form of a fluuuuuuusshhhh :) 

As Ed Begley, Jr. likes to say, we've been "picking the low lying fruit" and doing simple things that don't cost a lot of money, but in the end are better for the planet and our pocketbook.  Since we began our green journey, we've taken the following home improvement babysteps.  We started with:

• outlet insulation gaskets http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/02/outlet-small-changes-big-results-day-11.html and kept on going, 
• replacing our old showerheads with low flow heads http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/03/water-water-everywhere-day-26.html, 
• replacing bulbs that burn out with either CFLs (please recycle them back to Home Depot or Lowes when they are spent) http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/03/cfls-day-15.html or LEDs, which are more expensive, but result in huge savings in the long run, then, 
• Hubby figured out how to rewire and replaced an electric eye on our front entry lights instead of buying new lights and adding to the landfill http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/04/picking-low-lying-fruit.htm and saving us money by only having the lights on when it is dark.
• Back in the spring, we made "lemonade out of lemons" when our basement rec room was flooded after New England was deluged with rain and we suffered our first flood; when we redid the room we used biodegradable paint trays http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-wouldve-guess.html, 
• chose carpet made from 100% recycled PET from plastic bottles and chose an eco-pad to go underneath it  http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/04/lemonade-from-lemons.html  
• When it was time to replace the gross matt in the mud room, I was excited to find a green mat...I mean we are talking babysteps here, so each time we step into the house I smile at that green choice, http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/05/ecstatic-over-ecomat.html  
• One of my favorite home improvement projects this year has been the installation of the clothesline.  Not only are we saving energy, but it is kinda therapeutic hanging out the laundry listening to the birds and the crickets...I do have the kids helping me to hang, and take down the laundry, and while they don't like how the towels turn out ("they are crunchy mom!"), they have done a good job of helping with it, and believe it or not, it's good exercise reaching and pulling on the line to move the clothes along!  http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/06/c-is-for.html  We've also saved quite a bit of energy with this home improvement, and I hope I can continue to dry clothes outside well into the fall http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/07/e-is-for-electricity-and-energy.html.  

Our most recent home improvement project that hubby embraced, researched, and installed (I'm soooo lucky to have such a wonderful, handy, guy who is supportive of the green babysteps we've been taking), is a dual-flush system for the toilet!  When he first tried to find it locally he couldn't and when we were on the road recently he found it at Home Depot in NJ (they told him they'd just started carrying it).  It's called HydroRight Smarter Flush Technology by MJSI, Inc.  This system replaces the regular flusher mechanism inside the tank and the outside flusher as well.  The upper button is to "flush liquids and paper with less water", errr or #1, and the lower button is to "flush with more power", err or for #2.  The HydroRight claims it will saves up to 15,000 gallons after one year ("the equivalent of stacking water bottles 45 miles high"....yikes they used disposable water bottles as their example...heaven forbid!) and result in savings of about $100 in water/sewer costs each year.   At $24.98 per dual-flusher, we plan to install two more for even more savings, because with a family of 6 our septic gets a workout and we'd love to trim our water bill even more.   http://www.gomjsi.com/dual-flush-hydroright/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=us&utm_term=hydroright%2Bdual%20flush%20converter&utm_campaign=hydrorightdualflush&gclid=CIvU4rXOsaMCFRafnAodkDLuVA

Stay tuned to find out what our next green home improvement project will be!