Eco News

If you want to know what is really going on today regarding the environment and the economy and energy and how they are all interrelated and all in trouble, go to ChrisMartenson.com and check out The Crash Course. 

Check out the Chicago Honey Co-op.  It is a 4 acre bee farm located in the North Lawndale neighborhood.  They sell their products at the Oak Park, Logan Square and Green City farmer's markets.  If you want to find the full list of stores and restaurants that carry or use their honey, visit wwwchicagohoneycoop.com.   

If you want to know what businesses are on the forefront of environmental stewardship, check out GreenBiz.com and sign up for their newsletters.

If you want to find a business using the Green Pages instead of the Yellow Pages, go to this website.

Speaking of the Yellow Pages, who really needs a physical phone book anymore when we have the Internet.  So save some trees and opt out of getting phone books.   

 

Energy-Efficiency Is An Easy Way to Save You Green

In these challenging economic times, a few dollars saved is a very good thing.  So if you can save some green while being green, then it is a bonus.  And there are lots of ways people can save green by being green.  One way is to control the amount of energy that your household appliances use.  Something that many people do not realize is that appliances use electricity even when they are shut off. Energy experts call these appliances vampires because they are plugged in to the wall socket sucking electricity all day and all night.  

I came across this cool diagram today illustrating the common household vampires and how much energy and money they drain.  If you want to find out how to make your home more energy-efficient, check out this website.  

The best way I have found to save energy is by unplugging unused appliances and shutting off the power strips for the TV and its peripherals and the computer and its peripherals when not in use. There are power strips you can buy that turn off after a certain period of inactivity.  

Always make sure to turn your computer off when not in use.  This is one of the most overlooked energy vampires. People leave their computers on for hours on end, and some people never turn them off at all.  And if your computer does not come with some form of power management capabilities, there is free power management software you can download. This will enable you to set your computer to shut off automatically after a specified period of inactivity.  

I have Windows Vista on my laptop, and I set the power management settings for both when plugged in and when powered by the battery to shut the computer down after 10 minutes of inactivity. And it will shut off, but if I just stepped away for a bit, it takes mere seconds for my computer to "wake up."  When done for the day, I simply shut it off and turn off my power strip.                

The Wastefulness of Air Conditioning

Why do I go to work every day and freeze my buns off in the middle of the summer? Because my office must have the thermostat set to 60 degrees. I actually cannot wait to get outside after sitting in arctic temperatures for six hours. I do not have air conditioning at home, only a fan, and it is has not been that bad. I live on the 12th floor of an apartment building right by the lake, so there almost always seems to be a nice breeze blowing in. So I started wondering how much wasted energy was going into running the central air in the building, and how much CO2 it was putting into the atmosphere.

According to the Oregon Environmental Council, the average heating and cooling of the air in your office accounts for 39% of energy use in a typical setting. They say that if you adjust the thermostat by three or four degrees, you can save up to 10%. Simply being comfortable as opposed to being cold would no doubt save my office a great deal more than 10%. No one should have to wear a sweater in the summer.

Check the Code to Ensure That You Are Getting Organic Produce

I only learned this recently. Look at the stickers stuck on the produce.

9-If the PLU code has 5 digits beginning with a 9, then it is organic.

8-Genetically-engineered produce has 5 digits beginning with an 8. This is the only genetic engineering label in the US.

3 & 4-Conventially grown produce will only have a 4-digit PLU code.

Go here for a complete list of PLU codes.

I noticed my very first genetically-engineered produce today while I was shopping at Dominick's. They had grapes with a PLU code beginning with an 8.

Also, watch out for unlabeled produce. I predominantly shop at Whole Foods for my organic produce, and I have noticed that there will be conventional produce mixed in with a batch that is labeled organic on the sign posted above. Or there will not be a sticker on the produce at all. I want organic, so I am not going to buy otherwise. Paying attention to the PLU codes on the stickers is the best way to ensure you are getting what you paid for.