Lifestyle

Want to limit the eco-impact from your gift-giving this year? Instead of the typical gift ideas, give an 'experience' gift. Movies, concerts, restaurants, massages or cooking classes all are thoughtful alternatives of the typical stocking stuffers. Another bonus: You can pick something you & the recipient both enjoy to spend time together!

My friends, co-workers & family know I co-write "Green Philly Blog" and ask for green advice. While I often can assist, I occasionally don't even know the answer... (Sorry to expose that fact.) As Beth & I have mentioned before, the green route isn't always crystal-clear - especially with green imposters. When I was asked about eco-friendliness of toilet paper, I had to do a little research. My old roomie & I were meant to be: As one visiting friend pointed out, we were huge fans of 1-ply toilet paper - not always found at mid-20, chick apartments. However, it turns out this mutual love of 1-ply is quite eco-friendly. Want to know what to look for in TP purchases? Experts recommend:

Need another reason to have a leftover meal of turkey and stuffing? Over 40% of food produced in America is not eaten. Fossil fuels are used to fertilize, harvest and process much of the food we eat. Ample gas is spent transporting food from processor to manufacturer. Help lessen the impact by

It's no secret that 'organic' just sounds better. Many people easily make the transition to buying organic produce, but we often get asked what's really the payoff to switching to less-obvious organic products? Let's take wine for example (after all the holidays are coming up and for some that means 'social lubrication' is on the incline!) What makes organic wine special?

Eco-friendly products have flooded the market - which is great to see! Unfortunately, you have to be aware of possible impostors - some supposedly green products have a more damaging carbon footprint than a simpler, non-green branded product. How can you tell if a product is really green or if it's just marketing? This Sincerely Sustainable blog post shows the ANDREA air filter as a green imposter. While the intentions of ANDREA are good - transforming plants into air cleaners - there's a huge carbon footprint from creating this gadget (between sourcing, transportation and creating the manufacture and sale). A better alternative than ANDREA? Mother nature's "houseplant" - A novel concept, and it costs about $197 less than the $200 price tag. Other 'green' marketing scams & questionable companies include:

The band Cake has been making music for over a decade. These days, they’re known as one of the greenest bands in the world. In an age where some artists are emitting carbon like it’s their job – Cake’s efforts are pretty darn refreshing. In 2008 the band converted it's Sacramento recording studio to run 100 percent from solar energy. Some of Cake’s other green initiatives include:

Good news: Green buildings help workers become more productive! Workplace and employers can enjoy reduced sick time and increased productivity when they move to LEED or Energy Star labeled buildings. Why are the 'non-green' buildings so bad? Chemical contaminants, inadequate ventilation and other problems can lead to Sick Building Syndrome and other health concerns... Could be why you're dreading Monday morning! According to the study featured in the Journal of Sustainable Real Estate,

Need to cut some excess from your life? While you may be familiar with Beth's Paper Peeve and my co-workers apologize each time they print a doc... but no longer fear! An easy gesture such as shrinking your margins (I recommend .5" on all sides ) on computer printouts will save your printer (and co-workers) pages. Word 2007 even has an easy default: Go to the "Page Layout" ribbon Click the "Margins" dropdown Select "Narrow". You'll be amazed at how much more info you can fit & trees you can save! (One study by Change the Margins says if you change your margins to .75" on all sides, you can reduce paper by 4.75% - saving 1.14 trees per ton of paper. If the whole US changed their margins, we'd save 6,156,000 trees every year just by a small change.)

Next time you're defrosting frozen food, instead of using your countertops or microwave - use your fridge. It'll take a bit longer, but by planning ahead and defrosting in the refrigerator you'll