make a smaller ecological footprint

In response to growing pressure from international law enforcement agencies and conservation groups, eBay, the online auction giant, announced Monday that it would ban all commerce in ivory, including most heirlooms, to avoid providing a market that will encourage the slaughter of endangered elephants.

Score : Pachyderms 1 – Poachers 0

so I totally slaughtered a pair of jeans today, and not being one to do the cut off thing, they are now in the church donation bag. The brilliant thing about those donations is that the items that are not chosen by homeless people are bundled and sold to a fabric recycler – keeping them out of a landfill. Somehow those Levi’s will find a new life.

Our company’s Commuter Challenge is officially starting next week! We’re having a kick-off event Thursday toward the end of the day to present it to everyone and get them psyched up for it. Which is getting easier all the time! We’ll be serving margaritas (“green” drinks!) and announcing the PRIZES!!

After work I went to a couple outdoor gear stores we picked to ask them about prizes – added value really, because we have some money to spend. I was blown away by the positive response!! They’re talking about doubling the money we’re spending, free schwag, percent-off coupons – wow.

So awesome.

Reuse: As of today, we are saving all our beer bottles. A neighbor is making his own beer.

Here in Saline County, Missouri USA where I live, the Saline County Commissioners signed a resolution for EcoAlgae USA to construct a commercial algae production facility in conjunction with an intergrated biorefinery complex. Here is the link

They landlord paid to get all the ducting under the house replaced when they put in a new HVAC unit. They also put in energy star windows too. This will be great in the winter as the previous casement window allowed a breeze through the house during the Santa Anna windstorms.

However the unfortunate part is that I can no longer use my window swamp cooler. It will void the new vinyl window warranty to mount anything to them. So the downside now is that I must use an air conditioner in a house with no insulation. I’m not sure how to address this yet but I am turning on the air only when it gets over 85 degrees in here and keeping the setting at 80. The insulation is really the issue but My project for putting up trellises on the hot side of the house and having a vine grow and shade that area have helped a lot. I cant wait to own my own house and make it spend money on making my own house green.

All in time.

We still haven’t eliminated buying soda in cans but now that they don’t stay around long enough to pile up my family is making more of an effort to save them for recycling. One of our friends is disabled due to a stroke and now collects them for extra money. He goes around town on his riding lawnmower picking up cans and even trash off the streets. He says that in about 2 month’s time, he collects enough to take a pickup load to Sedalia and clear enough cash to make the trip worthwhile.
With the exception of a couple antique lamps, we are using energy-saving bulbs. Our city will except them for recycling although they still don’t pick up anything at curbside for recycling except paper.
We are giving all our excess plastic grocery sacks to some of the local gardeners selling fresh produce in the old Wal-Mart parking lot now that Wal-Mart moved to their new location.

Do any of you twitter? I’m brand new at it, and interested in finding some green/eco posters to ‘follow!’

Home Depot just announced that they will start a recycling program for Compact Flourescent Bulbs. At issue was the small amount of mercury in these bulbs. Under the program, any manufacturer’s bulbs will be accepted for recycling.

In 2006 the National Council of Nuns came out against bottled water for the moral reason that life’s essential resource should not be privatized. In their declaration they stated that approximately 17 Million Barrels of Oil are used to make the bottles for bottled water. Yikes.