Here are 10 top tips for greener eating.

Remember to apply some common sense to your eating habits. Advice that is sound in one part of the world may not be green elsewhere.

10 Greener Eating Tips

The following is a summary of Mark Sissons 10 Ways To Eat Green

1. Eat Seasonal Produce. Food that is fresh locally reduces the effects of transportation. Usually tastes better too!
2. Grow Your Own. Take step one even further and you’ll soon realize that nothing tastes better than your own fresh fruit and vegetables.
3. Choose Fish Carefully. Many environments are ruined by poor commercial fishing practices. See what environment friendly fish schemes are operating in your area.
4. Choose Meat Carefully. Meat production techniques vary widely. Check that yours is produced to good green standards. It doesn’t harm to eat a bit less as well.
5. Replace Processed With Whole Foods. Less packaging, less energy to produce. Whole foods are good foods.
6. Go Organic. Removing chemicals from the environment also helps remove them from you. Healthier all round.
7. Check Labels. Labels will often show positive environmentally friendly information. Also use them to favor local produce, and to avoid unnecessary, energy consuming additives.
8. Use Green Restaurants. Favor restaurants that have positive green policies. Not just food, but packaging materials and cleaning policies are important here.
9. Watch Your Water. Don’t buy bottled. If you need to carry water with you, make sure that you use tap water in a safe container designed to be safe. Reusing old plastic bottles is not a good idea. They often degrade under sunlight, leaving unsafe chemical residues in your drink.
10. Freeze Efficiently. Fridges and freezers can be major energy users. Make sure you buy the most efficient you can afford. Also, take care to keep seals clean and repair damaged ones quickly. Do not leave open longer than absolutely necessary.

See marks article for more information, and more tips in the comments that follow his article.

You cannot change everything overnight, but by gradually changing 7 aspects of your working life, you can move towards greener working.

We all feel the pressure of the daily commute. Do not feel that the only way to sustainable working practices is to give up your job and move to a farm.

Modern society needs greener working practices that not only improve the environment, but help you feel better as well.

A few simple changes can make a real difference to you and the planet.

7 Greener Working Tips

1. Work smarter. Work with your colleagues to reduce the amount of resources you use up each day. Does Jack really need a copy of that memo? Can you arrange the stationery delivery once a month instead of twice a week?
2. Save energy. Not just switching off those unnecessary lights. Think about the energy being used to make all the stuff you use in your job. Look at what is being dumped - is their a reusable alternative?
3. Pack it better. How do you pack things for your customer? Packaging systems are undergoing a green revolution as economic and environmental factors push for more efficiency.
4. Stop writing. Use technology to replace paper systems.
5. Keep it moving. Massive resources are tied up by warehousing stuff. Streamline systems to make only what is needed, and get it straight out to where it needs to be.
6. Check efficiency. Your vehicle, heating system, insulation and everything else you use at work needs to operate efficiently. Don’t just turn the heating up to mask tht broken door - get it fixed.
7. Share. Don’t ask for, or accept, personal assets just for the status. Get into the sharing habit, and see massive resource savings.

Stop and look around at work. What can you improve? What have you done today to make your work more sustainable?

You can make a massive difference, and save money, by changing your cleaning products.

Everyday cleaning products are complex chemical compounds that can buildup in the environment causing a range of problems from water pollution to infertility.

But there are hundreds of natural alternatives, many more effective, that can help you make the move to clean green living.

You cannot have failed to notice greener alternatives appearing everyday at your local store or supermarket. The fastest growing sector of the cleaning materials market is eco-cleaning products.

By simply switching to eco-friendly brands, you can easily promote your own greener living. But it is just as easy to go one step further and make a substantial impact.

Women’s Voices for the Earth is one group who can help you make this transition. They are stepping up their campaign to promote safer cleaning products. A good place to start is their page that gives you many tips for helping you make the move to clean green living.

I wondered how green a multinational company can be, and my research confirmed that their policies go far beyond providing an ecologically sound product.

They really do seem to care.

The green warriors are telling us to avoid everything we can’t grow ourselves, and alienating many people who want to live sustainable lives. Coffee is a prime example of a product that demands shipping from areas where it will grow. Denying it’s existence, or defying our right to drink it is futile, and in my book damaging to the cause.

I won’t give up my coffee when I can see that, by operating responsibly and efficiently with environmental awareness, it is perfectly possibly to present sustainable products from anywhere in the world.

By planning and operating a business around and infused by green, sustainable policies Green Mountain have shown me that you can make a much bigger contribution with an ostensibly eco-unfriendly product managed well than an eco-friendly product managed badly.

Many of their policies and procedures deserve a full article in their own right, and you can see those over the next few weeks. In the meantime here are some highlights.

Green Mountain Coffee Highlights

• Sells organic and Fair Trade Certified coffees.
• Is commited to social responsibility and ecological conservation.
• Develops packaging with lower environmental impact
• Is a regular in the top 20 of the SustainableBusiness.com list of The World’s Top Sustainable Businesses.
• Communicates electronically, harnessing the Internet, where possible, with massive savings of paper and distribution resources.

Now this is beginning to sound like a sales pitch, and that is not my intention. When I see a good company, and taste a good product, I like to praise it. I am also willing to criticize, especially if I can offer constructive criticism.

So what are your views on Green Mountain coffee? Have you heard any bad news?

]]> http://www.green-bud.com/green-mountain-coffee-cupful-of-greener-living/feed/ http://www.green-bud.com/ecology-junk-yard/ http://www.green-bud.com/ecology-junk-yard/#comments Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:31:48 +0000 GreenBud http://www.green-bud.com/ecology-junk-yard/

Ecology Junk Yard

Don’t waste time worrying about driving. Going green is not something you can do overnight, but you can improve by changing a few simple things.

Driving carefully and watching the road ahead, to avoid braking unless absolutely necessary is one great improvement.

The second great improvement is to repair with used parts.

Everyone has a wrecking yard / scrap yard / junk yard, or whatever you like to call it, nearby. Do not waste time and fuel driving from yard to yard. Get on the phone and make sure they have what you want before you go.

Look for “Used & Rebuilt Auto Parts” or “Auto Wreckers” at yellowbook.com (”Car & Commercial Vehicle Dismantlers” at yell.com for UK).

Reusing anything is a good way to save money and go greener at the same time. Get to know your local used parts supplier. Whether it’s called “Ecology Junk Yard” or “Bob’s Breakers”, it’s bound to help you save cash and the planet.

If you want to live a greener life, one of the most significant influences is how you earn a living. There are no generally accepted definitions about greener jobs. I explain my view so that you can understand the context of my articles about green jobs and an ecology career.

To me, greener working involves small changes to your working life so that you consume fewer finite resources without compromising your standard of living. There are many things you can do - the biggest is to make a commitment to live closer to where you work. I gradually progressed from traveling hundreds of miles a week, with overseas trips to working from home. There are a thousand ways you can improve things, but it is always easiest to change slowly. Set a goal each year. I will write more on this later, but for now I want to focus on different types of choice - your choice of career.

If you have an existing career that you are happy with, I’ve touched upon how you can improve this for greener working. If you are unhappy with your career, or planning your first career moves, you might want to think about jobs directly related to green issues. From a career in theoretical ecology to working on environmental projects - there is a massive choice.

Over the next few weeks, I will publish a series of pages about choosing and starting an ecology career. If you have any questions to ask, or experiences to share, please comment below or send me a message on my contact form.

But what does it all mean to you and I? Do we have to study ecology and environmental issues? Do we have to go back to the dark ages and through away the car, our heating system and discard every other aspect of modern living that makes life comfortable?

The answers are emphatically NO.

Going green should improve your life. If you do not feel better, what is the point? Most of all, you must enjoy it.

Most of my tips are practical steps that you can take to make your lifestyle more sustainable. Along the way, I explain the theory - you don’t need it, but better understanding will help you make choices and let you develop your own strategies to help you go green.