One of my GREEN resolutions... each time I get junk mail in that is truly junk, I am making a phone call and requesting to be taken off their mailing list. I started last fall, with a pile of catalogs on my lap... and the volume has already gone down. But there are so many layers of marketers out there, and they buy/sell your name, and blast out for other companies. So you have to sort of do it over and over. they are usually already set up for it when I call and can process my request painlessly... This is a 0$ way to save ... both paper and fuel associated with production and shipments...

Although our money is limited, and we rent, we have made big changes in our household. We replaced all the lights with compact floresant bulbs, we insulted our waterheater, and outlets. We put weatherstripping on the inside doors and insultion around the jams to stop drafts. My fireplace flue doesn't close anymore, so I took newspaper and rolled it up in huge balls and stuck it up the chimmney where the flue should close, being careful not to block the heater ventilation, because that would cause carborn minoxide poisioning, and then we cut out a piece of foam core board and wedged it between the flue and fireplace. We recycle alot, and only have one garbage bag between 3 adults per week. We composte our vege cuttings and coffee grinds. I work in a grocery store and encourage my customers into buying our recycled, reusable bags, for $1.50, which they do with great enthusiasm. So there you have it, if we all did these simple things, what a difference it would make. My electric bill has dropped about $25.00 a month!!!

This year, instead of driving my large, old, gas guzzling car to work, I now take the train both ways 3x/ week, and carpool in, taking the train home, 2x/ week. Plus, I replaced 14 light bulbs in my home with energy savers.

We have switched almost all our light bulbs to CFLs, including the outdoor flood lights and also in our barn. We have energy efficient appliances and collect rain water in a 300 gallon tank from the barn roof for watering outdoor plants. I drive a hybrid vehicle, buy organic and local produce when possible and am planning a vegetable garden for this year. We recycle and re-use or re-purpose everything we can.

I am trying to inspire neighbors to do all they can.

For the past 15 years me and my family have tried to live "greener", every year we do little more. This year we will recycle water in our house garden to keep the grass green. It is not that easy here in Mexico where we live.

Thank you

Je suis acadienne donc parle français.
We decide to put the garbage every 3 weeks intead of every wesnesday than we save the energy for the truck to stop near our home every week. During the cold season there is no smell problem.

We are retired and work at home. We've committed to wearing wool sox and an extra layer in the house and heating to 60 degrees only. If we need more warmth, we retreat to a small room and use a little heater.

We also grow a lot of our vegetables in a small home garden and harvest unclaimed fruit for freezing and canning in the summer. I'm currently writing a book on eating locally in the maritime Northwest, to be titled Local Pleasures.

My New Year's resolution is to continue to spread the word about the bottled water scam. Bottom line, tap water is good in this country and water bottled in plastic is not only unnecessary, but a huge waste. quick info = see Sierra Club's comments.

I will try to find a way to replace plastic bags to organic bags to use for food wastes.

This year we have decided to do a number of things to reduce our footprint. We've been replacing a couple light bulbs a month with CFL's. We have opted to shovel instead of snowblow. We have caulked our exterior windows to control leaks. I gave out christmas presents in Cloth grocery bags for my family to start using. We also have started using biodegradable diapers and wipes for our baby. I feel really good about that!!! Man there is some nasty stuff in those "disposable" diapers. Once he starts eating solid food I think we'll try cloth diapers.

I do not buy bottled water anymore. I have switched to laundry in powdered form in a box and use half the amount.

We are presently recycling most of our grey water into the garden via an underground pipe with holes in it. The veges are looking good, we're feeling much better and we're looking forward to eating the harvest!

Check out savefreobeaches.com to see grass roots democracy in action! ((-:

Just had information about my new bank account. I changed because my current bank invests in mostly non-sustainable firms, and my new one does the opposite!
To everybody: find out which bank is the most "green" one and change!! (In Holland we leave ABN AMRO for example and go to Triodos or ASN)

I am a low income individual so I am doing what I can afford to do. That is replacing my bulbs with CFL's, cutting back on unnessary travel, buying products with less packaging and pushing for recycling at work. Any little bit helps right?

We're getting a house renovation done, so most of our New Years' Resolutions are wrapped up in that. We're going out of our way to outfit the new addition with state-of-the-art green appliances and lighting (at least as far as our budget will allow). For our recessed lights, we're getting an LED light called the LR6. We saw it in the store and were impressed with the light quality. It only gives off the lighting equivalent of a 75W bulb and costs $100 per bulb, but it uses far less energy than CFLs, contains no mercury, will last until our 3-year-old is in college, and is fully dimmable.

We just replaced our furnace with the Carrier Infinity 96. This has a rating of 96.6% AFUE, and boy, is it quiet and effective. All these years we thought our house was drafty, but as it turns out, we just had a crappy furnace that was too small for the house. Finally, the thermostat reflects the actual temperature in the house!

We're going to be replacing our air conditioner with something that has a SEER rating of 18; I don't know which one yet, but our contractor has some great HVAC guys who can help us.

We will also be installing a thermal solar hot water heating system. We're going to wait a few years on the solar PV panels, until hopefully the price on those comes down.

We're looking into recycled rubber matting (the same as you see in many gyms) for the storage room where the hot water tank will go.

I'm also going to be planting some native and fruit-bearing vines along the southeast corner of our house. That area gets super-hot in the summer, and some leafy vines might help cool the house down.

I recycle with my family (5+ years), use energy efficient bulbs, walk almost always & I'm crazy about switching everything off. I encourage my friends to do the same. I hope to buy an eco-friendly car when I start driving & live in a totally eco-friendly house! I can't wait to do more for the environment - keep those coo suggestions coming! :)

My husband and I have been vegetarians for 7 years, this year we have decided to become vegan. I don't think people know the worst affects on global warming is animal agriculture,if everyone would just not eat meat two days a week, we could solve a lot of the problem of global warming.

My Husband and I have been going green for 7 years now. We put in solar panels and used them for a carport. We have more in our recycle co-mingle can than in our garbage can, we have florescent lighting in our home. We use as little water as possible. I only drive into town, we are rural, when I have more that 2 stops to get done. I unplug the TV when it isn't being watched. I only wash clothes when I have a full load to do. I take short showers every other day and a spit bath on the alternate days( wash cloth in needed areas). When we can afford to get an electric car we will put in enough solar to power our own car. What are you doing?
Thank You, Joy

My friends and I are launching a project to protect the Water Forest, an ecosystem that supplies water to 35 million people in central Mexico. There are many threats to this forest, including two highway projects across the best preserved areas, projects that will inevitably haul urban developments. Our project will put the Water Forest in the headlines and will create debate, thereby making people aware that in less than 50 years this gorgeous wilderness that harbours five of Mexico's six wild felines could be entirely gone - unless we protect and restore this natural heritage. Our larger focus is on attaining a consensus among all stakeholders on a Regional Conservation Strategy.

well,I am only 15 years old,but nothing can´t stop me from protecting Earth from climate crisis.since I go to school for protecting milieu my dream is that I will some day work with Al Gore :)I am tryina as much as I can to retrench energy.But for now this is all I can do,I hope that 2008 will be better for nature,animals and people.But thing that I want most in 2008 is that we must do something about those gases ind smokes that are realy bad for our environment!Well,all I hawe to do for now is to hope that 2008 will be better than 2007.

My new year's resolution is to eat as little beef as possible, because all the energy use to produce 1 pound of beef can be use to produce 8 pounds of grain. Pork is 1:6 while chicken is 1:3.

My New Year Resolution is not to drive short distances with my car. I´ll go on foot or driving with my bike

This year I decided to no more eat génétically modified food AND report to the manufacturer that our familly will ban them.
Already done twice and seems that manufacturers pay attention to that.

My husband and I are Reducing Our Recycling in 2008! Wait, what???

We're fortunate to live in a city that's long been a leader in recycling and city composting. Our trash is next to nothing, but our recycling is full most weeks.

So we took a look at the things we find in our recycling most often (yogurt, salsa and beer bottles being the highest volume) and started making them from scratch!

It's been incredibly easy and fun to incorporate this into our lifestyle. Sunday is now Salsa Sunday.

And I'm so thrilled to see so many other resolutions on this thread. All of our efforts do add up.

One other resolution is to actively create dialog with businesses, politicians and other orgs and let them know we support local living economies for all.

Here's to positive, progressive changes in 2008 and beyond!

Ten years ago we installed a geothermal furnace in our old 100 year old farm house and we love it. We have stopped buying bottled water and use the water from our deep well which gets pumped into a cistern. Less trips in order to save fuel and run our old vehicles until we can find a good used vehicle which runs on alternative fuel.

(1) Install SOLAR panels on my house. I figured my electricity use, over 5 years, will pay for the solar system.
(2) Refuse to travel. Drive less by planning better. Stay in town and explore my own city for the holidays instead of traveling. Send the family photos by internet instead of driving across the country.
(3) Grow my own food. This year I'm building raised garden beds out of recycled materials and planting as much edible vegetation as possible. Less trips to the store, more green stuff around the house to make oxygen and absorb heat.
(4) Boycott frozen & packaged foods. Anything I do buy from the store will be fresh, from the bins, etc.
(5) Read more and do creative projects instead of watching TV.
(6) Throw out the coffee maker (I don't know if I can go through with this one).

Last July, I resolved to begin making changes that will impact the environment positively. For example, shutting off the water while I brush my teeth, while I shampoo and soap in the shower, shutting off lights in rooms not being used, and carpooling as much as possible. I am glad to report that I have stuck to my summer resolution. And my pocket is happy, too: our water and electric bills have been reduced by as much as 15% and our gasoline consumption has been lowered as well.

I will buy food more conscioucely and think twice if I want to buy some, if I really need it.
Untill now, I always bought what I like, now I will eat more beans instead of buying meat supplements all the time.
And over all I'm going to eat even less meat and fish.
I already purchased biological meat, but now I'm going to reduce that too.

My Girlfriend and I are going to get married later this year so we started building a custom home in Fort Worth.

Were doing as much as possible to make it as green as it can be. We plan on things that will have a long term effect such as foam insulation, vinyl windows, radiant roof, solar, water reclamation, drip system irrigation, LED lighting along with energy eff appliances. If we can we want to try for geotherm heat pumps.

I believe the Pay Now or Pay Later approach. Some technology is still costly such as LED lighting, my current project, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and move forward within reason.

Our goal is to offset monthly utilities by 50% or more.

AS Environmental Committee Chairman and treasurer of a 60 M building, My coop has engaged a firm that installs solar systems (polyvoltaic and heat transfer) as well as a firm that does hydroponic greenhouses. We want to add all this to the roof, to promote sustainability as well as rainwater recapture. We have already switched to CFC lighting in the halls, which cut our electric bills by 2K month. WE signed up for hydro electric and nuclear only power from CONED. We recycle as best possible. We use public transportation. We switched to non toxic paint. Its only January, so we have a long way to go.

Buy nothing new.
It's not that hard. I live in Boston and craigslist is a great resourse.

Following up on changing all the bulbs and taking mass transit to work at least once a week that i started last year, this year I will:

- Increase my home's attick insulation to R48
- Have HAVC checked and replaced if more effective technology exists
- Replace appliances with Energy Star ratings
- Look online every month for new ideas and share my ideas/changes with others

Thanks,
James

I think the world have to turn their to their God, from their bad ways to God so that the creator of the earth and haven will do something great for the cosmos.

In Vancouver, instead of purchasing a heat pump to save energy we purchased a luxurious down comforter for 1/10th the cost. Using down comforters in our home has allowed us to turn down or off the furnace and contribute to saving energy.

I built a Green web site, www.downcomfortersandpillows.com and started a new company. We now encourage other green web sites to link trade with us.

Our superior hotel quality Down comforters and Down pillows are just what you need to cut your home heating costs and stay comfortably warm all year round. It's about turning down the thermostat at night, contributing to energy conservation and staying toasty warm. A cheaper alternative for us.

Kind regards,

Nadia

Hello, I am writing to you as regards your inquiry in connection with the initiatives that we are in charge of and that are related to protection of the environment.
My name is Desislava Beleva and I am a Chairman of the parental “TRUSTEESHIP OF THE “FRIENSHIP – FIRST OF JUNE” ALL-DAY KINDERGARTEN , town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. This is a non-profit association of parents whose children attend two kindergartens in our town. I personally am an author of a short article published in several Bulgarian websites – Toner Direct, National Ecological Network and others, and in the July edition of EcoPolis magazine.
I am aware that the construction of a compost bowl is not an easy job and I am looking for sponsors and consultants who would help us realize our idea. Composting at home is difficult and the quantity of the waste that can be composted is not so large.
As a whole I want to popularize several things that are important for me and at the same time teach children and their parents also that nothing in this world is a waste. It is simply that we are turning it into a waste.
Thus a lot of thoughts are crossing my mind, but in general my idea is to fence off a small place in the yard of the kindergarten and every day parents would take there the remains of the evening salad and everything else that can be composted. I intend to order and distribute to all children linen bags, specially made for that purpose. Several short advices would be printed on the bags, addressing the parents, on how to make their lives cleaner and at the same time to make them think over what legacy they would leave to their children. The attendants in the kindergarten shall tell the children what they should put into these bags and where to dispose of it explaining to them what will become of it and how it will help our nature. Children believe in miracles, and for them the turning of the peeled skin of a cucumber and the dry leaf into an useful soil for the beautiful flowers in the garden is a miracle. Thus children will motivate also their parents to make a small alteration in their daily habits. We know that children are also our best teachers.
We have a lot of space in the yard and we take our children there every day, and this will allow us, without any special efforts, to take the remains of our food in the household and to “throw” them into the compost bowl. Besides that, in the kindergarten food is prepared every day and remains are thrown out that are suitable to be composted. There are many trees in the yard, dry leaves and twigs are falling down all the time. The available staff could take care of the compost bowl. Volunteers can also be found.
I also think to organize some prize-awarding for everybody at the end of the experiment.
My purpose is to popularize composting as a way of diminishing household waste and for ecologically directed thinking and education, both of parents and of children. I think that it will be interesting for everybody to see the result of that activity.
Apart form that, composting at home is difficult and takes more knowledge and experience, and no one of us has them.
Initially we intend to use the ready compost for fertilizing the green areas and the flower pots in the kindergarten, and if our “production” would increase, we could offer it to other organizations which might show an interest in our activity.
Regards,
Desislava Beleva

This year I am evaluating our food buying habits to reduce packaging and waste. I will educate any one I know who still uses bottled water (Laster year we got a Prius and installed solar paneling)

Last year my school started a global issues club, which i joined. This year my goal is to become a more active member. Every Friday we collect aluminum cans and newspapers. It is not much but it is all that we can do living in The Bahamas with no recycling plant.
Yours Sincerely,
Ashleigh Uriasz.

Since many years I live consciously sparing energy, collecting all the recyclables as glass, metals, paper, pet, oil, etc... and using collective transportation if available...
I hope also to get many friends conscious of the impact we all can have if ye care to...

Hi,

My family is using near and organicly grown vegetarian food items. We pick wild rasberrie, lingon berries, blueberries, cloudberries and mushrooms for the whole year. We are driving with biogas car.

Starting in 2006, we started analyzing alternative energy options for our home: geothermal, solar, photovoltaic and wind. This year we plan to replace our central heating boiler (we live in England by the way) with a more efficient LPG boiler and install solar panels / tubes to heat our hot water. We are excited about our first project of many! Happy New Year to all!

Today I watched a PBS program on Green Communities...it was not only very interesting but it inspired me to research and learn more about what I can do to promote and contribute to them.

I would like to transistion out of the classroom and devote my time towards earth friendly causes...but at this time, I don't know enough about it to do so...meanwhile, while I am learning more about it, so too will my students in the form of reading articles on Global Warnming and Going Green...

If you have a curriculum that you'd like to promote or to share, please contact me!

I cut my commute from 50 miles to 16 by transferring offices. I've also purchased reusable grocery bags and we are starting to phase out regular light bulbs. My next purchase will be an alumium water bottle to avoid plastics. We are more concious of turning off lights and adjusting the temperature of the house.

This year I have resolved to never get another plastic bag again, in any store. Not in a grocery or any other store. All our food is wrapped in plastic, too! That is enough! I have had it! I will also try to stay away from all the prepackaging., and I will bring my own bags to the store with me.

Here are two: I bring my own bags when grocery shopping most of the time. Checkout people are usually very young and I say, "I'm saving the planet for YOU." They smile! My utility bills show less power used than the same time last year, which makes me and my wallet very happy.

I'm keeping my promise to live green and I'm spreading the word to make simple changes - use a reusable water bottle and fill with tap/filtered water, change to cf bulbs, walk or bike places, recycle, use less, buy less, eat clean and local, use eco-friendly cleaning products, share your magazines and books, turn off the water, use cloth shopping bags, support organic and eco-concious businesses... - and tell your friends!
Peace -
MaryAnn

I have all the right bulbs nd usually si in the dark. I use light only when needed. I recycle nearly everything, but when I can't, I never buy that product again. I fit my home, so I only use the heat I need. I eat meat, but my dogs eat all the leftovers and nothing is gone to waste. I make the smallest footprint I can.

I am using my car as little as possible and riding my bike more. I take it grocery shopping and I walk to places that are withing 2 miles. We use florescent lights, We use cloth bags only and only buy things which can themselves be recycled as well as the packaging. My goal this year is to achieve zero waist. I plan to generate all my electricity and hot water and heat by solar energy, this will take a while. We use only rechargable batteries and we charge them with solar cells. We have cut and will continue to cut our electrical use. We shut off and unplug just about everything. We compose and are begining to grow more of our food. We use only local organic farmers and never buy anything shipped from another country. We are accelerating our effort to cut down on solid waist. I have plans to recycle my gray water, even tripple distilling it. I plan to ride my bike and pick up 10 gallons of sea water to be distilled thereby hopefully reducing or eliminating my use of water from community supplies. Presently we are catching rain water but plan to do much more. I vow to reduce and hopefully eliminate my carbon foot print. I am raising my grand daughter. There is nothing I will not do to save her future and I love doing it. As a result I am healthier and happier. I plan to look at every aspect of my life to make any changes possilbe. I will and do talk to all who will listen.

Apart from using CFLs&energy efficient T-5 Tube Lights, installing Solar Thermal Water heating system and using Solar powered LED Lantern for emergency till now, my pesonal contribution during 2008 is the reduction in the use of water,avoiding packaged goods to the extent possible, using locally and seasonally avaialble vegetables and fruits only and to propogate the same through Emails.

At the community level propogatioon of energy efficiency, particularly in the schools, promotion of renewable energy sources, reduction of garbage generation and its recycling.

To interact with Government agencies for adopting energy efficiency measures in urban street ligting and for replacement of Incandascent lamps and energy inefficient Tube lights by CFLs and T-5 Tube Lights.

From this year onwards, I have resolved to judiciously use and conserve electricity....it takes just a "Flick of a Switch" literally....