Topic: carbon footprint

Composting Toilets: Eco-Friendly, If You’re Willing To Get Your Hands Dirty

Composting Toilets: Eco-Friendly, If You're Willing To Get Your Hands Dirty

Recently at the Green Living Show, I stumbled upon the Sun-Mar Composting Toilet booth, which was completely devoid of customers. The representatives from Sun-Mar seemed somewhat bored, leaning against the toilet-models on the showroom floor in an effort to stay awake. In conversation with them, they expressed how people generally find the idea of a composting toilet “icky” and were too embarrassed to even contemplate the idea. But in doing a little research, it looks like a composting toilet may in fact be a sustainable, greener, cleaner, and even cheaper solution to water pollution and conservation. So why are people turning up their noses? More »

Why It’s Wrong to Decorate a Christmas Tree

Why It's Wrong to Decorate a Christmas Tree

This story begins with my killing several of my Facebook friendships last holiday season. In one of my “let’s fix the world we’ve ruined” moments, I updated my FB status thusly: “So let me get this straight. We celebrate the supposed virgin birth of Jesus by cutting down a tree, only to throw it out a couple weeks later? Maybe this year we try decorating a cactus instead, or a chair, or a bike?”

Subtle, right? But I forgot: You can’t mess with people’s unquestioned rituals and traditions. The crazies came out of the firewall calling me a Scrooge, wishing me a Merry Christmas, fa la la la la, dripping with sarcasm, and accusing me of self-righteous over-stepping. One woman actually told me to “drown my cats” because their food probably comes in paper bags (i.e. from trees). Needless to say, those people are no longer my Facebook friends. Fa la la la la — whatever.

The truth is we live in a world where there are too many of us humans using too much of what we call our “resources” (the earth) too fast. More »

Composting Without a Yard? Eco-Friendly Living for Lazy Urbanites (Part 1)

Composting Without a Yard? Eco-Friendly Living for Lazy Urbanites (Part 1)

I’ve always seen composting as the final frontier in environmentally sensitive living. Having enough outdoor space for a compost bin and a garden that could benefit from the nutrient-rich soil it yields would be great, but it’s an impossibility for someone like me who lives in a tiny urban apartment with no yard. Riding my bicycle, taking short showers, and hauling my groceries in reusable tote bags would have to do for now; composting would have to wait until I was living it up in a sprawling country estate.

So you can imagine what an ass I felt like when I discovered that several of my friends have been composting in their pint-size apartments for years. How had I missed the fact that I could compost easily and on the cheap, while lacking green space? More »

Green Turkey Gallery: 10 Ways to Make Thanksgiving More Eco-Friendly

Green Turkey Gallery: 10 Ways to Make Thanksgiving More Eco-Friendly

Thanksgiving, traditionally a holiday for being grateful for intangible blessings, is actually a day of mass consumption on every level. We eat a lot; we drink a lot; and the next day, we shop a lot. These behaviors easily can have a negative effect on the planet, thanks to the waste, carbon emissions, and energy use our traditions yield. This makes us feel guilty. (We also sleep a lot over Thanksgiving; this does not make us feel guilty.) So this year, we’re going to turn down the gobble-gobble and make our Thanksgiving as eco-friendly as possible. In that holiday spirit, we’ve got ten easy ways you can reduce your carbon emissions and waste this turkey day. More »

Eco-Friendly Fail: 8 Ways We Emit Carbon Every Day

Eco-Friendly Fail: 8 Ways We Emit Carbon Every Day

You buy local. You avoid using plastic. You ride your bike. You’re basically doing your best to reduce your carbon footprint. But Fast Company found eight surprising ways we emit carbon every day, without even realizing it. Check out this list and see if you’re guilty:

1. Eating. Including food production, transportation, and toilet paper use, humans emit two tons of CO2 a year just form eating.

More »

The Secret Life of Beef Video: Your Happy Meal Makes the Environment Sad

The Secret Life of Beef Video: Your Happy Meal Makes the Environment Sad

At Blisstree, we like to think that we know just how tough livestock production is on the environment (we yak about the topic a lot), but this 6:45 video by environmental nonprofit INFORM reaffirms several shocking facts on the subject that are well worth repeating and sharing. Namely, livestock production creates a massively negative effect on the environment (extensive water usage, destruction of trees for pasture, responsible for 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions around the world, etc.). Also, cows are not supposed to eat corn or grain. These make them sick, which is why many of them are shot up with so many antibiotics. (Did you know that 70% of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are for livestock, not humans?) More »

Green Halloween: 10 Eco-Friendly (and Hilarious) Costumes You Already Own

Green Halloween: 10 Eco-Friendly (and Hilarious) Costumes You Already Own

Halloween has to be one of the least eco-friendly holidays of the year. There’s all the plastic packaging from costumes and candy that heads to landfills; shipping costs and materials for said costumes and candy; and, of course, the savage tradition of pumpkin smashing. But does that mean you must abandon your eco-friendly ways on October 31? We don’t think so. We found ten cheeky Halloween costumes you can make from all the crap you’ve already got at home (no purchases necessary), which means you won’t create any trash or perpetuate our reliance on petroleum based products (like all of those packaged costumes at the drugstore). An added perk? Now you have more room in your budget for that super-deluxe composting system — or a few cases of pumpkin ale. More »

If I were in charge, I’d design a protocol that qualifies the sustainability of the life cycle of consumable goods: 1. What the thing is made of (renewable or non-renewable materials), 2. How it’s made (energy and effect of manufacturing on environment and humans), 3. Distance and mode of transport to market (including packaging), 4. Effect and impact of use (on humans and environment, including longevity of product), and 5. What the heck happens when we’re done with it (reuse, recycle, disposal).

If I were in charge, I’d design a protocol that qualifies the sustainability of the life cycle of consumable goods: 1. What the thing is made of (renewable or non-renewable materials), 2. How it’s made (energy and effect of manufacturing on environment and humans), 3. Distance and mode of transport to market (including packaging), 4. Effect and impact of use (on humans and environment, including longevity of product), and 5. What the heck happens when we’re done with it (reuse, recycle, disposal).

– Eco-living expert, chef, and author Renée Loux on her ideas for a universal “green certification” body, from her post Green Guru Renée Loux: Who Are You?

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