Congratulations to the city of Curitiba in Brazil for coming up with the world’s longest environment-friendly buses!
These green buses run on bio-fuel made from soybeans. Measuring 28 meters long, the buses can accommodate 170 passengers. In a day, the buses can transport an estimated 77,000 passengers. Even the stops made by these buses are lessened by about 10 minutes, as compared to a regular bus.
Here’s a good example of public transportation made greener!
Brownie points go to Baja Fresh® Mexican Grill for their Earth Fresh Initiative! They’ll be using recycled or recyclable paper and plastic bags, unbleached recyclable burrito wrapping paper and even biodegradable plates.
Too bad there’s no Baja Fresh branch here in Connecticut. Otherwise, I’d go out and eat there to show my support.
I admire people and companies who make it easy for everyone else to engage in a sustainable lifestyle. One such company is O’BON, a supplier of environmentally-friendly school supplies based in South San Francisco, CA.
O’BON uses recycled materials in producing their school supplies – newspapers for O’BON pencils, art pencils and color pencils; sugarcane paper for their journals; and recycled cardboard for their binders.
As if that’s not enough, the product designs are just gorgeous.
O’BON offers four design series. O’BONanza Series features yummy fruit designs including apple, cherry, kiwi, orange and strawberry. Their Sugarcane Series combines their Sugarcane Paper logo plus the word “Sugarcane” right smack in the middle of the cover. The Wildlife Series showcases wildlife designs including alligator, bear, elephant, giraffe, leopard, parrot, sea turtle, snake, tiger and zebra. Lastly, the Birds Series highlight vibrant exotic bird feathers.
Personally, the O’BONanza and Birds series are my favorites since I love colorful designs.
By creating their own niche and staying true to their philosophy – “to make products such as pencils and journals fun and beautiful in design, excellent in quality, educational in use and inexpensive in price”, O’BON is definitely offering “something different”.
I’ll post product reviews sometime soon. Care to know more? Check them out at MyOBON.com or visit O’BON’s online store.
You might be thinking, “oh no! Not another brand of bottled water!” Or even “aren’t landfills full of plastic bottles as it is?” I know I did.
Sure, there are plenty of recyclable water bottles around. But have you ever heard of a water bottle that is both recyclable AND biodegradable?
Enter redleaf Water, Canada’s Ultra-Premium bottled water.
What makes redleaf Water’s bottle different?
“redleaf’s BIO BOTTLES produced by Arizona-based environmental solution provider ENSO Plastics, will biodegrade naturally in aerobic and anaerobic (landfill) conditions and are #1 PET, allowing the bottles to be recycled without requiring any special handling.
Today nearly all water bottles are #1 PET, meaning they can be recycled. Some competitors have recently introduced plant-based plastic bottles. Plant-based plastic bottles can be recycled, but do not biodegrade and do nothing to reduce the quantity of bottles that end up in landfills or the environment. The BIO BOTTLE represents a significant step forward as they can biodegrade naturally or be recycled.”
So kudos, redleaf Water. Keep taking those baby steps towards a sustainable water bottle.
It’s the final leg of the “Find Your Footprint” conservation contest, which runs until midnight, Wednesday, March 16!
The contest sponsored by National Geographic with P&G; Future Friendly aims to raise awareness among young people of their environmental footprint. Six finalists are competing for the grand prize valued at $36,000.
In case you haven’t voted yet, you still have time! Click below and vote now!
P&G; Future Friendly and the National Geographic Society joined forces with their “Find Your Footprint” national school conservation education contest. The “Find Your Footprint” program aims to raise student awareness of their environmental footprint. Voting’s ongoing until March 16, 2011.
So what’s in it for the winning school?
The winner with the most votes gets $36,000 in educational resources, such as five Promethean interactive digital whiteboards (ActivBoards), five sets of Promethean Learner Response Systems (ActivExpressions), 30 free subscriptions to National Geographic Kids magazine and up to $1,000 in National Geographic educational materials.
Here are the top six Find Your Footprint finalists with links to their submissions:
I’ve known about this documentary “Tapped
It raises the question, “is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce?”
A good question, really, but one that doesn’t have a straightforward answer. Watch this documentary and see just how far-reaching the effects of the bottled water industry are.
By the end of it, I wondered how people from way back when would react if they knew that water can be bought nowadays.
Check out the “Tapped
My sister Lynn blogged about “The Green Garmento” before (see “The Situation teams up with The Green Garmento“).
This recyclable garment bag is definitely worth your investment. Do you have clothes for dry cleaning? Put your clothes inside the bag, bring it to your dry cleaner, and inform them that you’d like your clean clothes to be placed back inside your bag. The Green Garmento replaces the plastic your clothes usually come in.
What if you don’t have clothes that require dry cleaning anymore? Good for you. But guess what? You can use this bag as a duffel. It has a drawstring to keep it closed, plus shoulder strap and handles for easy and convenient carrying. At home, you can use it as laundry bag or even a hamper liner. Yes, the folks at The Green Garmento weren’t kidding when they said it’s 4-in-1.
Cleaning it is pretty straightforward. Check out the washing instructions below.
Oh, and did I say that the design is pretty good and well-thought-of? It even has a clear window for your dry cleaning ticket! It comes in six colors – Orange Sunshine, Burgundy Bliss, Blue Water, Red Buttons, Green Grass and Black Night. I’ve got Orange Sunshine and Blue Water. I’ve decided the blue one’s going to my sister Lani, so I can get another one (either Burgundy Bliss or Red Buttons).
If you’ve had enough of those single-use plastic dry cleaning bags, then worry not! You have a greener option with The Green Garmento.
