Share & Voice: The Daily Green

While searching on the internet, I stumbled across this really cool blog: The Daily Green. This is an eco-friendly blog that is designed to offer daily tips, news and other topics of interest that relate to going green in our community. Their mission is to "broaden the audience for earth-friendly living by showing how going green is relevant to everyone." Below is an article that I found to be not only interesting, but suitable to all you followers.

11 Ways to Go Green on a College Budget:

1. Be a re-user
   You can re-use other's textbooks and let them use yours for free on sites such as Chegg, PaperBackSwap and Bookins. All you have to pay is shipping fees.
2. Turn Off the Water
   Leaving the faucet running can waste up to 1.3-gallons of water! Instead of leaving the water run while brushing your teeth, just turn the water off.
   
3. Reuse Paper
   Don't throw away paper that can possible be made for scrap paper. Use this as your post-it notes to save on extra costs. Or just use it to take lecture notes during class.
4. Download a free energy-saving application for your computer
   To reduce the amount of energy your computer uses when you’re not on it, download an energy-saving application like Local Cooling or CO2 Saver. Or just simply turn it off.
5. Be Thrifty
   Shop at a thrift store. Thrift store shopping is another way to of recycle and regulate CO2 emissions.
6. Spend Less Time in the Shower
   Reducing your shower time by just 2 minutes, can save 1,000 pounds of CO2 emissions into the air. This will use less electricity to heat the water and conserve water.
7. Go Paperless
   Instead of wasting paper on bank statements, go online and switch to paperless. This can save a lot of trees!
8. Try Reusable Shopping Bags
   Ditch those plastic bags and purchase a couple reusable shopping bags instead. You can use them for groceries, clothes and to carry your books and laptop.
9. Recycle Your Old Cell Phone
   Recycle your old cell phones. You can find a cell phone recycling center either near your school or at a local cell phone distributor store.
10. Consolidate Your Hair Care Products
    Buy 2-in-1 shampoo plus conditioner and then throw away just one container. If you don't like that idea, then buy hair products that come in a recycled container.
11. Wash Clothes in Cold Water
    This causes less heat damage to your clothing (like fading and shrinking), uses less electricity and produces less CO2.

Well there you have it. A quick list you can follow to go green, while living on a tight college budget. Most of these are completely free or relatively cheap to incorporate into your daily life.
I hope that most of you can find a few on this list to fit your environmentally friendly lifestyle!

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/community-news/college-green-55100102#ixzz15VhqTIG6

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2:Weekly Update

Last week was the first week of my SMART goal: I will eat 1 serving (3oz) of unprocessed meat a day. I usually eat only one serving of meat a day anyway, but it tends to be the processed deli-meat. So this week I did very well. I substituted my deli-meat with fresh chicken, peanut butter and eggs. I found this to be challenging in the fact that I had to take more time to prepare my daily lunch, rather than just whip up a (processed) turkey sandwich. A strategy that I found to be the most useful was to cook my chicken and hard boil my eggs and just keep them in the refrigerator for when I needed them. This really helped me cut back on how much time it took for me to pack my lunch in the morning. I felt that by cutting out processed meat, I actually felt better. I believe that this was because I was significantly cutting my intake of sodium.

This week I learned that it is possible to cut small things out of your life (processed turkey) and have it actually make a difference for your body. I never thought that a week could be enough time for this to happen. I plan on sticking with this goal to see what more creative things that I can use in my daily lunches. Any suggestions are appreciated! =)

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain

Advocacy Project:Healthy People/THOMAS

Goal: Promote health and reduce chronic disease associated with diet and weight.

Objective: 19-3 Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents who are overweight or obese. According to the Progress Quotient Chart for Focus Area 19: Nutrition and Overweight, there are three categories they measured: 6-11years, 12-19years and 6-19years. In all three of these categories -83% moved away from target of total targeted change achieved. “Between 1988–94 and 1999–2002, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years (19-3c) increased from 11 percent to 16 percent, moving away from the target of 5 percent. Identical trends were observed among children aged 6 to 11 years (19-3a) and adolescents aged 12 to 19 years (19-3b).”

Progress: So far this objective is moving away from the HealthyPeople Targets.

Disparities: There were known disparities within the areas of race, ethnicity, gender, economic income and disability. Generally the white Caucasian had the best rates from 1999-2002.

Opportunities/Challenges/Emerging Issues: Essentially governmental action and community contribution is key in promoting a healthy lifestyle and reducing the obesity rates in our youth. Some opportunities that arise are teaching dietary guidelines, how to read food labels and identifying patterns that can help educators tailor programs to manage weight and reduce threats of chronic illness. Another key opportunity is to ensure the implementation of policies and programs that emphasize healthy actions in youth. A challenge is that most of these programs are mostly aimed at kids in afterschool programs or at the parents or guardians. The emerging issue is the trend of using medications as well as the increased use of bariatric surgery to take care of our obesity problem. These are perceived as the best treatment available when in reality prevention is the top priority in reducing the rise of obesity in our country.

H.R.3468: Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities and Individuals Act of 2009.

Title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the Public Health Service Act, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to promote the use of prevention and wellness programs.

Sponsor: Rep Castle, Michael N. [DE] (Introduced 7/31/2009)
Cosponsors:
Rep Crenshaw, Ander [FL-4] (11/17/2009)
Rep Dent, Charles W. [PA-15] (9/16/2009)
Rep Gerlach, Jim [PA-6] (7/31/2009)
Rep Kirk, Mark Steven [IL-10] (9/16/2009)
Rep Lance, Leonard [NJ-7] (9/16/2009)
Rep Lee, Christopher J. [NY-26] (9/25/2009)
Rep LoBiondo, Frank A. [NJ-2] (7/31/2009)
Rep Platts, Todd Russel [PA-19] (9/16/2009)
Rep Tiberi, Patrick J. [OH-12] (9/16/2009)

Latest Major Action: 9/8/2009 Referred to House subcommittee. Status:Referred to the Subcommittee on Health

Recommendation: Yes for H.R.3468 Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities, and Individuals Act of 2009

My Political Respresentative(s): Senator Amy Klobuchar