TIP for Friday February 27th, 2009

Turn it off! In the City of Toronto, 63% of all the electricity used is consumed by small to mid-size commercial industrial outlets such as retail shops, restaurants, laundromats, and small offices. Most of the energy wasted is from inefficient equipment, and inefficient lighting. If a small retail business in Toronto is paying approximately $24,000 per year in energy costs, by making energy efficiency upgrades and changing a few operational items, that business can reduce consumption by up to 30%. That's approximately $7,200 in energy savings. Replace lights with energy efficient ones, turn the thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter and perform regular maintenance on your equipment. For more tips go to http://www.torontohydro.com/electricsystem/business/savings_tips_for_businesses.html

TIP for Thursday February 26th, 2009

What’s under your arms? The active ingredient in most antiperspirants, aluminum, has been linked to cancer and Alzheimer's disease. So for a green piece of mind make the switch to natural body odor busters. Believe it or not sweat is odorless, it’s the bacterium that accumulates on skin to break down the sweat that causes the odor. Natural deodorants neutralize smells and provide antiseptic action against bacteria. Plus most natural deodorants are hypo allergenic and contain aloe vera to soothe sensitive skin.

TIP for Wednesday February 25th, 2009

Bottle or Box? Boxed wine used to be a headache in $3 dollar container, but these days boxed wine doesn’t have to be cheap tasting. It’s the eco-friendly way of bottling some of the best tasting wines. Glass bottles require a lot of packaging during transport so they don’t break. Boxes use up to 90% less. A glass wine bottle that travels across the country generates about 5.2 pounds of CO2; a 3-liter box produces half that and gives you four times the wine. Another bonus is that a box can last for a month once you open it, while bottled spoils within a few days.

TIP for Tuesday February 24th, 2009

Next load of laundry you do make it GREEN by making the switch from dryer sheets to balls. Dryer balls will fluff your towels, soften your sheets and are reusable. Dryer sheets cost up to $10 for about 50 loads and can only be used once. Dryer balls can be reused over and over and last for years. They also don’t contain animal byproducts like tallow that is found in dryer sheets. Make sure you look for dryer balls that are PVC free. Another green option is to use tennis balls or make your own wool dryer ball. Check out this link to find out how http://goodmama.typepad.com/goodmama/2008/05/make-your-own-wool-dryer-balls.html

TIP for Monday February 23rd, 2009

Need to spice up your house? Try growing herbs indoors. It’s an easy way to add culinary, aromatic and medicinal flavor to your home. You’ll have your own free, fresh, organic herbs to cook with all year. They add tang, zip, and a flavor that their dry herbs just can’t compare to. Plus you’ll keep chemicals out of your savoury dishes. When you grown spices and herbs there’s no pesticides, and the EPA considers 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides to be cancer-causing. If you don’t have green thumb start with rosemary it’s easy to grow then expand your herb garden from there.

TIP for Friday February 20th, 2009

Is it time to do some spring cleaning this weekend? Time to toss those Christmas gifts you pushed to the back of the closet? Before you toss it in the trash to go to the landfill consider donating it to charity or give it to someone who could use it. In North America we generate trash at an astonishing rate of 4 lbs per day per person…that’s hundreds of millions of pounds per year. Reusing eliminates the need for new items whose production requires the extraction of natural resources from our land, plus water, energy and/or chemicals to turn them into new products. Common reusable items include books for libraries and schools, old towels for local animal shelters, and computers and office equipment for all kinds of organizations. Or put it on Craigslist and trade it.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/cities

TIP for Thursday February 19th, 2009

Parents to be stay solid with hardwood cribs. Babies are more sensitive to chemical exposure. Laminated wood, pressed wood, chipboard and particle board all release formaldehyde. Hardwood cribs, particularly those protected with low-VOC paints or finishes, limit a baby’s exposure to formaldehyde. Take it a step further and buy an eco friendly crib mattress too. Fire-resistant and flame-retardant finishes must be applied to crib mattresses, it’s the law, the most common of which is toxic PBDE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybrominated_diphenyl_ethers. Choose PBDE-free mattresses made from materials like natural rubber and organic wool which both meet government standards. Putting together a sustainable crib with all the fixings is a greater expense than conventional cribs and bedding but it is worth it!

TIP for Wednesday February 18th, 2009

Got a spot that won’t come out? Try the GREEN method that will be kind to the planet and kinder to your clothes. Cleaning products, including traditional stain removers, are responsible for nearly 10% of all toxic exposures. Keep yourself, your kids and your pets safe by using non-toxic alternatives. Look for plant based stain removers or products like OxiClean that are dye and fragrance free. Don’t using the washing machine for one shirt, the average washer uses 40 gallons per load. Check out this link for natural stain removers and tricks http://www.care2.com/greenliving/remove-laundry-stains-12-tips.html
If all else fails send your clothes to an Eco-cleaner!

TIP for Tuesday February 17th, 2009

Instead of a disposable paper or foam cup, tomorrow morning sip on your coffee out of your own travel mug or tumbler. It’s a simple change that can make a big difference, especially for daily drinkers. Individually, one cup of coffee purchased every day in a disposable container contributes about 22.75 pounds of waste per year. You’ll also be preventing the use of highly non-biodegradable Styrofoam that contributes to an annual 25 billion cups of trash. Plus you’ll save money, most coffee houses will give you a discount for bringing you own cup. If 15.1 million coffee customers brought in their own mugs, an estimated 655,500 pounds of paper would be kept out of landfills.

TIP for Friday February 13th, 2009

Are you ready for this? An environmentally friendly cell phone made from water bottles and solar powered. Hitting the UK in the second half of 2009, the Samsung Blue Earth phone is a touchscreen smart phone that can apparently generate the power it needs to make a call any time from the solar panel built into the back. Most of the phone is constructed from PCM, a plastic extracted from recycled water bottles and both the handset and energy efficient charger ditch harmful substances such as Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate. Plus the phone comes in recycled packaging. Now that’s GREEN! For more on this check out

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/samsungs-new-blue-earth-phone-is-solar-powered-and-made-from-water-bottles.php

TIP for Thursday February 12th, 2009

The biggest appliance in our kitchen is also one of the biggest energy consumers in our home. The refrigerator. To make help your fridge run more efficiently and save you money make sure it’s not leaking cold air. Test the seal on the door by trying to slide a $5 bill in and removing it. If you can very easily you need to change the seal for better insulation. Keep the coils in the back and bottom free from dirt and dust by vacuuming them regularly. Keep a few inches of space between the refrigerator, cabinets and countertops to maximize air flow around it. Make sure the fridge is set a the proper temperature, and think about what you want before you open the door to prevent from standing with the door wide open. Last keep your fridge full, it helps it recover the cold more quickly when the door is opened. If you don’t have much in your fridge fill it with containers of water.

TIP for Wednesday February 11th, 2009

Make your Valentines Day GREEN with eco-friendly alternatives to the traditional gifts, so you can satisfy your partner’s Valentine’s Day requirements without investing in a bunch of environmentally harsh consumer products. Give organic flowers, or try making flowers from recycled paper. They last longer and the thought put into the gift will be far more appreciated even if they look like Charlie Brown’s Xmas tree. Give fair trade chocolate or make something sweet in the kitchen with organic ingredients. Skip the crowded restaurants, overpriced fixed meals, and make a homemade meal based around organic, local ingredients and wines. Purchase eco friendly scents and lotions to spice up your evening, and last send your sweetie a Valentine e-card!

TIP for Tuesday February 10th, 2009

While recycled paper can’t compare to Kleenex softness, there are some eco-tissues that can come close enough to wipe you nose and your green conscious. Virgin tree fibers are used to make soft tissues and recycled fibers are, by nature, longer, which makes them coarser. But most tissue paper is bleached with chlorine, which can combine with chemicals and gases in nature to form harmful toxins. So look for chlorine-free or oxygen-bleached tissues or cotton tissues. If every household in North America used a box 100% recycled tissue instead of a regular box tissue, we'd save 163,000 trees.

TIP for Monday February 9th, 2009

Clean out your dryer's lint filter before each use, and you can cut down on your energy bill, a typical family spends between $200-$300 per year washing and drying clothes at home. A clean lint filter can decrease that energy usage up to 30%. Plus your clothes will dry more quickly and cleanly and you’ll reduce your home's fire hazards. Dryer lint is the leading cause of fires started in the laundry room of homes.

TIP for Friday February 6th, 2009

HAPPY BOB MARLEY DAY! Bob rules!!

We’ve made the switch from plastic shopping to cloth and you recycle already but if you want to be really GREEN change your garbage bags! Go for the biodegradable ones. Regular plastic garbage bags are filling up landfills and take years to decompose. They actually help preserve the garbage, even fruit peels will be preserved before they decompose. Biodegradable bags decompose in as few as 10 days BUT they are surprisingly strong. They also don't cost much more, a pack of biodegradable or recycled trash bags might only cost you $1 more than a box of the regular ones. So the next time you go shopping don't just pick up biodegradable bags for your compost, pick them up in all sizes for your trash and your recyclables.

Tip for Thursday February 5th, 2009

Shower or bath, which uses more water? A typical shower uses 12 gallons of hot water, while a bath takes about 20 gallons. But if you fill your bath up an inch less than regular, you'll save up to 4.5 gallons. Now if you're looking for all-out relaxation and a shower just won't cut it, treat yourself to a bath. To make your indulgence a little greener just make sure you don’t fill the tub up all the way. If you can’t help your self and fill it to the rim, you can ease your green conscience by reusing the water in the tub to flush your toilet or even wash your car!

TIP for Wednesday February 4th, 2008

Shoe polish can be very toxic. Just look at the hazard label! In some cities across North America shoe polish is not allowed in the regular trash. It must be disposed of as a hazardous material, because it often contains chemicals like naphtha and turpentine. So…The next time shoes look like they could use some buffing, grab some vegetable or olive oil from your kitchen counter or a BANANA! Yes a banana! After you eat it use the inside of the peel to polish the shoe. The oils and the potassium in the banana polish and preserve your leather shoes. For the final touch, buff the shoes with a chamois cloth. You have now polished shoes without damaging your health or the environment, leaving behind zero packaging waste. How GREEN of you!

TIP for Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

Cruelty-free couture is the look for 2009! When it comes to fur, faux is the way to go. Just make sure your faux fur is GREEN. Look for North American grown, organic cotton fakes. Now some will argue that many fakes are made using oil, but the energy it takes to raise an animal for fur is still 20 times the amount needed to make a fake plus it’s less cruel. And some of the new imitations made from organic cotton are oil free. Rock you eco friendly faux fur with style and a GREEN conscious. To find out if your favourite designers uses real or faux fur check out this link http://www.hsus.org/furfree/fashion/retailers/furfree_retailers_designers.html

TIP for Monday February 2nd, 2009

Do you have a drawer full of old cellies? With all the new cell phone models coming out practically every few months the temptation to upgrade your cell phone is hard to resist. So what have you done with your old cell phone? Many of the cell phone providers here will accept your old cell phones for recycling. They even provide a bag with pre paid postage in the box with your new cell phone to recycle your old phone. BUT beware! Properly erasing information is a very important step when recycling any e-waste. When 2,000 recycled cell phones were sampled, 99% of them had personal data still stored in them, including sensitive information like bank account information. If your cell phone is in good shape when you send it in to a company for recycling, sometimes it will be spiffed up and sent off to a new owner - and that new owner could have access to everything you left on your phone. Some recyclers may erase the data for you, but some may not. So, be sure to erase your data yourself before sending it away for recycling.