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An Earth Day to-do list

An Earth Day to-do list Posted on April 18, 20086 Comments

Earth Day is nearly here, and I have all kinds of wonderful things to share with you in honor of the day which perhaps years ago was the first time you ever weighed the idea of being green.

1. Modern guy Jay shared with me a site run by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the source of all things energy related in the southeast. It’s an energy audit, and here’s the cool part: if you participate, they send you an energy savings kit with all kinds of free goodies, like CFLs. Who doesn’t like free stuff, especially free green stuff?

The audit will ask you to answer questions about your home’s energy usage, and you can go a step farther by inputing information from your recent electricity and gas bills. After running all kinds of stats, the site will suggest ways to cut back on your energy usage, putting a price tag on just how much you’ll save. I took the audit and I can say it’s worth it.

2. Cool People Care has declared Monday “Bring Your Own Mug” day. Self-explanatory. Take your mug to the coffee shop, but try to make it a habit rather than a one-time thing.

3. Fake Plastic Fish has started a “Take Back the Filter” campaign aimed at Brita water filters. I don’t use water filters — I tend to drink straight out of the tap — so I had no idea how often you had to change them and that they aren’t recyclable in the U.S. (even though they are abroad). Plastic water-bottle drinking is something I’m trying to break the Modern Beau of, so I was contemplating buying him a Brita pitcher, but am keeping an eye on this in the mean time. Signing the petition is a good place to start.

Does anyone have anything to add to our Earth Day to-do list?

(Cheers to Jay and Allie for the tips.)

6 comments

  1. Thanks for the info on that energy audit. I’m definitely going to try it out, especially if there’s a free CFL in it for me!

  2. Also, don’t forget that if Earth Day inspires you to do more, there’s something you can do to help!

    If you’re part of a group, whether it’s 5 friends or 500 colleagues, you can request a FREE presentation from The Climate Project. You’ll learn everything you need to know about the climate crisis, and what you can do to fix it. We were all trained personally by Al Gore, and we LOVE to talk about it.

    (Sorry, MG, but have to pitch it where I can!)

  3. Purchase cloth bags for the grocery store. Whole Foods is discontinuing all plastics bags from Earth Day forward. Cloth bags are so much better, I have 5 now and just keep them in my car. If I use 5 plastic bags each time I shop (2 times per week average) that’s 10 plastic bags per week I save from a landfill!

  4. Good tips! I’m eyeing the Modern Beau judgmentally from afar. Introduce him to the tap!

  5. Liz: Isn’t free stuff great?

    Allie: Thanks!

    Jay: I’ll try to give you a better pitch than that sometime in the near future.

    Vanessa: I don’t know why more people don’t do that. It’s sooooo easy.

    Mickey: You should judge the MB. Public humiliation is part of my plan to pressure him to switch.

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