Balcony Gardening: Have Your Green Space and Eat It Too June 25, 2008

There are few things in the world that are better than taking a big bite of a freshly picked home grown vegetable salad. The taste of a tomato that has been ripening on the vine up until only minutes before you eat it is worlds beyond anything that you would find in the store. This goes for basically any produce. Unfortunately, for many of us, having a garden in the backyard is simply not a possibility. Fortunately, vegetables cannot tell if the dirt that they are enjoying is part of a grassy expanse or five stories up on the balcony of an apartment. I know that many of you are currently pondering the pros and cons of filling your outdoor space with dirt, mud, worms, and plants, but before you start putting down that layer of manure based compost, consider for a moment the joys of container gardening.

Container gardening is pretty much just what it sounds like. Instead of growing vegetables in a garden, plants are grown in containers. There are several advantages to container gardening. First of all, you can have a container garden wherever the containers will fit and you can bring your garden indoors should inclement weather threaten your budding packets of nutritious deliciousness. Second, the only requirements for the containers are that they are big enough to hold adequate soil and that there is a hole in the bottom to allow for proper drainage. This means that you can recycle things from around the house, which will keep your waste production down. One thing to keep in mind is that you want to avoid using containers that previously held chemicals. Third, potting soil is less likely to contain weed seeds and pests, which means less time that must be spent weeding and grooming your garden.

One drawback to using “traditional” containers is that they will require watering about once a day. Luckily, the gardening industry has looked kindly on those of us who are too busy to let our green thumbs grow and has come up with the self-watering container. A self-watering container is a container with a water reservoir. The water reservoir supplies your plants with water for several days, which means that all you have to do is refill the reservoir.

Now that we have the dirt, one of the two most important factors to any successful garden, taken care of, we can move onto the next topic. The second, but equally important ingredient to your growing produce aisle, is the sun. Most balconies are going to be at least partially covered spaces, which means that there will be differential light distribution. To make sure that all of your growing green friends are fed and happy, the arrangement of your plants will have to conform to your light availability. While it is possible that plants as large as corn and squash can be grown in containers, it is more likely that the larger end of the spectrum will be in the range of eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers. It is very possible to grow all of the aforementioned plants in containers, but it is important that these containers are placed in full sun. For the shadier corners of your garden, try things like spinach, lettuce, bok choy, and other leafy greens.

With this new found knowledge, it is possible for even the busiest apartment dweller to scratch their green itch and grow some garden goodness. All it takes is a place to put some dirt and some sun. Container gardening is a great way to have your green space and eat it too. For more info on balcony gardening, check out this blog too. Happy gardening!

Make your office product purchases wisely June 16, 2008

For anyone who has ever worked in a typical office setting, you know that office supplies and products tend to pile up and conservation doesn’t tend to be an important issue. Office products frequently come with enormous amounts of packaging, aren’t made of the most environmentally safe materials, and a good amount of them are produced thousands of miles away. Realizing that it takes certain office products to run a successful business these days, there is another framework within which we should be considering our purchasing practices when it comes to office products. This framework involves realizing the impacts of our office product purchases, reducing waste, and stressing conservation.

There are many benefits to greening your office products, including creating a stronger market for green products, saving money, and reducing the stress on our planet’s natural resources. The first step we’d recommend for trying to green your office product purchasing practices is to examine what your current needs are to make your business run. Chances are that when you conduct this “audit” of sorts, you will realize that you have much more than you could get by with. Once you have the list of office products you need, it is time to create a set of criteria for purchasing future products, as well as disposing of current products when they are no longer needed or usable.

A good starting point for purchasing criteria can be found on the EPA’s website through their Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines. The best way that I have found to think about the way we produce, use, and dispose of products is an idea called Cradle to Cradle. The idea is that we should model our manufacturing and consuming practices on nature. In nature, there is no such thing as waste. One process’ waste becomes another process’ food, so that there is a closed loop cycle in which ‘products’ are reincorporated into the material stream and reused in some way.

A few good websites that I have found that offer a variety of green office products are The Green Office, and Green Home Inc.

Paper

Office paper products include everything from printing paper, notepads, binders, memo pads, notebooks, post it notes, envelopes, folders, dividers, and labels. The options for green paper products have become much more plentiful in the last ten years. There are now options to buy paper that is made from recycled content (100% being the most preferable), sustainably harvested wood (FSC Certified is the most preferable), or even made of alternative materials that don’t include traditional forms of paper at all. Try to purchase paper products that meet a third party certification such as the above mentioned FSC label, or the Green Seal label. Because there are so many different paper products available which have less of an environmental impact than traditional paper, there should be no reason not to be purchasing and using greener paper products in your office. In some areas, it may still be a little more expensive, but the more that people create a market for greener paper products, the more the price will become competitive with traditional paper products.

A few products to check out are reusable envelopes from EcoEnvelopes, business cards with options of FSC- certified paper, recycled paper, soy ink, and chlorine free manufacturing, recycled binders, folders, dividers, labels, and CD cases from Sustainable Group, and for information about a process that creates tree-free paper called Banana Paper visit EcoPapers website.

Desktop Accessories

We all know that our desks get cluttered up with desktop accessories such as pens and pencils, pencil holders, staplers, tape, white-out, rulers, hole punchers, staple removers, calculators, scissors, and other products. So if you really need to have these products to function in the office, at least start thinking abut buying products that are more sustainable than the typical models and brands tend to be. Try to avoid buying products with a ton of unnecessary packaging, and look for items that are made of renewable, natural, or recycled materials. Decor Craft Inc. offers two interesting products: a wooden stapler and a cork memo pencil holder. Take a look at Green Earth Office Supply for recycled and refillable pens, recycled paper clips, and other green office products.

Furniture

When it comes to office furniture, a lot of offices would be surprised to find out just how much furniture is scattered around the office. The main furniture that is found in offices are desks, tables, chairs and couches, bookshelves, and file cabinets. The majority of these products are made out of non-sustainable materials and place an incredible stress on the natural resources of our planet. You don’t have to sacrifice aesthetics or comfort to be able to get office furniture that is more eco-friendly. There are many manufacturers now producing green furniture for the office.

Take a look at an example of a more eco-friendly filing cabinet which is made of recycled steel and doesn’t use any VOC’s. As for office chairs, some sustainable choices are Haworth’s Zody Chair, and SteelCase’s Think Chair, both of which are Cradle to Cradle Certified. EcoWork also designs and manufactures eco-friendly furniture.

Computers, Printers, Phones, Fax Machines

When it comes to the more technical equipment that most people need for their offices, it can be a little bit tougher to find green products. Since the technology used to manufacture these products is a little tougher to use natural and renewable materials for, two of the most important things to consider when purchasing computers, printers, phones, fax machines, etc. are whether : a) they are energy efficient; b) the manufacturer has a program that takes back the products when they stop working; and c) the products contain any toxic materials that could cause human health problems. Consider buying used equipment from a company like MicroStar that will save you money and keep the products out of the landfills. When it comes to these types of products look for energy efficient models, and consider purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (REC’s) to provide the power for these products. If you buy new products, don’t forget to choose products that are Energy Star certified!

Eco-Friendly Televisions June 6, 2008

Shopping for a new television? There are several things to look for when incorporating green practices into your television purchase.

Things to Consider:
Size:
Broadly speaking, the larger the TV, the more power it consumes. Regardless of the kind of TV you have (plasma, LCD etc..) If you’re really looking for giant images, projection screens are actually more eco-friendly then you would think. Consider downsizing your television size needs, or opt for a movie-style viewing system.

Chemicals:
Avoid toxic components, including flame retardants known as deca-brominated diphenyl ethers (deca-BDEs) which can be released from TVs onto surrounding surfaces where they may be inhaled. Look for electronics made in flame-retardant products (Toshiba and NEC are leaders in this field). In addition, all Sony and Panasonic products are PBDE-free! Samsung and Sharp, two other popular television manufacturers, do not add flame retardants; however there may be remnants of the materials in the recycled plastic used in making new products.

Consumers should also be sure to avoid heavy and neurotoxic metals such as lead and mercury as well as carcinogenic chromium and cadmium. All of these can eventually leach into the environment when machines end up in landfills.

What to Look for:
The quickest way to pick an energy-saving television is to opt for a small screen, preferably a liquid crystal display (LCD) since these not only consume less electricity, they also contain less lead than cathode ray tubes (CRTs). If you’re looking for ratings of energy consumption, you should note that Energy Star only checks consumption rates when the TV is in standby mode. For more accurate consumption metrics check current CNET energy use ratings.

Some Good Models to Consider:

Philips’ Flat TV 42″ – “Eco TV” , about $1,399;

Sharp’s 20-inch LC-20B8U-S LCD, about $650;

Viewsonic’s 32-inch N3250W LCD, about $945; and

Panasonic’s PT-AE900U projector, about $2,300;

Overall, start thinking smaller when it comes to televisions, and make sure to avoid harmful chemicals!

Happy watching.