Tag Archives: green living

Greening an Older or Historic Home

When we hear about great advances in green living related to homes, it all has to do with new home design and new home construction. Green materials and advanced heating, cooling and energy systems can make it easy to live a green eco-friendly life at home. But the question is, what if you have an older home, one that you either can’t or don’t want to modernize to meet green living standards? Are you left with making the choice between living less responsibly or moving? Actually, no. There are several ways that you can preserve your older home’s integrity without … Continue reading →

Get Out in Nature to Boost Your Green

Yesterday was a great day for myself and my family. My husband took the day off of work for our anniversary, and we celebrated by getting way from the indoors. My oldest son still had to go to school, but we packed up the two younger kids and headed to our favorite botanical gardens/historical estate. Fall was in evidence everywhere. From the mums that decorated everything, such as the new electric trains display and the inside of the conservatory, to the pumpkin playground, where the kids could climb over straw bales and use wheelbarrows to cart pumpkins. As the sky … Continue reading →

Learn About Solar Cooking

Solar Cooking is a great way to do something positive for the environment. By using the natural power of the sun and not the generated, manufactured or stripped power of electricity, oil, coal or gas, you can create wonderful meals at home and lessen your impact on the Earth. Plus cooking with fire, even using wood, can be dangerous and also add carbon to the atmosphere. One other added benefit of solar cooking is that the slow cooking process tends to keep more nutrients in your food, which is always a great thing when you are feeding yourself or your … Continue reading →

Recycling Styrofoam

Back when I was in college, I had a brilliant chemistry professor who worked on many different projects for Dow and other companies. He had quite a few “modern miracles” under his belt. He eventually left the world of invention to teach, and enlighten us students to some of the environmental repercussions of many of the products that he helped invent. One of these products, and probably the biggest regret he had, is styrofoam, or polystyrene as it is actually called (styrofoam is a brand name). My professor told us that they were originally trying to create paper cups that … Continue reading →

Responsible Firewood

Monday was the start back to school here in Pennsylvania, and the date seemed to bring with it the first signs of fall. Only the week before, the temperature and the humidity was high enough conditioning and shorts. Today I am dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans and had to close the windows because our heat-adapted bodies aren’t used to temperatures in the low 70s. The temperatures remind me that it won’t be long now before we will be firing up the wood burning fireplace. We’ll have to split and put up some wood for the winter to ensure that … Continue reading →

Green Living is About Doing Things Differently

One misconception that many people have about green living is that it is a lifestyle of deprivation. They picture someone who is eco friendly as a hermit living out in the middle of the woods, subsisting on wild berries and using local leaves as toilet paper (while compositing their resulting waste of course). Green living isn’t about deprivation or a reversion to pre-industrial times. Rather is is a way of living responsibly and doing things differently in order to make our planet sustainable. Sometime you can follow a green lifestyle by following basic green living principals, such as shutting off … Continue reading →

Reducing Catalogue Waste

It seems as through the holidays get pushed earlier and earlier each year. Last week, I was in a store looking for a basic tablecloth. As soon as I got into the store, I was hit with displays for fall, Halloween and yes, even Christmas. It is till August, right? Not far behind the store displays will be the tons and tons of catalogues delivered to our homes in the hope that we will browse through and select our holiday gifts, clothing and decor. But catalogues can be a huge waste, especially when you consider how many pounds of catalogues … Continue reading →

Dartmouth’s Big Green Bus

The other day, I blogged about colleges that are implementing green practices, but I failed to mention Dartmouth and their Big Green Bus. And I know, you are probably thinking “But Libby, “green” and “bus” are two words that just don’t go together!” Well, let me tell you about the Big Green Bus. The Big Green Bus is a 1989 MCI motorcoach that recently completed a summer tour with 15 students on board. The students traveled to such places as Las Vegas, Denver, Minneapolis, and Chicago to promote sustainable living practices. But, let me tell you more about this special … Continue reading →

Saving Energy on Lighting

In my household, I am the light keeper. That is, I go around the entire house on a regular basis shutting off all of the unused lights, especially the ones my husband leaves on. I’m hoping that shutting off lights will become a habit for my family, but so far that just isn’t happening. Turning off unused lights is one way to save energy costs, of course, but there are several other strategies that you can use to reduce the carbon emissions caused by your lightening use. Here are some ideas. Ask yourself if you really need that light. In … Continue reading →

Greening Up Your Neighborhood

Now that you have got a good handle on green practices for your home, why not expand a little and lead the charge to green up your neighborhood? You can start with a single neighbor or hit the town. It is up to you. No matter what you choose, you will be making a difference. Here are some ideas to get you started. Organize a park clean up day If you are already park of an organization, such as a civic organization, a church family or a parent’s group, then you may already have a ready group of volunteers to … Continue reading →