Ticket for a Tree?

Perhaps you have been to an event or at least heard about events trying to become more environmentally-friendly. For instance, Dave Matthews Band partnered with the Nature Conservancy to plant trees to "offset" their carbon intensive tour and used organic cotton in their t-shirts. Other events, such as the Green Festivals, offset their carbon emissions, use biodegradable cutlery, and celebrate sustainable organizations.

Surely there are different methods to "green" events, whether it be offsetting, fair trade souvenirs, or organic food. For the sake of this post I want to focus on the tree-planting idea. Last year I spent about nine months researching voluntary carbon instruments, primarily carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates. Since there are no uniform standards, you can invest in wind energy, methane-capture projects, or plant a tree, for an array of prices. Without going too in-depth on the details (you can read my entire report here) I want to propose an alternative for events to pursue.

Consider any event, let's examine an NBA basketball game. Rather than calculating the game's "carbon footprint" and releasing an article to the local newspaper, how about empowering each individual to make a positive environmental impact. Use the money that would have spent investing in some renewable energy project on the other side of the country to purchase little trees or compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). As everyone leaves the gym employees can hand out their complimentary gift. During the game, messages on the big screen can get fans excited about what they can do with their tree or CFL. You may be thinking, how is a tree of CFL related to basketball in anyway? The truth is, they are not really related. Not directly at least. But fans could receive a lot more perks if the arena spent less paying for electricity by using CFLs or LED lights. Want to make it more relevant? Customize the product presentation to fit the NBA team. The CFL packaging or tree itself are prime for any promotional material.

Sports' team paraphernalia does one thing: it appeals to the majority. Most people attending the games have at least one thing in common: they like basketball and/or they like the team playing. Kids will not be too thrilled with the idea of receiving a tree or light bulb instead of a plastic bobble head toy. Fortunately, this is just an example and could be more easily implemented at business conferences or sustainability-related event.

Personally, I would pick a CFL over a bobble head any day! But then again I am not a twelve year old boy wearing a Detroit Piston's jersey during the NBA finals.

I would love to hear your suggestions for greening events without greenwashing them. Please leave any and all your thoughts in the comments section.

Beyond Recycling - What to Do with Old Newspapers?

When my younger brother had a weekly paper route I tried to make use of his regular surplus of newspapers. Using them as a buffer during messy projects or to project the floor of the dogs' room was not enough for me, so I tried to reuse the old papers by soaking them in water, with the intention of creating paper pulp to make new paper. Really the papers just soaked for weeks on end because I never got around to finishing the project.

I started thinking about my "newspaper project" yesterday at the first annual Elkton Wind Turbine Day. I picked up a pamphlet titled "80 Uses for Old Newspapers," information that would have been gold a few years ago during my initiative to reuse the papers. For anyone who has similar goals and would like to put old newspapers to use, I will share the most helpful from the list below:

1. Protect car seats from muddy or wet clothing.
2. Put into loose shoes to tighten.
3. Stuff in leather shoes to preserve shape.
4. Stuff in wet shoes overnight to dry and deodorize. (I found this extremely helpful during my track and field season)
5. Crumple and place in suitcase for couple of weeks to remove stale odors.
6. Store records between sheets.
7. Use as padding under a table cloth.
8. Cover furniture when sanding or painting. (And put over window-panes before painting)
9. Spread on floor underneath rug when shampooing.
10. Place in closed windows to eliminate wind rattle.
24. Stuff under doors and in cracks to stop cold wind from coming in. (Bonus: Energy-saving tip!)
25. Protect table when children are painting or gluing. (Or anything messy is going on)
26. Make paper mache handicrafts, party hats, paper dolls, paper chains, kites. (Great way to keep kids entertained!)
27. Use to remove heavy grease from oven.
28. Sharpen pencils by rubbing the point on newspaper.
29. Spread out between garden rows to discourage weeds.
30. Use to wrap green tomatoes to ripen.
31. Cover plants during a frost.
32. Put under car wheels when stuck in snow, mud or sand.
33. Line storage boxes, bottom of bird cage, shelves, waste baskets, pet's sleeping box.
34. Use as mat for wet, muddy boots.
35. Wrap and store Christmas tree ornaments.
36. Wrap around ice cream to keep frozen.
37. Place on windshield to prevent icing.

Use the tips above to maximize your papers' utility. Whatever you do, do NOT throw newspapers away! Newspapers are recyclable and, as outlined above, have many other uses besides reading. In fact, if all you do is read the newspaper, consider reading it online. My mom taught me that simple paper saving trick. You can read newspapers from other cities, states, and even countries online! Visit Online Newspapers to search for the publication(s) you are interested in reading. Reading the paper online will save paper, time, and money!

If you have any additional ideas for reusing newspapers please share them in the comments section.

mel