Santa Rosa Parks & Rec Gardening Classes with Wendy Krupnick Gardening promotes lifelong learning, both practical and creative...and it's fun too! Santa Rosa Recreation, Parks and Community Services offer a variety of garden related classes and workshops with subject matter varying from selecting, planning and remodeling a garden to seasonal water conservation workshops [...]
From Out-Of-Touch To Up-To-Date In One Day! Since 1996, the Northern California Recycling Association has been conducting annual one-day conferences that bring the best of what's "new and different" in recycling and related fields. Considered one of the best conferences in the country, it often attracts more than 200 people from all [...]
The Sonoma County Conservation Council is now accepting nominations for Environmentalist of the Year, Outstanding Environmental Educators, Projects and Programs and a new, still to be named Environmental Youth Award. The general public, as well as environmentalists, are encouraged to nominate favorite activists, educators and programs - especially those in outlying areas and [...]
Even if you use a debit card, autopay and on-line checks, I bet you still write a few paper checks a month. When it's time to order your next batch of checks, it's worth considering environmentally friendly options. Not only do they convey a message of environmental responsibility to the banking [...]
In honor of office holiday parties, tomorrow, the Thursday before Christmas, is National Regifting Day. Money Management International (MMI) suggests that you turn your gift exchange into a regifting party. "In case you are hesitant to break tradition, you can rest assured that the majority (60%) of people think that regifting is becoming more accepted; the top two reasons are to save some green."
A torturous form of delayed gratification, wrapped gifts cultivate excitement and wonder. Yet nowadays gift wrap can be quite pricey and is often made with non-recyclable plasticized or metallic paper. Careful unwrapping and reuse helps but ultimately it ends up in the landfill. If it is placed in the recycling it must be sorted out at the recycling center. I imagine the paper sorters dread Christmas. Can you imagine miles and miles of smushed wrapping paper mixed with plastic bags, rubber bands and tape?
White Elephant Gift Exchange/Game A great inter-generational activity that creates life-long memories, white elephant exchanges involve gifting no longer wanted items to-be-determined friends and relatives. Many families and groups prefer this to one-on-one exchanges since they minimize the expense and effort involved in personalized gift giving, and the game brings [...]
If you don’t call in refills at least a few days in advance, you may have to make a special trip, possibly preceded by an urgent call to the doctor for authorization. If you are out of town, run out on a weekend and/or the doctor is unavailable, you may also have to go through an awkward process to just get a few days worth - possibly at a high cost. My friend Maureen generally avoids this problem - by planning ahead and taking full advantage of the systems available.
In 2007 two mechanical engineering graduates, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, started Ecovative Design based on a patent pending process they developed for a business class. Inspired by mushroom root balls in the Vermont woods, they used the underside of a dorm bed as an incubator for introducing fungal mycelium to agricultural byproducts. The mycelium grows for 5-10 days transforming and loose agriculture materials like rice hulls or cotton gin trash into an all-natural rigid material with similar properties and costs as synthetic foams.
Today is my birthday and one of my presents to myself is to work to get this blog to become more interactive. I see it as a great opportunity for individuals and local groups to share green practices as well as events. Today, I’d like to hear your ideas and [...]