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Written by Natalya Stanko   
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Monday, 05 December 2011

Green Yoga

From crow pose to tree pose, yoga evokes a physical and spiritual connection with nature. Through the concepts of karma and ahimsa, yoga teaches that every action – no matter how small – has consequences. By challenging yogis to mind their breaths, the practice fosters an awareness of self and a better understanding of the self's role in his or her environment. Much more than a physical exercise, yoga encourages well-being and kindness on and off the mat. In these ways, yoga is inherently environmentally friendly. Nonetheless, the practice of yoga consumes natural resources. Yoga studios are most often heated with coal, and yoga mats are generally made of plastic that never biodegrades.

In response, many yoga studios are making conscious strides towards a more sustainable lifestyle. The Green Yoga Association (GYA) is an alliance of 251 (and growing) studios that have committed to greening their practices.1 The association is currently planting tree groves in an effort to offset carbon emissions and to educate yogis about permaculture—an approach to agriculture with the goal of mimicking the patterns of natural ecology. But most of the association's green efforts are much smaller and arguably more significant. For example, some yoga studios don't sell bottled water and only offer a water fountain. They clean with eco-friendly products, sell bamboo or organic cotton clothing in the studio's shop, and collect old yoga mats to donate for reuse.

The GYA suggests that each individual studio focus their efforts on one major environmental issue, such as deforestation or water scarcity . A studio that concentrates on water issues might make a commitment to fix leaky faucets (which make up almost 14% of home water usage)2 and convert its standard toilets to low-flush toilets (which can save up to 5 gallons per flush)3 . A green studio does not have to abide by any specific standards to earn the “green” title, so make sure to ask what your studio is doing to be green. I bet there's even a sustainably run yoga studio near you! Cities with sustainable yoga are popping up all around the world, including Toronto, Canada, Noida, India, San Francisco, USA, and Tulum, Mexico. To find one in your area, browse this directory .

Yoga is practiced in many forms. There's hatha and vinyasa, ashtanga and iyengar, integral and moksha, and so on. Some types of yoga, especially those that rely on well-heated rooms, are less environmentally friendly than others. In bikram yoga, the studio must be heated to 95 degrees and above. Temperatures that high necessitate at least a couple of space heaters and a lot of fossil fuel power. Some studios are wisely supplementing their gas heaters with roof-top solar panels to use clean energy instead of traditional and dirtier energies. However, installing solar panels can be expensive and many yoga studios rent their space and thus may not have the decision-making power to install solar panels.

Thanks to all the different types of yoga, bikram enthusiasts are welcome to experiment with similar types of yoga that are gentler on the environment. Moksha yoga also relies on heat and a standard set of poses but has strict environmental standards for studios, such as sustainable building standards and natural cleansers. But you shouldn't expect to find a moksha studio near you. Because Moksha was founded in as recently as 2004, only about 30 studios are devoted to the practice.4

Practicing at home may seem more eco-friendly because it doesn't require a commute, but its environmental impact in fact depends on several factors. When you practice alone, do you play a video, turn on the lights, and heat your room above its normal temperature? If you do, it might make more sense to travel to a studio, where the room's light and heat is shared among many yogis, not just one. As an added bonus, practicing with others benefits your practice. In my experience, listening to another yogi's ocean-sounding breaths deepens my own breath. If you're going to use natural resources to do yoga, why not make it the most rejuvenating experience possible for you? However, if you do practice at home in the natural light or outside and at your home’s normal temperature, then you are doing great with your sustainable yoga practice!

As a fellow yogi, I recommend experimenting with different types of yoga, finding the type that best suits you, and then learning about how to practice your preferred form of yoga in the most environmentally friendly way possible. To start, follow these simple tips:
  • Choose a yoga studio close to home. To warm up your muscles and breathe easier, bike or walk to practice.
  • Talk to your yoga teacher about the studio's environmental values. What good things is the studio doing already? How could it improve? Don't be afraid to speak up.
  • Apply the concept of carpooling to yoga. Invite your friends to your yoga class. The more people, the higher the room temperature, which leads to less space heaters and less fossil fuel consumption per capita.
  • If you practice at home, light beeswax candles instead of traditional candles or turning on the lights. When the weather is nice, head outside.
  • If your yoga studio still offers bottled water , don't buy it. Consider this: the bottled water industry produces 1.5 million tons of plastic waste each year!5 Bring a reusable water bottle instead. If you don't have a bottle, donate to the Green Yoga Association and get a complimentary bottle!
  • Before heading off to a yoga conference or retreat halfway around the world, consider your plane's fossil fuel emissions. Offset your carbon emissions with a carbon credit or, better yet, choose to attend an event closer to home.
  • Purchase a jute, hemp , or natural rubber mat. Don't practice on cheap plastic mats—they are made from PVC, which is cancer-causing and outgasses 108 different chemicals in the first month of use.6 Likewise, avoid PVC in your yoga props. Use bamboo blocks and organic cotton straps.
  • Buy less yoga stuff. From 2004 to 2008, the number of yogis in the U.S. decreased by about one million, however, the money spent annually on yoga products and services nearly doubled during those four years. We're all guilty of buying an extra yoga mat or towel or that cute new tank that we don't really need. During your next yoga practice, consider this quote: “When asked what gift he wanted for his birthday, the yogi replied: 'I wish no gifts, only presence.'” - Unknown
All this being said, don't brood too much over what you or your fellow yogis should or shouldn't be doing for the environment. Yoga teaches us to let go and move on, not to pass judgment on ourselves and others. Keep Mother Earth in mind and heart, and be confident that in time you will find balance.

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1 http://www.greenyoga.org/
2 http://www.roanokeva.gov/85256a8d0062af37/vwContentByKey/N2626KKM886PLESEN
3 http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/publications/ulftoilets.pdf
4 http://yoga.about.com/od/typesofyoga/a/mokshayoga.htm
5 http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/5-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water
6 http://watoxics.org/files/VolatileVinyl.pdf




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Last Updated ( Monday, 12 December 2011 )

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Green Facts

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.