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Written by Lindsay Crowder   
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Thursday, 05 February 2009

Valentine’s Day: Add Some Green to Yours!

The month of February brings us Valentine’s Day-that [sometimes] dreaded holiday of pressure and expectations. Whether you are single or coupled up, Valentine’s Day offers the tradition of card giving, flowers, chocolates, dinner, and of course, romance. Instead of stressing about how to make a dozen red roses or a heart-shaped box of chocolates feel unique, try a new tradition. Make your Valentine’s Day eco-friendly and you will be not only be giving to your sweetheart, but also back to Mother Earth.

The Card

At this time of year, over 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent out worldwide. Most of these cards are made from virgin paper and too much of that paper ends up in the trash. To avoid the guilt of cutting down trees to charm your sweetheart, send an eCard! Almost every eCard site has an option for Valentine’s Day, and it sure beats making a trip to the store. But if your special someone is one of the many Americans who prefer a handwritten card, don’t worry just yet. You can still reduce your environmental impact by choosing a card made from recycled paper or by making your own! When making your own, add to your eco-consciousness by making new cards with old cards and using eco-friendly materials like paper scraps, post-consumer recycled paper, non-toxic glue and markers, and other reusable odds and ends that you already have lying around the house. If you would rather purchase a card, check some of the recycled options at Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=recycled+valentines+card&search_type=tag_title&order=&page=1.

The Flowers

A dozen red roses are definitely romantic, but unfortunately, that conventional dozen tends to come with a load of unnecessary pollutants. The floral industry uses the most pesticides in agriculture, polluting our waterways, our air, and possibly even your loved one. Moreover, many of the flowers sold by retailers in the United States are shipped in from South America adding to the carbon footprint of the bouquet. You can solve this problem by buying a local or organic bouquet. Check your local farmers market at http://www.localharvest.org/ to find fresh or dried blooms. Or you can buy organic flowers through http://www.organicbouquet.com/. When shopping for flowers, you can also look for the VeriFlora certification that ensures sustainable growing (http://www.veriflora.com/).

The Chocolate

Valentine’s Day and chocolate go hand in hand. But unfortunately, for being so sweet, the chocolate industry has been found guilty for its use of pesticides, rainforest destruction, child labor, and poor working conditions on its cacao farms. You can still satisfy your V-Day sweet tooth, however, by choosing organic and fair-trade chocolate. Some certified fair trade options to look out for include: Newman’s Own Organics, Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate, and Rapunzel Pure Organics. If you want to stick to organic chocolate, try: Village Organics, Dagoba, or CocoaVino. To browse more options, check out http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/chocolates-organic-490307.

The Meal

If you haven’t already made reservations for Valentine’s Day dinner by New Years, you may be too late. The restaurant industry thrives on Valentine’s Day, but it can be cheaper, easier, and more eco-friendly to share a candlelit dinner at home. Plan your dinner by buying locally or organically grown foods from your local farmers market or organic grocer. Planet Green offers some simple, at-home recipes http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/valentine-dinner.html. If you are planning to serve wine, make sure you buy organic, sustainable, or biodynamic labels. Some ideas can be found at http://www.organicwinejournal.com/. To add a romantic ambiance (and to cut down on energy use), turn off the lights and use candles. Make sure to buy beeswax or soy-based candles to eliminate excess soot. You can find a good assortment at http://www.beeswaxcandles.com/. If eating at home is not an option, take your sweetheart to a restaurant that supports locally grown food or organic ingredients. For online databases to search restaurants close to you, check out http://www.localharvest.org/restaurants/, http://www.organicfooddatabase.net/organic-restaurants/, or http://www.organichighways.com/.

The Gift

Sometimes your loved one deserves more than the traditional Valentines Day card, flower, chocolate, and dinner gift-pack. If you plan to buy a gift, there are a handful of eco-friendly options to choose from.
• Jewelry: You can find eco-friendly jewelry options at http://www.greenkarat.com/ or http://www.moonrisejewelry.com. For jewelry made from recycled products, check out http://www.wiredresistance.com/.

• Eco-friendly gift baskets and other products: Browse ideas at http://www.pristineplanet.com/green-valentines-organic-valentine-eco-friendly-valentine-organic/valentine-gifts/15625_a_0.html, http://www.naturemoms.com/blog/2007/01/20/eco-friendly-valentines-gifts/, or http://www.gifts.com/ideas/eco-friendly.

• Give back: If you are still unsure of what to buy, donate to a cause of your/his/her choice. One good idea is dedicating a tree in his/her name http://www.treesinstead.com/Green_Gift_Valentines.php!
For more gift-giving ideas, check out the Greeniacs Make it a Green Holiday Season article: http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsArticles/Holiday-Season-Make-it-a-Green.html.

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1 http://www.greetingcard.org/thegreetingcard_facts.html.
2 http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/special-delivery-project.html.
3 http://www.grist.org/advice/possessions/2003/02/12/.




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Green Facts

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

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

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

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

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

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

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

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

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

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

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

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

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

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

  • 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.

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

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

  • 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.

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

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

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

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

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