Green Arch Design

If you have not started recycling yet, then today is your day.  It’s America Recycles Day 2007.  It just takes a little effort to recycle and it can be fun too.  Make it one of your family chores thus you will be teaching your children how to be a good recycler.  If we start teaching our children now, it might just change the world!  Come on!  Do your part!

Click on the link below to read about Recycling Day.  There’s a lot of good information on the website.

Recycling Day 2007

“One of the most successful fundraisers at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis is not a bake sale. It’s an organic plant sale.

On a Sunday morning after the early worship service, members wander around the courtyard carrying cardboard boxes filled with tomatoes, basil and peppers.

“Yes, they’re pesticide-free and locally grown,” sale coordinator Gail Jankowski says, assuring two women who ask.

Naturally, they are. The 325-member church, surrounded by lush greenery, stresses caring for God’s creations. Ecology is such an important part of their theology that the congregation now is attempting to become the first accredited “green sanctuary” in California.This commitment is obvious to church visitors. Before entering the sanctuary, worshippers walk past carpool sign-up lists, informational pamphlets on solar panels, the plant sale and a crowded bike rack. And, of course, there’s the parking lot.

“There are probably more Priuses in our parking lot than anywhere else in Sacramento,” says Tom Jan- kowski, Gail’s husband. “Certainly, more than any other church.”

Getting the label of a “green sanctuary” is about more than recycling newspapers and driving fuel-efficient cars. It’s about changing the church to make it environmentally friendly. Davis congregational leaders have audited everything from the bathroom cleaning supplies to the type of paper used in Sunday school classes to the number of sermons devoted to the environment.

“It’s being integrated into every aspect of our church. It makes sense for us theologically and for us as a community,” said the Rev. Elizabeth O’Shaughnessy Banks.” Excerpt from Sacbee.com.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Green Sanctuary

“This school year, eco-savvy kids and parents, aware of the almost four million acres of U.S. forest clearcut annually (not to mention the tons of discarded cell phones), return to store shelves seeking greener academic supplies and electronics. Yet some still find themselves at a loss. “I was recently at a major office supply chain to buy recycled or biodegradable pens and binders,” says Ellyn Feerick, a middle school teacher in Danvers, Mass., “but forget about it—they don’t exist.” Never fear. With some sleuthing, you can find more resources than ever to suit the environmentally minded student.” - Excerpt from The Green Guide

Click on the link below to find tons of eco-friendly school supplies.

School’s In 

“From childhood, we’re told to drink at least eight glasses of water each day. Unfortunately more and more Americans drink those eight glasses out of eight different plastic bottles—a convenience that stuffs landfills, clogs waterways and guzzles valuable fossil fuels.

Last year Americans spent nearly $11 billion on over 8 billion gallons of bottled water, and then tossed over 22 billion empty plastic bottles in the trash. In bottle production alone, the more than 70 million bottles of water consumed each day in the U.S. drain 1.5 million barrels of oil over the course of one year.

Not only does bottled water contribute to excessive waste, but it costs us a thousand times more than water from our faucet at home, and it is, in fact, no safer or cleaner.

“The bottled water industry spends millions of dollars a year to convince us that their product is somehow safer or healthier than tap water, when in fact that’s just not true,” says Victoria Kaplan, senior organizer with Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit that recently launched a Take Back the Tap campaign to get consumers to ditch bottled water. “As much as 40 percent of bottled water started out as the same tap water that we get at home,” she adds.

Water aside, the plastic used in both single-use and reusable bottles can pose more of a contamination threat than the water. A safe plastic if used only once, #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) is the most common resin used in disposable bottles. However, as #1 bottles are reused, which they commonly are, they can leach chemicals such as DEHA, a known carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disrupter.” - Excerpt from thegreenguide.com.

Click on the link below to read the entire article as well as find out where you can buy safe reusable bottles.

Safe Bottles

      Buy Locally Produced Organic Food

Organic food tastes better and it’s kinder to the earth. Thirty percent of the fossil fuel used on farms goes into the making of fertilizers. Get greener by buying items grown or produced within 100 miles and you’ll reduce the amount of diesel fuel needed to ship food. You can get fresher food and help small-scale agriculture by shopping at neighborhood farmers’ markets - hgtv.com 

            Have a barbecue

“You knew grilling was a healthy way to cook vittles, but did you know it was good for the air? Outdoor grills take less energy than electric kitchen stoves. They also keep heat out of the house, lowering air conditioning costs.

Stick with grills that use propane or natural gas; they emit 5.6 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per hour while a charcoal grill belches 11 pounds of the air-polluting compound for the same.

One more thing: dine on reusable plates made from bamboo, not disposable paper ones. The trees will thank you.” - hgtv.com

“McDonald’s believes it has a special responsibility to protect our environment for future generations. This responsibility is derived from our unique relationship with millions of consumers worldwide, whose quality of life tomorrow will be affected by our stewardship of the environment today. We share their belief that the right to exist in an environment of clean air, clean earth and clean water is fundamental and unwavering.

We realize that, in today’s world, a business leader must be an environmental leader as well. Hence our determination is to analyze every aspect of our business in terms of its impact on the environment and to take actions beyond what is expected if they hold the prospect of leaving future generations an environmentally sound world. We will lead both in word and in deed.” - Excerpt from www.mcdonalds.com

Click on the links below to read the entire articles.

Commitment 

Climate Change

Electrical Energy

Recycling & Reusing

Water Management

Socially Responsible Supply Initiative

Worldwide Corporate Responsibility
 

Make that a Big Mac, fries, and a quart of motor oil, please. If executives at McDonald’s (MCD) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SNP), better known as Sinopec, get their way, mainland consumers may be able to fill up their cars and their stomachs in the years ahead thanks to a long-term alliance clinched last year to combine fast-food outlets with gas stations.

In mid-January, McDonald’s opened up its first drive-through restaurant at a site owned by Sinopec outside of Beijing as part of the tieup the world’s biggest restaurant operator hopes will power its expansion in China. McDonald’s already has about 785 outlets up and running in China, and plans to have 1,000 restaurants selling its fabled brand of American food by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  - Excerpt from businessweek.com.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Asian McDonald’s

“Oak Brook, IL (March 1, 2007) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named McDonald’s USA as a 2007 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for outstanding energy management. McDonald’s accomplishments will be recognized at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2007.

McDonald’s USA, an ENERGY STAR Partner for more than 10 years, will be honored for smart energy management practices and investments throughout its operations that have resulted in significant energy and financial savings.

“Energy management is a critical part of our day-to-day operations,” said Steve DePalo, Energy Manager, McDonald’s USA. “McDonald’s energy management plan assesses the energy markets, utility environment, our restaurants’ energy use and prioritizes short, mid and long-term objectives based on integrating these factors into McDonald’s overall structure. We utilize a wide variety of tools to ensure our franchisees, restaurant managers, and crew have the knowledge, training,  and resources available to them to reduce and control energy usage.” ” - Excerpt from McDonald’s Press Release.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

McDonald’s

Oprah has many different resources posted on her website as a conclusion to her Going Green 101 show. 

Click on the link below to find may resources that your family can use to go “green”.

Green Resources

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Green Bags

Environmental expert Simran Sethi, from the Sundance Channel’s The Green, says one place to start when making eco-friendly choices is the grocery store.   Many items come in packaging made from petroleum products. Instead, look “for things that have minimal packaging,” Simran says. If you must buy disposable plates, look for ones made of 100 percent recycled plastic. “They’re dishwasher safe, easy to use, and you can use them over and over again.” Buy recycled aluminum foil, which requires just one-twentieth the energy of nonrecycled foil. Then, recycle it when you’re done! Buy organic produce. Because it doesn’t use pesticides, it uses less energy. “This is actually going to be healthier for you and healthier for the planet.” - Excerpt from Oprah’s website.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Going Green 101: What Your Family Can Do Today

The standalone McDonald’s and a nearby Panera’s outlet are part of one of the nation’s first green-certified shopping centers, Savannah’s Abercorn Common, an environmentally friendly development where stormwater seeps through porous pavement into soil, rooftops reflect heat to keep things cool inside, and the sun serves as primary lighting most days. - Excerpt from McChronicles.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Green McDonald’s

Free Kool-aid!!! Green Kool-aid at that. 

Members of the greenLIFEproject gave out free cups of Kool-aid at the Toby Mac concert which was held March 29th, at Timmon’s Arena, on the campus of Furman University.

The greenLIFEproject hosted a “tea” at the Bi-Lo Center before the Winter Jam concert in February.  Of course, it was green tea since the project promotes “green” living.  The greenLIFEproject team, which consists of The Sound of Light, NorthPointe Church, Greenville Technical College, and Green Arch Design Group, gave out cups of hot green tea and t-shirts as well as fliers about “green” living.  There were 380 people who signed the greenLIFE pledge which states:

I pledge to do my best to:

• Recycle
• Drive less
• Conserve Water
• Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s)
• Turn off unnecessary lights and appliances

There were also quite a number of people who asked for more information about “green” living. 

You can browse through our website, greenarchdesign.com, to find tips on going “green”. 

“Australian fish are showing up on dinner plates in the U.S., but they’re not shipped halfway around the world. A sustainable fish farm in Massachusetts raises Barramundi for American restaurants and grocery stores.” - By Justin Nobel - Excerpt from the February 26, 2007 Plenty Magazine Newsletter.

Click on the link below to read the entire article.

Sustainable Fish Farm

Missed a couple of weeks during the Holidays… Please post a comment if you were able to EAT!green this week.

Click on the link below for more info on EAT!green.

EAT!green

Well, how’s it going? Did anyone skip the steak this week and eat a salad instead? Please post a comment if you were are able to Eat!green this week.

Click on the link below for more info on Eat!green

Eat!green

Well, how’s it going? Did anyone skip the steak this week and eat a salad instead?

Click on the link below for more info on Eat!green

Eat!green

Well, how’s it going? Did anyone skip the steak this week and eat a salad instead?

Click on the link below for more info on Eat!green

Eat!green