Bentley in his "growing" greener costume

Bentley is not only going "green" this Halloween. He's "Growing" green in his Chia Pet costume. Help him win the Sheraton HOWL'Oween costume contest by "liking" his photo.

The Sustainable Food Market

Sustainable San Diego

Your food matters, it’s not a new concept to hear that you are what you eat. Have you noticed why certain foods have correlations to the exact part of the body that it is good for? For example, a sliced carrot looks like the human eye, the pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye; and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes. The beta-carotene that gives carrots their vibrant color also acts as a potent antioxidant, preventing cell damage, boosting blood flow, and fostering healthy eyesight.
Another example is an avocado. It simulates the mother’s womb. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, melts away unwanted pregnancy weight and prevents cervical cancers. Another profound correlation is it takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit.
We know fruits and vegetables are nutritious but do we actually know where our food is coming from? From the grocery store, right? But do you really know where it comes from? Where it’s grown, shipped, processed, packaged, and shipped again, before it finally hits the grocery store?
You might be surprised to learn that our food travels an extremely long way to get to our tables, whether it is a piece of fruit or a box of cookies. The average processed food travels over 1,300 miles to get to a consumer in the states! What’s worse, the average fresh produce item travels over 1,500 miles to get to that same consumer! What really blows me away there is that for most people, their fresh fruits and veggies must travel even farther a distance to get to them than a processed, packaged goodie.
Food loses 5-15% of its nutritional values just because it gets frozen to be shipped to the grocery store. Another option would be to buy from a local farmers market. There are so many benefits and reasons why you should buy at the farmers market; you would be supporting your local farmers. Buying from the local farmer not only financially benefits the farmer but the community as well. Today’s farmer receives less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. When farmers sell directly to the consumer, the middleman is cut out thus producing a higher profit for the farmer. The farmer then circulates his profits throughout the community with local merchants creating a cycle that helps to build a strong local economy. It also ensures you are buying healthier better tasting foods that are brought to you from the farm to the table.
The bottom line is to be aware of what you are eating. Read the labels and find out where your food came from? Just because it says organic doesn’t mean it has a smaller carbon footprint by not using pesticides, for example chemical ridden strawberries from New Jersey might just be a better alternative than those USDA certified organic strawberries from California. Imagine the emissions it took to transport them? Think twice, before you buy.

Does Alumium Foil Take More Energy to Create Then it's Worth?

Facts About Aluminum Foil
Aluminum foil is a very widely used household item. You can use it to wrap food, grill or even more creative purposes, like crafts. But what happens when you are done using your aluminum foil? Do you dispose of it in the trash? Here are a few facts about aluminum:

Americans recycle roughly 65 to 70 percent of the aluminum they use in their household. However, this mostly includes cans and not commonly used aluminum foil. Instead, thousand of tons of this make it into landfills every year. We throw away enough aluminum to create an entire fleet of commercial airliners.
What many people don’t realize is that aluminum is practically 100 percent recyclable. It is extremely durable and can be reused over and over again. Aluminum foil is technically just as recyclable as aluminum cans. The problem is that aluminum foil is often dirtier, thus making it harder to recycle.
It takes 95 percent less energy to make aluminum from recycled aluminum, versus using bauxite ore (virgin materials). For example, recycling one aluminum can will save enough energy to run a television for three hours. It was estimated in 1996 that aluminum manufacturers saved enough energy by recycling aluminum that they could power a city the size of Pittsburgh for roughly six years!
Americans throw away about three pounds of aluminum foil annually. It will take roughly 400 years for aluminum to break down naturally in the landfill. Some landfills incinerate aluminum, which releases toxic metals and gas into the atmosphere.

#5. It's Earth day today. Go out and do something good.

The idea I have today is to go "do something" good, maybe give way to a car that wants to come into your lane, or pick some trash off the ground, or give a stranger a smile on the street today. If we pay it forward today we will reap the benefits in the future. What are some ways your "do somethings?" Let me know on twitter @greenideagirl.

#4. Drive the speed limit

Many people don’t realize that going 75 mph vs. 60 mph uses 20% more fuel, especially if the vehicle is less aerodynamic like an SUV. Going slower means it will take longer to get to your final destination. Unless there is a substantial reason to speed such as rushing to the birth of your baby, you most likely could take the extra time on the road and save 20% of the emissions going into the air, plus gas consumption.

3. Cut your shower time

This is something everyone can do. I am a great example of someone who takes multiple showers a day just to warm up, or I will stay in and take a 40 minute shower until my skin wrinkles up, but I got to thinking the other day where does that water go? I'm sure most of it gets recycled in a water treatment plant, but how about the people with a septic tank?

Before I get way off the point my "green idea" of the day is to install a clock within site of your shower and make sure you time it between 5-10 minutes. A five-minute shower uses 10 to 25 gallons of water. In sub-Saharan Africa, women my age spend 15 to 17 hours a week collecting water that may or may not kill their children. According to CNN, only 1% of the world's water is drinkable.

This makes me think how many times can we actually treat water before it can't be processed anymore? Will it be in my generation? My childrens? We should be looking at the bigger picture. Think ahead, and make a goal of going "greenish".

2.Turn your computer and cell phone to energy saving mode and get more out of the life of your battery

Doing this little task will not only make your battery last longer it will also save energy and money, therefore creating less air pollution. It's simple and everyone can adopt the idea. The best part is it takes less then two minutes, so why not do it now. "Go on... We'll wait." I read an article on Green Yahoo the other day claiming it saves as much as $90.00 a year by just powering down your computer every time you are done with it.

Another suggestion is to not use screen savers. The fish swimming by are nice to look at but they are actually using up energy. Lastly only plug in your computer's charger to the AC outlet when you are charging your computer. It still pulls electricity from the wall even if it's not charging anything up. That goes for your kitchen appliances, and any other charger. If you have a surge protector and everything connected to it is off unplug it from the wall. If you go on vacation unplug your TV, VCR, Lamps and come back to see how much you saved.

Instructions from eHow.com

1
Open the "Control Panel" and change the view to "Small Icons."

2
Open "Power Options" from the list.

3
Choose a different available power plan or click "Create a power plan" to customize your own. When you open "Power Options," "Power Saver" is selected. Default plans are "Balanced," "Power Saver" and "High Performance." You can also customize the default plans by choose "Change plan settings."

4
Click the "X" button at the top right of the window to save and close the changes.



Read more: How to Turn Off Your Computer's Power Saver Mode | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7403588_turn-computer_s-power-saver-mode.html#ixzz1JcIiqr4E

1. Green Idea Girl starts on a new green path.

Each entry will focus on a new green idea that anyone and everyone can put to effect in their own lives. Starting today, the new idea of the day is using the toaster oven vs. the conventional oven. The toaster oven saves a load more energy then the regular oven. Imagine how many more minutes it takes to heat up a huge square oven, even if it's a convection oven it's still going to consume energy and your money.

Each time you use a regular oven in the summer for example, not only are you using up electricity to run the oven but you are making your air conditioner work harder to keep the air cool as the oven throws off some serious heat while it is turned on.

My toaster oven takes the same time to cook as the regular oven and uses far less energy to run and doesn't heat up the kitchen either. I understand the argument that you can't bake a 20" pizza in a toaster oven. That's true, but wouldn't it be better to get a mini pizza or do home made organic pizza's? It's a healthier option isn't it?

Bottom line is, if you don't have a toaster oven, buy one, but buy a good one. It'll pay for itself in no time and be good to your needs for years to come.

C-Stone Bio Paper

Paper made from Limestone- Not trees

C-Stone to develop new tree-free, waterproof paper
C-Stone LLC, located in San Diego, CA, is developing of a new line of tree-free, biodegradable bio-paper. Based on intellectual property to be acquired and developed by C-Stone, a product will be manufactured for replacing synthetic plastic papers and high- end printing papers currently on the market, with a competitive and environmentally beneficial strategy.
Using a proprietary mixture of PLA (plant-based plastic), limestone, and other additives, C-Stone’s bio-papers are not only biodegradable and tree-free, but also more printable than most synthetic papers and suitable for most types of printing processes. The production process is also cleaner than that of traditional papers—with limited water used during manufacturing and emitting no petroleum-based toxic chemicals into the air. The bio-paper is tree free, chlorine-free, acid-free, safe for the environment, and can be recycled to make new C-Stone paper or other bio- plastic products
In addition to its eco-friendly qualities, C-Stone’s bio-papers are inherently water- resistant and tear-resistant, making them ideal for signs, banners, tags, maps and other similar applications. Available in various thicknesses, the bio-papers can range from solid enough to make sturdy outdoor signs, credit cards and room keys to the thinnest traditional paper magazine stock.
Initially, C-Stone’s bio-paper will be very competitive, if not cheaper, than synthetic papers and eventually more competitive with high-end printing papers. With volatile prices of oil and today’s pressures to increase environmental integrity, these efforts are quite significant and exciting!
C-Stone LLC looks forward to marketing the new products over the next couple of months.

Some facts about recycled pulp paper-
Consumes:
17 mature trees
7,000 gallons of water
3 cubic yards of landfill space
2 barrels of oil; and
4,100 kw hours of electricity (enough to power a home for 5 months)
500,000 – number of trees cut down to produce each week’s Sunday newspapers
25,000,000 – number of trees saved a year IF every American recycled just 1/10 of their newspapers
75,000 – number of trees saved recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times
250,000,000 – number of trees saved if all our newspaper was recycled
The average American uses 7 trees a year
1 Billion – estimated number of trees worth of paper thrown away every year in the US
85,000,000 Tons - amount of paper Americans use per year
17 trees saved can absorb a total of 250 pound of carbon dioxide; burning 17 trees would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxed
More than 56% of paper consumed in the US in ’07 was recycled! That equals 360 pounds for each person in the Country!
400 paper mills use recovered materials for their paper producing process
If your're looking for an alternative, check out AquaCGreen.com for tree free paper options. Paper that is printed on limestone and doesn’t use any water to produce.

Check out the special celebrity endorsements: http://aquacgreenpublishing.com/endorsements.html