Walking is the New Driving

By guest contributer Stacey Harman

Since greenisthenewpink.org hit the scene over a year ago, I have tried my best to incorporate “green” ways of living into my lifestyle…

I changed out all my BAD light bulbs for Eco-friendly bulbs. I started recycling, or at least reusing everything and anything I could. I unplug my cell phone chargers during the day like a good little girl. I shut down my computer when I’m not using it. I get my books from the library instead of buying new every time. I never had air conditioning to begin with so that was a non-issue. I do laundry at odd hours of the night. I drink tap water (God help me if my unborn children arrive with an extra arm or one lonely ear). And I cut back to four squares of Charmin when wiping. I figured this was the least I could do.

However…if all that sounds too difficult, yet you still want to reduce your carbon footprint (I still have no idea what that means, but it’s fun to say), if you really want to make a difference, there is one more thing you can do. It’s so simple and yet it will make a huge impact. Are you ready…?

WALK!

That’s right. You heard me…start walking. You learned the ancient art of walking when you were just one year old. You’ve been doing it for as long as you can remember, but right around 16 you learned to DRIVE (ooh - bad word, bad word) and if you’re anything like me, driving became the norm.

School was a hop, skip and a jump away but I insisted on driving my little ‘94 Hyundai back and forth everyday. Plus, if I took the long way to school, I could pass by my crush, Brian’s house, pretending I just happened to be in the neighborhood (something stalkers do). I had no idea driving two blocks here and three blocks there was actually releasing harmful toxins into the air.

If only I knew then what I know now…

DRIVING 3 miles produces roughly 1.0 KG of CO2.

Walking still sound like a drag? Maybe saving the Earth isn’t enough incentive to drive less and start walking. Here’s a little bonus incentive…

You’re getting fat. That’s right. I said it…FAT.

WALKING 3 miles burns roughly 300 calories.

• Walking the mile to the nearest Whole Foods can and WILL help you to lose those 20 aggravating pounds you’ve put on since college
  

• Walking to your favorite bar (which is undoubtedly in your own neighborhood anyway) will not only reduce your carbon footprint (heehee – I said it again), but also, stop you from “one-eyeing” it on the way home which is not only dangerous, but illegal.
  

• And here’s another brilliant idea…WALK to the gym, Fatty. I was driving to my gym everyday when finally it dawned on me…My gym is only 1.3 miles from my house. That’s 130 calories each way if I walk. My 30 minutes of cardio combined with walking the 2.6 mile round trip may just be the perfect combination for reducing my thunder thighs and saving the Earth all at once

Do your part…Save the Earth…WALK.

-Stacey is a writer who lives in Los Angeles

5 Easiest Eco Changes to make in 2008

Happy New Year! The start of a new year is a great time to reconfirm your eco-mmitment to living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Last month we asked our readers "What were the easiest eco changes you made to your lifestyle in 2007?" These are the top 5...


1. Change all the light bulbs in your house to Compact Fluorescent Bulbs! If you are asking yourself "why should I do this, my light bulbs are fine?" then click here. Make sure you dispose of you CFL's properly though!

2. Bring your own reusable tote bags to the grocery store and say NO to plastic and paper bags. We guarantee once you start doing this, you'll never want to use those icky plastic bags again.

3. RECYCLE- set up a bin in your home, office and even at parties you attend. Click here for information on how to get started recycling!

4. Use a reusable water bottle or a glass (the one pictured is Lyd's fav, click on the picture to order one.)

5. Walk instead of Drive. Remember when you were a kid and you would walk 3 miles to the record store to buy the new Color Me Badd tape without thinking twice about it? Let's get that spirit back in our life! Instead of driving to the gym to work out and then driving pick up your dry cleaning and dog food, walk to do your errands and kill two birds with one stone. Yes, you can do this even if you live in L.A.!

If these simple lifestyle changes feel like an old hat/wide belt/low waisted jeans to you then send this post to 5 people in your life who may need a little bit of eco-encouragement to live a more ecologically conscious lifestyle. (And Green is the New Pink's New Year's resolution is to get our info out to even more people, so you'd be helping us too!)

Hope all the Green/Pinkers had a great holiday...here's to making 2008 all of our most green year yet!

Safety of Plastic Water Bottles: Hydrate Healthy

What did you do yesterday? We spent Sunday after our Cinqo de Drinko celebrations laying around on our couches rehashing the night with our girlfriends on the phone, whining to our boyfriends/husbands to get us breakfast burritos and drinking lots and lots of water. The container we drank said water out of, was the difference between eco-chichood and eco-geekdom.

Disposable water bottles are bad for the environment... duh. We blame the water bottle frenzy on the 80's, all that working out and super models drinking water in the public eye made your trusty Evian the new must-have accessory. And then that bred a generation so dependent and accustomed to water bottles they are, literally scared to drink water from a tap (yes, this is us we know, we fess up.) But even if you think you get parasites from drinking tap water (okay, this really may be true in Los Angeles), there are some other options besides going through 50 plastic bottles a week...

According to Refill Not Landfill.org

The everyday convenience of bottled water is quickly becoming outweighed by its negative impact on the environment. 8 out of 10 plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or end up in a landfill. (Container Recycling Institute) The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power 190,000 homes. But refilling your water bottle from the tap requires no expenditure of energy, and zero waste of resources. (PBS Point of View 2004) Making all of the bottles for the US requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually. That's enough to fuel 100,000 cars. (Earth Policy Institute)

What if I re-use my water bottle for a few days?
You can recycle water bottles but it's not good to reuse them because the low grade plastic they are made with (#1) cant be heated (if you put them under hot water or in the dishwasher, they melt) and therefore cant be properly cleaned between uses. The most dangerous part of reusing everyday water bottles is that they aren't often properly cleaned and dried before they are reused.

I need to have a water bottle with me during the day, what do i use?
Get a reusable aluminum or plastic bottle from a company like Sigg, Nalgene or New Wave Enviro. Now Nalgene water bottles may have been the one thing the Eagle Scouts and theater freaks at your high school had in common, but they have come up with some great new designs, check them out nalgene-outdoor.com. Just be sure to buy the grade #2 bottles not the grade #7 (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200311/lol5.asp)

And if the thought of filling your bottle with tap water scares you, it's time to buy a water filter for your home! There are definitely lots of options out there, including some built in to your sink or refrigerator, but for less of a financial investment, we like the Brita water filter which has tons of options (attached to your sink, pitchers you can store in your fridge). Also Brita is pretty much available everywhere: Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Amazon, supermarkets, etc.

Get to know the Grades of Plastic!
Okay, so you're going to stop using your Evian bottles over and over again (not good for you because you can't actually clean them). Now, one thing to consider when you buy a REUSABLE plastic bottle is its grade (if you go with aluminum reusable bottles, you are cool, but if you do plastic, you need to make sure it's a decent grade for the sake of your health!). Look on the bottom of the bottle for a small plastic triangle with a number in the middle. If you see a number 2, 4 or 5, the bottle is safe. If it has some other number, don't use it as a water bottle. Those other plastics can make your water taste like plastic and leach harmful chemicals into your body.

Plastics to Avoid

#3 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) commonly contains di-2-ehtylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), an endocrine disruptor and probable human carcinogen, as a softener.

#6 Polystyrene (PS) may leach styrene, a possible endocrine disruptor and human carcinogen, into water and food.

#7 Polycarbonate contains the hormone disruptor bisphenol-A, which can leach out as bottles age, are heated or exposed to acidic solutions. Unfortunately, #7 is used in most baby bottles and five-gallon water jugs and in many reusable sports bottles.

We leave the medical and health risk of the different plastics in your hands dear readers, but for the health of the environment, get a reusable plastic water bottle, an aluminum canteen or a Scottish lambskin pouch. Or consider this...drinking water the old fashioned way... out of a glass!

p.s. If you want to know the facts about the safety of heating and freezing plastic then read this article from John Hopkins University that answers some of our pressing plastic quandaries.