Advocating climate change on a green blog journey
Sustainable Solo cup is a green blog brimming with information on sustainability in the design of space. It talks about the most pressing environmental issues and their implications on the environment. Sustainable solo cup examines topics such as adaptive reuse, sustainable materials, and energy efficient sustainable strategies in buildings. |
Sustainability is a new rage. Everyone’s talking about green buildings, green food and a green life in general. But how do you go about leading a green life in this time crunch world of ours? I hear a lot of people explaining that they do not live an environmentally friendly lifestyle either because they find it overwhelming or expensive. We as busy people in our individual life’s wants thinks quicker, faster and cheaper. We forget the long-term consequences of such actions and I agree, I am just like anyone of you. But if you think about it, an eco-friendly lifestyle doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive. In fact, it saves you a lot of money in the long term and also helps you lead a healthier lifestyle. Going Green isn’t that demanding as a task too. I know it’s hard to start being sustainable all in one day and to keep up with it, so taking up one initiative a day in a week, you can slowly switch over to green living. Here are 7 things you can do this week one every day which will bring you one step closer to living a green life. 1. Ditch those bottled water bottles Image Credit:polarbottle.com Carry a reusable water bottle so that you don’t need to buy water. This helps in cutting down on waste and also saves a lot of money. 2. Use public transportation or carpool for the daily commute Image Credit:Kelvin Chan, www.tnp.sng Carpooling saves a lot of money and also reduces pollution and congestion on our roads. It also helps you develop new friendships with coworkers and other commuters. Use public transportation often. Public transit vehicles emit fewer pollutants than single-passenger automobiles. Buses emit 80 percent less carbon monoxide than a car. 3. Start your own compost pile Image Credit:Cedar Grove, www.theodysseyonline.com Start a composite pile in your backyard. Separate the food waste from the recyclables and trash. You can also use your compost pile for your little home garden. This way you don’t spend money on any fertilizers for your garden and also helps in the healthy growth of your plants. 4. Read the food labels Image Credit:cybake.co.uk Always read the labels on the back of any product you are buying. Checking nutrition labels gives you a sense of what you are consuming and this helps you cut back on your intake. This helps you make healthier food choices. Try choosing products that are chemical free. If you feel that you can make things at home then go for it rather than consuming those preserved foods. 5. Drop your paper cup habit Image Credit:Brittany Hardin, wehatetowaste.com Brew your own certified coffee at home or if you have no time to make your coffee, take your own cup to the coffee shop. This cuts down the wastage and also retain the heat for your beverage if it’s an insulated travel mug. 6. Carry your own bag to the grocery store Image Credit:www.crafthubs.com Reusable bags are sturdier and also help in cutting down of plastic or paper bags. Also, this cuts down the consumer cost and also the production cost of those bags. Also, there is a reduced recycling cost for the city. 7. Truly switch off your devices Image Credit: Notjustalabel.com Standby mode on devices draws a lot of electricity. Switching of the electronic gadgets you don’t use saves a lot of electricity and reduces your electricity bill. So go ahead and get started on these seven initiatives for this week. Remember not to punish yourself if you don’t abide by these any of the days in the future. But plan on following them as much as possible. If you like getting started on a sustainable journey, bookmark my blog and come back again for more such information. Also, share this article with a friend and you can team up and work on these goals and keep each other inspired for a healthy and a happy life. Also here is an infographic if you would like to share. Image Credit: Harini Meda, All Rights Reserved.
0 Comments
Image Credit : popularmechanics.com
A sci-fi series set in an Old town of a West ‘Theme park’ where guests pay an exorbitant price to interact with Androids. Based on Michael Crichton’s 1973 movie of cashing on people’s fantasies which emphasize on gunfights, unlimited food, booze and sex with no consequences, WestWorld is definitely the ‘Adult Disneyland’. Just like any other technological aspect, the androids do have glitches and this makes the park hosts to start questioning the reality. If given a chance, I would pay the money to explore the production set of the park. Zack Grobler, the parks head architect strives to create a unique aesthetic to the park. It is claimed that the show was built on an already existing set at Melody Ranch. Details were added to previous sets of Django unchained and Magnificent Seven. This means actively reducing waste disposal and upcycling of existing interiors which reduce the overall carbon footprint. It’s also budget friendly. Sustainability could play a huge role in the film industry. Agencies such as Green Reel and Green Angel have been an active proponent in movies and cutting down on costs by using sustainable production practices and diverting the landfill waste. The United States Green Building Council established models and rating systems for actively encouraging the motion picture industry in taking up sustainable practices. Meanwhile, let’s hope WestWorld continues to keep up with these sustainable practices in the upcoming episodes and actively participate in change for the environmental causes. If you did like my post, feel free to bookmark my blog and come back again for more such information. If you are one of those people who need their cup of Joe before you get going every morning, then you might be in trouble in the near future. This international coffee day, Starbucks decided to expand their initiative from last year – “One tree for every bag” of coffee purchased to “donate a coffee tree for every cup of Mexico Chiapas brewed coffee” this year. These coffee plants are being distributed to those farmers who have been impacted by coffee rust in the continent of South America. As you all may know, Columbia is the second largest supplier of the Arabica followed by Brazil. In the year 2013, Guatemala grew 40 % less coffee than its usual production due to the unusual spread of coffee rust. Coffee rust is a fungus and its effects on the coffee plants are devastating. In the few years, Coffee rust started from a very isolated range of fungus to a full-fledged disease of the plants capable of crossing continents and rendering the coffee plants worthless. This has led many of the farmers to immigrate and sought out other forms of livelihood and others to plunge into poverty. The donated plants can be of great help to the farmers but, we also have to know that it takes 3 to 5 years for the coffee plants to start harvesting and in these 3 to 5 years, these farmers have no other source of income to live on. “We smallholder farmers have difficulty accepting that we have to remove the coffee plant because we feel that they are taking away a part of us, a piece of us.” — quotes José Luis Mateo Mendoza a coffee farmer in Guatemala. The drastic increase in coffee rust is due to climate change. Higher temperatures and long droughts followed by intense rainfall play a crucial part in coffee plantation growth. Climate change is affecting our life and it has affected the small farmer’s life. It is impacting the way the product is produced. It’s becoming more expensive and more difficult. And with every year passing their job gets harder. The product might become scantier and may even disappear at the end. All this is because of Climate change. I do appreciate Starbucks initiative to try and help out the farmers. But is there more we can do, other than just handing out plants and sympathize about these coffee farmers. I believe we can.
Behind that cup of coffee is the effort of many poor farmers. These farmers are the one to work with the earth every day. And they are working within an ever changing climate and they are the ones that feel the impact more than the one sipping down the hot latte. So if you share similar sentiments as me, please make sure to help these farmers in any way possible and come back here for more on similar issues.
We all remember the day after Halloween “skeletons, spirits and haunts” and lots of carved pumpkins and we wonder what to do with them.
Image Credit:Notjustalabel.com
Don’t hurry and throw them out! If you are going to spend money on them then, why not make it worth every penny? Also by cutting down the waste, you are helping the environment and closing the loop of the resource by making use of it to the maximum extent. Yes, you heard it right – the maximum extent including the stringy guts of the pumpkin. Well, look no further because I have 10 ideas for you to repurpose those carved pumpkins. 1. Make your own Pumpkin Spice Latte: First, if you are a coffee junkie like me, whip up some pumpkin puree and make your own latte. Here is a recipe:
2. Pumpkin Face Mask:
Image Credit:Notjustalabel.com
Now that your coffee is made, turn on some music and treat yourself to a pumpkin face mask. Pumpkin is enriched in Vitamins A, C, and E and leaves you with softer and reenergized skin. Make a puree of pumpkin. Add a dash of milk and honey and apply on face. Let it stay for 20 minutes and wash off. 3. Make pumpkin candle holders:
Image Credit:Notjustalabel.com
Do you have any smaller or midsized pumpkins? Go ahead and rub some incense oil on the inside of the pumpkin and light a tea candle. Very soon, the room will be filled with a beautiful aroma. 4. Pumpkin seeds
Roast the pumpkin seeds and season them. Add them to your salad or just eat them as they are. A handful of roasted pumpkin seeds is a delicious way to get iron, magnesium, zinc, potassium and a healthy dose of fiber.
5. Make a vegetable stock with the stringy guts:
[object Object]
Pumpkin guts are rich in nutrients and very flavorful. So fire up that stove, add the trims and cuttings of other vegetables to a pot of water. Let it come to a boil and let it simmer for an hour. Strain the liquid and voila! You now have a flavorful stock to add to soups and stir-fry’s.
6. Pumpkin chips:
Image Credit:Notjustalabel.com
Dehydrate the pumpkin skin in the oven and add a little seasoning and save these healthy snacks for later. Indulge in some guilt free binging session while watching Netflix. 7. Bake a Pumpkin Pie:
Turn some of the leftover pumpkins into a pumpkin puree and bake a pie or a loaf of bread and celebrate with your friends and family.
8. Save the seeds, plant some trees:
If you are not the one who likes munching on pumpkin seeds, go ahead and save them and plant them in the garden next spring and grow your own pumpkins and save some moolah for next Halloween.
9. Save some pumpkin puree:
Image Credit:Notjustalabel.com
You know that thanksgiving is right around the corner, so why not save a batch of pumpkin puree and make a desert for your thanksgiving meal. 10. Fertilize your garden:
mage Credit: Notjustalabel.com
If you are not a pumpkin person, at the very least cut your pumpkin into smaller pieces and toss them into the compost and mix it with soil to fertilize your own little garden. 79,181 pounds of trash is being thrown away in the United States from the moment you started reading this blog until now.
Don’t believe it? Out of the 79,181 pounds of trash, there’re 60,000 plastic bags. The United States leads the world in the production of waste followed by other leading industrial nations. According to 2005 estimates, the U.S. manages to produce a quarter of the world’s waste despite the fact that its population of 300 million is less than 5% of the world’s population and unfortunately less than 2% of the total waste is recycled. This is just an example to start with. Environmental change has become the focus of a great deal of scientific scrutiny in recent years and has significantly contributed to global scale events directly related to conservation of life in the upcoming years. As of 8th of August which is less than 8 months, we used more natural resources than the planet is able to produce in a 12 month period. For the remainder of 2016, we will be living on resources borrowed from future generations. Sustainable Solo cup is a green blog brimming with information on sustainability in the design of space. It talks about the most pressing environmental issues and their implications on the environment. Sustainable solo cup examines topics such as adaptive reuse, sustainable materials, and energy efficient sustainable strategies in buildings. This blog also informs and educates on how to stay aware and thus achieve a smaller carbon footprint at a personal level. From examining climate change policy to specific scientific information, Sustainable solo cup would like to become a voice for environmental change and social advocacy surrounding humanity’s influence on climate change. If you share the same sentiments and thoughts, bookmark this blog and come back again and follow me on this green blog journey. |
AuthorHarini Meda is a Interior designer based in San Francisco, California. Interested in Environmental Change advocacy and believes in leading a happy and a sustainable life . Archives
December 2016
Categories |