Many of us cannot start out the morning without a cup (or several cups) of coffee. If you brew your coffee at home, you know that using a new paper coffee filter for every roast adds up quickly. In buying our first coffee maker, we made sure to buy a reusable coffee filter from Cuisinart. We paid $14.95 for it at Bed Bath & Beyond, but were able to find it for under $7 at Amazon.com (see link above). We have not noticed any change in flavor, can use it over and over again, and are happy to know we are not unnecessarily wasting materials.

If you find yourself still needing a disposable coffee filter, you can use an unbleached, recycled, or biodegradable coffee filter.

Almost every major store now sells reusable bags in an effort to cut down on paper and plastic. This weekend we found another approach to help satisfy these needs. ALDO Group has changed its outlook when it comes to packaging to embrace the classic theory to ”reduce, reuse, and recycle.”

What has ALDO done to change its packaging so drastically? ALDO no longer gives its customers bags, and instead a handle has been added to their shoeboxes. Their shoeboxes are now only made out of recycled material and printed with soy ink. They are even encouraging their customers to reuse their shoeboxes to store collectables such as CD cases and photos by providing a label index with the box. And if you so desperately need a bag, because you are buying so many pairs of shoes, accessories, or handbags, ALDO’s bags are now 100% tree free to encourage responsible forest management across our globe. How about those changes for a creative start?

Check out their Take the Box, Not the Bag campaign. We give ALDO a big green thumb up for making these changes and hope more retail stores will take on these same goals of completing the circle.

Celebrate your favorite Moms while  helping Mother Earth with 5 great eco-friendly gift ideas any mother will love.

1. Give your Mom a special eco-friendly gift from Gaiam such as their yoga sandals or massaging mat (receive free shipping on any order until 5/15/09 using the following code: AFMOM4)!
2. Calm your favorite mother with scented soy candles to help soothe her day.
3. Send your mother an organic bouquet at organicbouquet.com. If you choose Friday, May 8th as your delivery date, you can save $10 on the delivery charge!
4. Adopt an animal with the World Wildlife Fund and get a Mother’s Day gift bag or adopt an acre of the  Appalachians with The Nature Conservancy in honor of your Mom.
5. Take your favorite photograph and place it in an eco-friendly frame for your favorite Mom to look at every day!

Make the mothers in your life feel extra special this mother’s day with an environmentally friendly gift. They will be glad to know they helped honor Mother Nature as much as you are honoring them!

Although we would always suggest that a person should buy a smaller, more eco-friendly vehicle, we understand that some people actually need pick-up trucks for work or hobbies. However, just because a truck is not your typical green product, does not mean there are not green options out there. Currently there are two main hybrid trucks on the road (Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid with 2wd or 4wd and the GMC Sierra Hybrid with 2wd or 4wd, although GMC may not be in business much longer) and several in design for the future.

The Chevrolet Silverato Hybrid and the GMC Sierra Hybrid are equal in comparison when it comes to hybrid performance, and thus we will compare these two hybrid trucks to your typical non-hybrid. As far as miles per gallon go, a 2wd hybrid truck will get 21 city mpg and 22 highway (21/22) whereas your typical truck will get 14/18. A 4wd hybrid truck will get 20/20  whereas the typical truck will get 13/17. The amount of money you will save on gas and oil purchases because of  this is over 25%! Imagine saving over a quarter of your gas money over the year, and having to stop for gas a quarter less of the time? With these hybrid trucks you get 5 seats, 53 cubic feet of cargo room, and the same 8 cylinder engine, but you will also get even more horsepower and more torque. The downturn is that the towing capacity lowers to about 6000 lbs (typical truck tows 9000 lbs).

The hybrid technology that is included in these trucks is as follows: idle turn off, regenerative breaking, and electric only drive. All the great features of any hybrid car! We know many people in the construction industry who are getting 14 mpg on their trucks every day, and paid a whole lot for them in the first place. We’ve found these trucks brand new as low as $38,000, where you can save even more money on gas, and you of course can make even less of an impression on the environment.

If you or anyone needs to use a truck, consider hybrid. The statistics show that enough of a difference will be made.

[source]

Fujitsu is taking a big step in helping our environment. They have released into the Japanese market a green laptop that could be considered powered by wind. What does could be considered mean? Well, for every laptop sold, Fujitsu is buying a certain amount of green-power energy credits.  The amount of energy credits purchased for laptop sold corresponds to each laptop being charged for 4 1/2 hours a day for four years. Basically, Fujitsu is trying to offset the carbon emissions their computers create, and by doing so making their product and company a greener one.

Although this is not a technological advance, it’s certainly one step closer to a greener lifestyle. The question now is: when will fujitsu release this business idea to the rest of the world, and will they ever develop a laptop that is literally powered by wind?

[source]

As we approach the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo (celebrated on May 5th in America to recognize Mexican tradition and pride) the question is how to be green and celebrate this unique holiday at the same time. One of the great things about this holiday is that you can eat your favorite Mexican snacks such as chips and salsa all you want without feeling guilty. After all you are celebrating!

We have put together a couple of sources that should help you make green decisions on Cinco de Mayo. First, find some organic chips. We love the blue chips from Garden of Eatin’ (made from a field of blue corn). With many natural flavors and colors available, this company is green without compromising on taste. If you’re feeling adventurous, you should try making your own chips. Planet Green offers a green, tasty recipe that’s going to satisfy you and your friends.

Second, what’s a chip without salsa? Amy’s Kitchen makes great organic salsas that will not let you down. As with the chips, you can also make your own organic salsa with organic tomatoes and spices. Mother Earth News provides four easy salsa recipes that are easy to follow.

Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo holiday the green way!

Aluminum foil is great for its strength and insulating properties to package, cook, and keep food at the right temperature. However, a lot of energy and virgin materials have been used to make the typical aluminum foil you find in stores, which is not eco-friendly.  We have found a solution: Reynolds Wrap Foil from 100% recycled aluminum. Reynolds now makes a foil that is made out of 100% recycled aluminum and is sold in 100% recycled paperboard packaging with water based inks.

Why should you make the switch to Reynolds’ recycled foil? You should make the switch, because it recycles used materials, does not require new materials, and the process to develop the foil requires 80% less energy. Better yet, you can even recycle it. Go to Earth911.org to find which facilities will take Aluminum Foil in your area.

How else will Reynolds help you go green? Go to their Green Kitchen Tips page to learn how to make your kitchen more eco-friendly. You can also check the current Reynolds’ promotions page to get coupons, rebates, and even to enter a $7,000 sweepstakes for green appliances in your home! Try downloading their widget to get new recipes every day while learning new green tips, or sign up for their newsletter called Make It Easy.

It is so great to see a company not only produce a greener product, but also share with its customers the ways in which they can green their lives by using their products. We give Reynolds a green thumb up for taking the extra step.

Green your cooking and packaging with recycled Reynolds Wrap!

Ever play Sim City? Well, National Geographic has come up with a similar game for green communities! Plan It Green is a computer game that makes you the mayor of a struggling city called Greenville that needs to become eco-friendly and sustainable.  It has 45 levels, and with the help of consultants, you will be able to build green homes, gardens, and buildings. The more you accomplish in Greenville, the more you are able to do. What makes this game unique is that you not only are learning about green building from a leader in green living (National Geographic), you get to see how energy credits and tax money affect what you are able to do, how the environment gets better, and how you can satisfy the people. We think this is a great way to see how small changes make big changes on the community.

You can download a free-trial for one hour of play or purchase the game for $19.99 at the National Geographic website. We were able to find a better deal at Amazon.com where you can download the game for $9.99. We played the free-trial and had so much fun we are contemplating buying the game!

You know you want to check this game out. Plan It Green!

Think about how much packaging goes in and out of every home, office, and store every single day. Think about how little of that packaging is actually recyclable or biodegradable and gets thrown away regardless. We have found some great products that will help solve this problem.

To protect your products we have found recycled packaging rolls and biodegradable packaging peanuts. CareMail has a product called the CareMail Greenwrap Protective Cushioning Packaging Roll. It is made with renewable energy, 90% recycled materials, and 50% post-consumer materials. As for peanuts, which are typically  made out of that awful material called styrofoam, we have found biodegradable peanuts such as the  Duck CareMail Biodegradable Peanuts which are made out of corn starch and are organic. We also found recycled peanuts such as the  Staples Environmentally Friendly Packaging Peanuts which are made out of the remains of other loose fill.

When it comes to envelopes and boxes, we have found the Henkel CareMail® Rugged Mailer and the Henkel 1143553 CareMail® Box. The mailer is made out of recycled newsprint, which is great for protection. The box is made out of 100% recycled products and 90% post-consumer materials.

The best part of all of these? The peanuts can be used over and over again, and will biodegrade if thrown out, and the boxes, mailer and wrap can be recycled when no longer usable!

Next time you are making a shipment, go with green packaging. You can find these products at Amazon.com at the links above or any office supply store!

We just got our wedding invitations in and they look great! After searching site after site of eco-friendly wedding invitation options, we happened upon Wedding Paper Divas. What made us choose Wedding Paper Divas? The reviews and the prices!

We have a tight budget for our wedding, and when we found that we could actually afford eco-friendly wedding invitations, as most sites have great invitations made out of plants and recycled materials, but are quite costly, we were very happy. We searched wedding websites for reviews of Wedding Paper Divas and saw positive comment after positive comment about the professional look and quality of their products. We knew we found the place.

Wedding Paper Divas has a series of eco-friendly invitations made on their Signature Textured Ecru paper which contains 30% post-consumer materials (if you want to know, we went with the Charming Rose invitation with the sage color). To save on paper, we used only one envelope, included the reception information on the invitation card, and fit the directions on the smallest card we could! The envelopes and enclosures cards come in the Ecru paper as well. We will be printing the address labels on leftover labels we have from events in the past.

Check out Wedding Paper Divas for more than just wedding invitations. They also sell products such as Party Favors, Bridal Shower invitations, Save-the-Dates, Stationary, Holiday Cards, and Baby/Engagement Announcements. Just use their Signature Textured Ecru Paper and be eco-friendly!

Wedding Paper Divas gets a green thumb up for their eco-friendly options! Look for promotional codes on their website! We were able to save $20 and get free shipping!