Do the Seven Green Things!

We're following Do the Green Thing for a while and update you every month with their monthly Green Thing, which is always presented and explained in a fun and interesting way.

After their first year, which was very successful reaching over 2.1 million people from 171 countries worldwide and helping save in excess of 3.4m KGs of CO2, the Green Thing team has just launched a completely redesigned site.

It's not only a design, it's also a shift in the focus - from monthly green recommendation aimed to inspire people to go green, they shifted to to focus on seven green things you can do - and enjoy doing. These things include as you can see prior monthly recommendations, as following (from their website):

1. You get from A to B without any C when you Walk The Walk
2. It’s delicious but it causes more CO2 than cars so go Easy On The Meat
3. Resist the urge to buy the latest and Stick With What You Got
4. Turn down the central heating and turn up the Human Heat
5. The art of wasting nothing and using up everything: All-Consuming
6. Instead of jetting your way around the world, Stay Grounded
7. Don’t leave it on or even put it on, Plug Out



this video is designed by Andrew Rae of Monkey Dust fame, illustrated by Tom Baker and voiced over by Aaron Willmer).

As always you're welcome to explore their great website - http://www.dothegreenthing.com and do the Green Thing!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Go easy on the meat this month!

Did we mention we're fans of Do The Green Thing? Yes, we are! And like we do every month in the last couple of months, we're happy to bring you their green message for March: go easy on the meat!

No, they don't preach you to go veggie. They just want you to eat a little bit less meat this month. If you ask yourself why, they're happy to explain:

Now, meat may be tasty – in fact, it’s downright delicious, especially in pie format. But unfortunately it’s also responsible for massive emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

The way cows, pigs, sheep and even chickens are reared (no sniggering) uses lots of fossil fuels, creating lots of CO2. Farm animals also have a nasty habit of producing vast quantities of methane, as you’ll know if you’ve ever picnicked downwind of a cowherd.

A recent UN report found that meat production was among the top 3 creators of greenhouse gases (including methane which is 23 times more harmful than CO2). It’s responsible for 18% of global emissions, more than the entire world transportation industry.

To produce just 1kg of beef, enough for a spag bol for you and 5 friends, creates a whopping 34.6kg of CO2. It’s enough to make you choke on your chops.

Livestock agriculture is also a major cause of deforestation and soil erosion, as well as being a huge drain on our water supplies. To produce that kilo of beef for your spag bol takes an eye-popping 15,000 litres of water, much more than you need to produce a kilo of cereals. Added to all that is the fact that farm animals, particularly cows, are a windy bunch. They’re responsible for 37% of global methane emissions, which is even more than Michael Winner.

So this month, do your bit for the planet by going Easy On The Meat. You don’t have to go complete veggie – chopping out a couple of portions a week would be a fine effort.Every time you turn down a turkey or bat back a bacon buttie, let us know you’ve DONE IT so we can add up all the CO2 saved by heroic Green Thing members.

As always the message comes with funny videos (and also audio files), such as this one:




Enjoy the green thing!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Do the green thing

Today I want to recommend on a new great website - Do the green thing.

Green Thing according to the site wants to help make a difference in the fight against climate change. It wants to help us achieving a more sustainable lifestyle, where we emit no more than 1 tone of CO2 a year.

Green thing encourages us to do a new green thing every month and keep doing these things throughout the year. They know it's only a start, but an important one that can make a difference eventually : "once enough people do the Green Thing, Green Thing can use this people power to persuade governments and businesses to do the Green Thing too and make changes necessary to begin to reduce the other fifty per cent."

I like their style, very light and British (in a good and humoristic way!). October's Green Thing is Walk once, to college or work or wherever. This month they encourage you to turn your lights off early and have some fun in the dark. What kind of fun? you could sleep or think a dark thought (listen to the audio here, it's hilarious).

Check also their video clip on their homepage for more ideas, and don't forget to join them and do a green thing or two this month.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great gift for the holidays!