Way 8 : Unplug Appliances

Way 8!

Unplug appliances that you don't use frequently. Most electronics have a standby mode that siphons energy even when not in use, or at the very least have small lights that need electricity to power them. Cell phone chargers, laptops, televisions, stereos — there's a whole list of items that can easily be unplugged when not in use. Try using a power strip for groups of electronic items. One flick of the switch and it's all off.



This is it for the year. Please check back in the late winter/early spring for a continuation of Growing Out of the Box!

Thank you everyone for reading my posts this year, and I look forward to writing more once the holidays have wound down. I need to celebrate graduation after all :)

Way 7 : Water Heater Settings

Way 7!

Most water heaters have a "vacation" setting for when you are away from home for an extended period of time. Switching to that "away" mode still keeps the water warm, but will not use the energy it takes to keep a tank full of piping-hot water. Enjoy your vacation even more, knowing that you're saving money and reducing energy used in the home while you are away.

Way 6 : Wait Before Purchasing

Way 6!

Most everyone have been gripped by the urge to spend, which leads to buying things you wouldn't normally buy. So try window shopping or browsing first. This helps ensure you are only buying things you really need, or really want, and you're not just impulse buying. Everything has a footprint and waiting to buy that heavily packaged or need to ship item can overall make an impact.

Way 5 : Landscaping

Way 5!

Everyone lives in different areas on the world, some have dry climates and others much more moist. Generally people live where they prefer the climate - and plants aren't any different!

• Use native plant species to landscape around your home or business. (Often they grow better anyways, use to the amount of sun or water your region has)
• Plants may also get shipped a shorter distance to get to your local nursery.
• Use your own crafted fertilizer or compost from in-home food scraps. It helps return nutrient to the ground.
• Green plants offset carbon!

Way: 4 Energy Proof Your Home

Way 4!

I'm not talking about anything major.

• Make sure all of your windows close properly 
• Your attic and total home is properly insulated. 
• Keep your heating and cooling systems properly maintained, and switch to reusable filters when possible. 
• Try switching from incandescent to compact florescent light bulbs.

Way 3 : Bottled Water

Advice 3!

Move past bottled water.

Bottled water has a huge carbon footprint.

• Buying and using a reusable water bottle for your water.
• A lot of restaurants have made the move from offering fancy bottled water, usually imported from an exotic source, to using in-house filtration systems that make tap water a good choice.
• Many plastic water bottles are recycled, but most are not, making the footprint even bigger.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCPOHNNom5M&feature=youtu.be&t=21m30s Check out the last 10 minutes or so - shows how the taste of 'bottled water' is really all in your head.

Way 2 : Pay Attention to Packaging

Number 2!

Pay Attention to Packaging

When out shopping, try to go to stores or co-ops that keep packaging to a minimum.

• Purchase items in bulk.
• If bulk purchases are too big of a food/item order, share with a friend or family member. You split the cost this way too!
• Bring your own reusable bag to the store.
• Make purchases based on packaging (Plastic container of berries vs. compressed paper mold container)

Way 1 : Buy Local

It's almost Christmas, and Christmas means countdowns!

From now until December 5th I will be writing about a single simple way that you can reduce or improve your environmental impact before the huge rush of the winter holidays start. From there I will refrain from updating until after the winter holidays, as I have the pressures of finals, graduating, and moving out of my current location.

As I've said before, one of the biggest ways to do better by the earth and your community is to buy local. If local is not possible (as defined in the past here on Growing out of the Box) buy organic or "fair trade." There's a better chance the food was grown in an more considerate way.

Try eating at restaurants that serve locally produced or seasonal foods.
Buy gifts from local vendors or the starving artist down the street.
Try to cook a holiday meal by only using ingredients bought from a local market.

Share Your Little Things

The examples given yesterday are only a small selection of many more 'little things' that can be done at home. Things us 'regular' people can do on a daily or regular basis.

What are the small little things yourself, friends, families or acquaintances do to help in regards to the three stool legs? Share them below in the comments!

Focusing on the Little Things

I have until now focused a lot of my posts on the bigger picture. How businesses and corporations can 'fix' what is going on within themselves, and how it is the chains and local stores that can do anything.

But we, as regular, ordinary, simple people, can do things too.

The following are some things us working people can do!

Shopping local - Spending money that gets used by the community. Keeping that money within a community instead of having it sent to the giant corporations and then overseas. A dollar spent locally gets spent within the community at a higher rate than a dollar spent outside the community. This is called the Local Multiplier.

Growing your own garden and composting - Having a garden, or belonging to a co-op, is a great way to save money, eat better, and give back to the Earth. Often, food scraps get put back into the earth as compost in the area the food was grown in. Each item of food taken out of the soil takes out nutrients that were once in the soil (following me?) If you just throw away food scrapes nutrients do not return to the soil. Composting puts nutrients back into the soil without adding tons of unneeded chemicals (like those found in synthetic fertilizers).

Recycling - Although a process that will eventually be phased out (I'll explain this later) recycling in today's age is a great way to keep material out of landfills, oceans, and other habitats. Which turns out to be better for everyone.

Something to Think About: Your Own State Energy Plans

Keeping with the theme of Michigan's Proposal 3 from the week, the something to think about will be on a similar topic.

Currently Michigan does already have an energy plan in place, 10% coming from alternative energies by 2015. The proposal would have simply increased the percentage and the year goal date.

What about your state or country?

Do you know what sort of energy goals your geographical area has right now?

Think about it this weekend. Maybe even do some research.

Let me know what you find out!

Current Topic Thursday: Proposal 3 Final Results

They say whoever spends more and raises the most money will win whatever position they are vying for.

This proves true with Michigan's proposal 3. The article linked here through the Huffington Post explains the highest funded companies that supported either the 'yes' or 'no' for proposal 3.

Surprise surprise,

"According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Prop 3 supporters like the League of Conservation Voters, the American Wind Energy Association and the Green Tech Action Fund contributed over $10 million to the group Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs to get the amendment passed. The Clean Affordable Renewable Energy (CARE) committee raised more than $23 million from DTE Energy, Consumers Energy and Wolverine Electric to oppose it."

Prop 3 Turnout

Prop 3 failed.

Miserably.

And it makes me sad.

Presidential Election Night

In support of more awareness (as if it needed it) for the USA presidential election I have linked a website to a current time assumption and counting system.

Keep watch on the changing events instead of reading here!

http://news.yahoo.com/control-room/
http://www.google.com/elections/ed/us/results

Proposal 3

So far I have yet to bring in anything political at all, and this was done on purpose. However, with the day before election day I have now had people ask me what way to vote on Prop 3 here in Michigan.

In Michigan we have 6 proposals total, number 3 being about requiring renewable energy to be used 25% (of total energy produced) by the time by 2025.

My suggestion? Make up your own mind about this. I am not very knowledgeable about political things, and the political style of writing (adding in little clauses, tidbits, and confusing terminology and loop holes) makes my head hurt.

I would vote yes, since on the surface it's a good thing to require our energy to come from renewable sources. The interesting part will be seeing where the renewable comes from, how they are built, how workers are treated, what land needs to be cleared, and more.

Nothing is perfect, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

Something to Think About: Devil's Advocate

Throughout the months I've been putting up thoughts, opinions, articles, and facts I have always put sustainability and sustainable business in the 'light'. To me, it is the most obvious choice to make - turning towards sustainability.

But I am not naive to believe everyone feels this way. Already I have had interviews, networking, and speaking opportunities and have had people laugh. In one instance this past week, the man I was speaking with laughed openly the whole time while I was explaining what my major was and how it could greatly help his company.

So, I'm playing devil's advocate this weekend.

Why wouldn't someone want to move towards sustainability?

Think about it this weekend, and let me know your thoughts.

Current Topic Thursday: Make Way for Superstorm Sandy!

"From the climate hawk’s perspective, there is an intense, crazy-making urgency involved in all this. A humanitarian tragedy is heading our way and we are neither preparing for it nor working to reduce its severity. A catastrophe is unfolding, right in front of us, in slow motion. Somehow — no one knows how, but somehow — the American public must be made to appreciate that urgency and demand action. It is rare that an opportunity to highlight the climate crisis emerges out of the daily news scrum. When such an opportunity does emerge, climate hawks view it as a moral and political imperative to make the most of it."

That quote is taken from the article, Hawks vs. scolds: How 'reverse tribalism' affects climate communication. With the big Superstorm Sandy that just hit the East Coast of the United States I knew there would be articles like the above popping up.

Was the storm influenced by climate change or not?

Obviously there is some influence, the climate is different so our storms and weather are different, but to how high of a different degree?

This article puts an interesting approach on that very question, the climate hawks vs scolders vs people who agree one way or another, but don't want labels.

Give the article a read and let me know what you think!

Why turn to sustainablility?

A sustainable business, a truly sustainable business, does not exist right now. Why? Both the means and the funds are not available.

But that should not stop businesses from making the transition towards sustainability. The beginning processes might have a small upfront cost, but the amount a business will save greatly outweighs the initial costs. Simply changing the light bulbs in a company, and setting timers so lights automatically turn off or shut off so as to not run 24-7 can save a company hundreds.

Right there you have, say, $1,000 dollars that would have been spent that can not be used for other things. Often if a company is now moving down a sustainable path this money (again, that [b]would have been spent already[/b]) can be used for more costly changes which, you guessed it, saved even more money down the road.

Soon you have made changes that at the beginning seemed way to expensive. And where did the money come from? Sources that would have been spent already on things like utilities, materials, transportation, and packaging.

Of course these changes don't happen overnight, but everyone needs to start somewhere.

So why not turn towards sustainability? Eventually the systems will pay for themselves and the company will make more profit than it once was before the changes were implemented.

Seems like a win-win situation to me.

Community Involvement

When you hear the term community, what do you think of? Your neighborhood The school district? Anything in-between? How about the human-built environment in which we get our needs met? That's taken from Dr. Tueth's book. Yet for many Aquinas College sustainable business students community includes more than just our buildings, transportation and communication systems, retail businesses, service establishments, and the people who live around us.



What about the natural world? Where does our environment come in? That's why in sustainable business we go a step further to include the natural world. Why? Well why not! The natural world is, after all, the sole provider of our food, oxygen, natural beauty, accustomed to climate and many more benefits we as humans take for granted every day.



Expanding our general idea of community to include the natural world does much for us. It makes us look at the natural world as something to be included in our daily lives, a responsibility (if a steward) or our companion (if a kin). It makes us shift our priorities to extend past our personal lives but to care and consider others.

Guided by the Natural World

So we learned before that a sustainable business has no negatives. The natural world has no negatives. So therefore, we can say, that a SB is similar to the natural world. And to be sure a SB is indeed full of no negatives we can say a SB should be guided by the natural world.

But what does that mean? To be guided by the natural world?

Ever hear of the term biomimicry?

It is a combination of the two words biology and mimic. Mimicking biology.

People mimic those who they look up to, a sibling, parent, friend, idol. Why should our businesses be any different? By mimicking nature we see what has worked (and what hasn't worked) and base models off that.

Janine Benyus can explain biomimicry better than I can. Her book, titled Biomimicry, defines and describes cases being put in place inside laboratories and the world as we know it.

Visit her website here for more information