Lighting A BBQ Without Harmful Lighter Fluid

I received an email this week telling me that BBQs, or barbecues as I like to call them, are bad for the environment. Mainly due to the lighter fluid that’s used to accelerate and help the flame take.

Felipe Correa is the co-founder of One Light Charcoal and he came up with an idea to make a built-in chimmney in the charcoal bag so there would be no need for lighter fluid.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency in the US, charcoal lighter fluid is responsible for the release of some 14,500 tons of volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere in the country alone each year, so alternatives like this are a great idea. All you need to do is open the bag, use the long match provided and drop it into the chimney and then the bag burns from the inside out, allowing the charcoal to heat up before the bag itself burns off, leaving only hot coals.

A bag costs around US$3.50.

Energy Saving Trust: Householders Unaware Of Financial Support

Alasdair from online eco-friendly shop Big Green Smile writes:

“The Energy Saving Trust has found that the majority of householders would like to make their homes more efficient but are being put off by the perceived costs.

“According to a survey carried out in Scotland, 74 per cent are in favour of installing energy saving measures such as solar panels on their homes but fear it would be too expensive to do so, the BBC reported.

“However, the group pointed out that grants are available to meet these costs and that substantial amounts of money could be saved in the future through cheaper fuel bills.

“Some 70 per cent of residents were not aware that initiatives to help fund household energy saving existed.

“Director of Energy Saving Trust Scotland Mike Thornton said: “People like the idea of generating their own energy, and if they only knew they could get help to meet the costs, they might be more likely to install the technology.”

“This news comes after the Conservative Party revealed plans to provide financial support to help more than three million properties become more efficient.”

Garlic Can Cut Cows’ Methane Gas

Springwise always has a story I want to read and with a headline about garlic, cows and methane, there was no way I was going to ignore it.

What it reported was that a UK startup company called Mootral (a mix between moo and neutral) has joined together with a Welsh company called Neem Biotech to provide a solution to the 500 billion litres of methane gas cows produce every year – that’s 20% of the gas around the world.

The team has developed a garlic-based feed additive for livestock that reduces cows’ methane emissions by at least 25 percent. Mootral’s feed is a natural antibiotic that fights bacteria in the stomachs of cows and sheep to dramatically reduce its production. In fact, Mootral estimates that it can reduce cow emissions enough to generate £30 per cow of carbon credit per year; all together, that would amount to a carbon credit market potential of more than £30 billion per year, it says. A big incentive indeed – both environmental and financial.

Moo.

Groundbreaking WILD9 Social Media Coverage

Previously I wrote about WILD Foundation’s World Wilderness Congress 2009 that is taking place in the week of November 6th.

Well, they’re planning on “groundbreaking and incredible social media coverage”. Besides live blogging, tweeting and slide shows that will be available on a central splash page, a dedicated channel will be established on Qik. This channel will allow individuals in attendance to stream live coverage on their cell phones. Furthermore, USTREAM will also have a dedicated channel that will feature all of the keynote addresses.

More information is available in this blog post.

How to Save Money Being Green

This article was written by By Simon Migliano of VoucherCodes.co.uk

A green lifestyle often leads naturally to money-saving but sometimes the green choice can seem to be the more expensive, creating real dilemmas when finances are tight. However, with the help of some useful online resources, clever technology and a little innovation, you should rarely be forced to blow the budget for the sake of the planet.

From fair-trade fashion and organic food to green gadgets, a whole industry has sprung up to cater to ethical consumers. Prices can be higher than at mainstream retailers and while often justified, it can sometimes put such products out of reach.

A smart way to makes this type of purchase more affordable is with online discount codes. Despite the recession, it’s a great time to be a consumer as more and more retailers are turning to discount codes to attract new customers.

Entered at the checkout, these codes offer an instant discount. Popular deals include money off, free delivery and free gifts.

A handy place to look for them is money-saving website VoucherCodes.co.uk. It gathers together all the best discount codes from leading green retailers such as Ascension, Nigel’s Eco Store, So Organic, Abel and Cole, Planet Organic, Ethical Superstore, Green and Blacks, Big Green Smile, Gossypium and Ecotopia.

Grocery shopping presents a tangled knot of green choices that must be unpicked every week, from where the broccoli was grown to how you get it home and everything in between. Most can’t shop at organic farmers’ markets but online shopping offers plenty of environmental benefits. Home delivery keeps cars off the road, cutting carbon emissions and cutting petrol costs.

Food waste is less too. Planning meals and sticking to shopping lists is much easier online than at the supermarket. For the less talented in the kitchen, it opens up the possibility of experimenting with meals based on seasonal produce and discounted products thanks to the array of online recipes just a mouse-click away.

Online grocery shopping also allows you to ensure you get the best deals by using price comparison sites like mysupermarket.com and by searching for discounts, such a Tesco voucher codes, for as much as £15 off or free delivery. Beware of carrier bags however – opt out or you will be swamped in plastic.

A cheap, green alternative to supermarkets are fruit and vegetable boxes. With over 600 schemes in operation in the UK, there are many options. Sites like vegbox-recipes.co.uk can help you find something suitable in your local area. Local councils also run schemes, which are often a bit cheaper.

Another core element of green living involves energy consumption. What many people may not realise is that choosing a green energy tariff can often be slightly cheaper than a mainstream tariff. Green Electricity Marketplace is a dedicated green energy switching site that does the hard work in comparing the options while offering specialist insights into how green each tariff really is.

While buying energy efficient appliances is extremely important, you can go even further with some clever gadgets. The EON Powerdown , for example, eliminates standby on TVs, PCs and peripherals. Free for EON customers and some public housing tenants, it’s £15 new but can be found on eBay for as little as £1 plus postage. It might seem trivial but this can cut 8% from the average family bill.

Transport is another significant green issue. Streetcar is perfect for environmentally-minded city dwellers who want the convenience of a car without the hassle of owning one. Book online and then hop into one of the many cars dotted around British cities. It’s cheaper than hiring car as you pay as you go from less than £4 an hour, which includes London’s congestion charge and petrol, and discourages unnecessary driving.

Alternatively, sites like liftshare are very useful at bringing together people to share journeys.

One of the principles of sustainable living is reuse. Sites like Freecycle along with council-organised Give or Take Days are a fantastic way to keep things out of landfill and save money at the same time. Many local councils also have furniture re-use schemes.

Clothes-swapping is also on the rise thanks to the social networking capability of the internet. Events can be organised online through sites such as Twiggy’s Frock Exchange or Swishing, or swaps done entirely online through sites like whatsmineisyours.com.

What Is Bagasee? And Are Products Made From It Any Good?

Erin Devine, the social media marketing intern, from My Green Table has written a guest post on the site’s bagasee products (available from My Green Table but also lots of other places online) which is well worth a read:

“Let’s face it: it’s unrealistic to think that even the ideal environmentalist will use their good reusable tableware when they throw a party, and wash everyone’s plates afterwards. It is also unrealistic to think that cafés or restaurants will ever be able to use reusable plates/bowls/cutlery without forking out (no pun intended) lots of money they can’t afford to spend. Bagasse tableware products are a great solution to this issue.

“Bagasse, a fancy name for the leftovers from sugar cane manufacturing, serves as an excellent alternative to paper, as it does not require cutting down of trees, and it does not require as much energy to produce (and does not need to be bleached). In the past, Bagasse was considered a waste product and burned, unnecessarily polluting the environment with more carbon dioxide. Since the useful properties of Bagasse were discovered, manufacturers of sugar cane in underdeveloped parts of the world could sell the Bagasse as a product in and of itself, enabling them to make a higher profit and potentially help raise these countries’ GDPs.

“Bagasse products can withstand temperatures up to 190 degrees Fahrenheit, and are completely microwave and freezer safe. The aspect that makes Bagasse an eco-friendly substitute is that it is completely biodegradable/compostable. That is, it will decompose under controlled means in order to become compost within 30-90 days. It is good for the environment, requires less energy to produce, releases less carbon dioxide during production, and is a durable and convenient material for foods.

“Before I began my internship with My Green Table this summer, I admit I knew nothing about the disadvantages of paper, plastic, and Styrofoam throw-away plates and cups, let alone the advantages of this product called Bagasse. Upon much research on the pros and cons of each material, it hit me just how easy the switch can be, and how big the impact can be. Instead of contributing to all of the Styrofoam, paper, and plastic taking up space in landfills, by switching to Bagasse products you can single-handedly cut back on waste, especially if you decide to buy a personal composting machine: then you can use the composted matter from your plates/bowls/cups as fertilizer for a garden! It’s all a matter of making the conscious choice to use eco-friendly brands of tableware that are biodegradable/compostable, rather than the non-green type that pollute our streets and load our landfills.”

“My Green Table is a small company located in North Carolina with a big mission to inform people of the advantages of starch-based products, and to provide these products at the lowest prices on the internet. Visualized, owned, and managed by an ambitious environmentalist, My Green Table’s goal is not one of moneymaking but of offering an alternative to paper, plastic, and Styrofoam at a reasonable price that anyone willing to make the switch can afford. In fact, we are in the process of applying for non-profit status. If you’d like more information and/or would like to join our movement for Bagasse, check us out at www.mygreentable.bravehost.com or shop at our store at My Green Table!

Thanks Erin!

WILD Foundation’s World Wilderness Congress 2009

Also known as WILD9, the WILD Foundation’s World Wilderness Congress is the longest running environmental forum and occurs once every four years. This year’s conference will be held the week of November 6th in Merida, Mexico, and for the first time will be bilingual.

It will address the first international agreement on Wilderness between US, Canadian and Mexican agencies. It will feature premiere speakers Jane Goodall, Stephan Harding, as well as Pav Dukhdev, and all sessions will be recorded and placed on their website.

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