Stop Junk Mail. Be Eco Friendly. Do Good. The GreenDimes Blog

This is GOOD...

I just had a friend tell me that they saw GreenDimes in the new issue of GOOD Magazine. If you don't already subscribe to GOOD, you most certainly should. Here's why:

• They donate 100% of your subscription fee to a charity of your choice
• Sanjiv told us about Kiva last week, which is one of their charities, along with Room To Read, Youth Aids and Teach for America, among others
• GOOD is hip, and expands on our idea that what it is going to change the world is a whole bunch of us getting together to do small things in our everyday lives- things we would do anyway, like want to stop junk mail and read a cool mag- that will add up to make a huge difference
• To date, GOOD has given over $500,000 to charity through more than 25,000 subscriptions
• They are really fun to work with (hi, Max)

Check out the Jan/ Feb Big Ideas issue- and if you're into it, make a donation and get a year's worth of good reading. Pun intended.

Cheers,

Kendra

Drink from Sippy Cups and Save the Planet!

Weekly T Shirt/Tote Winner

And he has time to sweep! Thanks AP/MSNBC.

Jamilla wrote:

here's an easy green tip...at the gym i go to i notice how everyone throws away their water bottles. what a waste!! so i asked them if i could bring in bins to put in the looby and other places so people could put them in there. they were so excited about the idea! but it's even better if you buy a water bottle to use over and over again. so if your gym, work, or anywhere else is in need of recycle bins dont be afraid to speak up and ask if ones could be put in! every little bit helps!

Thanks Jamilla. I’ll add to that. Your gym should be providing you water coolers no? Then you'll have a place to refill your sippy cups. (c’mon, those sport water bottles are nothing more than what kids drink out of minus the dinosaur decal)

Remember, just 1 of every 5 water bottles is recycled, and only 2 out of 5 are used by jugglers (no), the rest end up landfills… 4 out 5 dentists say.

“If you were on deserted island, what if a message in a bottle that floated in was junk mail?”

-Sanjiv

Wash Your Car and Save 100 Gallons of Water

GreenDimes Weekly Eco Oddity Series

Besides the Zoolander models that hosed down their car with gasoline, I’m not sure if we ever need to hose our car again.   Our resident Four Star General Manager Dan (I’m such a brown nose… or is my nose brown because I’m Indian) heard about this on NPR.

According to Eco-Touch, you just spray the biodegradable goop (they probably use a better word for goop) and wipe.   It’s cheap, and they say the chamois that come with it make excellent stocking stuffer (no, they don’t).

However, every bottle saves an average of 800 gallons of water.  That’s water that mixed in with traditional car wash detergents and oils that pollute our rivers.    Now tough jobs you still gotta go to the pros.

I don’t know what you’re going to do with your 800 gallons but I was thinking a house-sized waterbed…

Junk mail and water don’t mix,

Sanjiv

Green Friday?

So I keep hearing about 'Black Friday'- the day after Thanksgiving when Americans from coast to coast take the day off of work to hit the stores at midnight in search of the best holiday bargains. Midnight? Really? Is this just a Colorado phenomenon?

Ok, fine, but what I'm really getting at is that instead of hitting the malls with the rest of the country today- you can check out green holiday shopping guides right there from home. Revel in your turkey-hangover, grab a piece of pumpkin pie and turn on the computer. No crowds, no traffic.

So check us out, we even got listed in Ecorazzi's 2007 Green Celeb gift list! While you're there, you can check out what environmental do-gooding your fave celebs are up to. It's a pretty cool site.

Let the holiday season begin... happy 'Green Friday' from Colorado.

-Kendra

3 Chariites That Take No Time and Cost No Money

Sure, we should all give time and money to charities, but here some that are straight no brainers.

Got a little money sitting in your bank account?  Take a piece of it (as low as $25), and loan it out to an entrepreneur in a developing nation.  95% of the time your money comes back within a year.  I love these guys.  I sent mine to someone in Afghanistan.  Kiva give monthly updates of how much he has returned.

Barring any religious or bereavement issues, this one is as easy as checking a box at the DMV, or jumping on to OrganDonor.gov.   When you consider the unnecessary wait times for organs (we're talking years, and a 98,000+ waiting list),  this one can't be forgotton.  The pink organ donor dot on my license is growing on me.

Giving to charities while searching the net.  Who knew?  A search engine with a heart.  I've got my GoodSearch set up for SAG.  Gotta take care of my alma mater.

Happy Turkey Day or Happy Vegetarian Equivalent Day

- Sanjiv

MySpace Our Planet Channel

I finally got a chance to check out our partner MySpace’s Our Planet in more detail. This is MySpace’s environmental channel that garners 300,000 page views (go double that.) It has very cool features, here’s the rundown.

GREEN VIDEOS

The featured video shows clips from the MySpace debate recently held. Find out your political candidate take on the environment. If you dig a little further, MySpace features clips from the 11^th hour, and What’s Floating In the Water. Easily the best part of the channel.

GREEN TIPS

Me: Where’s the get rid of your junk mail tip?

You: Hey, aren’t you featured in the MySpace Promo Box?

Me: So.

One tip they did have was that the average American family needs to plant 30 trees to offset their environmental impact. GreenDimes gets you 1/3 of the way there and cuts your junk mail for a one time nominal fee. (plug, plug)

GREEN NEWS

They nicely lay out news stories with a scroll bar to read older features. So did I read about “Solar Cells in Developing Nations” or “IBM’s Plan to Recycle Silicon”? Or did I read “Jack Bauer Set to Take on Global Warming” (you know the answer, I’m such a sell-out)

GREEN BLOG

There isn’t one, and they sure could use one… one that informs and entertains… one that plugs its partners… one that rhymes with GreenLimes… I wonder…

Your planetary junk mail eradicator (let Mars deal with it)

-Sanjiv

The Online Catalog Browser is Here?

So I started thinking about other options businesses have instead of selling through paper catalogs. I tried to google online catalogs, where I struck gold (that was quick). Google has a catalog database, called what else, but Google Catalogs. 

I clicked through, and along with most google searches, found a very clean site – a catalog search bar and about a dozen catalog catagories. I typed L.L Bean in the search bar. Lo and behold, I saw a catalog that looks exactly like the paper catalog. You can scroll page by page or jump sections.

They leave you with a number for the website where you can order. I wonder if L.L Bean still has that navy blue sweater with little white herringbow, er diagonal thingies. Look at that, they do!

But when I call, L.L Bean tells me that haven’t stocked that sweater for years, and it wasn’t even in style when they did stock it. Ouch. Then I jump back to the google catalog page. The catalog is from 2003!

Ugh. Not over the…I’m over the sweater. I’m ugh-ing over the fact that Google didn’t maintain the catalog database. So I jumped on the L.L. Bean site, and there, finally you’ll find the same paper catalog as a pdf, updated, and easy to use. 

Great! But what about the rest? My thought is that searching catalogs online wasn’t in back then, but now I think the public is ready. Just google google pr and let them know you want it back.

If you google "direct mail", google will ask, “Did you mean junk mail?”

-Sanjiv

Sundance Eco-mmunity

So I got a chance to surf around our partner's Eco-mmunity site, and they've definitely got some nifty features.

The Map:

One of my favorites.  If you as a business or individual do anything green, you can create your virtual push-pin on the map.  It can tell you what green businesses, events, concerns about, and accomplishments done in your community.

The Discussion:

What community site wouldn't have a good discussion board. This one's especially nice because of how break it down - Green Consultations, Hot Debates, and Green Inspiration.   I'd say the level of expertise on this forum is pretty high

The Quiz

Eh, gotta work on that one.  I like it in concept, but there too many items and some are more opinions than quiz items.

The Greenzine

Okay, you want the latest in the world of green.  Come here.  In fact, we wrote about the same subject recently (Nanosolar.)   ...Yeah, their article kinda blew mine away.

The E-card

Gotta say, this is one of the niftiest features.  You can create your own green card that you can email off to your friends and family.  You can drag from a gallery of photo and messages and create your own e-montage.  Usually I am the traditional Holiday card type, but I'm starting to rethink that position.

Takes a minute to join...so join!

Off the List: Episode 3- UK Lottery Scam

Another amazing episode from our pal, Jonny Hal...

Writers strike getting you down?

Well, fear not, here's some meaningless fluff to tickle your reptilian receptors.

Off the List: Episode 3- UK Lottery Scam

Who knows? You could already be a winner.

jHal

Flexible Solar Cells

Eco - Oddity of the Week

You know, when I look at traditional photovoltaic solar arrays (2^nd photo), I say to myself.  “I’m bored.”  Sure they are fun to slide on, but look at all the problems they've caused.

First, traditional solar cells use silicon, and silicon is trés expensive considering it’s in high demand. Second, 70% of that silicon is wasted in the manufacturing process.  And third, solar panels are made of glass which is hard to ship and hard to install.  That translates to $3 per watt of energy v $1 per watt with coal. 

Nanosolar cells (1st photo), on the other hand, require no silicon, and costs as low as 30 cents a watt for commercial applications.  Dan Kammen, the founding director of the Renewable Energy Lab at UC Berkely says, “You’re talking about printing rolls of this stuff.”

And who’s using them? Well, California just launched the Million Solar Roofs initiative, where it’ll provide tax breaks for those who want to install solar roofs.

Dan Kammen states that you can print them on 18 wheelers, garages, “wherever you want”.   Hm?  I’d like to print my nanosolar cells on my sleeves, so I can auto-applaud their efforts without expending any energy.

For more detail of this award-winning technology (Innovation of Year!) and a nifty animation of its uses, go to Popular Science.

-Sanjiv & Our Resident Tech Contributor Stefan