Get on board as local eating picks up speed
By the time you read this, Earth Day will be over and three new “green initiatives” will have been launched by our local Earth Day organization. One of these, “Growing Food and Community,” involves promoting the local food scene in Charlottesville—a vibrant cause, and getting more so all the time. (The others will promote CFLs and greener transportation, so look to be pleasantly bombarded with info on those topics, too.)
 Local farms, like this one at Innisfree, are busy planting—so get busy eating! |
Eating local is a fabulous goal but one that’s not always as easy as it sounds, so the Growing Food and Community team has put together some suggestions. Our picks:
• Sign up to the EAT Local listserv (https://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/list info/sustcomfood). It’s local-food news and ideas delivered at a helpful, not overwhelming, pace.
• Visit the local food directory at buy localcville.org.
• Buy seasonal foods in surplus and try some traditional preservation techniques, like pickling.
• Consider planting some food of your own. Check out foodnotlawns.com for advice.
• Go to the farmer’s market! There’s a new one this year: The Scottsville Saturday market opens May 3, 8-11am, at Dorrier Park.
—Lily Robertson
Preachers (and pesticides) be gone
No, we aren’t implying that the good folks at grist.org—a top-notch green news and info site—favor the abolition of religious clerics. They just believe in delivering the environmental message with a minimum of holier-than-thou tone. Hence the subtitle of their newly published book, Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day.
And that’s exactly what this little tome is: a morning-to-night companion that walks with you through all the day’s exasperating choices. Compost pile or worm bin? Paper or plastic? And how to polish furniture without using petroleum-based cleaners? Wake Up answers all these questions and more while being very, very nice to you. (“No one expects you to live a life of environmental perfection. It’s hard enough just to get out of bed,” purrs the first chapter.)
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Somehow, under all that I’m-O.K., you’re-O.K. froth is a bracing cup of organic, free-trade joe: We at ABODE had no idea, for example, about the latest thing some parents are trying—instead of disposable diapers, instead of cloth diapers, they’re using no diapers at all.
If that doesn’t scare you, pick up a copy and read all about it.—Erika Howsare
Monitor emissions
Have you ever gone for more than three days without checking your e-mail? Me neither. Besides the perks of online shopping, direct news and global networking, it’s nice to think that the ubiquity of computers has reduced commuter gas consumption via home offices, and that reading stuff on a screen saves reams of paper. However, computers themselves are certainly not quite so eco-friendly as all that.
The spot in your house where you keep your computer may be receiving emissions of heat and sound pollution, plus chemicals and particles, not to mention noise—which, believe it or not, is something techies consider important. And then there’s the power consumption!
 Sustainable computing? Yup. The low-emission system has arrived. |
Fortunately, the revolution has begun in the form of the ThinkCentre M57p “Eco” from Lenovo. This PC is the first electronic device that Greenguard (an indoor-air-quality organization) has ever certified; it also got a thumbs-up from Energy Star for its lower power consumption. It’s low on noise emissions and is partly made from recycled plastics.
It is currently available only as a desktop at a base price of around $700, and we couldn’t find any in stock locally, although it can be ordered through local stores. Check out lenovo.com for more information on the greener way to check your e-mail. And check, and check….—L.R.
Pimp your ride
Owning a car is the elephant in the room for anyone trying to be environmentally conscious. It’s tough to justify but even tougher to live without. But there are ways to make your car ownership greener and, in this case, cleaner too! So says a local partnership (rivanna-stormwater.org) that aims to educate all of us about our watershed’s health.
Stormwater isn’t the only thing that causes pollutants to flow directly into our streams and rivers; so does untreated domestic water. When you next wash your car—preferably using water from your rain barrels!—park up on your lawn or a gravel surface rather than the driveway. This is because any water falling on your impermeable concrete driveway simply runs into storm drains. Parking on the lawn allows the dirty water to filter through the ground and be naturally neutralized on its way to water systems.
 Get happy and keep the watershed that way, too. |
Kristel Riddervold, the city’s environmental administrator, has some other suggestions for greening your car wash experience. Avoid chemical de-greasers since they break up soap and move pollution through the system faster. As well as the obvious (turn the hose off when you aren’t using it!), consider kicking or wiping mud off your tires instead of rinsing them. And if you simply must go to the car wash, make it one that uses recycled water—Clean Machine Car Wash (on Pantops) or Express Car Wash (on 29N).
Finally, your recipe for biodegradable car-wash soap:
1 cup of liquid dishwashing detergent
3/4 cup of powdered laundry detergent
3 gallons of water
—L.R.
Shrinking pawprints
Here’s the breakdown on greening your pet, from beginning to advanced:
Green
Say no to puppy mills: Did you know that a huge number of pet stores obtain pets from puppy mills? Purchase your pet from an animal rescue organization, a local breeder, or the SPCA.
Spay your pets: With 3-4 million pets euthanized yearly, do your part by spaying/neutering your pet.
Generally speaking: Opt for organic cotton or hemp pet products. Nylon, vinyl, and plastic ones release nasty pollutants during production and disposal.
 Train yourself to be green, or you’ll be in the doghouse. |
Greener
Collars: The biggest selection of hemp collars are found at Blue Ridge Eco-Shop, as well as natural sprays for those unsavory pet behaviors like chewing and potty accidents. Speaking of which…
The scoop on poop: Instead of using plastic bags that will outlive you and your pet, don’t go anywhere without your 100 percent biodegradable poop bags for pickups. For cat lovers, avoid litter brands with clay (which is strip-mined) in favor of biodegradable brands like Yesterday’s News.
Greenest
Toys: Recycled plastic or hemp chew toys are great alternatives to overseas virgin plastic.
Food: Last year’s pet food recalls were the largest in history, prompting many to switch to organic pet food. Locally owned Pet Food Discounters sells Natura products, or your pet can eat local with Sammy Snacks all-natural pet food.—Teri Kent
By the numbers
23.3 seconds
That’s the amount of time that a fluorescent light bulb must be turned off in order to reap energy savings. In other words, if you’ll be turning it back on in less than 23.3 seconds, it’s more efficient just to leave it on. All other bulbs reach this benchmark in less than two seconds, so you should always turn those off when leaving the room.
—from the Discovery Channel show “Mythbusters”