I recently gave myself a promotion…from plants to cats. For those of you who have also struggled with the responsibility of caring for something other than yourself, you know what I’m talking about. Getting out of the house with matching socks is still sometimes a challenge. It took me years to grow tomato plants from seedlings to fruition without taking off for a weekend long music festival and forgetting them in the scorching sun, or accidentally “watering” them with Fat Tire beer during a house party. But now I’ve grown up. I’m enjoying my home grown tomatoes for the second summer in a row, and have graduated to something much more exciting and demanding. A kitten.

We rescued her from the local humane society and she is too cute. What I didn’t anticipate was that along with a warm fuzzy couch companion, I had brought a whole new list of sustainability concerns into my life.
Flabbergasted, I stood in my supermarket’s pet care aisle (you know, the aisle you cut down to get to the milk faster?) staring at food, litter, flea collars and strange looking toys, wondering where and how these products were made, and which (if any) were environmentally friendly.

Turns out there are plenty of pet care product options that are good for both your furry friends and the planet that don’t involve feeding the family pet organic meats you can’t afford to feed yourself.
If you’ve got a cat like me, your biggest concerns are probably food and litter. Most traditional cat foods are made of the unspeakable remnants left on slaughter house floors and genetically modified corn. Conventional litters are even worse, with most made of strip-mined minerals and filled with toxic deodorizers.

I initially grabbed a brand of litter called World’s Best Cat Litter (real humble folks) that claimed to be ninety-nine percent silica dust-free, and free of clays, synthetic binding, or dust-reducing agents  and biodegradable. Sounded great. Unfortunately, I’ve found that the whole kernel corn it’s made of is genetically modified, and it hasn’t been that great at controlling those nasty odors.

So far, it seems the best litter alternatives are those made of pine shavings, like the Feline Pine brand, which is made of 100% recycled pine shavings or pellets and contains absolutely no chemicals. Their web site even offers helpful suggestions for transitioning your kitty to the new texture and smell of the shavings. Visit http://www.naturesearth.com to check it out. Old newspaper shavings and corn or wheat based litters are also considered pretty low impact because of their biodegradable qualities (without considering the world’s food crisis or the GMO issue, of course).

So I’ve got the litter question covered. She’s still working on the bag of cat food that came with her from the shelter, so I’ve got a few weeks until I have to tackle the food issue. I’ll keep you posted.

By: Beth B., The GenGreen Team

I have this dream. In it, I float effortlessly through sparkling rooms in a giant, eco-friendly house. My solar-powered fridge is packed full of glorious organic food from my local CSA. And my backyard is a giant thriving garden nurtured into fruition by the marvelous compost produced by my stellar green lifestyle.

Then I wake up in my (barely) 2 bedroom apartment in the middle of downtown, and realize some dreams are just not possible in the space I currently inhabit. I already trip over the recycling bins in the kitchen, making the sight (and smell) of a compost bucket full of displaced worms laughable. But it kills me to scrape all of those vibrant skins, rinds, leaves and stems into the trash knowing they’ll just wither away in some landfill for all of eternity! What is a planet-loving city girl to do?

The other day, a colleague of mine was doing some research on green household products and pointed out a really cool tool for aspiring urban composters like myself: the NatureMill Automatic Indoor Composter. About the size and shape of a computer tower, the composter is designed to fit in an under-sink cabinet, but can also stand alone in a garage, laundry room, or even outdoors. Up to 120 lbs. of food waste (including meat, fish and dairy!) can be deposited into the composter’s upper chamber each month, where it is kept in “hot composting” conditions: mixing, air flow, heat, and moisture. Cultures (not worms or bugs) consume the waste quickly, emitting only mild odors reminiscent of sourdough bread or fresh mushrooms. A fan draws air into the machine continuously, providing oxygen to the cultures while a powerful carbon filter removes any lingering odors.  And that’s it. An indicator light comes on about every two weeks to inform you that the bottom “cure tray” is full of concentrated compost fertilizer and ready to be harvested.
And the best part? The NatureMill automatic composter recycles its weight in waste every 10 days, diverting over two tons of waste from landfills over its life. This reduces emissions of methane, a harmful greenhouse gas produced when organic matter decomposes in oxygen-starved landfills. And according to the manufacturers, NatureMill only uses 5 kwh/month of energy – or about $0.50/month – less than a garbage truck would burn in diesel fuel to haul the same waste.

Score one for the urbanites! Successful composting is finally within our grasp. Now about that garden…

(For more info on the NatureMill automatic composter, visit http://www.naturemill.com)

By Beth B., The GenGreen Team

It’s a swirling mass of color and shape, driven in silent perpetual motion by the planet’s own vortical motion. It’s not the newest work of an abstract artist, but something much larger, and much deadlier. It’s the North Pacific Gyre…Better known as the Great Garbage Patch.

Technically speaking, a gyre is any manner of swirling vortex. It is often used to describe large-scale wind or ocean currents. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis Effect: planetary vorticity along with horizontal and vertical friction which determine the circulation patterns from the wind curl (torque). Unfortunately, this natural byproduct of the earth’s motion is also quite handy for trapping “marine debris,” also known as tons of mostly plastic refuse that finds its way into our oceans everyday.  And I’m not just picking on plastics. The buoyancy and resistance to wear that makes plastic so attractive as a manufacturing material, are the same properties that make them a menace in the sea. They float and they don’t break down.

Roughly the size of Texas and containing about 3.5 million tons of trash, the North Pacific Gyre is the biggest of these oceanic garbage dumps and can be found floating midway between Hawaii and San Francisco. (See image 1) In this swirling sea of debris, water bottles, toothbrushes, and shopping bags outnumber sea life 6:1. Fish, birds and other marine wildlife mistake these over-abundant plastics as food, and end up starving to death with stomachs full of indigestible plastics. (See image 2) And the floating plastics that are not eaten spend months, maybe even years, releasing their chemical additives and plasticizers into the water.

But that’s not even the most shocking part. There is currently no major effort, governmental or otherwise, trying to figure out how to clean up the garbage patch. Scientists have given up trying to shrink it, and are now just trying to contain it. In my opinion, this plan of attack is doomed on principle alone. We must address this toxic, floating wasteland or a clean beach, or sparkling ocean horizon might quickly become a thing of the past.

To find out more about grassroots efforts to shrink the Great Garbage Patch and stop the on-land behaviors that contribute to its existence, visit www.thegreatgarbagepatch.org.

- The Team at GenGreen

It seems that manufacturers have realized the public concern for the environmental impact of planes, trains and automobiles isn’t going away any time soon. And rather than fight the current, they’re building magnificent boats called marketing campaigns and are floating along with it for the time being. Hybrids. Flex-fuel vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cells.

The latest endeavor? Eco-friendly tires.

Earlier this year, the Japanese-based Yokohama Tire Corporation announced that it had developed a process that combines citrus oil with natural rubber to form a new compound called “Super Nanopower Rubber (SNR).” It reduces the use of petroleum products in tires by 80 percent and is part of YRC’s global EcoMotion environmental program. The first SNR product is the Decibel Super E-Spec(TM), an all-new consumer passenger tire.

Not to be outdone, Goodyear announced that they were developing a new line of low rolling resistance tires which will not only save some fuel, but are more “respectful for the environment,” since they require less CO₂ to be produced than standard Goodyear tires. Cornstarch is going to be added as “biologic” filling as a substitute for silicon and soot, both of which are usually obtained from oil.

A quick internet search yielded no results about the kind of price tag these tires will carry or where they could be purchased, so the R & D teams of these companies must still be hard at work. It certainly won’t get rid of the petroleum-based rings of death we call tires overnight, but I’m staying tuned for future announcements…eco-friendly tires could mean a rapid change in the way both manufacturers and consumers look at the car/tire relationship.

- The Team at GenGreen

I am so thankful for the Olympics to be taking place in Beijing this year. I think it took the whole world looking at their smog cloud for them to understand, but I think they get it – finally. What could this mean for us? This could mean the most powerful force in the world in the commerce department recognizes their need to create products in a less impactful way and take the lead out of my children’s toys.  This could mean the difference between how many more bikes are made over cars throughout the entire world in a year. This could mean that the largest contributor of CO2 pollution (in the world), may have just figured out that – we just have our one planet. They enjoyed throwing the worlds biggest party, as a communist nation, to sit at the table with everyone else – not just as equals, but as a brilliantly talented and controlled nation with extreme power to change our future and our children’s, Demanding respect, while relishing in the acceptance of the moment. 08/08/08 may be considered the luckiest day in century in the Chinese culture, but I think the planet could have just found its luckiest day as well.

By: Charisse McAuliffe, The GenGreen Team

I know you’ve seen them too. Quippy, brilliantly colored bits of imagery and dance bearing the GE Ecomagination branding? Just one version of a marketing campaign designed for several media; a television commercial starring the rippling bodies of male and female models swinging pick axes and touting the praises of GE’s “clean coal” technologies. Well, if you haven’t seen it, take a look at the spot called Model Miners.

Subconsciously, I scoffed before I had even really considered the idea. For me, the concepts of “clean” and “coal” simply can’t coexist. Coal belongs with other painful sounding words like “black lung,” “acid rain,” and “global warming.” But then I tried to be fair. Was it possible that GE had found a way to rid coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, of its toxic personality?

After a quick bit of research, the outlook appeared, as I had suspected, grim.

There is no magical new dark substance that can both provide electricity and produce zero emissions. There are only weak attempts and controlling or “minimizing” the poisonous haze that belches from coal burning plants nationwide. These methods go by the name ‘coal washing,’ which attempts to rinse away the unwanted minerals by mixing crushed coal with a liquid, or ‘wet scrubbers’, or which supposedly remove sulfur dioxide, a major cause of acid rain, by spraying flue gas, the dark clouds you see piling into the sky, with limestone and water.

How disappointing. The message, to me, seems outdated. Meant for another day and time when people were too naïve and ambitious to realize that resources could be irreplaceable and that we were merely stewards and not owners of this beautiful planet. A time long ago…right?

By: Beth B., The GenGreen Team

Does it ever seem that as soon as progress is made on one environmental issue, five more are discovered? That’s kind of how we felt when we learned about sick building syndrome. After years of energy crisis rumors, architects and construction companies began to design buildings that are sealed up tight to avoid wasting precious heat and air conditioning, but this has only caused another problem to surface.

Now it has been found that these newer buildings are constructed largely with man-made building materials and furnished with synthetic carpeting, fabrics, laminated counters, plastic coated wallpaper, and other materials known to “off-gas” pollutants into the interior environment. Instead of being flushed out by normal air flows supplied by open doors, windows, and drafty cracks, these pollutants are trapped indoors and have less chance to dissipate. And more chance of being inhaled by you and your loved ones, potentially causing serious health complications. The phrase coined to describe this unfortunate result is “sick building syndrome.”

According to University of Minnesota horticulturist, Deborah Brown, “if you live in a newer, energy-efficient home with windows and doors tightly sealed, or you work in a building where the air feels stale and circulation seems poor, the liberal use of houseplants seems like an easy way to help make a dent in the problem.”

Although you may have already known that houseplants, and many other types of vegetation, can absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen as part of the photosynthetic process, test performed by NASA have found that common houseplants absorb benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene, as well.

So if you feel like your home or office building might be coming down with something, prescribe it a couple of the air cleansing plants listed below, and start breathing easier.

• (Hedera helix) English Ivy
• (Chlorophytum comosum) Spider Plant
• (Epipiremnum aureum) Golden Pothos
• (Spathiphyllum `Mauna Loa’) Peace Lily
• (Aglaonema modestum) Chinese Evergreen
• (Chamaedorea sefritzii) Bamboo or Reed Palm
• (Sansevieria trifasciata) Snake Plant
• (Philodendron scandens `oxycardium’) Heartleaf Philodendron
• (Philodendron selloum) Selloum Philodendron
• (Philodendron domesticum) Elephant Ear Philodendron
• (Dracaena marginata) Red-edged Dracaena
• (Dracaena fragrans `Massangeana’) Cornstalk Dracaena
• (Dracaena deremensis `Janet Craig’) Janet Craig Dracaena
• (Dracaena deremensis `Warneckii’) Warneck Dracaena
• (Ficus benjamina) Weeping Fig

For more information about eco-friendly nurseries and gardening supply stores in your area, visit GenGreenLife.com.

- The Team at GenGreen

Across the country, bank accounts are not just feeling the Boa Constrictor-like squeeze of excruciatingly high gas prices; they are being choked to death by them. Let the politicians point fingers at “oil speculators” and bully us into off-shore drilling (another topic for another day); we need real solutions for thrifty gas use ASAP. Of course, in a perfect world, we would ditch these horseless carriages all together, and pedal, skip, or glide-silently-in-a-Prius, off into the gas-free sunset. In the reality of out-of-town commutes and family of four grocery shopping trips, we need to know the truth about how to make our sometimes necessary automobile use as cost-efficient as possible in the cars we’ve got.

If you look up gas saving tips on the all-knowing internet, the search results are staggering, with every John Q. Blogger offering contradictory tips on how turn your gas guzzler into a fuel sipper. Here are some realistic ones that also happen to be scientifically tested (not just by the Mythbusters) and therefore, true.

1. Change how (not what) you drive. Tests have shown that less aggressive driving can lead to dramatic increases in fuel economy. Stop gunning it at green lights, speeding to the stop sign you KNOW is coming at the end of your block, and plan ahead by braking early and more gradually. You will see your gas lasting longer almost instantly and achieve a more Zen driving experience by letting the stressed-out speeders pass you by.

2. Use cruise control. This is a no-brainer for the summer time interstate road trip. Setting your cruise control for the speed limit while traveling on the highway prevents the almost imperceptible accelerations caused by keeping your foot on the pedal, called “surging.”

Note: the only time this doesn’t hold true is when you’re travelling in mountainous regions with lower speed limits and a lot of ups and downs, as it will cause your car to work harder to maintain the set speed on the uphill climb.

3.  AC on vs. windows down. Guess what? For most models of modern cars (we’re talking 1980’s and on) this makes almost no difference in fuel savings. So rejoice, and drive whichever way makes you comfortable.

4.  Turn it off. The verdict is in…turning off your car is better than idling, and stopping and starting your car a couple of more times a day has no long term negative effects. So the next time you’re in a long drive-through line, waiting for your girlfriend to find her keys, caught behind a train, or anything else that may take more that 30 seconds; cut the engine. The bottom line is that more than ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine and for every two minutes a car is idling, it uses about the same amount of fuel it takes to go about one mile. Just remember that saying about idle hands…

For more information on gas-saving tests and tips, visit http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles and http://www.driversmarterchallenge.org

- The Team at GenGreen