Green Initiative Articles

December 2008

Dec 7 - OVERHEARD AT PANERA: GREEN IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS
A table of eight came up with some bright green ideas for Christmas giving while sipping coffee.
• Buy each person on your list a tire gauge for 99 cents (checkout area at Lowe’s) as a stocking stuffer or package topper.  A bright idea and a clever teaching moment:  Handy tire gauges fit in purse and car compartments and are a convenient way to check whether tires are inflated with enough air to minimize rolling resistence, get better gas mileage and reduce carbon emissions. (Recommended tire inflation pressure found in car manuals.)
• Buy large totes at HyVee, Econo, K-mart, and elsewhere for $1. Put toys and gifts in totes, tie with a perky red bow or raffia. Voila! no tape, no cutting, green wrapping.
• For the quilter on your list, go to the website of Bonnie K. Hunter and order her book,  “Scraps and Shirtails: Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle: The Art of Quilting Green.”
[ http://quiltville.com/pdf/GreenLife_05.pdf ]http://quiltville.com/pdf/GreenLife_05.pdf 
Social Justice Green Team

Dec 16 - DREAMING OF A GREEN CHRISTMAS
• Two green gifts ideas for kids and kids-at-heart: the Dr. Seuss’ classic book, “The Lorax,” about a world where trees are threatened by greed; the new DVD, “WALL-E,” about a robot who is designed to clean up a polluted earth.
• A gift of time: homemade bread delivered once a month, a lunchdate with a senior friend, a baby-sitting promise to a young couple.
• Bright, reusable cloth napkins and placemats 
• Environmentally-friendly cleaning products, biodegradable garbage bags
Resource: Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center newsletter, 2007 and the Res Green Team

Dec. 23 - EARTHCARE CHRISTMAS REFLECTION
The Christmas and Advent seasons uphold so many precious realities presently endangered: birth, children, family, the earth itself. In celebrating Christmas and Advent, keep their message for today in mind . . .
In a world where nature and our environment are threatened, let us make our Christmas tree and manger scene reminders of the beauty and sacredness of nature. How closely at his coming did Jesus bind himself to the animals of the field, as well as to the earth and the open sky!
Remembering the poor shepherds and the circumstances of Christ's birth, so marked by poverty, let us make them reminders of the forgotten poor of our world. Let the Child and Joseph and Mary teach us the dignity and importance of children and families in a society so neglectful of them.
. Excerpted: Vistor Hoagland, CP,  Passionist Publication,  [ http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/ ]www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/

Dec. 28 - TEACH  YOUR  CHILDREN  WELL #1
It's a fact:  Average household refrigerators open 22 times a day or 8,000 times a year. Over Christmas was it more like 44 times a day?  
On this Holy Family Sunday, this might be the time to regroup with better green practices.
From the D.M. Register "Frugal Family" :
• Open the fridge infrequently. After open, it takes energy to re-establsh air temperature
• Use microwave more often, consumes less energy than oven
• Make a game of, or establish a reward system:  Which family members are best in turning out the lights in vacated rooms?
• Only run wash machine and dishwasher when full.
*** Helpful hints from Dec. 2 D.M. Register; factoid from Working with Teachers to Help Shape Future of Science Education