sustainability

Give Back Box

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Day 350 – If you have an empty box and things you no longer want and would like to donate, then Give Back Box is exactly what you need. This time of year we all have plenty of shipping boxes being delivered. Instead of breaking those boxes down and having them recycled, you can load them up with items to donate.

You can either download a free shipping label or pay $15 and choose a charity of your choice.

“The purpose of Give Back Box® is to provide an effortless and convenient method of donating your used household items. Give Back Box not only provides an easy way to be part of a truly good cause, it gives a secondary use to corrugated boxes and guarantees they will be recycled.. So this is an all-round CSR & Sustainability solution.” – Give Back Box

This holiday season give your cardboard boxes a new life and help others while you’re doing it.

Tomorrow, an interesting location for solar panels.

The Zero Waste Center We All Need

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Day 333 – Kamikatsu, Japan is a beautiful mountain region that has a total population of 1,500. In 2003, Kamikatsu became the first in Japan to issue a “Zero Waste Declaration.” The idea is to prevent the waste from happening at it’s origin. Making changes to manufacturing, logistics, and consumption systems is key to reducing waste.

The town residents held many discussions and decided to have each household compost kitchen scraps and bring other wastes to the town’s waste station. Waste was initially separated into nine different categories, eventually increasing to 34 categories with the start of the Zero Waste Declaration and then 45 categories today. The recycling rate surpasses 80%.

“Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center embodies the principle of Zero Waste as an earth-friendly complex facility that adds the functions of education, research, and communication to a waste-sorting treatment plant, aiming to recreate community and develop the region.” – nakam.info

The Zero Waste Center not only collects 45 different categories for recycling or reuse, but it also has a hotel, a community hall, a laboratory, and a resell shop. It is truly the blueprint for sustainability. Every town needs a Zero Waste Center. It may not be located in a lush mountain region, but it will make an immense positive impact on the planet.

Tomorrow, a playground that helps flooding issues.

A Collaboration Between Art and Sustainability

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Day 278 – There is a new exhibit at the Hyde Park Art Center that is addressing the waste problem and stressing the importance of a circular economy. The Future Fossils: SUM exhibit was created by Chicago artist, Lan Tuazon.

“Tuazon presents her sculptures alongside new work by Sungho Bae, Rachel Kaching Tang, Ruth Levy, Michelle Nordmeyer, Kate Poulos, and Anirudh Singh, who use rematerialization techniques in their art-making process. Partners in this exhibition are two companies in sustainable solutions:  Biomason and WaterBrick, International. Their products demonstrate leading innovations with BioLITH, bacteria-cultivated tiles and WaterBrick, container-bricks that need never enter the waste stream. Beyond presenting a design model for environmentally conscious homes, Tuazon’s installation is a test site for material recovery and invention. Exactly how much of the waste we produce can be reabsorbed into the built environment? Building future needs with materials that have a past is the intention here; however, minimizing harm to the living world begins with refusing a throwaway society.” – Hyde Park Art Center

Lan Tuazon helps us take a closer look at our relationship with waste and helps us understand that even when we throw something away, it is not truly gone. Most of the time, those same items stay with us for lifetimes to come.

The exhibit runs through November 13th.

Tomorrow, celebrating Energy Efficiency Day.

The Alliance Center: Organizations working together for a more sustainable and equitable world

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Day 267 – Most of us are familiar with incubator space. It is generally defined as industrial space or office space that is set aside in a building for various forms of business start-up or entrepreneurial projects. Companies like Reddit, Dropbox, and AirBNB all started all got their start in incubators.

Now take that same concept of the incubator, but instead of startup companies working together in hopes of hitting it big, you have numerous environmental nonprofits working together to better the planet. That’s exactly what is happening at The Alliance Center in Denver, Colorado.

So what happens at the Alliance Center?

Regenerative Recovery Coalition

Regenerative Recovery Coalition is a collaboration of nonprofits, businesses, academic institutions, government agencies and individuals boldly working together to rebuild Colorado with a regenerative future in mind—a future with a robust local economy that meets human needs abundantly and equitably provides clean air, water, food and energy to all.

Living Laboratory

Living Lab program pilots innovative sustainability solutions using The Alliance Center building as a demonstration site. They operate their building at the highest levels of performance for their occupants and the environment.

Sustainability Skills Initiative

Focusing on the holistic model of sustainability, they are building a pipeline of employment for communities who have traditionally been left out of the environmental movement. They ensure their Sustainability Skills Initiative participants develop professional skillsets which will help them stand out and succeed in the sustainability field. This is accomplished through hands-on projects and engaging participants in real world work at The Alliance Center and the greater Colorado environmental community.

Best for Colorado

Best for Colorado program serves as the hub for corporate social responsibility for businesses throughout the state. It allows companies to network with other mission-driven businesses, share their sustainability journey and help craft the new economy. The program allows businesses to improve practices, connect with participating companies and receive free resources. 

Climate + Democracy

The Alliance Center is convening our vast network to enable all Coloradans to fight climate change, strengthen democracy, advance equity, build Colorado forward and create a regenerative economy.

Hard to Recycle Station

The Hard to Recycle Station is an Alliance community resource that diverts hard-to-recycle items from the landfill.  They take many common waste items that aren’t accepted by standard municipal recycling systems. Then they send them to companies and partners who prevent them from going to the landfill.

One of these resources in a community would be very beneficial. However, to have all of these organizations in one building is exceptional. The Alliance Center has created a blueprint in which all cities across the country need to follow to build their own network of sustainable and equitable practices. Colorado has shown us it is possible.

Tomorrow, the importance of cart tags.

Sustainability Expo

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Day 249 – A sustainability expo is coming to Morton Grove.

So, what’s a sustainability expo?

It is a gathering of like minded people, trying to conserve and protect the planet.

Go Green Illinois wants you to know:

Join the Morton Grove Environment and Natural Resources Commission at the Morton Grove Sustainability Expo. This free event is family friendly, all are welcome, and encouraged to attend.

Over 30+ vendors and exhibitors. Come learn about solar options in IL, sign up for a free energy audit, pick up a sapling to plant, design an eco-focus button, pick up some native plants, eco-friendly tools, or learn about composting, recycling, green lawn care and more!

Stop by the Go Green Morton Grove table for some free native plant seeds and enjoy a fun activity to show how your efforts to go green help us all combat climate change.

Don’t miss the electric car show!

Event will be inside and outdoors at the Morton Grove Civic Center: 6140 Dempster Street in Morton Grove. 

One can only hope that there is a sustainability expo coming to your neighborhood in the near future.

Tomorrow, drones and their impact on wildlife.

Battery Solutions: Making battery recycling easy

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Day 243 – On Day 49, I spent some time writing about batteries and the difficulty in recycling them. After the EPA deemed them safe to throw away, anyone willing to take them to get recycled stop offering the free service. Now you need to pay a fee. I encourage everyone to use rechargeable batteries. They can be used 1,000 times and can be recycled easily and for free.

For those that feel the need to continue using alkaline batteries, then you should consider recycling them responsibly. Battery Solutions will do the job for a fee. They have various recycling kits to fit various needs.

We are ready to handle any volume, any size, any chemistry, any battery ever made. – Battery Solutions

They have responsibly recycled 178,934,861 batteries, have 6,956 partners and service 3 countries.

Battery Solutions has built their business on sustainability.

  1. Recycling – We are committed to recycling every possible material from every battery.
  2. Conservation – Partnering with local groups in southeast Michigan, we have contributed hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle battery shells to be turned into wildlife habitats.
  3. Device Renewal – We restore broken and unwanted cell phones and tablets back into usable tech.
  4. Education – We offer tours and education programs on site at our facilities, working with EGLE (The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy) as well as smaller local groups to promote battery recycling.
  5. Global Connections – To help secure the future for these young recyclers, we are committed to supporting recycling at all levels. Outside of our direct community involvement, we are also supporters of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Stop throwing recyclable material in the trash. Battery Solutions can help you with that goal.

Tomorrow, a recycle challenge.

Let’s Go!

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Day 1 – Happy New Year! Thank you for joining me on my quest to be more environmentally friendly. I can’t think of a better way to start 2021! 365 Ways to Help Save the Planet was created to keep me motivated and to be a go to place to find ideas and suggestions on how we can help the environment. By no means am I an eco expert, but I’m learning everyday on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

I always thought I was doing my part, but I am finding out that I can be doing so much more. The changes will be small, (no plans to purchase an electric car or a wind turbine anytime soon), but overtime, the hope is that it can make all the difference in the world! I know my family of 6 will not be able to fit a year’s worth of waste into jar (yes, people have done this), but we are going to try really hard to reduce our waste and our carbon footprint.

So, let’s learn something new everyday to help the environment and turn that knowledge into action. The posts will discuss recycling, reusing, and most importantly reducing. The posts will be short and to the point. However, I’ll always give you the option of reading more by providing links to other resources. At times I might share ideas that you have been doing for years, but hopefully I can bring some new information to you that will help benefit the world in which we live. I also hope to learn from you, so please share what you know! My goal is to stay active and excited and hopefully we can motivate each other to make the changes that will really make a difference.

Tomorrow, I’ll fill you in on how this whole thing got started.