Being Green in the Home

A big thank you to everyone who did something to celebrate Earth Day this year.  April 22nd marked a day of celebration, raising awareness, and taking action to honor our Earth.  The Embassy celebrated Earth Day on April 25th with about 80 Cambodian elementary school students, who submitted drawings of Cambodian environmental scenes that were converted into large murals.   The Green Team welcomes everyone to take a look at the beautiful murals, which are being displayed on the embassy fence (on the corner of Streets 96 and 51) for the next few weeks. 

The Green Team would like to encourage everyone to consider every day an Earth Day!  Every day is a chance for you, your family, and your friends to find ways to care for the environment.  This issue explores simple changes in the way we eat, play, and get around, that can have a positive effect on the state of our environment.

Our challenge to you:  Pick at least one way to be green and start doing it as part of your life.  Once you have that mastered, pick one more.  Then pick one more, and so on.

Tips on Being Green Around the Home

• Replace light bulbs with compact-fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).  CFLs use 2/3 less energy and last 10 times longer.
• Why so cold?  Turn up the A/C to 27 degrees or higher.  Even better, turn it off in unused rooms.
• Unplug gadgets.  Electronic equipment and appliances use energy even when they’re turned off.  Americans alone waste $1 billion a year powering items like TVs and DVD players while they’re turned off. So unplug your TV, stereo, computer, microwave and other electronics when you’re not using them — or use a power strip that you keep turned off unless you’re using one of the items.  Make sure to unplug your cell phone and MP3 player chargers as soon as the devices are powered up.
• Eat less meat.  Meat production takes a lot more energy and resources than growing vegetables or grains, and 18 percent of human-generated greenhouse gases come from the livestock industry. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to make a difference in this area: Try skipping meat just one day a week.
• Put the brakes on driving.  Vehicles consume half of the world’s oil and emit a quarter of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Leaving your car at home even one day a week can save a lot of gas and emissions over a year. Try walking, biking, or car pooling to get where you need to go.  When you do drive, make sure your tires are properly inflated — underinflated tires can cut your gas mileage by 5 percent. 
• Use dishcloths instead of paper towels.
• Buy reusable shopping bags.  Instead of getting plastic bags from stores each time you shop, invest in canvas or other reusable bags.
• Find laundry detergent that is phosphate-free and triple concentrated (www.methodhome.com).
• Buy local and organic food.  Eliminate chemicals from your life as much as possible. By buying local, you cut down on fuel needed to transport food.
• Avoid disposable plates and cups whenever possible.
• You can save water and prevent water wastage in the following ways: Do not throw away water when you can re-use it for cleaning purposes, or watering plants (i.e., dehumidifier water can be used to water a plant or clean the floor; rainwater can be caught to wash the car or water the lawn). Check if there are any water leaks at home.  Submit a work request to repair dripping taps, toilet tanks, and pipe lines. If water leaks from a tap at one drop per second, you would be wasting approximately 10,220 liters of water per year! Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues, insects and other such waste in the trash rather than the toilet. Take shorter showers. Replace you showerhead with an ultra-low-flow version. Do not let water run while shaving, washing your face, or brushing your teeth. Operate washing machines only when they are fully loaded. Otherwise, set the water level for the size of load you are using.
• Wash clothes efficiently.  Ninety percent of the energy used in clothes washing goes to heat the water, so washing cold is a simple way to cut energy use drastically.  Plus, make sure to wash full loads.  When it’s time to dry, make sure to check the lint screen before every load, and clean it afterward, even better-- hang some items and let them air-dry instead of running them through the dryer.
• Don’t use plastic garbage bags – or if you must, use something like Perf’s Go Green kitchen bags.  Go Green bags breakdown in one or two years (whereas traditional plastic bags can sit for 1000+ years).  Available on www.amazon.com.
• Become educated about the global crisis and act in accordance with newly acquired information. Follow local and federal legislation and contact your elected officials regularly to let them know how you want them to vote on issues affecting the environment. Write letters to the newspaper so that your commitment becomes public and energizes others.
• Clean with non-toxic cleaning solutions, ounce for ounce homemade cleaning formulas cost about one-tenth the price of their commercial counterpart—and that includes costly, but worthwhile essential oils, and concentrated, all-purpose detergents for homemade recipes.  And even more important, they remove toxic chemicals and their smells and residue from your home.  Try out some of these 'recipes' for eco-friendly cleaners! 

Creamy Soft Scrubber

Simply pour about 1/2 cup of baking soda into a bowl, and add enough liquid detergent to make a texture like frosting. Scoop the mixture onto a sponge, and wash the surface. This is the perfect recipe for cleaning the bathtub because it rinses easily and doesn’t leave grit.

Note: Add 1 teaspoon of vegetable glycerin to the mixture and store in a sealed glass jar, to keep the product moist. Otherwise just make as much as you need at a time.

Window Cleaner 

1/4-1/2 teaspoon liquid detergent
3 tablespoons vinegar
2 cups water
Spray bottle

Put all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake it up a bit, and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you might have used in the past.

All-Purpose Spray Cleaner

1/2 teaspoon washing soda
A dab of liquid soap
2 cups hot tap water

Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake until the washing soda has dissolved. Apply and wipe off with a sponge or rag.

Vinegar Deodorizer

Keep a clean spray bottle filled with straight 5 percent vinegar in your kitchen near your cutting board and in your bathroom and use them for cleaning. I often spray the vinegar on our cutting board before going to bed at night, and don’t even rinse but let it set overnight. The smell of vinegar dissipates within a few hours. Straight vinegar is also great for cleaning the toilet rim. Just spray it on and wipe off.

Tea Tree Treasure

Nothing natural works for mold and mildew as well as this spray. I’ve used it successfully on a moldy ceiling from a leaking roof, on a musty bureau, a musty rug, and a moldy shower curtain. Tea tree oil is expensive, but a little goes a very long way. Note that the smell of tea tree oil is very strong, but it will dissipate in a few days.

2 teaspoons tea tree oil
2 cups water

Combine in a spray bottle, shake to blend, and spray on problem areas. Do not rinse. Makes two cups.

Vinegar Spray

Straight vinegar reportedly kills 82 percent of mold. Pour some white distilled vinegar straight into a spray bottle, spray on the moldy area, and let set without rinsing if you can put up with the smell. It will dissipate in a few hours.

Other non-toxic cleaning tips

You can find other non-toxic cleaning tips at
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html

Tips for Kids on Being Green

Put your kids on Green Duty:  have them turn off lights or A/C when not in the room, turn off TV when not watching, and turn off dripping faucets.

• Watch the Sesame Street video “Being Green” where Sesame Street characters host an Earth-a-thon and share songs, ideas and suggestions on how kids can be green.
• Raise kids to love nature.  Kids can: Be taught to be kind to animals and their habitats.  Draw pictures of things they see in nature.  Camp, take walks/hikes, play in the yard (or someone else’s yard).  Plant something (inside or out – many seeds can be planted inside, i.e., stick toothpicks in an avocado pit and rest on a glass of water so half of avocado is immersed in water) 
• Go green virtually – many organizations have websites geared with activities and information on being environmentally friendly and appreciating nature for kids.
• www.Int.org (The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics)
• www.Nature.org (The Nature Conservancy)
• www.Sierraclub.org (Sierra Club)
• www.Nwf.org/kids (National Wildlife Federation’s children’s site) 
• www.Kids.nationalgeographic.com (National Geographic’s children’s site)
• For younger kids, visit www.sesamestreet.or
• for activities and information on being green aimed at kids (Click on Sesame Playlists and search for green or Parenting.com/sesame for activities for kids and tips for moms). 

Tips on Being Green with Others

• Throw a Green Shower for expectant mothers or a Green Birthday party.  Share gently used gear, wrap items in reusable gift bags or newspaper, share organic clothes and toys, eat food grown locally.
• Shape policy by voting with your dollar. Support corporations that have good business practices and respect the environment by buying their products.  Buy products that are eco-friendly and/or organic.
• Check out:  www.Shopgreen.PriceGrabber.com (a green products only website)
• Join an online green community, here a few that exist: 
• www.11thhouraction.com.  This community was created to help individuals and communities take sustainable action on the local, regional and national levels.  Members share ideas and solutions on how to be green.  You can even create and post your own video!  11th hour-action also has a film of the same name.  The 11th Hour is the last moment when change is possible. The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment -- how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course. 
• http://www.care2.com is a website with many articles, tips, blogging, etc. on green and healthy living, recipes, etc. 
• http://blog.hgtv.com/greenhome/ is great for finding tips on green projects, green building and renovations.  It demonstrates ways that houses can be built green – and even gives you a chance to win a green home! 
• http://greenglobeideas.com/ This site allows visitors to post simple tips that everyone can incorporate into their daily lives.  Other users than rate the idea and “hot” ideas are highlighted  You can search by user, country, popularity and most discussed.
• And finally, Share what you do with others to create a Green Community. 

As always, if you have green practices of your own that you would like to share through the Green Team, or questions about going green, please submit to PHPGreenTeam@state.gov.