Green Geek Gifts … and more December 22, 2010

Looking for a last minute gifts for a coworker, family member or friend… try some of these ideas from TreeHugger:

• Green Phone Apps -  some free, like ecorio to calc your carbon footprint or locavore for local green food shopping.
• Amp Solar Charger from Voltaic for about $99, to charge all your gadgets using the free sun.
• EcoCharger from Volt-Star for about $32, to eliminate wasted phantom energy drain when things are pulled in but not in use.

visit the TreeHugger gifts ideas page for more green gift ideas!

Book Trees December 20, 2010

Check out these cool ideas created from taking discarded books and making trees and decorations:

Created by Gleeson Library, U of San Francisco, image from Shawncalhoun on Flickr:
From instructables:
From the James Cook University Library in Cairns, Qld via Flickr:
From Real Simple.com:
From bunchofpants on flickr.com:

Greening your food @ your library party December 17, 2010

Planning events for the holidays at your library?  here are some tips & ideas on how  to be more green:

• Use local, sustainable minded caterers (give back by supporting your local economy).
• Pot lucks are always nice way to share and save money, perhaps pass along recipes too. It’s usually healthier and definitely greener than buying out.
• Try using real dishes, rather than throw away ones that are plastic and never breakdown. If you have too many people to wash dishes can you use biodegradable dishes? or ask people to BYOD (dish?) why not!
• Eat more food items lower in the food chain like veggies. Growing plants requires a lot less energy than it does to grow animals to eat. But eating meat, find out where is comes from “what your food eats.”
• Find a Farmers Market and ask them about their food: http://www.localharvest.org/
• Try this tool and calculate your impact of your meals: http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/
• here are some tasty Low-Impact Recipes from The Small Planet Institute
• Check out NRDC’s Green Eating Guide

Story of Electronics December 2, 2010

The newest Story of Stuff Project movie – The Story of Electronics - a look at the ‘design for the dump’ mentality so prevalent in the electronics industry. Worth a watch and worth passing on this great resource: