Ecological Footrpint

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I lowered my ecological footprint from 3.4 planets to 3.1 planets.  57% of my footprint is services, 9% goods, 17% food, 11% shelter and 6% mobility.  

I also feel that I succeeded in all three of my goals.  My first goal was to eat more locally grown food.  I started shopping at the Co-op and it made this really easy.  I still shop at Fred Meyers every once in awhile, but not as much.  I am also looking forward to when the Farmers Market opens up again in April, I live right down the street so it is really easy to just walk there on Saturday mornings.  

My second goal was to ride the bus to work twice a week, this was more difficult, but I still managed to do it.  I believe this one is really important, I shouldn't be driving all by myself, there and back 4 days a week.

My third goal was to buy more natural and organic foods.  I never really defined what natural was to me, so I kind of gave up on this part.  Like we learned in class, there is no real definition for "natural" so it is really open-ended.  I did buy a lot of organic foods though.  Like I said earlier, I shopped at the Co-op, so it made this easy.  

I am going to try and continue with all my goals and also try to assess them and think of new ones as time goes on.  

Here is where I calculated my footprint: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

Green Fest

Last night as I was trying to write as essay for another class of mine I saw an advertisement on TV about a event in Seattle called Green Fest. It caught my attention, so I wrote down the Web site so I could check it out and see what Green Fest was all about. It sounded somewhat interesting. Accordind to their Web site, Green Fest is:

• The largets sustainability event in the world
• It is the only green even that screens exhibitors for their commitment to sustainability, ecological balance and social justice
• And each year it gets closer to being a zero-waste event.

The event in Seattle is the last weekend in March and is held at the Seattle Convention Center. It sounds interesting, they have all sorts of exhibits including ones on green burials, composting, green skin care, etc. Danny Glover will also be there as a key note speaker.

Here is a link to their Web site http://www.greenfestivals.org/

Old Town

Last week I wrote about how I rarely spend money on consumer items anymore, but after I wrote that I realized that the place I spend my money is on going out to eat with my friends.  My good friend loves to go out to breakfast, as do I.  She usually goes out at least once a week.

This morning we went to Old Town Cafe, it was great. I have always enjoyed there food and the service is really nice. I also don't feel to guilty when I do eat there, because

1) I am supporting a local business

2) They make their products with organic product

3) And, they also get their products from local suppliers.  

They support Edeleen Dairy from Lynden and Odwalla from Seattle.

Even as the quarter is coming to a close, I am still going to work on my goals and also continue to re-evaluate them and re-do them when I need to.  One of my new goals is going to be to not eat out as much, and if I am going to go out I want to go out and eat at local restaurants, instead of the huge franchises that are seen on almost every roadway.

So my thought for the week is Buy Local, and support our community members. And if you haven't tried Old Town, you really should, it is amazing!

When I was in high school and even my first two years of college, I would spend a lot of money on useless, un-needed stuff.  I would buy a lot of clothes and then hardly wear them, I would also buy a  lot of music and movies.  I am not entirely sure why things have changed now, but now i do not spend much on consumer goods.  

I have read the blogs of my fellow students, and a lot of the people talk about how one of there goals is to spend less on clothes and unneeded items.  That is not a goal I set for myself because over the past year, I don't see that this is a problem for me.  Eve at my work,we are able to set up monthly accounts, which we pay-off at the end of the month.   I see things that I want at the store, but unless I find something that I know exactly what I am going to do with it I don't buy it.  I have worked at Treasury since September, and I am pretty sure that I have had the lowest account balance of all my other co-workers every month since I have worked there.

I am still trying to figure out what about me has changed, I have a job, I have money to spend, but I usually don't choose to spend it.  

As for my other quarterly goals, 1 of them is easy, but the other two are a little harder to achieve.  I have been doing them, but it takes a more conscious effort to actually achieve them.  I can but all sorts of organic and local foods, but it is harder to actually cook it up and use it when I am so busy with my school work and do not come home it 9 or 10.  It is also difficult to take the bus to work sometimes, my bed is so comfortable and most days, it seems like a much better option to stay in bed for an extra 1/2 an hour, but i usually pull myself out of bed so I can make the bus in time.

Dead week is coming up, good luck everyone!

Last night I was on campus until almost 10:30, filming a video for my Management 313 class.   My group and I were filming in Parks Hall and I am pretty sure that we were the only ones in the entire building, and if there was anyone else it was the cleaning crew.  I was disappointed though because all the lights in the hallways were on and the lights were also on in the workroom for the faculty and staff on the third floor.  

Everyone keeps discussing the budget cuts that need to be made, so why should we be wasting electricity with having all the lights on, on a Friday night.  I know that the new building has censors in the hallways so that when there is no movement for a certain period of time, they turn off.  Maybe the university should invest in the same things for all the buildings.  The upfront cost would be expense, but it could pay off in the long run and reduce the electricity bill.

This week has been incredibly busy, and the end of the quarter is coming up quickly. I have been keeping up with my goals for the quarter. But, the hardest by far for me to do is take the bus twice a week to work. I take the bus everyday to school and then usually walk home, but the extra half-an-hour of sleep is hard to give up.

This week in class we had an assignment to create a new marketing campaign that targeted students. Mine was about buying local foods. I love that we have so many farm options out in the county and the summers are so much fun when you go with your friends and pick raspberries and strawberries, then make some great jam! More people just need to be aware of the great things that Whatcom County has to offer. My tagline was "Be Passionate about Bellingham!"

So enjoy the snow, and "Be Passionate about Bellingham!"

My parents finally moved in..

I went home this past weekend.  I felt really bad about all the gas I was using to get to Spokane.  I tried to find someone who wanted to carpool with me, but no one worked out.  At least my car gets 30 mpg highway mileage, so it wasn't as bad as it could be.  

My parents just recently finished their new house, that they had planned on starting in the summer of 2007, but instead waited till May 2008.  Here is the back side of their house, it looks over the lake:

While I was home though, I did good with my goals for the quarter.  My mom is very health conscious and she makes a lot of foods from scratch.  She has also got more into buying local and organic foods.   I also did not drive my car the entire time I was home, until I got in it Monday morning to drive back to Bellingham.  I am proud of my parents too, because not only do they carpool to work most days of the week, they also got a low-water, energy efficient washer and a low-water toilet, kind of like the ones in the AIC.  

I got my bills for the month of February.  My energy bill was about the same as it usually is, $15.  My Comcast bill though, was much higher then it has been, so I am putting it on my list of things to do to cancel my Internet, because it is way too high for one person to be paying for by herself.

Happy weekend everyone!

This past week has been extremely busy for me, luckily I didn't have any tests.  

I have noticed when I am busier, I do not go out and spend money, instead I just stay in my apartment.  

So this week, I did really well with my goals, I took the bus to school and work, twice, and I ate local and organic food that I bought early in the week from the Co-op.  

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend, so for the weekend, my spending and consuming was not as good as it could have been.  I went out to eat 3 times and also went out to a couple of bars on Saturday night.  

I also have not had to buy gas or any more groceries.  The next bills I will have to pay are my Comcast and my PSE.  Comcast is actually due today, oops better pay that after this.  

My mileage and gas will be greater then average this weekend, because I am planning on going home to Spokane, I havent been home since Christmas, and I miss my parents.  Oh, and they have a new house that they built and they were finally able to move in two weeks ago.  Exciting!!

Anyway, all for now, enjoy the weather...as it tries to snow!

My work has gone green!

Last Friday when I went to work I discovered that we h

ad bought our own re-usable bags like all the groceries stores have.  I was super excited so, of course I had to buy one.  We sell them for $1, which is comparable to all the other stores in town.  

I have been to work 4 times since last Friday and they seem to be selling pretty well, people aren't just buying one, they are buying a couple, or 8 like one of my fellow employees did.  

I work at Treasury of Memories, a scrapbooking store and we do our 

best to recycle the paper scraps.  The employees are really good, 

but some customers are not, even when the recycling bin is just as close as the garbage can.  Some times I just do not understand them.  There are even signs about how we should recycle paper scraps.

But here is a cute picture of our cute bags!

This week my spending has been very good.  I had three exams this past week, so I was very preoccupied with them to go anywhere and spend money, which is a good thing.  

I also accomplished all three of my goals this week.  

I took the bus to work on both Monday and Wednesday, I bought some local produce from the Co-op and I also cooked dinner for myself every night this week using fresh ingredients. 

Taking the bus really saved on my gas mileage, I only drove 20 miles and that was from last weekend.  I didn't spend any money on not needed items and I spent about $20 on groceries. 

 

I did the assignment this week and looked at the 

toxicology level of my personal hair care products.  And one was much better then the other.  

I first did my face wash, that I use daily, it is from The Body Shop and it was only ranked 3 out of 10, which wasn't to bad.  It was considered moderately toxic, but a low moderate.  

I also looked at my shampoo, which is a Redken Color Care shampoo, I also use the conditioner, and I love the way they make my hair feel.  It was ranked 7 out of 10, which was a little more shocking.  

After discussing our products, we came up with the conclusion that even though the salons recommend them for you, they are not necessarily better for us, which really sucks.  I now am going to try and look for another shampoo and conditioner.  One that isn't so toxic.

Here is the link, if you want to check out your products too:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1

Consumption is a hard thing.  Living your life one way for 21 years is hard, but is definitely a worthwhile cause to try and change.  

During my first week of back to winter quarter my consumption habits were very bad.  My friend had just come back from Ireland and we went out four nights that week.  Since then though, I have been much better.  We go out for beers every Tuesday, and other then that we cook and eat at home.  

Yesterday I watched history, as the 44th president, Barack Obama was inaugurated and gave his speech.  He talked about sustainability and how we need to use renewable resources and energy.  Listening to him was moving and motivating at the same time, I hope that with this administration we can see a difference, and we will use and help make like more sustainable.  

Last night to celebrate the Inauguration Day we walked to the Beav with some friends, then later walked to the Horseshoe before we walked home.  

Today, I took the bus to school and played racquet ball, before getting back on the bus to go to work.  The bus ride was about 30 minutes, but it gave me some good time to study.  Later I had to take the bus back to campus for a class and after class a friend and I walked home.  On the walk home, we stopped by the Co-op so we could buy some milk and I wanted yogurt.  I have been making smoothies every morning for breakfast, with some strawberries that I froze last summer, which I picked in Lynden last summer.    

I have decided though that I need to work on turning off and unplugging my appliances when I am done with them.  I leave my computer on all-day and night and even though my energy bill is on average about $15, I could maybe get it lower if I worked on and accomplished this goal.

The New Co-op

Today for lunch, I decided to walk across the street from my work to the new Co-op that just opened last Thursday.

I have to say it was rather exciting, because two of my goals this quarter was to eat more local food, and also to eat more organically made and from scratch, instead of buying the processed. I accomplished both of these things with going to the new Co-op.

They did a great job in designing the building, it had a great flow and everyone was very friendly. I plan on walking to get some groceries from the Forest Street location on Tuesday night, if I do not have too much homework.

Overall my consumption has been better, but I have to admit I have not been completely successful with my goal of taking the bus to work. I need to plan my day just right, so I wake up early enough to make it to work, and then right after work I have to rush back to the bus so I can take it up to campus. Working by the mall makes it much more difficult to take the bus, with a really full schedule. I am not giving up on the goal yet and will try again this week.

I have also not bought anything for myself, just the basics of groceries, but even then that was a week ago. I did have to break down and by gas this morning. $25 to fill up my tank, my light was on, so we know I was low. Hopefully this will last awhile, it usually does, the only time that my car gets driven is when I drive to work.

Today is my first post for my Sustainable Marketing class.  Our first assignment was to find out our Ecological Footprint.  My ecological footprint was 3.4 planets, meaning that if everyone lived the way that I do then we would need 3.4 planets.

This was a bit shocking for me, I try to live green, and know that I do not always succeed at that, so then our next thing was to choose 3 things we could do this quarter to reduce our footprint.  My three things are:

Eat more locally grown food.

Take the bus to work at least one day a week to work, instead of driving &

Buy more natural and organic foods so that I am not eating the processed and packaged foods.

So far this has been going okay.  I went to the grocery store and bought more natural and organic foods.  My groceries costed about $50.  I also had to pay my renters insurance and my Comcast bill.

Well that is all for now, another post to come.