Green Options » donations

Surviving Dark Economic Times: A Non-Profit’s Employees Take a Stand

Lisa Wojnovich — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:29:24 +0000

The National Audubon Society, like so many other businesses and organizations in the United States, is struggling with the current economic recession. So much so, that they have made a significant push for contributions from their own employees. Despite salary freezes for this year and the next as well as the threat of layoffs in the near future, Audubon employees have stepped up and pledged $800,000 in voluntary payroll deductions.

Stanford’s $100 Million Energy Institute

Becky Striepe — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:23:45 +0000

Stanford University received $100 million in donations for alternative energy research. The funds will allow the school to expand their research aimed at making renewable energy as economically feasible as oil and natural gas.

[Wind Power. Creative Commons photo by Bryan Siders]

The school’s annual budget for researching alternative energy is $30 million, so this bundle of donations more than quadruples their resources for the Stanford Global Climate and Energy project. The money allows them to grow the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, which has “the simple goal of making renewable energy cheaper than fossil fuels.”

Food Snob Challenge: How To Feed 100 Starving Children

Beth Bader — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:27:22 +0000

A good friend sent me Daniel Gross’ post on Slate.com, “The Agony of the Food Snob.” The article is a bit self-deprecating, a bit of humor, and a bit of a poke to food snobs’ plight as food prices rise for all of us. At times the article points out the more stupid purchases that defy reason, and at others, it shows that none of us — save the very wealthy — is immune to the price increase.

The last line of the piece is truly a challenge to all food snobs, “We’re spending obscene amounts on food we don’t need at a time when so many others are genuinely struggling to pay for enough basic sustenance to get them through the day.”

I am not a food snob. I am also on a budget these days. Even so, I certainly enjoy the best foods of every season, and the relative abundance and the fact that I can afford to eat when so many can’t has been weighing on me. I needed to do something to help.
So, here’s how I answered the challenge.

Weekend

serenity_ii — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:26:32 +0000

So I wouldn’t say we were incredibly green this weekend, but we were relatively green.

The dude who lives on the other side of Mr. Obsessively Mowing hadn’t mowed in a long time–longer than it had been for us. So on the weekend, he mowed his yard. . .with a riding mower. . .then used a weedwhacker. . .then used a leafblower. . .then mowed again. . .while smoking. Way to cancel out your lack of pollution, dude.

Bill mowed too–with our reel mower, of course. He is much faster at that than I am. It’s nice to have all the leaves to enrich our soil.

We drove about 40 miles in an old pickup to go on a bike/trike ride. The colors were beautiful, we got to see some cool stuff, and it was a blast! In the beginning I was pulling the kiddo and was having trouble keeping up with Bill, but on the way back he pulled the kiddo and I got up in the 20 MPH range three times (I wouldn’t be utterly shocked to learn I was going 30 the first time, although it was probably more like 25).

We had a picnic. It wasn’t completely environmentally friendly, but we did pretty well. I used baby food containers to hold the pumpkin seeds we scooped out of our pumpkins when we made jack-o’-lanterns. We have two kinds of seeds–salted and sugar & spice. We took pudding (containers are recyclable), applesauce (organic, again in a baby food container), sandwiches (reusable containers), juice (in reused juice bottles), tap water (in Klean Kanteens), baby food (recyclable containers), organic chocolate, not-so-organic chocolate, fruit strips, granola bites, and I don’t know what all. It was an awesome feast, if I do say so myself. I did take a Ziploc bag to hold the silverware so it wouldn’t get the picnic bag messy. We used one recycled napkin.

I gave my son one of my old toys this weekend. Well, really it’s more like four of my old toys that are compatible.

We went to Goodwill to donate a whole bunch of stuff. Clothes, chairs, cookware, drinkware. . .so now there’s more space for the stuff we’ll actually use, which is nice. . .especially in the cookware department. Led to some interesting discussion:

Bill: Why did we get rid of the silicone brownie pan?

Karen: Because we have two glass ones now, so we don’t need to use something that gives off a smell when I use it.

Bill: But we kept our silicone muffin pan.

Karen: That’s because that’s the only one we have left, so if we give it away and I have a cupcake emergency, I’m in trouble. Don’t worry, there’s an iron one on my Christmas list.

Bill: That sounds light.

Karen: But good for us!

Bill: Until somebody drops it on a toe.

Karen: Well, would you rather have a broken toe or cancer?!

Bill: Well. . .either one would take a long time to heal. . .

He does raise a good point. Our gorgeous stainless steel pots and pans are pretty lightweight, but the other stuff we’re converting to is all pretty heavy. I have trouble holding my terra cotta roasting pan steady in one hand (it weighs about nine pounds), which makes it hard to scrape stuff out of it into a container. The glass stuff isn’t too bad, but the iron stuff is heavy and slightly complicated to take care of, since it can’t go in the dishwasher and has to be seasoned. Still, I’m sure it’s worth it. I’ve been smiling a lot in the kitchen lately.