Goodlifer: Do Good

As the old saying goes, there are two ways to make a donkey walk forward: offer a delicious carrot in front of it, or hit its behind with a stick. Bad behavior should be punished but, more importantly, good behavior should be rewarded. This is the guiding principle of carrotmobbing. It’s very simple: a group of people gather (using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter) at a retail or service establishment that has agreed to put a set percentage of the day’s proceeds toward environmental improvements and buy their wares. cont.

Who wants a garden at City Hall?

Public Gardens seem to be on everyone’s mind since Michelle Obama planted her organic garden at The White House. The idea, however, may not have been hers. TheWhoFarm (The White House Organic Farm Project) began as a “non-partisan, petition-based initiative to respectfully request that our 44th President oversee the planting of an organic farm on the grounds of The White House, our nation’s First Home, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC.” cont.

Jamie’s Food Revolution

“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.” I find it hard to refrain from nodding my head in agreement when hearing celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s plea, a wish that awarded him the TED Prize, given annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, “One Wish to Change the World.” cont.

Slow Money: Sustainable Investing

The speed at which stock exchanges and money markets move these days is astonishing; trillions of dollars are zipping around the world each day, faster than any of us can truly fathom. The big crash and subsequent economic downturn has not done much to slow things down — trading is still very much based on short-term thinking, with little regard to anything but financial yield. cont.

Good Gifts

The holidays are all about gathering with loved ones to enjoy a bountiful meal. Many of our most cherished memories evolve around food. But, we all tend to cook too much and a lot of that delicious holiday food tends to go to waste. Over the course of a year, half (half!) of the food in the U.S. is wasted, and although much of that waste happens during transportation and retail, 14% occurs in households. cont.

NYC Food Charter

Problems associated with obesity have reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and at such an alarming pace that the Surgeon General has urged communities to address the problems through a formal ‘call to action.’ The centralization of the food system has contributed to the lack of food security and access in regions such as New York (and New England at large), that were traditionally self-sustaining producers of food. cont.

Charter for Compassion

I have always believed that just being nice gets you places way better than sharp elbows and tongues do. Niceness has long been considered a quality too soft for our dog-eat-dog society, but it’s making a comeback. Maybe it is the realization that inconsiderate ruthlessness was one of the main contributors to the current economic chaos, or simply a return to values — what matters most in our lives. cont.

Take action for 350

According to leading climate scientists such as James Hansen of NASA, 350 parts per million is considered to be the highest CO2 level the planet can safely sustain. The current levels are known to hover around 390 ppm, and in order to avoid a series of catastrophic climate tipping points it’s imperative that we start working toward reducing this escalating number immediately. cont.

What’s your Foodprint?

Globally, an estimated one-third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are from our food system and land use changes, which include GHGs emitted to grow, process, package, transport, store and dispose our food. The phrase Carbon Footprint is on most people’s radar today, but it’s time that we also consider our Foodprint. cont.

10:10: Cut your emissions by 10% in 2010

We have all asked, or been asked to answer, that elusive question. “What can I do about climate change?” Although it’s easy to feel powerless beside large corporations and nations that seem hellbent on destroying our planet, there is no underestimating the power in numbers. cont.

Eating-in for Healthy School Lunches

You can raise your kids on the most conscious diet of local, farm-fresh, organic food, and find that once they start school, all your efforts are instantly undercut. Unless you happen to live in a particularly affluent or educated area, school lunches frequently contain the worst kinds of junk food — pizza, hamburgers, french fries and sugary sodas. Fresh fruit and vegetables are rarely ever on the menu. cont.

Project M: Pizza Farm

Pick a significant cause, then conceive and create a single design project that will be of lasting value in a rural community. That was the brief given to the group of nine young designers who attended Project M at Winterhouse, an intensive summer program designed to inspire young graphic designers, writers, photographers and other creative people, and prove that their work can have a positive and significant impact on the world. cont.

Recycling: Don’t forget about clothing.

Overall, clothing is cheaper today that it has ever before been. Blame the Walmart effect. Items like T-shirts sometimes sell for just a few dollars at big box stores, inevitably making them disposable, throwaway items. It’s sometimes cheaper to buy new clothes than to properly care for the ones you have. The Fiber Economics Bureau reported that the average American throws out about 68 pounds of textiles per year. cont.

Give Bees a Chance

I have been thinking about bees a lot lately. While the world is worrying about economic collapse or who will be crowned the next American Idol, I am bummed about the empty hive that was buzzing with bee activity just six months ago. Their collective hum was unmistakable, the distinct smell of honey sweetened the air. Now, the wax shell is void of all activity, and I don’t know why. cont.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is an initiative that began in Sydney on 2007, with over two million homes and businesses shutting off their lights for one hour, in hopes of shedding light (pun intended) on energy issues and global warming. cont.