Hosting a Great Green Wedding
Mar. 08, 2010
1. Go LocalUsing local vendors cuts down on the miles that your wedding essentials must travel and puts money back into the local economy. Purchase food from farmers’ markets, and seek out great regional wines and brews for your celebration.
2. Use Seasonal Flowers
“Buying [flower arrangements] in season means they’re going to be fresher...and you will also usually save money,” says Kate Harrison, author of The Green Bride Guide (Sourcebooks). Purchase organic flowers to avoid pesticides and artificial scents. If you’re set on a specific type of flower, only buy a limited amount.
3. Plant Your Centerpieces
Peace lilies are easy to grow and act as wonderful air purifiers. Other centerpiece ideas include pots planted with herbs like mint and rosemary or glass jars filled with candles and fruit. If you’d still like flower centerpieces, fill jars with locally grown flowers, advises Melissa Hart, who hosted her green wedding in Oregon in 2007.
4. Give Practical Wedding Favors
Avoid the waste of kitschy wedding charms by creating edible favors filled with Fair Trade-certified chocolates, colorful candies or fresh fruit. Or, bypass the wedding favors altogether by making a donation in your guests’ honor.
“We donated to The National Audubon Society and E Magazine,” says Laura Ruggeri, whose green wedding was held last May in New York. “Both nonprofits provided us with magazines, which were given to our guests with a thank-you note.”
5. Encourage Low-Impact Clothing
Wedding wear is often so occasion-specific that it’s only worn once. Keep your bridal party and the environment happy by allowing for some flexibility. “I asked our wedding party to wear a dress or tie in a certain color palette [so they could] wear something from their existing wardrobe rather than buying new,” says Mary Supley Foxworth, whose green wedding was held in Virginia in 2004. “I loved the result!”
6. Make an Invitation Statement
E-vites are the greenest route for wedding invitations, but other light-impact options include invitations made with recycled paper, organic cotton or tree-free options like bamboo and hemp printed with vegetable-based inks.
“We had family members who objected to not receiving a physical invitation as a keepsake, so we ordered recycled paper invitations and skipped the reply cards, asking guests to RSVP via e-mail or phone instead,” says Stacey Kenny, who hosted her green wedding in New York this past April.
7. Buy Gently Used Items
There are plenty of wedding reuse sites like Weddingbee and BravoBride, as well as traditional resale sites like Ebay and Craigslist. Bride$hare, a social networking site, is another great resource for brides.
“I bought a pair of Vera Wang shoes for $50 on eBay,” says Harrison, “and resold them for $50. This kind of recycling allows you to enjoy a luxury item with minimal environmental or financial impact.”
8. Choose a Greener Dress
Wedding dresses can use up to 16 yards of fabric, typically made from petroleum products and bleached with toxic chemicals. In addition to vintage, thrift and consignment shops, sites like Gently Used Bridal can help you find the ideal dress. There are also hemp, organic cotton or even bamboo wedding gowns available. And after the wedding, consider donating your dress to a good cause like Brides Against Breast Cancer.
9. Give Back Through Gift Registry
These days, lots of couples are getting married in their late 20s and 30s, which means many have all the kitchenware they need. The I Do Foundation allows for a range of charity registry options, including donating 10% of purchases to a charity, creating a charity registry and offsetting your wedding’s carbon footprint.
10. Ditch the Diamonds
Diamonds are forever, but so are their negative social and environmental impacts. Consider rings made with a moonstone, pearl or piece of sea glass. Some jewelers also use wood to create handcrafted, inexpensive wedding bands that can be inlaid with gems. And check the craft site Etsy for eco-minded jewelry artists.
Source: E Magazine
5 Ways to Grow Your Business with Social Media
Mar. 01, 2010
Let’s face it; most small businesses do the bulk of their business locally. So, the thought of gaining access to Facebook’s 300 trillion users (may be more by now) isn’t that relevant or useful.However, if those local businesses could use some of the new powerful online tools and platforms to gain access to the 200-300 social media users in their town, now that might just make some sense.
There are many ways to filter, sort, aggregate and otherwise take advantage of social media tools that can specifically benefit even the smallest neighborhood oriented business.
Below are five things any local business can do to get more business using social media tools
1) Start a Local Group Online
Most social network platforms offer some form of group creation. Any member has the ability to start a group around a niche or pretty much any topic – including a local topic. Sites such as Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn and Slideshare all allow members to create and manage groups.
For example here’s a local independent merchant group in Austin, TX using a Flickr Group to promote it’s “Keep Austin Weird” slogan.
This Boston Networking Group on LinkedIn was founded by Jeff Popin, owner of BostonEventGuide.com. With over 3,000 members, there’s a pretty good bet this group serves as a conduit for Popin’s main business locally.
2) Find and Network with Local Bloggers
Using tools such as Placeblogger, outside.in, Bloglines you can locate bloggers in your community that might have an interest in writing about your business or industry or actively linking to your blog.
Networking with relevant bloggers locally, commenting on their blog posts, and maybe even contributing a post is a great way to create additional local exposure. Don’t forget to seek out and add blogs from traditional media publications locally as well. Most radio, TV and news journalists have been asked to write a blog as part of their job, these can be great local social media contacts if you take the time to build relationships though their blogs.
Read entire article
Green Surprises at Apple's Shareholder Meeting
Feb. 26, 2010
Who would have thought that one of the world's hottest, richest companies would spend about a third of its annual meeting discussing sustainability, melting glaciers and the finer points of reporting about greenhouse gas emissions? That's what happened at today's Apple Inc. shareholder meeting.There were two shareholder proposals on the proxy, one of them from As You Sow, where I work, calling for the company to set greenhouse gas reduction goals and do a better job of environmental and corporate responsibility reporting in general. A second proposal, from Harrington Investments, asked the company to establish a permanent board committee on sustainability.
Normally we get our two minutes to speak and then the meeting veers back to more pressing matters such as how Apple should spent $25 billion in cash it's sitting on. However, a politically conservative investor started off the meeting commenting that the glaciers were not melting, climate change was not real, and Board Member Al Gore had become a laughingstock. This prompted a swift rebuttal from another shareholder in support of Mr. Gore, and the company's social and environmental performance went on to curiously pervade much of the meeting.
A question about our proposal, suggesting that the company do a better job on sustainability reporting, led CEO Steve Jobs to minimize the value of reporting, commenting that sustainability groups like to have companies generate lots of reports, make specific commitments, and schmooze at conferences.
Read the entire article at GreenerComputing.com
How Green Is That app?
Feb. 22, 2010
Below are 6 apps that make living green easier.
1) GreenMeter GreenMeter measures your vehicle’s acceleration and computes engine power, fuel efficiency, your carbon footprint and how many barrels of oil you’re consuming. You can also input info on driving conditions, your driving habits, weather conditions and fuel type. Price: $5.99
2) GoodGuide With over 70,000 item ratings, GoodGuide recommends safe, healthy and green products, ranging from household cleaners to food to toys. Price: Free
3) Ecobee Smart Thermostat Use your iPhone or iPod Touch to remotely adjust your Ecobee thermostat temperature, schedule a vacation, change the system and fan settings and receive alerts. Price: Free
4) Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch The official list published by the aquarium to help make sustainable seafood choices wherever you are. Choose a region and it provides a list labeled “Best Choice,” “Good Alternative” or “Avoid.” Price: Free
5) Find Green Find Green assists you in locating green and sustainable businesses by industry (i.e., health and wellness), type (fitness, nutrition, doctors, etc.) and distance (walking, biking or driving). Powered by the GenGreenLife.com database. Price: Free
6) iRecycle Find recycling locations anywhere in the U.S. with this search engine, based on what item you need to recycle. Price: Free
Source: E Magazine
1) GreenMeter GreenMeter measures your vehicle’s acceleration and computes engine power, fuel efficiency, your carbon footprint and how many barrels of oil you’re consuming. You can also input info on driving conditions, your driving habits, weather conditions and fuel type. Price: $5.992) GoodGuide With over 70,000 item ratings, GoodGuide recommends safe, healthy and green products, ranging from household cleaners to food to toys. Price: Free
3) Ecobee Smart Thermostat Use your iPhone or iPod Touch to remotely adjust your Ecobee thermostat temperature, schedule a vacation, change the system and fan settings and receive alerts. Price: Free
4) Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch The official list published by the aquarium to help make sustainable seafood choices wherever you are. Choose a region and it provides a list labeled “Best Choice,” “Good Alternative” or “Avoid.” Price: Free
5) Find Green Find Green assists you in locating green and sustainable businesses by industry (i.e., health and wellness), type (fitness, nutrition, doctors, etc.) and distance (walking, biking or driving). Powered by the GenGreenLife.com database. Price: Free
6) iRecycle Find recycling locations anywhere in the U.S. with this search engine, based on what item you need to recycle. Price: Free
Source: E Magazine
100 Million Users Access Facebook via Mobile
Feb. 15, 2010
A recent entry on Facebook's official blog states that more than 100 million people are "actively using Facebook from their mobile devices every month." This figure is growing fast, and it's not just limited to those entering via a Facebook app on the iPhone and AT&T. From the blog post: "This usage happens on almost every carrier in the world and comes less than six months after we announced 65 million people on Facebook Mobile."
Contributing to the uptick in mobile users are the Facebook mobile apps available across a variety of carriers and mobile devices, enhanced Facebook mobile-ready Web pages (m.facebook.com, for example) and the ability for users to post to Facebook via SMS (including Facebook's new link-shrinking capability with FB.ME). Should Facebook start providing analytics to users with their URL-shortening service, you might see even more mobile activity.
For businesses, this news puts even greater importance on marketing within the world's largest social network. Mobile is a tricky proposition. But if you can merge mobile with social - and with Facebook, you can - you have a win-win situation. You gain access to the social sphere, as well as mobile users. Consider this when updating Facebook Pages for your business.
To target the Facebook mobile user, keep updates relatively brief and include mobile-friendly calls-to-action, such as brief blog posts, links to maps, and links to specific, mobile-friendly Web pages. Want users to call your business? Link to an offer on a landing page with a highly visible phone number. Many devices will automatically enable click-to-call. Brick and mortar businesses have a great opportunity here to drive foot traffic by providing instant coupons through Facebook updates, for example.Source: Web Site Magazine
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