Name: Virtual Green Coffee Talk: Seed Saving & Giving as Gifts
Start: 2020-10-22T12:00:00-05:00
End: 2020-10-22T13:00:00-05:00

October 22, 2020 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Sponsored by UW River Falls Sustainable Management Online Programs - https://www.uwrf.edu/MyDegree/SMGT.cfm

Presented by White Bear Lake Seed Library Founder Pam Larson Frink - https://wblseedlibrary.blogspot.com

Learn how to save vegetable, flower and native plant seeds. It's easy and a great way to keep heirloom seeds available and an inexpensive way to have seeds for your garden. Seeds are also a great gift idea! They are economical, easy to do, and of course, great for the environment. I'll also show you some easy to make seed packets you can give as gifts. Pam Larson Frink is a horticulturist and environmental educator who loves playing in the dirt with plants.

For more information, visit: Virtual Green Coffee Talk: Seed Saving & Giving as Gifts

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Green Tips

Recycle Your Paper Products

Most people don’t realize it, but one way to reduce global warming is to recycle paper products. Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees. Each tree helps reduce global warming by capturing and holding carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Remember your bottles and cans, too—any recycling you do means fewer of the Earth’s raw materials are used. Learn more here.

Purchase Low Flow Plumbing Fixtures

Your family can save 13,000 gallons of water per year with a low flush toilet, 2,900 gallons with a low flow shower head and 700 gallons with faucet aerators. Reducing temperature and usage of hot water will also save money and energy.

Find more great water saving tips with our Home Water Audit Checklist!

Start a Neighborhood Eco-Parent Group

We all want to do the best for our children, especially when it comes to protecting their health and the environment in which they live. Sometimes, knowing the most effective ways to do this can be confusing and challenging, but you don’t have to figure it out alone. Consider starting an eco-parent group in your neighborhood to learn alongside other parents. This article offers some tips.

Reduce Paper Waste at the Office

Office paper is highly recyclable, but reducing or preventing paper waste is even more cost effective than recycling. Some ideas for reducing office paper waste:

Double-sided copying and printing.
Reusing paper. Keep a collection box by the copy machine for bad copies so the second side can be reused.
Make use of electronic communication.
Use smaller cover sheets or eliminate the cover sheet all together.
Reuse items from old packaging.
Reuse materials in-house, through clients, customers and consumers.
Consider buying the most environmentally-friendly paper (100% post-consumer recycled) to stock in your printers, copiers and fax machines.

Check out our full article Green Your Office for more great ideas.

Take Easy Steps to Save Energy at Home

The average Minnesota family spends over $4,000 on energy (includes natural gas, electricity and gasoline) and produces over 50,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Here are some easy ways to save energy:

Turn off lights and electronics (TVs, radios, computers) when leaving a room. This can help your family avoid producing 298 pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of the year.
Be mindful of your heat and central air. Turning your furnace thermostat down just two degrees in the winter saves $53/year and prevents 569 pounds of CO₂, and you won’t even notice the change.
Unplug electronics and appliances while not in use, like cell phone chargers, video game consoles, and microwaves. Anything with a clock, remote or LED light is using energy all the time, even if it’s turned off. Power strips are a quick fix—and you can save $14/year.

Check out our Personal Energy Checklist for more great ideas!

Start a Recycling Program at Work

If your office doesn’t have a recycling program, consider being a catalyst for big change by starting one yourself. See our full list of tips on how to get started (including identifying a Recycling Coordinator and selecting a Recycling Company) in our article, Green Your Office.

Shop to Strengthen Our Food System

Each time we choose to find out the source of our food, we not only learn about our food supply, but we also have the opportunity to make a choice. Turning over a package of food or checking out those little stickers on our apples can open our eyes to the size and scope of the food supply. Gardening, farmer’s markets, food co-ops, and community-supported agriculture (CSA)—all of these food sources are growing stronger with every new gardener, shopper, member-owner and subscriber! Having a personal involvement and connection to our food is part of what has been missing in our convenience- and price-driven diets. And this connection to our food could be what changes our food system.

Check out the full article to learn more!

Lead Your Community to Sustainability

People in small towns, suburban communities, and urban neighborhoods all over Minnesota and western Wisconsin are banding together to make their communities more livable and sustainable. Are you ready to make sustainable changes in your community? This article offers many tips for getting started, including learning more about sustainability plus how to create an action plan for your city.

Green Your Child’s Lunch

Home-packed lunches can be fun, healthy, and green, with very little time or money required. A child’s lunch, including organic fruit, requires less than five minutes on average to prepare and could cost as little as $1.00 per day-compared to over $2.25 for school lunch.

Try these suggestions to green your packed lunches, whether for children, adults, or picnics!

Start Backyard Composting

Did you know that the average Minnesota household throws 15 pounds of compostable materials into the trash every single week? Composting is an easy and simple way to have an immediate personal impact by diverting trash from the landfill or incinerator. Backyard composting takes leaves, grass clippings, veggie scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, and tissue and turns them into valuable compost that reduces the amount of water and fertilizer required for your yard and garden, improves soil quality and supplies essential nutrients for plant growth.

Learn more!

How Our Food Choices Effect the Planet

Virtual Green Coffee Talk: Seed Saving & Giving as Gifts

How Our Food Choices Effect the Planet

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