Countdown to World Water Day (the water facts are astounding)

37 gallons of water to make a cup of coffee… 49 gallons of water to make a bag of chips… 400 gallons of water to grow cotton for a t-shirt. The hidden water used to produce the food we eat and the items we consume is incredible. Help us spread the word about these hidden water users through our 30 Days of H20 Campaign.

From Feb. 22 to March 22, The Nature Conservancy will be raising awareness of just how much water we really use in our daily lives through our 30 Days of H20 campaign, culminating in a celebration or World Water Day on March 22.

Tips for Week One

2/22: Unplug electronics. The average US home uses 4-5 gallons of water to generate power.

2/23: Eat healthy. It takes 49 gallons of H20 to make a bag of chips, but 18 to grow an apple.

2/24: Eat cereal. It takes 72 gallons of water to grow two eggs. 22 gallons for cereal w/milk.

2/25: A family of 4 can save 1,700 gallons of water per year by installing low-flow faucets.

2/26: One word: Plastics. It takes 24 gallons of water to make a pound off plastic.

2/27: Recycle! You can save about 3.5 gallons of water just by recycling a pound a paper.

Click Here to see daily information from The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

Science Scene - Mushroom Power

GREEN ISLAND, NY — A packaging material made of mushroom roots and agricultural waste is lowering its energy footprint further with new sterilizing technology.  Ecovative Design, the maker of EcoCradle packaging and Greensulate insulation, creates its products by growing mushroom fibers on waste like cotton seed, wood fiber and buckwheat hulls.

To keep other spores off of the material, Ecovative uses a steam heat process, but with the help of an $180,000 grant from the NSF, it's working on a sterilization treatment made with natural oils that uses significantly less energy.

Ecovative's MycoBond technology already consumes one-tenth the energy used to manufacture foam packaging. The new treatment, made with a mix of cinnamon bark oil, thyme oil, oregano oil and lemongrass oil, lowers its energy needs down to one-fortieth, or about 2.5 percent, of that of foam.

Today Is World Water Day :o)

Water affects every aspect of our lives, yet nearly one billion people around the world don't have clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion still lack basic sanitation. World Water Day, celebrated annually on March 22, was established by the United Nations in 1992 and focuses attention on the world's water crisis, as well as the solutions to address it.  Here is link to waterday.org.

To see where our water comes from, via the Nature Conservancy, click here:  Multimedia - where does your water come from?

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Eco-Elegance

Make your sweetheart smile when you choose to sent Earth-friendly flowers this Valentine's Day.

When you send flowers from Organic Bouquet, you'll know your gift has been grown and harvested using sustainable practices that aim to improve the quality of farm working conditions, minimize damage to ecosystems, conserve biodiversity and enhance environmental quality for future generations.

You can learn about this cause, and others at the Nature Convervancy.

Keep the Organic Bouquet in mind any time you need to send flowers :o)

Green Superbowl???

This entry is duplicated from The Cool Green Science blog of the Nature Conservancy. Click the link to go visit and/or subscribe.

This year’s Super Bowl is going green: the NFL has expanded its environmental program which had basic recycling to include food donations, green energy purchase, and tree planting. Though the NFL admits that while these efforts don’t complete negate the Super Bowl’s impact on the environment, it does make a difference, St. Petersburg Times reports.

The NFL is purchasing renewable energy from TECO, which gets its power from solar panels in the Tampa Bay area and from a biomass facility in South Florida. TECO officials estimate that powering the Super Bowl with renewable energy will prevent more than 313,000 pounds of CO2 emissions - but will increase the stadium’s cost by about $5,000.

In order to offset the game’s carbon impact, the NFL (with help from the U.S. Forest Service and the Florida Division of Forestry) is planting 2,700 trees at a dozen sites in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

Leftover prepared food will also be donated to local charities and churches. Building materials, decoration, office equipment and supplies used to prepare for the game will also be donated to nonprofits to use or sell for cash.

Last month, StubHub launchded its “Tickets for Trees” program, which plants a tree for every ticket purchased on StubHub for the 2008-09 NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl.

The 2008 Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona was the first to be powered completely with renewable energy.