Anyone interested in going to Dwell on Design? It happens June 5-8 at the LA Convention Center, and includes an exhibition of 200 exhibitors, a Speakers Conference of 50 speakers, and full size Sustainable Pre-Fab Neighborhood built on site, as well as 16 Home Tours of private green residences and evening parties at the Dwell Ford Brady (www.fordbrady.com) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (www.MoCA.org).
We were contacted by the good people at Dwell, (or their people, anyway) and have some free tickets to the exhibition, discounted conference tickets, and access to a free electronic issue of the magazine. Enjoy!
Codes and Links:
- Registration Link http://www.dwell.com/peopleplaces/conferences/17691009.html
- Free Ticket To the Dwell on Design Exhibition: BDODEC
- Discounted Conference Ticket ($50 Off): GRP22SP
- Digital Issue of Dwell Magazine: http://www.zinio.com/delivery?issn=1530-5309&of=PHoneissue
The other day I got a little “thank you” in the mail from PG&E (that’s Pacific Gas & Electric to you non-Californians).
Basically, the flyer indicated that I used an average of 2% less therms of gas compared to my average usage in January and February over the last three years. Yeah, I know, I am totally awesome.
This is great news, but to be quite honest, I’m not sure what to attribute it to. I was thinking that the biggest change is probably in my laundry activities - I now only wash in cold water. But…surely this can’t be it?
(Apologies for the crappy picture quality)
Ladies, I don’t know about you, but when summer rolls around, my toes start clamoring for attention, begging to be painted. Not having painted toenails makes me feel somewhat naked.
I was thinking about this today because it is hot as a mother (almost 100F in the Bay Area), which made me immediately think that I should wear sandals… but my toes were bare!
Anyway, all of this got me thinking about nail polish. You are all, I’m sure, aware of the awful fumes nail polish emits. It’s all due to nasty chemicals like formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) - all of which have been linked to certain cancers, fertility problems and birth defects. And, oh, by the way, they’re not so great for the environment - not that this is a surprise.
When you toss your old nail polish bottles, they usually end up in your local landfill, where it will slowly breakdown over the years, and potentially leach into groundwater. NOT GOOD!
Who knows how many millions of nail polish bottles are sitting in our landfills today. I shudder at the thought.
The best solution is for you to stop wearing nail polish. If you can’t do that, then look out for “organic” nail polishes. They’re not totally chemical-free (from what I understand) but they’ll at least be a little less toxic than the standard nail polish that you can buy at your local drugstore.
If any of you have any good product suggestions, please leave a comment.
Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good steak every now and then. But, I refrain from eating red meat on a daily basis - I would have to say that my diet consists primarily of fish, tofu, chicken, fruits and veggies. This is mostly because I’m trying to eat healthier.
Anyway, it turns out that red meat (and dairy) ain’t so great on the environment, as I’m sure you all have heard. This article in the Science News was pretty interesting to read - I recommend that you check it out.
Basically, the takeaway is that “diet substance has a greater impact than diet origin on greenhouse gas emissions.” The article argues that buying local is great, as Paul pointed out, but from an environmental perspective, you get more bang for your buck by eating less red meat and dairy. “Transporting food to the consumer accounts for only 4 percent of food-associated greenhouse gas emissions, while [red meat and dairy] production contributes a hefty 83 percent.”
That’s a pretty amazing statistic.
Have any of you started consuming less red meat/dairy because of environmental considerations?
