The freight transportation industry makes the world go round, but it is also taxing on the environment.

Fuel consumption is a major concern for companies that employ big rigs to ship freight, not only for its cost, but also for its environmental impact. The United States’ fleet of long-haul trucks uses over a billion gallons of diesel fuel per year. In 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched SmartWay to reduce the impact of transportation-related (with a focus on freight transportation) emissions by seeking to improve fuel efficiency.

SmartWay Technology Program

This program is designed to evaluate existing and emerging technologies and equipment that can potentially reduce greenhouse gasses and other air pollutants emitted during freight transportation. The EPA identified and promotes four categories of technology that have been shown to capably reduce emissions or improve fuel efficiency:

Idle Reduction Technologies – Though idling may be more environmentally friendly than accelerating, periods of Read more…

Imagine everything you do in a day.

Now, try to imagine how much CO2 is emitted in the process. It’s hard to envision, right? Now, consider these facts:

Lighting makes up between 5-10% of a household’s energy consumption in Canada
Car emissions account for 30% of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions with the average car releasing 5 TONS of C02 on a yearly basis
Four-wheel drive increases fuel consumption by 5-10% that of two-wheel drive
Every Canadian emits an average of 21.9 tons per year – that’s the equivalent of roughly two school buses!

So, how do you avoid using things like transportation, lighta, and other household appliances? The truth of the matter is, while you can make conscious decisions to use less, some carbon emitting activities can’t be easily eliminated from our day.

Myclimate is a non-profit Swiss foundation that recognizes this dilemma and offers a solution: buying carbon offsets. A carbon offset is a monetary Read more…

I want you to act out.

I promise you won’t get in trouble. I can also promise you won’t be the only one. In fact you will be joining hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries around the world.

I’m talking about a global movement known simply as Earth Day.

It was created in 1970 by a U.S. Senator, after he witnessed the devastation of the 1969 California oil spill. He wanted to leverage the emerging awareness of air and water pollution and combine it with the social energy created by the anti-war movement to force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. And so on the 22nd of April, 1970, 20 million Americans participated in massive coast-to-coast rallies to bring attention to conversation and force political leaders to listen to their concerns.

And it worked.

The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Read more…

Small Change Fund is an unique Canadian charity using small change to make a big difference in communities from coast to coast, and around the world.  It represents an important trend in crowd funding that uses an innovative model of online giving that empowers individual donors to support grassroots groups. As co-founder Ruth Richardson states, “We’re tapping into individuals that together can make a huge impact. We wanted to bust it open and make grassroots projects visible and accessible to anybody”.

Ruth also emphasizes, there’s no other organization like Small Change Fund in Canada. The Small Change approach gives concrete answers to some of the most pressing questions that face donors. Where does my money go? What is the outcome? Why does it matter? It also tackles the often-insurmountable challenges faced by community groups. How do we raise money? How can we spread our message? What media tools will raise our Read more…

What if your plastic shopping bag or the ring pull tab from your Coke can could help pay for a child’s education?

Recycle for a Cause, a campaign launched in the UAE, allows for just that kind of wonder—turning your trash into treasure.

How so?

Plastic bags and ring pull tabs collected from the community are sent to the Philippines and used to create and sell high quality merchandise as a source of livelihood for Filipino families in poverty.

The Recycle for a Cause campaign has been launched by Abu Dhabi Cause Connect (ADCC) in support of the Philippine Community Fund (PFC), which helps to provide shelter, food and education for children who are rescued from living on dump sites. PCF is a UK registered charity that works to free Filipino children and their families from the effects of poverty. The Recycle for a Cause product line alone provides employment for over Read more…

What does climate change mean to you? In the UK it often feels like a series of scientific debates and middle class people wondering if we’ll have a thriving wine industry in 30 years.

For many children in the developing world, though, it means destruction, death, poverty and no chance to go to school. Climate change is happening now and it is the most vulnerable children in countries not responsible for messing with our climate that are paying the price.

UNICEF – Climate kid shows you how children will have to adapt if we do nothing.

The World’s governments know all about the challenge of climate change. At the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 developed countries promised to raise an extra $100 billion a year by 2020 for developing countries for climate change. This money is to be evenly split between trying to prevent further rises in global temperatures and helping to adapt Read more…

New revolutionary eco-friendly dinnerware – Made from leaves and water. That is it!

Did you know?

40 billion plastic utensils are used every year in the USA alone
730 thousand tons of styrofoam and plastic plates and cups (710 thousand tons were styrofoam)
73 billion mostly styrofoam cups and plates being thrown away every year in USA
64 billion paper cups and plates being thrown away every year in USA
Styrofoam- More than 5,000 years to decompose!

How can we enable people to make small changes to their day to day life?

This is was the driving force behind GreenTally

We have developed 100% Biodegradable and Compostable dinnerware including plates, bowls, serving plates, utensils etc.  We realize that there are many choices when it comes to biodegradable and compostable products. We feel that our products are unique such that they are made from fallen leaves. No trees are ever cut down.

As part of natural process, sheaths from palm trees Read more…

Minnesota is kicking our butt.

No, I’m not talking ice hockey or the fact that they have 10,000 lakes – yes, it’s not just their state motto. Rather, I’m talking about their killer support for their environment – hey, they have 10,000 lakes to keep pristine remember?

But seriously, Minnesota is leaving many of us far behind in the dust when it comes to supporting the environment through workplace giving. What’s that you ask? Workplace giving is just that – where employees in companies, cities, counties, universities, or any organization can give to charities through their workplace, usually via payroll deduction.

For decades, the United Way has been the biggest player on the block. But more recently, other groups, called federations, have joined in looking for an equal piece of the workplace giving pie, representing other nonprofit sectors including the environment.

EarthShare is the granddaddy of environmental federations and has 19 state affiliates across Read more…