BLOG OF iECYCLE

Ingredients:

• 1 bowl of informative resources
• 2 tablespoons of willingness to change
• 1 cup of lifestyle changes
• 1/2 cup of social network
• Add information as needed
• Enjoy to the taste

Directions:

• Gather correct information to learn about the environment and ways to reduce your carbon footprint. There are many information rich government and non-profit organizations resources available online. For example, EPA.gov, lbl.gov, and unep.org.
• Going green can become easy if one is willing to make small changes in the behavior and lifestyle. No one can force you to go green as it is a self-choice.  You need to be environmentally conscious and use the available resources responsibly. You can start slowly by making small changes to the lifestyle and grow into it. For example, you can reduce the amount of time spent in the shower by five minutes helping reduce the amount of water consumption. Another simple way would be to sort and group your recyclable items in the trash such as newspaper, plastic bottles, and pop cans.
• Create awareness by tapping into your social networks. Many people would like to go green if they know how small things can help protect the environment. You don’t need to preach about going green. However, you can include the importance of protecting the environment in your conversation with family, friends, and colleagues whenever there is an opportunity to do so. Creating awareness is even easier in the age of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You can simply post messages about your own green initiatives.
• Keep yourself with up-to-date information about environment. I know it is not the most exciting thing that you would like to follow. We prefer following up with the movie stars and other entertainment gossips. However, spending few minutes per week in learning about environment will greatly help you maintain your go green goal.
• Finally, enjoy and be proud of yourself for helping the environment. Always remember, when you help the environment, you are helping others and yourself.

Green Fun Facts: (Source: Indiana Department of Education)

While this recipe can not tell you how much calories you would gain or lose by helping the environment, here are some fun green facts to cheer you up:

• People taking public transportation saved 855 millions of gallons saved (equal to 45 million barrels of oil) each year. This is roughly the energy needed to power a quarter of all American homes annually.
• For every ton of paper that is recycled, the following is saved: 7,000 gallons of water; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months.
• Leaving your car at home twice a week can cut greenhouse gas emissions over 1,500 pounds per year.
  The average adult breathes about 3,400 gallons of air a day.
• Make sure to use the restroom before you fly. Each airplane flush uses enough fuel to drive a car for six miles.

I hope you can use this recipe and add your own flavors to make it more interesting.