Giving for Good

Each of us has important people in our lives whom we like to honor with tokens of love, gratitude, and affection. The quest to find meaningful gifts that will be enjoyed and not stowed can be daunting, expensive, and exhausting. I have assembled a smattering of ideas for alternative gifting that I hope will help and inspire you. 

Honor the Person Who Needs Nothing with a Gift that Keeps on Giving 

• Consider making a gift to Kiva in his or her name. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Here’s how it works: You make a gift to Kiva in the amount of $25 or more in honor of someone. Kiva notifies the individual about your gift with an invitation to search through the Kiva database of over 5,000 loans and select a borrower. When the loan is repaid, the process repeats! 
• At Oxfam Unwrapped YOU choose the gift when you honor someone. (For example: A Christmas donkey for $150 or a toilet for $50.) You receive a humorous gift card to send. 
• Heifer International works in much the same way. You can browse their gift catalogue here. 

Stuck with what to give a grandchild? 

• How about the gift of an adventure with you? Check out the intergenerational offerings at Road Scholar. 
• Or consider a gift to his or her college fund. Ask your son or daughter for info on how to make a contribution. Or, set up a CHET account yourself and take the CT tax deduction.

If you want to give a tangible gift, try these ideas:

Edible Gifts:

• Homemade baked goods.
• A gift certificate to a favorite coffee shop, deli, or restaurant.
• Support a family farmer by shopping at CitySeed Farmers Market (Saturdays and Sundays until Dec 18) OR online through Local Harvest with its catalogue of over 5500 products including fresh fruits, nuts, dried fruits, and non-edibles from beeswax candles to clothing and baskets.

Shop for Good:

•  Make someone’s life better by shopping at Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade retailer, with an online shopping site AND a physical store on Chapel Street. The company strives to improve the livelihood of artisans in developing countries. According to the website, “$140 million in sustainable income has been earned by makers who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed since our founding in 1946.”
• Shop to benefit a local not-for-profit such as Creative Arts Workshop’s Celebration of American Crafts. 
• Shop at a museum gift shop: Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Art Gallery, the Peabody Museum, or the New Haven Museum Shop.
• Give a green and useful gift like LED lightbulbs, good for the environment and for the user’s budget. IKEA is a great place to shop for these; it is the only type of bulb they sell.
• Also at IKEA: For every toy, piece of play furniture, or children's book sold until December 24, the IKEA Foundation will donate $1 supporting children's right to play and develop. The New Haven store is collecting soft toys for the Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, so buy a few extra to put in the donation bin. 

Other Ideas:

• Do you have too many cookbooks? Pass some of them on, perhaps adding tabs for your favorite recipes and decorating with a gadget or two instead of a bow. 
• Make a gift. 
• Do you have too many notecards? Give them, along with a selection of beautiful stamps, to someone who still likes to correspond the old-fashioned way. 
• Divide and repot your plants. (Be sure to keep them warm when you transport them).
• If you have a skill you would like to share with someone, give the gift of lesson(s).

Happy Gifting!

[Note: This is an edited version of an article I wrote for the holiday issue of HomeHaven News, a monthly newsletter for the members of HomeHaven, an organization in New Haven helping seniors to "age in place." While some of the ideas are geared to shopping locally, I hope they will give you ideas for ways to help the community in which you live.]

It’s Earth Day Today!

Americans have been observing Earth Day since 1970,  when some 20,000,000 Americans participated in a national “teach-in” proposed by Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin). Gaylord’s hope for Earth Day was to send a message to Washington that public opinion was solidly behind a bold political agenda on environmental problems.

In the decade following the first Earth Day, 28 pieces of environmental legislation were passed, including: the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, the Water Pollution and Control Act Amendments, the Resource Recovery Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act!

At this moment in history, that is simply astounding!

Earth Day is a good day to pause and reflect on the state of our Big Blue Marble in Space; it is also a good day to celebrate with others or to make a lifestyle change, large or small.

In New Haven, Connecticut, where I live, Earth Day is the kick-off to a series of environmentally focused events. Here are just a few:

The New Haven Land Trust’s Long Wharf Nature Preserve Clean Up (tomorrow from 10 am - 1 pm).

The 8th Annual Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride (April 30); there is still time to join a team or support a rider (like me). 

And, the entire month of May is Bike Month. 

Whether or not we make it to an event, there are always changes we can implement in our daily lives to lessen our own carbon footprint.

Need some inspiration?

Check out IKEA's Sustainability Guide. Yes, the guide, with the tagline “A Healthier Planet Begins at Home,” does highlight IKEA’s line of sustainable products. But it also includes a number of useful tips for conserving energy in the home that do not require a purchase.

I shared some ideas of my own after the Paris Climate talks ended.

One of the easiest things you can do is eat your leftovers! Another is to leave your car at home and take a walk or a bike ride instead.

Mother’s Day is coming soon; the emails for sales and special offers are already hitting the inbox. While we make plans to honor the mothers in our lives, let’s not forget to honor the most important mother of all — Mother Earth. 

Happy Earth Day!

Ten Things to Love About IKEA

In 2003, I thought I wanted a mall to come to New Haven. I wanted Macy’s back. And a Nordstrom’s. I was tired of having to drive out of town to buy shoes and underwear.

Instead we became the first city in New England to get an IKEA.

I have come to love this store and this company. 

Here are a few of the reasons why:

• When IKEA installed solar panels on its roof in 2012, it was the largest array of solar panels in the state. 
• IKEA is a good source of local jobs and the workers seem happy to work there.
• Coffee is always free if you join the Family (free membership). 
• Its restaurant offers a great view of the city (and the I-95 construction project) and is a great place to have a business meeting or a study group.
• It is the perfect place to burn off some calories when the weather outside is too hot or too cold to go for a long walk. And it is always fun to imagine what it would be like to live in the various sized display “homes” where there always seems to be ample space until you realize the occupants have no personal possessions.
• IKEA has a convenient “wall” for responsible recycling many types of items including spent CFLs and rechargeable batteries.
• The grocery section is stocked with a variety of organic products including drinks and jams.
• As of this month most of their seafood is MSC or ASC certified. 
• The restaurant now has a VEGAN alternative to the famed meatball plate. Since spring vegetable balls GRÖNSAKSBULLAR have been on the menu. The ingredients will vary with the seasons. The GRÖNSAKSBULLAR currently on the menu have a kale base and come with a side of steamed vegetables and cauliflower “gravy.” Very tasty. Every day can be Meatless Monday at IKEA!

AND…

• As of September 1, IKEA stores worldwide will only sell LED bulbs and lighting. 

You can read more about sustainable IKEA here.

I choose IKEA over a mall any day.

Saturday Short Subjects: You Can’t Save the World If You Are Dead

A few weeks back Jared Diamond (of Guns, Germs, and Steel fame) wrote an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times: “That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer.” Heed his warning. 

According to the CDC, each year one in every three adults 65 and older falls. Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury death, as well as the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma.

Here’s an easy first step. Buy a tub mat for your own bathroom(s) for sure and some more to give loved ones. [Younger people can fall, too.] This smiley-faced blue one was a bargain at IKEA; the large holes makes it easy to hang up to air out between uses.

Part of a line of home safety products called PATRULL, it was displayed next to an array of bright yellow safety vests with silver reflective stripes, available in sizes from kids to Adult XL. Also a bargain, they will not prevent a fall, but they may keep you from being hit by a car. They are perfect for anytime you find yourself on or near a busy road — whether riding your bike, shoveling snow, picking up trash, planting trees, or crossing 101 in the dark. Keep one or two in your car trunk in case you have an emergency and need to exit your vehicle. These vests conform to established safety standards and are washable up to 25 times.

Diamond’s piece was inspired by his recent experiences among traditional New Guineans who have a “hypervigilant attitude toward repeated low risks,” such as the avoidance of sleeping under dead trees.  I happen to believe that some of the “exaggerated risks” Diamond makes light of in his article — including genetically modified crops, nuclear radiation, and “crazy gunmen” —  do matter. But I realize that you can’t be an agent of change if you are dead or incapacitated because you fell and broke your hip or smashed your head while taking a shower.

Be Safe. Go buy that tub mat (and perhaps a safety vast, and maybe some Yaktrax if it is icy where you live). 

Stay well. Enjoy the rest of what for many of you is a long weekend.

And, please come back on Monday to learn about yet another ancient grain.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Foraging for Ocean-Friendly Fish…

in all kinds of places. It’s not as easy to purchase ocean (and consumer)-friendly seafood as in the old days when you could walk into the neighborhood fish market and purchase the local catch.

Now it’s important to consider whether the seafood for sale is ocean-friendly — caught in a manner and quantity which will allow the stock to thrive, or farmed under clean and ecologically sound conditions. Is the fish a Best Choice, a Good Alternative, or one you should Avoid altogether?

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program provides all the tools you need to make choices which are good for the ocean, in  the form of a handy, frequently updated, pocket guide to help you select the best seafood from your available options. The Guide exists in printed form which you can pick up at the Aquarium or a wide variety of locations if you are lucky enough to visit the Monterey Bay area. You can also access it online and print out your own copy. The Guide is tailored for different geographic regions, so be sure to select the version of the Guide correct for you. [There is also a National version and one for Sushi.] And, if you have a smartphone, you are in luck. Download the free app and you will be able to enter the name of a fish and immediately access information on your selection and see the program’s recommendation. If you use the app on your phone, be sure to enter any good sources you find so others can share in your good fortune through Project Fishmap.

I brought my phone with me on Saturday as I did my weekend shopping. At Whole Foods I bought a 2 lb. bag of BlueBay cultured mussels, farmed on Prince Edward Island in Canada, a Best Choice. Relatively inexpensive at $5.99, and higher in Omega 3s than any other shellfish, they were also very easy to prepare. Farmed mussels are clean and beardless — no scrubbing necessary. That night we steamed them in a bottle's worth of local beer until they opened. [Tasty broth, I might add.]

Next I hit Trader Joe’s in the hopes of stocking the freezer. At TJ’s you need to be careful as there are a few good choices amongst quite a number of not so good ones. By carefully reading the labels and using the app, I was able to pick up arctic char farmed in Iceland (a Best Choice) and some crab cakes from Maryland (a Good Alternative) which I was cautioned to eat in limited quantity due to concerns about mercury content. 

Next up was a stop at home to put the purchases away. But one errand remained – a stop at IKEA for lightbulbs and a cheap cafeteria lunch. IKEA now offers Atlantic Saithe (another name for Atlantic Pollock) in their New Haven cafeteria as a replacement for their previous offering of farmed salmon (on the Avoid list). IKEA sources have informed me through email  that the saithe is sourced from MSC-certified fisheries off the coast of Norway, which would seem to make it a Good Alternative or Best Choice, depending on which type of nets were used. I was also informed that this information is not displayed since IKEA has chosen not MSC-certify their restaurants. Saithe is a mild, flaky fish, and the price of the meal is certainly a deal. I’m glad to know I can enjoy it from time to time in relatively good conscience. I haven’t given up on trying to find out more, and I am hoping that IKEA has set improving their seafood sourcing as one of their goals.

Saithe with jerusalem artichoke gravy, etc…

That’s a wrap on my weekend of fish hunting.

I hope you’ll join me in watching what seafood you eat. There is great power in numbers. The more people who ask for ocean-friendly seafood, the better! 

I am one of the Aquarium’s many volunteer Seafood Watch Advocates. If you decide you’d like to take your commitment to saving the oceans to the next level, check it out. It’s free.

Happy Monday!

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

On My Radar 5.5.12

Recent News. Happenings. Discoveries…Here are some of the items on my radar.

GOOD NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

The Green is on the mend. And thanks to a number of generous donations, the price tag for the City of New Haven is much lower than was expected. You can see photos of the air spading and composting here.

Rock to Rock met its $100, 000 fundraising goal (double the amount of last year’s)! The total raised was well over $90,000 on April 21, the morning of the ride. On May 2, event organizer Joel Tolman emailed this news: “This morning, IKEA New Haven chipped in with the amount we needed to reach our $100,000 goal.” Over 750 riders participated in the various rides (and had lots of fun). The money raised supports the efforts of 21 environmental groups. The money is still coming in. As of today, the total is $100,154! 

Chris Randall captured two loraxes passing West Rock.

Neighborhood Housing Service’s Home Improvement and Energy Conservation Lab was awarded Platinum LEED status. Read more about it and check out the before and after photos here. This is a big deal. The lab joins three other LEED Platinum buildings in New Haven – Kroon Hall (Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies), Yale Sculpture Building and Gallery, and 360 State Street (a 500 unit apartment building).

Higher One celebrated the opening of its new headquarters in Science Park. 

MakeHaven, a gathering place and workshop for makers, creators, tinkerers and dreamers, has opened on 266 State Street. The May 16 workshop on “Light Your Bike” (with electroluminescent wire) is filled. But you can purchase a ticket ($60) for a second workshop, date TBA.

There’s a new source of news in town – The Daily Nutmeg, an online publication delivered free to subscribers via email.

United Community Nursery School is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Happy Birthday UCNS! Thanks for providing a great start to school (and life) for hundreds of New Haven kids over the past 5 decades.

GOOD EATS

Sustainable fish is often on the IKEA New Haven restaurant menu. The fish? Saithe from Norway. More about this in a future post.

The number of owner/members in the Elm City Market continues to grow. When the store opened its doors on November 2, membership was at 750. There were 1505 members when the store’s site was last updated.

SlowFood Shoreline made a well-attended (as in sold out) foraging expedition to Wolfe Park in Monroe on April 28. I was sorry I had to miss it.

CitySeed Farmers Markets at Wooster Square (Sat.) and Edgewood Park (Sun.) resume their summer schedules this week.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

TONIGHT, MAY 5th

11:34 pm ET

Supermoon 

The perigee (closest to earth) full moon on May 5, 2012 will be as much as 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than other full moons of 2012. Don’t miss this spectacular free event!

May 12th

9:00 am - noon

Yale Day of Service 

My friend Tim and I will be planting trees in Wooster Square.

May 16th

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

New Haven Green Drinks 

Marydale DeBor will speak on Plow to Plate

at Sitar Indian Restaurant

45 Grove Street, New Haven

ontheroadtogreenness NEWS: 

I passed my Master Gardener written test and am now out and about doing my community service hours and fielding questions in the New Haven County Master Gardening office. Need some free advice? Call us at 203.407.3168.

I have added a new gadget to the blog – Google Translate. You can now read my blog in nearly every language, including Esperanto, instantly. Give it a try.   

I survived a cyberattack from South Korea which resulted in an advertisement for Windows in my comments section on a number of posts. I think I caught them all, and  since I will now be approving all comments before they are posted, it should never happen again.

My page views continue to rise. Thanks for all the tweets, +1s and forwards. Please “visit” again soon. Together we can make a difference.

Changing Your Way of Light

One very easy way to make your carbon footprint smaller is to swap out your incandescent lightbulbs for compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). For now, it is still your choice to pick incandescents over CFLs. But before too long, what we have all come to know as “the light bulb” will disappear from the store shelves.

The incandescent lightbulb has remained pretty much unchanged since it was made commercially viable by Thomas Edison in 1879. This is the light bulb with which we all grew up — the one used in all the cartoons to indicate “I have an idea.”  


The incandescent light bulb works by first producing heat. A mild electrical current is used to heat up a thin wire filament inside the bulb until it glows and makes light. Unfortunately, this is not an energy-efficient process. And the incandescent’s days are now numbered.


In December 2007 Congress passed an energy bill that will phase out the incandescent light bulb by 2014. The phase-out begins with the 100-watt bulb in 2012 and ends with the 40-watt in 2014.


The US is late to this party. Australia became the first country to announce an outright ban by 2010 on incandescent bulbs, and a number of other countries will lose the incandescent bulb far ahead of us. 


Some manufacturers are ending production earlier than the law mandates. IKEA recently began phasing out the bulbs in its North American stores with the intention of eliminating them entirely by January 1, 2011. 


What is a CFL and Why Switch?
According to the EnergyStar site, “In a CFL, an electric current is driven through a tube containing argon and a small amount of mercury vapor. This generates invisible ultraviolet light that excites a fluorescent coating on the inside of the tube… which then emits visible light.” Although a CFL takes a little more energy when it is first turned on, it is much more efficient than an incandescent bulb once the electricity starts flowing.

A CFL uses about 75% less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an equivalent incandescent bulb. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “If every American home replaced just one light with an EnergyStar light, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, about $700 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 800,000 cars.”


The current cost of a CFL is some 3 times higher than that of an incandescent bulb, but a CFL’s long life and its savings on energy more than make up the difference. HINT 1: You’ll maximize the lifetime savings and effectiveness of your CFLs by keeping them on for 15 minutes or more at a time. HINT 2: EnergyStar qualified CFls will turn on in less than 1 second, and reach at least 80% of their full light output within 3 minutes. Some CFLs are labeled “Instant On.” These turn on quicker but do not last as long.


Shop Around
CFLs come in various shapes and sizes. They have different K (Kelvin numbers) and watt ranges. This all a bit beyond the scope of this blog post, but I have found a link that gives some good pointers for choosing a bulb that will make you happy. Probably he best tip in here is the one about matching the lumens of an incandescent you like to the lumens of the CFL you intend to use to replace it. This information should be found on the bulb packaging. You may want to test drive a few different CFLs before buying a large quantity.


This link also predicts that the reign of the CFL will be short and touts the LED (light-emitting diode) as the bulb of the future. While the LED might be an economical choice for tree lights or to focus light while doing a close task, for most of us the current price tag of LEDs is too high to be a ubiquitous home lighting solution. Test out this link as an example.


Exchange for Change
If you live in New Haven, there is an opportunity for you to try CFLs for FREE! The New Haven Office of Sustainability has partnered with the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund to bring a program dubbed “Exchange for Change” to the Elm City. Through Exchange for Change, residents can trade-in 5 incandescents for 5 CFLs at a number of venues around New Haven over the next few weeks. The give-away CFLs are EnergyStar rated, 60 Watt replacements, 900 lumens, with an average life of 10,000 hours. The box claims that you will save $47.00 in energy costs over the life of the bulb. What’s to lose?


When their long life is over, please dispose of your CFLs at a hazardous waste collection center because they do contain mercury. IKEA and Home Depot both have collection boxes inside the store near the entrance. If you live in the New Haven area, and your town is part of the Regional Water Authority, you can bring your defunct CFLs to HazWaste Central on Sargent Drive most Saturday mornings from late May through mid-October.


Centennial Lightbulb
This is a segue I just can’t resist. In the course of my research I learned of “The Longest Burning Lightbulb in History,” installed in the main firehouse in Livermore, California in 1901. It is small, and serves as a nightlight, but one has to wonder how much juice it has used during its 109 years of light. 

Counting Down to Earth Hour

Here’s hoping you will find yourself in the
dark on March 27, 2010 between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Three years ago in Sydney, Australia, 2.2 million residents and 2,100 businesses turned off the lights in the very first Earth Hour, and by this action made a bold statement about their concern for climate change.

The people of Sydney set an example that has inspired the rest of the world.

The movement is now a global one, and participation has swelled. Nearly one billion people turned out for Earth Hour 2009 – involving 4,100 cities in 87 countries on seven continents. Earth Hour is the largest climate event in history.

Last year, 80 million Americans and 318 U.S. cities officially voted for action with their light switch.  These iconic landmarks from the United States joined with others around the world that went dark for Earth Hour, sending a powerful, visual message demanding action on climate change:
•  Empire State Building
•  Brooklyn Bridge
•  Broadway Theater Marquees
•  Las Vegas Strip
•  United Nations Headquarters
•  Golden Gate Bridge
•  Seattle’s Space Needle
•  Church of Latter-Day Saints Temple
•  Gateway Arch in St. Louis

This year, perhaps, landmarks in your city will be on the list.

WWF (the World Wildlife Fund) is the official sponsor of the event. Go to the Earth Hour website, check out the tools, and see who in your community has already joined the movement. There is still time for you to to lobby for participation by your city government, and to commit your organization, faith community, or place of business to participation in the event. The site has videos of Earth Hour 2009, ideas for events, and all the tools and press releases you might need for spreading the word.

I notice that in New Haven, IKEA has signed on, meaning their familiar presence, adjacent to I-95, will lie in darkness for one hour on Saturday night, March 27. People will notice, and, one would hope, be interested enough to find out why.

WWF has set a goal of over one billion people voting with their light switches on March 27.

Will you be among them?

Many Christians choose to give up something during this season of Lent. Why not consider giving up electricity for one hour on a Saturday night?

If you plan it right, you might even find yourself having some fun in the warm glow of candlelight. Not a bad way to make a statement.