Tips for Environmentally friendly living:

·  Set your refrigerator between 37 to 40 degrees to cool sufficiently without wasting electricity.

·  A convection oven cooks 25 to 30 percent quicker than a traditional oven.

·  Run your dishwasher at midnight instead of during peak hours.

·  Skip the garbage disposal and try composting instead.

·  Use "passive boiling" whenever possible. Don't boil pasta or potatoes as long as a recipe calls for. Boiled water takes a long time to cool. Turn off the burner soon after you hit a boil, put a lid on the pot, and the "cooking" will be done fuel-free.

·  Microwave water for tea or using a hot water pot instead of turning on the stove. Parboiling vegetables in the microwave. Things like soaking dishes in the sink and using the dishwasher as merely a drying rack.

 Top Green Eating Tips

1. When you eat organic, don’t just picture the healthy food you are putting in your body, picture the healthy ecosystems which produced that food, the workers who are safer from chemicals, the land, water, and air that is being protected, and the wildlife that is being allowed to thrive. 
2. Feast on Fair Trade fare
   Fair trade certified food ensures a proper wage and working conditions for those who harvest and handle it. But fair trade is green for the environment as well.
3. Go local
   Buying seasonal, local food is a boon for the environment for a lot of reasons. Since most food travels many miles to reach your table (1,500 miles, on average), locally sourced food cuts back on the climate-change impacts of transportation. Local food also generally uses less packaging, is fresher and tastier, and comes in more varieties. It also supports small local growers and lets them get more for their produce by not having to spend so much on packing, processing, refrigeration, marketing, and shipping. The best way to track down local food is at farmers markets or through community supported agriculture (CSA), which often offer home delivery.
   
   
4. Don’t follow the pack
   Instead of buying foods that come in extensive packaging (most of which is petroleum-based plastics) look for unpackaged or minimally packaged foods, experiment with bringing your own containers and buying in bulk, or pick brands that use bio-based plastic packing. And of course try and recycle or reuse any packaging you end up with. [Trader Joe, we love you but it’s a packaging nightmare in there]
   
   
5. Compost the leftovers
   Greening your meals isn’t just about the food that winds up on the plate—it’s the entire process, the whole lifecycle shebang. Composting leftovers will ease the burden on the landfill, give you great soil, and keep your kitchen waste basket from smelling. Apartment dwellers and yardless wonders can do it too! And yes, a composting toilet can be part of the miraculous cycle as well. (see below for more resources)
   
   
6. Grow your own
   In the garden, in the greenhouse, in the window box, or something fancier. Even urbanites can get quite a bit of good eats from not much space.
   
   
7. To and from
   Just as buying locally grown food cuts on “miles per calorie,” buying from local sellers cuts back on emissions, fuel consumption, and unnecessary traffic.
   
   
8. Just enough
   Put some extra planning into the amount of food you cook will cut back on waste. If it’s something that will spoil quickly, try to avoid making more than you or your family can eat. If you’ve got extra, make a friend happy with a home cooked surprise. If it’s a bigger affair, give the leftovers to those who may need it more.
   
   
9. Eat it Raw
   Many people swear by the benefits of eating raw. Whatever the health advantages may be, preparing raw food consumes less energy and because raw food is usually fresh by definition, it is more likely to be locally grown.
   
   
10. Ease up on the meat
    Meat is the most resource-intensive food on the table and eating less of it can be the single most green move a person makes. Producing meat requires huge amounts of water, grain, land, and other inputs including hormones and antibiotics, and leads to pollution of soil, air, and water. A pound of beef requires around 12,000 gallons of water to produce, compared to 60 gallons for a pound of potatoes. If you’re a meat eater, for starters, try cutting out a serving of meat each week. Going vegetarian or vegan is a profoundly meaningful environmental choice, and it’s done wonders for Chris Martin and Prince.

"It pays to green now."

Tucked into last year's unprecedented $700 billion bailout plan, Congress not only added an extension of the eco-friendly Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was set to expire at the end of 2007, but it also sweetened the pot for homeowners looking to green up their homes.

Starting in 2009, a number of energy-saving steps will garner tax breaks for green consumers. Installing a photovoltaic system for solar energy, for example, will net you a tax credit worth 30 percent of the total cost; at www.solar-estimate.org you can find out the price and potential savings of installing a system in your neighborhood. Or if you're for wind energy, you'll get up to $4,000 or 30% of the cost of installing a small home windmill system to generate energy.

Check out the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's website (http://www.nrel.gov/eis/imby/)  to see how much energy you can expect to get from a windmill. For homeowners who want another alternative, there will be a $500 onetime credit for installing energy-efficient windows, insulation or a central air system.

We have put together a list of definitions which we have begun to see and use very often these days.  Wherever you go and see there is something about being and buying green.  It has become a point of attention now but do we really know what it all means and how is it relevant to each and every one of us!

What is Global warming?

Global warming is theincrease in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C  (1.33 ± 0.32 °F ) during the 100 years ending in 2005.

What is meant by 'Green house gases'?

Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.  Common greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons. 

What is meant by Environmentally friendly?

Environmentally friendly (eco-friendly and nature friendly) are synonyms used to refer to goods and services considered to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment.

What is meant by Carbon Footprint?

A carbon footprint is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product” (UK Carbon Trust 2008). An individual, nation or organization's carbon footprint is measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it.

What is meant by Renewable Energy?

A carbon footprint is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product” (UK Carbon Trust 2008). An individual, nation or organization's carbon footprint is measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it.

What is meant by Recycling?

Recycling involves processing used materials into new products in order to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.

What is meant by Composting?

Composting is the purposeful biodegradation of organic matter, such as yard and food waste. The decomposition is performed by micro-organisms, mostly bacteria, but also yeasts and fungi.  In low temperature phases a number of macro-organisms, such as springtails, ants, nematodes, isopods and earthworms also contribute to the process, as well as soldier fly, fruit flies and fungus gnats.

What is meant by Biodegradable or Biodegradation?

Biodegradation is the process by which organic substances are broken down by the enzymes produced by living organisms. The term is often used in relation to ecology, waste management and environmental remediation (bioremediation). Organic material can be degraded aerobically, with oxygen, or anaerobically, without oxygen. A term related to biodegradation is biomineralisation, in which organic matter is converted into minerals. Biosurfactant, an extracellular surfactant secreted by microorganism enhances the biodegradation process. 

What is Vermicompost?

Vermicompost, also known as Vcompost, vermicast, worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by some species of earthworm.

Containing water-soluble nutrients and bacteria, vermicompost is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.[1] The process of producing vermicompost is called vermicomposting.

 What is Sustainable Agriculture?

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities.  It refers to the ability of a farm to produce food indefinitely, without causing severe or irreversible damage to ecosystem health. Two key issues are biophysical (the long-term effects of various practices on soil properties and processes essential for crop productivity) and socio-economic (the long-term ability of farmers to obtain inputs and manage resources such as labor). Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas (used in converting atmospheric nitrogen into synthetic fertilizer), or mineral ores (e.g., phosphate). Possible sources of nitrogen that would, in principle, be available indefinitely, include:

1. Recycling crop waste and livestock or human manure
2. Growing legume crops and forages such as peanuts or alfalfa that form symbioses with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia
3. Industrial production of nitrogen by the Haber Process uses hydrogen, which is currently derived from natural gas, (but this hydrogen could instead be made by electrolysis of water using electricity (perhaps from solar cells or windmills)) or
4. Genetically engineering (non-legume) crops to form nitrogen-fixing symbioses or fix nitrogen without microbial symbionts.

What is 'Bio-Gas'?

Bio-gas typically refersto a gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas originates from biogenic material and is a type of biofuel.