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May 9th-15th is Bike to Work Week! Participating areas are offering free breakfast and prizes to cyclists. No matter where you are though, take this opportunity to start a healthy habit for yourself and the planet!
Take the scenic route to work this week (May 9th-15th) on your road bike, mountain bike or cruiser and reduce your carbon footprint. You can also receive free breakfast (in participating areas), win prizes and feel energized and ready for the day. I’ve been riding my bike to work everyday for the past few weeks and not only am I not polluting and saving gas money, I feel great too! Hopefully after a week of riding, you’ll make it a habit for life!
Click here for the official Bike To Work website.
Come celebrate the Earth with live music, food and fun activities!
Stop by Santa Cruz’s Earth Day event today from 11am-4pm at San Lorenzo Park Benchlands. There will be food, live music, booths, raffles, and lots of fun activities throughout the day. Just remember, this is a zero waste event so bring your own water bottle and bag for shopping! Hope to see you there!
Mar
Polystyrene or styrofoam food packaging contributes to a huge amount of litter on land and in our waterways. We can’t recycle it and it doesn’t biodegrade so the only solution is to stop using it. Monterey County is considering an ordinance to reduce the use of polystyrene in the county’s unincorporated areas.
Monterey has already successfully banned the use of all polystyrene foam food packaging by food providers in the city. This ban,
Polystyrene containers are not recyclable or biodegradable.
as well as others in Santa Cruz and San Francisco for example, helps to decrease the amount of styrofoam that ends up on our streets, in our parks, creeks, and on our shorelines and in our ocean. The next step for Monterey is to restrict the product’s use from the unincorpoarted areas in the county as well.
April 6th the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will hold an open city council meeting to come to a final decision on the proposed ban. The more voices we have in support of this ban, the more likely the city will decide to pass the ordinance. This is yet another important step for reducing the amount of non-biodegradable products in our waste stream.
Polystyrene is not recyclable and because it is so lightweight it frequently flies off dump trucks into streams, community parks and our oceans, threatening the health of wildlife. It easily breaks apart which makes it difficult for clean-up crews to pick up, resulting in much of the debris left on the ground and in waterways.
Its tendency to break into smaller pieces also threatens wildlife. Birds and marine mammals, for example, ingest the polystyrene bits leading to reduced appetite, reduced nutrient absorption and potential starvation.
This Thursday, February 18th, the very first What’s Next Lecture series presented a panel on the subject of Sustainability and Social Innovation. The varied panel discussed the current positive changes taking place in our political and social system and how we can help to give strength and momentum to these movements.
We are in a time of transition. More and more businesses are going down the “alley of sustainability”, to use Thomas Van Dyck’s words, and it seems that we are moving towards a greener age. But are we moving fast enough? And is it ok for large corporations to jump on the bandwagon? Will their participation cheapen the movement or give it the big push ahead it needs?
The panel at the Doing Well by Doing Good lecture included Peter Meehan, CEO of Newman’s Own Organics, KoAnn Skrzyniarz, CEO of Sustainable Life Media, and Thomas W. Van Dyck, Senior Vice President of Socially Responsible Investing at RBC Wealth Management. These inspirational and innovative leaders tackled questions like the ones above and left the audience with two important take home messages: Vote with your dollars and follow your passion throughout your life.
If we want this new green “industrial revolution”, as Coann calls it, to take flight then we need to tell corporations what we want and what we care about. We are the major stakeholders and thus have the right to demand greener, more environmentally and socially responsible businesses.
Wal-mart, because of our consumer demand for organics and green business practices, is stepping up and offering organic food, installing solar panels and refusing products that aren’t green. This demand for green products pushed Clorox to finally create an eco-friendly cleaning product. Long overdue, this product has been a wild success and it’s all thanks to consumer demand.
Need something to do tonight? How about attend the Sustainability and Social Innovation lecture at the Kuumbwa? Inspirational speakers with great ideas to share; get your tickets before they’re sold out!
If you’re interested in how businesses are meeting the current social, economic and environmental challenges then tonight’s What’s Next Lecture, “Sustainability and Social Innovation: Doing Well By Doing Good” is for you. The talk is from 7:00-9:00pm at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz and tickets are $15 for the general public or free for students with a valid school ID. Visit whatsnextlectures.com for details.
Monarch butterflies travel incredible distances to reach their winter migration spots. You can witness their colorful congregation along the Pacific Coast of California, especially in the Eucalyptus trees of Santa Cruz.
Monarchs roosting in a Eucalyptus tree.
This Saturday I was walking through the green space by West Cliff, looking up at the trees, when I realized the air was pulsating with life. It seemed that on each Eucalyptus leaf there bloomed a brilliant orange flower, except that some of these flowers kept leaping into flight.
In the grassy patch I had stumbled upon, monarch butterflies in large groups fluttered their orange and black stainless glass wings, enlivening the still blue February sky. It was so peaceful yet so invigorating. So full of life.
Feb
Riding your bike, walking or taking the bus to school or work is a great way to clear your head before hitting the books or starting your day at the office. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions which is the goal of the Cabrillo College and Ecology Action ‘Go Green’ campaign.
Cabrillo students will park their bikes, not their cars, for the college's 'Go Green' campaign
It’s time to park the car and hop on a bike, lace up your walking shoes, grab your skateboard or pick up a bus schedule. Cabrillo College in Aptos, Ca starts their third annual ‘Go Green’ campaign with Ecology Action today through April 22nd (Earth Day) in a community effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars.
Students are encouraged to sign a pledge, promising to leave their vehicles at home and use alternative modes of transportation to get to school for the next couple of months. Students who pledge are also entered into a raffle for prizes from Santa Cruz bike store The Spokesman and cycling equipment makers Giro and Fox Racing Shox.
During last year’s ‘Go Green’ campaign, 450 students out of the 17,000 that attend Cabrillo signed the pledge. Hopefully this year more students will join in reducing their carbon footprint and perhaps some will decide to change their transportation habits for good. Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Jan
Come to Capitola Whole Foods for a free demo and a free Chico Bag coupon, sent straight to your phone! Save paper and disposable bags while grocery shopping!
Eric Ressler, co-founder of EcoCoupons, will be at the Capitola Whole Foods today from 11-2. Stop by to learn more about our site and to get a free chico bag with your Whole Foods purchase of $30 or more. We look forward to seeing you there!
Here is the address:
1710 41st Avenue
Capitola, CA 95010-2503
(831) 464-2900
Jan
Free chico bag with purchase of $30 or more!
Join us this Saturday 11:00-2:00 at the Whole Foods Market located at 911 Soquel Ave for a free demo of our site. Whole Foods will be offering a day-long coupon, good only all day tomorrow, for a free chico bag with your purchase of $30 or more. Only valid at Santa Cruz at Capitola Locations. See you there!