Going green for St. Patrick's Day

Hi world,

Earlier today we posted a little quip on assorted social media:

“Want to go green for St. Patrick's Day? Reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, conserve.”

It's easy to say and do, but we thought we would expand and give you some more definite information. The US Environmental Protection Agency has a whole site dedicated to it here: http://www2.epa.gov/recycle, as does the San Juan Islands Conservation District: http://sanjuanislandscd.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/composting.pdf.

But in case you don't feel like clicking the links, here's the upshot:

Reduce, reuse, recycle is laid out in order of importance. Those “three Rs” are always said in that order for that reason. (Well, unless you also now have the Jack Johnson song stuck in your head. If not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSM2riAEX4U)

Reduce:

As in buy less. Do you need the kitchen gadget that you'll use once and will sit in a drawer for a year before you contemplate it again? Do you need to get whatever you're purchasing individually wrapped or will bulk do?

Reuse:

This one's easy. All those canvas bags in the trunk of your car? They not only are good for the environment but good for your hands. Grocery store bags, paper or plastic, both have drawbacks that the reusable bags do not. Something cold creating condensation will go through a paper bag. Something heavy will turn a plastic bag into a torture device.

Recycle:

From PET bottles to car batteries, we can recycle almost everything now, generally for free and close by, if not at home.

Compost:

Ok, ok, this is something we're less acquainted with, so allow us to quell your fears. It is not having a nasty, smelly bucket of rotting after-dinner under your sink, festering. Or in your backyard. It is recycling, just with food. Everything herbaceous (planty) you would normally throw away you just put in a different bin. Onion bits, teabags and coffee grounds, breads and pastas – anything that originated with a plant, even paper can be composted. The only exception (as far as we know) to this rule is eggshells. If you have land, compost is wonderful fertiliser. If you do not, most towns have somewhere you can take your compost, from municipal yards to community gardens. Some will even pick it up along with your garbage and recycling.

Conserve:

Again, we've been hearing this one for a while. Turn off your water while you're brushing your teeth. Turn your car off instead of idling. We know these and it is just a matter of making them a habit – making all of these a habit.

These are only our suggestions and we don't want to tell you how to live your life, but it is like everything we do: one person makes very little difference, but many can effect real change.

-SWW

Also, if you want to wear green for St. Patrick's Day, we recommend green undies. You'll feel naughty all day.

What resources do you use?

Hi world,

This is just going to be a short post and question(s). Looking in on @StartupCanada's #StartupChats on Twitter twice a week has been interesting, funny, and educational, which, in posts that always include a hashtag and max out at 140 characters, is pretty darn impressive.

image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

This is not an advertisement for that company or that particular chat but a reminder to all entrepreneurs that there are a great many resources for information and advice for what to do and how to do it outside of whatever pages your internet search may come up with. Which is good, because no one resource should be taken as gospel.

So here is what we want to know:

Where do you go for advice?

What pages and communities do you use?

What are your recommendations?

We are always looking for new ideas to not only better our business or marketing but ourselves. Trying to be active members in our communities, both online and at home is part of that, but we won't turn down invitations to outside groups or ideas as long as they work with and for us. Because in the end, we are looking to be a benefit and have a benefit and don't feel like we need to hide that.

That's it for today, world. How can we be of benefit to each other?

-SWW

World Wildlife Day

Hi world,

So you want to save the planet? Well, you can't. Not by yourself, anyway. What you can do is be a part of a group working toward the same goal, and since today is World Wildlife Day, that is what you should focus on.

There is an inherent problem with things like World Wildlife Day, however. We think of big animals: lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! The animals we want to save are cute (like pandas), or majestic (like eagles), or beautiful (like the short-crested coquette, which, along with being a very colourful hummingbird clearly has one of the best names available, along with the Thaumatodryinus tuukkaraski, which as a hockey fan is indescribably playful).

We think of exotic animals: leopards and gorillas and rhinos, and that's not entirely our fault. These species have great PR and in order to gain your attention, they are used as poster-species. We don't think about the Aaandonta anguarana, a very basic-looking land snail on the critically endangered list from IUCN, or Stigmaphyllon nudiflorum, a small plant in Ecuador, or any more than 100 of the 4635 species on the critically endangered list.

That is good; these animals need saving too, but there are .. wait. “Lions and tigers and bears.” We have bears. They're right here. They are so right here and their habitats are so encroached upon that they are walking into people's homes at random, in large cities like Vancouver, BC, where the police receive over 7,000 calls a year about black bears in residential areas. So if it's not all exotic and spectacular mammals that live on different continents, what is it? It's about the world. What is “over there” from here, is “here”, to over there. Just because your city is not home to the rare red-beaked, meringue-crested giraffe-hoofed water squazzle doesn't mean that it doesn't need help. (And really, don't you kind of want that to exist?)

The truth of the matter too is that it is not a problem that is far away, that is “over there”. It's here, in our backyards, in our parks, on our coasts and in our mountains. It's here and it's right now. Critically endangered does not mean we can sit back and wait for a few generations to pass before we do something; it means that a few generations from now, they will be extinct. This sounds scary and is meant to. It also sounds like a monumental task, and it is, but the sooner it is acted upon, the sooner something can be done.

We need to help, and we can make a difference. The “us” we, not the “other people” we. Not the “yeah, yeah, all of us” but the you and I we.

It is difficult to see the forest through the trees, as it were, and hard to see how one person can make any sort of difference to such a vast issue, but therein lies the joy: you are one person, as am I, but we are many, and we can effect change. World Wildlife Day is not about one person doing something and then ignoring the situation for a year. It is about a community working together. You, as an individual can do that. You can make a small donation and spread the word and ignore it for a year, easing your conscience, and that is just as ok as someone who can afford more – more time, more money, who has more interest. No one is asking to put you out or make your life difficult. If you can volunteer or be active in some other way, if you can afford to make a large donation or use your skills to raise awareness, I am sure it would be appreciated, but it is not necessary. What is necessary is that something be done, and we can no longer wait for the hypothetical someone else to do it. We have to play an active role in our own world.

I (personally, as the writer of this blog) can afford to make a small donation and raise some awareness, so that is what I am doing. What will you be doing? What can you afford? Time? Money? Education? If you are interested in helping in whatever way, big or small, financial or not, please go to: http://www.wildlifeday.org and get involved.

If you're reading this after March 3, CITES is on social media:

on twitter.com/wildlifeday

on facebook.com/WorldWildlifeDay

on youtube.com/worldwildlifeday

on flickr.com/photos/worldwildlifeday

Mention us:

on twitter.com/shawwaterworks

on facebook.com/Shaw-Water-Works

on https://plus.google.com/ShawWaterWorks

Go do something and help the world. March 3, World Wildlife Day.

-SWW