Turning into an Instant Eco Warrior on Twitter with InstaBG

Who said that saving the earth at home, as our tagline states, means limiting your influence to members of the household?

One of the best things you can do to help save the earth is simply by spreading the word, inspiring and reminding others of the need to be more proactive in taking steps to protect the environment. The good thing about spreading the word these days is that we have the Internet, making it super easy to reach out to people without having to step out of your living room. Today, updates and tweets on social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter is the equivalent of word-of-mouth. By simply posting/tweeting something about the environment on your social accounts, you can already help bring more awareness to people in your online circle.

Flooding people with green tweets might, however be a bit counterproductive. A regular tweet will get people’s notice, but tweets exclusively about environmental stuff and your friends and followers might start tuning out your tweets. If you want to show your support of green living without being to aggressive about it, you might want to instead set your Twitter background to show pictures with an environmental theme.

InstaBG is a great app that can help you do this easily. It uses Instagram photos to make a collage of just about any topic you can think of. All you need to do is sign in using your TwitterID, enter an eco-related tag, choose your preferred settings (Note the difference in tile size, spacing, space colors of the sample backgrounds below), click on preview, and click on “Set this image to Twitter” when you are satisfied with the results. You don’t have to have an Instagram account to do this, although you do have the option of using your Instagram photos for the collage. You can also set the background to automatically change each day if you so wish.

InstaBG generated background using “recycle” as tag

InstaBG generated background using “organic” as tag

By doing not only will you end up with nicer Twitter background, but one that shows (and hopefully reminds) people just how much you support environmental initiatives.

Images generated using InstaBG

How being green makes you a better dad

Want to know how to be a good dad? Go green. It is bound to impress your kids and it will also save the planet.

Show an interest in global warming and chat to them about the environment. Kids are very environmentally conscious these days so showing an interest in things they are interested in is always a good way to be better father. If you are father struggling to bond with your teenage daughter or son try talking them about green issues, for instance set up a project to monitor and reduce electricity consumption in the house. Work with them to investigate solar panels and other green energy measures. Also involve your kids in recycling.

Or how about take them on an eco-friendly holiday?

If you are new dad, Diaper Dude have a whole range of eco-friendly products such as eco-friendly diaper bags and bottle holders.

And if they are older and want to buy you something for Fathers Day why not encourage them to buy you some organic beer or wine.

But be warned that there is no sense talking to your kids about environmental issues if you do not take it seriously. Kids can easily recognize hypocrites. They will nod in agreement with you only to please you but then ignore all of your advice and teachings if they think you are a hypocrite.

There is an old saying that we only are renting the world for a little while from its true owners – our children. The choices we make today about our lifestyles and our consumer habits can directly impact many future generations. So you can help your children and be a better parent by not only bringing up topics to talk about in environmental issues, but by also leading by example.

The author writes a dad blog and also contributes to The Freaky an online magazine that features weird news from around the world.

De-cluttering: Nice Home, Better World

It’s the start of the year and the best time to start things fresh. This includes cleaning up your home to start of the year clutter-free.

What you might not have realized though is that cleaning up your house will not only make life a tad more pleasant for everyone living in your place (or a lot more if your place is really messy), but can also help you lessen your carbon footprint.

One of the indirect advantages to the environment that cleaning up your home brings is in helping lower your energy consumption. This is a result of cleaning up and oiling electronic equipment like your refrigerator, light bulbs, electric fans, etc. By cleaning up your the appliances and other electronics in your house, they can run more efficiently, reducing power consumption.

Another advantage to cleaning up is that this is the time you usually find items that you have given up for lost. This means not having to buy stuff that you already have. Obviously, the less things you buy, the better.

General cleaning to me also means giving away the stuff I don’t use, which mostly means clothes and bags. While giving away clothes and other items you no longer might not seem something good for the environment, what you should realize is that this it is a perfect example of “reusing” stuff. Whether you give away your stuff to friends or to charity, the point is that they don’t get stuck too long in the house to the point that they end up unusable. Give your stuff away instead of throwing them in the bin. Not only will you end up with less clutter in your home, but you’ll also end up feeling good about it while helping the environment.

De-clutter Mind Map by Paul Foreman via Mind Map Inspiration

Dreaming of a Green Christmas

We all know how the song goes.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…

Well, here at Yurto what we dream of is a greener Christmas for everyone.

We all know that holidays are supposed to be fun, but we encourage everyone to be more responsible so that we can indeed have more fun without sacrificing the environment. Here are some simple tips for an environmental-friendly Christmas.

• Re-use old decor – We know that part of what makes everything feel so festive during Christmas is all the new and bright shiny decor you put up all over the house, but if your old Christmas decor is still in good shape, resist the urge to replace it with new stuff and just put up the old ones. Hey, if your decor survives year after year, who knows you’ll even end up really cooler with vintage Christmas decor. If you really need some new decor though, try flea markets and antique shops. The goal is to re-use as much as you can. And if you’re really adamant about everything being new, make sure that you at least give your old decor to someone who’ll be more than happy to get perfectly good decor, although the next holiday season is still a year away.
• Do away with wrappers – I personally use newspaper and old magazines when I wrap gifts. Those who have kids can also use your kids’ artwork as Christmas wrappers, making your wrappers not just environmental friendly, but also more personal. Using pretty and durable boxes are also a good idea, since the boxes can always be re-used.
• Think quality with gifts – Instead of buying your kids many gifts that will end up broken and unused in a couple of days, buy just one quality gift that they will appreciate and surely use for a longer time. Take this time to teach your kids to the importance of being good stewards of their things and of the environment!

Green Gift Giving

As far as holidays go, Christmas is by far the most wasteful. Each year, Americans throw away hundreds of thousands of tons of gift wrapping alone. That doesn’t include plastic and cardboard packaging or even the toys that get played with for a couple of weeks and then forgotten.

The frenzy to buy, buy, buy gets more intense each year as people struggle to fill lists that get longer and longer. The result is a huge amount of waste. In addition, to combat theft, manufacturers have ramped up their packaging to the point that its size eclipses the actual product being purchased. And much of it ends up in the landfill. Read the rest of this entry »

Solar Bottle Bulbs: Cheap Eco-Friendly Lighting Alternative

Need a cost-effective and environmental-friendly way to light up your garden shed? Check out the solar bottle bulbs that an NGO in the Philippines, MyShelter Foundation, are using to light up homes in the country’s slums.

The solar bottle bulb, which was designed and developed by MIT students, are now being used to brighten up the homes of thousands (with the aim of hitting the 1 million mark by 2012) of poor Filipinos that still do not have access to electricity. The cool thing about this bottle bulb is that is very easy to construct, and can in fact be replicated by anyone that has access to plastic bottles, water, bleach, cutters (for the corrugated roof) and sealant (you don’t want the roof to leak!). In short, just about anybody (including you!) can make a solar bottle bulb to light up a dark windowless room.

So just how much light can you get out of a liter of bottle filled with water? Each solar water bulb gives of as much light as a 55 watt electric bulb does! That’s pretty bright, right?

Room using solar bottle bulbs

So the next time you step into your dark garden shed because of a burnt out bulb, do consider installing your own solar water bulb. Not only will you not need to change the bulb that often (although you might indeed have to change the “bottle bulb” every few years), it will also save you money on your electric bill, however small that may be.

Here’s the link to the step-by-step instructions on how to make your own solar bottle bulb.

Oh, and in case you’re not too sold on the idea, you can of course always just consider installing glass windows on your shed or using Lexan as roofing material. Neither would be as inexpensive as a plastic bottle nor put to practice our RE-USE motto, but hey it’ll still save you on electricity.

Photo courtesy of Isang Litrong Liwanag (One Liter of Light)

Saving the Earth Thru Blogging

Saving the earth at home does not necessarily mean you can’t reach out to other to multiply the effects of your effort. One way you can save the Earth without leaving your house is by going online and starting your own green blog.

Blogging about the environment is a good way of sharing your ideas and personal experiences on helping save the environment. It’s also a good way to encourage your readers to do the same.

If you do plan on starting, or already have, a green blog, dream big and aim to reach as large an audience as you can. After all, the more people you reach, the more people you can help influence to take a more responsible attitude towards the environment.

To make sure your green blog doesn’t end up with just a handful of regular readers, put some effort into promoting your blog. Again, you can do this without leaving the comfort of your own home. Some ways you can promote your blog include submitting your blog details in letting your Facebook friends and Twitter followers know about it, telling people in your household to spread the word, expediting being indexed in Google by submitting your URL, and using the services of web directories.

A good web directory you can sign up with to help you promote your blog is Blog Search Engine. It’s easy to sign up, since all you need to do is fill out their form to submit your blog details, pay the basic $14.99 fee via Paypal, and wait for them to send you a confirmation email. What you’ll get in return is a link to your blog and a review, with an opportunity to become the featured blog if your opt to upgrade your package.

Whatever steps you do decide to take to promote your green blog, remember that what’s important is that you do try your best to help educate and encourage others to save our Earth.

Green Blog icon courtesy of Tutorial Scripts

Bigger Energy Savings with the Nest Learning Thermostat and SafePlug Receptacles

In most cases, it takes continuous effort on our part to reduce our carbon footprint. However, making smart choices when it comes to outfitting our homes is one way to significantly cut down on energy consumption in one sweep.

We already know about the positive effects of turning off and unplugging appliances, using energy efficient light bulbs, and properly insulating our homes. Beyond these energy saving strategies though, people assume that not much more can be done unless they are willing to get rid of most of their appliances and shift to energy efficient ones or maybe even transition to using solar panels, both of which is entail spending more money than the average person can.

The good news is that there are two relatively new devices that can help you save energy in the home without busting your budget – the Nest Learning Thermostat and SafePlug Electrical Receptacles. Their approach to energy savings is quite novel, game-changing even. As testament to these, they have both been awarded the CES 2012 Best of Innovations Award in their respective categories, which is in Eco-Design and Sustainable Technologies and in Integrated Home Systems.

The CES website describes each in the following way:

Nest Learning Thermostat – “The world’s first learning thermostat learns your preferences, programs itself to keep you comfortable, and guides you to energy savings. It saves energy when you’re away and adjusts to your changing schedule.” Indeed, this is one innovative thermostat whose arrival no one really expected. The perfect example of a pleasant surprise, its actually one of my favourite newest gadget and something I can’t stop myself from raving about.

SafePlug Electrical Receptacles – “SafePlug receptacles can help reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. SafePlug electrical duplex receptacles solve the toughest problem in home automation, accurate control and energy monitoring even when appliances move to a different receptacle.” What’s great about the SafePlug receptacles is that it not only helps you save energy, but actually makes electrical outlets a lot safer even with small kids around; a feature any parent will appreciate.

These two devices will initially cost you a total of $318.95 ($249 for the Nest and $69.95 for the SafePlug Trial Kit), but will definitely save you more than that on your electric bill.

Eco Friendly Decoration Ideas for the Holiday Season

It’s that time of the year again. Soon your street will be covered in lights and everyone’s electricity bill will be through the roof. Of course, no one said you had to run up the bill using energy-sucking decorations. You also don’t have to rush out and purchase new decorations for the inside of your home. There are a number of quick, easy and inexpensive solutions you can use. Here are just a few eco-friendly holiday decoration ideas to get you started.

LED Christmas Lights

A great way to cut the cost of your holiday energy bill and go green is to use LED lights. LED Christmas lights use a fraction of the energy of traditional lights. LED lights can also be found in a variety of colors and shapes. Best of all, the prices have come down over the years making them affordable for almost any budget.
Read the rest of this entry »

5 Tips for Reducing Waste While Traveling

Congratulations on your choice to go green Making those changes on the home-front require some research, dedication and concerted implementation. Now that you are so waste-conscious, it may be hard to imagine going on your next trip without also doing your part to conserve the environment. But with so many factors coming into play while you travel, how is it possible to stay earth friendly in the process? Here are five tips for reducing waste while traveling:

Research your accommodations. Before you travel, get on the Internet and find accommodations that are expressly environmentally conscious. While you are there, let the management team know that you specifically chose them because of their eco-friendly policies and practices, and also make recommendations for how to better their accommodations if you see such a need. They’ll not only be grateful for your business, but also for your support and advice.

Go paperless. Whenever possible, use electronic tickets, maps, itineraries and reservation methods. If you think about it, you can do most things with your laptop or smart phone and skip out on the paper-wasting altogether. Read the rest of this entry »