League of Maternal Justice

Turn Out The Lights

Tonight is - dum da da dum! - Earth Hour.

Which means - as Nelly Furtado would say, and will say, at a free concert tonight in Toronto - TURN OUT THE LIGHTS. For one hour. Tonight, starting at eight. The objective is to get as many communities and people around the world reducing their power-use, for just a little while, to what a difference it makes.

Which, cool (and dark, but in the best possible way.)

And as I hinted above, Nelly Furtado is going to kick off the hour with a free! concert! in Toronto:

The partners of Toronto’s Earth Hour today announced that multi-platinum Grammy and Juno Award-winner, and Canada’s own, Nelly Furtado will join Earth Hour as the first Canadian Earth Hour Ambassador. She will also perform a free concert at Nathan Phillips Square on March 29 to celebrate Earth Hour.

As an Earth Hour Ambassador and an advocate for the environment, Nelly Furtado will play an unplugged concert at the Earth Hour community event, starting at 7:30 p.m. The organizers are taking steps to make the event as carbon-neutral as possible - including powering the event with green, renewable energy from Bullfrog Power. People from across the GTA are invited to attend.

As I've said elsewhere, it really is awesome that they're making it carbon-neutral and unplugged and all, but I still don't get how it's going to be a particularly effective concert with all the lights out. I mean, will there be candles? Isn't that a fire hazard? Or will Nelly just light everything up with the glow of her own fabulousness?

Whatever. Wherever you are, bust out the candles and the organic wine and make this your night for eco-friendly romance.

Do it for the children.

More details on Earth Hour HERE. Earth Hour Canada: HERE.

(Cross-posted at BlogHers Act Canada)

Source

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Continuing with our collaboration with BloghersAct:Canada in our Eco Moms Act series, we're opening the discussion about how parents can reduce, reuse, and recycle when it comes to kid's gear and clothing as March is Eco-Fashion Month!

Most people that I talk to don't have a huge issue with accepting used gear or clothes. I've met the rare expectant mom who refused to let her friend's kids lay on her soon-to-be poop covered diaper changing table (I'm not kidding), but for the most part, if something is in decent condition (and sometimes, even that doesn't matter) people are happy to accept it.

So the question is, how do you find the stuff? And if you are a keeper or hoarder of stuff, where do you find someone to give it to?

Now there are the garage sales, consignment stores, and thrift shops, as well as the newly popular huge seasonal consignment sales. And then, there's eBay. Of course, parents have various different ways to get the best bang for your buck when it comes to those (and perhaps parents can share them on Friday for the PBN Blog Blast on this very topic).

How do you deal with remnant detergent from the previous user? How do know what's a good price for something? How do you make it so it's actually saving money (it's easy to drive around and try to find all these sales which = gas money!)?

So many people are using other avenues, like Freecycle or a new service Zwaggle.

Freecycle is a free service (duh!) that you join based on your location. It's an email list where you can offer items up for free. People find everything from old toys, to used socks, to glass baby food bottles.

The email listings can go from extremely helpful and cool, to downright annoying since people can actually post "wanted" emails. It's one thing when you want an exersaucer in any condition, but when you're looking for "a new computer that works," it gets a little frustrating. Here's my own take on it.

Also, there's really no rhyme or reason in terms of pick up. You email with the person, you set up the time, and then you hope they can come. No rating, no bad feedback, or anything of that matter.

Needless to say, people have positive experiences and swear by it.

Enter Zwaggle, a sort of organized Freecycle with an eBay twist. Similar to Freecycle, it's free to join (although you'll need to complete a bit of an application process since you will have the capability to print shipping labels off the site) and parents can list various items with pictures (for free!). You can decide if you are willing to ship (recipient pays) and/or if pick-up is an option.

And then, all transactions require "zoints" -- a point system that allows for some type of accountability. They are transferred over when the transaction is complete and they allow you to have some type of "say" in terms of who might be interested in receiving the item.

From what I can tell (I just signed up and disclosure, I'm working with them at Parent Bloggers Network), it seems to be a viable option. I will say it's nice when more people from your community are signed up because then you've got more pick-up options.

Those are just two of the many options that are out there to help parents save money, but also continue to "green" up their lives.

We're hoping parents will share with us (and Parent Bloggers) their tips about how they are saving, sharing, and simplifying as part of their Blog Blast this Friday. Not only can you win great prizes, but chances are, you'll really help someone else out!

*Sign up for Zwaggle via this link and you'll get 50 zoints to get you started. We'd love to hear your experience with the sites we mentioned or any others that you find useful!*

Related Posts:

Green is the New Black

Swapping Kid Gear is Green Hip Fun

Freecycling for Fashion

Plastic? NOT Fantastic

The EcoMomsAct project has a new challenge to pimp. You want in? Read on...

From BlogHers Act Canada:

According to Greenloop, "Each year over 1 million birds and sea mammals die from plastic ingestion or entanglement.  Fifteen million trees are cut down every year to make paper bags in this country.  Less than 1% of plastic shopping bags get recycled.  12 Million barrels of oil are used annually to produce plastic bags in the US."

Over the last couple of years, it's been getting easier and easier to be a consumer who shops without the use of plastic bags.  In our front hall closet we have a big pile of cotton and canvas shopping bags, and on a good day, I remember to bring them with me.  (The trick seems to be leaving some cloth bags or a basket in the trunk of the car.)  I even bought reusable mesh shopping bags, which I love because it means I don't even have to use those thin, clear plastic bags when I buy produce.

February’s Challenge

This month, BlogHers ACT Canada’s mission is to eliminate the use of plastic shopping bags.  We don’t just want to cut back on using them, we want to get rid of them completely. If China can do it, so can you!  Getting rid of the bags you have lying around in your home is the first step. So join BlogHers ACT Canada, and our partners, Green Mom Finds and the League of Maternal Justice, and DITCH THOSE BAGS.

We've got prizes!

We realize that this is an uphill battle.  Maybe your family has a mountain of plastic bags stashed somewhere at home.  If this is the case, how creative can you get with them?  Can you find an alternative use for those evil plastic bags? Gather all of the plastic bags from around your home and do something with them.  Make a tote bag.  Make a hat. Anything.  Then, take a photo of your creation and blog about it. Or, take a photo that shows how you deal with those plastic shopping bags in another way, like recycling them.  Don’t forget to comment back here by February 15th, with a link, and a random draw of participants will determine the five winners of these EcoMomsAct prizes: three winners will receive a Greenloop reusable shopping bag, one winner a Skeeda reusable bag, and another winner will receive a set of reusable mesh produce BYO Bags.  Prizes are all courtesy of the lovely ladies at Green Mom Finds.  Good luck!

Got all that? Good. Now get to work on those bags. They won't recycle themselves.

Expanding League Power! And - NoMeatPoWeek!

Hopefully, you've heard about the super-cool initiative that is BlogHersAct Canada. It's a sister-project to BlogHersAct that draws upon the talent and energy of Canadian women bloggers (although participation is by no means restricted to Canadian bloggers), and the cause that it is championing this year is the environment. Which is awesome, because we all the environment, right? And we all want to make it safe and lovely and long-lasting for our children, no?

Of course we do. Which is why LMJ has struck up a partnership with BlogHersAct Canada and another super-cool online eco-initiative that you almost certainly already know, Green Mom Finds, to join forces and kick some serious ass in saving the planet. You know, for the kids.

BlogHersAct Canada's mandate this year is to spend the year issuing and meeting monthly eco-challenges, to push people to make realistic objectives around helping the environment and to help them meet those objectives by generating oodles of blogosphere support. From here on in, LMJ and Green Mom Finds are going to getting really, really naggy with our supporters and do everything we can to drum up participation in these challenges (okay, naggy, but sweetly naggy, and also bribey - there'll be prizes!!!)

SO. Shall we get started?

The first challenge of the year issued by BHA-Canada was to reduce meat consumption for the month of January (read about it here, and here), by at least a few meals per week. Well, January is almost over, but there's still time to make a last-ditch effort. Can your family go without meat for a week? Are you willing to try?

We're going to make it manageable - from Monday to Friday of next week (so, you have this weekend to gorge on bacon sandwiches, if you need to), make your best effort to keep vegetarian in your kitchen, and keep a record. Write a post, or append an update to your regular posts, every day (or as many days as you can), and then post a wrap-up sometime between next Friday and next Sunday, midnight, explaining how it went, what worked, what didn't work, any recipes that were life-savers, what-have-you. Note that we're not going to hurl Tofurkey at you if you don't make it through the week - the point here is to TRY, and share our experiences in making this effort with each other. Also, we think it will be funny ("day five: I thought that husband was nibbling my toes to be sexy, but turns out that he - having gone five days without sausages - was trying to eat them")

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