Beer and Locally Brewed Beer

What do you know about the company that brews your beer? According to The Better World Shopping Guide, New Belgium and Sierra Nevada get grades of A. New Belgium is a 100% wind powered brewery that conserves 50% more water vs. the average brewery. It is an employee-owned business and has given $1.6 million to the local community.

On the contrary, Miller, which is part of Altria (Philip Morris), the #2 worst company on Earth, is currently the target of two major boycotts and has spent over $100 million on lobbyists. It is also on Multinational Monitor's Worst Corporation List for 5 years.

Green Tip:
Locally Brewed Beer

When purchasing your beverages this Memorial Day Weekend, support your local micro brewery. Now only will you be buying local and supporting your local community, but also, since the beer has less of a distance to travel, there are also reduced carbon emissions.

It's easy to find a local brewery near you. Just go to http://www.brewpubzone.com.

Greening Your Office and Read tips for Greening Your Office

I read a statistic that 60% of paper in the United States is still not recycled. There is no excuse for this! Paper is EASY to recycle. When I talk to friends and colleagues about this, they shrug their shoulders and say, "We don't have a recycling program in our building."

So start one! Time is ticking! Office furniture may be challenging to recycle, file cabinets I can understand, but paper? Come on! Each employee should have a recycle bin at his/her desk and recycle every single scrap of paper that cannot be re-used (see my tips this week on re-using paper among other things). Items should be thrown in the trash ONLY as a last ditch option. It seems that too many people recycle paper on a whim. It needs to be a standard practice.

I heard a story about an office in New York City that ONLY had recycle bins at each desk. No trash can. If employees want to throw away trash, they have to go to a central location in the office. What a fabulous idea.

Green Tip:
Greening Your Office

» Read tips for Greening Your Office

Earth Day Should Be Every Day and Preserving the Earth

Last week, I went to an Earth Day rally that featured many fabulous speakers that kept me motivated to continue on my mission to make changes to the special event and meeting industries and the world in general. I then realized that these people were preaching to the choir. They don't need to sell me on anything. I'm on their band wagon! While I'm pretty darn green (some say "off the deep end green") I started to realize that I need to invite my friends who are light green and even brown to these rallies so that they can hear how critically important it is for us to start making serious changes NOW!

Our Earth is a gift to us and we need to be thankful for it, cherish it and take care of it. We have been doing a very bad job lately, just ask James Hansen from NASA, one of the speakers at last week's rally. He had very disturbing information to share with us. Essentially, we are on the road to the point of no return, but we can turn this ship around if we all get SERIOUS about changing the way we function. We need to make serious lifestyle changes NOW! Our disposable world (or should I say country?) that is all about convenience isn't good for our home we call Earth.

Make changes today and every day. Check out the tips listed under my Green Tip of the Week. Spread the word. Talk to your family and friends. Save the Earth.

Green Tip:
Preserving the Earth

The guys at Sunnyside Solar Energy put together a fabulous list of 12 Easy Things You Can Do At Home to Preserve the Earth. Read it. Do it. Share it with your friends and family. Now.