Greener Cooking

credit: nazreth @ stock.xchang

You can reduce your carbon footprint and make your kitchen greener with a few simple changes to the way you cook and the foods that you choose. Check out these tips for a greener meal prep.

• Buy local whenever you can. Local means less carbon fuel was used to transport your food to you.
• Cook from your own garden. It doesn't get any more local than that.
• Reduce the amount of meat that you eat. It's not only healthier, it's better for the planet.
• Cut back on processed and packaged foods. You'll have less trash to throw in the landfills, and be eating foods that took less energy to make. The health benefits are nice, too.
• Capture and reuse water. When you drain pasta or vegetables, save the water to use on plants. Why wash all those nutrients down the drain when they can be making things grow?
• Cook on top of the stove instead of the oven whenever you can. When you use the oven, you're heating up lots of empty space. Concentrated heat from your stovetop burners is more efficient.
• Use a smaller oven for the reason given above.
• Invest in a good set of hand cooking tools. An egg beater does a good job of mixing batter using people power. A sharp knife can chop foods finely enough for most uses. Why use electricity when elbow grease costs nothing?
• Turn off the water when you're not actually using it.
• Get everything you need out of the refrigerator at once to avoid opening the door too often. Every time you open the refrigerator door, you let the cold out and the fridge has to cool the heated air back down.
• Add your vegetable peelings, pasta water and food scraps to a compost heap instead of the trash.
• Only run the dishwasher when it's full.

It doesn't take a lot to cut down on your energy use when you're preparing a meal - but the difference in your energy consumption can really add up over time.

Green Cleaning

photo by evink @ stock.xchang

I'm a big fan of green cleaning - and I mean really green cleaning, using the things you've got in your cabinet anyway. But I must admit that there are some places I'm not so green - laundry detergent, for instance. I like my clothes clean, soft and sweet-smelling, so to that end, I use laundry detergent and fabric softener that gets them clean, soft and sweet-smelling.

One of the biggest issues in laundry detergent - and lots of other cleaning products - is the surfactant that's used. A surfactant is an ingredient in cleaning products that "breaks" the water surface so that it can clean properly. Every type of soap has surfactants in it - laundry detergents tend to be very high in surfactants - and the ones usually used in laundry detergents tend to stick around in the water after it gets flushed out of the washing machine.

So what's a girl to do if she likes her laundry to smell sweet? Well, The Ecologist profiles a new eco-friendly surfacant that is not only plant-based, but made in far more eco-friendly ways. It's even sourced in a more eco-friendly way, using plant proteins that are bought locally rather than from Asia. It's not available in laundry yet, but I may just give the hard surface cleaners a try and see what I think.

Electric Cars and the Energy Grid - Five Facts to Combat Hybrid Car Charging Myths
By Deb Powers

Just a few years ago, the idea of electric cars was met with complete skepticism. Oh, sure, people said, the technology is there to make the cars, but drivers aren't going to buy a car that can only drive 40 miles before you have to plug it in. The argument hasn't changed much even as ranges increased in mileage. Now that hybrid electric cars are in the mainstream -- and their acceptance is growing with each passing day -- the conversation is turning to the next hurdle in the acceptance of electric cars. Where the heck do you plug them in to recharge? Here are five facts that help answer that question.

• Most electric vehicles will get all the charging they need at home.
  • Many of the newest hybrid batteries can be charged from a low-cost 220V outlet, similar to the one used by any electric clothes dryer. Some can even be charged from a 110V outlet. An overnight charge is more than enough to power most cars for their daily driving needs.

• The driving range per overnight charge is up to 100 miles.
  • The standard wisdom says that most electric cars get about 40 miles to a charge -- far less mileage than most drivers typically drive in a day. However, most of the newer vehicles actually get between 70 miles and 100 miles to a full charge - about double the daily driving mileage of the typical driver.

• Many businesses are planning to install charging stations on site for customer convenience.
  • Whole Foods and McDonalds are just two high profile examples of companies that see the benefits of making it convenient for customers to charge up their vehicles. Some other places you might expect to see public charging stations for EVs include parking garages, mall parking lots, hotels and motels and restaurants. In fact, anywhere that people park their cars for more than half an hour is a good candidate for one or more public charging stations.

• You don't need a special plug and expensive equipment to charge an electric car.
  • A lot of older information on the net tells you that you need a special, dedicated plug and costly equipment to charge your EV. That's no longer true. The newer models of EVs in development can be charged on standard household current.

• The grid is already ramping up to support EV traffic.
  • California is leading the way in the US, with charging stations installed along hundreds of miles of highway. In Vancouver, zoning regulations require that new apartment construction must include vehicle charging stations to support the tenants' need for EV charging. Private companies are recognizing that they can attract business by offering charging for electric cars free or at nominal cost, and fast-charging stations - stations that can recharge a battery in 30 minutes or less -- are no longer a pie-in-the-sky dream.

The newest developments in electric vehicle technology have overturned some of the most commonly held myths about the barriers to the wide adoption of electronic vehicles. As more people are inspired to buy EVs like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, they'll find that the infrastructure they need to support their new cars is already growing to meet their needs.

Deb Powers is a freelance writer and researcher who writes frequently about renewable energy and for recycling websites. She has been an environmental activist since the 1970s, and continues to work toward a greener planet by highlighting advances in alternative energy sources, promoting Fair Trade causes and participating in local environmental activism.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Deb_Powers
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