The Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey recently had their second annual Eco Trek. Approximately 800 girls participated, and they featured quite a number of exhibitions which focused on healthy living and green living concepts.

The exhibition had projects based on everything from homemade makeup, presentations on the impact on water bottles to information about endangered species.

Did you know that part of the Girl Scout promise is to not hurt the environment and leave nature unchanged for future generations?


Dealing With Sewer Run-off

The city of Philadelphia is attempting to deal with their sewer run-off problem, and the Philadelphia Water Department has put forward a plan to deal with this as "greenly" as possible.

The idea would cost 1.6 billion dollars over a 20 year period. This would involve the use of rain gardens, thousands of additional trees, green roofs, porous pavement and rain-harvesting barrels. Run-off would be reduced, diverted or filtered through soil systems and plant root systems. Some run-off would be stored temporarily until the stress of the storm lifts, and then treated at sewage plants.

This is a very big significant use of green infrastructure, and is being reviewed by Environmental experts and federal regulators as to feasibility.


Heard of the European Green Capitol Award?

This award was established in 2006, and what it does is award "recognition and title" to cities of 200,000 inhabitants or more for their green efforts and the benefits received for their own public health and well-being.

The criteria that these cities are judged upon includes such categories as water consumption, levels of noise pollution, local transportation, waste-water treatment, sustainable land use, contributions to controlling climate change and other efforts as well.

The European Commission is now taking applications for the 2012 and 2013 Awards. The 2010 and 2011 designations went to Stockholm Sweden, and Hamburg Germany respectively.

Stockholm won mainly because their local transportation system runs on renewable fuels, and because their greenhouse gas emissions by city inhabitants runs 50% lower than the reported national average.


Time Sensitive Discount Offer

For some of you, Thanksgiving is coming. Christmas is just around the corner too, and now would be the time to get rid of those old lights once and for all.

Home Depot gives you a chance to trade up to environmentally friendly LED lights. It's a great incentive to recycle and be on your way to saving money and energy.

These lights can cut energy by as much as 80%, and Home Depots across Canada and the United States are offering you the chance to bring in your old lights, and get a coupon towards the purchase of new LED's.

I checked with my local store here in Ontario, and November 7th and 8th are the days this offer is good across Canada. In the United States, I believe this offer runs from November 5th through to November 15th.

So, get out those boxes of "spaghetti-like" piles of tangled old lights and get rid of them. It's really a good opportunity.


I wish everyone in the United States a very happy upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. You can "green up" this event, by checking out some of the tips for an eco-friendly Thanksgiving on the site.


As others strive to do their part towards green-living-improvements, let's continue to do ours!

Until next time,

Jane