How would you like to know in a restaurant, how much of a carbon footprint is associated with your meal of choice? Are you interested in the environmental impact?

A vegetarian fast food chain, Otarian, is offering the ability to provide such information. These carbon footprints are calculated based on standards set by The World Resources Institute, a Washington based environmental organization.

These restaurants will be opening in London and Australia over the next few months, and one has opened this month in New York.

The founder of Otarian, Radhika Oswal of Australia, wants people to know how their choices in this fully vegetarian and low carbon restaurant, affects the planet. She sees vegetarians as having a much lighter ecological and water footprint as well as a much lower carbon emissions footprint than non-vegetarians do.

The chain believes that each vegetarian meal served can make a difference.

Recycling, composting 98% of waste, no air freighted ingredients, reusable, compostable and recyclable packaging are also all high priority at this restaurant. Check it out, and find out what your carbon footprint is depending upon what you order.

A bit strange, but definately an interesting Initiative

Speaking of meals, how would you like one for free?

Here's a news item out of Copenhagen Denmark this month.

In order to get a meal certificate valued at approximately $36.00, a hotel guest must generate 10 watts of electricity by cycling within the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The administrators of the Hotel, who are running this initiative for a year, figure this is a great way for people to get fit, and reduce their carbon footprint at the same time.

It takes about 15 minutes of cycling to generate this electricity.

I think 15 minutes is worth a $36.00 meal certificate, don't you?

What did you do on Earth Day on April 22nd?

Here's something Apartments.com did. They surveyed 1,400 of their website visitors, and asked if "the environment" had anything to do with how people choose a place to live.

At least 88% answered that it definately did. People who responded said it had a big impact on how they live daily, how they searched for a place to live, and where they choose to live. Where they choose to live, is not always the perfect option, but many said they would pay more in rent for "greener ammenities."

They did give a list of the top 5 ways in which they try to live a greener lifestyle in the space they have.

Turning off lights, running only full dishwasher loads, recycling paper, plastic and glass, buying energy efficient lightbulbs, and purchasing green products were listed as priority and in that order.

I think I can add to this, as I watch our fliers arriving for the second time. Go paperless in your billings if you can, and grab a flier at the store as you walk in.

This is really something that irks me to no end, and the amount of paper that goes out of here on recycling day is unbelieveable!


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

Until next time,

Jane