HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Posted by Erin on 04.22.2011 at 11:07 am

Earth. Globe. World. Human Planet. Ball of blue and green. Whatever you call it, we love it! Our earth is very important to everyone here at Better World Books. It’s a huge part of why we even exist: to help it stay green and smart.

To celebrate Earth Day, over 60 BWBers in Indiana helped walk their adopted part of a local highway and pick up trash. Or volunteers collected 43 bags of trash! We’re so happy we could do our small part…

In Atlanta, we posed for this awesome photo wearing planet Earth’s (and BWBs) proud colors…

We also participating in a large office complex campus-wide event to share about our social and environmental practices.

If you’ve been inspired by this to GO GREEN, here are some helpful hints and ways that we save the Earth with less impact every single day:

At Home

●      Get fruits and vegetables from a local farm co-op

●      Buy only organic dairy products

●      Use heavy blinds to decrease energy needed to heat home

●      Recycle everything

●      Buy fair trade & organic when available

●      Shop local & eat local

●      Put thermostats on timers

●      Use CFL lightbulbs

●      Put hot water on low setting

●      Line dry clothes when possible

●      Wash all laundry in cold water

●      Use eco-friendly cleaning products

●      Buy items made with reclaimed materials when possible

●      Wired apartment with “kill-switches” that cut the electrical circuits at strategic points so that no energy is going to waste after you turn something “off” – notably, in addition to conserving energy, this also cuts our electric bill down to about $5 per month

●      Use dishtowels instead of paper towels

●      Grow lots of tomatoes in my back yard.  and a few hot peppers.

With our kids

●      Carpool children

●      Planting a garden with my son – already grow strawberries

●      Use recycled/chlorine-free diapers

●      Use reusable containers for my children’s lunches instead of ziploc baggies

●      Book drive for my daughter’s elementary school diverting over 1,000 books from ending up in the landfill

●      Partner with my daughter’s school 3P club which teaches children to take responsibility for the Earth, we do several projects, every Friday we supervise the children who recycle all of the white paper in the school, we built an outdoor classroom where children will be able to learn about nature, pollination, plant items and have a hands on experience on how this happens

On the road

●      Drive a hybrid

●      Live close to the office

●      Keep cars well maintained and tires inflated

●      Decline bags at stores; use reusable shopping bags

●      New car with better gas mileage than my previous one

●      Carpool

In the office

●      Try to never print anything

●      Filtered water vs bottled

●      We use real plates and silverware instead of paper plates and plastic ware

●      We print our marketing material with soy-based inks and paper from post-consumer materials

●      We purchase coffee from socially responsible coffee farms and the packaging is 100% recycled content (over 50% post-consumer)

●      In the bathroom, in lieu of paper towels we use the Dyson air hand dryer

Number one way we are Green

●      We buy and read used books at www.betterworldbooks.com… JOIN US IN CELEBRATING EARTH DAY TODAY!

Visit www.betterworldbooks.com/earthday to learn more and for a 20% OFF code to use through Tuesday!

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