Latest Articles
BLOG | Buy Nothing New or Made Just For You
Buy Nothing New or Made Just For You Did you know that… It takes an estimated 2,700 liters of water to produce a cotton t-shirt? It’s estimated that a single piece of plastic will take 1,000 years to decompose? The book printing industry cuts down an estimated 125 million trees a year? Buying new or … Continued
Week 39: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: No Single Use Wrapping
Why Take this Challenge? Many consider the holidays the most wonderful time of the year. Our tradition of gift wrapping also helps to make the holidays the most wasteful time of the year. Wrapping paper alone counts for a significant volume of waste during the holiday season. After that paper has been torn from the … Continued
Read moreWeek 40: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Bring Your Own Cup/Thermos to Get Coffee
Why Take this Challenge? While it may seem inconsequential to quickly grab a disposable cup, the cumulative effect of doing so day in and day out takes a tool on the environment. Production of disposable coffee cups requires the consumption of natural resources, including trees, water, and energy (which is likely heavily reliant on fossil … Continued
Read moreWeek 38: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Give a Gift that’s an Experience, Not a Thing
Why Take this Challenge? The holidays are a wonderful time for connection with family and friends. Showing your affection for others is a powerful expression but must it be in the form of a physical gift? Let’s face it – trying to read the tea leaves to guess what a friend or family member might … Continued
Read moreWeek 37: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Plogging
Why Take this Challenge? Litter is a troubling problem. We can find it virtually anywhere – our cities, our suburbs, even our national parks. It is sickening to think that our only way to escape it’s seeming omnipresence is by penetrating to the deepest parts of the world’s uninhabited places. Even then, we may not … Continued
Read moreWeek 36: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Use Rain Barrels to Help with Water Sustainability
Why Take This Challenge? Stormwater (rain and snow) flushes material into storm drains, including trash, dirt, oil and other pollutants. Some stormwater goes to water treatment facilities and is treated and released into Lake Erie, clean and clear. However, when rains are heavy sewers can overflow, sending untreated water – including raw sewage and other … Continued
Read moreWeek 35: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Turn Off the Lights You Don’t Need for A Week
Why Take This Challenge? Turning off lights saves energy and it also saves money. To calculate how much energy you save for every hour each light bulb in your house is switched off, first check the watt rating printed on it. If the bulb is a 60-watt bulb and it is off for one hour, … Continued
Read moreWeek 33: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Eat Only Organic Food
While more flying is great news for people who love to travel, it’s bad news for the environment. Flights were responsible for 2.4 percent of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2018 — a figure expected to grow more than threefold by 2050. In the face of aviation’s rising emissions problem, the United Nations created … Continued
Read moreWeek 34: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Buy Reusable Containers for Gifts Instead of Wrapping Paper
Why Take This Challenge? We spend billions each year on something that’s forgotten in minutes. According to a report from Sundale Research, Americans spent $12.7 billion on gift wrap in 2017. The majority of wrapping paper, ribbons, and gift bags are not recyclable in most circumstances, according to Earth911. The glossy, laminated finish makes gift … Continued
Read moreWeek 34: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Book Your Next Vacation and Buy Carbon Credits
Why Take This Challenge? While more flying is great news for people who love to travel, it’s bad news for the environment. Flights were responsible for 2.4 percent of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2018 — a figure expected to grow more than threefold by 2050. In the face of aviation’s rising emissions problem, … Continued
Read moreWeek 32: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Eat Only Organic Food
Why Take This Challenge? Organic food is produced without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and hormones. Food that does not meet this criteria is often called non-conventional and conventional practices are more taxing on our soil and water. While all of the impacts of conventional agriculture have nott been studied yet, disruptions to natural food chains, toxic … Continued
Read moreWeek 31: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Rid Your Work of a Single-use Item or Improve Office Recycling
Why Take This Challenge? Employers often make decisions about waste based on how they can save money, and how they think their competitors are spending. Employees can influence these decisions by drawing attention to issues that impact their satisfaction at work, particularly if they make positive changes that can be advertised for public relations. Maybe … Continued
Read moreWeek 30: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Pick Up a Piece of Trash Each Day
Why Take This Challenge? It is nearly impossible to leave your home and not see trash where it does not belong, especially if you live in a densely populated area. THere is lots of reason you bump into litter, from a blustery wind, to a curious raccoon, to a careless neighbor. Whose job is it … Continued
Read moreWeek 29: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Pack Lunch in Reusable Containers
Why Take This Challenge? Packing lunch may save you money, but it’s not helping the environment to throw-away bags, packaging, and containers each day. Consider the packaging for foods specifically designed for lunches – personal-sized fruit cups, chip bags, and yogurt. Can you buy one larger package and make your own portions? Can you bring … Continued
Read moreWeek 28: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Plant a Tree
Why Take This Challenge? When you think of being green, your first thought might be of lush green trees, and for good reason! In addition to offering you a nice, shady place to sit in the summer, trees do a ton of work to help improve the environment. One of the biggest ways that trees … Continued
Read moreWeek 27: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Spend Less Time in the Shower
Why Take This Challenge? Bad news for those of us who like to take long, hot showers- your cleaning routine is a huge water-waster! According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average shower is only 8 minutes long, but uses a whopping 18 gallons of water (https://www.epa.gov/watersense/shower-better ). And baths are even worse, using … Continued
Read moreWeek 26: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Use Alternate Transportation
Why Take This Challenge? If you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint, reducing your vehicle emissions is a great place to start. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about 28% of the greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere come from vehicle transportation (https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks ). Additionally, driving a car requires … Continued
Read moreWeek 25: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Buy Local
Why Take This Challenge? Your food often travels a great distance before it lands on your plate, and both the transportation and production of large-scale produce production takes a negative toll on the environment. Shipping food across the globe requires the use of busses, trains, airplanes, and ships, which all use oil and generate massive … Continued
Read moreWeek 24: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Conserve Water with Rain Barrels
What Is A Rain Barrel? A rain barrel is a container that is connected to your house downspouts in order to collect rainwater running off the house. The water travels down the downspout and gets stored in the container for future use. Rain barrels can be purchased from your local hardware store or made from … Continued
Read moreWeek 23: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: What can I recycle?
Last week we discussed the importance of recycling and where you can recycle if you do not have a city-wide recycling program. This week we will cover what you can recycle. It is extremely important to follow the recycling guidelines of your city to ensure that what you put in the recycling bin will be … Continued
Read moreWeek 22: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Recycling!
What is happening? The City of Cleveland has not renewed its contract for recycling, so the contents of our recycling bins are now headed for the landfill every week. Mayor Frank Jackson confirmed that the recycling contract had not been renewed because it becomes too costly to sort recyclable materials and blamed residents for not … Continued
Read moreWeek 21: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Speak Up About Rollback Of Epa Water Protection Laws
What is Happening? The Trump administration finalized a substantial rollback of EPA rules and regulations under the Clean Water Act that will make it easier to discharge pollutant into America’s streams and waterways. The Clean Water Act was enacted in 1948 and significantly amended in 1972 with the goal to establish regulations around discharging pollutants … Continued
Read moreWeek 20: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Try the 30-Day Minimalism Challenge
Why Take This Challenge? The Minimalism Challenge was developed by The Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. It is a slightly easy way to remove clutter from your home and life. The premise is simple: Each day for 30 days, you get rid of that number of items. Day 1 is 1 item, Day … Continued
Read moreWeek 19: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Reduce Your Almond Intake
Why Take This Challenge? Almonds are a great source of nutrients, including antioxidants, fiber, protein, and magnesium. For anyone that wants to decrease negative environmental impact, almond milk is an alternative to dairy intake. A study of a dairy farm in Ohio stated that nearly 30 gallons of water was used per cow per day … Continued
Read moreWeek 18: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Upcycle!
Why Take This Challenge? Upcycling, or creative reuse, is a creative way to reuse and repurpose something to extend its value and life cycle. Taking an older item that may show some wear and tear and redesigning it to serve a better and more beautiful purpose is the best part of upcycling. Upcycling is not … Continued
Read moreWeek 17: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge: Sign Up for 4 Miles 4 Water!
Why Take This Challenge? Drink Local. Drink Tap. celebrates it’s annual run/walk event, 4 Miles 4 Water, each spring. The 4 mile distance commemorates the average distance many people around the world have to work to collect water daily. We’re only asking you to do this once. This year is DLDT’s 10th anniversary, so you … Continued
Read moreWeek 16: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge – Use Real Stuff!
Why Take This Challenge? Single-use silverware, plates & cups typically dominate summer cookouts. As we know from other single-use plastics – these will more than likely end up in landfills or oceans. In fact, single-use silverware and plates are such an issue in marine pollution that the European Union confirmed a provisional agreement to restrict … Continued
Read moreWeek 15: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge – Skip the straw, bring your own reusable!
Why Take This Challenge? Single use plastics continue to pose a threat to our environment, especially our wildlife, beaches, oceans and lakes. Plastic’s inability to biodegrade causes piles of trash to accumulate in our bodies of water, which eventually wash up on our shores. We can start small against the battle versus plastic – that’s … Continued
Week 14: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge – Eat Plant Based!
Why Take This Challenge? You might be asking: what is eating plant based and how does it impact the environment? Eating a plant-based diet can have a direct, positive impact on water conservation and pollution. One of the biggest impacts of eating plant based is reducing our carbon footprint. An estimation from the United Nations … Continued
Week 13: #Waves4Change 2020 Sustainability Challenge – Slowing the Environmental Impact of Clothing
Why Take This Challenge? It takes on average 1,800 gallons of water to make a single pair of jeans. More than 60 percent of fabric fibers are now synthetics, derived from fossil fuels, so when these clothes end up in a landfill they will not decay. Fast fashion, the pieces you can find at bargain … Continued