You can be environmentally sensitive by paying attention to the Four Rs:

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Renewable

• Reduce your use of resources (water, natural gas/propane, electricity, plastic, and paper) in the bathrooms, kitchen, yard, and around the house.
  
  
  "The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives."
  --Chinese Proverb


• Reuse products as much as you can.
  • Donate your sheets and towels to a shelter when they wear out, or use them for rags
  • Repair appliances that break rather than tossing them and buying new ones
  • Buy recycled products whenever possible


• Recycle as much as possible. Diverting many items from landfills helps save the planet from toxic waste and wasting land.
  • Compost food scraps either into your compost bin or find someone who wants to recycle them for you
  • Recycle paper, plastic, glass, cardboard, and metal
  • Donating your sheets and towels to a shelter is recycling too


• Renewable resources are better choices than non-renewable. Consider what the products you choose to use in building and running your house do to the earth.
  • Granite and stone look great in your house and yard, but they aren't renewable
  • Crushed rock is generally the biproduct of quarrying (quarries are reclaimed after the project is complete) while river rock is most often mined from riverbeds
  • Rainforest woods and old-growth forest woods are essentially non-renewable unlike fast growing trees, bamboo, and cork
  • Petroleum-based fuels are not renewable, though easily and cost effectively available, while alternative fuels (solar, wind, water, and geothermal) are quite renewable though

The above information was obtained from: Sage Blossom Consulting * Kit  Cassingham, Member ISHC * 1.970.626.2277 *

B&B Consulting:  http://www.TheBAndBLady.com

Environmental Hospitality Education: http://www.ECOnomicallySound.com




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We believe there is room for a fifth R: REFUSE!

We as individuals need to use our voices and our wallets to indicate our preferences for earth friendly materials. Ask retailers, restaurants, manufacturers, etc. not to use items that jeopardize us/the environment.



• Refuse ANY items that risk the health of you, your loved ones and the Earth. For example:
  • Styrofoam food containers or packaging from restaurants and grocery stores
  • Excessive, non-recyclable, packing materials around items you order
  • Growth hormones in your food
  • Genetically modified seeds
  • Items that are not Fair Trade, thereby causing harm to individuals who produce them


• Think individuals can’t make a difference? Consider the following:
  • A local group on Mount Desert Island spoke out against the Styrofoam packaging around the vegetables in a popular grocery store. After repeatedly hearing this feedback from customers, the store began using compostable containers.
  • A local environmental advocate ordered a dvd on the environment only to discover that it was excessively packaged with non-recyclable materials. She contacted the company that shipped it and complained. Within 20 minutes, the person who authored the dvd called her to express his complete embarrassment that he had no idea his dvd’s were being shipped this way and that he would rectify the issue immediately.



EACH VOICE DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!



• The following websites provide excellent information and resources for those who are interested in Environmental issues:
  • http://www.nrdc.org
  • http://www.epa.gov/
  • http://www.sierraclub.org/
  • http://www.greenamericatoday.org/
  • http://www.edf.org/home.cfm
  • http://www.wwf.org/