The Gentle Barn Foundation needs our help to save 60 malnourished cows – many of which are pregnant – from a dilapidated California dairy farm. Will readers step up to save the day?

In recent weeks, animal lover Ellen DeGeneres has been trying to bring attention to a deplorable situation: Dozens of black-and-white cows, many of them pregnant and sick with pneumonia, pinkeye and skin fungus, are living – barely – on a dilapidated dairy farm in Santa Clarita, Calif.

The farm itself is in the process of being shut down, and the animals would normally be destined for the slaughterhouse. And yet, these gentle animals that have spent their lives providing nourishing milk to so many humans are now so sick and malnourished themselves that even the slaughterhouse won’t take them. The dairy farm’s owner does not have the money to care for the cows, nor to nurture the animals back to health in order to take them to the auction house.

So without intervention, these 60 cows will be left to die of dehydration, starvation and disease.

Click Here to Make a $10 Donation Now.

The tragic scenario was first revealed to the public by The Gentle Barn Foundation on April 26. Since then, the animal rescue and rehabilitation facility, miraculously located in the very same town and already home to 120 rescued farm animals, has successfully negotiated to take the cows off the owners’ hands and nurse them back to health – to give the cows and their calves whole new lives.

There’s just one problem: The Gentle Barn Foundation has no place to house them. The Foundation needs to build two new barns in order to give the cows a proper home. And building barns isn’t cheap.

The Gentle Barn needs funding. They need it now. And readers can make it happen.

Yesterday on her talk show, DeGeneres announced that Tonic is launching a major fundraising initiative in order to build the barns these cows so desperately need.

Tonic has committed to matching your donations, dollar-for-dollar, up to $50,000, for a grand total of $100,000 – enough for the Gentle Barn Foundation to build an entire barn.

And as if doubling your donation isn’t enough, there’s another layer of goodness that comes along with giving to save these California cows: A private benefactor has agreed to match every dollar The Gentle Barn earns, up to $100,000. So if Tonic readers accomplish this goal, and donate at least $50,000, the Gentle Barn Foundation will have all the money they need to build both barns!

Before Tonic’s initiative was announced, Ellie Laks, who founded and operates The Gentle Barn with her husband, Jay Weiner, gave an interview to The Signal of Santa Clarita Valley. Of their efforts to save these malnourished cows, Laks said, “This is cool because we can save their lives and give them the opportunity to raise their babies. It’ll be something the community can sink their teeth into – be part of their birth and their lives.”

More than just an animal rescue organization, The Gentle Barn brings at-risk youth and special needs children who have suffered physical, mental or emotional trauma of their own to their facilities to interact with the animals and take a hands-on role in their welfare. As described on their website: “[T]hose who undergo treatment at The Gentle Barn learn empathy, kindness, strength, trust, forgiveness and leadership.”

They’re the human qualities we try to spotlight here on Tonic every day. The qualities we’ve helped DeGeneres celebrate on her talk show, by giving scholarship money to Constance McMillen and helping to cover Alyson Myatt’s health care costs.

They’re the qualities we hope our readers will show by making donations to The Gentle Barn Foundation today.

Click Here to Make a $10 Donation Now!

Editor’s note: Article by Mark Dagostino. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

Image: Dave Young

The post Ellen and Tonic: Giving Dairy Cows a Second Chance at Life appeared first on EcoSalon.

Guayakí Yerba Mate could be your cup of tea.

In 1996, five men fresh out of college believed that they could help to re-forest the South American rainforest and positively effect the indigenous people by drinking tea. Crazy? Maybe not. Fourteen years later, Guayakí Yerba Mate has a core team of 28 flip-flop wearing, life-loving, idealists that are making a difference one sip at a time. Guayaki grows its products sustainably within the South America’s Atlantic rainforest and currently sustains and/or restores nearly 20,000 acres of rainforest, 34 indigenous families and over 300 bird and mammal species. What was nothing more than a crazy idea back in 1996 is now a full-blown reality.

Chris Mann is one of the five seeding founders and has been dubbed the “Chairman of the Gourd” of Guayakí Yerba Mate. Chris earned a BA in Economics from Harvard University, but quickly realized that economists often overlooked sustaining the environment and protecting people. Through his experience with Guayakí, and previously with Natural Flavors, a 100 percent organic, vegan restaurant that employed 25 people and 60 local farmers, Chris is finding that by recognizing common purpose, seemingly disparate groups can integrate social justice, environmental restoration and economic success.

Chris takes a break from sippin’ the good stuff to sit In The Hot Seat for Tonic:

What’s your mantra?

A motto I live by is “May you live all the days of your life,” a quote from Jonathan Swift. It reminds me that life truly is a gift. When I live in that reality, I feel alive, inspired and compelled to contribute my energy towards creating a beneficial presence. Getting sidetracked by fear drives complacency and withdrawal. It happens to us all. For me it’s a matter of how quickly can I recognize that I am stuck and get past it. If we are feeling low, it is very difficult to contribute to something bigger than ourselves, but when we truly feel alive that is all we want to do!

How are your business goals tied to your mission?

Guayakí’s mission in itself a business goal – to sustain and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and provide 1,000 living wage jobs. This mission is funded by the sustainable harvest of yerba mate beneath the South American Atlantic rainforest canopy. In order to accomplish our mission, we will need sales of approximately $125 million. The amount of forest we restore and living-wage jobs we create are directly proportional to the amount of shade-grown organic yerba mate we sell. That is the essence of Market-Driven Restoration.

What is the CSR program implemented in your company that you are most proud of?

Our entire business model is a CSR program. We call our model Market-Driven Restoration, whereby we internalize the environmental and social costs of our products. This ‘true cost’ enables our customers to vote with their dollars. In turn, we invest in growers who are committed to high quality, integrity and restoration. By purchasing Guayakí’s organic and fair trade certified yerba mate, our customers become a driving force for rainforest restoration and the creation of living wage jobs.

This model of Market-Driven Restoration acknowledges that we are all in this together and we must all work and play together in order to create solutions. We cannot separate east and west, north and south and we cannot separate social justice and cultural diversity from ecological restoration. Specifically, we pay two to three times the market price for our yerba mate, and in turn, the growers we work with adopt a work plan for improving the diversity of their rainforest and engage in life-affirming relationships with the people they directly work with-whether they are family members, cooperative members or migrant harvesters.

One way that we have measured the success of this program is by conducting a life-cycle study on our loose-leaf yerba mate products. This study demonstrated that the amount of carbon sequestered by the rainforests in which it grows is twice the amount of carbon that is emitted through the harvesting, processing, packaging and transportation. In other words, Guayaki Yerba Mate was shown to be carbon-subtracting – not just carbon-neutral, but carbon-subtracting. The subtraction does not result from offsetting, but is embedded in the entire Market-Driven Restoration business model. To top it off, the packaging of this product is all biodegradable and home compostable which means that it is one of the most sustainable consumer products available on the market. This is incredibly exciting because it demonstrates that it can be done and we are all learning that it must be done.

What area of CSR do you still think your company can improve in and what are the steps you will take to make that change?

The main area for us to improve in is in our reporting. We are doing amazing work on many fronts, but we do not have a consistent formal reporting program. As a result, our efforts are not as coordinated as they could be and not everyone is aware of the successes we have had and the challenges we face. The reporting is vitally important because it serves as a platform for sharing the information with our stakeholders and engaging in more direct dialogues around the issues so we can more effectively develop and implement best practices at Guayaki and inspire others to implement the same. Ultimately, we face tremendous challenges in implementing the massive environmental and social justice programs that we all need to engage in and clear communication, transparency and reporting are crucial to expanding these programs quickly and deeply.

Where do you see your company in 5 years?

In ten years we will have sustained and restored at least 200,000 acres of rainforest and provided at least 1,000 living-wage jobs. In 5 years we will be well on our way to accomplishing these goals. What will this look like? In the marketplace, our products will be distributed almost everywhere that beverages are sold and Guayaki will be recognized as a leader in creating healthy products that inspire people to vote with their dollars for products and services that sustain and restore degraded ecosystems and promote social justice. We plan to stay on the cutting edge of restorative business development and believe that five years from now, the work that we are doing now will be commonplace in all businesses. So we envision a constant cycle of innovation and product improvement. Can we help change the conversation from minimizing the bad to maximizing the good?

Read more Dollars & Sense.

Editor’s note: Article by Nadia Hosni. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

Image: juanpol

The post In the Hot Seat: Chris Mann appeared first on EcoSalon.

When you’ve been out of work for a while, grooming is usually one of the first things to go. Also pants with waistbands and your hopes and dreams, but that’s another post for another day. Now that Maurice Tidy has launched Hair Care, a charity providing free, professional hairstyles to the unemployed, at least your head can look professional. You’ll probably want to put on pants afterward. One step at a time.

One of the most renowned hair stylists in the world, Maurice Tidy, and his partner, Gina Caruso, have launched a campaign to help those who’ve been let go turn a bad loss into a great hair gain.

Gail Michalak was engaged and had just turned 50 when she thought to herself, “Boy, it’s going to be a good year.” But instead, on that Monday, her fiancé called to end the relationship and on Friday, she got laid off from the administrative assistant job she had held for 31 years.

That was a year and half ago. She’s still single and still unemployed, but Monday, thanks to the initiative of Hair Care, a charity that provides free haircuts to people who are out of work, she has a new look – and a new outlook.

“I hadn’t gotten it cut in almost a year so I really needed some styling,” says Michalak (below, sitting), who lives in a Detroit suburb and worked in the auto industry. “It gives you new motivation. It’s like a breath of fresh air. You get your second wind. It makes you feel just so much better. It puts a smile on your face.”

Hair Care was launched about 10 months ago by Maurice Tidy (at right), who was Vidal Sassoon’s first artistic director, and his partner Gina Caruso after she lost her job consulting for medical spa businesses. She realized how important something as simple as a haircut can be for one’s sense of self – and for one’s job search.

“I got involved with Hair Care 10 months ago because I became unemployed and wanted to give back knowing the pain and sacrifices that have to be made when you lose the financial security of a regular paycheck. Most individuals lose self confidence and regular maintenance of a haircut is usually put on the back burner, but it is imperative to look great and give the best first impression at an interview,” says Caruso.

Tidy, a Brit known around the world as the go-to hair stylist for celebs ranging from the Beatles and Rene Russo to Patti Smith and Isabella Rosellini, was able to tap his hair salon network and recruit friends as volunteer stylists. Caruso posted on Tidy’s Facebook page an announcement about the Hair Care campaign and within 20 minutes, 20 salons were interested nationwide. And both Tidy and Caruso were surprised by the response to the first event last June held at Sassoon colleague Daniel Rizzardi’s Salon Secrets – 30 people were lined up before the doors opened at 9 a.m. and more than 700 people showed up during the two-day event in Charlotte, N.C., a hub in the banking industry which had been hard hit by layoffs.

“As the national unemployment rate has risen, so, too, has the competition for existing jobs. Staying well groomed and appropriately dressed is critical for job hunters,” says Tidy.

So far, there have been nine Hair Care events at which 4,500 people have had their hair cut and styled for free by 225 volunteer hair stylists. The most recent Hair Care event held Sunday and Monday at Hair Designs North owned by Alan O’Sada and Kimberly Briffa in Dearborn, Mich., an area of the country where automotive industry layoffs have been widespread, attracted 250 people in need of a cut and blow dry – not to mention a job. Twenty-two stylists volunteered to give haircuts, an area florist gave flowers to everyone who came in for a haircut, local community volunteers swept the floor, restaurants donated food and hotel rooms were discounted for out of town hair stylist volunteers.

Beverly Grau, 54, was among those who received a haircut, flowers and an emotional boost. A program manager in IT, she had worked for the same company for 24 years and had survived several workforce reductions since Hewlett Packard acquired the company. But, last Friday was her final day of employment. It was an emotional shock and although she realizes it’s just business, she says you can’t help but take it personally.

“This means everything to me. It’s extremely helpful to look your best. And it’s wonderful that these people have taken the time to do things for people in this situation. It’s a fun haircut for me and I think it makes me feel better and look good,” says Grau. “This has really been heartwarming that folks have done this. It is very much appreciated. It gives me a boost to go out and find that job.”

The first person to show up Sunday at the Dearborn event for a hair cut and styling was Dawn Bucko, a single mother who lost her job last June and hadn’t had a haircut since. “It really is amazing how just a simple haircut changed my mood. I know they said I would feel more confident, and it was the truth, as everyone is already saying I have a little extra swing in my step. And knowing there are great people willing to do something so great also makes me see the future with a brighter, more positive view.”

Editor’s note: Article by Anne Driscoll. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

Image: bzmillerboy

The post Shear Genius: Free Haircuts for the Unemployed appeared first on EcoSalon.

Projected to launch in Africa mid-summer, the Solar Pebble will quite possibly prove to be a life-changer for rural African communities.

Created by three university students in the UK, the industrial design and sustainable strategist consultancy, Plus Minus Design, will shed light on some of Africa’s most rural and isolated communities. The innovative, and cost effective, solar-powered LED light will hopefully replace most of the kerosene lanterns currently in use by most of these societies.

The light, otherwise known as the Solar Pebble, costs under $3 to manufacture and will stay lit for 22.5 hours when fully charged. In addition to being eco-friendly, replacing the need for kerosene will help reduce fires and respiratory health conditions, as well as save money. Currently, the average family in Malawi spends 20 percent of their income on the fuel.

In addition to lighting, the Solar Pebble will also charge mobile phones and portable radios. While these items are common in the villages, places to charge them are not. By increasing radio power, the design team hopes to increase awareness in the rural communities about HIV/AIDS education through radio programs.

Plus Minus Design was guided by the organization Solar Aid, which works to reduce climate change and poverty around the world by providing sustainable, renewable power to poverty-stricken communities.

The designers believe that design, sustainability and humanitarian efforts can, together, provide a profitable business solution. In an article for the University of Leeds, Adam Robinson one of the founders said, “We believe that sustainability doesn’t need to be a financial burden for companies. It’s an opportunity to increase market share, sales and profits. What we offer is a design service that not only creates new products, but also takes the whole production process into account.”

Editor’s note: Article by Katie Leavitt. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

The post University Students Design for Good appeared first on EcoSalon.

Christie’s auction house bets big on the environment.

Green. It means go. It’s the color of money. And, naturally, it’s the cause that’s bringing power players together to save Planet Earth. In response, Christie’s, one of the world’s biggest auction houses, dug deep into its mega-rolodex of artists, celebrities and collectors to produce A Bid to Save the Earth, the first-of-its-kind “Green Auction” in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Prior to their celeb-filled “Green Carpet” live auction scheduled for April 22 at Rockefeller Center, a companion silent auction in conjunction with leading online charity benefit auctioneers Charitybuzz, launched April 8. It runs through Thursday, May 6, at ABidtoSavetheEarth.org. Christie’s is waiving its commissions and fees and divvying the proceeds between four top-rated nonprofits: Conservation International, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Central Park Conservancy. As the event’s official media partner, NBC Universal is giving the auction airtime during “Earth Week” from April 19-25, as part of their ongoing Green is Universal campaign.

What’s up on the (online) block? For starters, plenty of earth-centric pieces from some of the art world’s biggest players, such as a panoramic photograph of Central Park by Michael Doven and a no-GMO farmscape oil painting by Karen Klimnik alongside works by Olafur Eliasson, Damien Hirst, Keith Tyson, Zeng Fanzhi and Subodh Gupta created exclusively for the auction. “Science and art are the most powerful forces in the world for changing perception and behavior. It’s a game changer to have the world’s most significant artists coming together in support of these leading environmental NGOs,” says arts patron and event co-chair Susan Cohn Rockefeller. “This is the kind of collective action that will help us meet the tremendous challenges our Earth faces.”

Also on offer in the online auction are a slew of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. “People don’t always want more stuff, but they do want experiences and access,” says Toby Usnik, VP and international head of corporate communications for Christie’s. With luxury vacations to Bali and Belize, a walk through Central Park with Candice Bergen, a tennis lesson with John McEnroe, lunch with Vera Wang followed by a shopping spree at her boutique, guitars autographed by Emmylou Harris, Kid Rock and other country music celebrities, a Star Wars collector’s item signed by Natalie Portman, exclusive outfits from Gucci plus tickets to its Milan runway show, a culinary outing with Alice Waters, a day on-set with Hugh Jackman, and many more packages up for auction – all going for tens of thousands – one bid can make a huge difference for the environment.

“Two years ago we tried to do this and the recession happened and it just didn’t seem like the best time, so we set it aside,” says Usnik. “Almost exactly a year ago, we revisited it and felt passionately that if we didn’t do it someone else was going to.”

Sure, Christie’s, like many other auction houses, regularly sends out its auctioneers to preside over other groups’ charity auctions, but it has never organized a wholly charitable endeavor by itself. “For the first time in our 250-year history, we created a charity and got our 501c3 designation, so we’re now able to legally process charity funds,” says Usnik. “Now we have the infrastructure which really lays the foundation for future charity endeavors for things that come up like Haiti and Chile, instead of having an ad hoc response.”

Don’t think you can afford VIP tickets to a Christina Aguilera concert or falconry lessons with Bobby Kennedy? There are lots of ways to get involved. Visit the site and learn how you can donate directly to the organizations, volunteer at a site near you and “Green Your Routine” with tips from eco-guru Elizabeth Rogers. Or, if you’re more fashionably inclined, purchase a special-edition Loomstate sustainable organic cotton tee at Barneys New York and at Loomstate, priced at $40 in honor of Earth Day’s 40th, with a percentage of proceeds going to green causes.

Check back here for Tonic’s coverage of the big event and visit Christie’s LIVE to follow the auction in real time.

Editor’s note: Article by Angela Gaimari. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

Image: FlyingSinger

The post Going, Going…Green! appeared first on EcoSalon.

Finland’s new mail program hopes to cut costs and decrease pollution.

According to the Telegraph, a new system launched in Finland may have snail mail sliding even further from our fingertips. On April 12, Itella, which runs the country’s postal system, will begin a pilot program in which mail is scanned, digitized, and then emailed to recipients. Once in action, it is anticipated that this plan will reduce carbon emissions, paper waste and cut costs by limiting the number of mail carriers on the road.

So far, 126 households and 20 businesses have volunteered to take part in the project. Once mail is scanned, participants receive a text message or email that their mail is ready to view. Some skeptics are worried about privacy issues and have likened this new mail system to tactics used by the KGB. But advocates of the program insist that mail is not read nor is it kept once it has been copied. When it comes to security, Itella’s director, Tommy Tikka, compares the approach not to e-mail but to web banking, insisting the program is safe and secure.

But what about things that can’t be scanned? Replacement credit cards, the feel of embossed fonts, the smell of perfume-scented love letters? For this trial, hard copies of scanned mail (including any additional non-scannable pieces) will still be delivered twice weekly to homes and offices. It’s unclear as to whether this will continue on a regular basis after the trial period has concluded. The trial will run through the end of the year, and if the feedback is positive, the result will be a more widespread program.

With America appearing to move towards cutting Saturday mail deliveries, will this new mail system be next for us, too? Here’s hoping!

But, in the meantime, if you want to eliminate your junk mail right now, check out Tonic’s own Precycle!

Editor’s note: Article by Sophie Rosenblum. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

Image: uzvards

The post Want to Save the Planet? Have Your (Snail) Mail Scanned appeared first on EcoSalon.

You may be a slave to the stove but you can also be a steward of the planet with new earth-friendly cookware developed by Ecolution.

Day in, day out, we use the stove – and of course, our cookware – to heat our meals and cook our snacks. But a revolutionary company called Ecolution has put green where we are not used to seeing it: in pots, pans and skillets. It has developed a Hydrolon non-stick surface which is made using a water-based process unlike traditional Teflon, which, according to Ecolution, uses harsh solvents to create a non-stick surface. The company claims the Ecolution surface is therefore safer for healthy, earth-friendly cooking and eating.

In fact, Ecolution has put an environmental mindfulness into what is often a routine chore. Let’s face it, we’ve all watched and waited for a pot to boil while letting our mind wander aimlessly, but Ecolution’s emphasis on the environment reminds us to consider that the earth is inhabited by an extended family of cooks, all sharing this great round green (and blue) earth.

The cookware, ranging from saucepans to griddles, are available at retailers like Amazon or Bed Bath & Beyond and suggested retail prices range from $31.99 for a 14-inch fry pan to an 8-piece green-colored (and green-minded) cookware set for $69.99. As part of its mission to promote eco-friendly cooking, the company has suggested some interesting ways to reuse or recycle your old pots, such as using them for camping, for your kids’ play kitchen or as planters. The Ecolution website provides a zip code-based search to find local charities where you can donate your old cookware or a place where the old pots can be recycled.

So vegans, meat-eaters and macrobiotics unite and cook green!

Editor’s note: Article by Anne Driscoll. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

Image: ginnerobot

The post Cooking Up a New Way to Be Green appeared first on EcoSalon.

Triscuit and Urban Farming are encouraging the widespread interest in local and homegrown food by helping people start 50 community-based “home farms” around the country.

Article by Katherine Gustafson and image by OakleyOriginals via Flickr. First published March 2010 at Tonic.com.

Triscuit, the Nabisco brand of crackers, is teaming up with the Detroit-based nonprofit Urban Farming to capitalize on widespread interest in local and homegrown food by supporting home farming. Triscuit’s campaign is, in fact, called “Home Farming Movement,” as if grassroots can be planted by a corporate foodwashing campaign.

While a true movement it is not, a laudable attempt at moving the country toward healthy, local food it certainly is.

The campaign aims to create 50 community-based “home farms” across the country this year. To help them, Nabisco will enclose packs of basil and fill seeds in four million packages of Triscuit crackers.

The interactive website tells you everything you need to know, including how to grow vegetables at home, a guide to crops and expert advice from Paul James, the “Gardener Guy.” The first step, though, is to enter your zip code at the “start your home farm” page, which will help you figure out what you need to know.

Taja Sevelle, founder of Urban Farming and a former pop star who once wrote songs with Prince, recently told me that gardening is about something much deeper than simply being able to supply the tomatoes for the dinner salad.

“Gardening is a fairly addictive and therapeutic activity,” she said. “There’s something about getting your hands in the soil and planting and seeing things grow that touches a human chord within everybody.”

Editor’s note: Article by Katherine Gustafson and image by OakleyOriginals via Flickr. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

The post Nurturing the ‘Home Farming’ Movement appeared first on EcoSalon.

Overloaded by trash, the city tries an unusual method to combat the smell. Next strategy? Perhaps recycling.

Article by Kathy Ehrich Dowd and image by Th145 via Wikimedia Commons. First published March 2010 at Tonic.com.

Stinky landfills are a bit like stinky armpits – only a whole lot bigger. And what do we do when our armpits smell a bit rank? Put on some deodorant, of course. And it seems Beijing has come up with the same solution for their foul-smelling pits of garbage.

According to Treehugger.com, the city is installing 100 giant deodorant guns at its Asuwei dump site, following smell complaints from local residents.

The high-pressure fragrance cannons reportedly spray gallons of an odor-fighting agent per minute, with a range of up to 20 feet. City officials will also cover the trash with plastic to help minimize the stench.

Although their smell-control efforts might work in the short-term, it doesn’t solve Beijing’s bigger issue: it can’t keep up with all the trash it produces. Local officials say the city of 17 million generates more than 18,000 tons of trash daily, 700 tons more than its current dumps are equipped to handle.

“All landfill and treatment sites in Beijing will be full in four years. That’s how long it takes to build a treatment plant. So we need to act right now to resolve the issue,” said Wang Weiping, a waste expert in the city government. “It’s necessary to restructure the current disposal system. We cannot rely on landfill anymore. It’s a waste of space.”

One reason for the trash problem is it seems Chinese citizens are not very good recyclers. Less than 4 percent of its trash is recycled, versus 35 percent in the UK and US. (Go us!)

So it seems those deodorant guns are simply a stop-gap measure. But perhaps all that stinky trash will motivate China to recycle a lot more. In other words, perhaps Red China will become Green China before we know it.

Editor’s note: Article by Kathy Ehrich Dowd and image by Th145 via Wikimedia Commons. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

The post Beijing Installs Giant Deodorant Guns to Battle Landfill Stench. Seriously. appeared first on EcoSalon.

Best-selling author Thomas Kostigen shares simple, surprising tips to reduce your “water footprint.” (Hint: Turn out the lights… and don’t buy that extra pair of jeans!)

By KC Baker of Tonic.com as published March 2010.

It’s time for all of us to go on a water diet.

Long leisurely showers, running the water while brushing your teeth, even buying that extra pair of jeans you don’t really need – all of those seemingly small actions are dramatically decreasing the world’s water supply, says New York Times bestselling author Thomas Kostigen. And he should know: The author just released The Green Blue Book: The Simple Water-Savings Guide To Everything in Your Life, the most comprehensive book ever written about the world’s most precious resource.

“Right now, five million people die every year because of a lack of fresh water,” says Kostigen, whose latest book arrived just in time for today’s World Water Day, a United Nations’ initiative aimed at bringing attention to the planet’s escalating water crisis. “It’s not that we don’t have enough water. It’s that we’re not managing it correctly.”

Now, more than ever, we need to look at how much water we use – and waste – and do something about it before it’s too late, he says. “There’s a big crisis hitting us right here, right now, and that’s water,” says Kostigen – who also wrote the bestselling books You Are Here and The Green Book.

Think the water crisis is a third world problem? Think again.

The water crisis has already hit the United States in serious ways, Kostigen says: “Thirty six states in the next five years will experience some kind of drought. Texas, which is the second biggest agricultural state in the union, is now the driest region in the nation. The aquifer in the Great Plains is drying up, which means that farmers don’t have enough water for their crops. Cattle ranchers don’t have enough water for their cattle. There are wildfires in California, where we are rationing water. Arizona has run out of its water and has been forced to import it. A few years ago, Georgia almost ran out of water. A lot of it has to do with the shift in climate and our profligate use of water.”

Through his travels throughout the world and to the planet’s most environmentally vulnerable spots, he found that people in the US use more water than anywhere else. “In third world countries, where resources are scarce, they use five gallons of water a day for drinking, bathing, eating and for health reasons,” he says. “We use five gallons of water with each flush of the toilet.”

People in the US need about 13 gallons of water a day to drink, bathe and other things. “But we use almost 150 gallons a day per person,” he says. “There is a major disconnect between what we need and what we use. When you put that into that perspective, you start to think about what we can do to conserve water in our water diet.”

One way we waste water without even thinking about it is by making more coffee than we drink, he says. “Think about the water you leave in the bottom of the pot each day. That one cup of cold coffee adds up to two gallons of water per person for 1.1 billion people who don’t have access to fresh water around the world. If everyone would make the amount of coffee they need, that would save a huge amount of water.”

Big savings are also possible simply by ordering a salad once a week rather than a burger when you eat out. Beef uses 1,581 gallons of water per pound to process – more than any other kind of meat, Kostigen says. “One way to cut down on our water usage is by swapping things out. It doesn’t have to be an all-sum game. Swap out a hamburger for a veggie burger just once and save about 600 gallons of water. Ordering a salad saves about 750 gallons of water,” he explains.

Besides the water we use each day for cooking, bathing and washing dishes and clothes, we also need to consider the concept of “virtual water” – the amount of H2O it takes to make and grow food, clothes, household items and other things you own.

“It takes nearly 3,000 gallons of water to make a new pair of jeans,” he says. “With 450 million pairs sold annually in the United States, that comes to nearly 1.4 trillion gallons of water, which is equal to half of California’s entire yearly urban water demand.”

In America, we put “strange things in strange places,” he adds. “Like palm trees in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. We put species where they don’t belong in excess amounts, which leads to overwatering.”

Overwatering with water we simply don’t have to waste.

The solution? “We need to make smarter choices,” he says.

To reduce your own water footprint, try the following:

Turn off the lights: “We use 50 percent of our water supply in the United States to create energy,” he says. “Turning off the lights saves even more water than turning off the tap in your home.”

Buy local : “Buy apples and vegetables from local farmers markets,” he says. “This saves money in the transport of food from other areas.”

Put your water into your own bottles: “This is a big one,” he says. “It takes three liters of water to make the bottle for one liter of water.”

Water lawns and gardens less: “Seventy percent of all residential water goes for our lawns,” he says. “We over water our plants, lawns and gardens by about 50 percent on average.”

Buy what you need – especially when it comes to food: “Agriculture is the number one consumer of freshwater in the world, accounting for about 70 percent of its use,” he says. We waste 40 percent of the food we produce in the US and along with it, 25 percent of the total U.S. water supply it took to grow it.”

Go to the car wash: “Car washes use water more efficiently than doing it yourself with a hose,” he says. “And many car washes use recycled water.”

Turn off the tap when you are brushing your teeth.

None of it’s particularly difficult. Connecticut resident Michelle Kingsbury tells Tonic she has been practicing water conservation for years now – in small ways. “When I make coffee, I measure out the amount of water I need in a mug and put that amount of water in the coffee maker,” says the mother of three. “I leave buckets outside in the yard to collect water when it rains and water my garden with that. These are easy things to do that end up saving a lot of water.”

Kostigen hopes that his latest book, which is easy to read and even funny in parts, along with World Water Day and the April 18 Live Earth Run For Water event will help make people realize just how important it is to save water. “We need to decrease our water footprint,” he says. “Not just the water we see, but the water we don’t see – and make better choices, which will save millions of gallons of water.”

The beautiful thing about that? “It’s easy to do,” he says, “and everyone can do it.”

Click here to read more about World Water Day 2010.

Photo courtesy of Tom Kostigen, by malla_mi via Flickr, and by Hypergurl – Tanya Ann via Flickr.

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