At 10, that young neatnik is a confirmed greennik. The founder of greenkidsnow.org, this precocious environmentalist has taken the message of reduce, reuse, recycle to heart. Started by Pavan a couple of years ago with help from Shanti, the website is an attempt to connect with other green kids and start a movement of sorts. “I’d like kids to pledge to care for the environment,” says Pavan.

Pavan began his efforts to spread the message of caring for the environment in his classroom at Glenmoor Elementary school in Fremont.

Says teacher Johnna Laird, “Pavan’s passion for the planet strikes a chord in the hearts of children and adults.”

When Pavan informed his class about his website, more than 20 students raised their hands, saying they want to join him in finding ways to make the planet healthier.

One student, Natalie, decided to enlist her Girl Scout troop in energy conservation projects.

Another student, Matthew, took Pavan’s Green Kids business card, attached his pencil as a stick and marched around with his mini-placard at recess advertising Green Kids, just as he had seen adults campaign for an important issue.

Anna used a spelling and preposition homework assignment to write about her concerns after Pavan spoke to the class:  “As for people who don’t litter, they should wear a badge on their shirts. If we all manage to keep the earth clean, we can change the world.  Whenever you see trash on the ground, pick it up and throw it away.”

Adds Laird, “Pavan is a catalyst for children.  He has figured a way to transform his feelings into action, into a practice to make a difference.  Other children want to be part of this process. They care. They know that Earth is their home and want to keep it healthy for years to come.” The school has already replaced its light bulbs with longer-lasting fluorescent ones as a first step in conservation. In the classroom, care is taken to use both sides of copying paper before it is recycled. Even the recycle bin was added at Pavan’s urging. At school birthday parties, biodegradable plates and spoons are used.

These are small steps, but imagine every classroom in Glenmoor, every school in Fremont, California, the United States, taking up these simple changes.

Pavan hopes the website will make his message a movement. Kids who are interested can sign up and create local teams. One child takes a leadership role and represents the kids in their efforts to make their own environment a little better. The kids work out cost-benefit analyses and write proposals to effect change in the schools and neighborhoods. They learn teamwork and leadership skills.

Already 97 kids have signed up. Chapters are being formed in Ohio, Indiana, and Washington state. Apart from the Fremont chapter, the Bay Area has another in San Ramon.

Pavan oversees these activities. Each regional team is helped by an adult, but in general the activities are led and managed by kids. Mom Shanti is working towards non-profit status for Green Kids Now. “Once we received the appropriate status, hours spent with Green Kids will count towards community service credits,” says Shanti. She hopes to get it by May 2010.

Still, being a 10-year-old with a passion for the environment when your friends are into Harry Potter and Super Mario can be frustrating at times. “People don’t take me seriously because I’m just a kid,” complains Pavan. “They ignore me.” Many of the kids at school couldn’t be bothered either. “I tell him not to give up,” says Shanti. “That kind of reluctance from the community is natural.”

Says Laird, “when I think of Pavan and his classmates, I think of the words to a Whitney Houston song:

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way.”

It’s not easy being green, as Kermit the frog realized, but Pavan hopes his efforts will help bring about those small changes that can hardwire environmental awareness into the consciousness of the next generation. If your kid wants to sign up, becoming a green kid is just a click away.

Here is a partial list of classroom tips from the website:

Use both sides of the paper
• Only buy recycled paper
• Have a recycle bin in the classroom, and mark it clearly with the recycle symbol
• Create a student job as a “Recycling Monitor”. This person would be in charge of making sure that people are recycling instead of throwing into trash bin
• Use reusable water bottles, rather than throw away plastic bottles
• Use biodegradable plates, cups, and spoons for class parties
• Do projects using recycled materials
• Do art projects from things that we throw away
• On a nice sunny day, let the sun light come inside and turn off the lights
• On a hot day, open the windows for fresh air, instead of using the air conditioner

I’ve been dying to explore the area, and when a nearby plaza suddenly bucked the recession and opened up nearly half-a-dozen new shops catering to office goers, it seemed like an invitation to enjoy the fine Californian summer and check it out.

Alas, I quickly discovered that there was really no safe way to walk to the plaza, which is literally 3 minutes from my office. San Jose city planners, in their infinite wisdom, had created a multitude of grassy verges that lushly deplete the city’s water supplies, and had completely forgotten about pedestrian crossings, at least as far as my eyes could see.

Being a veteran of road crossings in Mumbai, I only hesitated for a moment before setting off along the rain gutters, occasionally moving to the grass if I was in danger of being mowed down by a bus. I blithely jaywalked across the tar, nimbly avoiding the meager traffic and arrived at my destination.

The coffee shop promised to open only the next day, which may have soured my mood, but in my new environmentally conscious persona, I was more than a little pissed at the architects of this sidewalk-less vision of the city, with each office worker neatly cubicled up in their little offices, driving their little boxes to spend their day in more little boxes, separated from their fellow human beings by not just wood, steel and glass, but the impossibility of random personal contact, even as they “walled” and “tweeted” their business to their virtual acquaintances. How much nicer it would have been if I could take a stroll down my pretty street and casually bump into fellow toilers and exchange some gossip away from the water cooler. We’d certainly feel a stronger sense of community, which has to be the first step in being involved in and influencing the decisions that impact our daily lives.

Anyhow, having got my activist mojo on during last year’s elections, I fired off an email to the customer service department of the City of San Jose, and gratifyingly, they have responded ( even if it’s with an automated reply!) promptly.

I certainly don’t expect bulldozers to start tearing up the pristine lawns on my street, but if my email makes city planners pause and consider “walkability” as an important criterion when planning the next development, I will have done what I can.

I’ll keep you updated on the reply from the city. If you would like to share your opinions with the city too, here is the email -customerservice at sanjoseca.gov. Make the usual corrections.

Now we had been following the practice of kitchen scrap disposal for a while. A couple of years ago, the City of Fremont had distributed small kitchen pails. These were meant to be used to collect kitchen scraps and peelings to be disposed in the green bin, which takes all kinds of compostable material. The city then carts it away to a composting center and gives all the residents free compost every spring.

The kitchen pails were not a very practical idea, though. The opening was narrow, which meant invariably there was food stuck to the lid. The garbage started stinking very soon, and it was a pain to tip it over into the green bin when full.  There were so many people who gave up on the program that the city soon realized it was a colossal failure. They decided to have a contest to come up with ideas to get residents motivated to get rid of kitchen scraps and peelings appropriately.

In the meantime, my family had come up with a simple solution to the problem. We deputed one of our plastic bowls to be the receptacle and dumped all the kitchen scraps in it. At the end of the day we emptied it into the green bin. This still didn’t solve the problem of the green bin stinking but at least it was outside the house. Every once in a while, we rinse the bin out.

Along the way we realized that paper napkins were compostable and started lining the bin with a new napkin each day. Thus made the job even easier.We reduced our landfill pile to 2 bags a week and proudly wheeled out the nearly empty blue bin each Friday.

So when my friend asked for composting advice, I decided to look up the the appropriate web page of the county’s garbage disposal company. That’s when I discovered that there were some other unusual items which could also be composted, like milk and juice cartons. The rule of thumb is – if you can tear it, it will compost. Of course, your first preference for paper products would be to put them in the grey recycle bin but if they are food soiled they need to go in the green bin. And typically cartons are not marked with the triangular recycle sign, so if they do not have a foil lining, they can be composted.

Unfortunately, the soy milk cartons my family piles up have a foil lining, so I will have to search some more.

To get the complete list of items that can be composted, click here. And this site suggests winning ideas for making kitchen scrap disposal easier. Some of the more unusual items are -

- Waxed milk cartons ( no foil-lined ones please), juice and ice-cream cartons. Remove the plastic cap first.

- Pizza boxes

- Paper egg cartons

- Coffee filters and tea bags

- Paper plates and cups( no plastic coated ones, please)

CAVEAT: Each city has a different program for milk carton disposal, so call up your local waste disposal company to make sure it is ok with them.

Picture by D’arcy Norman

Yesterday, we visited the city again, opting for the King Tut exhibit at the De Young Museum, which is located right across the Cal. Academy of Sciences. This time we took the car, printing out directions to the complex maze that is the Golden Gate Park. We left at almost exactly the same time as last week and arrived at our destination in 45 minutes, despite one wrong turn inside the park. It was early enough to find parking right  below the museum. In the afternoon we drove back, losing our way one more time, and reached home in about an hour and 15 minutes. Total travel time: 2 hours. Total cost: $ 20 ( parking and gas).

You might argue that there is a hidden environmental cost in the second option, in terms of pollution and use of scarce resources, and not factoring that in is unfairly tilting the balance in its favor. But to the average user, the obvious advantages are what count. The impact on the pocketbook and one’s time is real and immediate, while the environmental damage is in the abstract, so it is not surprising when consumers make unfriendly choices. Even an informed consumer will hesitate to work against his immediate self-interest; I know taking the train will not be the first choice for me when I plan trips to the city during non-peak travel times.

In the Bay Area, public transit is simply not convenient enough. Even if we were willing to pay more so that we may preserve the environment, the cost in time is simply unacceptable. Our lives are busier and more scheduled than ever, and no parent will consciously choose to drag impatient kids around a  minute longer than he/she has to. So there are obvious improvements to be made here.

The other is to assign a cost of the environmental impact to the driving option. Low gas prices drive our choices in the wrong direction. They deter innovation and investment in mass transit and do not reflect the destructive consequences of fossil fuel use. Had gas been at 6 dollars a gallon, the cost of driving to the city would have jumped to 37 dollars, a bit closer to the cost of mass transit. Additionally, some of that gas revenue could have been used to make improvements in public transit, perhaps bringing costs and travel time down.

The point is that it is unreasonable to expect people to make good choices about the environment when it is so hard to be green. Make the decisions more realistic and practical and the message of conservation is more likely to get embedded in the public consciousness.

Picture by Saikofish.

On my ride to work recently, I heard an NPR interview on the subject of fuel conservation. The experts on the panel offered some tips for improving fuel efficiency while driving, and so I decided to try them out. Like most people out there, when fuel climbs to $4.87 a gallon I can't change my car to a Prius; I'm just going to have to do more with less.

Here are some of the suggestions they offered, and my experience trying them out.

   1. Measure your mileage. If you don't know where you are, you can't know where you're going – the first step to any improvement process is to create a baseline – and then improve from there. So start off by noting your odometer reading (or zeroing the trip meter) the next time you fill up, and then noting how many miles you've driven when you fill up again. The difference, divided by the gas you put in (full tank-to-full tank) gives you your mileage. If you're fortunate to have a fancy car that shows you instantaneous and trip mileage, use it!

   2. Reduce speed. This is supposed to be the simplest and most effective way of improving fuel consumption – and boy, did it work for me. By driving at not more than 55 mph, I saw my average consumption rise from 23-24 mpg (unfortunately, I drive a rather gas-guzzling 4-wheel drive VW) to 27 mpg, even getting as much 29.8 mpg on one day. For my 22-mile commute, it added perhaps 5 minutes to my commute time.

   3. Turn off the air conditioner. The television show "Mythbusters" tried to examine the myth that driving with your windows down and A/C off is less efficient than driving with your windows up and A/C on. I didn't watch the episode, but it appears that driving with the A/C off is better. I tried driving with the A/C off and windows up, and it might have given me 2 mpg more than with the A/C on. I must admit that it has been quite difficult these last few weeks, and I sometimes put the A/C on while coasting downhill (when consumption is excellent).

   4. Drive smoothly. I've never been one of those drivers who like to verify that their cars are accelerating from 0-60 in 6 seconds at every red light, but I've been particularly careful about slow acceleration during this experiment. Stops and starts, and the acceleration during the start, have the greatest impact on fuel efficiency, so reducing them to the minimum (if you see a red light, slow down early enough and it might change by the time you get to it) and then accelerating slowly help get better mileage. If you see congestion ahead, slow down well in advance (like the trucks do) to try to avoid having to decelerate and then accelerate again.

   5. Use public transit. I tried using public transit a few times. There's a direct AC transit bus line from my office in the Peninsula to my home in the East Bay, so I thought it would be pretty efficient. Unfortunately, the time it takes just made it an non-viable option. 511.org has a good transit trip planner, and trips from home to work or vice versa took 1:20 vs. 25 minutes in the car. Even with the savings, I couldn't justify this time differential. If I get into the habit of working on the bus (it has WiFi), then the equation can shift in favor of public transit.

   6. Car Pool. This one's really working well for me. I'm fortunate that a colleague who's equally conscious of the environment impact and cost of driving alone lives close-by, and both of us have enough flexibility in our work schedules to permit car-pooling. This has cut my gas bills by around 30% (I can't car-pool every day of the week – if I could, I'd probably see a 40-50% saving). 511.org has an excellent "ridematch" finder – just plug in your home and work address, the days of the week that you can car-pool, and the time that you leave for work and return home. Ridematch will suggest people who live where you live, work where you work, and work the same hours, you can then contact them and arrange a car-pool. No more excuses!!

   7. Keep your car well maintained. Keep the air filter clean, inflate the tires, and do all the sensible things that make for maximum efficiency.

All told, most of these changes have been relatively painless (except keeping the A/C off), and I've been happy with the results. I'd appreciate any feedback from trying them, additional suggestions! Buckle up, and drive slow!

UPDATE: Here is an excellent article on eco-driving, or how you can conserve energy while driving your car. 

Sharanya Krishna Prasad has been committed to environmental and animal causes since her early years. She is originally from Madras in south-eastern India, where as a student she volunteered with various community-based organizations that spread awareness on issues such as wildlife conservation and protecting Madras’ beaches from pollution. The more she learned from these experiences, the more simple yet effective lifestyle changes she chose to make for the sake of the planet and all its inhabitants. 

There are many simple changes everyone can make in their daily lives. It is not as hard or expensive as it may seem. I am listing all the things that I personally follow as well as some ideas for people to think about. I have dealt with it in terms of each room in the home.

Throughout the home

1.      Lighting - convert all bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. CFL bulbs last a lot longer than regular bulbs and consume a fraction of the electricity. It will save you money and pay for itself in the long run. Also turn off any unused lights in the home or lights in rooms not occupied by anyone.

2.      If you are considering painting your home, use low-VOC paints instead of latex-based enamel paints.

3.      Carpool or take a public transportation to work – this will relieve you of the stress of trying to navigate traffic.

4.      If you live close enough to work consider biking. If you have to drive, switch to a high efficiency hybrid or electric car.

5.      If you use a water pump to store water in an overhead tank, install an automatic pump shutoff system so when the water reaches a certain level, the pump will automatically stop. This will help avoid water overflows and wastage of electricity.

6. Consider harvesting rain water in your home. With water shortages occurring more frequently worldwide this precious resource can be saved and reused for watering plants

7. Reuse or make your own grocery bags. Children can get involved in creating these bags. They can decorate jute or waste cloth (like from those torn jeans) which can then be sewn together with jute or nylon thread to make it durable

Kitchen

1.      Waste is a huge issue in the home especially with multiple family members. In India the best incentive for recycling is the monetary aspect of it. Anyone can segregate their wastes at home and sell it to their local recycling store. Segregating wastes at source is most efficient. Keep bins for paper, plastics (including milk packets), and glass and keep putting the relevant materials into the bins. When full call the local recycling guy to haul it away and enjoy the profits from your sale!

2.      Consider using renewable and natural bamboo for kitchen cabinets in place of wood.

3.      Choose high efficiency (Energy Star rated) appliances like refrigerators and stoves.

4.      Fix any gas stove leaks immediately. These leaks are not healthy for you, your family, or the environment.

5.      Compost all organic wastes. This includes all vegetable and fruit peels, used coffee powder from the decoction filter, and leftover foods. These can be easily vermi-composted to produce a rich, nutritious compost for those plants in your garden. If you do not have a garden and live in a flat, consider giving the compost to the flat association so the gardener can use it in the common landscaped areas instead of using expensive and harmful chemical fertilizers. Compost bins have become more compact and do not emit odors unless you put rotting food in them.

 
Bathroom

Here is where the most difference can be made especially in terms of water usage which is a big concern in India .

1.      Parents should instill good habits in children (and themselves) such as turning the water off while brushing teeth or shaving.

2.      If you take a shower, keep it to 5 minutes or 10 minutes at most.

3.      A leaking toilet can waste up to 946 liters of water a day. To see if your toilet is leaking, place a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait for half an hour. Check the bowl – if the food coloring appears, you have a leak. Get a plumber to fix it. Similarly fix any leaking taps in the home.

4.      Add aerators to the faucets (the meshed cap that fits on the end of the spout) and invest in low flow shower heads.

5.      Consider getting a solar panel water heater. Or better yet, bathe in cold water!

Bedroom

1.      If you use a window or wall AC unit make sure you clean out the filter regularly. If you don’t then the efficiency of the AC reduces dramatically and uses more power to produce less cooling.

Office/Work Area

1.      Get a flat screen monitor for your computer in place of the older Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs). LCD flat panels are more energy efficient and use about 1/3rds of the power used by CRTs.

2.      Shut down your computer and any other unnecessary electronics at night. Even if computers are in standby mode they consume electricity. Similarly unplug any unused cell phone chargers etc. These consume electricity when just plugged in.

3.      Use recycled paper for printing. Also, print on both sides of a sheet of paper. If you print only on one side, after the printed sheet has met its purpose, use the other (blank) side to write your grocery/monthly provisions list or other notes. When done with both sides of the sheet, collect and recycle the paper along with newspapers.

4.      Consider reading the news online. Most national and regional papers offer the online edition for free. This will save you some money and also use less paper and ink.

 
Converting a regular toilet to a low-flush version to save money and water

One can easily convert a regular flush toilet into a low flush toilet. You will need a plastic container with a lid and some pebbles or sand to fill the plastic container. Remove any labels on the outside of the plastic container. Fill the container with pebbles, sand, or gravel – whatever is handy. If you fill the container with water it will move around in the tank and interfere with the flushing mechanism. Seal the container shut. Carefully lower the container into the water in the flush tank of the toilet. Make sure the bottle does not interfere with any of the moving parts in the tank. Replace the lid of the tank.

A sealed 2 liter container will save 2 liters of water on each flush. If each family member flushes 3 times daily, your family of 4 will save 24 liters of water every day or over 700 liters of water each month. These savings will significantly cut your water bill and save the environment at the same time.  

Sharanya currently works for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) in Boston, Massachusetts where she focuses on campaigns to create a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty ends.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle : we hear this everywhere today. Small changes in our everyday life go a long way towards a better environment and prepare us for a greener lifestyle.  Driving hybrid cars (or not driving a car), using alternate modes of transport, conserving electrical energy at home (insulation, using lights only when you need it, using green lights) and yes, using a clothesline, particularly in summer season, are all the things to do to be green.

Last weekend I visited a green event hosted by the City of Belmont and was fascinated by the number of green vendors.   The green industry is taking off in all walks of life.  From the smart car to Segway, Argon filled double paned windows to Compost bins – all these contribute to having clean and less polluted air and a healthier planet.

 
"Home is where one starts from” said T S Eliot and if you are a gardener, your home garden is a wonderful place to start.  Here are some practical suggestions to get you on the road to being green and eco-friendly.  

The approach to a sustainable gardening mimics nature where everything is recycled (water, debris, nutrients) endlessly. Water conservation, energy conservation, building a healthy soil, reducing the garden waste, creating a wildlife habitat for birds and insects are some of the keystones in a green garden.

While planting new flora, consider choosing California native plants or a mix of plants that are locally adapted. This helps conserve water and require less maintenance in terms of fertilizers and pesticides. Another benefit is that native birds, insects, and other wildlife have evolved with native plant species and are able to use the fruits, nectars and habitat these plants and trees provide.  Select disease resistant plants and try to include plants that attract beneficial insects in the landscape.

Grow an Organic garden.  Organic gardening is growing food/plants without using chemical pesticides, herbicides and inorganic fertilizers that pollute our soil and water. It relies on the use of beneficial insects, diversity of plants, and the use of compost to supply the soil with nutrients.  

Eliminate or minimize lawns.  Lawns can be beautiful and are a visual treat when maintained well but they are also one of the serious offenders of the green philosophy.  Lawns use up to ten times more toxic chemicals per acre than commercial farming.  Use of lawn mower for an hour creates as much air pollution as driving a car 100 miles.  The average 2000 square foot lawn requires 10,000 gallons of water per month to maintain, the same amount of water in an average swimming pool.  So, if you need to have a lawn (maybe for children to play), consider green-alternatives – make a smaller lawn or consider synthetic turf installation.

Group your plants in the landscape by their water needs. Install efficient irrigation systems (drip system, timers etc).  Use mulch in the garden to retain moisture and prevent drying out of the soil.  If possible install rainwater collections or gray water system.

Build a healthy soil in your garden: Amend the soil with compost. Add mulch to reduce weeds and to maintain moisture. Protect your soil from compaction.  Reduce kitchen and garden waste by investing in a compost bin and creating an active compost pile and add that to create a fertile and living soil.   Vermicomposting is a great way to reduce your garbage and reap rich benefits all around. All you need to start is a shallow bin that allows air to circulate, newspaper bedding and worms. The worm castings are a great fertilizer for plants. Check out the book “Worms eat my garbage” by Mary Applehof to understand how to make rich compost out of your garbage using a worm bin and worms.

Integrated Pest Management, which is the science of resolving pest problems by the use of natural resources, avoiding the use of chemical pesticides and a multi level approach of using natural controls to stop the pests in the garden is a great way to be earth friendly. IPM techniques can be as simple as planting companion plants to attract beneficial insects, introducing beneficial insects to your garden or making your own pesticides from ingredients you may already have on hand such as borax, ammonia and beer. IPM controls are preferable to chemical pesticides. However, when it is absolutely necessary to use a pesticide, choose the least toxic product.

Reuse pots, landscape materials like pavers, soil, lumber, concrete (broken concrete blocks from driveway can be reused to build dry walls). Explore the latest green concepts such as permeable pavers and pervious concrete (to reduce water runoff).  You can find a lot of these used materials on Craig’s list and Ebay.  Contact your local tree trimming company to see if they provide free mulch (chipped wood and leaves from trimming the trees).  They may not be the best looking mulch but they are free and go towards reusing natural materials.

Save energy by placing deciduous trees on the west side of the house to provide shade during the summer and allow sunlight to warm the house in winter.  Use hand or electric tools as opposed to tools powered with gas.  Select local garden products and buy supplies locally.  Use outdoor lights that are energy efficient or solar powered and of course include a space in the garden for a clothesline.

The best way to start a Green garden is to adopt a few measures at a time and start incorporating them into your life little at a time. So go ahead and pick your thing to do and live the mantra Reduce, Recycle and Reuse!!

Go Green and Stay Cool!

Some sites to visit for more information:
Composting -  http://www.composters.com
Vermicomposting – http://www.wormwoman.com
Green building exchange – www.greenbuildingexchange.com
San Mateo County Recycle works – http://www.recycleworks.org
Integrated Pest Management – http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/
California Native plants – http://www.cnps.org

Laxmi Natarajan is WNI's resident expert on gardening issues. She will take questions from readers on the subject via our feedback form. She also runs Bagicha, a landscape design firm in the Bay Area.