You protect future generations

You pay the real cost of real food

You have an independent guarantee

You protect water quality

You enjoy great flavour and nutrition

You keep chemicals off your plate

You reduce global warming and save energy

You prevent soil erosion

You help small farmers

You help restore biodiversity

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Gee, It's Easy Being Green

Some tips for making your life greener now:

• Take showers instead of baths. Install a water-efficient shower-head.
• Put a plastic or glass bottle with a good cap in your toilet tank, fill it with water or sand.
• Weather strip doors and windows.
• Use a clothesline.
• Do a few large loads of laundry rather than many small loads.
• Use ceiling fans to aid cooling and heating.
• Set up a recycling bin in your kitchen.
• Change your AC/furnace air filter monthly.
• Compost your food scraps and lawn clippings and cuttings.
• Buy items in the least amount of packaging.
• Buy recycled products.
• Use native plants in your landscape. They take less water and maintenance.
• Install a programmable thermostat.
• Use rechargeable batteries.
• Plant deciduous shade trees (drop leaves in fall) on the east and west sides of the home to block sun in the summer and admit sun in the winter.
• Use drip irrigation in your vegetable garden.
• Collect rainwater runoff in barrels to water your house plants.

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SMART SHOPPING

Buy equipment and products based on their life-cycle cost, considering not only the intial price, but the operation and maintenance expenses, too (an energy efficient compact flourescent bulb looks expensive at $15 each - but one flourescent bulb lasts as long as ten incandescent bulbs and uses 75% less electricity, so net savings can be over $30!).

Buy recycled products.

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Eight inventions that make American life worse! "Sierra Magazine"

· Genetically Modified Crops -- Genetically altered foods already rear their heads in all-American staples such as Coca-Cola and breakfast cereals. The health consequences to humans are unknown, but genetically modified crops are already having the unintentional effect of killing monarch butterfly larvae.
· Styrofoam -- Non-biodegradable packaging adds bulk to our bulging landfills, and will languish for centuries.
· Jet Skis -- The engines on these noisy polluters pump up to a quarter of their fuel directly into our water.
· Remote Control -- The remote sent attention spans into freefall, and created a nation of "couch potatoes."
· Leaf Blowers -- Why burn fossil fuels when a rake gives you exercise and brings neighbors together to talk?
· Sport-utility Vehicles -- Guzzling gas more than three times as fast than many cars, huge SUVs spew tons of global warming pollution.
· Factory Farms -- Factory farms generate massive amounts of pollution, which too often flows untreated into nearby streams. Livestock manure has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states groundwater in 17 states.
· Soft Money -- The "soft money" loophole in election laws allow corporations to donate unlimited sums to political parties, wielding undue influence that tilts the balance of power toward polluters.

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PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

WE BELIEVE STATEMENTS:

1. To achieve our vision of sustainable development, some things must grow -- jobs, productivity, wages, capital and savings, profits, information, knowledge, and education -- and others -- pollution, waste, and poverty must not.

2. Change is inevitable and necessary for the sake of future generations and for ourselves. We can choose a course for change that will lead to the mutually reinforcing goals of economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity.

3. Steady progress in reducing disparities in education, opportunity, and environmental risk within society is essential to economic growth, environmental health and social justice.

4. The United States made great progress in protecting the environment in the last 25 years, and must continue to make progress in the next 25 years. We can achieve that goal because market incentives and the power of consumers can lead to significant improvements in environmental performance at less cost.

5. Economic growth based on technological innovation, improved efficiency, and expanding global markets is essential for progress toward greater prosperity, equity, and environmental quality.

6. Environmental regulations have improved and must continue to improve the lives of all Americans. Basic standards of performance that are clear, fair, and consistently enforced remain necessary to protect that progress. The current regulatory system should be improved to deliver required results at lower costs. In addition, the system should provide enhanced flexibility in return for superior environmental performance.

7. Environmental progress will depend on individual, institutional and corporate responsibility, commitment, and stewardship.

8. We need a new collaborative decision process that leads to better decisions; more rapid change; and more sensible use of human, natural, and financial resources in achieving our goals.

9. The nation must strengthen its communities and enhance their role in decisions about environment, equity, natural resources, and economic progress so that the individuals and institutions most immediately affected can join with others in the decision process.

10. Economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity are linked. We need to develop integrated policies to achieve these national goals.

11. The United States should have policies and programs that contribute to stabilizing global human population; this objective is critical if we hope to have the resources to ensure a high quality of life for future generations.

12. Even in the face of scientific uncertainty, society should take reasonable actions to avert risks where the potential harm to human health or the environment is thought to be serious or irreparable.

13. Steady advances in science and technology are essential to help improve economic efficiency, protect and restore natural systems, and modify consumption patterns.

14. A growing economy and healthy environment are essential to national and global security.

15. A knowledgeable public, the free flow of information, and opportunities for review and redress are critically important to open, equitable, and effective decision making.

16. Citizens must have access to high quality and lifelong formal and nonformal education that enables them to understand the interdependence of economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity -- and prepares them to take actions that support all three.

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