Green up your holidays!

It's the holidays - time for big spending, perhaps a little overindulging and definitely a lot of wastefulness if we aren't careful.

Here are a few do-good ideas for holiday gifting:
While you're making a list and checking it twice, why not give gifts that give twice? Charitable giving can can do a world of good! Keep your gift local by making a donation to your local food bank or homeless shelter in your recipient's name. Support education during the holidays by donating books or supplies in a friend's or your child's name to a local school or library. Make your holiday meals with as many locally grown and/or organic foods as possible! If you're giving or receiving new electronics this year, be sure to recycle or donate old ones! Check out Earth911.com for more info. How do you reduce waste? Gift reusable bags. Purchase recycled paper gift wrap. Reuse holiday cards into nifty gift tags. Wrap with newsprint, paper bags or old maps! Gift wrap with recycled paper or a scarf. Reuse a gift bag, even if it's NOT a holiday bag! Give the gift of time to someone you care about. Conversation shared over lunch or a visit to a museum are always great gifts.

Some waste facts that may surprise you:

• Waste fact #1: Nationwide, between Thanksgiving & Christmas, we throw away a MILLION EXTRA TONS of waste each WEEK.
• Waste fact #2: In Raleigh, in an average week, 3,000 tons of waste is discarded. During those six weeks it jumps up to 3,750 tons!
• Waste fact #3: 1.9 billion holiday cards are sent every year, filling a football field 10 stories high. Harvesting almost 300,000 trees!
• Waste fact #4: During the holidays, at least 28 billion pounds of edible food are wasted each year - almost 100 pounds per person.
• Waste fact #5: Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap & decorate consumer products.

If each American household wrapped just three gifts in reused materials, enough paper would be saved to cover 45,000 football fields. Join with NC GreenPower this holiday season and pledge to cut back on waste. You can also go online and offset your holiday lights through our My NC GreenPower fundraising campaign!

As we approach the end of the year, we ask that you please consider making a one-time or monthly donation online, or give to NC GreenPower on behalf of a loved one using our gift cards. While shopping online, you can also connect with GoodSearch, and they will donate a portion of your purchase to us on your behalf!

Happy 10th birthday, NC GreenPower!

I don't know about you, but I sure do remember my 10th birthday... I thought - WOW! I'm turning double-digits - and thought I was SO very grown up.

NC GreenPower celebrates our 10th birthday this month, and we are so excited to share this with you! To celebrate, we have been posting a lot of our ten year history on our social media sites. We also have Throwback Thursday where we post photos of past project dedications. (Twitter  /  Facebook)

On Thursday, October 17 at 11:30am, we will be giving away 225 small trees from Lichtin Plaza at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh – free for anyone to take home and plant as a way to reduce their carbon footprint. 

It's one tree per person, and we'll be out there until we run out of trees!

DUKE ENERGY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

2 E South Street, Raleigh - map it here.

Walk, run, bike, drive by or take the bus!

Sustainable Back to School Shopping

Back to school shopping can add up fast. And let’s be honest, you usually end up losing half of the materials you bought throughout the previous year, right? So why not take some pressure off your wallet and spend a day gathering those lost supplies and recycle the ones you’ve used! That box of pencils is lying around your house somewhere, and the supplies you already have are still in great shape. Here are some helpful hints for how to make your back to school shopping easier, less expensive, and green!

1.   Go through your desk drawers and collect all those pens, pencils, erasers, folders, notebooks, binders, etc. that are still in great shape. Mix and match and re-design to make your own trendy collection!

2.   Recycle those partially used notebooks by tearing out the used pages. Then, decorate the cover to make it look like it was customized just for you! Do the same for those perfectly good binders that have a few scratches and tears on the cover.

3.   Don’t have any old materials you can reuse? Go shopping at a store that carries green school supplies. For example, the Ultimate Green Store has everything from solar backpacks to recycled clothing and supplies. Everything they sell is either recycled, eco-friendly, or powered by solar. Better yet, you can conveniently shop online, and they have great deals. Even stores like Target and Wal-Mart have green options like recycled paper and notepads, so be on the lookout wherever you decide to go and be sure to make the green choice.

4.   Come see NC GreenPower at an event and get a FREE recycled pencil, pen, or notepad. Better yet, volunteer for us and get an organic and locally-made t-shirt!

5.   Not looking forward to cafeteria food and the unreasonable prices they charge for it? Buy a lunch box to bring your favorites to school each day. To green it up even more, use reusable Tupperware instead of plastic bags for your sandwiches, but make sure they are BPA free! As far as your food goes, look for organic and locally-grown. Shop at local farmers markets for those fresh veggies, or eco-friendly stores like Trader Joes and Whole Foods.

6.   Shop at thrift stores for your back to school wardrobe. Places like Plato’s Closet and Uptown Cheapskate sell in-style clothes from the most popular name brands. Get your back to school outfit for less than 20 bucks!

Follow these helpful hints to have a green and cheap back to school shopping spree.  Be sure to share these trendy tips with your friends and be the one to start the green trend in your school!