Small changes can have a huge impact, especially if they are being made daily and over a longer period of time.

Don’t wait on the others! Be the first and make a trend! For example, you could make your own Christmas cards from old photos, magazines, other cards or, even better, send ecards.

More ideas here:

http://www.isfoundation.com/campaign/environment/how-be-green-even-during-busy-holidays

http://shoptobegreen.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/the-top-10-hottest-green-gifts-ideas-for-the-holidays/

Aaaannnnd….some super great ideas for a greenish gift wrapping!

http://simplemom.net/eco-friendly-and-green-gift-wrapping-ideas-for-this-holiday-season/

What are your fave green ideas for this holiday season?

The Eco Team

Here’s an interesting doc, made at the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), about the ways in which they are timelessly captured, as well as about all the significations they take in doing so.

Enjoy!

John Muir was an American naturalist and conservationist leader who understood, even on the verge of the beginning of  the last century, the importance of conserving, protecting and using nature’s resources in a thoughtful and respectful way.

Respectful towards us, animals, trees and the entire ecosystem.

Then, giving nature’s back some untouched space to grow and get wild just as she chooses. National American Parks were thus imagined and established.

He was a pioneer in his own right that would further set the tone for our work, all of us who love our planet, our trees, flowers and fresh air and are striving, with little and grand gestures, to protect and conserve it.

More about him here.

….. RESPECT!

We bow,

The Eco Steps Team

* habitat

* shadow

* recreation

* our daily oxygen (14kg daily)

* the cooling of 10 ACs working 20h/day

* peace

* a friend always ready to listen to our incessant talk, mental or verbal, without interfering (!)

* wood for our desks and tables

* apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, oranges… well, you get the idea.

* a hugging buddy

* perfect peak-a-boo spot

And now, what they protect us from:

- light

- heat

- noise

- noisy neighbors

So…what are you waiting for? go and hug one!

More wonderful things about them here.

…some wind energy. High time!

More about it, here (whys, hows, hands on the basics )

Water? it’s precious, it’s good, vital and easily accessible if you are from what we call nowadays, a Western-modernized country. Not everybody is so drink it with joy, have more than enough, but save what you don’t need for the others.

Turn it off when you brush your teeth or scrub that plate.

Start small but keep persevering. Be a model for your kids and neighbors. Just like with everything else, a bit goes a long run!

And if you’re feeling super, extra, Earthly friendly, try the water footprint calculator from National Geographic and pledge to return some of your water to its natural system and thus sending it back to the rest of us!

Yes, we love animals just as much as we love the flowers, the trees, the green grass and the blue sky.

And even though eating or not meat is a personal choice, dependent on our beliefs, resources and upbringing, and we are not in any way fit to recommend what you should or not be eating, it is worth considering it.

Here are some resources with the pros:

http://www.britishmeat.com/49.htm

http://zenhabits.net/how-to-become-a-vegetarian-the-easy-way/

http://www.giveusahome.co.uk/articles/vegetarianism.htm

For those ambivalent towards the idea of giving up the delights of flesh forever, here’s an interesting talk that shows you how to compromise on the amount of the meat intake and the benefits of doing so:

http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html

Claudia is one of our dearest volunteers, who joined our forces a couple of years ago. She is fiercely independent, loves to take impromptu journeys whenever and wherever her fancy strikes, is a bon vivant in the truest French style – a culture she highly admires, and a most original fashionista at heart and trough her style.

Here is her tale of this great adventure that involved over 200 000 people who during just one day, cleaned the whole country up. Now that’s major autumn cleaning!

Romania, we did it!

On September 25^th, this year (2010), Romania took the national garbage out for the first time. Inspired by the experiences other countries had, more than 200.000 volunteers decided to participate in “Let’s do it, Romania” and it must have been the biggest social responsibility event in Romania, so far. More so, I am convinced most people will not like it to be also the last one.

At a quick review, the event was successful although there’s plenty of garbage still to be collected. People got involved, gave an example to others, awareness was raised in people’s conscience, and most importantly, children learned a valuable lesson. A reason to be proud of your country.  However the best feeling, the true success was felt in the hearts of the volunteers… the kind of satisfaction that came from being an active part of it.

Each team has a story, I’m sure it’s a catchy one, but ours is always better

Our team was a small one. At first. We were 4 adults and my 10 year old nephew. That morning we were assigned with a region comprising 3 villages. Despite the little misunderstanding at the beginning, our GPS coordinates were not very accurate, we found tons of PETs and wrappings thrown away randomly.

The first village was simple. We caught the attention of the whole population. People thanked us and were happy somebody sent young people to clean after other young but irresponsible people; their own. By the way, I haven’t seen too many old people making mess around themselves. Oh, I almost forgot, we spoke to the mayor as well.

Her  team: her sister, mom, Andrei, her nephew, with the mayor.

Before we got to the second village we found a very beautiful lake whose shores were ”hiding” so many filthy things you could not even imagine.

The next village had, however, an even bigger surprise; this time, a positive one. The first houses we encountered, located near the lake, were surrounded by tons of garbage. We started to clean their surroundings when we were joined by some children; at first two, and then another 4 and so on. Some of them belonged to the gypsy families that were living in these houses around the lake, and unfortunately people in the village would regularly throw their garbage in their “front yard”. The last thing I would like is to sound judgmental. But there were some very open conflicts in that village.

However that didn’t stop any of the children from joining our little cause, and from giving a helping hand. Children’s innocence and lack of prejudice should inspire us all. These children just joined for the fun of it and they were glad to help us along without asking anything in return. And there was obviously no conflict of ethnicity between them, like there was between “grown-ups”. If I come to think of it, images speak better than words.

The children, happy to join in and help

The kids helped us for several kilometers and we collected more than 10 large sacs together. We were truly impressed by their willingness to be good and to do positive things in life and to learn. After all that hard work we had to delight ourselves a bit.

A car full of happy kids

Sharing and being together.

There would be so much more to extract from such an experience, but as said in the beginning, the most important thing is to be a part of it. I sure hope “Let’s do it, Romania” will have other episodes, and that keeping our world clean becomes a MUST. We know for sure it can be done.

Thanks, Clau! Here is the link for this national activity.

The Eco Steps Team