When Chris Samila an Arizona State University student took a trip to Costa Rica to see the Arenal Volcano, he noticed that many homes in Costa Rica used compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

Instantly, a light went on in his head.

“In the middle of the jungle, they're using CFLs. Why not here?” he asked himself.

Samila, a senior in ASU's School of Global Studies, also began to realize that he and his generation would be the ones most affected by the depletion of the world's resources.

“I really did not realize the global scope of the issue until I began studying here,” Samila says. “The school also opened my eyes to the global economic potential of making America a strong leader in sustainable technology.

All of those thoughts coalesced, with help from the School of Global Studies Student Association and other organizations, to produce the Green Summit, a one-day sustainability event that took place on ASU’s Tempe campus in April 2007.

When he organized last year's first GreenSummit, Chris Samila never imagined that anyone but students would come, and perhaps residents of Tempe and Phoenix.

But they did come, and the summit was so successful that Samila has planned a second summit, set for September 5-6, 2008 at the Phoenix Convention Center.

And it will become a nationwide event, Samila says. He already is planning to hold a GreenSummit in Atlanta next year, and he has his sights set on other cities in the United States.

It's one of the most affordable conferences in America given the wide range of sustainability topics and number of presenters.

“The goal of the summit goes beyond conserving paper,” Samila says. “It is designed to be a catalyst for change.”

The GreenSummit will have a number of components this year. There will be a two-day conference for both professionals and consumers, offering more than 100 educational sessions, and an exhibition hall with more than 120 exhibitors with cutting-edge green products and services.

There also will be networking events, a green industry career fair and green building tours around the Valley.

Samila expects more than 10,000 people to attend, including a delegation from Eastern Europe that the U.S. Department of Commerce is bringing to showcase American innovations and ideas revolving around sustainability.

“This year, we have organized the Green Innovations Expo into 10 categories to help manage the expansive and complex idea of sustainability,” says Samila.

“These categories help define the diverse variety of ideas, products and research in order to highlight how sustainability affects your personal and professional life.”

The categories include Green Building Design, Green Chemistry Materials, Business Products and Services, Renewable Energy, Transportation, Greener Computing, Fashion, and Beauty among others.

Samila says people often ask him how he has the time to produce such a large conference, in record speed, while he is still an undergraduate student.

“My answer is that I'm a ‘permanent senior’ at the moment. I hope this will be a permanent career for me.”

2008 GreenSummit Expo and Conference

The Natural Resources Defense Council's online magazine Onearth featured Chris Samila in an article called, "Most Likely to Succeed" which you can read HERE.

 We have have over 1000 Environmental based Experiments, labs and lesson plans 

for Teachers/Home Schoolers and their students. Search topics like Global Warming (of course), climate change, air pollution, science, ocean etc..

*The site is fun and easy to use

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*The site is 110% kid safe 

www.greenplanetsearch.com is also: 

*An environmental search engine with over 3000 sites indexed and adding more green sites daily (we are an actual search engine, this is not another Google custom search)

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*Submit your Green Website feature

Below is a screenshot of our home page showing  the ECO LESSON PLAN ENGINE on the top of the page.

Directions for LESSON PLANS, go to www.greenplanetsearch.com on the top of the page it will say ECO SEARCH ENGINE.

On the right of that you will see the black which states "switch to eco lesson plans" Click It, then you will see it change to the ECO LESSON PLANS, type in your search and learn!!! 

         Hey everyone.

                  Just wanted to share an amazing new company that I recently came across. It's called Melaleuca. They have over 300 completely natural products that are also biodegradable and the packaging is recyclable. Their goal is to get people to switch their everyday household products like: laundry detergent, stain remover, dish detergent, soap, vitamins, makeup, toothpaste, deodorant, cookies, cereal, weight loss bars & shakes, meal supplement shakes and bars, breakfast bars, shampoo & conditioner and so much more. As you can see there is pretty much everything and all the products actually work better than the other leading brands and are either the same price as or less. Most products are heavily concentrated so they last longer but come in smaller packaging which saves energy and waste.

        Until the 20th of August the one-time membership fee of $29.99 is cut in half. So you can become a preferred customer for only $14.50. The membership fee is also completely refundable for the first four months if you are not satisfied or find its not right for you. Also, ALL products are completely refundable no matter how much you've used if you are not satisfied, as long as you return it within 60 days. There really is no risk. Try it! You may like it. Not only are the products great but you can have the satisfaction of knowing you are saving yourself, your family and your home (the environment) in the process!!!

     If you are interested please visit this site to get more info:

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   Also, if you know of anyone who may be interested please refer them to the site to get more information.

 THANK YOU!!!

   LIVE GREEN

Against the goverment

More than 265 teenagers from 44 U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces will meet at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff this week to participate as finalists in North America's largest high-school environmental-education competition, the 2008 Canon Envirothon.

The Canon Envirothon is an annual competition in which winning state/provincial teams compete for recognition and scholarships by demonstrating their knowledge of environmental science and natural resource management. The teams, each consisting of five high school-aged students exercise their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

READ MORE

The business section of the Arizona Republic today featured a real success story about a local Phoenix man, Justin Baumgartner, who in 2006 started his own company Laughing Giraffe Organics, which produces raw, vegan, organic products, including macaroons and granola.

Earning $50 a day at a local farmers market is a tough way to make a living, and it's hardly an incentive to start your own business. But it didn't deter Justin Baumgartner.

READ MORE

The first Flash Search Engine is an Environmental Search Engine!! http://www.greenplanetsearch.com is now live!

 When Mike Haney first presented the idea behind the technology behind

www.greenplanetsearch.com, he was laughed down. Virtually, of course. “Everyone can

dream,: scoffed one, erroneously.

A few people were intrigued. The combination of Haney’s vision of a Flash-driven search

engine, and the plan to create a dazzling environmental education resource, eventually

attracted a loose-knit corps of collaborators, most of whom have never met in person first

among them Andre Roussille, a French computer programmer, and now part owner of the

company.

The upshot from this collaboration, apart from the stunningly beautiful homepage, is the

only people involved in the creation of the search engine, is that the only people involved

in the development devoted environmentalists, who genuinely wish to disseminate good

information to students and educators.

Later, through a similar serendipity, Mr. Haney teamed up with a veteran journalist who

agreed to lend his services to the site, building from scratch a source of environmental

news and policy analysis.

Advertisers will be strictly vetted by the companies shareholders, limited to companies

that are making a meaningful contribution the planet’s health.

The final result, which was launched this week, is the culminating of thousands of

hours of work, and more than a few false starts.

It boasts easily navigable information, experiments, lesson plans, presented in an interactive and graphically enhanced format,

and has an exclusive global climate change resource section for teachers and kids.

If you would like more information about greenplanetsearch.com, or to schedule an

interview with Mike Haney, please call Mike Haney at 305.531.3746   or e-mail info@greenplanetsearch.com. 

Well, the peas and carrots have just started to sprout and i must say i got a very strong sense of accheivment when it happened.

Went to have a little look this morning and decided to check the compost when i accidently picked up Cat Poo! errggh - the joys of gardening. I have heard egg shells are a good way of keeping cats at bay. Might give it a try!

WASHINGTON - Americans rank last in a new National Geographic-sponsored survey released Wednesday that compares environmental-consumption habits in 14 countries.

Americans were least likely to choose the greener option in three out of four categories - housing, transportation and consumer goods, according to the assessment. In the fourth category, food, Americans ranked ahead of Japanese consumers, who eat more meat and seafood.

The rankings, called "Greendex," are the first to compare the lifestyles and behaviors of consumers in multiple countries, according to the National Geographic Society.

It plans to conduct the 100-plus-question survey annually and considers trends more important than yearly scores, said Terry Garcia, executive vice president of National Geographic's mission programs.

"This is not just a one-time snapshot," Garcia said. "Some of the most important information may yet be revealed."
India and Brazil tied for the highest score: 60 points out of 100. U.S. consumers scored 44.9.

In between, China scored 56.1, Mexico 54.2, Hungary 53.2, Russia 52.4, Great Britain 50.2, Germany 50.2, Australia 50.2, Spain 50, Japan 49.1, France 48.7 and Canada 48.5.

Results are based on 1,000 online respondents per country interviewed in January and February by GlobeScan, an international polling firm.

To see how you score, take an abbreviated version of the survey at National Geographic Greendex

How Americans ranked among 14 nations in eco-friendly choices.
Transportation: 14th Place
Housing: 14th Place
Consumer Goods: 14th Place
Food: 13th Place

Source: McClatchy Newspapers
Above article printed in Arizona Republic

Yesterday I had to go through all of my vegetables and throw out about half of them because they had gone bad. An entire batch of Persian Cucumbers into the trash!? What a waste. And what will happen to those cucumbers I so regretfully threw away?

This experience really got me thinking about how much food waste us Americans produce. After some research, the evidence is all but inspiring. "According to the USDA, just over a quarter of the country's food -- about 25.9 million tons -- gets thrown in the garbage can every year," (CNN.com). So 25% of our food ends up in the trash? Why haven't I thought about this before?

The reason food waste goes largely unnoticed for me, at least, is because once my trash is taken away, it is out of sight and out of mind. Unlike other forms of conspicuous over-consumption and waste production, such as Hummers and closets full of unworn clothes, food waste is easily overlooked. Once it's gone, we don't notice how much trash we are actually producing or question what happens to the trash once out of our backyard.

What I often fail to realize is that after the waste companies take our trash away in nicely painted trucks, it is far from disappearing. The trash still has to go somewhere, whether its the recycling plant (hopefully) or the landfill. I already am an avid recycler and re-user of anything possible to cut down on my waste production. This morning I took two water bottles out of my roommate's trash to place them in their proper home: the recycle bin, and I even re-use paper towels (I opt for dish towels first, of course). But my environmentally-friendly practices have failed to extend to my food waste, until today!

First, think about how much food you throw away. "According to the USDA, just over a quarter of the country's food -- about 25.9 million tons -- gets thrown in the garbage can every year," (CNN.com). Ouch!

Second, realize that throwing away food isn't just wasteful, but harmful to the environment. When food biodegrades in a landfill it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. "Methane, the gas food waste produces, traps 23 times as much heat in the atmosphere as the same amount of CO2, the EPA says. And landfills are the place you will find most of it -- they account for 34 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S.," (CNN.com).

So what can be done about the problem? Drumroll please...

COMPOST! What used to conjure up images of smelly plots of land in my non-existent large backyard, composting is now available for anyone to take part in, acreage or not. Composting does numerous great things, and will up your green karma in more ways than one. First, it produces no methane. Second, its a great example of first-hand recycling: turning your compost-friendly food scraps and wasted food (fruits, veggies, tea bags, eggshells, etc) into humus soil. Third, it produces the most nutrient-rich soil imaginable - free! Compost is a wonder-soil, much like flaxseed is a wonder-food. California's composting site writes that "...recycled organic materials in landscapes enhances soil fertility and water-holding capacity, slows evaporation losses, increases plant drought tolerance, conserves water, and suppresses the spread of wild fires. Using compost and mulch products will reduce fertilizer and water usage, which in turn reduces toxic runoff that can lead to surface and groundwater pollution," (ciwmb.ca.gov).

To start composting, purchase an outdoor composting bin or a worm composting system. Gaiam.com sells both products online, but there are numerous options for your composting system. Shop around and pick out your favorite - eBay is a great source for cheap compost bins (a tip from an 11th Hour employee). The Can-O-Worms composting bin is my personal favorite, because I get pet worms and a compost system in one. If worms make you queasy, opt for an outdoor worm-less bin. A purchased bin should come with everything you need to get your compost mojo going for a reasonably low price, considering the important and fun green functions they serve. They are great gift ideas, as well. Just think, within 6 - 12 weeks, you and your plants (indoor or outdoor) can be experiencing compost bliss.

So watch your food waste, start composting, and tell me about your experiences. For questions regarding how to compost well, visit www.howtocompost.org.

Hope to hear stories soon,

Emily

11th Hour Action Intern