Going Green: Update Your Home

The third section in Girls Gone Green by Lynn Hirshfield is about making modifications around your home. You might already do some of these things without realizing it:

• Change light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs.
• Switch one appliance to an energy-efficient model.
• Use re-useable bags.
• Turn off lights when you leave the room.
• Open the windows instead of using your air conditioning or turning on lights.
• Be conservative on gas usage. Use a bike or walk instead.
• Use cold water to wash laundry.
• Pay bills online to reduce paper waste.
• Use an aluminum water bottle.
• Reduce shower time by one minute. It saves gallons of water!
• Buy recycled products when you need computer paper, bags, or furniture.
• Recycle your old cell phones and clothes.

Measure your own carbon footprint and try some of these tips at home.

Going Green: Protect Animals

The second chapter in Girls Gone Green by Lynn Hirshfield is about animal advocates. Girls as young as 11 years old raised money to protect animals from water activities such as jet-skiing and boating. Propellers can harm animals such as manatees. Organizations are forming each day to help animals and their homes.

Check out Kids Making a Difference to learn what kids are doing to help. Here are a few simple ways you can help:

• Throw your trash in the proper place and recycle when you can. If you’re more cautious about where your trash goes, it’s less likely to end up in the ocean.
• Cut up plastic “soda rings” so animals don’t get caught in them.
• Reduce your use of water.
• Disinfect bird baths with the proper products.
• Minimize your use of pesticides.
• Learn about endangered species.
• Donate to organizations when possible!

Every little bit helps! “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” - Edmund Burke

Going Green: Beauty and Fashion

The first chapter of Girls Gone Green by Lynn Hirshfield discusses environmentally conscious beauty and fashion. Have you checked the ingredients in your foundation? Young girls in this chapter described how their efforts make a difference. For example, they helped pass laws to remove lead from make-up that girls like you and I use every day!

Try a nude lip balm, EO hand sanitizer, or Dr. Hauschka Mascara. Visit Origins or Sephora for more green products.

Once you’ve got great gear for your face, it’s time to take care of accessorizing the rest of your body.

Grab reuseable bags for your shopping trips. TJ Maxx sells cute zebra bags for only a dollar! Buy a kit from Wal-Mart or Target to make your own bag. Spell out your name or another message with sequins or beads. They’re one-of-a-kind and much better than trashing all of your disposable bags after one use.

Fashion is the final key. I am a big fan of mixing and matching my clothes. I like to take clothes that have been ripped and torn and cut them up so I can wear them as tanks or even skirts. Transform old shirts into a blanket or turn old jean shorts into a purse! Remember that anything can be transformed!

Why we LOVE the new book Girls Gone Green

We loved the new book Girls Gone Green by Lynn Hirshfield and foreword written by Hayden Panettiere and we think you’ll love it too!

This book celebrates and shares examples of girls just like you who are making a difference with the environment. The book is easy to read and shares lots of great tips and ideas for how you can be green and help the environment too.

Each chapter focuses on a specific section of of the environment. You can find out about environment fashionistas, animal advocates, educators and artists, recyclers, growers, defenders of air, land, and water, and scientists.

You’ll love reading about some of your favorite celebrities who are making a difference like Hayden Panettiere, Ellen Page, Alicia Silverstone, Mischa Barton, and Michelle Branch.  And, you’ll find amazing stories about everyday girls like Emily Welsh who wanted clean water for everyone or Ally Shapiro who is trying to help green school gear or Stephanie Cohen who helps manatees. 

This is a book you will definitely want to hold onto and get great ideas for how you can be more green on a small scale or a global scale like some of these everyday teen heroes.  Make sure to follow the Girls Gone Green Action Team on their website. 

We’re going to be giving away a copy of Girls Gone Green.  If you check back on our website September 1, you can find out how you can enter to win your own free copy! 

If you want to buy a copy now for you and your friends, it’s available now!  And, you can read more about Girls Gone Green from Thu, one of our teen bloggers.

It’s Green Week at Girls With Dreams!!

Really, every day is GREEN day at Girls With Dreams.com because we believe it’s so important to be thinking about our impact on the environment.  But, this week we really wanted to focus our energy on going GREEN and giving letting you know about other ways girls are being more conscious about what they buy, wear, and do. 

We have something special planned everyday this week on our website from a book review of a MUST HAVE green book to tips on Green Fashion, Beauty, Action and so much more!

And, on September 1, you can find out how you can enter to win a FREE copy of the fabulous new book Girls Gone Green!

Make sure you check back at Girls With Dreams every day this week for a fun new Green Tip!

Girls Gone Green

After our Girls With Dreams breakfast meeting, Carrie handed me a book to check out. On the front was a picture of a smiling girl holding a tote with a recycling message on it. I skimmed through the book and realized how many seemingly insignificant factors can add up to harm our environment. Girls Gone Green shares stories are about young girls just like us, Hayden Panettiere included, who want to help the world. They did their part by speaking up. If you are interested in going green, read this book. It definitely inspires me to change my shampoo, handbag, and eating habits. Summer is the perfect time to test it out.

Are you ready to go green? Check back at Girls With Dreams on September 1 to find out how you can enter to win a free copy of this awesome book!

How Are You Celebrating World Oceans Day?

World Oceans Day is officially June 8th every year!  It’s an opportunity to celebrate our oceans and our connection to the worlds oceans.  As teens who love going green, we are excited to support and celebrate this holiday!

Here are a few organizations to know about and other important facts about World Oceans Day!

-How it got started

-Join Mission Blue on Facebook!  This group is igniting public education and support for the worlds oceans.

-Find out what Jacques Cousteau would do about the oceans today in this article.

-Don’t support captive dolphin and marine mammal shows, choose other options and find out 9 other ways you can honor World Ocean Day in this list provided by change.org. 

-Watch the movie the COVE!  A real life, action thriller about the dangers dolphins and other marine animals face from being captured.

-Find out how sharing a Blue Marble with someone can help save the ocean!

Girls With Dreams Loves Earth Day

Happy Earth Day everyone!  What will you be doing?  Planting trees?  Attending a community festival?  Driving less?  Unplugging your cellphone chargers? 

We thought we’d share some of our favorite blog posts and videos we’ve shared on going green!  So, here they are:

Does Your School Recycle?

Top Ways to Save for Earth Day

Girls With Dreams TV shares tips for going green

The Girls With Dreams Going Green Category (read all of the “green” blog posts)

We’d love to hear how you’ll be spending Earth Day and how you “go green” everyday!

 

Does Your School Recycle?

In honor of Earth Day week, I wanted to bring up one of my pet peeves….schools that don’t recycle.

Many schools do an amazing job of recycling their paper, plastics, aluminum, etc…  They have recycling bins in the classrooms and the cafeterias.  I truly appreciate all of the efforts the adminstrators, teachers, and students have gone through to recycle at their school. 

What I don’t get is why there are still some schools who aren’t recycling.  It saddens me when I walk into a cafeteria and there are no recycling bins to be found.  It is a shame thousands of plastic bottles and aluminum cans are being thrown into the trash every week.  Worse yet, when this happens, schools sending a message to students that it’s okay not to recycle.

So, here’s my plea.  If you attend a school that is only partially recycling, or not recycling at all, would you consider speaking up about this?  Many kids have brought recycling programs to their schools, and you can too.

Here are a few ways to try it: 

• Find a group of friends that feels the same way you do and who want to see recycling at your school.
• Find out if other local schools are recycling.
• Get the facts.  Find out how much money the school could save or get back by recycling.  Find out an estimate of how many pounds of paper, aluminum, or plastic is being thrown out.
• Talk to a teacher for suggestions on steps to take at your school (for example, it probably will make sense to start with the principal, but if you have a teacher on board, that is great too).
• Set a meeting with your principal and see what you can make happen!
• Be persistent.  If you get a  no, find out what would need to change to get a yes.
• Keep your friends at Girls With Dreams posted on your success!  Let us know what you accomplished!

It’s Easy Being Green!

Every plug you take out of the wall and every piece of paper you recycle, eventually adds up to millions and millions across the globe. These tiny acts of “going green” may not seem like much, but we all owe it to ourselves and Mother Earth to keep going green and looking for more and more ways to do so. Hear teens share more ideas about how they are going green and simple ways you can too!

Next Page »