It seems like we're in the middle of a major gift giving season.  Christmas is hardly a memory, and now we're getting closer to Valentine's Day.  There are constant commercials for chocolates, flowers and jewelry.  If you're shopping for a gift to give your special someone this Valentine's Day, we're here to give you some  tips to make it green.

First off, keep it simple.  One gift that has a lot of thought put into it is better than 10 gifts that you've hardly thought about.  Consolidating your present into just one present is also greener, since you're cutting down on external packaging and shipping, as well as paper to wrap it.

Next, buy locally.  You can find gifts that were either locally grown, brewed or produced, and that can cut down the carbon footprint of your gift.  Instead of Hershey's chocolate and a generic red wine from a grocery store, buy locally made chocolate and wine.  It's better if you can also get those items organic.  Most Co-Ops have selection of locally made treats and drinks that will keep you in a romantic mood.

Another tip is to think about longevity.  Instead of buying flowers that have been cut and arranged, buy flowers that are in pots or could be planted.  They'll last longer than the standard week, and will be a more constant reminder of the feeling behind the gift.  If you're giving this gift to someone with no green thumb, don't worry.  There are a lot of plants that take little maintenance, like aloe and cacti.

Above all, limit the waste.  Just because you're showing love to someone special doesn't mean that you can stop showing love to the planet.  Landfills are littered with leftover chocolate boxes, dead flowers, and empty wine bottles.  That isn't the way anyone would want to show their love.

I just recently found a great group, based out of the UK, called Ecotricity.  Ecotricity is a group that builds wind turbines, and helps to produce other alternative energy in the United Kingdom, and then provides that energy straight to consumers.  For every pound (roughly about $1.50 in American dollars) that their customers spend, Ecotricity spends another pound creating greener energy.  Their tag line, "turning electricity bills into windmills," expresses this 1 to 1 exchange.

They offer a number of plans for consumers, to match the local competitor's "brown" electricity.  In some cases, switching can cost a little more if you're on a discounted plan with someone else, but it is worth the extra cost to go green.

The other fresh change with Ecotricity is that they don't operate like other energy companies.  When you call their free number, you actually reach a human being.  In a time where you can't even call to order a pizza without talking to a computer first, that's a big deal.  Their sign-up plan is easy, either 5 minutes online or by calling them directly.

"The other thing that not many people realise is that we can now all choose who supplies our electricity, and therefore how it's made, so wherever you live in the country you can actually choose to have your home or business supplied by clean energy. The funny thing is switching takes about five minutes but it's the biggest single step you can take to reduce your emissions and protect the environment," says Dale Vince OBE, Ecotricity founder, on the Ecotricity website.

So, if you're living in the UK and are still on "brown" energy and want to make the change, give Ecotricity a call.  If you're not in the UK, that doesn't mean you're out of luck.  Research your area and see if there are wind farms nearby and who runs them. There are also wind turbines that you can install yourself in your backyard.  The American Wind Energy Association has a great list of places where you can find a small wind turbine for your own use.  The energy is available to everyone, you just need to ask for it.

As we mentioned earlier this week, it is becoming time for spring cleaning.  Before we talked about getting rid of clutter and recycling more, as well as replacing old bulbs with compact fluorescents.  In this post we're going to talk about how you can green your cleaning materials themselves.

Modern cleaning materials had been considered a god-send for many years.  They cleaned deep and quickly, and saved the cleaner time and effort.  It's taken many years for people to realize that these cleaning materials are often packed with hazardous chemicals, that can be damaging to humans if they are breathed or may contact with the skin.  Something as simple as bleach is hazardous to your body if you inhale a lot of it.  On top of that, most cleaning products that we're used to are petroleum-based.

The first tip for greening your cleaning materials is to be aware of so called "green" cleaning products.  Many of them claim to be green, but when you look further into the materials used to make it, it's just as hazardous as the other cleaners.  Now, there are some green cleaning products that you can purchase, and the good ones are non-toxic, biodegradable and made from renewable resources.  The best way to go, however, is to make your own cleaning materials at home and cut out the middle man.  A mix of vinegar and baking soda is a great astringent cleanser when mixed with a little water.  Also, vinegar is great for washing windows when wiped down with newspaper.

Next, be aware of the smells.  If your house smells like cleaner, that's a bad sign.  Keep your house ventilated while cleaning, so that fresh air can be brought in and you're not overwhelmed by chemicals used.  Another is to avoid air-fresheners that are chemical or oil based, that can release toxic chemicals into your home.  Instead, buy natural air fresheners like clove, cinnamon sticks, and aromatic plants.   Another tip is to use baking soda as a way to get smells out of rugs and carpets by sprinkling some on the floor, waiting a few minutes and vacuuming to collect it back up.

Avoid using paper towels or sponges while cleaning.  After you're done with them you just throw them away, which is not very sustainable.  Use rags that you can wash, or old t-shirts, to wipe down your counters and furniture.

Cleaning is a fact of life, and very few people really enjoy doing it.  Make cleaning a little bit more green, and therefor enjoyable, by cutting out the noxious fumes, hazardous materials, and fake smells.  Keeping your home, and the Earth, clean will brighten up your spring cleaning routine.

Artist Don Simon is creating works of art where humans and animals interact.  It's not the idealistic pictures you may imagine, but ones where animals are forced to live in our world; the world of traffic jams on highways, the world of parking lots, the world of tires instead of rivers.

"Throughout history, particularly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, mankind has been less than kind to their cohabitants on the planet. We build, produce and consume with little or no regard to the impact it has on the environment. It is the nature of nature to adapt and evolve in order to survive, and we are forcing other species to deal with compromised, damaged or destroyed ecosystems," states Simon, in his artist statement from his website.

Simon has created a series of triptychs (or loosely collected works in threes) with the over-all title of Unnaturalism.  Within the blanket of that series are the triptychs.  One such triptych, titled The Herd shows bisons walking along a highway in a traffic jam.  Another series, titled Cows on Garbage, takes away the rolling hills of green grass and replaces it with mountains of human garbage.

At grist.org you can see a video of Simon's work, along with commentary by him what the pieces are about.

Ultimately, what I got out of watching the video at grist.org, and looking through Simon's work on his personal website, was that humans are taking over the world.  That may seem a silly statement, but what I mean is that human beings as a race are determined to conquer and own, regardless of who was there before.  We're taking land from not just each other, but from the other species who were there before, like the bison, cows and deer.  Many of the animals featured in Simon's art are in danger of losing their natural habitat because of human development.

You may be asking now what you can do to help.  First of all, reduce your waste.  We're taking over so much land to make room for landfills.  Second, cut down your paper use.  Forests of trees are cut down daily to make paper.  Most importantly, though, find a habitat protection program either in your area, or through the internet, and become a volunteer, donator, or supporter.  Here is a link from the Humane Society of the United States, that has a list of habitat protection programs.

Together, we can make Simon's visions of our potential future just that.  Visions, and not reality.

Even though Puxatawny Phil saw his shadow today (meaning 6 more weeks of winter), it doesn't mean that spring isn't on it's way.  With spring comes new flowers, warmer weather, and the inevitable "spring cleaning."  What better time to go through your house and get rid of things you've been carrying around for years, and while you're at it, making green changes?

A good place to start is your home office.  It's where you store notebooks and papers that you think you want to keep and then forget about.  It's also where there are the most opportunities to green a room.  Start off by going through your desk and bookshelves, and make sure the things you keep are the things you really want.  That term paper from college however many years ago?  You might not need to carry that around anymore.  If you have a lot of software in big packaging, you could probably just keep the cd and recycle the rest.  That will also save you space.  Then make sure you have compact fluorescent bulbs in your desk lamp and overhead light, and unplug things that don't need to be on all the time (like chargers and lamps).

Also, go through your living room.  Recycle any magazines that are over two months old.  Replace your lightbulbs with compact fluorescents, and dust the light fixtures.  This will make the room seem brighter, and is a good way to have a fresh start.

These two rooms are the places that the most clutter gets stored in.  As you clean a space, check to see if you've made the room as green as possible.  Write down a list of what you need to do to reach the room's green potential, and complete the list within a reasonable timeline. 

Think ahead, too, for the summer months and what you need to do to stay green.  Make sure that the windows aren't leaking outside air. This will save money, and electricity, so you won't have to run your A.C. higher in the summer to compensate.

So go out there and get cleaning, recycling, and greening!  The next thing you know you'll be rewarded with a beautiful green world outside to match the beautiful green one you create in your home.

There's an ongoing debate around my household about the adage "less is more."  My husband argues that in that case, even less is even more.  While at the time I think he was applying the argument to minimalist modern art, it has come around full circle to me today when I saw a cartoon on chainsawsuit.com, by Kris Straub.

[Image courtesy of chainsawsuit.com]

While at first I just thought this image was funny, and forwarded it on to my husband.  After I hit send, though, I realized that while hilarious, the meaning behind it is true.  Less is more, and even less is even more.  What I mean by that is less waste more healing, and even less waste would be even more healing.

Here at Green Groove, we've mentioned before that reducing your waste is good for sustainable living.  When you purchase less that would make waste you can  keep the carbon footprint for your household down, since there is less packaging and shipping related CO2 coming in.  Recycling is a great way to combat massive landfill waste, but that only goes so far.  Composting is also a good step towards creating less useless waste, but again it only goes so far.  The key really is less is more.

Things you want to avoid are items packaged in a plastic with no recycling number and Styrofoam.  Don't buy individually wrapped things when you could buy that same item in bulk and individually package it yourself.  Be mindful every time you purchase something, and think about where it could end up when you are done with it.

This applies to all purchases, not just groceries.  If you're going to buy a new pair of shoes, think about what you're going to do with your old ones.  Think about what you'll do with it when the new ones wears out.  Is there a place you can recycle old shoes in your town?  Is there somewhere that you can donate them?  Knowing these things ahead of time is very helpful.

While it may seem like an already hard task like shopping for your household just got harder, it really hasn't.  Every purchase you make you're already mindful of a set of needs your family has, like allergies, taste preferences, and cost.  You're just adding one more thing to think about, and in the long-run, thinking about our planet when you're shopping is just as important as thinking about your family.

On January 8th we talked about how you can green your cup of coffee even when it isn't St. Patty's... now we're here with another traditional green beverage from that holiday that you can enjoy green every day, as in environmentally friendly.  That beverage is beer.

Beer is a beverage were we often consume more than one at a time, and that can lead to a a large amount of waste and CO2 emissions.  Not only the water used to brew beer, but the packaging and shipping costs, as well as refrigeration costs of the store where you purchase it.  Then, there's the cardboard packaging and glass bottles, or aluminum cans and plastic rings.

One of the first tips in making your beer drinking more green is to buy locally, or at least as close to local as possible.  Most grocery stores and Co-Ops carry local brews, and these will minimize the amount of CO2 from shipping from a brewery across the country.

Also, be aware of organic beers.  Organic beers are made with hops that are sustainable and can be a harvest with a quick turn-around.  They also have less water waste.

Next, be sure to recycle what waste you make.  Regardless of if it is glass or cans, you can take those to the local recycling facility.  Sometimes you can even make a little money, depending on the state you live in!  Those cardboard pack holders can also be recycled.

If you do your drinking at a bar instead of at home, you can still do some things to make it more sustainable.  Buying local still applies.  Order things that are on tap, instead of in bottles or cans, unless you know for sure that your pub recycles them.  Ask your waitress or bartender to use the same glass for your refills instead of giving you a new one.  This will safe on water used to wash the glasses later on.

The main thing here is to think responsibly.  Not only do we mean responsibly as in not drinking and driving, and staying safe, but we also mean responsibly keeping the Earth safe.  Recycling the 6 bottles from your beer will leave you with a better feeling the next day, but we can't say the same for the hangover.

The Oscars are coming up this February (the 22nd to be precise), and for some circles it's a big reason to plan a viewing party.  A viewing party, if you're unfamiliar, is like a regular party but it is based around watching a particular event.  In this case, the Oscars.  With less than a month till the shindig gets underway, we're posting a few ways that you can keep your Oscar party green, which will get you a thanks from the Academy, and Mother Earth.

First off, a big hit at Oscar parties is having everyone invited pick who they think will win for particular categories.  Instead of printing out a ballot for everyone attending, print out one master sheet.  Have each person participating initial next to their choices, and then the person in charge of the sheet keeps track of the real winners as the evening goes on.  This will also make it easier to tally everything up at the end of the night.  Printable ballots can be found on the Oscar website.

Another thing is to make snacks and appetizers at home, instead of ordering out for pizza.  Not only will you save money, but you'll keep the carbon offset of the party lower.  Buy locally grown vegetables, and organic rice and seaweed and make sushi, or make your own mini pizzas with organic toppings on home-made challah bread.  You can make them more personal, and with an Oscar twist.  How about a Benjamin Button-Mushroom Pizza, or a Kung-Fu Panda Roll?   Also, make sure that your party supplies are sustainable, too.  Don't get plastic plates that you just throw away.  Look for paper places that can be recycled or composted.

If you have a group of friends coming from one area of town, request that they car pool to your party.  Not only will there be less cars on the road, but it will make it easier to pick a designated driver if you'll be serving alcohol.

Keep an eye out here for more green Oscar party planning tips as it gets closer to the event.  We have no "Doubt" that you'll find them easy to follow, and enjoyable too.