Promote more meat-free cafeteria options

How many vegetarian options does the cafeteria at your office offer?  In general a vegetarian diet requires fewer resources, and thus has a far lower environmental impact.  Meat production uses a lot of resources including energy, water and grain. It takes 100 times more water to produce a pound of meat than a pound of wheat.  Essentially you would save more water by not eating a single pound of beef than you would by not showering for an entire year!!  A 6 ounce steak uses over 24 times as much fossil fuels as the same equivalent of vegetables and rice.

Eating more vegetarian also saves trees. One of the causes of rainforest deforestation is to create grazing land. When a person becomes a vegetarian they are essentially saving an acre of trees per year. Additionally, cows are the biggest contributor to methane gas, which is one of the primary causes of global warming

Adding more vegetarian options doesn’t mean there won’t still be meat options.  If there are more vegetarian options and variety to choose from often employees will choose them. Vegetarian Times has some great vegetarian recipes.

The Story of Bottled Water

Annie Leonard, the producer of the Story of Stuff, just launched a new video called The Story of Bottled Water . This short video focuses on the bottled water industry marketing campaign to make us believe that tap water is ‘not healthy’ and also explains the environmental impact of bottled water. If you haven’t yet learned about the affects of the bottled water industry, this is an easy, short and enjoyable short video to watch.

Consider Purchasing Carbon Offsets for Work Travel

Starting to wonder how much impact all that work travel is having?  The average American commutes 20 miles a day, that’s about 5,000 miles a year, resulting in just over 2 tons of CO2.
Consider purchasing carbon offsets to counteract the carbon dioxide emissions of driving or flying home to meetings and conferences.  A carbon offset for the entire year’s worth of commuting emissions could cost as little as $45. According to the Colorado Carbon Fund, a Carbon Offset means “neutralize,” “balance,” or “cancel out.” Carbon offsets counteract these activities by funding projects to compensate for CO2 emissions occurring at another source.  These offsets help fund projects that reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Though there are many organizations that offer Carbon Offsets, the Colorado Carbon Fund and Aspen’s Canary Tags are two great providers that use the proceeds for projects in Colorado.

For more ideas on how to reduce environmental impact with business travel, see the article entitled What you Must Know about Flying Green by Patti Prairie CEO of Brighter Planet.

Thomas Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded”

If you haven’t read Thomas Friedman’s latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded…you must get it and read it! Another well-written book by Friedman that explores the Environmental impact has on our Global economy and environment. I especially love the way explores all the effects global warming will have in every aspect of our lives, our economy, our globe.