9 Sacrifice-Free Resolutions

For the past couple of years, we've given you tips and tricks to make your New Year's resolutions last and even provided a list of resolutions to accomplish in the next 24 hours. But for some of us, New Year's goals are viewed as an unpleasant sacrifice where one swears off chocolate or BuzzFeed. The problem is that people tend to dislike giving up what they enjoy, which leads to the demise of well-intentioned resolutions. For those of you who want a sense of achievement without the suffering, we've listed nine resolutions that don't ask you to leave behind anything you would rather keep around.

1. Add local, organic, seasonal foods to your diet. This doesn't mean you can only eat foods that satisfy these requirements -- instead, think of this as an excuse to try out more tantalizing recipes that rely on eco-friendly foods. If you don't know where to start, look up organic farms in your area to see if any participate in community supported agriculture, a program that rewards you with fresh, seasonal produce each week of the farming season.

10 Last-Minute DIY Gifts

Image by Lori Eanes

We've already given you four great squash tips and three perfect pie recipes for the holidays, but what about the gifting aspect of this holiday season? With an unusually short post-Thanksgiving shopping window, buying gifts has only become a more hectic endeavor, causing a nationwide plague of anxiety that is then bottled up inside of the automatic doors at stores. Now does that sound like the best environment for holiday cheer?

Shopping is also a quick way to increase waste and expand your carbon footprint from all that extra packaging and driving. For the sake of your environment and mental well-being, we found 10 perfect do-it-yourself gifts that can be made using items that are likely gathering dust in your house right now.

Start a Green Band with Sustainable Gear

Fancy yourself a musician? Then play a tune for the environment while marching to the beat of a different drum with these eco-friendly axes and drum kits.

And remember, the only thing that sounds better than saving the environment is giving a gift. So keep these eco-instruments in mind when you're shopping for that niece who just decided she wants to be a rock star when she grows up.

GREEN GUITARS AND BASSES

Mada Series
Sing the praises of the hemp revolution accompanied by a guitar or bass with a body built entirely out of organic hemp, instead of rare or endangered wood. 

The Mada Caimes and Mada Sab are Austrian-made semi-acoustic guitars and basses made of 100 percent organic hemp pulp. The pulp is processed without milling (unlike standard wood guitar production) into "hempstone" and then turned into a guitar body with a signature fluid design. They don't sound too bad either.

Stunning Art Made from Trash

"Thongs" by John Dahlsen

An ad for a new line of footwear at Old Navy? Nope, these brightly colored sandals are part of an art piece for a new show at the Anchorage Museum. The exhibition if part of the Gyre Project, a collaboration between scientists, artists, museums, and filmmakers. The art they've produced will inspire, and just maybe shock you (see photos below). 

Art has helped build awareness with other global environmental issues that are hard to see. In 2010, artists "flooded" dry arroyos in New Mexico with blue art visible from space. “The world’s best scientists have tried to wake up politicians to the climate crisis,” said Bill McKibben, a spokesperson for 350.org. “Now we’re counting on artists to help.” Other provocative eco art has included giant polar bear sculptures and melting portraits. 

The Gyre Project builds the eco-awareness for a different crisis: non-biodegradable plastic trash, which collects in the world oceans and washes ashore in pristine places like southwestern Alaska. The "gyres" are gyrating systems of currents that keep trash circulating in loops. Trash collected for the exhibition come from the northern Pacific gyre.

DIY: Turn Old Books Into A Bookshelf

This summer, I went through boxes of books that were collecting dust in my parents' garage. I unearthed volumes from my childhood like Little House on the Prairie and a mini-biography of Florence Nightingale so worn that I was amazed it hadn't fallen apart. I wanted to keep these treasures, but I ran out of shelf space a long time ago—a problem any bibliophile can relate to. Even the Library of Congress, with 838 miles of shelves, has books piled on the floor and stacked on metal carts.

Clearly, there are just too many books. E-readers were supposed to solve this problem, but they are hard to bond with and aren't necessarily better for the environment. I'd have to read a minimum of 40 volumes on one for it to be the greener choice, according to a life cycle assessment by Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris in the New York Times. Most of my childhood library ended up at the thrift store, but I kept a few favorites. Since I can't shelve them, I drilled some brackets into the wall and turned them into actual shelves. It gives me more space, and best of all, the books are still intact, so I can reread them if I want to. Now that's a happy ending.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 2 | CONSTRUCTION TIME: 30 MINUTES

You'll be drilling holes in the wall.

What You'll Need:

• Hardback book
• Electric drill
• 1 corner bracket (2")
• 2 corner brackets (3 1/2")
• Six steel flathead wood screws
• Flathead screw driver
• Ruler
• Gloves
• Goggles
• 2 to 6 plastic anchors (optional)

 

Text by Wendy Becktold

Photo by Lori Eanes

Junk Drawer Recycling Challenge

Everybody has a junk drawer. When we move, the junk drawer becomes a surprisingly large junk box of items that don't really belong anywhere — the contents don't go in the kitchen, but not necessarily in the living room, and definitely not in the bathroom. What do you do with the accumulated knick-knacks and not-quite-trash of years past? Avoid adding to our ever-growing landfills and recycle your leftover junk with these programs.

ReCORK America collects wine corks at grocery and liquor stores throughout the U.S. Deposit your collection during your weekly shopping trip, or look up the location of the nearest collection bin. These souvenirs of happy nights with friends can be recycled into soles for shoes and fund the effort to plant trees.

Broken crayons see new life with the National Crayon Recycle program, whose representatives estimate they've diverted more than 92,000 pounds of unwanted crayons from landfills. With crayon production in the U.S. around 12 million per a day, they can use all of the help they can get. Parents can box up the stragglers and send them off to be given a second chance at coloring within the lines. 

Big Ideas: Sustainable Pro Football Stadiums

Now more than ever, NFL team executives, environmentally conscious contractors, and scientists are teaming up and making plays to cover their carbon footprints and conserve energy. And while football season is rushing into mid-season and tailgaters fire up their electric grills, big ideas in sustainable football stadiums give both fans and football organizations across the country a new reason to profess their love for the game as well as the planet.  

Teaming Up: Out of over 100 sports venues from all over the world — from newly built basketball arenas, Bowl stadiums, baseball cathedrals, and soccer pitches in Germany, England, and Australia to name a few —  eight NFL stadiums have teamed up with non-profit organization Green Sports Alliance.  The alliance's mission is simply put: "to help sports teams, venues and leagues enhance their environmental performance."

Going Solar: The Jets' and Giants' home turf of MetLife Stadium is crowned with a custom-built ring of NRG solar panels. These 1,500 panels light up in team colors during night games and last year they saved $43,000 in energy costs. MetLife will host this season's Superbowl in 2014, setting a gold standard for high-tech green stadiums on a worldwide scale.

Saving Water: In rainy Seattle, CenturyLink Field and Seattle-based contractors McKinstry came up with an ingenious plan to save water under their Defend Your Turf campaign. According to their infographic, by retrofitting all of the bathroom urinals with ultra-low-flow water fixtures, the stadium saved more 1.3 million gallons of water per year — enough water to turn any football field into a swimming pool.

Unique Ways to Green Your College Dorm Room

 

Sierra’s "Repurpose" column provides step-by-step instructions for making this handy phone holder.

You're all set for your first day at one of our Coolest Schools, and it boasts efficient facilities, respected environmental student groups, and an eminent environmental sciences faculty. But what about the nuts and bolts of maintaining a green lifestyle in your new living quarters, the college dorm?

 

Simplify your life with environmental style.

College living presents young adults with tests of organization and efficiency on a daily basis. Why not enhance solutions to common problems with a green flair? For example, organizing chargers, cables, and the other manifestations of a digital lifestyle can be challenging —  cut an old plastic bottle in half to make a nifty holder for charging small electronic goods. Consumed with thoughts of midterms, extracurricular activities, and social events, keeping track of keys often becomes an afterthought for college students —  plus, some colleges fine students for misplacing or losing keys. With some wood and old keys, make a key rack to permanently solve this problem.

Start a mini-garden.

Living on the fifth floor of a dorm outfitted with fluorescent lights that reeks of Lysol and body odor can be a dreary experience. Spice things up — literally — by nurturing some plants on your windowsill (or, if you're ambitious, suspend them from the air). Flowers are great, but so are herbs. Fill in the culinary gaps of dining hall cooks by bringing some homegrown herbs to the table. You'll be the talk of the town, and your mystery meat will taste better, too. Dorm room spice gardens make for a trifecta of excellence: tastier food, pleasant aromas, and a pretty room.

Improve your desk area.

Green Drinks: The Ultimate College Party Guide

The only green concerns most college kids have upon setting foot in a party are the bottles of Heineken lining the counter and the emerald shirt their crush is wearing. On debaucherous fall evenings, thoughts of environmental activism may be fleeting. But maintaining a party's social appeal, while pleasing fellow collegiate environmentalists, is possible.

Neutralize pesky Solo cups.

In the realm of American partying, the red Solo cup reigns supreme. But, in addition to dulling your inhibitions, booze might lead you to forget just how detrimental these lightweight, liquor-holding receptacles are to the environment. Although Solo cups are cheap, some recycling centers don’t accept them, and decomposition can take hundreds of years. Still, solutions exist! For smaller gatherings, consider opening your cabinets to guests — after all, who cares about a few extra dishes if you’re saving the environment? If throwing a larger party — looking at you, bro — purchase Solo’s less-iconic, but environmentally-friendlier option instead. And, if you find yourself at a party with only red plastic cups, mark yours with your name and reuse it through the night.

Green stuff in your green cup.

So, you’ve upped the eco-friendliness of your drinking device — now what about its contents? Stay away from larger distribution beers, because many of them (like Heineken or Budweiser) use more water when brewing than their craft counterparts. However, one exception to the rule is Sierra Nevada, which places a premium on producing sustainable products. Meanwhile, plenty of distilleries embrace environmentally-friendly agendas. Most of these businesses achieve their goals by utilizing old-school techniques: organic, local ingredients, efficiently used.

Use bikes for power!

Unusual Ways to Repurpose Your Garbage

Sure, there are certain things that you put aside to recycle or reuse. But let’s face it, there is a lot of useless garbage that seems to belong nowhere but the trash. And landfills aren’t getting any smaller! Here are some troublesome items that you might not realize can be recycled or reused, according to Jeff Yeager, author of Don’t Throw That Away, The Ultimate Cheapskate, and other books about living lighter on the planet.

Used Dryer Sheets
You can't compost dryer sheets because of the chemicals they contain and some dryer sheets, like Bounce, can't be recycled. Check the container to confirm if the sheets are recyclable or not.

Lint Brush: You can roll up some used dryer sheets to fashion a lint brush. This is a useful tool for removing hair and lint from your clothes.
Dust wipes: Whether it’s for your windshield or television screen, these dryer sheets make for great anti-static wipes on all types of surfaces.

Packing Peanuts
Packing Peanuts are that random thing that you receive in mass and may feel guilty tossing in the trash. If you do not wish to receive packing peanuts at all, you can request an eco-friendly or biodegradable option. If not, here are some fun ideas for these packing peanuts.