Not all eco enthusiasts are created equal. While you may picture us as tofu-eating, fleece-wearing, yoga-doing hippies, this is not always the case. Take Meghan, for example. Try as she might, she’s much better at walking the dog than downward-facing dog any day of the week. But you may just find her hanging out in tree pose during the month of April.

What: Invoke Studio’s Go Green Challenge is as good for the planet as it is for you - involving a fun green activity and a short yoga core series suitable for beginners.

April 3rd - Gardening and Composting 101

April 10th - For the Love of Water (film) & Rain Barrel Making 101 
(Additional cost of $40 to take home a rain barrel; pre-register by emailing leahpilates[at]gmail.com).

April 17th - Burn Calories, Not Fuel
Learn to tune up your bike, change your tires, city cycling safety tips, and other ways to incorporate exercise into daily activities.

April 24th - Finding New Purpose in Life
Enjoy fun and simple projects in remaking, recycling, or repurposing household items or worn out clothes.

Where: Invoke Studio, 970 Fort Wayne Ave., Suite C, Indianapolis

Who: Instructor Laura Henderson will challenge participants to get off the yoga mat and into green action!

When: Every Friday in April, from 5:45 to 7:15 p.m.

Cost: $100 full series; $30 drop-in rate

Time to invest in a new yoga mat? Donate your old one to Recycle Your Mat.

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

By now, we hope you’ve circled March 28 on your calendar to Celebrate Earth Hour with the Green Piece Indy girls and other supporters at South Bend Chocolate Cafe on Monument Circle at 7:30 p.m. If you can’t make it, we’ll forgive you, though that’s no excuse to waste electricity. (And, for the record, we do consider watching the NCAA Tournament a wise use of wattage.) If you’re up on the northside, swing by Whole Foods Market, 14598 Clay Terrace Blvd, in Carmel. They’re celebrating Earth Hour by providing flashlights to customers so they can still shop comfortably sans overhead lights. We think it’s a clever way to celebrate…and to avoid potential jokes about shopping in the dark to prevent sticker shock. Darn economy!

Still not planning to power down on Earth Hour? We hope you’ll try one of the following electricity-saving tips. 

• Check out Greenway Supply for their new GreenSwitch device. Paired with a Kill-A-Watt, which locates phantom energy in your home, these innovative outlets and switches reduce energy draw when your electronics aren’t in use. It even has a remote control system that allows you to power down from one spot (as you’re leaving home or going to bed). Tune in to WTHR’s Treeboy next Thursday morning and at lunchtime for an on-air demonstration!
• If Indianapolis Power & Light is your service provider, you can participate in its Green Power Option program. The Green Power Option allows you to specify an amount equal to 10% to 100% of your monthly power to be generated by clean, renewable resources like wind, solar, and geothermal. Once enrolled, you will pay a small premium to purchase Renewable Energy Certificates helping displace traditional coal-fired electricity. As a nod to Earth Hour, IPL will also power down for one hour on March 28. If the electric company can do it, so can you!

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

Bailouts or Bike-to-Work Day? Corporate greed or community supported agriculture? Ailing American automakers or locally made ale?

While Washington politicians are busy trying to save the economy, a group of environmentally conscious Carmel teens are trying to save the planet. The Carmel chapter of Roots & Shoots is one of ten national finalists in Clorox GreenWorks’ Green Heroes grant contest. At stake: $10,000, which the group will put towards projects that help make Carmel a greener community. Now that’s a bailout we can believe in!

Go to the Green Heroes site to vote for the Carmel Green Teen Micro-Grant Program. Fortunately for the Carmel group, you’re allowed to vote once daily until the contest ends on April 10. Unfortunately, not all of the group members are actually eligible to cast a ballot: per contest rules, you must be 18 or older to vote.

Can’t wait until April to get your green on? Check out various vendors, environmental resources and presentations (including one from yours truly) at “Greening Your Lifestyle,” taking place from 9 a.m. until noon this Saturday, March 28 at the WFYI building (1630 N. Meridian St.). For more info and to register, visit Indiana Living Green.

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

In theory, growing your own fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers is a lovely idea. All that produce, fresh for the picking, right at your fingertips. But when it comes to actually getting dirt under your fingernails, some of us can’t tell the difference between a perennial and an annual, much less know how to up the eco-friendly quotient of our lawn or garden. Don’t lose heart: We’ve put together a few easy tips and resources so you can have your organic vine-ripened tomatoes and eat them, too.

• It is unnecessary to fertilize your lawn in Spring. The most important months are September and November.
• For organic, earth-friendly lawn and garden supplies, try a local company like Worm’s Way, in Bloomington, or Stamper Farms & Gardens’ Green Erth Organics, a Danville operation. 
• Many of the plants and flowers you’ll find at garden centers come in #5 plastic containers. Recycle them at RockTenn, 1775 South West Street, or Whole Foods. 
• Bjava Coffee and Tea offers free bagged coffee grounds, which can enrich your garden soil with important nutrients. Kudos to Bjava for also recycling and offering Fair Trade organic coffee in ceramic or compostable to-go cups.
• Still clueless about gardening? Matthew Jose of Big City Farms (an urban farming operation that grows heirloom vegetables on vacant lots in downtown Indy) offers chemical-free garden consultation for $30 per hour. He will build raised beds, help select plants, assess your soil, and advise you on the healthiest way to plant your garden. Big City Farms also has a 22-week CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), running June through October. Contact Matthew at growyerown@gmail.com for more info. 

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

We’ve heard all the objections: Going green is expensive, it eats into your precious time, and sometimes, it’s just plain complicated. Hogwash, we say! Being eco-friendly doesn’t have to mean emptying your wallet or turning your backyard into one big compost pile. No one understands this better than green lifestyle expert and Indy resident Sara Snow.

If you’ve watched her Discovery Network shows (Living Fresh and Get Fresh with Sara Snow), you know that Sara’s green advice-giving style is practical, not preachy. She understands that not everyone is ready to install a solar-powered shower or give up their favorite brand of soda in the name of saving the planet. In her new book, Sara Snow’s Fresh Living: The Essential Room-by-Room Guide to a Greener, Healthier Family and Home (Bantam), she provides dozens of helpful hints suitable for both eco-novices and seasoned environmentalists.

Both groups will convene at 7 p.m. on March 24 for her book signing and discussion at the Carmel Barnes & Noble (14709 US Hwy 31 North). Sara will also appear that morning on the FOX Morning Show on WXIN, the station where she made her debut as a TV reporter.   

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

Not long ago, we pointed out that Indianapolis Public Schools deserve a big, fat detention for swapping out reusable lunch trays for the disposable polystyrene variety in their cafeterias. Well, though all is still not well in Lunch Lady Land, we are pleased to report that concerned teachers and parents are making a difference. Some PTO groups are collecting trays to be recycled. A ninth grade language arts teacher at Ben Davis brings her lunch in reusable containers or she takes packaging home to be recycled. Our friend Erin with Country Mouse City Mouse took the time to prepare a message and a list of resources for school cafeterias.

If you lose your appetite thinking of all the disposable trays being tossed each day at IPS, consider sending an email to the Board of School Commissioners at IPSboard@ips.k12.in.us or a letter to the Superintendent. 

Try these lunchroom Do’s and Don’t’s with your own lunch. In the spirit of report cards, we’ve even included grades! 
A
Reduce packaging by making your lunch and packing it in reusable containers. Extra credit for bringing your own silverware and cloth napkin. We heart Happikins, a locally owned brand of reusable cloth napkins that come in adorable kid-approved designs.

B
Carry your meal in a lunchbox or insulated lunchbag. Do this every day at work or school and save more than 200 plastic or paper bags from entering the landfill each year!

C
Recycle your lunch packaging, including your soda can, water bottle, frozen dinner plastic tray, pudding cup, or other lunch receptacles.

D
Bring your lunch, but store it in plastic baggies, which you dispose of when you’re done eating.

F
Go the fast food route. All those plastic utensils, paper napkins, ketchup packets, and packaging just get tossed in the trash.

Go old school! Study up on these lunchroom tips and make a positive difference for the planet at every meal.

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

Sustainability shouldn’t be a novelty in today’s school lunch rooms. It is estimated that approximately 30,000 Styrofoam lunch trays are disposed of DAILY in the Indianapolis Public School system alone. Combined with single serve snacks, juice boxes, and disposable cutlery, that’s a lot of trash! Not to mention all of the food waste that could be composted, or the institutional sized plastic jugs and metal cans that could be recycled, but are thrown away daily by the staff in an average school cafeteria. It can be really difficult to convince a budget minded superintendent to implement changes in a districts food service program, and sometimes, it’s even harder to get the staff to comply with new rules and regulations. 

With so much emphasis placed on labor and productivity, it makes sense to the food service directors to use disposable Styrofoam trays and plastic cutlery in lieu of biodegradable trays made from sugar cane or corn, or the reusable hard plastic trays, and metal cutlery that are collecting dust in the back closets of most of the school cafeterias I’ve encountered! It’s just downright cheaper in the short term to adopt an “out of sight, out of mind” view when it comes to the waste that is being generated.

What is the true cost of not setting the example in the school? By going back to reusable serving pieces, the school is saving money on disposables, and creating jobs by hiring dishwashers. By implementing a strong recycling program, encouraging composting, and even starting a school garden, we reduce our waste and teach our children a valuable lesson. Helping our schools to adapt our children’s food service programs to more environmentally responsible practices is our duty as advocates of our children and our community.

Let’s get the message out to our education system by letting them know that Styrofoam lunch trays are not an acceptable option for our children’s lunch or their future. Please send this information to your superintendents, teachers, food service professionals and other parents! In townships like Warren and Pike, foodservice is outsourced by companies like Chartwell’s. Contact their corporate offices and demand the needed changes!

Here are some links about product alternatives and stories about how other schools made the transition.  Thank you!

www.treecycle.com/bagasse.html
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5854805.html
www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/11/20/school-district-switches-biodegrable-trays/
www.greenbrooklyn.com/brooklyn-school-gets-bagasse-lunch-trays/2008/03/25/
www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Schools/WasteReduce/food/ZeroWaste.htm
www.in.gov/idem/files/evirovillek_2.swf

Like stargazing, movie watching, and cuddling, some things are just better in the dark. Earth Hour 2009 is no exception. The internationally observed event began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour in an effort to collectively reduce energy consumption and give our poor planet a brief but meaningful break from all the carbon dioxide emissions we produce. Last year, 50 million people, including yours truly, participated. This year, organizers hope to get 1 billion people to switch off their lights on March 28.

Celebrate Earth Hour with the Green Piece Indy girls and other supporters at South Bend Chocolate Cafe on the Circle at 7:30 p.m. At 8:30 we’ll go dark for a solid 60 minutes while we converse, snack, sip, and vote for Earth. Unlike electricity, our Earth Hour party is completely free (though you may have to pay for a downtown parking spot). Biking, carpooling, and IndyGo-ing to the Circle is encouraged.

We also challenge other Indianapolis businesses and individuals at home to turn off the lights. Join the likes of Rome’s Colleseum, the Sydney Opera House, the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, Chicago’s Sear’s Tower, the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, and Indy’s own IPL building on the Circle in this sustainability movement.

Don’t be left in the dark…join us on March 28!

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

Ladybugs sure are cute. Litterbugs, on the other hand, just make us cringe. And yet, year after year, we pick up after them. Does that, in the words of Steely Dan, make us fools to do their dirty work? It’s debatable. The good news is, plenty of folks around town are willing to get involved to make Indy a cleaner, more beautiful place to live. Join them for these upcoming events.

• Broad Ripple Village Cleanup
  Saturday, March 7
  Meet in front of the firehouse at Guilford and Westfield at 9 a.m.
• 21st Annual Downtown Cleanup of White River Saturday, April 11
  White River State Park
• Great Indy Butt Out
  Indy high school students can collect cigarette butt litter during the month of April, then turn it in to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to be weighed. The top two schools will be recognized by Mayor Greg Ballard and get to paint environmental murals on Recycle Indianapolis drop-off bins. Contact Tammy Stevens at KIB for more info. 264-7555, ext.116; tstevens[at]kibi.org.
• Great Indy Cleanup Kick-Off Event
  Saturday, April 25
  A citywide cleanup event intended for neighborhood groups and individuals.

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan

Green Piece Indy is fun to read on your home or work computers, but unless you have one of those fancy smart phones, our online tips can’t always go everywhere you do. (Ever tried to take your laptop to the beach? We hope not.)

For localized eco-friendly advice that’s both practical and portable, pick up a copy of Indiana Living Green, a bimonthly magazine (printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks, naturally) that contains info on local green events, businesses, and individuals making a difference in the Hoosier state. This month’s issue contains stories on everything from prized morel mushrooms (a truly local food) to upcoming rain barrel workshops. A mere $18 gets you a full year’s subscription to ILG. Or, you can pick up a copy at several Central Indiana retailers.

Congratulations to publisher Lynn Jenkins and her team as they celebrate the magazine’s second anniversary this month!

Piece out,
Renee & Meghan