Actress/surfer/marathoner philanthropist Tanna Frederick founded Project Save our Surf, a non profit that promotes clean oceans and water. She’s gorgeous and passionate about Mama Earth.. so we asked her for a list of ten simple things anyone can do to up their eco ante.
I’m going to start with the little stuff I think you can do in your every day life that is simple and starts within yourself, and work outward toward a global collective consciousness. Mind you, the first things on the list may seem like small inconsequential changes, but going ‘green’ really begins with the tiny miniscule things we do every day. Throw a pebble, create ripples…
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You want to go big or go home? Solar panels, baby.
I’m finally installing solar panels in my house. I was insane not to do it earlier. Not only are there a crapload of incentives and credits and cuts that the state provides for those who ‘eco-upgrade’ their homestead, but when there’s a power outage, as there are many in Los Angeles, guess whose lights are still on? Mine. Solar panels are seductively selfish and unarguably altruistic. So, if you want to reap the benefits of going solar then contact someone like Crown Roofing & Solar to get started! It’s a win-win situation. Step it up.
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Go outside
All the kids in my PROJECT SAVE OUR SURF CAMP are from inland areas in California. They are perhaps only an hour or so from the coast – Anaheim, etc… But when we bring the fourth and fifth graders to the ocean and to the protected reserves where we donate a week long camp through in-kind donations (it is only $60 per kid for an entire week of camp – cheap! Donate!), most of the children have never seen the ocean, or on a smaller scale, a stinkbug. They think the stinkbug is mechanical, from ‘A Bug’s Life’, which is all the association to wildlife they have experienced through a television. When they leave the camp, they have seen the gorgeous ecosystems and understand first hand that they don’t want that stinkbug to be thrown out of its territory by a shopping centre.
I’m a marathoner and a surfer. I do these two activities because every day I can go and study what’s going on in ‘my backyard’. I run the Santa Monica ped path, sometimes venturing down to Venice on my long runs, and I take notice of the levels of trash on the beach (usually on a Monday after a weekend), the thickness level of smog in the air, after a rain I look at how beautiful and clear the air is, but the toilet/sewage run-off from the drain pipes provide a clear glimpse into feces and bacteria on the bridge I run over, pretty gross. One can’t surf 72 hours after any rain, or you might be surfing next to a huge turd and get sick. But if you know about these things, these changes create angst, therefore creating knowledge, and thus spurring action. It’s better than a gym. Get out there. Know your backyard.
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Study eco-current events for 5 minutes every day.
Okay, so you could go on Facebook and stalk your high school exes, but maybe why not only take a glimpse at how their lives are screwed and check out what’s happening with the world, what laws are being passed, what pipelines are being built, what oil rigs are being passed, what forests are being cleared for freeways, that sort of thing. In just five minutes a day you can learn a lot.
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Turn off your shower.
A small drip from a worn faucet washer can waste 20 gallons of water per day. Larger leaks can waste hundreds of gallons.
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Wear eco make-up.
GGA is packed full of their favorites that are both cruelty-free and eco.
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Wear eco-fashion.
As the world grows more and more superficial, you can make eco-superficial choices. How great is that. Camilla Olson is a designer that creates affordable eco-friendly gorgeous outfits that I support. Marina DeBris is another designer who takes trash she’s picked up from beaches all over the world and ‘up-cycles’ them into fabulous and one of a kind haute-couture. There’s nothing like a dress made out of discarded gloves and headlights to get noticed on the red carpet. Now clothes are being made out of all kinds of materials. All you have to do is chose those which are recycled. Our t-shirts we sell for PSOS are created out of plastic bottles; that keeps 14-16 bottles out of the landfill with each t-shirt we have made.
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Commit one day out of the year to volunteer with an eco-program.
Preferably with kids, it’s a one-of-a-kind blow your mind experience you will never recover from. In a good way. We need lots of volunteers: www.projectsaveoursurf.org.
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Recycle.
Easily said, messily done. Do you have three or four recycle bins in your house? Do you use them?
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Get off the bottle.
We sell reusable water-filtered bottles on our website. Is this a plug for our non-profit products? Perhaps, but more so a plea to get rid of water bottles. Yes, clean water is a scarcity. But plastic is the number one killer in landfills. If you just take two minutes to refill a reusable water container, you save.
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Turn off your computer.
As many as half of all office workers in America who use a PC don’t shut it down at the end of the day – wasting $2.8 billion and 20 tons of CO2 per year.
I did a fascinating PSA with a wonderful company from Australia and learned so much about what our advanced global technology creates in the environment: Lots and lots and lots of hazardous waste. The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry: reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product’s lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste. While I’m not saying don’t upgrade your phone, find out how to reuse and recycle your old one. Take responsibility for your tech.
10 Brilliantly Simple Things To Up Your Eco Ante