Or Take Back the Tap as Food and Water Watch demands. According to them, bottled water is NOT safer than tap water. The federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent testing of municipal drinking water than bottled water.
Bottled water is more expensive too. Think about how much you spend for that bottle at a ball game, movie theater or even at your local grocery store. At $2.00 per 20 ounce bottle of water, you are paying thousands more than tap water costs.
Americans spent $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, in part because they think it is better or safer than tap water. Every bottle of water you purchase doesn't always go into the recycling bin. It should, yes, but not every consumer is as diligent and green as you are. 90 percent of all plastic water bottles land in the garbage instead of the recycle bin.
What can you do?
Drink tap water
Put tap water into your own refillable water container. I am a big fan of Sigg and CamelBak.
If you are really concerned about the quality of the water, buy a Pur filter at Target and put it on your tap. I use a Brita filter for my water in Emeryville.
I like to shop at Trader Joes. For the most part I like the variety and selection of food they offer and they have a number of items which are favorite and staple in my household. Due to the nature of my personal living and work situations I shop at a few different Trader Joes stores: - Emeryville, San Francisco and recently Rockridge.
Until last week I thought all Trader Joes offered the same products at the same prices. I completely understand that some things at Whole Foods cost more than at Trader Joes and other things at Safeway are sometimes more that TJs too. However I would expect the same product at Trader Joes to have the same price regardless of the store I am in. WRONG!
I like to buy Sam Smith's Organic Ale. It's from Yorkshire, where my parents grew up, and it's a very good beer. It's usually $3.49 at Whole Foods and $2.99 at Trader Joes, so I always buy it at Trader Joes. However, last week at the Rockridge Trader Joes, Sam Smith's Organic Ale was $4.39. That's $1.40 more than other Trader Joes stores. I am very disappointed. I thought Trader Joes was one of the good guys, but they are just trying to make a profit and their shoppers need to be aware of price differences even between stores.
Don't get me wrong. I will pay more for something if I believe that the convenience of buying everything at the same store is worth it. However, charging that much more just because of the upscale neighborhood the store is located in, is not right.
I have been recovering from the Chicago marathon which I ran on October 12th. I ran and raised money for St. Jude Children's Cancer Research and Hospital. There were 45,000 registered participants and $13,000,000 was raised for charity from people who were running for their favorite cause. I raised $1,044 for St. Jude and our team combined raised $137,000. That is a great example of what how one individual can create a bigger impact by asking friends to support a cause whether it be sponsoring a marathon run or teaching a class.
I'm sure the idea for Classes for Causes came to me partly because of my participation with Team in Training. They train athletes to compete in marathons, triathlons, century bike rides and hike-a-thons and raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research. My experience training for my first marathon with Team in Training was amazing. I absolutely loved it and was very pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was able to raise my fund minimum.
People like to support their friends. It's just like the impact of social media today. People trust their friends and would much rather do business with and give money to their friends than to a stranger. Fund raising through marathon running and other athletic endeavors has figured this out. It's time for us to allow people to teach and learn for causes now as well.
I whole-hearted encourage anyone who has never run a marathon to try it. It's easier than you think. But if you're just not the running type, how about teaching or learning for a cause? Marathon running and teaching have preparation in common. To teach you need to prepare. To run a marathon you need train. (Usually 4 months of training.) And at least for me, the joy in completing a class or a marathon is profound.
I hope that Classes for Causes will help people see that they can teach, they can learn and have fun, and there are many ways to be of service and give. I hope you'll find the right way for you. And I hope you'll try teaching and/or learning with Classes for Causes.
Here are the winners. Congratulations to all of them. In a world where financial donations seem to be declining, it is important to figure out what we can learn from these successful nonprofit organizations.
I see green EVERYWHERE. Everywhere I go there is a new piece of green, from Eco-friendly stores in Berkeley to biodegradable containers being discussed in my marketing class. When I sit down and surf the Internet for ideas I keep running into pro-environment and green technology offerings and it makes me very happy. Take a look at Take Part and the Teach page where study guides are offered. This is amazing. I want to teach a class based on the Study Guide companion to "An Inconvenient Truth."
With all the strange weather occurrences we are seeing, the devastation of Hurricane Ike, much more rain than usual in South Africa where my parents have noticed the weather changes first hand over the past 40 years, I think we're ready for the sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth" and this time it should be about how much progress we've made educating people about the crisis and how much has and has not changed.
I wonder if many of us are not noticing the changes in weather patterns happening because we are such nomads these days. We don't stay in one place for very long and are constantly traveling. Being busy certainly doesn't allow the time to familiarize yourself with weather patterns and the changes that are becoming more and more apparent to those who make it their duty to notice and those who have the time to pay attention. My parents are retired and the weather is something very important to them. They talk about it everyday. How much do you think about how much the weather has changed for you over the past five, ten or twenty years? It's time to take score. Read the warning signs, heed those alerts and do whatever you can to help reverse the damage. It's not too late.
So it's time for us to be thinking about a social network. I've been looking around and decided to try Ning.com as a platform. It's free, it's an experiment and it's out there now, so go ahead and join if you dare. We still need to populate it and there's plenty of work to be done, but hey, participation is the name of the game and we're in it now.
Need something to do this weekend? Go and hear several wildlife conservationists talk about their work the Expo and then if your budget enables, join them all for a garden party on Sunday.
I loved Seth Godin's post about Raising Money for Charity today. Since that's what we're all about here at Classes for Causes, my ears were particularly cocked in his direction. I am very intrigued with his idea and it is just another example of how democractic of a society we have become. If you take a look at the Squidoo page where you can vote to donate $2 to your favorite charity up to $80,000 that Squidoo is giving away, (yes Wow!!!!), you'll see that this is a real project and provides a glimpse into some really worthwhile causes.
Perusing the comments is interesting from an east coast/west coast stand point too, as it seems more people are inclined to vote for March of Dimes and Soldier's Angels than places I gravitate towards like Kiva, Global Giving and Donor's Choose. What does that say about Squidoo users? And what does it say about how much influence your geographic location has on where you donate? What can we learn from this?
