I have come up with a discovery so beautiful in its simplicity that I feel like 3M’s Art Fry and colleague Spencer Silver must have felt upon inventing the Post-It Note decades ago. And like those fine gentlemen, I am giving this discovery away free.

The technique for doubling the life of Post-It notes is so simple and elegant that I don’t know why I have not read about it before. As you’ll see when I reveal the technique below, (which I am affectionately calling, “Be Nice, Use It Twice”) you’ll wish you had started years ago.

Can you imagine the savings??? There are 6,005,000,000 post it notes sold every year – 6 billion – according to Wiki Answers. (If six 100-packs cost about $10, that’s $100 million right there.)

Though 3M’s sales are down 20% from last year, the company is still reporting first-quarter sales of $5.1 billion, — over $20 billion per year – and a good chunk of that is from those cute little sticky notes, according to  Industrial Distribution, a Reed Business publication.

Everybody loves to use those cute notes with the low-tack adhesive on the back. They’re not just stuck all over your office and mine. The FBI uses so many of them that they’ve coined a term for them: FLYNs.

“That stands for ‘funny little yellow notes.’ Except I’m cleaning it up when I say ‘funny,’” according to Fry, one of the inventors of the notes as quoted in an entertaining article by Greg Beato, called Twenty-Five Years of Post-it Notes.

The U.S. Post Office uses a higher-adhesive version of the yellow address labels to forward mail.

Who doesn’t use them?

So get ready to save big: Double your usage, double your fun. Here’s how.

Be Nice, Use It Twice Technique

1. After you have filled out the top of the post-it note – and you have already done the chore: BUY MILK, DEODERANT, DOG FOOD – Fold the note up and over at the point where the adhesive bar at the top ends. Make a sharp crease.

2. You will see before you a whole new post-it note. Write a second message, then lift the note back up a little and it will stand up like a little message-soldier.

The area to write on is slightly smaller. But the second-time around the note is even more helpful at reminding you what to do because it STANDS UP instead of lying flat on your desk. How cute is that!

If everyone took this simple step, we could save hard-working, multi-tasking Americans (with memory deficits that require post-it notes to survive) over $100 million a year. Maybe this simple act won’t exactly empty the landfills, but imagine how much space we could save by keeping over 6 billion of these little sticky suckers out of the dumps every year.

Be nice, Use it twice.

By Susan Seliger
I miss grilling fiercely. When I lived out in the burbs, I loved moving the heat of summer cooking out of the kitchen onto the deck. I’d keep flaming my food through fall – and sometimes I’d even put my boots on, sweep the snow off the grill cover, and fire up the Bar-B through the New year.

Now that I’ve moved back into the city and into an apartment, grilling is frowned upon. Even though we have a common roof deck, gas grills are not allowed and charcoal and toxic lighter fluid are too messy — and hardly eco-friendly.

But my grilling days may not be over. I just found a brand new product on the market this month that is a clean, green alternative to charcoal and gas – that’s faster and cheaper, too.

It’s called the uGO™ FlameDisk™ and it’s a round, well, tin disk (looks a little like the old Jiffy Pop popcorn popper before it’s been popped) that contains ethanol (a renewable biofuel) and a little (4%) methanol. Charcoal, on the other hand — and lighter fluid – contain petroleum-based components from fossil fuels which are non-renewable. Propane gas is made entirely from non-renewable fossil fuels. According to EPA estimates, more than 90% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from the combustion of fossil fuels.

How Does It Work?

Here’s how this flame disk works: Place the disk into an open grill (an ordinary charcoal grill or hibachi will do), peel the cover off, light one of the holes on top with a single match – and boom – ooops, wait, not a boom, just a little whoosh – the disk ignites. Then put the food grate back over the disk – and four minutes later (compared to at least 30 minutes for charcoal) you’re ready to cook.

Yeah, But What About Taste?

The manufacturer claims that the “smoke plate” built in yields a genuine flame-grilled taste because the juices from the foods drip down onto it, causing it to flare and smoke, just as with other methods of grilling. Cooking time and temperature is supposed to be about the same as charcoal.

My Experience on the Grill

I hauled a little grill up to the roof deck of my apartment building where propane is not allowed.  With one match, I was able to get the disc burning. And within a few minutes — not even enough time to get halfway through a beer — the grill was ready to go. Things went fine when I started with the red peppers and onions until I poured a little extra olive oil marinade on — and the resulting flame flared up and charred the veggies a bit more than I might have liked. The same thing happened with the steaks as the juices started to drip. If my grill had been one with an adjustable-height grate, it would have been easier to control the cooking temperature. Instead, i just kept moving the steak to different parts of the grill to find spots where the flame had died down.

As for taste — even with a little more charring than I used to get with my old pre-eco-conscious propane grill — the flavor was delicious and indistinguishable from gas or charcoal.

And the cleanup was far easier than charcoal. The flame disc died out after about 40 minutes of grilling. And the grill cooled fast– no waiting for hours as with charcoal.  That’s a  particularly handy safety feature if you’re camping or having a tailgating party. And there was no messy, greasy charcoal ash to dispose of. The company says the disc is made of recyclable materials as is all the packaging.

And Price?

A pack of three disks sells for about $19.99 (including shipping). For more info, or to buy the product, or to check out a video of how the disk compares to charcoal, go to the Flame Disk web site. Here’s a list of the retailers selling the disc.

Summer may just taste a little better this year, after all.

]]> http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/05/get-grilling-here%e2%80%99s-a-clean-green-alternative-to-charcoal-and-gas/feed/ 3 http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/5-more-events-on-earth-day-and-all-week/ http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/5-more-events-on-earth-day-and-all-week/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:08:15 +0000 susan http://www.goodgreentips.com/?p=796 By Susan Seliger

By Susan Seliger

Nothing beats saving some green while going green. Here are some down-to-earth sales that’ll provide that two-fer.

1. Home Depot – On Sunday, April 19^th, you can get a FREE CFL light bulb (they’re giving away one million) plus a free tomato, oregano or basil plant for every one you buy. On addition, they’ll tell you if you’re eligible for a $1500 tax credit on energy-efficient home improvement.

2. Amazon.com is celebrating a sale on selected green products for the entire month—from composters and solar chargers to a 400-watt wind generator.

3. ItsEasyBeingGreen.com is offering 25% off water efficiency and energy efficiency products and every other item on the site, from CFL bulbs and an LED Night Lite to EPA-approved high-efficiency toilets, on the real Earth Day, April 22. , 2009.

4. Seventh Generation – the green cleaning and paper products company, is offering lots of coupons for discounts on its excellent range of eco-friendly products.

5. Not just for Kids—The Scholastic Store is having a giant sale on books and DVDs and more all about Planet Earth and butterflies and lions and tigers, oh my.

Photo credit: www.Goinggreenproductsonline.com

]]> http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/5-big-sales-and-free-green-products-%e2%80%93-in-honor-of-earth-day/feed/ 2 http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/5-great-ways-to-enjoy-nature-on-earth-day-bike-hike-ride-a-horse/ http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/5-great-ways-to-enjoy-nature-on-earth-day-bike-hike-ride-a-horse/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:47:32 +0000 susan http://www.goodgreentips.com/?p=765 By Susan Seliger

Get outside and enjoy the beauty of nature on Earth Day. Are you willing to venture further than your backyard, but you don’t know where to go? Here are some cool tools and great resources to help you rediscover the wonder of it all.

1. Visit a nature preserve: The Nature Conservancy has a cool tool – just click on their map or the state-by-state listing and discover a nature preserve near you.

2. Take a hike: The Localhikes web site provides information on local hiking opportunities near both large and small metropolitan areas in the United States.

3. Go hiking, biking and backpacking: Trails.com will help you find the places to go whether you travel on two legs or two wheels.

4. Biking and/or horsebackriding in the US: Rails to trails Conservancy is a great resource for biking trails and an organization devoted to converting old, unused rail lines into wonderful biking, hiking and horsebackriding trails. Check out Trail Link.

5. Scenic Drives: If you have elderly relatives who are not up to a strenuous walk, but still want to enjoy the beauty of nature, take a look at these lists of scenic drives and scenic byways will help. Get into that electric vehicle or hybrid (we know you have one), roll down the windows and see what nature has to offer.

Top 10 Scenic Drives on Gorp.

US Dept. of Transportation.

Scenic drives on Trails.com.

Photo credit: www.BecomeNatural.com

If you’re feeling so happy you’re tempted to break into song about an American car company getting into the hybrid game — and getting 41 MPG, as Ford clams for its new 2010 Fusion — then sign up to win one. Ford, the sponsor, will also award the winner a trip to LA plus VIP seats to hang with the idols at the show. The only catch – you have to watch a video of the idols fooling around with Ford cars in order to enter this contest. If that seems like too much to ask, see if you can find a teenager lurking nearby to handle this part of the transaction. But then you just might have to share driving rights. Your choice. We just tell you where to go to find greener pastures – the journey is up to you. Start here. Deadline: 5-08-09.

Photo credit: LA Times

]]> http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/green-freebie-win-a-ford-fusion-hybrid-%e2%80%93-plus-a-trip-to-see-american-idols/feed/ 0 http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/5-more-tips-to-lose-weight-save-money-and-green-your-diet/ http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/5-more-tips-to-lose-weight-save-money-and-green-your-diet/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:00:29 +0000 susan http://www.goodgreentips.com/?p=743 By Susan Seliger

Thank you, friends, for contacting me about yesterday’s post (with 5 tips for losing weight and going green) asking for more tips – here you go.

Reducing your carbon footprint while you reduce your love handles is simpler than you think. The large quantities of meat the typical American consumes is one of the biggest eco-problems – and one of the easiest to fix. Consider this morsel from a new book, Go Green Get Lean, by Kate Geagan: If you switch to a vegetarian diet for just two weeks, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 122 pounds and your calories by nearly 12,500—that’s 3 ½ pounds gone – in 14 days!

Need more motivation to green up your eating? By scarfing down the average American’s diet, according to Geagan, you generate far more carbon dioxide emissions (2.8 tons per year) than you do by driving a car (2.2 tons).

Change is easy – OK that’s a lie – but it isn’t complicated at all. The key to developing new eating patterns depends as much on your attitude toward food as what you consume. So here are a few things to think about, so you can lose weight, save money, and take steps to save the planet, too.

1. Forget 3 squares — eat 6 smaller meals spaced evenly through the day.

Though we were all raised on eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, some diet experts say it’s healthier to keep the metabolism stoked evenly throughout the day. Consume 6-7 small meals of 200-300 calories each, every 2-3 hours. It works on several levels: first you get used to eating small portions – and you realize that these smaller (and greener) portions can be just as satisfying. Second, it keeps your metabolism revved, so you burn more calories as you eat. And third, you won’t ever get really hungry – so you won’t overeat at mealtime. How can you — it’s always meal time.

2. Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry.

You know you buy more when you’re famished. And fattening snacks seem so irresistible in that state of mind that you don’t notice that these processed foods (like potato chips and flavored crackers) cost more per pound than the most expensive meats and exotic fruits and vegetables. Before you leave home, grab a carrot or some gum to munch on while you shop. And stick to the list.

3. Go meatless – try tilapia: it’s the little black dress of the fish world.

Cutting out meat yields a big cost savings. And it’s about the single-biggest green modification you can make in your diet. Going vegetarian can reduces your carbon footprint by over 5000 pounds annually, according to Josh Peterson in Planet Green.

Even the more expensive fishes, like salmon (rich in those valuable anti-aging, anti-oxidant Omega-3s) are often less expensive (and better for the planet,) than many cuts of meat. For an inexpensive alternative, try tilapia – a mild white fish with lovely texture that works. It’s the little black dress of the fish world –you can dress it up, dress it down, so versatile it works with any kind of spices and flavoring or just on its own sautéed in organic olive oil with a splash of lemon. (Top 20 Tilapia recipes.)

4. Cut out sodas – lose two pounds per month.

Sodas are expensive and packed with sugar. If you eat as much sugar as most Americans do — 150 pounds per year – you’re releasing 855 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. Just by cutting consumption in half, according to the book Go Green, Get Lean, the average Joe could cut 7,500 calories a month. That’s about two pounds per month.

5. While eating – do not watch TV or talk on the phone — focus on every mouthful.

Ever finished a meal, looked down at your empty plate and barely remembered having eaten? What a waste of calories – and enjoyment. Mindful eating is the key to weight loss. You maximize pleasure (so eating less doesn’t feel like deprivation).

It’s simple: do not multi-task. Concentrate on every mouthful. Smell each bite before chowing down (your sense of smell is hundreds of times more sensitive than your taste buds.) Chew each bite 25 times (start counting) before swallowing. Invite a friend to join you. Open a bottle of organic wine, pour a small glass (see tip on small plates), and discuss the food, your lovelife, the environment (anything but the economy).

Feeling thinner, greener and richer already, aren’t you?

Related Articles:

Top 5 Ways to Lose Weight, Save Money and Green Your Diet: The Trifecta of Recession Bliss

Photo credit: From blog Because noone asked

1. Use what you’ve got in the cupboard — don’t go shopping again until the fridge is bare.

It’s amazing how much you can do with all those cans of food that you probably just keep pushing to the back when you buy new stuff. Check out Allrecipes.com where you can plug in what you’ve got, and the web site will come up with what you can cook with it. Keep some basic, nonperishable supplies in the cupboard (like cans of tuna, tomatoes, rice, pasta) and things that last for months in the fridge (like sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, olives) that will add life to your fresh ingredients. BONUS: At the end, I’ve included one of my family’s favorite, tangy, low-cal meals you can make with stuff you can always keep on hand that can’t go bad. (See Tuna –noodle pizazz, below.)

2. Use smaller plates.

The best way to lose weight is to cut down on portion size, day in and day out. The average plateful is two-to-three times a healthy-sized serving. You’d be amazed at how much more satisfying a small portion looks on a smaller plate. You don’t feel deprived – and you’ve saved calories and money as your groceries will stretch farther. To find out what a real portion size is for any food, check out this nifty tool, a Portion Calculator at Lifehacker.

3. Try a new mantra: Doggie bags are divine.

If you’re smart, you’re not going out to eat much. So when you do, you’d better stretch that one meal into two. Learn to love leftovers. Who says that little bit of your entrée and the vegetables isn’t enough for another meal? Have you forgotten so soon what we said about portion size? (See #2). Cut up the main dish into small bites, cook up some nice chewy brown rice or toss in a few more sautéed vegetables and you’ve expanded those leftovers into a full meal. filled out will

4. Don’t toss leftover tossed salad – keep it for the next day.

I know gourmands turn up their noses at day-old salad, but if you think of it as marinated vegetables instead of wilted lettuce, it tastes much better – and the nutritional value is pretty much the same. (On day three, even I give up. Toss it onto the compost heap — and while you’re out there, take a walk around the block for a little more exercise.)

5. Shun prepared foods — Slice, dice and cook it yourself

You can pay twice as much or more for ingredients that are prepped – like grated cheeses and bottled garlic. In addition, cut up foods go bad much faster than whole foods – so you can lose two ways. Prepared foods are handy – but here, too, you’re paying double, sometimes triple the costs of whipping it up yourself. Why pay twice as much for a ready-made roast chicken (rarely organic), when making your own chicken is so simple: wash and remove the innards, pat dry, then slather a little Dijon mustard all over the outside (don’t be squeamish, use your hands) and throw it in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes a pound. Cheap – low-cal, and fresh.

RECIPE: Susan’s Tuna –Noodle Pizazz — in 20 minutes flat

So easy — you can always keep these non-perishable ingredients on hand — and it takes as little as 20 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients: Serves 4

Olive oil – 1-2 TBSP.

Garlic – 2 cloves chopped

One Onion chopped or 2-4 scallions sliced — optional.

One large can of whole or crushed tomatoes – strained through slotted spoon.

One jar marinated artichokes – optional

Olives (sliced or whole) or capers – optional

One can tuna

Pasta — One-pound bag

Preparation:

Put up a large pot of water to boil for the pasta – throw in a sprinkle of salt – and cover (that speeds up the boiling and saves energy).

Pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a large frying pan.

On medium heat, sauté some fresh chopped garlic (you can throw in an onion (diced) or scallions (sliced) if they’re sitting around getting moldy in your fridge

Add a large can of Italian plum tomatoes and heat through.

Add a jar of marinated artichokes – if you have it – and put it on your grocery list for next time if you don’t. If you don’t have it, throw in some olives or capers or sliced sun-dried tomatoes for a tangy touch.

Add spices – a couple of pinches of basil, oregano, salt and pepper (ground fresh is best, but whatever you’ve got works).

Now stir in a can of tuna (drained).

Turn down the heat to low, and it will heat through by the time the pasta is done.

Add pasta (whatever kind you like) to boiling water, stir with big fork to avoid clumping, and cook (most one pound boxes need 6-8 minutes for al dente). Drain pasta.

Now you’re ready to spoon the sauce on the pasta, turn down the lights, light a candle, and enjoy!

Photo credit: www.simonyounes.com

]]> http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/04/top-5-ways-to-lose-weight-save-money-and-green-your-diet-the-trifecta-of-recession-bliss/feed/ 3 http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/03/turn-off-your-lights-tomorrow%e2%80%94saturday%e2%80%94for-earth-hour-what-you-do-after-that-is-your-business/ http://www.goodgreentips.com/2009/03/turn-off-your-lights-tomorrow%e2%80%94saturday%e2%80%94for-earth-hour-what-you-do-after-that-is-your-business/#comments Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:16:28 +0000 susan http://www.goodgreentips.com/?p=722 By Susan Seliger

Go dark! Tomorrow – Saturday, 3-28-09 – is Earth Hour when cities, and businesses and tens of millions of people like yourself all over the world will be turning off their lights for one hour – from 8:30 to 9:30 PM (your time) –  in honor of saving energy to save the entire planet.

Join in – flip those switches to OFF and feel the powerful energy of tens of millions of others, like yourself, sitting happily in the dark, saving energy. Do it with a friend — it’s more fun that way.

Anybody who is anybody will be tuning in and turning off, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which has organized this delightful plunge into the dark. Nearly 200 cities in the U.S. are officially committed; 2400 cities in 82 countries have officially signed on.

Broadway theater marquees and other world-renowned landmarks will be turning off their lights:

• Empire State Building
• Rockefeller Center
• Chrysler Building
• Golden Gate Bridge,
• Space Needle
• Sears Tower
• Great Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt
• Acropolis in Greece

For those of you with short attention spans who have difficulty reading past the first word “ Earth” and are confused – this is not Earth Day – it’s a little dress rehearsal. So if you are reading this after Saturday, and you didn’t get to join in the dark-hour fun, you can still make up for it to the gods of green on April 22, 2009, for the big Earth Day.

Turning off is a big turn-on.

Watch this video of the lights going out: Earth Hour in Years Past

Even the Las Vegas strip is turning lights off. And like Vegas, what you do during Earth Hour, stays in Earth Hour.

LINKS:

Earth Hour 2009 video

30 Second PSA voiced by Cate Blanchett

Want a minute-by-minute account? Here’s a new iPhone application “Earth Hour Trainer”:

Photo credit: 2witches.com/blog/tag/earth/

Here’s the simplest way to green your apartment — in a New York minute: buy one that’s already greened up. I visited a new condo-complex that fills the bill for all of you busy-lazy city dwellers who want to live greener but also say make-it-easy-for-me or fuggeddaboutit.

While there are a number of eco-friendly apartment complexes in NYC to pick from – most come with price tags that only Leonardo Di Caprio and friends can afford. (And we do hear he has bought one of those gorgeous, oh-so-bamboo-and-all-hand-carved-wood-furniture-in the-lobby versions in Riverhouse, so close to the Hudson River you could throw a tofuburger into it from his window – though, that wouldn’t be eco-friendly, now would it?)

However, the Kalahari on 115^th Street in Manhattan is an eco-conscious condo with a difference. Sure, it’s green — it meets the US Green Building Council’s LEED Silver Standards. But what makes it unique among green buildings in this high-priced city is that half of the apartments are for sale at subsidized rates to low-income residents, and the other half are priced at fair (in this economy, that now means fairly decent) market rates.

The deal gets even better once you move in. The building uses almost one-third less energy than comparable new buildings (keeping maintenance costs low). And each homeowner will save an average of $1,200 per year on their energy costs.

The Kalahari Harlem also features some cool, green amenities like green roofs, ionic and plex-air filters for cleaner air, bamboo flooring (eat your heart out, Leo) and on-site Zip Cars (low-cost rental cars allowing you to drive only when you absolutely have to, without the costly-parking-headaches of owning in a big city). There’s also a nifty meter in every apartment so you can see just how much electricity you’re using — or saving, when you unplug all your stuff and cut out that phantom power waste.

“The tiles on the roof reflect the heat and they also allow for water to be retained underneath them, delaying water going down the drain,” explains Julia Lynch Siegel, Project Manager of Sustainability at Full Spectrum NY, the eco-real-estate developers for the Kalahari. Pointing to the solar panels on a different part of the roof, Julia says, “These panels supply all the electricity we need to light the lobby, the entry and the artwork in the building.” Though that’s only a small percentage of total energy needs, the building’s sponsors project that by 2030, the 200+ Kalahari homeowners will collectively have saved over $21 million in total energy costs.

During construction, the sustainable developers kept millions of tons of waste out of the landfills by using recycled materials, from the structural steel and concrete in the foundation to the carpets in the hallways and the recycled-glass tiles in the kitchens.

Inspiration for the name of the building and the dramatic colors and artwork used throughout come from the San bushmen of the South African Kalahari Desert, whose commitment to preserving the earth’s natural resources (and their “click” language) were made famous in the movie, “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” (Go watch it again – you know you want to.)

** If you’re in the market for a green condo in NY, check out the Kalahari website.

** If you’re not in the market for condos in NY, but want to let your local builders see how green building can be done, if the spirit is willing, forward them the website:

** For more on greening the apartment you’ve got, check out this blog post from Best Green Home Tips.