Thanks to Kelly Sparks, who worked over a year to develop a map, offering stores, businesses, entertainment and educational options, Colorado Springs can now spot “green” with the click of a mouse.

Kelly says that this site is meant for “all things green” and aimed to “help Colorado Springs‘ green economy grow and help our city become more sustainable.”

According to last reports from KOAA, Kelly is looking for additional businesses and opportunities to be added to the map!

What do you think about this? How cool is that?

Did you know that, according to the EPA, 380 billion plastic bags are used in the U.S. annually? Only about 0.6% of those are recycled and approx 100 billion bags are thrown away each year. Considering that each bag takes about 1000 years to degrade - the numbers become even more staggering. Keep in mind - those numbers are for the U.S. only!

It is estimated that one million bags per minute are used world wide. Almost 80% of those are used by North America and Western Europe.

Considering that it’s not only the use of plastic bags that harms the environment, but also the production, I decided that if we each start with a small step - like reusing shopping bags, made out of environmentally friendly cotton, over time, we will have an impact.

It’s slow going (in every sense of the way - thanks to the crutches!), but we’ve finalized the name and are now in the process of trying to choose the best “entity” for this business.

Any input on this one? LLC vs. S-Corp, C-Corp vs. Inc? I think we’ve narrowed it down - and boy, I learned more than I set out to!

Also got some fabrics for samples - but still searching on the “perfect” accessories…

Aside from working on this, we’re planning on enjoying the Memorial Day Weekend…Hope you do the same?!

Have a great one, have fun, enjoy your time off, maybe a BBQ or two?

A beautiful necklace by Ann Knox made out of over 35 recycled metal parts.
A Key Pin by Trish Ransom - combined from pieces most of us wouldn’t look at twice.
Earrings, also by Trish Ransom, made out of bottle caps.
A bracelet by Dineshea Thomas, constructed from old newspapers, glue and mod podge.
Plus a variety of other entries.

What a cool idea! What art can you produce from recycled materials?

Tags: recycling

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9 office in San Francisco came together and created the website for Recycle City, in 1997.

This site offers games, activities, facts and graphics, aimed at kids wanting to learn about recycling.

You’ll find games to play, things to do and activities for teachers. How to ‘get around’ in recycle city, tips and technical information and other recycling resources.

If you’re looking to teach your kids about recycling - check out Recycling City.

Have fun.

Did you know that you can search online for certified Green Restaurants, Cafes, Bakeries, Pubs, Resorts and Coffee/Tea Houses?

All you have to do is go to Dine Green, click on Find a Restaurant and you’re ready to go.

In order to be a certified Green, a Restaurant etc must meet the following standards (Quote from site):
1. Use a comprehensive recycling system for all products that are accepted by local recycling companies.
2. Free of polystyrene foam (”Styrofoam”) products.
3. Commit to completing four Environmental Steps per year of membership. (refer to Environmental Guidelines)
4. Complete at least one Environmental Step after joining the GRA.

Ready to dine out?

Just as I’d assume other small business owners labor over their new ‘baby’ - so do we. We’ve spent a lot of time, trying to come up with our mission statement - to describe what we believe in and strive for.

 Why do I tell you? Because you might want to know who you’re working with and because it’ll give you an idea of what’s important to us. Does that mean this mission statement is written in stone? No. It’s a living and breathing idea, that will be clarified as we go along.

Following is our mission statement, as it stands today. What we strive for, what we’d like to accomplish and how we’d like to do that. 

Making a contribution towards protecting resources for our children’s future, by offering eco-friendly, colorful and reusable alternatives to existing shopping bag options.

What do you think? Does that express our desire to reduce waste, reuse and recycle, in order to improve our children’s future?

Green Limousine, the eco-friendly luxury transportation will get you to the Prom, while still keeping our environment in mind!

Green Limousine is concerned with improving their imprint on the environment, while still being able to enjoy life and all it’s “Little Luxuries” - or in this case, the bigger luxuries likes Limousines.

Quote from Green Limousine: “Green Limousine was built on the philosophy that businesses can do better for our society and environment. Our luxury vehicles are powered by biodiesel, a non-toxic, completely natural, renewable fuel that dramatically reduces greenhouse gasses, airborne toxins, and pollutants. Biodiesel promotes the use of renewable energy and alternatives to fossil fuels, and greatly reduces our carbon footprint. The Green Limousine experience includes healthy beverages and organic fruit snacks for our guests in all of our vehicles, (we have also built an extensive organic beer and wine list. We have even researched our bottles of water, how far it has to travel to get to our guests, and how much new plastic has been used in their production.”

Looking for a ride in style while being eco-friendly? Check them out - and let us know what you thought of them?

Check out “The Imagination Factory” website - for kids! It’s all about art - with a twist. Throughout this site, kids can learn about recycling, reducing waste and reusing items.

From Art Lessons to Trash Matcher, Scout Badge Maker to Trashasaurus Rex Sculpture, a Factory outlet store and more. If you’re looking for an entertaining AND educational site - the Imagination Factory might be it!

If you have an iPod, Cell Phone, MP3 player or a digital camera - you probably encountered the “no juice” stage at one point.

Now you can recharge through a wind powered little gadget - the Hymini. If your city has at least 9 mph wind gusts - you can use it! This gadget is designed to work in wind speeds from 9 to 30 mph!

Wanting to look up the average wind speed in your city? Check out this site.

Would you like to get all the information on the new Hymini? Check out the Hymini website - and charge up green.