Today, as I was taking my PACT sheets out of the dryer, I noticed a hole. These sheets aren't very old. In fact, they must be my 3rd set of organic, fair-trade sheets (three different brands) in about 6 years. I wash them weekly.

I loved these percale sheets, but I am so disappointed. Am I expecting too much from a set of sheets?

How are people navigating sheets and sustainability? Replacing sheets every 2 years doesn't feel sustainable to me. I have a wardrobe, for instance, that is tons of recycled plastic. I may be wearing these dresses till I die!

Has anyone found a fair-trade sheet that lasts? I mean, my son has sheets that I must have bought 7 or 8 years ago from Target that are fine. Their manufacturing footprint was probably horrible, but they are lasting. (I only buy fair-trade now.) So their overall footprint is probably less.

I also need to buy new comforters for two teens. I can no longer sew them back together, and it is time.

Recommendations? I don't think one of them will do wool, unless someone can suggest something light and comfy like a comforter.... But I am open to switching to wool or anything else people can recommend.

Wildfire risk: Wildfires are 4x more likely to start near roads, and roughly 90% start within half a mile of one — directly undercutting the administration's stated rationale for the rollback.

Wildlife habitat: These areas provide critical habitat for salmon, trout, elk, and other species that depend on undammed, unlogged streams and connected landscapes.

Old growth & carbon storage: Roadless areas contain vast swaths of the nation's remaining old-growth forest and store significant amounts of carbon.

Drinking water: Roadless national forests provide drinking water to 60 million Americans, since intact forests filter water naturally.

Fiscal responsibility: The existing road network already carries an $8.5+ billion maintenance backlog, and building more roads would only add to it.

I’ve grown up kind of always being a crunchy, granola kid with an interest in the environment. I took so many agricultural and environmental science classes throughout school, and would watch things like wild kratts and kids shows teaching about recycling and all that.

My boyfriend recently asked me what fossil fuels even means and i was so shocked he just never learned about it in school. i also asked him to look out for a specific type of plastic for me because i needed some for a project i was working on, and he didnt know there were different types. i told him theres a conservation club at his university and he might want to check it out since he likes animals, but he asked me what conservation meant. im realizing he didnt grow up with the same education that i got, and i want to teach him more, but i dont really know where to start. im trying to reframe my approach to household things so that i give him a reason for why i recycle or compost or do anything the way i do, but i just feel like he needs more? idk. suggest whatever media or education methods you think could help an absolute beginner to sustainability.

Most materials stop changing once they leave the factory. A new fungal textile takes almost the opposite approach.

Made from the living mycelium of Cordyceps militaris, the flexible material can retain cells capable of renewed growth. It can repair damage, develop water-repelling surfaces and support other microbes that add color or ultraviolet protection.

I’ve recently realise that literally all of the makeup I own has microplastics in it, and while I would like to just use microplastic free makeup, there unfortunately just isn’t many options. (And the options out there just aren’t that great)

I always assumed just washing it off in the shower was the best way to do it, because it means not using any disposable cotton rounds, makeup wipes etc, but that allows the microplastics into the water. If I was to use a reusable wipe or cloth, it would just have to be cleaned and the microplastics would end up in the water anyway.

Does anyone have any other ways they do it, otherwise which way is more sustainable, allowing the microplastics into the water, or using a disposable makeup wipe to remove it?

Edit: I think what I am doing currently is best, using an oil cleanser in the shower (no disposable wipes or anything) unfortunately in Australia the options just aren’t there for plastic free makeup (and definitely not in the aggressively bright colours I use) I can only do my best and I think this is the best option!

Please help! I wouldn't say I have a BUNCH of stuff but I have a decent amount of things for someone living in this world now😭 i'm ashamed to say but I used to LOVE buying the newest trendiest items (to a certain extent cause i'm still a kid) and I'm moving soon and I want this to be a better stage of my life. What would you guys recommend I do with my things? Should I donate or should I give them to people in ny aparatment complex?

Hi all,

I’m thinking about buying secondhand cloth diapers for our newborn, for both economic and sustainability reasons, but I’m concerned about sanitation and hygiene safety for baby. What has your experience been like with secondhand reusable diapers?

My other, bigger question is: what did you buy secondhand? Were there any nonnegotiable items that your family bought brand new?

Hey guys! I discoverd few simple and small changes that can save some energy consumption and I want to share it here.

Did you know that emails with a larger body, images and attachments use more energy to get transfered ? - yes. Even a simplified email signature can reduce this by a bit and it doesnt change the email much.

To reduce energy consumed on email tranfers, we can use a simple single line email signature or no signature whenever possible(especially in work emials). Reducing attachments and images also helps. Unsubscribe from all emails that are not useful and delete all old unimportant emails.

One other way is using physical storage instead of cloud. Storing media items like back up files, images videos, albums on a physical drive is better than cloud as cloud infrastructures need continuous energy supply to make data readily available. We can do with all our photos and vidoes not always being available real time. Since most devices now come with atleast 128gb, we can store enough media on device storage alone. This also protects data better.

I am aware that the real big enegry consumers are the upcoming data centers but let's try to reduce our consumption where the change will barely impact us. I think every drop counts and as it accumilates, it could make a difference.

If more of us just consume lesser cloud space, the infrastructure demand will hopefully drop.

The rate of climate change is becoming harder to look past and hopes for better future feel faint. Lets try our best even in these rough times and hopefully, we can alteast slow or pause the damage if not reverse it <3.

Thank you for reading though if you have got to this line:) please consider implementing the changes too

I’ve been digging through EPA eGRID data to see how much location changes an electricity emissions estimate.

Using the same 1,000 kWh each time, I got:

• Upstate New York: about 110 kg CO2e
• California: about 195 kg CO2e
• SERC Midwest: about 566 kg CO2e
• Oahu: about 680 kg CO2e

That’s roughly a sixfold difference without changing the amount of electricity used.

The math is the easy part. The harder part is choosing the right grid region, using the correct factor year, keeping the units straight, and recording where the number came from.

For anyone doing multi-location reporting, what do you normally use: eGRID subregions, state averages, utility data, or a national average?

Now, I know in the world we live in, avoiding AI is as hard as avoiding plastic. But I stick to my guns, and like plastic, I'll avoid it everywhere I can. I run a business around sustainability in Australia (a zero-waste meal delivery service), and I've been doing it all by myself for over a year now. I do it all - the cooking, the dishes, the deliveries, the supply tracking, the ordering system, the marketing, the customer service, the social media management, the web development...

And well, it's starting to be a lot.

Being a small business, I'm interested in hiring a VA (virtual assistant) to help me with some admin, but my worst nightmare is that everything would be handled by AI, wasting precious resources and also losing the personal touch of my brand.

I'd love to know if anyone around here has had the same concerns and successfully found someone they trust and work with, and how did you find them?

Cannot wait to hear from you!

​

We've got Scope 1 and Scope 2 down to a science, utility bills, fleet fuel cards, straightforward emission factors. But looking at Scope 3, especially categories 1 (purchased goods and services) and 4 (upstream transportation), it feels like we're building castles out of sand. We're relying almost entirely on spend based multipliers and EEIO databases. Are your suppliers actually providing primary carbon data, or are we all just pretending spend-based estimates are accurate enough for CSRD?

Does anyone know where (Europe) I can buy a mattress that is as environmentally friendly as possible yet at least sort of affordable?

Ideally made from natural, organic materials that are certified as free from harmful substances.

Really interesting chat from university of Exeter's Tim Lenton around the Tipping Points initiative and how we can still come back from sailing past 1.5 celsius. Don't know about you but his positivity was helping as I get over sweltering in London! https://youtu.be/a745_DZCBEc

I found this pic on Pinterest and I love how it looks. But I also know that the ribbons are probably polyester, charm is plastic and printing the holographic parts on the ribbons make a lot of waste. Do you have any ideas of how could I make something similar possibly out of more ecological materials? I thought of a glass/biodegradable plastic charm, textiles such as hemp or wool/cotton I could find at the thrift (although I'm not sure how could I trim the edges for it to not rip?). Well I gotta say I adore the holo parts but I'm not sure what to do, and that's probably the part I have the biggest problem with.

Unfortunately buying materials shown in the photo second hand in my country is impossible, people don't really sell that stuff here.

Any ideas will be appreciated!

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a sustainable travel razor? I’ve been using a nice stainless steel safety razor for years now but they are a pain to travel with when not putting a bag in the hold, and I travel a lot for work. Is there an equivalent, low waste option that can go through airport security without being taken away or always flagging your bag for an extra search?

I know there are people criticizing being low waste because “it isn’t our biggest problem right now”

I’m not disagreeing.

yes we should encourage people to not have pets, fly less or not at all, adopt a more plant based diet, give up their cars, and switch to clean energy/clean heating, write to politicians, purchase renewable energy/thermal certificates, and vote well.

I still think going low waste is worth it on top of these other things For the following reasons.

1. low waste products are often a four for one. cleaning supplies and personal hygiene products are the ones that come to mind.

they are often low in packaging

they have ingredients that are ok for the planet once they get back into the ecosystem. they are also usually better for your body.

They cut carbon emissions through less transportation emissions, end of life emissions, through manufacturing, and during it’s lifetime use,by preventing more disposables.

by buying alternatives you are supporting less large polluting oligopolies.

so because most of these have a 4 for 1, I would say it’s worth doing, and encouraging people to do.

1. many local cities have a major garbage problem. by encouraging people to do low waste this is solving a local problem.

often cities will send their garbage/recycling to another country to deal with. So by solving this local problem, they are helping solve a world wide problem. Other countries don’t want our garbage. Can we blame them? Also don’t we want our cities to dedicate less money to their garbage problem, and dedicathe more money to public transportation?

1. it helps people develop a different relationship with stuff. It makes people more aware of what they bring in and eventually throw away. It makes them more aware of an items lifecycle. It just helps people consume less which is what we want. That can’t be a bad thing.

2. often low waste encourages repair, reducing, and reuse. this is fantastic why would we be demonizong that? Helping people compost and recycle, and bring in less waste or items is great for the planet! Composting helps places use fewer chemical fertilizers, helps soil quality, and reduces the methane produced in the landfill. Recycling helps manufacturers not need to create new materials. Using less single use plastic helps our microplastic problem.

So for the following reasons this is why I get upset at people demonizing low waste/low plastic (which is often one and the same) right now.

I understand what they are trying to do but I just disagree.