Ways to Green Your Business
The Karat® Paper Hot Cup at Work
Sometimes we may think that it’s not easy being green. A growing office might not have all the resources to change out their standard light bulbs to energy efficient light bulbs. Or a restaurant can’t upgrade to all Energy Star appliances. Nonetheless, we’ve compiled a few tips with ways in which you can green your business.
Office: Recycle everything! In an office setting, recycling isn’t only limited to paper—but you can recycle beverage containers, electronic equipment, batteries, plastic, and aluminum.
Café/Coffeehouse: Save the coffee grinds and use them as a natural fertilizer for indoor and outdoor plants. Not only are you saving the coffee grinds from the trash, but you’ll also create an even cooler atmosphere with the plants in your café/coffeehouse.
Ice Cream/Yogurt Shop: Invest in greening your business with the Karat® Earth line of eco-friendly Paper Food Containers and Compostable Teaspoons. Satisfy your customers’ taste buds for something cool and sweet and do it in green style!
Restaurants: Use recycled paper for Menus. Changing your menus from regular paper to recycled paper is an obvious way to show your customers your commitment to going green—a menu is something that every customer looks at when they sit down at a restaurant.
Fast-Service Food: Change out your regular plastic cups and paper hot cups to the Karat® Earth line of PLA cold cups and Karat® Earth Paper Hot Cups. Both of these products are eco-friendly, so customers can take their drinks to-go eco-consciously.
Karat® Counts Down to World Environment Day
This Sunday (June 5th) is World Environment Day. It is an annual event that was established by the United National General Assembly in 1972 as a means to promote awareness of global environmental issues. More importantly, it’s a day where the global community can come together and work towards a more sustainable future.
World Environment Day is hosted in a different city with a new theme each year. In 2011, New Delhi, India will host the celebratory day with the theme of Forests – Nature At Your Service. This year’s theme emphasizes the importance that forests plays in our lives and how it is often taken for granted. Forests cover more than 1/3 of the Earth’s land mass and roughly 1.6 billion people worldwide depend on forests for their livelihood. Forests also play a key role in out battle against climate change—and if our forests begin to disappear—our climate will be altered severely.
So, this World Environment Day, we want you to know that every effort counts! Karat® is counting down to World Environment Day with exceptional pricing on our partner sites CupDepot.com and LollicupStore.com through out the month of June. Remember, on Sunday, join in on many of the planned events found on the World Environment Day website such as: beach clean-ups, concerts, film festival, exhibits, and other community events. Or, if you’re feeling more adventurous, plan your own event. Together, we can save the environment.
For more information about World Environment Day, please visit their website.
Plant a Tree to Celebrate Arbor Day
Just one week after Earth Day, it’s time to celebrate our planet again! Arbor Day, a civic holiday honored on the final Friday of April, brings individuals and groups together to plant and care for trees.
Founded in 1872 in Nebraska City, Nebraska, today Arbor Day still stands for the beautification of public areas and parks. So what does this means for us? It’s time to go outside and plant a tree.
Be sure to plant deciduous trees to ensure maximum tree growth. Also, if you’re feeling extra adventurous, plant a fruit or nut tree—not only are you planting trees to better the environment, but you’re also planting a healthy food source for you and your family.
If planting a tree is too much of an endeavor, take a walk around your neighborhood instead and admire your local trees. Not sure what kind of tree that is? Don’t worry, there’s an App for that. The Arbor Day Foundation launched their iPhone App, Arbor Day Tree Identification Guide: What Tree Is That?, that now makes it easier to identify any North American origin tree.
Karat® celebrates Earth Day: Picnic for the Planet
Earth Day's Picnic for the Planet
After our weeklong countdown, Earth Day is finally here! To celebrate Earth Day join us as we highlight our Karat® Earth brand of eco-friendly products (cups, food containers, tableware, and utensils) and go for a Picnic for the Planet.
Picnic for the Planet is a celebration on April 22nd for our dear planet Earth, the food it provides, and everyone we share it with. Today, people all over the world are heading outside and having a picnic for Earth. Your picnic doesn’t have to be fancy, but make sure you picnic responsibly today.
For your picnic, be sure to use eco-friendly products such as our Karat® Earth PLA cups, Karat® Earth Paper Food Containers, Karat® Earth Compostable Spoons, and other items. Changing your paper purchases to Karat® Earth eco-friendly products will save trees and leave a greener environment for future generations.
Along with choosing responsible products for your picnic, be sure to choose seasonal and local foods. Not only do you support your community by buying local, if you choose seasonal food you’ll also eat the best tasting and freshest food.
Lastly, after your fun filled picnic, please pick up all your trash and dispose of them properly. Remember, living green is better practiced daily rather than once a year, but every step towards being green makes an impact.
To view more information about Picnic for the Planet, Chef approved recipes, and to find a local picnic visit their website. Also, for more information about the Karat® Earth line visit our website.
Earth Week: Declutter Your Home Office
A Cluttered Home Office. Image via Flickr
Clutter is what we bring into our homes that we don’t necessarily want or need. Studies show that decluttering your life can lead to reduced stress levels. However, thinking and doing are two different things when it comes to decluttering. It can be daunting, impossible and it may take too much time and energy. Fear not. Tackle messes and clutter one room at a time to avoid being overwhelmed.
Here are some easy ways to declutter one clutter-prone room in your house: the home office.
- Stop receiving phone books: Opt out of the old-fashioned, paper-wasting phone books at Yellow Pages Goes Green.org.
- Enroll in Paperless Billing: There are pros and cons to Paperless Billing, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. A Paperless Bill only clogs your email inbox, but saves trees and reduces greenhouse gases.
- Work on a laptop: A laptop uses less energy than a desktop computer and uses even less when running on battery power. Be even more efficient by forgoing the desk and use your laptop on your lap—hey, you’re at home anyway.
- Power Strip: Plug all your electronics into one power strip and turn it on only when necessary. This way, you avoid those pesky Vampire Electronics.
- At Arms Length: Keep only the items you need on your desk at an arms length. This clears up desk space and allows for a cleaner and clearer workspace.
Earth Week: The Four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Re-Purpose
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Repurpose. Photo Courtesy of Richarson's Recycling
We all learned in grade school the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. As the world’s population continues to multiply at an exponential rate, we’re on track to outgrowing the three R’s. So, as a society, we have to add another R to the list: Re-Purpose.
Here are some ways in which you can incorporate the four R’s into your every day life:
Reduce energy spending by promptly closing your refrigerator door right after you’ve grabbed everything you need. Pondering an open refrigerator’s items may be a familiar habit, but it raises your electricity bill each second it stays open.
Reuse used plastic bags like sandwich bags and ziplocks. Not only does this practice save the environment, it also saves money. Most people don’t know that they can wash and reuse sandwich and ziplock bags up to seven times—that’s eight different uses for a single bag! However, if the idea of reusing a bag irks you—reuse the bag for something besides food—like batteries or paper clips.
Recycle plastic bags! Are those plastic bags from the grocery store overflowing from week after week grocery shopping? Here’s a simple solution: recycle them. Visit Plastic Bag Recycling.org to locate your nearest plastic bag recycling center.
Repurpose almost any object in your home. A glass jar becomes a water or tea bottle. A tin can becomes a vase for windowsill herbs. Old jeans become a pocket purse. An old tablecloth becomes a new lunch bag. Old egg cartons become jewelry organizers.
Earth Week: One Easy Thing at a Time
Vampire Electronics. Photo Courtesy of KBL Energy
Here’s an offer that’s too good to refuse: Save a couple bucks a month by doing virtually nothing. Interested?
You can save a lot of green a month by going green just by unplugging unused electronics during the day and night. If your laptop power adaptor is plugged into the wall but not a laptop or if all your electronics are plugged into a power strip that goes unused during the day or night—they’re all eating up energy and power in large amounts.
If you’ve ever wondered why your energy bill is so high—meet the perpetrators: the Vampire Electronics. Studies show that standby electronics and unused power adaptors account for 5-10% of an average home’s annual energy usage. That’s a lot of money and valuable energy for something that isn’t in use.
So, next time you go out for the day or tuck in for the night—fully turn off electronics and unplug unnecessary power adaptors.
Remember, being green only takes one easy thing at a time.
Karat® Countdowns to Earth Day All Week Long
USPS Forever Go Green Stamp
Earth Day is an annual celebration honoring the achievements of the environmental movement and raising awareness for a more sustainable society. Essentially, it’s the time for us to think about our wonderful planet and reflect on everything planet Earth does for us.
Since the inaugural Earth Day on April 22, 1970, it continues to be celebrated on that specific day each year. Forty-one-years later, the intentions remain the same: to draw attention to environmental issues and to teach the world about environmental responsibilities. The first Earth Day was celebrated by thousands of Americans and has now spread to a worldwide celebratory day that involves over 1 billion people in over 175 unique countries.
For us at Karat®, Earth Day is extremely important to us. So, for the next five days we will be celebrating Earth Week with blog posts every day leading up to Friday’s Earth Day. Be sure to check back and join in on this week’s festivities here at the Karat Blog!
For more information about Earth Day and to see how you can get involved, please visit the Earth Day website.
Earth Hour: Are You Turning Off the Lights?
At 8:30PM on Saturday March 26, 2011 millions of people will turn off their lights for one full hour to celebrate Earth Hour. Earth Hour is an international event initially organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) as an awareness movement intended to get people talking about climate change.
Earth Hour began in Sydney Australia in 2007 and has expanded into a global event. In 2010, the biggest Earth Hour yet, 128 countries and territories turned off their lights at their local time for the event. For one full hour the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, CN Tower in Toronto, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Colosseum in Rome and Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco all went dark in honor of Earth Hour.
But what exactly does Earth Hour mean? Sure, it means turning off all your lights—but go further and unplug all your electronic devices such as alarm clocks, chargers and appliances. Please be sure to do your part and invite some friends over and celebrate Earth Hour—in the dark.
Join the world, turn off the lights!
Welcome to Karat Blog
Keep updated with the latest news from Karat® as we continue to expand our product line and deliver quality eco-friendly products for your home or business!
Visit Our Websites!
Pages
Categories
- Environment (15)
- New Products (2)
- News (26)
- Tradeshow (13)