We’re back from the impromptu hiatus causeed by all our friends deciding to get married at the same time. We’d like to extend our fondest congratulations to Cat and James as well as to ChrisAnn and Mark. We’ve got a lovely montage of wedding pictures for Cat and James (set to the music of their band, the musical voice of Greentime, Zen Debris), and we hope we can show you some of ChrisAnn and Mark when they get back from their honeymoon!

Amy’s in front of the camera this week, opening the viewer mailbag. Then she dives into our most recent project, reducing the water use in our shower. We’ve replaced the hilariously surreal showerhead with a more practical one that offers two kinds of low-flow options as well as a “pause” setting. Ever heard of a “navy shower”? Check out this episode and find out how to get in your daily bathing without wasting 20-50 gallons of water.

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Quicktime (.mov)

Tags: green, green lifestyle, bath and shower, water, water conservation

A lightbulb “suddenly burns out” and Rhett springs into green action, replacing the lightbulbs in our front room with CFLs. These things are great…they put out a beautiful white light and use 25-33% of the electricity of incandescent lights. Granted, they have mercury in them, but it’s not hard to work around that. They’re cheaper than LED lights and they really sip the electricity for what they do.

Some important links:

• Did you know consumers prefer CFL light? Really. Check out this Popular Mechanics study.
• What about the mercury content? Again, Popular Mechanics is there.
• Energy Star on CFLs, including proper disposal.
• Find a CFL recycling facility.
• CC Crane is pretty famous for LED lights, for the mercury-phobic.
• Check out the CFL Epidsode of Real World Green, our “distant cousin” green vlog.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: cfl, reduce, electricity, green lifestyle, green, environmentalism

We’d like to welcome everyone who’s coming to see us for the first time thanks to our redistribution at greenerMIAMI. We’re so proud to see our first site affiliation.

Hungry to shrink our electricity bills this summer, we go after our monster appliance sucking 1800-5000W of power. That’s right…the clothes dryer. We look into the inexpensive and surprisingly not-inconvenient option of letting the miserable heat of Florida’s summers do the work for us by drying on racks. See how this is going for us and check out some information on how you can get involved.

Links:

• Project Laundry List – A group promoting information and advocacy of a clothes dryer-free lifestyle and a return to the clothes line. They’re a great place to start if you need information on fighting deed restrictions. We live in a “right to dry” state. Do you? Find out.
• Treehugger.com – A discussion about deed restricted communities, difficulties in putting up clothes lines and drying racks, and property values.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: green, green lifestyle, environmentalism, reduce, electricity, appliances, clothes, clothes line, hang out

Amy returns to Sustainability Test Kitchen to show off some of the homemade beauty products we’re dedicated to using. Remember, doing it yourself is a surefire way to ensure to reduce packaging and use raw ingredients that you’ve selected for their sustainability. Amy shows how she makes body scrub from old coffee grounds, facial scrub from cornmeal and orange juice, and a mask from banana and honey.

We’re always looking for more green recipes, whether they be for food, beauty supplies, or virtually anything else. If you have a good recipe you use, don’t forget to email us. We love to learn and share your tricks and hints with others!

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Tags: green, green living, environmentalism, beauty products, reduce, diy

Amy jumps in this week with an update on the garden. After that, she introduces the concept of voluntary simplicity, its implications for work, consumption, and gift giving, and talks about using Freecycle.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v)

Tags: voluntary simplicity, gardening, green, green lifestyle, gift giving

We’ve been featured in Riptide, the blog of New Times Miami, a newspaper dedicated to local culture!  Thanks go out to Tamara Lush for making this possible. You can see the article about us here.

Rhett shows you how to use a brewing technique similar to methode champagne to put bubbles in flavored sugar water and make your own soda.  This is the traditional technique for making soft drinks such as ginger beer and sasparilla, and it makes for something sweet to serve with dinner or at parties.

Rhett’s ginger beer recipe: place 1/2 cup sugar, 1/8 tsp yeast, 1 tbsp (to taste) ground ginger root, juice of 1/2 lemon, and water to fill to 1″ head room in a 1L bottle. Cap, shake, and let the yeast do the hard work for 24-48 hours at room temperature.

This easy recipe came to us via this WikiHow article.  This technique can be adapted to any number of flavorings and levels of sweetness.  The only limit is your imagination! If you’d like to make cola, a good recipe can be found in OpenCola.  WikiHow provides a simple-to-follow recipe.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v)

Tags: soda, homebrew, diy, diet, do it yourself, reduce, green lifestyle, green, environmentalism

Amy draws on her experiences owning a green cleaning agency to share with you the basics of keeping a spotless home in an environmentally conscious way. Even if you know the basics of citrus oil and vinegar, check out some of Amy’s big secrets for polished chrome or glass! You’ll be reducing your footprint, making bulk cleaners, and keeping your home clean for less. Don’t forget…we always love to hear new tips from you, so comment or email us!

Formats available: Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v)

Tags: cleaning green, cleaning, green, green lifestyle, sustainable living, sustainability, environmentalism