Go Green Mug Green News

Starbucks EarthDay Celebrations

2010-04-28T09:46:00.001-07:00

Reduce Waste At your Coffee Shop

2009-08-31T10:18:00.000-07:00

In America we love our coffee and because of the abundance of coffee shops we can now pick up some quality blends and try many exciting variations without the need to purchase a complicated espresso machine or milk steamer, coffee bean grinder or tea infuser.

Although these Coffee shops are great for our coffee habits, there is a large cost associated with our visits. Beside the obvious financial cost of some of the fancier named coffee concoctions there is a very large environmental cost.

Coffee shops generally serve their brew in hard to recycle paper cups. A good estimate is that Americans throw away 18 billion paper cups every year. Paper and cardboard make up over 40% of the solid waste buried in North American landfills. Of that 40%, a disproportionate amount, is attributable to disposable coffee cups. Add to this waste the plastic lids and straws and cardboard sleeves that many of us use on our paper coffee cups whether we need them or not.

Luckily there are some very easy ways in which we can reduce our waste at coffee shops.
The best way to reduce this waste is to get a reusable mug or travel mug. Travel mugs tend to be better because they come with a lid in case you want to take them in the car and avoid spills and because they are insulated, which means your coffee will stay hot longer. Here are a few tips for using your reusable mug at the coffee shop:

Create a personalized travel mug that you will really like. Adding photographs and your name to your travel mug makes it stand out and you will want to use it more often.
Bring your Travel Mug with you. It will be of no use if you leave it at home.
Know how much liquid your mug can hold. At most coffee shops 12oz. is a Tall or Small, 16oz. is Grande or Medium and 20oz. is a Venti or Large.
Order the size drink you want that will fit in your mug. Sometimes you can get lucky and the barrista will fill up your 16oz. mug even if you only ordered a small or tall.
Order your drink type specifically and make sure that the barrista does not use a paper cup to write the order on. If you regularly enjoy the same drink get a reusable mug that describes your specific drink order on it and then point your barrista to this description.
Unscrew the top of the travel mug before handing your mug over. Keep the lid with you and replace it once you get your drink back.
Add your milk and sugar to your cup first before handing it over to the barrista. In this way you will eliminate the waste caused by spilling, if you add these later to an already full mug.
Ask the barrista what discount they offer for bringing in your own mug. Some coffee shops offer discounts as high as 30%. Don’t make this your reason for bringing in a reusable mug, just be pleased with yourself for helping to reduce the waste.

If you forget to bring in your travel mug then there are still a number of ways you can reduce waste during your coffee shop visit.

If you intend to sit in the coffee shop and enjoy your drink, you do not need a plastic lid. If you do need to take your coffee on the go then hopefully next time you will remember your reusable travel mug.
If you should spill any coffee on the counter top, do not use napkins to wipe it up. Ask the barrista for a rag to wipe up the spill.
The cardboard collar, meant for hot drinks, can also add to the waste. If you do not need one then do not take one.

Some estimates suggest that if we all use reusable mugs at one of the large chain coffee shops instead of their paper cups we would save more than 1 million tons of wood, 2 billion pounds of carbon dioxide, and 4 billion gallons of water every year. That’s the equivalent carbon dioxide reduction of keeping almost 800 000 cars off the road for at least 3 days.

So get a travel mug and persuade everyone you know to do the same. Make a difference, reduce the waste, get some discounts at coffee shops and feel good about yourself. Make the switch to a reusable travel mug today.

Prevent and Treat Mosquito Bites Using Everyday Items

2009-08-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

We all have makeshift solutions and homemade remedies that are better for the environment (and often less expensive) than many products on the market.

Visit http://www.altuse.com/ to share your ideas with the green community, and learn other ways you can use everyday products around your home and garden. AltUse is giving away GoGreenMugs as prizes every day this week, so we encourage you all to participate by simply entering your ideas!

Here are just a few examples of how you can prevent and treat mosquito bites this summer:

Rub a fabric softener sheet on your clothing to repel mosquitoes. Great for working outside or when on a camping trip.

If you've already been bitten, try breaking open an aspirin and rubbing it on the bite to reduce the itch.

We hope you find their site useful and informative, and that you take a bit of time to share your ideas with the community!

Reduce Waste with Alternative Uses

2009-08-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to reduce our waste is to reuse everything you can. The more we reuse the less waste is created and we cut down on our contribution to global warming and pollution.

At GoGreenMug.com, you know that we are dedicated to reducing our waste and so we are pleased to join up with AltUse to offer a great promotion from the 10th-14th August.

AltUse believe as we do, that by reusing and finding alternative uses for products, we can seriously reduce our waste and reduce the effects of climate change. They enable us to save money and the environment by putting our stuff to use in many different ways. Check out http://www.altuse.com/ to find alternative uses for all your stuff.

The GoGreenMug promotion with AltUse starts Monday. With up to six winners everyday. We look forward to reading your entries.

Pressing for a Global Response to Climate Change

2009-08-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

A recent article in Newsweek, http://www.newsweek.com/id/208164 had me thinking of the slippery slope of climate change and where we can go from here.

The problem with global warming is that it starts slowly, melting a little more ice over the arctic each year, but the rate of warming actually increases exponentially as the ice melts, melting more and more of it each year. Ice melt is just one example of why climate change is speeding up. The ice reflects much of the heat back out of our atmosphere. The less ice there is the less heat is reflected and the faster the ice melts. The Newsweek article above explains other ways that warming is speeding up.

The longer we wait to take action and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions substantially the more quickly and urgently we will need to act in the future. At GoGreenMug.com we have already discussed numerous ways in which you can make a difference personally. You know that we sell personalized travel mugs at http://www.gogreenmug.com/ so that you never have to waste another paper or polystyrene cup at a coffee shop or in the office again. We also follow many of the other ideas that we have posted previously.

Unfortunately though changes are required on an even bigger scale. We may be able to personally reduce our emissions and waste but without a global consensus from governments, our personal commitments will not be enough to reverse the effects of global warming.

We have already seen President Obama and congress pass an environmental bill, but we all need to keep pressing to ensure steps are taken on a national and global level to reduce the effects of climate change. Here are a few suggestions of where to start.

Send letters or emails to your senators or congressman or elected officials wherever you live. Let them know that this problem is one of your major concerns and as your representative you would like them to press for quick and substantial global efforts to reduce global warming.
If you are not sure what to write in a letter, then go to online action networks such as the one run by Surfrider Foundation http://actionnetwork.org/surfrider/home.html . All you will need to do is sign up and then use the action network to submit letters that have been specially drafted for specific causes.
Support environmental groups on Facebook and Myspace by signing on to their causes. Large action groups can help to effect large changes.
Continue to make the small changes you have already committed to, such as driving less, always using a reusable mug and helping at beach clean-ups.
Share this information with your friends and family and get them to do the same too.

Every little bit counts, but remember we are under a time constraint, so whatever you decide to do, do it today.

The Algae Environmental Solution

2009-07-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

Biofuels were once welcomed as the solution to using fossil fuels such as oil and coal. However it was quickly discovered that the energy cost to grow the corn and soybean used to make the bio fuels is not environmentally or economically sustainable and may in fact increase the amount of carbon dioxide emissions (in growing them).

Producing these crops (soybean and corn) in large enough quantities to supply food demand as well as bio fuels is a real concern. These bio fuels have been blamed for increasing the price of food and also wasting arable land to produce the crop for bio fuels.

Recently though there has been a shift from these first types of bio fuels to new advanced bio fuels that show some great promise. Exxon Mobil has teamed up with a bio tech research company to produce an algae based bio fuel. Algae has been welcomed as an excellent alternative to crop based bio fuels. It only requires water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow. It can be grown in large tanks and can double its size through photosynthesis, in about a day.

This sounds like the perfect bio fuel, and while we are excited to learn about Exxon Mobil's investment in cleaner fuels, we also remain weary that this algae based bio fuel will be a viable environmentally friendly fuel alternative. A crop that doubles daily and does not require the burning of fossil fuels to grow, will be a great boost to alternative fuels.

We like to keep things positive at GoGreenMug.com and so we will also believe that Exxon Mobil is investing in this technology because they understand the importance of reducing waste and finding a sustainable fuel source.

All this investment and reports of new technology and environmentally sustainable fuels suggests that we are on the right track to solving our environmental crisis. As investment grows so will the speed at which new discoveries are made. We look forward to reading about more of them and we will let you know if we find any of them interesting.

Everyday Tips for Combating Climate Change

2009-07-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome, GoGreenMug Green News readers! This week, we'd like to discuss some easy-to-implement ideas for ways you can combat climate change.

Climate change affects habitats, wildlife, and people around the world. While some changes occur as a result of natural weather patterns, others can be directly linked to human activities. There is no question that the development of technology has advanced our capabilities exponentially over the past 150 years; unfortunately, some of that technology has had negative impacts on the environment, too. So now that we're aware of some of these impacts, it's our responsibility to our planet and future generations to take action. Many companies are devoting resources to designing cleaner and more efficient technologies to replace older equipment. But as individuals, there are many things we can change that will have a cumulative effect, as well. Some of these actions include:

Using compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) around the house - at least on commonly-used light fixtures, if not on all of them. The first few generations of CFLs weren't excellent; they took a while to warm up, and sometimes weren't that bright. But the technology has gotten a lot better, and there are many high quality options to choose from now.

Reducing the temperature setting on the water heater to "Warm" or 120 F. Especially during the summer months, your water will naturally be a little warmer, and things take less time to dry in the warmer weather (e.g., dishes, laundry).

Adjusting thermostat settings - during the summer months, increase the temperature a little, and if you have a programmable thermostat, remember to set it to turn off during the hours no one is at home. During the cooler months, decrease the temperature setting, and turn it off when no one is at home or when everyone is asleep.

Checking the showerheads - replace any showheads that use more than 2.5 gallons/minute with low-flow models.

Completely turning off appliances not in use. This means not only flipping the power switch on items such as tv's and audio equipment, since these usually have standby mode that continues to draw power. Turning off standby mode requires unplugging the device. As this is a little inconvenient, an easier way to implement this strategy is to connect multiple devices to an outlet strip; this way, you just have to flip the switch on the strip, and you're done. And if you use a surge protector rather than just an outlet strip, you'll have the added protection against voltage surges when the equipment is powered.

Checking that your vehicle's tires are properly inflated.

Using a resuable mug each time you get a drink, rather than using a single-use disposable cup. GoGreenMug.com is offering all mugs and gift certificates for only $14.99 this month.

We hope you will be able to make some of these minor changes to your lifestyles, in order to reduce your impact on the environment. All of these suggestions will also save you a good deal of money, as well. Have a great week, and if you have any other suggestions you'd like to share with the group, please submit a comment!

~Your friends at GoGreenMug

State Parks on the 4th of July

2009-07-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

On July 4 every year, Americans celebrate Independence day. This falls almost bang in the middle of summer which means most people enjoy the day barbecuing, going to the beach or pool and in many cases camping out for the weekend.

This year we joined many others, camping at Leo Carrillo State beach park in Malibu, California. This is one of the beaches and parks slated to be closed should the State of California stops funding the parks, which they are proposing to do in order to cut their deficit.

As I was checking in to our camp site I was interviewed by KTLA news (a Los Angeles news channel) about the possible closure of the State Parks. I have talked about the State parks closing in a previous post (Saving California's State Parks) and that from our understanding the State may actually lose out on tax revenue by not funding the parks. I put this across to the interviewer and hope that I was able to make an impression.

The interview reminded me that we need to be vigilant and active to ensure we can continue to enjoy our environment and pass on this enjoyment to our children.

We need to go out camping and make use of our State Parks.
We need to join in at beach clean ups and similar environmental clean up opportunities.
We need to let our selected Representatives, Senators and Congressman, both Federal and State, know that we support strong laws protecting the environment and reducing carbon outputs.
We need to reduce our own waste in whatever ways we can.

Back to the weekend - we enjoyed a few days surfing, barbecuing and hanging out with friends on the California beaches. The camp site was full, which hopefully means the park was able to raise enough of its own revenue to support itself this long weekend. We hope that next year the state beaches, such as Leo Carrillo will still be open and that we can enjoy more of these fun occasions and not just on the 4th of July weekend. We have bought our annual state park pass, which means we feel confident that California's congress will understand the importance of the parks and keep funding them and gaining the tax revenue that the parks bring in.

At the beginning of July GoGreenMug.com linked with http://smart2begreen.com/ because we have been enjoying their website and articles for a while now. Please visit their site to find some green living tips.

Clean Energy for America

2009-06-28T16:52:00.000-07:00

We were excited to learn this week that the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy And Security Act. This act proposes to create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.

If you would like to find out more about whats in the bill, go to: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2454/show . There is a lot of good stuff in this act and some real incentives to encourage the reduction of carbon emissions and waste', and to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Although this act was passed, it only passed by 7 votes out of the 434 votes. We at Go Green Mug sent letters to our congressmen encouraging them to enact strong environmental laws and we know that our letters and thousands like them are needed to ensure our elected officials don't let us down.

The vote now will pass on to the Senate. Once again the vote may hang in the balance. We can influence our Senators decisions by sending them letters and letting them know that we support these proposals and that it will help make the country, energy independent and the planet more habitable. If you want to write letters to your Senator, the easiest way to do it is through an online petition site such as the Care2 Petition Site. On sites such as this and others, you don't need to come up with the words to write, you can put your name an a well written letter that will be emailed in your name. Easy but effective.

For now we will celebrate this passage of strong environmentally friendly act and look forward to this proposal becoming law in the very near future.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Respect the Beach

2009-06-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

International Surfing Day was held 20th June around the world. We took part by volunteering with Surfrider Foundation at their booth and with a beach clean up at Huntington Beach.

Unfortunately the surf and weather was not the best at Huntington Beach for the festivities. Rain and wind forced us to spend more time under the tent, but we were there to have fun and respect our regular beach and that's just what we did. We hope you too were able to enjoy the beach or the ocean and that you did something to keep that beach clean and a place we will all enjoy visiting.

Here are a few pics from our day out.

Dennis in his International Surfing Day T-Shirt manning the Surfrider Newport Beach Desk.

If you were a surfer there were numerous boards available to test ride, although the conditions probably didn't allow surfers to really push their limits.

Tiki carving, live music, free mini burritos and energy drinks were all part of the action on the beach.

Remember that you can still pick up a personalized Go Green Travel Mug from http://www.gogreenmug.com/ for only $14.99. So visit the site today.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Too Much Trash in Our Oceans

2009-06-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

International Surfing Day is on June 20th 2009. The day was created by Surfing Magazine to promote and celebrate surfing. The day is not only about surfing , it is also about the ocean and protecting it for our recreation both in the water and on the beaches.

On International Surfing Day, Go Green Mug will be at Huntington Beach, CA to take part in the fun and help with the beach cleanup. We would love to see you there too. Check out http://www.surfingmagazine.com/isd/ to find International Surfing Day activities in your area.

The recent crash of the Air France flight was a terrible disaster and the search for the remains of the plane highlighted another disaster, this one environmental. In the early stages of the search for the plane, the searchers thought they had found some of the debris from the crash, but on further investigation it turned out that this was not part of the missing aircraft but other, all too common, ocean trash.

The ocean is unfortunately full of trash, from large items such as couches and refrigerators to the tiny pieces of plastic that we have discussed before in the blog http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/01/coffee-shop-discounts.html. This trash circles around in the ocean currents and destroys marine life.

How can so much trash end up in our oceans that it becomes difficult to identify parts of a plane from other debris that just happens to be there? The fault of course lies with all of us, particularly in the USA. We know we can do more about our consumption of single use plastics or paper or polystyrene.
We know we do not need to buy bottled water.
We can bring our own canvas bags when we go grocery shopping and reject the plastic bags.
We can drive more fuel efficient vehicles or drive less and use public transport or bikes.
We can use reusable travel mugs at coffee shops and eliminate our use of paper cups.
And we can help at beach and/or river clean ups and prevent the trash from running into the oceans.

http://www.gogreenmug.com/ is still selling personalized travel mugs at only $14.99 with shipping. If you are not using a travel mug when you visit a coffee shop, then get one now.

Save California's State Parks!

2009-06-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to cut funding to 80% of California's State Parks. We live in Southern California and regularly enjoy the State Parks. We head to them to surf, camp out and go hiking. We plan numerous vacation trips around visiting these State parks and would hate to lose any of them.

California is in a budget crises, a big part of which is because of reduced sales tax revenue. People are buying less, as they try to save more and therefore the state is losing money from sales tax. Most of those people who used to spend their money at the shopping centers are most likely spending more time at the California State Parks. In a study published in 2008, the University of California-Berkeley found that for every $1 in public money spent on state parks, $2.35 is returned to the state in taxes from tourism and other revenue they generate.

It therefore seems to us, that California can only gain tax revenue by keeping the State Parks open and funded. With more Californians taking vacations at home this year and other US State residents also cutting back on their holiday travel, we suspect that the State Parks will be even more popular this year than ever before. Even without funding visitors will come to the parks anyway and enjoy the beaches or redwoods or hiking trails. They will park on the roads outside and walk in. However without funding these parks may need to reduce the number of rangers on duty and these rangers will have a wider area to patrol. This could lead to environmental damage such as fires, vandalism and erosion because of the difficulty the rangers will have in covering a park.

Of course we hope that we can all restrain ourselves from damaging property or causing environmental damage on purpose. But the rangers are there to guide all visitors to the park and are prepared to take the correct action to prevent or reduce problems when they arise.

There must be a better way for California to save money and solve their budget problems. Eliminating funding for the State Parks does not seem to be a good solution and may result in increased spending in the future. You can send a message to the governor and other state legislaters through the Surfrider Action Network at http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/caparks05_09 and tell them not to cut funding to our State Parks.

At http://www.gogreenmug.com/ we are having a huge sale in June. Visit our Go Green Mug website and personalize your travel mug for only $14.99 including shipping. Reduce your waste at coffee shops and keep the paper and polystyrene cups out of our landfills.

US Fuel Efficiency Standards Too Low?

2009-05-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last week we discussed the new US fuel efficiency standards that were agreed between the White House, Environmentalists and the Auto Industry. We questioned the concerns of those who suggest that US consumers will not spend extra money on a more fuel efficient car unless the cost of fuel increases and remains high.

Continuing with this topic, we have also heard from the other side of the spectrum that the fuel efficiency standard of 39 mpg for a passenger car to be met in incremental stages before 2016 is too low. Here they may have a point. The average fuel efficiency of all cars, SUVs and minivans in the US is around 23 mpg. In Europe and Japan that figure is over 40 mpg. So if Europe and Japan already produce cars with an average fuel consumption higher than the standard set to be reached in the US by 2016 then why is this standard so low.

While you can buy a few cars in the US that get great fuel economy (Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, Mini Cooper, Smart and now the VW Jetta TDI), around 40 mpg, there are not too many and at least 2 of them (the Mini and the Smart) are small cars. One of the reasons Europe in particular has such a good average fuel efficiency is that there are numerous cars that use clean diesel engines. In fact back in 2002 when I (Dudley) Lived in England I drove a VW Golf TDI (diesel) that got about 50 mpg, . In fact diesel engines get at least 30% more fuel efficiency than gas powered engines.

So why do we not have more diesel powered cars in the USA? Diesel engines actually produce less carbon dioxide emissions than gas powered cars but unfortunately they give off other pollutants such as Nitrogen Oxide and other small particulates. In the USA and particularly some states the emission standards are high and the higher sulfur content in US diesel means many diesel engines cannot meet these stricter standards. In Europe this problem is averted because their diesel has a much lower sulfur content than the diesel produced in the USA and therefore gives off less Nitrogen Oxide and particulates. The German engineered cars (Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes) also seem to be far ahead in producing clean burning diesel engines.

So we know how Europe achieves its 40mpg average fuel efficiency standard with diesel powered cars. We also know that there are less diesel cars in the US because of the concerns with emissions but that the technology is improving quickly and some diesel cars that are now meeting the emissions standards and being sold in the US.

If we take these diesel engines into account in the US, knowing that they can achieve fuel efficiency standards above 40mpg already then the 39 mpg standard set passenger cars by 2016 is really not good enough.

But lets look at this in a different way. Until now very few diesel powered cars have been sold in the US and if standards for gas powered cars was to increase to 39 mpg that would be a reasonable goal. If a smallish gas powered car in 2009 averages 30 mpg, then a 30% increase to 39 mpg over 7 years should be an achievable goal for most car manufacturers.

At http://www.gogreenmug.com/ we would love to see much higher standards but we also expect that once car manufacturers start to improve fuel efficiency there will be no point stopping at 39 mpg, because in the end we know that gas prices will rise and the demand for ever more fuel efficient vehicles will increase. We hope to see a hard drive storage space like evolution in fuel efficiency soon.

The Case for Raising the Fuel Efficiency of Cars

2009-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last week President Obama announced an agreement between the White House, Environmentalists and the auto industry to increase the average fuel efficiency of passenger cars to 39 mpg. Unfortunately this cannot become the standard overnight or within the next year and the car manufacturers will have until 2016 to meet this standard. None the less it is a great achievement and proves that those of us who care about our environment now have a strong supporter in the White House.

There are always those who will find fault with a policy such as raising the fuel efficiency standards. One that particularly concerns us, suggests that consumers will prefer to buy gas guzzling cars as long as the price of fuel remains in the $2 to $3 range. Therefore although the car manufacturers will build fuel efficient hybrids and electric vehicles, the consumer will still want to buy large V8 SUVs.

We believe most people understand the need for increased fuel efficiency vehicles both for the environment and for economic, political and international stability and will buy more fuel efficient cars, when there is a large selection available. For those who do not buy into the reduce waste and save idea, the US government can always increase taxes on fuel (the US driver still pays less for gas than in most other developed nations) and pay off some of the US national debt.
Let's take a step back here though. The reason we want and need fuel efficient and zero emission cars is not only based on the price of gas at the pump. We all know that right now the Hybrid and Electric cars sell at a premium to their all gas counterparts and there are concerns that the car prices will skyrocket with the fuel efficiency standards. But we are already seeing that new hybrids are causing competition and reducing prices and we imagine that with more hybrids and electric vehicles on offer and increased competition from different car manufacturers the price of a fuel efficient vehicle will not be too different from those of a less efficient vehicle today.

At http://www.gogreenmug.com/ we are all about reducing waste. So what is important to us is that all cars will have better fuel efficiency by 2016 and competition will take care of the prices. Remember though that there are already many cars available that get more than the proposed 2016 standard of 39 mpg. So if you plan to buy a new car before then look out for those with the best Environmental Performance ratings (discussed in a previous post http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/03/buying-environmentally-clean-car.html), there is no need to wait.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Easy Ways You Can Reduce Landfill Waste (and why you should do it)

2009-05-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

Our nation's landfills accumulate an enormous amount of trash every year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans generated 254 million tons of trash in 2007 (http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw07-fs.pdf).

Although recycling rates have increased significantly in the past few decades (thanks to the development of new technology, ease and availablility of recycling centers and material recovery facilities, and increased public awareness), it is still essential that we make our best efforts to reduce the waste sent to the landfills in the first place.

The Sierra Club (http://www.sierraclub.org/) recently posted some strategies to help the average person reduce their waste. These strategies have been previously mentioned on our blog, but are definitely worth repeating, as changes to our daily routines can have a tremendous benefit to the environment over time.

The first strategy discusses ways to reduce packaging waste. This can be accomplished by bringing in your own reusable mug to coffee shops (visit http://www.GoGreenMug.com to design your own mug), buying in bulk, and bringing reusable shopping bags to stores.

The next strategy discusses how food waste contributes can contribute to global warming. The EPA reports that Americans discard 25% of their prepared foods. As the discarded food decomposes in the landfills, it releases methane gas, which is related to global warming. This type of unnecessary waste can be avoided by patrons ordering smaller portions and bringing their own containers to take leftovers home.

As you can see, the above strategies are very simple ways we can all reduce the amount of waste we generate, and how much of that waste gets thrown into our landfills.

Reduce Waste - Win a Free Travel Mug!

2009-05-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

On a recent visit to our local coffee shop we were once again astounded that we were the only customers using our own travel mugs. Yes that's right, of the 12 - 15 other customers enjoying their coffee drinks at the tables, all of them were using paper cups and many had plastic lids and cardboard sleeves too.

At GoGreenMug.com we are concerned with the number of paper cups, plastic lids and other coffee shop waste that ends up in our landfills. The simple solution is to bring and use your own travel mug at coffee shops. It's time to step up our efforts.

We will be giving away one free personalized travel mug (100% free, shipping included) each week over the next few weeks to promote the use of travel mugs.

All you need to do is visit http://www.gogreenmug.com and design your own personalized travel mug. Add your name, drink options or any other text, photograph and quote. At checkout enter the coupon code: xjumnw1 to see if you have won.

The coupon code will be activated at a random time between the first posting of this blog and Sunday May 17th at 5:00PM.
If the coupon code works then you are the winner for the week. If the code does not work you will get the error message "The coupon code you have entered has expired." If you get this message, the coupon code has either not yet been randomly activated (so you can keep trying this code until the contest expires) or the free mug has already been won for this week.

We will be sending out a new code next week for another free giveaway or you can use coupon code: flwmiblg to receive an immediate 20% discount. Depending on your web browser, your designed mug may be saved for your next visit if you do not checkout.

Rules: The free mug coupon code will be made active at a random time during the period from the posting of this blog until Sunday May 17th at 5:00PM PST. The first customer to try the coupon code therefore may not win. The first customer to use the coupon code correctly once it is active will be the winner. This decision is final. Shipping to the USA and Canada only. We will contact the winner and request a photograph with his/her personalized Go Green travel mug and permission to post his her name on this blog. This coupon is only redeemable for a travel mug on GoGreenMug.com, and has no cash value.

Is Your Sunscreen Killing Coral Reefs?

2009-05-08T14:13:00.001-07:00

Summer is approaching quickly now and we are all starting to enjoy the outdoors far more. More hiking, gardening and for some of us surfing and snorkeling. If we are going to spend time outdoors in the sun we all know that sunscreen is a must, but a study in January 2008 suggests that sunscreen may be killing off coral in the ocean.

The study found that four common sunscreen ingredients; octinoxate, oxybenzone, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor and the preservative butylparaben, can awaken viruses in an algae called Zooxanthellae that live inside many coral species. The sunscreen ingredients cause the viruses to replicate, eventually killing off the algae and spilling over to infect nearby coral.

The Zooxanthellae provide the coral with food through photosynthesis and also contribute to the bright and vibrant colors. Without them the coral loses its color and eventually becomes a white coral skeleton and dies.

I found out quickly that my favored sunscreen contained these four ingredients and I often find myself in the ocean and love snorkeling and viewing the corals. I searched and found very few alternatives. So although this story (about the coral) is more than a year old, I wondered what we could do about it, without an easy sunscreen alternative. Once again human consumption is causing possible harm to our planet, but this time we can't simply decide not to use sunscreen. Skin cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers with more than 1 million people diagnosed in America each year. Protecting yourself from the sun can significantly decrease your risk of skin cancer.

Before we all give up on our ocean recreation to save the coral reefs, I did find some information in my searches.

Look at the ingredients before you buy sunscreen. Look out for any of the 4 chemicals that awaken the dormant viruses: octinoxate, oxybenzone, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor and butylparaben and do not buy these sunscreens.

Natural sunscreens that have no synthetic ingredients are not known to harm the coral. They may also be better for your skin as studies have shown these synthetic nanoparticles may cause skin irritation and even illness.

Look for sunscreens using natural UVA and UVB blocking zinc oxide and or titanium dioxide.

Make sure your sunscreen contains both UVA and UVB protection. I won't get into the details but you need both.

I have a trip to Hawaii coming up, so I am off to find my natural sunscreen
Have a great week and Mothers Day and reduce your waste.
The GoGreenMug mothers day 20% off coupon is still available until May17. Coupon Code: grnmom2day

Need More Incentives to Save Water?

2009-05-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in a previous posting, California is in a serious state of drought and there are many ways (some very easy and inexpensive, some not-so-easy and perhaps more expensive) we can do our part to reduce our waste of this vital resource.

In an effort to educate the public on this matter, the Association of California Water Agencies and the California Department of Water Resources have started a major campaign, placing ads on television, radio, and the web.

The website http://www.saveourh2o.org/ provides all kinds of information, including water saving tips for the indoors and outdoors, ways for kids to get involved, and a huge list of rebates available for water (and energy) efficient devices. So if the idea of our water supplies drying up isn't enough of an incentive for you to start making some significant lifestyle changes, hopefully the thought of saving money on your water and energy bills will encourage you to seriously consider these options.

And speaking of saving money, http://www.gogreenmug.com/ is celebrating Mother's Day by offering a huge discount of 20% on all orders through May 16, 2009. Simply enter coupon code: grnmom2day at checkout, and the discount will be applied. So design a mug for Mom today, or send her a gift certificate (the discount applies to gift certificates, too) and she can design one for herself. Thanks for reading our blog this week, and if any of you has any other water or energy saving tips you'd like to share, please feel free to post a comment or send a message to support@gogreenmug.com. Have a great week!

Earth Day Events and Photos

2009-04-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Today we come to the end of 2 weeks of fun environmental activities that we took part in for Earth Day celebrations. We have put together an assortment of some of the photographs from the events we attended.

We hope you had the chance to do your bit in the last two weeks. Of course you know that these last two weeks should not be the end of your environmental activities. Please join us in the coming weeks for more activities. We will post them in advance on this blog. We will be celebrating earth and the environment every day, so please join us when you can or tell us about what you are doing and how we can join you.

Go Green Mug have decided to extend our Earth Day discount of 20% off, until the end of April. So if you do not use a travel mug at coffee shops to cut down on your paper and polystyrene cup waste, then go to http://www.gogreenmug.com and personalize a travel mug with names and quotes and anything else you want. Add a photograph too. Use the coupon code: svplntmg at checkout to get your 20% off.

OK, we promised some photographs, so here they are:

On Saturday 18 April, we had a fantastic day in Southern California and took to the beach in Huntington Beach for a bit of surfing and sun. Unfortunately we have no pics from the day, but we got to enjoy the ocean and even lend a hand in a beach cleanup.

On Sunday April 19 we were at the Earth Day Celebrations at the Rainbow Disposal Center (on Nichols St.) in Huntington Beach and at The Lab and The Camp (the anti-mall) in Costa Mesa (on Bristol). We had the chance to see some neat environmental products and enjoy bites from locally grown organic food stores. Below is a pic of some wall art at The Lab.

On Friday 24 April we helped at a beach clean up at Big Corona beach in Corona Del Mar. Once again finding lots of small plastic pieces, cigarette butts and polystyrene all over the beach.
Saturday 25 April we took to the trails in Laguna Canyon and enjoyed another great day in Southern California. The trails seemed to be busier than usual as many bikers and hikers celebrated Earth Day this weekend.

Finally on Sunday 26 April (today) we were at the Muth Interpretive Center in the Newport Beach back bay to enjoy an Earth Day celebration complete with tarantulas, large iguanas and birds of prey. Here is Dennis helping out at the Surfrider Foundation exhibit.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Celebrate Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Earth Day today!

You know what we have been up to over the last week and into next week. If you would like to join us check out our previous post: http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/04/earth-day-activities-surf-hike-and.html

The video below is a sobering look at American consumption. Chris Jordan who is a photographer, artist and ambassador for earth day shows his work and discuss the impact. We all know about the number of paper cups being wasted in coffee shops, but Chris's image really brings it home. You can reduce this paper cup waste by using a reusable travel mug. http://www.gogreenmug.com are offering 20% off personalized travel mugs until the end of today. Use coupon code: svplntmg at checkout.
Starbucks are also offering a free cup of coffee today, April 22, to anyone who brings in their own reusable mug. Starbucks also offer 10 cents off on any beverage that you order when you bring your own mug any other time of the year. So get a reusable travel mug today.

Today is about celebrating Earth and all its wonders. So to lighten things up, here is the trail for the new Disney movie starting today "Earth" .

Earth day 2009 from Zoltan Ladanyi on Vimeo.

Have a great Earth Day and week.

Carbon Credits - Is this really being "green"?

2009-04-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

As businesses are being persuaded to go greener, one option available to some is to purchase carbon credits. By purchasing these credits, a business is not required to make significant changes to its processes in the immediate future, but rather, simply provides financial support either to businesses that exceed the government's environmental standards (and thus, have extra carbon credits they can sell), or to groups that promote conservation of the Earth's natural resources.

At first glance, it may seem that giving businesses the option to purchase credits is simply allowing them to put off ever making changes themselves. Should this option be considered a satisfactory way for them to meet the ever-increasing environmental requirements? The answer is - it's not too bad (at least for now). According to The Nature Conservatory, funding projects that prevent forest destruction is currently one of the most cost-effective ways to battle climate change. As discussed in one of our earlier blogs http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/02/deforestation-and-coffee-cups.html , deforestation accounts for a significant portion of the Earth's greenhouse gasses. And since the majority of deforestation occurs in other parts of the world, American businesses can get quite a "bang for their buck" when funding these preservation efforts.

So while businesses will ultimately need to make significant changes to their processes in order to have a neutral or positive effect on the planet, funding forest preservation and other environmental projects is a cost-effective way for them to handle the transition as cleaner technologies and processes are developed.

The Nature Conservatory is sponsoring conferences in Denver, Atlanta, and Nashville in the upcoming weeks, to discuss these options to businesses in more detail.

We welcome any comments; if you have any thoughts on this or any of our other topics, please feel free to post them or visit our site http://www.gogreenmug.com/ to see more about us and send a message. Thanks!

Catastrophic Global Warming Is Possible

2009-04-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

Steven Chu, the head of the US department of energy and a Nobel prize winning physicist has recently suggested that a rise in temperature of 5 or 6 degrees centigrade would be catastrophic for planet earth.

The 2007 IPCC report http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tp-climate-change-water.htm leaves little doubt that the planet is warming and that we need to act now to prevent catastrophe.

Before we panic though and start denying, looting and pillaging, we should make a go of reducing waste and funding projects that will eliminate our carbon emissions.

Earth day is coming up next week and over the next 2 weeks there will be quite a few activities to get out and do something positive to reduce your waste. You can even join the team at GoGreenMug.com for some of their activities.

Earth day is one day, but we need a more sustained effort, so get started now and extend Earth day to Earth year, decade or even century.

Hope to see you at some of our activities in the coming weeks. Check out http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/04/earth-day-activities-surf-hike-and.html for details.

Earth Day Activities: Surf, Hike and Reduce Waste

2009-04-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

April 22 is Earth Day. Earth Day was originally conceived to celebrate life on our planet and to encourage us to enjoy this life. The first Earth Day celebration was held back in 1970. Unfortunately since then we have not treated earth very well, as we have continued to waste and overuse the planets resources. In 2009 the day has taken on a much more important and urgent message. This message is for everyone on planet earth and hopefully will encourage us to do more to reduce our waste not just on April the 22nd but for the rest of our lives.

GoGreenMug.com will be involved with a number of activities celebrating Earth Day over the next 2 weeks. We are committing our time and resources to raise awareness, promote environmental causes and reduce waste. Here are some of the events that we will be taking part in over the next 2 weeks:

We have signed petitions against offshore drilling and asking congress to take strong action to reduce global warming.
April 18 from 8:00 AM until we are tired, we will be enjoying the beach and surf in Southern California. Exactly where will depend on conditions on the day. If you would like to join us send us an email at support@gogreenmug.com or leave a comment on this blog.
April 19 from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM, we will be helping Surfrider Newport Beach at a beach clean up. The beach cleanup is held at the most southerly end of Huntington State Beach. There is also an Earth Day Celebration at the Rainbow Disposal Center (on Nichols St.) in Huntington Beach, where people can bring their e-waste, tour a Materials Recovery Facility, and view fuel-efficient vehicles and energy conservation displays.
April 23 from 9:30 Am until 11:00 AM, we will be at another beach clean up once again organized by Surfrider Newport Beach. This time at the Newport Beach Bilboa Pier.
April 25 in the afternoon, we will be hiking the canyons around Laguna Beach/ Crystal Cove in Southern California. Once again send us a message at support@gogreenmug.com if you would like to come along. Distance and exact location will be determine by participants.
April 26, we will be at Newport Bay’s Earth Day 2009 - “Learning From Nature” celebration.
From now until Earth Day April 22, visit http://www.gogreenmug.com and get yourself a personalized reusable travel mug for 20% off with coupon code: svplntmg

You probably realized that many of these events are in Southern California, but we know there are numerous events taking place all around the world. So please visit http://ww2.earthday.net/ to find out what activities are available in your area and get involved or simply get out and enjoy the planet - take a walk, swim or surf in the ocean, climb a mountain, but enjoy Earth and think about what you can do to reduce your waste.

Earth Day is about awareness and action and there are many events happening not just on the day itself but for the days before and after. However one day or even 2 weeks will not be enough to reduce CO2 emissions or our use of single use plastic containers or even to clean all our beaches. We need to remain aware throughout our lifetimes and reduce and reuse every day.

Save Water Now

2009-04-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, as I was reading through my issue of The National Wildlife Federations magazine, I came across an article in which they interviewed Doug Kent about creating a carbon neutral, sustainable garden. In 2008, Doug was involved at the 19th Annual Southern California Spring Garden show, where he designed and built an "Ocean Friendly" garden and won Best Theme Presentation at the show. I volunteered with Doug for a day in 2008 in helping to setup the garden. The garden included innovative methods of reducing water runoff from the garden. It did this using native Southern California plants with low water requirements and landscape features to contain the water in the garden, instead of allowing it to run off into the street and watershed. This garden therefore required less water consumption.

California is currently in its third year of drought. Southern California gets most of its water supply from the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountain snow packs during the dry seasons of spring and summer. Rising temperatures and increased rainfall, due to global warming, may lead to a large reduction in the snow pack and therefore an even bigger water shortage for Southern California.

If CO2 emissions continue at their current level (fired by burning coal, oil, gas and single use products), temperatures are likely to rise. Increased temperatures may bring increased rain fall to Southern California during the winter but will result in dryer summers and a drastic reduction in the snow pack. This would pose a difficult problem for water managers in storing winter rainfall, reduce power production through hydroelectrics, and of course reduce snow recreation activities.

We therefore need to start reducing waste now. We have already discussed numerous ways to reduce waste. Here are 7 more ways we can reduce water waste inside our houses and how much water they can save.

Fix leaky faucets. This can save up to 20 gallons per day per leak.
Only wash clothing when you have a full load. This will save up to 20 gallons per wash.
Only use the dishwasher with a full load. This will save up to 4.5 gallons per load.
Do not let the water run when you are rinsing dishes or brushing your teeth. This can save up to 2.5 gallons per minute.
Bath less often and instead take showers. When taking a bath, save up to 25 gallons by only making the tub half full.
Shower with a friend or shorten the time you spend in the shower. Every minute less you spend in the shower can save 2.5 gallons.
Fix leaky toilets. This can save as much as 50 gallons a day per toilet. If your toilets are old you can also upgrade to a high efficiency toilet and look out for the rebates from the water companies.

Spring is almost here and we are looking forward to a good period of activity. The team at GoGreenMug will be involved with Earth Day on April 22 and International Surfing Day on July 21 as well as other environmental activities. With Earth Day just over 2 weeks away we are offering a 20% discount at http://www.gogreenmug.com to promote reducing waste at coffee shops, by using less disposable coffee cups. Get yourself a reusable mug, personalize it with your name, drink order and photograph and use it whenever you visit a coffee shop.

The coupon will also apply to gift certificates, so gift your friend a mug too.
Enter the Coupon Code: svplntmg at checkout.

The Problem With Clean Coal

2009-03-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

We know that you voted for Earth on Saturday 28 March and turned off your lights. We enjoyed the hour playing cards by candle light and of course we happily survived, although there may be some candle wax on the cards.

Earth Hour was a great opportunity to show our concern over global warming and to get those billion votes that they are hoping to take to the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. Remember though that during that hour we also did not need much electricity in our homes or workplaces and therefore we were able to burn less fossil fuel and reduce our CO2 emissions.

Assuming the Earth Hour goal was reached and 1 billion people around the world turned off their lights for the full hour we can estimate that about 450 million pounds of carbon dioxide were kept out of the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of taking 350 million cars off the road for that hour. This is more than the total number of registered cars in the USA.

As we thought about these savings, we started talking about clean coal. We have heard a lot about it, particularly from the energy companies. They suggest that clean coal is as viable a solution to global warming as any other natural environmental energy such as solar and wind.

After doing some research here are 7 facts about clean coal.

We all know that coal is a fossil fuel that is used mostly by energy and electric companies in power plants and is burnt to create steam, which turns turbines and thereby creates electricity. Burning coal releases CO2 (carbon dioxide) into our atmosphere. You can see it pouring out of a power plant smoke stack.

One aspect of clean coal technology is to literally wash the coal with liquid prior to burning. This removes the unwanted impurities. Wet scrubbers are also used to remove sulfur dioxide (a major cause of acid rain) by spraying the coal with limestone and water.

Clean coal technologies also use low nitrogen oxide burners and gassification which convert the coal into a gas to burn. This is said to reduce the amount of coal burnt.

Any method used to clean coal will still result in CO2 emissions which will then need to be stored.

Carbon Dioxide capture and storage is the technology that proponents of clean coal seem to be most enthusiastic about. They suggest that CO2 emissions can be captured and kept out of the atmosphere . The captured CO2 needs to be collected in secure containers. The CO2 is then stored in 2 possible ways. Either under the ground by injecting the CO2 into depleted oil or gas fields and seams, or injecting liquid CO2 into the ocean 500 to 3000 meters deep.

Storage methods (underground or ocean) must be able to contain the CO2 until peak emissions subside. This will take hundreds of years.

The environmental effects of all the forms of storage are largely unknown. By injecting CO2 into the earth we may cause changes in the soil and pressure under the earth, and by injecting liquid CO2 into our Oceans we could damage marine life. Any form of storage will need to be carefully prepared and monitored.

Now that we have some facts, we are not convinced. With clean coal technology, we are taking the coal burning, CO2 emissions, problem and shoving it under the bed so that we can ignore it. Global warming is not "somebody elses problem" . We need to step up now and change the way we create and use energy. Drop the idea of clean coal technology and rather spend that research money on solar and wind power technology. Forget about capturing and storing CO2 and fund research into battery technology to store the natural energy sources that we have available.

Of course, you know that you can do your part too. Reduce your waste, Recycle whatever you can and Reuse as much as you can.

We still have a long way to go. I met with a friend to catch up on Thursday, at a local coffee shop. The coffee shop was full, with a line out the door, as it usually is, but unfortunately I was the only customer using my own mug. Everyone else was using a paper cup and all of them had plastic lids. There is an easy solution to this waste. If you do not have a mug then get one at http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and always remember to bring it with you to coffee shops.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Turn Off Your Lights

2009-03-26T14:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 28th from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM (your local time) is Earth Hour.

Turn off all your lights and electronic devices for this hour and enjoy some candlelight fun or get outside and do some star gazing.

GoGreenMug has signed up to take action and we will be turning off our lights and unplugging our electronic devices on Saturday night, both in our offices and at home.

Visit the earth Hour website at http://www.earthhour.org/. You can register as a supporter of Earth Hour and see what other companies and individuals are doing in your city for Earth Hour.

Put it in your calendar right now. Lights off from 8:30 to 9:30 PM on Saturday 28th March.

Have a great week and reduce your waste!

10 Ways to Keep our Oceans Clean

2009-03-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last week we mentioned that we would be taking part in the Rockwater race on March 21, 2009. This is an annual race from mountain to ocean to raise awareness about the watershed organized by Surfrider Newport Beach Chapter. We want to thank Surfrider Newport Beach, particularly Robert and Robyn, for organizing this event and for much of the information given below.

A watershed is any river, gully, canyon or pathway that drains to the ocean. Watersheds are everywhere and anything on land can find its way to the ocean via a watershed. This means that if you throw something on the ground it may eventually end up in the ocean. Drop a cigarette butt or plastic fork, and it will end up in the ocean, on our beaches, or in the stomach of a fish, sea bird or other marine animal.

It's up to you to make the right choices and protect our watersheds, oceans, beaches and marine life. Here are 10 ways you can help:

Always pick up your pet's waste.
Rake up and discard yard clippings. Do not let them get washed away with the next rains.
Always dispose of your cigarette butts properly.
Do not use a hose to water down your driveway. This wastes a lot of water and also drains the oil and other pollutants from our cars into the watershed. Use a broom instead.
Plant native and if necessary drought resistant plants.
Always dispose of motor oil properly at an approved collection and recycling facility.
Join in at beach clean ups or pick up trash whenever you can and dispose of it properly.
Excess fertilizer is often washed away into the watershed with watering or rain. Reduce the amount of fertilizer you use.
Reduce the amount of single-use plastic. Use reusable shopping bags for your groceries. Do not buy bottled water.
Get a personalized travel mug and remember to bring it with you whenever you visit a coffee shop. Do not use a disposable coffee cup, plastic coffee cup lid or cardboard sleeve. This is all waste!

Now that you know what to do to protect the watershed, here are some pics of the Rockwater 2009 race and our GoGreenMug team. The race is a 28.8 mile run/walk/bike/skateboard down the Santa Ana River from the trail head at the border of Orange County and Riverside to the Ocean in Huntington Beach. Our team consisted of Sam, Scott, Jay, Sally, Jennie, Melanie, Sarah, Sean, Dennis, and Dudley; we covered the full 28.8 miles in a little more than 4 hours 10 minutes. Congratulations to the team and to the other teams who competed.

To see more pics of the race click here.

Next year we will be back to race again. Why don't you plan to put a team together to challenge us?

Have a great week and reduce the waste.

Storing Solar, Wind and Wave Power

2009-03-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

We have been hearing about the benefits and potential revolution that will come about when we commit to using Solar, Wind, Wave and other sustainable natural energies. We have heard how we will be able to give up on our fossil fuel habit, reduce our carbon emissions and hopefully slow down or reverse the effects of global warming.

We, of course, are big supporters of these sustainable energy sources and are excitedly anticipating some big changes now that President Obama has made environmental sources of energy an integral part of the 2009 Economic Stimulus Package and his federal budget. For now, although we know of a few homes and companies that use solar energy or wind turbines for power, we are not quite in a position that all of us can swear off those fossil fuels.

The problem is storage. Electricity cannot be stored, it can only be transformed into a different type of energy. Solar, wind, and other natural environmentally generated sources of energy are not consistent. The Sun does not always shine all day and never at night, the wind does not blow at a high enough speed all day or night either. This would mean that we may encounter electricity fluctuations as the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind dies down. Therefore, this type of energy needs to be stored before it is transformed into electricity that must be delivered. Fossil fuels such as coal and oil have that storage advantage. The coal or oil can be kept in its natural state before being burned to create the electricity.

There are a few costly ways in which Solar, Wind and other such energies can be stored - large batteries, fuel cells and heat storage. Batteries are familiar to all of us. We all know that the larger the battery, the more power it can store but this also makes it more expensive. In fact, battery technology really has not advanced much since it was invented, mostly because fossil fuels became much cheaper to use. Electric cars in particular have struggled because the cost of the battery is high and it takes a long time to charge and delivers limited mileage. This makes it almost impossible for the electric car to compete against a gas engine that can offer longer mileage and be filled up in minutes.

The other methods of energy storage may work out a lot better. Heat storage makes a lot of sense for Solar energy. The sun can heat a pipe full of water and create steam which is then much easier to store before it is converted into electricity.

President Obama's plans give encouragement to all forms of energy storage. He has even budgeted specifically for scientific research into battery technology. Once specific technologies become essential and funded, we have seen how quickly they can develop. Media (movies, photographs..) storage has encouraged hard drive manufacturers' to quickly increase hard disk storage space and retrieval speeds. Every year, larger and larger storage disks are built, while the size of the drive and the costs remain the same, or in some cases decrease.

Energy storage has also become an essential technology as we try to move away from using fossil fuels, and therefore we hope to see the same exponential technological developments and cost effectiveness here that we have seen in other technological fields.

Next weekend (Saturday) the Go Green Mug team http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and friends will be competing in the 2ND Annual Rockwater event hosted by Surfrider Newport Beach. The event is planned to raise awareness of the water shed. The water shed is the path water takes from our streets and gutters to the ocean outlet. Anything we throw out on the streets will therefore end up in the ocean. We will talk more about the Rockwater race in next week's blog. But if you want to come out and support us we will be running, walking, biking, and skateboarding from the Riverside/Orange county county line to the the Santa Ana river mouth at the border of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

We have not reported on any of our coffee shop visits for a few weeks now, because we think you may be bored hearing about our adventures. So why don't you let us know about your coffee shop visit and what discount they gave you for bringing in a mug. We will send a free GoGreenMug T-shirt for the best message, with a photograph, that we receive. We will publish the photograph and details in the next blog. Send your message to support@gogreenmug.com.

Have a great week and remember to reduce your waste and use your reusable mug.

Buying an environmentally clean car

2009-03-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

The economic meltdown is causing serious difficulties for most Americans. With our investments and retirement accounts decked out in a very un-festive red, most of us cut back on our spending and reign in our shopping sprees and regular restaurant visits. Of course we could never give up a regular latte, it is the only way to start and end the work day.

According to many knowledgeable sources though, now is the time to invest. Warren Buffet (investing guru of Berkshire Hathaway) is buying shares, home prices are depressed and interest rates are low and car dealerships have great deals.

Maybe now is the right time for us to get a new fuel efficient car. Fuel efficiency is not the only criteria for a cleaner vehicle though, but for most of us finding out what is important and how a car rates environmentally is difficult.

A new law took effect on January 1st 2009 in which all new vehicles manufactured after the 01/01/2009 and sold in California must display an Environmental Performance label. This label shows 2 scores from 1-10. A smog score and a global warming score. The higher the score the cleaner the vehicle.

The Global Warming score is calculated on the greenhouse gas emissions, based on a CO2 equivalent grams per mile. The Smog score calculates the pollutant elements from the vehicle which include non-methane organic gases and nitrogen oxides. These scores are also calculated relative to other vehicles within the same model year. So think of these scores as a sliding scale test.

Battery Electric cars of course get the best scores as well as requiring zero fuel and score 10 for both the smog and global warming. The average new car sold in California has a score of 5 for both. You can get more information on the Environmental Performance label at http://www.driveclean.ca.gov/ep_label.php

California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a strong advocate of raising emissions and fuel efficiency standards in California for some time and now President Obama has backed California's strict policies. California wants automakers to build cars that can get an average of 40 miles per gallon by 2020, while federal requirements are asking for 35 miles per gallon.

So there are a few ways we can evaluate the environmental effect of the new car we want to buy. We will look out for the Environmental Performance label and will aim to get a car with great smog and global warming scores. We will look at fuel economy and try to match or beat California's 2020 efficiency standard of 40 mpg. Finally we will make sure we have a cup holder for a GoGreenMug.

Speaking of mugs, remember to let us know about the coffee shops you visit and the discounts they offer you for bringing in your own mug. If you have not done so already also sign up to our cause on Facebook http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?m=fa5edc14&recruiter_id=35111682 so that we can build a community and put some pressure on the large chain coffee shops to offer better incentives for using a reusable mug.

Butts on our Beaches

2009-03-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

Does anyone really care to see your butts on our beaches?

We are of course referring to cigarette butts. This Saturday we once again joined Surfrider Newport Beach Chapter at their regular Huntington beach clean up ( 4Th Saturday morning of every month from 8-12). We picked up many polystyrene coffee cups and broken plastic lids, just as we did last month. This month however we were made aware of the literally thousands of cigarette butts on the beach. So many that we could hardly make a dent ourselves in an hour picking them up.

Many of the beaches in California are designated Smoke-Free beaches. You can find a list of all smoke-free beaches on the Earth Resources Foundation Website. Huntington Beach (the site of the beach clean up) is on this list and we did not expect to find all these butts. Of course recent rains in Southern California have meant that our streets and gutters have been cleared out and the water has flowed down to the ocean via the watershed, bringing with it the disposed of butts and much more.

Most cigarette butts are made from cellulose acetate and are not biodegradable, only breaking apart over a long period of time, depending on conditions. This time frame can be up to 15 years. The butts therefore cause an unsightly environmental problem for many years before they break up.

The butts are also the filters for the cigarettes themselves and therefore contain the left over chemicals from the cigarette. Once they come into contact with water, the butts begin leaching these chemicals, which include cadmium, lead, formaldehyde and arsenic into the water. The butts make their way down through the watershed and end up polluting our oceans and inside the intestines and stomachs of fish, whales, dolphins, birds and the other numerous marine animals.

If you are a smoker, understand that your cigarette butts do not biodegrade and only break apart over a long period of time. They will cause numerous environmental problems. So hold on to your butts. Instead of throwing your butt out on the street or into the gutter, pick up a BUTTsOUT personal ashtray, check out http://www.buttsout.net/buttsout , or you can get them at one of the Surfrider beach cleanups.

For us non smokers, let your smoking friends know that their butts end up on our beaches and tell them what they can do about it. Join in at beach cleanups and don't be afraid to pick up the butts. At most beach cleanups gloves are supplied, so there is no need to touch them with your hands.

One way you can help reduce this type of waste on the beaches is to send a message to your State Assemblyperson and Senator through Surfrider Foundation's Action Network: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/hotyb?rk=D7s41uFqBOJeE

Last week Dudley and Melanie were on the Island of Tonga which is in the South Pacific. This is a small country made up of many coral islands. There are no rivers or lakes on the main island of Tongatapu and the only fresh water is rain water, which is collected and stored. On small islands such as these sustainability is very important to a healthy human population. All items must be reused as much as possible. While on the island we visited a local coffee shop to sample the Tongan brew. There are no disposable coffee cups sold here, so we happily enjoyed our drinks in the glass mugs they provided.

Of course there is no reason why we as Americans and Canadians cannot do the same as the Tongans and reuse our coffee mugs and many other things too. Sustainability is important for all countries. We all need to reduce our impact on the environment in whatever way we can.

Start with your coffee mug. Remember to always bring your own when you visit a coffee shop. If you would like to create a personalized coffee mug, you can go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and pick one up there. And if you enjoy a smoke with your cup of coffee, remember to hold onto your butts when you are done with the cigarette.

Have a great week.

Protecting our coastlines - the Marine Life Protection Act and what you can do

2009-02-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

At GoGreenMug.com, we're committed to minimizing negative effects on the environment, by promoting the reduction of waste we, as a society, generate.

We wanted to use this week's blog to remind you all of some simple actions you can take to reduce your waste. Some of these things will not only be helpful to the environment, but may also save you some money:

Reduce paper waste by paying your bills online and signing up for e-statements. You'll be less likely to make a late payment, save yourself and the billing company a few envelopes, and save yourself some postage (which is scheduled to increase May 11, 2009).
Bring reusable containers to restaurants to carry your leftovers home. Your containers are most likely much sturdier than what the restaurants give you; plus, theirs are almost always made of styrofoam.

Bring your own bags to the supermarkets. We are seeing lots of people starting to adopt this action, and the markets are definitely taking notice. Some places such as Target reduce your bill by five cents for every bag you save them; other markets like Trader Joe's enter you into a weekly raffle. So gather up some old bags (or buy some), and throw a few into your car so you'll always have them on hand when you're out shopping.

Remember - your GoGreenMug can be used for any kind of beverage, including water or soda. No need to waste single-use cups at the office for water/coffee, and some restaurants let you fill up your mug at their soda fountain instead of using their throwaway cups.

In addition to minimizing negative effects on the environment, there are some simple steps you can take to promote positive change. The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) of California was passed in 1999 (yes, this was a while ago, but it is scheduled to be fully implemented by late 2010-2011). This law is intended to provide various levels of protection to specific areas along the coastal waters, by controlling what types of activities are allowed. By strategically placing these safe-havens (Marine Protected Areas - MPA's), marine life can prosper and may flow from one MPA to another. For more information on the MLPA, please visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/

If you feel any particular areas along the California coast would benefit by being designated an MPA, please complete a survey the Surfrider Foundation has published at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=jweijd4I8d5vtscSSwjSHw_3d_3d

Last week, we visited the Portfolio Coffeehouse in Long Beach, CA. It's a fairly large shop, with lots of seating areas, including comfy couches, and plenty of places to plug a laptop into. This shop offers ten cents off for customers who bring in their own mugs (the discount only applies to coffee orders though). The baristas said they make an effort to recycle as much as they can, are conscious of the types of material used in their disposable utensils, and offer ceramic mugs to customers intending to enjoy their beverage in the coffeehouse.

Thank you for your efforts to reduce the waste, and have a great week!

What is in the 2009 Economic Stimulus Package for the Environment

2009-02-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Congress voted on President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 last week.

Because of President Obama's commitment to the environment, that he expressed during his presidential campaign and has reiterated since he became president, we hoped that this new economic stimulus package would include incentives for Americans to reduce their waste, improve energy efficiency and make use of renewable energy.

At GoGreenMug we have added our voice to the call for green incentives in the stimulus package. We have signed petitions at National Wildlife Federation and Surfrider as well as adding our photo to CALPIRG's appeal to Congress to remember Global Warming in the stimulus package (see last weeks blog).

So just what is in the Economic Stimulus Package for the environment? We reviewed the bill, passed in the Senate on February 10, to get an idea of what to expect. You can see a copy of it at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1/text .

Here are some of the environmental highlights:

Incentives for residential and commercial buildings to meet or exceed specified energy conservation standards. - $14 billion
Grants for the manufacture of advanced battery systems and vehicle batteries that are produced in the United States, including lithium ion batteries and hybrid electrical systems. - $2 billion.
Energy-Efficient Federal Motor Vehicle Fleet Procurement, acquiring federal motor vehicles with higher fuel economy $300 million.
Investment in electricity delivery and energy reliability (a smart grid) to enable the use of renewable forms of energy - $4.5 billion
Improve power line capacity and reliability- $6.5 billion.
Projects that demonstrate carbon capture from industrial sources - $1.5 billion.
Conservation and renewable resources programs - $15 billion.
Grants for the operation of the National Park System and public land- $3 billion.
Public Transportation - Investment to add train routes and bus lines - $8.4 billion.
Defense nuclear waste environmental cleanup and conservation and renewable resource programs - $6.4 billion
Tax credits for renewable energy development, home efficiency upgrades and the creation of renewable energy and conservation bonds - About $20 billion.

Considering the total for the stimulus package is likely to be around $789 billion, the approximately $80 billion set aside for environmental policies seems a substantial investment (about 10%). Is it enough to head off the possibly devastating challenge of global warming and destruction and change the way Americans live and do business. It is very important that environmental issues are addressed and that incentives are created for Americans to reduce waste and conserve our environment.

Most of us though will never get to see a stimulus investment check even if more money were made available, however we can continue to reduce our waste and energy consumption without this incentive. We can also continue to appeal to President Obama and congress to offer forceful incentives for the industries that need a prod, such as the oil companies, motor vehicle manufacturers and carbon dioxide belching manufacturing companies.

This week we have a pic from some regular Starbucks customers at their local coffee shop in Orange County. Sarah and Tamarra holding their GoGreenMugs with Raoul and Starbucks barrista, Ari. They commented that they love their personalized GoGreenMugs and their Starbucks sometimes offers more than the company policy 10 cents discount when they bring in their own mug. Thanks for the pic guys.
You too can get your pic on our blog. Take your GoGreenMug into your local coffee shop and ask for a discount. Let us know what discount you got and what you like about your local coffee shop and include a pic if you want. You can leave a comment or email us at support@gogreenmug.com .

Sign up to follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug.

College Activism

2009-02-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

I (Dudley) was studying at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in the early 1990's. Mandela had been released and the first democratic elections for all of South Africa's citizens was yet to take place. This was a time of serious political turmoil in South Africa and as liberal students, many of us attended rallies and protests, excited to be part of history.

Many people will also remember or have read about the political activism of the 1960's in America. Civil rights, ban the bomb, free love. Much of this activism took place on college campuses with enlightened students and academics leading the way.

We believe that reducing waste is a cause and a political one. Without government support it will be very difficult to make the changes we need to reduce waste and thereby stabilize our environment. Last week in a discussion on his environmental policies, President Obama said "Year after year, decade after decade, we've chosen delay over decisive action. Rigid ideology has overruled sound science. Special interests have overshadowed common sense. Rhetoric has not led to the hard work needed to achieve results. Our leaders raise their voices each time there is a spike in gas prices, only to grow quiet when the price falls at the pump."

If we do not put pressure on our political leaders they may continue to delay to take action.

Once again enlightened student activists will likely take the lead in this important cause. This week we attended a presentation on Global Warming at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Members of CALPIRG (California Student Public Interest Research Group) organized posters and speakers. They discussed their plans for on campus environmental programs. These included a bike share program, where students will be able to check out bikes on campus; a Metro use program that will lay out bus routes on the OC and LA Metro to numerous student hangouts, including clubs and restaurants; a recycling program and a community activity program. Members of CALPIRG were also taking photographs of students and visitors with a sign reminding President Obama and Congress to include environmental causes and effective actions that will reduce global warming in the $850 billion bailout plan.

We also met and spoke with Christine Dubois Royal from CALPIRG and Dr. Lori Greene from the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California. Dr. Greene introduced us to a new program at the School of Physical Sciences with a focus on improving efficiency and storage of Solar Energy.

We were pleased to meet up with these enthusiastic activists at UCI and are looking forward to finding out more about their programs.

As you know our cause is to reduce the waste in Coffee Shops by using a reusable mug.

Dennis went to Kelly's Coffee & Fudge, in Buena Park, CA. They did not offer a discount for bringing in his mug. The owner said he doesn't see more than 2-3 people/month bringing their own mug in, and he wasn't even aware of his own franchise's move to become greener by switching the type of cups they use. In fact he did not realize that a sign outside promoted the new greener cups. The owner then used a paper cup to make the drink, then poured it into the mug; he explained he had to do this because the cup had lines showing him how much of each ingredient to put in. This location does not seem very interested in making much of an effort to help the environment (or even to save themselves some money on disposable cups).

Unfortunately this is an all too familiar experience at coffee shops. You do have the right to choose though. Ask the barrista to make your drink without using the paper cup for measurements. If he refuses, then get your money back and go to another coffee shop that will use your mug. Remember our purpose is to reduce the waste of coffee cups, so walking away will make the coffee shop owner think twice about their environmental policy.

Remember to take your reusable travel mug into all the coffee shops you visit and ask them for a discount. Let us know where you went and the discount offered. If you can get a pic then please send it to us at support@gogreenmug.com and we will post it in next weeks blog. Alternatively just comment on the blog and tell us about your visit.

Join our cause on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?m=fa5edc14&recruiter_id=35111682 or on the Starbucks V2V at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug

Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and you can get free shipping and 15% off with the coupon code: luvday until Valentines Day February 14th, for your personalized re-usable travel mug. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Deforestation and Coffee Cups

2009-02-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

How many trees are cut down every year to create single use disposable coffee cups?

According to Sustainability Is Sexy more than 6.5 million trees were cut down in 2006 to create the 16 billion paper cups thrown away. Coffee shop paper cups are not made from recycled paper because of FDA regulation and the fact that recycled paper is not strong enough to hold the liquid and prevent hot coffee leaks and spills. Therefore most paper cups are made from 100% virgin paperwood.

Deforestation is the process by which trees in a forest are cut down. The reasons for deforestation are numerous, including logging (to make paper products), increasing farmland, mining and population expansion. This deforestion creates wastelands and deserts, but in our opinion there is a far more environmentally important result.

Trees are like Carbon Dioxide sponges. They remove carbon from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis and release small amounts of Oxygen back into the atmosphere. Only an actively growing tree can perform this function. The Carbon absorbed by the trees is also compacted into the soil where after millions of years it creates the fossil fuels we use abundantly today. Cutting down trees, exposes this soil and allows this carbon stored in the soil to be realeased back into the atmosphere.

Therefore by chopping down trees we remove the planets natural Carbon Dioxide filter and also release more carbon into the atmosphere from the soil. And as we all know increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a major cause of our global warming environmental problem.

To add to this increased carbon dioxide from deforestation, the creation and then disposable of all these coffee cups, creates even more carbon dioxide. Creating the paper requires large machines that belch out carbon dioxide and burning of non -recycleable used coffee cups also increases carbon emmissions.

Of course planting trees is an excellent way to reduce some of the damage caused by deforestation, but we must also commit to reducing our waste and to reusing our own personal coffee mugs.

With all this in mind I took my Go Green Mug to Seattles Best coffee shop in the Borders bookshop in the District in Tustin, CA. Seattles Best offered me a 10 cent discount for using my reusable mug and as I intended to read a magazine at the shop I was pleased that once again the barrista filled up my 16 oz. mug and I only paid for a small 12 oz.

Remember to take your reusable travel mug into all the coffee shops you visit and ask them for a discount. Let us know where you went and the discount offered. If you can get a pic then please send it to us at support@gogreenmug.com and we will post it in next weeks blog. Alternatively just comment on the blog and tell us about your visit.

Also if you have not done it already join our cause on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?m=fa5edc14&recruiter_id=35111682 or on the Starbucks V2V at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug

Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and you can get free shipping and a 15% discount with the coupon code: luvday until Valentines Day February 14th for your personalized re-usable travel mug. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Beach CleanUps

2009-01-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

Congratulations President Obama! Since he became president on Tuesday, he has got off to a flying start. Although he spoke about his energy and environmental policies briefly in his inaugural address, this has obviously not been part of his initial actions because of the deep economic recession.

However we have noted that his team have made modifications to http://www.whitehouse.gov/ where you can find his new environmental policies, in which he continues to commit to a greener future.

At GoGreenMug we too have really just got started. Last week we started 2 action campaigns. Thank you to all who have joined our causes at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342 on Facebook and at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug . Remember to use a reusable mug whenever you visit a coffee shop, ask for a discount and let us know about it as a comment or by sending us an email at support@gogreenmug.com .

This week we also took up Obama's call to public action and took part in 2 beach clean ups in Huntington Beach. The first was organized by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust working with the City of Huntington Beach, CA on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and saw a large turnout. Many of the larger pieces of trash picked up that day were polystyrene and paper cups from coffee shops, as well as many pieces of plastic from the plastic lids supplied at coffee shops.

The second beach cleanup we did was with Surfrider Foundation Newport Beach chapter http://surfridernb.com/ This event takes place on the 4th Saturday of every month, so please join us if you are in the area. Once again there was lots of evidence of polystyrene coffee cups and plastic lids. The 3 photographs shown above left are great examples of how obvious it is that many coffee cups end up on our beaches. Although some of them are simply left on the beach, most of this difficult to recycle waste is washed down to our beaches via the watershed. The watershed is the drainage area into a river and in much of the USA this watershed picks up waste from our streets as it drains to the river which then drains to the ocean. The best way to reduce this waste on our beaches is to reuse, reduce and recycle everything we can.
In these pics you can see some of the trash that was collected. Plastic and polystyrene photodegrade and thereby creates smaller and smaller pieces as it breaks down. Eventually these small pieces enter the food chain of smaller birds, fish and animals, causing them harm.

These 3 bag fulls were collected by 3 of us in an hour of clean up.

This week Jane also took her mug to Tropicana Bakery as part of our Facebook cause. Here are Jane's comments and picture: "Today I visited Tropicana

Bakery and Cuban Cafe in Downey, California. I learned that they do not offer a discount for bringing in your own mug. However, they seemed very receptive to the idea and it sounds like they have already made efforts to become greener in the new year by switching from using Styrofoam to paper cups. I have been to this bakery often. Their food and coffee are some of the best in Southern California and the place is always packed. It would be great if they encouraged their customers to bring in their own mugs and helped to reduce the waste."

We hope Tropicana Bakery and Cuban Cafe follow up on their attempts to reduce waste and we wish them luck.

Please let us know about any of the places you visit.

As we are asking coffee shops to show their commitment by giving larger discounts we have decided to show our commitment at GoGreenMug.com too by offering free shipping on all orders through February 14th to encourage everyone to get their own personalized mugs to take into coffee shop.

Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Obama Style Community Action

2009-01-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday 20 January, 2009 Barrack Obama will become the new President of the USA. In regard to the government's environmental policy we believe that his presidency will benefit and promote environmental causes. If you are interested in finding out more about President Obama's Environmental and Energy plan then go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy .

We are particularly pleased that his plan includes a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, to make federal buildings more energy efficient and to set high standards for clean air and water. President Obama's plans, definitely align with our goals at Go Green Mug. We therefore hope and expect that he will follow through on his plans with little delay after his inauguration.

President Obama's election campaign was also a great example of community action. He managed to raise an estimated $650 million. Most of which came from small donations. He also managed with his grass roots efforts to get many first time voters registered and voting.

Community action also made a difference in the Save Trestles campaign. More than 3000 people showed up at each of the public hearings, to protest the proposed Toll Road through the San Mateo Creek and San Onofre State Park. As we reported in our first blog, the Federal Government recently agreed with the California Coastal Commission in declaring the Toll Road illegal. Community action once again won out.

With these community victories in mind, we believe that it is through community action that we can get closer to one of our goals. If you have followed this blog regularly, you will know that we report on some of our coffee shop visits. We let you know what coffee shops were visited that week and what discount was offered. Our primary goal at Go Green Mug is to reduce the waste in whatever way we can. As coffee and tea drinkers we see a focused goal of reducing the number of paper cups being thrown out at coffee shops, by encouraging people to bring their own mug into the shop.

Coffee shops have their role to play too. If they offer large discounts to customers bringing in their own mugs then they will incentivize more customers to bring in their own mugs. We all benefit - less waste, larger discounts, and for the coffee shop lower expenses for all their cups and plastic lids as well as a reputation for wanting to reduce the waste.

We have created a community action on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196342?recruiter_id=35111682 as well as at http://www.v2v.net/actions/go-green-mug on the Starbucks V2V. Please sign up to participate in these actions and we can encourage Starbucks and other large coffee chains to increase their standard 10 cent discount. As part of this action take your own mug into a coffee shop and ask for a discount and then report the experience and the discount to us either as a comment, on this blog or via email at support@gogreenmug.com . Please add a photograph if you would like and we will post the best one each week on this blog. We will keep a list of all the coffee shops and their discounts and in this way encourage the coffee shops to do more to reduce waste for all of us who are committed to bringing in our own mugs every time we visit a coffee shop.

This week we visited Peet's Coffee shop in the Bella Terra center in Huntington Beach. They also offered a standard 10cent discount, which is just more than a 3% discount on the price of the drinks. Our picture this week is from Melanie, she was at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, who offered the standard 10 cent discount. Not really a great commitment to reducing waste from either of these 2 large coffee shop chains.

Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Easy Environmental Activism

2009-01-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

We started this blog to motivate us to get out and make a difference in whatever way we can and so that we could be held accountable for our environmental actions.
As we are only 11 days into 2009 , we do not have a long list of environmental action accomplishments to talk about this year, but we hope to achieve many more during the year.
Here are some of the things we have done so far. We hope that you read this list and realize that you can do many of the same actions with little effort. Here is our list:
We have begun writing this blog and telling you about some of the causes we believe in and actions we are taking, so that we hold ourselves accountable for our actions.
We take our GoGreenMug.com travel mugs every time we visit a coffee shop. We never use a paper cup, plastic lid or cardboard cup holder offered at any coffee shop.
We have signed the Surfrider Foundation's "Rise Above Plastics Pledge". You can sign this too at http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/rap_pledge
We have signed the Facebook causes petition "Our Coasts are at Risk" which will be sent to President Obama to ask him and the congress to protect our coasts from offshore drilling. If you have a Facebook account you can sign this petition at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/23?m=2b9e3807&recruiter_id=35111682
We have committed to doing at least one beach cleanup every month in 2009. Beach cleanups are easy to find and get involved with as they are organized by numerous environmental organizations. If you want to get out there and join in a beach cleanup then check out: http://www.beachcleanup.org/ or http://www.blueoceansociety.org/cleanup.htm or http://www.healthebay.org/volunteer/htbcleanup/default.asp or of course Surfrider Foundation whose different chapters do beach cleanups at beaches all over the world.

This week Dennis and Dudley visited the coffee shop/bakery 85 degrees C in the Diamond Jubilee center in Irvine. We were informed that they had some really different and exciting teas to try. This was an excellent tip and we tried some of their specialities, which we highly recommend as well as their baked goods.
Although the teas were great, we were very disappointed to find another coffee shop that did not offer a discount for bringing in our own mugs. We would not use the excuse of no discount to leave our mugs at home and get our drinks in a paper cup. We still enjoy the satisfaction of knowing we did not add to the waste.
There seem to be a number of coffee shops that do not incentivize their customers to reduce waste. We hope that we can influence their decision by telling you about them and creating a list from all around the US and Canada. Please tell us about any coffee shops you visit and what, if any discount they offered. Write comments on this blog or send us an email at support@gogreenmug.com and attach a photo for us to post. If we can create a large enough list and following, we think we will be able to encourage more coffee shops to offer better discounts for anyone helping to reduce the waste!
Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polystyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009. We now also sell gift certificates, so you can gift your friends and family a mug and help them reduce waste.

Greening the new year

2009-01-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Go Green Mug Blog in 2009. As we launched in the middle of December 2008, this year is truly a fresh start for us. Follow us on this blog as we try to make a difference by getting involved with environmental causes and promoting the use of mugs in place of paper or polysteyrene cups through our website GoGreenMug. So go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and use the new year coupon code: ny1501ggm to get 15% off your personalized re-usable travel mug through January 2009.

In the last 2 weeks I have spoken to many friends and family and told them about our project Go Green Mug and our efforts to get Americans to re-use mugs and get involved with helping to reduce waste. Most of these people were very excited and wanted to do all they could, such as taking their mugs whenever they go to a coffee shop or helping at local beach clean-ups. However one friend suggested it really was not worth it. As long as people in places like China and India need to continue to grow and develop their economies they will continue to increase their waste, so is re-using a mug at a coffee shop in the USA really going to make a difference?

Reducing waste certainly does seem like an impossible problem, but lets look at some statistics. According to the US Enviromental Protection Agency - U.S. residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 254 million tons of solid waste in 2007, which is approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day. Re-using and Recycling reduces the emission of many greenhouse gases and water pollutants, saves energy, supplies valuable raw materials to industry, creates jobs, stimulates the development of greener technologies, conserves resources for our children's future, and reduces the need for new landfills and combustors. Recycling helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions that affect global climate. In 2007, the national recycling rate was 33.4 percent (85 million tons recycled) and this is expected to be higher in 2008.

33.4% is therefore only 1/3 of what we can do to re-use and recycle. Which leaves us lots of room to do something! There are also numerous other ways to reduce waste that cause carbon dioxide emmisions, deforestation or pollution of our beaches and oceans. As Americans we should be doing as much as we can ourselves. We can start by changing our habits - reduce our consumption where we can, re-use all items that we can and recycle everything that is possible to recycle. Our friends around the world are all aware of the global waste problem, even as they strive to achieve economic success. Our success in reducing waste will encourage them to do the same. If we do our best we can promote our actions and encourage other people to do whatever they can to reduce their waste.

So as 2009 begins, we should all resolve to ace that recycling statistic. Attempt to re-use or recycle 100% of all your waste products!
You can also try a number of other steps to help reduce waste:

Donate to an environmental charity of your choice.
Volunteer at one of the many active environmental organizations. Activities may include beach cleanups, teaching at schools and going to public hearings.
Reuse your plastic or paper bags at the grocery stores (or even better use a reusable canvas bag).
Turn off the lights and unplug electrical devices when you no longer need them.
Change all your light bulbs to Compact Fluorescent light bulbs. This will save you money in the long run by reducing your electricity bill.
Pay your bills online and sign up for electronic statements so that paper bills and envelopes do not need to be sent out.
Drive less! - Take public transportation, carpool, bike or walk.
Recycle everything you can and re-use everything else.
Buy from coffee houses that patronize sustainable coffee bean growth farms.
Buy a GoGreenMug for yourself and one for each of your coffee and tea drinking friends.

Check out the US EPA's What you Can Do site for more suggestions and details.
Lastly as promised we will continue to list some of the coffee shops that we visited and let you know what discounts they offer when you bring your own re-usable mug. As the GoGreenMug team are all in Southern California, please help us to evaluate more coffee shops by taking your mug in and asking for a discount. Then send us a comment or an email at support@gogreenmug.com to let us know where you went and the discount you were offered and attach a photograph of yourself and your mug and we will post it on this blog.

This week we visited Gloria Jean's in the Westminister mall. The barrista said the owner had recently restricted discounts for bringing in your own mug. In the end though he filled up my 16 oz mug (regular) and charged me for a small (12 0z). Well that sort of counts as a discount. I always ask for small and usually get charged for small, even though the mug itself holds a medium sized drink.

Coffee Shop Discounts

2008-12-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

At GoGreenMug we are committed to reducing the waste by encouraging the use of reusable travel mugs. When visiting a coffee shop bring your travel mug with you and ask the barrista to fill your mug instead of the paper or styrofoam cups offered. In this way we can reduce the contribution of coffee cups to our already large waste and pollution problem. Visit http://www.gogreenmug.com/ to get your own personalized travel mug. Use coupon code: ff2510ggm until January 1, 2009 to get a 20% discount.

In the latest "Making Waves" magazine (a Surfrider Foundation newsletter), I read about the Junk Raft, and was reminded of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This relatively stationary area of the Pacific Ocean, which is kept in place by strong ocean currents called the North pacific Gyre, contains an estimated 100 million tons of waste material collected mostly from land based sources, such as polystyrene drinking cups and plastic lids.
As the plastic flotsam degrades in the sun, into smaller and smaller pieces, it becomes small enough to enter the food chain of the bird and aquatic species in this region. In samples taken from the gyre in 2001, the mass of plastic exceeded that of zooplankton (the dominant animal life in the area) by a factor of seven. Many of these plastic pieces end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, sometimes causing infection to these animals.
There is an obvious need to reduce this waste but what are our local coffee shops doing to help encourage us to bring in reusable mugs? Many of them give a discount. We have found this discount to vary depending on where you go for your daily cup. We have therefore decided to add a feature to this blog to let you know what discounts are available for customers with reusable mugs at specific coffee shops and what we think of this discount.
This week we visited a few coffee shops: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Irvine, CA @ Main and Harvard offered us a 10 cent discount (did not seem to matter what drink it was.) The Starbucks in the Target center in the Westminister Mall, Westminister, CA also offered a 10 cents discount for regular coffee, but seemed to suggest a discretionary discount policy depending on your drink order. Mag's Donuts and Bakery on the corner of Culver and Michelson in Irvine, CA offered us a 5 cent discount, although admittedly their coffee is a lot cheaper than Starbucks or Coffee Bean.
We believe that a 10 cent discount (particularly on a more expensive drink) is not really going to encourage customers to remember to bring in their own mug each day. If these coffee shops are really interested in helping to reduce the waste and not simply in saving money on coffee cups, we believe the discounts need to be more enticing.
Let us know what you think - take your reusable travel mug into your coffee shop, order your favorite drink and ask the barrista what discount they will give you for bringing in your own mug. Enjoy your drink , get a photo or two of yourself and your mug inside or outside the coffee shop and then send us your comments and a photo (either comment to this blog or email support@gogreenmug.com). We will then post a list of coffee shops and the discounts they offer as well as the best photograph each week.
We can all help reduce the waste and hopefully reduce the impact on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!
Until next time- Reduce the Waste!

One Mug at a Time

2008-12-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first edition of the GoGreenMug Blog.
We will use this first entry to introduce ourselves and our website, GoGreenMug.com to you and let you know what we are all about. In future blogs we will write about ways that we can all help to reduce our waste on this planet and keep you informed on all that we are doing. We will also let you know about any promotions at our store. Go to http://www.gogreenmug.com and use coupon code: ff2510ggm to get 20% off until January 1,2009.
GoGreenMug.com was started by a group of friends in Southern California. As regular coffee and tea drinkers, we started to think about where those cups go after just one use. We learned that every year, Americans throw away billions of cups (25 billion Styrofoam cups and 18 billion paper cups). If every one of these cups include a plastic lid, that's 43 billion plastic lids added to our landfills.
To help reduce the waste, we started to bring our own mugs when visiting our local coffee shops. We soon realized that we could broaden our impact and started GoGreenMug.com.
Besides saving our landfills, bringing your own mug can also save your wallet. Many coffee shops will give you a small discount for bringing in your own mug. For us regulars, this can really add up. GoGreenMug.com is developed and managed by Sadaka LLC. Sadaka is the Swahili word for charity and at the core of our business philosophy. GoGreenMug.com gives a percentage of its profits to charities and causes that are also working hard to take care of our planet. Some of these organizations include The Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservatory, Clear the Air, Save the Whales, and Surfrider Foundation. Sadaka’s co-founders are all active participants in environmental causes, donating to and volunteering at some of these organizations. Please visit their websites to learn more about how they are helping and what you can do to help. If you have any suggestions for other environmental organizations that you think we should give to, please email us at support@gogreenmug.com

Here is a photo of two of our founders - Dennis Ho (at right) and Dudley Tabakin at the Save Trestles hearing in San Diego in September 2008, with our our still current president in 2D. To find out more about the Save Trestles campaign check out the Surfrider Foundation website.

Until next time - Reduce the waste!

Update 12/18/2008: The Department of Commerce announced today that it would uphold the California Coastal Commission's decision! The egregious project to build a toll road through San Onofre State Beach is officially illegal under state and Federal law! In a release issued from the Department of Commerce, they "determined that there is at least one reasonable alternative to the project and that the project is not necessary in the interest of national security.
Well done Surfrider and the other active enviromental groups involved and we are thrilled that we were part of this victory!