The Flight of the Hummingbird

In addition to planting 18 trees for Finley’s 18 years, the Green Belt Movement sent us home with 18 hummingbirds—all made by a local artist by reusing discarded cans and glass.  The parable of the hummingbird that inspired this gift had its beginnings in an ancient Quechan fable from Ecuador,

Virtual High-Five

“You just gave up bottled water? Awesome job, buddy!” Wouldn’t it be great if every time we made a sustainable choice we got a pat on the back? At Finley’s Green Leap Forward we hope that by seeing hundreds of other folks taking positive “green” steps, we will all be

Overcoming Your Composting Challenge

Composting is easy out here in the countryside, but people are getting together to make composting possible in all kinds of environments. So, if you live in city, or in an apartment in the suburbs, here’s a little inspiration from Finley’s cousin Evan and his fiancé Katie—as well as a few

Card-Carrying Member

Every year the US publishing industry uses about 32 million trees for raw materials and then the production stage emits over 40 million metric tons of C02. At this high environmental toll, do we really need to buy books or magazines and then let them collect dust in our homes? Our

“Russia Is Not A Dump” 

On our recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya planting trees for Finley you couldn’t help but notice there was trash everywhere—lining the fields and eaten by wandering goats and cows, clogging the city’s run-off, collecting downstream. It was as if this developing county just didn’t know what to do with all

The 5th R – REFUSE

When she was a small child, our daughter Callie somehow got the idea of asking for ‘stuff’ for free—and it worked amazingly well for her.  At the grocery store, ‘Do you have anything for free’ and sure enough the clerk would find SOMETHING to give her…a sticker, a rubber band,

Plant a Tree This Weekend

We’re expecting a beautiful weekend here in Virginia. As the weather warms up—here is a little motivation for going out and planting another tree. Never has the crisis of climate change been made more real to me than on our recent visit to the Masai village and schools in southern

So Long Saran Wrap

Learning how to use greener products can take some experimentation.  That’s what I found with the beeswax covers sold as replacements for cling wraps and foil.  At first contact these beeswax wraps are magical. The feel is soft and bendable—like a silly putty—and there is definitely a satisfaction to the

Reducing A Shampooing Addiction

There were many daunting preparations required for our recent trip to Kenya— a list of vaccines from Typhoid to Yellow Fever—we even had to drink a cup of Cholera.  We doused our clothes in mosquito repellant sprays (while wearing a mass of protective gear),  and started a pre-trip regimen of

Laundry Upgrade

1 Billion. That’s how many loads of laundry Americans do every week according to government data. 250,000. That’s how many plastic micro-fibers are released every time a fleece jacket is washed. 1 Billion X 250,000 = a lot of plastic in our waterways.   How do we stop this micro-pollution