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Greetings!
When you signed the Live Green pledge, you
committed to stay informed and make decisions
that
will positively impact the planet. Each
month, the Live
Green newsletter features a different topic
with tips,
tools and resources to help you achieve this
goal.
Welcome Back! It's been a crazy couple of
months. We hope you're settling in well. In
this issue we'll give you some tips about how
to live sustainably AND cheaply. Then we'll
look at the best way to get around Boulder
untill the snow flies, biking.
| Did You Know? |
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Boulder was recently rated platinum
biker-friendly by the L
eague
of American Bicyclist making it one of
only 3 cities to reach that status
October is energy awareness month. Check out
what the E Center Energy
Program has going on.
After the election you can recycle your yard signs. Bring
them to the Boulder County Recycling Center, 1901 63rd
Street.
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| What You Can Do: Biking in Boulder |
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Biking is where it's at, and luckily Boulder
is one of the best places to be. Recently
the League of American Bicyclist rated
Boulder as platinum on the bike friendly
scale, making it one of only 3 cities to
reach that status. Because we have a
plethora of bike path and bike shops, as well
as a cycle friendly public transportation
system it's impossible to ignore the
prevalence of cyclists.
It's fast, easy, good for your body, and good
for the world. It's no wonder that flashy
cruisers, tricked out fixies, and beater old
mountain bikes are crowding racks all over town.
Biking is cool again in a way it hasn't been
since the 6th grade. And now it has perks
you didn't even think about back then, like
minimizing you beer gut and your carbon
footprint at the same time. For free.
Gas is expensive, climate change is
happening, and the more oil and gas we
consume the worse off we are in both of those
respects. It makes social and economic sense
to get on your bike.
So what if you don't have a bike?
No problem. Because Boulder, and the
University of Colorado campus have such a
dedicated bike community we have a lot of
really cool unique resources.
The CU
Bicycle Program has several really
excellent options. Students, faculty and
staff can rent FREE Buff Bikes, single speed
cruiser bikes, for up to 2 days.
The CU bike club also offers semester long
bike rentals, but if you're jonesing for a
bike of your own there are a few routes you
can take.
If you are a registered CU student, and a
member of Elevations Credit Union you can get
an interest free bike loan of up to $500.
That is more than enough to get your rolling.
If banks make you nervous, or you're not a
full time CU student check out non profit Community
Cycles, , Through their Earn-A-Bike
Program you can do community service in their
shop. Your time is your payment and after 15
hours you can build a bike for free.
If neither of those sound good there is
always Craigslist,
the worlds best procrastination tool. If you
look hard enough and do your research you can
find a decent bike for less than a few tanks
of gas. It's worth the time and effort.
Once you have the bike the hard part is done.
Register it on campus, so that you can get
free service and help. Then get on it.
Commence saving the environment and feeling
good about it.
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| Live Green Spotlight |
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Let us know about the creative ways that
you're living green. Each month, the Live
Green newsletter will feature tips submitted
by readers. E-mail us your tips at
livegrn@colorado.edu.
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| Help Us Help CU |
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See room for improvement? Give us your
feedback on ways that CU can become more
environmentally friendly.
E-mail us at
livegrn@colorado.edu.
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Conservation on the Cheap |
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You don't have to be paying much attention to
the news, or the stock market to have noticed
that the economy is crashing down around us.
The country is in a financial tizzy, and
everyone from big banks on down is trying to
cut back spending
Luckily being a cheapskate is almost
naturally synonymous with being a
conservationist. It's really really
ridiculously easy to be environmentally and
economically friendly at the same time.
The first one is obvious, and you can
probably hear the words coming out of your
mother's mouth right now, "turn the lights
off when you leave the room!" It's that
simple, if you're not using something, don't
use it. Turn off appliances, computers are a
big one on campus, turn off the light, don't
leave the water running. Be conscious of
your actions. You'll save resources, and
money.
There are also other less obvious actions you
can take at home. Don't print out anything
that you don't need to, save some paper.
Read newspapers and class assignments on
line. Many teachers will accept assignments
by email. If they don't, try and convince them.
Call the trash company.
City wide the less you throw away the less you
pay. If you can reduce your waste you can
get a smaller trash can, or no can at all,
both of which are less expensive. You'll
still be able to recycle as much as you want.
Wear your clothes more than once before you
wash them. No one will be able to tell the
difference. Then only do laundry when you
have a full load. Take advantage of the dry
Boulder climate, hang your clothes out to dry
instead of using the dryer.
There are also easy changes you can make in
how you go about your every day life.
Minimize your waste use at the grocery store,
even if you're buying 99 cent mac-n-cheese.
Most stores now offer re-useable bags for
about a dollar, or you can just use your
backpack. Many place will even give you a
small rebate for having a re-useable bag. You
can make some money.
Don't be afraid of thrift stores. Boulder
has some awesome options, like The Buffalo
Exchange, for cheap recycled clothes. Reduce
your consumerism. Also consider about a
clothes swap. If you have things you're sick
of so do your friends. Trade.
Lastly use your political power, which is
free, to make a difference. Research the
candidates and the issues so that you can
make an informed decision about environmental
issues. Go to Powervote.org where you can
sign a pledge saying that you want "clean and
just energy."
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