Get green with your New Year’s resolutions
By Stephanie Vaccaro, Special Writer
If the polar vortex has got you thinking about man’s impact on the planet and you’d like to start taking steps to make your life a bit more earth-friendly, here are a few possibilities to consider:
1. Have an EnergySmart Homes energy audit done on your home. In its earliest iteration, the Housewarming Project, the precursor to the EnergySmart Homes campaign, targeted at the elderly and lower income families, through a partnership with the Princeton Affordable Housing office, with the idea that, purely on a volunteer basis, they would reach out to help participants evaluate their energy consumption and devise simple strategies to make their homes more energy efficient. Now the campaign involves a partnership with a municipality-endorsed Building Performance Institute (BPI) auditor, a state program to qualify contractors and auditors to do energy assessments in people’s homes and do the actual work, improve the efficiency. Contact Sustainable Princeton (www.sustainableprinceton.org) for details.
2. Get involved with Sustainable Princeton. The organization is working to help the town facilitate a 20 percent reduction in fossil fuels energy use in Princeton by 2020.
3. Choose businesses with a green focus. Barbara Weigand, owner of the Copper River Salon on Moore Street, integrates her eco-conscious mindset into her business at every turn. They participate in TerraCycle’s Beauty Brigade, where up to 40 different types of beauty products can be collected and sent in, including shampoo and conditioner bottles, soap tubes and dispensers, foundation packaging, body wash containers and much more. She’s also put up nine collection bins around Princeton University so that students can easily participate. Her salon uses energy efficient lighting and appliances, and all of the paper products they use are green. Because Ms. Weigand is an avid composter at home, she realized that she didn’t have to dispose of the hair cut at her salon in the trash. Instead, she takes it to her farm and adds it to the compost pile. It helps to keep the moisture in, much like mulch, but it decomposes at a slower rate so it lasts longer.
4. Join a farm share. The Appelget farm in West Windsor began its CSA in 2009. It started out in response to their neighbors’ interest in fresh vegetables, and has been growing since that first year, primarily by word-of-mouth. Although they’re not officially designated as “organic,” they tend to use sustainable farming practices. For approximately 20 weeks — for $600 (2013 prices) — those with a full share can go to the farm each week to partake of what’s in season. Although the yield is subject to variables, time of year and the occasional poor harvest, Mr. Appelget tells his customers to expect anywhere from half a bushel to a full bushel each week. A half share will run you $340. Located in Lawrenceville, Cherry Grove Organic Farm, having completed 12 seasons, offers a bountiful selection of greens, veggies, herbs and flowers from the first week of June through Thanksgiving. Their setup allows for you to cut your own flowers and herbs, and occasionally go into the fields to pick snow peas. When owner Matt Conver started the farm, they had only 17 members. But after that first year, membership jumped to 100 by year five. The farm can sustain 160 full shares, which translates into over 300 members.
5. Join the organic waste composting program. Although most of us already recycle paper, plastic, aluminum and glass, a lot of other compostable waste finds its way into landfills. If you’re not a gardener looking for ways to produce high-quality soil in your own backyard, home composting might not interest you. But Princeton has made it simple: the Curbside Food Waste Program. Participation in the program allows all of your food waste and organic matter to be composted with the help of weekly curbside collection. Everyone in the program receives a green 32-gallon organic container that comes with both a lid and wheels.
6. Buy green gifts. Princeton has a number of stores that have a green focus. The Farmhouse Store on Hulfish Street has hand-crafted furniture made from reclaimed wood from barns, as well as a number of pieces of handmade jewelry. On Witherspoon, greendesign has an incredible selection of green gifts, including organic baby clothes, organic and wooden toys, natural and organic personal care and bath products, as well as journals, notebooks and cards made of recycled paper.
7. Talk to your neighbors. Princeton is filled with thoughtful, progressive, smart people who are constantly looking for new ways to green their lives and the town.
Happy 2014!