Shop Smart, Save Forests and Plant A Billion Trees

The Earth's Best Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, has a nifty PDF file of a printable wallet card with info on the most "green" tissue products (hint: Kleenex is not one of them). You may have a hard time finding some of these products in Athens, but try checking out the Farmacy, Kroger's natural foods section or Whole Foods (the closest one is in Columbus) . Also check out the article The Giving Trees in NRDC's their online magazine, OnEarth. The article can be found here.


If you can't get to C-bus for some recycled tissues or toilet paper, try buying recycled computer paper to print your homework on. Use both sides of paper before recycling it!

Buying used textbooks can save you some cash and help forests. If you want to be even thriftier (in a green way) try sharing the cost of a used textbook with a classmate or checking out your books at the library. Textbooks can be requested from OU or other Ohio university libraries through OhioLINK and are eligible for renewal up to four times for three weeks each (just make sure to renew your books BEFORE they're due).

The Nature Conservancy has a new campaign: Plant A Billion Trees. Similar to the United Nations One Billion Tree Campaign headed up by founder of the Green Belt Movement and my tree-hero, Wangari Maathai; the Nature Conservancy plans to plant a billion trees in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil in the next seven years. For every dollar donated, a tree is planted. Simple enough, check out their site, make a donation and add their widget to your Facebook profile.