The holiday season does not have to be a burden on the enviroment. With a little effort and imagination, we can celebrate the season and the planet!

Five Tips for Sustainable Gift-Giving:

Gifts of service require little or no use of natural resources and can be very personal and memorable. Try gift certificates for a massage, music lessons, childcare, car wash, pet service, yoga or a manicure/pedicure.

Giving the gift of an experience can bring fun and memories that can last a lifetime. Tickets to a show, concert or sports event. A family membership to the LA Zoo, The Autry Museum or LACMA.

The gift of history. Value and appeal don’t always have to mean “new and shiny.” Antiques and collectibles have value as well as the added appeal of history. And because they’re “re-used,” there’s no impact on the environment. Take a walk through Magnolia Park. You’re bound to find something!

Homemade is heartfelt. Your time and energy, and culinary skills are just as valued as that store-bought gift which they may not really even need! The gift of food is personal, easy on the environment, and not likely to go to waste. Bake a selection of holiday cookies or a pan of lasagna, put together a wine and cheese sampler on a nice platter, or how about a gift card to a local restaurant? The possibilities are endless!

Give the gift of giving. Last year, I sent money to the Jimmy Carter Foundation in my
sister’s name. I could choose how I wanted the money spent and it came with a nice card. She loved it! www.cartercenter.org
Give a membership to the California State Parks Foundation.
www.calparks.org/JoinToday
Help to make another family’s holiday a happy one and adopt a family through the Burbank Tempory Aid Center.
burbanktemporaryaidcenter.org
The Seva Foundation uses your donation to perform the service you select. Their “Gifts of Service” program includes restoring sight to blind people, clean healthy water, and education.
www.seva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=gos2008_home
Something a little closer to home – donate to the Friends of the LA River (FOLAR). They’re a non-profit organization founded to protect and restore the LA River. I recently went on a private tour with the founder and it was incredible! We were stunned by the history and beauty of the river and are intrigued thinking about what it could be again.
folar.org

Remember, it IS easy being green! Happy Holidays!

by Jennifer Jesperson

Have you ever been to McGrath State Beach? Yosemite? Castaic Lake or Dockweiler State Beach? How about Hearst Castle or Leo Carrillo State Beach? If you have, then you know how amazingly beautiful they are. California’s 278 state parks have been set aside to preserve and protect some of the most culturally and naturally significant places in our state. California’s state parks provide countless opportunities for recreation and relaxation, while historic parks provide a glimpse into the past and priceless educational experiences for visitors of all ages.

Did you know that 70 state parks are at risk of closing? Over the past few years, budget cuts to state parks have resulted in drastic service reductions and partial closures.

Thankfully, on October 4, 2011 Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 42, the bill sponsored by the California State Parks Foundation to help keep California’s state parks open. AB 42 will allow the Department of Parks and Recreation to enter into operating agreements with qualified nonprofit organizations to help keep state parks open.

“In the more than 40-year history of the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF), we’ve never seen our state parks system at as much risk as it is today,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of California State Parks Foundation. “Even with the success of AB 42, there may still be parks for which there is no easy solution, nor available community ‘safety net’ to keep them open. We remain committed to helping organizations, businesses, agencies, and Californians identify ways they can help work to save our state parks.”

Last month, I was fortunate enough to tour Annadel State Park in Northern California with the CSPF board. That park is on one of the parks on the closure list. As we walked along the beautiful pathways, hikers and bicyclists would pass us and ask us to help save their park. It was heartbreaking. Of course, they were “preaching to the choir,” but still, these places mean something to these people. I know our State Parks mean something to me and I want my son and his children to explore and enjoy them. Please, do what you can to help.

Visit the CSPF website for more information: http://www.calparks. org/
Remember, it IS easy being green! By Jennifer Jesperson

Picture your favorite, most relaxing image. Got it? Chances are, it’s not behind a desk, in the kitchen or even indoors for that matter. We are hardwired to seek out nature. Human beings have been hunter-gatherers and farmers for 10,000 years. It makes sense that we feel best outside.

Just five minutes of low-impact outdoor exercise can significantly boost a person’s mood and self-esteem. Exercising in areas with water and woods makes people happiest because such spaces signal the presence of two things humans need to survive: food and water. Granted, we don’t have much of either here in Burbank, but if you “take it outside,” the benefits are immeasurable!

Outdoor workouts even tend to burn more calories than similar routines indoors because nature provides a distraction, which helps you work out for longer periods of time.

According to new research from the University of Michigan, spending time in nature will sharpen memory and focus more effectively. Subjects who strolled in the park performed 20% better than city walkers because walking in a city turns on voluntary attention, the kind needed to focus on the task at hand. Urban areas are noisy and you have to pay attention to your surroundings. Involuntary attention, the kind that you get by being in nature, gives your brain a break and makes you happier and more productive later.

Studies show that people who live within half a mile from a park or large garden are less likely to get sick than those who don’t. They are also more satisfied with their home, job and life in general.

Even if you don’t live near a green space, you can take a ride up to Angeles Crest or head to the beach or the desert for an afternoon. Spend a long weekend in the mountains and you’ll have a nine percent jump in “natural killer” cells, a type of white blood cell that fends off bacteria, viruses and tumors in the body. And the immunity boost can last for up to one week afterward! “Tree huggers” have more energy and lower levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. So head to the mountains! You wont’ regret it!

Remember, it IS easy being green!

by Jennifer Jesperson

So, if you’re not familiar with BPA (bisphenol-A) by now, you need to be…it’s a chemical. It’s found in lots of things like can linings, baby bottles, pacifiers, food containers, receipts, dental sealants and more and it does lots of bad things to your body — BPA has been linked to breast and prostate cancer as well as obesity, early puberty, cardiac disease and lowered sperm counts, even at the low levels. Research indicates it’s best to be avoided, as evidenced by most of the civilized world banning it from baby bottles.

Canada took it a step further and declared it a toxic substance. Unfortunately, here in America, we have a huge group of powerful lobbyists that represent the wealthy chemical companies and have convinced our government representatives to not ban BPA from baby bottles or anything else. Crazy, right?

There are things we can do — buy items that are BPA-free. In some cases, however, it’s not that easy as there aren’t many BPA-free options. This is the case with canned foods. BPA is found in the linings of all canned goods, with just a few exceptions.

A recent peer-reviewed study indicated can linings and food packaging are a major source of BPA exposure and that by eating fresh or frozen (not canned) foods, choosing glass and stainless steel food and beverage containers, and not microwaving in plastic, we can decrease our exposure to BPA by as much as 60%!!!

Spread the word. In America, we often have to vote with our dollars—if food-makers see how many consumers actually care about BPA, they’ll be more likely to stop using it.

The top ten canned items that contain the most BPA are:
Coconut milk, soup, meat, veggies, meals like ravioli, spaghetti…, juice, fish, beans, meal replacement drinks and fruit.

It’s gonna be tough to cut some of those things out, but in the long run, it will be worth it! Are you game?

How would you like to SAVE THE EARTH while making dollars for the school? During the week of April 18th we will be collecting old cell phones to send to Terracycle. This is the same company we have been sending our Capri Sun juice pouches, energy bar wrappers, and cookie wrappers to.

Here’s how you can help.  Bring your old cell phones to the office during the week of the 18th. There is a card board box decorated with cell phones underneath the counter where Diedre sits. We do NOT need the chargers.

We are also now collecting chip bags so if you are having any parties or just eat chips on a regular basis feel free to contact Karen Carter (818) 445-1749 or Claire Torrey (818) 843-1585 and they will meet you before or after school to pick any of the above mentioned items. Please spread the word and tell anyone and everyone you know to donate their old cell phones!!  All the money earned goes to the Arts and Dance programs!

There is no national law that mandates recycling. State and local governments often introduce recycling requirements. A number of U.S. states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Vermont have passed laws that establish deposits or refund values on beverage containers while other jurisdictions rely on recycling goals or landfill bans of recyclable materials.

We spent spring break in Florida. I was appalled by their lack of recycling. I can’t even begin to imagine how many plastic bottles were thrown away at Universal Studios, Orlando.

Here are three reasons why you should stop buying bottled water whenever possible:

1. Bottled water isn’t a good value!
Take, for instance, Pepsi’s Aquafina or Coca-Cola’s Dasani bottled water. Both are sold in 20-ounce sizes and can be purchased from vending machines alongside soft drinks — and at the same price! Assuming you can find a $1.00 machine, that works out to five cents an ounce. These two brands are essentially filtered tap water, bottled close to their distribution point. Most municipal water costs less than one cent per gallon.

In the U.S., the average price per gallon is hovering around $4.00. There are 128 ounces in a gallon, which puts the current price of gasoline at a fraction over two cents an ounce.

And that’s why there’s no shortage of companies that want to get into the business. In terms of price versus production cost, bottled water puts Big Oil to shame.

2. No healthier than tap water!
In theory, bottled water in the United States falls under the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration. In practice, about 70 percent of bottled water never crosses state lines for sale, making it exempt from FDA oversight.

While public safety groups correctly point out that many municipal water systems are aging and there remain hundreds of chemical contaminants for which no standards have been established, there’s very little evidence that suggests bottled water is any cleaner or better for you than its tap equivalent.

3. Bottled water means garbage!
Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. According to Food and Water Watch, that plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. Over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.

Thanks to the slow decay rate of plastic, the vast majority of all plastics ever produced still exist — somewhere.

Please recycle. Consider yourself lucky that we live in a state that cares enough to give us recycling bins. Now if we could just use them…

by Jennifer Jesperson