Send us your ideas...

This page will provide suggestions for easy ways to make changes in your life to help your community everyday.  We ask people to make suggestions and present ideas through our Contact Us page.  Every month we will pick our favorite suggestion and spotlight it.

Often, people only need to be made aware of a solution when they didn't even know there was a problem.

What can I do right now?

 JUNE 2009

Reuse that glass!  Since no one is doing glass recycling in New Orleans right now, people are coming up with creative ways of reusing it, especially those beautiful wine bottles.  

On a recent trip to Louisiana's Lara Plantation, Maria Juliana Auzenne spotted a great use for bottles in the garden.  This is a classic French substitute for those basic bricks we use to create raised beds.  Instead, save your empty wine bottles and bury them upside down in the ground to create a great look around your flowers, herbs and veggies!

MAY 2009

Become a Locavore. Locally grown food tastes better, is better for you, supports the community, and reduces your carbon footprint. Most people don't know that the average American meal has to travel 1500 miles from farm to table.

Check the Crescent City Farmer's Market's Recipe of the Week which makes use of ingredients according to the seasons, and always shop first at your farmer's market. If you need a little motivation, read anything by Michael Pollan, starting with "The Omnivore's Dilemma".  Make sure you buy from one of our many lovely, local bookshops, like Garden District Books, Maple Street Books, Octavia Books, etc.

Thanks to Sarah Rath for this idea!Fresh Louisiana crab, micro-greens, and strawberry salad, as well as sunflower bouquet, all purchased at the Tuesday Crescent City Farmers Market.

APRIL 2009

Climate change is the most significant environmental challenge of the day, and New Orleans is one of the most at risk cities. According to Green Light New Orleans, one of the easiest steps to reduce the wasteful energy consumption that contributes to climate change is to switch the lighting in your home from old style incandescent bulbs to modern compact fluorescent light bulbs. A CFL uses 75% less energy than an incandescent bulb and lasts 10 times longer, thereby saving money on a home’s energy bills. Each CFL will save the user more than $45 over the life of the bulb.

MARCH 2009

FEBRUARY 2009

Throw Me Something, Mister... it's Mardi Gras in New Orleans!  Catch all the beads that you can... but wait!  Don't throw them away or sit them street-side hoping someone will come along and use them for something.  The Green Project will recycle your Mardi Gras beads!  Why not organize your office, your restaurant, your class, your dorm, your neighborhood and be the one who collects all those unwanted beads at the end of the season?  Then take them down to the Green Project at 2831 Marais Street, New Orleans 70117.  For directions, call (504) 945-0240.  For more info on the Green Project, visit http://www.thegreenproject.org/.  

Thanks to Benj and Shawn Haswell for the inspiration behind this month's idea!JANUARY 2009

Last month, Change Corps joined Save Our Cypress and Levees.org in asking home improvement chains to stop selling cypress mulch.

Our coastal cypress forests that provide natural storm and flood protection for the communities on the Gulf Coast are being clear-cut to produce cypress mulch.

The easy way YOU can help with this effort is simply to not buy cypress mulch when you do your gardening.  Sustainable alternatives that work well are pine straw and melaleuca mulch.  Easy, right?

Get more information:

http://www.saveourcypress.org/