Whether you participated in the Black Friday festivities or not, here is a fantastic deal that will not make you stand in a seemingly endless line at checkout.

Visit LetsGoGreen.biz, find neat eco-friendly products, buy a present for yourself or to someone else. At checkout (while sitting relaxed in front of your computer screen), use coupon code SHM20, and you will instantly receive 20% off of everything in your cart.

Let’s start this trend of purchasing eco-friendly products, and let’s call it “A Green Friday”!

But, instead of just on Fridays, use coupon code SHM20 at LetsGoGreen.biz any day and any time, and you will receive the same 20% off of everything in your cart.

But I suggest you do it today, so you can forever claim that you joined in on the first annual Green Friday event!

You are looking at a picture of a very special American flag, it is the first-ever U.S. flag made of recycled water and soda bottles.

This eco-friendly flag will demonstrate patriotism and pride in your country as well as your commitment to the planet.

The stripes are sewn and the stars are embroidered. Packaged in a 100% recycled box. They are 100% American made!

Here is how you can get your own:

1. Visit Let’s Go Green web store

2. At checkout, use coupon code SHM20 and you will get 20% OFF

Happy Independence Day!

Smarter Ways to Print:

Doesn’t it bother you when you print a web page and after it’s too late, you realize that you printed all the ads, headers, and several other things on the web page that unnecessarily uses up ink and paper.  Here are a few tips to help you avoid this:

> Before you print it, click “Preview” to see if you can avoid printing some pages.

> If you want to print an article from a website, look for a link that says “Printer Friendly” or something similar.  Using this option will likely eliminate printing ads and other things that you do not intend to print.

> HP came up with a really cool plugin that can help you customize and select areas of websites to print.  My favorite feature is that it allows you to combine areas of different webpages, so you can have a concise printout from different sources of only the info you want.

> Instead of the HP plugin, you can try GreenPrint, which can help you identify and avoid printing unwanted pages.  In particular, I really like the built-in feature that keeps track of how many pages you did not print and how much money you saved.

The Eco-Friendly Font:

Who would have thought that there would be an “eco-friendly font”?  It’s true… it’s called the “EcoFont”.  Essentially, if you zoomed on the letters, you will see little “holes” and subsequently less ink is used when printing documents.  Check it out and download the EcoFont.  There is a professional and a free version of the EcoFont.  It is a great way to help you save on ink.

Printer Settings

You can adjust the printer settings under “Properties” to print in lower quality (or “Draft” mode) which will use less ink.  At the same time, the quality is not compromised significantly, so this could be an ideal choice for daily printing needs.

The Paper

Here is a simple one:  use paper made from recycled material

The Ink Cartridge

In a previous post, we talked about the benefits of recycling printer cartridges – the benefits both to the environment and to your wallet!  Instead of tossing an ink cartridge after it’s empty, you can refill or recycle it through services like Cartridge World (on their website, you can enter your zip code, and you will get a list of Cartridge World locations in your area).  Recycling/Reusing an ink cartridge will cost you a fraction of the price of a new cartridge.

We hope that one or a combination of the methods described above can help you get started to make your printing habits a little more eco-friendly, which utlimately will save you money by reducing usage of ink and paper.

There are two simple steps that you can do to make it stop!

First, avoid getting on new mailing lists. When you buy something, sign up for a service online or offline, or undergo a transaction of any sort, keep your eyes open for a little check-box giving permission for the company or one of its affiliates to place you on their mailing lists.  Most times, this box is already checked (for your convenience, of course) – make sure to un-check it.  Other times, you may have to check the box to not be included in their mailing list.

That was easy!  Now, how do you remove yourself from all the junk mailing lists to which you’re already registered.  If you are very patient and persistent, you can contact each company individually asking if they would remove you form their mailing lists.  This could take a while!

There is a much easier way.  There are great companies, like Green Dimes, that provide services to help you get off the junk mailing lists.  These services range in price from free to $40, depending on the level of service you prefer.  In addition, if you choose to utilize their services, they will plant a few trees on your behalf.

Remember that even if you are recycling junk mail, it still consumed ink, paper, and energy unneccessarily.

Visit Green Dimes today, and let’s hear it for a junk-mail-free Arizona!

In addition, recycling your cartridges is the environmentally friendly choice!  Did you know that it takes one gallon of gas to produce a new laser cartridge?  In addition, every re-manufactured cartridge saves 3.5 pounds of solid waste deposited to the landfill.

This tip has been provided because I listened to Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream and her guest today, Kathy Sawyer, co-owner of the Cartridge World stores in Tucson, Arizona.

To find the nearest Cartridge World location, visit the Cartridge World website and enter your zip code.

Here is the EPA’s recommendation to properly take care of a broken CFL.  I hightly recommend clicking on the link and reading it now.  Why?

Because if you do happen to break a CFL in the future, you would want to take care of it right away.  You would not want to leave the broken CFL in your house or office and try to find this blog post or the link to learn how to take care of the mess.

Roof Ray can provide the answer for you!  By entering a street address, you can calculate your roof’s solar potential (or the roof of a house you’re considering buying), compare various solar array sizes, costs, and even estimates of return on your investment.

In addition to the A Green Arizona website, we will use this blog to add news, tips, and events that are relevant to the goals of the A Green Arizona organization.

We are glad you’ve joined us.  Please subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog to stay up-to-date on the latest news of Arizona going green!