Photo Friday

Happy friday! This week our photo shows you how we turn our compost! Some of you may be familiar with how to turn a home compost heap, but this is how we do it.

Did you snap any great shots this week? Feel free to post the links in our comments!

Featured Article: A Green Business Rating System, Created By Middle School Students | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

Today's featured article, from Fast CoExist, seems even more important as we approach the beginning of the school year. Today's article features students near Detroit who developed a Green Business rating system for businesses in their town.

These middle school students collected information from 100 business owners in their area to find out just what they were doing to be sustainable. They included waste diversion, CFL bulbs, natural lighting, hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles for business purposes, and many other factors to develop a rating system of all of the businesses they worked with.

This article is inspiring. If these students can work so hard to encourage area businesses to be more sustainable, what could we do at our own places of work. Waste diversion is easy, and we can help your business to become more sustainable through waste diversion. Other methods of creating a greener business are also easy to implement, as long as you take the time to do so.

What is your business doing to be sustainable? Let us know in the comments.

Read the original article here

Featured Article: Carbon Neutral Higher Education

This featured article is a little different than our usual bizarre sustainable. This week we're exploring the idea of being carbon neutral in higher education. Luther College in Decorah, IA is hard at work toward their goal of being carbon neutral, and the school is doing a great job.

As Professor Jim Martin-Schramm says, "Colleges aren't supposed to be a mirror for society, we are supposed to be a model." Schools enstill values in their students, and many private and public college across Iowa are aiming to be more sustainable. It's showing their students that a sustainable lifestyle is goal worth working to attain.

As a company that deals with compost, we've worked with a diverse group of companies and institutions to make them more sustainable through their waste stream. When speaking about sustainability waste stream is a part of the topic often left out in favor for wind and solar power and electricity saving measures, or local produce shopping. Part of that may be the 'yuck' factor associated with talking about what we waste, but it is a crucial element of the conversation.

We commend Luther for their efforts, and we hope that they reach their carbon neutral goals. If other colleges wish to shrink their footprint as well, we encourage them to consider their waste stream and think about what could be diverted from landfills. We also encourage them to contact us about organic waste diversion.

Read the original article from The Des Moines Register here.