Hoof it: Driving your car two miles each way to the gym spews out about a kilogram of air-choking carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Walking the same distance instead uses 150 calories and adds no carbon to the atmosphere. Incorporating a walk, jog or bike as part of your workout cuts down on gym time and gas costs too. If the distance to your gym is too far to go on foot or bike, consider car pooling -- you get a workout partner in the bargain -- or taking mass transit.
Stay Home: Or you can skip the gym all together and workout at home with equipment that doesn’t require anything but your own sweat, like free weights, exercise bands and jump ropes. Exercise videos use far less electricity than a treadmill or plug-in bike yet they can deliver as good a workout. To green up your video workout even further, check out “Element: Yoga for Beginners” on DVD from starzhoment.com. The packaging uses recycled paper and, for every 4 Element DVDs sold, the Arbor Day Foundation will plant a tree in a national forest. It’s also one of the most thorough and thoughtful yoga practices you’ll ever experience. If ballet sounds more appealing, you can try “Element: Ballet Conditioning”.
Be Conscious: Clean up wasteful workout habits. For instance, rather than guzzling bottled water, carry a reusable water bottle and fill it with tap water to reduce the amount of non-recyclable plastic bottles clogging landfills. (Klean Kanteen makes an excellent toxin-free reusable water bottle available at healthegoods.com.) You’ll help mitigate the pollution generated by bottling and transporting the water from far away places. Plus, bottled water can cost up to 1000% more than tap water so this tip helps keep your wallet in good shape too. Other planet-saving fitness practices to cultivate: use fewer towels, conserve batteries and reuse plastic bags to carry laundry and wet clothing. At home, use low phosphate detergents to launder your workout gear.
Recycle: Rather than tossing old sneakers into the trash at the end of their lifespan, send them to a recycling center. Most large athletic shoe companies have recycling and donation plans. Nike, for one, is a huge supporter of shoe reuse. Nike Stores, as well as participating partner retail stores, athletic clubs, schools and colleges, all collect athletic shoes of any brand as part of their Reuse-A-Shoe program. They also partner with the National Recycling Coalition to increase recycling efforts in communities across the country. For more information, check out www.nikebiz.com on the Web.
Lose Weight: Dropping a dress size is not only one of the best things you can do for your personal health, it’s also one of the most effective ways to help stop global warming and the overuse of precious resources. Experts have determined that overweight individuals eat about 40 percent more calories than their lean counterparts. Since food production accounts for over 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a heavy population uses a significantly heftier carbon footprint than a thin one. Fats and refined sugars, which tend to dominate the unhealthiest of Western diets, are particularly carbon offensive. Greater food consumption also means more organic waste, which produces the pollutant methane as it decomposes.
Go Green: Shorts made of coconut shells? Bras made of bamboo? Sounds itchy but actually these sustainable materials are being used more and more in exercise clothing as manufacturers realize that eco-friendly design is something health conscious people are beginning to care about. You can also look for workout wear made from recycled materials, exercise mats made from up to 100% recycled rubber and even solar-powered headphones. Patagonia is a leader in manufacturing clothing from sustainable and recycled materials. (www.patagonia.com.)
Hire Green Friendly: If you’re designing a health-related or amentias space, consider hiring professionals who are strongly committed to earth friendly practices.W360 has more experience designing green fitness and wellness spaces than any other company in the country. The majority of our work is with corporations and individuals who care just as much about saving the planet as they do about health. For more information about Wellness 360 and its commitment to green projects, contact Jay Shafran at jay.shafran@w360.com, 646-278-1174.
For more information:
Wellness 360
817 Broadway, 2nd floor
New York, New York 10003
(646) 278-1171
