Author: nano

What is composting?

According to Illinois University, composting is, “the biological decomposition of organic material into a humus-like substance called compost. The process occurs naturally, but can be accelerated and improved by controlling environmental factors.”

The practice of composting can be traced back centuries with references dating as far back 1,000 years to the Akkadian Empire in the Mesopotamian Valley.

We compost by layering soil over organic materials such as a banana peel or grass clippings. The decomposition process is accelerated by heat and moisture. The nutrients from decomposing organic material seeps into the soil giving it additional nutritional value.

Why composting is important to sustainability

Not only is composting a worthwhile practice for farmers, it’s also helps create a sustainable future. The most obvious example being the reduction of waste that ends up in our trash cans. You can make a serious impact in reducing the level of waste sent to our landfills by putting organic materials into your compost instead of your trash can. If you stay consistent, you can reduce your waste impact by hundreds of pounds!

How to start

Step 1, spot your plot – You’ll want to choose a spot for your compost that’s close to your kitchen but far enough away so that the smell doesn’t reach your home. Also, make sure your compost is in a nice sunny spot.

Step 2, choose your receptacle –  You can start your own compost with an old milk container or another receptacle made from plastic. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can create a larger compost (here’s a video with some instructions).  We recommend taking 4 stakes and wrapping some chicken wire around them.

Step 3, set your base and begin! – set your base layer by placing 2-3 inches of soil above some plastic tarp. Once you have your base set, you can begin composting! A

Compostable items

A good rule of thumb to follow is to place anything organic into your compost. Certain items react better than others so you’ll have to learn what’s right for you given what waste you produce. Check our Instagram post below for a specific list of what items to put in and keep out of your compost!

Did you know the very first Earth Day was celebrated nearly 50 years ago? On April 22, 1970, Denis Hayes recruited 2,000 universities, roughly 10,000 primary schools and hundreds of communities to participate in pro-Earth demonstrations. On the first Earth Day, men and women from around the country protested an oil spill that happened off the coast of California. Today, Earth Day is the most widely observed secular holiday with people celebrating around the world.

Earth Day holds a special place in our hearts here at Nano. We’re inspired by Denis Hayes and the thousands of Earth Day participants who act in service to our beloved Planet. That first Earth Day was a long time ago — and there’s reason to believe our Planet is struggling now more than ever. Our participation in this Earth Day and the ones to come is crucial.

image by NASA via Unsplash
What are some activities I can do to celebrate?

What are some activities I can do to celebrate?

Let’s commit to celebrating with action!

Spend some time outside
Take a moment to spend some time in nature appreciating our planet for all of the wonderful things it provides us. Everyone you’ve ever known, everything you’ve ever loved has called this place home. With this perspective, protecting Planet Earth makes a little more sense. If you live in a big city, watching some David Attenborough videos will do the trick.

Write to your elected officials
Writing to our elected officials is a great way to create serious change. Let them know you’re calling because you care about the Earth and want to make sure they’re doing everything they can to protect it. Click which country you’re from to find out how you can contact your elected officials.

USA Canada UK India

Download Nano
Nano makes celebrating Earth Day year-round fun and easy. The cool part is you earn rewards anytime you learn and act in defense of Planet Earth. Join us today and team-up with other eco-warriors close to home and around the world.
You can download for free on the iTunes app store today (Android coming soon!).
Earth Day quotes
Here are some of our favorite Earth Day quotes to help put things into perspective:
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Native American Proverb

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir

Photo by Alan Godfrey on Unsplash

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” Henry David Thoreau

Photo by Ian Keefe on Unsplash

“The earth is what we all have in common.” — Wendell Berry

Photo by Mario Purisic on Unsplash

Relevant SDGs
The Sustainable Development Goals are targets set by the United Nations. These goals and targets serve as the framework for the actions taken by the Nano community. You can learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals here.

Ask 10 different people and you may get 10 different answers. For some, sustainability means protecting our rain forests. For others, it means ensuring fair wages for workers. Your friend might say sustainability means protecting human rights; and your cousin might say it means investing in renewable energy.
The truth is, they’re all right! Sustainability means all of those things because economic prosperity, environmental protection and social justice all have meaning.
If we are to lead sustainable lives and help create a sustainable future, we must consider how our actions impact the planet, other people and their well-being. In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children and grandchildren. What world do we want to leave them? One devoid of natural resources and basic human rights? Or perhaps something better?
“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.” – Albert Einstein

Nano helps make living a sustainable lifestyle fun and rewarding.
Image by: @rotaalternativa

The Three Pillars of Sustainability
Sustainability has three main pillars – environmental, economic and social. Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely. Economic sustainability is our ability to support a defined level of economic production and ensure contributors to this production are compensated fairly. Finally, social sustainability is the ability of a social system, like a government, to function at a defined level of social well being.

Throughout your Nano experience, you’ll come across different ways to positively impact all 3 pillars. We think it’s important to point out that sustainability is not just about protecting our environment. Now, in 2019, there are still many marginalized groups that need our help. There are thousands upon thousands of workers who are not compensated fairly. The Nano community aims to solve the issues affecting us today and is working together to help create a sustainable future. You can join us by downloading Nano for free on iPhone and Android (coming soon)

“Sustainability is about our children and grandchildren”
Image by: @daiga_ellaby

Other Definitions

UN World Commission on Environment and Development: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

UCLA Sustainability Committee: “The physical development and institutional operating practices that meet the needs of present users without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, particularly with regard to use and waste of natural resources. Sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality. Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used.”

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations.”

Investopedia: “Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The concept of sustainability is composed of three pillars: economic, environmental and social—also known informally as profits, planet, and people.”

Dictionary.com: “the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.”

Relevant SDGs

The Sustainable Development Goals are targets set by the United Nations. These goals and targets serve as the framework for the actions taken by the Nano community. You can learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals here.

News and notes from the 2019 edition of Earth Day

image via: https://unsplash.com/@willcornfield
Music to honor Mother Earth
To celebrate Earth Day, musician Lil Dicky released an awesome music video honoring our planet and encouraging others to help protect it. We love seeing artists use their platform to do good. There is some swearing and suggestive themes in the song so please do be advised. For more information on how to save the Earth, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuN_WvF1to

Carry The Load launches Earth Day Nano Task

Carry The Load is an American organization dedicated to honoring the memory of fallen service men and women. To show their commitment to sustainability and Planet Earth, they partnered with us here at Nano to launch their very own Nano Task! It was a great success with folks checking in from around the country. Head on over to the Nano app to see more Carry The Load Nano Tasks!

Using tech to celebrate Earth Day in schools

Microsoft partnered with Jane Goodall to help students celebrate Earth Day in the classroom. Using their various technologies like Skype and One Note, Microsoft was able to help teach the importance of Earth Day to thousands of youth.

New York’s plastic bag ban
On Earth Day, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced New York State will ban the sale of single-use plastic bags effective March 2020. Cuomo remarked during the announcement, “The average length of use is 12 minutes, but they live longer than anyone in this room. Americans use 160 billion per year. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to make these bags. New Yorkers use 23 billion every year – believe it or not. You see them everywhere. You will see them hanging from trees like bizarre Christmas ornaments. You will see them blowing down the street. You will see them in the beautiful Hudson River floating up and down. Everywhere you go you see them.” Isn’t it nice seeing our elected officials acting in defense of our planet?

Ocean Spray’s sustainable switch

On Earth Day, Ocean Spray announced they would commit to growing their cranberries 100% sustainability. They’ll be using a verification platform called the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform to help make sure this happens. You can learn more about Ocean Spray’s commitment to sustainability here. Sustainable agriculture will play a huge role in the future health of our Planet so its great to see such a large company make a step like this.

London’s peaceful protests come with some arrests

Extinction Rebellion, an activist group dedicated to halting the effects of climate change and ecological loss, took to the streets of London on Earth Day. Over 1,000 protesters were arrested for civil disobedience. While we do NOT recommend getting arrested, we applaud the protesters activism! Extinction Rebellion recently gained the support of the Labour party. During the protests, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a rousing speech.

The North Face’s Earth Day Petition
The iconic fashion brand is championing a petition to make Earth Day a national holiday. It’s one thing for brands to speak out against climate injustice, but it’s another thing to see them act. The North Face is lobbying lawmakers to help make this dream a reality. You can sign the petition here! A host of other eco-friendly brands have co-signed the petition including Clif Bar, Altra, S’well and National Geographic!

Eco-friendly ad blocker
To celebrate Earth Day, Michelob Ultra introduced an adblocker with a unique twist. When you install the Michelob Ultra: Pure Gold ad blocker, ads you would otherwise see will be replaced with beautiful nature pics. How cool!

Coca-Cola launches first Impact Day
One of the world’s most iconic brands and influential companies is using its power to do good. “Coca-Cola employees joined forces with Hands On Atlanta and Truly Living Well to plant the seeds for a brighter, more sustainable future with its first Impact Day. As a pre-Earth Day celebration, 150 employees gathered on April 17 at one of Truly Living Well’s urban agricultural sites to make an impact on the local Atlanta community.” Learn more about the imitative here!

Odds are you’ve never heard the name Hansjörg Wyss — but there’s a great reason you should. Wyss is a Swiss billionaire who recently pledged to donated $1 billion over the next decade to, “help accelerate land and ocean conservation efforts around the world, with the goal of protecting 30 percent of the planet’s surface by 2030.”

In an Op-ed piece written for the New York Times, Wyss cites a sobering statistic, “Plant and animal species are estimated to be disappearing at a rate 1,000 times faster than they were before humans arrived on the scene. Climate change is upending natural systems across the planet. Forests, fisheries and drinking water supplies are imperiled as extractive industries chew further into the wild.”

image via: https://unsplash.com/@guybowden
The solution? To set aside protected areas that reflect the conservation, economic and cultural values of nearby communities. Hansjörg Wyss is a great example of small deeds adding up to have a big impact. He’s working to ensure the conservation of natural states one local community at a time. There’s so much we can learn from his example.

The money is being donated through Hansjörg’s Wyss Foundation is, “A private, charitable foundation dedicated to supporting innovation, lasting solutions that improve lives, empower communities and strengthen connections to the land.” Hey, that sounds a whole lot like what we’re trying to do here at Nano!

What are we to make of this? For me, these visualizations offer up a sobering reminder of the importance of our time here on Earth. Notice how the average temperatures skyrocket in such fast fashion after the Industrial Revolution. Perhaps you believe in fate — that we were born at this particular time to solve this particular problem. Maybe it’s just a big coincidence. Whatever the reason, this rapid rise in average global temperatures is not sustainable.<br><br>So, we are faced with a choice: Act now or pass the baton. What will you choose?

Companies like General Mills and Hormel Foods are embracing the practice to help their businesses and respond to consumers who consider environmental stewardship in their buying habits. You can check out the full article here

We just joined a local community garden and it’s honestly awesome! There’s just something seeing delicious healthy food grow right in front of your eyes.
A recent U.K. study even says participating in local food projects may have a positive effect on well-being and psychological health.
“These findings are encouraging to those of us looking at how sustainability and well-being interact,” said Dr. Zareen Bharucha, the study’s lead researcher.