May is National Bike Month

The League of American Bicyclists hosts the official site for National Bike Month. On the page, you can download 50 Ways to Celebrate Bike Month and visit their events page to see what’s going on in your area.

• May is National Bike Month
• May 12-16 is Bike-To-Work Week
• May 16 (Friday) is Bike-To-Work Day

You can take action by biking more often, biking to work, forwarding this post (email icon below) and donating to the awareness efforts of the League of American Bicyclists!

Make it a Treesome this Arbor Day

To celebrate Arbor Day, and trees in general, why not make it a Treesome. Be one of the first to own our original and first design! We’ll donate $1 to the Arbor Day Foundation for every t-shirt sold.

BUY 3, GET 1 FREE!

• 100% organic, undyed cotton
• Water-based inks for a softer touch & impact
• Back imprint Viral Green™ logo
• Unisex sizes M, L & XL
• In stock and ready to ship
• $15.00 + S&H

TO ORDER: Email us at info[@]ViralGreen[dot]com with “Treesome” in the subject, and we’ll reply with ordering info.

And since we’re talking in 3s, our challenge to you is to plant 3 trees this year. Find out more about this national holiday at the Arbor Day Foundation website.

TRIVIA: Not all states celebrate Arbor Day on April 25th

Earth Week Call To Action

Google has created a great site to make donations for Earth Day (13 participating non-profits). It’s easy to use (see video below) and tracks progress of giving by you, your family and your friends. On this last day of Earth Week, why not make a donation and spread the word.

Shout Out To New Belgium Brewery!

Any company that’s local, eco-conscious, loves bikes and beer, is a friend of mine!

At New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, not only do the employees bike to work, but they have bicycling events, a site dedicated to raising awareness about cycling, sustainable practices and goals toward increased sustainability—and they’ve been green from the beginning! I love the fact that their desks are made from recycled FedEx mailers and that their building was constructed with reclaimed wood.

Both of their websites are designed incredibly well and are a blast to visit.

They were featured recently on MSNBC (video on company sites above) and CNBC’s The BIG Idea segment Inside A Green Idea for Earth Day. Also, the Sundance Channel did this feature as part of their series Big Ideas For A Small Planet:

Corporate Conscious or Cash?

As I'm sure many of you have seen in recent months, major corporations are suddenly “going green.” Though I’ve never seen a company opposed to increasing their green, this green bandwagon is getting ridiculous.

Frankly, it’s why we started Viral Green!

Some of the mixed messages are coming from: bleach companies, major petroleum companies, bottled water companies and vacuum cleaner companies. This greenwashing is confusing and hypocritical on so many levels, coming from companies with far too much baggage to overcome. But I guess they’re just trying to do their part right?

If going green is so important to so many companies, why are we just now hearing about it?! Seems rather timely.

My favorite line, so far, is from the bottled water company above: “our new Eco-Shape bottles use 30% less plastic...” Seriously, put that savings into a bottle that’s biodegradable and you’ve got yourself a great solution. I visited other bottled water sites to find out that many of them have “Environment” links or policies now. They seem to be competing in the area of “how much less plastic can we use than the other company” too. I think 30% less is winning so far.

“Green Collar” Jobs? - Now I've heard everything!

I thought I had heard everything until the term “Green Collar” jobs came across the waves! Yeah, I rolled my eyes too. Yet more spin to aid the ever-present corporate greening initiatives.

Read More >

Tips To Make Every Day Earth Day

The 2008 Earth Day logo was designed by Adrienne Lay.

There are little things we can be doing all the time; and they don’t involve overhauling your life:

• Take reusable bags shopping
• Use compact fluorescent bulbs
• Turn off lights that aren't being used
• Ride a bicycle or public transportation
• Recycle
  

You can take action with these resources today and start celebrating Earth Day every day:

• Earth Day Network
  
• Earth Day Television
• Earth Live: Virtual Earth (Discovery Channel)
  
• Planet Green (Discovery Channel)
  
• MySpace Impact
• MySpace Our Planet
• Treehugger - Earth Day Ideas
  
• EPA - Earth Day Events
• EPA - Take Home Earth Day Kit
• Envirolink - Earth Day Calendar
  
• Sign the Earth Day Card with your pledge
• The Green Guide (National Geographic)
• Green Is Universal (NBC)
  

I feel the same could be said about Arbor Day (in 3 days - April 25th) and Bike To Work Day (May 16th - Actually, the whole month of May is National Bike Month) : make these days a part of every month, instead of once a year. If you’re unable to do this in your own life, you can donate to the organizations that do:

• Earth Day Network
• The Arbor Day Foundation
• League of American Bicyclists
  

Earth Day - Green Apple Music Festival, Denver

Today, we got the word out and sold t-shirts and reusable tote bags at the nation’s largest Earth Day event: Green Apple Music Festival. It was a perfect day for the event and it’s great to see that it has now expanded into 8 major cities in the U.S. 2008 marks the 3rd year of the festival and it is produced in partnership with Earth Day Network. See how the festival does it’s part to walk the talk.

Today We Launched!

Our initial vision came from the fact that, suddenly, everyone and everything's gone green. However, the greenwashing that is so rampant is often stuffy and hypocritical, with very little explanation into terminology or the benefits of going green. Acronyms are thrown around as if people know them and it’s all getting a little out of hand.

We at Viral Green feel it's OK to have eco values without inflicting them on others in an eco-tistical™ way. Sure, we use responsible materials & methods, but we have a blast doing so. In fact, our mission is simple: BE FUN. BE RESPONSIBLE. BE INFORMED.

The most important thing is FUN though. Through our T-shirts and website, we hope to inspire and inform you about the world of green so you’ll want to participate and share these ideas with others. As our site’s being built, you can catch news and updates here through our RSS feed. Soon, you’ll see why it’s time to “Lighten Up Earthlings!”