Natural and Sustainable

Need A Lift?

There is a new craze sweeping across the San Fransico Bay area and many other areas, it’s called CarShare. What is it?

City CarShare is a Bay Area nonprofit on a mission to provide convenient, affordable access to cars so that we can reduce individual car ownership—and improve the environment and quality of life in our cities.

They continually strive to make their service so convenient, so reliable, and so affordable that people will prefer using their cars to owning their own. In doing so, their members are helping to reduce traffic, parking problems, and dependence on oil—while promoting cleaner air, quieter streets, and more open space.

In 2001 a group of Bay Area transportation activists launched City CarShare with the help of several local nonprofits and the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. They have enjoyed strong community support from the beginning and have partnered successfully with local transportation agencies and other community groups. In 2006, the for-profit companies Zipcar and Flexcar entered the market, validating City CarShare’s success.

They are a nonprofit because they feel that is the best way to provide great service to their members for the long-term, while staying focused on our mission. City CarShare remains dedicated to socially responsible car sharing and, true to their purpose and mission, continues to work with community, government and private companies to support the growth and expansion of car sharing.

Best of all, they also have the support of the many thousands of members—a group that is growing fast!

How it works is:

Want to be a part of the mission? Join them, support them or read their guide to starting up car sharing in your community:
• long version (PDF format)
• Short version (PDF format)

(Source: City CarShare.org)

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Tupperware® has been in people’s kitchens since the beginning of time. Okay, well maybe not that long, but Tupperware® and other plastics have been around for over 70 years and it’s time to say BYE BYE. Plastic storage containers are one way to store leftovers that is a no-brainer, but is it the smartest move? In a recent study there were foods left in plastics, one being a Tupperware bowl and contaiminates from the plastic leached into the food itself. PVC (look for #3 inside the recycle symbol on the container) and polystyrene (#6), contain hormone disruptors and other nasty chemicals. This is true for many plastics we use for food and beverage storage on an everyday basis, such as baby bottles. The more you know about plastics the more you can learn about how harmful they are for food storage. The better option is glassware or ceramic because ceramic and glass go from fridge to microwave and back again without leaching toxins. And you should never microwave plastics.