Share & Voice: Abundance on a Dime

As I was searching for ways to help me with my junk project I found this blog. I wasn't looking for a blog but rather a "how to" website to help me build my junk project. (I won't tell you what it is because I will save that for Monday!) I stumbled upon this awesome blog during my search. It is full of different ideas and suggestions from food to natural living to reusing and recycling! Perfect for our class :) I spent almost an hour searching through this blog and found some great environmentally friendly ideas! One post that I really enjoyed was called "Seven Natural (and Cheap!) Ways to Calm a Cold. I checked this out because it is now the season for snow, holidays, and of course colds. This blog is really cool and I would suggest checking it out. Click the link below to visit Abundance on a Dime!

http://abundanceonadime.blogspot.com/

Share & Voice: Personal Experience at Scandic Hotels

For this share and voice I wanted to talk about a recent experience I had while I was in Sweden. Since I have enrolled in this class I have started to take more notice about environmental issues, concerns, and what others are doing to help our environment. Staying in European hotels can sometimes be an adventure and with this stay I learned about different ways that Scandic Hotels are trying to be environmentally friendly.

The first thing I notice when I walk into the hotel room is the size difference compared to the typical American hotel room. The beds are is if they are one, that's how close they are. Of course we try and separate them as much as we can because that is the way we are use to sleeping. The reason I bring this up is because I began to think if our hotel rooms here in North America are really much bigger then we need. Do we really need our hotel rooms to be that big? The rooms that I have stayed in while in Europe are about half the size of those I have stayed in anywhere else in the world. Although the rooms are smaller, they don't try and cram more rooms into one hotel. They are usually 4 floors with about 30 rooms on a floor. What does this have to do with the environment? I began to think that when the rooms are smaller the amount of heat that is needed to warm the room is much less then if the room was bigger. Perhaps this is there way of trying to save on heat. Although I could not find this to be a fact on Scandic Hotels website, I think there is an environmental reason behind it.

Another thing that I noticed when I walked in the room is that you must put your key card in a slot (just to the side of the door) in order to turn on the lights! This is such a great idea. Many times when we leave our hotel rooms we leave the lights on because we won't see the electric bill right? Having to put your key card in this slot means that when you leave your room, you will take your key with you and automatically all lights and power sources will be turned off. This also includes any appliance that you may have plugged in to charge. You won't forget your key or else you won't be getting back into your room. Of course you can get a new key at the front desk but I can bet this won't be a habit throughout your trip! I really enjoyed this concept and think this is something North American hotels should start doing.

Now that I am on the topic of room keys, I read the back of mine and read something that I thought was great. The key cards are made out of sustainable wood, which is a cost-effective and reliable green alternative to plastic. I decided to research this a bit more and found out more about this product. I visited Sustainable Cards, which makes the room keys that Scandic Hotels use. Manufacturing wooden cards use about 1/3 of the electricity that it takes to make plastic cards. This was such a great website and I would recommend visiting this website to learn more about why using these key cards are better for our environment.

I was truly amazed and excited about the way Scandic Hotels is trying to be environmentally friendly. Here is a list of environmentally friendly things they do:

• Stopped using all single-use disposable packages
• Soap dispensers in the rooms and public toilets
• Use Swan eco-labelled serviettes 
• Have an environmentally aware towel and bedding policy
• Always use low-energy bulbs where possible
• Control the water flow in the toilets, showers, and taps
• Choose energy from renewable sources
• Use the room key to control lighting
• Breakfast buffet offeres several ecological choices
• Do not serve food containing genetically modified organisms (GMO)
• Choose environmentally aware suppliers

You can find more information about their environmentally friendly choices by clicking this link: Scandic Hotels. This class has truly been life changing. A year ago, I would have never noticed the environmentally friendly things that the hotel I was staying at was doing. Now, I am more conscious and more aware about my environment. 

Share & Voice: Pictures from Switzerland

I have had the opportunity to travel to many different places around the world through hockey. I play on the National Team (Canada) and we travel a lot for different tournaments. I have been to places like Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, many places in the U.S and in Canada. What inspired this blog is the fact that I am currently in Sweden for the 4 Nations Cup Tournament and decided I wanted to share some pictures from when I was in Switzerland back in March. When I was packing for that trip I thought winter clothes because there was still snow in the ground in Duluth when I left. Turns out it was pretty much summer in Switzerland. It was absolutely beautiful and very hot out....to the point that I got burnt one day! Here are some pictures of the pictures from Switzerland.

This is a picture of Rhine Falls in Switzerland. On one of our days off they took us to see these falls and they were beautiful. We climbed to the top where there is a look out, and to see the power of the water was amazing. 

This is a picture of a cave that we walked through to get to the bottom of Rhine Falls. It was a really cool cave and I enjoyed the feeling I got from the natural rock and natural environment from being at the falls that day.

Here I am in Zurich. We went sight seeing one day and found this amazing view! You can look down the the Limmat River and what a beautiful day and scene it was. Where I am standing, there was a beautiful park with the greenest grass and life size chess games everywhere. The pieces for the game were almost as tall as us and it seemed like the locals would meet there to play some friendly matches against each other. 

Here are some of the building in Switzerland. I really love the atmosphere in Europe. Switzerland had some really beautiful buildings and the architect in Europe is like no where else. 

This is a picture I took one day when I was walking. As you can see the spaces between the buildings is very small as I can reach my arms across and touch both buildings. The roads in Europe are usually very narrow and barely enough room for two cars. I love the brick roads in Europe and the atmosphere it creates.

Here is the last picture I want to share with you. Yes, that is a real car! We walked by it and I was so intrigued. We checked it out and peeked inside. It is an electric car that can seat two people including the driver. The passenger seat faces out the back window! One thing I notice in Europe is that there are no big SUV's like there are in North America. Many people take public transportation or bike. There were tons of bikes everywhere I went and what I noticed in Switzerland is that most of the bikes were not locked up.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from my trip to Switzerland. I have been there twice. The first time the Swiss Alps were very close, opening our blinds in the morning and looking out at the mountains is breath taking. The second time I was in Zurich, which is where the pictures are from. Each time I saw a different aspect of Switzerland and I love it. I would recommend it as a destination for those that like to travel. 

Welcome to Adventures with Haley

Ryan's Falls in Switzerland

Hi, my name is Haley Irwin and I am a Community Health major at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I have created this blog to share some of the things I will learn in my environmental health class, but will also be focusing on saving energy! I will discuss different ways to save energy, lower your electric bill, and how this can affect our environment.

There are five possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above. 

Here are the members of my web group: 

1. Nicole@Exploring The Environment
2. Alex@The Geyser of Johnson
3. Dr.V/Kristen@Enviro-surfing with Amy and Kristen 
4. Alina@Splashing Along the Shores with Alina

You can also follow my blog my clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."

I hope you will enjoy my blog and learn about eco-friendly ideas as we go on this adventure together. The environment is ours to take care of and we can make a difference one light at a time!