Philanthrobuzz

By Cheryl Mahoney

I love it when I find a site with cool suggestions or resources for how to help a good cause, and I love it even more when I find one that will make me laugh while educating me.  Even better if it’s a site focusing on environmental issues, a cause I’m especially interested in.  (I receive regular emails from Al Gore–well, me and everyone else signed up with RepowerAmerica.org.)

All that being said, I’m sure you can imagine how much I like DoTheGreenThing.  First–catchy name.  Second–how often do you find a group using weird tentacly monsters to promote a green lifestyle?  (You know that now you have to go to the site to see the tentacly monsters.) 

DoTheGreenThing offers seven ways to reduce your carbon impact, things like unplugging appliances, refusing to purchase the latest, unnecessary items, and being “all-consuming” with what you have.  I’ll admit, most of these ideas I’ve seen before, but they’re presented here in a dynamic, exciting way.  Really.  You actually can be dynamic while talking about unplugging a lamp!  DoTheGreenThing has fun videos about each idea.  These don’t feel like public service announcements–they’re more like mini-movies, and they’re funny movies too.  My favorite is “Ninjin – The Way of the Vegetable Assassin” which is exactly what it sounds like.  It’s about someone assassinating vegetables–but only if they’re being eaten out of season.

You can also join and share a story about doing the green thing, adding your story to the 46,500 stories from 200 countries that have been shared.  That’s an impressive amount of green.

Check out DoTheGreenThing.com for ways to be green, and to have a laugh while you’re doing it.  (And while you’re at it, you can join Repower America, if you’d like to get emails from Al Gore.)