SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES

When we launched Bluedot Living on Martha’s Vineyard five years ago this month (yay, us!), one of our biggest supporters (and best resources) was a guy named Tom Chase, who’d worked for years with various local environmental organizations, including The Nature Conservancy. (Bear with me and I’ll explain the snake). While at TNC, Tom helped people like Brian and Ann Mazar conserve a native sandplain habitat on the Island’s south shore and build a gorgeous, net-zero home there. He told us about the value of making your backyard wild. And recently, he launched a nonprofit called Village and Wilderness that helps communities around the country develop climate adaptation tools. (One of their projects was this guerilla gardening outfit in Oxnard, California.)

About the snake. Tom recently wrote us an essay, A Culture of Stewardship, about how taking care of the land and the creatures who live on it crosses generations, political parties, and cultures. He sent along this picture of himself (on the left) with his teenage friends and “brotherhood of naturalists” holding a rattlesnake on an expedition to the Everglades.

From wasting less food to choosing more plant-based meals or rethinking how you shop — small changes add up. We’d love to hear what’s different for you. This quick, 3-minute survey is a chance to reflect on your habits and help shape future Bluedot Living content around what matters most to you.

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All substantive change requires reaching for something so different from what is as to border on the unimaginable, which in turn requires trusting that the unimaginable is possible — a supreme act of faith. Faith is always larger than reason in its imagination and is therefore saner.

– Maria Popova, The Marginalian

If you haven’t yet discovered The Marginalian newsletter, Maria Popova’s vehicle for sharing her varied and fascinating musings on life, love, art, beauty, nature, and so much more, then you, my friends, are in for a treat. But be warned: The Marginalian isn’t something you skim. It will take you on a journey from which you’ll emerge and blink into sunlight, somehow transformed. 

• 5 Wildly Anticipated Books That Explore Our Animal Planet

• Come for the Conservation, Stay for the Community

• How to Build a Neighborhood Seed Library

• Podcast: Eat Healthy on a Budget

• What Responsible Whale Watching Looks (and Sounds) Like

• A Drop-Dead Gorgeous Home on an Oceanside Pond

• A “Crumby” Idea for Using Stale Bread

• Backyard Barbecue Recipes 

• Dear Dot: Is It Time to Ditch Diamond Engagement Rings?

• Grillable Plant-Based Pizza Burgers

• Secondhand Sisters: How to Repair a Rip

• How to Throw a Planet-Friendly Party

• Turning Beach Trash Into Art

FEATURED STORIES

BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS

Use your waste-busting breadcrumbs on this delicious recipe for cauliflower-and-cheese or a Caesar salad.

Bluedot Kitchen

Barbecue Recipes

Worried that BBQs are bad for the environment? Read on. 

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After painting the endangered flora of Puerto Rico, artist Cristina Muñoz Laboy and her partner opened Tropi Shack, a surf shop that doubles as a creative workshop where visitors can use recycled materials to make art and de-stress, just steps from the beach. While making a collage on a glass bottle with pages from old books and magazines, Bluedot contributor Zanny Merullo talked with Cristina about her commitment to conservation, the problem of plastic waste in Puerto Rico, and living, educating, and resisting through art.

Let your hat do the talking! Bluedot Living’s organic baseball cap is embroidered with one of 13 planet-positive phrases — like “energy efficient” and “regenerative” — so you can wear your values out loud. Made from 100% organic cotton with a brass slider, it’s designed for everyday comfort, durability, and better impact all around.

Dear Dot: Is It Time to Ditch Diamond Engagement Rings?

Illustration by Elissa Turnbull

Dear Dot,

My longtime partner and I are planning to get married. I don’t usually go for a lot of the conventional stuff, but we have decided to give each other rings. I’ve heard some nasty stuff about diamonds and gold mining. How can we show our love for each other without harming anyone else?

— Kate

Dear Kate,

On my left hand, I wear a ring that has graced the fingers of three generations of women in my family. It was purchased for my grandmother by her second husband, a grandfather I adored. When my grandmother passed, my mother inherited it. Mother Dot, however, had nary a sentimental bone in her body and, as the recipient of her grandmother’s numerous diamonds, not to mention the engagement ring from my father, decided that this sparkler was one too many and decided to sell it.

It was at this juncture in time that my then-boyfriend and I were auditioning each other for the role of Dots for Life. One night, I discovered a signature blue Tiffany brochure. Hmmm, I thought. I mentioned, as casually as I could, that if he was considering an engagement ring, I’d like one with history. Specifically, my family’s history. The rest is, umm, history. 

Unfortunately, any diamond, including the one that was shortly thereafter installed on my finger, comes with a whole lot of history that most of us would prefer to remain ignorant of. But Dot proposes plenty of alternatives! Keep reading.

BUY LESS/BUY BETTER:
Packing for Park Days and Movie Nights

For just $5/month, you can become a Bluedot Living member — investing in a healthier planet while unlocking real, everyday benefits for yourself. You'll enjoy 10% off every purchase from Bluedot Living Collection, our editor-curated marketplace of planet-friendly brands and products and you'll receive additional member-only store discounts each month. Many members recoup the cost of membership in just a handful of purchases from our store. From there, the savings continue — making sustainable living more accessible, affordable, and impactful.

The Keep-This Handbook

There are a lot of throwaway solutions for throwing a party: red solo cups, plastic utensils, mylar balloons. Luckily, there are easy swaps to make your party more planet-friendly. Check out our Guide to Sustainable Celebrations before throwing your next shindig.

Be the Hostess With the Mostest

While putting together our Guide to Sustainable Celebrations, I thought back to some of my favorite things I did for a dinner party I hosted in April. After inviting a small group of friends via group text — with a short guest list of girls who have known each other for years, there was no need for anything more formal — I got to planning. I created spring-colored placemats by cutting and dyeing cheesecloth with blue spirulina, turmeric, and dried rose and hibiscus, all of which were already in my kitchen. I handwrote placecards using scrap paper and twine and decorated them with more dried flowers. I strung up solar lights and filled every empty space on the table with flowers, tea lights, and tapered candles, which were held in collected vases and candle holders lent to me by my mom (from whom I inherited the hostess gene). 

I also nailed down a fully vegan menu using Vegan Party Planning, a cookbook that we featured in our roundup of Cookbooks for Plant-Based Celebrations last year. The book offers all sorts of great tips, including a schedule of when to do what, which was insanely helpful on the day of, when I was wondering what order to put things in the oven, get dressed, and arrange the florals. The food was so delicious, one friend thanked me for giving her the opportunity to try “actually good” homemade vegan food and asked me to share the recipes. Such a win!

I can’t wait to do it all again — this time, with a few lessons learned and new ideas to try. If you’re also the host of your friend group, I’d love to hear some of the ways you keep your get-togethers planet-friendly. Share them with us at editor@bluedotliving.com!

Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you next week.

– Emily Cain (and Jamie Kageleiry, Leslie Garrett, and Robin Jones)

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She makes her home in Canada, west of Toronto. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Martha’s Vineyard, says her favorite spot on earth is out on a kayak there, looking at birds.

Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long Beach.

Emily Cain is a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where she wrote and edited for the university’s award-winning magazine, DIG.

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