We care about our planet on Earth Day, and every day. At Curare, we believe that, together, the smallest actions can make the largest impact toward protecting this magnificent Earth we call home.
To share these values, we spoke with several of our many environmentalist Curarians to hear how they have joined the #GOGREEN movement and have put their Earth-conscious ideas into action.
Composting
“It helps to minimize trash and it’s great for the garden!” writes Dave Bik, Senior Placement Specialist. Dave has a compost container in the kitchen that his family uses daily, and a large compost bin out in the yard. Egg shells, coffee grinds, and veggie/fruit scraps all go in there to be eaten up by worms and turned into rich fertilizer for the garden. Senior Consultant Valerie Hesse is also an avid composter and has been recycling her scraps for more than 18 years!
Food scraps in the process of being turned into fertilizer for Dave B.’s garden
Recycling
We were thrilled to learn that so many Curarians care deeply about waste reduction. Controller Christina Divine shares her story about the ways she has become more aware of the resources she uses and how they are recycled.
“When I was young, I never thought about what happens after you take your garbage out to the curb. It sort of magically disappeared! I remember the first time I went to a landfill and saw our garbage being dumped. It came as a shock and since then, I’ve been aware of how much trash I generate. When I lived in Germany, I saw that our neighbors only had half a bag of trash, sometimes none, compared to my family’s two bags a week.”
“What I’ve learned is that by doing simple easy things, you can make a big difference,” – Christina Divine, Controller
According to the EPA, the average American person will produce about 4.4 pounds of daily waste per person. There are many ways you can take action to combat this: Christina teaches us that one of the easiest things to do is to stop buying prepared foods at the grocery store, and to shop from the back and sides of the store. This eliminates packaging AND makes for a healthier diet: two birds with one stone!
Valerie Hesse encourages everyone to pay attention to their consumption and what they add to the landfill. She personally generates ONE small, kitchen-sized bag of garbage monthly.
Marketing Assistant Bee Fedrick is also passionate about recycling everything that our local Bloomington, Indiana recycling centers will accept. Bee shares, “I do it because, in my opinion, it’s the right thing to do: it means doing my part.”
Permaculture
Corbin Baird, Consultant Development Manager, and wife Rhonda, internationally renowned Permaculture expert, are experienced Environmental Organizers. They have a Permaculture-based home, with their landscape converted to gardens with over 250 useful plants! Their backyard has a small pond, lots of cover for birds, and a hoop house to extend gardening seasons. This year, they are working on an outdoor kitchen space to use in the hotter months. Learn more about the Baird family’s efforts on their website, Sheltering Hills Design.
Dave Bik has also taken a leaf from the Permaculture handbook! His family strives to maintain a yard that is friendly for wildlife, with food, water, cover, and places to raise young. He has a bluebird box, bird baths, and a fish pond. This also means NO herbicides or pesticides on Dave’s lawn: “We’ve always liked nature and felt the earth’s natural systems are incredible. Putting chemicals in the ground to get a perfect lawn or kill bugs that are just doing their thing never seemed right to me. The earth is amazing!”
Dave loves pollinators, and supports them by planting perennial flowering plants – especially of native species – and annual flowering plants, so that bees and other pollinators can enjoy the flowers.
Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow! Clovers and violets cover Dave Bik’s lawn, for bees and other pollinators to enjoy.
Gardening
Dustin Beeler, Senior Placement Specialist and organizer of the Bloomington Little Free Pantry, which we have covered in previous #CurareCares articles, tells us how the LFP helps to support the environment: “Our Little Free Pantries serve as seed banks during spring months, where members of the community can leave and take seeds of any type for their gardening needs. Whether they’re flowers to bring a little color and joy to their lives, or seeds for cucumbers that will help feed their families later this year.”
Gardening is a fresh, relaxing way to play a part in taking better care of the planet.
“We have a veggie garden and, in the winter, we cover it with leaves from our yard to keep the top soil layers from freezing. In the past few years, we have stopped tilling it up in the spring, and let the soil microbes and bugs do their thing, rather than disturb them and dry out the top layer of soil. I learned this from Corbin and Rhonda!” – Dave Bik, avid gardener.
Conservation
“I love saving on electricity, so in the winter, I keep our house temperature at 65. In the summer, we keep our air at 73/74. This helps the planet and makes for a lower electricity bill.” Another DOUBLE WIN idea from Christina! Christina has also gotten rid of plastic containers in the kitchen. “You can use glass over and over again!”
Christina D. recommends eliminating plastic by using durable glass containers in the kitchen.
Christina conserves water by waiting to wash bigger loads of laundry instead of washing small loads throughout the week. Dave Bik also has some tips to share on water conservation:
“A rain barrel is a great way to gather water for our plants in pots and in the ground. We have a 30 gallon rain barrel set up on one of our downspouts. If we can avoid using the hose for outdoor watering, we cut down on water usage.”
“A rain barrel is a great way to gather water for your plants in pots and in the ground.” – Dave B.’s tips for a rainy day!
To lessen the massive use of tree products in our country, Christina uses towels and cloth napkins instead of paper towels. She is also working to make all of Curare’s receipts electronic when possible. Save the trees!
Eco-friendly travel is also a hot topic in our community. Several Curarians are committed cyclists, and commute by bicycle as often as they can. To reduce pollution, some employees utilize public transportation, or commute by walking, as much as possible.
Christina D. and her granddaughter biking around B-town!
These are just a few ways that Curarians make every day #EarthDay, and work to ensure a happier and healthier planet for everyone, including future generations. We are proud of our conscious, progressive company culture, and the people who make it great.
Happy Earth Day!