• 

  • Greenheart

    Greenheart is a movement promoting environmentally sustainable principles and practices, personal evolution and social transformation.
• 

  • Casita Verde

    Situated in a beautiful valley near the village of San Jose in Ibiza, La Casita Verde is a model ecological centre that is operated by volunteers and open to the public on Sundays.
• 

  • Greenheart Music

    GreenHeartMusic is a music platform based in Ibiza, Spain. Presenting artists of different influences who express their connections to nature through their music.
• 

  • Guía Verde a Ibiza y Formentera

    A bi-lingual directory to Ibiza and Formentera of local groups, businesses and services that offer or use environmentally friendly practices.
• 

  • QL Studio › Websites Made Easy

    Quinta Linda is a low-impact living space and website design studio based in Portugal.
• 

  • Greenheart Resonancia

    An educational and fun programme of practical, stimulating experiences discovering sustainable and respectful habits in order to face the realities of climate change.
• 

  • Green Ibiza Tours

    Our Green Ibiza Tours provide responsible tourism holidays in Ibiza offering a full programme of eco activities and nature happenings.
• 

  • Greenheart Traveler

    With the aim of promoting the Greenheart message around the world, travelling members of the rapidly growing Greenheart family will write blogs and add photos of their travels.
• 

  • Ibiza Gold

    The Greenheart Carob project plans to rejuvenate an important traditional economic activity, as well as motivating many local land owners.
• 

  • Fundación por el Futuro
• 

  • Tienda Greenheart

    At the Greenheart Shop you can find out about responsible consumption and ecological happenings in Ibiza. Featuring our very own Greenheart clothing range made from ecological fabrics and with fair trade considerations.

Ecological Living Guide

This page lists Greenheart's recommended actions to limit waste and conserve energy in as many areas of our lives as possible. And we provide below a simple Guide to living more ecologically.

In the Kitchen

• Separate your garbage.
• When making hot drinks, only boil the amount of water you actually need.
• When washing large amounts of dishes, use two washing up bowls - one with soapy water for washing and another with clean water for rinsing.
• Fit water saving devices to taps wherever possible.
• Use soaps and cleaning liquids which do not damage your skin or the environment.

Around the House

• Turn off lights when you leave a room, even if only for a few minutes
• Replace standard lamps with low-consumption light bulbs, or compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs in spaces where lights are needed for long periods of time.
• Clean lamps annually by wiping off the dust. However, never clean an incandescent bulb while it is turned on. The cooling effect might shatter a hot bulb.

In the Bathroom

• Take showers instead of baths whenever possible, and only use as much water as necessary to get clean.
• Fit water saving devices to taps, shower-heads and to toilet cistern (a cheap trick for this is to introduce a plastic bottle, filled with sand, in the toilet cistern - this will save litres and litres of water every day!).
• Use only natural shampoos and conditioners wherever possible.
• Use alternative, non chlorine-based cleaning products for toilets and drains.
• Avoid the use of chemical drugs and treatments, especially those tested on animals.
• Choose effective natural products which are neither harmful to you, nor the environment.
• Remember to dispose of your old medicines by returning them to the pharmacy, instead of dumping them with the household garbage.
• The production of chemical drugs and medicines is profit-based, with very little care taken to count the long-term side-effects, nor the unnecessary suffering of animals used in testing. Natural medicines, used in the correct doses are rarely dangerous and can usually be developed without animal testing.
• Out of date natural medicines can safely be thrown away and do not require special treatment.

In the Garden

• Avoid using chemical pest controllers, weed killers or fertilizers, choosing natural alternatives wherever possible.
• Many snail and slug poisons also kill dogs, cats and other animals. Some pesticides can inadvertently kill harmless, or even useful species. Chemical weed killers often poison ground water, local rivers and ponds.
• The long-term use of chemical fertilizers eventually results in the destruction of natural soil fertility.
• Investigate the marvels of local, autoctonous plant species, and introduce them in your garden, instead of planting exotic plants which consume more water and could 'escape' from your garden, threatening the wildlife in your area.

At Work

• Cut the paper trail - copy on both sides of the paper
• Make recycling easy
• Recycle your printer cartridge
• Ask smokers to smoke outside
• Clean up the source of bad smells, rather than use "Air Fresheners".

At School

At lunchtime:

• Insist on drinking from a real cup or mug and not from a plastic one.
• The use of throw-away cutlery should be avoided.
• Try to choose food which is made locally. This reduces the energy used to transport the food.

In the classroom

There are many ways to be more ecological in the classroom but it nearly always depends on help from the teachers. Simply by...

• using both sides of your paper
• using a fountain pen instead of a throw-away plastic pen
• if you don't want to use a fountain pen, then try to find a biro with a body made from carton or bio-degradable material.
• making sure that waste paper, used books and other types of rubbish are separated
• using note-books and note-pads made from recycled, or alternative paper sources

...you can begin to improve your own ecological footprint, whilst still at school.

In the Community

Rubbish disposal

Try at all times to dispose of your rubbish in a correct manner, using recycling containers wherever available.

Recycling

Please separate your rubbish and use recycling containers correctly. Rubbish separation depends on individual co-operation. Recycling can only be effective with active help from the local citizens.

Public spaces

Please respect public places and try to appreciate that they are for everyone to enjoy. Don't drop litter and try not to do things which will upset other people using the same place. Public parks, gardens, walkways and recreational areas are created for the benefit of everyone. If they are to remain 'open for public use', then they should be maintained in clean condition 'by the public who use them'! (With a little help from the local authorities).

Local green groups

If you believe that we should be more aware of our local environment and should take an active role in the conservation of our common life support system, then why not support one or more of your local ecological organisations?

Local green groups are normally made up of people who are concerned about our planet and who would like to participate in making a sustainable future for all. There are by now many different groups to choose from, depending on your particular interest. They need your support!

If you live in Ibiza, there are three ecological organisations – Gen (www.gengob.org), Ibiza Ecologic and Amigos de la Tierra (www.amics-terra.org).

Shopping

Make the environment a factor when choosing what to buy. Organic and locally produced products are kinder to the environment. Genetically-modified food, products with a lot of packaging and products made in countries that use child and slave labour have not been produced with the welfare of people or the environment in mind.

• GM products : Genetic modification (GM) involves the artificial insertion of a foreign gene into the genetic material of an organism in an essentially random way. Originally thought to be a breakthrough in agricultural science, it may turn out to be an uncontrollable nightmare.
• See www.soilassociation.org
• Organic products : Organic products are those which are produced using only natural fertilizers and growing techniques. They are normally a little more expensive, involving more manual farming methods but have more nutritional value and no negative effect on our environment.
• Local products : Wherever it's possible, try to buy locally grown food and locally made products. This not only helps to sustain the local economy, it also reduces the enormous amount of air pollution from unnecessary road and air cargo transport.
• Markets : The increase of local food and products markets all over the world is a very encouraging movement. Please try to support them whenever you can.
• Sweatshops and child labour : It's quite a complicated shopping trip to buy products that are not made by people, including children, who have been exploited during the manufacturing process. Try to investigate the origin of products, especially products like sportswear, before you buy them. See www.getethical.com

Shopping bags

Plastic shopping bags are causing a huge pollution problem all over the world. As well as littering the landscape, they find their way into rivers, seas and oceans. Please remember to take your own shopping bag and help to reduce this unnecessary pollution!

On Holiday

Transport

The increase of air travel during the last decades is causing an enormous air pollution problem. Aviation fuel is not taxed and there are few restrictions on pollution from airplanes. The only just way to combat this problem would be to improve the efficiency of modern air transport, so that pollution levels can be drastically reduced.

You can also offset your carbon consumption through specialist companies such as www.co2balance.com.

Ecotourism

Tourism is perhaps the fastest growing industry on the planet. The world-wide increase of environmental awareness has resulted in the promotion of a less destructive style of tourism.

Please try to choose a holiday that is more respectful to both the local population and to the environment. Read more about a more responsible way of holidaying in our Eco Tourism section.

WWoofing

WOOF stands for "Working on organic farms". Some of its aims are to enable people to learn first-hand about organic growing techniques and to enable town-dwellers to experience living and helping on a farm. Volunteers work in exchange for food and board. Woofing is a great way to learn many things, meet local people, experience local culture and travel ecologically! See www.wwoof.org

On a picnic

Please leave the picnic area either the same, or perhaps even cleaner than when you arrived. No-one really wants to have their picnic in the middle of a rubbish dump and yet many leave all their litter for the next people to find. Take re-useable plates, glasses, cups and cutlery whenever you can, or at least products made from recyclable materials.

Be careful when lighting fires or making your barbeque in forest areas and check local legislation on 'no fire seasons'. Recycle used bottles, cans and paper.

Use clean-burning gas grills or chemical-free charcoal instead of the standard barbeques.

At the beach

Bring a bag to put your rubbish in, and, if you smoke, a tin for butts. Do not disturb local flora and fauna. Respect the natural environment. Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but your footprints!

Ecoliving Guide

A simple ecologic guide to living more responsibly.

• When you go out shopping, try to buy only what you really need. This saves you money, conserves natural resources and reduces pollution.
• Choose products made or produced in an environmentally friendly way (not tested on animals, avoid meat full of hormones and antibiotics or things made using underpaid child labour in developing countries). This reduces unnecessary suffering of both animals and people who may have been exploited in the making of the product you are buying.
• Wherever possible, buy products packed in returnable or at least recyclable containers and with a minimum of packaging material. This reduces consumption of non renewable resources and the introduction of more solid waste into our environment.
• Avoid buying products containing harmful additives, or which have been contaminated with toxic chemicals during their production. Inform yourself well, this could save your life!
• Reduce your consumption of energy, installing energy saving devices (low consumption light bulbs and electrical appliances etc) wherever possible and don’t leave them switched on when not in use. This saves you money, causes less pollution and helps to conserve natural resources.
• Use only as much fresh water as you really need, installing water saving devices on taps and showers etc. Also, use eco friendly products for washing, so that waste water may be recycled more effectively. This helps to conserve the Earth’s most precious resource and reduces contamination of our environment.
• Plan your use of motor-powered transport, reduce your journey’s to a minimum and choose economic models which use less fuel and pollute less. This saves you money, reduces congestion of the roads, reduces contamination of the atmosphere and helps to conserve natural resources. It also reduces the shipment of large quantities of petroleum products, with the continuous risk of accidents resulting in huge environmental disasters.
• Support recycling projects, by separating your rubbish and depositing recyclable materials in their correct containers. This encourages local authorities to continue improving their recycling schemes and also gives you a good feeling to be doing at least something positive for your environment.
• Do not ignore your own possibility to help conserve our natural environment by acting in a responsible and ecological way. The actions of each individual, multiplied by the number of people taking the same action is having an enormous effect on our collective future.
• Do not be frustrated. Just try to live as ecologically as you can. Once you have discovered that the Planet Earth and our natural environment are as much a part of your future life as your own body, you will probably want to do all you can to ensure its survival.

IF WE ALL BEGIN NOW TO EVOLVE ECOLOGICALLY, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!