Here is an article from The Green Office Blog on trying to make your 4th of July a Green one:

With a globally warm summer already upon us and Independence Day just around the corner, the question on a lot of people’s minds is: how in the world am I going to have a “sustainable” Fourth of July? For a holiday steeped in the traditions of grilled meat and over-the-top pyrotechnic displays, is such a thing even possible?

We think it is, and to that end we’ve compiled a list of five easy steps you can take to make your red, white, and blue just a little bit greener.

Step 1 : Eat sustainably

What is sustainable eating? It’s a combination of a lot of things, but from an environmental perspective, the idea is to avoid foods that have been:

There are, of course, a host of other factors to consider on your next trip to the grocery store, many of which are covered in depth at websites like Food First and The Center For Informed Food Choices, but these are the big environmental ones.

Step 2 : Green your barbecue

As a sometime backyard griller, I’ve always wondered about the relative environmental impact of charcoal vs. propane. Now I know.
In order of greenness, your best bets are:

  1. Sustainably forested or produced charcoal, like Wicked Good Charcoal, which is made from “reclaimed” industrial woodscraps, or Kingsford Charwood, which is initially charred using the heat from a cogeneration turbine;
  2. Propane, which is a distant second because of its oilfield origins, but nevertheless has ~1/3 the emissions of charcoal per BTU at time of burning;
  3. Non-sustainably produced briquettes, which are often held together with petroleum-based adhesives.

Step 3 : Use biodegradable picnicware

This is a shameless plug for our petroleum-free, biodegradable picnicware, but it’s shameless because this stuff is so amazingly good for the environment. When going reusable just isn’t feasible, there’s a whole new generation of plates, bowls, cups, and utensils that are made entirely out of vegetable starch and 100% compostable, and they’re affordable enough to fit even the tiniest entertainment budget. These things seriously blow my mind every time I see them.

Step 4 : Cut back on the fireworks

Fireworks are a conundrum, because they’re such an integral part of the July 4th holiday, yet they’re really just inexcusably awful for the environment.

Our advice is to leave the backyard explosives at the supermarket and get your high-decibel jollies at something far less toxic, like one of the many concerts surely happening in your town.

As for the big aerial shows that happen no matter what, it’s too late for 2007, but you can still talk to whoever’s in charge of planning next year’s display and encourage them to pick a vendor using Sekon biodegradable fireworks and (no joke) Walt Disney gunpowder-free “air launch” technology. You’d be surprised how receptive event organizers can be.

Step 5 : Celebrate your Independence!

At the end of the day, July 4th is about celebrating American independence. And it can be easy to forget that independence isn’t an event, so much as an ongoing process. America remains the land of the free, but if you look closely, there’s a surprising number of shackles we the people still need to shake off, chief among them energy dependency.

There’s a new energy bill coming together in Congress, and our lawmakers need to hear from all of us.

Take ten minutes to familiarize yourself with the issues here, here, and here, then another ten minutes to send your representative a quick email of support, condemnation, motivational pictures of singing cat-loaves, or whatever, just to let them know that their constituents are alive and well and counting on them to vote responsibly.

For extra credit, you can jump on this project over at The Oil Drum.

We hope you found this helpful, and would love to know if you have any other tips or ideas for a green Fourth of July. Happy Independence Day from TheGreenOffice.com!

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