Grass is green. Four-leaf clovers are green. My favorite apples are green (Granny Smith for those of you keeping track). Green beans are, well…green. It seems like a lot of my favorite things are green! But it sort of goes beyond that – green is more than just my favorite color. It’s a way of life for me.

If you read our blog recently, then you probably read a little bit about my experiences in working with environmental nonprofits last year in Asheville through the AmeriCorps Project Conserve program. It was there that I learned a lot about the environmental issues affecting not only the mountainous region of our great state, but of the whole country. Thankfully, I also learned lots of ways that we can minimize our personal impact. Every Thursday on this blog, I am going to start sharing some of these “thoughts” with you – little tips on living a little greener each and every single day — what I’d like to call Clairemont’s “Green Thought Thursdays.”

So why don’t we stop beating around our proverbial little green bush and kick start it off with our very first official Green Thought –

#1: Unplug your computer/phone chargers when not in use!

There’s no denying that most folks have computers and cell phones these days, and subsequently, there’s no denying that most folks also have computer chargers and phone chargers, too. But what most folks might not know is that regardless of whether or not your phone or computer is plugged into its charger, that charger is still busy converting power.

Think about it this way, as blogger Tina Casey from Clean Technica put it – “The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that energy vampires such as chargers and electronic devices in standby mode waste about 5% of household energy use in the U.S. That translates into about 65 billion kilowatt hours of wasted electricity per year, and chargers are the biggest culprits.”

The Union of Concerned Scientists also stated that the power being wasted by things like phone chargers and computers chargers is costing consumers more than $5.8 billion annually and is sending more than 87 billion pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Yikes.

So next time you’re finished charging your phone or computer, how about unplugging it? It’s the green thing to do!

Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. For Clairemont, Earth Day resulted in all kinds of goodness!

Since the beginning of the year and the first week Clairemont opened, we’ve been planning for Earth Day activities at Briar Chapel by Newland Communities which included a celebrity chef charity event that benefited The Abundance Foundation and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. In addition to getting to work with smart, creative and nice clients at Briar Chapel, we had the pleasure of getting to know the chefs, managers and owners at Busy Bee Cafe, Irregardless Cafe and Carolina Inn. As a result, we improved our connections for insider information on some of the best food in the Triangle and made some great new friends.