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By Michelle Martin

Didn’t get a pay raise this year? Benefits were cut? What if your job offered you a garden plot, some seeds, and a smattering of coworkers to accompany your planting and weeding during the lunch hour — and let you reap part of the bounty when it popped out from the ground?

A New York Times article pointed out an emerging trend in the business world: company gardens. From corporations such as Google and PepsiCo to small businesses, employees are joining forces to grow food on the company grounds. The produce eventually goes home with employees who helped hoe and weed, ends up at a food bank, or serves a company purpose (such as providing food for Google’s café). Sometimes companies start these projects to foster a sense of community or simply to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for everyone. Sometimes employees request and commandeer the gardens themselves.

Of course, the quality of the gardens varies quite a bit. Google’s garden is part of a complete food system including a Manager of Culinary Horticulture, who oversees the gardens. Meanwhile, PepsiCo’s garden, roughly the size of two tennis courts, dropped from more than 200 volunteer employees to 75 over the course of the year, and by mid-May few had even seeded their plots. Sometimes the initial morale drops as projects continue piling up on workers’ desks. And occasionally enthusiastic would-be-gardeners simply lose interest.

Our own editors, Shelley and Heidi, started a company garden for garden-willing employees of Ogden Publishers, which produces MOTHER EARTH NEWS. The gardeners started planning early about what design and plants everyone wanted. These employees agreed that the garden should be pretty, fun, colorful and full of edibles, and they used an approach called edible landscaping in which useful fruit and vegetable plants are beautifully arranged. (For more, check out our upcoming article on edible landscaping in our October/November 2010 issue.) Every day with suitable weather, all willing workers join together throughout the lunch hour to weed and water. So far, they have harvested lettuce, radishes, zucchini, peppers, herbs and even a few tomatoes!

A University of Essex study found that even five minutes a day of outdoor activity can substantially boost mood and self-esteem. Thus, maybe that half hour you or your employees spend tending the sprouts in the sunshine will become an investment in positivity that fuels healthy office interaction. Office gardeners also say that working alongside both superiors and inferiors has an equalizing effect on the corporate pecking order. “It takes the politics out of the job,” said Sheila Golden, a senior manager at PepsiCo, to the New York Times. “Everybody is on the same level in the garden.”

At the very least, a company-hosted community garden offers an easy and hands-on way for everyone to gain more awareness of healthy and sustainable choices. Gardens can also offer practical knowledge on how to produce one’s own food.

Plus: if you ever forget your lunch, just step outside for free nibbles! elements from the top bar.

Smell Better
Buy fragrance made from organic essential oils instead of name-brand perfume made from synthetic fragrance. You'll save $30 or more per ounce.
Essential oils made from organically grown herbs or flowers are free from the harmful chemicals used on conventionally raised flora, as well as from phthalates, which are associated with synthetic perfumes and fragrances. Certain phthalates are suspected carcinogens and can lead to hormonal and reproductive system disorders.

Laser Sharp
Invest in laser hair removal instead of waxing and save $1,500 to $2,500 for 10 years of hair removal treatment.
The paraffin wax used for hair removal is derived from petroleum, which is a nonrenewable resource, while the electricity used during laser treatment is roughly equivalent to that of a standard light bulb. And it's a change that lasts. Laser treatment can achieve permanent hair removal, whereas waxing must be done every five to six weeks.

Razor's Edge
Ditch disposable razors or refillable blades replaced weekly, and buy a rechargeable or plug-in electric razor instead. You can save a total of about $80 a year, or roughly the cost of a decent electric razor.
You'll help the planet by cutting your use of: 1,000 gallons of water (no need to run the hot water when you have an electric razor), 150 pounds of carbon dioxide from water heating energy and about 5 pounds of waste (razors, packaging and shaving cream containers). You'll save time too! Shaving with an electric razor tends to be much quicker than shaving with a disposable one.

Nailing It
Buy nail polish free of dibutyl phthalates and toluene instead of standard brand-name polish made with standard toxins. Nail polishes are among the most dangerous cosmetics. Toluene is linked to cancer, and both toluene and dibutyl phthalates are associated with developmental toxicity. You'll save up at least $10 a year, but the real savings are ecological. Fewer toxic chemicals means reduced risk of damage to wildlife, fish and ecosystems.

Bar None
Buy bars of soap instead of a plastic bottle of body wash and save up to $50 per year for a family of four and reduce waste. Bars of soap are usually minimally packaged in recyclable paper or cardboard, whereas body wash almost always comes in a plastic bottle.


Don't Count Sheets
Choose 300-count sheets instead of 600-count or higher. High thread count claims may be inflated or manufactured with thinner, lower-quality threads. Sheets made from Egyptian cotton or American-grown pima cotton are the best, regardless of thread count. They have the longest fibers, which mean they'll last the longest, and they'll save you about $100 per sheet set depending on brand and size.
Longer-lasting sheets, by definition, need to be replaced less frequently. Growing cotton requires energy, water, land and large quantities of agrochemicals. Processing, sewing and transport (most cotton items are made overseas) involve additional energy and resources. How is this good for you? If you're not buying super-expensive sheets, you're staying away from luxury linen departments—which can be major money suckers.

Unscrew Around
Even though things may look a bit bare (I prefer to think of it as "minimalist"), you can cut your energy consumption significantly—and save up to $90 in electricity costs, as well as the costs of bulb replacement—by disabling half of the bulbs in multibulb light fixtures.
You will conserve an estimated 875 kilowatt-hours of energy by eliminating 10 60-watt bulbs that are normally on for an average of four hours per day. But be sure to leave enough illumination so that your eyes aren't strained.


Feed Each Other
Share a meal with your date and save $25 or more each time out. You will either prevent food from being wasted or avoid the burden of carting home an oversize foam to-go box that will inevitably be crammed into an undersize trashcan.
It's not only about being good. You'll also save room for dessert! Plus, what's less romantic than the car stinking of garlic the next morning because you forgot to take in the leftovers?


Joy to the Soy
Buy soy candles instead of paraffin wax candles. You can save $10 for equivalent burn time. And soy wax burns cleanly, emitting 90 percent less pollution than paraffin wax candles, which are made from petroleum and are as dirty as diesel exhaust. Soy is a renewable resource, whereas paraffin is nonrenewable, made from crude oil. Another benefit is improved indoor air quality and reduced exposure to the 11 carcinogenic compounds associated with paraffin wax candle soot.