MiniMonos Members Changing The World

From the beginning, MiniMonos was designed to have a purpose beyond profit. That purpose is to show unconditional love to children and the planet; to be a place that is fun first while embodying powerful core values; to be a virtual world that both affects and is affected by the physical one.

We'd like to give you an update on how well we're living up to that vision.

By way of context, MiniMonos has just passed 250,000 registered members! This is a huge milestone and we're honored and humbled by the kids who choose to play on our site.

Each of those 250,000 kids has helped change the world. Here's how:

Clean water for kids in India

Every time someone buys a Gold membership or virtual good on MiniMonos, a child in India gets clean water through our partnership with Buy1Give1 and the Bird India charity. Our partnership with renewable power company Meridian Energy also provided a year of clean water for 20 kids! So far MiniMonos kids have helped provide 18,492 days of clean water to children in India.

Adopting Orangutans

We adopted our first orangutan, Monti, to celebrate our first 50 Gold members, and our second, Kesi, when we reached 250. We welcomed Pingky and Neng to the MiniMonos Orangutan Family when we officially launched out of Beta. Our "adoptions" go to support the work of the extraordinary Orangutan Outreach organization.

But that's not all! Two of our extraordinary MiniMonos members, Viper and Calypso were so moved by the plight of the orangutans that they adopted their own orangutans! Last September they adopted Mimi and Momo, seen here. Viper and Calypso have been a part of the MiniMonos community since the beginning, and have shown themselves to be such incredible leaders that they have officially joined the staff!

Contributed to the WWF Tiger Initiative

Just because "MiniMonos" means "Little Monkeys" doesn't mean we only support primates! Another project we got behind was the WWF Tiger Initiative. We partnered with WWF-NZ to sell virtual tiger suits -- and every time a MiniMonos member buys a tiger suit for their online monkey to wear, a donation gets made to the WWF TX2 project to double the wild tiger population by 2022. 

MiniMonos EcoMonkeys completing real-world projects

Of all the ways MiniMonos members have made the world a better place, the MiniMonos EcoMonkey program is probably the one we're most proud of -- because it's driven by the kids themselves, making an extraordinary difference, every day, in their own communities. 

The recently launched MiniMonos EcoMonkey program supports kids to tackle a real-world environmental project and earn virtual rewards on MiniMonos Island. They publish their ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos, explain why they chose their eco-project, and describe how they feel when they have completed it.

One determined US player, MiniJghRocks, campaigned to have a paper recycling program implemented at his school. Although his principals agreed, the superintendent reversed the decision, saying that similar programs in near-by schools had failed due to lack of support from the students. As MiniJghRocks explained: “Since it costs money to recycle (at least where I live) they decided it wasn’t worth the extra funds to put in something that wouldn’t be used. It makes sense right? Well, we then decided to start a petition, to prove that kids would actually use the recycling system!” The result was over 500 student signatures.

MiniJghRocks also enlisted the help of his math teacher to calculate that the amount of paper his school throws away, translated to 1,540 trees cut down per year. He wrote: “Next, we presented to our superintendent, showing him the facts, signatures, and a bit of the EcoMonkey Blog. He sat listening for a while, and [when] we finished, he, in response, also signed our petition!”

On successful implementation of the recycling program at his school, MiniJghRocks described it as: “Awesome! It’s soooo awesome. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot and have truly changed the world, even if it’s just a little. I’m very happy. It’s just so cool :D” You can read all about MiniJghRocks' EcoMonkey Project here.

Other MiniMonos players have created eco-projects such as switching to eco-light bulbs, up-cycling old clothes to make toys, planting gardens, making useful items out of recycled materials and cleaning rivers and lakes. In all, 34 kids have completed eco-projects so far!

Our aim with the MiniMonos EcoMonkey program is simple: One million kids taking real-world eco-action as a result of playing on MiniMonos.

We're in awe of the way MiniMonos kids are making the world a better place every day, and we hope you are, too. Thanks for supporting us, and them, on this extraordinary journey!

New York’s greenest office building shows the beauty of sustainability

I love it when sustainable things are more awesome than non-sustainable things.

The Danish architect Bjarke Ingels once said that, thanks to the modern environmental movement, we’ve gradually come to believe that sustainable life is less fun than normal life. But, to me, architecture in particular and real estate development in general has demonstrated exactly the opposite: some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, the most interesting, the places you’d most like to work out of, are built with sustainability right at the forefront.

The Durst Organization’s One Bryant Park is a great example of this. Located just off Times Square, it’s the second tallest building in New York and the first ever platinum LEED certified high-rise office building. It’s also where Al Gore has his New York office. And the other day, Alexander Durst was kind enough to give me a tour of the building.

The big thing with sustainable building is energy consumption, and the big thing with energy consumption in a high-rise is cooling. Even in winter, office buildings capture and trap heat that needs to be dispersed. So we started our tour at the chillers, around 80 feet below the Manhattan streets.

Essentially giant air-conditioning units, these chillers work best and most efficiently when they’re running full blast. So, rather than waste energy by having a bunch of chillers the same size operating at less than full capacity, One Bryant Park employs a variety of chillers of different sizes -- from 600 to 1,200 tons -- and adjusts the configuration as cooling requirements fluctuate throughout the year.

Keeping track of the chillers’ performance, as well as the building as a whole, means keeping track of a lot of data, so a giant display makes it easy to see at a glance how the chillers are doing, what the temperature is on each floor, and even what the CO2 levels are on each floor. If there’s too much CO2, people get sleepy -- and it’s a well-known fact that people tend to work less while they’re sleeping.

Another problem with energy consumption in office buildings is that it’s erratic. During the day, while everyone’s at work, it spikes dramatically, while at night it’s almost non-existent. But for power companies, this is a big problem. They have to have enough capacity to handle the heavy daytime loads, but they can’t just switch it off when people go home. So they make it a lot cheaper to buy power at night.

One Bryant Park addresses this problem by using the cheap night power to make ice, and then using the ice to help cool the building during the day. Although the ice storage units take up around 100 times the space of an equivalent chiller, it’s far more energy efficient for the building itself, and helps level out the demand for the power company.

On individual floors, instead of cooling from the top down -- which requires unnecessary effort to cool the rising hot air -- the air is cooled from the bottom up. One Bryant Park’s attention to air quality is so good that the air inside is actually cleaner than the air outside!

The developers worked very closely with the city to make sure One Bryant Park would be a good neighbor; the results are evident in the free public space, filled with greenery, that’s open to everyone. They also maintained the façade of the historic Henry Miller theater, the only theater in New York where you enter at street level to find yourself at the top of the balcony, and have to descend to get down to the stage.

Finally, being the second tallest building in New York has its perks, and one of them is this: a stunning view of the tallest, the Empire State Building.

One Bryant Park is the kind of building you’d want to be in even if you didn’t care a bit about the environment. It’s beautiful, spacious, has lots of natural light and just feels good. Far from being “less fun” than normal buildings, it’s actually more desirable. I don’t know about you, but if this is what sustainability is all about, I’m in.

MiniMonos Friday Featured Friend – AED: Ideas Changing Lives.

  Photo by job_earth on Flickr.com

Don’t you love it when you find people on the same page as you? Our Friday Featured Friend this week are working towards a world in which “all individuals have the opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute to the well-being of their family, community, country, and world.”

We’re there too. So this week’s Friday Featured Friend is AED: Ideas Changing Lives.

AED are a nonprofit organization working to improve education, health, social development in more than 150 countries around the world.  

With more that 3,000 staff working on over 300 programs around the world, AED are driven by a “commitment to making a positive difference in the world and in people’s lives, particularly for those who are underserved.”

Making a positive difference is what MiniMonos is all about. We’re a community where kids from all over the world to meet up, chat and play safely. So the work of AED’s Centre for Youth Development and Engagement really resonated with us. 

They’re running Youth Leadership programs, Peace Building programs, and Workforce Skills programs to set youth up for a better future.

Not only are AED doing great work with youth, but their Environment and Energy program also talks the MiniMonos language: it focuses on behavior change related to the problems of sustainable development and environmental protection.

AED have just become the newest member of NetHope, a collaboration of the world's leading international humanitarian organizations working together to solve common problems in the developing world. 

There’s a wealth of info on the AED website so have a look around and check out the great work they’re doing.

Releasing butterflies into the wild

I love butterflies and I am sure many of you do too. There is something so incredibly heartwarming about their beauty, delicacy, and tenacity. The fact that some live a mere day is also quite astounding to me, while others take incredible journeys in order to escape from colder climes as winter comes.

So it is great to learn about people who are helping to ensure that endangered butterflies are being given another chance to thrive. The Nature Conservancy is doing a fantastic job of releasing butterflies into the wild to try and boost numbers back up again. For example, in this brief video you can see Hannah Anderson, a biologist working with The Nature Conservancy, releasing the Taylor's Checkerspot butterfly into the South Puget Sound:

What I love about seeing butterflies being released into the wild is knowing that we can play an important stewardship role by intervening with a positive action that can make a big difference. My hat always goes off to the many, many people dedicated to working hard on protecting and renewing the chances of endangered species everywhere.

If you'd like to share your stories about butterflies in your garden, please leave your comments below. If you have any photos, it'd be lovely if you wished to share them too!

Where are you on a blustery day?

It's raining, the wind's howling, and even the dog wants to say inside to keep warm. Is this a good time to be outside?

I say yes... at least sometimes! Provided everyone's in good physical shape, with no colds, snuffles, or other ailments and provided it's not gale force winds, then getting outside when the weather is less than optimal is a definite must to shake off the cabin fever blues!

And I love to help show to everyone who feels distinctly otherwise that the environment is such a fun place to spend time, whatever nature's mood. Maybe it's the eager mom in me, or maybe it's just because I'm weather-stubborn, but I think it's really important that we get out there even when it's windy and a little on the chilly side. For example, we had a ball during a storm on a recent chilly and windy weekend taking a walk in the rain with all our wet gear on. Although the wind was howling and the day gray and blustery, in the spirit of embracing nature in all her forms, I decided it was worth getting out there.

There were grumbles. There were "do we have to's?" and there was even the "no I won't!" stubborn foot stamp. I won though and we had such a wonderful time despite getting wet and a little cold. Our walk showed us just how incredible nature can look when the wind howls through trees, and the rain lashes down on leaves, bushes, and the stream. The light was extraordinary and the colors were just beautiful. We didn't overdo it, and we rewarded ourselves with a hot chocolate treat in a cafe at the end of our walk - what better than that?!

Do you enjoy getting out in nature when she's not at her best, at least as far as we are concerned? (After all, the ducks don't seem so bothered!) Are there ways that you make the most of being out in nature when it's not as cheery as a sunny day? Please share your comments.

From food garbage to food gold

 

Americans throw out nearly 30 million tons of food every year—27 million of it from supermarkets, restaurants, and convenience stores. This is 25% of all food produced.

It is always delightful to find innovative companies that take what is an enormous problem and turn it into an enormously helpful solution. Eco Scraps is one such company that I think has a bright future ahead.

Started by a Brigham Young University student concerned about the amount of food left thrown out after eating at a favorite restaurant, Utah- based Eco Scraps has been winning innovation awards in the US, and is set to revolutionize the food scrap challenge. Basically, Eco Scraps collects the food that is otherwise thrown away from local restaurants and grocery stores, and turns it into high quality soil conditioner, using a completely organic process.

Gardeners use soil conditioners to improve the soil’s nutrient content. Eco Scraps says that most of the compost-manure based amendments on the market have high organic content but low nutrient values, so this initiative is a win-win situation where our food waste is turned into something that is not only incredibly useful but has the “same nutrient values as chemical based soil amendments”. Eco Scraps says that it is offering the only soil amendment on the market that “offers the best of both worlds”.

Their wonderful new product is offered for sale at local nurseries in Utah and apparently they’re producing 60,000 pounds of compost every month and it’s selling fast. I definitely think this fantastic idea is going to catch on!

What do you think of this initiative? Do you know of anything similar? Please share your comments.

Environmental education rocks

After writing my recent story about the benefits from children learning in nature, I have been clued into finding out more about what is happening to encourage children to spend time outdoors. And in my travels, I came across this wonderful video from the No Child Left Inside Coalition. (The NCLI Coalition is a national coalition of over 1600 business, health, youth, faith, recreational, environmental, and educational groups. They represent over 50 million Americans wanting environmental education as part of the school curriculum.)

I love the emphasis in this video on what outdoor learning can do benefit our children (and you can see the joy on the adult teachers' faces too!). The video makes clear links between outdoor learning and better grades, improved critical thinking, and the one all of us moms and dads love -- the best possible opportunity for children to release their pent-up energy. Most fun of all, the video clearly shows the joy children experience from learning while in nature:

I've always found learning is so much easier when I'm outdoors. I remember the glee at school when the teacher would say, "OK girls, it's a sunny day, let's read outside under the willows today". We'd all be out like a shot. The fact that half of us were distracted by grass, leaves, and digging up the soil made it all the more exciting - and interestingly, this rarely bothered the teacher who also relaxed.  Indeed, anything we did that involved learning outdoors was also such a relief, so enlivening, so "real".

And I still see it with my own child. I am one of those parents who says yes to school outings that involve natural visits (yes, even that exhausting hike up a local mountain) because, quite frankly, I love to see that glow of joy on the children's faces. I love watching them roll in the grass and yell at one another that "here comes another cow pad! Duuuuuuck!" What's also fascinating is seeing the relaxed faces of moms and dads too. We huddle in our chat groups, remarking how wonderful it is to see our children running about, yelling with joy, getting dirty, while we don't have to worry. It's that sense of release from daily care that nature instills in all people that I love most.

What are your favorite moments in nature with your children? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Letting go of stuff

We’re not greedy, we say. It’s everyone else who is acquiring useless stuff. ~ Judith Levine

I've found that despite reading quite a number of self-help decluttering books, actually shifting stuff out of my house, out of my comfort zone, out of my life, isn’t always simple. More and more I realize how easy it is to lapse into keeping and longing for too much stuff, all the while recognizing that stuff isn’t going to change my life for the better.

So, why do we gather stuff and why do we hang on to it, often long after it has served any useful purpose? Often for me it's about emotional ties - there is the stuff people give me that I feel obliged to keep, and there is the stuff that speaks to me of good times or of times I held on and made it through despite the odds. For me, a lot of my stuff speaks to my past, a past I have often yet to make peace with. I realize that even that’s an excuse – emotional pain forming a barrier to utilizing common sense but still, it's very real.

Deep down, I also know that it’s the memory in my mind’s storage that needs dusting off the most. When I’ve learned to dissociate memories from stuff, I know I’ll find it easier to let go. Until then, I'll keep trying to spend wisely, declutter when the mood descends, and ask myself “Do I really need that?”. There will be times this doesn't work, but I'll keep working on it.

In creating a pathway to a more minimalist lifestyle, I'm going to practice:

• Acceptance that I am the sum of my relationships, my health, my dreams, my hopes, my sanity, my connections, and not the sum of what I have.

• Self-forgiveness for my inevitable moments of weakness while living in a society driven by a “stuff solution” for every problem.

• Realization that she who dies with the most toys doesn't delay the inevitable. It’s the journey that matters, not the collecting, it's the legacy of who I am, the love I have spread, that lives on, not what I owned.

So now there’s another “R” for me. Recycle, reuse, reduce, and release.

How do you let go of the "stuff" that isn't either useful or beautiful in your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

From a living treehouse on MiniMonos to a living home on Earth

Our monkeys on MiniMonos have their own living treehouses. It's a delightful part of increasing each players' awareness of living in harmony with their surrounds, and caring for a living home that forms an integral part of their enjoyment.

I love the idea of a living home. But I wasn't ready to transfer the idea from every monkey's cozy MiniMonos virtual treehouse into my real world - the thought seemed rather far-fetched.

Then I came across this amazing concept by Mitchell Joachim. He proposes that we can actually grow our own homes using "pleaching"  -- grafting trees together. He combines architecture and biology to help nature's design, to create what he calls a "Fab Tree Hab" (sounds very much like what our monkeys think of their treehouses!).

And then there are the meat houses - weird looking but fascinating blobs of "meat", which are actually from cells grown in test tubes (not from harming sentient beings). Although I was a bit grossed out by these ones (I mean, I don't see myself living in a liver!), the ideas are intriguing, and the possibilities for our mindful creativity combined with nature are totally inspiring. Anyway, you can take a peek for yourself in this short video:

I'm not sure how soon we'll be able to put in an order for our living houses in the real world. It wouldn't surprise me in the least though, if our awesome MiniMonos kids will be able to have their own living homes for real in the near future. And I'm sure they'll remember fondly their virtual living treehouse on MiniMonos, perhaps as one important seed that helped to boost their belief in their own creativity and strength of purpose for creating a beautiful future world.

I'd love to know what sort of living home you'd fancy, or if you even like these ideas. Please feel free to share your ideas and comments.

Strengthening the bond between children and nature

I'm a big fan of the Children & Nature Network (C&NN). This network has been inspiring my musings about getting my own child back into nature more often, as well as thinking about the bigger picture -- I still struggle with the realities that growing up as a farm child, I had a far freer, more natural upbringing than my own child does, even with all my attempts to fit on his rapidly outgrown hiking boots every summer!

One initiative of C&NN's that I've learned about recently is the Natural Leader's Network. The Natural Leaders Network empowers a worldwide youth movement to strengthen the bond between children and nature. Launched in 2008, it's aimed at encouraging young leaders to take decisive action against nature-deficit disorder. I find it immensely wonderful that this encourages youth to take the helm in getting children back into nature -- it's a win-win situation for all participants, from leadership skills to learning fun!

What is so fantastic about C&NN is how it enables us, whether we're parents, grandparents, community leaders, teachers, or any concerned adult, by giving us the tools, the networking support, and the encouragement to get our own and our community's children involved in nature activities.

You can become involved in C&NN more broadly, or share the information on the Natural Leaders Network with your teens or young adults, by:

• Signing up to C&NN
• Suggesting to young people you know that they might like to join the Natural Leaders Network
• Downloading the Nature Clubs for Families Tookit (it's so cool!)
• Reading the C&NN blog Field Notes from the Future 
• Browsing through all the C&NN site for inspiration and ideas.

The toolkits provided by C&NN are just great. They are like a road map to figure out how to get started, and they give you plenty of neat ideas and examples for building your own Network or Family Nature Club. And if you do anything that you want to share with others, to give them ideas and inspiration, you can list your nature activities and they'll appear on a map on the site!

I've joined up and I'm looking forward to learning more and getting my family and our local children more active by using the C&NN suggestions.

What are some of the nature activities you like doing the most with your children? Please share your thoughts in the comments.