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The Resilience Challenge Is Coming! Will You Join Us In Collective Action?

When in Drought, Get a Grip on Drip

After the heavy flooding and storms in 2017, Governor Jerry Brown declared California’s five-year drought officially over last April. As a result, coverage of water conservation in the media waned, water districts cut back on rules and restrictions,

Ring in Spring with Local Honey!

With trees in blossom and the longer daylight hours, you may find yourself reaching for the lighter layers and shorts to welcome spring at your door. Although the weather may still be a bit chilly for that, you can certainly start to celebrate this s

Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Environment

One of the most rewarding sights to see in one’s garden is pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds fluttering from plant to plant. Pollinators play an important role in ecosystems, and are responsible for the growth of most flowers an

Look Who's Taking Action: Lindsay Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital

What The Heck Is A Chicken Tractor?

Backyard chickens are more popular than ever. And chicken aficionados have discovered a wide range of tools, structures, and methods of care that make the job easier and more rewarding. Perhaps one of the least known, and oddest sounding of these is

Action of the Month: Nix the Neonics

Photo by Philip Brown on Unsplash

You may have heard of neonicotinoids, or “neonics” for short, but what are they? The name literally means “new nicotine-like insecticides,” and yes, they are chemically related to nicotine. They are a class of insecti

China Says "No" To Foreign Plastics

Feeling good about all that recycling you're doing? Think again - the US exports about one-third of its recycling, and nearly half goes to China for processing. That's 13.2 million tons of scrap paper and 1.42 million tons of scrap plastics! 

Action of the Month: No Disposable Plastics

Single-use plastics like straws, utensils, and cups are everywhere, but do they have to be? Nope! Each of us can take individual actions to start a collective movement to reduce disposable plastics by simply saying no to disposables. There’s a reason

Wiping the Slate Clean: De-Cluttering the Home For a Fresh Start

It’s been four years since Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up hit the bestseller’s list, but the de-cluttering movement isn’t going away anytime soon. Converts of Kondo’s KonMari method say taking inventory of each and every ob

Look Who's Taking Action: Local Thrift Stores

More and more people are buying clothes at secondhand stores -- not just cool college students trying to save a buck. Not only can you find trendy and one-of-a-kind items at a fraction of their original cost, you can be environmental while doing so.

Look Who's Taking Action: Bike East Bay

What gets over 100 miles per gallon, produces zero carbon emissions while travelling, and runs on what you had for breakfast? A bicycle! Riding bikes is a simple, fun, healthy and significant way to reduce your carbon footprint, among many other bene

Grow More Food Permaculture Series

Back by popular demand, we’re thrilled to once again feature our permaculture workshop series
to help you learn everything you need to have an amazing, sustainable home garden. Whether
your resolutions for 2018 involve green thumbs or not, this 6-wee

All About Egg Labels

When you go to the grocery store, there are a variety of eggs to choose from: cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised, organic, Certified Humane, non-GMO, etc. What exactly do each of those labels mean?

Cage-Free: The chickens laying eggs “cage-free” a

Prune Like A Pro!

Although we’re deep into winter and summer fruit may not be at the forefront of our minds, January and February are the ideal months to tend to the fruit trees in your yard as well as the best time to plant a few new varieties.Timely trimming makes y

Look Who's Taking Action: Winter Farmer's Markets (Plus Yummy Pasta Recipe!)

December brings to mind the smell of pine, twinkle of holiday lights and warmth of
spending time with loved ones. One thing that you may be missing though? The wide array and
seemingly never-ending bounty of summer produce. Although we’ve bade farewe

10 Gift Alternatives for the Holidays

It’s officially December, which means shopping season is ramping up. Why not forego the mall this year, and consider alternatives to the typical holiday gifts? Check out the list below for some ideas: 

1. Campground Reservation - Enjoy the great outdoors

Action of the Month: Volunteer or Give Back

For many of us, the holidays are about abundance - a mountain of presents under a tree, enjoying 

huge feasts with family and friends, or decking our halls with bountiful decorations. However there are so many in Contra Costa who could use some extra

Make It A Mindful Holiday

‘Tis the season of Black Fridays, Cyber Mondays, and “Shop ‘til you drop,” but that doesn’t mean you have to partake. No one can control what others do or say, let alone holiday commercialism, but we do have the power to choose how we react. Here are

Autumn Recipe Book: Five Step Fall Salad

After an unusually warm October, the new chill in the air has all of us at Sustainable
Contra Costa thinking about pumpkin pie, mulled cider and all things fall. Whether
you’re a fiend for sweet potatoes and marshmallows or crave mashed potatoes with l