April 22, 2010 will mark Earth Day. After forty years of Earth Days, we have come to expect traditional "tree" activity in honor of the event. This April drill is distinguished from the December drill in that these trees are all live, usually deciduous and without the string of lights.

Let’s spend the occasion this year adding something different. We can celebrate Earth Day by playing “doctor” and following the Hippocratic Oath. We are the physicians and the earth is our patient:

1. Be nature’s helping hand.
2. Do no harm.
3. Prescribe regimen for the good of the patient (our planet) according to ability and judgment.

We can prescribe a green regimen on scientific bases. Learn which personal choices cause more damage to the planet before deciding which habits to change. Measure your ecological footprint at www.earthday.net/footprint2. After answering some questions about your lifestyle, an on-line calculation appears to determine your ecological footprint score. You can return to the quiz to see how the footprint would change if you changed a practice. The quiz taker can then make smart choices or smart prescriptions to help heal the planet.

The AWCB Clubhouse takes steps to be green every day of the year. Here are some of those ways:

• There is a new cistern currently being installed under the deck to collect rainwater. After filtering, this water will be used in our taps.
• The Club uses the Brussels Blue Bags for recyclable products and also recycles white paper. Even though the Club’s commune doesn’t accept used glass, Chef Elizabeth recycles the glass bottles by taking them to her own commune’s bottle bank.
• Our Clubhouse location is easily accessible by public transportation buses. Car owner or not, you can still commute to the Clubhouse by bus on occasion. When you do drive, offer to share the ride with a friend, or use this as a reason to make a friend. Bus “W” or #365 work from the city, but look on-line to find the best bus route from your neighborhood.
• Florescent lights are in the kitchen, and energy efficient, long-life light bulbs are used to replace burned ones elsewhere in the building.
• The Club library service is a great green asset, circulating each book to numerous readers. The library has two copies of best-selling Earth in the Balance by Al Gore among its collection of ecology books. The “bring one- take one” magazine and bookrack just outside the library door also is a paper saver.
• Club DVD rentals minimizes other “products,” which helps the green effort. Over time, the cost to the individual drops and the home storage needs shrink.
• The Gift Boutique uses post-dated and Team Allied shopping bags (leftover from the Holiday Bazaar) before using new ones, and reuses the protective packaging materials coming from the vendors.
• All the building lights go off at night and there is currently a “house call” mission to turn down the heat during the hours the building isn’t occupied.
• Last but not least, changing Rendez-vous to an online format has saved a lot of trees.

Can you prescribe a way to help our Club be even greener? We will gladly pass along your suggestions if you send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It’s just one small thing you can do for Earth Day 2010.