 Vida Verde, Living Green
is a food club based in San Isidro, serving the Southern Pacific coast and the Osa Peninsula with farm fresh, natural, organic, locally grown, sustainable produce at lower prices than you will pay at the grocer or farmer’s market, because it is based on bulk buying. The Food Club allows members to receive seasonal and year-round products, delivered once a week to your area. Advantages to this are not only better access to the foods you want, but lower prices and less garbage from wasteful packaging. Subscriptions to the food club allow farmers to grow for you the foods that you want and use, without chemicals, and without excessive and expensive transport costs. There are four options listed below along with payment instructions: 3 month C15,000 1 year C25,000 5 year C50,000 Lifetime C100,000 Cash payment of by direct deposit to Banco Nacional, Ania Gamboa,# 200-02-186-873-6 Your membership entitles you to the following:
Unlimited access to savings of groceries and produce 5% discount on all retail products and produce sold by Vida Verde Access to Vida Verde’s bookkeeping Five Convenient pick-up locations: San Isidro Feria, Thursdays , 7am-3pmPuerto Jimenez, Fridays, 12:00pm -3pmFeria Rincon, Uvita, Saturdays, 8am-12pmLa Palma de Perez Zeledon, by arrangementLa Palma de Puerto Jimenez, by arrangement
Special delivery will be available upon request for an extra charge. All orders must be pre-paid. You will receive a product availability and price list from which you will place your order, along with payment, allowing one week for fulfillment.
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These One Planet Principles are the DNA for our projects through design, construction, and into operation. 
Health & Happiness commitments will help create a more genuinely wealthy community, where residents are healthier and safer, know their neighbors, and have more time to spend with friends and family, exercising, and being outdoors in bountiful nearby nature. Zero Carbon sets standards for ultra-efficient buildings powered by 100% renewable energy - giving you lower energy bills that are "future-proofed" from the ever-rising costs of oil, coal, and natural gas. Zero Waste means spending less on unnecessary disposable consumer goods and packaging; knowing that your food/organic waste is being used as fertilizer in local landscaping and gardens; providing more materials for recycling businesses to put to re-use; reducing the impact of contaminated landfills and eliminating the production of the potent greenhouse gas methane. Sustainable Transport means less time stuck in traffic jams and more time with family or friends; spending less on the rising cost of gasoline; getting more exercise bicycling or walking to nearby stores and jobs; safer streets for children; saving the planet and our lungs with less harmful smog, less pavement, and a massive reduction in greenhouse gases from our cars. Local & Sustainable Materials strengthens the local economy with more jobs and a higher tax base. It means living in healthy, non-toxic buildings with unbeatable indoor air quality; spending less money maintaining imported materials designed for other climates; building with recycled materials; and greatly reducing smog and greenhouse gas emissions in material transport. Local & Sustainable Food grown organically in on-site gardens and on nearby farms means a healthier diet; convenient and affordable in-season meals that are fresher, better-tasting and more nutritious; a stronger local agricultural economy; fewer impacts from pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers; and less smog and greenhouse gas emissions from food transport. Sustainable Water initiatives will slash water bills and lower energy bills by using less hot water. Fewer chemicals will be used for water treatment. Less water will be contaminated in sewers, ending up instead where nature intended – in ponds, wetlands, rivers, and coastal zones. Natural Habitats & Wildlife protection and enhancement hosts a wide variety of outdoor recreation and leisure activities; provides free ecological services, like carbon sequestration, water and air purification; contributes to the beauty and value of the District; and helps reverse habitat loss with benefits for local endangered species Culture & Heritage efforts enhance a sense of local identity, history, and civic pride, with regular events, festivals, and farmer’s markets. Equity & Fair Trade will create new green-collar jobs; provide new affordable homes; and ensure that stores have a large selection of fair trade goods, giving poor producers in developing countries a fair price for their hard work. from www.oneplanet.com
 We are the green living movement. Join us .
We are the fusion of the green building movement and green lifestyles innovators. We are Architects + Local food groups + Green transportation entrepreneurs + Engineers + Planners + Landscape architects + Recycling groups + Developers + Smart Growth advocates + Local Chambers of Commerce + many, many more. One movement, one goal: truly sustainable living.The evolution of civilization is under way. The people of this planet are opening to change. Most of us now know that the disastrous consequences of our lifestyles are accelerating. The time has come to take the conversation about sustainability to the next level. In the past, we have focused on green building technology, planning and infrastructure. But we now recognize that half or more of all resource impacts arise from everyday behavior and habits. Our lifestyles must evolve. To this end, we accept responsibility for addressing the planning and social marketing needed to successfully achieve truly sustainable communities. We have long held the notion that integrated design is valuable--that the mechanical engineer must care about daylighting. But we now recognize the need to go further. We now know that the mechanical engineer needs to think about how homeowners' associations will adapt to evolving technologies, and what kinds of education will be needed in local schools to help kids teach their parents to successfully lower their footprint.
Self-evident Truths: - Communities are people, not buildings.
- Communities will change when the people living in them change.
- At least half of human impact on the planet comes from our lifestyles - the choices we make every day. Where, and how, we travel. What we eat. What we wear. The stuff we buy, and how we get rid of that stuff when we're done with it.
- These lifestyle choices are not made in a vacuum. They are made in communities, and are influenced by community design and buildings.
- The way we've designed our cities and buildings in the past has created a template for living that most people follow without much thought, and that template makes it inconvenient to live sustainably.
- Those of us who plan, design, finance, insure, build, sell, lease, manage and maintain the places we live in have tremendous influence to change this template, and to make it easier for people to change their lifestyles.
- Some of us have been pre-occupied with making buildings, streets, and infrastructure that use building materials, water, and energy in smarter ways. We call ourselves "green professionals". We call our movement the "green building movement." But we now recognize that the biggest problems are fundamentally social ones.
- Since buildings and technology represent only half of the problem and half of the solution, clearly the present green building movement doesn't go far enough
- All across our cities, entrepreneurs and environmental groups are emerging with solutions to specific challenges of our unsustainable lifestyles - car-sharing companies, local food advocates, re-use innovators. But most of these green lifestyle initiatives are not joined up with the green building movement, or each other.
- We urgently need an umbrella movement that will bring us all together to create and operate truly sustainable communities with intent. The time has come to apply the vast ingenuity of the green building movement to making green lifestyles just as convenient as "grey lifestyles". The time has come to broaden our design teams, to bring green lifestyle experts to the table.
- We cannot wait for someone else to bring us all together. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Our Mission.
We are the Green Living Movement. - We are dreamers. We dream about how the buildings and communities we create will help people discard old habits and form healthier, greener ones.
- We are listeners. We listen to the people who will live in the places we create.
- We are connectors, reaching out beyond professional boundaries to enlist green lifestyles experts in design teams and meetings.
- We are doers. We know that many green buildings underperform because their occupants don't operate them as intended. Many others will be torn down in 30 or 50 years because they do not fit into their surrounding communities or are too difficult to adapt over time. We can change this by accepting the wisdom of designing for easy adaptation, and by making green lifestyles enablement and education as much a part of our work as design charettes, architectural plans or shop drawings.
- We use our influence to create better incentives. The time has come for green building rating systems to reward measures that make green lifestyles convenient for people. Innovation credits aren't enough. And why is it that there are no shiny prizes for architects and engineers who make deep behaviour change possible? We will change this, too.
- We are bold and persuasive. Our clients won't understand unless we help them. Helping people evolve healthier, more sustainable lifestyles might not be in our job descriptions - but then, ten years ago, our clients hadn't heard of "commissioning" or "carbon neutral."
Our Commitment.
We, the Green Living Movement, pledge to make sustainable lifestyles more convenient and attractive through every aspect of our work. For some, this means working to eliminate policy barriers such as minimum parking requirements. For others, it means re-writing the standard HOA rules or creating new insurance policies, creating common areas conducive for accidental conversation or starting on-line communities before building anything to provide significant design input. For others, it means spending a minimum of 15 minutes every business day thinking or doing something that makes green lifestyles a reality. For others, it means using ecological footprinting as a guideline and modeling tool to determining real progress towards reducing consumption and behaving more sustainability. We will expand our vocabularies to include green lifestyles thinking in our conversations about green buildings, and we will practice what we preach, starting with our own lifestyles.
Loaded Questions
we will sneak into our conversations, to help make green living real:
- How can we empower residents to begin conversations that can lead to trust, clotheslines and consensus?
- How can we maximize recycling, composting, and re-use in homes and offices through ergonomic design?
- How can we design parking, streets, transit, and non-fossil fuel options to make sustainable transport just as convenient as fossil fuel travel? How can we create communities where jobs and proximity help people substantially reduce their need to travel?
- How can we set leasing guidelines in mixed-use projects so that grocery stores, restaurants, and retailers will offer consumers sustainable, local food choices and other green products?
- How can we operate our neighborhoods to get people growing their own food on-site or enrolled in local and organic food-box delivery programs?
- How can we get residents to sell their dinosaur cars and walk, bicycle or rollerblade, use public transport, or buy hybrids, electric vehicles, or join the car-sharing club? And how might we help users reduce the amout of time they spend flying - it is, after all, the fastest growing source of emissions.
- How can we use social marketing, social networking, and Tipping Point thinking to get residents participating and even leading these efforts?
These questions are a humble beginning. The grains of dust that comets form around. We want your questions, too - ideas for green professionals to enable green living. Do it now. We'll grow this list of questions into a handbook for the green living revolution. Oh, and do pass this on if you think it's a virus worth transmitting. http://www.greenmanifesto.org/
- Bike, use public transit, carpool to work, drive slower, keep your tires inflated
One-third of all traffic is commuters. Use alternative transportation when possible. If you must drive, go slower with proper tire inflation. It saves both fuel and tires, and lowers emissions. It also saves lives. - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Compost
Reusing packaging material saves more energy than recycling. By avoiding extra packaging, you save both energy and landfill space. Yard and kitchen waste (leaves/grass/vegetable scraps) are 30% of trash. Reduce this amount by composting. Also be sure to re-use plastic bags, or better yet... refuse plastic bags when you really don't need them. - Conserve water
Don't let faucets run. Never water your lawn at midday. Place a brick in old toilets. Take low flow short showers. Run the dishwasher only when it is full. Let grass grow longer. Plant native or drought-tolerant garden plants. - Quit smoking
Second-hand smoke is a major indoor air pollutant and health hazard. When you quit, both you and your family will lead longer and healthier lives. - Don't use pesticides/herbicides on your lawn
Along with nitrogen fertilizer runoff, these are major water pollutants. - Keep your cat indoors
Domestic cats kill over one billion small birds and animals every year (1 outdoor cat averages 40 kills per year). They upset natural predator/prey balances and eliminate ground nesting birds. - Eat less meat/eat more local and organic foods
Feedlots are a major source of organic pollution. Tropical forests are cut to raise beef. - Lower your thermostat in the winter. Raise it in the summer
Wearing a sweater in the winter and short sleeves in the summer saves energy and reduces pollution. - Dispose of old paint, chemicals, and oil properly
Don't put batteries, antifreeze, paint, motor oil, or chemicals in the trash. Use proper toxics disposal sites. Never buy more than you need. - Consider the environmental costs of major decisions and purchases
When relocating or changing jobs try to live close to work. Compare efficiency when purchasing new cars or appliances. Buy fewer things. Choose products with lower energy inputs. - Volunteer/Lobby for the Environment
Work locally and globally to save natural places, reduce urban sprawl, lower pollution and prevent the destruction of wilderness areas for timber and oil. - Plant a tree with a child
Take a walk in the woods, or plant trees which store CO2. Teaching our children to love and care for the planet is the most important thing we can do to insure the future of humankind. - Wash dishes by hand in a basin, and then use the dish water for outdoor gardens.
Living the Rural Lifestyle Even if you’re in the city or the suburbs… Living as if… Simplify your needs, lower your spending, and improve the quality of your life with these simple steps. Take Inventory Stock up Shop once a week or less. Make a list of all the things you need to restock you inventory. Make daily chores around the house and outdoor space Get up early and go to bed early Walk longer distances Work at home or in your neighborhood Have community gatherings Get to know your neighbors
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BEST PRACTICES
