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You recycle. You turn off the water while brushing your teeth. You started doing the laundry in cold water. But despite taking steps to reduce your family’s carbon footprint and save the planet, you still feel slightly guilty about not doing enough.

Green Guilt

Sound familiar? It’s called Green Guilt: the anxiety and self-doubt that we are not doing enough (or that our efforts mean nothing) to reduce our carbon footprint and preserve global resources. Green Guilt is becoming less of a problem in today’s tighter and more stressful economy, since the overriding concern is “Will I have a job in three months?” not “How can I reduce my environmental impact?”, but it still occurs and adds unnecessarily to your stress level.

Don’t beat yourself up

What can you do to avoid feeling this way? Well, for starters, understanding goes a long way. Do your part, do more when you can, and don’t beat yourself up too much if you choose paper towels over cloth for the sake of convenience once in a while. To help you along, I’ve gathered a few extra tips to help you save time and money and get a little greener at the same time:

1) Use a water filter and refillable water bottles. You know how we feel about disposable plastic water bottles. They aren’t really that much safer than tap water in a lot of instances, water leaches plastic molecules, and when we’re done with them they often as not pollute landfills and oceans. Not a lot to love there. But there is an upside to drinking filtered water: not as many of those bottles. I know it’s often a quick decision to make your life easier to just grab some water bottles to toss in the cooler when you go camping, but during the rest of your life, make a concerted effort to use refillable bottles and fill them with filtered water.

2) Walk your neighborhood, not a treadmill. Gyms are all the rage, but are they really worth it? They’re noisy, crowded at all the wrong times, expensive, and they guzzle energy. Plus, those fancy elliptical machines lie about how many calories you’re burning. Try finding a place to walk near where you live—a trail or park that has some good hills. Or just walk or jog through your neighborhood. Do some pushups and sit-ups when you get home. The world will thank you!

3) Carpool. Seriously. I know it’s hardly appealing and takes trust, coordination and sacrifice, but if you can be one fewer car on the road, even once in a while, then you’ll be responsible for cutting down pollution, fossil fuel addiction and household expenditures. Gold star for you!

4) Ask your boss about telecommuting options. Save fuel altogether and work at home a day or two a week, if your job type allows it. Not all jobs lend themselves to working at home, and I am a staunch believer in the value of a tight-knit team, but since a lot of the work that occurs in an information economy happens in your head regardless of where your bottom is, this is becoming an increasingly viable option for many companies.

March 22 every year is World Water Day. And what is World Water Day? Not another Hallmark holiday, I can assure you. World Water Day is an education and awareness program that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Environment and Development Conference. World Water Day 2005 marked the beginning of a Decade of Action, between 2005 and 2015, during which Word Water Day each year would focus on a specific problem facing global water supplies. 2010 was “clean water for a healthy world,” 2009 was “transboundary waters: sharing water, sharing opportunities,” but my personal favorite was 2001’s discussion on “water for health – taking charge.”

World Water Day 2011 is about water for cities and the many issues and challenges facing cities regarding sanitation, waste water and drinking water. According to the World Health Organization, in 2005 40% of the world’s population did not have access to even a simple pit latrine, and 20% did not have access to a source of clean drinking water. I hope advocacy and education programs like World Water Day have improved those numbers, but the situation for so many people is so grim.

There are World Water Day events going on in a lot of cities worldwide today, with the main event taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. Learn about the issues and challenges, and take part in some local events if you have the time.

Ever heard this one? “I want to drink more water, I just get so bored with it! I need taste!”

A-MEN!

Some people are happy with a slice of lemon, some just guzzle water when it is super cold to avoid having to taste it. But there are more interesting ways to liven up your water to make it taste great and still enjoy the numerous benefits to your health and well-being. Our favorite way at Aquasana is to infuse the water with various vegetables, fruits and herbs. We served our three favorite recipes at the Natural Products Expo West last week, and they were such a big hit, we wanted to share the recipes in detail here.

Cucumber Savory

Yield: 1 ½ quarts or 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 cups cold Aquasana filtered water, divided
• 20 thin slices cucumber
• 2 lemons, sliced thin
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme, slightly crushed
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, slightly crushed

Preparation:

In a 2- to 2 ½-quart pitcher, fill the bottom with about 1 cup of water. Add the thyme and rosemary and use a muddler or wooden spoon to lightly crush the herbs. Add the lemon and cucumber, then the rest of the water. Chill for at least 1 hour. Add ice cubes made from Aquasana water just before serving and enjoy!

Tangelo Dream

Yield: 1 ½ quarts or 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 cups cold Aquasana filtered water, divided
• 10 strawberries, sliced thin
• 2 tangelos, sliced
• 4 sprigs fresh mint, slightly crushed

Preparation:

In a 2- to 2 ½-quart pitcher, fill the bottom with about 1 cup of water. Add the mint and use a muddler or wooden spoon to lightly crush the leaves. Add the strawberry and tangelo, then the rest of the water. Chill for at least 1 hour. Add ice cubes made from Aquasana water just before serving and enjoy!

Watermelon Cooler (not served at Expo West)

Yield: 1 ½ quarts or 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 cups cold Aquasana filtered water, divided
• 1 ½ C watermelon slices
• 2 lemons, sliced thin
• 4 sprigs fresh mint, slightly crushed

Preparation:

In a 2- to 2 ½-quart pitcher, fill the bottom with about 1 cup of water. Add the mint and use a muddler or wooden spoon to lightly crush the herbs. Add the watermelon and lemon, then the rest of the water. Chill for at least 1 hour. Add ice cubes made from Aquasana water just before serving and enjoy!

Alternative recipes

• Plum and cinnamon (served at Expo West—tasty but subtle, and the plums sink!)
• Pineapple and mint
• Raspberry and lime
• Cilantro, lime and jalapeno
• Tarragon leaves with blueberries and raspberries
• Cucumber, honeydew and mint
• Tomato slices with fresh horseradish
• Strawberry, kiwi and mint

What are your favorite ways to dress up your water? Do you know more infused water recipes? Share your secrets with us!

The Expo was a huge hit! Preparing for the Expo was a ton of work, but our efforts were completely worth the trouble. We met so many lovely people and introduced them to Aquasana and the realities of filtered water, which is always a good thing.

Highlights

New bottle cap colors

We showed off our new bottle cap colors at the show. Everyone loved choosing their favorite color! The blue seems to be the most popular, then red and green. These will be on sale on our website soon—stay tuned!

Dr. Mao

Dr. Mao joined us on Saturday afternoon to sign books and advise people on improving their longevity and overall health. There was a line of people waiting before he even got there! We loved hosting Dr. Mao, and will continue to work with him to help spread the word about the importance of filtering water and taking care of yourself.

New booth
Amid much excitement, we debuted our new booth at Expo West. The more streamlined and softer construction brought people in on all sides, and we got a number of compliments! People especially loved the ability to fill up their free glass water bottles (that we provided) with chilled water from the twin Aquasana water chiller taps at the end.

Infused water

We supplied samples of yummy infused water concoctions for our new friends. From left to right, we served

1) Lemon, cucumber, rosemary and thyme
2) Strawberry, tangelo and mint
3) Plum and cinnamon

Women tended to like the cucumber/lemon infusion the best, and men generally preferred the orange and strawberry. The plum was tasty, but very subtle, and the plums sink, so it didn’t look as appealing as the other two.

Shout outs
And last but certainly not least, we’d like to send a big, happy shout-out to all of our new friends: Seventh Generation, Dr. Mao, True2o, Rodale News, Evolution Fresh, Bert’s Bees, Tom’s of Maine, Kor bottles, Ciao Bella Gelato and all our new friends!

Natural Products Expo West is right around the corner (next week!) in Anaheim, California, and we’ll be there! We have a new booth, some great giveaway items, delicious samples and guest appearances! There will be something for everyone, so come on by and say hi.

Aquasana Oasis, Booth 4178, Exhibit Hall D:

Come visit us at the Aquasana Oasis and refresh from the exhaustion of the Expo: enjoy a bottle of delicious water (and keep your bottle), have a seat, relax. We’ll be sharing some great infused water concoctions each day (while supplies last), so make sure to stop by early!

Featured flavors:

• Tangelo, strawberry, mint
• Lemon, cucumber, rosemary, thyme
• Plum, cinnamon

We’ll be serving the water only while supplies last each day, some come by early!

Special guest appearance by Dr. Mao!

And Saturday ONLY from 3 pm-6 pm, come by to see Dr. Maoshing Ni (Dr. Mao), author and longevity expert. He’ll be signing copies of his latest book, Secrets of Longevity: Dr. Mao’s 8-Week Planner, and talking healthy tips for a long life!

Giveaways:

We’ll also be giving away products every day: drinking filters, shower filters and bottles. If you want a bottle, just come by and tell us you’re thirsty. And to score a filter, follow @aquasana on Twitter and keep an eye out for instructions on how to enter the at-show giveaways.

We hope to see you there!