Our mission is to contribute to the conservation of our earth’s animals, plants and other natural resources by challenging ourselves to act as responsible environmental stewards. But we cannot do it alone! Implementing green practices into your life can help reduce waste, conserve natural resources, and protect ecosystems and biodiversity.
Project Piaba is a non-profit organization which studies and fosters an environmentally and socially beneficial home-aquarium fish trade.
If you have a home aquarium, or are considering starting one, please check out these local businesses that offer sustainably caught fish from the Rio Negro:
Something Fishy, Inc
1185 Jefferson Boulevard Warwick, RI 02886
Uncle Ned's Fish Factor
1590 Main St (Rte. 109) Millis, Massachusetts 02054 USA
Lovely Pets
69 Parkingway Quincy, Massachusetts 02169 USA
Look for the RSPO label to ensure you purchase products made with certified sustainable palm oil. This label gives you the confidence that the palm oil was produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way.
Can't find the RSPO label? Look for the Green Palm label! This label indicates products in support of the transition to certified palm oil. Proceeds from Green Palm certificates help growers fund the transition to sustainable palm oil.
Make things even easier by downloading the Cheyenne Mountain Palm Oil App and find out if a product’s palm oil came from a sustainable or a non-sustainable source. A quick search by product, brand, or barcode will let you know how rainforest-friendly your product is!
Click HERE to find out which everyday products contain palm oil
You can help protect the rainforest by “Following the Frog” and looking for Rainforest Alliance seal on products ranging from bananas and chocolate to coffee and flowers! Click HERE for a list of Rainforest Alliance certified products
Look for the FSC logo on furniture and flooring to protect the rainforest. Buying paper products with the FSC logo protects trees in the US. Click HERE for more information on FSC standards
As US trade policies and regulations change, more beef may be imported from Brazil. Since cattle ranching is a major contributor to rainforest destruction, as rainforest is cleared to create pasture, purchasing local grass-fed beef is a better choice.
Buying food products in your community helps reduce pollution caused by shipping products. It also helps to build your local economy. The Zoo's Alex and Ani Farmyard, designed to look like a typical Rhode Island farm, celebrates the diversity of farms found around the state. Click HERE to explore this exhibit.
Here at the Zoo, we don't offer straws with drink purchases or plastic bags with gift purchases. Disposable items like plastic straws and plastic bags are extremely harmful to wildlife, including our ocean friends like the Zoo's harbor seals - Action and Bubba. Use reusable bags and forgo the straws and other plastic items that end up our oceans. Let's keep these plastics out of landfills, and out of the environment where wildlife can accidentally ingest them - Together we can Punch Out Plastics!
- Bring reusable bags to the grocery store instead of using new plastic or paper bags.
- Say no thank you to straws and other single-use plastic items.
- Most recyclable items used on a daily basis including paper, glass, aluminum and cardboard can all be added to the recycle bin instead of the trash can.
- Compost yard waste and kitchen waste and use it to feed your yard. You’ll put less matter in the landfill while nurturing your plants naturally. Don't know where to start? Find useful tips or buy a compost bin from RI Resource Recovery.
- Or try vermicomposting - worms, can naturally convert organic waste into fertilizer!
- Donate reusable items such as clothes, furniture, electronics, etc.
- Don't buy new! Instead shop your local consignment/antique/thrift stores for some neat finds.
Amphibian species are disappearing at an alarming rate across the globe due to a number of factors such as habitat loss, pollution, and disease. As a citizen scientist with FrogWatch USA, you can help save our frogs! FrogWatch trainings cover the importance of amphibians in the environment, how monitoring our local population helps to protect them, factors to consider in choosing a site to monitor, how to tell frog species apart by their calls and how to report findings to FrogWatch USA. Become a citizen scientist with FrogWatch USA today.