Let’s shop green without being obvious about it, OK? You can, you know. There are many ways to tweak the holiday list this year to skew it toward recycled, socially conscious, energy-conserving goods. Of course, we don’t like to advocate lots of consuming. We definitely don’t buy that theory that it’s our patriotic duty to purchase our way out of the recession.

On the other hand, we are going to exchange gifts this holiday season. With that in mind, here are a few humble suggestions for keeping it green (and affordable), subtly.

A TOASTER OVEN

Black and Decker CTO6301 Convection Toaster Oven

Mom, dad, a kid on her way to college. Lots of people can appreciate the utility and electricity savings of a Toaster Oven. Did you know that the average 1500 watts used by a toaster/convection oven is less than half, or even more, than that used by a full-size oven? How many times have you heated the entire oven just to warm rolls for dinner? Or to bake a couple ramekins of dessert? Or broil a tuna melt? Or brown a small brushetta?

Turn that big oven off, and use a tool that’s sized-right for the job. That’s the very sound idea behind this “smart” appliance. There are dozens to choose from. The Black & Decker one shown here can be had at Amazon and other stores for around $60. It gets good reviews for durability, space and function.

THE WOVEL

THe wovel uses see-saw action to shove snow.

This goofy looking simple machine just might keep some snow blowers off the road. It’s unique enough to keep the relatives marveling about the weird gift Aunt Sally got Uncle Mel, but it’s got it’s serious side: It powers through snow without using fossil fuels.  More importantly to most users, it makes the job of shoveling the white stuff, pound per pound, easier. Easier on the back, mainly, because the motion of pushing and then “throwing” the snow engages leg and arm muscles.

We don’t actually have one, and we wonder if it’s quite as easy as it looks, but the see-saw action does appear to take a load off the back, a victory over bending, raising and twisting to shovel snow the old-fashioned way. The Wovel has made several YouTube appearances since being named on Time’s Best Inventions List in 2006. Check out this video by a convinced user.

It is expensive for a shovel ($119.95 retail), but it solves a problem, without adding another pollution-spewing machine to the household arsenal.

RECYCLED TIRE WALLET

Recycled Tire Wallet made by artisans in El Salvador

Number three on our list is black, but so very green. This completely recycled, vegan friendly wallet is made from discarded tires. But it looks so much like the standard leather version we thought it would qualify as a green gift that doesn’t stand out as different. Each 9 x 3.5 inch wallet has a slot for money and six slots for credit cards, just like you’d expect. A Fair Trade artisan group in El Salvador makes these wallets, helping provide jobs and living wages in their community. You can buy it ($30)  through the GreenHeartShop in Chicago, at their online store.

Green Heart helps promote artisan craft goods, clothing and food from around the world and in the U.S.

Planning a low-impact, money-saving Halloween is so much more rewarding than trying to turn some other holidays green. You don’t have to argue with relatives about whether or not to have a turkey, or disappoint the kids with gifts to humanitarian causes in their names at Christmas. All you really need to do is think creatively, get holistic about your pumpkin, maybe dust off the sewing machine and take it easy at the store.

Here are our best nine ideas to help you get started.

Halloween Chico Bag

1 - Get A Reusable Halloween Bag

This is a no-brainer, the equivalent of buying CFLs. If you can’t do this, hang up your werewolf mask right now. We like this Chico Bag. It is reusable, affordable and designed by kids. Buy it at Greenfeet for just $5. Or find a pillowcase for treats. Either way skip the clunky orange plastic pumpkins, unless you’ve already got them, then: reuse, reuse.

2 – Make Your Own Costume

Don’t sew? Keep it simple – a cape, fairy wings, a skirt or a toga can be made from remnant material or old sheets with minimal stitching. Use inexpensive, iron-on fusing tape to make seams. Cut with pinking shears so fabric won’t unravel. We won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting you use a sheet to be a ghost (duh!), but old sheets can make good costume base material. Accessorize princes and princesses with glitzy fabric leftovers from the wedding/party section of any fabric store. We once glammed up Ginny Weasley with a pastiche of recycled duds, using a red robe from two previous Harry Potters, and a moon-and-stars cape from wizards past. Capes, velvety robes and glittering trim can add a lot of drama for little sweat equity. Here are some basic instructions.

Boy Snatched by Alien (Photo: Homemade Costumes)

But… if you’re making your own, why stop there? Get creative.  Turn your kid into a child being snatched by an alien, a mom-niacal optical illusion they won’t soon forget (that’s just the kid in the photo; the alien is affixed to his back). Read details at Costume-Works.com, where veteran costume maker, Colletta, mother of six  and grandmom, showcases homemade costume submissions. There’s some amazing stuff here, from Oompa Loompas to boys dressed as both plane and pilot. (Your kid may not remember being a pirate from a package, but he’ll surely recall the day he trick-or-treated as a cardboard plane.)

3 – Hold a Costume Exchange Party

This is novel idea could work for the under-10 or over 30-crowd. Any grade-schooler whose accumulated a few dress-up outfits and costumes would probably love to trade one in for a “new” one from another kid. So share!  Make it a party by allowing participants to “buy” the costumes with coins or points earned at activities or games. You’ll be recycling and creating a fun experience.

We think this idea, now wafting around the Internet, may have taken flight at GreenHalloween.org, a website founded by Seattle mom Corey Colwell-Lipsome and her mom and partner in green adventures, Lynn Colwell. Green Halloween delivers many ideas for making spooky parties healthier and greener, like skipping the candy and serving black olive and orange bell pepper pizza. See their neighborhood Halloween kit for more.

(Photo: AllRecipes.com)

4. Make pumpkin bread

It’s yummy and healthy. Pumpkins are full of beta –carotene (present in all orange veggies) which is converted to Vitamin A. Some nutritionists consider these orange foods to be Super Foods” with properties that protect against cancer and strengthen the immune system. Another reason to celebrate the orange. Drizzle icing over it for picky eaters or serve plain and warm, a perfect fall treat for a Halloween gathering.

There’s a healthy, light recipe using buttermilk on AllRecipes.com, and another delicious pumpkin bread recipe on Cooks.com. (And countless more, but these two are not too sugary.)

Twisted Fruit snack (Photo: Clif Bar)

5. Give Trick-or-Treaters dried fruit treats...

Treats can be tough when you’re thinking green. There’s a problem from the git-go with all that individual packaging and while you may want to give something healthier, you don’t want to suck the fun out of the evening for visiting Draculas. Dried fruit is one answer. Try Clif Bar’s Twisted Fruit sticks.

Or combine dried mangos, pineapple, cantaloupe and dates into a sweet mixed-fruit goodie bag. Downside: You’d have to package it yourself, which might raise suspicions that your treat was tainted, leading to its expeditious disposal at the recipient’s home.  Hardcore greenies also might have trouble with including tropical fruit, but there are lots of local dried fruits, from apple chips to dried cantaloupe slices. available stateside.

6. …Or crackers

The University of Illinois Extension service came up with these ideas for healthier treats: Cheese and cracker packages; sugar-free gum; juice boxes; raisin or nut packages or peanuts.  We say no to the Aspartame gum, and hold those peanuts (God forbid you’d give them to a kid with a peanut allergy). The crackers sound like a plan though. Butter crackers, graham crackers. Kids love them, especially after consuming a pound of sweets.

Halloween Crackers (Photo: Martha Stewart.com)

And wait! There’s a variation. From Martha Stewart (who else) comes this idea for Halloween “crackers”, as  in those party favors that you pop open. She uses orange crepe paper and plastic spiders. No, we don’t think the world needs more plastic spiders, but these crackers do reuse toilet tissue tubes. Fill the tube with selected treats and fulfill your Martha leanings.

7.  Don’t forget popcorn

Kids with braces won’t like you, but popcorn would be a welcome departure for some wee spooks. Here’s an idea that uses a little plastic, but not so much as to violate the green spirit: Take some of those thin plastic gloves that servers wear in cafeterias and stuff them with popcorn. Paint the nails red, add some gashes or creepy tattoos; bind the glove closed with a rubber band and give a “hand out” at Halloween.

8. Decorate with compostable stuff

Straw is really great for animal bedding, but it can be used as a  garden mulch. So if you’re decorating with straw bales for fall, spread it on the flower beds afterward. Dried colored corn can be re-purposed as a winter treat for squirrels and birds. Hang a string of dried garlic on the door to ward off evil spirits on Halloween night, and doubtless you know it can be cooked with later. Cardboard can be easily turned into tombstones, and later used as a weed cover.

De-decorate by turning off all the lights except for a few candles at the door. Put on some scary music, dress like a gangster and you’ve turned your casa into a mysterious manse. (We concede it won’t give Tony Soprano nightmares, but it might hit the right note for small tricksters). Bada-bing!

Heirloom pumpkins (Photo: GreenRightNow.com)

9. Use the whole pumpkin

If they weren’t orange, pumpkins would be the ultimate green Halloween veggie — and some of them actually are green, or blue, on the outside. These heirloom pumpkins (see picture) make some of the best pumpkin foods. Carve them into jack-o-lanterns at the last minute so you can pull out the pumpkin meat for soup or a pie. Remember to roast the pumpkin seeds. We again defer to AllRecipes for directions on this.

Afterward, take the pumpkin to the compost pile. See Earth 911 for composting directions. If you don’t have a compost pile, fall’s a great time to start using leaves, grass clippings and garden dredge. It’s positively frightening how useful the resulting mulch will be come springtime.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media1 –

As you sort through which Disney character your child will be and find the candy of choice for the trick-or-treaters, think green this Halloween. From candy to pumpkins, there are many ways to make this holiday eco-friendly.

Here’s an idea for an organic treat, Yummy Earth lollipops or drops.

Invented by two dads who simply wanted a healthier alternative to candy, Yummy Earth is now the number one seller of organic candy in the United States. Available in 21 flavors, Yummy Earth offers gummy bears, gummy worms, lollipops, and candy drops. Yummy Earth is 100% USDA and EU certified organic. With no artificial coloring or high fructose corn syrup, these candies also are gluten-free, peanut-free, and tree nut-free.

So what do they put in there to still make it taste fabulous? The company uses raw organic brown sugar instead of processed sugar or artificial sweeteners. Other ingredients include, “citric acid made from Israeli sugar beets instead of genetically modified corn; bright red coloring from Japanese purple carrots instead of artificial red dye; real pomegranate extract for our Pomegranate Pucker lollipops and candy drops. Organic pumpkin and black currant also is used to create the vibrant colors,” stated Rob Wunder, Yummy Earth co-founder.

Yummy Earth is widely available at Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Whole Foods, Marriott Hotels, Amazon.com, Harry and David, Smoothie King, Sprouts, Borders Books, and other health food stores.

The Natural Candy Store also offers healthy candy alternatives. Each item is marked by symbols indicating which dietary categories it fits in with, such as vegan, organic, gluten-free, allergen-free, kosher, and the Feingold diet. This candy store also features jelly beans, sprinkles, cotton candy, and chocolate!

Their gummy worms aren’t as scary as some Halloween goodies, but they’re vegan or vegetarian; made with pectin instead of the gelatin (which comes from animal hooves and hides) used in so many gummy candies.

Fair Trade "Action Kit"

If it’s chocolate you seek to give, make it Fair Trade. In fact, send that chocolate with a message to buy Fair Trade Trick or Treat Action Kit composed of candy, an info card and a Mexican streamer.

It may make your house the most political on the block, but the grassroots message will be sugar-coated; the kit includes 40 dark chocolate treats.

(By the way, be sure to practice green hygiene on H-Day. Make sure those candy wrappers do not end up on the sidewalk or in any yards.)

Earth-friendly costumes are a little harder to come by. Harrisons Halloween Costumes for infants are not organic, but they are 100% cotton, so they are a great alternative to synthetic costumes.

There are multiple free patterns located online for children’s costumes, for example if they want to be animals, fairies, or even a chocolate chip cookie.

As far as completely organic, there are not many options, so this year choose to reuse and recycle. Go through your closets to see what you can turn into a costume. If you are blessed with the ability to sew, make your own costume. Either way, minimize your carbon footprint by using materials you already have.

Several websites can provide guidance, such as Mahalo, which publishes a list of easy throw-together  costume suggestions.

Adam Archer thinks the world would be a much better place if people would only spend more time playing games on their computers and mobile phones. And he may just be right.

Archer, the founder and CEO of GamesThatGive, has a simple but compelling proposition: You sign on to play casual games on the site, designate a charity you want to support, and then sit back and have 70 percent of the revenue from advertising on those games go to your charity.

He calls the concept “guiltless gaming” and says it can get a child in Africa vaccinated against Polio, teach a low-income child to read, or help feed a family of four. Simply by playing online games, you end up making a difference in the world.

The GamesThatGive site is only a couple of months old, but has attracted 4,000 registered users and so far has raised almost $2,500 for charities. Leading brands such as Dominos Pizza, Pepsi, and Mastercard have signed on as charter advertisers.

Among the charities you can chose to support are Feeding America, the United Way, the US Fund for UNICEF, DoSomething, and about a dozen others. Archer said they are limiting the number of charities they will support in the early stages so they can raise a meaningful amount of aid for each, and not dilute their impact.

Archer first saw the need for something like this after graduating from college and spending two years backpacking around the world. He saw people who were barely subsisting and who lived in deplorable conditions.

“I came back to the States and this culture shock ensued. I started to notice all the opportunity and privilege here,” Archer said. “After backpacking through Africa for eight months, I actually flew back from Johannesburg into Las Vegas . It was like going through a time machine and literally people were throwing away money. I was like: There ought to be a way get people to give some of that money to the people I saw (who were less fortunate).”

After working a few years at Microsoft and Apple, Archer began thinking about connecting technology to the greater human needs he had witnessed.

“I started going around and asking people why they didn’t do more to help people who were less fortunate and I kept getting the same answer. Everybody said, ‘Well, I actually wish I was doing more.’ If you pressed them they would say, ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘I don’t have the money’ or ‘I don’t know how to help.’ So I started thinking about the ways we could use new technologies coming with mobile devices and the Internet and thinking about existing behavior.”

About a year and a half ago, he finally arrived at the solution: Let people play games and have fun and marry that with advertising that supports leading charities.

“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “The better you do at these games, the longer you play, the more you donate. There’s 145 million casual gamers in the US alone and they play on average over 5 hours a week, so that’s more (time) than magazines or newspapers, that’s more than they’re watching online video, that’s even more than they’re spending on social networking sites.

“But you’ve got to make it fun, you’ve got to make it easy, you’ve got to use technology and you’ve got to get people to tell their friends – and that’s games.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

They’re soft and cute with big round eyes, lamb-like faces, long necks and semi-fixed smiles. Bigger than a dog, smaller than a horse, an alpaca has all that, plus it may be the most environmentally correct animal on the planet.

How so?

1. They have padded feet, not hooves. That means they don’t damage a delicate landscape. (Lots of heavy hooves clomping around can lead to soil erosion and weeds.)

2. They don’t have upper teeth. Thus, they gently trim tender grass with their bottom teeth and upper palate, rather than pulling it up by its roots. (Can you say cow?) Their gentle nibbling keeps grass growing. But they’re not too picky: alpacas don’t mind eating some leaves and brush.

3. A group of alpacas prefer to leave their droppings in a single communal area. And if that’s not handy enough, their pellet-sized droppings make a great natural, slow-release fertilizer, according to the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association.

4. They don’t need chemicals or insecticides or herbicides or fertilizer: Alpacas are all natural.

5. They don’t eat a lot and they like hanging out with each other, so you can fit 5 to 10 of them on an acre (a nice acre, mind you).

6. The best part: Shorn about once a year, usually in the spring, an alpaca will provide 5 to 10 pounds of some of the finest fiber in the world (in 22 natural colors).

Itching to see one? Check out the National Alpaca Farm Days website. This weekend (Sept. 26 and 27), alpaca farmers nationwide will open their gates for you to visit their flocks and perhaps show you the luxe end-product: alpaca wool, in the raw or woven.

A quick tour of the list of farms across the country shows that alpacas are in almost every state, not too far from New York City, Los Angeles and other urban areas.

The animals are native to the mountainous regions of Peru, Bolivia and Chile. They have been domesticated for more than 5,000 years, but they only arrived in the U.S. about 25 years ago. Their ranks have steadily grown to more than 150,000, said Cindy Berman, a representative of the Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association. Even though they came from cool mountainous climates, they can be comfortable in most any part of the country (with some climate-correct adjustments).

“Ohio has the largest number of alpacas,” Berman said. “The second state is Washington.”

After 9/11, many stressed urban residents decided to move their families to calmer, quieter digs, and the alpacas fit in nicely. “It’s a good way to get into farming,” she said.

Softer, smaller cousins of the llama, alpacas in the U.S. come in two varieties: The Huacaya is more common and has a short, wooly coat, and the Suri has silky fibers that look a bit like delicate dreadlocks.

Many alpaca farmers work with the nation’s Alpaca Fiber Cooperative to process and sell their fiber. Some, however, do their own spinning and weaving and sell alpaca items in their farm stores. According to AlpacaInfo.com, raw alpaca fiber can cost from $2 to $5 per ounce, but in a finished garment it can cost $10 per ounce. Knit it by hand and a garment can cost up to $1,000.

Other alpaca facts: They cost anywhere from several hundred to many thousands of dollars. Adults are about 3 feet tall at the withers (where the neck meets the back). They weigh between 150 to 200 pounds and are communal (so you can’t have just one). They give birth once a year, and their offspring are called “crias.” Alpacas live to be 15 to 20 years old.

Farmers say they are smart and curious. They are ruminants, eating grass and hay, chewing cud.

They’re not perfect pet material, although young ones learn to hang around people and put up with petting and walking with a harness. Perhaps their only flaw is that they will spit when upset – but mostly at each other.

Best of all, you’ll hear no mooing or whinnying or baying or grunting or squawking. The alpaca only emits a gentle hum. Many alpacas, many hums. How peaceful is that?

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Sustainability and nature appreciation walk hand in hand. But surprisingly, there are still just a few U.S. vacation venues lodged lightly in nature’s embrace. If you want to “go green” you can camp out all over North America, but you can’t necessarily find a hotel that hugs the woods (or the beach) and boasts full green credentials and white linen service.

Here are a handful of green getaways that nestle nature, but don’t necessarily involve nesting with nature. We set the bar fairly low, requiring that these hotels have mattresses, hot food, indoor showers, and a LEED rating of some sort. We begin with Callaway Gardens, a great place to enjoy a respite from urban hustle amid botanical delights.

Callaway Gardens, Georgia

Indulgence often brings with it just a twinge of guilt. Riding in the back of a limousine, you can’t help but to think about the tailpipe emissions.

The Lodge and Spa at Callaway Gardens, a well-groomed paradise about 80 miles southwest of Atlanta, is a place where you can indulge guilt free. The 150-room lodge is one of fewer than two dozen hotels across the country to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the US Green Building Council.

The resort operations are green, too. The Lodge and Spa uses refillable dispensers of all natural bath products in each room, saving nearly 200,000 plastic containers a year. Your piña colada is served in a glass made of corn.

Energy-efficient construction here is pretty easy on the eye, too. The look is upscale rustic, with heavy beams in the soaring lobby and heavy use of earth tones in the décor. The guest rooms feature down comforters with duvets, pillow top mattresses and 32-inch flat screen televisions.

Every room has a balcony. The best balcony belongs to room 8450 – a private perch overlooking the pool (but far enough away to not be noisy) and the treetops of the forest that surrounds the lodge.

While the lodge rooms are nice, Callaway Gardens isn’t a place where you stay indoors. This is a place here Mother Nature is dressed to kill, especially in the spring when thousands and thousands of azaleas – more than 700 varieties – erupt in color. The John A. Sibley Horticultural Center is indoor/outdoor garden with plants from around the world with something always in bloom.

And there is always bright colors to be found at the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center, a big glass house filled with 1,000 or so tropical butterflies, or, as Robert Frost wrote: flowers that fly.

A 10-mile bike path courses through the lavish landscape and there are miles and miles of walking trails. There are two golf courses, lakes for fishing and Robin Lake with a wide, white sand beach for swimming.

At the end of the day, you may be too exhausted to feel guilty about anything at all.

The USL First Division’s Minnesota Thunder presents the “Thunder Goes Green Night” Thursday, Aug. 27, with discount tickets for those people who bike to the game. Also, the first 750 people will receive a Blue Sky Guide, a coupon book that has $3,000 in discounts to sustainable businesses in the Twin Cities Metro area. The soccer club will be handing out info about the Minnesota Energy Challenge and the Minnesota Center for Energy and Environment.

Game begins at 7:05 p.m. at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn. Fans who bike to the game get $2 off tickets. There will be eco-friendly activities and information. Anyone who pre-orders tickets with the promotion code ECO also will receive $2 off.  There is only 1 discount per customer and fans must call in to get the discount: (763) 390-8324. It’s also Thirsty Thursday with discounted beers for 15 minutes after a Thunder goal.

Fashion Institute of Technology student Jessica Velasquez can soon cycle in style, her own style, after winning a contest to design a jacket, poncho and bag suitable for fashion-conscious bike commuters.

Her winning designs for the “Bike in Style” contest were unveiled this week as the city launched its Summer Streets program, which promotes biking and walking.

The contest and the Summer Streets are both part of Mayor Bloomberg’s program to foster greener practices in the city — and their pairing serves notice that greenie New Yorkers won’t be sacrificing any style impulses to the eco-Gods.

Summer Streets is a celebration of a 6.9-mile route from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park for people to run, bike and walk. It will feature special activities on three Saturday mornings in August, starting on this Saturday the 8th followed by the 15th and 22nd.

The program and the “Bike in Style” contest are being supported by luxury goods firm LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the NYC Department of Transportation and the city of New York. (See Velasquez with a model wearing the jacket she designed, above.)

The contest challenged student designers from the Fashion Institute of Technology to create “stylish, practical and affordable bike gear.” The DKNY division of LVMH-owned Donna Karan International (DKI) mentored the FIT students and developed the prototypes of the winning designs.

Said LVMH Inc. Chairman Renaud Dutreil: “As a citizen company, LVMH is proud to support the efforts of the city and its agencies; this project illustrates the power of public-private collaboration. We remain dedicated to supporting initiatives that enrich people’s lives, improve their health and reinforce New York’s position as a fashion capital.”

LVMH brands include wines and spirits (Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon), apparel and accessories (Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Berluti, StefanoBi), parfums (Christian Dior, Givenchy) and watches and jewels (Christian Dior watches, De Beers Diamond Jewellers Ltd).

(Photo credit: LVMH)

The New York Botanical Garden, historically green by nature, is helping New Yorkers cultivate ever greener ways. This summer it is featuring “edible evenings,” a celebration of home-grown food with tips from chefs and help for getting kids involved in gardening.

The eco-outreach will continue during the Garden’s Fall Open House on Sept. 12, which will feature a day (from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.)  of lectures, demonstrations and classes in botanical art, botany, floral design, landscaping and horticulture and horticultural therapy

Green classes will continue throughout the year with these offerings:

• Growing Green with Roses, 3 Thursdays starting September 24

• Organic Greenhouse Methods, 3 Saturdays held in November

• Organic Gardening and Ecological Landscaping: The Natural Approach, 6 Wednesdays starting January 6, 2010

• Does “Organic” Really Work?, January 19, 2010

• Environmentally Safe Lawn Care, March 10, 2010

• Native Plants Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Open House also will feature career talks for those who are interested in learning more about landscape design, horticultural therapy, or horticulture. To find out more how the Garden’s Continuing Education program can help people find careers in these industries, see the website or call 800.322.6924.

Golf courses and environmentalists have had – and still have – a rather rocky relationship.

The land that courses are built on and their impact on habitats has been fiercely debated. As huge users of pesticides, fertilizers and water, golf courses have faced criticism for fouling the environment with chemical-filled runoff, potentially harming humans and wildlife and wasting huge quantities of precious water, even in drought-plagued areas.

Public pressure over the last few decades has led the country’s major golf and golf-course associations to create programs and conduct research into more natural ways to maintain their prized pristine grasses.

Fourteen years ago, major golf group representatives sat down with environmental experts and started talking. The result was the Golf & The Environment Institute that has worked since then to guide golf course clubs away from green grass perfection toward green-thinking environmental concern. With an estimated 20,000 golf courses in the country, there is a lot of land at stake.

The United States Golf Association has been looking at environmental concerns on their member courses for years. They offer a long list of research and reports on the topic, and work with environmental groups to study long-term solutions.

The nation’s association for golf course superintendents has created the Environmental Institute for Golf to develop alternatives to heavy pesticide and fertilizers, and massive water consumption. They urge golf course superintendents to participate in and respond to surveys and research on creating more environmentally friendly courses.

Despite the national groups’ efforts, the vast majority of golf courses still rely on chemicals to keep their courses pristine. The primary reason for that is golfers themselves. They expect to see impeccable swaths of perfect green turf and immaculate greens.

The organizations’ say their ongoing struggle is to inform golfers that it’s OK to play on a course with a few brown spots.

In America, there is only one totally organic golf course: Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. To the surprise of many, the courses there look like any other top golf courses in the country. That’s due to the work of Jeff Carlson, the Vineyard’s golf course superintendent.

His goal is a great course that isn’t always perfect looking, he has said. At the Vineyard course there are no pesticides or fertilizers or any products with synthetic ingredients. They take many extra steps, such as whisking away dew on greens and fairways.

Carlson has said weeds are still a problem, and he misses being able to use a pesticide every now and then. Trying to have an organic course in the South would be impossible, he told Golf Digest. And, interestingly, one of the driving forces behind the green Vineyard course are women club members.

Another course that strives to minimize chemical and water use (but is not totally organic) is the Arbor Links Arnold Palmer golf course near the Arbor Day Farm in Neb., which makes extensive use of native grasses and trees as well as retaining edge areas for wildlife.

The Audubon International Sanctuary Program (not affiliated with the Audubon Society) works with the USGA (which is its primary sponsor) to promote ecologically sound use of the land and protection of natural resources. The group awards certificates of recognition in several categories, working closely with golf course superintendents to create environmental improvement plans. According to the USGA, more than 500 courses in the U.S. have received Audubon Sanctuary certification. The program provides a list of all certified courses.

Another program, Wildlife Links, promotes wildlife conservation on areas within golf course lands.

So what can your area golf course do?

Somewhere in between the sleep-away camps, beach excursions and baseball games of summer, kids and parents alike generally see the appeal of the sand-free floors and refrigerated air of a good museum. Institutions across the country know this is a great time to squeeze some education into kid-friendly, entertaining exhibitions; here’s a list of some of the best nature-oriented attractions for vacationers who’ve felt a bit too much heat this month.

Aquariums are wonderful places to spend a summer day: if the weather is cool you can stay outdoors, if it’s hot there are indoor exhibits. Menacing sharks, beautifully-colored fish, gliding sea turtles, manta rays, sea snakes, sea horses, penguins and birds and river otters and performing orcas and porpoises all represent what is most beautiful and exciting about the waters of Planet Earth.

But they also represent a world that is disappearing quicker than we thought possible, and this is where aquariums hold a key to the future of water creatures.

Aquariums have realized that they must conduct research and they must also show us what is alive, what is dying and what we can do to balance it all. And so they tie their exhibits and their activities back to conservation, and tell us how we can help.

The South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston has two fun shows that deliver the green/blue message: their ongoing Sea Turtle Rescue Program and the new Penguin Planet exhibit.

The endangered sea turtles migrate annually to, and give birth along, beaches from Virginia to the Florida Keys, so there are many turtles of varying ages that run into trouble: bacterial and fungal infections, the shock from cold water, wounds from boat strikes and shark bites. The South Carolina Aquarium Turtle Hospital receives turtles that are found and its animal care staff administers whatever medical care they can to eventually get the turtles back into the ocean. But the really cool part of this program is that Aquarium visitors are able to go into the hospital; they can adopt injured turtles and can keep track of some of the rescued turtles with satellite tags.

Planet Penguin’s Magellanic penguins are typically found along coastal Southern Argentina and Chile. They are classified as “near threatened” and the South Carolina Aquarium exhibit helps visitors understand what threatens these two-foot tall birds and what can be done to ensure they don’t become full-fledged members of “threatened” species. Visitors will be able to tie in the penguins’ plight to ongoing interactive learning games and educational exhibits on climate changes in South Carolina. (Check out their penguins from anywhere on the aquarium’s live penguin cam.)

California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium has two unusual offerings: a live Laysan Albatross exhibit  and for children 8 – 13, an Underwater Explorers event.

The Laysan albatross lives on tiny Midway Island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They fly hundreds of miles, sometimes even a thousand miles in search of food. All too often the shiny thing floating on the ocean surface not a squid or other sea food but instead a cigarette lighter or a bottle cap or other small bit of plastic. The albatross swoops down, swallows it and when her stomach is full she returns to Midway and regurgitates the food into her young; including the plastics. Scientists estimate that as many as 40% of Laysan chicks die from ingesting plastics. This may sound impossible but autopsies prove it. Even healthy Laysan chicks have at least one ounce of plastic in their stomach.

So what’s the green message of Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s Laysan albatross exhibit? Properly disposing of plastics, but more importantly finding substitutes for plastic containers, helps wildlife. The live albatross exhibit shows their vulnerability.

The Underwater Explorers swim along the water’s surface and study the sea life below them. By wearing flotation suits and breathing from air (SCUBA) tanks participants are able to float and have a fish-eye view of Monterrey Bay’s Great Tidal Pool below. As the tides ebb and flow the water creatures come and go, so each trip is different and there is always something going on below the surface. Certified dive staff oversee the program.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore lives by a creed of conservation: “Everything we do ties back to a conservation message, telling people what they can do to help protect the environment.” And so this summer they’re exhibiting Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance. Visitors will learn about the role they’re playing in a changing ocean, where global warming is shifting territorial ranges and creating an over population of jellyfish that can be deadly to other species, especially fish needed for food.

You’ll see nine different species of these pre-historic creatures and learn how the jellies’ existence and increasing population are important environmental indicators.

(Photo credit: Penguin, South Carolina Aquarium; Laysan Albatross, Monterey Bay Aquarium)

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