Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
By John DeFore
Certain species of large whales, particularly humpbacks, are less threatened now than they were when whaling bans took effect in the ’80s, according to a new report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The Geneva-based IUCN, which describes itself as “the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network” and counts nearly [...]
Tags: Battles & Victories · Briefs
By Shermakaye Bass
Photo: © Holger Gurski | Dreamstime.com
The well was dry beside the door,
And so we went with pail and can
Across the fields behind the house
To seek the brook, if still it ran; . . .
- Robert Frost’s “Going for Water”
Every year, more about the world’s worsening water crisis is revealed: Who has potable water, [...]
Tags: Battles & Victories · Cut Consumption · GET INSPIRED
By Harriet Blake
You can always tell a garment that has come back from the dry cleaners. There’s that faint smell that seems to linger on the item, and in the closet, until that shirt or jacket gets worn again. The smell comes from the solvent used in the dry cleaning process, and chances [...]
Tags: Battles & Victories · Decor
By Shermakaye Bass
You’ve read the reports in the media – or heard them on the nightly news – that a growing number of American cities are banning the use of Styrofoam, a.k.a. polystyrene foam, in restaurants and food services, due to health and environmental concerns.
Tags: Battles & Victories · Cities/States · Food
By John DeFore
Activists and alert shoppers have plenty of bones to pick with the way groceries are labeled and the way environmental or nutrition claims are monitored, or not, by the government. Yesterday, Tyson Foods announced that it is removing its “Raised Without Antibiotics” label from chicken, and has gone on [...]
[Read more →]Tags: Battles & Victories · Briefs · Food
By John DeFore
In 2002, the City of New York was recycling about a fifth of its waste, but some in the Bloomberg administration thought the program cost too much. In response to a budget crisis, the city stopped collecting glass and plastic (they continued paper and metal collection), arguing they’d save $40 million [...]
Tags: Battles & Victories · Briefs · Recycle & Reuse
By Barbara Kessler
The push is on to get Congress to renew tax credits for clean energy for energy producers, green businesses and real estate owners. Environmental and business groups — fed up with the lengthy debates on the topic in Washington — have declared May 20 a National Day of Action to extend [...]
[Read more →]Tags: Battles & Victories · Briefs · Energy/Water · Greener Businesses
By Barbara Kessler
Earth Day is 38 years old and still going strong. That says something about our nation’s commitment to the environment, or at least the commitment of those who’ve kept conservation issues – clean air, clean water, pure food — on the table all these years.
Photo © 2008 by Kim Komenich | Distributed [...]
[Read more →]Tags: Battles & Victories · Cities/States
By Shermakaye Bass
It’s no surprise that Big Energy gets the role of Goliath in Mat Hames’ and George Sledge’s Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars, a documentary produced and narrated by Robert Redford and The Redford Center at Sundance Preserve that follows a recent chain of events in which coal companies tried to fast [...]
Tags: Battles & Victories · Books/Online Media · Energy/Water
With Earth Day coming next month, we want to hear what you’re doing to go green right now. Share success stories, offer tips or just words of encouragement for others. Just click the link below for instructions on how to post your voice comment using your wireless phone. And check back to listen to what [...]
[Read more →]Tags: Battles & Victories · GET INSPIRED · Model Projects
By Harriet Blake
Photo: Port of Long Beach
In 1989 the Exxon Valdez spilled 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s pristine Prince William Sound slathering wildlife and the untouched rocky shores with an inky, sticky coating of oil. The event created a powerful visual image of the sort of damage ocean ships can cause. A [...]
Tags: Battles & Victories · Food · Other Transport
By John DeFore
Environmentalists in Texas aren’t pleased with the way the state handles pollution regulation, and they’re lobbying for change — not in the Austin statehouse, but with those tasked with regulating it at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tags: Battles & Victories · Briefs · Cities/States
By Tom Kessler
The battlefield cry “charge” is taking on new meanings. Portable fuel cell systems from SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG won first and third prizes in the U.S. Defense Department’s inaugural Wearable Power Competition, the DOD announced.
Nearly 170 designs competed in the event, which was established by Department of Defense Research and Engineering to “encourage innovation in energy systems carried by personnel during field missions.” The systems, attached to a military vest, were required to provide 20 watts of average electric power, have peak-power capability up to 200 watts and weigh no more than 8.8 pounds.
By John DeFore
Honda is shifting gears in its strategy for hybrid cars. Judging from announcements at last week’s Paris Motor Show, the automaker has decided that the hybrids most likely to succeed in the marketplace are models with a standalone hybrid identity — like Toyota’s Prius, which is not available with a conventional gas engine — rather than those, like Honda’s Civic, that are already familiar in all-gasoline incarnations.
So while Chrysler’s new plan will speed up electric vehicle roll-out by building on existing cars, Honda will now focus on “dedicated” hybrid models like the new Insight Hybrid, which it expects to have in showrooms early next year. (Perhaps confusingly, this new car recycles the name of a previous Honda vehicle, a gas/electric hybrid that was discontinued a couple of years ago due to poor sales.)
The five-passenger car will be followed by two other dedicated hybrids — within the next four years, Honda intends to introduce both a compact similar to its Fit and a sports car resembling the CR-Z. The Insight’s fuel efficiency figures are not yet public, pending full EPA review, but company spokespeople have said its performance should be comparable to the existing Civic Hybrid, which gets a combined 42 mpg.
Though no price has yet been mentioned, in a press release the company boasts it will offer the Insight at “a price significantly below hybrids available today” and therefore expects to sell 200,000 cars a year, with half that in North America.
Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media
Catalog mailings are nearing full swing now, with mailboxes deluged by hefty full-color enticements to get 
that Christmas shopping done by phone.
Obviously, online shopping is more prudent, ecologically speaking. However, at the recent Business of Green Media Conference in Boston, the printing industry showed signs of taking green issues seriously.
Consumers can “take solace” in the fact that many catalogs are recycled and others are certified as coming from sustainable forests, said Beth Reardon, a corporate accounts manager with Appleton Coated, one of more than 30 companies represented at the conference’s Expo.
Appleton Coated, a paper company that sells under the Utopia brand, uses virgin fiber but does not use any fiber bleaching, said Reardon. None of their pulp comes from old-growth timber or rainforests. It’s all 100 percent certified by one or all of the following: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).
These certification groups were created as a result of concern for the planet’s forests. They review companies’ practices to assure that they do not use old growth or rainforest timber, or engage in disreputable forestry practices that can lead to habitat loss or the displacement of human residents. [Read more →]
