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 Diane Porter
They could all be fine.
Or they could suffer allergic reactions, coughs, asthma attacks, respiratory infections, oxygen debt and cramps. Their performances could slip,
Photo: Frank Wechsel / triathlon.org
Jason Shoemaker competes at the 2007 BG Triathlon World Cup
their chances for world records could suffer. And predicting medal winners could prove more difficult than usual, [...]
Tags: Celebrities & Politicians · Headlines · Nation
By Shermakaye Bass
When legislators cross party lines and governors publicly plead for water reform, you know the country’s water crunch has reached a new degree of direness.
And yet, some conservationists ask, who’s really listening?
In late July an Opinion column appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other California newspapers. In it, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, [...]
Tags: Celebrities & Politicians · Cities & States · Energy & Water · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers
By Shermakaye Bass
While some Americans insist on pampering thirsty lawns and water-greedy flora - and engage in other water-siphoning practices - innovative means of conservation are cropping up all over the United States, out of necessity or sheer eco-sense. Some can be easily applied by individuals; others require input, or even a policy change, [...]
Tags: Cities & States · Energy & Water · Model Projects
By Harriet Blake
What started out as a practical way to keep food from sticking to pans and paper, may not be so great for our health. PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, is a synthetic (man-made) chemical that is used to coat Teflon cookware as well as the packaging of many fast-food products, including pizza [...]
Tags: Uncategorized
By Harriet Blake
Mainstream, affordable solar power is not just pie (or energy) in the sky. So say MIT researchers who have devised a process to store solar energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.
Photo: Donna Coveney
MIT professor Dan Nocera
Massachusetts Institute of Technology energy professor Dan Nocera and post-doctoral fellow Matthew Kanan have found a [...]
Tags: Energy & Water · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers · Headlines · Uncategorized
By Catherine Girardeau
So you need to replace your mattress, and you want to do the green right thing, for your health and for the environment. You may be trying to reduce your overall carbon footprint, or perhaps to choose a product that’s better for your health. Ideally, you can do both.
Unfortunately, there is a plethora [...]
Tags: Dress, Decor & Beauty · SHOP GREEN
By Harriet Blake
The climate change bill may be stuck in Congress but green initiatives march on. From the coasts to the heartland, states are taking matters into their own hands with many governors leading the way.
Among the most prominent “Green Govs” today are Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Democrat Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. [...]
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 Lynette Holloway
The other day, at the swank Blue Water Grill in downtown Chicago, chef Eric Kendrick held a treasure trove of
Photo by Terri O’Hara
Chef Eric Kendrick and a bumper crop of locally grown food.
vegetables in a huge amber bowl. The haul, plucked fresh from a local farmer’s market, included deep purple torpedo onions, colorful [...]
Tags: GET INSPIRED · Greener Businesses
By Barbara Kessler
With gas prices pressuring wallets everywhere and climate change warming the planet, people are looking to the sun for some salvation. It’s paradoxical yes, but so sensible. The sun’s energy burns brightly on Earth and is capable of powering our homes and potentially our cars, if that power can be efficiently harvested.
For the [...]
Tags: Cars · Model Projects · Other Transport · Schools, Universities & Churches
By John DeFore
It must be a bittersweet moment to be Darrell Hammond.
Every talk Al Gore gives, after all, continues to prove the Saturday Night Live veteran’s brilliance at honing in on the speech patterns of public figures; if Gore can’t tweak his style after years of mockery, then clearly Hammond caught something elemental.
But in [...]
Tags: Celebrities & Politicians · Headlines · Nation · PEOPLE
By Catherine Girardeau
Eleven-year-old Colin Carlson of Coventry, Conn., took his cue from the penguins. The recent winner of the sixth annual Action for Nature International Young Eco-Hero Awards in the 8-to-13 age group was nine when he visited the Galapagos Islands as a member of the National Geographic Kids Expedition Team.
“I was snorkeling near a [...]
Tags: Cities & States · Green Them · Headlines · Healthy Ways · Model People · Model Projects · Uncategorized
By Paula Minahan
The idea of living in a truly sustainable green environment is a homeowner’s dream: Lower energy bills, healthier materials,
Photo: Barley & Pfeiffer Architects
Overhangs provide protection from the sun.
the satisfaction of “doing the right thing.” But with our slumping U.S. economy, many worry about holding onto their home — let alone building a [...]
Tags: Cut Consumption · Energy & Water · Home Building · Home Improvements
In the race for top carbon emissions polluter, the United States is still Number One, but China is sprinting forward and could soon edge into the lead. The current Olympics host nation accounted for a “staggering 57 percent of the growth of emissions” worldwide this century, and will likely surpass the U.S. as the single biggest belcher of fossil fuel emissions sometime this year, according to the Worldwatch Institute.
The standings right now: The U.S. currently contributes 19.5 percent of global fossil fuel emissions compared with China’s 18.3 percent. [Read more →]
British Petroleum (BP) has announced plans to bring cellulosic ethanol to market in the U.S., through a 
partnership with bio-fuel developer Verenium, a company that makes biofuels from rice straw, sugarcane stalks, switchgrass and wood chips. The partnership could help speed the availability of lower cost, more environmentally friendly biofuels, according to an announcement by both companies this week. [Read more →]
By Tom Kessler
Almost 90 percent of the car shoppers who visit Kelley Blue Book’s Web site say they are concerned about the future of our environment, company research shows. Among survey respondents, 80 percent agreed that individuals should make lifestyle changes to help reduce CO2 emissions. And 75 percent of KBB shoppers reported that they have made changes to further the betterment of the environment. The most frequent lifestyle changes cited were:
