From Green Right Now Reports

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, 2010, Aaron Brothers Art & Framing is sponsoring a kids’ art contest themed Coloring Earth Green. Entries will be accepted in Aaron Brothers stores from February 28th until April 18th. Approximately $26,000 in prizes will be awarded to kids and their schools – including a Grand Prize trip to the Crayola Factory for two students and their families.

The contest is open to legal residents of Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington who are 5 to 12 years of age on Feb. 28, 2010.

Aaron Brothers said it will offer teachers a complimentary kit that contains “Green Thought Starters” — ideas, fun facts and “eco-easy” tips to be green and to raise awareness of the natural environment. Teachers may download or request the free teachers kit, which includes “Coloring Earth Green” art entry examples and the Green Thought Starters Kit.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Oceana.org has launched a bright, graphic, photo-rich web game called Ocean IQ Quiz where you and your kids can learn about ocean wildlife and habitats.

And quiz yourself.

The games are suitable for kids or adults. They are challenging. It took two of us, one adult, one teen, to score an 8 out of 10. Maybe we need to spend more time in the Explore section of Oceana website from which the material is drawn.

Try out any Ocean IQ Quiz and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a Wii, a trip to Baja California or Nautica clothing. You must be 13 and up to enter, and a resident of the United States, and you must include the email addresses of four friends to be entered in the drawing for the grand prize, the Baja trip. That trip includes an excursion with the ecotourism group SEE Turtles, which will take you to see turtles, in the sea, see?

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From Green Right Now Reports

Popular brands Sharpie, Paper Mate and EXPO have announced a partnership with TerraCycle to collect and reuse pens, markers and other writing instruments while also helping raise funds for schools, charities, and non-profits nationwide.

Collection centers — called “Writing Instrument Brigades” — will be set up at participating locales, primarily in large corporations and schools where writing instruments are used most. For every writing instrument collected, two cents will be paid to a school, community group, charity or non-profit organization of the participant’s choice. TerraCycle said the collection efforts will reduce landfill proliferation, educate and inspire consumers to get involved, and provide much needed funding to schools and non-profit groups nationwide.

“Keeping one pen or marker out of a landfill may seem like a small contribution, but multiply that by the estimated $5 billion of writing instruments sold in the U.S. each year and it is a big opportunity to reduce waste to landfills,” Ben Gadbois, an executive with Newell Rubbermaid Office Products, which makes Sharpie, EXPO and Paper Mate products, said in a statement. “As the world’s leading producer of writing instruments, it’s not only our responsibility but our moral obligation to do our part to help the environment. TerraCycle offers us an innovative way to repurpose writing instruments after their useful life has expired.”

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Photo: Charlie Archambault

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

In 2007, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) launched Green Hour, a campaign that encourages children to have 60 minutes of unstructured play outside. The campaign has since branched out into NWF’s “Be Out There” movement. “Be Out There” officially kicked off last October in association with the movie Where the Wild Things Are. Sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, “Be Out There” seeks to inspire and connect children with the great outdoors.

“National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There campaign engages families, schools, communities and policy makers to give back to American children what they don’t even know they’ve lost: their connection to the natural world,” said Rebecca Garland, executive director of NWF’s Connecting People with Nature.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Sixteen middle and high schools from 12 states have been named winners in the first round of the third annual Lexus Eco Challenge, an educational program and contest that encourages young people to make a positive difference for the environment. Lexus will award a total of $500,000 in grants and scholarships throughout this year’s program.

Each winning team earns $10,000 in scholarships and grants to be shared among the students, teacher and school. Winners also will to participate in the Final Challenge for a chance at one of two $30,000 grand prizes and 14 $15,000 first-place awards.

For each of the challenges, teams are required to define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report on the results.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — California kids will have a head start when it comes to the environment.

Beginning this year, environmental studies will be a part of the curriculum in all public schools, making California is the first state in the nation to require it.

Students will take 85 units of environment-related education in science, history and social science classes in grades K through 12.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

One thing we’ve learned in 2009 is that you can’t wait for big institutions to take the green lead. For every green entrepreneur, there’s a climate change heel-dragger. We’re thinking of Copenhagen, Congress and entrenched fossil fuel interests.

You can, however, do what you can.

And in that spirit, here are 11 ways to lower your carbon footprint this New Year. Adopting even one of them can help reduce the pollution that’s leading to dire consequences. And while some New Year’s resolutions are hard, and cost you money (gym fees aren’t going down you know), these resolutions are likely to save you money, reduce your exposure to toxins and help you lead a healthier life. We’ve included only those ideas that really make a big impact, and scuttled those that we consider to be “boutique green” — those non-starter nice ideas that matter, but just a little bit.

To help make this list something you can really use, we’ve included some nifty online tools that can help you find a greener track in 2010.

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

The National Audubon Society is kicking off the second year of its Pennies for the Planet campaign, which is supported by TogetherGreen. With a slogan of “Because the planet needs some change,” schools, clubs, groups, and families are encouraged to help threatened ecosystems and wildlife by simply collecting pennies (and nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars, too).

This year’s pennies will help protect three endangered U.S. coastlines:

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LOS ANGELES (KABC):

THE LITTLE SEED

You’re never too young to go green, so when friends Soleil Moon Frye and Paige Goldberg Tolmach started having kids, they wanted the very best for them and sought out organic, eco-friendly options. It planted the seed for their own business endeavor — a children’s boutique in Los Angeles called The Little Seed — selling all things “green” for little ones.

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One of the many pieces of the massive Climate Change Quilt, this one from Australia.

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

The little things, we know, can make a difference. Take for example a little square of fabric clipped from something old – a T-shirt, a pillowcase, any old thing that has seen better days.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Green California Schools Summit and Expo will be held at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, Calif., from Dec. 9 through 11. From school gardens to recycling programs and energy efficiency retrofits, the summit will explore high performance schools — whether new buildings or renovations — that can save money, keep students and faculty healthier and engender life-long environmental awareness.

Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming, will speak at the Green California Schools Summit

Pre-conference workshops and concurrent education sessions offer the chance to learn from stakeholders and innovators in the green schools movement – from State Architect David Thorman to government agencies, green schools rating organizations, architects and curriculum experts. An exposition will feature more than 100 companies with sustainable products and services.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

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

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