May 10th, 2012

There are many ways to celebrate Mother’s Day. Cut flowers, breakfast in bed, brunch at her favorite restaurant, a chick flick night. All these fit the day — and you can even take your mom along!

A magnolia looks and smells great. (Your tree won't be this big.)

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August 9th, 2010

This year is well on its way to becoming the hottest year the world has seen since scientists began record-keeping in 1880. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the rising worldwide temperatures are responsible for erratic weather – including severe droughts and heat waves.
What does this mean for your lawn and trees? Two experts from Cornell University have some advice that may surprise you.

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January 11th, 2010

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Winter is not when we typically think strategically about trees. We may notice the glittering displays of icicles draped from their branches, but we don’t think about tree maintenance.

Ice-glazed trees may need expert attention (Photo: GreenRightNow.)

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December 21st, 2009

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

It’s too bad that that term “treehugger” has become such a term of derision among mainstream society.

A similar thing happened to the word “feminist”; it became so associated with strident protest voices that later generations shrugged it off as polarizing. The next generation of women often said they were “for equal rights” for women, but they weren’t “feminists.” Of course they were feminists because they believed in equal rights for women, they just didn’t want to get on a podium about it. They didn’t want a hot button label. Now leaving aside the argument over whether the new approach has been effective for them, let’s return to the question of “treehuggers”.

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September 30th, 2009

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

An opt-out program to stop the receipt of phone books on your doorstop has recently become an option, but perhaps opting-in is a better solution for the environment.

(Photo: banthephonebook.org)

According to Banthephonebook.org, every year five million trees are used in the production of the white pages phone book. Then, it costs $17 million each year to recycle the phone books. And many phone books end up in landfills because people simply throw them away instead of recycling. The website also says that 80 percent of people would support an opt-in program, according to a survey done by Whitepages.com.

Nowadays, the many people use their cell phones or online sites to search for phone numbers. So there is the question of whether physical copies are even necessary.

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August 26th, 2009

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

Fiskars Project Orange Thumb, the Home Depot Foundation, and the City of Baltimore are teaming to make over an area in a local Baltimore neighborhood in just one day. This Thursday, 80 members from all three groups and people from around the community will build a new garden in the Oliver neighborhood. They will break ground at 8 a.m. and complete the project just in time for the ribbon cutting that will take place at 4:30 that afternoon.

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April 26th, 2009

By Laura Elizabeth May
Green Right Now

When getting ready for Mother’s Day, don’t forget about Mother Earth. We have gathered eight ideas that your mother will love and won’t hurt the earth.

A Gift That Blooms

1. Flowers are always right for Mom’s Day. If you are leaning in that direction, consider buying local blooms from a local florist. Picking out flowers that are grown locally cuts down on the amount of gas used to bring you that flower, and you will be supporting your neighborhood economy. If cut flowers aren’t easily found, look for a perennial or shrub in a pot.

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February 17th, 2009

Estimates differ regarding how money you can save by planting well-placed trees. The California Energy Commission’s Consumer Energy Center says the right type of tree, planted in the right spot, can reduce your summer cooling costs by 20 to 40 percent. The United States Department of Energy says that shading an air-conditioning unit can save [...]

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February 16th, 2009

By Diane Porter
Green Right Now

Wouldn’t you just love to pick your house up, turn it this way and that way on the lot, and figure out where it really makes the most sense? The spot where it catches the prevailing breeze, has shade in the summer, sun in the winter, and energy savings year-round?

That’s how houses were placed before air-conditioning, when a family’s comfort inside depended on how well the house functioned. But today, we live in tidy rows on uniform blocks that line up in a way that makes more sense for real estate than anything else. The decision as to which way our doors and windows face was most likely made by a developer putting down dozens of homes at once; the placement of our driveways and patios followed suit.

And if the sun bakes us in the summer, or if our living room is freezing in the winter, we tend to focus on things we can do inside the house to mitigate the problem. We turn the thermostat up or down; we dig out the blankets in winter or the fans in summer.

And we pay for all of it, in comfort and utility bills.

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January 22nd, 2009

By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

Plant a tree. A simple environmental concept. Trees absorb many of the toxins produced by today’s global warming. They add beauty to the landscape.

In the Big Apple, Mayor Bloomberg’s parks department has teamed with Bette Midler’s nonprofit New York Restoration Project to create MillionTreesNYC. (Midler founded the NYRP in 1995.)

MillionTreesNYC, which began in the fall of 2007, pledges to plant a million trees in New York City by 2017. The initiative will help New York City increase its trees by 20 percent. This includes street trees, park trees as well as trees located on public, private and commercial land.

Director Cristiana Fragola says the concept was a simultaneous effort by both the city and the Midler group. The plan is to have the city plant 60 percent of the trees in parks and public spaces. Private community groups will plant the rest.

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December 12th, 2008

By John DeFore

Despite efforts to increase recycling, landfills aren’t going away any time soon. But a process called “phytocapping” might drastically reduce their impact on the environment, according to a paper published in the first 2009 issue of the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management. (The full paper can only be seen if purchased, but it is summarized here.)

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November 19th, 2008

By John DeFore

Everyone knows that shade from the sun keeps you cooler, but a new study has quantified the benefit in a way homeowners might want to note. The right kind of shade, it turns out, can easily shave ten percent off your summertime electric bill.

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