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 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 Julie Bonnin
If you’re in the market for a custom-built home, there really isn’t a reason not to build green. Who doesn’t want a smaller utility bill? Or to leave a reduced carbon footprint on your corner of planet Earth? FreeGreen, a web site with free green home designs, allows users to browse [...]
Tags: Briefs · Home Building · Model Projects
By John DeFore
Even those among us who spend a fair deal of time daydreaming about living in a solar-powered home may stop short of actually shopping for the required equipment. You can’t just hop down to Home Depot and pick up a photovoltaic rig, after all, and we all know it’s expensive.
Happily, some pioneers [...]
Tags: Briefs · Home Building · Home Improvements · Model Projects
By John DeFore
As the World Bank recently acknowledged, even noble efforts to help the world’s less fortunate people can have negative side effects. As Americans gain a better understanding of developing nations’ growing contributions to environmental problems, it’s only natural for them to second-guess their charitable giving.
One online resource for such gifts, Global Giving, has [...]
Tags: Briefs · GET INSPIRED · Model Projects
By Nima Kapadia
An enormous recreation center in Flagstaff, Ariz., is taking advantage of the state’s sunny weather to warm two indoor and outdoor body slides, a family whirlpool and a three-lane lap pool: about 100,000 gallons.
The Aquaplex Recreation Center will use a 70-panel solar heating system for its multiple pools in a facility that is larger than 51,000 [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cities & States · GET INSPIRED · Model Projects
San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral will install a state-of-the-art solar photovoltaic power system with the help of $65,000 from Pacific Gas and Electric Company, city and church officials have announced. PG&E said its donation to Grace Cathedral is part of the company’s $7.5 million commitment to increase solar power in San Francisco.
“We’re working to make [...]
Tags: Briefs · Model Projects
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 Tom Kessler
Colorado developers have announced what they say is the country’s largest net-zero energy, master-planned community in Arvada, Colo., a suburb of Denver. Geos Neighborhood, which will begin infrastructure construction this fall, will feature 250 residences and can generate enough renewable energy to supply 100 percent of the annual energy needs of the entire [...]
Tags: Briefs · Home Building · Model Projects
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 Harriet Blake
An engineering team at MIT has developed a new solar concentrator that doubles as a window and generates more electricity with fewer solar cells than typical solar panels — moving toward the day when on-site solar power might make fiscal sense for homeowners.
[Read more →]Tags: Briefs · Energy & Water · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers · Headlines · Model Projects
By Lynette Holloway
Sean J. Hunter, director of Doggy Au Pair, with Shih Tzu Lester J. Doodles and Silla, a Mastiff
Most days, Sean J. Hunter, a jaunty dog walker, can be seen maneuvering his way along the sidewalks of Chicago’s tony Gold Coast neighborhood followed by a cavalry of his charges: pampered pooches. They range in [...]
Tags: Cut Consumption · Model Projects · Neighborhood
By Barbara Kessler
If you’ve been wondering about all the buzz over honeybees, here is some food for thought – or rather some thought about food: Bees play a role in one out of every three bites of food Americans eat.
Pollinators, mainly bees, but also butterflies, songbirds and even bats, perform such a critical function [...]
Tags: Food · Headlines · Model Projects · Nation · Trees & Plants · Wildlife
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:
