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
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 John DeFore
San Francisco residents recycle almost 70 percent of their total waste. Houston? Just over two and a half percent.
That’s according to an article in the trade journal Waste News that labels Houston the worst recycler among the nation’s thirty most populous cities. The ranking has sparked newspaper coverage lately, with accounts seeking [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cities & States · Recycle & Reuse
By Barbara Kessler
California is at it again. The state stickler for clean air, which tried to regulate car emissions but was blocked by the federal EPA in late 2007, is now asking the feds to regulate pollution from aircraft, ships and off-road vehicles.
CA attorney Jerry Brown said that California, joined by other states and [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cities & States · Headlines
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 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
By John DeFore
In another development sure to result in gray hair, if not legal action, for those in the plastics industry, the city of Los Angeles voted this week to ban plastic bags by July of 2010.
The city’s action isn’t a law, though: It will only become one if the state of California fails to [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cities & States · GET INFORMED
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 John DeFore
In what is said to be the “largest conservation commitment in Canadian history,” Ontario has set aside an area of forest that is almost the size of the United Kingdom.
On Monday, the province’s Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that, as part of its Far North Planning initiative, it would “permanently protect” an area [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cities & States · Headlines · Nation
By John DeFore
Its name, SlurryCarb, may be nauseating, and the procedure itself mightn’t be something you’d want to see first-hand. But a new process touted by Atlanta company EnerTech may be part of the answer to the world’s energy woes, while also disposing of sewage.
Tags: Briefs · Cities & States · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers
By Barbara Kessler
Flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries is creating a secondary environmental problem that’s not so secondary. As record-breaking runoff carrying sewage and fertilizers heads to the Gulf of Mexico, researchers and federal officials fear it will cause the largest algal bloom ever in the coastal waters.
Tags: Briefs · Cities & States · Food · Headlines
By John DeFore
Some time in the coming weeks, residents of our nation’s capital will be the first American customers of a service some Europeans have used for a decade, a public/private partnership that adds bicycles to the more familiar array of public transportation options like buses and trains.
Tags: Cities & States · Greener Businesses · Other Transport
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:
