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.
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 [...]
[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 [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cars · Fuels · Recycle & Reuse
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 Barbara Kessler
The upside of high gas prices is becoming evident as Americans flock to dealers of small and hybrid cars, revealing that we can, if whacked in the wallet, lower our greenhouse gas emissions.
There’s another silver lining not so readily apparent, but quite compelling. According to researchers at the University of Alabama in [...]
Tags: Briefs · Fuels · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers · Headlines
By Nima Kapadia
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) have extended their partnership with Volvo another three years to develop commercial trucks with greater fuel efficiency. The partnership is an extension of a one-year agreement signed by the three groups in June 2007, with the overall objective of creating [...]
Tags: Briefs · Nation · Other Transport
Toyota will become the first major automaker to use solar power when it installs solar panels on the next-generation of its Prius hybrid, according to a Reuters report citing Japan’s Nikkei business daily.
The Japanese automaker plans to add solar panels on the roof of the high-end Prius models to power the car’s air conditioning, according [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cars · YOUR WHEELS
By John DeFore
Quick question: Jack trades in his 15 mpg truck for a car getting 25 mpg, while Jill upgrades her 25 mpg sedan for a 35 mpg compact. Assuming they drive the same amount, who’s going to save the most money over the coming year? (Ignore for the moment that Jill’s commute has [...]
[Read more →]Tags: Briefs · Cars · Uncategorized
By Harriet Blake
As a LEED-accredited engineer and leader of the sustainable design initiative for AKF Engineers, Robert Diemer is a believer in the green movement. He helps create greener buildings. He takes public transportation to work.
Recently, Diemer took his commitment to an even higher level by becoming the 50,000th member of PhillyCarShare. With the price [...]
Tags: Cars · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers · Greener Businesses · Other Transport
By John DeFore
The era of mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has finally arrived — although the “mass” part of that statement is debatable.
Tags: Briefs · Cars · Fuels · Greener Businesses · 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
By John DeFore
As anyone can tell you who has touched the hood or tailpipe of a car after a long drive, much of the energy produced by a tank of gas goes not to forward motion but to producing heat. A typical car’s engine is said to waste around two thirds of its energy [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cars · Fuels · Green Enthusiasts & Researchers
By John DeFore
If you can’t give up your car in your green-living efforts, can you at least wash it without harming the planet?
Some of us (this writer, for instance), let inertia answer that question: Don’t wash it at all, and pray that a growing layer of dirt will form a rust-resistant protective covering [...]
Tags: Briefs · Cars · Greener Businesses · SHOP GREEN
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:
