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

Mom, dad, a kid on her way to college. Lots of people can appreciate the utility and electricity savings of a Toaster Oven. Did you know that the average 1500 watts used by a toaster/convection oven is less than half, or even more, than that used by a full-size oven? How many times have you heated the entire oven just to warm rolls for dinner? Or to bake a couple ramekins of dessert? Or broil a tuna melt? Or brown a small brushetta?

Turn that big oven off, and use a tool that’s sized-right for the job. That’s the very sound idea behind this “smart” appliance. There are dozens to choose from. The Black & Decker one shown here can be had at Amazon and other stores for around $60. It gets good reviews for durability, space and function.

THE WOVEL

THe wovel uses see-saw action to shove snow.

This goofy looking simple machine just might keep some snow blowers off the road. It’s unique enough to keep the relatives marveling about the weird gift Aunt Sally got Uncle Mel, but it’s got it’s serious side: It powers through snow without using fossil fuels.  More importantly to most users, it makes the job of shoveling the white stuff, pound per pound, easier. Easier on the back, mainly, because the motion of pushing and then “throwing” the snow engages leg and arm muscles.

We don’t actually have one, and we wonder if it’s quite as easy as it looks, but the see-saw action does appear to take a load off the back, a victory over bending, raising and twisting to shovel snow the old-fashioned way. The Wovel has made several YouTube appearances since being named on Time’s Best Inventions List in 2006. Check out this video by a convinced user.

It is expensive for a shovel ($119.95 retail), but it solves a problem, without adding another pollution-spewing machine to the household arsenal.

RECYCLED TIRE WALLET

Recycled Tire Wallet made by artisans in El Salvador

Number three on our list is black, but so very green. This completely recycled, vegan friendly wallet is made from discarded tires. But it looks so much like the standard leather version we thought it would qualify as a green gift that doesn’t stand out as different. Each 9 x 3.5 inch wallet has a slot for money and six slots for credit cards, just like you’d expect. A Fair Trade artisan group in El Salvador makes these wallets, helping provide jobs and living wages in their community. You can buy it ($30)  through the GreenHeartShop in Chicago, at their online store.

Green Heart helps promote artisan craft goods, clothing and food from around the world and in the U.S.

When we think about Thanksgiving, we think about Plymouth, Pilgrims, and of course turkey. What would Thanksgiving be without a turkey?

For the longest time when it comes to food, we’ve gone by the notion that bigger is better. The bigger the turkey, the better it will taste. Unfortunately this process of thinking led to the inhumane treatment of animals and use of growth hormones, in order to turn a quick profit and satisfy customers.

Lately, though, people have become significantly more conscious about what chemicals animals are exposed to, because it directly relates to them when they are putting it in their body.  And that has led to some options when it comes to picking your bird from among the 270 million or so turkeys raised in the United States. ( In 2008, 273 million turkeys were raised in the United States, according to the National Turkey Federation.)

If you just walk into almost any grocery store you will see that there are multiple turkeys from which to choose. They are labeled with all sorts of eye-catching phrases such as, pesticide-free, organic and all-natural. But what do these words really mean?

Don’t let the lingo scare you. National Turkey Federation’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Sherrie Rosenblatt broke down the differences:

• Conventional:  Conventional turkeys are raised in scientifically designed, environmentally controlled barns that provide maximum protection from predators, disease and bad weather.
• Organic:  An “organic” turkey must be certified by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to have been raised on land that has been free of prohibited pesticides and other substances for at least three years; the bird’s food would also be pesticide free (though that’s no guaranteed that it’s pure in every way). Technically speaking, the turkey produced must consist of at least 95 percent organic ingredients (excluding water and salt).  Any remaining product ingredients must consist of non-agricultural substance approved on the “National List” or non-organically product agricultural products that are not commercially available in organic form.  Visit the USDA AMS website for more information.
• Heirloom:  Heirloom turkeys take much longer to raise that a conventional or organic turkey.  Because of the added costs, these turkeys are much more expensive than a conventionally raised turkey.  The taste and appearance are also much different than a conventionally raised turkey.  The light meat is almond colored and the dark meat is cappuccino, with both having a firm texture. Heirloom turkeys are bred from breeds of birds that pre-date the industrial food era, and are typically raised on smaller traditional farms, and let run on pasture or are grain-fed. Can’t find them at your grocery store? Check your local CSA or farmer’s market, or online at Local Harvest.org.

Two other types of turkeys not mentioned are pastured and free-range turkeys. The difference between the two is free-range turkeys are not confined to cages, but “range” can mean within a barn. Pastured turkeys are raised outside and their meat may be richer in omega oils because of their grassy diet.

Over the past few years sales of organic have continued to increase, according to Whole Foods Market.

“It’s a little too early to speak to this for this year since we tend to sell more fresh birds (than frozen). The bulk of the sales generally happen in the two weeks prior to the holidays.  We are prepared for and anticipate that the trend will continue,” said Cathy Cochran-Lewis, National Media Relations Coordinator for Whole Foods Market – Central.

While the numbers are rising, it may still be difficult to find just the right turkey. Sprouts, a familiar market to organic shoppers, does not sell any organic turkeys,  a spokesman said.

Wegmans has a couple of options for shoppers. The store carries an organic choice, the Jaindl Organic Grand Champion turkey, and their own Wegmans’ Grand Champion turkey, which is not certified organic but is raised in a humane and healthy way.

“The Wegmans Grand Champion turkey is not organically raised; however it is a free range bird that has been raised without antibiotics and no animal by-products in the feed,” said Jeanne Colleluori, Communications & Media Specialist for Wegmans Consumer Affairs.

Whole Foods Market might be the store with the largest variety of healthy turkey choices.

“Our stringent quality standards require that every turkey we sell meets our animal welfare standards, which include no antibiotics, ever, and no animal by-products in the feed.  They also are not injected with any solutions or marinades,” said Cochran-Lewis.

Heirloom turkeys are more commonly available at Whole Foods stores. “The flavor and composition of the heirloom turkey is the closest we have to turkeys of yesteryear. The turkeys tend to have dark spots on the skin which is natural to the breed (results in their darker feathers),” added Cochran-Lewis. Another benefit to heirloom turkeys is they require less cooking time due to the lower amount of fat.

Whole Foods also offers other organic Thanksgiving alternatives. THeir 365 Organic brand makes includes stuffing mixes, cranberry sauces, broths, truffles, and caramels and they have a vegan pumpkin pecan pie recipe that will make your mouth water.

You can even skip your trip to the grocery store all together and buy your turkey online this year. Williams-Sonoma offers their California-raised, free-range, Willie Bird Organic Turkey that can be delivered right to your front door. Consumers give the Willie Bird Turkey rave reviews; it’s worth taking a look at.

Organic and Heirloom turkeys are a bit pricier, but they are worth it if you’re seeking a gourmet or leaner taste, and if you want to support the way the turkeys were raised.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

If you’ve been taking your home green, you know how ideas can feed off each other. Someone gets picky about paper recycling; someone else becomes the food waste arbiter; pretty soon everyone has their eco-role and the household’s carbon footprint is shrinking.

Hotel Triton Lobby (Photo: Markham Johnson)

Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants realized early on that green grows like that.  The hospitality chain, with roots in San Francisco, has a history of putting eco-friendly ideas in place. Even before green hotel or green restaurant designations were developed, Kimpton was experimenting with eco-friendly practices at its San Francisco properties, such as the Hotel Triton, where motion sensors turn off lights and 60 percent of the waste gets recycled.

Non-toxic products, green cleaners, low VOC paints, low-flow faucets – all these turned up in Kimpton Hotels while other hotels were still on the highway of high-consumption. In addition, Kimpton has restored several historic buildings, supporting pedestrian-friendly urban areas. Stay at a Kimpton and you may find yourself ensconced on an eco-friendly mattress, drinking organic coffee and munching on a Clif bar.

Still, as the Kimpton chain grew greener, it had to figure out how to roll out the plan to all of its properties, including those outside of the Bay Area where environmental practices were not as well understood.

By 2005, the luxury hotel group had decided to standardize its green practices, requiring all Kimptons to adhere to an “Earth Care” program. But it didn’t want to impose a rigid top-down program. The solution: Kimpton named “eco-champions” at each of its hotels and encouraged them to form green teams and let ideas bubble up.

“You’ve got to get people on the front lines, who are doing the work, whose job you’re changing, a voice…and they’re right there, they see where the waste is,” said Niki Leondakis , chief operation officer for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants.

The Kimpton leadership, which currently oversees 48 hotels in cities from New England to California, learned the importance of buy-in earlier. In 2003, when Kimpton decided guests could opt out of having their sheets and towels washed every day, management was surprised that many housekeepers were reluctant to make the change. “The housekeepers couldn’t grasp the idea that they were doing a good job by not changing the towels. They needed training that if the towels were on towel bar, the guest wanted to save water and soap…and it was OK,” Leondakis said.

Today, the staff is more likely to get it, though the hospitality group still treads carefully in determining what clients will tolerate – and remain satisfied customers. That has left several green issues still on the table, such as whether a hotel can reduce plastic water bottles when guests on-the-go seem to expect that perk, or whether guests will accept room amenities in bulk dispensers (foregoing that little souvenir of the trip).

“We were initially, like, ‘We’re going to get rid of bottled water entirely.’ And we’d offer filtered tap water in reusable containers both in the restaurants, and our vision was to create a reusable container almost like a flask that people paid a nominal fee for and then they’d refill it at a water cooler. But the consumer does not seem to be ready for that,” Leondakis said.

Look for the green teams and “eco-champions” to find a solution. So far, the local crews are forging viable new ways on various fronts.

In DC, Chef Robert Weland at the Post Modern Barasserie in D.C. was the driving force behind an herb garden. He not only uses it in his dishes, but gives tours.

In Portland, at the Hotel Monaco, someone decided the facility could get along without those paper-wasting phone books. Now all Kimptons get by without guest room phone books.

Hotel Monaco Chicago (Photo: David Phelps)

In Chicago, the cities’ three Kimpton Hotels, the Monaco, Burnham and Allegro became leaders in the Green Seal green cleaner certification program, prompted by a mayor’s green initiative. Now the three are among just 50 Green Seal certified hotels nationwide.

The 20-year-old program requires the use of green cleaners, energy efficiency and recycling. (For details, see this listing.)

Using green cleaners prevents water pollution, provides for healthier interior air and curbs carbon emissions. The typical silver-ranked Green Seal hotel saves 400 tons of CO2 emissions every year, said Charlotte Teyraud, a spokeswoman for the non-profit Green Seal.

The Chicago hotels also  advocated for a commercial recycling program, that was eventually put into place with the help of city hall, says Nabil Moubayed, manager of the 192-room Hotel Monaco Chicago along the city’s Magnificent Mile:

Now in the “5^th phase” of instituting the Kimpton “Earth Care” program, Moubayed says the Hotel Monaco has found that going green is working on many levels:

• About 60-70 percent of the hotel’s customers use the opt-out linen/towel program, saving money and water.

• The Green Seal-approved cleaners, which the hotel buys in bulk, concentrated form, are saving the hotel about $25,000 a year. The non-toxic cleaners are healthier for staff and guests and biodegradable. (As for that outdated worry about green cleaners not working – Moubayad says surveys burst that myth. “When we look at guest comments. We have the highest score in the company for clean bathrooms and guest rooms.”)

• The hotel recycles about half of its trash, which also saves money because sending out the garbage costs more in trash fees than sending out recyclables, even in this down-market for recyclable material.

Hotel Monaco room overlooking Chicago River

Green ways are catching on among staff, he says. When Monaco’s valet crew discovered that the dry cleaners they were using was discarding hangers after one use, they were aghast. They went to work to find a solution. Now the hangers are reused.

Guests, too, are contracting the green bug. While they remain a diverse group that’s not easily gauged, Moubayed says surveys show that the majority of people stay at Kimpton because of the hotels’ greener rep.

“We’ve seen a pretty high percentage of guests choosing use because we have a strong Green Care program.” he  said. “We don’t want them to feel like everything we doing is in their face. The (guest room) recycling bin for instance is bronze not bright blue. And the low flow shower heads, we don’t’ necessarily want them to notice that, but it  is helping the environment.”

Moubayad had no special sustainability training before coming to the Hotel Monaco, but he has built on what he has learned through Kimpton.

“I found I had a passion for it,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do., not just from the consumer point of view, but as a human, for the future generations. It’s the right thing to do.”

(Another key way that hotels across the US are greening their profile is by building, retrofitting or tailoring operations to meet standards set by the US Green Building Council. For more on these green hotels, see our recent story: A green wave coming, hundreds of hotels finalizing their LEED certification.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

As part of Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, which continues through Oct. 24, the US Environmental Protection Agency is urging families to be aware of the hazards presented by lead and lead-based paint in the home and in childcare facilities.

Lead poisoning is the number one environmental health threat to children in the United States, ages 6 and younger. And families may have lead around the home without knowing it because it can’t be seen, tasted, or smelled. Because it does not break down naturally, lead can remain a problem until it is removed.

The EPA notes that,  before it was understood how harmful it could be, lead was commonly used in paint, gasoline, water pipes and many other products. Now days, house paint is almost lead-free, leaded gasoline has been phased out, and household plumbing is no longer made with lead materials.

But long-term exposure to lead can be very harmful to children. Effects can include learning disabilities, decreased growth, hyperactivity, impaired hearing, and even brain damage. If caught early, these effects can be limited by reducing exposure to lead or by medical treatment. If you are pregnant, avoid exposing yourself to lead. Lead can pass through your body to your baby. The EPA says the good news is that there are simple things you can do to help protect your family.

1. Get your child tested. Even children who appear healthy may have high levels of lead. You can’t tell if a child has lead poisoning unless you have him or her tested. A blood test takes only ten minutes, and results should be ready within a week. Blood tests are usually recommended for children at ages one and two. To find out where to have your child tested, call your doctor or local health clinic. They can explain what the test results mean, and if more testing will be needed.

2. Keep it clean. Ordinary dust and dirt may contain lead. Children can swallow lead or breathe lead contaminated dust if they play in dust or dirt and then put their fingers or toys in their mouths, or if they eat without washing their hands first. Keep the areas where your children play as dust-free and clean as possible. Wash pacifiers and bottles after they fall on the floor. Keep extras handy. Clean floors, window frames, window sills, and other surfaces weekly. Use a mop, sponge, or paper towel with warm water and a general all-purpose cleaner or a cleaner made specifically for lead. Thoroughly rinse sponges and mop heads after cleaning dirty and dusty areas. Wash toys and stuffed animals regularly. Make sure your children wash their hands before meals, nap time, and bedtime.

3. Reduce the risk from lead paint. Most homes built before 1978 contain leaded paint. This paint could be on window frames, walls, the outside of your house, or other surfaces. Tiny pieces of peeling or chipping paint are dangerous if eaten. Lead paint in good condition is not usually a problem except in places where painted surfaces rub against each other and create dust. (For example, when you open a window, the painted surfaces rub against each other.) Make sure your child does not chew on anything covered with lead paint, such as painted window sills, cribs, or playpens. Don’t burn painted wood. It may contain lead.

4. Don’t remove lead paint yourself. Lead dust from repairs or renovations of older buildings can remain in the building long after the work is completed. Hire a person with special training for correcting lead paint problems to remove lead paint from your home, someone who knows how to do this work safely and has the proper equipment to clean up thoroughly. Don’t try to remove lead paint yourself.

5. Eat right. A child who gets enough iron and calcium will absorb less lead. Foods rich in iron include eggs, lean red meat, and beans. Dairy products are high in calcium. Don’t store food or liquid in lead crystal glassware or imported or old pottery. If you reuse plastic bags to store or carry food, keep the printing on the outside of the bag.

In addition to the steps parents can take to reduce their children’s exposure to lead, the EPA has taken regulatory steps aimed at preventing lead poisoning. Under the new rule, beginning in April 2010, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.

Until the new regulations take effect, EPA recommends that anyone performing renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in pre-1978 homes, child care facilities and schools follow lead-safe work practices. All contractors should follow these three simple procedures: Contain the work area; minimize dust; and cleanup thoroughly.

Currently, owners of residential rental properties built before 1978 must disclose known information on lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards before leases take effect. Leases must include a disclosure form about lead-based paint.

Sellers of properties built before 1978 must disclose known information on lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards before selling a house. Sales contracts must include a disclosure form about lead-based paint. Buyers have up to 10 days to check for lead hazards.

For more information:

• Visit www.epa.gov/lead or call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD (1-800-424-5323)

As the Nobel Prize Committee noted in awarding President Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize last week, the world is in a better place than it was a year ago.

The world also is in a better place thanks to six young people who are being honored on Tuesday for their heroic environmental efforts. The 2009 Brower Youth Awards, sponsored by Earth Island Institute, will be given to:

• Sierra Crane-Murdoch, 21, of Vermont, for helping unite the movement to fight coal.

• Adarsha Shivakumar, 16, of California, who has put into place a biofuel solution in rural India.

• Diana Lopez, 20, of Texas, who started an organic food source in San Antonio.

• Hai Vo, 22, of California, for transforming food purchasing at the University of California.

• Robin Bryan, 21, of Manitoba, whose project protects 1 million acres of forest in Canada from industrial logging.

• Alec Loorz, 15, of California, who initiated Kids vs. Global Warming and is the youngest presenter of Al Gore’s “The Climate Project.”

Each award recipient will receive a $3,000 cash prize and be recognized at 10th annual Brower Youth Awards Gala in San Francisco. The Earth Island Institute, which sponsors the Brower Youth Awards, is a nonprofit group that recognizes people who come up with solutions to protect the planet.

Sierra Crane-Murdoch

The common thread that connects the six winners is their youthful idealism and  shared passion. As Sierra Crane-Murdoch said via e-mail, “It’s our idealism that energizes our ideas, and it’s comaraderie that makes our ideas succeed.”

Crane-Murdoch says she became an organizer when she arrived at Middlebury College and joined an environmental forum called The Sunday Night Group.

“I’ve always loved the outdoors,” she says, “but I actually started to really care about the environment when I began to understand the human component…and realized that climate change is affecting disadvantaged communities that haven’t caused the problem in the first place.”

Her work with the Sunday Night Group led to Step It Up and 350.org, founded by Middlebury professor and environmentalist Bill McKibben, which she includes among her many mentors. She says that environmental organizing was considered their “5th class” at Middlebury, but “when Power Past Coal came along, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to commit entirely to the project and take classes.”

So Crane-Murdoch took a leave of absence to go live in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia and learn about the issues of dirty coal. She now has one more semester at Middlebury, after which she plans to return temporarily to Appalachia. She is a 2009 Middlebury Fellow in Environmental Journalism, which is directed by McKibben. Currently she is reporting on former union coal miners who are standing up to mountaintop removal coal mining.

Adarsha Shivakumar

Two years ago, at the age of 13, Adarsha Shivakumar of Pleasant Hill, Calif., co-founded Project Jatropha. The organization promotes the plant, Jatropha curcas, a small perennial shrub with oil-rich seeds. Shivakumar says the plant can grow on marginal lands without diverting valuable land from food production. It’s considered an ecologically friendly and economically profitable crop for the farmers of rural India.

Shivakumar says every year he and his sister spend time with their grandparents who live on a farm in south India. “During that time,” he says, “we regularly visit the nearby villages…to see the work done by Parivarthana, a non-governmental farmers aid organization.” Many of the villagers grow tobacco for a living, but to do this the farmers must burn large amounts of firewood to cure the tobacco leaves. Because the farmers do not have a lot of wood on their land, they have turned to cutting down the trees of the local national park.

“My sister and I realized that if we do not make an effort to wean the farmers off tobacco, then the whole forest and all of its incredible biodiversity would disappear,” Shivakumar says.

Shivakumar’s group collaborated with Parivarthana and a plant biotechnology company, Labland Biotechs, to convince farmers that Jatropha seeds could be converted into biofuel.

“Carbon dioxide emissions are local,” says Shivakumar, “but their effects are global.” Though the project is based in India, he hopes it will influence others to help curb global warming and decrease dependence on fossil fuels.

Diana Lopez of San Antonio got excited about social justice and the environment after one of her high school teachers introduced the class to the Southwest Workers Union. The union had a youth chapter that focused on living wages, youth organizing, environmental justice and border global organizing.

It was inevitable that eventually someone would bring together all those new waterless car wash products with all those kids holding car wash fundraisers.

Green Youth Movement members

One such partnership takes off tomorrow in LA, where teen members of the nonprofit Green Youth Movement will hold a car wash at the Barrington Dog Park in Brentwood.

The group, lead by GYM founder Ally Maize, hopes to make a statement about water conservation, and several of her classmates from the Archer School for Girls, will be raising funds for their senior class activities.

The car wash on Saturday (Oct. 17) will use an eco-friendly formula, called Eco Detail, a plant-derived polymer compound.

The times for the car wash, and the cost per car, were not immediately available.

Planning a low-impact, money-saving Halloween is so much more rewarding than trying to turn some other holidays green. You don’t have to argue with relatives about whether or not to have a turkey, or disappoint the kids with gifts to humanitarian causes in their names at Christmas. All you really need to do is think creatively, get holistic about your pumpkin, maybe dust off the sewing machine and take it easy at the store.

Here are our best nine ideas to help you get started.

Halloween Chico Bag

1 - Get A Reusable Halloween Bag

This is a no-brainer, the equivalent of buying CFLs. If you can’t do this, hang up your werewolf mask right now. We like this Chico Bag. It is reusable, affordable and designed by kids. Buy it at Greenfeet for just $5. Or find a pillowcase for treats. Either way skip the clunky orange plastic pumpkins, unless you’ve already got them, then: reuse, reuse.

2 – Make Your Own Costume

Don’t sew? Keep it simple – a cape, fairy wings, a skirt or a toga can be made from remnant material or old sheets with minimal stitching. Use inexpensive, iron-on fusing tape to make seams. Cut with pinking shears so fabric won’t unravel. We won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting you use a sheet to be a ghost (duh!), but old sheets can make good costume base material. Accessorize princes and princesses with glitzy fabric leftovers from the wedding/party section of any fabric store. We once glammed up Ginny Weasley with a pastiche of recycled duds, using a red robe from two previous Harry Potters, and a moon-and-stars cape from wizards past. Capes, velvety robes and glittering trim can add a lot of drama for little sweat equity. Here are some basic instructions.

Boy Snatched by Alien (Photo: Homemade Costumes)

But… if you’re making your own, why stop there? Get creative.  Turn your kid into a child being snatched by an alien, a mom-niacal optical illusion they won’t soon forget (that’s just the kid in the photo; the alien is affixed to his back). Read details at Costume-Works.com, where veteran costume maker, Colletta, mother of six  and grandmom, showcases homemade costume submissions. There’s some amazing stuff here, from Oompa Loompas to boys dressed as both plane and pilot. (Your kid may not remember being a pirate from a package, but he’ll surely recall the day he trick-or-treated as a cardboard plane.)

3 – Hold a Costume Exchange Party

This is novel idea could work for the under-10 or over 30-crowd. Any grade-schooler whose accumulated a few dress-up outfits and costumes would probably love to trade one in for a “new” one from another kid. So share!  Make it a party by allowing participants to “buy” the costumes with coins or points earned at activities or games. You’ll be recycling and creating a fun experience.

We think this idea, now wafting around the Internet, may have taken flight at GreenHalloween.org, a website founded by Seattle mom Corey Colwell-Lipsome and her mom and partner in green adventures, Lynn Colwell. Green Halloween delivers many ideas for making spooky parties healthier and greener, like skipping the candy and serving black olive and orange bell pepper pizza. See their neighborhood Halloween kit for more.

(Photo: AllRecipes.com)

4. Make pumpkin bread

It’s yummy and healthy. Pumpkins are full of beta –carotene (present in all orange veggies) which is converted to Vitamin A. Some nutritionists consider these orange foods to be Super Foods” with properties that protect against cancer and strengthen the immune system. Another reason to celebrate the orange. Drizzle icing over it for picky eaters or serve plain and warm, a perfect fall treat for a Halloween gathering.

There’s a healthy, light recipe using buttermilk on AllRecipes.com, and another delicious pumpkin bread recipe on Cooks.com. (And countless more, but these two are not too sugary.)

Twisted Fruit snack (Photo: Clif Bar)

5. Give Trick-or-Treaters dried fruit treats...

Treats can be tough when you’re thinking green. There’s a problem from the git-go with all that individual packaging and while you may want to give something healthier, you don’t want to suck the fun out of the evening for visiting Draculas. Dried fruit is one answer. Try Clif Bar’s Twisted Fruit sticks.

Or combine dried mangos, pineapple, cantaloupe and dates into a sweet mixed-fruit goodie bag. Downside: You’d have to package it yourself, which might raise suspicions that your treat was tainted, leading to its expeditious disposal at the recipient’s home.  Hardcore greenies also might have trouble with including tropical fruit, but there are lots of local dried fruits, from apple chips to dried cantaloupe slices. available stateside.

6. …Or crackers

The University of Illinois Extension service came up with these ideas for healthier treats: Cheese and cracker packages; sugar-free gum; juice boxes; raisin or nut packages or peanuts.  We say no to the Aspartame gum, and hold those peanuts (God forbid you’d give them to a kid with a peanut allergy). The crackers sound like a plan though. Butter crackers, graham crackers. Kids love them, especially after consuming a pound of sweets.

Halloween Crackers (Photo: Martha Stewart.com)

And wait! There’s a variation. From Martha Stewart (who else) comes this idea for Halloween “crackers”, as  in those party favors that you pop open. She uses orange crepe paper and plastic spiders. No, we don’t think the world needs more plastic spiders, but these crackers do reuse toilet tissue tubes. Fill the tube with selected treats and fulfill your Martha leanings.

7.  Don’t forget popcorn

Kids with braces won’t like you, but popcorn would be a welcome departure for some wee spooks. Here’s an idea that uses a little plastic, but not so much as to violate the green spirit: Take some of those thin plastic gloves that servers wear in cafeterias and stuff them with popcorn. Paint the nails red, add some gashes or creepy tattoos; bind the glove closed with a rubber band and give a “hand out” at Halloween.

8. Decorate with compostable stuff

Straw is really great for animal bedding, but it can be used as a  garden mulch. So if you’re decorating with straw bales for fall, spread it on the flower beds afterward. Dried colored corn can be re-purposed as a winter treat for squirrels and birds. Hang a string of dried garlic on the door to ward off evil spirits on Halloween night, and doubtless you know it can be cooked with later. Cardboard can be easily turned into tombstones, and later used as a weed cover.

De-decorate by turning off all the lights except for a few candles at the door. Put on some scary music, dress like a gangster and you’ve turned your casa into a mysterious manse. (We concede it won’t give Tony Soprano nightmares, but it might hit the right note for small tricksters). Bada-bing!

Heirloom pumpkins (Photo: GreenRightNow.com)

9. Use the whole pumpkin

If they weren’t orange, pumpkins would be the ultimate green Halloween veggie — and some of them actually are green, or blue, on the outside. These heirloom pumpkins (see picture) make some of the best pumpkin foods. Carve them into jack-o-lanterns at the last minute so you can pull out the pumpkin meat for soup or a pie. Remember to roast the pumpkin seeds. We again defer to AllRecipes for directions on this.

Afterward, take the pumpkin to the compost pile. See Earth 911 for composting directions. If you don’t have a compost pile, fall’s a great time to start using leaves, grass clippings and garden dredge. It’s positively frightening how useful the resulting mulch will be come springtime.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media1 –

As you sort through which Disney character your child will be and find the candy of choice for the trick-or-treaters, think green this Halloween. From candy to pumpkins, there are many ways to make this holiday eco-friendly.

Here’s an idea for an organic treat, Yummy Earth lollipops or drops.

Invented by two dads who simply wanted a healthier alternative to candy, Yummy Earth is now the number one seller of organic candy in the United States. Available in 21 flavors, Yummy Earth offers gummy bears, gummy worms, lollipops, and candy drops. Yummy Earth is 100% USDA and EU certified organic. With no artificial coloring or high fructose corn syrup, these candies also are gluten-free, peanut-free, and tree nut-free.

So what do they put in there to still make it taste fabulous? The company uses raw organic brown sugar instead of processed sugar or artificial sweeteners. Other ingredients include, “citric acid made from Israeli sugar beets instead of genetically modified corn; bright red coloring from Japanese purple carrots instead of artificial red dye; real pomegranate extract for our Pomegranate Pucker lollipops and candy drops. Organic pumpkin and black currant also is used to create the vibrant colors,” stated Rob Wunder, Yummy Earth co-founder.

Yummy Earth is widely available at Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Whole Foods, Marriott Hotels, Amazon.com, Harry and David, Smoothie King, Sprouts, Borders Books, and other health food stores.

The Natural Candy Store also offers healthy candy alternatives. Each item is marked by symbols indicating which dietary categories it fits in with, such as vegan, organic, gluten-free, allergen-free, kosher, and the Feingold diet. This candy store also features jelly beans, sprinkles, cotton candy, and chocolate!

Their gummy worms aren’t as scary as some Halloween goodies, but they’re vegan or vegetarian; made with pectin instead of the gelatin (which comes from animal hooves and hides) used in so many gummy candies.

Fair Trade "Action Kit"

If it’s chocolate you seek to give, make it Fair Trade. In fact, send that chocolate with a message to buy Fair Trade Trick or Treat Action Kit composed of candy, an info card and a Mexican streamer.

It may make your house the most political on the block, but the grassroots message will be sugar-coated; the kit includes 40 dark chocolate treats.

(By the way, be sure to practice green hygiene on H-Day. Make sure those candy wrappers do not end up on the sidewalk or in any yards.)

Earth-friendly costumes are a little harder to come by. Harrisons Halloween Costumes for infants are not organic, but they are 100% cotton, so they are a great alternative to synthetic costumes.

There are multiple free patterns located online for children’s costumes, for example if they want to be animals, fairies, or even a chocolate chip cookie.

As far as completely organic, there are not many options, so this year choose to reuse and recycle. Go through your closets to see what you can turn into a costume. If you are blessed with the ability to sew, make your own costume. Either way, minimize your carbon footprint by using materials you already have.

Several websites can provide guidance, such as Mahalo, which publishes a list of easy throw-together  costume suggestions.

Digital media resources from Ken Burns’ acclaimed documentary series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, including on-demand video, lessons plans, student activities, and historical archives, are now available through the PBS Teachers web portal.

The site includes preK-12 educational services and a searchable library of more than 9,000 local and national standards-based instructional resources.

PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 will host a webinar on Oct. 7 to demonstrate ways to integrate the National Parks educational media and other free technologies into classroom instruction. Through the National Parks resources, educators can create an engaging tour of the nation’s historic and natural treasures while teaching students core curriculum lessons and 21st century skills.

During the PBS Teachers LIVE! webinar, “Teaching About Place With Ken Burns’ National Parks: America’s Best Idea” on Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. ET, educational experts will discuss digital storytelling, including geographic and historical projects, and model classroom activities. Educators will learn how to use National Parks and ArcGIS, a free, downloadable, 2D/3D geo-exploration and presentation tool, in teaching about national parks and curricular topics.

The webinar is sponsored by ABC-CLIO, award-winning publisher of reference titles in the field of history and social studies. In partnership with PBS Teachers, ABC-CLIO offers The Making of National Parks, a free collection of resources, including park profiles, biographies, maps, and images, to spark student interest in the creation of national parks, preservation and the dilemmas that come with it.

Filmed over 10 years, National Parks is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. Using archival photographs, first-person accounts of historical characters, personal memories and analysis from more than 40 interviews, and stunning cinematography, the film traces the birth of the national park idea and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years through the stories of the people who helped create and save them.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

The National Parks educational resources are designed for middle and high school grade levels and cover art, language arts, science, and several social studies disciplines, such as history, geography, economics, and civics. Among the unique resources to help educators infuse technology into instruction are the place-based digital storytelling modules. Several video screencasts along with printable quick-start guides provide educators with step-by-step instructions on using the latest technologies to create digital storytelling projects, addressing basic to advanced level technology skills. The modules illustrate the processes of geotagging, video editing and special effects, uploading stories to the National Parks site to a part of a public collection, and more.

Adam Archer thinks the world would be a much better place if people would only spend more time playing games on their computers and mobile phones. And he may just be right.

Archer, the founder and CEO of GamesThatGive, has a simple but compelling proposition: You sign on to play casual games on the site, designate a charity you want to support, and then sit back and have 70 percent of the revenue from advertising on those games go to your charity.

He calls the concept “guiltless gaming” and says it can get a child in Africa vaccinated against Polio, teach a low-income child to read, or help feed a family of four. Simply by playing online games, you end up making a difference in the world.

The GamesThatGive site is only a couple of months old, but has attracted 4,000 registered users and so far has raised almost $2,500 for charities. Leading brands such as Dominos Pizza, Pepsi, and Mastercard have signed on as charter advertisers.

Among the charities you can chose to support are Feeding America, the United Way, the US Fund for UNICEF, DoSomething, and about a dozen others. Archer said they are limiting the number of charities they will support in the early stages so they can raise a meaningful amount of aid for each, and not dilute their impact.

Archer first saw the need for something like this after graduating from college and spending two years backpacking around the world. He saw people who were barely subsisting and who lived in deplorable conditions.

“I came back to the States and this culture shock ensued. I started to notice all the opportunity and privilege here,” Archer said. “After backpacking through Africa for eight months, I actually flew back from Johannesburg into Las Vegas . It was like going through a time machine and literally people were throwing away money. I was like: There ought to be a way get people to give some of that money to the people I saw (who were less fortunate).”

After working a few years at Microsoft and Apple, Archer began thinking about connecting technology to the greater human needs he had witnessed.

“I started going around and asking people why they didn’t do more to help people who were less fortunate and I kept getting the same answer. Everybody said, ‘Well, I actually wish I was doing more.’ If you pressed them they would say, ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘I don’t have the money’ or ‘I don’t know how to help.’ So I started thinking about the ways we could use new technologies coming with mobile devices and the Internet and thinking about existing behavior.”

About a year and a half ago, he finally arrived at the solution: Let people play games and have fun and marry that with advertising that supports leading charities.

“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “The better you do at these games, the longer you play, the more you donate. There’s 145 million casual gamers in the US alone and they play on average over 5 hours a week, so that’s more (time) than magazines or newspapers, that’s more than they’re watching online video, that’s even more than they’re spending on social networking sites.

“But you’ve got to make it fun, you’ve got to make it easy, you’ve got to use technology and you’ve got to get people to tell their friends – and that’s games.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

In response to its members’ interest in green hotels, AAA said it will now designate AAA approved lodgings that have been eco-certified through leading government or private programs.

A bright green “ECO” symbol will identify eco-friendly lodgings in the new 2010 editions of the AAA TourBook guides and on AAA.com. Additionally, travelers will be able to customize their hotel searches on the AAA web site to show green properties first in search results.

“The new ECO symbol serves as a notice to AAA members that a property has taken steps to become an environmental advocate,” Michael Petrone, director of AAA Tourism Information Development, said in a statement. “We are pleased to publish this information as a service to members who make sustainability a factor in their lodging selection.”

AAA said it will not be involved in the evaluation of any property’s environmental practices, but will provide the information from recognized organizations as a service to members. Additional information and a list of recognized certification programs are accessible at AAA.com/eco.

North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA has more than 51 million members.

By Tom Kessler

ADDISON, Texas (ADDISONGREEN.INFO) — When you have the word “green” in your school name, it’s probably safe to assume that environmental awareness is top of mind. That’s exactly the case at Addison’s Greenhill School, a coeducational private day school with more than 1,200 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12.

Over the last four years, the school’s Green Team — composed of parents and faculty — has led a series of sustainability initiatives that are truly putting the green in Greenhill. School leaders have looked for ways to make the school a more sustainable place and to promote eco-friendly habits in the students. >> Read the full story