Let me start by admitting that I am a total news junkie. I spend way too many hours researching, reviewing, investigating, bookmarking, and searching for information on all kinds of issues, especially those relating to all things green. In the year that I’ve been writing for GreenBuyGuide, I’ve compiled a list of 1000+ eco-based resources, blogs, organizations, companies and news sites that I use when researching upcoming blog posts.

When writing these posts, I try to find the most up-to-date, accurate and interesting research to support my claims and add credibility to our site. In doing so, I’ve noticed that it takes time to really know which sites offer reliable, substantive data, and which sites are compromised by political agendas, corporate sponsors, or incomplete offerings.

As a holiday gift to my readers and to the other environmental researchers and writers trolling through the web in search of good sites, I have compiled 2 blog posts packed with excellent eco-resources. As always, I am open to suggestions and appreciate learning what others out there already know about the eco-issues affecting our communities, nations, and world.

General Interest & Data Sources

Environmental News Network (ENN) - The Environmental News Network is a mainstream news site that publishes comprehensive environmental news in an easy-to-understand format.

EnviroStats - A good resource for statistics, fact-checking and research related to environmental (and other) topics. The site also includes links to government agencies, environmental organizations and eco-information portals in the US and Canada.

Treehugger - Treehugger covers all kinds of green issues, has a wealth of links and resources to check out, and is a great starting place for learning about a range of eco-issues. The site’s “How to Go Green” guides are particularly helpful.

Business & Corporate Governance

Business Ethics Magazine - An online magazine that examines the intersection of business and society, and rates companies based on their corporate responsibility and programs. You can find resources about corporate responsibility, including 19-years of lists of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens.

Coop America - Coop America’s mission is to harness economic power?the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace?to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. The Coop America site provides resources and tools to help businesses and organizations realize a greener future by leveraging their financial muscles.

GreenBiz - Concerned with aligning environmental responsibility with business success, GreenBiz offers over 8000 resources, (including daily news, feature stories, reports, checklists, case studies, and links to organizations) in an effort to educate and inform the public on these issues.

Government & Public Policy

EarthTrends - Committed helping drive responsible decisions by governments and individuals by providing accurate information on critical issues, EarthTrends offers the public a large breadth of statistical, graphic, and analytical data in easily accessible formats. EarthTrends is sponsored by government-focused organizations including the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Bank Group.

Environmental Protection Agency - Federal agency with a mission to, “protect human health and the environment.” I use the EPA to confirm information, learn about government programs and policies, and find how the government defines environmental issues.

FedStats - A search portal for official statistical information produced by the Federal Government. This site has several search options (by state, by agency, by topic), so you don’t have to know exactly which agency produced the information you’re seeking.

Science & Technology

Carbon Fund - The Carbon Fund site is packed with resources and information to help people and businesses reduce their carbon emissions. Start at Carbon Fund if you’re interested in basic information about carbon emissions, carbon offsets, or your carbon footprint.

EarthPortal - Governed by the Stewardship Committee of the Environmental Information Coalition (EIC), Earth Portal is a comprehensive resource for timely, objective, science-based information about the environment.

Seed Magazine - Though not entirely eco-focused, many of the science articles and sections in Seed Magazine intersect with environmental issues and current events.

Sustainability

Business for Social Responsibility - An organization that works with an extensive network of companies to develop sustainable business solutions and strategies for the business community.

Green Options - If you’re looking for blogs about sustainability and making sustainable choices, check out Green Options. The Green Options site includes a range of articles from the company’s network of environmental writers and bloggers.

Sustainable Communities Network - An organization that links citizens to resources and to each other in an effort to promote, build, and understand sustainable communities.

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Although the environmental movement has been around for years, many communities are just starting to understand the importance of incorporating green practices into urban planning, business practices, and governmental regulations. Large and small cities have started writing green policies into their planning and development codes, and citizens are petitioning to get green initiatives on local ballots.

By demanding the incorporation of green practices and environmental regulations in planning and development decisions, environmental advocates are affecting how sustainability is incorporated in their towns and cities. When looking at cities across America, it’s easy to see that there are plenty of cities who have been “going green” for years (such as Portland, Oregon), and other communities that are just stepping up to the green challenge. Regardless of what cities have done in the past, the fact that so many cities are taking steps to build sustainability into their communities is good for everyone. In an effort to find the greenest places in America, I’ve compiled a list of the greenest American cities using surveys from Country Home, SustainLane, Popular Science and Our Green Cities.

Methodology

Though focused on the same end result (the greenest American city), each of these 4 organizations used different criteria in determining what makes a city green. In compiling their list, Country Home looked at the official energy policies, green power, green buildings, and the availability of fresh, locally grown food in each community. I was disappointed that the Country Home data wasn’t explained in greater detail, but also found it interesting that the cities on their list were comparable to the cities selected by the other organizations.

Popular Science provides the detailed methodology used in determining their top 50 cities, which includes a ranking of sustainable practices in the Electricity, Transportation, Green Living (buildings, construction, development), and Recycling/Green Perspectives of each city. If you’re interested in learning exactly how Popular Science selected their 50 greenest cities, make sure you check out these case studies that break down the methodology used in the survey.

To figure out their list of sustainable cities, Our Green Cities applied their own “Index of Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously,” a checklist that looks at smart growth activities, land usage, transportation, energy policy, pollution, and sustainable projects taking place in each of the cities. If you’re interested in what makes a city sustainable according to Our Green Cities, you can read their definition here.

SustainLane applied an impressively comprehensive method of determining the greenest cities in America, and offers an in-depth explanation of their methodology on their website. Using primary and secondary research to compile their list, SustainLane analyzed data collected from NGOs, city and state governments, federal agencies, their own interviews and surveys, and public data sources (such as academic research and media studies) to find the top green cities in America.

And the Winners Are…

1. Portland, Oregon

2. Greater San Francisco Bay Area, California

3. Seattle, Washington

4. Chicago, Illinois

5. Boston/Cambridge

6. Boulder, Colorado

7. Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota

8. Eugene, Oregon

9. Denver, Colorado

10. Albuquerque, New Mexico

The cities on this list have worked hard to incorporate green building practices, renewable energy sources, and innovative land use policies into their communities. Portland has 35 LEED certified buildings and strict limits on development, while San Francisco has planted fruit trees on city streets and made recycling a top-priority. If you’re interested in learning more about the eco-policies that guide these cities, check out the SustainLane rankings. SustainLane provides a wealth of information on each of their top 50 green cities, and you might just find ideas on how you can get your own city on the list in coming years.

Additional Resources on Sustainable/Green/Eco-Friendly Communities

Center for Sustainable Cities

Sustainable Measures: Sustainable Community Indicator Checklist

Regional Environmental Center Sustainable Cities Project

The Institute for Sustainable Cities

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A few weeks ago my mom and I set out to find me a new winter coat. I had donated 2 coats to charity at the end of last winter in an effort to force myself to buy a new coat before it got cold this fall. Thinking that it’d be easy enough to find a reasonably priced, attractive and eco-friendly garment at Macy’s, my mom and I set out to the mall with high hopes of finding something quickly and with little effort.

The mall was a bad idea (isn’t it always…) - the coats were all overpriced ($400 - $700 for “brand name” wool overcoats manufactured in countries like Bangladesh and China), unflattering and ugly, and poorly made. After trying on 2 or 3, I knew my new coat wasn’t at Macy’s, but I noticed something else as well… the coats all smelled like formaldehyde! Yeah - no. My mom and I were out of there as soon as we both realized what the smell was, and we both realized the need to stop supporting companies that don’t manufacture sustainable goods.

From our horrible experience at Macy’s, my mom and I headed over to REI - I had wanted an overcoat but decided to go with a ski coat instead. My new North Face jacket was designed in a LEED-Certified building that’s powered by 100% renewable energy, and sold by a cooperatively-owned company that takes environmental concerns into consideration when buying products and working with vendors. In an effort to help others out there who may be looking for outwear and winter gear, I’ve compiled a list of eco-committed companies who make great coats that DON’T smell like formaldehyde when they’re unpacked and tried on.

Patagonia - Patagonia’s commitment to the environment is evident when you visit their home page - instead of having an environmental policy that’s buried in the “About Us” section of the site, Patagonia advertises their environmental policies in the site’s navigation bar, and directs users to learn more about how their company is “leading the examined life.”

Patagonia has developed an online tool that I’ve been searching for, but had yet to find until I checked out the company’s environmental policies. Dubbed the “Footprint Chronicles,” Patagonia has built an interactive site where you can track the environmental impact of Patagonia products - from design through delivery. I have always wanted to know the carbon footprint of bumper stickers and t-shirts, and while I can’t track the exact carbon footprint of a “Visualize Whirled Peas” bumper sticker, I can track the movement of Patagonia t-shirts and know that each one produces 3.5 pounds of CO_2. In addition to tracking their products as they move across the world, Patagonia includes commentary on each of the products they track, and points out the positive and negative impacts generated by each item.

In researching all kinds of companies and looking over their eco-policies, I would have to say that Patagonia ranks pretty high in terms of their commitment and actions related to reducing their environmental impact. Look for shoes, clothing, outwear, and backpacks on their site and feel confident that Patagonia is looking out for the Earth and spending their profits wisely.

REI - OK, before I get started with REI, let me just disclose that I am a partial owner of the company, and have been since about 1990. REI is a cooperatively run company, and members are invited to vote on the Board of Directors (who are responsible for the overall direction of the affairs and the performance of REI), examine the company’s financial statements, and share in company profits in the form of annual dividends.

With that said, I can honestly say I feel good about the fact that I’ve held an REI membership for so long - the company is committed to environmental stewardship and gives serious thought to how they manufacture, source, package, distribute and sell their products. REI has developed a strategic focus in planning for the future, and in doing so has identified 5 environmental-+ priorities in which they want to create change: greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, green building, paper sourcing, reducing waste and recycling, and responsible product stewardship. You can read the company’s Environmental Stewardship Report to learn exactly how REI is cutting their greenhouse gas emissions, reducing their reliance on paper, eliminating waste, building greener retail facilities, and designing ecoSensitive gear.

In terms of immediate benefits to consumers, REI has started the ecoSensitive Label - clothing and gear made using eco-friendly fabrics and materials that include bamboo, organic cotton, organic wool, Polylactic acid (PLA) - a biodegradable and recyclable polymer, recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) - an easily reclaimed and re-purposed recyclable type of plastic, as well as post-industrial recycled polyester from Polartec.

The North Face - A dedicated ski gear company, The North Face is named after the coldest side of a mountain, and sells clothing designed to keep people warm in the coldest of places. As with much of what the company does, The North Face approaches sustainability as a journey, and has been developing and tweaking their technologies over time to create the most sustainable products possible.

With LEED-Certified headquarters in Quebec, and renewable energy powering their North American operations, The North Face has identified 4 key areas where they are committed to focusing their eco-energies: the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; the design of innovative and sustainable products; the elimination of waste in operations; and the encouragement of employees and customers to “Live the Brand” (I am not sure what this means, but I am guessing it is related to volunteering and giving back to the community/the environment in the name of North Face).

While I found plenty of information about the technologies The North Face uses in designing their products, the R&D section of their site didn’t specifically call out any environmental benefits realized by these practices. From looking over the corporate website, I get the impression that they don’t have anyone updating the environmental policies being put into place by the company - their page on sustainability was last updated in May, and while I know that my coat has tags explaining the various eco-policies used in its design, there was nothing like that on the site. If you’re looking for the warmest gear around, check out North Face products and don’t be shy about asking sales people or telephone representatives to explain the eco-benefits of your purchase.

Marmot - Founded in 1974 by UCSC grad students working in Alaska, Marmot is a premiere manufacturer of clothing, outerwear, tents, sleeping bags, backpacks and other outdoor gear for men, women and children. With a Code of Ethics to outline their sustainability practices, Marmot has built eco-practices into the foundation of how the company does business. The Marmot Code of Ethics applies to “every employee, executive officer, agent, representative, consultant, and intern of Marmot Mountain LLC, and…directs the conduct between any employee and our customers, distributors, competitors, vendors, and contractors.”

In defining their goal of reducing their negative impact on the environment and creating a company that will be sustainable for years to come, Marmot has declared a corporate ethic that seems to guide how the company makes business decisions, designs products and selects vendors and partners with whom they will work. You can also read about the small steps the company (and their employees) is taking to clean up the planet and do their part for the environment.

Many products produced by Marmot (and the other companies listed here) are made from GORE-TEX fabrics; if you want to learn more about the environmental stewardship of GORE-TEX Fabrics, you check out the W.L. Gore & Associates Environmental Statement.

You can find other gear companies that are doing their part below:

Keen Footwear - Learn about how Keen is rethinking their product design on their Hybrid.Think page.

Columbia Sportswear - Find out how Columbia gives back to environmental organizations.

Timberland - Read about New Hampshire-based Timberland’s Environmental Stewardship.

Mountain Hardware - Learn how Mountain Hardware is funding eco-organizations.

Merrell - See which eco-based companies Merrell has been supporting.

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When you consider how you live your life, what principles you hold dear to your heart, and the intersection of your actions and beliefs, does everything add up? There are many of us out there who are truely committed to sustainability, yet still struggle to incorporate the concepts into our everyday lives - and that’s OK. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are plenty of eco-sins that I’m constantly trying to overcome, but I still haven’t broken all of my bad habits. And while I feel guilty when I continue to commit actions that impact the Earth negatively, I also understand that my ability to achieve a wholly sustainable lifestyle is tied both to shifts in my thoughts and actions, and also to shifts in how society as a whole thinks and acts.

To better explain this concept, I went in search of organizations that actively promote sustainability. The Sustainability Institute (an organization focused on understanding the root causes of unsustainable behaviors in complex systems, and shifting society toward sustainability) has developed a philosophy that I think defines and explains this concept clearly:

“…unsustainability does not arise out of ignorance, irrationality or greed. It is largely the collective consequence of rational, well-intended decisions made by people caught up in systems - ranging from families and communities to corporations, governments and economies - that make it difficult or impossible to act in ways that are fully responsible to all those affected in the present and to future generations.”

The EPA has basic information about sustainability available on their website, though I must admit that I no longer fully trust the organization’s integrity and commitment to creating and disseminating unbiased scientific information. I loath to make such a statement, and hope that my feelings of mistrust toward the civil servants who work at the EPA will end once this administration is removed from power.

In determining whether my current lifestyle is sustainable, I decided I needed to first ask myself what it means to live sustainably, and from there determine if my lifestyle choices fit the model.

Here are the questions I have been pondering - I haven’t answered all of them for myself yet, but plan to write more about this as I figure out what sustainability means to me. Take some time and ask yourself the same set of questions, let me know if I have missed anything in my list, and feel free to share your definition of what it means to live a sustainable life.

Food: What do you eat? Where are the foods and beverages you consume grown, manufactured, processed and packaged? Where do your food dollars land once spent? Is your food money removed from the local economy and sent to some faceless corporation, or does it benefit others in your community? How is the food you eat produced? Have you ever met any of the people responsible for growing or making your food? How often do you eat out? Do you use reusable mugs for coffee and other drinks? Are fossil fuels used to make,? process, package, distribute what you eat?? How much waste is produced as a result of your food purchases? Do the foods you consume nourish you or simply feed you? Do the foods you eat contribute to your overall mental and physical health?

Housing: How do you live - alone or with others? Do you live in a new building or an old building? Is your building energy efficient? What kind of energy powers your home? How much energy do you use on a monthly/yearly basis? Do you have excess electronics in your home that increase your energy bills? Do you use any reusable resources to power your home? Do you have more space than you need in your home? Do you take measures to ensure you are not wasting excess energy in your home? What products and chemicals are used in the upkeep and maintenance of your home? Do you use eco-friendly products in your home when possible? Do you have a yard? If so, how is it maintained? Do you have grass that needs to be mowed and fertilized? Do you have a garden? Do you use chemicals to maintain your outdoor space? Do you use water to feed the grass and other plants? When working on your home or outdoor space, do you consider the environment and select materials accordingly?

Transportation: How do you get around? Do you walk, bike, take public transportation, drive, carpool, fly? How often and how far do you travel when you leave home? Do you own a car? If so, what kind of gas mileage do you get, how efficiently does your vehicle burn fuel? If you own an older car, does it meet emissions standards? Where do you go and why do you go there? Do you ever carpool? How far do you live from the places you visit the most often? Are there car trips you take that are unnecessary? Do you walk when you need to go someplace within a mile of your home? Have you taken steps to reduce your reliance on petroleum as a fuel?

Consumer Behaviors: What do you buy and why? Do you need all that you purchase? Do you reuse what you can and purchase new things only when you need to do so? Do you throw away things because they’re broken, worn, stained or old? Do you buy goods from environmentally-conscious companies? Do you consider the ecological footprint of your purchases, including the materials used and externalities created? Do you buy eco-friendly products? Do you consider the impact of your consumerism on the environment before you make any purchase? Where, and under what conditions, are the products you purchased manufactured? How far do those products have to travel to reach you? Are your consumer dollars used for corporate profits or are the people who make the products being paid a fair wage (or both, if possible)?

Waste: Do you recycle what you can? Do you compost your organic waste? Do you take the time to sort and process through all of your waste products in order to send as little as possible to landfills? Have you gone paperless in areas where it’s possible? Do you encourage recycling at work or other places you frequent and have an impact on policy? Do you pick up trash on the street? Do you refrain from throwing out recyclables until you can find a recycling container? Do you package food in reusable containers instead of one-use packaging? Do you use things until they can no longer be used? Do you make it easy and convenient to recycle at home? Do you have a dedicated space where you store recycling materials and do you have recycling tagged as a dedicated task assigned to someone each week? Do you resist the urge to print?

Family: Do you encourage your children to reduce, reuse and recycle? Do you feed, clothe and gift your children with organic and eco-friendly goods? Do you explain why it is so important for people to tread lightly on the Earth? Do you encourage eco-practices in your childrens’ classroom? Do you set a good example and practice what you preach to your children (and not just when they are watching)? Do you ever say no to buying things your children want because of the negative ecological impact those purchases have? Do you stick to your eco-principles when it comes to birthday parties, Christmas, and other “special events” and holidays?

These questions are by no means exhaustive - rather, they are meant to get you (and me) thinking about the everyday practices of sustainability, and help us define what we all need to do in order to live sustainable lifestyles. I certainly don’t have the answers to all of these questions, and I fear that some of my favorite things in life (chocolate, coffee) are generally not considered sustainable goods (in my defense, I buy mostly organic, fair trade chocolate). Living sustainably isn’t necessarily going to be easy though - it will require sacrifices and compromises. In an era of uncertainty and impending environmental degradation however, it’s time we all stood together and started making the hard choices and doing what’s not fun and what’s not easy.

Party’s Over Folks, It’s Time To Get Real!

If you’re interested in learning more, check out the Wikipedia entry for sustainability - there’s all kinds of information about the various types of sustainability, as well as links to scientific references, articles and websites.

So apparently the Bush administration has figured out a new way of getting around those tricky executive agency reports and recommendations - they simply ignore them! On June 25, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration decided they didn’t need to read the EPA’s report on carbon emissions, so they simply ignored the email containing the document.

Written in response to the 2007 Supreme Court ruling re: Massachusetts Et Al. v. Environmental Protection Agency Et Al., the EPA report concluded that greenhouse gases produced are harmful pollutants, a danger to people and to the environment, and must be controlled. Before the court handed down its April 2007 decision on the matter, the EPA had refused to determine whether greenhouse gases were pollutants and subject to regulations laid out under the Clean Air Act. Because of this (in)decision, the EPA promulgated a lack of regulatory authority over matters pertaining to the environmental impact of greenhouse gases.

In an effort to force the federal agency to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as pollutants, Massachusetts Et Al. (consisting of 12 states, 3 cities, 13 organizations and America Samoa) sued the EPA, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, National Automobile Dealers Association, Engine Manufacturers Association, Truck Manufacturers Association, CO2 Litigation Group, Utility Air Regulatory Group, and 10 carbon emitting states in federal court. Arguing that greenhouse gases are pollutants and must be regulated, as mandated under the Clean Air Act, Massachusetts Et Al. brought suit in an effort to force the EPA to begin regulating the pollutants.

In the 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court determined that the EPA must in fact make a determination as to whether greenhouse gases pose a danger to people and the environment:

In short, EPA has offered no reasoned explanation for its refusal to decide whether greenhouse gases cause or contribute to climate change. Its action was therefore arbitrary, capricious, . . . or otherwise not in accordance with law. We need not and do not reach the question whether on remand EPA must make an endangerment finding, or whether policy concerns can inform EPA’s actions in the event that it makes such a finding. We hold only that EPA must ground its reasons for action or inaction in the statute.

In response to the court’s findings, the EPA drafted a report which conclusively determined that greenhouse gases are pollutants according to the Clean Air Act, and must be regulated and controlled to avoid further harming people and environment. Once submitted to the White House for review however, the report ended up in a kind of email-purgatory, where it sat unread and lacking official status. I guess it would have been hard for the President to claim that Barney ate his email, so instead he just pretended that he never got the message.

So instead of being forced to read the report and accept the fact that it really is the EPA’s job to regulate carbon emissions, the administration, by stonewalling, prompted the EPA to go back and revise their original report. Since receiving the original report (but not reading it), the White House put pressure on the EPA to scale back their findings, and draft a new, less conclusive version. The new report reviews the legal and economic issues presented by declaring greenhouse gases a pollutant, but offers no recommendations and does not conclusively classify greenhouse gases as pollutants.

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The HD and flat-panel television buying trend has frequently been coupled with environmental blurbs. Consumers looking for a reason to upgrade their television sets are told that flat televisions use less electricity than their big-tube counterparts. In other words, “Be green! Go buy an HDTV!”

Here are some reasons to ignore the hype:

1. Reusing is Always Greener: It is rarely better for the environment to throw away something you are using and buy a new one. Chances are, your new HDTV must be transported half-way around the world. It consumed massive resources being produced, marketed, and delivered to your living room. Every year that you “make do” with your existing television is another year of solid green karma, no matter how wonderful and energy efficient your new television might be.
2. The Energy Argument Isn’t Clear: Does your new flat television really use less energy than your old tube? If you’re looking at a lower-cost plasma screen, you may not see any improvement in energy consumption. LCDs are better, but not by much. We may need to wait for new LED technology before we really start to benefit from the reduced energy needs of modern televisions. As with anything, your results may vary; you should consider the wattage consumption on your future television before purchasing. One 65-inch Sharp LCD uses 583 watts during operation and 76 watts while turned off! (link)
3. Recent Gas News: A gas used in making flat televisions may be contributing to global warming (link). Nitrogen Trifluoride has been in the news a lot lately. The gas is used in the manfacturing of LCD televisions. It is apparently 17,000 times as harmful to the environment as carbon dioxide, and it is not regulated by the Kyoto protocols. This is breaking news and details may shift in the coming months, but you should keep an eye on the issue if a television purchase is in your near future.
4. Flat Television Lifespan Still Uncertain: Finally, remember the old saw: they don’t make them like they used to. When we first got married, my wife and I inherited an ancient television from her uncle. It was already at least fifteen years old, perhaps older, and it worked fine. We used it for the first four years of our marriage before deciding we wanted an upgrade. It still worked wonderfully. Will flat panel televisions still be chugging along twenty years after they were manufactured? No one knows, obviously. Plasma and LCD screens have an awesome theoretical lifespan, but the supporting technology and the television itself may be less robust than your old tube. Remember that products with a longer lifespan, if manufactured sensibly, are always greener than products that require replacement every few years.

Even with all the above reasons, you may choose to purchase a new television set. Awareness doesn’t mean we should agonize over every life decision or purchase. If you are going to purchase a television, however, keep the above tips in mind. And take your time: Law and Order is just as gritty and moody on your old tube, and the American Idol singers won’t be any more in-tune in High Definition.

My friend Tim bought a Toyota Prius a few weeks back. Normally when one of my friends buys a new car I don’t feel inclined to write a blog post announcing it to the world, but in this case I feel differently.

Tim does not fit the basic demographics of your average hybrid car owner. According to a December 2007 Scarborough Research study that examined the behaviors of hybrid car owners, the typical hybrid car buyer is older, more affluent, physically active/outdoorsy, liberal and highly educated as compared to the average car buyer.

According to the study:

• 42% of hybrid owners make $100,000 or more per year;
• Hybrid owners are more than twice as likely as all U.S. adults to have a college degree;
• 38% of hybrid owners identify themselves as Democratic, and 34% identify themselves as Independents;
• Hybrid owners are 10% more likely than the average American to vote in every Presidential Election;
• Hybrid owners are generally physically active, with 33% stating they belong to a gym or health club (as compared to 18% of the total population);
• Twice as many hybrid owners purchase organic food than do average American.

In looking over this study, it’s clear that Tim does not fit the typical picture of a hybrid owner. Tim is a heavy machine operator - he operates a Caterpillar Excavator that has a 160-gallon gas tank which he empties on a daily basis. Last I checked, Tim wasn’t pulling in $100,000 annually, though I’m sure he wishes he were!

Tim’s a young guy too - he’s probably about 36, doesn’t have a college degree that I know of, and doesn’t belong to a gym. And while Tim is active (you kind of have to be to drive a Caterpillar Excavator) - he sails and boats when it’s nice - I couldn’t imagine him doing Pilates or Yoga - 2 other characteristics of hybrid owners. I couldn’t really imagine Tim admitting to eating organic food, though I’m sure he consumes it at times - rather, when I think of what Tim eats I think of meat, potatoes and beer.

When talking to Tim about trading in his 2000 Mercury Mountaineer, he stressed the fact that his truck gets 19-20 MPG (highway driving), and 15 MPG in the winter. His new car is going to save him upwards of $300 a month! When talking about why he bought a Prius, Tim says, “They left me no choice.” The cost of fuel has risen so high that Tim has had to change his habits significantly to fight back and not spend so much money on fuel.

The fact that Tim made the decision to buy a Prius means more than that he is an outlyer when it comes to his age, income and lifestyle choices. Tim is the canary in the coal mine - he is the warning that the time is NOW for us all to change our behaviors and start paying attention to how our individual actions affect our environment, our communities and our world.

Car companies should sit up and take notice when SUV-driving, heavy machine operating guys like Tim trade in their 4-wheel drive for hybrid technology. While Tim’s motives may not have been 100% environmentally propelled, the fact is that his actions will have an environmental impact as he lowers his carbon footprint and enters the world of forced environmentalism.

This past week I decided that I have Green Guilt. There are aspects of my life that could be a little more environmentally responsible (not the least of which is the fact that I drive 500+ miles a week - mostly because my job is a 70 mile-a-day commute). In thinking about all of the large and small things I do that aren’t very environmentally friendly, I thought it might help me break my bad habits if I write up a list and post it for the world to read. This way, my sins will be on display for all, and that might make me more likely to act responsibly, if only to point to the fact that I’m changing my way.

So here it is, my list of green sins:

1. I drive upwards of 500 miles a week. And while I try to limit my driving to commuting, necessary errands and visits to friends/ for my personal life, I sometimes make unnecessary trips. There’s a bus from downtown Portsmouth out to Newington (about 5 miles). I like to go to the bookstore out that way on occasion, but I have to admit that I never take the bus. Likewise, I visit my doctor in Boston every couple of months, but rarely ride the MBTA Commuter Rail to do so.

2. I don’t recycle at work. My workplace does not have a recycling program in place, and I’ve not made any inroads into establishing one. My best friend has been working on a hardcore recycling program for her workplace (and she works in the biotech industry, which makes it particularly difficult to do this kind of thing because of all of the biohazard requirements they have to follow), and I can’t even find out if we can get paper recycling bins for underneath our desks. And while I do try and bring my recyclable bottles home with me and toss them in the recycling bin here, I don’t always succeed in my efforts.

3. I throw away food. This one kills me. What tends to happen is that I go to the grocery store with high ideals and purchase enough produce to last me two weeks. Upon arriving home, I cut up the veggies and store everything in my fridge for easy consumption later. Over the course of the week however, I just won’t eat the food that’s in my fridge. Sometimes I eat out, sometimes I eat with friends, and sometimes I simply don’t eat. At the end of the two weeks, I’ll go to clean out my fridge and make room for new food, and end up throwing what had been perfectly good green peppers and broccoli into the garbage.

4. On the weekends I go out and leave the radio on in my apartment. Don’t ask me why - because I seriously don’t know why I do this, I just do.

5. I occasionally forget my mug when I get coffee at the local coffee joint. When I do forget my mug, I don’t always recycle the plastic cups that hold my iced Java - though I will say that I do make a good effort to recycle these, except of course when I’m at work. The fact that I buy my coffee pre-made from the local coffee joint isn’t so great either, though I almost always grab my morning elixir from locally owned and operated shops - Breaking New Grounds and Popovers on the Square, both in downtown Portsmouth.

6. Sometimes I get my coffee at Dunkin Donuts.

7. When it’s hot outside (really hot), I love to drive around with my windows open and the air conditioning on!

8. I still purchase synthetic clothing that’s made in countries like China, Malaysia, and Thailand. It’s not that I want to purchase these kinds of clothing, it just so happens that I can’t really afford organic cotton and hemp clothes that are hand-made in the USA. In my favor, I never throw out any clothes, I recycle and reuse them or donate my old outfits to charity.

9. Although I do buy a great deal of organic and locally produced foods, sometimes I can’t afford to do so. Some of the organic food that I do buy comes in individual servings (Amy’s Kitchen is my biggest sin on this front), and some of the organic food is mass-produced in California, than shipped to New Hampshire for my consumption (again with Amy’s Organics).

10. My favorite drink is Polar Seltzer Water - which comes in 1 liter plastic bottles and which I can drink 2 of each day when given the chance. I also buy Vitamin Water, Tazo Tea and Poland Spring Sparkling Water every once in a while. I do however, recycle all of the bottles.

With the publication of this list, I am going to try and make some real changes in my life and start acting more responsibly. Green guilt isn’t a good thing to carry around, though it can be used as a motivating factor. Let me know about your green guilt - what kinds of environmentally-distressing things are you still doing? What holds you back when you think about all of the good things you’re doing to make this planet a greener place?

I promise that I’ll report back soon and let you all know what kinds of changes I’ve made and what I can cross off this list of green guilt!

As the general population really starts to embrace the green movement in their lives and communities, we have to consider that green buildings and green construction are probably going to explode in the next few years. Green building and construction is on the rise - small towns all over America are passing ordinances and legislation that mandates green initiatives in all new construction projects and encourages green building otherwise.

To assist those who may be interested in proposing local legislation aimed at promoting green construction, I’ve comprised a list of organizations that help industry professionals take their communities and commercial districts into the green era. These resources have literature that can be used to educate citizens, governments and businesses, and also information that can actually be used to guide the green building process.

The US Green Building Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to making green buildings accessible to everyone in this country within a generation.

To promote the design, construction and maintenance of green buildings, the organization has developed a rating system and voluntary certification program that allows architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, lenders and government officials to implement green design, building and operations standards in new and existing construction. According to the organization,

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System? encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices…and provides benchmarks for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

For communities that have initiated legislation requiring all new construction projects to be green certified, the rating system and certification program developed by the US Green Building Council is a great place to learn about all of the technologies, products and services that exist to help communities go green.

Another site to check out if you’re involved in construction is BuildingGreen, is an independent company committed to providing accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help building-industry professionals and policy makers improve the environmental performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings. BuildingGreen has a library full of information designed to help industry professionals learn about their green and “integrated design” building options.

Using the BuildGreen site, you can find out about the impact of every stage of a building process, and discover the tools available to help minimize your project’s harm to the environment. The site has literature about what it even means to be green, and offers some interesting case studies on how companies have applied green building practices in their construction projects.

Additional Resources

The US Green Building Council has a huge list of Green Building Links to help industry professionals develop and implement green building standards in all of their projects.

The US Department of Energy High Performance Buildings Database is comprised of 99 case studies with a focus on the green building practices applied during construction.

The Cost of Green Revisited by Davis Langdon contains research results obtained by examining the true cost of new construction using the LEED Rating System verses non-LEED certified buildings and finds that there is no discernible difference in the overall construction costs.

eco-structure is a bimonthly magazine for construction industry professionals looking to learn about sustainability and green building design, construction and operations.

Researchers from Purdue University, Colorado State University, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have published a new map of the US that offers a visual picture of this country’s carbon emissions from roads, factories, power plants and neighborhoods. Developed by Project Vulcan, and sponsored by NASA/DOE under the North American Carbon Project, this high-resolution interactive map shows the release and movement of carbon dioxide in greater detail than has been previously captured.

The interactive map is presented in a 5 minute video on YouTube,? and may be viewed here: Revolutionary CO2 Maps Zoom in on Greenhouse Gas Sources.

According to the April 7 press release about Project Vulcan:

To create the Vulcan maps, the research team developed a method to extract the CO2 information by transforming data on local air pollution, such as carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide emissions, which are tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and other governmental agencies.

The Vulcan maps are revolutionary in that they track data on an hourly basis, and show carbon emissions in 100 times more detail than has ever been examined. In the past, carbon emissions were estimated according to population levels, and states reported their carbon levels infrequently. When calculating carbon emissions using this old model, the assumption was that highly-populated regions were the biggest carbon emitters, while rural and sparsely populated regions had lower carbon emissions.

According to data compiled from this new model of carbon emissions however, sparsely populated regions can be big greenhouse gas emitters if they are home to coal burning power plants or highways that cut through vast swaths of uninhabited areas. Researchers were surprised to find that the relatively uninhabited San Juan County in New Mexico is number 6 in nationwide carbon emissions. With 2 coal burning power plants in the county, San Juan’s carbon emissions are higher than those of heavily populated areas such as the Washington DC Metro region, New England and New York City. You can view the top 20 carbon emitting counties in the US here.

The Vulcan Project research is groundbreaking on many levels - the merging of various sources of carbon emissions data onto one map, the ability to track the movement of greenhouse gases over time, the inclusion of a variety of sources of carbon emissions, and the level of detail in mapping the data. With all of this information being modeled onto one map, we have a more complete picture of what carbon emissions in the US look like than ever before. Let’s hope that policy makers and public officials take this updated information into account when they consider where and how to make a dent in the carbon dioxide being emitted into our - and other nations’ - atmospheres.