Here is a picture of the glass coating:

 http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/02/spray-on-solar-glass-gets-a-bit-bigger/

The coatings are less than 1/10th the thickness of thin films, New Energy says, taking advantage of what it calls “the world’s smallest functional solar cells.” The company claims that by generating electricity from both natural and artificial light sources, its cells “outperform today’s commercial solar and thin-film technologies by as much as tenfold.”

This stuff has the power and distribution possibility to be in every home and help reduce the amount people spend on electricity.

Watch the trailer here:

Bring your power bills down in 2010 with energy-saving ideas - image via Flickr - Tanis Fox

In the spirit of the New Year, we thought it would be a good idea to make some suggestions as to how you might make 2010 greener than 2009. After all, according to a new nationwide survey conducted by Tiller Research LLC, more than 50% of all Americans are likely to get into the green spirit of things in the New Year, which is an increased interest in green compared to years past. In fact, 85% of all Americans are somewhat likely to reduce their household energy use this year, which is great news for the environment and those looking to save money on utility bills.

So here are some great resolutions you may want to try in your quest for saving power:

-          Make a big green impact on your energy consumption by choosing to take fewer flights this year. Since air travel has a significantly bigger footprint than driving or taking the train, this one energy-saving option can have a huge impact on your carbon footprint. Just one fewer cross-country flight can reduce your carbon emissions by 4 tons.

-          Get a power monitor like the Black & Decker Power Monitor (for less than $100) to find out where you’re wasting the most energy in your home. You can then take action to put a stop to energy waste.

-          Tune up your heating and cooling systems with a programmable thermostat and other energy-saving techniques.

-          Drive less by taking public transit, carpooling with co-workers and friends, walking, running, or cycling, or working from home. You’ll reduce wear on your vehicle and save fuel money, too.

For many more power-saving tips and tricks to inspire your New Year’s resolutions, check out our other SavingPower Tips section!

A programmable thermostat can significantly reduce your cooling and heating bills - image via Flickr - Mick Wright

Use alternative modes of transportation for your daily commute - image via Flickr - Richard Drdul

Take fewer flights to shrink your carbon footprint in 2010 - image via Flickr - america.gov

Solar Cookers International

If you’re looking for a meaningful way for you to symbolically save power this holiday season, why not consider sponsoring a solar cooker through Solar Cookers International? In fact, sponsoring a solar cooker through this organization could make a very good gift. Making donations to nonprofit organizations in someone else’s name rather than purchasing something they neither need or want is a great way to support a good cause, reduce your consumption and waste, and help perpetuate a more sustainable future.

Of course, there are many great options for nonprofit gift giving but this is certainly a great one. Solar cookers come with many benefits for fighting climate change. Not only do they require no dirty energy, their use helps to protect forests and human health.

Traditionally, people in developing countries cook over open fires by burning things like wood and animal manure. The resulting air pollution leads to millions of respiratory problems and many deaths. It is estimated that as many as 2 million children die from health problems caused by the black carbon smoke emitted by cooking fires. And this black carbon is said to be the second more significant global warming pollutant in the world! Solar cookers create none of this air pollution and are therefore healthier for people to use. Of course, when forests are protected, they are able to help sequester carbon, too.

And instead of spending time to forage for firewood with the potential for depleting local forests, women who cook with solar cookers can do so without harming their community’s natural resources and have more time for other endeavors, such as entrepreneurial work or caring for their children.

The Solar Cooker International’s kit comes with the solar cooker and a pot along with tips and hints on how to use them. What’s even better is that a water indicator is included. This makes it possible for women to measure whether harmful microbes have been killed in the water so that they know whether it’s safe to drink.

So make a difference this holiday season—donate a $50 solar cooker to someone in a developing nation to change a life and offset emissions in the process. Of course, you could also purchase one for yourself or a family member or friend to get into the renewable-cooking movement yourself!

Taking a vacation or getting away for a holiday is the reward for hard work and a well-deserved break from regular life. Making your holiday one that helps the planet rather than harming it is increasingly challenging in a culture that values traveling afar. But there are ways for you to cut your vacation’s impact…

• If you’re able-bodied and looking for an active getaway, why not try an eco-volunteer vacation? They’ll put you to work cleaning-up the planet so you can leave feeling good about your holiday. Many require you to “rough it” a little, which often means lower vacation costs. Search online for “eco-friendly volunteer vacations” to find options near you.
• Whether you’re going off for a long weekend or are going to be away for a month, you can reduce your travel footprint by saving energy at home while you’re away. Turning down the air conditioning or heating, making sure lights are switched off, lowering the temperature on your hot water heater—these are all great ways to reduce energy consumption and save a bit of money while you’re out of the house.
• Instead of flying to your destination, look into taking the train or traveling via motor coach (bus). These options produce significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than flying and depending on your destination, may just be more affordable, as well.

If you’re open to new possibilities, why not explore a sustainable vacation with a tour provider that’s got the planet’s best interest in mind. While these aren’t always less expensive than traditional options, good deals can often be found. Try out: Green Globe, Sustainable Travel International, or Rainforest Alliance’s Sustainable Tourism for unique and earth-benefiting getaways.

Every year, we burn the equivalent of 9 billion gallons of gas stuck in traffic jams, congestion that is most common during the morning and afternoon commuting times. Over time, this number has gone nowhere but up. In addition to wasted fuel, employees also spend enormous amounts of time in their vehicles—about 47 hours each and every year. That’s a lot of wasted energy, talent, and time.

Studies show that when employees have a choice about their commuting schedule and support for choosing less stressful methods of getting to work, they are more satisfied with their jobs and more productive, too. Helping your employees make greener commuting choices is not only good for their health and good for your bottom line, it can also improve your green reputation.

• Take public transit instead of driving to work and you could cut your transportation costs by $8,000 annually.
• Opt to carpool with a fellow co-worker one day every week to shave $339 from your commute every year.
• Join a car share program and realize up to $6,500 in savings every year over owning and maintaining your own vehicle.
• Choose to telecommute to work just one day every week to reduce your gasoline costs by $1,000 every year.
• A compressed workweek schedule (four ten-hour days instead of five eight-hour days) will give you a long weekend, cut your commute expenses by 20 percent, and could save you $500 annually.
• Instead of driving a car to work, choose a power-assisted bicycle, such as the Avanti Electra,Schwinn’s Streamline, and the Stokemonkey. These generally have a range between 40 and 50 miles, can go between 14 and 30 mph, and can pay for themselves in as little as a few months in gas savings.
• Have your employees stay at Green Seal Certified hotels to ensure your company supports hotels that opt for products are in the top 25 percent in terms of efficiency.
• Both car and air travel are heavy polluting activities for getting to meetings and conferences. Choose to teleconference and you could cut your air travel significantly. Vodafone now requires that all employees justify their travel, a move that has saved the company 20 percent in just one year.
• Help employees carpool to work by offering incentives to those who do. This will save you money, too, since it costs between $2,000 and $5,000 to build a single-surface parking spot, and $10,000-$12,000 to build one spot in a three-story structure. Reducing the number of spots you need by encouraging carpooling can cut these expenses significantly.
• Parking stalls must be maintained at a cost of about 1.5 percent of the initial investment. Reduce the number of parking stalls you need and your maintenance costs, too by offering facilities to employees who bike, walk, or run to work. Divert five parking stalls from cars to facilities for bikers, a company could save anywhere between $10,000 and $60,000 annually.
• If every US commuter car carried just one more person to work every day, we’d save 8 billion gallons of gasoline.

Marriott is expanding its green hotel program

‘Tis the season to travel as people get ready to hit the road for Thanksgiving celebrations, book ski trips, plan beach getaways to escape the winter, and prepare to get together with family and friends for Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or holiday festivities. We love to travel, but hopping on a plane or driving long distances can have a negative impact on our carbon footprint.l

So it’s nice to see hotel chains take climate change and environmental protection seriously. Marriott has recently been running a “green hotel” trial project, testing out the viability of greening their accommodations. The program involved initiatives to reduce water and energy consumption, cut waste, and lower toxicity and improve indoor air quality by choosing greener products used in the facilities.

There were 30 hotels in the initial trial, but Marriott just announced that it will be expanding its eco-friendly hotels by 1,000 percent to cover 500 hotels! But the move isn’t completely altruistic. In this depressed economy, the massive hotel company is also motivated by the bottom line. It seems that they achieved some sizable financial savings through their green hotel program , both in constructing and running the greener facilities.

That’s good news for the hotel industry as a whole, and hopefully Marriott’s ambitious plans will be a signal to their competitors that being green is better for business. So, as you plan your holiday travel, keep green in mind. Choose hotels with a green stamp of approval, ask about your preferred chain’s green policies, and leave comments when you check out encouraging conservation.

Marriot hotels now recycle in-room and beyond

Marriott is saving energy through a varieyt of initiatives

Getting outdoors is important for your health and it’s a great way to get in touch with the planet we’re trying to save! But don’t let your outdoor adventures cause further problems for the earth. Choosing eco-friendly outdoor activities and gear is important if you truly want to enjoy this planet we’re part of.

• Rent outdoor gear for your next hiking or camping trip. This will cost you much less than purchasing new gear and will save the energy cost of producing new gear that may only get used once or twice each season.
• Whether you’re out for a hike or on the road for a few weeks of camping, you’ll likely want to charge up your electronics (cell phones, radios, laptops, and the like). Power-up all of your battery-using technology with the sun! Find solar chargers of all shapes and sizes for every imaginable purpose to make your trip really green.
• Manufacturing disposable plastic water bottles requires significant infusions of energy. Choosing to carry water in a reusable water is cost effective and energy-saving, and could reduce your drinking water bill annually by upwards of $1,400.
• If you’re in need of outdoor gear but don’t want to rent, why not purchase used equipment? You’ll be keeping usable items from being trashed and saving money in the process. In addition to sites likeFreecycle and Craigslist, you can check out GearTrade and CampingSwap to find all sorts of secondhand outdoor gear.

Traditional grilling will not only cost you for fuel and briquettes, it’ll also add loads of air pollution to the environment. Needless to say, there are better ways to enjoy the great outdoors, and a solar oven is a great way to do so. With these clever devices, all you’ll need is the warmth of the sun to cook almost anything! It’ll take a bit more time than normal, but you’ll save on fuel and other barbecuing supplies, while being kinder to the planet and your own lungs, too.

What goes on outside your home is almost as important as what you’re doing to green your life indoors. Landscape and garden maintenance can make a big difference on your overall environmental impact depending on how you treat your soil, what you do with water, and whether you’re using your outdoor environment to cultivate spaces that are healthy for you and for local wildlife. But your gardening and landscaping habits also have an impact on your budget. Choosing green gardening and landscaping techniques will preserve your green thumb while also safe-guarding your green bank account.

• Plant just three trees strategically in your yard and you could save between $100 and $250 every year in energy bills. That’s because well-chosen and properly-placed trees will reduce summer air conditioning bills (by up to 50 percent) and cut winter heating bills (by up to 25 percent).
• Plant native species in your garden to cut irrigation, fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide costs dramatically. Native plants are particularly well-suited to surviving in your local climate with no human intervention!
• Apply mulches in your vegetable garden, on your flower beds, and around trees and shrubs to prevent frost (and plant death), reduce irrigation costs, cut down on weeding requirements (and pesticides/herbicides), and more! Get low-cost mulching ideas at Less Lawn – Mulch for Less Moola.
• Install a rain barrel to collect rainwater and use it for irrigating your garden and lawn. Depending on how dry your climate is and how thirsty your plants are, you stand to easily pay for the barrel investment in no time at all.
• Choose a water-conserving irrigation system, like drip irrigation and soaker hoses, to reduce your water consumption outdoors by as much as 60 percent!
• If you’re charged by the weight or number of garbage bags you produce each week, consider using a mulching lawn mower. Rotting grass clippings—like other organic matter—adds to methane emissions (a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide), and to your waste disposal costs. Leaving the clippings on your lawn adds nutrients and prevent evaporation, too, which means you save on irrigation and fertilizer.
• Grow your own fruits and vegetables so that you can eat organic, locally-grown produce while in season. Growing your own takes a little time, but will save you money, especially when you consider that a single packet of tomato seeds can turn into over $40 worth of fresh, ripe tomatoes! Cut your gardening budget even more by saving your own seeds or participating in a seed exchange.
• Put your egg shells in your compost pile to add calcium and other minerals naturally to your garden.
• Think of the money you’ll save on medical bills by choosing organic gardening! Many of the common chemicals used as pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are poisonous to you, your family, and your pets. Save yourself the heartache and the cost of a trip to the emergency room by practicing organic gardening methods.
• The average gas-powered lawn mower adds 11 cars-worth of pollution to the atmosphere in just one hour! Riding mowers are worse, putting the equivalent of 34 cars-worth of pollution in the air in the same amount of time. In fact, they represent 5 percent of US air pollution! Get a push mower and you’ll no longer have to deal with gasoline or electric cords. They’re lightweight and easy to use, and will save you big-time in maintenance and operational costs.
• Cut down on the cost and hassle of messy trips to the gas station to get fuel for your gas-powered lawn mower by opting for an electric mower. These will cost you about $5/year in electricity and you can say goodbye to the stink and trial of spilled fuel. Many municipalities have rebates for exchanging gas-guzzlers for electric options.
• Get even more ideas for going green in your garden on a budget by checking out the No-cost gardening blog that challenges you to grow half of your food without a huge financial investment.

Organic Food

They say you are what you eat. Likewise, the earth is what we eat, too! The more we pour conventional agricultural chemicals into our landscapes, the more polluted the planet becomes, harming us and our non-human friends as well. Choosing organic food is a great way to reduce your impact on the planet and promote good health in the process. And we know that when we’re healthier, we’re more productive and less prone to requiring trips to the doctor. So eating healthier means saving money, too!

• Buy food in season! These fruits and vegetables will have traveled a shorter distance and therefore be fresher (and healthier!). And because they’re in season, they’ll also be cheaper.
• Cut prepared foods out of your diet. Pre-packaged foods are usually more expensive than cooking at home and they’re higher in preservatives, fat, salt, white flour, and other unhealthy ingredients, making them pricier for your wallet and pricier in terms of your health.
• Get your produce from a local CSA (Community Support Agriculture) organization to get inexpensive, often organic fruits and veggies delivered to your door! You’ll save money on gas for trips to the grocer, too. Find a CSA via LocalHarvest.
• Farmer’s Markets are great places to find locally-grown, often organic food options of all types that usually cost less than what you’d find at the grocery store. They’re also a lot of fun and support your local economy. Find a market with FarmersMarket.com.
• Eat at home rather than at a restaurant. Doing so will reduce your gasoline bills and save you at the till, too, since most restaurant meals are costlier than home-cooked options. Plus, they’re usually healthier, which means smaller medical bills in the long-run, too.
• Choose store-brand organic foods to save money of Certified Organic options. These are usually good quality but more affordable than name-brand items.
• Ruminating animals (cows, sheep, goats, etc) add significantly to climate change by emitting a powerful greenhouse gas: methane. Eat one less pound of beef weekly to save $109 yearly in food costs.
• Whether you buy your food at the local farmer’s market, the grocery store, or grow it in your own backyard, canning, dehydrating, and otherwise preserving food is a great way to enjoy season foods year-round—at a fraction of the cost. Check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation for ideas and tips.

If you can’t afford to buy all of your food organically, go for those options that would otherwise be the most laced with pesticides. Check out this Dirty Dozen list for those fruits and veggies that should be at the top of your “organic foods to buy” list.

Organic Clothing

Demonstrating your commitment to living a greener lifestyle can be as simple as throwing on a pair of organic cotton jeans or a bamboo T-shirt. Even if people don’t readily notice your eco-friendly attire, you’ll know that you’ve made the choice to support sustainable clothing systems that limit the quantity of chemicals going into the environment for the sake of style.

• Looking for affordable, eco-friendly clothing made from organic cotton, bamboo, wool, and other green textiles can be a challenge. So if you’re looking for a deal, check out these sites for great green deals: Ecobunga.com and GoGreenDeals.com.
• Buy quality organic clothing rather than cheaply-made inexpensive clothing. Well-made clothing will last longer, stretching your investment in organic clothing much longer and driving your per-wear cost down, too.
• Want to get some stylish “new” clothing for free? Host a clothing exchange party for you and your friends! This is an especially great idea for kids clothes.
• When you can’t afford to purchase new organic clothes, go for secondhand sweaters, T-shirts, jeans, shoes, coats, and jackets. Buying at a thrift store, swap meet, or garage sale will save you money and will prevent perfectly good clothing from going to the landfill. Everyone wins!
• Dry cleaning your clothes is expensive, and it’s costly to the planet. The dry cleaning chemicals used in the process have been linked to cancer as well as kidney, reproductive system, and liver damage and can cause nausea and dizziness. They will also pollute your indoor air. So save some cash by purchasing clothes that don’t require dry cleaning and/or choose to dry cleaning your clothes yourself using a safer at-home kit.
• Shop online. Even if your product is shipped via air transport, this can reduce the fuel expended to get the item to you by 40 percent.

Outdoor Activities

Getting outdoors is important for your health and it’s a great way to get in touch with the planet we’re trying to save! But don’t let your outdoor adventures cause further problems for the earth. Choosing eco-friendly outdoor activities and gear is important if you truly want to enjoy this planet we’re part of.

• Rent outdoor gear for your next hiking or camping trip. This will cost you much less than purchasing new gear and will save the energy cost of producing new gear that may only get used once or twice each season.
• Whether you’re out for a hike or on the road for a few weeks of camping, you’ll likely want to charge up your electronics (cell phones, radios, laptops, and the like). Power-up all of your battery-using technology with the sun! Find solar chargers of all shapes and sizes for every imaginable purpose to make your trip really green.
• Manufacturing disposable plastic water bottles requires significant infusions of energy. Choosing to carry water in a reusable water is cost effective and energy-saving, and could reduce your drinking water bill annually by upwards of $1,400.
• If you’re in need of outdoor gear but don’t want to rent, why not purchase used equipment? You’ll be keeping usable items from being trashed and saving money in the process. In addition to sites like Freecycle and Craigslist, you can check out GearTrade and CampingSwap to find all sorts of secondhand outdoor gear.

Traditional grilling will not only cost you for fuel and briquettes, it’ll also add loads of air pollution to the environment. Needless to say, there are better ways to enjoy the great outdoors, and a solar oven is a great way to do so. With these clever devices, all you’ll need is the warmth of the sun to cook almost anything! It’ll take a bit more time than normal, but you’ll save on fuel and other barbecuing supplies, while being kinder to the planet and your own lungs, too.

Travel

Taking a vacation or getting away for a holiday is the reward for hard work and a well-deserved break from regular life. Making your holiday one that helps the planet rather than harming it is increasingly challenging in a culture that values traveling afar. But there are ways for you to cut your vacation’s impact…

• If you’re able-bodied and looking for an active getaway, why not try an eco-volunteer vacation? They’ll put you to work cleaning-up the planet so you can leave feeling good about your holiday. Many require you to “rough it” a little, which often means lower vacation costs. Search online for “eco-friendly volunteer vacations” to find options near you.
• Whether you’re going off for a long weekend or are going to be away for a month, you can reduce your travel footprint by saving energy at home while you’re away. Turning down the air conditioning or heating, making sure lights are switched off, lowering the temperature on your hot water heater—these are all great ways to reduce energy consumption and save a bit of money while you’re out of the house.
• Instead of flying to your destination, look into taking the train or traveling via motor coach (bus). These options produce significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than flying and depending on your destination, may just be more affordable, as well.

If you’re open to new possibilities, why not explore a sustainable vacation with a tour provider that’s got the planet’s best interest in mind. While these aren’t always less expensive than traditional options, good deals can often be found. Try out: Green Globe, Sustainable Travel International, or Rainforest Alliance’s Sustainable Tourism for unique and earth-benefiting getaways.

Transportation

Every year, we burn the equivalent of 9 billion gallons of gas stuck in traffic jams, congestion that is most common during the morning and afternoon commuting times. Over time, this number has gone nowhere but up. In addition to wasted fuel, employees also spend enormous amounts of time in their vehicles—about 47 hours each and every year. That’s a lot of wasted energy, talent, and time.

Studies show that when employees have a choice about their commuting schedule and support for choosing less stressful methods of getting to work, they are more satisfied with their jobs and more productive, too. Helping your employees make greener commuting choices is not only good for their health and good for your bottom line, it can also improve your green reputation.

• Take public transit instead of driving to work and you could cut your transportation costs by $8,000 annually.
• Opt to carpool with a fellow co-worker one day every week to shave $339 from your commute every year.
• Join a car share program and realize up to $6,500 in savings every year over owning and maintaining your own vehicle.
• Choose to telecommute to work just one day every week to reduce your gasoline costs by $1,000 every year.
• A compressed workweek schedule (four ten-hour days instead of five eight-hour days) will give you a long weekend, cut your commute expenses by 20 percent, and could save you $500 annually.
• Instead of driving a car to work, choose a power-assisted bicycle, such as the Avanti Electra, Schwinn’s Streamline, and the Stokemonkey. These generally have a range between 40 and 50 miles, can go between 14 and 30 mph, and can pay for themselves in as little as a few months in gas savings.
• Have your employees stay at Green Seal Certified hotels to ensure your company supports hotels that opt for products are in the top 25 percent in terms of efficiency.
• Both car and air travel are heavy polluting activities for getting to meetings and conferences. Choose to teleconference and you could cut your air travel significantly. Vodafone now requires that all employees justify their travel, a move that has saved the company 20 percent in just one year.
• Help employees carpool to work by offering incentives to those who do. This will save you money, too, since it costs between $2,000 and $5,000 to build a single-surface parking spot, and $10,000-$12,000 to build one spot in a three-story structure. Reducing the number of spots you need by encouraging carpooling can cut these expenses significantly.
• Parking stalls must be maintained at a cost of about 1.5 percent of the initial investment. Reduce the number of parking stalls you need and your maintenance costs, too by offering facilities to employees who bike, walk, or run to work. Divert five parking stalls from cars to facilities for bikers, a company could save anywhere between $10,000 and $60,000 annually.
• If every US commuter car carried just one more person to work every day, we’d save 8 billion gallons of gasoline.

What goes on outside your home is almost as important as what you’re doing to green your life indoors. Landscape and garden maintenance can make a big difference on your overall environmental impact depending on how you treat your soil, what you do with water, and whether you’re using your outdoor environment to cultivate spaces that are healthy for you and for local wildlife. But your gardening and landscaping habits also have an impact on your budget. Choosing green gardening and landscaping techniques will preserve your green thumb while also safe-guarding your green bank account.

• Plant just three trees strategically in your yard and you could save between $100 and $250 every year in energy bills. That’s because well-chosen and properly-placed trees will reduce summer air conditioning bills (by up to 50 percent) and cut winter heating bills (by up to 25 percent).
• Plant native species in your garden to cut irrigation, fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide costs dramatically. Native plants are particularly well-suited to surviving in your local climate with no human intervention!
• Apply mulches in your vegetable garden, on your flower beds, and around trees and shrubs to prevent frost (and plant death), reduce irrigation costs, cut down on weeding requirements (and pesticides/herbicides), and more! Get low-cost mulching ideas at Less Lawn – Mulch for Less Moola.
• Install a rain barrel to collect rainwater and use it for irrigating your garden and lawn. Depending on how dry your climate is and how thirsty your plants are, you stand to easily pay for the barrel investment in no time at all.
• Choose a water-conserving irrigation system, like drip irrigation and soaker hoses, to reduce your water consumption outdoors by as much as 60 percent!
• If you’re charged by the weight or number of garbage bags you produce each week, consider using a mulching lawn mower. Rotting grass clippings—like other organic matter—adds to methane emissions (a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide), and to your waste disposal costs. Leaving the clippings on your lawn adds nutrients and prevent evaporation, too, which means you save on irrigation and fertilizer.
• Grow your own fruits and vegetables so that you can eat organic, locally-grown produce while in season. Growing your own takes a little time, but will save you money, especially when you consider that a single packet of tomato seeds can turn into over $40 worth of fresh, ripe tomatoes! Cut your gardening budget even more by saving your own seeds or participating in a seed exchange.
• Put your egg shells in your compost pile to add calcium and other minerals naturally to your garden.
• Think of the money you’ll save on medical bills by choosing organic gardening! Many of the common chemicals used as pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are poisonous to you, your family, and your pets. Save yourself the heartache and the cost of a trip to the emergency room by practicing organic gardening methods.
• The average gas-powered lawn mower adds 11 cars-worth of pollution to the atmosphere in just one hour! Riding mowers are worse, putting the equivalent of 34 cars-worth of pollution in the air in the same amount of time. In fact, they represent 5 percent of US air pollution! Get a push mower and you’ll no longer have to deal with gasoline or electric cords. They’re lightweight and easy to use, and will save you big-time in maintenance and operational costs.
• Cut down on the cost and hassle of messy trips to the gas station to get fuel for your gas-powered lawn mower by opting for an electric mower. These will cost you about $5/year in electricity and you can say goodbye to the stink and trial of spilled fuel. Many municipalities have rebates for exchanging gas-guzzlers for electric options.
• Get even more ideas for going green in your garden on a budget by checking out the No-cost gardening blog that challenges you to grow half of your food without a huge financial investment.

Demonstrating your commitment to living a greener lifestyle can be as simple as throwing on a pair of organic cotton jeans or a bamboo T-shirt. Even if people don’t readily notice your eco-friendly attire, you’ll know that you’ve made the choice to support sustainable clothing systems that limit the quantity of chemicals going into the environment for the sake of style.

• Looking for affordable, eco-friendly clothing made from organic cotton, bamboo, wool, and other green textiles can be a challenge. So if you’re looking for a deal, check out these sites for great green deals: Ecobunga.com and GoGreenDeals.com.
• Buy quality organic clothing rather than cheaply-made inexpensive clothing. Well-made clothing will last longer, stretching your investment in organic clothing much longer and driving your per-wear cost down, too.
• Want to get some stylish “new” clothing for free? Host a clothing exchange party for you and your friends! This is an especially great idea for kids clothes.
• When you can’t afford to purchase new organic clothes, go for secondhand sweaters, T-shirts, jeans, shoes, coats, and jackets. Buying at a thrift store, swap meet, or garage sale will save you money and will prevent perfectly good clothing from going to the landfill. Everyone wins!
• Dry cleaning your clothes is expensive, and it’s costly to the planet. The dry cleaning chemicalsused in the process have been linked to cancer as well as kidney, reproductive system, and liver damage and can cause nausea and dizziness. They will also pollute your indoor air. So save some cash by purchasing clothes that don’t require dry cleaning and/or choose to dry cleaning your clothes yourself using a safer at-home kit.
• Shop online. Even if your product is shipped via air transport, this can reduce the fuel expended to get the item to you by 40 percent.

Image: Zipcar

Lower monthly transportation bills and environmentally-friendly driving has been possible for quite some time for those using Zipcar’s car sharing program. With over 325,000 members and 6,500 vehicles throughout North American states and provinces, as well as in London, England, Zipcar boasts an impressive community of members committed to energy conservation and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

But sharing cars just got a whole lot easier for iPhone users. Zipcar recently announced the release of their new iPhone application, available for download for free from the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch users. This new applications offers a variety of great features that make it easier for people to save energy by finding and use a Zipcar:

1. Find available Zipcars on a map using your current location, a favorite location, or any location

2. Reserve a Zipcar anytime, anywhere

3. Sort cars by time available, car type and model

4. View upcoming reservations

5. Get directions to your Zipcar

6. Easily locate your reserved Zipcar by telling it to honk its horn

7. Unlock and lock your Zipcar after scanning your Zipcard at the start of each reservation

8. Tap to contact Zipcar if help is needed during a reservation

9. Extend or cancel reservations on the go

10. Play around with the virtual key fob and make sounds even when you’re not in a reservation

This app makes finding a great car for much less totally fun and very sustainable. In fact, according to Austin CarShare, the average consumer can save approximately $6,500 every single year by joining a car share program!

Livestock and climate change via Flickr - Sunfox

Want a simple way to reduce your impact on climate change without a lot of hassle or cost? Cut back the amount of meat and dairy you’re eating. That’s the conclusion of a recent Worldwatch Institute analysis of the impact of raising livestock and poultry entitled Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change are…cows, pigs, and chickens? In it, they discount the figures from a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report that estimate greenhouse gas emissions from raising livestock at 18 percent of the total annual worldwide amount.

Instead, the WorldWatch Institutes report puts the damage at a whopping 51 percent! That’s 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide that gets dumped into the atmosphere every year simply because of our dietary choices, which is less than any other source.

But where does it all come from? Well, apparently 13.7 percent comes as a result of livestock respiration. During their normal existence, livestock animals add a lot of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Slightly less is the impact from inefficient land use. As land is converted from tropical forests—tremendously valuable sources for carbon sequestration—to grazing land for sheep and cattle, we suffer a double whammy. First, we lose the carbon-sinking ability of the trees, and second, the rotting biomass (trees and underbrush) release a lot of carbon dioxide into the air. This accounts for 4.2 percent of all livestock-related emissions.

Next, there’s the methane gas—a greenhouse gas that’s 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere—that livestock emit during normal digestion. This equals 7.9 percent.

There are more ways to count our meat- and dairy-eating habits’ effects on climate, but those are the main sources. Needless to say, it would be easy to make a change here to benefit the planet. Simply adopting an eco-friendly diet by cutting back on the quantity of dairy and meat we eat every week—have one meat free day, for instance—would make a big difference. And choosing an environmentally friendly veggie diet might actually save you money, too.

Peaches Via Flickr - ellievanhoutte

If you’re an avid gardener with too much of one type of produce at the end of the season—zucchini, potatoes, beets, peas, or lettuce, for instance—you might find this new site a great resource (started four months ago, actually). Veggie Trader is a free online resource that can be used by gardeners and produce seekers to procure local, sustainable fruits and vegetables from those in their own community.

Functioning much like the bargain ads in your local newspaper or Craiglist online, the Veggie Trader allows veggie growers and veggie eaters to sell, purchase, and barter their way to more sustainable meals.

Carrots Via Flickr - Robert Couse-Baker

The system is quite simple. You register to become part of the community and then get started! You can offer to purchase, offer to sell, or offer to trade, and then wait for others to chime in when their supply/demand fits yours.

Need to get rid of some crabapples before they all go bad on your lawn? Log on and offer these up to your neighbors. Want some beets to can for the winter? Sign in and ask the community who’s got the extra produce you’re looking for. It’s free to join and costs nothing to post a listing.

In time, the site hopes to expand its offerings to include other types of food, including dairy and eggs, though those are heavily regulated and will require some additional rules and policies to be in place first.

This new site has the potential to do many great things for the environment: reduce organic waste, cut carbon emissions related to the transportation of produce, encourage local, organic farmers to  sell their wares locally, and foster good green community. So get trading-selling-buying-bartering!

They say you are what you eat. Likewise, the earth is what we eat, too! The more we pour conventional agricultural chemicals into our landscapes, the more polluted the planet becomes, harming us and our non-human friends as well. Choosing organic food is a great way to reduce your impact on the planet and promote good health in the process. And we know that when we’re healthier, we’re more productive and less prone to requiring trips to the doctor. So eating healthier means saving money, too!

• Buy food in season! These fruits and vegetables will have traveled a shorter distance and therefore be fresher (and healthier!). And because they’re in season, they’ll also be cheaper.
• Cut prepared foods out of your diet. Pre-packaged foods are usually more expensive than cooking at home and they’re higher in preservatives, fat, salt, white flour, and other unhealthy ingredients, making them pricier for your wallet and pricier in terms of your health.
• Get your produce from a local CSA (Community Support Agriculture) organization to get inexpensive, often organic fruits and veggies delivered to your door! You’ll save money on gas for trips to the grocer, too. Find a CSA via LocalHarvest.
• Farmer’s Markets are great places to find locally-grown, often organic food options of all types that usually cost less than what you’d find at the grocery store. They’re also a lot of fun and support your local economy. Find a market with FarmersMarket.com.
• Eat at home rather than at a restaurant. Doing so will reduce your gasoline bills and save you at the till, too, since most restaurant meals are costlier than home-cooked options. Plus, they’re usually healthier, which means smaller medical bills in the long-run, too.
• Choose store-brand organic foods to save money of Certified Organic options. These are usually good quality but more affordable than name-brand items.
• Ruminating animals (cows, sheep, goats, etc) add significantly to climate change by emitting a powerful greenhouse gas: methane. Eat one less pound of beef weekly to save $109 yearly in food costs.
• Whether you buy your food at the local farmer’s market, the grocery store, or grow it in your own backyard, canning, dehydrating, and otherwise preserving food is a great way to enjoy season foods year-round—at a fraction of the cost. Check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation for ideas and tips.

If you can’t afford to buy all of your food organically, go for those options that would otherwise be the most laced with pesticides. Check out this Dirty Dozen list for those fruits and veggies that should be at the top of your “organic foods to buy” list.

A Drop of WAter - watering can included

Looking for a rain barrel solution that’s both highly useful and attractive to the eyes? Dutch designer Bas Van Der Veer may have just the right solution for you. His new “A Drop of Water” rainwater collector combines form and function into a completely new way of collecting and using “free” rainwater.

“A Drop of Water” is an elegant, stylish solution for anyone wanting to attach a rainbarrel to their home that won’t detract from the exterior appearance.  The system has a watering can built in that fills with water as it rains (overflow goes into the barrel). No more having to store a watering can nearby with this rainwater collection device!

Plus, it comes with a small tap at the bottom of the barrel so when the watering can is empty, the user can just refill it again and go. These can even be installed by apartment-dwellers. And remember: saving water also saves energy. Moving and filtering water throughout your local community requires power. Collecting and using water onsite reduces these energy demands, although won’t likely reduce your own energy bill directly (your water bill will be smaller, however).

These water collectors are made with a coated wooden mold into which is applied a colored epoxy gelcoat to create the outer layer of the barrel. Following the gelcoat, the designers then apply several layers of glassfiber and epoxy resin. The barrel is finished after the epoxy resin is dry—the two halves are glued together with super strong glue. The rough edges are then removed to create a super-smooth outer appearance.

This designer has developed several other innovative garden tools such as the Bioplastic Planter and the Multiculti (planters). He’s even developed a Paper Table and a Shower Flower.

A Drop of Water - rain barrel

A Drop of Water - manufacturing process

e-Cycler online recycling swap service

If you’ve got room in your recycling bin, you may just be able to rent out a portion of it to one of your neighbors or a family member—or whoever! Likewise, if your bin is threatening to overflow onto the lawn next door, or you’re lacking recycling pick-up altogether, you may want to find someone willing to take your recyclables away for you. With e-Cycler, a new online service, whether you’ve got extra room or are collecting extra recyclables, you’ll be able to swap, collect and recycle trash, while perhaps making a bit of extra dough for yourself. Everyone wins!

Curbside recycling Via Flickr - g_kat26

Here’s how it works. Regardless of whether you’re giving or taking recyclables, you simply start by registering as a member of the e-Cycler community. You next state whether you’ve got extra room or extra trash and then look for appropriate connections in your area (look for ones closer to your home or on a regular travel route to avoid adding additional greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere to transport your goods, of course).

The receiver/collector of the recyclables can then decide how they want to handle extra funds they receive as a result of recycling the extra goods. They can either decide to keep 100 percent of the profits for themselves, or if they like, they can opt to share the profits by sharing 40 percent of the profits with the giver and keeping 60 percent for themselves. It’s up to the collector ultimately.

Recycling drop-off Via Flickr - AGeekMom

Of course, because e-Cycler also want to make a bit of money, they are charging a small fee to collectors for every connection they make. It’s definitely a great system for helping to send trash in the right direction while saving power (making goods from recycled materials uses less energy than manufacturing with virgin materials), and as long as the connections don’t require enormous amounts of driving, it should have a positive net effect.

Tokyo Station, Japan

Train stations in Tokyo are implementing power-generating floors, allowing passengers to contribute energy back to the station itself. Although this process is complicated, it will not alter the transportation process. The entire station would be outfitted with power-generating mats that will sense vibrations and convert them into electricity.

In two Tokyo train stations, steps are under way to generate electricity from the floors of the ticket gates and staircases. If successful, passengers could help provide the train stations with 1,400 kilowatts per second each day.

The Tokyo station and Shibuya station is used by about 2.4 million people on an average week day. This will generate approximately  10 watts per second, and helps to reduce the energy needed by the building by 90%.

When the test period ends in February 2009, the makers – Soundpower Corp.and East Japan Railway Company (JR East) – hope the floors have improved to the point that they can provide all the electricity needed to run the automatic ticket gates and electronic display systems.

This technological development is working on being implemented into mall floors, sidewalks and roads.

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E-WERK Bicycle Charger

We always like to cover chargers for portable devices since our lives are so tech-heavy, especially on the go. From cell phones and PDAs to laptops and GPS devices, we’re wired for work everywhere we go, and all of this technology requires some sort of energy to keep it going.

There are all sorts of charging technologies on the market today, including solar, wind, fuel cell, and more. But today’s gadget charger is one that uses your own human energy. Attached to your bike as you cycle to work, take a leisurely ride with your kids, or whatever, this E-Werk device is a universal power supply and recharger made by Busch & Muller KG in Germany.

E-WERK Bicycle Charging Tools

With your own muscle power as you ride, the E-Werk will generate up to 16 W of power and recharges as quickly as the average plug-in charger. It weighs about 53 grams and comes with two cables as well as a USB connector so that you can hook it up to almost any device. You can use a stylus that’s mounted at the bottom of the E-Werk to adjust voltage and current so that you can use it to serve a variety of applications. It can be used to power anything from your GPS device, PDA, cell phone, bike lights, music player, and more.

The E-Werk was awarded the esteemed Eurobike Green Award for a product that “exhibits particularly significant ecological and sustainable value.” It will be available for purchase starting in October for £139.

Solio Charger

Portable Solar with Solio

A standard in any green backpack, the Solio Charger from Solio will charge devices anytime (there’s a battery on board for storing energy) from anywhere.  It’s small and versatile.

Cost: $50

Voltaic Systems Solar Backpack

Solar-powered anything with Volaic Systems Solar Backpack

A favorite with greens for many years, this Voltaic solar backpack can charge nearly any device (comes with 11 standard adaptors) as you walk to work or hike a mountain. There’s also a battery back that will store energy until you need it.

Cost: $249

NovoThink iphone-solar-skin

Sun-powered skin for the iPhone or iPod Touch by NovoThink

Available by the end of September, the NovoThink Solar Surge will make it a whole lot easier for iPhone or the iPod Touch owners to power-up their portables with solar. According to the literature, the Solar Surge will provide 30 minutes of talk time on 3G networks and 60 minutes on 2G networks with just 2 hours of charging in direct sunlight. The battery built into the skin will also hold 120 percent of the iPhone 3G’s capacity, too.

Cost: $70

Brunton SolarRolls

Roll-away solar charging is convenient, compact

The SolarRoll by Brunton is made to be packed pretty much anywhere—in your car, your backpack, or your briefcase—because it’s lightweight and compact. It’ll charge most hand-held devices and comes with three watt capacities for added flexibility.

Cost: $295-$480

SolarGorilla Laptop Charger

High Wattage with SolarGorilla Laptop Charger

From PowerTraveller comes the SolarGorilla, a portable solar charger that’s big on power. It’s compact, fold-up design is rugged and easy to use, and will power most devices, including laptops. Comes with many attachments for maximum usability.

Cost: $276