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?4U: What are the best Eco Refrigerators (energy star)?

Climate Smart

Having discovered in early August that the (at least) two year old fridge I’d inherited when I moved into ‘Hotelephant’ was the most inefficient thing in my slowly-greening home, I promptly sold it. Read the rest


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Business slow? Volunteer! via green modern architect Brandy LeMae of Candy Shop. [BGBG, ReSource Conservation, Boulder, AIA, Yes1A.org]

You’ve heard the news haven’t you? Read the rest


Xcel Energy turns Boulder, Colorado into America’s first Smart Grid City. ABC News.

“Thomas Edison meets Bill Gates?”

Read the rest


Green Christmas Presents: Support Green Guru @ Ellie’s Eco Home Store in Boulder this week & Eco Products will accept Ecologic in-store long-term.

I went to the Grand Opening VIP party at Ellie’s the other night (full blog coming as soon as I get photos)—saw much of Boulder’s who’s who of natural products and eco entrepreneur world—including my ol’young buddy Davidson Lewis  Read the rest


Green Pope?

Read the rest


Hybrid Suburban? Sounds a bit contradictory. [Planet Green's Alter Eco in Hybrid Cars]

Chevy Tahoe Hybrid

I’m hooked on Planet Green’s Alter Eco, but why do they have to drive around in a car.  Yes it’s hybrid, but it is a suburban.  I hold Alter Eco to a higher standard and I don’t feel so good about this.  Actually, it irritates me a lot.  Alter eco rides around in a Chevy Suburban, why?

Does it drive you crazy?  Let me Read the rest


Neil Young’s Plan to Save the Big Three Automakers, via Huffington Post.

2008-11-14-neilyoung2.jpg

With thanks for the tip to Alex King.

From today’s Huffington Post:

Neil Young, activist (Bridge School, Farm Aid) rock legend, has assembled a team that is in the process of transforming his gargantuan 1959 Lincoln Continental from a gas guzzler into a showcase for green technology and sustainability. The car will be entered into the Automotive X Prize that offers a $10 Read the rest


Duct Mastic is Fantastic.

$20 That can save you big $ this winter

I was introduced, recently, to another way to seal up ventilation ducts, and it’s so easy.

I used to laboriously cut and stick strips of the foil tape that never quite sealed perfectly, didn’t stick to some surfaces, cut my hands at times, and was generally frustrating.

Instead, to finish up the 3/4 of ducts in my basement that I had not sealed up, I used Duct Mastic.  It’s essentially caulk.   But it’s specifically for sealing up ductwork, so you buy it in the ducting/ventilation aisle. On a recent weeknight, I found my caulking gun and a rubber glove, bought 4 tubes of Duct Mastic, and went to work. Read the rest


The Greenest New Family Home in America—in Boulder, Colorado?

  

If you bike or walk around West Boulder, you may have noticed this new home built in the past year. Named the Next West House, it is a LEED Platinum, Net Zero Carbon residence. Most of the extreme eco homes of late are very modern aka Dwell Mag style, but this home fits in seamlessly with it’s historic Mapleton Hill neighborhood.  Developed by the Zero Carbon Initiative, this home actually creates more power than it uses and was thoughtfully created to include the best eco options available including: Read the rest


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Have a Happy Green Thanksgiving. Buy local, be cheerful. [free-range, eco, tofurkey, Good Shepard Turkey, Heritage Turkey, Rainbow Ranch]

Just because this holiday revolves around big portions of turkey and stuffing doesn’t mean you have to lose all hope in helping out the environment. Thanksgiving is a celebration of coming together and enjoying what Mother Earth has to offer us.  Start this year by making your holiday special, make it an eco-friendly Thanksgiving. You can feel fat and jolly at the end of your Thanksgiving and also feel Read the rest


Stephen Colbert loves Alternative Fuels. Video. [Bonus: Letterman's Top 10 Revelations about Sarah Palin; Natalie Portman votes]

I’m more of a Jon Stewart man myself, but take a look at this chart. Now this one. Christopher and Amanda, right? When Democrats dave on behalf of Big Oil’s record profits, everyone wins. When you bike, you hurt Mother Earth. Bullshit commercials. Everyone loves Mother Earth—but not everyone loves her enough to penetrate it. Obsessed with its baby animals. You’re as intelligent as you are beautiful. But…Video: Read the rest


Global Warming Deniers Get Busy: More BS evidence of Man’s impact on Earth. [Vice Magazine / VBS.tv :: Toxic Linfen videos]


Amazing article. Makes you glad you don’t live in China, or India, or…well, Asia. Or California, sometimes, since the effects are felt far away. Read the rest


Save Endangered Gray Wolves before Bush Cull: NRDC petition link.

Here’s Read the rest


The Sustainable Style Show Toronto: Eco fashion + products galore! [EcoTraction]

photos courtesy of Miranda Pearl

I was at the Sustainable Style Show in Toronto this past weekend. It was a great turn out and I had a lot of fun meeting all the vendors and hearing their stories. I also got to attend the Green Gala an ultra chic event showcasing (sustainable) couture from some of Canada’s freshest designers but more on that next blog…

I got to talk to Kealan, a charming and very hip Torontonian who owns 69 Vintage, a mini vintage store chain and Sonja from Thieves, the designer of the futuristic fashion luxury brand. The girls from Preloved were cool too (I didn’t get to meet the boy). They showed some cute recycled sweaters this time, one of their most popular items. They deal in hundreds of pounds of old used clothing, cut them up with innovative seasonal patterns and create completely new garments. They now get huge orders from some grand scale boutique clothing chains such as Urban Outfitters and Anthropology. Read the rest


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Joana Smith’s Secret Poetic Mommy Re-volution.

What’s the revolution all about? I don’t rightly know, either—but I can tell I like it. Joana Smith will be filling in the details in her upcoming arty poetic lovely mommyful blogs. ~ Waylon Lewis, ed.

Today it was raining, so Abilene Plum and I stayed inside. We ate some honey, we danced to Billie Holiday,  and we found something truly amazing, right under our own roof!

It was a poem made from scraps, trash and old photos…but don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful! It talked about recycling and America! Turning visions into reality. Read the rest


In Boulder? Green Home central: Planetary Solutions & Joyful Furniture team up.

FYI, post-yoga the Read the rest


Target for the Whole Foods Crowd: The First Ellie’s Eco Home Store Opens in Boulder.

Faced with headlines announcing another bankruptcy, more foreclosures, images of stockbrokers weeping in the fetal position while they watch the market plunge, it seems implausible that some businesses are actually doing well in this economy. The LOHAS (we’ll give you a piece of tofu if you can guess what it stands for) industry, for the most part, has remained steady, even as Americans reel in their spending. Boulder-based Eco-Products, famous for their corn-based compostable drinking cups, and now their Ellie’s Eco Home Store, is one example of a company that is actually growing, and at an exponential rate. The company’s sales revenues were just (just?) five million in 2006, while projected numbers for 2009 reach over 100 million. In August, Eco-Products earned a spot on Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000,” celebrating the fastest growing companies in America.

It hasn’t always been this way. Back in the ‘90s, when most dot com start-ups were raking in billions overnight, Steve Savage and his father, Kent, slowly grew their company for almost 17 years before experiencing the skyrocketing growth of the last three. It took them five years before Read the rest


Book review: The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Thich Nhat Hanh’s prose is as elegant as his poetry.  The World We Have is his latest book; Read the rest


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Mayor Bloomberg’s Controversial Planned Plastic Bag Fee in New York City.

In Brooklyn, I lived across the street from a 24-hour natural products bodega (boy was I spoiled). I’d stop by in between regular trips to the Park Slope Food Coop, which banned plastic bags this summer. Everyone who worked at the corner store knew me as their neighbor and that I’d never take a plastic bag, but still as they were ringing me up, almost always their hands, like a reflex, would reach for the bag. And that is so the culture of the city. Read the rest


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Eco Winter Sports: A guide to greening your winter wonderland activities

My excitement for snow fun increases more and more by every degree the temperature drops.  I have been a snowboarder for years, and I can’t wait to hit the slopes, but it wasn’t until recently that I started to realize the impact my day up to the mountains had on the environment.  Driving from Boulder to the mountains is an easy getaway, but that 400 miles round trip drive, as well as the snow making and energy used by the mountain resorts have a bigger impact than one would think.

Here are some tips to green your weekend getaways in the mountains:

First, it is important to look into your resort choice as well as your snow gear.  You can research a resort that runs all their operations on wind energy.  And check out snowboards and skis designed with sustainable materials.

Lodging: A typical mountain resort uses Read the rest
















    1. Eight Camping Recipes: the Classics. [via NWF]
    2. The Dhamma Brothers: East meets West in the Deep South
    3. Barack Obama: The Audacity of Hope: my latino vote
    4. A Boulder Newbie with a LOHAS Background Explores Naturally Boulder Days 2008.
    5. Alice Walker's Letter to President-elect Obama.
    6. "Yes We Can" lifted Obama's campaign, back in the day. And now, "It's a New Day." will.i.am does it again.
    7. Lifting the "Body Burden": How to Fight Toxic Exposure and Protect Your Home from Dangerous Chems
    8. Photos of Obama, Biden and Families as They Wait for Election Night Results.
    9. Mayor Bloomberg’s Controversial Planned Plastic Bag Fee in New York City.
    10. Truthout: Ted Kennedy's Healthcare Manifesto to Obama. Washington Post.
    11. Thank You: a community saves elephant journal dot com from the brink.
    12. Izembek National Wildlife Refuge: (another) road to nowhere?
    13. Book review: Defining Moments in Science
    14. Duke Chronicle: Youth voters tune in, turn out in 2008
    15. Al Gore New York Times' Op Ed to President-elect Barack Obama: Energy - Global Warming = Economy.
    16. Two Rape / Sexual Assault incidents in Boulder in last week. What to do to stay Safe.
    17. UPDATE Olbermann video: Redefining Marriage is a Good Thing. As Racism ebbs, Bigotry flows. [Three States strike down Gay Marriage, a black lining on last night's silver clouds] [Jon Stewart: "Free at Last, Free at Last—whoah, where you two goin'?!"?
    18. Boulder's Starfish: what's eco jewelry?
    19. Green Team! I don't find it funny, but 9,000,000 viewers can't be wrong. Video.
    20. Christian Science Monitor: a more partisan Palin returns to a poorer Alaska; convicted Senator Stevens promises pork, reelection victory in recount.
    21. 55% of Youth Voted in 2008—a low number that somehow is most since 1972. Generation O.
    22. The Oil + Water Project. Videos.
    23. Mary Taylor's Eco-Kitchen: GMOs, Hybrids and Heirlooms.
    24. Obama Family wants a Rescue Puppy? Video.
    25. Want to Feel Good? Do Good. [Volunteerism video via Good Magazine]
    26. Can't decide? Use GoodGuide!
    27. Brush with Fame on Election Day
    28. Polar Bears are going Extinct. Video. [WWF]
    29. Crocs Santa Cruz slip-on shoes are elegant but convenient, relaxed.
    30. In Boulder? Here's what to do with your weekend: Adventure Film Festival.







  • The Dhamma Brothers: East meets West in the Deep South

    The Dhamma Brothers: East meets West in the Deep South