Blogs & Ecology

If you live in Los Angeles or in the New York/New Jersey metro area and want an electric Mini Cooper pay attention.

Starting today you can apply to be one of the 500 lucky people taking part in a year-long field trial (no, you can’t keep it afterwards) of the Mini E. That’s the good news. The less good news is that you’re going to have to pony up $850 per month (plus some up front fees and sales tax; not to mention liability insurance) for the privilege of giving Mini feedback on the performance of the car.

Image source: Getty Images

image: CAES Development Co.

While I’m not convinced that the issue of renewable energy’s intermittency is as great a problem as it is often made out to be—in the sense that it's not a valid argument against deploying as much renewable energy as we can, as is sometimes claimed—storage solutions for renewable energy sources do need to be developed. In New Jersey, utility PSEG is turning to an often overlooked technology to address the problem.

Two Compressed Air Storage Systems Currently Developed

Terracycle, a New Jersey based company, is starting to develop something different from their normal cleaning products. They are creating tote bags, pouches, binders and more out of wrappers from candy, energy bars, juice packs, etc.

It’s really cool stuff. i just wanted to make you aware of it as a teaser to the Terracycle review which, I’ll have for you guys shortly.

My Time to Wake Up is a simple clothing company with a simple and bold statement. Time To Wake Up. Wake up and try to help the world. The black organic cotton shirt fits nicely but it’s not as soft as other brands I usually wear. The shirts are Anvil Brand Organic Cotton, a very large shirt manufacturer, but maybe in the future My Time to Wake Up will have their own line.

photo by Richard Masoner

When Hillside Intermediate began their butterfly garden back in 1997 they probably had no idea that one day it would grow to 7 acres worth of carefully reconstructed wildlife habitat devoted to biodiversity that would earn awards from institutions like the Jane Goodall Institute and National Wildlife Federation. And no one could have predicted the enormous damage inflicted by vandals intent on destroying their hard work, even plugging up the entry to a bluebird box with golf balls and killing the chicks inside.

Last Friday marked the official start of summer, and with the long Fourth of July weekend around the corner I thought I'd keep things light this week. Since vacations are on everyone's mind, how about we take a closer look at your getaway plans. Are you sticking close to home or traveling to a faraway, exotic destination? Staying in an eco-hotel or... not? Using your time off to help out on a service trip?

We've got a series of "How Green is My..." quizzes on the Sierra Club website,
and the latest is called "How Green is My Destination."

Reason number 8

PRIZES, RAFFLES AND GIVEAWAYS… oh boy, do we have a ton of stuff for you guys to try to win. The raffle tickets are $2 and you can win 9 different super awesome prizes.

We have a Leafygreen.info package with Leafygreen.info shirts and pins, coasters and a bag from Intoxicated Zodiac and a GREEN Digital Camera from Mack Camera .

When you’ve got a committed group of TreeHuggers as part of the faculty and student body, it’s amazing what great green things you can accomplish.

Take Kawameeh Middle School in Union, NJ as a terrific example; where they’ve been recycling paper at record rates and keeping over 3.5 tons of tree out of the landfill in the process during the last year.
...

After using this skillet for the last few weeks or so, I decided it was time to write about it. The heat is thoroughly and evenly distributed and food cooks really well. The high sides make it a great tool for sauces or full dishes in one pan. The trivet is designed to match the base of the skillet and it fits like a glove. Overall, it works well.

Anyone going to Global Green in Jersey City, NJ or to Go Green Expo in NYC? I headed to Global Green yesterday. Lots of vendors and fresh, local, organic food as well as speakers. I got to see the Gov’ner of Jersey up close and personal. That was kind of neat. Go Green will be fun, we’re heading there Sunday!

See You There!

New York’s Green Apple Cleaners has a great concept. They are a Local, eco-friendly dry cleaners with fast and convenient services. They use reusable bags and offer pickup and delivery services.

I am not in New York City, but Green Apple Cleaners has one of their large depots right near my home in Lodi, New Jersey. Check out the site for how their system works, but just some words of advice, sign up and use them, it’s totally worth it.