Trying to keep the Carbon Cops at bay? Or, just want a lower electric bill? These five tools will help you identify the energy hogs in your life… and put them on a diet!

ENERGY STAR@Home: This interactive web tool takes you on a tour of a typical American home, points out the energy guzzlers, and suggests improvements you can make. I gave it high praise when it debuted. Cost: free.

The Kill-a-Watt: Want to find out which appliances and electronics are draining the most juice? The Kill-a-Watt is just one of several electricity monitors that can help you pinpoint the power hogs. Consumer Reports gave it a “thumbs up.” Cost: $25(ish)

The ScanGaugeII: When dividing the trip odometer by the number of gallons of gas you just bought won’t do, the ScanGaugeII provides a wide range of information on your car’s performance. Benjamin Jones, of Ecomodder.com, loves his. Cost: $169.95

The CO2 Saver: Any computer owner can reset his/her power settings; the CO2 Saver from Snap.com performs this task for you, and also tracks the amount of carbon dioxide you’re saving with its adjustments. PC World likes it. Cost: free.

Car Care: This iPhone application will give you information on mileage and service work, and even remind you to change the oil, or put air in the tires. MacWorld thought it was the best of several apps in this category. Cost: $4.99.

Have we missed something good? Let us know in the comments.

Image credits: ladyada at Flickr under a Creative Commons license; ENERGY STAR

California’s Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, came to power in his environmentally concerned state in part because he believed that people and the government need to do something about climate change. While Governor Schwarzenegger has committed California to many government programs that advance the cause of a healthier environment, he is also exhorting people to do what they can for the environment in their daily lives. Part of this public outreach is taking place on a new website called EcoDriving USA [www.ecodrivingusa.com].

The website provides advice for car drivers on how they can lower their carbon footprint from their perches on car seats. Educating people on ways to conserve energy are crucial to preventing a climate disaster. Given the slow pace of alternative energy adoption in this country, there are few avenues for average Americans to make a difference than employing conservation strategies in their daily lives.

Check out this resource and see what you can accomplish!

Recently, heaps of attention has been paid to the fact that China leads the world on carbon pollution. While this is true in terms of total pollution output, the average Chinese person has roughly 20% the carbon footprint of your average American person. The only problem is China has more than 1.3 billion people.

China has major ambitions to become the most productive economy on the planet, and this marks one of the reasons why China focuses on developing low carbon industrial solutions. Being green makes businesses more profitable, and also insures that the business can maintain a steady supply of resources without depleting the environment’s ability to replenish those resources. A great example of this would be rice. If you are running a rice company and you do not take excellent care of your farms, then very soon your crop yields will go down and the quality of your rice will decline. You need good and plentiful ingredients to compete in the food marketplace. The more green China becomes, the more fearsome they will become as an economic superpower.

China also has an enormous population that takes up more habitat space each year. This population has placed a burgeoning burden on the ecological habitats of China. You may remember the huge deal made out of the air quality in Beijing prior to the start of the ‘08 Olympic Games. Check out this news story [www.sundancechannel.com] for more info on the environmental considerations China was forced to deal with because of the Olympics.

In recent international summits on climate change, the U.S. has maintained its position that it cannot invest in a low carbon economy until other countries like China and Russia do likewise. The fear is that the U.S. will spend a lot of money adapting to low carbon industrial infrastructures and other large countries who do not spend this money will be more competitive than America. This argument is dangerous to the future of the United States for a few reasons.

You only get one backyard. Regardless of what the rest of the world does, the U.S. controlled portion of the North American Continent will have to supply natural resources like food, water, clean air to the population of the United States. These are necessary services that only a strong, healthy and robust nature can provide. No matter how strong your economy becomes, if the fields are filled with poisonous pesticides, then you will have to spend a lot of money cleaning up that pollution after it has already started to affect your bottom line. With the application of some foresight, you could spend a little money to prevent the pollution problem from becoming critical, thereby shielding your bottom line from jeopardy.

The second problem with the U.S. climate change position of “everybody or nobody” stems from economic reasons. China currently leads the world in the production and exportation of solar panels. They are poised to be the world’s largest producer of wind turbines. China heats up water internationally by controlling two-thirds of the solar water heater industry. China wants to be the world’s most influential and powerful superpower, so you can bet they have some great economic reasons for investing this kind of money into environmentally friendly industries such as the ones listed above. Chinese people, by and large, desperately want to prove that their Communist State rivals all other countries in the world. They would not be pursuing industries like wind energy, solar energy and sustainable water heating if they did not believe that this was the most advantageous economic position to occupy. Is the U.S. willing to let China fulfill the demand for alternative energy industries?

Phelps may have dominated swimming events in the ‘08 Summer Olympics with his large collection of gold medals, but who is winning the gold medal for investing in a healthy planet?

ARENDAL, Norway, July 21, 2008 (ENS) - Two top Norwegian music festivals are joining the international fight against climate change. The two festivals, run from the southern Norwegian city of Arendal, are the first music festivals to sign on to the UN Environment Programme’s Climate Neutral Network, known as CN Net.

Canal Street, Norway’s biggest jazz and blues festival, opened today in Arendal using certified green energy for the concerts. It continues through Sunday, featuring John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, and The Waterboys, many bands of local, European, and U.S. renown, boat cruises, kids’ events, a parade and nightly jam sessions.

The Canal Street festival draws an audience of about 30,000, who will be able to purchase certified organic and Fairtrade T-shirts and use organic cotton and paper bags in the city area to reduce plastic bag use.

View from the stage at the
Canal Street Festival (Photo
courtesy Canal St.)

Canal Street organizer Hans Birger Nilsen said, “I think there are enormous opportunities to take these ideas forward to an even larger audience. One of the first opportunities will be to share our experiences and actions at Europe’s Jazz and Blues Congress in November.”

Over the past several years, Canal Street has been building up an environmental profile, and is cooperating with the Hove Festival and others on the mapping of their carbon footprint and on reducing energy consumption.

Funds raised by the offsets are going to support Clean Development Mechanisms in China approved by the United Nations under the Kyoto Protocol.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “The greening of live musical events represents an opportunity to lower the carbon footprint of not only the entertainment industry, but those of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people worldwide.”

“Climate change tops the charts as the number one challenge facing this planet,” said Steiner. “Unless all sectors of society step up to the bar and address this challenge, we will all be singing the blues.”

The Hove Festival, an annual rock event held this year from June 23 through 27, featured acts Beck, Duffy, and rapper Jay-Z. The event drew audiences that totaled about 50,000 to the island of Tromoy outside Arendal.

Audience rocks at the Hove Festival
in Arendal. (Photo courtesy
Hove Festival)

Participants, including staff and entertainers, were invited to pay by credit card or SMS for their individual carbon footprints caused by their travel to the festival and activities during the events.

These funds are being used to support a methane-to-electricity project on a landfill in China approved by the UN as a Clean Development Mechanism project under the Kyoto Protocol.

Other energy saving measures at the Hove Festival included solar charging points for mobile phones, electric golf carts for on-site travelling, and LED lighting systems powered by wind and solar power. Recycling was encouraged, and eco-debates were held in cooperation with GRID-Arendal, UNEP’s polar centre.

Morten Sandberg, the festival’s organizer, said that the carbon footprint of the 2007 festival accounted for just over 1,300 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. This was calculated by the use of a specially developed online carbon calculator.

“This year’s carbon footprint is now being quality checked, and we are eager to see the difference and analyze this further in order to learn more about how we can continuously reduce our impact on the climate,” Sandberg said.

“The leaders of the Hove Festival have been in the international music industry for the last 18 years and have a unique network, which includes other leading festivals as well as international booking and management companies of rock stars and bands all around the world,” said Sandberg.

“We are sure that this new UNEP-led music network can grow to become as powerful as the network UNEP already has established with the sports industry, including the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup,” he said.

The main purpose of the partnership is to create a European network of music festivals that can learn from each other, challenge each other and push each other to become even more sustainable in the future.

Eventually, Steiner hopes to extend these initiatives to other continents, including Asia and North America. “The Hove Festival and Canal Street can serve as models for musical and entertainment events everywhere,” he said.

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Good exercise is the backbone of a healthy lifestyle. This does not mean that you have to be a triathlete in order to be at your best. In fact, many people can get by on the exercise you get from walking. If you watch your diet carefully and make sure to take a daily walk, then there is no reason why you cannot be an ideal weight and maintain muscle tone that turns heads on the street. Walking may not give you eight-pac abs but it delivers a full-body workout. Walking also comes naturally, meaning that nearly anybody with the will for it is equipped with the ideal tools to enjoy the activity.

Enjoying the scenery is another reason to love walking; taking a stroll through your local community is a fantastic way of getting closer to your community and all the goods things a closer inspection of it can provide. Deciding to walk down a street that one has never traversed before can elicit surprising finds, such as a little community garden or a cute cafe where one can meet up with people from the neighborhood.

Whether you love to find cool neighborhoods you can stroll through on foot or are looking to shrink your carbon footprint by walking more, there is a website out there that has been created just for you. Seattle-based civic software company Front Seat has just completed a makeover of its one-year old site, www.walkscore.com [www.walkscore.com], where it has unveiled the top 10 most walkable cities and neighborhoods among the nation’s 40 largest cities. The national walkability list is the first list that looks at 2,508 neighborhoods nationally and identifies the closest grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops and other amenities near a given address. Type in a given address and presto, the neighborhood is given a walkability score from 1-100 (100 being the most walkable). The coolest part is that in addition to comparing addresses or just looking up a current address’ walkability score the site now features a walkability “heat map” for each city with green areas demarking highly walkable neighborhoods and red areas demarking unwalkable areas.

Walking can be a great activity to do with a friend or a loved one. Hikers have been around for thousands of years; human beings have created footpaths throughout the world, fueled by the desire to explore all the nooks and crannies of the world. Cities are the modern equivalent of these footpaths, yielding discoveries about the human communities that are the ecological building blocks of cosmopolitan life.

If any of you have stories from your walks through world, we encourage you to comment on this story and share your experiences with the rest of the readers on THE GREEN Blog. Alternately, you could also create a ‘Green Action Taken’ marker with the title “My Walk Through (Name of City).” Inside the marker you could tell the story of your experiences on the walk. Whether all of Eco-mmunity gets to enjoy your story or not, congratulations on walking your way to good health.

MONTREAL, Canada, June 19, 2008 (ENS) - The United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, has unveiled a carbon calculation tool on its website that allows travelers to estimate the carbon footprint for any flight they take. A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.

For instance, one passenger, flying economy class from New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport to Washington, DC, a distance of 212 miles, generates about 0.08 tons of carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas responsible for climate change.

By contrast, the same passenger, flying economy class from JFK International airport to Los Angeles, a distance of 2,466 miles, generates about 0.36 tons of carbon dioxide.

Once a traveler knows how much carbon dioxide is produced for a given flight, he or she can purchase offsets, such as funding renewable energy or planting trees.

Prices for offsets vary widely depending on the projects funded from about $4 per metric ton to $99 per metric ton. Compare offset prices at websites such as EcoBusinessLinks.com, which is not affiliated with ICAO.

Planes line up for take-off from John
F. Kennedy International Airport
in the New York metropolitan
area. (Photo credit unknown)

The carbon calculator uses only publicly available and verifiable information to make its calculations about the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from a flight. It takes into account such variables as aircraft type, route data, passenger load and the amount of cargo.

Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez, president of the ICAO Council, said the calculator should benefit both individuals and organizations and will improve as a tool as more technical and operational information becomes available.

“The carbon calculator responds to the wish of many travellers for a reliable and authoritative method to estimate the carbon footprint of a flight, so they can choose the program best suited to offset the impact of their trips on climate change according to the amount of carbon dioxide they are responsible for,” Kobeh said.

It was introduced Wednesday by the Montreal-based ICAO as part of efforts to support the UN Climate Neutral Initiative, which calls for all parts of the UN system to determine their total carbon emissions.

The new carbon calculator is being backed by the UN World Tourism Organization.

The International Air Transport Association is also recommending the methodology used in the carbon calculator to its member airlines for use in their carbon-offsetting programs, in part to achieve a more consistent approach to estimating the carbon footprint of flights.

Increasing information in the area of carbon, emissions trading and offsets is one of the objectives of ICAO’s first ever “Aviation and Carbon Markets Workshop” that was held yesterday and today in Montreal.

More than 200 participants of the forum met to explore opportunities for a global aviation carbon market.

Carbon markets are designed to combat climate change by putting a price on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Companies can trade the right to emit these gases through permits, credits, or allowances.

ICAO’s carbon calculator is online, click here [www2.icao.int].

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Good food is one of the most exciting parts about environmentalism. The food chain is the basis of life on this planet, so eating green requires a willingness to live in harmony with nature. What better way to be harmonious than to have a (more) environmentally-friendly BBQ?

Your party could fill up a BBQ spot like this

The first thing you will need to do is get yourself a grill and all the corresponding do-dads for delivering the sweet-tasting kiss of charring to your food. One thing to consider is the quality of the grill itself - a better-built grill will last longer and therefore create less environmental waste because it will need replacement less often. So don’t feel bad splurging on that higher-end model (provided you’re actually getting what you’re paying for) - splurging in this case might just help the environment. Test various models before you buy to see how sturdy they feel, and don’t buy a “starter” model thinking you’ll just upgrade later. That’s just a plan for creating unnecessary waste.

Using gas is the most resource-efficient means of powering a grill. It is also the least carbon polluting method.

But if you simply must have that traditional charred flavor that only charcoal can provide, Whole Foods Market and other retailers sell charcoal made from either recycled scrap wood (in Whole Foods’ case, discarded furniture and wood flooring) or from sustainable forests. You can find some interesting info on Whole Foods’ charcoal, along with reviews of other sustainable lump charcoal makers, at this link [www.greenlinkcharcoal.com]. So don’t feel bad if you’re a hardcore grilling purist - you can still grill in environmentally-friendly ways.

Since green inventions are very stimulating for the imagination, and this product might actually work, check out this Solar BBQ Kit [www.dailymail.co.uk]. This device will allow you to BBQ your goods with ZERO carbon footprint.

If you are looking for a few BBQ odds and ends, check out Sprig.com [www.sprig.com] and see some of their suggestions for an environmentally friendly BBQ.

Check out this simple guide to green grilling found on Ideal Bite [www.idealbite.com].

You may also enjoy another great blog post series on blogspot called Cooking Without Carbon [cookingwithoutcarbon.blogspot.com].

When it comes to what food you will put on the grill, you can definitely buy grass-fed beef or you can also get slightly less expensive beef that is produced without pesticides or hormones. The same thing goes for chicken and pork.

When it comes to vegetables or tofu, you can pretty much put whatever you want on the grill and the environmental impact is more or less the same. However, if you can afford it, buying local and/or organic vegetables taste much better in addition to aiding your planet’s food chain.

BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET: TRANSPORT [www.sundancechannel.com]

Enjoy two companies and one educational organization as they present the ways in which they are working to make transportation a more green activity.

Meet Mia Birk, co-founder of Alta Planning & Design [www.altaplanning.com], a business that operates out of Portland, Oregon. Mia is a staunch advocate for using bicycles for transportation, especially in cities. Her organization works to modernize streets by creating bike paths throughout the city.

The next segment of BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET focuses on two promising PHD students from MIT’s Media Lab [www.media.mit.edu]. Ryan Chin, a PHD student of Arts and Design has teamed up with the Mechanical Engineering PHD student, Raul-david “retro” Poblano to create a “city car.” The idea is to make an economical vehicle that runs on electricity and allows for easy transport around the city.

The third subject in this week’s episode is Thomas Adballah, chief environmental engineer at NYC transit. Thomas works at the Corona Maintenance Facility, and presides over train maintenance in a state-of-the-art sustainable maintenance facility. They have solar panels, natural lighting, rainwater collection and reclaimation systems that integrate to lower the carbon footprint of the facility.

To learn more about the whole BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET series, check out THE GREEN [www.sundancechannel.com].

If you are interested in finding the physical locations for some of the BIG IDEAS businesses, check out the marker group [www.sundancechannel.com].

ECOISTS: Kevin Bacon [www.sundancechannel.com]

Kevin Bacon invests his time and effort on helping other people change the environment while simultaneously providing relief for places that have suffered environmental catastrophes like hurricanes or earthquakes. He believes it is humanities’ responsibility to fix climate change, which many scientists now believe contributes to more dangerous and frequent hurricanes and tornadoes. Check out his charity, SixDegress.org [www.sixdegrees.org] and find out if you can make a difference.

ECO BIZ: John Hardy Jewelry [www.sundancechannel.com]

John Hardy Jewelry creates all types of jewelry with sustainable methods. This exquisite, hand-crafted line of jewelry is described by the company as products that fit into the category of sustainable luxury. Find out about the work of this exciting company and get a glimpse of their manufacturing centers in Bali, Indonesia.

CONTESTED STREETS [www.sundancechannel.com]
This Eco-doc focuses on the history of the automobile at the beginning of the 20th century. The way in which cars were introduced into the streets of the city has led to what many feel is an unbearable level of congestion and waste as cars get bogged down in traffic. Saving fuel and making commutes more efficient are a great way to save energy that America desperately needs right now, so the filmmaker uses the example of the three cities of London, Paris and Copenhagen, whose methods of dealing with vehicle congestion are inventive and interesting to compare to the methods used in cities like New York.

Thanks again for joining us on THE GREEN Blog. As usual, please make a comment about this post or if any ideas spring to mind, consider adding your thoughts by creating or commenting on an Eco-mmunity Map Marker.

Eco-mmunity Map is intended to help people post and find “green resources” so that individuals can attain a sustainable lifestyle, and so that society can collectively lower its carbon footprint. In order to use Eco-mmunity Map effectively to help green the world, it is important to define what is meant by a “green resource.”

Green resources could be many things to many different people but here are a few of the basic categories:

- People Interested In Helping The Environment (Team up with people making a difference or share knowledge on personal techniques for improving the environment)

- Organic Restaurants

- Farmers Markets

- Any store that sells environmentally friendly products

- Green related events like (Earthday Celebrations, Environmental Conferences and Environmental Fund Raising Events.

- Used Merchandise or Pre-owned Shops (Second Hand Furniture, Clothing, Electronics, Book Stores, Flea Markets, etc…)

- Green Investment Firms

- Hybrid Car / Electric Car Dealerships

- Recycling Centers

- Pollution Sites (We have to identify where the environmental problem is, what causes it, and only then can we actively fix the problem)

- Biofueling Stations

- Gardens, Parks, Camping Sites, Swimming Holes, etc… (It is important to enjoy nature and also to bring commerce to botanical gardens, nature preserves and other places where appreciation for nature can generate supportive and restorative activities)

- Green Construction Companies, Green Building Supplies

- Green Buildings (The more popular they become, the more of them people and businesses will build)

- Green related websites, podcasts and community centers

- Alternative energy suppliers and power companies

These are just a few of the potential green resources that can help society become more sustainable. If you know of any green resource, then search the map [www.sundancechannel.com] to see if it is already there. If you find it on the map, consider adding a comment about the green resource. You will find the “comment” button at the bottom right corner of every map marker. If your green resource is not on the map, then we invite you to create a marker now [www.sundancechannel.com]. Keep in mind that you must be logged into Sundance Channel with a user profile in order to create markers. If you want to become a member of Sundance Channel then head over to our Member Sign Up Page [www.sundancechannel.com] and join today.

Fashion represents a good portion of how we see ourselves as a community of human beings. Fashion helps to create role models for the youth in society. Seeing a string of celebrities treading the red carpet at the Oscars makes a big impact on the desires and dreams that the average person sets for themselves. Many people might think to themselves, I want to be like that celebrity who wears designer suits and drives luxury race cars around the private race track outside their mansion. If all those expensive and high class products are produced in an environmentally dangerous manner, then what signal is our culture sending to impressionable young minds.

Sundance Channel has found a few examples of high fashion that has an environmental conscience. Dig into this blog post and hopefully enjoy the videos and descriptions presented.

BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET: FASHION [www.sundancechannel.com]

The first subject is Tierra Forte, founder of Del Forte Denim [www.delforte.com]. She is interested in providing a way for people to look great and to embody environmental values through the clothing they wear. When it comes to cleaning your clothes, you might want to talk with Rusty Perry, Co-founder of Revolution Cleaners [www.revolutioncleaners.com]. His dry cleaning company focuses on making clothing look brand new by using natural chemicals and making as little impact on the environment as possible.

ECOISTS: James Blunt [www.sundancechannel.com]

James Blunt is a professional musician who has toured many of the cities in the world. He feels that the collective carbon footprint of the cities is far too large. He is a supporter of an organization called Friends of the Earth [www.foe.org]. This grassroots organization has worked diligently to oppose harmful industrial activities and are currently lobbying the English government to adopt a more aggressive environmental policy.

ECO BIZ: SB Green Building [www.sundancechannel.com]

Discover how the Smith Barney building in Long Island City is changing the way the enormous financial company does business. If you are interested in green investing, make sure to take a tour of the green investors [www.sundancechannel.com] listed on Eco-mmunity Map.

ESCAPE FROM SUBURBIA: BEYOND THE AMERICAN DREAM [www.sundancechannel.com]

Using the example of the daily commute from the suburbs to the job in the big city, this film considers some of the possible outcomes that may come to pass if the world reaches a point of peak oil. You can learn what peak oil means by checking out the video clip below.

Thanks again for joining us on THE GREEN Blog. As usual, please make a comment about this post or if any ideas spring to mind, consider adding your thoughts by creating or commenting on an Eco-mmunity Map Marker.

Most of the baby boomers have procreated and the result is generation Y. Young and eager to carve an identity for themselves, this new generation has recently reached adulthood and they are inventively using technology and open-mindedness to reach new heights of sustainability. Embodying the future, generation Y has been experiencing the environmental fallout of a over-consumptive world that creates more trash than a mountain on a daily basis. These young people are in the trenches of industry trying to create new jobs and opportunities for themselves in the rapidly growing sustainable market place. Continue reading to find videos and some introductory thoughts about this week’s shows in THE GREEN.

BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET

Adam Gardener and his wife Lauren Sullivan run Reverb [www.reverbrock.org], a company which helps famous bands like Dave Mathews, Jack Johnson and Maroon 5 in lowering the carbon footprint of their concert tours. Couple Gabriel Albin and Thryn Lee get married in the episode, and naturally they want to have a green wedding. In the final segment, check out Alec Lentz, a student at Pitzer College who describes the new environmentally-friendly student housing on the campus.

ECOISTS: Carole King [www.sundancechannel.com]

Carole King is a well known musician who has moved the hearts of countless people with her beautiful songs. She wanted to be an Ecoist because she cares deeply about the “Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act” that is somewhere in the upcoming agenda of the U.S. Congress. Her charity of choice is the “Alliance for the Wild Rockies.” [www.wildrockiesalliance.org] They are trying to get people to write letters to their representatives so that the Ecosystem Protection Act will get passed. Carole King explains the whole thing in the video below.

ECO BIZ: Plenty Magazine [www.sundancechannel.com]

Mark Spellen founded Plenty Magazine, a stylish magazine all about cutting-edge ecologically friendly products and events. The magazine has reached so many people by appealing to their appreciation for excellence, meaning that only the best things are featured in Plenty. Discover more in the video below.

ECO DOC: THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE [www.sundancechannel.com]

Watch the time lapse construction of Boston’s first sustainable residence building. This documentary features an engaging soundtrack as the industrious individuals create this exciting new building.

Thanks again for joining us on THE GREEN Blog. As usual, please make a comment about this post or if any ideas spring to mind, consider adding your thoughts by creating or commenting on an Eco-mmunity Map Marker.