Green Options

If you’re looking for an easy gift idea that supports your ideals and is delicious while doing it, we recommend sending gift boxes from Grounds for Change to the coffee lovers on your list this year! Every single bean that they roast is Fair Trade Certified, Organic Certified, CarbonFree Certified and Shade Grown, which means the possibility of a real livelihood for coffee growers, a breath of fresh air for the planet, zero net carbon emissions from “crop to cup” and healthy forests for migratory songbirds.

Green tax incentives at the federal and state levels are finally helping to convert our country to a green collar economy. In the wake of the recent Stimulus Package, and economic rescue legislation of 2008, several energy efficiency and renewable tax incentives have been extended to encourage energy efficiency, green buildings and renewable technologies. The Green Tax Guide helps you to understand these incentives and positively impact your bottom line. This useful resource can be downloaded at: www.GreenTaxGuide.net

Editor’s note: This post was written by one of our monthly sponsors, the American Chemistry Council, and does not necessarily reflect the views of GO Media.

Across the country and around the world, significant efforts are underway to decrease litter in all environments; specifically near our oceans, rivers and streams. Many of the materials that end up on roadways and waterways are readily recyclable. Recycling rates, particularly in the U.S., remain low. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) – while continuing to work with state and city governments, non-profits and other stakeholders to improve the recycling infrastructure, increase access to recycling and create a culture of recycling for future generations – has prompted a discussion around plastics recycling through the Too Valuable to Waste Blog Summit. The Too Valuable to Waste Blog Summit launched on April 21st and is the ACC’s second Blog Summit.

Editor’s Note: This year Green Options has made a special deal with one of our favorite sponsors, Kate’s Caring Gifts.  See below to get 20% off.
From Kate’s website: Kate’s Caring Gifts brings you the very best natural, organic, and ecologically sustainable products that you can find anywhere.  When Kate (yes, there really is a Kate) founded this company, she set out with the mission of finding products that she could feel good about offering to you.

While looking for the highest quality natural skin care, organic and fair trade foods, natural candles, and other great gifts, she sought ethical companies that treat workers fairly and manufacture using sustainable materials and methods.  Kate sought out products that promote good health as well as good and conscious living.

Since then, she has found some fantastic treasures crafted by independent companies and artists dedicated bringing you outstanding, earth friendly products at great prices.   In addition to offering these wonderful products to you, we create unique, fun, gift sets, making it easy to give great People and Earth Friendly gifts.

Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our sponsors, the juice manufacturer Odwalla.

A glass of fruit juice can be the ultimate refresher and thirst quencher.  Fruit juices, like their whole counterparts, are high in nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants.  However, a juice’s freshness and processing can significantly affect its flavor and nutrient profile.  The USDA recommends that Americans consume upwards of six servings of fruits and vegetables per day and a glass of juice is a convenient way to squeeze in extra servings.  To fully reap the benefits of juice, you’ll want to consider some important factors.

You purchase organic cotton bedding and pesticide-free fruits and vegetables.  At home, you use a vacuum with a HEPA filter and make sure that your children wash their hands before eating.  But are you hiding skeletons under the sink or in the closet?  I’m referring to chemical-based, conventional cleaning products – those bottles usually marked, per federal regulation, with a skull-and-crossbones logo.
In the US, accidental ingestion of chemical-based cleaning products accounts for many trips to the emergency room and calls to the Poison Control Center.  Bleach is a strong corrosive and may cause pulmonary edema or coma if ingested, while ammonia can damage the eyes, respiratory tract, and skin.  These aren’t the only harmful ingredients in conventional cleaning products, but manufacturers purposely omit many dangerous ingredients from labels.  Additionally, chemical cleaning products end up in our waterways, soil, and landfills, where they contribute to oxygen-depleted ocean dead-zones, release harmful gases into our air, and poison both humans and wildlife.

Editor’s note:  We are proud to have Seventh Generation be one of our sponsors, and the following post is one example why.

Regular home cleaning contributes to better health for your family and visitors.  Many popular chemical-based cleaning products, however, contain powerful chemical toxins that may negatively affect human health.  In an increasingly polluted world, a greater number of families strive to make our homes relatively safe havens in which our families thrive – not sources of toxic chemical loads.
Consumers and health officials have long ignored the dangers of conventional cleaning products.  Clever marketing campaigns – not to mention memories of our mothers bleaching every hard surface in the home – promote the familiarity and effectiveness of conventional cleaning products.  We’re often unaware of the many harmful ingredients in chemical-based formulas, and manufacturers frequently make ingredient labels inconspicuous.  Luckily, growing interest in healthy living has resulted in a large number of new and effective eco-friendly cleaning solutions.

Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our paid sponsors, the Ethanol Promotion Information Council (EPIC). EPIC is a nonprofit alliance of ethanol industry leaders who have come together to grow consumer demand for ethanol energy through targeted marketing.
The Ethanol Promotion Information Council (EPIC) is working to get the word out that ethanol is actually helping to keep gas prices lower. The following is from an interview with Toni Nuernberg, executive director of EPIC.
If you’ve been exposed to the media lately you’ve probably heard the phrase “renewable fuels.” What exactly are renewable fuels? According to Wikipedia, “renewable fuels are alternative fuel sources such as biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel -e.g. soy, vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases-) or hydrogen.” Texas Governor Rick Perry recently petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower ethanol mandates, saying that the production of ethanol was causing food and fuel prices to go up. The EPA rejected Gov. Perry’s request in August, saying that the Renewable Fuels Standard “remains an important tool in our ongoing efforts to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil.”

Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our paid sponsors, Chimneyballoon. Stop heat and AC from escaping through your fireplace or woodburner chimney with a Chimney Balloon fireplace plug draft stopper.

On a cold winter evening, who of us is not tempted to go to the living room, stoke up a fire in the fireplace, and read a book in front of the hearth? You may be thinking “I am doing myself a favor by supplementing the furnace with additional heat”. But there’s a dark secret about your fireplace: you are making your house colder, and could be contributing significantly to pollution depending upon how you burn. Fireplaces can be monstrous energy eaters!
The wood burning fireplace is an “Energy Eater”
The air action that a wood-burning fireplace initiates in our home is wasteful. The second the damper is opened, heated air begins pouring out of the top of the chimney. As the fire in the hearth accelerates, the combustion process grabs already-heated air from your home and burns the oxygen and combustible gasses in it. The heat that is created in this combustion quickly rises and grabs more heated inside air and tosses it up the chimney. You can restrict the amount of inside air that the fireplace has access to by installing glass doors, but this will also severely limit the amount of radiant heat that fireplace can cast forward into your living space. This radiant heat is the heat you feel on your skin in front of the fireplace, and is the only usable heat that the fireplace will produce since the combustion heat is pouring out the top of the chimney. In the meantime the home is drawing in cold outside air from other places (i.e. windows, light sockets, doors, etc) to replace the air that is escaping the home through the chimney. This is referred to as the “stack effect.”

Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our paid sponsors, Mr. Solar. For more information, solar or wind power consultation, or to purchase solar panels or complete solar or wind power systems and system components, please visit MrSolar.com. At MrSolar.com, we know solar panels!
One of the most troubling issues facing consumers, businesses, and homeowners today is the steadily rising cost of energy. With the price of energy feed stocks, including coal, natural gas, and oil, trending upwards, the pain-in-the-pocketbook is sure to become more acute. Add to that increasing fossil fuel production and operating costs and we add insult to injury. Meanwhile, the International Panel on Climate Change claims that the burning of fossil fuels is the driving force behind climate change, more familiarly known as “global warming”. Also, there is some concern that fossil fuel production and supplies are having trouble keeping up with demand, especially crude oil. In this article we’ll take a look at some of the things we can do to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel generated energy - with special emphasis on solar energy.
Why are Energy Prices Rising?
Some of the factors that are contributing to the rise in electric energy costs are as follows:

Demand for electricity is growing at an ever-increasing rate. The Energy Information Administration estimates that 258 gigawatts of new electric generating capacity will be needed by 2030 to meet the growing demand. This equates to an additional 250 to 500 baseload power plants rated at between one-half and one gigawatt of capacity.
Infrastructure costs are increasing. The cost of maintaining the nation’s electric power grid including high-voltage transmission lines and towers, power sub-stations, and electric distribution systems is advancing in an upward trajectory. In a three year period ending with 2009, electric utility companies will need to invest $31.5 billion, a 60 percent increase over the three years from 2002 to 2005. For the next ten years electric utilities will invest $14 billion per year on infrastructure.
Compliance with environmental laws and regulations and related litigation is becoming more expensive for electric utilities. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, as well as a host of other state and federal laws and statutes create a maze of bureaucracy to negotiate.
Rate caps which were put in place beginning in 1997 have begun to expire giving the impression that rates are rising when in actuality costs that have already been incurred by electric utilities are being passed on to consumers.