I’m leaving Green Options and Planetsave, though not to join Tom and John in their fight against the thetans.

I would like to say it’s to spend more time with my family, but that just makes me sound like a scandal ridden Bush official.

While I probably will get to spend more time with my family now, I’m leaving the company to work on my green home project and a few other side projects. My tenure at Green Options and Planetsave has been one of the most interesting, exciting, and invigorating times I’ve had. It ranks as one of my favorite startups (out of my current total of four) and I’m walking away with a greatly expanded network of friends and contacts, a ton of great experience in green publishing, and an awesome project to jump to.

What would have been called “The GO Home Project” is coming with me. I am buying the entire project from Green Options and taking it independent. I’m still working on a name for it (send it on if you have a good one) and will be building a site for it once that’s nailed down, but we’ll be starting up right away on sheagunther.org.

The short of it is is that me and my family are moving into two tipis to live for a year before building the coolest greenest house on the planet. We have 52 acres in North Yarmouth, Maine; the leading green architect in the state; a partnership with Smart HomeOwner Magazine, and a whole lot of great energy pushing it forward. Both me and my wife Heather will be blogging about living in the tipis and I will be set up in a smaller third tipi as my office. I’m sure I’ll have many a five minute snowshoe commutes to work this winter. We’re going to do our best to create a guide and recorded history of our life and work so as to inspire others to do choose the same green building path.

It’s been a great past year building Green Options and past few months working on the new Planetsave, but I’m super excited about all the fun stuff I’ll be able to take on now that my time is freed up from GO/PS work.

Here’s a few places you’ll be able to follow along on my adventures…

- SheaGunther.org - This is my home site, where I started blogging before I knew what blogging was (back in 2001) and current home of Musings of an Eco-Entrepreneur, the most kickass in-stasis eco-entrepreneur blog on the web. It’s been dormant since we launched Green Options but I’ll be doing a relaunch with a new theme in the next week or two. We’ll be blogging about living in the tipis and I’ll have a separate page for my links/musings drops . If you grew to like my blogs here on Planetsave, you’ll want to head over there.

- Treehugger- Graham Hill was kind enough to set up me up with a writing spot at Treehugger. I have to work out the exact details with their uber editor Michael but I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve been a huge fan of Treehugger since back in the day (back in the day in the green blogosphere means two+ years ago) and have always wanted to write there. They have such a great group of editors, writers, and an amazing reach- about 25X more daily readers than what Green Options is pulling these days.

- Yet to be named website for the Green Home Project. We’ will be documenting the crap out of our experience building the coolest greenest house on the planet on our yet to be named website. Sheagunther.org is a good place to go to keep up while I figure out what this new thing will be called.

- Stumblegods.com- It’s not really officially launched yet, but my buddy Michael (editor and founder of Groovy Green, founder and publisher of Ecorazzi, chief editor guy at Ecotality Life) and I will be sharing our insights about the power of StumbleUpon at our new site Stumble Gods. Our thumbs move masses baby.

- Ecotality Life- I’ve been working as a consultant with the awesome and talented Brooke Lowry over at Ecotality on the relaunch of their blog. We’ll be getting Ecotality Life up in the next week, in the meantime check out the current site. Ecotality Life will be relaunched with a focus on green gadgets and green business and investing and should be a good read.

- Email: sheagunther@gmail.com, Skype: shea_gunther

It’s been rad, I’ll miss a lot of the people at Green Options and Planetsave. I’ve gotta give it up to my main man Jan, the founder of Planetsave (he sold it to Green Options this Spring and works on both GO and PS stuff) and pimp dad advertising sales guru man. HIC! He’ll be assisted by the talented Noelle d’Estries (Michael’s sister) who will bring her savvy news sense (have you seen the Green Report, that’s all her) and keen wit to the table trying to fill the void that my voluminous ego will leave behind.

Keep up the good fight. Keep on saving the world.

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The new Eco-nazis bang the green drum but march to a dark tune. Take Ecorazzi for example - or should that be Econazzi? They go crazy every time a celebrity launches a new eco-lipstick, but forget to report on Hollywood’s poisoning of the planet. The sleazy web site is run by two dorks from Miami with about as much fashion sense as Osama bin Laden.

Rebecca Carter and Michael d’Estries could care less about the environment - they have seen a market gap and now they are busy serving it - green gossip about celebrities, and about as much moral content as a Submarine sandwich. According to locals insiders the pair have their eyes fixed on one thing - and its not the end of golbal warming -its the IPO of Econazi.

What is most sickning about their twee reportage is the implication that anyone who is not putting out some bullshit line of green product is somehow inferiro compared to the dreary parade of hapless celebrities they use to fill their pages. More later.

(Editor’s note: Nick, spell check is your friend. It’s “sickening” and “inferior”)

What a prickstar!

First, to claim that Michael and Rebecca don’t care about the environment is beyond absurd. I am good friends with both of them, hired them to come on board as writers at Green Options, and just had Michael as a guest out here in Maine for a few days. These two are are legit and green as you can get.

Michael works a full time job as an IT guy and has spent most of his free time in the two years I’ve known him working on his mini green publishing empire. He founded the highly esteemed green blog Groovy Green, is a regular and popular contributor to Green Options, is working on the new relaunch of the Ecotality Blog, and yes- happens to also run a fun little site with Rebecca called Ecorazzi that focuses on green celebrities.

Rebecca has equally strong green credentials. She’s been blogging at GreenerMiami for years now, runs green events and whatnot to build and support the local Miami and Florida green scene, and was the lone editor of the Green Tips o’ the Day on Green Options for the first five months of it’s life.

Ecorazzi is just one of their sites, the most poppy and fun. It’s an easy way into green for people who might first come at the site as a fan of celebrity gossip. I also bet it gets ten times as much traffic as Nick’s site. Nick Rosen, in addition to acting like a petulant child, is taking himself WAY too seriously here.

I give Nick credit for the contributions he’s made to the green world. His book “How to Live Off Grid” is a good one and up to now his blog hasn’t been bad. But this is just stupid. He is coming off like a right jerkass, maybe he’s doing it for the link bait? It worked with me, I’m giving him all sorts of links, the big schmomar that he is.

Or maybe he really is offended that anyone is taking a fun approach to green. It’s deadly serious business, this saving the world and all, but Nick- you need to lighten up buddy. Maybe you should spend a few nights ON the grid, a hot shower does wonders for the spirits.

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You haven’t really made it in Silicon Valley until Valleywag casts their snarkish glare at you, so congrats to Adena and the crew over at Earth2Tech. Welcome to the Green Blogosphere! If you haven’t checked out Earth2Tech yet make sure to give a click over. Every green tech geek should have it in the ol’ RSS subscribe list.

Sure I may feel ill the second I've finished, but whether you're hung-over after a night of organic red wine, or simply want the toy in the Happy Meal – a little McyD’s never hurt.

They must put some crazy chemicals in their buns, even Angelina Jolie has trouble passing one up. At her Marie Claire photo shoot Angelina was served a luscious organic orgy of a meal, in respect for her environmental awareness – and she didn’t touch it. She sent her assistant across the street for a Big Mac. With all respect to our green ways, I suppose we can give her a break. I oddly respect her for that.

Live Earth ticket prices were released on Ticketmaster, prices range from a mere $53 to an astounding $348, for what appears to be the biggest-party-ever held this July 7th.

"Live Earth will use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis. Live Earth will bring together more than 150 of the world's top musicians for 24-hours of music from 7 concerts across all 7 continents. Live Earth will bring together an audience of more than 2 billion at the concerts and through television, radio, film, and the Internet…led by Vice President Al Gore. Kevin Wall, Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8, is producing Live Earth."

Check out the list rocking out in London:

BEASTIE BOYS, BLACK EYED PEAS, BLOC PARTY, CORINNE BAILEY RAE, DAMIEN RICE, DAVID GRAY, DURAN DURAN, FOO FIGHTERS, GENESIS, JAMES BLUNT, JOHN LEGEND, KEANE, MADONNA, PAOLO NUTINI, RAZORLIGHT, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, SNOW PATROL.

Queen Elizabeth II is ordering an environmental, first-ever audit of carbon emissions from her three official residences. According to the article: Green measures already taken by the palace include converting all vehicles of state used by the Queen - plus a London taxi driven by her husband Prince Philip - to run on LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). However, this is the first time an official environmental audit has taken place. The results will not be made public.

Orlando Bloom is featured on the cover of Elle's May “green issue” and he had some very refreshing things to say in his interview, aside from women and films. On speaking of his environmental activism, Bloom humbly replies, “I’m really not an expert on environmental matters,” Bloom says. “But I’m very passionate about the environment. And the more I learn about it, the more I realize that there are little things that everyone can do.’ For example, this week governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suggests we bring sexy into Green. "We have to make it mainstream. We have to make it sexy. We have to make it attractive so that everyone wants to participate," I think we all can do that.

According to Instyle, Courtney Love has cleaned up in more ways than one: now she uses recycled toilet paper and green power at home. Parker Posey totes Trader Joe’s reusable shopping bag and Alicia Silverstone brings a little dolce vita into her life by drying her clothes on her laundry line, "The sun does all the work and it makes me feel like I live in Italy. I love it!"

Laura Dean says, “We painted every room in our house with Bioshield [solvent-free] paints, which smell amazing. And the whole family wears Green Toe shoes by Simple. They are made from recycled materials and are most comfy.” Check out the Simple Shoes site, they actually have some cool stuff from sandels to bags. Jeniffer Aniston is also sporting a new Prius, and bombshell Charlize Theron is a fan of Endstar [makers of parkas, tents and sleeping bags] “The stuff is durable – and made out of Return Textile fabric, which is partely created from recycled bottles.”

I think of Will Ferrell and all I can picture is Anchorman and his character Ron Burgundy. (“Scotch, Scotch, Scotch, I love scotch.”) Now, however, a different picture is coming to light, one of Ferrell as an environmentalist and stern supporter of National Resource Defense Council. According to Ecorazzi, Ferrell’s also making plans to build a single, eco-friendly home near his current residency. Well done Will, well done. Check him out tonight in his new flick, Blades of Glory.

Ah yes, and now the clincher story for this week: the ‘green team’ celebrity TV special that will be airing in May.

According to the New York Observer,

The EcoZone Project television specials, beginning on Earth Day, April 22, (and airing on Fox on May 22), will turn celebrity homes inside-out, making them green. The show’s first few eco-celebrity homes will be in Los Angeles; for the actor Ron Livingston, they are using reclaimed wood from Gregory Peck’s house.

I understand the lure of celebrities, but I don’t underestimate their financial state. It appears highly inappropriate to give them a hand up when so many other people (say you, or me, or those people) could benefit from it. Why not bring green to the communities, not just inside the pearly gates of Hollywood?

What a week we’ve had in green gossip, from the Oscars with our dear celebrities drenched in green, to Al Gore being thrown under the bus, to Indian celebrities dressed in scallion skirts. In terms of the Oscars, I know you’ve heard — it was an eco-friendly, tree-hugging love fest. The king of the festivities, Al Gore, became the bull’s eye by morning. The Tennessee Center for Policy Research (Publisher's FYI: The TCPR is a "rightwing attack hack") decided to release Gore’s utility bills, that proved to be rather vast, in hopes of knocking him off his throne.

According to the article,

The Gores used about 191,000 kilowatt hours in 2006, according to bills reviewed by The Associated Press. The typical Nashville household uses about 15,600 kilowatt-hours per year. The group said that Gore used nearly 221,000 kilowatt hours last year and that his average monthly electric bill was $1,359. Johnson said his group got its figures from Nashville Electric Service. But company spokeswoman Laurie Parker said the utility never got a request from the policy center and never gave it any information.

So perhaps the Tenessee Center decided to exaggerate slightly in the name of politics, but in the end, there’s a clear message: Al, turn off the lights! Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said: "Sometimes when people don't like the message, in this case that global warming is real, it's convenient to attack the messenger." Indeed it is.

In other news, Prince Charles isn’t happy about Happy Meals. He has long been an advocate of a balanced diet, especially in children to support healthy habits in the future.

The article states,

The prince, who owns the organic food company Duchy Originals, told an expert nutritionist what he thought of the famous fast food chain during a visit to the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Speaking to Nadine Tayara, he said, "Have you gotten anywhere with McDonald's, have you tried getting it banned? That's the key.

Is organic fast food next — or is this the end of fast? Next week is sure to be an interesting one – will Al Gore run for President, will ‘do you want fries with that,’ be banned from the UK? And about those scallion skirts, check out Ecorrazi for a photo!