That’s part of the reason the Project on Emerging Technologies got started in the first place. Established in 2005 by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Project on Emerging Technologies says its goal is “helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology.”

So what is nanotechnology? As the project’s website puts it in its “30-second primer,” “Nanotechnology is the art and science of manipulating matter at the nanoscale (down to 1/100,000 the width of a human hair) to create new and unique materials and products.”

Matter does some pretty weird stuff when you get down to that scale. For instance, at the nanoscale, copper becomes transparent and gold becomes liquid. The unique properties of nanomaterials promise all sorts of innovations, from stronger materials for construction to cheaper ways to generate and store energy to better cures for diseases.

For now, though, most of the nanomaterial-based products on the market are cosmetics, sporting goods, food storage containers and the like. Still, there’s a lot more of them than you might think: nearly 600, according to the last update to the project’s Inventory of Nanotechnology Consumer Products. And the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is concerned that a) much of the buying public doesn’t know what they’re buying and b) if they find out about what they’re buying thanks to even a minor product scare or false alarm, consumer confidence could collapse and public support for the real potential benefits of nanotechnology could shrivel.

In a poll conducted by the project this summer, only 6 percent of Americans said they had heard “a lot” about nanotechology. And many of those who hadn’t, once given a quick briefing on potential risks and benefits, expressed concern about the technology’s safety.

“As in previous polls, the results of this survey indicate that public wants more information about nanotechnology,” said David Rejeski, director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. “Most Americans will be reluctant to use nano food and food-related products until they know enough to evaluate the merits of these products.”

And that’s where the project’s website comes in so handy: not only does it offer a regularly-updated database of nanomaterial-based consumer projects, which makes for eye-opening browsing, but it also provides lots more information about nanotechnology in the marketplace that’s hard to find anywhere else. There are articles, blogs, research updates, podcasts, links, resources and even online events. In fact, the next event — “Consumers Talk Nano” — set for Oct. 23, offers the public a chance to chat online with experts from the project, Consumers Union and other institutions.

It’s one way in which the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is hoping to take something small and turn it into something much bigger, and more meaningful, for the buying public.

Whether you desire to buy trees to help the environment for personal reasons, for investment purposes or you simply refer others to buy trees through our Affiliate Program,  PanAm BioFuels has made the process so simple that everyone can find a way to participate in it.

1) Purchase Trees for Investment

Jatropha trees can be bought directly from Pan-Am Biofuels for only $4 each in lots ranging from 250 trees for $1000 to 25,000 trees for $100,000.  Though delivery is possible for larger volumes, we will believe most people will take advantage of our Contract Farming Program where we will actually plant your trees on our plantations. 

With our Contract Farming Program we do all the work from planting to harvest to sale of the oil.  The only fee for all of this is a 10% fee from profits.  Then 90% of the profits are passed on to you, the tree owner.  All you have to do is purchase your trees in lots for only $4/each.

If you have priced trees at your local nursery you will see most prices range from $10 to $25. So now you may be thinking…

"How can you produce, plant and sell these trees at only $4 each?"

There are several reasons, including, but not limited to,

• Because the cost of living as well as labor is much cheaper in Central America where our nurseries are located.
• The efficiencies and economies of scale we enjoy by the huge volume of trees our nursery outputs allow us to save a tremendous amount of money passing the savings on to you.
• Our nursery is in close proximity to our Jatropha Tree plantation in Costa Rica where our Contract Farming Program is being implemented so there are minimal transportation expenses.

"So how much money do I stand to earn by buying your Jatropha Trees? What is the return on my investment?" 

Your trees can potentially bring  as much as 45% PER YEAR calculated  from your original investment once the trees start producing within 3-4 years.   Jatropha trees start bearing seeds the second year and reach maximum production at about 4 years.  You can review the full details and Financial Projections once you register and login.

Pan-Am Biofuels has truly created a unique situation and opportunity for the average person to take advantage of.

Now you can participate in an industry that has produced the wealthiest individuals and corporations in the world. The only difference is, instead of drilling for oil and destroying the environment, you will be growing oil and restoring the environment by owning oil producing Jatrpha Trees

2) Sell trees for Commissions as an Affiliate

We will pay you to refer customers! Pan-Am Biofuels has created a lucrative opportunity for webmasters,  business owners and individuals alike. By becoming an Affiliate you can help promote our Jatropha tree project, earn commissions and at the same time you’ll be doing your part to better our environment.  Learn more about how our Affiliate Program works.

The Canary Project

Founded in 2006, The New York-based Canary Project initially set out to build public awareness of climate change by photographing landscapes around the world that are already feeling the impact. It has since expanded its mission "to support a wide variety of other artists working at the intersection of art and ecology." But it’s still the photos, all featured on The Canary Project Website, that pack the most punch.

"Art has the capacity to penetrate received notions, generate media attention and create lasting visceral impact — all of which can be a more effective catalyst to action than mere rational apprehension," wrote co-founders Edward Morris and Susannah Sayler on their Website.
The Canary Project offers up photos illustrating several aspects of climate change: disrupted ecosystems (the Barrier Reef of Belize and the cloud forests of Costa Rica); droughts and fires (the American West); extreme weather events (New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina); glacial, ice cap and permafrost melting (Alaska and Austria); and rising sea levels (Venice, Italy).

It also features some images of encouragement: the massively built Maeslantkering storm surge barrier in the Netherlands and a windmill farm in Palm Springs, California.
Some of the images, like the picture of patterns on the surface of the melting Pasterze Glacier in Austria, are fascinating (who would have thought a flowing river of ice, close up, would resemble an elephant’s gray and wrinkled hide?). Some, such as the photograph of a Venetian crypt, its door opening directly onto a wide stretch of water, evoke the works of surrealist painters.

Others — like the bleak photo of a stripped-bare building slab and a stretch of leafless trees in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana — are chilling.
And more photos are to come. Sayler has so far taken images of 11 of 14 landscapes where the early signs of global warming are making themselves visible. Once she has visited all the locations, she plans to assemble the photographs into a book and traveling exhibition. She also intends to continue taking photos of two to three different regions around the world starting next year.

Some of Sayler’s images have already been on display at various locations, including the Sheehan Gallery at Washington’s Whitman College and The Spring’s Preserve Desert Living Center in Las Vegas. In November, the project has planned an exhibition, video installation and presentation at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, as well as a presentation at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

With more locations yet to be photographed — the Gobi Desert, Siberia, Greenland, Tuvalu, Bangladesh and others — The Canary Project promises to deliver even more climate-oriented inspiration in the months and years to come.

This local blog first came to my attention via an article in the local paper about a University of Michigan medical student and his daughter who are operating a blog together that is encouraging people to eat vegetarian meals one day a week (on Wednesdays). The Vegetarian Wednesday blog began just this past summer. Originally founded by Josh Mugele and his daughter Eleanor, there are now a few other writers (relatives and med school classmates) who contribute to the blog as well.

“Vegetarian Wednesday started when my daughter wanted to become a vegetarian but couldn’t do it all at once (she loves her chicken nuggets). I told her I’d help her by doing it with her, and we’d start by becoming vegetarians one day a week. Thus was born Vegetarian Wednesday. She wants to become a vegetarian because she loves animals. I want to do it because it’s good for me and good for the planet. Did you know that the meat industry is one of the leading contributors to global warming in the world? Did you know that eating less meat lowers your weight and total cholesterol? Think of what we could do if we all stopped eating meat for just one day a week.

“The purpose of this blog is to encourage meat-eaters like me to make a difference in their health and in the health of the planet by trying to eat no meat one day each week. On this blog we can share recipes, stories about Vegetarian Wednesdays, and most of all spread the word.”

The blog includes a number of recipes for a variety of vegetarian dishes, as well as some (very brief) reviews of vegetarian dishes by an actual 9-year-old (ranging from “No way,” for zucchini and mushroom enchiladas to “I love tofu. Tofu’s great,” for a simple General Tso’s Tofu recipe). Beyond the recipes there are also discussions of related topics connected to overall reduction of lifestyle impact to reviews of books and movies such as The Omnivore’s Dillemma and The 11th Hour. There are also discussions about restaurants (some local, some national chains) as they are connected to vegetarian eating.

Certainly this isn’t the first time anyone has considered partial vegetarianism, either as a step towards embracing vegetarian eating completely (as the daughter is doing), or just to push themselves to eat lower on the food chain and to eat a healthier diet (as the father is doing). My own family did something like this a couple years ago (though not so regularly or as organized as this is) when we had a share of vegetables each week from a local CSA farm (community-supported agriculture). Even when it is done in a haphazard fashion, you will most likely find yourself trying new things and increasing the variety of your meals. We’ve kind of let that idea slip lately, but perhaps this will be the inspiration for us to restart that ourselves.

Just taking a break from eating meat for one day a week reduces your consumption by about 15%. And Vegetarian Wednesday offers a list of other benefits to not eating meat:

• It fights global warming.
• You’ll get your daily vitamins at least one day a week.
• It makes you look better.
• It’ll make you feel better.
• It cuts back on the killing of animals.
• It reduces our reliance on foreign oil.
• Chicks (or dudes) will dig you.

If you are looking for a community to support you in a partially vegetarian lifestyle, this seems like it might be the place for you. It’s very much an experiment rather than a soapbox for these writers. It’s vegetarianism for the rest of us. Vegetarians who can also say, “But pork chops taste so good!”

Link: Vegetarian Wednesday

While daily news reports and studies mercilessly remind us just how troubled things are, a picture — as the tired but true old saying goes — is worth a thousand words. And that’s what you find plenty of at the Global Education Project: pictures, maps, graphs and charts that illustrate at a glance the many different trends affecting Planet Earth. Whether you’re interested in human life expectancy, soil degradation, water consumption or global reserves of fossil fuels, you’ll find not only graphic images but lots of well-referenced information at various pages on the site.

The Global Education Project’s site focuses on 10 key topics: development and debt, energy supply, fishing and aquaculture, food and soil, fresh water, global ecology, human conditions, toxic pollution, wealth and weapons. A separate page for each topic offers, in addition to graphics and background information, lists of related links and recent news about that particular subject.

To get an idea of how much more punch a graphical map can deliver than a statement of fact, consider first this nugget from the Website’s "Food and Soil" section: "About 2 billion hectares of soil, equivalent to 15 per cent of the Earth’s land area (an area larger than the United States and Mexico combined), have been degraded through human activities."

Then see what that statement means visually by checking out the soil degradation map.

Was your reaction "Wow?" Mine was.

The Global Education Project is a non-governmental organization in Canada that’s been publishing educational wall posters and producing issue-oriented events for the past 15 years. The group’s production team got together in 2005 to create the — as it aptly calls them, "jaw-dropping" — maps and other graphics now on the Website. All of that imagery is also available in the Global Education Project’s 27-by-36-inch wall chart, which is describes as a "book on one page."

If you’ve found yourself having a hard time convincing others — whether it’s your family members, students, co-workers or friends — about why it’s crucial to start living in a more environmentally responsible, sustainable way, the wealth of information you’ll find both on the Global Education Project’s Website and poster might be just what you’re looking for.

Knowing where to look is absolutely key, because much of NOAA’s most fascinating information lies hidden under less-than-obvious links and subdirectories. I’ve even made mental notes about certain sections I found really interesting, only to have a heck of a time finding those sections again later. So to make it easier to explore the wealth of information NOAA provides, I thought I’d offer a virtual tour of some of the web site’s highlights.

Whether you’re looking for news about the air quality in Phoenix today, the chance of a tsunami in Alaska or the chance for severe storms in Tulsa, this is the section to start with. The All-Hazard Monitor provides background information and news about everything from coral bleaching, droughts, earthquakes, flooding, oil spills and rip currents to national weather hazards and warnings, volcanic ash advisories, Pacific tsunami warnings and fire weather forecasts.

Climate

Starting from this section, you can search 108 years of weather data for the U.S.; check monthly and seasonal outlooks for temperature, precipitation and el Nino/la Nina events; find a slew of information on global climate change; and track real-time news about sea-surface temperatures and winds through the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Project. There’s also an online Carbon Tracker that provides ongoing updates of carbon dioxide release and absorption over North America.

Fisheries

NOAA’s Fisheries Service features everything from the latest prices for Boston lobster and conservation news about marine turtles to shark attack information, a fish FAQ and audio files of whale songs (look about three-quarters of the way down the left-hand navigation bar to find links).

National Marine Sanctuaries

The U.S. has 13 protected marine areas dubbed national sanctuaries and another protected area called the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument. Starting from this section, you can find direct links to the websites for each one of them: the Great Lakes’ Thunder Bay, Stellwagen Bank at Masschusetts Bay, the Monitor, Gray’s Reef off of Georgia, the Florida Keys, the Flower Garden Banks off the Texas and Louisiana coasts, Fagatele Bay in American Samoa, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale sanctuary, Papahānaumokuākea (that’s gotta be Hawaiian, right?), the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones, Cordell Bank and Olympic Coast.

You’ll also find news about marine sanctuary expeditions, a library of educational materials and a guide to "ocean etiquette."

NOAA Fun for Kids

This section for kids, teachers and parents features downloadable desktop wallpaper; an ocean challenge puzzle; downloadable "Discovery Kits" with tutorials, data and lesson plans about corals, currents, geodesy, non-point source pollution, tides and water levels: and information about subjects like coral reef conservation.

Again, it’s easy to get lost in myriad pages, sections and subsections of NOAA’s Website, but it’s a site definitely worth exploring. Whatever your interest in nature and natural phenomena, you’ll likely be overwhelmed at the quantity of information you can find here.

As described by SolarCooking.org and its sponsor, SolarCookers.org (a much more visually appealing site, by the way), solar cooking is the "simplest, safest, most convenient way to cook food without consuming fuels or heating up the kitchen." But while it might be a convenience for those of us in the developed world, solar cooking is, as the site says, a blessing to millions of people around the world who don’t have the luxury of fresh, clean running water, a safe gas- or electric-powered stove, or money to throw away for precious cooking fuels.

That’s what makes SolarCooking.org and SolarCookers.org such rewarding resources: here you’ll find more information than you could possibly imagine about the history of solar cooking, how to make a solar cooker (with some instructions available not only in English but in languages like Arabic, Portuguese, Persian, Urdu, French, Spanish, Vietnamese, Catalan, Kikongo and Tshiluba), solar cookbooks, a solar cooking wiki, an RSS news feed, a PowerPoint presentation, and, well, pretty much all things related to how to cook food or purify water using the power of the sun.

All of this knowledge comes courtesy of Solar Cookers International (SCI), a 10-year-old non-profit based in California. Since its start, SCI has worked to help thousands of people in refugee camps in places like Chad, Ethiopia and Kenya build simple, often portable, solar cookers that help their lives in many ways. It’s a beautiful concept that not only eliminates the ecological damage caused by traditional wood or dung cooking fuels (which contribute to deforestation, pollution and climate change), but helps free some of the world’s most disadvantaged people from the time, costs and risks often associated with the simple act of acquiring fuel to cook a meal.

Among the benefits of solar cooking: it’s a free power source for families who might otherwise spend 25 percent or more of their income on cooking fuel; it’s a method that doesn’t burn food, so people can spend their time doing other tasks rather than just watching a cooking pot; it can sanitize dishes and kill insects in grains; and it can pasteurize milk and water, which is a huge plus in the developing world, where waterborne diseases are blamed for 80 percent of illnesses and deaths. If all that sounds too good to be true, SolarCooking.org and SolarCookers.org make it abundantly clear that’s not the case.

Also on GO:

Solar Ovens Provide Alternative to Cooking with Wood in Rural China

Image source: SolarCookers.org

The guide is timely and up to date. (This is actually a recently revised second edition of the guide. The first edition was produced in 2004.) In discussing various materials or approaches to construction, the guide is very comprehensive in trying to include as many things as possible. Both the positives and the negatives behind each choice are addressed, and while the information is not exhaustive, it is an excellent starting point.

“This guide is meant to enable you to compare building materials and make your own educated choices to affordably seek out safer, more sustainable products. It is also meant to help you evaluate the larger life cycle implications of all the products that you buy and use.”

A section on “Talking with your Designer and Contractor about Building Green” is one of a number of sections that is excerpted on the website as well. This section approaches the beginning of a project in much the same way that I would: by asking questions. This helps to direct in figuring out your particular green goals and determining what is most important for you in terms of Energy and Water, materials and Toxins, and Space Use, Appearance and Purpose. It also addresses the (unfortunately all-too-frequent) view of green building as an add-on or a commodity, rather than as a fundamental and integral part of any building project.

“Don’t start by asking yourself: “Do I want a green building?” This inadvertently suggests that you can treat sustainability as an add-on process. If sustainability is the real deal (and it is!) it needs to be a part of every project in some way and it should be as natural to all of us as breathing. The rest of the green building guide will give you a great starting place for talking more with professionals about your building choices.”

The book is divided into sections. A preliminary section talks about “What We’re Up Against” and lays out the issues surrounding a number of materials and chemicals found in construction and discusses them both in terms of the problems they can cause and the possible alternatives that can be used.

The main focus of the book though is construction. Here the sections address issues to be considered “Before You Build” including site issues and the size of the building, renewable energy options, the selection of building materials, and the aforementioned “Talking with your Designer and Contractor about Building Green.” “Time to Build” addresses green aspects of a range of building materials and helps with some guidance for making good green choices for material selections. Materials from the basement to the roof are presented along with information about the various options in each case. A small third section deals with “Building Outside” and covers outdoor decks and landscaping issues.

The book also contains a number of resources for finding suppliers, further information, and professional advice, but is specific to the state of New York in most instances. Though there is some regionalism in the guide, it is so full of good information that it is worthwhile no matter where you live.

If you aren’t inclined to read an entire book like this online, this is one instance where printing out an online document makes good sense. This is a manual that I am going to refer to again in the future. More importantly, I am going to recommend to clients and friends who are interested in building or expanding their homes that they read this book.

Renewable energy was in the spotlight during this last week of Congress. The Udall-Platts amendment to the House energy bill calls for a renewable portfolio standard (RPS, sometimes also called a “renewable energy standard”) that would require the nation’s utilities to get 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. But it failed to get a vote yesterday because of computer problems with the voting system and a dispute over a vote on an agricultural bill. However House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed that the amendment would be taken up today.

An RPS is a key policy tool to create a reliable renewable energy market in this country. In fact, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) was spurred to create a new website called the Power of Wind to educate readers about wind power and why an RPS – and the Udall-Platts amendment in particular – is so important.

Besides information, the Power of Wind gives the reader suggestions of actionable items to promote wind power. Learn how to contact your elected official on specific wind energy legislation or tell a friend about the issue. AWEA also has an impressive new TV ad promoting an RPS.

The best feature of the Power of Wind is certainly the Current Issues section that explains wind power policies in plain English. I hope that Current Issues stays updated; it amazes me how many times I try to find new information on energy legislation, only to go advocacy groups’ online newsrooms or press releases and find that the most recent updates are from 2004.

The site is still young, but my recommendation would be to add state-level news about wind power. There is so much action happening around the country; it would be great to have one-stop shop for all your wind power news needs.

Overall, the site is much easier to read and navigate that AWEA’s main website, which is rather overwhelming, even for me. The Power of Wind promises to be an accessible, informational place for wind advocates and those wanting to learn more about it.

Imagine this, business owner: what if you could have an icon next to your company's title when someone Googles you that shouts: “ This is a sustainable business!”, or “This is an all organic restaurant!” Would that make you proud? For those of you who aren’t quite there, would this give you an incentive to go even deeper with the responsibility of your practice? On the flip side, what if the Google results for your restaurant shout "This place failed their health inspection!" Would that give you an incentive to clean up your place in order to stay in business?

We recently got word about a new plug in/download, Palore.com, that allows you to receive more content with your search results via small icons. Palore provides icons next to your search engine results that indicate certain third party ratings including Fair Trade, green, wifi, Kosher, handicap access… The benefit is that you can evaluate a place before visiting it. But, does this take the romance out of happenstance?

For the most part, I am indifferent about whether or not I like having access to this much information. I think overall the Palore plug-in is a positive service for business owners. It allows them to advertise responsible/ sustainable activity within their business practice. It also reveals to us consumers what businesses are doing unsustainable and unhealthy things, i.e. failing health inspections. As of yesterday, this information was sometimes hard to get, as was positive information difficult to evaluate and judge.

As pointed out by Greg Sterling, a well-known web reviewer, this opportunity is “branding in the context of search results, which is right now not otherwise available”. Palore results do not change the order of your search results, but it does allow a business to stand out!

Currently, the beta version is up and running. This version is only available for Internet Explorer users but Firefox will soon be added. When the alpha site launches, it should operate with most web browsers. Additionally, the service is currently available for local searches only, yet the concept is applicable nationwide if not worldwide. Palore works with Yahoo Local, Google maps, Windows Live Local, and AOL local. Try it out, see if you like to learn that much information about a place before seeing it, and test the claims!

Screenwerk: Palore Adding Content Layers to (Local) Search
Palore: Green Business

Most of us have a fairly narrow view of what it means to recycle: we gather materials (aluminum, paper, glass, plastic) in blue bins and either leave them on the curb for a pick-up service, or take them to a drop-off point. British site How Do I Recycle This? takes a much broader view of the concept — essentially merging reuse and recycling — and provides a forum where users can submit there own ideas for getting more use out of items that most of us would throw away without a second thought.

If you don't live in Great Britan, don't let the UK URL, or location of publishers Louisa Parrry and John Leach, put you off: there's very little in this blog's many posts that applies only to Brits or Europeans. Furthermore, don't expect the tried and true reuse projects that many of us did when we were kids (i.e., making bird feeders out of milk cartons) — the range of materials and recycling/reuse ideas at How Do I Recycle This? is quite eclectic. Some of the more unusual items:

• Foam pizza/garlic bread bases
• Tablet/pill blister packs
• Shed pet hair
• Dead electric razors
• Old potatoes

Parry and Leach post new items on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and users are welcome to submit suggestions (whether they've successfully reused or recycled them item themselves or not).

The most impressive aspect of the site is its focus on harnessing the ideas of its users: Parry and Leach do offer their own suggestions when they have them, but every post is geared towards gathering ideas from readers. This is Green Web 2.0 in a pretty pure form: anyone can contribute their "authority" on the subject. While some items require an explanation of regulations for safe disposal (i.e. CFLs), the majority of the "trash" listed on the site encourages a free and creative exploration reuse possibilities.

"How Do I Recycle This?" has been online since April, 2006, and appears to have recently grown in its offerings — as recently as April, most posts appeared at the end of the month. I have no doubt, though, that the site's readership will keep it in "junk" that can find a better place than the trash can or landfill. The publishers have also launched a companion site, Compost This, that's a bit more directive, but still very useful.

But it appears that their interests grew, and as part of their investigation of greener living, the blog began to include articles about green news and topics of interest. It has grown to include links to a couple dozen other green websites and blogs (some of which are familiar, others may not be), and resources on elements of green construction.

The name of The Ramsay Home Project derives not from the family’s name, but instead from the name of the neighborhood the house is being built in. The house they are building is an Arts-and-Crafts style house built with insulated concrete forms (ICF) and using sustainable materials and building practices.

“While the project is still in its infancy, the vision is to build an environmentally responsible, small foot-print house that blends into Calgary’s historical neighbourhood of Ramsay, just outside the downtown core. The house will be primarily made of concrete and heated by the earth — with insulated-concrete-forms and super high-efficiency gas heating. The website is updated daily with content such as site reports, local resources, eco-friendly interiors, environmentally responsible suppliers and new green technology.”

In addition to collecting links about the products they are using, their site contains links to information about Alternate Energy, Local Non-Profit Organizations, and Smart Homes and more. Their blog includes a range of green topics. Recent stories they have featured have included green product information (”Home Depot promotes Eco Options”), green celebrity (”Brad Pitt starts eco-friendly building project”), general green news (”Gore Calls Canada Climate Plan a ‘Fraud’”), and more.

The home is still under construction (although they haven’t updated their pictures in a while). They haven’t documented the story of the project as fully as they might, though there are mentions in the discussion about their “new contractor” and their “old contractor.” And this entry is especially telling (it is also a good article to read for anyone who is going to be working with contractors).

The Ramsay Home Project provides another appealing source of green-oriented information with a decidedly personal perspective. Their scope is more limited and personal than some other sites, but in this case, I think it’s an advantage.

Editor's note: Welcome to the first installment of the Weekend Web Review, a series in which our writers will review blogs and websites that they believe will help you in your quest to "green the good life." First up: our design writer Megan Prusynski…

Design firms tend to have very well-designed blogs (of course!) and The Change is no exception. However, not every design firm is out to change the world. And certainly not every design firm blogs about green living, enlightening readers about everything from co-housing to green alternatives to tampons. Welcome to the wonderful blog run by The Change, a brand strategy and design firm focusing on non-profit organizations, environmental advocacy, and changing the world, The Tao of Change.

The main writer at The Tao of Change, Tracey "Tao" Oliveto describe the blog project as based on the ideas of Taoism, change, and sustainable living:

This blog belongs to The Change, a design agency born to help save the planet and all its inhabitants. The Tao of Change blog is something that effortlessly popped up - like most effortless things – after months of effort. Tao means “The Way.” It refers to aligning your personal life with the natural harmony and justice of nature. To follow the Tao is to see not only things but to see the way of things. And, because my initials happen to be TAO and I am part of The Change, a company trying to make the world better…well, you get the picture. The idea of this blog is to share a boots-on-the-ground view of the way things are changing in our communities and in the world. So, I think all of us should keep talking about the Way of Change. Join me and the other “Changers” I work and play with, to be inspired, informed and plain old impressed with the potential we all have to change the world through sharing information and conversation.

Learn more about the folks behind The Tao of Change, including their personal definitions of sustainability, on their About Us page. The design firm has offices in Chapel Hill, NC and San Francisco, CA. The people behind it are passionate about simple, sustainable living, opening minds, and being a force for change through their design work and their blog. As a fellow designer who's passions are very similar, I found the blog as intriguing as the people behind it.

Recent posts on The Tao of Change include a discussion of the bring your own (grocery bag, that is) eco-trend and how to join the revolution in style, ideas for living simply and traveling (and thus polluting) less while living more, news on sustainable yoga, and ode to thrift store shopping, and much more. The writing style is approachable and friendly, and posts are insightful and full of great ideas for living a green lifestyle. The blog certainly enlightened me on ways I could live more within my ideals in practical and enjoyable ways (and it also left me coveting a natural, sustainable yoga mat).

Check out the nicely designed, thoughtfully written The Tao of Change for inspiring thoughts and great ideas for living a greener and more fulfilling life.