Read the full post at Lifehacker.

Mac: Wondering what kind of impact your power and fuel consumption have on the environment? ECOBOT helps you figure it out.

Read the full story at Green Inc.

As I wrote in a New York Times article on Thursday, the $7.2 billion surf business has become the latest industry to ride the green wave. Call it sustainable surfing.

Read the full story at Earth 911.

The holiday season is officially in full-swing, and Thanksgiving marks the beginning of big family dinners, extensive gift shopping and elaborate decorations.

But the season isn’t all turkey, stuffing and pie. According to RecycleWorks, from Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25 percent.

So, start off your holiday season on the green foot by making a few small, eco-friendly changes this Turkey Day. It’s easy to get the entire family involved, have fun and decrease the burden on your wallet as well.

Read the full story at Earth911.

Yeah, it’s made of plastic and has a number, and OK, it’s technically recyclable. But while 80 percent of Americans have access to plastics recycling programs in some form, finding one that actually accepts our daily hard-to-recycle items is sometimes harder than we anticipate.

But instead of trashing that Best of the 80s CD case or those leftover packaging peanuts, consider reusing them in a fun, quirky way. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started.

Read the full story at Earth911.

Black Friday: A day where millions of shoppers, still weary and full from the previous night’s Thanksgiving feast, flock to retail stores across the country at pre-dawn hours to fill their carts and bags with deals aplenty as the holiday shopping season officially kicks off.

Phew. Are you tired from that description? We are too, but as wearisome as that might have been, it’s nothing compared to the drain that can be Black Friday. While deals abound, crowds, traffic, early hours and the like can make the day after Thanksgiving a drain on your energy and the environment.

But don’t fret. Follow our easy guide to a greener Black Friday, and we promise you’ll not only reduce your environmental impact, but perhaps your stress level as well.

Read the full story in the Daily Lobo.

A group of environmentally-conscious students have organized to promote recycling in the dorms.

Eco-Reps — a collaborative effort between UNM Recycling, Residence Life and Student Housing and a service learning class — is a group of students who want more recycling opportunities on campus, said Elyse Jalbert, the group’s president.

Read the full story in the Brandeis Hoot.

A model ‘green room’ was displayed Thursday in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium, in order to demonstrate the university’s program piloted earlier this month by the Brandeis eco-reps, environmental advocates, and Students for Environmental Action (SEA).

In the corner of the atrium, the model stood as a mock dorm room, albeit with a bike and cardboard signs highlighting ways to save energy and thereby acquire green room certification. The green model as erected boasted signs reading, “Cut Down on Paper Towel Use,” and “Pedal!!! Don’t Drive around Waltham or Campus.”

The green room model was viewed as the best way to promote the certification program, but Siegel saw it as only a step in a long progression. “It’s a good process, it’s come along slowly, but I’m confident in my faith in the student body,” she said.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

It is proving difficult to say exactly how customers’ voluntary payments for wind and solar power are actually used.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing new requirements for audio/video (AV) products to earn the Energy Star label. AV products meeting EPA’s new, more stringent specification will help protect the environment and reduce energy costs because they will be up to 60 percent more efficient than conventional models.

If all AV products sold in the United States met the new Energy Star requirements, Americans would save more than $1 billion in energy costs annually while reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 1 million vehicles every year.

EPA revised the earlier Energy Star requirements for AV to address the rapid turnover of products and technologies, as well as changes in usage patterns within the category. The more inclusive and flexible specification will promote greater energy efficiency in today’s diverse market for audio/video products.

The new requirements for audio/video equipment cover a wider range of products including home-theater-in-a-box, audio amplifiers, AV receivers, shelf systems, DVD players, Blu Ray players, and docking stations that offer audio amplification or optical disc drive functions. Commercial AV products are also covered.

To earn the Energy Star label, AV products must consume less power when they are on and must power down automatically after a period of inactivity, using only small amounts of power to maintain settings and other features.

The new requirements for audio/video products previously eligible for the Energy Star will be effective July 30, 2010. For products previously excluded from Energy Star, such as commercial AV products and docking stations, the new requirements are effective immediately.

More information on Energy Star qualified audio/video products: http://www.energystar.gov/av

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

A growing number of American consumers would like to tell President Obama to focus on the economy first before tackling environmental issues, according to research published today.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

The sheer size of the airline industry’s emissions makes it hard to judge the effectiveness of carbon offset programs.

Read the full post at Lifehacker. This probably also works with odd socks.

Don’t throw out single mittens when you lose their mate. Slip them over a pair of specs or sunglasses to protect them from scratches.

Read the full story in Scientific American.

Traditional hair dyes and many shampoos contain harmful synthetic chemicals that are routinely used on customers’ scalps and then washed down the drain where they can accumulate in waterways, soils and even our bloodstreams

Read the full story in Scientific American.

There has never been a better time to upgrade some of those older creaky appliances that are gobbling up far more energy (or water) than they need

Read the full post from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Have you been wanting to green your home, but don’t have the green to do it? As part of the federal stimulus package, the government is offering a tax credit on various products that will help boost your home’s energy efficiency. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the purchase price–and, in some cases, the installation cost as well–of eligible products “placed in service,” or put into use, in existing primary residences (not new construction) between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2010. The maximum credit you can receive for all qualifying products during this period is $1,500.

Home owners, buyers and renters have a new resource for going green indoors and outdoors. EPA’s new Green Homes Web site will help people make their homes greener with tips on reducing energy consumption, carbon footprints, waste generation and water usage, as well as improving indoor air quality.

The latest federal survey of American housing (2007) reported 128 million housing units across the U.S.,   accounting for nearly 54 percent of national energy use and nearly 31 percent of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, the most common greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.

Many green building practices and technologies have yet to make a dent in the existing residential market, in part because it is hard for people to find clear, consolidated, readily accessible, and credible information. The Green Homes Web site addresses that need by providing guidance on approaches to greening each room of the home as well as the surrounding yard.  Information also is available on building new homes and finding an energy efficient mortgage, which takes into account the savings derived from energy efficient homes to enable the applicant to qualify for better terms. Renters will find information to help them identify a green property before moving in and tips for working with their landlord to add green features to an existing property. Users can also find references, such as a list of common green home terms, and links to dozens of EPA Web sites with more specific information on a wide variety of green home topics.

For more information: http://www.epa.gov/greenhomes

Read the full post at Treehugger.

Yesterday was America Recycles Day, which isn’t a bad thing as an idea — certainly, more recycling is better than less — but do we really need a day for it? Last year, Lloyd called recycling “bullsh*t” as a big picture solution, and reiterated it this year, and he’s right. Do we really need a day dedicated to reminding us to recycle? Isn’t it time to move beyond the inefficient model that supports single-use and disposable items like plastic bags and bottled water? Can’t we do better than this?

Read the full post at Green Inc.

“Smart appliances” are officially on their way to American households.

This month, General Electric began distributing a type of hot water heater that can link into the smart electric meters being doled out around the country — the first such “smart appliance” sold commercially in the United States, industry experts believe.

Whirlpool, meanwhile, plans to make one million smart dryers by 2011.

What constitutes smart? According to Kevin Nolan, a vice president for technology at G.E.’s consumer and industrial division, the water heater — which is very efficient in its own right — contains a port resembling an Ethernet port that can, in theory, plug into a converter box that, in turn, connects to the utility’s meter.

At times of high electricity use, such as the late afternoons, the consumer or the utility will be able to switch to a different, electricity-saving mode.

But there is a catch. Right now, smartness has virtually no benefit to average Americans — or to their utilities. “Smart meters” — which help control these devices — are not present in most households, though millions are on their way.

Read the full post at The Big Money.

It’s Apple’s (AAPL) fault I hate receipts. A few years ago, I grabbed some computer accessory off an Apple Store shelf and brought it to the cashier. I pulled out my paper-stuffed Costanza wallet and gave the cashier my card. Then he asked an unexpected question: “Do you want us to e-mail you your receipt?”

I said yes and thus, unwittingly, began a crusade against the paper receipt—a slip too analog, too temporary, and too wasteful to be anything but superfluous. It is a relic of another age, when record-stuffed filing cabinets lingered in musty basements; when patriarchs sat down with a checkbook on Sunday afternoons while the football game was on; and when we expected to search for things for hours, not seconds. Apple had recognized and made explicit an anachronism of our times. We no longer need a piece of paper to tell us what we bought, just the information that’s trapped inside it.

I should be clear that I am not against the idea of the receipt. I am against the piece of paper it comes on. I am against the sly way that it refuses to make its information searchable. I am against its demand that I be the one who files it away—it should be responsible and find a way to file itself. I understand that consumers and merchants alike need records of what we bought. I just want those to be digital.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Out of the 26 million hours a day British workers spend commuting to and from work, 4.6 million of those hours are wasted, according to a survey released this week during National Commute Smart Week.

The survey found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, 62 percent of commuters want to spend less time traveling to and from work; and although workers want to embrace flexible schedules and remote work options, but their bosses are the biggest obstacle to doing so.

The study was conducted by Citrix GoToMyPC, which as a maker of remote-work and teleconferencing programs clearly has a horse in the game, and was timed to highlight the goals of the week-long campaign to reduce the strain of work commutes on people, national infrastructure and the environment.

Read the full post at Green Inc.

A new report from Britain has found that more than $20 billion of consumable food and drink is throw away in the country each year.

The study by the Waste and Resources Action Program, or WRAP — a group created by the British government to investigate waste and packaging — found Britain’s food waste amounts to an estimated 6.6 million tons per year.

Read the full post at Earth911.

Over the past year, the buzz about paper, plastic and reusable bags has grown louder by the day.

In the last two years, four states – California, New York, Rhode Island and Delaware; five cities – Tucson, Chicago, New York City, San Juan Capistrano, Calif. and Red Bank, N.J.; and five counties in New York – Albany, Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester, have enacted mandatory plastic bag recycling.

In the meantime, San Francisco and San Jose have enacted their own bag bans, and Florida is considering similar legislation for both paper and plastic.

But what’s the big deal? Why do people care so much about what bags they use, especially when it comes to plastic versions? We’re going to get down to the bottom of the plastic bag, and you may be surprised about what we’ve dug up.

Read the full post at Earth911.

George Costanza of Seinfeld once said that toilet paper hasn’t changed in his lifetime and probably wouldn’t change in the next 50,000 years. While it’s that true toilet paper as we know it today hasn’t changed much, our consumption may have. In fact, the average U.S. consumer uses more than 20,805 sheets annually, contributing to a $5.7 billion industry for bathroom tissue.

When you think of producers of greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and resource depletion, toilet paper probably doesn’t join the list of products and industries that come to mind. But the natural resources that go into toilet paper should be taken into account. According to some estimates, approximately 7 million trees are used each year to make up the U.S.’s toilet paper supply.

Read the full post at Earth911.

With everything from climate change to the new energy bill at the forefront of the environmental sector, we can sometimes forget about the little things that make a difference.

For example, leaky faucets can drip at a rate of one drip per second. That can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water each year. The simple act of fixing a leak, or even just turning off water while brushing your teeth, can have a huge impact.

Since the little things can often get lost, we decided to return to our roots and get back to the building-blocks of sustainability. And what better to start with than the one item we all have…trash! So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty facts about your trash can and reducing your home’s waste.

Read the full post at Treehugger.

The German mail order company Otto Group, who quietly rival Amazon.com for their international coverage, found that simple white long-sleeved cotton shirt was responsible for 10.75 kilograms of CO2 and other greenhouses gases during its production lifecycle

Ecotextile News has reported that the largest proportions of CO2 emissions were linked to the consumer use phase, i.e.: washing, drying and ironing. For example, using a tumble drier each time you launder add 7 kilograms to the shirt’s carbon footprint. But that’s not the half of it.

The manufacture of a white long-sleeved cotton shirt contributes 3.0 kilograms of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), but the a dark coloured is even heftier on the scales at 3.4 kilograms, a 13% increase. Yet even though the shirt had travelled over 35,000 from fabric source to Otto’s warehouse its transport emissions were just 300 grams.

The study released a couple of months back reinforces what we already knew. It is not so much the materials, production or business-to-business shipping of clothing that creates it’s biggest environmental burden. It us, the users and our laundry practices, that’s where the greatest change can be wrought.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

How have consumers’ green shopping habits changed during these tough economic times?

There are at least a couple schools of thought: One, that green consumerism has gotten steamrolled by the recession, viewed as a luxury no longer affordable; the other, that green shopping has endured as consumers go back to basics, rethinking the need to consume, redefining what it means to be fulfilled, and becoming less wasteful and more conscious of the impact of their purchases.

So, which is it? Is a green shopping ethic alive and well, or has “saving the earth” taken a backseat to “saving the day?”

In search of answers, I recently tracked down Kathy Sheehan, senior vice president, and Tim Kenyon, senior market analyst, at GfK Roper. For nearly two decades, GfK (formerly Roper Starch) has been studying green consumer habits. GfK’s principal product is the mostly annual Green Gauge, which it describes as a “long-term syndicated study of consumer attitudes and behaviors towards the environment.” Green Gauge was the first, in 1990, to illustrate the “many shades of green consumers” through its market segmentation: True-Blue Greens, Greenback Greens, Basic Browns, and the like.

Via Docuticker.

Maker of Rayon Clothes Barred from Deceptive “Bamboo” Claims
Source: Federal Trade Commission

Just because bamboo is green does not mean that companies who purport to make clothing and other textiles from processed bamboo can make unsupported “green” claims. The Federal Trade Commission today announced a settlement with a company that allegedly falsely claimed its rayon products are made of bamboo fiber, retain bamboo’s antimicrobial properties, and are biodegradable.

Under the settlement, the company has agreed that it will not make any future bamboo claims unless they are true and backed by reliable evidence, and that it will no longer claim that the clothing and bath products it sells are made of bamboo fiber – when they actually are made of rayon processed from bamboo plants.

+ In the Matter of The M Group, Inc., also doing business as Bamboosa…
+ Have You Been Bamboozled by Bamboo Fabrics?
+ How to Avoid Bamboozling Your Customers

Via Docuticker.

Energy Trends; Highlights on Consumer Energy usage (PDF; 325 KB)
Source: Nielsen
From Nielsen Wire blog:

While there are many motivating factors behind the green energy movement, for the average American “saving money” topped the list according The Nielsen Company’s latest Energy Trends report. Eighty percent of the 32,000 respondents polled cited cutting costs as their main motivation for conserving energy.

Overall, the study shows that many consumers have adopted more environmentally friendly habits, while others have not acted as quickly. “The current momentum surrounding green initiatives and reduced energy consumption presents utilities and home improvement companies with a golden opportunity,” says Jonathan Drost, Account Executive, Energy for The Nielsen Company. “When going green is cost effective, such as opting for Energy Star appliances or government incentive programs, customers migrate in that direction. The biggest hurdle for energy companies is educating the consumer on things like Smart Grids, Energy Efficiency programs and Renewable Green Energy.”

Via Docuticker.

2010 Annual Fuel Economy Guide Now Available
Source: U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy today unveiled the 2010 Fuel Economy Guide, which gives consumers important information about estimated fuel costs and mileage standards for model year 2010 vehicles.
…
Fuel-efficient models come in all types and sizes, so consumers can save thousands of dollars over a vehicle’s lifetime without sacrificing performance. Model year 2010 fuel economy leaders include a wide range of hybrid models, from compact cars to sport-utility vehicles.

Each vehicle listing in the Fuel Economy Guide provides an estimated annual fuel cost. The estimate is calculated based on the vehicle’s miles per gallon (mpg) rating and national estimates for annual mileage and fuel prices. The online version of the guide allows consumers to input their local gasoline prices and typical driving habits to receive a personalized fuel cost estimate.

+ Full Document (PDF; 530 KB)

Read the full story in the Green Guide.

You recycle, ride a bike to work, and buy organic food. You pay extra for “green” electricity and have an eco-friendly car. So can you rest easy, with a clean conscience that your life is as sustainable as it can reasonably be?

Well … although many of us try our best to minimize environmental impacts, our actions don’t always achieve as much as we believe.

Expensive products that are marketed as eco-friendly may help us to assuage our guilt while drawing our attention away from the more pressing issues.

Meanwhile, other actions and products can be useful, but only when used as part of a wider environmentally aware lifestyle. Most worrying of all, some things marketed as sustainable can have negative side effects for the environment—that’s called greenwashing.

The Green Guide talked to several sustainability experts who highlighted five eco-strategies and products that may not be all they are hyped up to be.

Read the full post at Lifehacker.

The Printliminator bookmarklet lets you selectively remove any element from a web page to make it printer friendly in just a few simple clicks.

It (almost) goes without saying that such a tool minimizes paper use. :-)

Read the full story in the New York Times.

New labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus around the country.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Levi Strauss & Co. and Goodwill have teamed up on a new initiative to lower the lifecycle impacts of jeans by giving consumers advice on how to care for them and what to do with them when they are no longer wanted.

The initiative, A Care Tag for Our Planet, includes online and in-store messaging, and, starting in January 2010, a new care tag on jeans that encourages consumers to wash clothes less frequently, wash using cold water, line dry items when possible and, when items are no longer wanted, to donate the items to Goodwill.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Many savvy consumers are familiar with the color codes that marine conservationists bestow on fish and shellfish, depending on how they’re faring in the environment: red for avoid, yellow for consume sparingly and green for eat without guilt.

Now, super green has arrived.

On Tuesday the influential Monterey Bay Aquarium is releasing a new set of rankings that identifies fish that are not only fished sustainably but are also rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, a key dietary component in reducing the risk of heart disease. Farmed mussels and oysters make the list, along with line- or pole-caught albacore tuna, wild-caught Alaskan salmon and Pacific sardines.

Read the full story at Mother Nature Network.

In today’s world of complex supply chains, international supermarkets and big agribusiness, it has become more and more difficult for small farms to sell their produce directly to local consumers at a reasonable price. But one farm in Germany, Peter-und-Paul-Hof, thinks they may have found a solution: set up vending machines which distribute produce instead of junk food.

Read/listen to the full story at NPR.

Filmmaker Mario Van Peebles, along with his family, takes a lighthearted approach to going “green” in a new reality television show on cable network TV One. “Mario’s Green House” follows the Van Peebles as they try to build a home that’s environmentally friendly. Mario Van Peebles describes the project and spreading the green message within communities of color.

Read the full commentary in E The Environmental Magazine.

Last year, Earth Day took some heat by online green scorekeepers (particularly the eco-mag Grist, which launched a “Screw Earth Day” campaign), but this year it’s reasserting its prominence. Earth Day turns 40 this year, and while that brings with it some generational divide (Grist, at 10, is still a kid), it has also allowed the Earth Day Network, which promotes green initiatives year ‘round, to leverage its experience into real, on-the-ground activism and creating sustainable schools. Out of that first Earth Day in 1970 — celebrated by 20 million — came the Environmental Protection Agency, established by President Nixon the same year. Now, says Jeani Murray, the Global Director of Earth Day 40, the nonprofit has moved far beyond fighting early concerns like smog and acid rain to push for climate change legislation, to encourage green jobs and to leverage its influence to enact real commitment from world leaders at the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December.

Read the full story in Mother Jones. They also rate the environmental impact of other bottled water brands in the same issue. See H2Uh-Oh.

Obama sips it. Paris Hilton loves it. Mary J. Blige won’t sing without it. How did a plastic water bottle, imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away, become the epitome of cool?

Thanks to Jennifer Deluhery for the heads-up.

Read the full post at Lifehacker.

With flu season approaching—on top of everyday Oh-God-I-don’t-think-he-washed-his-hand-after-using-the-restroom moments—we’re all a bit more wary of germs lately. Keep the nasty illness spreaders away with this DIY hand sanitizer.

Read the full story at GreenerDesign.

More than 50 common purses and some 100 pet toys and accessories contain high levels of lead, and numerous school supplies are made with a wide range of chemicals of concern, according to new website HealthyStuff.org.

The site, launched today, was created by the Michigan-based Ecology Center, which also runs HealthyToys.org, and lists the amount of lead, mercury, chlorine (PVC), bromine and arsenic found in more than 900 school supplies, purses, car seats, automobiles and pet products.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Research firms are releasing reports on green consumer trends with increasing frequency, helping businesses align their offerings and messaging to capture the growing market for sustainable goods and services.

Beyond direct marketing implications, such research uncovers a significant opportunity to engage consumers around personal sustainability, low hanging fruit with broad benefits.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency kicked off events to “Change the World, Start with Energy Star,” encouraging children and their families to fight climate change while saving energy and money.

Agency partnerships with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) and Parent Teacher Organizations Today (PTO Today) will engage young people in energy efficiency service projects in their communities and encourage Americans to take the Energy Star Pledge to make energy-efficient choices at home, at work and in their communities. This year’s fall campaign also includes a national, multi-city, multimedia tour of the Energy Star Exhibit House, which showcases energy-efficient products and practices.

Read the full post at Green, Inc.

Several years ago, dog owners in the college town of Ithaca, N.Y., began worrying about all the plastic bags filled with dung that ended up in the landfill.

Leon Kochian, a professor of plant biology at Cornell and, more to the point, the owner of a yellow lab, recalled the thinking at the time: “This is Ithaca. There’s got to be a more environmentally sensible way to do this.”

This year, with Mr. Kochian’s nudging, one of the city’s dog parks — part of the Allan H. Treman Marine State Park — became a dog waste composting park.

Special corn-based bags, made by the Biobag Company, based in Florida, are available at several stations in the park. Dog owners put the bag and its contents into large bins near the park’s entrances, which are removed once a week by a company called Cayuga Compost.

Read/listen to the full story at NPR.

Not everyone is sold on alternative fuels as the solution to energy problems. Time magazine senior correspondent Michael Grunwald is a skeptic when it comes to renewable fuels. He tells Steve Inskeep instead of emphasizing alternative energy sources, the U.S. should focus on boosting efficiency and reducing consumption.

Via Docuticker.

Workshop Report: Climate Change Mitigation: Considering Lifestyle Options in Europe and the US
Source: Institute of European Studies

This report summarizes the presentations and outcomes of a European-American Workshop about lifestyle changes as a mitigation strategies for global warming. The conference was held on May 1, 2009 at the University of California, Berkeley and sponsored by the European Commission. The participants discussed various lifestyle approaches as a promising way to address environmental behavior and action within social and cultural contexts. The presenters and discussants acknowledged the theoretical and practical difficulties of this multi-faceted concept which relies on several sometimes virtually incommensurable traditions. Both a merely individualist interpretation of lifestyles (”green consumption”) and a rather socio-structural view (”green milieus”) are not well-geared to explain the often observed discrepancies between environmental attitudes and people’s action. Lifestyle research must address this gap by explaining individual decisions within societal contexts that provide but also limit the possibilities of lifestyle changes. Despite these difficulties, the huge appeal of the lifestyle approach that makes the work on these problems worthwhile is the prominent role of the term “lifestyle” in the public and political discourse about environmental change. However, many policy attempts to influence lifestyles are barely grounded in sociological grounded theories of social change. The report shortly introduces the problem, summarizes the workshop presentations, and outlines central discussion points.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 178 KB)

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

As the famous singer once said, I believe the children are our future; and while we at GreenBiz.com spend most of our time covering the actions of business and the grown-ups who run them, we are always keeping our eyes out for signs of sustainability from the up-and-comers.

There is plenty of promising news coming out of universities, as we found at the beginning of this year with our State of Green Business report. But a recent survey of young adults in Britain gives us pause.

The study, commissioned by IBM, found that young adults in Generation Y — the folks currently aged 18-24 — had both the highest levels of awareness of environmental issues, and were the biggest wasters of energy and water in the country.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

A new national study of green consumers is busting the stereotypes about them: The environment is not their top concern, their kids are not influencing them to be green, and while many know what they should do to save the planet, they often don’t do it. As a result, messages aimed at them often fall on deaf ears.

The Home Energy Saver calculator is designed to help consumers identify the best ways to save energy in their homes, and find the resources to make the savings happen. The calculator computes a home’s energy use on-line based on methods developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Users can estimate how much energy and money can be saved and how much emissions can be reduced by implementing energy-efficiency improvements. All end uses (heating, cooling, major appliances, lighting, and miscellaneous uses) are included. A detailed description of underlaying calculation methods and data is provided a comprehensive report. Documentation of how the site handles electricity tariffs is provided here).

The Home Energy Saver’s Energy Advisor calculates energy use and savings opportunities, based on a detailed description of the home provided by the user. Users can begin the process by simply entering their zip code, and in turn receive instant initial estimates. By providing more information about the home the user will receive increasingly customized results along with energy-saving upgrade recommendations.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Baxter International employees in 25 countries ventured out into their communities this summer to plant gardens and gathered internally to learn about the ways in which they could lighten their environmental footprints.

The activities were part of a weeklong event held by the company for the first time to coincide with World Environment Week, the results of which the company publicly announced today. According to the company, more than 200 activities took place during the first week of June, involving more than 70 facilities around the globe.

CNET answers that question on this week’s episode of The Green Show. Be sure to check out the other show eps. Links to the right of the viewer on the web site. Nice job folks.