Because Old is the New Green!

Check out the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Green Home Tips. As they say, "the greenest house is the house already built." So, how can you save energy and save money in your historic home? Learn more about winterizing your home, how to make wood windows more energy-efficient, and much more with these Green Home Tips!

You've Got the Power!

Interested in learning more about green power options where you live? Check out the U.S. Department of Energy's Green Power Network. This great resource, operated and maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, shows you which organizations in your state offer green power. It includes three different green power markets - utility green pricing programs, retail green power products offered in competitive electricity markets, and renewable energy certificate products sold separate from electricity. To learn more about these markets and about how you can help support green power options where you live, visit the Green Power Network!

Mother (Nature's) Little Helper

The latest in green news is MNN - Mother Nature Network. You know this won't be your run-of-the-mill news site when the Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones, is the founder and director of environmental affairs. MNN covers loads of topics including transportation, business, food, home and family. It also offers a wide range of blogs, RSS feeds and photo galleries. In March of this year, MNN Local will be launched, with students reporting from college campuses aross the country. That's not the only way that folks out in the community can get involved. MNN doesn't just invite you to read their blogs, they invite you to ceate your own blog on their site. With so many features, it's sure to bring some satisfaction (sorry, I couldn't help it).

It's All Good...

I am a frequent user of the Environmental Worling Group's Cosmetic Safety Database, so I was extremely excited to see another product database called GoodGuide. GoodGuide ranks products not only on environmental performance and health performance, but also on social performance. Rankings go from 0 (the worst) to 10 (the best). This "higher number is better" scale is the opposite of the Cosmetic Safety Database, so be careful. GoodGuide also goes beyond personal care products to include toys and household chemicals. I, for one, am excited to dive deeper into this new resource!

Cucumbers are Liberal and Zucchinis are Conservative...Food Politics!

I just finished reading Food Politics by Marion Nestle, and highly recommend it. She provides an extremely thorough explanation of how our nation's food and political systems are intertwined and interact. Do you know...

• How nutrition guidelines get developed?
• Where the food pyramid came from?
• Why we all learned about the 4 food groups growing up?
• Why some sugar cereals are labeled as "heart smart" and others are not?
• Why dietary guidelines never say to "eat less" of anything?
• That there is a Western Pistachio Association? (who knew??)
• How olestra got produced?
• That enough soda is produced in this country for every person (man, woman, child, baby) to drink 556 12-oz servings a year?

If any of these topics and issues are of interest to you, Food Politics is definitely worth the read!