Whoever thought it was a good idea to slap giant tires on the small, fuel-efficient Smart Fortwo, is clearly mad, but the fact that they actually went through with it and brought it to a monster truck rally is pure genius! Who says you can’t green monster trucks?

They have put together a brilliant and beautiful documentary on YouTube about their organization and the importance of building green. It is long, but totally worth watching. Also take a look at their YouTube channel: wwwusgbc.

USGBC - 15 Years - Chapter 1 of 8

(more…)

I recently met the crazy bunch, The Girls Gone Green, the other day and they invited me to come on their radio show. I have to say I was a little nervous thinking they might accost me for still eating some meat (they’re all vegan and vegetarian), but they were really nice and I had a lot of fun. Listen to the show here:

Played: 0 | Download | Duration: 00:57:18

» Chaz’s Guest Spot on The Girls Gone Green
» TheGirlsGoneGreen.com

Everyone of us who rolled our eyes at every SUV we saw can now breathe a collective sigh of relief. International is ceasing production of their consumer-grade “Extreme Trucks,” a real shame for all those consumers who needed to, you know, tow 20 tons of goods from their Wal-Mart of BJ’s shopping trips. Fuel prices as high as they are these days and the slow-down of truck sales spelled demise for this truck line that included the CXT, RXT, and MXT. It’s so sad to see these great examples of restraint and high-MPG, oh wait…

For those who want a green roof now but don’t want to spend the time and money to have it done professionally, fear not for we have a solution! Well not from Swye, but LiveRoof. Watch the video above to learn more about the benefits of the system from Terry McGlade at the Green Building Festival.

I have successfully made it through my experience as a seasonal worker in coastal Maine…for the most part! It is Labor Day and our time to say ’so-long’ to the days of summer are here. Luckily the weather is warm, crisp and sunny and I believe we might get an ‘Indian Summer’-how lucky! Autumn is by far my favorite season as it brings the most delicious harvest and even more so with this kind of weather. I also just love pulling out the sweaters and boots and hearing the crinkling leaves underfoot while dreams of apples and cider drift through my head.

Summer in Maine has been amazing. I am thrilled to say that living so closely to the fresh vegetation and being in daily contact with the people who grow or distribute the foods that myself and my community eats is a truly amazing thing. Maine is known for being very supportive of local business and boy is it true!!!

As business in the store has begun to slow, I will only work a few hours a day in the store and then, starting this Friday, head out to Isleford to help the store owner harvest her 2 large gardens and do some canning! I am so excited to learn how to do these things. I just started to read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the massive amount of information regarding growing seasons and preparation coupled with my time here and my experience in the gardens, I am finding myself often dreaming of having my own plot of land to tend. I long to be thumbing the seed catalogues in January picking out amazing heirloom varieties (ie open-pollination vs. hybrids) of tomatoes and melons with names like Crimson Cushion tomatoes and Plum Granny heirloom melon. I certainly still have a lot to learn between now and then but I can feel it in my bones that I am meant to be growing. For now I am but a rolling stone…not quite any one place to call my home. I honestly don’t know where I will end up in the next few months but for some reason I am not a bit worried about it. In fact I feel so FREE! I wish this feeling to everyone out there and I highly recommend to anyone taking a few months at some point to learn or to remember how to slow down…too often we speed past the beauty there is in life.

Stay tuned…in life, light, and love,
Julie

It’s a tough thing to admit sometimes as a guy, but women really are smarter with money sometimes. Warren Buffets of the world, hang with me here and look to your not so rock-star-status successful brethren to see that in most families, the women usually handle the bills and day to day budgets… In the developing world at least.

In other countries around the world, women aren’t as well trusted to handle such responsibilities and this is exactly the point according to GirlEffect.org. With a powerful, all typographic video (which is beautiful by the way) and a surprisingly beautiful website full of great information and facts like “A women or girl will reinvest 90% of her income into her family. A man or boy will reinvest 30-40%.”

Those are powerful statistics and a powerful, if not painfully obvious in a right-under-your-nose way, solution to some of our biggest world problems.

GirlEffect.org

As if we needed another reason to drink our favorite draught beers from our favorite pubs or bars, the March issue of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment investigated the statistics on the LCA of an unnamed Italian Lager as an example to see which of the two were more evironmentally friendly.

In studying the environmental impacts of one litre each of both draught and bottled beer, the production of the beer didn’t seem to differ that much and there was no clear winner.

The real difference between the two methods of drinking were in the “use” phase, as the Journal refers to it. This means how the beer is served, how it is chilled, and it’s journey to it’s final destination. The Journal found that the biggest impact of all comes from the drive to get the beer. Obviously, the further you drive, the more of an impact you’ll have so the Journal recommends promoting draught beer and reducing your driving by biking, walking or stumbling to the nearest bar.

» Treehugger