Websites

It was great to talk about Conscious Lifestyle's venture competition on the
Lazy Environmentalist. radio show. I love that Josh Dorfman, the founder of Lazy E, has a fun approach to living eco-friendly lifestyles.

For those of you who are new to Conscious Lifestyle, poke around our site and let us know what you think. If you are interested in applying for the venture competition go here for more information. Just remember, the deadline is February 15, so apply now!

Although I don’t think the Girl Scouts are going to be selling boxes of CFL lightbulbs instead of cookies any time soon—why change a good and delicious thing?--groups of other stripes are always looking for creative ways to raise money for their organizations. Now your group can choose to sell recycled paper goods, green home cleaners, energy-efficient showerheads, and yes, low-energy lightbulbs through several Web-based green fundraising organizations. You register your group on the Web site, tell your prospective buyers to visit it and make their purchases, and your group gets a check in the mail.

LetsGoGreen.biz and Greenraising.comoffer groups the opportunity to earn between 25% and 40% of the price on each eco-conscious product their friends and relatives buy. This percentage is not as high as on traditional fundraising items—typically 50% to 75%--because traditional items are mass-produced, often overseas, thus cheaper to produce, making it easier to pass on a greater percentage of the profit. But green fundraising contains an educational and pro-environmental aspect—for both buyers and sellers--that can make up for the lower profit.

And if consumers like the products, they can keep on buying through the fundraising websites, generating additional income for the group after the initial drive is over. So if your group can operate with a steady stream of income instead of a one-time payment as in the traditional model, green fundraising may be something to think about.

Now if only there were a way to keep on buying Girl Scout cookies…

The Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy is sponsoring a nationwide essay contest for college students between the ages of 18 and 24 asking them to submit a plan on renewable energy, sustainability, and conservation for America. Each of three winners will receive an educational prize of $10,000 to coincide with the celebration of Earth Day in April.

But hurry: the essay is due by February 1, 2008. You can enter online here.

Students are asked to write a four- to six-point renewable energy plan for America, laying out a strategy for the next five to ten years that will minimize our current dependence on nonrenewable energy sources.

The essay contest grew out of a November 17, 2007, forum in which presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich spoke about global warming and America’s energy future. The event, sponsored by Grist and PRI’s Living on Earth, was presented by the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy in partnership with League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, California LCV Education Fund, Center for American Progress Action Fund, and NRDC Action Fund.

Good luck!

Focus The Nation is an educational initiative on global warming solutions for America occurring at more than 1,000 universities, colleges, high schools, middle schools, places of worship, civic organizations, and businesses, in all 50 states on Jan. 31, 2008.

The teach-in has two goals: to formulate policy solutions that can be implemented immediately; and to explore a new model of collaborative, interdisciplinary education on a national scale, needed to tackle the interconnected social, environmental, and political issues of climate change.

Attendees will participate in workshops and panels, brainstorming global warming solutions. Each Focus team will invite local, state, and federal political leaders and decision-makers to participate in a non-partisan, round-table discussion of global warming solutions. Every institution will also vote on its top five national priorities for global warming action, producing a campus- and citizen-endorsed policy agenda for 2008.

There’s still time to get involved – learn how at the Focus the Nation web site.

MonsterTRAK, an online career and recruitment Web site, wants to help you out with that major decision. It has developed GreenCareers, a site for college students and recent graduates listing environmentally responsible jobs and internships. GreenCareers includes entry-level, part-time, volunteer, and internship opportunities at organizations of all sizes that positively impact the environment. These are both "green jobs" and jobs at "green companies." The site also features career advice and articles on living green, green activism, and related news.

GreenCareers was developed in partnership with ecoAmerica, a consumer research and marketing environmental nonprofit, and is sponsored by Environmental Defense, a nonprofit organization linking science, economics, and law to find solutions to environmental problems.

For more information, visit
GreenCareers

Happy hunting!

Two members of the New York City Council have introduced a trailblazing bill, Intro. 104, the Electronics Collection, Recycling, and Reuse Act, which, if passed later this year, would be the first mandatory municipal electronics recycling law in the country. It would make manufacturers responsible for collection and disposal of products when no longer usable, instead of leaving this task to consumers, who often simply dump them in the trash.

The bill’s 43 council sponsors believe it would encourage manufacturers to adopt more environmentally friendly designs, since they would held liable if products are not disposed of properly. It would also reduce the more than 25,000 tons of discarded electronics New York City collects each year. These products comprise the fastest-growing part of the city’s waste stream, and can contain mercury, lead, cadmium, and other hazardous materials. When burned or deposited in landfills improperly, they leach into the soil and are released into the air.

Intro. 104 is supported by Consumers Union, and the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups, who are urging Mayor Michael Bloomberg to sign the legislation. If it is passed this year, companies would have a year to design collection plans, and the bill would take effect in 2009.

To learn more about the bill, visit
Intro. 104

To learn what you can do to support the bill, visit
NRDC's Action Campaign

Want to find out how much carbon your local power plant—or one in Neyveli, India, or perhaps Duvha, South Africa—is spewing out? Now, you can, using a new interactive map that helps you make informed decisions on which polluters need to reduce emissions.

Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA), a massive database containing information on the carbon emissions of more than 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies worldwide, was unveiled last week. It is the first global inventory of a major emissions-producing sector of the economy accounting for 40% of all carbon emissions in the United States and about one-quarter of global emissions. Data from CARMA will allow concerned citizens, investors, consumers, and environmentalists to pressure top polluters to clean up their acts, worldwide.

CARMA is produced and financed by the Confronting Climate Change Initiative at the Center for Global Development, an independent and non-partisan think tank located in Washington, D.C.

To try it out, visit carma.org.

Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician on the faculty of Stanford University’s School of Medicine and on the board of directors of The Organic Center, Boulder, Colorado, has developed an “organic prescription” of ten foods and crops you can buy that, in a single dose, can purify both your body and the planet: milk, potatoes, peanut butter, baby foods, ketchup, cotton, apples, beef, soy, and corn.

Dr. Greene bases his guide on his assessment of which pesticides are most harmful to humans, along with the negative effects of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, and chemical fertilizers. His choices are also based on how growing these crops organically reduces greenhouse gas emissions and toxic chemicals in air and water, and stems the depletion of non-renewable resources and the uncontrolled spread of genetically modified organisms.

“Many people first exploring organic foods begin with fruits and vegetables in hopes of reducing their exposure to harmful pesticides,” Dr. Greene says. “Choosing strategic organic foods can indeed quickly and dramatically decrease your family’s exposure to worrisome pesticides. While this is very useful, fruits and vegetables are only part of the diet, and pesticides on the plate are only one part of the health story.”

To read more about Organic Rx and view videos about each of these crops, visit www.drgreen.com.

Photo by svanes.

NBC Universal is launching more than 150 hours of environmentally themed content encompassing all of their programming divisions across multiple platforms for the week of Nov. 4 - 10. The big media company is taking it a step further and greening its own operations worldwide.

Anytime a major player makes a commitment like this it brings the issue further into the mainstream. But I wonder it it also softens the urgency of the situation. Take a look at their tips. #1: taking a shorter shower? Did anyone read that and think, "That's such good advice! I would have never realized that using less hot water would help the environment. Thanks NBC!"

If this week helps people to make a commitment to living eco-friendly lifestyles, I'll be all for it. If it passes off environmentalism as a few small - and relatively ineffective - steps that make the average American feel good for "going green," I'll be disappointed.

What do you think?

NBC Universal's Green Week

Everyday we make choices about the food we eat. How much money do we spend on food? Is it healthy? Was it grown and processed in a way that damages the environment?

This TIME Magazine photo slideshow gives a glimpse of the the similarities and differences between different cultures in terms of food. Some spend less than $2 a week, others spend over $500. Some eat mostly fresh produce, others eat mostly pre-packaged food. What I like about this slideshow is that it challenges our notions of what a "normal" diet is.

What do you think? Check out the slideshow at TIME's site, and leave a comment.