A friend told me not long ago that she wanted me to help her give her apartment an eco-makeover and especially, first thing, to advise her on what kind of cleaning products she should be buying. I felt like I punctured her enthusiasm a little when I said it didn’t matter all that much, because [...]

I’ve noticed a trend here that strikes me as a good sign. I’ve seen two or three people drinking water out of glass bottles they’ve obviously refilled. This solves the perennial water bottle challenge of taste (how many discussions have you heard about the latest, greatest new sports bottle?), and is so much better for [...]

After watching An Inconvenient Truth the other night, there’s been a lot of discussion in the office about What We Can Do. The air-conditioning was turned down, and I think we’re all looking at cars differently—thinking of those ice banks in Antarctica.
In the book I’m working on, the Cool Planet Guide, we’ll be breathing [...]

Two important things accomplished today:
Two garden beds prepped and planted–thanks to Tom and Rachel, who have taken to lecturing me on global warming and the wastefulness of grainfed meat–with Asian salad and stir-fry greensand a mix of early radishes,* arugula, and some chicory seed we brought from Italy two years ago. I highly recommend [...]

I thought I’d share an article from Bottomline Reports that gathered my ideas some 10 years ago about “10 Simple, Practical Ways to Green Your Home.”
Everybody knows that there are changes we can make at home to help protect the earth, but many of them seem complicated or daunting. Busy people don’t have [...]

I’ve been in California all week, driving and in meetings, and falling into bed at night. I have a travel yoga mat and CDs, too, but I just wasn’t getting to it. This morning I looked on the web and to my astonishment there was an Iyengar studio only blocks from my motel; even [...]

Some solutions are so easy and cheap that the question is why they aren’t adopted instantly. Two examples:
1. Refillable toothbrushes. The brand I use is Fuchs Ekotec and they’re readily available at natural foods stores and from many online natural products shops. You buy the toothbrush and an extra package of replacement heads, and just [...]

We did our first full-fledged home exchange last weekend, and it worked beautifully. Our exchange family have a house in Boston and were interested in a long weekend in the Berkshires. They contacted me through a website we’ve been members of for years. We found we had mutual friends so that did make the process [...]

I’m at the American Library Association conference in Boston (visit my company’s website to see what we’re launching–our slogan is ‘Thinking Globally’!), talking to librarians about what they can do to green their libraries and become environmental learning centers in their communities. Public libraries are vital social centers, and should be part of all community [...]