Going green city style

Ugly green lightbulb needs a makeover

Green is trendy

Saying "I Do" for the planet

Yesterday's news, today's bags

A group of Filipino housewives are going green by getting creative.

Proud to be green I am...

...just like Yoda. I believe in the Force for good to change people's damaging lifestyles, mindsets, actions, by speaking up for the environment. Take the quiz and spread the word!

Little dream house on a trailer

More on dream houses -- check out this video of Dee Williams and how she thought up a house and made it a reality. Film by Mark Hoffman.

Faith vs. Environmentalism

Talk about setting an example for the faithful. In a move that reflects great concern for the environment, the Vatican is turning green. A story yesterday on CNN said that solar panels will be installed on the roof on one of the Vatican auditoriums to convert sunlight into electricity, and that other buldings, excluding the St. Peter's Basilica, may follow the same route. I applaud Pope Benedict for taking action.

No doubt the movement for "faith-based environmental evangelism"is growing among world religions. And yet I'm inclined to believe that dichotomies between environmental stewardship and faith still exist for many Christians. Certainly it exists in my own relationship with my boyfriend Paul, who, I'm unhappy to say, doesn't quite get it. Paul is a truly good human being, kind, gentle, God-fearing and concerned for others. And yet I continue to have a good deal of difficulty communicating to him my fears about the environment. Enjoining him to live green and low-impact is a battle of wills -- passive on his side, increasingly frustrated on mine. He agrees quite goodnaturedly to my pleas to green our lives, and yet in the next breath he will ask me whether he should buy a hulking black fully loaded gas-guzzling altogether obnoxious Nissan Xterra SE.

I'm at best a lapsed Catholic, and I'm inclined to think of claiming responsibility for the environment, for my own footprint, as a moral imperative, unquestionably necessary (many others will disagree) and inseparable from love for neighbor. Pope Benedict appealed to charity and consequentialism, calling on Christians "to unite and care of creation without squandering its resources" and to change "damaging lifestyle choices" which are making "the lives of poor people on Earth especially unbearable." No matter the motivation, I'm still banking on Paul's faith to show him the light so to speak, so he and I can see eye to eye and we can change the way we live for the good of the environment.

Latest news about the environment

A very cool new way to get video content -- mash this video news feed onto your website, that is, click on the mash button and copy the code snippet it will take you to, and paste it onto your website or blog. It will automatically update so you'll always have the latest news. Below I've mashed the "Environment" feed.

Dream Green Loft

We finally found our dream green loft. Twelve hundred square feet of pure recycled and eco-friendly perfection, and the only thing wrong with it is that we can't have it. Suffice it to say it shall have to remain a dream for the time being.

Many weekends and weeknights for the last month and a half, for me and Paul, were spent on a grueling and stressful househunting CHORE. The prospect of a home, especially one that is largely and generously to be subsidized by Paul's parents, should be an exciting thing, and it was in the beginning, but when you have a clear idea of what you want, as I did, it's hard to give up even as the parade of not-quite-it houses passes in a blur before your tired eyes. My dream was "a charming old-ish brick townhouse that wasn't so derelict as to be a daunting fixer-upper," one that had good bones and that we could definitely make our own. I envisioned sourcing for reclaimed lumber floors, half and full-flush toilets, a kitchen equipped with an induction oven, energy star appliances, frosted bamboo cabinetry, and a concrete and glass kitchen countertop, to name a few.

We must have looked at a hundred or so properties and only towards the last dozen did we finally come to the obvious conclusion that it was unlikely we would find THE ONE, and that, so sad, we needed to settle.

Well, last weekend, on our final search foray, we stumbled upon The Cromley Lofts in Old Town, Alexandria, a historic preservation of a ca. 1910 warehouse, divided into eight condo units and designed by developer William Cromley. The living area sprawls over delicious pine floors reclaimed from an old mill. Exposed beams from the original warehouse frame the kitchen and anchor the space. The kitchen is you guessed it, all bamboo and stainless and frosted glass and the bathrooms spare and glass-tiled modern. Cromley was there to tell us further that his building was also "true green" -- most "everything" down to the paints and glues are LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Cromley Lofts is the first green building in Alexandria, zip code 22314, where Paul and I had narrowed down our search. So that's one reason why we had trouble finding our vision, there just aren't many green houses to go around. The other reason -- it's expensive, way above our budget at $585K for the lowest-priced basement unit.

We finally settled for a more reasonably-priced but by no means green condo unit at the Royalton, which is redeemed by the fact that it sits above my grocery of choice, the Whole Foods on Duke Street. A brand new construction boasting of the requisite and ubiquitous hardwood floors and cabinetry, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances that sets a lot of people's hearts beating. It's a nice unit, though I must say I don't fantasize about cooking in its swanky kitchen as I did in that dream green loft.

When is Northern Virginia going to get its green building act together? And why does green have to be so expensive? (Green kitchens tends to be 20 to 30% more expensive than non-green ones.) Ironically, the rich are only getting greener in dollar terms, while the environmentally-conscious tend to have "less disposable incomes" as one Northern Virginia woman found out in her efforts to have her tiny kitchen remodeled.

Economical, eco-friendly, and stylish options need to be made available on a large and common scale so people in love with granite can afford to see the beauty in soapstone and recycled composite countertops.

In love with Earth: The BBC/Discovery Planet Earth series

If you get a chance, do catch the awe-inspiring Planet Earth mini-series on Discovery Channel (Sundays, 8 p.m.) I caught the three-hour marathon premiere last weekend and was riveted to my paltry 24-inch screen while wishing I had high-def the entire time. Shot in 204 locations in 62 countries, this 11-part series cost $1M each episode and took five years to make. Sigourney Weaver, (who says it will make you "fall in love with the wonder and majesty of our planet") narrates a great many "caught on film firsts" - Cineflex technology borrowed from Hollywood, gyrostabilized on a helicopter, showcasing aerial shots of African hunting dogs corralling impalas; the elusive Himalayan snow leopard in hunting mode; the wondrous Caribou migration in Canada.

View the trailer or check out the episode guide, either way, don't miss it!

E-capitalism at work

Global warming is turning out to be a billion dollar business, and corporate giants such as GE and WalMart are seeing green. Not that this alone is enough to enjoin me to buy organic at WalMart just yet, but big businesses who are taking steps to lead the green effort get my thumbs up.