America's Best
Eco-Neighborhoods
The Natural Home Top 10
by Karen Romer, Natural Home
Magazine
Our picks for the country’s top urban
neighborhoods encourage the healthy, eco-conscious good life. These
burgs boast community involvement; shopping, libraries and schools
within a walkable area; public transportation; and locally owned
businesses.
Some are more affordable than others,
but most have mixed-income housing and relatively diverse
populations. They encompass environmental and/or social programs;
parks, green spaces and neighborhood gathering spaces; farmer’s
markets and community gardens; and sometimes alternative-energy
programs and green building practices...
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How to Build a Compost
Bin
University of Missouri, Live and
Learn
Composting is a natural biological
process where bacteria, fungi and other organisms decompose organic
materials such as leaves, grass clippings, and food wastes. The end
product is called compost. While composting occurs naturally, the
process can be accelerated and improved by human intervention.
Methods
Compost can be made by five different methods: holding units,
turning units, heaps, soil incorporation, and worm composting. The
method of composting selected will depend on when finished compost
is desired, the materials to be composted, and the space available
for composting. Table 1 will help you select the best compost method
for your particular situation...
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Want to Get Off the
Grid?
Karin Marie, Concrete Homes
Magazine
Shock is the word that best describes
American homeowners' reaction when they opened their electric bills
last winter. For many surprised consumers, the amount was as much as
four times higher than usual. It made people wonder about the future
of energy prices and ask, "Is there a better way?"
Judy Fosdick, president of Pueblo, Colorado-based Tierra Concrete
Homes, thinks there is. Her company designs and builds houses that
combine the energy-efficiency of concrete wall systems with passive
solar features. The resulting homes, in many cases, don't require
mechanical cooling or heating systems to maintain comfortable indoor
temperatures year-round.
There's solid evidence that Tierra
Concrete Homes' designs are technically sound and energy efficient.
But these practical aspects are just the outward manifestation of
the company's inner philosophy — a focus on the environment and
building green. "We use as many environmentally friendly concepts as
we can," Fosdick said. Among these are the use of recycled products,
water-conserving features and the recycling of scrap building
materials. Fosdick's own home is completely off the electric grid...
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Study: Algae May Fuel
Our Future
Science Daily
LOGAN, Utah, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- U.S.
biochemistry scientists at Utah State University are using an
innovative approach that takes oil from algae and converts it to
biodiesel fuel.
The scientists say they plan to
produce an algae-biodiesel that is cost-competitive by 2009. Algae
can produce up to 10,000 gallons of oil per acre and can be grown
virtually anywhere, the researchers said.
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Oregon Truck Stop Business Aims to
Help Truckers, Save the Planet
Associated
Press
COBURG, Ore. — A truck stop business
designed to spare the planet has opened near the Interstate 5 exit
to Coburg. It sells fuel-saving and anti-pollution devices to
long-haul semitrailer drivers.
The enterprise is the creation of
Sharon Banks and her nonprofit agency Cascade Sierra Solutions.
Chief among the wares are auxiliary
power units that allow truckers to keep themselves warm, or cool,
without idling their rigs, at idea that made sense to a trucker who
stopped at the showroom...
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Solar Power
Eliminates Utility Bills in
U.S. Home
by Jon
Hurdle, ENN
EAST AMWELL, New Jersey
-- Michael Strizki heats and cools his house year-round and runs a
full range of appliances including such power-guzzlers as a hot tub
and a wide-screen TV without paying a penny in utility bills.
His conventional-looking
family home in the pinewoods of western New Jersey is the first in
the United States to show that a combination of solar and hydrogen
power can generate all the electricity needed for a home.
The Hopewell Project,
named for a nearby town, comes at a time of increasing concern over
U.S. energy security and worries over the effects of burning fossil
fuels on the climate.
"People understand that
climate change is a big concern but they don't know what they can do
about it," said Gian-Paolo Caminiti of Renewable Energy Associates,
the commercial arm of the project. "There's a psychological dividend
in doing the right thing," he said.
Strizki runs the
3,000-square-foot house with electricity generated by a
1,000-square-foot roof full of photovoltaic cells on a nearby
building, an electrolyzer that uses the solar power to generate
hydrogen from water, and a number of hydrogen tanks that store the
gas until it is needed by the fuel cell.
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