Understanding Sustainability Conference – Portland

It seems that it’s conference season these days. Another interesting Green event that would definitely be worth checking out is the Understanding Sustainability: Perspectives from the Humanities Conference. The event takes place May 20th through the 22nd in Portland, Oregon. It’s free and open to the public, and sure to be very educational. Acknowledging the varied understandings of the term …

Last Minute Mothers Day Gifts

It’s May 8th. Mothers Day is May 9th. Time to celebrate this excellent occasion with the perfect present for your favorite Mom. Did I mention it is May 8th? Don’t worry! Here are some last minute recipes for eco-friendly gifts or even simple add-ons if you’ve already gotten something for her! A Clean-Green Basket. Ingredients easily picked up at your …

Seven Skin Care Ingredients To Avoid

Our skin covers our entire body. Every day we have the option to apply lotion, sunscreen, make-up, or hundreds of other products to our skin. What we don’t know is that some of the ingredients lurking in our cabinet can be harmful or even deadly to us. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when revamping our personal care …

HopenSource by Grist

Now for a little environmental optimism. I’ve stumbled across Grist‘s clever side project, HopenSource a few times and would highly recommend swinging by next time you’ve got the chance. It’s a joint blog and twitter account (including its very own hashtag to allow everyone to join in the conversation) dedicated to the discussion of the good news in the environmental …

Fun At The Eco-Chic Expo

I hope many of you had a chance to visit the Eco-Chic Expo yesterday at the Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center that Rachel posted about last week.  Featuring many different local sustainable living companies, the expo was definitely a great and interactive way to spend a few hours.  The expo featured a lot of companies all excited to share their products and …

Sustainability Focused Careers Workshop

Last week I had the chance to attend Foresight Designs Initiative Sustainability Careers Workshop here in Seattle. The workshop was put on by Seattle Green Drinks in collaboration with Foresight Design, based out of Chicago. Facilitated by the executive director of Foresight Designs, Peter Nicholson, the workshop was an excellent interactive exploration of various career paths in sustainability. Peter was …

Trees, Habitat Restoration and Arbor Day

Arbor day brings mixed feelings for me, which may sound strange because who doesn’t like trees? Having worked some time as a restoration ecologist, I may be privy to the dark secrets of habitat restoration or ‘enhancement’, that many well-meaning charities and non-profits may be unaware of: Nature heals itself! Be sure you look into where your trees are being …

Platinum For Fuel Cells Gets Cheaper

The DOE laboratory I work for recently published some promising results of one of our fuel cell experiments. Researchers with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Houston recently found a way to get platinum to be more conductive. It doesn’t sound like much, but this is big for fuel cell technology. Anders Nilsson, one …

The Case Against Whaling: Whale Feces

With the International Whaling Commission considering legalizing whaling with quotas, Australian scientists have found more reason than before not to – the positive effect of whales against the impetus of global warming.

The Cups I See Everywhere

Beverage cups at Mariner’s baseball games, parfait cups at the University of Washington, and cold or hot coffee cups, everywhere I turn the Cedar Grove Composting label seems to be there as well. Now it’s become a fun game to point out every label I see. Cedar Grove is a leading organic recycling company in the Pacific Northwest which started …