How about a trip to Tennessee's Montgomery Bell State Park?

I ran into this link about eight new eco-friendly villas in Tennessee's Montgomery Bell State Park and showed my sister. We immediately agreed that we had no interest in going to rural Tennessee, but changed our minds when we saw what the villas look like.

Does that look like a villa for a state park to you? That's absolutely gorgeous, and green too.

The largest innovation is the geothermal system that includes a 450-foot well at each villa to take advantage of the year-round stable temperatures underground.

The system will result in 40 to 60 percent less energy being used for heating and cooling, which reduces pollution and costs, the announcement said. Also, it will provide hot water in summer for free.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs and outdoor furniture made from recycled plastic are part of the other green touches.

And these are just the first of green villas being built in Tennessee's state parks.

Agoda's top 10 list of eco-friendliest Asian resorts is out!

Hotel reservations website Agoda has published its list of the top 10 eco-friendliest resorts in Asia. Among those that made the cut are The Orchid Hotel in Mumbai, India; Banyan Tree on Indonesia's Bintan Island; and El Nido in Palawan, Philippines *pauses to beam proudly* Not sure why an Australian hotel is on the list, though.

ekoVenture

Hankering for a taste of adventure and to experience the great outdoors in other parts of the world? You should make ekoVenture your first stop. ekoVenture works with more than 450 tour operators around the world in order to help you plan your adventure/holiday. You also get to see people's reviews of the different tour packages they've enjoyed, so call it something a like a travel/social networking site. It's quite easy to get started; just type in the type of activities you're looking to do in a certain location and--presto! results! I looked for "diving" in the Philippines and the site churned out quite a lot of results, the first of them involving an underwater digital photography course which had me utterly excited. I'd gone diving once and had a disposable camera with me, and getting to take pictures underwater was completely exciting and different. Definitely sounds like a course I might want to take someday if I ever get around to taking a diving course first.

So anyway, back to ekoVenture. Check out the site now and plan your adventure! The best part of it is they give 10% of their profits to the local community in your destination.

Million Baby Crawl

Protect future generations. Join Seventh Generation's virtual Million Baby Crawl. Click here to tell Congress to reform policies on toxic chemicals. You can even create and customize your own little crawler.

(photo from Amazon)

Lusting after e-book readers

I lost most of my clothes, things, and books in a fire at our house last year, and when Typhoon Ondoy/Ketsana swept through the Philippines on September 26, many houses were swallowed up by floods, and I know quite a few people who were affected, with most of their belongings ruined by floodwaters--and those belongings definitely include their books, too.

So that why I've been eyeing e-book readers like crazy these days. E-book readers would not only make it easy to stash your whole library in one slim gadget, it would also make it easy for people to flee their houses in the event of an emergency or calamity. I figured e-book readers have to be fairly green as well; sure it's an electronic gadget, but you certainly don't need to buy actual books anymore since you can access the digital version; less waste, less use of paper? Now if someone can tell me if the amount of energy used to charge an e-reader or the materials used to construct each one will be a problem.

Chevrolet Equinox: A green car?

We don't know about that, but Vancouver has recently snapped up eight of these fuel-cell babies as part of the 4,600-car fleet for the 2010 Winter Olympics in the city. People are currently abuzz at the possibility that the auto industry hasn't turned its back on fuel cells. Just think: Water coming out of the exhaust pipe rather than noxious, lung-crushing death. Sounds good already, but not really truly green, as it has been argued that cars powered by alternative fuels can never be really green, just eco-friendlier than regular vehicles.

MetroCard Mania

I am guilty of being somewhat of a New York subway MetroCard hoarder. Not intentionally; it's just that there's little amounts left in each one and I just haven't refilled them. (In my defense, I do not live in the city now. When I used to live there, I reused a card until it expired. And when the cards expired, I disposed of them at the subway station receptacles after checking the balance.) This weekend, I was happy to see a sign on a subway advertising the EasyPay Xpress, an automatic-recharging program. This way, regular riders need to keep only one card.

Recycle the Fall

I understand that the fall season is well underway in the U.S., which means crisp weather, the turning of the leaves, and the subsequent falling and sweeping up of the aforementioned leaves. With all the leaves that you'll be gathering, what are you supposed to do with them?

Boise, Idaho's got a good idea how you can deal with all those leaves. The city has been running its program called Recycle the Fall for a few years now. Residents are given $10 coupons for compostable paper leaf bags where they can stash their leaves for pick-up. The program runs from November 4 to December 2.

Glad to have Met you

It's nice to see that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is recycling/reusing the buttons they give out for admission.

ITech Solar Charger

It would be awesome if all of us already had mobile phones that would be charged automatically every time you step out in the sunshine, but until that happy day, we have solar chargers to work with, like this one from i.Tech. The Solar Charger 906 features a monocrystalline solar panel and also comes with 10 different adapter plugs to suit phones made by various manufacturers. It soaks up enough solar power to juice up your phone, but you can hook it up to a USB port to power up its rechargeable battery, too.

Southwest Airlines debuts green plane

If you want to know more about how Southwest Airlines has been doing all it can to be green, you only have to take a look at Nuts About Southwest's environment-related posts to see what they've been up to. Just a couple of months ago, the company was recognized by the EPA as a Green Power Leader, and this month, Southwest Airlines is launching its green plane. The aircraft makes use of lighter materials that will translate to lesser weight for the plane, resulting in greater fuel efficiency.

Kind Toys

Parents these days are more concerned about the type of products and food they're getting their kids. These must be wholesome, healthful, and should pose no risk to their children. Toys in particular are undergoing scrutiny, with parents rejecting them if they're not 100% kid- and environment-friendly. But not every toy manufacturer is jumping on board the green bandwagon yet, so sometimes, a parent takes it upon his or herself to find, produce, or sell green toys and games for children.

Kind Toys, for example, was started by a parent who experienced

"frustration at trying to find eco friendly toys and green games for my son. I wanted green gifts that looked good, felt good and had no batteries... but were still fun to play with."

And so Kind Toys was born, and is currently an online store carrying green toys from different brands, such as Solar Science, Green Lullaby, and Bioviva.

It would be nice to get a closer look at the people behind the company, so it's best to keep an eye on how Kind Toys will develop in the future.

Running for Conservation

One of my favorite actors, Edward Norton, is running the New York Marathon on 01 November to support the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. 30 runners will be joining him, including 3 Maasai warriors. Good luck!

Click here to sponsor a runner.

(photo from Broadwayworld)

Oh gods, I want this

Well, you know, not desperately, because I still have a perfectly functioning phone. But let's just say I didn't have one, then I would definitely go for Sony Ericsson's C901 GreenHeart. Like I mentioned before, the GreenHeart line was launched last year, with the C901 being its first pioneer product; another SE phone, the Naite, is also positioned as a green, energy-saving phone. Sony Ericsson has added more to its goals for the GreenHeart line, making use of water-borne paints and aggressively pursuing its global TakeBack program.

All keyed up

This lamp wouldn't look out of place hanging from the ceiling of your apartment, a boutique, or a restaurant, which is a pretty good sign for something that was made entirely out of computer keyboard keys. It was designed by Nolan Herbut, who's currently taking up Industrial Design at the University of Alberta. This is just one of his two keyboard-made projects so far; the other one is the Wolfgang Keyboard Bench.

Nolan hasn't called himself a green designer, but from these two samples, it looks like an option he should be considering.