Every year, a list of the world's top 100 most sustainable corporations comes out, and the Global 100 list for this year was just released. Check out who made it.

I bought this shirt the other day, and I just decided to put it in the laundry today when I noticed all the tags hanging from it. HerBench just printed the size and some details on the shirt itself, but there's still a sticker there bearing the size number as well. The other tags contain the price, and a proud proclamation of the material used in manufacturing the shirt. I know they're just small bits of paper and all, but with the number of shirts manufactured by the company, even those pieces of paper add up, and to think that not everyone even pays attention to what the labels say. I wonder if there's a more eco-friendly option to displaying information about an item of clothing. Perhaps just one tag made of recycled paper and which contains everything, from the size, information on the materials, washing instructions, and the price?

Spotted over at Grist: Oregon-based company Clean Air Lawn Care is open for franchising!

Introducing Clean Air Lawn Care, an environmentally-friendly, national lawn care company based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Think of us as a lawn care company for the affluent, busy and environmentally conscious. We're changing the world one lawn at a time, and it all begins with our profitable, sustainable business model. If you consider Yourself part businessperson, part tree-hugger and part pioneer, we'd like to meet you.

Find out more about the company's franchising opportunities.

If you use air fresheners, read the results of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) investigation that found hormone-altering chemicals in air fresheners. How about making your own?

What is it with people and the urge to give clothes the power to, well, power things? There was last year's solar-powered swimsuit, and now there's the Day-for-Night dress, which basically looks like a little white dress made up of tiles. More accurately, it's made up of 448 circuit boards.

Each tile is designed in such a way as to accommodate a solar cell, a RGB LED, or a photocell, and jumper connectors (in the form of 0 Ohm resistors). A control board provides power, communicates with the tiles, and links to a computer via RF. The dress is completely modular both in terms of software and hardware.

So will we be seeing anybody all decked out in circuit boards? Uh, not likely, really. But it's a nice thought. Perhaps people should just stick to turning bags and accessories into power-charging stations rather than making clothes do the work.

Want to feel pretty like Maria in West Side Story? Make sure you don't feel dizzy or funny though. The Breast Cancer Fund has a free information card listing carcinogenic ingredients in beauty products. Get it here. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a What Not to Buy list. Feel pretty and sunny instead.

Green Unlimited can now be found at www.green-unlimited.com! We hope it will make it easier for you to remember the URL. :)

Of all the office-bound transportation options I've heard--from carpooling to commuting to biking--I gotta say that I love this option the best: riding a water bike to work.

Nat Hong and Bob Barrett commute on Puget Sound by bike — water bike, that is — to their jobs in Bremerton and Steilacoom.

"This is pretty hard to beat in terms of a pleasant commute," said Hong, who lives on Bainbridge Island and teaches at Olympic College in Bremerton.

The drive would be 80 miles round trip. But with his water bike, the trip to work is just 12 miles — including one mile on the water.

The two use a Hydrobike for their ride. It doesn't come cheap, but imagine all the money you could save anyway by not driving a car.

I love the concept. It's totally perfect for people who really can significantly slash their commute time by cutting across a body of water, and those who actually have a body of water near their homes in the first place. Sure, you have to exert more effort than sitting behind the wheel as usual, but think of all the pounds you'll lose! Plus, there's probably no chance of you getting stuck in traffic, eh?

_{Photo by Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times}

We've all heard of the Atkins or the South Beach diets. What about the 100 mile diet? According to their webpage, the average North American produce have travelled at least 1500 miles. So in 2005, Allison Smith and James McKinnon decided that for a year, they would only buy their food and drink from within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver.

If you're interested, Local Harvest might help you get started. Our friends across the pond could visit Big Barn.

Environment America asks you to sign a petition to Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Schieffer and Chris Wallace so they'll start querying the presidentiables about global warming and our energy future. Sign here!

Since I became interested and aware about environmental issues, product packaging is one of the things I've started to eye more carefully. I'm pretty pleased with Sony Ericsson, because the amount of packing materials has been reduced and even the box size is considerably smaller. Seagate Freeagent Go, on the other hand, makes decent use of its box as well, although I wonder if the wrapper for the hard drive and its cable itself is really necessary, as with the round yellow sticker greeting you with a "Hello." Charming, cute, but important? Hmm.

This interesting piece by Salazar Packaging president Dennis Salazar addresses the importance of using sustainable packaging materials that will still effectively fill voids in a container, without filling landfills.

I've been trying to get a small proofreading business off the ground lately, and I obtained my first customer yesterday! Once upon a time during my earlier proofreading jobs, I had to drive to the company's office, get my printed copy of the document, and do the work right there. But happily, there's a much more eco-friendly option, one that won't require me to go anywhere and won't even use hard copy versions of documents: good old e-mail! I had my first client e-mail--I accept both Word and PDF files--her document to me, which I will send back once the job is complete. Even our agreement was done via e-mail: I e-mailed the job agreement to her, which she signed with a scanned signature, and boom! Done!

Speaking of PDF, I love the stuff because it's convenient as hell. Sometimes, though, you might need to convert your files to PDF. Adobe Acrobat, one of the main choices for the purpose, costs an arm and a leg, but thankfully, there are loads of other PDF creators out there which are much cheaper, or are even available for free!

Yesterday, I found doPDF while hunting for Adobe Acrobat alternatives. What really caught my eye was an item on their list of benefits.

Do your part in saving the planet - instead of consuming paper to print your document, why not create a PDF file out of it and spare a couple of planet-saving trees?

So it looks like I'll be downloading the software pretty soon. Good of them to include the environment in their thoughts, too.

Greenwashing is the act of misleading consumers regarding a company's environmental practices or a product's benefits to the environment. Here are the results of Terra Choice's study of environmental claims in North America. They identified 6 sins of greenwashing:

• Hidden trade-off: advertising a product as green based on a single attribute e.g. using recycled paper without paying attention to other manufacturing impacts.
• No-proof: No evidence or certification e.g. no evidence to support a claim of beauty products not having been tested on animals.
• Irrelevance: Claiming that a product has no chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to deplete the ozone layer when in fact CFCs have been banned for 30 years.
• Vagueness: Poorly defined claims such as "all natural", "non-toxic", "chemical free" or simply, "green", again without supporting evidence.
  
• Lesser of two evils: Green insecticides or organic cigarettes. The product may be green but using it should be discouraged in the first place.
• Fibbing: Outright lying about a product's environmental impact.
  

I love this article explaining why distance learning is better for the environment. For one thing, university campuses use a lot of energy and resources, and even those schools with lots of green spaces aren't always all that green. The article brings up the matter of electricity use, paper use, and the commute to school, which all add up to one heck of a carbon footprint.

I can't help but agree with the points raised by the article; I'm a big fan of not leaving the comforts of my home if it can be helped, after all. But what if you want to study in an entirely different city, or country, and immerse yourself in that place's culture? Moving around and seeing new places does help expand your mind and the range of your experiences. Earning your degree online, even if it's from a university located abroad, doesn't seem to have the same appeal as actually being in that school. Distance learning might not be for everyone, but if you just want to earn your degree and are fine without interacting with your professors and classmate, then this is something you should consider.

If you really want to go to a traditional campus, well, just try to be as green as you can! For starters, print your reports on both sides of the paper. Take public transportation, walk, bike, or carpool to school. Reduce energy use in your lodgings. There are many ways for you to make some really important changes.

It's not owned by Google, but it is "powered by Google Custom Search". Even Treehugger got wind of and had a post about it. Whether or not Blackle really lives up to its promise, I recommend you check it out.

Environmental Defense just updated their list of sustainable seafood, adding more fish to the list! If you want to have the list of eco-friendly seafood with you at all times, in case you feel like having seafood for your meal, you can download a PDF of the seafood selector to help you make the right choice.

And if you want to share with the world that you eat sustainable seafood, you can place this nifty little badge on your site.


Here's the code for this badge:

_{<a href="http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=1521"><img src="http://www.environmentaldefense.org/content_Images/Seafood_Selector_Badge.jpg" border="0" alt="Eco-friendly seafood selector"></a>}
Thanks so much to Lauren Guite of Environmental Defense for the updates!

Ashmont Grill opened in 2005, and this year, the restaurant has already received recognition for its green efforts. Owner Chris Douglass was able to use sheet metal gathered from dumpsters and had it turned into cool decor and fixtures for the restaurant. And apart from that,

Only locally grown produce is used at the restaurant, and used grease from the kitchen is sold to a vendor who filters it into fuel for biodiesel vehicles. Typically, restaurateurs must pay to have their kitchen grease picked up.

This should be encouraging news for all restaurants thinking of going green...and also for people hoping to make greener eating choices! It's true that we can all be more eco-friendly by just preparing food at home, but when circumstances call for having meals in restaurants, you might as well go for a restaurant that cares for the environment.

So we're currently trying to reduce our meat intake, and like I've mentioned in the past, I'm a total carnivore and will find this a challenging change. I'm shooting for lacto-ovo vegetarianism, because I still can't go without eggs and chicken (baby steps, people, baby steps), so the first to go are burgers, steaks, and bacon. Thankfully, Healthy Options sells veggie and soy burgers, like Gardenburger and Boca Burgers. I picked up a box of Amy's All American Veggie Burgers and have yet to try it out, but I certainly hope it's up to the task of making me forget about beef burgers!

Edit: Mmm, the veggie burger is actually very good. Nothing like beef, of course, but it has a tasty, somewhat spicy flavor all its own.

The Lifecycle Building Challenge was held last year and the big winner was Michael Berk, a professor at the Mississippi State University School of Architecture. His idea: an eco-friendly mobile home. And why not? If major building developments, residential communities, and houses are getting in on the green scene, why not something small like a mobile home?

The GreenMobile design meets International Residential Codes for structurally sound foundations, involves using better insulation, promotes the use of energy-efficient appliances, and creates interior spaces better suited for natural-day lighting and ventilation.

Right now, Berk is working with the Mississippi Emergency Agency to develop a similar housing system, called the EcoCottage, and is waiting to find a company with whom he can further develop and eventually produce the GreenMobile. Any takers?

I was sitting at the doctor's office the other day and picked up a copy of US News and World Report. I found this article about Mayor Bloomberg's proposed congestion pricing. What struck me was the possibility of implementing a system that's already being used in the Philippines: prohibiting cars from being driven into the city on certain days. For example, cars with license plate sequences ending with the numeral 5, for example, would not be allowed to drive on days of the month ending with a 5. I wonder how this would go over with New Yorkers. I applaud the good mayor's efforts to make NY a green city.

Are you from Australia or New Zealand and want to know where you can get some eco-friendly home furnishings? Style Plantation would be a great choice for you. They have everything from flooring materials, bedding, curtains, and more.

Companies usually say that they can't go green because the changes will cost a lot, plus they're not sure that they will get their investment back because consumers don't really look for environment-friendliness in companies and products. So why gamble on something uncertain?

Times are a-changing, though, and while people are keenly suspicious of excessive green claims, they still want companies to be responsible and to make it easier for people to make eco-friendly choices. That's why companies are now responding to the demand for more environmentally-friendly products and options.

I thought how nice it would be if companies just turned green without thinking about it and just because they wanted to, but listening to what their customers want is good enough.

Greenprint Denver and Staples have teamed up to donate $10,000 to Tree by Tree - Mile High Million, a tree planting initiative launched in Denver, Colorado.

"Staples really has made it easy for us to progress toward our goal of planting a million trees in metro Denver by 2025," said Sara Davis, program coordinator for Tree by Tree - Mile High Million, a Greenprint Denver initiative. "This program is essential for promoting Colorado's environmental and economic sustainability, and we are grateful to have partners like Staples who help us continue to grow."

Sometime in December, 10 Staples stores donated $1 from each purchase and directed it to Tree By Tree.

New mobile phone models are being released with alarming regularity, so it would be really nice if they had some really good features, right? Other than being able to make calls, send text messages, take photos, surf the Web, etc. Bike couriers in Cambridge will be setting out with pollution sensors and GPS units linked to their mobile phones; the findings will then be monitored by the scientists in charge of this project. Even pedestrians can become pollution trackers--they just have to carry the sensors around. It'd be interesting to see how much pollution there is in different cities, and I hope something like this can be done all over the world. Hah, I'd like to see the pollution levels here, for one.

We all know how e-waste just piles up all over the world, and it's getting even worse nowadays, what with model after model of mobile phones, MP3 players, computers, and cameras coming out every quarter. Something clearly has to be done, and if people don't want to curb their urge for new gadgetry, another option is necessary.

Enter TechForward. If you're planning to upgrade your gadget, you can at least dispose of it responsibly, and that is what TechForward helps you do. You can send them your laptops and iPods, which they will buy from you at a rate that is appropriate for the condition of your item. They will then sell it to another person who will be able to make better use of your things, or if they can't be sold, they will then recycle your item.

Definitely a better idea than just throwing your gadgets away or just stashing them in your closet.

I eat Stonyfield Farm Yogurt almost everyday. I read that its CEO, Gary Hirshberg, wrote a book entitled Stirring it up: How to Make Money and Save the World. You can find out how and why corporate responsibility works. Why can't all businesses be run in a socially responsible manner?

If you own an electric car and live in California, Nevada or Arizona, Clean Car Maps can help you locate charging stations.

Now here's the first time I've heard of an agreement like this: Spain and Portugal have signed an agreement to create an eco-friendly car, which they will develop in order to reduce pollution on the Iberian Peninsula. Sounds like a worthwhile project to me! It'll be interesting to see what kind of car they'll come up with.

Prince Charles, widely known as the green prince, delivered a speech at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi without leaving England--he appeared as a hologram during the event, his speech having been pre-recorded in November.

Prince Charles has been building up a solid reputation as an advocate for the environment, making plenty of changes to his homes and improving the way he travels. This is just another way for him to cut back on carbon emissions and it looks like it was quite a success, garnering positive reactions from people.

But he's not the first one to do this, by the way. Al Gore was also projected as a hologram at last year's Live Earth concert in Tokyo.

It would be really cool when people start doing this, although those who are expecting a personal appearance from politicians would probably be disappointed. :) Still, it'd probably be worth it to see something groundbreaking like that.

The Smart Car is a cute little vehicle, I've always felt. It's small, fuel-efficient, plus it can let you squeeze through streets and in parking spaces that will ordinarily gives regular-sized cars a headache. It's mainly sold in Europe, but there's word that the Smart ForTwo model will reach American shores this year.

Companies such as G&K Automotive Conversion Inc. in Santa Ana, have been importing Smart Cars and converting them to meet U.S. standards and then selling them through dealers for years.

With high gas prices and a surge in the green movement, the Smart Car is in demand.

It'll be a nice change to the ginormous SUVs stomping on the streets and highways, although I think the Smart ForTwo will make carpooling a challenge.

An Inconvenient Truth had a great deal to do with how the Sundance Film Festival is trying to prove its green credentials, it looks like. Read more about the latest developments here.

Yep, we all know companies are doing their darndest to show their customers that they really are being green, honest, but not all consumers are buying it. They think that companies' claims of sustainability are just pure greenwash, or that they're just trying to ride on the popularity of being eco-friendly. But what seems to work a whole lot better with consumers is for companies to admit that they're not all that green.

I personally would love it if companies talked about the green measures they take, but it's also nice to hear them admit their limitations. Leaves room for people to help them figure out how to address these issues, plus it's refreshing to see that they know what they're doing wrong, and that they want to improve on these things, instead of claiming that they're the greenest company ever, but are actually screwing up behind the scenes.

Bottle deposits aren't anything new where I'm from, and I believe the small neighborhood stores still do this over here. When I was a kid and the school cafeteria gave us refunds for each bottle of soda we brought back, I had no idea what the money was for.

Bottle deposits go back a long way, and they were first implemented to keep litter under control and it was also a cost-cutting measure for beverage companies, who would take back the bottles, wash them, and refill them with beverages. Now that is a nice takeback plan, except with the advent of disposable drink containers and the issue of expenses for each returned container, offering bottle return deposits is something only a few states in the U.S. are practicing, most notably Oregon, and is also being considered by Australia.

A good idea? Probably, since getting back the money they spent will spur some people to return their beverage containers to the stores. But it would be loads better if people would return the containers on their own steam, and if beverage companies actually cared enough to take back these items.