“Sara! Want new SmartCar? Txt yes or no quick!”

Such a text message from your mother might be odd in some families, but not in mine (Mom sells cars faster than bootleg Louis Vuittons and also wields a mean text thumb). I didn’t hesitate. “Yes! Pics!”

I didn’t need a test drive. I’d been tooling around in an old, albeit fun, Jeep for several years. Well, fun when I lived in Pacific Palisades, California and a big day was driving to the beach four blocks away. My first winter in San Francisco with a canvas-topped Jeep – make that my first summer in San Francisco – was an exercise in austerity. I guess I was going for that weathered ski bunny look or at least that’s what I’ll claim in my memoirs. After some nine months of driving in all manner of weather with the plastic windows rolled up a boyfriend helpfully pointed out that they come down. Aha! That’s what those big, dangling zipper pulls were for! Who knew?

Weirdly, the Tesla roadster is not yet in my budget, so I’d resigned myself to driving my Jeep until the wheels fell off and simply parking a generous mile or three away from any green event I attended when the lucky text came.

Lest you have any worries about the safety of the SmartCar, let me assure you, it’s super sturdy. I know this because my mother managed to get into a wreck before I even took possession of my new car. Wasn’t that nice of her to test it out? To be fair, the collision wasn’t her fault. The guy in the SUV was just confused. Didn’t she know the golf course was two turns back?

This being a SmartCar, they don’t really have replacement bumpers just lying around, so I had to wait nearly a month for the damaged caboose to be repaired. (Mom emerged unscathed, caboose intact.)

Accident now out of the way, I made the trek to the homestead in Washington to pick up my little bean and bring it back to the Bay. And I have to tell you, the people you meet at gas stations and rest stops sure are caring folks. I’ve never before felt the likes of such popularity or perhaps I should say, worry.

Parked flush with our publisher’s hybrid Honda

More than once: “Are you safe in that thing?”

Chewing lower lip with concern: “Is that allowed on the freeway?” (We’ll find out!)

The polite: “How much did you pay for…that?”

And the distinctly thoughtful: “What is that?”

That, I’ll have you know, buzzed down the five at 75 mph all the way home with no trouble at all save for a few belches from semi-trucks.

Now, the Smart is what I would call an “active driving experience” – think a stubborn 3 Series. If you like being the boss of your hunk of steel as opposed to rolling over pavement like a stale marshmallow you’ll enjoy the way the Smart handles. What you may or may not enjoy are the looks. And chuckles. And pointing. And being flagged down from three blocks away by really cute men. Which finger you display all depends upon your personality and relationship status.

Smarty has some surprises up its cage. I call it the “Alice in Wonderland effect”. While resembling a glorified jujubee on the outside, the thing is damn near cavernous inside. I wouldn’t say it’s palatial on a scale of the Hummer, but the interior is so roomy you soon forget you’re in half a car. Of course, if you need a reminder just look in the backseat. Kidding! There isn’t one.

The Alice effect is so pronounced you’ll want to be extra alert – I have to remind myself every time I drive that just because I can dart in and out of traffic like a Tonka Toy on Red Bull doesn’t mean I should. This is a car for defensive drivers only. That said, it’s very solid for its size at 1800 pounds, earned a 5-star safety rating, and of course it’s loaded to the crannies with airbags. In other words, this is a blowfish waiting to happen.

Other features include a non-retractable “panorama” sun roof that is virtually the entire top of the vehicle (think Jurassic Park but without the toothsome dinosaur part) and lots of clever storage spots and witty accents for design geeks to love. True, the spare tire may be ridiculous, but the engine’s in the trunk – how cool is that? You won’t have much use for such convenient placement, however, as even after two road trips the machine didn’t sip so much as a drop from its two-quart oil well. (Oh, the satisfying sentence this writer has to forgo because they couldn’t make it pint-sized. Wholeness eludes my post – and let’s be honest here, my soul – once again.)

My model, the Passion, is the less pricey version but still comes pretty well-equipped with leather, daytime running lights, AC and tiptronic shift control. And being a web marketing gal, I appreciate the cool social network, Destination Smart, that doesn’t suck a digital egg, unlike Chevy’s Voltage. (I always loved MINI cooper’s marketing but never did shove them the cash.)

For a 1.0 liter, 70 horse, 3-cylinder car, there’s a pleasing amount of get-up-and-go. It’s not my turbo Volvo T5 of yesteryear, but one could call it zippy with a straight face. The only thing that took some getting used to for this stick-shift girl was the oddball gear transitioning: it’s an automated manual transmission. After two months of ownership, though, I only really notice the shift lag when my espresso bean is puffing up to the crest of Franklin. My friend, Nancy, likes to pat Smarty’s dash and say, “Come on, you can do it!” If you want more power, you can go with the BRABUS model (BRABUS as in Mercedes, the maker of SmartCar; there’s also the starter model, Pure, as well as the new cabriolet).

Already in need of a bath…

Anyone who has had to fork over $30 for parking in San Francisco can appreciate the Smart. While I have yet to perform a perpendicular parking job, the bean has been invaluable for errands and evenings out in the city. San Francisco, by design, has an abundance of short curbs between townhouse driveways that are often empty as only motorcycles and sub-compacts have a prayer of fitting in. But these almost-spaces are perfect for Smarty!

And oh, the gas mileage. 50, 55, 60 – no sweat. I go weeks without filling up and look back fondly on my trips to Napa and, yes, the South Bay. Thanks to a respectable sound system and supportive seats with butt warmers even jaunts to San Jose are dreamy. I do get pulled over by cops quite a bit more now (what, you don’t?), but then I also get out of the tickets so it kind of works out!

Moving along. Road trip numero uno under my belt for the grand total of $35 in gas (Smarty’s tiny tank takes premium only, baby), I thought, where to next?

Westside girl and EcoSalon writer, Kim, had her birthday at the beginning of July, so it was off to LA for me. Despite all the heels and dresses and handbags five days in Los Angeles requires, the Smart has surprisingly ample storage. So at the last minute I thought, what the hell, I’m bringing the cat. I’m sure she’ll be as thrilled as I to see the old stomping grounds, right? Besides, cats love long car rides almost as much as they like being deposited for slumber parties with dogs at your buddy’s SoCal house. It’s one, big happy family!

My cat, Roo, on the road…

Roo upon learning she’ll be staying with dogs.

There’s no rating standard for this at Consumer Reports, but I’ve never seen a cat or rather my cat behave so well on a road trip. I mean, I’m not in the cats-on-road-trips business or anything, but surely this counts in Smart’s favor. Roo, a queenly Maine Coon, curled up in her carrier the entire way sans sedative, only occasionally popping her large, fluffy head out to remind me that I was in the presence of greatness.

Unfortunately, once in LA I took a curve on Sunset a tad too sharply, causing her to tumble out – of the carrier, relax! – and having figured out that she was not actually confined to her travel case, all subsequent driving was less than festive. The psychological jig was up. Ever tried putting a cat back into anything? Pandora had it easier. Once again, kudos to the SmartCar’s handling.

Two big road trips for a mere Benjamin later, I love my Smart even more. The only problem is that now I want to drive everywhere. Meet me for mojitos at the Parker in Palm Springs? I do have a birthday coming up!

Images: Claire Gordon, Sara Ost

Are fuel costs stressing you out? Can’t spring for a new fuel-sipping ride? When you seek to improve the fuel-efficiency of a vehicle, the journey must start inside your own head. When you learn to control emotions on the road, you reduce the impulse to stomp on the pedals. Eliminate those aggressive tendencies and you’ll experience a significant improvement in your vehicle’s mile per gallon (MPG) average.

Of course, while that mantra might sound swell and dandy, does it really work when you’re stuck in traffic twice a day, five days a week? It all depends on the strategies you employ.

Some things to consider:

Telecommute

Driving to work every day can be burdensome and wasteful (on many levels). Any opportunity you have to work from home is an opportunity to dramatically reduce your fuel costs and lower your stress level.

Use Flex Time

Leaving fifteen minutes earlier or later can have a significant impact on your commuting time and fuel consumption. Avoiding the worst of stop and go traffic during the morning and afternoon rush hours can boost your car’s average gas mileage.

Don’t Be In a Hurry

When all works as planned, those 15 minutes of slack in your schedule can prove to be quite relaxing. If you’re not in a hurry, you’ll go easier on the pedals.

Be Conscious and Conscientious

Know where your right foot is at all times. Seek to minimize the duration and intensity of the pressure you put on the accelerator. The more pressure you exert, the more fuel you’re wasting.

It Isn’t a Race

You don’t have to pass three cars on your way to the next traffic light. Let the other folks pretend that they’re driving in the Daytona 500.

Know Your Lanes

Be a good citizen on the highway. If you want to fly, the left lane is for you. If you’re traveling at the speed limit (or below), the right lane is where you should be…just be sure to make room for the folks that are merging. If it’s a three-lane highway, the center lane is for folks traveling through, at or above the speed limit, but below warp speed. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Stop Riding Those Bumpers

Unless you enjoy the exhaust smell of the vehicle in front of you, there’s no reason to crawl up its rear bumper (and raise everyone’s blood pressure). When you leave plenty of distance between cars, you reduce the need to stomp on the brakes, which leads us to…

Inertia is Your Friend

It’s been said that fuel-efficient driving is a lot like riding a bicycle. The more you can coast (with the automatic transmission in gear), the better. When you exert pressure on the pedals, you’re expending energy. The better you know your car, the more velocity you can safely carry through the corners.

Fuel-efficient driving needn’t be boring, nor should it infuriate your passengers or other drivers. Like so many things in life, some simple breathing techniques and a good bit of patience go a long way.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Daniel Gray, who produces real-world video car reviews with a unique focus on fuel efficiency. His fun and friendly reviews can be found at mpgomatic.com. Thanks for the great tips, Daniel!

Image: celerrimus

Meet Colin Coon. He’s an ordinary high school senior with a not so ordinary senior project. Having spent the last year converting a 1980 Mercedes station wagon to run on vegetable oil, he has just taken off on a six week cross-country road trip. His goal – to make people more aware of alternative energy sources.

Now, not all high schools would be open to a student’s “˜senior project’ involving a road trip of 8500 miles in a car that’s running on vegetable oil. But then, New Gate School in Sarasota, Florida isn’t exactly your ordinary, everyday school. One of only six Montessori-based secondary schools in the country, New Gate focuses not only on strong academics but also on encouraging students to create their own educational experiences by pursuing what interests, intrigues, and excites them.

Colin not only converted the car but also raised over $6000 for the trip and has been in contact with many small restaurants on his route to ask them to donate vegetable oil for the cause.

Along the way, Colin will be speaking at schools and spreading the word that there are other ways to get around besides using fossil fuels.

Want to come along for the ride? Then head on over to Colin’s Green Machine and enjoy the trip.

Images: Paraflyer, My Sun Coast

I’m one of those people who quickly tidy up my car before handing it over at the car wash, disposing of the banana peels jammed into paper cups and cookie crumbs taking up residence in the carpet and upholstery. Such treasures are routinely left behind by my daughters who view my Volvo as their waste can on wheels.

It occurred to me this morning that I should create a car compost system with a portable bin to chase those necessary after-school car treats.  Instead of grinding the granola bar remains into my wagon’s cup holders, certain passengers could simply toss the food scraps into the small compost container.

While no one has invented a car compost bin per se, small kitchen composters could do the trick. I found a few options with lids at Composters.

The car wash guys will be impressed!

Image: Werwin15

You all deserve a night on the town – your favorite restaurant, your favorite wine, your best friends. Alas. It’s time for one of you to take the short straw – the one soberly marked “designated driver”.

Or, you can hire a limo – and you don’t have to sabotage your eco principles to do it! The green chauffeur industry is on a…roll. (Oh dear, that’s two.)

For example, if you’re in the San Francisco area, you could contact Bauer’s Worldwide Intelligent Transportation. Over 85% of their miles are eco-friendly (they use sustainable fuel sources in hybrid vehicles). Google use Bauer’s to shuttle 2,500 of their employees back and forth from Silicon Valley.

Everyone gets the long straw and a green conscience. It’s the perfect way to let your hair down for an indulgent night on the town. Driver!

Just before you go off and enjoy your hard-earned weekend, we’d like to tell you about these…

Lifehacker is keen for us to save a little money by powering down our computers  – and they recommend using Edison (free, 45mb) or Local Cooling (free, 4mb) to do it.

As Greenthinkers reports, the internet show EPIC FU is going plastic free for a week. (They should check out Envirowoman’s blog. She did it for over a year!)

If we’re really going to slim down our possessions, we need to learn the art of gently letting go. Blog Nosh has a few thoughts they’d like to share with us.

More techno-cleverness. Are you the proud owner of an iPhone or other brand of smartphone? You may want to try out Fuelly, a cunning new way of keeping track of your mileage. (Groovy Green is giving it a run round the block).

Hats in the air for Oregon, which is installing 8,000 square feet of solar panelling to help light the I5 & I205 interchange (spotted by Ecogeek). Let’s hope everywhere else takes note – highway lighting is long overdue an eco-makeover.

Spend money on the green products you love, earn more ecopoints – redeem as shopping vouchers or carbon offsets. Participating products include my favourite chocolate in the world! (Thanks for the link, EcoStreet).

"All you ever need to know about clothes"? Our fashion team might beg to differ – but The Ecologist’s A to Z of Eco Fashion is certainly an impressive list.

Next up on the frontline against plastic: Stephanie at Eco Chick. She’s looking at ways to reduce plastic usage in your regular beauty routine (and doesn’t believe it’s possible to go entirely plastic-free: here’s her insightful article on the subject at Earthfirst).

Diet soda is eco-friendlier than the "full-fat" variety, yes? Erm…well, go and have a read of Umbra Fisk’s piece over at Grist. Unless you’re overly-attached to your soda, in which case, have a stiff drink first.

It had to happen. We already have bamboo bicycles and now, it’s time for the fully-working wooden car. And boy, does that Cadillac look gorgeous. (Not entirely sure about the half-and-half car, though). But I have a question – what happens to a wooden car in the rain?

Enjoy your weekend!

Image: jkohen

Sorry to burst your bubble, but not even eco-bloggers are eco-perfect. Case in point: the last time I moved I had to deal with a few cans of leftover house paint. It wasn’t worth taking with me so I left those cans in the shed for the next resident to deal with. Not the greatest karma, but at least I didn’t throw the paint in the trash.

Here’s the good neighbor way to deal with household hazardous waste like leftover paint, cleaning products and used motor oil.

1. Paint

With paint, you have a few options: If the paint is still good, look around and see if there’s an old chair or table you can spiff up, or donate the paint to a church or community organization that may be able to use it. Otherwise, you’ll have to make sure the paint is completely solid before throwing that can away. Leave the lid open to let it dry or fill the can with sawdust and kitty litter to create a solid mass. The big faux pas is throwing away liquid paint, which leaks from the landfill into groundwater.

2. Toxic Cleaning Products

As for those potent household cleaning chemicals (the ones you no longer use now that you’ve gone green…right?), you’ll have to contact your local hazardous waste removal center. Look in the phonebook or Google it. Better yet, list them on Freecycle – there might be someone out there with a really tough cleaning job who doesn’t mind the fumes.

3. Motor Oil

Any weekend mechanic will have a grimy can or two sitting around. But don’t be tempted to pour it on the ground! Many communities have recycling programs for motor oil. Use Google to find your local oil recycling center, or call an auto parts store or car dealership ““ they can point you in the right direction.

It does take a little bit of extra work to dump these toxic products correctly, but trust me, you don’t want it getting into the water supply. And please, don’t do what I did and leave it for someone else to deal with!

Image: kabil

Now that my city, San Francisco, has been given one of the highest walkability rates in the nation – surpassing NY and Boston – I am thrilled to know that the rise in fuel costs and deepening energy crisis has spurred more people onto the streets into walking or riding to their destinations. That’s healthy, in more ways than one.

Personally, I thrive on interaction with people. Seeing people regularly on the street fosters community and Americans need that more than ever in a time when our culture suffers from the highest rate of depression in the world.

I miss the suburbs. In light of the New Urbanist debates over suburban design, I am pro-community. The New Urbanist approach has many of the elements that foster community in suburbia – for example, a kind of social dimension to the architecture where we see the use of front porches on homes that face and relate to each other; home designs that de-emphasize a dominant garage feature where parking your car is detached and forces people to pass one another on a path.

What could be better than shared outdoor spaces and community gardens providing a setting for casual social interaction? Who wouldn’t want to strengthen their social networks and get the perks of having a sense of community that includes a sense of responsibility and safety in a neighborhood?

Let’s meditate for a moment on how people really want to live – in aesthetically-pleasing, affordable homes with shared outdoor space, tree-shaded dead-end streets that keep the neighborhood cooler in the summer, save money on infrastructure, eliminate through traffic and create quiet and safe spaces for children to play and neighbors to meet. Spaces for ball games, picnics, gardens, vineyards, and orchards. Beneath the SUVs and strip malls, suburbia has a green heart.

Image: Pear Biter

Stuck with an impossible-to-sell SUV? Getting killed at the pump? Here’s how to green that machine.

There’s a whole lot of information online about which hybrid is the best. But there’s not a lot of help for the one in eight Americans who have purchased an SUV and may be stuck with it. What’s needed is a practical guide for the rest of us. And by us, I really mean us – I own an SUV myself. (Shhh!)

Yes, trading in the SUV for that eco-friendly hybrid would be great. But many of us are not in this position for a variety of reasons: budget, credit, a lease we can’t get out of, work, or lifestyle commitments.

Stanch the Bleeding

The obvious first step is to cut down on fuel consumption. Aside from being good for the planet, this can help save you a lot of money, which is probably why you most want to “green” your beast in the first place. With gas prices closing in on $5 per gallon in some parts of the country, driving an SUV these days is painful. Tips to save on fuel:

1. Drive a little less. Part of a couple? According to Planet Green, if one of you can take public transport (or even carpool with a coworker) while the other still uses the SUV, you will save up to $6,200 a year. If you’re thinking, “So why not keep the second car and sell the SUV?” skip down a few paragraphs to learn why that may not be a wise decision. More tips: if you can walk or bike to errands, do so. If you can telecommute one day a week, even better.

2. Road rules. Driving aggressively sucks up a lot of gas. If you can drive at an even speed and brake and accelerate slowly, you’ll save between 31-37% of the gas in your tank! Don’t drive competitively, constantly switching lanes and trying to get the space ahead.

3. Geriatric style. Driving slower will save you 12-14% on gas. I used to be an impatient speed demon until I narrowly missed a horrific multi-car accident one night in Santa Monica. I decided right then that driving like my grandma wasn’t such a bad idea. Sure, sometimes people get annoyed with me, but in addition to saving on gas I just feel a lot calmer and safer on the road. It’s their loss.

4. Fueling debate. Hey, low rider: keep your tires properly inflated to save 3% on gas. Well, maybe – studies differ. As for the buzz about filling your tires with nitrogen, it’s probably not worth the extra cost, but it doesn’t hurt to try. And you’ll have to decide if turning off the A/C to save gas is a myth.

5. The devil’s time. Idling really is bad for fuel efficiency. 5 minutes a day of idling means a gallon lost a month, so look for ways to reduce idling time.

Make the Most of It

Should you trade it in? Kelley Blue Book doesn’t think so and neither do most guides; SUV prices have dropped nearly 10% since the end of 2007. It will only get worse until winter, when prices are expected to creep back up to break-even. If you’ve still got a substantial amount on the loan to pay back, you could be facing a significant financial loss if you try to sell or trade in. Make the most of your Toyotasaurus Rex instead.

1. Think long-term. First, realize that as much as the sign at the gas station stings, the loss you’ll take on getting rid of your SUV is going to sting more than what you’re shelling out for gas over the life of your loan. On average, it’s actually cheaper to keep your SUV than to get a newer fuel-efficient car.

2. My treehugger friends are going to cringe, but I say enjoy your SUV while you’ve got it. I’m not talking about gas guzzling road trips, but just the fact that you own this car. You chose it, right? Americans originally fell for SUVs because they feel powerful and sexy to drive. So enjoy these reptilian instincts until you “evolve”. Nothing is more draining than fruitless, wishy-washy mental limbo. You bought it, it’s yours. Own it.

3. The lesser of two evils. Lend out your SUV to your kids’ school, your church, or to anyone in the community who is moving, working on a big project, or making a big purchase. While your Suburban may get lousy gas mileage on your daily commute, it may not be as bad as the crusty bus or fuming delivery truck.

4. Make your trips efficient. Simply thinking about the various stops you’ll have to make, and planning out your route ahead of time, will save you a lot of gas and reduce your SUV’s impact substantially. If you can, group your errands into weekly or biweekly batches, too.

5. Take good care of it. Eventually you will be able to sell, either because you luck out with the right buyer or you pay down the loan enough to get right-side-up. Keep your brute in optimal condition inside and out to get the most return on your investment and cut down on fuel loss and repairs.

Damage Control

To help reduce your car’s carbon tireprint, look to other areas of your life where you can painlessly green up. (I admit it’s a little personal, but it really grills me when I see people get self-righteous with SUV owners. Maybe they have a unique situation; maybe they happen to be so green on balance that they’re doing better than a lot of hybrid drivers. You never know.)

1. Your house: use a compost, replace burned out bulbs with CFLs, buy a timed thermostat, switch off the lights, plant trees around your house, adjust your thermostat setting by 2 degrees, and buy vintage or eco-friendly decor and furnishings. And switch off the water when you brush!

2. Your diet: eat a salad as one of your daily meals, shop the farmers’ market or sign up for a CSA, and try to use all the food you buy.

3. Your budget: see 25 easy ways to save.

4. Your lifestyle: reduce, reuse, recycle. Everything. Donate all the old clothes, electronics and gadgets you no longer want to charity. Nearly everything you use can go in a recycling bin or the compost.
It also helps to use the real things and avoid disposables like paper plates, paper towels and paper napkins. When it comes to travel, take one less trip a year, and avoid flying. (Purchase carbon offsets for the flights you do make.)

5. Your chores: use a push-powered lawnmower, use eco-friendly or home-made cleaning products, use a wind-powered gadget charger, and carry your sundries and groceries in a stylish reusable sack.

If you’re thinking about unloading the SUV anyway, use this worksheet to see if you can make it work.

What tips did I leave out?

We’re shelling out the big bucks again for summer camps. It’s the price we have to pay to keep our city slickers off the sofa and away from the hypnotic plasma. Among many other attributes, camps can instill a deeper appreciation of the great outdoors. But as a wise person once said, wherever you go, there you are. To mold our children into lifelong green citizens, we need to get them into the right camp at home.

Welcome to Camp EcoSalon, a happy and wholesome family retreat where little campers learn to turn off lights, throw peach pits into the compost bucket, and control urges to print out every cool graphic they encounter on the computer. Care to register? Pack some biodegradable sunscreen and climb aboard the hybrid bus where there’s a lot to learn. It isn’t easy. In my day, the biggest environmental warnings were stopping litter and forest fires. Kids of today, even more than scouts of yesterday, must be prepared. The planet depends on it.

Checking in and out

Establish daily green routines with kids at morning and at night. The lights go on for bathroom duty and off when kids are done. Lessons on their dental hygiene, such as low sugar toothpastes like Tom’s of Maine, should also include turning off faucets when brushing. Tell them to reuse cotton towels to save on laundry. At my house, we hang ours over the banister to dry for the next shower. At bedtime, instruct kids to throw only dirty clothes into the hamper, not just garments they are too lazy to hang up (so that’s how Sydney’s new silk dress got into the dryer…hmm!). Having kids help out with laundry is a good way to demonstrate the demands of the dreaded chore and encourage them to lessen their own hamper loads.

Camp Gear

Can that school backpack be used again? If it’s broken, try to fix it. If it’s not broken resist the urge to buy a fresher one. It’s good to get kids thinking about what can be reused. It’s also good to think about what can be passed down to a sibling or a friend. Hand-me-downs are an ideal way to recycle clothing and athletic gear, such as soccer cleats, shorts and bikes. We give clothes the kids outgrow to their friends or to the needy. Garage sales can leave kids scarred when they must part with sentimental toys. I try to get mine to trade something old with something old. They can pick out a book someone else is getting rid of in exchange for parting with items they no longer use. When buying new clothing, introduce your kids to eco-friendly organic cotton garments at sites like Hanna’s Dream and Ecologique, which sell clothing for kids and adults.

Transportation

If you can swap your gas guzzler for a hybrid, by all means do so. It sends an important message to kids about your commitment to saving on fuel and money. And did you know hybrids come with stickers that give access to carpool lanes in some cities? You can get where you are going faster while burning less fuel. Carpool to school, camp and parties when possible. Let your kids experience public transportation with you, riding the bus or train to events. Make the most of bike riding! You can bike on a safe path to run errands or see a movie.

Nature Time

Bonding with your brood doesn’t have to involve exorbinant consumption (except of course for s’mores round the campfire). Try to schedule low-budget, planet-friendly activities such as organic gardening, camping at state parks or picnics at the beach.

Add good old arts and crafts by bringing sketch pads for still life studies or journals for aspiring young poets. Bring digital cameras on a hike and encourage them to capture nature at work. You can start little ones off with inexpensive green cameras, such as the Sakar Ecotrends camera ($60) at Circuit City. Sure, Disneyland is a blast but time with you stargazing around the campfire will hold a special place in their hearts.

For daytime outdoor adventures, teach your kids about global warming and ozone dangers and protect them with a good, biodegradable sunscreen, like the new SPF 85 Ultra Sheer sunscreen from Neutrogena. Hats are also great added protection at any age.

Green Grub

I began taking my kids to the Sonoma Farmer’s Market on Tuesday nights when they were little. We loved sampling local produce and buying flowers and getting rub-on tattoos at the face painting booth. It’s a great education on local sustainablility (the food, not the tatoos).

Check out Local Harvest to find a market near you. In terms of packing lunches for kids, give them balanced meals with as many fresh produce items as possible, like apple slices and carrot and celery sticks or a small, tasty green salad to balance the sandwich and salty things.

At Feed Our Kids Well you can pick up wonderful recipies, including play date snacks, such as homemade nachos with baked chips, organic salsa and low-fat cheese. Pop organic popcorn on the stove with oil, and toss in nutritional yeast for added value.

I think Supersize Me drove home the message about large sugary drinks and childhood obesity. Always offer good water as a beverage. If on the go, pack them Sigg bottles with water or opt for organic, low-sugar lemonade or other fruit drinks. Teach them to shun plastic disposables. And when they crave treats from the family pantry, suggest Cliff Z Bars or organic dark chocolate over packaged processed goodies with loads of nasty trans fats.

Lights Out

For some little ones, lights out at bedtime means keeping a night light on till dawn. If you must, try a low energy choice such as the LED Osram Lunetta Night Light ($18.95) at Neco.

In terms of their personal environments, kids are allergy prone and it’s good to avoid carpet and clutter in the bedroom. Explain to them why you select healthy organic cotton sheeting that breathes instead of cheap poly linens made with bad chemicals. I use dust mite protection, including encasing our mattresses, with covers from Allergy Buyers Club.

And pillows should be hypoallergenic and not too dense. When you think about how much time we spend in bed, you realize it’s important to make good choices. Teaching kids to pick up after themselves in their rooms is a taxing yet rewarding job. We all know taking responsibility for your own space is related to caring for the community at large. Some experts suggest clean up games and reward charts as opposed to Mary Poppins’ surefire spoonful of sugar method. I find good old threats work well as kids age. “No made bed, no Gilmore Girls!”

Camper Spirit

There’s nothing like a round of Kumbaya to bring out the spirit. Someone’s recycling my lord, Kumbaya… You get the picture. Follow up words with action. Let your kids see you taking part in community work, volunteering to raise money for the Child Abuse Prevention Center, doing a shift serving at the local food bank, joining a beach clean up. It’s the most effective way to spur them on to doing their part for the planet.

My girls have held bake sales and set up lemonade stands for their pet cause, the San Francisco SPCA. Some kids use babysitting money or allowance to donate to a good cause. For ideas on how to inspire your own children, visit Blossom International.

Happy camping!

Image: shoothead

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