LED lightbulbs will be greener, but right now they're pricey - while CFLs are usually less than $2 each. And it's a field of constant innovation.
Between $15 and $50 per bulb over 5 years.

Red-hot innovation. Remember burning holes in paper with a magnifying glass? These appliances focus the sun's rays onto your food and cook it as thoroughly as a traditional oven - without using a spark of electricity. So simple you can even make them yourself.
These replace the standard convection ovens which use around $0.10 of electricity an hour - and then there's gas.

There are mineral-salt-powered equivalents to washing powder, like the Ecoballs "flying saucers". And yes, they work.
$200-$400 per 1000 washes.

Over half of American homes don't have them: that's a lot of homes being heated when they don't need to be. Install one today (say, a Ventstar Flat Stat) and watch your heating bills plummet.
Calculate your exact saving here (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet).

They're wasteful and polluting - and avoidable. Use one of the newer brand of push reel mower - or, if you have some money to invest, solar-convert!
With a gas-powered lawnmower, an hour's grass-cutting is around 100 miles in your car.

You use the most fuel at low speeds and when you start your car. So short trips really aren't worth it - cycle or walk instead. Give yourself longer to shop (you can cut down on gym time to balance things) - and carry less by shopping more often. 
With rising fuel prices, you can expect any fuel economy savings to grow and grow.

Make sure everyone's in before turning the key. And waiting for someone for more than 60 seconds? Kill the engine. You're more likely to consume more fuel idling than restarting.
It's been estimated that idling Burger King customers waste 16 million gallons of gas a year.

Prepacked sandwiches: all that plastic, and how much money? So make your own: it's vastly cheaper and more fun (you get to choose the fillings).
Personal estimate: Making my own - $15 /wk. Shop-bought - $30-50/wk.

Tumble-drying needs huge amounts of energy (see below). So go for a combination of an eco-friendly spin dryer for when it's raining, and washing lines (standard or fancy) for when the sun's shining.
Tumble dryers use around 2.5 kwH of electricity per hour. Compared with the rest of your appliances, that's huge. Dry naturally, and you'll save $100s a year. Oh, and millions of tons of CO2.

If your room's a bit gloomy, don't just reach for the lightswitch. Think about how to get more daylight into your room - whether simply by moving furniture around, or guiding the light in with sunpipes or mirrors.
Banishing the lights for the night will have a significant impact on your electricity bill. Even turning them on an hour later than before will make a difference.

Catch rainwater in water butts or more sophisticated arrangements, and you have a ready supply of water for anything except drinking (you'd need fairly expensive filtration to make it safe).
Up to half your water bill.

We want to see the return of Victory Gardens, using every neglected square inch of everyone's back yard to grow vegetables. Food miles turn into food inches, and the results taste better than you could have imagined if you're been eating the mass-produced variety. Also, buy locally produced food - it's just other people's Victory Gardens!
Huge savings on grocery bills.

There's a great deal of concern about energy being invisibly wasted, particularly with modern devices that have a "standby" setting. So when you've finished with the electronic marvel of your choice - unplug it.
Anything from $50 a year upwards per household is spent on keeping those little red LEDs glowing.

It's cutting-edge, so it's certainly not cheap - but ground source heat pumps are the next big thing in eco-friendly house design. They run some of your water supply through the ground where it picks up natural geothermal energy. Result: toasty-hot water for free!
Your central heating bill will evaporate.

If you can find an alternative to using your electric A/C unit, use it - but remember that it's much less eco-hostile to cool the house down than it is to heat it up. So when the house gets cold, think layers layers layers.
See it as a challenge - to make your Winter electricity bill lower than the summer one!

As Allison noted a while back, 90% of the energy used to wash clothes goes into heating the water. Wash on a cooler setting, and you save energy...
...and that saves you money on your bill. Couldn't be easier.

Meat is the most expensive item on the average food bill. It's therefore ironic that we eat too much of it - and no, I'm not vegetarian (although that's an excellent argument against meat as well). Meat is a delicacy, not a staple - so don't be afraid of having a few no-meat days during the week.
500g T-bone steak - $20. Just sayin'.

If you're the average American, you buy four bags of groceries, and you throw one of them straight in the trash. No, really. So learn to make the most of the food you buy: soups, stews, freezing, composting, you name it.
One quarter (or more specifically, 27%) of your food bill, right there.

With technology, everyone loves shiny and new things - particularly us men (a genetic flaw, perhaps). But if there's a second-hand, perfectly functioning alternative, we should go with it. So become a retrophiliac, and always try to buy last year's technology, first- or second-hand.
Regarding full retail price, look at what happened with the iPhone.

There's no cutting corners on quality clothing - except when a professional tailor is doing it for you. If you want to look fabulous on a budget, trawl your city's second-hand options and find items that are near your size - then have them adjusted.
A guy's perspective: in this manner I saved $200 on a suit last year.

The Information Revolution has changed the way we work. Telecommuting is a much cheaper option to spending 3 hours in traffic. Videoconferencing beats the real thing in bucks. So find ways to avoid those costly long hauls to and from work. (Even if the company's paying!).
Or are you saying that your own time isn't valuable to you?

Always support your local traders - they're where you'll most likely to get the best-quality goods. But when it comes to the harder-to-get items...shop online. You save on packaging and (depending on the items) you save on gas, because it's delivered to your door by someone who was on the road anyway.
And yes, shopping online is almost always cheaper - if not quite as tactile and fun!

It prevents urban tumbleweed. It's stylish. And it's tougher than those flimsy supermarket  bags...
...which you're increasingly being asked to pay for (by companies that lack the nerve to ban them altogether).

Household cleaners are expensive. So don't buy them. Go for the natural, non-polluting options that are just as effective, available everywhere and cost next to nothing.
Miracle cleaners miraculously wipe out your budget. Lemons, on the other hand, are cheap.


In the bad old days, you paid extra for an eco-conscious lifestyle. Now, eco-friendliness is the norm - and in more and more cases, not choosing green is the way to overspend.
Choose green, save money, help the planet. There is no catch.

Image

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I have a friend who swears that dark cherry juice with cacao powder will enhance your mood, and though I can’t vouch for the L-tryptohan (a serotonin producer) he claims this combo contains, I can tell you it’s a blend that just feels good (and tastes divine!).

There are, however, proven foods to give our brains a “feel good” boost. Without getting too technical, serotonin is a neurotransmitter which produces feelings of satisfaction and tranquility. Dopamine is another one, creating focus and pleasure. I did some research on how to naturally boost these neurotransmitters and here’s what I found:

Complete protein produces dopamine. Keep in mind, eating too much protein in a meal will cancel out dopamine’s alertness and make you sleepy.
Foods containing complete protein are meat, poultry, eggs and certain vegetarian combinations such as rice and beans, corn and cheese, beans with nuts and seeds, or quinoa. Bragg Liquid Aminos is a great tasting supplement.
Carbs (sugars and starches) produce serotonin. Think breads, grains and veggies. But you have to eat your carbs without protein or fat, or serotonin production will be inhibited. That’s why some foods high in L-tryptophan (protein-rich cottage cheese, turkey, and eggs) won’t boost your serotonin.
Simple sugar gives the quickest serotonin rush (this explains why we crave candy), but also the hardest crash. Complex carbohydrates (brown rice, potatoes, pasta) give a slower, more extended boost.
For added serotonin, try pasta with low-fat sauce, rice with steamed vegetables, potatoes (no butter!), veggie sushi or lentils with steamed broccoli. And of course, cacao.
Overindulging in alcohol, caffeine or stress depletes neurotransmitters, putting you in a worse mood and making it harder to use food as a medicine.

Keep in mind, there’s no quick fix. You can’t just eat a slice of bread, sit back and expect to be happy; brain chemistry is more complex than that. The best solution is to eat a well-balanced diet of organic, whole foods. Perhaps you were expecting a magic pill?

Sources:
The Facts About Fitness
Go Ask Alice
About.com

Image: Ruth L

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I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times, “You’re a human being, not a human doing.” Um, yeah, so what does that mean? How are you just supposed to "be" when there a million things pressing on your time? Work, home duties, family obligations - life!

Well, maybe you can make time for some sleep yoga. Yoga Nidra, the yoga of sleep, involves nothing more than laying down in shavasana, relaxing, and listening to some guided meditation. And as easy as that sounds, it can be really challenging. When was the last time you were able to clear your mind and be still?

The incredible thing about Yoga Nidra is that it helps you reach a state of being that transcends all your problems and obligations. For a few moments you can float in perfect bliss and feel who you truly are. It’s from this kind of mental state that brilliant insights arise. You may reach a new perspective on your activities, something that’ll make the doing part of life so much easier. So give yourself a chance to just be - you deserve it.

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Dig deep back into your memory and think about what you were doing when you were 16. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I was concert hopping and fantasizing about cute boys. I certainly was not thinking about eco-activism, or any activism, for that matter. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I have such admiration for teenager Erin Schrode. At the tender age of 16, she launched the much-talked-about Teens for Safe Cosmetics.


The coalition of passionate young women aims to raise awareness about the potentially harmful ingredients in beauty and daily use products that may be linked to cancer, reproductive interference, and other health risks. On average, teens use between 15 and 25 products each day, in total containing around 200 synthetic chemicals. Through education, these girls believe that they can influence purchase decisions amongst their peers. They also lobby to change legislation, and have played a key role in getting bills such as The California Safe Cosmetics Act passed. To date, the girls have held three annual green summits, produced several eco-fashion shows both in San Francisco and New York, participated in festivals, and much more.


So, what is Erin up to these days now that she’s successfully launched a prominent activist group? She’s currently studying acting in New York and plans to travel to West Africa later this year as an environmental ambassador. All the while, she’s soliciting donations for Alaffia Sustainable Skincare’s educational efforts. Erin is living proof that all it takes is an intelligent idea, personal drive, and a strong voice to initiate change - at any age.

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Perhaps it’s just my dirty mind at work, but when I hear the words “natural pleasures,” it’s not a type of lip balm that pops into my head. If you ask me, the branding behind this product was the result of quite a clever, and might I say frisky, marketing team.

After reading up about the product, I found that it’s just a sexier version of the beloved Burt’s Bees. 100% natural and moisturizing, this lip balm is made with ingredients like shea butter, coconut and sunflower oil, and beeswax. The peppermint adds a tingling sensation that will keep lips smiling at all times. If this stuff really works, I’m wondering what else besides my lips I may find a tingling. A steal of a thrill at just $1.99.

Image: Zahira

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It's been a while since we last reported on it...and the jury's showing no signs of movement. But now it appears that for a place in a healthy lifestyle, coffee is much more than a drink. This being Monday morning, we feel this is eminently newsworthy.

The smell of coffee has a life of its own. I know people who turn their nose up at the drink itself, but happily breathe in the aroma of freshly-ground beans until they need to be dragged off the ceiling. Now neuroscientists have an explanation. It seems that with rats, the smell of coffee can change the operation of genes related to the stress of sleep deprivation.

In other words, it perks you up when you're tired. Hold the front page. But bearing in mind that this is merely from the smell, before the caffeine get into your bloodstream, it's a fascinating case for coffee aromatherapy.

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To paraphrase Gandhi, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. If you don’t do it, who will? We’re depending on you (yes, you!) to take the first steps to show everyone how it’s done. Are you up to the challenge? Here’s how you can be the change:

Be the Change in Your Relationships

Communicate. If you’re serious about having profound and loving personal relationships, you have to learn about effective communication. One little-known tip is that listening is just as important as speaking. Check out Non-Violent Communication; it's the best method I know for teaching the communication skills we never learned growing up.

Be Honest. Lying never, ever pays off. You’ll know you did something wrong, and subconsciously so will your partner. Either be transparent with your partner or don’t do those things you'll have to lie about.

Own Up To Your Part. You are not a victim! You play a part in everything that happens in your relationship. Quit blaming others so you can get to the real nitty-gritty of communication, honesty, growth and love.

Look in the Mirror. Do you always like what you see when you look at your loved ones? Remember, they are mirrors showing you parts of yourself. Keep this in mind when the emotional triggers are pulled, and use this information to help you develop more understanding and better connections with the people in your life.

Study Tantra. It’s not all about sex, I swear, but it does make it better. Actually, Tantra teaches about self-love, masculine-feminine balance, and a profound spiritual connection with your partner and the world. Go on, try it.

Be the Change at Work

Do What You Love. You’re not doing anyone any good by suffering at a job you hate. Take a risk and follow your heart. What have you got to lose but your chains? You'll never regret being courageous. (Daring is not the same thing as irresponsible, so try to take calculated risks, not foolish ones.)

Be of Service. Does your occupation contribute to making the world a better place? Enlightened connection with the world requires that we pursue positive and meaningful work, or we’ll just be pursuing empty, egoic dreams.

Don’t Sell Your Soul for Money. Doing something you don’t feel good about just for the money ultimately crushes your soul. It’s always better to do the right thing. Imagine what the world would be if everybody did? But don't feel guilty for being a career go-getter, either - you can use your position and money for the greater good.

Know When to Take a Break. Or a Vacation. Burnout creates more stress, worse health, lower morale and less productivity. Why let yourself get to that point at all?

Consider Work a Classroom. You spend so much time on the job, why not use the arising challenges as a chance to practice being present, compassionate and communicative? Learn to see your job as a springboard for your personal evolution.

Be the Change in Your Health

Eat Consciously. It doesn’t matter so much what you eat as how you eat it, and why. Emotional eating drives us straight to empty foods, whereas self-love makes us want to treat our bodies in the best way. Are you feeding your human machine the finest superfoods, or are you filling up your old clunker with junk?

Move Your Body. Dance, run, bike to the grocery store, do yard work, walk the dog, lift heavy boxes, stretch or do yoga. I don’t care what you do, just get up and do something! Give your heart a reason to pump blood!

Eliminate Toxic Products. Consider every product you use in your house and on your body. Are they poisonous? Carcinogenic? Educate yourself about household and cosmetic chemicals and phase them out of your life forever.

Heal All Your Bodies. It’s humbling to realize that your physical health is deeply intertwined with your emotional and mental health, too. This means you have to look at underlying issues when addressing physical symptoms. Be brave and don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper.

Rest, Relaxation and Relief. Sound, sex, and breathing: there are so many wonderful ways to relieve stress. Use them!

Be the Change for the Environment

Ride Your Bike. Or use public transportation as much as you can. Everybody’s transportation needs are different, but it’s important to set an intention to move yourself around in a healthier, more sustainable manner.

Reduce Electronic Appliance Use. Turn out the lights when you leave the room, unplug appliances when not in use, enjoy evenings by candlelight, and sit outside under the summer moon. Instant bliss.

Ask the Big Question. When making purchasing, lifestyle and household decisions, ask yourself “If everybody else did this too, what would the world be like?”

Reduce. Reuse. Simplify. The simpler your needs, the less resources have to be taken from the environment to support them. Remember, Zen is in.

Learn About Permaculture. It’s more than just an incredibly efficient way to garden; Permaculture principles can be applied to businesses and society in general. Self-sufficient and sustainable to the core - it's the triple bottom line.

Be the Change in Your Self

Don’t Be Afraid of Therapy. There are so many different ways to unravel your inner knots, it would be silly not to give them a try. Why reinvent the wheel and try to figure it all out yourself? Sometimes you need the help of someone with experience. Check out yoga therapy, sound therapy, and dance therapy in addition to traditional talk therapies.

Meditate. Even if you don’t set aside time for seated or walking meditation, make an effort to be mindful and present in all that you do. That’s what’s called living meditation.

Be Creative. Keep a journal, carry a sketchbook, make jewelry, funkify your clothes, grow a garden – anything that puts your best energies into material form. The good of the world depends on your creative contributions.

Maintain A Spiritual Connection. No matter what your faith, the world is sweeter and makes much more sense when you live by the belief that we are interconnected and essentially all One.

Identify Your Purpose and Passion. Then let that purpose and passion guide your life. Follow your bliss!

How will you be the change today?

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Sometimes I feel so wound up inside, and exercise or dancing just isn’t enough. It’s like I have this cement block of tension, and the only thing that’ll shake it up is an internal vibration. Is this beginning to sound weird? Bear with me.

Singing and toning bring me immediate stress relief. I’ll sing along to my favorites, but sometimes it’s not words that I want, but sounds. Pure sound is vibration. Have you been in a yoga class where they’ve done some toning or chanted the sacred syllable OM? That’s what I’m talking about.

Here’s what to do for instant internal stress relief:

Create a comfortable, private place where you don’t have to worry about being heard by others.

Start with deep, low tones and feel how they vibrate in your belly. Then play with the sound and pay attention to how it feels. Bring the sound up and down your body. Which tones loosen your chest? Which tone for your shoulders?

Don’t do any of this to sound perfect, but to play with the vibration. Let yourself make the weirdest noises, not because of how they sound but because of how they feel.

Toning is the subtlest inner massage that you can control yourself. Why wait? Tone, groan and moan your way to transcendent relaxation. No one's watching!

Image: Stoker Studios

I have to admit, there's something sickeningly fun about flying off the handle. But the raised blood pressure and wake of problems that can result are clearly not doing you - or anyone around you - any good. Chronic anger is like psychic pollution. It ruins everybody's mood. Here's how to clean up your act.

When anger strikes, move a mountain. Run up a hill, swim laps, find a punching bag, do anything physically exerting to help get that tension out of your body.

If you can’t escape, breathe. That’s it, just breathe. Now take another breath. Ok, another one. Breathe in slowly through your nose, noticing the breath moving into your body, and slowly and fully breathe out. Feel better? (Another trick to quickly relieve tension: when you're sitting at your desk, reach your hands up to the ceiling  and gently weave back and forth to loosen your spine.)

Attempting to control anger is futile if you aren't addressing the root problem. We get feelings for a reason - they need to come out! If you’ve been repressing anger, make a private space and then let yourself feel it. Relive the situation and feel the rage. Scream, cry, punch your pillow (but not the wall!) and do whatever you need to safely release the emotion so you can then constructively analyze the situation. It's fine to "save up" your anger for a time when you can healthily expel it; you don't want to rage in the moment, when you might say or do something you'll later regret. But don't squash your anger. That's a recipe for depression.

 Be empowered. Once you’ve calmed down (this may take hours, even days!) and can express yourself rationally, talk to the person who ticked you off. You might not get the response you were hoping for; what’s important is that you did your part. Even if you are nervous or doubting yourself, say what you need to say as best you can. This will also help you learn when to walk away before getting angry again.

 If you’re angry about something in the world or your lifestyle (like being stuck in traffic for 2 hours a day), use your anger as an impetus to change. This powerful energy can fuel the fire of positive action. I actually believe anger is healthy, if used appropriately. When we feel anger it's a powerful signal to change something that feels wrong. Whether the "wrong" is the situation or some inaccurate script you've trained your ego to believe and live by, anger means it's time to reconsider.

 Acknowledge that sometimes you feed yourself with your anger. Bringing up that old grudge gives you a certain “I’m right, you’re wrong” ego satisfaction. But look a little closer: does holding that grudge really make you happy? This can actually become a toxic habit where you're always looking for the next thing to fume about. It's like a dog licking a wound and making it worse. You're better served by focusing on positive change than listening to runaway mind chatter. If you feel "stuck" on the anger cycle, you may need to consider if low self-esteem is the real problem. Find positive ways to improve your feelings of worth so that you are less inclined to feel the need to feed your ego with angry thoughts.

 Forgive, without necessarily forgetting. You don’t have to condone someone’s actions, but when you forgive them (acknowledging that we’re all human beings who have faults and make mistakes), you release something inside yourself too. Holding a grudge takes up your precious energy, while forgiving opens you up to experience bigger and better things. Often we don't like to forgive because it feels like we're letting the person get away with what they did wrong. But holding on to the memory emotionally means you're constantly reliving the nonexistent past in your very real present - and if that isn't letting the offending person win, I don't know what is.

Still steamed? Recommended reading:

Urban Monk
Think Simple Now
Mayo Clinic
Pick the Brain
Zen Habits

Image: silver.and.gold

- with additional reporting by Sara Ost

"Take off your shoes!" commands my friend Jodi from Long Island whenever I arrive at the doorway of her pretty, Mediterranean home. But I'm attached to my ruby slippers or Betty Mullers or whatever shoes I wore over. I don't want to comply.

On the foyer rug, I can see the discarded flats, pumps and Converses of those who have arrived before me and have obeyed the "no shoes in the house" rule. Why does this rule agitate me so? Is it because most of my pants are too long and drag without heels? Is it because most of my friends are amazons who diminish me in stature when I'm forced to remove my shoes? Is it because I'm a fashion slave who adores stylish shoes? Maybe I just don't like confronting rules as a guest in someone's home.

Whatever the reason, I recognize that not only is it the homeowner's right to impose a no-shoes rule, it's also good for the planet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), many of us track lawn pesticides, lead and other chemicals into our homes, not to mention dirt and God-knows-what from our city streets. Removing shoes also is easier on our carpets. Mine takes a beating, even with the removal of soccer cleats and muddy garden clogs.

Still, I'm too design-minded to stand for shoes scattered in my own entryway. The required solution: shoe storage that might convert me and keep my house cleaner.

One of the best storage benches I've found is the Ethan bench from Home Decorators ($269-$329). It has individual cubbies for housing 16 pairs of shoes and plush microfiber upholstery options in four colors. The same site offers a handsome wicker storage chest with doors for concealing 42-pairs of shoes ($300) which comes in three finishes.

But if you're cramped for space, like most of us, the Mission style shoe storage chest from Improvements ($160) holds up to 9 pairs of shoes in a pull-down design that fits nicely in a hallway. 

And, if you want to keep it cheap and simple, buy one or more of the stackable bamboo shoe racks from Seville Classics ($20). They're designed for bedroom closets, but these utility racks fit nicely under entry tables and are more eco-friendly than their coated steel cousins.

One important tip for establishing a no-shoes inside policy: Alert guests to your rule before they arrive for a party. There's nothing worse than neglecting to get a pedicure or having your big toe sticking out of a hole in your sock while sipping wine and trying to look cool at a shoe-less soiree.

Note: images not to scale.

Image: sarowen