Environmental SurvivalGuide

Green Options is a fairly new Website formed about a year ago. It’s a great resource for discussions on all that’s eco-friendly. They host a very active blog with over 40 different writers. You can even find a series of audio podcasts. They also open up the system to user forums and blogs so visitors can participate in the conversation. Another useful feature is their “Green Life Guide.” It is a wiki repository packed full of how-to information. Green Options is quickly rising to be one of the best resources for green living.

TreeHugger is a blog dedicated to the green lifestyle, News, and reviews. They are one of the most popular green-focused blogs around and post 25+ articles a day from more than 40 writers. They feature both TV and radio media and have a wealth of information in forums and guides. They host another site called Hugg, which is a Digg for the environmental community. Also of note is a job board for people looking for an eco related job. They were recently acquired by Discovery Communications to help further Discovery’s planet green initiative.

If your living in New Mexico you can sign-up with PNM Sky Blue, a voluntary program that allows you to get up to 90% of your electricity from renewable wind power. We signed up about a year ago and have felt relief ever since.

The way it works, is they charge you a small amount extra for the electricity you want to receive from renewable energy. We pay between $10 (winter) and $20 (summer) extra per month for our home (1,500sq. ft. / family of four) in order to get 90% of our electricity from renewable sources. It costs more because wind fluctuates and at times they are required to purchase renewable energy from elsewhere. This is a small price to pay for the piece of mind it provides.

The reason it is important to sign-up for this program is that global warming (and other forms of pollution) cannot be stopped while 49.7% of US electricity is being generated from coal-fired power plants. Currently, in the US there are 151 new coal-fired plants in various stages of development. Efforts to reduce CO2 emissions is being negated by these plants. It is the reason why more people need to get on board with renewable electricity and support programs like Sky Blue.

If your not in New Mexico but would like to look into similar programs in your area, visit the Department of Energy’s Green Power Markets Program By State.

Inhabitat is an interesting blog that is focused on the materials and practices that push sustainable architecture and design forward. It’s mainly focused on this topic but also has a wealth of other information about green concepts, products, and transportation. In addition to their regular posts (2-4 a day) I also found their How-to guides a useful resource and the interviews were compeling. However, most of their videos were fairly on-the-spot style videography. Outside of that it’s a great resource and worth a daily read because of their wide range of green topics.

We recently finished the Website for QUEST, a new multimedia series that utilizes all of the KQED Public Broadcasting’s platforms. The site features high quality video, radio segments, and exploration guides that get you out into the real world (if your in the Bay Area). You can learn more about our role in this project by visiting the Ideum portfolio. This Website is a great resource for learning more about environmental issues. I will begin to post television segments as they are released. Here’s a video introducing QUEST.

There are a lot of resources online to help guide people into ways in which they can reduce their environmental impact and help promote earth-friendly products and services. As a part of my service for this survival guide, I will be documenting all the resources that I cross and will post them to an organized directory. I will first post them here and provide a little insight about the website, product or service and what value it provides to someone trying to learn more about becoming green.