Either through materials selection and use, manufacturing practices or finishing techniques (or a combination of the three...or any number of other, smaller -- but no less important -- considerations), green designers are creating beautiful, useful, functional artifacts that leave a smaller footprint on the earth. But doesn't...

"Green" is a term that gets bandied about far too often these days; it's become very popular to brand yourself as such, and that's a double-edged sword: more general awareness is good, but watering down the term to encompass more than it should is not. As education...

Earlier this week I received a very polite letter from my local natural gas utility. It's message: Your rates are going to increase by 35-40 percent this fall. Sorry 'bout that.

While a bit unexpected, I can't say it's altogether unsurprising; energy rates are going up across...

When it comes to clothing, 75% of the energy consumed during a garment's life cycle is used in the laundering process, so making your laundry greener and more efficient really can make a difference.

It all starts with the washing machine, and the best thing to do...

I'm a huge fan of the "Product Service System," better known to some as PSS. Though the name is easy to trip over, the concept is brilliant: rather than buying everything you need outright, you can essentially "lease" or "rent" a product, deriving benefit from its service but not retaining...

So said Socrates at his heresy trial, right before drinking the hemlock, and, while he may not have had green living and sustainability in mind, I think it's an apt philosophy for life the 21st century.

Photo credit: gds @ flickr

The whole idea...

There are tons of ways to embrace green these days; one of the often overlooked considerations is the longevity of our stuff. "Going green" or "being environmentally friendly" or any of the other common catchphrases for sustainable living is about much more than just ditching your old stuff for green...

The words "recycled" and "recyclable" often conjure up similar notions of relative greenness; the general idea is that, as long as you aren't pitching it directly in the trash, you're doing something good for the planet, right? Turns out, it isn't quite that simple. Here are some tips that help...

As the notion of "going green" has continued to grow, the number of lifestyle choices and changes we can all make has grown with it (or maybe even a little faster). "Unplug your cell phone charger," you hear, or "eat less meat," all in the name of saving the planet,...

The Wal-Mart/Sam's Club empire made waves this week with the introduction of their new, square milk jug. Designed to improve space efficiency, reduce waste, and cut costs, the new jugs are a boon for sustainability and packaging innovation, but are proving tricky for some customers, who are having trouble...

Summer is heating up, and all the pools, barbeques, lawn-watering and the like that put our water use under the microscope, even more than it is the rest of the year. But did you know that we all have a 'water-footprint'?

Quite similar in concept to the carbon...

Offering a synergy for design, global talent and local materials, downloadable design is a concept we greenies can really get behind. After all, we live in a download-happy, digital world, so there's no reason why we can't extend that beyond downloading pictures from our cameras and messages from our email,...

Depending on where you live, summer is here or just about here. And, unless you've been living under a rock, you know that gasoline is spendy -- over 4 bucks a gallon, on average -- and it's going to get more expensive as the summer wears...

When it comes to things you can do every day to help green the planet, food and what you eat is near the top of the TreeHugger list. It's something we all do, multiple times every single day, and so the choices we make individually and as a society at...