Planetsave

Leading the way for other mutual funds, Green Century Balanced Fund released a report on its carbon footprint today. The analysis was independently conducted by Trucost, a leading environmental data and analysis firm. According to the report, the carbon intensity (or carbon emissions per million dollars of revenue) is two-thirds lower than that of the S&P 500(r) Index. Green Century Balanced Fund is also leading other sustainability and socially responsible investment funds, according to the report. Trucost has analyzed sixteen other investment funds who are dedicated to sustainability and social responsibility, and Green Century Balanced Fund’s carbon footprint is almost half the average of these funds.

Why is Green Century Balance Fund’s carbon intensity so low?
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This quick and painless 15 question quiz will shine an LED light on your environmental personality. Do you think you are a Planetsaver? Find out below.

1. Cycle:
a.motor b.bi c.water

2. Take:
a.more b.a seat c.action

3. Vehicle:
a.SUV b.C-A-R c.B-U-S

4. Media:
a.TV b.radio c.book/mags

5. Bikes:
a.for kids b.for exercise c.for most trips
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Fifty protesters with anti-aviation climate change activist group Plane Stupid have chained themselves together near the runway at Stansted airport. The group aims to draw attention to the CO2 emissions attributed to air travel, claiming each flight from the airport emits an average of 41.58 tons of CO2.

Flights have been delayed while police deal with the situation and four protesters have already been arrested.
The group chose Stansted airport because the government recently approved a massive expansion project which will increase the number of passengers from 25 million to 35 million by adding 23,000 commercial flights a year.

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Hello, my name is Michael. I am a new writer here at Planetsave and I will be spending my first couple months documenting my personal search for a green job amidst America’s growing economic hardship.

I am in a good position to find a job, or so I hope.

I graduated a few months ago from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington with a B.A. degree emphasizing environmental policy. My studies in college pertained to social and political solutions to environmental problems, particularly global warming. I was part of a group that documented our school’s entire carbon footprint, which is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive study of a college campus’s footprint to date.

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If you are an American reading this post, you probably emit 10,000 pounds of carbon ever year into the environment.  Would you like to improve that statistic?  Then join the power of 10.

This grass-roots organization is based on a simple idea: it encourages individuals to reduce carbon emissions by 2,000 pounds each year and then tell 10 people how they can do the same thing.  These 10 people tell ten more, and so on, so the effort expands exponentially.

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For as often as we do eat, it seems as if most of us don’t think too much about what we’re putting into our bodies. With food production so far removed from our every day lives, it’s easy to ignore where our food comes from and what it’s impact may be. But what we put on our plates has a larger footprint than what we drive. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,

“Livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Using a methodology that considers the entire commodity chain, it estimates that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport.”

The things we choose to eat can obviously have an enormous impact on the planet and everything on it, including ourselves. Naturally then, our diet choices can say a lot about our ethics and beliefs. They can even be a political statement and a form of activism. I think that every choice we make has the potential to change the world, and certainly what I choose to eat has an impact. Read the rest of this entry »

If you drive an SUV, the easiest way to cut your carbon footprint drastically is pretty clear: ditch the gas-guzzling monster.  But what do you do with a large car you no longer want?  Tune in to onefewer.com starting today, to find out.

Ryan Mickle spent $60,000 on his Range Rover Sport in 2006.  He loved driving it to work or to go hiking with friends.  But since moving to San Francisco recently, he finds his fossil fuel-emitting sidekick to be more of an albatross than a positive force in his life.  He could sell it, but that would not take the mean machine out of existence, just pass it on to someone else who would then assume Ryan’s carbon footprint.  Pushing it off a cliff seemed a little drastic (and sort of illegal).  Ryan created onefewer.com to spread the word about his SUV, now up for adoption, and ask readers:  what is the most Earth-friendly way for me to part company with this mechanical mistake? Read the rest of this entry »

No doubt you have all encountered the term “carbon footprint” and been asked to fill out surveys, questionnaire’s and quizzes to determine just how much you have befouled our planet’s atmosphere. Well not surprisingly there is more than just one environmental “footprint” that has to be monitored and cared for.

And while the mark we leave upon the environment by adding to it, through our increased carbon emissions, is increasingly important and, sadly, dire, what we take away from the environment is just as crucial.

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I have yet to find my way out to Burning Man, but I have a bunch of friends how are hardcore burners. A few of my friends from Renewable Choice have even built an art car for the playa- look for a giant bus sized piece of burning sage driving around and say hi to the guys for me.

This year is the dawning of the Green Man- Burning Man’s attempt to take things in a more eco direction. They are encouraging burners to offset their carbon emissions, use biofuels and renewable energy, compost their foodscrapes, and all the other greenie things you should do like recycle.

My favorite snarky blog Valleywag has a more cynical look at things (they wouldn’t be Valleywag if they didn’t)… Read the rest of this entry »

Google has weighed in on the whole Black Google meme (the idea that a black google home page uses less energy than a white page) and the news is not good for sites like Blackle. According to Goggle’s green energy czar, a black screen on flatscreen panels actually use more energy than a white page. Add in the fact that flat screen panels already make up 75% of the market and growing and you have a big ol’ deflated green tech myth.

You should be doing your searching through our Google dealie anyways- we kick a portion of our profits every week to buying wind credits, preserving rain forest, and making micro-loans to third world entrepreneurs. Bookmark that baby!

via Environmental Leader