We have been giving out lots of advice recently about how you can live more sustainably. I live in an old row home in Philadelphia, and I wanted to tell you about what I do, in part motivated by the onset of winter. Greening my house is all about finding effective approaches to offset my environmental impact and save money. Times are tough, so the challenge is finding cost-effective solutions to our energy challenges, which deliver bang for the...

The green crowd has used, and re-used, reusable shopping bags for years. My methodology had been to reuse the paper-in-plastic bags from the grocery store.  When these would start to get shabby, I would use the paper bag to recycle newspapers and the plastic bag as a trashcan liner, and get a new paper-in-plastic bag the next time I visited the grocery store. 

This system had worked well for me, and felt right, so I suggested it to...

A conversation with a colleague recently brought up the question ”How sustainable can sustainable really be?”.  In modern times, with all our technology, how sustainable can one’s life be without living in a farming community, making one’s own clothes and cookware?  This would require disassembling modern day society, which isn’t an option.  From the big corporations down to the individual, we each have a responsibility to the...

Now that we’re more than a few days into 2009, I have been thinking more about what I can personally do to live a greener lifestyle, as well as what green trends are up and coming. Recent conversations with friends and neighbors who are not in the renewable energy or sustainability fields have given me a slightly different perspective on what the people see as a realistic green lifestyle and what role businesses can play.  As individuals,...

Barack Obama has been sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States and many believe he will usher in a new era of federal commitment to renewable energy – using it as a platform to both help revitalize the US economy through green jobs, but also to help reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy, while improving our environment.

Since the 1990’s, the federal production tax credit has played an essential role in encouraging...