Green Daily

Surfers are one of the greenest and most environmentally-active groups of athletes. It probably has something to do with all of the time they spend hanging out in the water, on their self-propelled boards, waiting for waves and contemplating the environment around them. Looking out for sharks really sharpens your awareness of your surroundings!

Surfrider Foundation is the best known of the surfing environmental groups. Their strategic initiatives (yes, these surfers have strategic initiatives, so much for stereotypes) includes clean water, beach access, beach preservation and protecting special places. They celebrated their 25th anniversary this year with several events, including a beach clean-up followed by a concert, sponsored by Barefoot wines.

A lot of people still think of surfing as male sport, but Smart Girls Who Surf would like to remind us that women are awesome on the board, too. They are a small natural skincare company in California that make environmentally friendly sun protection, soaps, lotions and conditioners. They also sponsor an inspiring team of young women surfers, including world-traveler Liz Clark.

You've probably heard about the Nature Conservancy's "Plant a Billion Trees" campaign. It's very straight-forward: donate a dollar and they will plant a tree in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. The goal is to restore or preserve 30 million acres of forest by 2015, and remove 10 million tons of carbon dioxide ... annually!

Various companies have partnered with the Nature Conservancy, including Payless Shoes. Now one of my favorite socially-responsible hospitality organizations, the Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, is increasing their support to the tree planting efforts.

Kimpton already had a relationship with the Nature Conservancy to donate the proceeds from their in-house filtered Natura® water program.

My friend Annie Scott wrote a great post for our sister site Gadling about the many eco-initiatives of luxury hotel titan, Ritz-Carlton. It was serendipitous timing. I had just done a review of the Ritz-Carlton property in Half Moon Bay and heard about their "Green Initiative" in this ecologically fragile area. Just days later, my GreenDaily colleague Kristin Seymour sent me information about the Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach receiving bronze-level Green Seal Certification.

Ritz-Carlton, with a name already synonymous with luxury and service, is officially becoming an eco-leader in the hotel industry!

While in Jamaica to learn more about event services offered by the Ritz-Carlton, Annie discovered, almost by chance, several green packages, including Giveback Getaways, Meaningful Meetings, A Vow to Help Others and VolunTeaming. She also heard about, and then researched Community Footprints, which is the Ritz-Carlton's admirable and successful local community involvement program.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

Wondering what to do with the kids this weekend? How about getting into the great outdoors at one of the amazing National Parks we're lucky enough to have, thanks to conservation minded Presidents like Theodore Roosevelt? They're on sale this weekend!

August 15th and 16th, 147 parks are waiving the entrace fee, saving families anywhere from $3 to $25 on a visit to some pretty spectacular wonders, like the "three parks in one" of Big Bend National Park in Texas, or the rugged Maine coast line of Acadia National Park.

President Obama is taking his family with him on a tour of several western parks this week, including the very first one, Yellowstone National Park, which was established in 1872. The first family will also be part of the reason for those long lines at the Grand Canyon, but believe me the view is totally worth the wait!

Many of you out there are trying to squeeze in an end-of-summer vacation. One last hurrah before starting the back-to-school hustle and the post-Labor Day push at work.

One reason that travel can be so fun is because we give ourselves permission to bend the rules a little -- who hasn't ordered dessert, or had french fries instead of salad "because I'm on vacation"? It's great to relax and indulge, but one area where you should stay vigilant is in your green practices.

This great video from Howcast has some smart and easy tips for ways to keep your vacation from inflating your carbon footprint beyond all recognition. The big surprise for me was that day flights cause less damage to the environment than night flights. Who knew?

(Photo by intrepidtraveler.com)

Ever since I was a little kid, zoos have fascinated me. My brother and I would beg our dad to take us to the Franklin Park Zoo practically every weekend. As a grown up, I love to spend an afternoon at the San Francisco Zoo, photographing gorillas and giraffes. And whenever I travel, zoos are high on my list of attractions to visit, so I'm totally the target market for a travel guide called "America's Best Zoos"!

The publisher was nice enough to send me a review copy of the book, written by Allen W. Nyhuis and Jon Wassner. This afternoon I meant to flip through it, and instead spent an hour creating a new must-see list of zoo exhibits, like the Range of the Jaguar at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Florida, and the Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx Zoo.

Since the book is organized by geographic region, I basically mapped out a cross-country zoo visiting wishlist. Set up like a traditional travel guide, each entry includes with logistical information like address, admission fees and hours, and highlights the "don't miss it" exhibits at each location.

(Photo by Natura)

As I've mentioned, one of my other jobs is writing for UpTake.com's hotels blog. It's a fun gig that lets me indulge in my love of travel and in the best of cases, sometimes it also overlaps with my eco-interests.

A great example of this is the Kimpton group of hotels and restaurants. I just recently stayed at one of their properties, the 70 Park Avenue, in NYC, and as always it was a delightfully green hotel stay. In-room recycling, energy efficient water and light fixtures, organic toiletries, and of course we reused our towels.

The San Francisco-based organization consistently demonstrates some of the best environmental practices in the hotel and restaurant industries. In 2005 they formally launched the "EarthCare" program in all of their properties, but they've been practicing green as far back as 1981!

(Photo by Getty Images)

The days are getting longer and school is almost out. That means it's time to make summer vacation plans!

After a few seasons of "staycations," many people are craving a break from their everyday life -- we want a little adventure! By the same token, the economy is still shaky, and the spirit of giving back is still a strong influence on all of our decisions.

How does a conservation-minded person reconcile all of these feelings and motivations?

One answer is to take advantage of the World Wildlife Fund vacation packages that promote conservation while taking travelers to remote sites in a sustainably-managed way. The programs offered include:

• a trip to the Arctic to see polar bears, who might be gone soon and need all the support they can get
• a voyage to Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve to help improve the water and ensure conservation of natural resources
• visit remote islands in New Zealand and help prevent the bycatch of dolphins
• a family vacation to Belize to help conserve the Mesoamerican reef, which you even get to visit on a snorkel excursion!

The International Eco-Tourism Society offers even more choices of location, beneficiary and location, as well as tips and educational tools. The site even has a brand new eco-tourism job board, in case the thought of going home fills you with dread.

If your budget is still a bit tight for international any travel, there's always a day at your local zoo. It may not be as exotic as Kenya or Belize, but it can still be educational, entertaining, and in a way you're supporting conservation efforts. And if you're very clever about how you take pictures, you might even be able to convince the gang back at the office that you were in a truly wild place!

Even though I also write for a travel site, I often struggle to find good green travel options. There is no standardization in the way hotels and attractions report their eco-efforts, and so you have to dig around for information. With The Eco-Travel Guide, by Alastair Fuad-Luke, we green voyagers have a resource book to guide our wanderlust.

Fuad-Luke is a well-known presence in the world of sustainable and eco-friendly design and the founder of slowdesign.org. His design sensisibilities can be felt throughout the well organized and beautifully illustrated Eco-Travel Guide.

The book is set up in four parts. It starts with an exploration of the idea of eco-travel and how our need to move around the world consumes energy and resources. Fuad-Luke also includes a detailed and well-researched discussion on how to "mitigate the negative impacts of travel".

Once you're in this responsible frame of mind, you're ready to explore the world with sections two and three, Eco-destinations and Eco-products.

By their nature, lists of destinations go out of date quickly, but arm-chair travelers and adventurous trekkers alike will be inspired by the descriptions of 200 international spas, camps, resorts and villas. Each entry includes information on green credentials, conservation efforts and activities.

The eco-product line is a bit more evergreen, and just as fascinating. Did you know about the Solar Sailor ferry that runs in Sydney Harbor? Or the very foldable -- and round -- Locust bike? Again, you can really see Fuar-Luke's design aesthetic in the 100 products he includes.

The final section is Resources, which includes a glossary, index of eco-destinations and suggested reading list. It's a great place for beginning eco-tourists or people with more experience who want a quick way to check information.

You can order the book directly from publishers Thames & Hudson for just $29.95.

Of all places in US to launch an experimental car-sharing program, most analysts would probably put any city in truck-month loving Texas somewhere near the bottom of the list. Thwarting intuition, that's somehow the very first place that Diamler is going to test their Car2Go mobility program. The horde of Smart ForTwos for rent will descend upon the Lone Star State's capital city this fall.

We may all be flying a little less in these financially tight times, but we also may be looking for cheaper ways to fly when we have to get somewhere far away. In my case, buddy passes from friends who work for airlines have allowed me to travel more than I could have otherwise.

I was talking to one of those friends recently, who said that when she calculated her carbon footprint, she didn't count her standby flights: the planes would fly anyway, she said, and plus, it would make her carbon footprint huge.

If I took my standby flights out of by carbon footprint calculation, my footprint would go down several thousand pounds of C02. What do you think? Is flying standby greener?

If you are in Austin or on your way there, keep in mind that you can relatively sustainable at SXSW. SXSW is a 22 year old music festival in Austin that is the place to be for musicheads and techie types, and it is in full swing right now.

Here are few things to consider while you do your daily listening:

• SXSW has partnered with Bicycle Sport Shop to provide a variety of rental bikes. Bike, don't drive, or walk. Downtown Austin is not that big.
• Pedicabs are also available. And who doesn't want a ride in one of those?
• Everyone has a battery need at a time like this. Use rechargeable batteries, and buy solar powered battery chargers for your cell phone, iPod, etc.
• SXSW suggests you head to their sustainability panels, and that you read "The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery.
• SXSW also suggests you avoid the brand new "I was at SXSW" t-shirt in exchange for vintage clothes on South Congress
• They also encourage getting your water bottle out and refilling it with tap water or water from the fountain at the Austin Convention Centre.
• As many will be craving an alcoholic beverage, SXSW also suggests you look for local beers and wines. Local means less carbon created in getting your beer to your lips.
  

And check out the SXSW YouTube site if you can't go.

If you notice a school of menacing-looking metallic carp pass by you while you're snorkeling off the coast of Spain, don't freak out. You're most likely not going to get to name a previously undiscovered species. A group of scientists from the UK-based BMT Group have developed a school of robo-fish that will soon be released into the sea to monitor pollution levels. Their first mission: monitor the Port of Gijon in nothern Spain.

It's no secret that prolonged drought conditions have put most of the Western US in dire straits when it comes to water. In what is probably the most glaring examples of unsustainable development outside of Dubai, the warm weather and dry air (and gambling) have made Las Vegas one of the fastest growing cities in the US. Combine that sprawl with declining snow pack in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, and you've got a water conservation issue that is a story all by itself.

Rather than wait for a Noah's Ark sized flood to bail them out, the city government has instituted all sort of restricitons and incentives to help slow the draining of Lake Mead. One of those measures is what I'm calling de-grassification. The city is offerring to pay residents $1.50 per square foot for converting their grass lawns into desert landscaping. Even if don't live in Las Vegas, it's a good idea to rethink your landscaping. Other very visible areas, like golf courses are cutting back on lawn farming. The Angel Park Golf Club, for example, is actually in the process of tearing up 80 acres of unnecessary turf and replacing it with gravel. Crazy.