Category Archives: travel

ARCIMOTO- PULSE – All Electric Car

Posted on August 27, 2010 by kimkasch| Leave a comment

Nathan Fillion who plays in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and Castle was in Eugene, Oregon test-driving these sustainable vehicles.

And The Green Queen’s son, who played Captain Hammer here in town from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, rushed down to see the event.

This car is supposed to be a “new way to drive.” The Pulse is debuting in 2010 and is supposed to combine style and innovation for fun, affordable, emission-free driving.  The Green Queen’s son had to hop in the car and check it out too.

The Target Price is $17,500 for a base model.

And The Green Queen’s son enjoyed his chance to meet a celebrity and test a sustainable car at the same time.

The Drivetrain is ALL-ELECTRIC with a range of 40-50 miles with and equivalent efficiency of 150 MPG and a top speed of 65 MPH.  The charge time takes 5-7 hours.  Seating allows for the driver and one passenger and safety features include a full roll cage and crumple zones, with disk brakes.

If you are interested in seeing more, check out Arcimoto.

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Posted in transportation, travel, websites & blogs

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Walking the walk

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Jen| 2 Comments

Recycla and her family recently went on vacation. Since she has written before about making travel more earth-friendly, she thought she’d report in on how her family did.

Before leaving home, Recycla and her husband turned up the house’s AC so that it wouldn’t cool empty rooms while they were gone. They also unplugged various appliances and the computers. And, they turned off the water. As it turned out, the temperatures in Virginia soared to 100 while they were gone and the local electric company had to ask people to cut back on their usage during peak hours, so Recycla was glad that she wasn’t adding much to the grid’s burden.

As for the trip itself, the family was driving from Virginia to Philadelphia to Maine and then to Quebec City. That’s a LOT of driving — over 2,000 miles! Before leaving town, Recycla’s husband had the family vehicle checked out and then, while driving, used various gas-saving techniques.

Whenever Recycla and her family visited with family and friends during their trip, they brought hostess gifts — Eco Women tote bags filled with bottles of local Virginia wines and other Virginia treats.

Recycla is pleased to announce that her family ate ZERO McCrap on their trip — they packed snacks for the car and sought out local markets and restaurants along the way.  The photo to the right is of poutine, which is a local specialty in Quebec City.  It might not look appetizing, but it actually turned out to be quite tasty.

Once in Quebec City, the family parked their car for several days and got around by foot, which not only enabled them to thoroughly explore the city, but also added more “no drive days” to Recycla’s tally for the year.  (The family is up to 23 for the first 6.5 months of 2010 and they are on track to reach 40 without too much difficulty.)

When staying in hotels, the family tried to reuse their towels as much as possible, instead of having them replaced daily; however, this was difficult to do when so many of the hotels did not offer adequate hanging space for wet towels.  Most hotel bathrooms had skimpy towel rods for two towels and certainly not enough for a family of four.

Speaking of hotels, the family packed their own toiletries and did not use the soaps and shampoos provided for guests.  Recycla was disappointed to see that every single American hotel she stayed in offered shampoos with parabens in them.  On the other hand, the hotel in Quebec City offered soaps, shampoos, and more that were paraben-free.

Recycling was another challenge the family encountered.  Very few hotels offered recycling, but the family was usually able to find bins on city streets.  The one shown on the left was seen in Philadelphia — the City of Brotherly Love offered recycling bins on nearly every street corner.

One final thing that Recycla is pleased about is the fact that her children did not ask for any cheap plastic souvenirs.  In fact, the family did very little shopping — with the exception of a planned stop at the L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine to do some back-to-school shopping, some postcards for family, and one bottle of Canadian maple syrup, the family bought only food and gas on this trip.  They took lots of photos and made many memories, which are the best trip mementos of all.

Tell the Eco Women:  Are you traveling anywhere this summer?  If so, where?  What steps will you take to make your trip a bit more eco?

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Posted in transportation, travel

Turn off the engine

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Jen| 3 Comments

Yesterday, Recycla was out and about around town when she found her driving route blocked by a train. There were about a half dozen car in front of her, as well as cars stopped behind stretching as far as the eye could see.

Since Recycla knew that she would be sitting there for a while, she rolled down her car windows to let in some air and then turned off the engine.  However, many of the cars around Recycla’s were obviously still running as their owners idled and waited for the train to go by.

The minutes passed.  First five, then ten.  Finally after 15 minutes, the train was gone and traffic could move again.  During that time, Recycla counted at least a half dozen cars that were idling the entire time.

What a huge waste of gas!  Recycle felt sick as she contemplated not only the fuel that was used, but also the CO2 that was pumped into the atmosphere.  The owners of those cars were clearly not aware of the real cost of gas or thinking about how their actions impacted Planet Earth.

As the crisis in the Gulf continues and millions of gallons of oil continue to spew into the water, people need to be aware of their gas use and learn to be more economical.  Turning off the engine at railroad crossings is a very good first start.  Recycla recognizes that it’s summer and that people can die in extreme heat; however, it was only 80 degrees yesterday morning when she was stuck in traffic.  While it might not seem like one or two or a handful of cars can make a difference, they all can.  Every action, no matter how small, is important.

Tell the Eco Women:  Has the Gulf oil disaster caused you to make any changes with your gas consumption this summer?

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Posted in issues, transportation, travel

Easy Summer Vacation Tip: Just Say “No, thanks.”

Posted on June 7, 2010 by melissawest| 3 Comments

Last Wednesday Enviro Girl returned home after a 6 day retreat to Utah where her dear friend Nina pours delicious wine and serves up the best Italian food evah.  During her stay, she bemoaned the fact that Park City doesn’t offer much in the way of recycling–typical of most mountain regions Enviro Girl has visited.  Despite traveling by plane (which jacked up her personal carbon footprint–although it will be the only time she’ll fly this year), the trip wasn’t a total eco-bust.  Two words kept Enviro Girl’s trip lean, mean and green:

“No, thanks.“

1.  Even on the airplane, Enviro Girl could carry her stainless steel water bottle and consume nary a drop of bottled water.  She said “No, thanks” to the plastic cup of juice/water/soda offered during her flight.  She said “No, thanks” to offers of bottled water by her hostess (concerned for her health during the dramatic altitude change).  She drank tap water out of her water bottle or out of a glass.

2.  Enviro Girl didn’t accept a shopping bag.  When purchasing 4 souvenir t-shirts for Team Testosterone, she said “No, thanks” to the plastic bag and stuffed them in her own canvas tote.  For the record, that was all she bought and brought home from her trip.  She said “No, thanks” to everything except photographs–turns out those were the only souvenirs Enviro Girl needs and they’re not Made in China and wrapped in plastic!

3.  Enviro Girl used one bath towel and one hand towel during her stay.  She said “No, thanks” to the offer of more towels–which would, in turn, lead to more laundry, using more water and more electricity and more detergent.

4.  She said “No, thanks” when her hostess kept offering to prepare more food.  Insisting on eating leftovers meant less waste, less energy spent cooking and more time for visiting.

Being green is about reducing your use and Enviro Girl did her best on this trip–she recycled paper at the airport, drank locally brewed Polygamy Porter while in Park City, hiked along the mountainside for exercise and ate a mere three servings of meat.  “No, thanks” is a polite and easy way to reduce and reuse even while you’re on vacation.
Speaking of reducing, remember that tomorrow is No Plastic Day.   Visit the Official No Plastic Day Web Site to learn how you can participate–it’s as easy as saying, “No, thanks” to a plastic bag or plastic bottle of water!

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Posted in 3 Rs, travel

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Easy tips for eco travel

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Jen| 2 Comments

As we head into Memorial Day weekend and, with it, the onset of summer, it’s time to take a look at how you travel and whether you are an Eco Warrior or Eco Disaster when you are on the road and/or flying the friendly skies.

Vacations are wonderful for relaxing and recharging, as well as seeing new places near and far, but they are also a time when some people lose their heads environmentally.  Luckily, the Eco Women have some EASY tips for you to keep your Eco Warrior status while you travel:

  • Don’t buy small travel sizes of your toiletries.  Instead, buy reusable travel bottles and fill them with your shampoo, lotion, and whatnot.  Recycla has been using the same travel bottles for 15 years and they’ll probably last forever.
  • Before you leave home, if you have air conditioning, bump up the temperature a few degrees because there’s no reason to cool an empty house.
  • Instead of eating McCrap while you’re on the road (or in the sky), plan ahead and pack good food.  If you’re going by car, fill some reusable grocery bags and your cooler with fruit, cut veggies, nuts, sandwiches, cheese and crackers, etc.  If you’re flying to your destination, you can still put some snacks on your carry-on bag.  And don’t buy food in single-serving packaging!  Instead, buy the larger packaging and put your snacks in reusable containers — they’ll come in handy for the rest of your vacation.
  • And it goes without saying, don’t pack or buy disposable water bottles.  Tote your reusable one and refill it as necessary.  If you’re going through airport security, leave your bottle empty and then fill it at the food court or water fountain afterward.
  • Pack a small folded shopping bag for the inevitable souvenir purchases you’ll make while you’re gone.    Recycla forgot to pack one for a trip to London two years ago, so early in the trip she stopped at a Marks & Spencer  and bought a bag to carry her groceries.  This turned out to be one of her favorite reusable shopping bags and now she uses it almost every day.
  • Depending on where you are going, you might not need to rent a car.  If you’re traveling to a large city, use public transportation or even your own two feet to get around.  If you do rent a car, don’t get the gas hog — go for the smaller more fuel-efficient vehicle.
  • Are you staying in a hotel?  If so, now is not the time to be wasteful.  Don’t use the little soaps and shampoos just because they are there.  Many hotels now give guests the option of not having their linens and towels replaced daily — do it!  Find out if your hotel has recycling bin for newspapers, soda cans, etc.
  • You’ll need to eat while you’re on vacation.  Stay away from fast food restaurants and other places that sell McCrap.  Instead, find good local restaurants — bonus points if they serve only local foods.  There are quite a few websites that help you find restaurants that serve organic and/or local foods, including Organic Highways and the Organic Food Database.  For lunches and snacks, visit the market and stock up on your day’s supplies — fresh fruits, flavorful local cheeses, melt-in-your mouth breads.  Fill your water bottle and you’ll be set.

So those are the easy things you can do.  If you want to be a truly committed Eco Warrior, buy carbon offsets from a place like TerraPass.

Tell the Eco Women:  Where are you going this summer and what kind of Eco Warrior will you be when you travel?

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Posted in travel

The Real Cost of Gas

Posted on May 19, 2010 by melissawest| 2 Comments

Since the assembly line began churning out Model T Fords, the automobile industry and oil industry have enjoyed government subsidies allowing them huge profits at taxpayers’ expense.   Without highways, roads, bridges and their continued maintenance, there’d be no way to use automobiles.  According to the USDA, a new road costs between $2800 and $3500 per mile.  Providing a means of using cars at taxpayer expense is a subsidy.  It would be no different from the government providing the entire country free WiFi to use their computers.  According to this article in Reuters, the oil industry collects $36.5 billion in government subsidies.   If Enviro Girl understands this correctly, the government charges everyone a tax and then gives the money to corporations that make a profit using our money to operate.  That doesn’t qualify as capitalism, that’s a form of welfare.

Yet the minute Enviro Girl reads about spending government money on mass transit or bike trails, people object.   They whine about the cost of such projects, but no one seems to whine about the cost of building new freeways, interchanges, and bridges.  Our country has invested for decades in allowing people to transport themselves in cars to get from place to place.  The cost of driving is not reflected in gas taxes.

For too long the true cost of driving has been hidden from consumers.  Enviro Girl knows it costs her nearly $400 a month to drive when she calculates the cost of her car payment (spread out over the life of her vehicle–she’ll drive her Momvan until it dies of natural causes someday), auto insurance, registration fee, fuel, and maintenance.  She gets weary of hearing people dicker about the price of gasoline per gallon because in her view it’s not enough.  If she could, she’d ditch her Momvan and ante up for a $50 bus pass.  And Enviro Girl lives in a place where she can usually park for free.  Driving her clan around in a car is the least cost-effective way to travel, and that’s not even considering the environmental costs associated with driving.

Therefore, Enviro Girl was shocked to learn what driving really costs when she went to this website to calculate the true cost:  $12,009.45 a year!  Head over to The True Cost of Driving to find out what you’re paying annually to drive.  It’s time to change our tune, America.  Mass transit, walking, biking–we need to wean our population off the “freedom of the road” because frankly, it costs too darn much.

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Posted in issues, transportation, travel, websites & blogs

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Going for the green

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Jen| 1 Comment

How many of you Eco Warriors are watching the Olympics this week?

Recycla and her family have been enthralled, from the very first moment of the opening ceremony.

And, of course, every evening, the family has been glued to their TV to see what happened during that day’s competitions.

One thing that Recycla has learned in the course of her TV-viewing is just how green the 2010 Winter Olympics are trying to be.  The Olympics are inherently wasteful, with a large number of people converging in one geographic area and using a lot of resources in a short amount of time; however, the Vancouver planning committee has actively sought ways to reduce the Winter  Games’ carbon footprint.  This goes beyond having a large number of recycling and compost bins in the different venues.

For example, did you know that the medals contain recycled materials?  It’s true.  Each of the medals contains a small amount of consumer electronics waste — such as from old TVs and computers — that would have otherwise gone into landfills.  How cool is that?

But that’s just one of many examples of just how green the Vancouver Olympics are.  Here are some others:

  • Many buildings in the Olympic Village are LEED certified, plus most venues have reduced carbon footprints (as compared to other similar venues).
  • When planning the games and the infrastructure needed to host so many people, the Vancouver Olympics committee installed systems that reused waste heat, irrigated with captured rainwater, and composted wood waste.
  • As for travel around the games, there is a fleet of hydrogen-powered buses instead of gas-guzzling ones.  There is also a “no idling” policy in effect at the games.

While Recycla recognizes that the Olympics are still a drain on Mother Nature’s resources in the Vancouver area, she commends the planning committee for their diligence in trying to reduce the overall impact as much as possible.

If watching the world’s greatest athletes ski, skate, slide, and more has inspired you to get out in the snow yourself, check out this article on 10 eco-friendly ski resorts.

Tell the Eco Women:  What’s your favorite Olympic sport?

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Posted in green around the world, travel

Going Green in the Big City

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Kirstin| 2 Comments

Living in Gotham City isn’t exactly what many think of as “living green”. Most of us have to travel a bit to just sit under a shady tree, 8 million of us live together in a small geographical area, and  there’s the traffic noise and car alarms to deal with. There’s plenty of ways we can try to do our part, though, and it’s not just by living live in small quarters where we make the most out of the space we’ve got.

Photo from Flickr by Barbara L. Hanson

The first thing that comes to mind is buying local, seasonal food at the green markets — they’re everywhere! Dairy, eggs, fruits and veggies, honey, bread, wine, meats, and flowers! It’s all there. You can even bring your food scraps for composting to many sites around the city. If your window sill isn’t large enough to satisfy your green thumb, you can join a community garden. Don’t feel like cooking tonight? You can always have a meal where local ingredients are on the menu. City Harvest is right there at the end of the day at many restaurants collecting food for the hungry that would normally go to waste. No need to buy bottled water here either — just look for Tap It stickers on cafes and restaurants where you can refill your own water bottle for free.

Interested in beekeeping or raising chickens? You can do that too!

Yes, there’s many vehicles on the streets but most of us do all our shopping by foot and if it’s too far to walk, there’s our amazing mass transit system that will take you all over the five boroughs by bus (some of which are hybrid) or subway. You can even get around like our messengers do by cycling through the city on our many bike lanes or routes.

We can choose “green power” and recycling is made easy in our buildings with bins. There’s even trash cans for recycling around the city for while you’re out on foot!

Photo by The Green Mommy

Let’s not forget the Public Libraries here too. With so many around the city, the book you’re looking for is bound to be at one of them so there’s no need to buy it, which really helps to save a bit of space that you really don’t have anyway!

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Posted in travel

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Traveling green

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Jen| 7 Comments

By Recycla

londonWith summer here, people are traveling more.  Vacations are wonderful for relaxing and recharging, as well as seeing new places near and far, but they are also a time when some people lose their heads environmentally.  Luckily, the Eco Women have some EASY tips for you to keep your Eco Warrior status while you travel:

beachWhen you pack…

  • Don’t buy small travel sizes of your toiletries.  Instead, buy reusable travel bottles and fill them with your shampoo, lotion, and whatnot.  Recycla has been using the same travel bottles for 15 years and they’ll probably last forever.
  • Instead of eating junk food while you’re on the road (or in the sky), plan ahead and pack good stuff.  If you’re going by car, fill some reusable grocery bags and your cooler with fruit, cut veggies, nuts, sandwiches, cheese and crackers, etc.  If you’re flying to your destination, you can still put some snacks on your carry-on bag.  And don’t buy food in single-serving packaging!  Instead, buy the larger packaging and put your snacks in reusable containers — they’ll come in handy for the rest of your vacation.
  • And it goes without saying, don’t pack or buy disposable water bottles.  Tote your reusable one and refill it as necessary.  If you’re going through airport security, leave your bottle empty and then fill it at the food court or water fountain afterward.

parisBefore you leave home…

  • Unplug most of your electronics so that you won’t use electricity you don’t need during your absence.
  • Turn off your hot water heater, because you won’t need it either.
  • If you have air conditioning, bump up the temperature a few degrees because there’s no reason to cool an empty house.

grandcanyonOnce you arrive at your destination…

  • Depending on where you are going, you might not need to rent a car.  If you’re traveling to a large city, use public transportation or even your own two feet to get around.  If you do rent a car, don’t get the gas hog — go for the smaller more fuel-efficient vehicle.
  • Are you staying in a hotel?  If so, now is not the time to be wasteful.  Don’t use the little soaps and shampoos just because they are there.  Many hotels now give guests the option of not having their linens and towels replaced daily — do it!
  • You’ll need to eat while you’re on vacation.  Stay away from fast food restaurants and other places that sell McCrap.  Instead, find good local restaurants — bonus points if they serve only local foods.  For lunches and snacks, visit the market and stock up on your day’s supplies — fresh fruits, flavorful local cheeses, melt-in-your mouth breads.  Fill your water bottle and you’ll be set.

So those are the easy things you can do.  If you want to be a truly committed Eco Warrior, buy carbon offsets from a place like TerraPass.

Tell the Eco Women:  Where are you going this summer and what kind of Eco Warrior will you be when you travel?

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win the Eco Women’s latest giveaway!

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Posted in travel

Eco-friendly Canada

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Jen| 4 Comments

Recycla has just returned from a fabulous vacation in Canada. Specifically, she went to Niagara Falls and then spent five days in Toronto. Recycla wasn’t specifically looking for how eco our neighbors to the north are, but the evidence presented itself within minutes of crossing the border.

Some examples:

  • Recycling bins EVERYWHERE — no exaggeration. At tourist attractions, on street corners, on sin subway stations, and even in the family’s hotel room. If there was a trash can somewhere, almost 100% of the time there were recycling bins there too.
  • According to the friend Recycla visited, Toronto and the surrounding suburbs have excellent curbside recycling. In fact, homeowners and businesses are required to recycle and compost and must use clear trash bags so that the trash collectors can look inside and see that there’s nothing recyclable in there.
  • There is a wind turbine in downtown Toronto, right on Lake Ontario. You can’t miss it, because it’s massive.
  • As Recycla’s train was passing through town after town after town, she saw a massive metal recycling facility and even a factory that recycles dry wall.
  • The country has excellent rail and public transportation systems so that people don’t have to rely as heavily on their cars.

Recycla isn’t saying that Canada is the perfect eco country — our neighbors to the north use vast amounts of oil, just we Americans do — but they certainly seem to be doing a better job of at least recycling more and producing less waste.

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Posted in 3 Rs, issues, travel