Boost your gas mileage this summer

I saw some good info in the Small Change column in the Washington Post today. Writer Nancy Trejos lists nine tips that will have you Maximizing Your Mileage During Road-Trip Season.

They're all simple things that can add up: Keep your car tuned up, don't speed, keep your tires inflated to the correct pressure, etc.

I'll add one not on the list: Using cruise control on the highway can improve your gas mileage. When I do this with my Prius, I can watch the mpg readout rise steadily.

All of this car talk reminds me that it's time to schedule an oil change!

Do you get the most mpg out of your car? Post here!

Free conference: Transition to zero emissions, June 25-26

As part of the Wales component of this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival on The Mall, there will be a free public conference on making the transition to zero carbon emissions. Here are the details:

The Transition to Zero Emissions
25-26 June 2009
Baird Auditorium, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Rhodri Morgan, First Minister for Wales, will open the conference by discussing his nation's plan to cut fossil fuel use by 90% over coming years.

According to the Web site, the conference is about implementing solutions.

"The Convergence on Zero is a conference that brings together the leading environmental thinkers and doers from Wales, the United Kingdom, to share their work with the United States. For two days at the end of June, this team of scientists, engineers, architects, researchers and business innovators will open an honest and frank debate on climate change, energy security and sustainable economics. They will frame the discussion with the latest climate science and focus on the practical solutions in technology, design and human behaviour that we have at our disposal in this time of great change."

Will you attend?

Green events calendar for June in the DC area

Here's what's coming up:

June 14 - Community Green at the American Horticultural Society's headquarters in Alexandra.

June 16 - Gaithersburg Green Drinks at Growler's Pub, 5:30.

June 17 - Live Green's One-Year Anniversary Party, at Local 16 from 6:30 p.m.-midnight. $15.

June 18 - GreenDrinks Northern Virginia at the Auld Shebeen in Fairfax, from 6-8pm.

June 25 - GreenDrinks Bethesda at Redwoood, 5:30 p.m. - ?

June 27 - Goodwill of Greater Washington's Travelin' Trunk Show at Greater Goods, 12:00-3:00 p.m.


Find more events at the Virginia Sustainable Building Network site, Greater Goods and at Live Green.

Green innovation 'unconference' in DC, June 11

Saw this in one of my Google e-mail alerts today, cited in JustMeans.com.

It's the Green Innovation for Business DC Unconference, taking place this Thursday, June 11, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at Google DC, 1101 New York Ave. NW.

Folks who are driving environmental innovation at their organizations should attend. Here's a bit from the event description:

"These "unconferences" will bring together dozens of professionals engaged in making their organizations more efficient, sustainable and leading-edge. Our goal is to connect you with other internal innovators to share experiences and ideas, explore new trends and opportunities, and brainstorm out-of-the-box solutions to the challenges we're all facing.

Unlike traditional conferences, there will be no formal panels or speeches.We'll use an participatory, "open space" format. All participants will have an opportunity to share, discuss, network, collaborate and learn throughout the day."

Environmental Defense Fund and Ashoka are organizing the event. Check it out.

Worm composting workshop, June 6 in Alexandria

Just got this notice from Elvira at WormEco.com. She'll be giving a Vermicomposting Workshop this Saturday, June 6 at 1:00 p.m. in Alexandria. The fee is $10.

Vermicomposting is using bins of worms to turn certain food scraps into organic compost.

Contact her for exact location of the workshop ejakovac (at) gmail.com.

Track your energy and carbon reductions with GreenListDC

I just created a GreenListDC group on the MakeMeSustainable.com site. It's a community site for people who want to reduce their energy and carbon footprints.

It's free, too. Sign up and join the GreenListDC group and we can track how much carbon we keep out of the atmosphere, as well as how much money we save.

I set the goal at reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent for the group, which seems ambitious. If everyone does a little bit, we can get there.

If you haven't seen MakeMeSustainable, check it out!

It's in the bag: DC taxes them, MoCo group pans the plastic kind

It's been a week of bags in the news. The DC Council voted Tuesday to assess a 5-cent tax on both paper and plastic bags at grocery stores, pharmacies and other food-service providers. One cent of tax, per bag, would go to the store; the other four cents would go to fund cleanup of the Anacostia River and its tributaries, which are polluted with litter -- including plastic bags. The Council has to vote on the measure again this month before it becomes law.

Over in Montgomery County, the Green Neighbors citizen group in Cabin John kicked off a campaign Sunday to encourage people to reduce their use of plastic bags. Before the event, the group led several cleanups along the Minnehaha Branch of Cabin John Creek, and removed 350 pounds of plastic. The bags can harm animals and pollute the Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

Taxing or charging for bags makes sense to me, because the store's paying for them -- so if customers need one, they should pay. Using the bag tax to then clean up the environment also makes sense, especially since bags, bottles and other products from grocery stores do end up littering our waterways and woods.

In Montgomery County, we can recycle plastic bags at grocery stores. Arlington has just started a single-stream, curbside recycling program that accepts a wide range of materials, including plastic bags.

DC also accepts plastic bags in its curbside recycling. Wish they had that here in Montgomery!

E-Cycle your electronic waste June 7 in Bethesda

Bethesda Green is promoting an E-Cycling Day in partnership with the Montgomery County Division of Solid Waste Services, Sunday, June 7 from 12-4 p.m. at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School parking lot, 4301 East-West Highway in Bethesda, Md.

They'll accept many items, from cell phones to small appliances to TVs and computers. Check out this PDF for a complete list of items(download the PDF to print and share with your friends, church, office, etc.).

Bethesda Green volunteers will hand out free Honest Tea. Plus they say you don't even have to get out of your car!