The Green Life

Sustainable Swells

The rich and famous don't have to give up their caviar dreams to go green. Roe from U.S.-farmed sturgeon and trout (below) are gaining cachet as an environmentally friendly alternative to overfished beluga sturgeon. And where better to enjoy these delicacies than in a luxe living room at the Solaire, one of the energy-efficient, green-roofed highrises popping up in Lower Manhattan? As night falls, the eco-elite might don a couture coat made of recycled soda bottles and hop into an eye-catching all-electric car--perhaps a speedy Tango like the one actor George Clooney drives to the set (above). That's the beautiful people for you--always doing their part.

(George Clooney/Tango photograph by Bryan Woodbury; Sterling Caviar photograph by Kenny Morrison)

Daily Tip : July 31, 2007

Each year, Americans waste 3.5 billion hours and 5.6 billion gallons of fuel while they sit in traffic. Spend your commute reading and relaxing instead of cultivating road rage: Find mass transit near you at publictransportation.org/systems.

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Grapevine

Paris is joining Amsterdam in making bicycles available citywide for free or a small fee. * The city of San Francisco passed a ban on plastic shopping bags at large supermarkets and chain pharmacies, the first such law in the United States. * Outdoor-apparel company Patagonia has expanded its Polartec-fleece-recycling program to include products from other manufacturers. * HGTV gardening guru Paul Tukey is leading a campaign to convert more than one million acres of lawn to organic by 2010. * A film festival celebrating the bicycle is traveling to 15 cities around the world. * Tesco, the Wal-Mart of Britain, is selling energy-efficient lightbulbs at half price, while McDonald's is serving sustainably grown coffee at its 1,200 franchises in the United Kingdom and Ireland. * Canada became the second country, after Australia, to announce a ban on incandescent lightbulbs.

Daily Tip : July 30, 2007

A new coat of paint brightens up your home, but it can dirty the air too. The volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that off-gas while you paint react with sunlight to form smog. Look for paints that meet the EPA’s “low-VOC” standards or, better yet, ones with the Green Seal label.

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Eating in the Outdoors

There's more to camp food than gorp and s'mores. And even though it sounds like a natural way to cook, in most places, ecofriendly campers shouldn't rely on campfires for preparing their meals. Before your next outdoor experience,

• learn to leave no trace
• buy bulk organic foods and cook them on the greenest stove that meets your needs. For backpacking, Sustainable Travel International recommends the Sierra stove from ZZ Manufacturing, a lightweight, superefficient model that can burn pine cones, wood chips, tree bark, charcoal or any other solid fuel
• see if your multi-fuel stove can burn biodiesel
• consider a pollution-free solar oven if you're going to be car camping
• pack some biodegradable soap (or none at all) for cleaning up
• up your culinary game with Campfire Cuisine: Gourmet Recipes for the Great Outdoors by Robin Donovan
• and be ready for bad weather by packing a good book to curl up with, perhaps A Leaky Tent Is a Piece of Paradise: 20 Young Writers on Finding a Place in the Natural World.

Media Lounge

Come on in and feed your mind

THE FRAGILE EDGE
a book by Julia Whitty
Like Rachel Carson in a diving suit, Julia Whitty unveils secrets of the sea surrounding several rapidly submerging, reef-fringed South Pacific islands. Encounters underwater with vividly colored fish and onshore with locals dependent on the catch remind us that the coral reef, one of the planet's most diverse ecosystems, is a foundation of our food chain. "Reefs, we know, can survive without us," Whitty writes. "The opposite may not be true." --Rebecca Lawton

PLENTY
a book by Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon
Deciding to minimize their environmental impact by eating only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver, British Columbia, apartment, Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon abandoned sugar, flour, and Cheerios for a year. In return, they discovered the bounty beyond supermarket doors--organic blueberries growing next to a Buddhist temple, giant prawns caught off the B.C. coast, and sweet, starchy camas bulbs, lightly roasted. --Maria Trombetta

PLANET EARTH
a Discovery Channel DVD set
From the pathos of a hungry polar bear unsuccessfully hunting a walrus--its last chance at a meal--to the exhilaration of an aerial view of the world's highest free-flowing waterfall, watching this 11-part documentary is like attending the most engrossing science class ever. Even the squeamish won't be able to turn away from footage of hundreds of thousands of cave-dwelling cockroaches feeding off a 300-foot mountain of bat excrement.

THE WORLD WITHOUT US
a book by Alan Weisman
If people disappeared from the face of the earth, wind and rain would eventually deconstruct our homes, but some of our plastics might linger for millennia. In imagining a humanless future, journalist Alan Weisman examines how nature has reclaimed places abandoned due to conflict or contamination, how other big mammals became extinct, and how we have evolved--and speculates on who or what might come next.

Let's Talk: Discuss this selection with your friends and neighbors

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES
a film by Jennifer Baichwal
Photographer Edward Burtynsky travels the world to capture humanity's biggest impacts on the land--including massive mines, dams, and ship-scrapping sites--in images whose beauty rivals their subjects' brutality. This artful documentary takes viewers behind the scenes (panning through endless, identical rows of machinery in a Chinese factory, for instance) and reveals the lives of people displaced by or virtually enslaved to the industrial landscape.

Daily Tip : July 27, 2007

We use way too much fossil fuel shipping bottled water and soft drinks. I purchased several filter pitchers and switched to reusable stainless steel water bottles instead of buying bottled water. Now, instead of taking fizzy waters or sodas to work for lunch, I bring iced tea made in a reusable bottle. Not only am I cutting my carbon footprint, I'm also saving myself from unhealthy carbonation and sugar.
-- Submitted by Valerie Sherron

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Trashy Fashion

If you live near Brooklyn and you're into refashioned fashion--and really, who isn't?--you gotta check out tonight's trunk show of "art and apparel from recycled materials" at Etsy Labs, the bricks-and-mortar (does anyone say that anymore?) HQ for the cool crafters selling on Etsy.com. I just read about their "Trashion" show on Treehugger and would be there in a hot minute if I didn't live 2,000 miles away.

What, exactly, is Trashion, you ask? Take this library-card paper-flower necklace (pictured). "This triple flower choker necklace is made from discarded library due date cards," says its creator, Miggi. "They are laminated and cut into flower shapes, and then vintage buttons and sequins are sewn in the center. The chain comes from a broken vintage chain belt. Everything about this necklace is upcycled and reused EXCEPT the toggle clasp, which is new." Call it low-impact design that makes a big impression.

Fast Fact

In 2006, Americans took 10.1 billion trips on public transit, the highest total in almost 50 years. Find local options at publictransportation.org/systems.

Green Biz

To many drinkers, green beer means adding a few drops of food coloring to a St. Patrick's Day pint. But for a growing number of brewers--micro- and major--ecofriendly brewing is a year-round obsession.

In Chico, California, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is installing solar panels that, along with hydrogen fuel cells already in use, will generate 75 percent of the company's electricity--and heat for the brewing process.

The New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, captures methane gas released while treating wastewater and uses it to produce 10 percent of the brewery's power--trimming $18,000 off its 2006 energy bills. Along with running its local delivery trucks on biodiesel and awarding bicycles to its workers on their first anniversary, New Belgium was the first U.S. brewer to buy wind power for all its needs.

In pursuit of producing zero waste, the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland shares its spent grains with an artisan baker (who makes cracked-barley beer bread and pretzels from them) and a local farmer who uses them as a substrate for growing organic mushrooms. Leftover veggie oil from the brewpub fuels the Fatty Wagon, a shuttle bus that carts patrons to baseball games. And in winter, the owners shut down the refrigerator and blow in cold air to keep the beer chilled. All that effort hasn't hurt the bottom line, either: Business was up 30 percent last year. --Andrew Becker

Daily Tip : July 26, 2007

To eat organically on a budget, choose minimally processed food, buy in bulk to avoid marketing and packaging costs, cook as much as you can from scratch, shop locally and in season, and deploy meat as a seasoning rather than the centerpiece of a meal.

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Pop Corner

First-time director Ali Selim's historical romance movie, Sweet Land (now available on DVD), was as low impact as it was low budget. The actors and crew worked under natural light whenever possible, carpooled to the set, and agreed to forgo flights home on weekends, while Selim offset any carbon dioxide emitted during filmmaking.

Advice on cooling beers and cooking out

In the July/August 2007 issue of Sierra, Mr. Green weighs the benefits of a new energy-efficient refrigerator against the environmental costs of replacing the old one and contemplates the campfire.

Curious, concerned, or just generally confused about environmental issues of all stripes? Send your thoughts and questions directly to Mr. Green, or weigh in in the comments section.

Daily Tip : July 25, 2007

Americans toss out more than 100 million cell phones every year. Keep their toxic ingredients (including lead, mercury, and arsenic) out of landfills by recycling your old cell through CollectiveGood.com.

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Healthier Hardware

Water-saving plumbing fixtures and nontoxic sealants can make your next home-repair project more sustainable, but they don't always stand out on the shelves. Plan-It Hardware is trying to fix that. The California-based distributor screens home and garden supplies for recycled content, energy efficiency, biodegradability, and other criteria to find the best products in each category. Retailers that stock Plan-It's selections get vivid "Greener Choice" labels and product guides to point eco-conscious shoppers in the right direction.

Daily Tip : July 24, 2007

Little steps add up. If organic foods made up just 10 percent of everyone’s diet, it would restore more than 6 billion pounds of carbon to our soil, and eliminate more than 2 million pounds of antibiotics used in livestock and more than 2 billion barrels of imported oil annually. Find out more at Mission Organic 2010.

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The Buzz

"The greenest ballpark in the country may be Fenway Park, because only an idiot would try driving and parking there."

--Sports Illustrated, March 12

* * *

"Environmentalists were no fun. They were like prohibitionists at the fraternity party. . . . The tipping point will be occurring when the environment is no longer seen as a nag, but as a positive force in people's lives."

--California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)

Pop Corner

Extravagant weddings (and the subsequent bitter divorces) are regular soap opera fare, but Days of Our Lives added a new twist when it married off lead characters Sami and Lucas in a green ceremony. Their May wedding featured organic flowers and food, biodegradable favors, and recycled-paper invitations, all of which were touted on the show's NBC Web site. Also detailed online were Sami's nine "close calls": three previous trips down the aisle and six nuptials called off at the last minute. Will the green wedding be the one with the fairy-tale ending?

Daily Tip : July 23, 2007

When traveling, look for a hotel that is working to save water and energy and reduce waste. Get listings at greenhotels.com or greenseal.org/programs/lodging_properties.cfm.

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Pick Your Poison

I like to pat myself on the back because I don't own a car, but if my boyfriend offers to pick me up after I've had a long day at work, I'm not about to say no. Despite what we know about their polluting ways, cars are still a part of life for many environmentalists. And unless you've converted yours to run on French fries or plug-in power, you've still got to buy gas. But where?

Pulling up to the gas pump is never something you can feel 100 percent good about, and the huge size and complex organization of oil companies makes their activities hard to track. But there are differences. When Sierra looked at oil companies, we broke our research down into four categories:

Get a free air freshener listing our top, middle, and "bottom of the barrel" choices

• environmental and human-rights abuses, e.g., oil spills and pipelines driven through indigenous communities
• toxic releases from refineries, or how much pollution they create per barrel of oil processed
• stance on global warming; and
• green initiatives

Based on this, we gave our worst ("bottom of the barrel") ratings to ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips and middling scores to Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Valero Energy Corporation, and Citgo.

Philadelphia-based Sunoco came off looking pretty good, but the company is relatively small and doesn't do its own oil drilling and exploration, so there are fewer opportunities for it to do ill. Of the big companies, BP ended up as our "best" (or, really, "least worst") choice because of its leadership on reducing CO2 emissions, supporting the Kyoto Protocol, backing off on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and investing in alternative energy. Of course, BP has plenty of black marks on its record too. All the more reason to reduce the amount of gas you have to buy, by walking, biking, taking transit, carpooling, or driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

Check out the full survey or find out how you can get a free air freshener listing the summary results.

Fast Fact

If all U.S. households received and paid their bills online, it would eliminate more than 800,000 tons of waste each year.

Sun for Your Supper

When I spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle recently about "green grilling," the reporter expressed some skepticism about the idea of cooking with a solar oven. Admittedly, the concept does sound a little wacky. But the paper's food editors were apparently willing to give it a whirl, buying their own Sun Oven (pictured) and devoting four pages to the joys of off-the-grid cooking, including tantalizing recipes (with instructions for solar and conventional preparation) for shrimp and lemon skewers, buttermilk cornbread, and a baby beet salad.

A new title from Stackpole Books, Solar Cooking for Home and Camp, offers even more recipes, along with author Linda Frederick Yaffe's instructions for making your own box cooker out of cardboard and aluminum foil. Seriously. It doesn't even look that hard. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm in favor of any weekend project that results in eating. If you've done any solar cooking, let me know what you think and what your favorite recipes are.

Daily Tip : July 20, 2007

I feel like I am already doing a lot to protect the environment. However, each day I try to find one new thing to do to reduce my footprint, something that I haven't been doing already. The other day I really wanted to see a movie in the afternoon, but my husband had the car and the bus doesn't go to the theater. I decided that I could ride my bike. It feels further, but it's no further than where I go by bike to volunteer once a week. I don't succeed every day in reducing my footprint this way, but I do manage to do it a couple of times a week. It keeps me on my toes, thinking outside the box of my comfort zone and habits.

-- Submitted by Judy Skog

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Art You Can Eat

At the height of World War II, hundreds of victory gardens were thriving in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Artist Amy Franceschini is rekindling her city's self-sufficient spirit--and getting her work on gallery walls. She's designed and distributed gardening starter kits, which were featured in a recent museum exhibit along with photographs of the plots planted so far and playful, yet functional, sculptures like this bicycle-wheelbarrow hybrid. futurefarmers.com/victorygardens

(Photograph by Amy Franceschini)

Daily Tip : July 19, 2007

Weeds may not be good for your garden, but they can be good for you: A cup of chopped dandelion leaves has almost 40 percent as much calcium as a cup of milk, plus plenty of other nutrients.

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What's Hot (or Not)

When it comes to "chic alternative lifestyles," gay is out and green is in, according to the latest Vanity Fair.

Ties are "out" in Italy, where the government is following Japan's lead and encouraging employers to allow casual dress in the summer to reduce air-conditioning demands. (C'mon, Italy, you're going to have to get ahead of the eco-curve if you want to keep setting the fashion agenda.)

Cheese-wedge houses are out, and good design is in, says Witold Rybczynski, whose architectural commentary accompanies a slideshow of ecofriendly, but aesthetically pleasing buildings on Slate.

Daily Tip : July 18, 2007

Food travels an average of 1,500 to 2,000 miles to reach our plates -- but not if you buy it from one of the more than 1,200 small U.S. farms that offer fresh produce "subscriptions." Find one near you at foodroutes.org.

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Daily Tip : July 17, 2007

If it's time to buy a new clothes washer, consider a front-loading machine. They use one-third to one-half the water and less soap than top-loaders, and they're gentler on clothes too.

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Tapping Into Water Trends

In San Francisco, the bottled-water backlash has already begun: hot local restaurants are taking the expensive, environmentally damaging item off their menus and replacing it with house-carbonated tap water, while Mayor Gavin Newsom has banned the use of city money to buy bottled water. Now New Yorkers are being blanketed with ads promoting the city's tap water as a "cool," "healthy" drink with "zero calories" that's "great on the go."

If this campaign works, how about similar ads touting the benefits of other green behaviors like taking the bus ("you + a good book = a happy commute" and "kiss road-rage goodbye") or hanging out laundry on a clothesline (a "meditative," "free" way to "get a tan while taking care of chores")? If you had a big ad agency--and budget--at your disposal, what ecofriendly habits would you promote and how?

Daily Tip : July 16, 2007

Feeling fishy? Opt for Wild Alaskan or Pacific salmon over the farmed kind. It’s better for you, and the ocean. To download a handy reference guide to potentially dangerous or overfished seafood, go to sierraclub.org/mercury/fishguide.pdf.

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Quick Tip: Recycle Your Car Battery

Unlike some household batteries, the lead-acid batteries generally found in cars are easy to recycle: Most states require dealers to take them back. A nearby recycling location is just a click away at Earth 911 (search for "car batteries" in your zip code), where you can also find out what to do with used motor oil and oil filters.

Curious about the nickel metal hydride batteries in hybrid vehicles? Check out what Mr. Green has to say on the subject in his column and his mailbag.

Daily Tip : July 13, 2007

I have been using a reel-type lawnmower for a month now and I love it. My yard is not small, 50 feet x 120 feet, but it takes no longer to cut the grass with the reel vs. a gas mower. You can't cut backwards, and it has trouble with high grass, but I can mow early in the morning, before it gets hot, without disturbing the neighbors. I love the simplicity of whipping it out and starting the job without first checking the gas tank and then cussing at the mower to get it to start. You just push and cut. Maintenance is minimal as well. My yearly household emissions are cut 10 percent by this simple change.

--Submitted by Anne Thornhill

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Going to Bat for the Environment

The good thing about having a sports stadium in a dense downtown area is that even die-hard drivers can usually be convinced to take public transportation to the game. ($20+ parking has a way of doing that.) And even though these transit neophytes can cause chaos and confusion, it does my baseball-loving, planet-hugging heart good to see the throngs of people pouring off buses, BART, and the ferry every gameday. Also cheering is this report from Treehugger about Major League Baseball's small green steps--including giving Ichiro Suzuki, this year's All-Star MVP, a hybrid SUV instead of the regular gas-guzzling kind. Hey, I said they were small steps.

Daily Tip : July 12, 2007

Avoid the toxic chemicals (and high price tags) of many commercial cleaning products by making your own. A teaspoon of liquid soap or borax dissolved in a quart of warm water makes a dandy all-purpose cleaner. For tougher jobs, use one-half cup borax, one-half teaspoon liquid soap, and a splash of vinegar in two gallons of warm water.

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Ban the Bulb

Incandescent lightbulbs are already persona non grata in Australia and Canada, with other countries and U.S. states contemplating their own bans on the energy-inefficient lights. Among them is the United Kingdom, where Dr. Matt Prescott of Ban the Bulb is making the case for incandescents' extinction. In the U.S., the urban advocates at The New Colonist have added a little flair to the cause with a full line of "Ban the Bulb" clothing and accessories--including dog T-shirts, BBQ aprons, messenger bags (above), and thongs.

Still wondering what all the fuss is about? The Washington Post expertly breaks down the benefits of switching to efficient compact fluorescents, which the New Yorker celebrates as a patriotic move on its recent "Bright Idea" cover (at left). Just be sure you recycle them properly.

Daily Tip : July 11, 2007

Each year, 100 million trees are used to produce junk mail. Find out how to get off marketers' lists at newdream.org/junkmail.

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Shop and Save

An ecofriendly mall may seem oxymoronic, but Green Exchange won't be selling sweatshop-made fashions or contributing to sprawl. The shopping center, set to open next year in a renovated lamp factory on Chicago's North Side, will feature an organic cafe, stores carrying sustainable clothing and building supplies, and dozens of other like-minded tenants. And malls aren't the only consumer icons getting a green sheen: A new credit card racks up carbon offsets with every purchase, while YoNaturals stocks vending machines with dried fruit, yogurt, and organic snacks.

(Illustration by Josef Gast)

The Green Life Daily Tip : July 10, 2007

Bring your own mug to work, school, or your local cafe. Some coffee shops will even offer a small discount if you do.

The Green Life Daily Tip : July 9, 2007

Consider taking your next vacation close to home -- and enjoying more time recreating and less in transit. A round-trip transatlantic flight for a family of four creates as much greenhouse gas as driving for a year.

Biking for Beginners

With the weather getting warmer, it's a perfect time to begin biking to work. You'll burn calories instead of fossil fuels, and by combining your daily commute with your daily exercise, you'll have more time left over for summer fun. Here's how to get started:

Get geared up. You'll be wearing a helmet, of course. But if you're going to be doing any night riding, make sure you also have a headlight and taillight, white reflective tape for your wheel rims, and some highly visible or reflective clothing. When it comes to bicycle choice, a mountain bike's fat, knobby tires can be better in the city than a road bike, at least for short commutes; they’re more stable and less likely to slip when it's wet or if they get caught in a grate.

Know your needs. Depending on your circumstances, special bikes can make cycling more alluring. A folding bike can be taken on public transit for part of a longer commute. The Xtracycle, an elongated bike with a rear platform for cargo, works well if you need to cart things around.

Pick the right route. The most direct way to work isn't always best when you're on a bike. Look for quieter streets, streets with bike lanes (or at least wide ones), or multiple-lane, one-way streets for the safest ride. Avoiding any routes heavily trafficked by big trucks and buses also reduces your exposure to pollution. (Speaking of pollution, you can check your local air quality on the EPA's AIRNow site. If your city's air-quality index is higher than 151, you might be better off taking public transit that day.)

Practice proper maintenance. Make sure your tires are properly inflated (the correct pounds per inch, or ppi, should be listed on the side of the tire) and check your brakes before setting out.

Get in position. When riding, create space between your bike and other vehicles, both moving and parked. Ride about four feet away from parked cars to avoid being "doored"; drivers can see you more easily that way too. If there's more than one lane going in your direction, it's OK to ride in the middle of the lane.

Drive defensively. Always assume that drivers don't see you. Get a rearview mirror so you can check traffic all around you. Always ride with traffic and follow all traffic laws, including using hand signals to change lanes and turn.

Clean up green. Wipe down your bike after every ride to keep it running smoothly and lube the chain every few trips with a plant- or vegetable-based lubricant like Pedro's CHAINj.

If you still have concerns about city riding, look for a local cycling association or advocacy group. They generally offer safety classes and serve as a way to hook up with other riders (there's safety in numbers) and get involved with campaigns for better bike lanes and other improvements. Programs in Charlotte, Chicago, and Kansas City have bike "mentors" or escorts who will suggest routes and equipment and even ride to work with you on your first day bike commuting. So what are you waiting for?

Trendsetter

Stephen Aiguier, age 30
Founder, Green Hammer Inc.

Although he comes from a long line of builders, and put himself through college as a journeyman carpenter, Stephen Aiguier didn't cut a straight line back to his family profession. Only after getting a degree in community development and applied economics, working for an organic chocolate company, and putting in a short stint at a securities brokerage did he found his Portland, Oregon-based contracting firm. greenhammerconstruction.com

Q: What makes the houses you build green?

A: All our new homes are LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certified. We build with 100 percent Forest Stewardship Council-certified or salvaged wood, and we're trying to get all of our materials from within 100 miles of the site.

Q: What aspects are hardest to sell clients on?

A: The hidden items, like weatherization and energy systems, but those are what make your home efficient in the long run.

Q: What do you see for the future of green building?

A: "Green building" shouldn't even be a term; it should just be the way we do things: low-impact, using the materials around you. Thirty years from now, our children are going to be asking, "Why did you build any other way?"

(Photograph by Annie Portlock)

* * *

Want to learn more about green building? Check out our interviews with green builders in Seattle and Asheville, North Carolina. Then click on over to the latest issue of Sierra magazine for remodeling tips and author Bill McKibben's account of building his ecofriendly dream home. And read the rest of our interview with Stephen Aiguier after the jump.

Fast Fact

An energy-efficient home saves up to $400 a year in utility costs.

The Green Life Daily Tip : July 6, 2007

The average U.S.office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year. Make it a habit to print on both sides or use the back side of old documents for faxes, scrap paper, or drafts.

Revel With a Cause

Sure, you're still busy cleaning your grill after yesterday's festivities, but it's time to get ready for the next party! If you don't already have plans to rock out with 2 billion of your closest friends and (world) neighbors on Saturday, well, where you have you been? Tickets for the best (IMO) Live Earth show, at Wembley Stadium in London, are sold out, but that event--featuring performances by the Beastie Boys, the Foo Fighters, and Spinal Tap--and the 24-hour concerts from six other continents (yep, even Antarctica) are being broadcast online and on TV as part of the international effort to provoke action on global warming. Find--or host--a viewing party near you, and tell us, which bands are you most excited to see?

Fender Blender

It's probably too late to order one for your Fourth of July fest, but thanks to the geniuses over at the Juice Peddler, you can have your drink and burn it off too. Their pedal-powered blenders range from the dedicated (and stationary) "Fender Blender" to the Mini-B3 (pictured), which fits on any bike that can carry a rear rack--even an Xtracycle. The site doesn't say how many calories you'll expend, but sadly, it's probably not as many as are in a margarita. And if you're riding while blending, better stick to smoothies.