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Turn your investments green: Support socially and environmentally responsible corporations. Check out SustainableBusiness' report, The World's Top Sustainable Stocks: Companies Changing the World for the Better.
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Use natural alternatives for everyday tasks: mineral oil is an excellent lubricant for those squeaky hinges!
Whoops! As so many of you pointed out, mineral oil is made from petroleum and is not a natural alternative. We apologize for the error and thank our ever-vigilant readers for correcting us.
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The San Francisco Bay will be rocking this weekend, with 28 electronic and indie-rock bands bringing live music to Treasure Island for the first time in 65 years. Along with good grooves, attendees can 
expect to absorb a bit of eco-consciousness, as the Treasure Island Music Festival will continue the trend of venues and festivals going green by providing zero-emission buses for transport to and from the island, running generators on mix of biodiesel fuel, printing materials on recycled paper, and donating leftover food to local shelters. Concert-goers will even be able to win prizes for recycling bottles and cups. Now that's got a good ring to it.
Check back next week for an interview with the cofounder of Reverb, a nonprofit that helps bands make their tours more ecofriendly.
I started composting my non-meat, non-oil kitchen scraps and am amazed at both how easy it is and how much less waste I'm putting into a landfill. Composting has literally cut my "garbage" in half, plus by the end of the fall, I'll have my first batch of nutritious fertilizer for next summer's garden.
I took a garbage can and drilled holes in the bottom for drainage, lined the bottom with a bunch of branches for air circulation, and then started filling it with fruit and vegetable waste along with coffee grounds and filters. Every now and then, I put layers of leaves or newspaper on as well.
-- Submitted by Tania Crawford
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On September 21, your city may have a little more green space than usual--at least for an hour or two. Sparked by the "art-ivism" of the San Francisco-based group Rebar, people around the world will be turning parking spots into temporary parks to reclaim public space from cars. Here's how to join the fun:
1. Find a vacant parking space and feed the meter.
2. Roll out a tarp and some sod.
3. Add plants, benches, and other amenities.
4. Chat with passersby and tell them about the project.
5. Clean up your site and reuse or recycle all materials.
Illustration by Josef Gast
As an alternative to REcycling your used products, why not try UPcycling and turn them into higher quality goods! A recent article in the New York Times highlights the global community of IKEA hackers who are upcycling IKEA products into functional art. Check out Apartment Therapy's Green Home Blog for ideas.
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Moscow has introduced a label to identify foods free of genetically modified ingredients. * The largest solar photovoltaic facility in North America is being built outside Las Vegas to provide energy for Nellis Air Force Base. Meanwhile, the Vatican is installing solar panels on the Paul VI Hall, a 6,300-seat venue used for concerts and papal addresses. * Hertz and Avis are boosting the number of hybrid vehicles in their rental-car fleets by 3,400 and 1,500, respectively. * Google pledged to cut or offset all of its greenhouse-gas emissions by the end of the year, invested $10 million to develop plug-in hybrid cars, and joined Intel and other tech companies to halve computers' energy use in half by 2010. climatesaverscomputing.org
Visit your local library or borrow from a friend. It's great to support local bookstores, but how many books do you need to own?
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It's easy to tire of kids hawking candy bars and magazines--even for a good cause. Fortunately, there are more-innovative, ecofriendly ways for schools to get their hands on much-needed cash. Students can collect used printer cartridges for recycling and sell fair-trade stationery, natural body-care products, or, in Wisconsin, locally made cheese. Mmm, cheese. Where's my wallet?
Illustration by Christoph Hitz
Constructing green buildings can reduce costs for the average U.S. elementary or high school by $100,000 annually.
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