Green Your Fourth: Cleaner Coal

Independence Day is, from sea to shining sea, a glorious holiday. This year, your festivities can help protect those purple mountain majesties. This week’s tips tell you how.

Tip #1: Skip the Coal

Anyone affiliated with the Sierra Club knows how we feel about coal. To help lessen the 225,000 tons of carbon emitted from Independence Day grilling alone, opt for an electric or propane-powered grill, or a solar oven, over one that burns through charcoal. If you’ve only got a coal-fired cooker and can’t replace it yet, choose briquettes made of invasive trees, or biomass pellets from sustainably managed forests. Not sure how to find those? Look for products marked with this seal or this one.

Tip #2: A more vegetarian barbecue?

Tip #3: Let the sparks fly.

Tip #4: After the party...

Tell us: How will you grill greener this Fourth?