How the Sharing Economy Can Save You Money

Fueled by a rapid rise in collaborative consumption companies, the Sharing Economy has been hailed as “the next big thing” and one of “10 ideas that will change the world”. But what the heck is it, and why should we care? Our friends at EcoSalon explain why everyone’s so excited about sharing, and how it can save you money, time, and even rejuvenate your social life.

Every day, we waste energy, space, and money, because we’re obsessed with the idea of owning things. Most of these things see about 10 minutes of use before we move on to the next “must have” item. The things we do use on a daily basis are built to break, and when they do, we toss them in the trash on our way out the door to buy replacements.

In the sharing economy, access is more important than ownership. It’s not the CD we want, it’s the joy of listening to the music. It’s not the cordless drill we need, but the hole it makes. Collaborative consumption companies make it easy to pay a little bit to gain access to what we need without the high cost of buying it or the burden of maintaining it. The sharing economy focuses our attention on connection and collaboration, turning neighbors into a support system and wasted assets into affordable solutions.

10 Ways to Give Back on MLK Day

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was more than a monumental figure for social change, he was also a man dedicated to service. In memory of his life and legacy, it is important that we all ask ourselves what he believed to be life's most urgent question,"What are you doing for others?" With this in mind, we encourage you to take the time to give back to your community and make MLK day a day on, not a day off. Below are a list of ten activities taking place in major cities around the country.

Volunteer at Golden Gate National Parks (San Francisco and Marin County,CA)

Looking for a way to serve your community while enjoying beautiful scenery? Commemorate MLK Day by volunteering with Golden Gate National Parks. There are volunteer opportunities at the following locations: Alcatraz, Fort Baker, Marin County, Mori Point, Muir Beach, Ocean Beach, Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco, San Mateo County. Whether you are restoring garden on Alcatraz or assisting with grounds maintenance at Fort Baker, these activities are sure to enhance the community. All ages are welcome.

Volunteer with Truly Living Well (Atlanta, GA)

Help create a more sustainable community by joining Truly Living Well in their day of service event. Volunteers will be installing bed gardens for low-income housing divisions, families, community centers, and schools while encouraging people to grow their own food and eat healthy. This event will begin at 9:00 am at the Wheat Street Garden at 75 Hilliard St NE, Atlanta, GA.

15 Resolutions You Can Cross Off Your List Today

The New Year is here, and what better way to celebrate than by doing some good! Whether you made resolutions or not, the start of a new year is a clean slate. You may not know what the next 12 months have in store, but you can guarantee that you jump-started 2013 on a positive note by accomplishing any (or all!) of the following eco-actions.

1. Keep the TV off. It's the first week of the New Year, do you really want to waste it sitting in front of the television? We thought not. You could get so much done today if you spend less time watching reruns — and you could cut down electricity usage too. 

2. Make dinner tonight. Why waste the gas and money to go out for dinner, when you can make a nice, hot meal right at home? Go with local, organic ingredients to step it up a notch. Not only will you be saving money, and help out the local economy, you'll have leftovers for later. 

3. Take a shorter shower. In general, it'd be good to cut back on excess water usage. You can install low-flow showerheads and fix leaky faucets for other inexpensive and easy conservation moves, but if you shave a minute or two off of your shower today that's a step in the right direction. Do that for a whole month and you could save 150 gallons of water and be one step closer to being a Water Sentinel. 

12 Exciting Innovations from 2012

2012 was a great year for innovators. From solar soccer to poop power, inventions, innovations, and ideas for changing the world sprouted like daisies. Here's a list of some green technology you might have missed:

1. Recharge from a Distance: Wireless power can be transmitted under roads to electric cars, and rechargeable batteries can get a boost from anywhere in the house.

2. Solar Soccer Ball: The Soccket is a soccer ball that can generate and store energy when it's kicked.

3. Manure into Gold: Manure from cows can be "digested" to make heat, electricity, animal bedding, and fertilizer.

4. Solar Incubator: In poor countries without access to the grid, solar-powered incubators can save infants' lives.

5. Mud-Powered Fuel Cell: Aquatic mud is full of microbes, and a new fuel cell can tap their metabolism for electricity. This could power swimming robots.

Global Warming Fries Housing Values

The increased severity of wildfires, heat waves, hurricanes, and floods are all negative consequences of climate change. But at the same time, they can seem distant and vague, occurring "somewhere" to "someone" who isn't you, until suddenly it is. However, there is a way that the increased cost of natural disasters inflicts a cost on everyone, and that is through insurance.

Housing insurance premiums have been going up as the climate does, and a new study by Movoto Real Estate found that for every .25 degrees Fahrenheit (.14 degrees Celsius) that the temperature climbs, insurance premium rates rise in turn by 1 percent. That leaves less money to buy the house, and causes housing values to drop. So, even with an extremely mild .25°F heating, the entire country loses $18.7 billion worth of real estate, about $250 per house. But the IPCC estimates for future climate change are much greater than that. Even in their lowest-emission scenario, temperatures may rise at least 1.9°F (1.1°C). That's over 130 billion dollars lost in housing values alone, not counting the cost of damage to public works and agriculture that are bound to ride along with rising temperatures.

Movie Review: Chasing Ice

Chasing Ice is one of the most hauntingly beautiful, yet at the same time, socially disturbing films that you'll see this year. Brought to life by the same producer as The Cove, this documentary tells the story of climate change through the eyes, and lens, of photographer James Balog and a team of experts and interns who form the Extreme Ice Survey.

Watch as massive glaciers dissolve from the landscape, rivers of runoff slice through the arctic ice, and witness with your own eyes as the team catches the biggest calving event ever recorded. Combining both stunning visuals of glacial melt, alongside alarming statistics on the affects that global warming are having on the frigid landscape in Greenland, Alaska, Montana, and Iceland; this film will make even the harshest critic stand up and take notice of the drastic changes happening around us.

Aside from the visual aspects of the film, Balog's dedication to telling this story is truly inspiring. Toughing it out through multiple knee surgeries, even going as far as using crutches just to climb out and stay close to the action, shows a thirst for knowledge. To see that perseverance in Balog, and his crew, through personal and technical struggles, to share this story with the world is astounding. 

Grand Canyon Trails Mapped by Google Cameras

It's safe to say that Google maps are pretty awesome. They give you directions from destination A to destination B; you can see your house through Google Street View; and this option also enables you to traverse parts of the world from the comfort of your own home or smart phone by offering 360 degree panoramic views of places such as the Swiss Alps or Atlantis Space Shuttle. But it doesn't stop there. While Google Street View has given us the privilege of seeing an array of amazing geography during all hours of the day, they've taken their street level views to another level: allowing us to see the nooks and crannies of the planet unavailable by car or plane. . . beginning with the Grand Canyon.

And why not? As one of the U.S.'s most popular landmarks to visit and see from around the world, the Grand Canyon's depth and mileage are both an awe to witness and explore. But while its trails offer exceptionally beautiful scenery, it is only available to those hikers treading the paths--ones that are typically accessible solely by foot. However, Google's Street View camera is giving us the opportunity to partake in those majestic views by mapping some of the Grand Canyon's most popular trails.

Fashion 2013: Environmental Tech on the Runway

Paris Fashion Week wrapped up last week and the biggest names in fashion pulled out all the stops, but the Chanel runway in particular caught our eye. The designer behind the 2013 Chanel line presented at Paris Fashion Week, Karl Lagerfeld, is an icon in the fashion world. On top of that, he has been known to be the visionary behind some pretty elaborate runways — including a runway modeled to look like the inside of an airline and a runway featuring glaciers and snow. This season's runway is no exception.

To showcase their Spring Summer 2013 collection in Paris, Lagerfeld used an  environmental technology theme complete with wind turbines and a solar panel-lined runway. While giving a nod to environmental technology is all well and good, the runway served no actual environmental functions. The fashion itself seemed loosely inspired by the theme, with breezy, billowing tops and dresses with solar panel-esque patterns. With such an elaborate setup, our question is: why not go all out and make this a fully-functional, environmental theme? Or at least incorporate repurposed fabrics into the designs.

Take a look at the video of the full show below and let us know your thoughts. Is it fashion forward or just frivolous? 

Building the Future

TODAY'S ECO-ACTIVISTS SERVE THE REVOLUTION BY TINKERING IN THE LAB.

College activism has a new angle of attack these days. While slogan-chanting, fist-pumping crowds continue to confront the status quo on campuses nationwide, students are also waging a quieter war in the classroom and in the lab, using equations and blueprints and soldering irons to shape a better world.

These warrior nerds are no less idealistic than their quad-occupying peers — especially when it comes to protecting the environment. They're just deploying that idealism to conceive cutting-edge products, build prototypes, and test their gadgets in the field. Some are even (gasp!) dropping out in their rush for tangible change. This new revolution's slogan might be, "Less dreaming, more tinkering."

A transition is also brewing among college administrators, who are retrofitting energy-guzzling buildings, putting composting programs into place, seeding campus farms, funding clean-tech research labs, shuttering coal-fired power plants, and mandating curricula that guarantee environmental literacy.

Landlocked Ocean Love: Give Green

In 2011, over nine million pounds of trash was collected along the world's shorelines, according to the Ocean Conservancy. This Saturday is International Coastal Cleanup Day and if you don't live near a coastline, it might be hard to imagine how you can lend a hand. Water-lovers of the inlands, don't fret — we'll show you how to help.

Tip #3: Donate to the cause.

You may not be able to physically join the party on Coastal Cleanup Day, but you can be there in spirit. The next best step to being there in person is to donate to the efforts. By donating to the international coastal cleanup you will not only be putting money toward future cleanups, you would be supporting clean water, protecting habitats, and helping to restore oil-polluted waters. Or maybe you would rather donate to something a little closer to home? Do a quick search for ocean programs in your area and you'll find that there are plenty of organizations looking for support. The California Coastal Commission, for example, is always accepting donations to support their  Adopt-a-Beach program. Whether you choose to donate at the local or international level, at least you'll have put your money where the trash is.

--Photo courtesy of istock/1stclassphoto

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