• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

Credit: Carlos Pardo In two days, the nation will pay its taxes. But did you know that April 15 is also Bike to School Day? I discovered this while writing an article for Mothering about ways parents can help green their schools, due to be published in its Fall back-to-school issue. The people urging families to walk or bike to school normally frame it as a solution to rising rates of childhood obesity: Thirty years ago, reports the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 90 percent of children who lived within a mile of school walked there. Today, that number... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by mamazee

  How do we ensure a healthy future for our children? In America savvy marketers have effectively duped us into believing that convenience in the Holy Grail: fast food, paper plates, quick-drying high-tech fabric, take-and-bake pizza. We eat our meals out of cans or boxes or plastic bags; we put diapers made of wood pulp and petroleum-based super absorbent polymers on our babies, and we use our cars to drive half a mile away. The happy woman in the TV commercial spraying toxic chemicals to get stains out of a collar shirt has no wrinkles on... read more

• Last updated 3/31/13 by mamazee

So here are some things I learned… I stayed in a net-positive, freshly built green house right outside of Burlington, one of the houses in the South Farm Homes development (Hinesburg, VT). It was designed by the architecture firm Truex Cullins. Net-positive means that not only is it made so that it generates all of its own power; it actually generates more than it needs and gives power back to the grid. The owner will actually get a check for about $200 every year for her contribution. How is this done? The house was built to maximize passive solar... read more

• Last updated 3/15/13 by mamazee

Hi… Um, April is coming in like a lion. What the…? So much for plans of early-evening tennis. The wind would blow the ball into the next court. At least I could blame it on the wind if I whomped it there…and yet…no.  So I got turned on to this really great site: www.ecosteal.com. They offer one affordable eco item until it’s sold out, and then move on to a new item. The products are 40-80% off, and you can buy up to three of them, so it’s one way to do holiday shopping all year long, in small, manageable increments. You can sign up for alerts so that... read more