This will be a big year in the fight against climate change. The decisions made—or not made—by Congress this session and by international leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen conference in early December will likely affect the state of the world for generations to come. 

Beneficial decisions at the Copenhagen conference start with strong measures at home, but climate change legislation faces stark opposition in the United States. Nearly 800 companies and interest groups have hired more than 2,000 lobbyists to pressure Congressional representatives to swing climate change legislation in their favor. What’s Mr. Smith to do? 

Two students at Vermont’s Middlebury College believe that engaging impassioned citizens as lobbyists for the environment is the best way to ensure good climate change legislation. To go up against industry lobbyists, however, these everyday people need proper knowledge of the policies and government workings, so the students created The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Policy. The 44-page booklet focuses on the Waxman-Markey climate bill that the House of Representatives passed in June 2009. It points out the major elements of the bill and explains which aspects legislators could swing both ways on. 

The booklet is more than just a guide, however. It’s a call to action, an invitation to get in the game and affect positive change. The fate of the environment doesn’t have to rest in the hands of lobbyists and politicians. Grab a guide and get involved!

When it comes to certification, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program get most of the green building industry’s attention. Now the International Living Building Institute, a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded this year by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, has established a rigorous Living Building Challenge that could give that program a run for its money.

Photo Courtesy International Living Building Institute.

The Living Building Institute is a community of leaders dedicated to solving the environmental problems connected with the building industry. It facilitates information sharing through a members-only website that provides access to information, discussion forums and a technical companion handbook. 

Although the Living Building Challenge is endorsed by the USGBC and not meant to be a competitor of the LEED program, the Challenge’s standards raise the bar higher. According to the Living Building Challenge’s standards, LEED focuses on making green building mainstream while the Living Building Challenge aims to push projects to the highest standards of sustainable building. 

To achieve certification, projects must meet 16 prerequisites in six performance areas: site, energy, materials, water, indoor quality and beauty + inspiration. Projects must be lived in for 12 months to ensure they function as anticipated.

When you lace up your shoes to go for a jog, you might not be thinking about their effect on the environment. But if those kicks are labeled Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Clarks or Timberland, chances are they’re contributing to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. 

A Greenpeace investigation released last month reported that Brazil’s cattle industry —supplying both the meat and leather industries—is the world’s largest source of deforestation. It accounts for 14 percent of annual deforestation. The cattle industry is also Brazil’s main source of CO2 emissions. 

Forest destruction causes almost 20 percent of emissions linked to global warming, which accounts for more pollution than the combined emissions of all the world’s cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships. 

The report, “Slaughtering the Amazon,” follows cattle products from ranches involved in illegal deforestation to the laundering of those products into the supply chains of top brands including Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Clarks, Timberland, Geox, Gucci, Ikea, Kraft and Wal-Mart. 

Since the report was released, both Nike and Timberland have altered their policies to ensure that leather used in their shoes won’t contribute to tropical deforestation. Nike’s new policy requires that leather suppliers certify in writing that their products are not coming from cattle raised in the Amazon. Timberland’s new policy requires leather suppliers to halt cattle expansion on newly deforested areas in the Amazon.

Want to encourage other companies to alter their Amazon policies? Send them a message.

After a long battle, paper products giant Kimberly-Clark and Greenpeace have finally ended hostilities. Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest manufacturer of tissue paper products, has agreed to a new policy of sustainable practices and sourcing, and Greenpeace will drop its five-year-old Kleercut campaign, which used print media, social networking, YouTube videos and a variety of less conventional tools and encouraged people to get active in their communities to “show Kimberly-Clark that people across the world aren't willing to stand by while a multinational company destroys their forests.”

Kimberly-Clark, whose main brands include Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle, has promised that the fiber in its tissue products will now come from environmentally responsible sources, including Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood and recycled post-consumer waste. Furthermore, Kimberly-Clark is committed to end its purchase of non-FSC fibers from Canada’s Boreal forest by 2011. 

The Canadian Boreal, North America’s largest old-growth forest, provides a habitat for threatened wildlife such as woodland caribou as well as sanctuary for more than 1 billion migratory birds. More importantly, it is the planet’s largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon, holding the equivalent of 27 years worth of greenhouse gas emissions. But 60 percent of the Boreal forest is already allocated to logging companies, and less than 10 percent is permanently protected. Greenpeace, working with Kimberly-Clark, hopes to change that. 

Kimberly-Clark’s new policy is among the world’s strongest. By the end of 2011, 40 percent of its North American tissue fiber will be either FSC-certified or recycled, up 70 percent from its 2007 levels. Every day about 1.3 billion people, almost a quarter of the world’s population, use Kimberly-Clark brands, meaning these changes will have a big impact. 

Greenpeace hopes that Kimberly-Clark’s efforts to change will influence Georgia Pacific and Proctor & Gamble, companies that it is still pressuring on sustainable sourcing.

Eating seafood can be so confusing. What’s been overfished? What contains dangerous levels of mercury? Should you buy farmed or wild fish—and does it make a difference?  

Now there’s FishChoice.com, a nonprofit website that helps commercial seafood buyers easily find eco-friendly seafood products. After completing the free registration, commercial seafood buyers can gain access to the website’s database of sustainable seafood ranked or certified by environmental groups including the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program, the Blue Ocean Institute, the New England Aquarium, FishWise, the Marine Stewardship Council and Sea Choice. The database currently lists more than 300 different products from 130 suppliers including sustainable varieties of shrimp, tuna, salmon, Pollock and tilapia. 

FishChoice’s comprehensive list of product information, collected by seafood consultancy Sea Fare Group, includes the supplier name, contact information, product forms, catch methods, gear or farm type and delivery information. Commercial seafood buyers can also submit a request for FishChoice.com to find items that meet their (and their customers') criteria.

Crisp, chopped cucumber salad and lemony carrot vinaigrette are the perfect complements to buttery black cod. The dish is served on an Annieglass pedestal slab. Photo By Batista Moon Studio/NH Archives

Consumers should check out SeafoodWatch for detailed advice on sustainable seafood.

Found your fish? Prepare these delicious recipes for dinner this weekend:

• Thai Shrimp Curry 

Shrimp are low in mercury, and Seafood Watch recommends you choose domestic rather than imported shrimp. U.S. shrimp trawlers use turtle-safe nets, and U.S. environmental laws minimize the damage shrimp farms cause to mangrove forests.

• Salmon in Luxurious Green Sesame Pipián

This recipe uses bottled tomatillo salsa and tahini instead of traditional ground pumpkin seeds for the Mexican-style pipián sauce. Seafood Watch recommends Marine Stewardship Council–certified, wild Alaskan salmon because it is low in mercury and contains few or no PCBs.

• Black Cod with Shiso-Cucumber Salad and Carrot Vinaigrette 

Shiso is an aromatic green leaf used to flavor Japanese dishes such as sushi and tempura. Seafood Watch recommends black cod from Alaska or British Columbia, where the populations are abundant and the fisheries are well managed. Black cod contains moderate amounts of mercury, so eat this fish no more than twice a month.

Forget Cash for Clunkers. Simply eating less meat on a daily basis will do more to lessen your contribution to global warming than buying a more fuel-efficient car—and will likely make you healthier, as well. 

Cattle-rearing generates more greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, than transportation, according to a United Nations study cited in the Washington Post. In fact, senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld calls livestock “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems.” 

As the Post article points out, Americans aren’t too keen on being told to reduce their beef intake. However, as Post writer Ezra Klein points out, “compared with cars or appliances or heating your house, eating pasta on a night when you’d otherwise have made fajitas is easy.” 

Klein cites a Carnegie-Mellon University study that found that going vegetarian one day a week would lessen your impact on the planet more than switching to a completely local diet.

Mix grilled tofu, tomato confit and penne with olives for a filling, healthy meal.  Photo By bricolage.108/Courtesy Flickr . 

And there’s a bonus: Eating vegetarian a couple nights a week saves money. It’s also a great way to reduce calorie intake, incorporate different types of nutrients into your diet and eat more varied types of produce and plant proteins. 

“A Montanan who drives 40 miles to work might not have the option to take public transportation. But he or she can probably pull off a veggie stew,” Klein writes. “A cash-strapped family might not be able buy a new dishwasher. But it might be able to replace meatballs with mac-and-cheese.” 

Make a simple salad with tofu, tomatoes, greens, olive oil and black pepper.  Photo By yomi955/Courtesy Flickr . 

So here’s to veggie quesadillas, pasta marinara, tofu stir-fry, lentil soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly. Let’s make them often and share recipes with friends.

Expecting parents have many decisions to make before their child’s due date. One of the many exciting choices parents make is how the nursery will look. When I was expecting, creating a functional, healthy space, and choosing healthy materials was more important than how things looked—not that you must choose one instead of the other. Experts Laura Forbes Carlin and Alison Forbes say “…what good is a beautiful room if it’s not practical and healthy?” I couldn’t agree more.

Set up your nursery with furniture that not only matches your family’s style but also your height. It will make daily routines such as changing diapers and picking clothes much easier on your body. Also, organization is essential in creating a safe and easy space for you and your baby. 

A wicker bassinet is a healthy way to welcome your baby home. Photo By Tamara Muth-King/NH Archives.

Unfortunately not all products used to decorate a nursery are safe for your family. Some products contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that offgas harmful chemicals into the air—these affect babies’ small bodies even more than adults’. Opt for a nontoxic crib, zero-VOC paint, wood floors and a healthy mattress to protect your babies’ immature organs.

A good rule of thumb is to pick healthy, quality, long term pieces over what looks good in your nursery.

How have you greened your baby's nursery? Tell me about it in the comments section.

Chicago and New York City have been competing for green props for nearly a decade—and both lay claim to the “greenest city” title. Now they’re vying to be the first to pass a resolution in favor of greener food.

This week Chicago’s food resolution, a nonbinding resolution urging the city to make healthy, locally grown food more available to Chicago residents, made it to the city council’s Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities Committee. The resolution seeks to show that how food is produced affects people’s and the planet’s health, stating “the Chicago City Council encourages individuals, civic associations and community-based organizations to grow local, organic gardens, and institutions and businesses to offer more plant-based foods.” It also promotes the expansion farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs and community gardens.

The New York Times reports that a similar bill calling for the creation of Foodprint NYC has been proposed in New York. This bill goes even farther than the Chicago bill to encourage city agencies to coordinate and establish climate-friendly food policies and programs and raise public awareness about food’s health and environmental impacts.  New York’s bill is backed by the NYC Foodprint Alliance, composed of groups such as Just Food, the Sierra Club, NYC City Group, Farm Sanctuary, Slow Food USA and Eating Liberally.

We’ll be watching the race to the finish line--and hoping the rest of the country will be inspired to follow the big cities’ lead.

My kids and I spent last week exploring the beautiful Okanagan region of British Columbia. There was so much to see and do—from touring wineries to feasting on the prolific organic produce that’s grown there. We covered a lot of ground, and when we needed a place to rest and relax for a few days, we were thrilled to find Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa in Osoyoos, a relaxed lakeside community just a few miles from the U.S. border. 

Photo Courtesy Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa.

Set in the Great Basin desert, one of Canada’s three most endangered ecosystems, the resort faces environmental challenges—and I was happy to learn during my visit that it’s facing them head on. Landscaping is done with native desert plants, and the resort takes as much care of the native animals as it does of its guests. The area is home to a significant number of gopher snakes, rattlesnakes and two species of endangered bats. Besides monitoring snake activity, raising money for research programs and promoting wildlife education, the folks at the resort have also built a deflection fence and a safe crossing corridor for the snakes as well as a roost for the bats. In deference to both critters and guests, the pools at Spirit Ridge are filled with salt water, eliminating the use of chlorine. 

Photo Courtesy Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa.

Spirit Ridge is built on tribal land, as part of a special partnership with the First Nations Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB), or NK’MIP. The winery is the first aboriginal winery in North America, and the NK’MIP Desert Cultural Centre, located at the resort, is a fascinating introduction to Okanagan First Nations culture. The center offers on-site cultural tours and self-guided nature trails as well as rattlesnake research and tagging programs. And its gorgeous multi-colored rammed earth wall is a must-see for anyone interested in natural building. 

Photo Courtesy Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa.

Our villa was equipped with Energy Star appliances, low-flow fixtures and compact fluorescent lighting—as good as it gets. A new Wireless Energy Management System) could detect when my kids and I had left the room, so I didn’t have to worry (quite so much) that we’d left the lights on or the air conditioner running. Resort manager Mohamed Awad told me the system has helped Spirit Ridge cut its energy use by an estimated 25 to 30 percent. (I wish I had this at home!) 

Photo Courtesy Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa.

“We’re the only resort in the south Okanagan that’s making this kind of green initiatives,” Awad told me. “And now other resorts are starting to follow suit.”

That’s something worth writing home about.

During my family’s travels in the British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, we visited Orofino Vineyards, home of Canada’s only straw bale winery. Based in Cawston, the heart of the world’s largest organic growing region, the winery is a magnet for tourists and locals alike. They come not only to taste the winery’s delicious Meritages and Rieslings, but also to learn more about sustainable building and the region’s bounty. 

Colorful flowers add to the natural beauty of the straw bale winery. Photo Courtesy Orofino Vineyards.

The winery is a stunning example of straw bale construction. Built by 22 fledgling straw balers during a five-day workshop in 2004, the structure features 21-inch-thick walls that are ideal for keeping barrel room temperatures constant—and keeping visitors cool during the desert region’s hot, hot summers. The temperature was creeping into double digits on the late-July day when we visited; the winery was cool and comfortable.   

When we stopped by, owner John Weber was cleaning up from Orofino’s annual 1.6-Mile Dinner (and we thought a 100-mile diet was impressive!). For two nights, local chef Darin Paterson treated guests from Vancouver, the Okanagan and surrounding Similkameen Valley farms to dishes made only with ingredients found within a 1.6-mile radius of the winery. Accompanying the double-hung jersey milk cheese, chicken leg confit and butter-poached breast, spit-roasted rosemary Merlot Cab lamb and grilled peaches were such treats as homemade butter and dressing made with roasted almonds from the Orofino property.   

The annual 1.6-Mile Dinner draws tourists and locals to the winery. Photo Courtesy Orofino Vineyards.

My only regret is that we arrived in the Okanagan Valley too late to partake in this feast. You can bet I’ll be checking the dates for next year’s dinner—and I’ll do everything I can to be there for that one!

I just spent a wonderful week in British Columbia with my kids. Generally, I feel a little bit guilty about the waste that comes with hotel stays, but we stayed at luxurious—and sustainably minded—Fairmont hotels in Vancouver. I was impressed with what the chain (and each individual hotel within it) is doing to reduce its impact—and mine. 

Fairmont Hotels are both stylish and sustainable. Photo Courtesy Fairmont Hotels.

Way back in 1990, the Canadian Fairmont hotels pioneered a Green Partnership program, a comprehensive commitment to minimizing its hotels’ impact. The program addresses energy and water conservation; waste management; redistribution of household goods and food to those in need; and purchasing from local, sustainable sources. The chain has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to develop a Climate Change Strategy, setting a corporate-wide target of reducing its CO2 emissions to 20 percent below its 2006 levels by 2013. Its commitment has garnered the attention of notable environmental activists such as David Suzuki who stated: “The Green Partnership is a concrete example of how business can involve employees in something everyone can feel good about. It’s good for business, it’s good for morale, and it’s good for the planet.” 

We spent a couple days at Vancouver’s Fairmont Waterfront, where executive chef Patrick Dore and resident beekeeper Graeme Evans tend to a rooftop herb and produce garden and a bee colony, added this year. The bees have increased the garden’s espaliered apple tree’s production from about 20 apples to 200 this year. On August 25, in an event open to the public, the hotel will harvest 300 to 400 pounds of honey from more than 500,000 bees—and, yes, that honey will be put to use in the hotel restaurant’s delicious local, organic cuisine.

Our final-night stay at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, which is literally steps away from the international terminal, made a 7 a.m. flight back to the States tolerable—and I was pleased to see that the hotel’s industrial location hasn’t thwarted its own green initiatives. The hotel’s kitchen team has staked a claim at a nearby community garden, and guests are enjoying the fruits of their labor in its restaurant, Globe@YVR.

These days, most hotels offer eco-options such as eliminating linen changes to save water, but the Fairmont hotels go above and beyond. Conde Nast Traveler calls the Fairmont’s program “the most comprehensive environmental program in the North American hotel industry.” The chain has properties throughout the United States and Canada—so whenever I can, I’m going to minimize my travel footprint by staying at the Fairmont.

Bottled water is 98 percent melted ice caps and 2 percent polar bear tears. 

Find out more about bottled water at Tappening.com. Image Courtesy Tappening.

Well, perhaps not. But the folks at Tappening, a group dedicated to encouraging people to drink tap water and to raising awareness about the wastefulness and harm to the environment caused by bottled water, have started a new advertising campaign where the truth doesn’t matter too much. 

Tappening founders Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, a pair of marketing veterans, are tired of the lies and hype propagated by the bottled water industry. So they’ve decided to fight fire with fire (or water with water) at their new campaign, Start A Lie. At the Start A Lie website, people can create their own lies about thebottled water industry and share them with their friends. The site already has hundreds of responses, including: 

• Bottled water causes bedwetting among adults.

• The major waste product of bottled water is dehydrated dolphins.

• Bottled water just stole my wallet.

• Bottled water destroys over 30,000 square miles of leprechaun habitat every day.

• Deemed to scary, bottled water was replaced by a shark in Jaws.

But is lying really the best solution in the fight against bottled water? “We’re not just admitting it upfront, we’re bragging about it. We want people to know we’re blatantly lying in our new campaign and, more importantly, that everyone should pay close attention to what’s factual in marketing and what’s not so much,” Yaverbaum says

The Start A Lie campaign will include postings in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas. There are also downloadable, viral ads online.

There are so many eco-friendly ways to finish the walls in your house– including natural wallpaper and low-VOC paints. One of my personal favorites is clay plaster. It’s durable and can provide years of reliable protection with little maintenance. Best of all, clay plaster is both waterproof and breathable, resisting water penetration but allowing moisture trapped in the walls to escape. And you don’t need a professional to install it. Applying clay plaster is an easy DIY project and can even be done using your hands. 

American Clay, which comes in 40 natural colors (and unlimited custom colors), is one of my favorite clay plasters because it’s made using resources from the United States. American Clay plasters don’t outgas, resist mold growth and are easy to maintain 

The Natural Body Day Spa in Atlanta, Georgia—the first spa in the Southeast to receive the U.S. Green Building’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification—finished its walls with American Clay plasters. “Reducing our impact on the earth is always at the forefront of our thoughts when designing a new spa location,” says Cici Coffee, founder and CEO of Natural Body Spa and Shop.

Watch the video to learn how to use American Clay. Have you used clay plaster in your home? Let me know in the comments section.