Every now and then you run across a situation where instinct tells you to zig when you really ought to zag.

For saving electricity and keeping a few more dollars in your bank account, THIS SPACE is about to bend your mind around the idea of using electricity to save it.

This week’s ONE THING you can do to conserve energy is to try online billing for your utility bills and any other payments you need to make. The switch will increase your time on the computer, which would seem to increase your energy consumption, but this is a situation where one step back can lead to two or three steps forward.

Here’s why. More...

Play: Berkeley Kite Festival
The 22nd Annual Berkeley Kite Festival & West Coast Kite Championships take place this weekend. Enjoy the free festival including kite competitions, kite ballet, kite making for kids, food, games and the world’s largest octopus kite.
July 25-26, 10am-5pm
Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina
Clemson/Creative Common

Go: Heartbeat of Oakland
The Heartbeat of Oakland is a 1-mile community walk (Parade) to promote community health and togetherness. Be ready to take a walk with your neighbors starting at the SE corner of Market and 40th Streets. We will continue down the 40th St. sidewalk to Webster St, turn right onto Webster St and end at Mosswood Park.
July 25, 11am
Market and 40th Street to Mosswood Park More...

I want to add the phrase “everyday cycling” to our language. I first heard this when I was a guest on the KBOO Bike Show in Portland. Before the show, I head co-host Tori Bortman use everyday cycling, and being the word geek that I am, I asked about the nuances of her phrase. A discussion ensued, and I am now convinced that everyday cycling needs to be part of our language.

There is a sizable group of people who fall under the term everyday cycling, myself included, but my riding habits are usually described as bike commuting. Until now.

Image used with permission of metrofiets.com. Pictured: Ella Ross and Phillip Ross. Picture taken by Maile Leithea. Check out the Metrofiets photostream! More...

After an extended, gray winter, Seattle is now enjoying the kind of summer that reminds us why we live here.

As the long-awaited sunshine pulls us from our fleece cocoons and recharges our vitamin D levels, THIS SPACE is here to remind you that sunshine also offers one of the simplest, low-investment opportunities for saving electricity -- the solar clothes dryer. You might recognize this energy-efficient technology better as a clothesline.

Hanging clothes to dry used to be a commonplace event, but largely disappeared with the arrival of affordable, convenient appliances.

That convenience comes with a cost, which you can turn into a savings. More...

Anyone who can relate to the recent cell phone commercial about “butt dialing” knows how our dependence on technology can sometimes get in the way of our best intentions.

Beyond the inconvenience of dialing or answering some unintended calls, there’s an energy cost as well. More...

Continuing along on our journey through the land of weird foods you’ll find in the farmer’s market, this week we’ll taste a green of many names:  mizuna.  Mizuna also goes by the names of Japanese greens, Japanese mustard, and California peppergrass.  Botanically, it is classified as Brassica rapa.  B. rapa is commonly known as “field mustard” or “turnip mustard” and includes cultivars such as tatsoi, napa cabbage, turnips, and rapini.   

When my friend Katie showed up at my door with a bouquet of freshly-sliced mizuna leaves and told me what she’d brought me, I gave her a look of disbelief.  When I plucked a leaf and popped it in my mouth, however, I was pleasantly surprised.  The intricate, delicately shaped leaf had a flavor to match. More...

On a recent trip to the supermarket, my wife brought home a new detergent for the dishwashing machine. We both responded favorably to the “Eco” labeling on the soap, which indicated that it did not include phosphorous.

Increases in phosphorous in waterways can cause harmful algae blooms, so finding an opportunity to cut back can be a good thing. Unfortunately, the good feelings of reducing our impact on the water system faded with each new load of dishes. The soap left a lot of filmy residue, and more importantly failed to remove the food particles we wanted to wash off.

To get them clean, we had to run the dishes through a second cycle, which obviously brings us to the point of THIS SPACE: how to save electricity and keep a few more dollars in your bank account. More...

Eat: Laurel Farmer's Market Every Saturday
The Oakland Community Farmers' Market is held in the Laurel District on Saturdays YEAR ROUND. Sponsored and maintained by Oakland Food Connection, a nonprofit that strives to promote nutritional awareness, access to healthy foods and the connections between people and our planet. The market includes certified organic produce from J&P Organic Farm based out of Salinas, CA and a youth-led prepared food booth called the Purple Lawn Cafe.
May 9, 10am-2pm
4173 MacArthur Blvd, (near Maybelle St) in the parking lot of the Laurel Office Center/Trattoria Laurellinos, Oakland

Image: Flickr/CreativeCommons View more in our Berkeley/Oakland Sustainable City Pool. More...

The Guide Girls are Winnie and Maxine, two sassy and silly women who will walk you through basic sustainability habits with crass jokes and occasional knickers shots. For those that are hard to win over, or have just heard the same maxims too many times, their comedy is a good dose of fun.

If you prefer your information via video, their Guide Girl Instructisodes are all available at their site or YouTube. I recommend starting with How to Compost with the Guide Girls.

For readers, try their Facty Sheetoids, printable PDFs that answer the tough questions about green choices, such as How to Change a Lightbulb: "Last time I tried one of these bulbs I looked ill" goes one question. Their answer: "You fool; you probably bought a 'day light' or 'bright white' bulb. Choose 'soft white' and the light will be softer and more yellow." Or, "I am fancy and live in a castle filled with antique chandeliers."

 You can find the fancy answer and more at TheGuideGirls.com.

(Screenshot: Introducing the Guide Girls, TheGuideGirls.com) More...