Buy Green Power
Portland General Electric (greenpoweroregon.com) Purchase 100% of your energy for .012 kWh (usually $9 per month) with Green Source, or buy units of wind power with Clean Wind for $2.50 per unit (about 25% average usage).

Clark Public Utilities (clarkpublicutilities.com) For $1.50 each, buy
100 kWh units of Green Lights power.

Pacific Power (pacificpower.net) Purchase Blue Sky power for $1.95 per 100 kWh block, or pay $.0089 per kWh for all your power. Add an additional $2.50 per month to support native fish habitat.

NW Natural (nwnatural.com) The Smart Energy program supports environmental projects, particularly biogas, for a set $6 per month or just under $.10 per therm. More...

Scrub the tub Mix baking soda with water for an abrasive scrubbing paste, or substitute castile soap such as Dr. Bronner’s in place of water for extra power. To disinfect the bathroom, spray with hydrogen peroxide and rinse with water.

Claim the drain Pour baking soda in the drain, add 1 cup white vinegar, and watch the volcano, just like in grade school. Flush with hot water and repeat if necessary.

All hands on the pans Mix white vinegar with enough salt to form a paste, and watch the grease slip away. Add 1 tsp lemon juice for scent and extra power. More...

When shopping for a laundry detergent, my primary concern is to choose a brand without a long list of chemicals or petroleum-based products. Despite my best intentions, my research occasionally leaves out additives or terms I'll come across that I’m not sure about, such as “optical brightener” or “surfactants.” Although these terms may sound "sciency", I have a feeling they're not the best for my skin or our water supply. Rather than expound on the various vagaries detergents list as containing (or claim they are free of) OR digress about how scary it is that companies are not required to disclose their chemical ingredients, I’ve decided to spotlight the little-known soapnut, also known as the soap pod.

You can order organic soapnuts online, as they are not common yet in the United States. Soapnuts have no chemical additives and make your clothes smell nice and clean! Although there are some good eco detergents out there, soapnuts are reusable for several washes, and are also much less expensive. They're also great if you have sensitive skin or allergies to other soaps- read on… More...

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...

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...

The sign post that read “I’m an Oregon Native” was the first thing that caught my eye as I drove up to the Oregon native plant nursery, Bosky Dell, located at 23321 SW Bosky Dell Lane in West Linn, Oregon (about 25 minutes southeast of Portland). 

I am a self-confessed city girl who like thousand of others heard the “Portland calling” and moved here on a whim. It’s now five years later and I’m starting to understand the concept of “native” as I appreciate all of Oregon’s natural surroundings. More...

I recently headed to the upholstery store to find fabric for an old rocking chair in need of rehab. Surely they would have organic fabrics to choose from...and yet the saleswoman shook her head. There just isn't much interesting green upholstery fabric, she said. So I was pleased to find Mod Green Pod, out of Austin (found via their Twitter), and revive my project.

Mod Green Pod's fabrics are 100% Organic cotton that is grown, woven, and printed with non-toxic dyes in the USA ($39.75/yard). The line of wallpaper is PVC-free and also uses non-toxic inks ($60/roll). Using organic cotton grown in the USA is especially impressive. And those patterns!

Pictured is the Room Creator, where you can play with prints and get an enthusiastic environmental message from the furniture (and the cat). See their blog for inspiring cover ups. 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...

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...