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...

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...

In my job I attend a lot of community events to share the same energy conservation message THIS SPACE is dedicated to: simple steps can cut your electricity use and keep a few extra bucks in your pocket.

One of the best and easiest options is to switch from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. They use about a third of the electricity and last up to 10 years, which can save as much as $33 in energy costs over the life of the bulb. More...

After the trick or treaters have retired and brushed their teeth, your neighborhood continues to be home to little vampires. Chargers, TVs, computers and other electronics on standby suck energy without a purpose, but at a cost. Good Magazine estimates that a plasma TV in active standby costs an average $160 per year. Use Halloween as a reminder to unplug electronics on this list and give copies to neighbors.

Next, we look forward to carving this CFL shaped pumpkin from Ready Made Magazine, an especially important reminder as upcoming Daylight Savings Time means earlier nightfall. Go ecomaniac and light your pumpkin with an LED. (Image: Flickr/oskay) More...

Personal behavior change is so subtle you don’t see it happening, and can forget how far you’ve come. There are thousands of tips for reducing your impact and living the green and good life, but realizing which you are really doing and what that means can be difficult to pin down. Your efforts deserve to be recognized, monitored, and charted over time. We'll even throw in some reader prizes eventually, too!

Here’s how to start your own sustainability journal, which you can use to set goals and to look back on as you change your lifestyle. We'll bring you more features weekly, including printable guides to a home waste audit, travel diary, games for kids, and a home energy analyzer, all from our green living guides. I’ll also be doing this all myself, and roping in guests from the EcoMetro staff and friends, so we can both gripe and high-five together. Ready? Read on... More...

I’ve been looking to replace the flood light in my small backyard because it makes a loud annoying buzz and puts out a cold unwelcoming light. I suppose these are not bad qualities to keep burglars away, but I’ve wanted something a bit quieter and warmer, while of course making an environmentally conscious purchase.

So I started checking out floodlights powered by their own little photovoltaic cells. I was surprised to find a pretty wide selection. SmartHome.com and SolarHome.org were two of the sites I spent some time on comparing features and prices. Both sites are pretty cluttered and a bit tough to navigate, but while SmartHome has better product information, SolarHome (as the name would imply) has a broader product selection. More...

Electronic gadgets fill our days. At work, I typically carry a pager, a work cell phone and my personal cell phone. And at some point all those devices need to be charged.

Obviously, that uses electricity. What many of us don’t recognize that once our favorite devices are done charging and we unplug them for use, the charger is still drawing electricity from the wall socket. Electricity is being thrown away, just like a leaky faucet wastes water. More...

So, unless you have been living on another planet, or perhaps just in another country, you should know the economy has turned on us. Gas prices have risen astronomically as of late. I remember back in the good ol' days, when driving from L.A. to San Diego, I always made a point of stopping at the one Chevron station en route that charged less than a dollar a gallon. A dollar! At Chevron! Okay, back to reality and the present...

I think in a weird way I always hoped gas prices would rise--please don't show up on my doorstep with torches and pitchforks until you hear me out. Only now that the prices have risen are people dashing off to buy Priuses and scooters instead of cars larger than my house. The Power Information Network reports that while most of the auto industry suffered a terrible year because of economic downturns, Prius sales jumped 67 percent between April of 2007 and April of 2008. Prius sales in May dropped again--because dealers were running out of cars to sell. Good job everyone! We're finally taking gas efficiency into consideration! I am happy about this even if it's because we are protecting our pocketbooks instead of the atmosphere--it's just means to an end.

Here's what I didn't think about: high gas prices mean everything else is more expensive!! Duh, you might be thinking. And yet I never considered that while I would want to strive even harder to save gas, I would have a more difficult time buying eco-conscious foods and goods. Everything that is produced in our incredibly petroleum-dependent country uses a goodly amount of fuel to produce, package and ship. Being a Celiac and unable to eat gluten, I consume a fair amount of cornmeal. I used to buy it for $3 something a bag; now it is $5.75.

But stick to your guns, fellow greenies! Keep buying the products you believe in. For one thing, most of the more environmentally unfriendly products out there are petroleum-based, further adding to the over-the-top demand. For another, if you truly go local as far as the products and produce you buy, it will support local business--and if local business thrives, it will be easier to cheaply buy local. (Tip: buy produce at your local farmer's market to take the guesswork out of buying local.) Hopefully you will get some savings by these businesses not having to ship their products far, and if not, you will still be helping to move us in the right direction. We are set up so poorly and so unsustainably, and it may be painful to get us back on track, requiring some changes, some difficulties and some perseverance. More...

A planet-friendly trend appears to be taking off around some new thinking in how we use energy.

There are many activities from manufacturing steel to storing data on computer servers that require significant electricity or other power and generate heat as a byproduct. Until recently, much of that heat was considered a problem to get rid of. Data centers use air conditioning to cool server rooms and the furnaces of a steel plant are vented after melting the metal. Now, some organizations are recognizing how that heat can be put to additional use. More...