By Jennifer Hallstrom

With the New Year here it is a great time to think back at the last 12 months and the goals and efforts personally made to be a bit more eco-friendly. It is also a wonderful time to set new goals for this year to be even better.

In the fall, the EcoMetro Guide crew took part in the Ecology Center’s Climate Change Action Project group in Berkeley. 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...

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...