E.B. Boyd

E.B. Boyd is a San Francisco-based journalist who writes on everything from sustainability to psychology to the media. As the daughter of an environmental educator, she was reciting the words "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" before she even knew what they meant. Although she started out in life as a traditional journalist (first working for CNN in the Middle East, then for The (Toledo) Blade in the Midwest), a long stint toiling in the trenches of Silicon Valley left her with a great appreciation for the power of smart people to come up with innovative (often technological) solutions to tough problems. Today she writes for a variety of magazines and websites.

Sure, you’ve thought about adding solar panels to your roof as a way of reducing your home’s carbon footprint. Maybe you’ve even given wind power a gander. But what about ground source heat pumps?

There’s a sexy new idea in the world of sustainability: vertical farms. In the past few years, articles have started popping up in mainstream and green publications, touting the idea of turning urban skyscrapers into produce-producing behemoths.

But what does that mean, really? Here’s your cheat sheet to this new idea.

My friends used to laugh at me because, even as a fully grown adult, I’d take Flintstone’s vitamins instead of those giant horse pills they make for grown-ups. But I’d explain: “One Flintstone inside me does more good than a bottle full of horse pills I never touch.”

You’ve probably heard that delegates are meeting in Copenhagen for climate talks. But you might not be clear on what exactly all the hoopla is about. Here’s your cheat sheet on COP15, the 15^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Have a hybrid? Enjoying riding solo in the carpool lane? Those days could be numbered.

Some in California’s legislature are proposing new rules that would either grant solo driving privileges only to vehicles powered by alternative fuels like electricity and natural gas or would require hybrids to get at least 65 miles per gallon, rather than the 45 miles per gallon combined city-highway mileage required today. Why the changes? Too many hybrids.

This is the second project in a series of four year-end recycling projects. Last month’s project was printer cartridges. Next month’s is freecycling; December’s is computers.

Recycling your cell phone is one of those projects where there’s simply no excuse. Cell phone manufactures, wireless carriers, charities, and others have all made the process so easy, it should barely be an afterthought. That’s good news for me. I’ve got three phones—from three different manufacturers and two different carriers—that need to find new homes.

Environmentalists have often acted as if getting people to become more eco-minded was simply a matter of providing more information: Tell someone that their car is contributing to climate change, for example, and the thinking is they’ll be more likely to switch to public transportation.

But some organizations are realizing that good old-fashioned peer pressure might work just as well—if not better.

Ford, Chevy, Nissan, and Mitsubishi have all announced plans to release fully electric cars in the coming years, which means we’re going to have to have charging stations available for about a million all-electric cars by 2014. So, how’s that going to work?

Good question. Here’s your cheat sheet on what they’re calling electric vehicle “smart charging.”

It’s back to school time for most families, which means it’s a great time to think about how your school is doing on the green front—especially when it comes to the basics, like recycling.

If your school doesn’t already have a recycling program in place, consider starting one. Experts say the general steps to follow are:

A couple of years ago, a friend invited me to join a citywide competition to try to reduce residents’ gas and electricity usage. We teamed up in groups of five households or more, and for a month, did whatever we could to cut back on our in-home energy consumption. At the end of the month, we submitted our utility bills both for that month and for the same month from the previous year. The teams that had the most year-to-year reductions won.