If becoming green is on your list of resolutions this new year, why not start with the party?

Planning a sustainable New Year’s celebration takes more than just balloons. It means working to ensure that almost everything from the lights to the decor produces little to zero lingering waste.

Here are some tips to stay green while tipsy:

1.) Buy food that’s locally and sustainable grown and put up a sign that lets your guests know it.

2.) Send web invitations for your party. With a colorful card on a computer screen, you can get more creative, invite more people, and generate no waste.

3.) Make an extra effort to recycle hard goods and compost your food waste.    If you don’t have a compost container, put it aside for someone who does.

4.) Organize a carpool and encourage public transportation. This will not only keep gas guzzling down but leave extra room for food & drink guzzling at your celebration.

For more sustainable party tips, have a gander at some of these sites:

Sustainable Party: Where your green event planning prowess begins!

Sustainable Table: Serving up healthy food choices

How to go green: New Years (Treehugger.com)

Having a green New Year’s Eve (Suite101.com)

Photo by Tokyo Boy.

The holidays are here and while the economy may by slowing down Santa’s sleigh, you don’t have to be a Scrooge to give green.

While continuing the tradition of giving this holiday season here are some ways to keep your spirits up, pockets jingling and the planet a-ring-a-ling too:

1.) Try solar powered or LED lights on your trees. Keep your display on a timer and you’ll have more to celebrate when the bill comes.

2.) Reusable gift bags and recyclable wrapping paper make for an even more joyous celebration.

3.) Replant your tree instead of incinerating it.  Living Christmas trees can be purchased at some retail lots, most nurseries and garden centers.

4.) Regift!  There’s never been a better time to swallow your pride and recycle perfectly good items by giving them to your loved ones.  What may be junk to you could make a friend’s holiday a little brighter and your closet a little lighter.

I’m Rich Awn wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season!

For more ways to stay green in your celebration, visit these great sites.

How to have a ‘green’ Christmas (Eartheasy.com)

Eco-friendly gifts for Christmas (Suite101.com)

Eco Christmas tree by Buro North (Dezeen.com)

Photo by neil-san.

What’s worse than oil?  Oil sands.

According to Christine MacDonald, author of Green Inc., oil sands is an extremely heavy form of crude oil found in great quantities in Canada and Venezuela.  It requires an open-pit mining process that destroys forests and uses a lot of water, making it even more environmentally invasive than old-fashioned drilling.

Essentially, the oil in oil sands is mixed together with sand and clay to form a viscous and dense form of petroleum that must be separated out in order to be useful.  It takes three to five barrels of water to separate a single barrel of oil from the clay and dirt.

Turning oil sands into something you can pour into your car’s gas tank takes several times more energy than processing conventional oil and contributes more than twice as much greenhouse gas.  So if you hear of legislators trying to pass off an oil sands project as a way to counteract the global energy crisis, fight it with all your might.

For more on oil sands, click on some of the following links:

High stakes in Canada’s vast oil sands fields (CSMonitor.com)

We’re still fans of oil sands (Motley Fool)

The oil sands of Alberta: Where black gold and riches can be found in the sand (60 Minutes)

Tar Sands Basics (Oil Shale & Tar Sands Programmatic EIS)

Alberta oil sands catastrophe pending: ACT NOW

Photo by shanebe.

If Green building can save the housing market, what’s holding us back?

Our Government holds the power to dramatically effect the fate of the housing market.  Legislation that offers financial incentives to lenders helps developers and homeowners who put a premium on energy efficiency.  The House Financial Services Committee decides whether a bill that favors Green building will be approved.

Sean Todd, President & CEO of Fox Patomac Resources LLC.

For a tax credit to be passed, it’s gotta be taken out of somewhere else so they have to look for offsets to pay for these tax credits in Green buildings and that has been the major obstacle.

While Republicans objected to the estimated $2.7 billion dollar cost associated with the bill, the Obama administration will surly create a strongly activist Congress to push progressive ideas like this ahead.

For more on the green path out of the housing crisis, check out some of the following links.

The US Market for Green Building Materials (MarketResearch.com)

Cool Housing Market Makes Green Buildings Shine (TriplePundit.com)

Could efficient homes save the US housing market from an Asian takeover? (Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce)

Click here for our full interview with Sean Todd.

Photo by WayneWho?

Every day, millions of women attempt to change the course of nature with moisturizers, mascaras, and makeup.  But if they knew what they were rubbing into their skin, they might just let nature take its course.

A product is considered Green based on what it’s made of and how it’s made.  Conventional cosmetics, lacking in any FDA standards, have been putting woman at risk with products made with hormone-altering and cancer causing chemicals like phthalates, triclosan, parabens, and musks.

Josie Maran, world famous supermodel, actress, and creator of Josie Maran Cosmetics sees this not only as an occupational hazard, but a worldwide epidemic.

50% of what you put on your skin, you skin absorbs.  20% of the ingredients are harmful so if you’re putting those on your skin every day, you have a likely chance of harming your body.

Natural cosmetics contain safe, organic ingredients and with an average daily makeup wearer absorbing up to five pounds of product a year, a safe alternative couldn’t have come along any sooner.

For more of on Green cosmetics and our interview with Josie Maran, click here.

Photo by 殞落天使.

Fast food causes some of the biggest health and environmental problems today.

Will the Slow Food movement help?

The Slow Food idea began in Rome in 1986 out of protest against a new MacDonalds restaurant slated for construction.  The protest ballooned into what’s now a movement of 350,000 strong, keeping consistent with centuries of Italian culinary traditions stressing the highest in quality food, ancient organic farming methods, and regional offerings.

Today, slow food organizations, chapters, and restaurants are found in most major cities the world over.  The theme of education through tastings and the preservation of heritage through food seems to be catching on… not to mention, it’s good for you!

For slow food restaurants in your area, check out some of the following links:

Slow Food USA

Slow Food Nation

Slow Food LA

Slow Food Seattle

Slow Food San Francisco

Slow Food Asheville

Slow Food NYC

Photo by Alastair French.

Greening up your holidays isn’t just a social statement anymore, it’s an economic necessity!

Thanksgiving is upon us and believe it or not, you can Green your turkey day without grossing out your guests.  Here are some simple steps to gobble  it up green:

1.)  As with any event that requires a bit of travel, carpool with your friends and family and consider public transportation where possible.  These services are generally extended during the holiday season.

2.)  Serve organic spirits!  Real cork in your wine or champagne in place of plastic stoppers or twistoff caps is better because cork is renewable and trees aren’t felled for it.

3.) We all know Thanksgiving is all about the sides and they are mostly vegetarian!  The meat and poultry industry contributes to the biggest carbon food print in the supermarket so if you can have more fun with veggies, you’ll be doing right by the planet.

and 4.) Don’t use paper or plastic flatware and if you must, make them be biodegradable.

I’m Rich Awn wishing you a happy Thanksgiving.  For more tips on a Green feast, check out some of the links below:

Thanksgiving Recipe Links (The Vegan Diet)

A slice of heritage with Thanksgiving (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Raising heritage breed turkeys (HubPages.com)

Photo by Herbert Harper.

According to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, the world is flat… and hot and crowded.

Also a bestselling author, Thomas Friedman has traveled the road from Beirut to Jerusalem, he’s witnessed the towers of American life crumble with the World Trade Center on 9/11, and has come to the conclusion above all else that the world is hot, flat, and crowded.

In his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded, he takes a look at America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11 and the global environmental crisis.  Friedman claims that if America can lead the world in energy innovation it will save the ailing planet and restore America’s reputation.

He calls this effort Code Green stressing urgency and action to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for a clean and conscientious energy solution.

For more on the work of Thomas Friedman, click here.

Photo by keso.

On a global stage, an historic election is settled but how much attention will President Obama give back to the globe?

Anxious enviros await appointments to Obama’s Cabinet-level environmental positions.  Possibilities include loyal campaign supporters like Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Iowa Governor and foreign oil reductionist Tom Vilsack, former Secretary of Energy and Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, and of course the face of the current environmental movement Al Gore.

But it’s not just cronies and politicians who’ve got a shot at contributing to Obama’s environmental team, it’s open to everyone!  Readers of the New York Times column Dot Earth have been asked to submit climate and energy proposals and the 10 best will be delivered directly to Obama’s transition team.

Clearly, this President’s environmental strategy will include collaborative thinking in bringing people together in a new way to solve old problems.

For up-to-the-second coverage of the new Green administration, visit this special Green Air News vertical series.

Photo by zyrcster.

President-elect Obama wasn’t the only one to receive overwhelming support from voters on Election Day.  It seems the planet proved just as popular.

The Clean Air Initiative made the ballot in Missouri and was firmly approved 66% to 34%.  It has created a renewable electricity standard that requires utility companies to gradually increase their usage of renewable energy to 15% state-wide and requires that energy rates not increase by more than one percent annually.

Hans Detweiler of the American Wind Energy Association:

The requirement in renewable energy standards around the country has been demonstrated to be significantly more successful.  When you look at the states that have renewable energy standards, all of those states are the leading states for renewable energy development and wind energy development.

With 86% of Missouri’s electricity coming from costly and dirty coal-fired plants, this is a breath of much needed fresh air.

For more on this and other planetary policies, click here for the results of the winning and losing policies from the 2008 Presidential Election.

Photo by prettywar-stl.

For more insights from Hans Detweiler on wind energy, green jobs, and AWEA’s work with President-Elect Obama, click below.

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Going green on the red carpet.

Rising stars in the worlds of music and entertainment have the voice and popularity to shape a generation.

Ryan Leslie is no stranger to the spotlight.  His recent signing to Universal by way of Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, has thrust him into into a fast-paced world of private jets, tour busses, and a lifestyle surrounded by excess.

I think that my voice will be chiming in with the voices that everyone’s been hearing over the past few years, especially with the work of someone like an Al Gore, who’s really brought to the forefront in a very cool way the importance of taking stock in the environment and the smart use of our natural resources.

Ryan’s talents both as a singer and forward thinking entrepreneur give even more depth to his powerful voice and message.

For more of our exclusive interview with Ryan Leslie, click below.

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Will the crushing economy derail the big Green development plans for our cities and towns?

As cities continue to grow, large developers are incorporating sustainable technologies into their buildings. Reusing existing materials and installing roof mounted solar panels are two simple ways skyscrapers are going green.

Related Companies, is one of the biggest developers in the country and is responsible for some of New York City’s most aggressive skyscraper builds.

Jeff Brodsky, President of the Management Division of Related Companies.

Our expectation is that we’re going to be building green buildings, sustainable buildings, across our portfolio. Our commitment is over 30 billion dollars not only built but also in the planning stages and development. It’s an expectation of us that the client is expecting a sustainable and an environmentally sensitive product and if you don’t build it green now, three years from now it’s gonna be an obsolete building anyway.

And Related Companies is just one of many developers following through with their commitment to Green building despite the current economic landscape.

For more on building Green, click on the following links.

The Urban Project: A Green Development Company