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TO satisfy our ever-growing need for computing power, many technology companies have moved their work to data centers with tens of thousands of power-gobbling servers. Concentrated in one place, the servers produce enormous heat. The additional power needed for cooling them — up to half of the power used to run them — is the steep environmental price we have paid to move data to the so-called cloud.

www.epa.gov/naturalevents/fightfrost.html

Here's an interesting article from yahoo.com about energy savings and money savings: 

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/113515/energy-savings-for-real-consumerrep

Leaf removal is a big deal at my house.  Every fall and into the winter, our big beautiful trees lose their leaves and we spend a lot of time getting them off our property.  This year, I'm interested in the best ways to do this for the environment and am looking for ways to save money and effort in addition.  Last month, I posted a discussion about leaf removal on this site and since then have been doing some research that I thought I would share here.

The first thing I discovered is…

Do you have these energy hogs in your home?  Here's a good, useful article by Forbes.com: 

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/113465/top-energy-consuming-items-forbes

Wow -- a $15 LED bulb that consumes 85% less electricity than a standard 60-watt bulb: 

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/at-home/blogs/behold-the-15-led-bulb?hpt=hp_bn11

I've been trying to cut my energy use in the kitchen lately, and thought I might share some of the things that I've been trying to do.   In addition to cutting my energy use, I've been trying to cut costs, too, and luckily these two goals go together nicely.  Here are some things that have worked for me.

First, I try to cook several things at once when I'm using the oven.  I've started making a few meals on the weekends, and baking them at the same time.  For example, this weekend I…

Looking for a family friendly vacation that highlights our environment and environmental awareness?  Here's a link to some resources:

http://away.com/top_picks/families_5.htm

A good article on MSNBC about chemicals that we use around the home that can harm our air and water, as well as alternatives.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44258903/ns/health-health_care/

I admit it -- our family was addicted to bottled water.   I bought two or three cases of the stuff at every grocery store trip, and there was always a partially opened case in the car trunk.  We even took cases on vacation with us, and purchased more when we got to our destination.   Our recycle containers were overflowing every week with empty plastic water bottles. 

For a long time, I knew we should change our ways for the benefit of the environment and to save money, but…

It's back to school time and the perfect opportunity to talk about something easy that you can do to save save money and help our planet -- use lunchboxes instead of paper sacks or other disposable bags.  In fact, everyone in the family should use lunch boxes.  Paper sacks are wasteful, clog our landfills and unnecessarily expensive! 

There are a lot of great selections for lunchboxes now, and most of them are very durable, easy to clean and last a long time.  Look for ones…

Think–Breathe–Eat/Drink-Move–Rejuvenate--Ecology

I am continually looking for ways to help people become more aware of the importance of making their health and wellness a top priority. I think we all agree that we would like to have high degree of wellness. I define real wellness as having a feeling of well being mentally, physically, socially and spiritually.

One major reason we all need to have a high degree…

When I posted a video and a discussion today about the chemicals in beauty products and cosmetics and their impact on the environment, it reminded me of some old fashioned beauty tips that my grandmother used to use.  Growing up in the country before cars were common, I suppose she didn't have access to as many drug stores and cosmetic counters as we have today, so she knew a few things about using kitchen ingredients for face and hair care.

The best homemade tip that I…

No, the pile of chairs, tables, doors and goodness knows what else that you see before you isn't the result of a storm or a tornado. Believe it or not, it's a man-made building called "The Big Crunch." Raumlabor constructed the…

For the past couple of months, I've tried to focus on how we can reduce paper product consumption in our house.  We've done a few things that have worked well and have been fairly easy to do.  I thought I would share some of those things here, in case it might help others do the same.

The first thing we did was to start saving all the paper napkins that come with fast food orders.  You know how you seem to always get a handful of napkins (or more) in the sack with each…

With record high temperatures already being posted this summer (and it's only the beginning of June!  Help!), our air conditioner is getting a work out.   Even though the weather is almost unbearably hot, there are still some things that we can all try to do to offset our air conditioner use and energy consumption.   These are all small tips that you may have read or heard about elsewhere, but sometimes reminders are helpful.  Here are some things to keep in mind this…

While eating out at a restaurant last night, I had an idea.  Unable to finish my entree, the waiter asked if I'd like a to-go box, and I said that I would.   My leftovers were the perfect size to re-heat for lunch later in the week.  Because I'm trying to become more aware of waste, I did request a small to-go container.



When the waiter returned to our table, he was carrying one of those large Styrofoam boxes with a lid.  He apologized, and said that they were out of the smaller…