Only today: Going Green

Depending on who you see as the founder of Earth Day and where abouts you might live may depend on when you actually celebrate the Earth. Regardless if you credit John McConnell, which then signifies you (along with the United Nations) celebrate it on the March Equinox; or you credit Gaylord Nelson who was a Wisconsin senator and most noted for the Earth Day celebration on April 22, you are doing your "green-duty"...or are you?


This is not a rant to tell you what you should be doing to save the planet, or to save money because if you wanted that you'd visit sites like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the U.S. Department of Energy, or just tune into HGTV. I think it is more important to share with you about companies, people, and places that are headed in the right direction.

Companies:
Continental (American): Spent $16 billion to become more efficient
-reducing emissions by 5%
-reduced the nitrogen oxide output from ground equipment by over 75%
S.C. Johnson (American-Wisconsin)
-eliminated millions of pounds of waste from product
-building power plant that is fueled from a landfill
Patagonia (American)
-the entire mission has been based on the quote "There is no business to be done on a dead planet"
Subaru (Japanese)
-zero waste landfill

People:
Elon Musk (South Africa)
-entrepreneur that is taking on the auto industry with cars like the Tesla Roadster, a sports car that reaches 60 mph in less than four seconds, and can go 220 per charge...puts the water cooler debate of speed and distance in electric cars to a hush (minus the $100+k price tag)
Robin Murray (UK)
-industrial economist coining the "zero-waste" phrase and argues that one mans trash is another man's resource (consuming everything your discard)
...and a list containing many more people can be found through a weekly UK publication called the Guardian

Places:
Reykjavik, Iceland
-good old green Iceland has runs hydrogen buses and its electricity and heat come from geothermal and hydro power sources
Portland, Oregon
-a model for new public/green transportation, not to mention it has 92,000 acres of green
...and quite a few more places in the world according to the Grist

Basically be conscious and smart about what you do from an environmental perspective. It's not a new concept and we don't need stupid politicians to tell us what to do and how to do it, your an adult figure it out. After all if we don't, the way you see nature today may not stay that way for long!