Are you eyeball-deep in back-to-school stuff right now?

Welcome to our world.

Here at Practically Green headquarters, we’re working on a set of back-to-school actions that will make this transition easier and healthier: overall better and fun!

In case you haven’t had a chance to check out Practically Green yet, back-to-school is the perfect entree occasion. Would you like to Carpool to school one day a week? Green your kids’ after-school snack? Use eco-friendly school supplies?

You’ll see right away that each of these positive actions comes with info on why it’s green, and how to do it, when you Switch to a reusable lunchbox, Cover textbooks with a paper bag, or Join an eco-action team at your school. Whatever you decide to do, you can recommend your favorite products, share your stories, and rate your experience.

But that’s not all, because Practically Green is also a game.

Playing is a breeze: When you say Yes, you get points!

To get started, take the Quiz. (It’s one of those tests where you can’t possibly fail and can only benefit.) Get your score. Check off the green actions you’ve already taken, and consider new ones. Earn points. Earn more points! Move up!

If you don’t want to play, that’s fine. You can still enjoy Practically Green. Our goal is to help you take eco-friendly actions in your daily life. Big things, like making your home as energy-efficient as it can be, or creating a healthy and waste-free kitchen (We’ve got 21 ideas on how to accomplish that one, like Switching to Teflon-free cookware, Using recycled paper towels, and Upgrading to an ENERGY-Star dishwasher.)

So, whether you’re ready to investigate trying all-natural toothpaste or obsessed with insulating your roof, Practically Green can help you do it and enjoy the process!

Laura Reedy Stukel lives in Elmhurst, Illinois, a city of 45,000 people 18 miles west of Chicago. Last year, she and her husband Ray rehabbed their 1960s house “around energy efficiency” – lower utility bills and a healthier home were the goals. They performed an energy audit, added insulation and weatherstripping, upgraded their windows, bought energy-efficient appliances, installed water-saving fixtures and programmable thermostats. Her project won the Better Homes and Gardens magazine’s 2009 Home Improvement Challenge. Laura decided to create a business out of the experience:

I was selling real estate at the time. As I talked to my clients about nuts-and-bolts stuff like getting an energy audit and insulating the attic and the basement, I saw they wanted to do these things because they’re money-saving, but they didn’t know where to begin. There aren’t a lot of easy resources for information on how to do it. I realized it didn’t have to be so hard.

As Elmhurst’s first EcoBroker Certified sales agent, she’s “working on a shift from green real estate to green real-estate consulting. My niche is around home retrofit. I found I really wasn’t touching enough families in the one-to-one real estate approach. I’m putting the pieces in place and working it out so my children (4 & 6) don’t notice the shift, and I hope to launch officially in the fall.”

She’s already developed two programs for buyers and sellers: Ready, Set, Green Homes(SM) and the 5×10 Project Challenge:

I created The 5×10 Challenge to help any homeowner take five smart steps towards energy efficiency before the end of 2010.  I recommend a project budget of $5000 because it earns the maximum tax credit of $1500, so the project really only costs you $3500.

My niche is around the boring side of energy efficiency. That is what I call it. I have no problems if you want new windows, geo-thermal, solar, etc. But you have to do your homework first: get an audit, air seal, insulate, etc. It is expensive (even with tax break), so it’s not realistic for everyone. But if you can cut your energy bills by 20-30% by doing 5×10 you can stop there for now and feel great about the green you did do, instead of not doing anything because you don’t have the funds to do geo-thermal.

“I’m Impressively green on the Practically Green Quiz,” she told us. “Our remodel was very green, but it was insightful to see how much better we can do on daily purchases. To be honest, I’m always rushing at the store and never really thought about how easy recycled tissue, etc. would be.  So we’re one step greener now thanks to your site!”

Another fact about Laura: Ray hates air conditioning. Especially, he hates to sleep in it. Even in torrid conditions. “We definitely use the air but when we’ve tried everything else. When it is humid and above 83 or so we will turn on for the day. On some days we run only overnight if temps are not going to drop.” In the interest of a happy marriage, she recently investigated alternatives to not turning on the AC. Here’s an excerpt from the article she posted earlier this week:

The Spin on Fans

Temperatures are heating up for the next week.  With warm days and cool nights, the end of summer in Chicago is a unique opportunity to virtually eliminate your need for air conditioning – and it is easier than you may think!  I think being green is all about doing the most with the least. “Fan Season” (late spring and late summer) is an ideal time to do more with less!

All you need is a couple of fans and a quick check of the weather. My list below will tell you when to use which fan to slash your AC use.

Fan Options:

Ceiling fans - Consumer Reports found good options around $50-250.

1 window fan per bedroom – Window fans like this one recommended on Amazon run about $40 each.    Window fans can pay back in a season!

Fan unit on your AC equipment.

Paying a wee bit of attention to your local weather is key to getting the most out of your fans. Go to http://www.weather.com/, enter your zip code and hit “find weather,” then select the “hourly” forecast. Get a general idea of:

Local humidity

When night-time temperatures will start to drop and how low they will go.

If the winds are going to be breezy or calm.

Don’t forget to factor in neighborhood considerations. Open windows are not good for allergy sufferers or light sleepers!  Be sure to consider allergy levels and sound issues before switching over to fans.  Oh yes, and don’t forget to consider local wildlife too.  Skunk mating season does not work well for using fans, and you could end up discovering a family of sparrows at 4 am that you didn’t know were your neighbors!  If sound is an issue overnight, consider using fans with open windows at dusk and running on high for a few hours to cool the room completely.  Then shut the windows before you go to bed.

Excerpted with permission from Not Yet Green: Solutions for the Not YET Green Home. Click here for the rest of the story.

My son is starting kindergarten in a few weeks, but our PTO (which is arguably managed better than most companies) has already assessed all the incoming kindergarten parents’ skill sets and competencies for various volunteer opportunities. No shocker here, I was drafted for the Green Team.  I was enthusiastic because my initial thought was that I could be really helpful given that green living, is well, my day job.

We haven’t even had our first meeting yet (it’s Wednesday), but I’ve already figured out these parents are WAY ahead of the curve.  Led by the dynamic duo of Jamie Scarborough Green and Sun Woo Khang and formed last year, the group has managed to achieve immediate results, including:

* switching from disposable to reusable cups for parent coffees, PTO meetings, etc. One thing I loved is that they asked the whole school to donate old coffee mugs to make this happen–what a great idea!

* switching to compostable disposables for large events ranging from the school fun run to graduation

* developed good relationships and support from Angino Farm (a community farm) and Whole Foods.  The school has a garden supported by students and parent volunteers and Whole Foods helps with composting.

* shared the results of the school’s energy efficiency audit and will assumedly lobby the city for improvements

* set up a Big Tent online community which has parental advice for things like earth-friendly school supplies.  It is also linked with the Greater Boston Green Schools community to share ideas and get inspiration. My personal favorite thing on the site was this video that the kids in the school made to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

The project plan for this year includes improving the quality of school lunch, tackling pesticides, greening over 15 events, pursuing lots of kid and parent education, and potentially joining in broader events like the Waste Free Wednesdays, Green School Days, and Litter Free lunches–and oh yes, finding a HEPA vacuum to be donated to the custodians.

What I noticed from this amazing, intensive project plan, however, is how many initiatives still need a point person.  If your school has a green team,  I am confident that Jamie and Sunwoo’s counterparts at your school are looking for foot soldiers who are willing to tackle a projects large and small. Imagine what would happen if 10-15 parents picked just one Green Team thing to help lead for their school–whether it’s a big thorny issue like pesticide use or being an event “Waste Warrior.”  That project plan would start having “done” next to lots of items.  And fast!  I’m looking at the list and can see several actions that fit my time, skills and interests, and I’m looking forward to checking my first item off the list.

If your school doesn’t have a green team, there are lots of online resources to help get you started, on sites like Greenschools or Eco-Schools.   If you need one more reason? You can get points on Practically Green for joining your school’s green team!

This post was submitted as part of the Green Moms Carnival.

News Picks:

Everyone knows what NIMBY means: “Not in My Back Yard” (raised-eyebrow alert). So what’s IOBY? “IN our backyards”! IOBY is a website that connects environmental projects in NYC with people who want to donate to them and volunteer. ioby believes that “environmental knowledge, innovation, action, and service begin and thrive in our backyards.” Here’s a post on Seventh Generation’s blog that tells more. What a terrific idea for a Back to School project!

SF’s list of green vendors now available to you: For the past five years, the city of San Francisco has instituted strict standards regarding the products their municipal departments buy: they have to be truly eco-friendly. What sets SF’s list apart is that they require manufacturers to fork over information that commercial guides aren’t likely to get. See which products made the cut!

Food for thought: put salad bars in schools! Whole Foods is teaming up with chef Ann Cooper to help schools switch from processed foods to fresh, natural ingredients. Their goal is 300 salad bars in schools by January. Click here to donate to Project Salad Bar, or simply visit your local Whole Foods. Get credit for your fresh food efforts at Practically Green.

Multi-Media Pick:

“The Majestic Plastic Bag” California is preparing to vote on the nation’s first state-wide plastic bag ban, and Santa Monica-based nonprofit Heal the Bay, filmed this nature documentary-style “mockumentary” to boost support for the ban. The state senate is expected to vote by the end of August (aka SOON!). While the votes are tallied, enjoy this gut-busting four-minute video.

Get PG points for switching to reusable bags at the grocery store.

New and Cool Pick:

You thought only your faucet had leaks: When you turn your electronics off, they’re not really “off,” they maintain a “trickle” of electricity, otherwise known as an electrical leak. This great article not only tells you how to track your product’s energy consumption, but also reviews lots of products to help you manage this. For example, Belkin’s Conserve AV power strip automatically turns off your DVD player, in home theatre and game systems when you turn your TV off. The Belkin Conserve Insight measures the amount of energy plug-in appliances draw. Get PG points for saving energy here.

Martha Rose Shulman’s weekday Food column at NYTimes.com is my equivalent of having a personal chef in my kitchen: here’s someone who realizes how busy I am and how determined I am to serve healthy delicious meals regardless. Someone friendly and inventive, impeccably thoughtful, worldly, always aiming to please and never ever full of herself. Oh, and this personal chef won’t fatten me up: she includes detailed nutritional information at the end of every recipe.

Martha's Kitchen at her House

You can prowl the archive for hours or make snappy choices. Recipes are organized by ingredient (from A: Apricots to Y: Yogurt) or theme (B: Breakfast Grains to W: Winter Greens) This week’s theme was tomatoes. Next week: picnics. The following: stir-fry (she just bought a new wok). From the intro to “Recipes for Health”:

The easiest and most pleasurable way to eat well is to cook. Recipes for Health offers recipes with an eye towards empowering you to cook healthy meals every day. Produce, seasonal and locally grown when possible, and a well-stocked pantry are the linchpins of a good diet, and accordingly, each week’s recipes will revolve around a particular type of produce or a pantry item. This is food that is vibrant and light, full of nutrients but by no means ascetic, fun to cook and a pleasure to eat.

Martha is a prolific author, including co-author gigs with Wolfgang Puck and Dr. Dean Ornish; she’s given classes all over; she’s great on TV; and she co-founded the professional foodie site Zester Daily. Her newest cookbook, The Very Best Of Recipes for Health, comes out this week. In short, she’s a rock star.

It fits that she has a busy cooking school – in LA. I’m scheming to attend…. It was a treat to have a conversation with her recently — about her column, her life, and Practically Green.

The Times column began exactly two years ago. I want the column to demystify healthy eating and empower people to cook, prepare their own food from fresh ingredients, as opposed to eating out or bringing in. The country has gone astray because we aren’t in control of what we eat! If you have an egg and a vegetable, you can make a meal. The recipes are very simple.

Which recipes have been most popular?

One is the Spicy Quinoa Salad. People seem to really love quinoa. It’s fantastic! The week that Obama was elected, that recipe was #3 on the most emailed list of all of The New York Times! Another recipe people really love is anything with beets. It’s always fascinating to me, but any recipe with beets is popular. [Note: I found 14 recipes for beets.] Sometimes recipes get REdiscovered, and I don’t really know how! One of those is one of the first recipes I did, for oriechetti, tomatoes, arugula and parmesan. It’s just a really great summer recipe.

Spicy Quinoa Salad

I took the Practically Green test and I got a 6 out of 10, and part of that’s because I have a landlord. I don’t know what kind of a dishwasher I have, but I do know that the fridge is Energy Star, because I bought it myself. I composted until my landlord freaked out; he thought it was attracting rats. [Sigh/humph.] I have a garden, and everything about it is organic. And I still compost because we have green baskets in LA – LA’s bureau of sanitation has a great recycling program. If you enter “green bin” in the search box on that link, you’ll get a pdf with the 3 different bins and what you can put in them, including a green one for compost. We put kitchen scraps into the bin that’s there with all the rest on the curb and it’s picked up!

I have a twelve year old. His generation is much more aware. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to eat crap if he gets a chance – he’s a healthy twelve year old. If he’s taking a long shower and I say, “Liam, you’re taking a long shower, it’s time to get out!” nothing happens. But if I go in there and say, “You’re really wasting shower water, Liam,” He’ll get out. They are getting the message.

Aren’t you a little bit hungry now? Motivated? Visit Practically Green for dozens of ways you can make healthy, eco-friendly decisions in your kitchen and at meal-time! Maybe you’d like to start with these three:

• Shop at a Farmer’s Market Each Week in Season (10 points)
• Buy Cereal Without Artificial Colors or Flavors This Week (5 points)
• Eat Meat Only on Weekends (Whoa! 100 points!)

Martha’s website: www.martha-rose-shulman.com Join her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @MarthaRShulman

Catherine Rust is the Founder of Butterfly Effect Consulting, or BEC Green.

We’re all about helping to demystify what makes a green building product green and what doesn’t…. I decided it was time to start a blog dedicated entirely to green building materials available in the greater Toronto area, so here it is!

Cathy lives in center-city Toronto “within walking distance to the subway, shops, movie theatres, bookstores, and five (5) authentic French patisseries. Our new location has cut our driving miles in half annually and my teenage boys know the subway system by heart.” Her favorite green product is Concrobium, a mold-control substance. She rhapsodized about it here.

My greenness is of the practical, almost armchair kind. If it’s easy to do and within my price range, I’ll do it. Conservation in particular is one of the rules I live by — it’s probably why our house looks so dark at night! I’m not one to easily part with my money, so a green product has to be something that actually makes sense before I’ll consider buying it…. We don’t live a green lifestyle: we’re not vegetarians, we drive two cars (one is a mini van, the other a Jetta Diesel) and we have three kids — all pretty much environmental no-nos. I am a walking contradiction — like most humans.

Cathy Rust and her family

Cathy discovered Practically Green a few months ago, and she blogged about it this week:

When you first use Practically Green you can take a quiz to find out just how green you really are. It’s a way to see what you’re already doing and what steps you can take to lighten your CO2 load. Unlike other online “green lifestyle” quizzes I’ve taken, this one is quick but accurate. For the most part, when I’ve taken other quizzes, the quick ones are incredibly inaccurate while the detailed ones have you pulling out a year’s worth of utility bills for measurement. Practically Green has done a lot of thorough research behind their quiz, so if it seems simple, it is, but the results are sophisticated. The quiz focuses on your current lifestyle behaviour. Once you’ve completed the quiz you’re given a rating from “Barely Green” all the way up to “Superbly Green.” I hate to brag, but I’m, ahem, “Impressively Green,” second highest level. The quiz gives you points in four categories: Water Use, Energy, Health and Stuff. These are great categories because they basically cover everything from the kind of materials you shop for and put in your home, to what you eat, what kind of transportation to use. Your initial score serves as your benchmark. My worst marks were in water efficiency, something I’ll have to investigate further because I thought I was actually doing well in that area — I see aerators in my future!

Achieving the next level of “greenness.” Once you’ve figured out your starting point, the site offers endless ways for you to advance to the next level of “greenness.” It also gives you the opportunity to commit to different actions and you’re awarded a different number of points depending on the action taken (ie. “carpooling” gets way more points than “using cold water for laundry” which also acknowledges the increased effort level and benefits).

Each time you log in and go to your account you see how you’re doing. You can also share your efforts with your friends and invite them to join in. Doing something in a group can further help you achieve your goals. Practically Green also shows you how you’re doing in comparison to other Practically Green participants. If you’re competitive, this is a great way to push you to do better.

The detailed explanations as to why you should take a particular action are also helpful and all of the information on the site is backed up with authoritative data and more resources if you’re interested in learning more about a subject.

Finally, once you’ve committed to taking a particular green action, the site offers suggestions for the materials you can use and, if possible, where they’re available. Practically Green is still in its early stages so give it a try! They’re always looking for feedback to continually improve the site.

Last year, Cathy earned a LEED AP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). She holds a B.Sc. in Biology (specialist, Human Genetics) from McGill University, and an M.A. in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto. Before becoming a mom, she worked as an environmental consultant, in the 90s, “which was pretty much like talking to a brick wall.”  You can find her at http://becgreen.ca

News Picks:

A new definition of dumpster diving: For those of you who follow us on Twitter (@practicallygrn), you know that we are just thrilled with this story! A year ago a guerilla design project turned dumpsters into swimming pools in Brooklyn. They were such a hit, more pools popped up this summer, including some on Park Avenue in Manhattan! What a great way to be resourceful and have some summer fun!

Pencils? Check. Paper? Check. Net-zero energy? Check! The first public net-zero energy school will be open for classes at the end of the month. The school was built as a teaching tool for students to learn about energy conservation, solar energy, water conservation, and recycling. Get PG points for saving energy here.

Lounging around: How about a 33 ft. long hammock made of 4,278 feet of rope from recycled bottles! The Boston project was a result of the first-ever $1,000 grant from The Awesome Foundation, and it’s meant to help bring city-dwellers together. What better way to get to know someone than to share a hammock?

Multi-Media Pick:

Green your kitchen: We taught you how to clean your microwave without using any chemicals, now Danny Seo can show you how to clean your coffee-maker, sponges, and garbage disposal as a part of Epicurious’ “Green Kitchen Videos.”

New and Cool Pick:

Oldie but goodie: Ok, so this product is far from new. You’ve likely been using it for decades! However, Crayola recently “plugged in” their solar-powered factory. Crayons will be made with solar power, marker barrels with recycled plastic, and colored pencils with reforested wood.

I’ve been on a basement-cleaning frenzy over the last few weeks, after discovering mold growing on a cardboard box. Molds not only grosses me out, it totally freaks me out for its potential ability to create airborne toxins. It is just about the only thing that could convince me to spend several gorgeous summer weekends in the basement.

My basement had a bunch of stuff that was perfectly good, but that we no longer needed or wanted, so we started creating a pile to drop off at Goodwill. It got me thinking what an absolute marvel, and how totally green, organizations like Goodwill are.  Did you know that:

Last year, more than 66 million people donated to Goodwill. Goodwill accepts your new or gently used items — like clothing, appliances, electronics and furniture — and sells them in our well-known Goodwill retail stores. There are more than 2,400 Goodwill donation locations in the United States and Canada.

The sales of your donations help fund job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who have disabilities, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges.

In fact, donating clothes to a charity is so green that you can earn 20 points for it at Practically Green. But I never really thought much about how much benefit my basement stuff would provide until I got news from an industry friend, Park Howell, about a massive fire at the logistics and operations center for their local Goodwill. Without those donations, the 36 community programs they run don’t have funds so they are doing a MASSIVE drive (if you are reading us from Arizona, please donate!).  I never realized that cleaning my basement isn’t just green, it creates jobs!

Then last night,  I had the opportunity to visit another key player in the re-use market, Gazelle.com. Gazelle gives you cash for your unwanted gadgets (or if there isn’t any value, you can still send them in to be responsibly recycled).  They offer their services directly, but also power trade-in programs at places like Costco and Sears. I got to see part of their “logistics and operations center” and it’s really a marvel (and a perfect home for my box of random electronic stuff). Here are some photos:

First shipments arrive and are packed into bins and contents are verified.

Then each bag is sorted into bins labelled for every kind of gadget.They have bins for everything from Blackberries to iPhones to Camcorders.

Every item is then inspected and readied for reuse or recycling.  The inspection station ensures data is wiped and the product is functioning appropriately.  It then goes into a huge inventory room until someone repurchases the item through eBay or other outlets or it is dismantled and recycled appropriately.

Of course it’s great to get cash for electronics.  But what Gazelle.com has helped create is a way to extend the life of gadgets. This is really green because it combats the issue of perceived or planned obsolescence in technology AND helps keep e-waste from being disposed of improperly. By using Gazelle or services like theirs, you also can get 10 points for recycling your old computer, 10 points for recycling your cell phone, and 10 points for recycling other electronics on Practically Green. The final “feel good” benefit? These services makes technology available to people who might otherwise not be able to afford it.

So–one eco-friendly basement-cleaning later, and I’ve created jobs, battled planned obsolescence, kept e-waste out of landfill, helped someone access digital technology, and cleaned up our indoor air quality. And oh yes, earned 50 points on Practically Green!  Who knew basement cleaning could be so rewarding?

What is grey water?

Any washwater that has been used in the home, except water from toilets, is called grey water. Dish, shower, sink, and laundry water comprise 50-80% of residential “waste” water. This may be reused for other purposes, especially landscape irrigation. — http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/

Put simply, grey water is water that you can’t drink (non-potable) but you can use for watering your plants.

Laura Allen is one of the co-founders of the Greywater Action, one of the county’s first and foremost resources for training and information. She is also a founder of Greywater Alliance, which does policy work. Laura lives in Oakland, California.

This video is a great introduction to Laura’s beliefs and practices. Follow her as she patiently shows a friend how to divert washer to water plants in the yard:

I never wondered where the water came from until I got my first water bill, as a tenant, about eleven years ago. I was ashamed and shocked! I happened to be taking a plumbing class at the time. My roommates and I spent three days figuring out how to take the shower water and send it outside to the garden. The system we built was so dysfunctional! I’ve learned that the more simple the design, the less work it takes to maintain.

Typically the easiest source of grey water is the washing machine. Think of its location in relation to the landscape that you need to irrigate. You can access the grey water from the washer hose itself, which usually pumps into a standpipe anyway. Shower water can be difficult in a house that’s already built. But it all depends on the accessibility of the plumbing. Find a good plumber who is open-minded and trained!

Our organization offers a five-day training for people who want to be installers. Mostly California, but people come from all around the state and US and Canada.

We’ve grown little by little. Our first organization was very informal: me and Cleo and a couple of others. My day job was teaching elementary school.

We became involved in rewriting the state code, and we formed the Greywater Alliance. We participated in the state code rewrite and helped make simple, low tech, low cost systems legal.

We usually have half women in our classes — in a one-week training you can’t learn everything, but you can at least know who to partner with.

People should look at how they reduce consumption. Look at the size of your lawn.  Look at what you don’t need that wastes water — or exchange to a low-flow showerhead: easy!

As for my own green lifestyle: I bike everywhere. I do borrow a car sometimes.  I live with other people. We grow our own food and we buy from farmers in our community.

Bottom line: We don’t need to be irrigating with potable water; greywater is a great source for irrigation. You can plant water loving plants near the house where they can be irrigated with greywater, and then have drought tolerant landscaping in areas that aren’t accessible. Changing how water is used in our own homes is something that each of us can do, starting today. Most of these technologies are very simple and just require interest and commitment.

For more information about the greywater laws and other greywater tips check out: greywateraction.org. In 2009 Greywater Action joined with a water organization called A Single Drop to connect international clean-water work with US hands-on water conservation strategies (workshops on greywater reuse, rainwater harvesting, and composting toilet construction).

And for additional motivation on conserving water, visit Practically Green’s (rather amazing & substantial, if we do say so) Water section: 34 suggestions for actions you can take today on smart water usage, from tracking your monthly water usage to turning off the faucet when you brush your teeth!

Credit: The Help Company

Today I approached a task that’s familiar to the point of boredom and had one of those Practically Green Startle moments: I realized OMG there is a more eco-friendly way to do this. In “this” case, I was trying to stay ahead of the tsunami of laundry that accumulated at our house during a busy family weekend at the end of summer. I shoved a load into the washing machine as usual and prepared to dial “Heavy Duty,” as I have done for the past umpteen years.

Then I thought, why do that? Why not choose the shortest washing cycle? And, why not use cold water instead of hot? After all, all these towels did was dry the newly clean bodies of my family and guests. There’s no reason why they need to be laundered for 84 minutes (heavy duty) when they can be washed for one-third the amount of time.

How much energy would this save? I went to research it at the Energy Star website. It turns out that with washing machines, the most energy is expended for the drum inside the machine to spin. Thus the longer the washing cycle, the more inefficient it is. If you can get away with the shortest washing cycle on your washing machine, go for it.

Settings on washing machine

My laundry turned out beautifully after 26 minutes in cold water. And I line-dried everything — except for the towels. Towels become crunchy when line-dried. Call it a pet peeve, but I won’t go there. I want my towels to be soft.

Our clothes line: everything but the towels

Here are some of the energy-saving “Best Practice” tips for clothes washers that I found on the Energy Star site. I highly recommend you go there for answers to questions on all your household appliances, including rebate info.

Best Practices

Clothes Washer Tips

Always use HE (High Efficiency) detergent. Front-loading clothes washers are designed to use High Efficiency detergent. Using regular detergent creates too much suds, which will affect the machine’s washing and rinsing performance. Over time, it can lead to odors and mechanical problems.

Fill it up. Clothes washers use about the same amount of energy regardless of the size of the load, so run full loads whenever possible.

Wash in cold water. Water heating consumes about 90% of the energy it takes to operate a clothes washer. Unless you’re dealing with oily stains, washing in cold water will generally do a good job of cleaning. Switching your temperature setting from hot to warm can cut energy use in half. Using the cold cycle reduces energy use even more.

Use a drying rack or hang clothes outside. Where and when possible, air-drying clothes instead of using a dryer not only saves energy, but also helps them last longer.

Avoid the sanitary cycle. This super hot cycle, available on some models, increases energy use significantly. Only use it when absolutely necessary.

Activate the high spin speed option. If your clothes washer has spin options, choose a high spin speed or the extended spin option to reduce the amount of remaining moisture in your clothes after washing. This decreases the amount of time it takes to dry your clothes.

Leave the door open after use. Front-loading washers use airtight seals to prevent water from leaking while the machine is in use. When the machine is not in use, this seal can trap moisture in the machine and lead to mold. Leave the door ajar for an hour or two after use to allow moisture to evaporate. Make sure children do not climb into the machine while the door is open.

Rinse the washer every month. Some manufacturers recommend rinsing the washer each month by running a normal cycle with 1 cup of bleach to help reduce the risk of mold or mildew buildup. Consult the product owner’s manual before attempting.

When you’re ready to upgrade your appliances to Energy Star models (and get tax credits and PG points); or if you’re considering line-drying at your house (exhilarating on a sunny afternoon!), visit Practically Green to get more info, encouragement, product reviews, and points!

News Picks:

Think Green and Young: Children’s clothing and toy store Area Kids has a fabulous collection of eco-friendly duds for your little ones. The store is in Brooklyn, but offers products online. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice the “style” part of your “green lifestyle.”

Calling all Green Entrepreneurs: YouGoods is a design contest that challenges you to submit a product idea that is “practical, unique, and eco-friendly.” Act quickly, submissions are due on the 19th!

Are Chemicals Speeding up Your Daughter’s Childhood? There has been much talk in the news lately about exposure to chemicals such as BPA disrupting girls’ hormones. Hopefully the Safe Chemicals Act and the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act will help to put a stop on this disturbing trend. Click here to get PG points for your chemical free-cleaning.

Mulit-Media Pick:

Save That Stuff can help your business with its recycling needs by providing cost-effective alternatives to traditional waste disposal. See the video below for astonishing visuals of all the waste they recycle! The video is a little long, but everything worth seeing is in the first three minutes. Get PG points for recycling your stuff. Enjoy!

New and Cool Pick:

No more shoving a sponge into your Klean Kanteen: This cool brush made from recyclable materials will save you some serious time and effort. It’s hard to clean sticky drinks out of your eco-friendly reusable water bottle (my water STILL tasted like apple juice for at least three re-fillings), but this nifty brush makes it a breeze. It cleans both the inside and the outside at the same time.

Are you thinking of making some energy-efficient home improvements? Until quite recently, the thought of insulating my water heater or dealing with my ductwork (where’s that?) made my hair hurt. I don’t know about you, but I have a more enjoyable time time thinking about a new bedspread or saucepot.

Until now! Our family is undergoing a major construction project, and I’m deep into everything from LED lighting to cellulose insulation. Cell-you-WHAT?! Enter Green Building Advisor to the rescue! This is an amazing resource for homeowners and professional, and if you are considering any of these projects, it’s worth checking out.

We recently caught up with Alex Wilson, GBA’s co-creator and visionary, in the words of U.S. Green Building Council President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi:

“He was paying attention to how the built environment affects people and the planet 30 years ago, and played an instrumental role in the early development of USGBC and LEED both as a hands-on participant and as a respected journalist. When it comes to visionary, Alex is the real deal….”

Alex Wilson

We asked Alex what are the top three things you can do to make your house more energy-efficient. “I only get three?” he said. It turns out he has nine, and he’s just getting warmed up. Here are the top four suggestions for homeowners from one of the most renowned building advisors in the country. (Stay tuned for more in a future installment.)

1) Get an energy audit. Have it done by a weatherization professional. In most states there’s a state energy office that can help you with this, easy to find on the internet. In Vermont, where I live, it’s Efficiency Vermont. The professional will want to dig around a little bit to see where you might improve the envelope. Expect to spend $500 – it’s worth it. Often the local utility will subsidize this and you can hire an energy auditor for free. It’s not uncommon for a house in New England to have leaks that a cat could sneak into. Deal with those first.

2) Replace your incandescent bulbs with CFLs. This is easy to do. Start with the light bulbs that are on six to seven hours a day — in your kitchen, at your desk. You get a rapid payback. LED is a great technology but it’s early for that; it will take a while for it to be affordable.

3) Programmable thermostats are a really easy, cost-effective thing to do that will yield great returns. You get multiple set points during the day, and I recommend resetting the temperature before you got to bed and setting it again for an hour before you wake up. If the home is not going to be used during the day, you have the opportunity to program for that. And, you’ll probably have a different program for the weekend, when you’re there more. Lux Pro is a good brand; Honeywell is the best known.

4) Replace old showerheads. They can deliver 5 gallons per minute (GPM), which is hugely inefficient. You get a very rapid payback with a thirty-dollar water-efficient showerhead that delivers a maximum of 1.6 GPM. I’ve been using the Delta Faucet H20Kinetic. It’s mainly been marketed to commercial buildings – hotels, dorms where they’re looking at the bottom line — but they work great at my house.

H2oKinetic technology

For Alex’s tips on surviving hot weather, see our previous blog post on him. In addition to his Energy Solutions blog, he writes the weekly blog on BuildingGreen.com: Alex’s Cool Product of the Week, which profiles an interesting new green building product each week. He is founder of BuildingGreen, LLC and executive editor of Environmental Building News. He can be found on Twitter @atwilson, and he is the author of Your Green Home.

Big Green Purse, the book

Diane MacEachern is one of the more highly respected and legendary green bloggers around. She is the author of the popularly acclaimed Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World. She launched her blog Big Green Purse in 2007, with a background in politics and policy, and a passion for helping “women use their marketplace clout to protect the environment.”

“I was very frustrated about the lack of progress legislatively on environmental issues,” she says. “At the same time I was feeling an immense opportunity to involve women on these issues. When I researched what was going on in the marketplace, I saw that women have the potential to make enormous change happen. There’s no one solution, of course. You’ve got to keep fighting to pass legislation. But if more people took some meaningful actions in their lives, if we had more of the information we need, then most people would be doing the right thing and together we’d make a positive, measureable difference. I talk every day with women who have to get to work, get home, feed the kids, and try and get a little break for themselves. Through Big Green Purse, I want to give them fresh, simple messages on how to do that in a way that’s safe, healthy, and good for the planet, too.”

Earlier this year, Diane took the new Chevy Volt for a ride and she has graciously given us permission to reprint her review here:

Test Drive the New Chevy Volt With Me

The Chevy Volt is electrifying the car market – especially in the wake of the oil disasters in the Gulf of Mexico and now, Lake Michigan. Every one of us needs to stop using oil so the Volt, which can drive 40 miles on a battery powered by electricity rather than an engine fueled by oil, has a lot of appeal. General Motors, which is taking orders on the car for delivery this fall, claims the vehicle is “designed to move 75% of America’s daily commuters without a single drop of gas. That means for someone who drives less than 40 miles per day (which is most Americans), Chevy Volt will use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions.” After 40 miles, a smaller, 4-cylinder internal combusion engine uses premium-grade gasoline to produce more electricity, extending the car’s range an additional 300 miles.

Diane Behind the Wheel of the Volt

I’d already been on Fox News talking about the Volt; now I jumped at the chance to do a test drive. I regularly get 45 mpg on my 2002 Prius, which I love. And last summer I test drove the Ford Fusion Hybrid for a week and loved it (even though its mileage, while better than a regular sedan, is still lower than the Prius.) But a car I can drive that gets 0 mpg – and still covers 40 miles? That sounded pretty good.

I drove over to nearby University of Maryland, where test drives were being conducted. I waited around for a few minutes until it was my turn to get behind the wheel. I slid into the driver’s seat, and turned the car on. Like the Prius, the car is very quiet – if you don’t know it’s coming, you won’t hear it, that’s for sure.

Volt Dashboard (photo credit: General Motors)

The car has a state-of-the-art dashboard so you can back-up without looking over your shoulder; constantly monitor how much fuel you’re using; stay connected to your Bluetooth technology if you use it; and enjoy the high-quality BOSE sound system.

It comfortably seats four people of average height. The seat sits low because the vehicle is so stream-lined, but consequently, it can be a little hard to see out the back or over your shoulder when you’re changing lanes.

Driving the car is simple as pie. I could only take it for a short spin around the campus, so I don’t know if it is as tricky as the Prius when it comes to achieving promised benefits: the Prius is supposed to get as much as 50 mpg, but it takes a very light foot on the pedal, and a lot of coasting downhill, to achieve those gains driving in the city. Most people speed rather than drive the limit; a lot of us race between stop signs and street signals, too, all of which reduce average fuel efficiency. I couldn’t drive the Volt long enough to know if personal driving style will prevent a driver from actually covering 40 miles on the single electrical charge as promised. That’s something worth paying attention to.

One added benefit of the Volt is that you can recharge it at home, with a standard 120-volt cable. And if you plug it in at night, the electricity you buy from your power company to pump into your car will be a bit cheaper.

Is the Volt an improvement over gasoline-powered vehicles? Absolutely.

Still, I can’t help but think that we’d all be better off not owning cars at all. We could walk and bicycle more in our neighborhoods, telecommute one or two days a week to work, carpool, shop online, use ZipCar or other car membership sites, or rent the new electric Nissan Leaf from Enterprise.

I don’t think I’ll be shelling out $40,000 for a Volt any time soon. It makes more sense, at least for right now, to drive less and follow these money-saving suggestions for saving gas when I do drive.

Visit Practically Green for lots of recommended actions on cars and transportation, from Carpool to School Once to Upgrade my vehicle’s fuel-economy by >20 MPG (100 points).

Diane MacEachern

You can subscribe to Diane’s blog here. Find out about the Big Green Purse One in a Million Campaign to “shift money you already spend to eco-friendly goods and services.” Follow Big Green Purse on Twitter @ biggreenpurse. And don’t miss the 4-minute clip of Diane’s appearance on Fox Business discussing automotive fuel-efficiencies!

News Picks:

Eco-friendly cook out: Here at PG, we enjoy a good summer cook-out. But the cook-out has always been one soirée that poses many green problems: paper plates are a must, the kids love hot dogs, and did we just see you reach for that lighter fluid? This article will help you with all of your green cook-out woes, and give you a piece of mind at your next backyard bash.

Green Innovation at its Finest: Freeaire is a refrigeration system that amazingly uses the greatest source of refrigeration ever created: winter. Developed by Richard Travers and based out of Vermont, this system helps save money, energy, and the earth. Brilliant. Check out Freeaire on the Science Channel here.

Multi-Media pick:

The Tip-Tank Game: First, we want to apologize for giving you another way to put off paying those bills/cleaning the kitchen/finishing that report. That being said, you MUST try this game from our new obsession, Water Use it Wisely! In the Tip-Tank Game, you must find all of the matching pictures before the water runs out, learning tips about saving water along the way.

New and Cool Pick:

Chemically Naked: A new line called Chemically Naked by Kaia House not only has all-natural nail polish that comes in a variety of chic colors, but also (drumroll please…….) all natural nail polish remover! A great way to get ten points on your Practically Green profile and fulfill your “use natural nail polish” action.

News Picks:

Trash-Free for an Entire Year: Could you live trash-free? We at PG are always trying to find ways to make less trash, and this couple is definitely a prime example. A couple in Oregon found that not only was it possible to live almost trash free for a year, it was “easy.”

Playground Safety Hazard: Please use caution when taking your children to the park for some summer fun. From the 1970s until 2003, some wooden playground equipment was pressure-treated with a substance that (shockingly) contained arsenic.

How Green are Your Favorite Brands: You might want to think before shimmying into a new pair of jeans. A new rating system has been developed for some 100 well-known apparel and footwear brands. Just as appliances have Energy Star ratings, the “Eco Index” will eventually tell consumers the environmental impact of their purchases. The Index hopes to encourage brands to be thoughtful of the environment when designing apparel, and it gives brands that strive to be eco-friendly the credit they deserve.

Multi-Media Pick:

The Environmental Impact of a Pair of 501s: View the life cycle of one of America’s most popular brands of denim. You may be as shocked as we were to find out that to make a single pair of 501s, 3,480.5 liters of water are used. This is the equivalent to running the garden hose for 106 minutes!

New and Cool Pick:

Energy Saving Night-Light: Skip the plug-in night-light to keep those monsters away for the kids and get them a cool, solar powered Sun or Moon Jar! The jar works by being placed in direct sunlight during the day (on a windowsill for example), and automatically illuminates in the dark.

News Picks:

FarmVille Goes Organic: Show your green side in the virtual world by “planting” organic blueberry crops on FarmVille. Cascadian Farms introduces an organic feature for your favorite Facebook pastime!

Celebrities for Solar Energy: Even oil tycoons are advocating for renewable energy…well, sort of. Larry Hagman, who played Texas oil tycoon J.R. Ewing on the hit show “Dallas,” encourages people to use solar energy in his new ad campaign for Solar World.

How Honest Tea Stood Up To Coke: Honest Tea lives up to its name by refusing to remove “no high fructose corn syrup” from its packaging to appease its biggest investor, Coca-cola. Well, we at Practically Green appreciate their “honest-tea.”

Multi-media Pick:

Bring your family to an eco-friendly festival: If you’re in the Vermont area this weekend, Solarfest, is being held in Tinmouth. Solarfest boasts over 85 workshops in sustainable agriculture and solar energy for the whole family to enjoy! The festival also includes performances, vendors, food and activities for kids. More information about the festival, as well as where to purchase tickets, can be found at www.solarfest.org.

The festival will include performances by the Guy Mendilow Band, who take their commitment to the environment a step further by creating some of their own instruments out of recycled materials. See the video below where the band’s lead singer, Guy Mendilow, describes what they’re all about!

New and Cool Pick:

A New Way to Protect Your Family From UV Rays:
Just when we thought the iPhone couldn’t get any cooler, a new app, Sun Alert Lite, calculates how long you can stay in the sun without getting burned. So go ahead, let your kids play in the summer sun and have the Sun Alert Lite app tell you when it’s time to apply sunscreen!

Photo Credit: http://appstorehq-production.s3.amazonaws.com/asunalertlite-iphone-120138.185×185.1262771347.51137.jpg

Lisa Borden is a mom of three who lives in Toronto. She runs a small, full-service marketing and design firm in Toronto with a focus on “Eco-logical Services.” Lisa says she spends 70% of her work day on pro bono stuff, for instance this guide to “Eating on the Go.”

She says, “My life and my work, it’s impossible to separate the two. There’s rampant green washing out there. I drive a minivan, I have three kids. Sometimes I drive five kids to karate after school. I don’t apologize for this. I’ll bike. We grow vegetables in our front yard. I can do certain things.”

We caught up with Lisa recently and she told us the story of how she became eco-aware:

I had my second child, a daughter. She had a problem with her skin. I got advice from my father, who is a physician, and from the pediatrician, and I also went to a dermatologist who gave me some medicine. I tried it, and it worked. I thought, Wait. Here are serious ointments to be putting on this teeny little thing. This can’t be right: I apply toxic ointment and the rash goes away, it all clears up. But when I stop applying it, she breaks out. I began to feel that I was keeping the toxins locked in this little body.

Meanwhile, I was breastfeeding. I made my own organic baby food. It seemed like the intelligent thing to do. I cleaned the kids’ highchairs with Lysol, with these single wipes. I thought this was so smart! Efficient!  But she still wasn’t getting any better.

Lisa describes her a-ha moment:

So now I started to seriously look into what was in these things I was using in the house. I looked at every single product we used. I thought, I’m up for anything for these children, for my family. There was no amount of money, time, or effort I wouldn’t spend. So I took all those chemicals out of my house. My husband thought I was crazy. My father, same thing. But within a week, my daughter’s skin was clearer. I realized that their bathtub was rinsed out with chemicals. Basically I was having them sit in a warm chemical cocktail every night.

It’s amazing, because if I could be making such horrid errors — me, who is an obsessive researcher, whose friends make fun of her for that — then what about everyone else, people who might not have the time or inclination? Here I was freezing breast milk in a bag with BPA in it, and then putting it into a bottle with BPA. If I was making these errors…. So: I stopped everything. I lost a lot of my business and income stream. I was young enough, and on fire enough — on a business level this was not too good, but I couldn’t do things the same way any more. I watched the success of my daughter. My father and the pediatrician said, you can’t argue with success.

I reasoned that there was no down side – I’m saving time, because I can be cleaning the sink and answer the phone without worrying about spilling something dangerous. I’m saving energy. I’m saving my health and my family’s health. Saving our indoor air quality. And I’m saving the planet! This chain of events was so exciting to me!

You can see Lisa’s video bio and follow her on Twitter @lisaborden

I’m at our beachy place in Rhode Island, in a house that was built in 1919.

House built in 1919

Most summer days it’s delightful to be here, with the birds playing happily in the high grasses, and the ocean breezes wafting through the old window frames. The west-facing living room, with its time-worn paneling, glows in the late-afternoon. The setting sun makes the entire room throb with golden light.

It is a bit rundown, but that’s part of the charm. We inherited it recently, from a family who used it as their cottage from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It has no insulation to speak of, no basement, and if you were to mention air conditioning I would have to collapse. During a thunderstorm, the whole place comes to life with rattles, bangs, and leaks. We don’t even have shades on all the windows, that’s how shabby chic we are in this place.

Last week, the house was an inferno. The sun was HOT streaming in through the windows. I got up on a chair and bang bang nailed random odd sheets and pillowcases onto the remaining bare window frames. Yes, the décor now reminds me of a fourth-grade play, but this old house is now many degrees cooler than it used to be. Don’t ask me how much cooler, exactly, we don’t have a thermostat. And I’m busy: I’ve got to go switch the sprinkler again.

The Green Building Advisor’s special on energy savings during hot weather couldn’t be more timely. It’s full of helpful advice, e.g., creative improvisations for shade, guidelines for when to open windows and when to keep them shut, and other simple passive measures for staying comfortable in hot temperatures. This is not stuff they teach you in school, and it’s most welcome.

From Alex Wilson, a leader in the green building space:

“We’re into those hot days of summer–really hot–with temperatures predicted in the mid- to upper-90s, even in Vermont, this week. In this column I’ll provide some simple tips for keeping (reasonably) cool in hot weather or, if you use air conditioning, operating that air conditioning equipment most efficiently.”

Please click here for the full column. Abbreviated version below.

Keep the sun out

Shading windows is the easiest way to keep your house cool or keep your air conditioning bills down.

Keep hot air out

Closing windows on hot days seems counterintuitive to some (don’t we want open windows for breezes?), but it makes sense.

Minimize interior heat loads

Try to avoid generating a lot of heat and humidity in your house in hot weather.

Use a fan to circulate air when you’re in a room

All other things being equal, a breeze will keep you a lot cooler.

Wear lighter clothing

This is common sense, but bears repeating.

Control your air conditioner wisely

To save energy, raise the temperature setting on your air conditioner’s thermostat when you’re not home.

If you’ve already been to Practically Green, you know that many of these practical, energy-saving suggestions are described more fully there. Take the assessment quiz for a personal selection of smart next-steps you can take to be comfortable and energy-efficient in every kind of weather.

Note: GreenBuildingAdvisor.com is an offshoot of the venerable BuildingGreen, LLC, which publishes Environmental Building News. Alex Wilson is a founder of Building Green and the Executive Editor of EBN. You can read his blog, “Alex’s Cool Product of the Week,” follow him on Twitter @atwilson, and consider his book Your Green Home (2008).

Alex Wilson of Green Building, LLC

It’s a hazy week for news – kids settle into the July routine, the stock market rolls up and down, the oil spill lingers, generals come and go, and extreme heat seizes the Northeast. Still, we have to eat.

Summer Fun at Shelburne Farms in Vermont

With hot weather in mind, Practically Green served a dozen no-cook recipes and, due to an in-pouring of additional and excellent tasty culinary ideas from all of you, we’ll run a sequel soon.

My favorite takeaway: buy fresh ripe fruits and veggies, wash and chop them when you get home, put them in the fridge, and presto! Your fridge is an inviting treasure chest, and not a stale, forbidding cavern. A-ha!

A couple of weeks ago, Slate’s intrepid Green Lantern reporter Nina Shen Rastogi asked the question,

“what’s the best way to keep a fully stocked, varied fridge and pantry without creating lots of unnecessary waste?”

The answers are in. We’ve gathered highlights, ranging from obvious to uncommon — and all of them practical, green & appetizing, we hope. Bon appétit!

Plan ahead.

My husband and I plan out all of our meals for the week in advance, then we go to the grocer and buy only what we need for that list. We do a smaller shop mid week to top up on fruit, milk, etc but we find we waste very little.

Roasting chicken? Use the whole bird.

My brother claims I get more out of a chicken than anyone he’s seen, so here’s what I/we do: First, roasted with herbs, garlic and olive oil for dinner. That night, carve it all the way – put the “good” chicken in the fridge; pour the juices from the roasting pan in a gallon freezer bag, along with the bones, and freeze. Use the fridge chicken over the next few days for chicken dinner, sandwiches, tacos, chicken salad (w/ tarragon–mmm..), omelettes, etc….

or… Chicken Quesadillas with Avocado Cucumber Salsa. Thanks to the New York Times for this recipe.

Draw pictures of your groceries on a fridge whiteboard.

I also tend to get carried away at the farmers market. Then everything gets put away in the fridge and two weeks later I excavate dessicated garlic scapes (or something) from the back of the crisper drawer. My husband also forgets that I got berries for his cereal and they just sit there. To avoid all this, I have a small magnetic whiteboard on the fridge. I keep a list of the fresh produce on it – sometimes I draw pictures (strawberries are easy, broccoli is hard). It keeps things top-of-mind, so I can think of good uses.

The classic by M.F.K. Fisher

Read MFK Fisher’s book How to Cook a Wolf. While slightly out of date, it shows just how much you can get out of food and avoid waste.

Note on How to Cook a Wolf: a Bible on food appreciation, written by the legendary gastronome Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, and published in 1942 (at the height of World War 2 food rations), this book deserves its own post. Sample memorable line: “Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg, until it is broken.”

Visit PracticallyGreen.com to learn new ways to eat fresh and local, compost happily, and green your kitchen this summer!

If you live east of the Mississippi, chances are you’re deep into dog-day summer. It’s wicked hot, from Maine to Buffalo, from Baltimore to Manhattan. Even our neighbors in Canada are toasty. Quebec’s chief public health officer, Dr. Alain Poirier, encourages people to stay hydrated and take it slow: “If it’s humid outside, there is not much you can do except stop and reduce your own production of heat — that is, lower your activity.” In particular, Poirier warned that children under four years of age, the elderly and people with chronic illnesses are at risk of succumbing to the heat.

Most of us can escape into a bit of air conditioning for at least part of the day, even if it’s at the local Post Office — but utilities are asking customers not to overload the system. A power blackout would be most unwelcome right now.

Rather than whine any more about this, we thought we’d post some of the more inventive and practical responses we’ve heard today for beating the heat, and we invite you to post yours as well.

Stephen Dimeglio worked with a cool handmade hat in Brooklyn. “People laugh at me, but it gives me some shade,” he said. (NYTimes.com)

“Boy it’s killer!! we have all of the lights off in my office to try to prevent a blackout!” Lila, New York

“Even if you have AC – days like these can really push you to your limits. Try relaxing in a bath of cold water for 5 minutes. You won’t believe it!”  Montreal

Time to Get Your Feet Wet

“I have a way of really cooling off. Take a cold shower, don’t dry youself. Just walk around wit the light outs and get yourself una verde (Heineken) and watch TV or listen to some soothing music. That cool will last you about a half hour.” – N.S., New York

Another shower strategy:

“Start off with a warm shower, lather up to get clean, then slowly turn the hot water down over a period of a couple of minutes until you are rinsing off in cold water. After the shower, don’t towel off perfectly… go stand in front of a fan and let the airflow cool you further as you dry. This brings your “core temperature” down and it’s totally invigorating.”

Go underground?

“I moved from an apartment to a split-level townhouse with a basement bedroom three years ago. I haven’t used my air conditioner since I moved in…. Also, more trees should be planted. I can really tell the difference when I’m making the slog across a hot, baking sun-scorched parking lot with nary a tree in sight, versus strolling along the tree-lined, shaded streets of my neighborhood. More trees, please!”

Slow down:

“The heat makes it hard for everyone to be in a hurry — which I find refreshing.”  YK

More H2O on the job:

“I work in a warehouse that doesn’t have AC slugging heavy cartons of paper…. To stay cool in this sauna, I frequently splash cold water on my face and run it through my hair. Sometimes I will just go outside and dump a whole bottle of cold water on my head. It really does help you feel cooler…. I also drink lots of water, fortunately we have lots of fresh filtered water dispensers throughout the building. I also try to stay away from soda or other drinks that contain lots of sugar.”

Zach & Jonas Orlov, Lexington, MA (Boston.com)

“I keep the insulated curtains closed during the day, use ceiling fans, work in house/yard between 5:30-9:30am or after 8pm, but what truly dropped the temperature by 10-15 degrees was to tape up the ultra-thin “emergency blankets” at the windows and doors – foil-like sheets sold in camping/sports goods sections of stores. 5 of these blankets cost less than $10.00 and am I ever saving on energy costs! I’m surprisingly cool and comfortable.”  – Annie S., Washington, D.C.

“We are eating lots of ice cream and keeping the shades drawn,’’ Kathy Humphreys, Jamaica Plain, MA

“If you can’t afford an air conditioner and you don’t have a nice cool basement or a pool, fill up a plastic basin with cool water and put your feet in it. This will cool the blood circulating through them and eventually your body. Don’t wear polyester clothing. Lightweight cotton is best. Spritz yourself with a mist of water or wipe your arms and face with a cool washcloth and sit in front of a fan, if you have one.” QNS, Toronto

“Fill a bag with ice…and put it on your body. MMMMM. Good!”  D.K., Hartford, CT

“Barnes and Noble. You could spend all day in there if you want, reading anything and everything you’ve even had a slight interest in a comfy armchair.”  – KK, New York

P.S.

Don’t forget your pets! Feed your dogs ice cubes! They will be quite grateful! WKH, Montreal