Photo: SWNS.COM/ SWNS via the Guardian

We are, after all, named TreeHugger, and have noted before on TreeHugger and Planet Green that trees are effective and sophisticated cooling

All images via the Interactive Institute - www.tii.se

"A regular torch shows what is hidden in the dark, the Watt-Lite shows the hidden use of electricity", this is the essential purpose of a set of three lights created by designers at Stolkholm's Interactive Institute.

Image Source: Juverna

Dear Pablo: I have been hearing a lot of controversy around smart meters. Are the additional radio waves emitted by them a danger to my family?

A "smart meter" is an electric or gas meter that electronically transmits meter readings to the utility.

Photo: Flickr, CC

Negawatts Strike Back
The immensely popular LCDs screens that are found everywhere in the modern home (television, computer, laptop, cellphones, etc) use less energy than CRTs, the previous technology, but they are still far from being optimally efficient. Only about 8% of the light emitted by a LCD's backlight makes its way out, and the rest is wasted.

Image: EPA

Making Guzzlers Stand Out Even More
One way to nudge people into making better decisions is to make it easier to compare different products and services. There are still many people out there who have no idea if 16 MPG is a good or bad, but if they saw a big red "D" on a sticker, they might be tempted to find a vehicle with a better grade.

Image: Google Maps

276 Extra Miles Per Year on Average
According to a study by British insurer Sheilas' Wheels (watch out for the bright pink website), men waste about £2,000 in fuel over their lifetime because they won't ask for directions when they are lost, leading to an average of 276 extra miles being driven per year.

I was surprised to see a full page ad on the back of Wood Design and Building for Sustainable Insulation^TM that looked suspiciously like fibre glass batts.

"One of the greenest homes ever built"

Katherine Salant writes in the Washington Post:

Can a big house be green?

Image credit: Olive Garden & Peter Baker (Creative Commons)

When I wrote about drying clothes indoors, I was surprised to hear that some folks had considered opening the windows and cranking up the heat on the thermostat a

Photo: Cree

Let There Be Light
At TreeHugger, we've been writing about ways to make lighting more energy efficient for years.