I just recently found a great group, based out of the UK, called Ecotricity.  Ecotricity is a group that builds wind turbines, and helps to produce other alternative energy in the United Kingdom, and then provides that energy straight to consumers.  For every pound (roughly about $1.50 in American dollars) that their customers spend, Ecotricity spends another pound creating greener energy.  Their tag line, "turning electricity bills into windmills," expresses this 1 to 1 exchange.

They offer a number of plans for consumers, to match the local competitor's "brown" electricity.  In some cases, switching can cost a little more if you're on a discounted plan with someone else, but it is worth the extra cost to go green.

The other fresh change with Ecotricity is that they don't operate like other energy companies.  When you call their free number, you actually reach a human being.  In a time where you can't even call to order a pizza without talking to a computer first, that's a big deal.  Their sign-up plan is easy, either 5 minutes online or by calling them directly.

"The other thing that not many people realise is that we can now all choose who supplies our electricity, and therefore how it's made, so wherever you live in the country you can actually choose to have your home or business supplied by clean energy. The funny thing is switching takes about five minutes but it's the biggest single step you can take to reduce your emissions and protect the environment," says Dale Vince OBE, Ecotricity founder, on the Ecotricity website.

So, if you're living in the UK and are still on "brown" energy and want to make the change, give Ecotricity a call.  If you're not in the UK, that doesn't mean you're out of luck.  Research your area and see if there are wind farms nearby and who runs them. There are also wind turbines that you can install yourself in your backyard.  The American Wind Energy Association has a great list of places where you can find a small wind turbine for your own use.  The energy is available to everyone, you just need to ask for it.

As we mentioned earlier this week, it is becoming time for spring cleaning.  Before we talked about getting rid of clutter and recycling more, as well as replacing old bulbs with compact fluorescents.  In this post we're going to talk about how you can green your cleaning materials themselves.

Modern cleaning materials had been considered a god-send for many years.  They cleaned deep and quickly, and saved the cleaner time and effort.  It's taken many years for people to realize that these cleaning materials are often packed with hazardous chemicals, that can be damaging to humans if they are breathed or may contact with the skin.  Something as simple as bleach is hazardous to your body if you inhale a lot of it.  On top of that, most cleaning products that we're used to are petroleum-based.

The first tip for greening your cleaning materials is to be aware of so called "green" cleaning products.  Many of them claim to be green, but when you look further into the materials used to make it, it's just as hazardous as the other cleaners.  Now, there are some green cleaning products that you can purchase, and the good ones are non-toxic, biodegradable and made from renewable resources.  The best way to go, however, is to make your own cleaning materials at home and cut out the middle man.  A mix of vinegar and baking soda is a great astringent cleanser when mixed with a little water.  Also, vinegar is great for washing windows when wiped down with newspaper.

Next, be aware of the smells.  If your house smells like cleaner, that's a bad sign.  Keep your house ventilated while cleaning, so that fresh air can be brought in and you're not overwhelmed by chemicals used.  Another is to avoid air-fresheners that are chemical or oil based, that can release toxic chemicals into your home.  Instead, buy natural air fresheners like clove, cinnamon sticks, and aromatic plants.   Another tip is to use baking soda as a way to get smells out of rugs and carpets by sprinkling some on the floor, waiting a few minutes and vacuuming to collect it back up.

Avoid using paper towels or sponges while cleaning.  After you're done with them you just throw them away, which is not very sustainable.  Use rags that you can wash, or old t-shirts, to wipe down your counters and furniture.

Cleaning is a fact of life, and very few people really enjoy doing it.  Make cleaning a little bit more green, and therefor enjoyable, by cutting out the noxious fumes, hazardous materials, and fake smells.  Keeping your home, and the Earth, clean will brighten up your spring cleaning routine.

Artist Don Simon is creating works of art where humans and animals interact.  It's not the idealistic pictures you may imagine, but ones where animals are forced to live in our world; the world of traffic jams on highways, the world of parking lots, the world of tires instead of rivers.

"Throughout history, particularly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, mankind has been less than kind to their cohabitants on the planet. We build, produce and consume with little or no regard to the impact it has on the environment. It is the nature of nature to adapt and evolve in order to survive, and we are forcing other species to deal with compromised, damaged or destroyed ecosystems," states Simon, in his artist statement from his website.

Simon has created a series of triptychs (or loosely collected works in threes) with the over-all title of Unnaturalism.  Within the blanket of that series are the triptychs.  One such triptych, titled The Herd shows bisons walking along a highway in a traffic jam.  Another series, titled Cows on Garbage, takes away the rolling hills of green grass and replaces it with mountains of human garbage.

At grist.org you can see a video of Simon's work, along with commentary by him what the pieces are about.

Ultimately, what I got out of watching the video at grist.org, and looking through Simon's work on his personal website, was that humans are taking over the world.  That may seem a silly statement, but what I mean is that human beings as a race are determined to conquer and own, regardless of who was there before.  We're taking land from not just each other, but from the other species who were there before, like the bison, cows and deer.  Many of the animals featured in Simon's art are in danger of losing their natural habitat because of human development.

You may be asking now what you can do to help.  First of all, reduce your waste.  We're taking over so much land to make room for landfills.  Second, cut down your paper use.  Forests of trees are cut down daily to make paper.  Most importantly, though, find a habitat protection program either in your area, or through the internet, and become a volunteer, donator, or supporter.  Here is a link from the Humane Society of the United States, that has a list of habitat protection programs.

Together, we can make Simon's visions of our potential future just that.  Visions, and not reality.

T. Boone Pickens seems an unlikely ally in the fight for sustainable energy changes.  His father was an oil man, and Pickens himself worked for Phillips Petroleum after his graduation from Texas A&M.  He founded Mesa Petroleum, which grew into one of the largest independent oil companies in the world.  All of that aside, Pickens is one of the loudest voices out there campaigning for alternative energy.  He's released an energy policy proposal, called the Pickens Plan, in which he wants to promote the creation and use of alternatives to oil, since oil is limited and unclean.  And Pickens should know.

A recent article by CNET reports on Pickens' cry for a federally funded loan program to finance wind developments on a large-scale.  Pickens, speaking from the Clean-Tech Investor Summit, promoted his Pickens Plan and the need to convert our energy needs, and vehicle needs, to run on cleaner forms.

To get the ball rolling, Pickens put down $2 billion worth of turbines from General Electric, to be delivered in 2011.  He wants the government to follow his lead, creating a wind-bank that would give people who want to develop wind farms a financial boost.  It would take a small part of the $825 million in federal spending from the Obama supported stimulus package, and Pickens argues it would also be cheaper than continuing to spend money on oil.

Pickens is also a supporter of cleaner, natural gas.  He wants vehicles to run on natural gas, and thinks that there cannot be a cut from foreign oil without it.  He has called for an investment of $28 billion to buy 350,000 heavy trucks that can run on natural gas.

To read the CNET article, through CNN, click here.  To read more about the Pickens Plan, click here.

Even though Puxatawny Phil saw his shadow today (meaning 6 more weeks of winter), it doesn't mean that spring isn't on it's way.  With spring comes new flowers, warmer weather, and the inevitable "spring cleaning."  What better time to go through your house and get rid of things you've been carrying around for years, and while you're at it, making green changes?

A good place to start is your home office.  It's where you store notebooks and papers that you think you want to keep and then forget about.  It's also where there are the most opportunities to green a room.  Start off by going through your desk and bookshelves, and make sure the things you keep are the things you really want.  That term paper from college however many years ago?  You might not need to carry that around anymore.  If you have a lot of software in big packaging, you could probably just keep the cd and recycle the rest.  That will also save you space.  Then make sure you have compact fluorescent bulbs in your desk lamp and overhead light, and unplug things that don't need to be on all the time (like chargers and lamps).

Also, go through your living room.  Recycle any magazines that are over two months old.  Replace your lightbulbs with compact fluorescents, and dust the light fixtures.  This will make the room seem brighter, and is a good way to have a fresh start.

These two rooms are the places that the most clutter gets stored in.  As you clean a space, check to see if you've made the room as green as possible.  Write down a list of what you need to do to reach the room's green potential, and complete the list within a reasonable timeline. 

Think ahead, too, for the summer months and what you need to do to stay green.  Make sure that the windows aren't leaking outside air. This will save money, and electricity, so you won't have to run your A.C. higher in the summer to compensate.

So go out there and get cleaning, recycling, and greening!  The next thing you know you'll be rewarded with a beautiful green world outside to match the beautiful green one you create in your home.

A recent article by Popsci.com brings up a new, alternative energy idea that hasn't been discussed in the same ways as solar, wind and hydrogen.  That is power harvested by humans.  Now, before "soylent green is people" runs through your head, I mean kinetic energy.

Human beings create new energy in large amounts, mostly stored in our body fat, but also in our muscles.  That energy is used and burned in our movements, which is called kinetic energy.  By harvesting kinetic energy from simple actions like walking or running, you could be recharging more than just your body.

Human energy won't get you off the grid, but it will help to make a small difference.  Green Microgym, in Portland, Oregon, has created a stationary bike that will harvest the energy you put out during your workout.  Riding the stationary bike turns a generator, which then helps to power the building.  As the machines are fine-tuned, the amount of energy produced and stored in the generator could increase.

There's also dance floors in the Netherlands that use the same kinetic energy.  The company, called the Sustainable Dance Club, utilizes the piezoelectric effect, where certain materials create an electrical current when they are bent or compressed.  As the people in the club dance on the floor, it is compressed by half an inch, and makes contact with the piezoelectric material that is underneath.  In the future, this floor could power more than the LED lights in the club, and eventually power the whole club itself.

There's an ongoing debate around my household about the adage "less is more."  My husband argues that in that case, even less is even more.  While at the time I think he was applying the argument to minimalist modern art, it has come around full circle to me today when I saw a cartoon on chainsawsuit.com, by Kris Straub.

[Image courtesy of chainsawsuit.com]

While at first I just thought this image was funny, and forwarded it on to my husband.  After I hit send, though, I realized that while hilarious, the meaning behind it is true.  Less is more, and even less is even more.  What I mean by that is less waste more healing, and even less waste would be even more healing.

Here at Green Groove, we've mentioned before that reducing your waste is good for sustainable living.  When you purchase less that would make waste you can  keep the carbon footprint for your household down, since there is less packaging and shipping related CO2 coming in.  Recycling is a great way to combat massive landfill waste, but that only goes so far.  Composting is also a good step towards creating less useless waste, but again it only goes so far.  The key really is less is more.

Things you want to avoid are items packaged in a plastic with no recycling number and Styrofoam.  Don't buy individually wrapped things when you could buy that same item in bulk and individually package it yourself.  Be mindful every time you purchase something, and think about where it could end up when you are done with it.

This applies to all purchases, not just groceries.  If you're going to buy a new pair of shoes, think about what you're going to do with your old ones.  Think about what you'll do with it when the new ones wears out.  Is there a place you can recycle old shoes in your town?  Is there somewhere that you can donate them?  Knowing these things ahead of time is very helpful.

While it may seem like an already hard task like shopping for your household just got harder, it really hasn't.  Every purchase you make you're already mindful of a set of needs your family has, like allergies, taste preferences, and cost.  You're just adding one more thing to think about, and in the long-run, thinking about our planet when you're shopping is just as important as thinking about your family.

Today Former Vice President Al Gore goes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to testify how we need to get back to global environmental leadership to help combat catastrophic climate change.  One of the first things that needs to be done is to have the government supportive and involved in green technologies.

While Gore is a very vocal advocate for greener legislation and government supported programs, he still needs your help.  That is why the people at Repower America are asking for people to send a letter to congress in support of an economic recovery package that focuses on creating more jobs, and creating green energy sources.

Repower America's goal is to have 100% clean electricity by 2019.  It seems like a large and far off goal, but in actuality it is completely attainable.  We just need governmental support.  By sending your letter to congress through Repower America, you can show that the demand for clean energy is there.

If you're not comfortable signing your name to a letter, go to the website anyway and watch Gore's plea to the people.  Forward the link on to your family members and friends.  There's a lot you can do to help promote a greener America from behind the scenes.