In 2007, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre came together to form Ecovative Design, in an effort to revolutionize eco-building. Fascinated by the bonding qualities of fungul mycelium (basically mushrooms roots), they soon realized that they could harness this power of nature by growing their own building materials, mainly in the form of insulation, or Greensulate™.

The mycelium acts as like a resin material which bonds agricultural byproducts together to make a sturdy insulation type material. The mycelium never grows into full sized mushrooms, so there is no reason to be concerned about allergens and other spores.

The insulating materials help the environment because they are not derived from fossil fuels, they are biodegradable, and take little energy to produce. Oh, and this insulation won't catch on fire.

Ecovative Design is also the founder of Acorn™, the eco-friendly (biodegradable) packaging material. The company claims to envision a world where their organic material would eventually replace all types of artificial products. Living in a world where renewable energy is priority one, Ecovative Design wants to push the idea of renewable materials right up there alongside. Greensulate™ will be available in 2010.

What better way to start living green than at an early age? The Eco-Schools program helps establish sustainable development education by helping schools design and implement an environmental management program and certification in school, all in an effort to raise environmentally conscious kids.

A "holistic, participatory approach, combining learning and action, thus providing an effective method for improving the environments of schools and producing actual awareness raising and behavioral change in young people, school staff, families, local authorities, and so on, having significant repercussions in the local communities" claims the Eco-School website. Not to mention that parents can feel better in knowing that all the pressure isn't on them at home, aka. mom and dad don't have to be the only ones pointing out the significance of living in a sustainable fashion. Also, kids get to be surrounded by other kids living and learning the same way.

With currently 6 million students, 400k teachers, 27k schools in 43 countries, the Eco-School program is making a strong statement about the seriousness of our planet's climate condition.

Eco-Schools methodology is surrounded by seven steps. Once a school has reached a certain level of excellence, they may be given an award, the "Green Flag" as a symbol of their green education and pride.

2010 set to be first year in European history to see mass rollout of an electric car, the Pininfarina B0. Set to first hit France, Italy, Germany, UK, Spain, and Switzerland - even talk of U.S. at later date. 10,000 models to be released in 2010, 20,000 in 2011, and 30,000 in 2012.

The fully electric car will be powered by a lithium metal polymer (LMP) battery, aside a supercapacitor that gives it quick acceleration. It is said to take several hours to charge the battery using a normal household electrical outlet. The battery is rated at 125K miles. Not only powered by a battery, but the car can also partially recharge itself through regenerative braking. Accessories are powered via the rooftop solar panels.

Pininfarina boasts the car has a top speed of 80mph, and will have a range of about 150 miles. The B0 will go for around $420 per month (lease), and even include roadside assistance.

This coming Saturday, March 28th, you can participate in a global movement to help conserve energy. All you have to do is turn off your lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 PM. You can read more about the worldwide event known as Earth Hour right here.

There are a few occasions that come up when Green Groove encourages the substitution of a regularly planned goal with a special event. This is absolutely one of those times. While it is definitely encouraged to carry through with your regular goal for the week, and participate in the special occasion, we just want you to know that we feel Earth Hour is important enough to make a straight out substitution. It will also help you feel involved in the global movement to conserve energy. Get ready to TURN OUT THOSE LIGHTS!!!

Click continue below to watch an inspiring Earth Hour video clip.

Exciting news! Green Groove has recently added two great new features. Thanks to a growing international user-base, and some helpful user feedback, we've been working tirelessly to get the features incorporated. Thankfully, we can now say these additions have been tested and implemented for use in current and future Green Groove plans.

First, take advantage of our new international time zone support. That means you can now keep your plan localized to your own time zone, making goal transition times much less complicated to calculate. How does it work? Basically, all you have to do is set up a plan, and your time zone will be recognized automatically, making all necessary adjustments for you. If you already have a plan, all you need to do is simply log in, and you timezone will be automatically adjusted for you. If for any reason you'd like to make further adjustment, simply go to our new 'time zone' interface in your portal, and adjust as needed. Thanks to Green Groove user Chris Ziady (Pretoria, South Africa) who sent the email that finally got us to get our butts in gear on this. To manage your timezone, simply log in and click on the [Time Zone Icon] in the portal navigation.

= [Time Zone Icon]

Secondly, we have added a user RSS Feed for each plan that is created. That's right, each plan now has its own unique RSS Feed - endless possibilities. To get your feed URL, and manage your feed, simply log in and click on the [RSS Feed Icon] in the portal navigation. Thanks to Green Groove user David Noël (Berlin, Germany) for making some excellent suggestions regarding the expansion of our feeds for use with Twitter.

= [RSS Feed Icon]

What should you  do with your RSS Feed? There are lots of things you can do with your Green Groove RSS feed. However, please remember to be kind to Green Groove servers when using your public feed. Goals are only updated once per week, so there really isn't a reason to have your RSS application ping for updates on anything more than a daily basis, assuming you have access to set the frequency preference. Also, note that you may opt to deactivate your public feed if goal privacy is preferred. Below we list a few common usages for your public Green Groove feed.

1. Twitter ->

   You can use your feed to tweet your latest goal straight to your Twitter page for you and all your followers to see. First, you need to go to Twitterfeed and sign in using your OpenID. OpenID is basically just your Google, Yahoo, AOL, Blogger, etc. username and password. Once you are logged in, you can then manage all of the feeds that you would like posted to Twitter. Click 'Create New Feed' to make a new Twitter feed using your Green Groove feed. You'll need to give it access to your Twitter user/pass info, then just enter your Green Groove public feed, set your 'update frequency' to once per day, include description only, post items based on 'pubDate', and then prefix each tweet with 'Latest Green Groove Goal -' or something similar. Sometimes it takes a few to post your first goal, but you should be up and running in no time. Oh, and don't forget to follow the Green Groove Twitter, and we'll hit you back.

2. Widgets ->

   Use one of our goal tracking widgets (PC | Mac), which uses your public feed by default, to keep track of your plan via your PC or Mac desktop. All you need to do is run a Mac Dashboard or Yahoo! Widget application on your machine. Just download, installation should begin immediately, then all you need to do is enter your username to begin monitoring your latest goal.

3. RSS Aggregators ->

   Most modern web browsers come with built in RSS Aggregators. Typically, all you need to do in order to subscribe to a particular feed is to enter the URL (the public feed URL for your active plan) in your browser's address bar, pull up the feed, and click a button to subscribe. See your browser's help menu for instructions if you're not familar with the process.

Green Groove is very excited to announce the latest addition to our weekly plans! Recently added was the ability to check off goals related to making donations to various charities, or a charity of your choice. Now this doesn't mean that you can take a week off from being proactive about other goals that you have previously worked on. What it means is that you can now spend some time becoming more familiar with international foundations that make it their missions to help make a green and clean planet.

Green Groove would also like to give out a big THANK YOU to Juuso Voltti for bringing this idea to our attention. Juuso is involved in the The Big Ask campaign in Finland, and we're sure they could use your support, so please check it out!

Below is a rundown on goals available in the new "Charity" section.

Easy Does It type plans:

• Donate $5 Minimum to Green Charity of Choice
  Donate $5 Minimum to Environmental Defense Fund
  Donate $5 Minimum to The Nature Conservancy
  Donate $5 Minimum to Greenpeace UK
  Donate $5 Minimum to The Conservation Fund
  Donate $5 Minimum to The Sierra Club Foundation
  Donate $5 Minimum to Earthwatch (Europe)
  Donate $5 Minimum to The Big Ask

Weekend Warrior type plans:

• Donate $25 Minimum to Green Charity of Choice
  Donate $25 Minimum to Environmental Defense Fund
  Donate $25 Minimum to The Nature Conservancy
  Donate $25 Minimum to Greenpeace UK
  Donate $25 Minimum to The Conservation Fund
  Donate $25 Minimum to The Sierra Club Foundation
  Donate $25 Minimum to Earthwatch (Europe)
  Donate $25 Minimum to The Big Ask

Green Machine type plans:

• Donate $50 Minimum to Green Charity of Choice
  Donate $50 Minimum to Environmental Defense Fund
  Donate $50 Minimum to The Nature Conservancy
  Donate $50 Minimum to Greenpeace UK
  Donate $50 Minimum to The Conservation Fund
  Donate $50 Minimum to The Sierra Club Foundation
  Donate $50 Minimum to Earthwatch (Europe)
  Donate $50 Minimum to The Big Ask

When you check off these goals from the weekly goal interface, there is a little "info" icon that has more information about each charity, and a link to their web site.

Also, Green Groove has set up a quick and easy donation link, via paypal. In an effort to help us keep the lights on (compact flourescents), you can make a donation to Green Groove by clicking here, or using the donation link in left hand side column of the web site. Thanks, and go make some donations! There are a lot of hardworking people, and causes, out there that just need a few bucks to keep things moving along.

With the New Year quickly approaching, you may be wondering what you can do to make 2009 as green as possible. Here are a few tips that should help you make your New Year more environmentally friendly.

Parties

1. If you’re having a New Year’s Eve party, send out e-invites instead of paper ones. You’ll not only receive your RSVPs faster, but you’ll save paper, ink and money. Also, encourage guests to carpool to save gas.

2. Purchase re-usable cups, plates and utensils, or ones that can be composted. This will save on garbage that goes into landfills.

3. Instead of giving out gifts, give each person who attends a list of green resolutions they can make for 2009 and by telling them about Green Groove.

4. Re-use old holiday decorations or wrapping to decorate for your party. This saves money, waste, and gives you a chance to think of creative ideas that will make your party unique.

Resolutions

1. Everyone makes New Year’s resolutions, and generally they’re too vague or grandiose and don’t ever get fulfilled. This year, make smaller resolutions that you know you can accomplish. Creating a phased withdrawal with Green Groove is a great way to start.

2. Help your friends, co-workers and family come up with green resolutions. There are even things you can do together, like adopting a mile on the highway and picking up trash, or cutting down on paper towel use. Having someone there to keep you on track, and to chart progress with, is a great motivator for continuing your resolution all year long.

If everyone takes the time and makes the effort to come up with green resolutions that will last all year, and follow through with them, a big difference could be made. Even if it’s something as small as creating a compost pile in your backyard and reducing your household waste, it makes a difference. The New Year is the best excuse to start making green changes in your life, so get to it!

Trying to find a "green" gift? Search no longer. Simply sign up a friend or loved one with Green Groove. You can do this one of two ways. First, you can easily sign someone up on our signup page. Just create a user ID and password for them using their email, then all you have to do is email them the information along with our site address (www.greengroove.org) and tell them to get started. Secondly, you could go to our new start page to put together a quick plan for someone, create a user ID and password using their email address, and the plan will be emailed straight to them. They can roll with that plan, or come back, sign in, and create a new one. Nothing quick, easier, and most importantly greener.