I am an advocate of solar power – but the biggest advocate? I don’t think I’d fit that bill, but maybe you do!

The new ‘Power the House’ campaign just launched to find the most devoted advocates of solar power and have them help get solar panels back on the White House. Using the many facets of social media, the Power the House campaign encourages the public to check their social-media-linked site to get their daily action plan and participate in a game that spreads the solar word.

Once completing solar missions around the social-sphere on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Foursquare, players can earn points and win GLOMANA merchandise, like a glow-in the-dark t-shirt.  If you’re really into the idea and campaign, earning enough points to become the ‘Ultimate Solar Advocate’ will score you placement in a nation-wide press release when the campaign reaches 10,000 petition signatures!

The lead company driving the campaign, Sungevity, sent a request to the Obama administration to accept their offer of a free solar power system and launched their site to encourage the public to join in with them.  Looks like there are some participants and I hope it succeeds to reach their petition goal soon!

Did you know to get that pearly or sparkly shimmer in nail polish, fish scales  are often used? Yep. After learning more about SpaRitual nail lacquers, which are vegan and free of toluene, formaldehyde and DBP, I’m beginning to examine my beauty products more closely.

In fact, DBP, or dibutyl phthalate, is an ingredient that was recently banned in the European Union as it’s been linked to cancer in lab animals among other things. Although companies like OPI claim the level of DBP in their polishes is so low that it poses no health hazard, I have to ask myself if it’s really worth the risk? And polishes like SpaRitual’s “Hope Springs Eternal” below look great and last just as long (I’ve tried them) as other top-of-the-line polishes, so I’m making the switch.

Another brand I came across recently is Yes To, Inc whose tagline is, “Paraben Free—Cruelty Free—Natural, organic skin, hair and lip care.” While on the hunt at Target for a new nighttime moisturizer, these products caught my eye. I purchased the Yes To Carrots Night Moisturizing Cream and absolutely love it. I require any moisturizer I purchase to smell good, particularly one going on my face, and this one feels and smells amazing.

Want to learn more? Here are some green beauty blogs I found:

• Gorgeously Green – http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com/
• Clean Green Beauty – http://cleangreenbeauty.com/
• The Green Girls – http://www.thegreengirls.tv/

Tell me some of your favorite green beauty products below!

By Kristen Nicole

Perhaps you’ve noticed the slew of celebrity-studded commercials and dedicated programing on broadcast and cable television the past few weeks, urging you to go green in honor of Earth Day. You may have also noticed that the trend is not lost in the online world. More specifically, the virtual world.

WeeWorld is offering environmentally friendly items for purchase in honor of Earth Day, an initiative that the virtual world launched a little over two weeks ago. So far over 10,000 “Recycle and Global Warming” signs have been downloaded by users showing their support for green lifestyles.

Another 2,500 green items including environmentally friendly clothing, wind turbines and even tree huggers, have been downloaded by WeeWorld users. The items are all part of the larger virtual goods trend, something that WeeWorld was quick to participate in.

The past year or so has witnessed several product roll outs from WeeWorld, with things like personalized rooms for WeeMee avatars, presenting a great deal of customization for users and branding opportunities for companies. WeeWorld has also created a Green Jean avatar that makes her way around the WeeWorld community to give tips on how to live a green lifestyle.

What’s more, is that many of these environmentally friendly items are available for purchase as well as gifts to send to others. Not only does this help generate revenue for WeeWorld, but it also incentivizes users to encourage their friends to consider a greener lifestyle as well. If we can be green in the virtual sense, maybe a little bit of that will rub off in our real lives. Life imitating art, right?

For WeeWorld, this is a great opportunity to also target teens and push green initiatives, also giving teen users a voice of their own. Personalized WeeWorld and their avatars are great ways to provide users with a way to show their support for Earth Day and green lifestyles overall.

AlwaysOn has officially kicked off its 1st GoingGreen East Top 50 competition. They’re are looking for the top emerging private companies that are creating new business opportunities in green technology. This includes private companies that are demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology in the following sectors:

• Solar Energy
• Biofuel & Agriculture
• Clean Energy (not solar or biofuel)
• Energy Storage Systems
• Energy Management, Smart Grid & Energy Efficiency
• Water Technology & Water Management
• Green Materials, Green Buildings & Green Nano/Micro-Tech
• Green Automobiles & Transportation
• Clean Manufacturing & Clean Products
• Resource Recovery & Waste Management

The winners of this competition will be officially announced in late February and will be honored at GoingGreen East, March 9th-11th at The Four Seasons Hotel, Boston, MA. They will also be featured in AO’s quarterly print “blogozine” and on the AlwaysOn website.

To nominate a company, please click here to fill out a qualification form.

To reserve your ticket to GoingGreen and take advantage of the 50% AO-Insider discount, click here!

Current Top 50 Nominees:

Solar Energy
1366 Technologies
Aquus Energy
Blue Sqaure Energy
Crossbow Technology, Inc
Evergreen Solar
GroSolar
Konarka Tech
Lightwave Power, LLC
Odyne
Petra Solar
RSI Silicon Products
Sencera
Solar & Thermal Systems, Inc.
Standard Solar
Stellaris
SunEdison Corporate
Suniva
Wakonda Technologies
Xunlight Corporation

Biofuel & Agriculture
Coskata
Ecore Intl.
Energex Pellet Fuel Inc.
Firefly Energy
Lehigh Technologies

Clean Energy (not solar or biofuel)
Advanced Electron Beams
Deerpath Energy
Energy Ingenuity
Everpower Renewables
New Energy Capital
Northern Power
Novomer, Inc
Own Energy
Protonex Technology Corp.
Regen Power Systems
Second Wind
Techno Spin
TPI
Wilson Turbo Power
Zymetis

Energy Storage Systems
Aspen Products Group
Lilliputian  Systems
Primet Precision Materials
Solicore, Inc.

Energy Management, Smart Grid & Energy Efficiency
Advanced Power
Aircuity
Ameresco
BlueWave Strategies
BPL Global
Brighter Planet. Inc.
Carbon Solutions America
Clear Standards
Conservation Services Group
Danotek Motion Technologies
Eka Systems
Ember
Energy Window
eps corp
greenBytes Inc
GridPoint
H2Gen Innovations
MetroLight
Peregrine Energy Group
Positive Energy
Powerit Holdings
Premium Power Corporation
RealWinWin, Inc.
Renaissance Lighting
SmartSpark Energy Systems
Trilliant Inc.

Water Technology & Water Management
epuramat
Seldon Technologies

Green Materials, Green Buildings & Green Nano/Micro-Tech
Apricus Inc.
CellTech Power, Inc
EcoKote
GEO2
Hycrete
iCrete
LumenZ
Luminus Devices, Inc
Microposite
PPT Research
QD Vision
Segetis, Inc.
SOMS Technologies

Green Automobiles & Transportation
et3.com Inc.
NxtGen Emission Controls
Skymeter Corp
Zipcar

Clean Manufacturing & Clean Products
GoGrid
Precise Alloys
Permolex International LP
Sun and Earth

Resource Recovery & Waste Management
Coalogix
Electro-Petroleum
Powermaster
Seahorse Power Corp
Qteros
RecycleBank

by Michelle Lentz

When we were away for Thanksgiving weekend, I’d forgottten my curling iron and had to buy a new one. I had a terrible time opening the ridiculous packaging since I was in a hotel and had no scissors handy. In particular, I hate the hard plastic packaging that often comes around a tiny USB stick. Why? Why are these things so difficult to get into? Why so much extra plastic?

About a month ago, Amazon.com launched a new initiative called Frustration-Free packaging. They’re working with manufacturers to create easy-open boxes – no ties, no metal wraps, no clamshells, no extra plastics.

One of the first products to launch was the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship. The new packaging eliminated ALL of the following:

- 1,576.5 sq in printed corrugated package inserts
- 175.2 sq in PVC blisters
- 36.1 sq in folding carton materials
- 36 in of plastic coated steel wire ties
- 2 molded plastic fasteners
- 3.5 sq in of ABC molded styrene

Right now there are only 19 products available like this, but I have high hopes that maybe this initiative by Amazon will help manufacturers wake up. In addition, Amazon’s simple packaging is more environmentally friendly than the original packaging. “It will take many years, but our vision is to offer our entire catalog of products in Frustration-Free Packaging,” Jeff Bezos said in the letter announcing the program.

Amazon’s Great Unwrap Race video is funny and perfectly illustrates both the problem and the solution. They also have a gallery of user-submitted Wrap Rage.

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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, or Friendfeed.

by Michelle Lentz

Fast Company  has named Enterprise Community Partners the Social Enterprise of the Year. Based in Columbia, MD, Community Enterprise Partners is a largely unknown organization which has worked tirelessly for over 25 years to provide clean homes, in a responsible and sustainable fashion, for impoverished Americans.

Enterprise has provided:
–$9 billion in capital and financing for low- and middle-income housing
–$700 million in capital each year to affordable-housing efforts
–Thousands of “green” affordable-housing units across America

I used to live in Columbia, MD, and it was a rather serene, almost gated community. It was the first true planned community I’d lived in, and I believe one of the first in the US. It was created by James Rouse, who also created Fanueil Hall and The South Street Seaport. He was also the grandfather of actor Edward Norton. Rouse and his wife Patty were the co-founders of Enterprise Community Partners.

Now, Norton and the company his grandparents built have become major players in the green movement as well.

In their quest to find new and innovative ways to fund clean, affordable housing, they’ve invented a mechanism to measure and collect construction related data, real world information about which construction, design and appliance choices make the most impact on removing carbon emissions from the air. (The vast majority of carbon is emitted by buildings.) The information is detailed, granular and site specific, and exists nowhere else in the world.

They’ve turned that rich data into a carbon offset fund, which helps raise money for more green housing.  They’re now poised to become a major player in the carbon market, and help save the planet in the process. The money they raise will go to fixing broken neighborhoods all across the country.

All in all it’s an impressive example of philanthropic business. Ellen McGirt has written an uplifting, in-depth article profiling the company over on the Fast Company site. We all need some good news lately. You’ll enjoy the read.

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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, or via Pownce.

by Michelle Lentz

Ecobags – reusable canvas grocery bags – debuted in the Cincinnati area sometime in 2007. My husband and I were rather taken by the idea and decided that it would be a great idea for holiday gift bags as well.

I was thrilled to discover that 1BagataTime actually offers holiday-themed bags. You can pack tons of things into these bags as well.

This year, 1BagataTime is offering a holiday ecowrap package. It’s not much – 10 bags and 10 bows for $15.99. Last year I got both green and red bags. They were an absolute hit with everyone who received one from us. It’s a nice way to help “green” your holiday wrapping.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email at michelle[at]writetech.net, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.

by Michelle Lentz

This has been my week to come across sites that are out there to make us better people, one way or another. I stumbled on another “green” site recently. This site, ecomii, is a combination online magazine and community dedicated to helping us all live greener lives.

Perhaps the thing I like best about this site is that it acknowledges that in our everyday lives, it’s pretty hard to get rid of our carbon footprint. But it helps you set small, attainable goals, like bringing a canvas bag to the grocery store, because every little bit helps. ecomii action is an area of the site that focuses on setting goals for yourself and your community. You can tailor your goals based on your own personal lifestyle and invite others to join you.

The “magazine” portion of the site is filled with articles on how to make small improvements in your life. There are tips for going just a little greener, recipes, and articles explaining things like global warming. Have questions or disagree? That’s fine too. There’s a section of the site called debatables, where you can vote on a topic and engage in intelligent (hopefully) discourse through commenting on each topic. The ecomii About Us page states:

At ecomii, we don’t just drink the Kool-Aid. We look at how and where it was made, scrutinize the label, consult with our team of editorial experts (such as Jeff Cox, author of The Organic Cook’s Bible, and Dr. Alan Greene, author of Raising Baby Green), verify the facts…and then take a sip. Like you, we can be skeptical of new trends and unsubstantiated claims. We want the truth. Not the hype. We want tried-and-tested, agreed-upon, effective ways to reduce our planetary impact. What’s more, we have no intention of sermonizing…or pretending to be perfect. We don’t live entirely carbon neutral lives. (There. We said it.) But we try to make sound, environmentally-minded choices every day, and we believe that little changes add up.

So if you’re looking to go a little greener in your life, you might enjoy spending some time at ecomii.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.