I’m off for the silly season and will be back in the New Year. In the meantime have a fabulous Christmas and New Year.

To help make your Christmas green, visit Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s festive tips, and send their excellent e-card to your friends and family. Also, visit the Green Santa website for more green Christmas shopping ideas.

About this time every year my neighborhood lights up! The locals go mad for anything that glimmers, shines, glitters and sparkles. Yep you guessed it, Christmas lights.

A quick tour of the surrounding streets reveals lit up miniature windmills, cars, Santas, moving reindeer and even a Harbour Bridge. Plus larger than life nativity sets, angels, stars and snow men.

The once quiet suburban streets are filled with families licking Mr Whippy ice creams while peering into front yards and windows to check out Christmas displays.

All this makes for a great social event and awesome Christmas spirit but it does make me wonder how much electricity these people use to run their lights and more importantly if they use green electricity? (more…)

Australian homes can cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 per cent if they convert their hot water systems to solar hot water.

According to Solahart, putting a solar hot water system into a home is the same as taking a small car off the road every year in greenhouse gas reduction terms. Read the full story on the Sydney Morning Herald.

Whether you live on acreage, a suburban block or in an inner city apartment, there are many ways to create a greener and more sustainable life.

Janice, a Canadian who now lives in the inner city of Sydney writes about the potted garden she’s created on the large verandah of her apartment. She also shares her water saving, and organic fertilising and pest control tips. (more…)

If the latest green publishing launches are anything to go by, it seems the green consumer market is becoming a larger and trendier demographic in Australia.

The bi-monthly G magazine, launched in November, touts itself as Australia’s first green living magazine.

At first I thought it might be a similar type of magazine to the now defunct Simply Living magazine, which folded in the 90s. But it seems to have a slightly different audience.

The hippy, mother earth stereotype of green consumers has given way to a more upbeat and chic feel. (more…)