Lately I’ve noticed Green bank loans on the rise and Steve, a Greenfoot reader, recently emailed me a link to the company he works for called Sportzmortgage, which provides a green mortgage called Green options.

He says that for every Green Options mortgage settled, Sportzmortgage contributes an initial donation to a registered carbon offset provider, followed by an ongoing payment for the life of your loan. For every $100,000 of loans settled, Green Options plants 25 trees via an accredited carbon offset provider. Planting continues at the rate of 20 trees per year per $100,000 of loans settled for the life of the loans.

Interested? Check out the website. Has anyone ever gotten a green loan before? If so let us know your thoughts.

Lately I’ve been battling the dreaded lurgy so I apologise for my sparse postings.

However, through my sleepy, fuzzy, throaty amblings I came across a new magazine at my local newsagent called Green.

The magazine launched this month, is published quarterly and focuses on sustainable architecture and landscape design. However, Green is also packed with loads of useful tips such as retrofitting your home, new products, green innovations and growing food locally.

Definitely worth a read and its website is great for a visit.

Sometimes using a car just has to be done. And although owning a hybrid car might be a far off dream due to budget constraints, there are ways to ensure a more fuel efficient car and driving experience.

Carsguide.com.au have a web page dedicated to just that. The site suggests a variety of easy tips to help reduce your car’s environmental impact. (more…)

There’s an interesting discussion going on in the latest issue of Organic gardener (OG) magazine about water restrictions for home gardeners.

The discussion, which takes place in the mailbox section, is close to my own heart because it raises the question of why home gardeners should be penalised through the water restrictions? When I say home gardeners I am not referring to people watering their lawns and camellia bushes, but rather gardeners growing their own food for personal consumption. (more…)

Well let’s hope so. The trend of owning a gas guzzling four wheel drive in the city is well overdue for replacement by a more fuel efficient car. And it seems that Holden is spending significant resources developing vehicles to operate without fossil fuels such as hybrid, full electric and hydrogen-powered cars.

Also since 1997, Toyota has sold one million hybrids globally and this number is climbing - by 2010 the company expects to be selling a million a year.

So you never know, hybrid could soon become the new four wheel drive

A friend who I met through Greenfoot and the non profit world recently started working at a web design agency in Sydney called Digital Eskimo. Not only does the agency focus on producing websites but its owners also really focus on sustainability within the business.

Some of the green features the studio has are: an eco friendly fridge, worm farm, bokashi bin, bamboo desks and chopping board, organic food, green power and recyclable chairs made from recycled materials.

They also carbon offset their work related air travel and don’t have air conditioning. Pretty amazing stuff really. Watch the video to see what else the agency is doing. Digital Eskimo also recently launched a blog focusing on sustainability.

I couldn’t help but have a bit of a chuckle when I saw Cheat Neutral. Based on the idea of carbon offsets, however, instead of offsetting your carbon emissions you can offset your infidelities.

I don’t usually blog about products that we can’t get here in Australia but being a bit of a recycling junkie I just can’t resist this one. And who knows, maybe one day it will be available in Australia.

Thanks to Your Abode, I have found out that blue jeans: “are becoming a much talked about insulation product in the US. Bonded Logic manufactures a product called UltraTouch which is manufactured from 85% recycled jeans.”

According to Bonded Logic, the company uses post-industrial denim and cotton fibers sourced from denim manufacturing facilities. What a great way to give jeans a second life and prevent them from going to landfills. Not to mention a great way to recycle all those Diesel “global warming ready jeans” when they go out of style ;-).