the greener side

Update: Where to share a car?

Since I first posted this chart in the fall, Americans have been freaking about oil supplies peaking, telecommuting to avoid the pinch at the pump, and flocking to car-sharing services in city centers. Plus, our transmission gave out, forcing me to walk about an hour a day, minimum, and burn perhaps the greenest fuel of all: calories--no joke when you live on this hill. Car-less, I've been shopping a small bag at a time, shoving organic chocolate in my backpack and pedaling away.

For bulk groceries, it still seems that taking a taxi from the store is cheaper than sharing a car, plus it drops you off at your door for good so you don't have to march home from the lot. Now that a Zipcar office opened a block from work, however, I'm tempted to try it. Should I cave into the ever-expanding Zipcar empire, support the rival Flexcar, or support the local nonprofit City CarShare? See if the chart speaks for itself. What's your favorite? Continue to the next page to view or download the chart (you'll need Java enabled--or try here-but maybe I'll add an image later)

Life by chocolate: organic cocoa comparison chart

So I promised that we’d rate and test so much organic, fair trade chocolate in time for Valentine’s Day. That was a half-truth, because midnight is upon us and most V-Day victims are in bed. The tasting crew included Miguel, Fausto, Romina, and Sarah. I really did eat all of these, but ran out of time and only elaborated on two brands. Here’s the obsessive comparison chart (click to enlarge):

Get a green website

If you're building a website, you need to park it somewhere. But did you think about all the energy needed to power the servers that keep your web pages safe? Check out some of these web hosting companies that run on solar and wind power instead. There was some buzz earlier this year in Wired and elsewhere about solar web hosting, but I didn’t find any advice about how those services stack up against each other.  Here's proof of this writer's OCD: another chart. Click on it to enlarge and read; continue to the end for more details (see earlier charts comparing green cell phone plans and car sharing services, and green "megatrends").

A greener cell phone

If your cellular phone contract is about to expire, you might let the company’s 30-minute support call hold times exhaust you into renewing. No wonder we trust our cell phone companies as much as used car dealers. Yet instead of rehashing how we love to hate the phone provider, let's talk about another option. Earth Tones buys minutes in bulk from Cingular and resells them in month-to-month, no-strings plans. A guy at their Green Festival booth last weekend said that they’re not as eco-pure as they’d like to be since they piggyback on existing infrastructure, but all profits go to green groups.

Earth Tones give you a free recycled phone or a new SIM card for your compatible model. Service includes paperless billing and an eco-newsletter, with free voicemail and long distance. The six plans include a $40 package for 800 anytime minutes. Run over your time for a quarter per minute. Working Assets has a similar package, with one percent of proceeds going to a variety of progressive groups.

These prices aren't a steal, but they'd be decent if you're not addicted to your mobile. Both alternative companies offer landline long distance, and Earth Tones also provides dial-up Internet service. Here are other similarly-priced national mobile phone plans in the 94110 zip code (click to enlarge):

Put the lotion in the basket. Should you?

First cigarettes, then potato chips. Now your hand lotion, toothpaste, and shaving gel might soon flaunt a warning label.

Shoppers should know that one-third of cosmetics contain iffy and maybe cancer-causing junk, the FDA said in February. If the agency sticks to its guns, then the 99 percent of all personal care potions that contain even a single mystery ingredient may have to blare: "Warning: The safety of this product has not been determined."

While you wonder if the sunscreen you're basting in caused lab rats to grow tumors and slowly rot, look it up in the new SafeCosmetics.org database. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group rates products with safety scores from one to a red-flag five. My Avalon lavender hand lotion gets a safe 1.3 score (left), while Vaseline Intensive Care lotion (right), gets a murky 4.2. That Avalon lotion might be a candidate for the green "USDA Organic" label, whose ups and downs the New York Times  describes today.

There's been little regulation of the chemical cocktails within personal care products, such as the hormone disrupters inside Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo, which I pick on. Until lately, the FDA has largely ignored the "C" in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FDC) Act since the law passed in 1938. Fair labeling standards were set up in 1966, but have really only applied to drugs and food. As the Ecologist's Pat Thomas puts it:

Where to share a car?

Update: See the updated chart here (May 9, 2006).

Everyone's gabbing about car-sharing lately, for good reason. "There seems to be a perfect storm brewing," points out Nick at TriplePundit. Gut-wrenching gas prices will make the cost of driving a new car spike by 14 percent, says AAA.

The "FlexCar One," a Honda Civic hybrid, is parked near the White House, in case the president takes himself up on the suggestion that we drive less. A free hour of driving is his for the taking. But which service should you pay for? To help you pick, I compulsively cooked up the chart (below, click to enlarge) to compare car-sharing companies. Luckily FlexCar, ZipCar, and the Bay area's City CarShare all offer hybrids. Check out other car-sharing services around the world here.