Everybody needs a bedtime routine, and I’ve got a new one – chasing phantoms. In this case, the phantoms are the sources of “phantom electricity” being used by appliances around our house when they’re not in use. Think about all those tiny green and red standby lights ...

The Northwest’s largest sustainability-oriented trade show returns to Portland March 26 to 28 – the third-annual Better Living Show at Portland Expo Center. The free three-day show features exhibits on sustainable homes, gardens and lifestyle, including renewable energy systems and ...

Shaunna Sutcliffe’s environmental awareness dates back to her earliest years on the planet. When she was a little girl, Sutcliffe’s father proposed she pay one penny each time she opened the kitchen refrigerator and increased electricity usage. “I said, ‘Oh, a penny? ...

Maybe someday, people won’t use fertilizer to grow grass, pesticides to kill bugs and two-stroke engines to blow leaves and trim hedges.  It might seem unfathomable to the average Joe, but that’s the goal of the Organic Land Care program, a new initiative by Oregon Tilth to extend ...

When Judy Tallon passed away unexpectedly in January at age 63, her family gathered to make arrangements for her memorial service. With no written will or funeral plans in place, Tallon’s daughter Jennifer Goodrich had to make a lasting decision for her mother – a final resting ...

Selecting a new cell phone or cell service can be dizzying, with all the prices and coverage areas to compare, features to weigh and specs to decipher. Dare we suggest another factor to consider: the environment?  If being green is important to you, here are some resources to help make the ...

Life in the Chadneys’ North Portland home is organized chaos — just the way they like it. Three kids, three dogs, two guinea pigs and two lizards. Plus one more daughter on the way. It won’t be a baby, though. The family is adopting an 11-year-old girl from China, making it ...

Green buildings are so 2000s. The next big thing for the 2010s? Green neighborhoods. After five years in the hopper, the group that ushered in popular “LEED” standards to certify and foster environmentally friendly buildings is expanding, along with two partner organizations, to ...

Tired of that guilty feeling from bringing home grocery items or takeout food in hard plastic or Styrofoam containers — which can languish for centuries when tossed? A small local company aims to assuage your guilt and improve the environment, with a line of compostable food service products ...

It’s been a 24-year wait, but birders and hikers finally can trek through Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge, opened to the public last June, is located a few miles east of Washougal, Wash., and it’s well worth the drive. “Because of its location at the mouth ...

John Charles shocked local greenies when he left the helm of the Oregon Environmental Council several years ago to work for the Cascade Policy Institute. The institute, which promotes free-market, pro-business policies, has emerged as Portland’s leading “climate change denier” ...

With so much talk about driving less, electric cars and alternative fuels, you’d think transportation was the No. 1 producer of the world’s harmful greenhouse gases. Guess again. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, livestock are responsible for ...

When Barack Obama came into office, Oregon environmentalists hoped their long battle against proposed liquefied natural gas terminals would get a boost. They had high expectations that Obama’s new political appointees would change the process at the federal level and slow down or stop the ...

Without really being asked, Amiel Patton-Hall and her team of robot engineers are remaking their world, and little plastic blocks are the foundation. Last month, Patton-Hall and four other Portland-area eighth-graders took second place at the annual Intel Oregon FIRST Lego League championship in ...

Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply store has cropped up on S.E. Tacoma Street, right on the edge of Clackamas County, and plenty of local people have taken notice. Customer support has come from “a lot of smaller farmers on an urban and rural scale from surrounding areas, and from landscapers ...

An energy efficiency plan inspired by a Portland lawmaker and the city of Portland’s new Clean Energy Works program could go national in a second-round economic stimulus bill being fashioned in the Senate. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, Oregon’s Democratic junior senator, in a Monday ...

The Daimler Trucks plant in Portland will receive almost $40 million in federal funds to develop and demonstrate fuel saving technologies. The award was part of a $187 million package of nine fuel-efficiency projects for heavy-duty trucks and passenger vehicles announced Monday by U.S. Energy ...

With a constant stream of dire news about global warming, it can be paralyzing to think we may be headed for major tragedy. To survive, we can’t just sit at our computers and simply blog global warming out of existence. We are going to have to get dirt under our fingernails. This winter, ...

Students wow Gresham leaders The University of Oregon’s inaugural Sustainable Cities Initiative is off to a good start in Gresham. Participating U of O students, in a yearlong collaboration to help the sprawling suburb shift to a more sustainable urban form, won raves for submitting ...

In our rush to develop renewable energy sources, are we overlooking an old-fashioned standby — firewood? In recent years a great deal of attention has been paid to solar panels and wind turbines. But firewood is also a sustainable source of energy, says Mark Havel, a local engineer who owns ...