Last weekend, I volunteered at a super awesome event here in Atlanta: Atlanta Streets Alive! For four hours on Sunday, we closed busy North Highland Avenue to cars and opened it up to pedestrians, bikes, dancing, music...people. It was a magical day, and I loved seeing a road that I associate with traffic jams and parallel parking taken over by people soaking up some sun and getting a little bit of exercise.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a ton of photos on Sunday, because my volunteer shift was at the info booth on the north end of the event. The upside to working the info booth is that in my downtime I got to peruse the flyers and pamphlets on the table, including the awesome map above showing what Atlanta's transit system, MARTA, could look like if we pass the upcoming Transportation Investment Act on the July 31st ballot.

MARTA is notorious for not going anywhere. We basically have two rail lines right now: North/South and East/West, and the system is badly underfunded. To give you an idea of how big these changes are, take a peek at the current MARTA map:

If you live here in Atlanta, July 2nd is the deadline to register to vote in the July 31st election that will decide the future of the Transportation Investment Act. If you want to see the map above become a reality, vote YES! The folks at Citizens for Progressive Transit (CFPT) shared the language that you'll see on your ballot, so you'll know exactly where to vote yes on the 31st:

Ballot Question: “Shall [YOUR COUNTY'S] transportation system and the transportation network in this region and the state be improved by providing for a 1 percent special district transportation sales and use tax for the purpose of transportation projects and programs for a period of ten years?”

The one percent sales tax will fund rail expansion and repairs to existing rail lines as well as "other transportation initiatives," like adding and maintaining bike lanes. What I heard from the CFPT folks over and over on Sunday was that if this Act doesn't pass on the 31st, Atlanta's transportation future is going to be pretty bleak.

This Saturday and Sunday, makers and DIYers from across the country will be showing their work, doing demos and leading how-to sessions at Maker Faire Bay Area.

As a DIYer and maker, I have participated in several Maker Faires and this weekend will mark my fourth with Vertical Theory. It's an event not to be missed if you're a  maker, a DIYer or even just wanting to learn something new. From high tech objects to gardening projects, artists, craftsmen, engineers and designers will spend the weekend sharing their ideas with thousands of attendees.

A very hands-on event, Maker Faire is perfect for families and people of all ages. For deets on attending this year's Maker Faire Bay Area in San Mateo, CA, you can check out their website.

Can't wait for Saturday? Here are a few of the sustainable-minded exhibits that we can't wait to see in the Maker Faire Homegrown Village:

1. Urban Biofilter

Mobile Greenbelts are fabricated out of upcycled and palletized totes. For these modular systems, plants are selected that grow quickly and provide dense foliage for air filtration and wastewater reuse and treatment.

2. Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

Tumbleweed provides the means to to reduce your carbon footprint, eliminate reliance on mortgages and have the freedom of living with less "stuff" by building your own little house.

3. Guerrilla Gardens

Become a modern Johnny Appleseed, spreading seed balls to restore natural beauty. These guerrilla gardens are full of wildflowers native to North America, enjoyed by humans and wildlife alike.

4. TE+ND Rover Project

The TE+ND Rover project consists of robots that care for on-board gardens of native California plants by working with community members through the exploration of migratory ecology.

5. Beekeepers Guild of San Mateo

The Beekeepers Guild of San Mateo is an organization dedicated to educating both new and experienced beekeepers. This exhibit will be staffed by experienced beekeepers to answer questions, offer support and provide products from their hives for sale.

6. The Happy Chicken

Interested in keeping chickens? Learn the basics from housing to feeding to basic healthcare from the folks at Dog Island Farm, a local Bay Area urban farm.

7. Vertical Theory

I'll also be showing my project, Vertical Theory, so stop on by! Vertical Theory provides an alternative food source for urban dwellers. This vertical farming system utilizes hydroponic technologies and felt. The design requires minimal space, resources and maintenance to grow fresh food indoors.

Have you ever ridden your bike to an event only to find that there's nowhere to lock it up? Bike valets to the rescue!

I spotted this bike valet service at Atlanta's Sweetwater 420 Fest. My husband and I walked to the show, but it looks like lots of folks took advantage of the convenient, secure bike parking.

The bike valet is a service of the Atlanta Bike Coalition, and the money they earn goes to keep the bike advocacy organization going. They can park up to 100 bikes in a station, and attendants are keeping an eye on the bikes at all times. Bike theft is pretty rampant here in Atlanta, so that set of eyeballs on your wheels is super reassuring.

I love the idea of catering to cyclists instead of motorists. Does your city have a bike valet service anywhere? Tell us about it in the comments!

You know we love upcycling around here, so when the folks at MINIWIZ offered to send me their case for the iPhone 4 that's made from trash, I knew I had to take them up on it.

The case is made out of an architectural grade plastic called POLLI-BER, that the company developed. Polli-ber is a trash composite made with processed organic rice husk and post-consumer thermoplastics from used car bumpers, CD containers, bottle caps, etc. Pretty cool, right? Keeping plastic out of the landfill and replacing something that people buy with a more sustainable alternative!

The case fit my phone nicely, though I wish that it also protected the phone's face. I drop my phone a lot, and my last iPhone bit the dust when the screen shattered.

One really cool feature about the RE-Case is that it seems to be geared towards folks who use mass transit. There's room in the case to insert your refillable transit card, though I guess if you have one of those tap and spend credit cards, you could use that, too. They provide an EM shield that you stick between the card and your phone, so the phone won't demagnetize your card.

The case is cute, and I like that it's multi purpose. One thing that sort of bothered me was the packaging. Here's what the press release says about the packaging: "RE-case is packaged in recycled cardboard." What they don't mention is that the recycled cardboard is then wrapped in plastic film. Since they don't mention anything about it, I'm assuming this isn't made from trash or recycled. Plastic of this quality also isn't recyclable, so each case comes with a bit of trash that's headed for the landfill. Here's everything that came with my RE-Case

Don't get me wrong: I love that they're diverting waste from the landfill to make a product that people are buying already. If you're in the market for an iPhone 4 case and the screen thing isn't a concern for you--lots of iPhone cases don't have screen protection--this is a great way to buy a case with a lot less waste. It certainly has fewer disposable bits than most of the cases out there.

The rep from MINIWIZ who sent me the case to review commented via email on the plastic wrap issue. Here's what she had to say:

Our distributors demanded that we sealed the entire packaging with plastic (anti-theft, anti-dust, whatever) and you have no idea how peeved we were. But alas, it was a hard battle to convince retailers to carry them in the first place, when all they wanted were rhinestones and crazy colors.

Interesting, right? I think that's a side of production that you don't normally see. Companies need a good relationship with distributors, because that's how you get your product into stores.

What's really revolutionary to me is the POLLI-BER material. As you know, I hate petroleum-based plastic products, and this material seems like an economical, sturdy replacement for some virgin plastics. It's architectural grade, which means it's pretty sturdy, too. I could see benches, picnic tables, picture frames, and all sorts of other housewares made with this stuff. Since the composite does contain a mish mash of plastics, it's probably not a good idea to use this stuff to make dishware or food storage, but for other types of housewares it seems like a great option.

Energy prices spiked in 2011, and we're not expected to see much of a drop (if any) this year, so even if the environmental impacts of fossil fuels aren't high on your priority list, making your home more energy efficient this year will be as good for your wallet as it is for the planet.

Luckily, if you're ready to get serious about saving energy at home, there are innovations out there to help you do just that. From the roof to your windows, you can upgrade your home to save energy and money. A new GE data visualization lets you see their technological and environmental innovations through the years--including some of the most important innovations for home energy savings ever developed.

Companies like GE have been making more efficient appliances and creating ways to monitor your energy use, so that you can see where to cut back for the most savings. The tool shows how GE has consistently innovated to develop more energy-efficient products over time and lets you actually see what lifestyle changes you can make to live a greener lifestyle. Their CO2 visualization is a great example. It shows how much CO2 you generate with different aspects of your life. A good way to prioritize!

GE's data visualization allows you to visually access all of the company's annual reports since 1892. The reports show how, over time, GE has consistently innovated to develop more energy-efficient products, while also furthering the dialogue about energy efficiency. It's fun to click around and see what innovations they've focused on and where. For example, if you click on “lighting,” you can see where the company focused on lighting innovations through the years and even check out where they began focusing on energy-efficient light bulbs. A GE engineer developed the first CFL back in the 1970's, when the U.S. gas crisis was driving energy prices sky high. Sound familiar?

Ready to get saving? Here are 8 innovations that can help you save energy at home to reduce both your power bill and your environmental impact.

1. Efficient Light Bulbs

Say goodbye to wasteful incandescent bulbs. New, more efficient LED and compact fluorescent light bulbs may cost more up front, but you'll make that money back and then some with the energy you save. Not only do efficient bulbs use less energy, but they burn cooler, which means they won't be battling your air conditioner this summer. Check out this visualization on LEDs to see how much energy you'd save by making the switch (you can click the image to view it larger):

2. Cool Roofs

Light-colored or reflective roofs can reduce your cooling bills by as much as 20 percent. Unlike a traditional black roof, white or reflective roof tiles reflect the sun's heat, which means your house stays cooler in the summer.

3. Replace Your Water Heater

Your water heater can be one of the most energy-intensive things in your home, so upgrading to a more efficient heater can save you a bundle! Instead of a traditional gas or electric heater, check out a solar or hybrid hot water heater instead. A solar heater uses the sun's energy to heat your water, rather than fossil fuels, and a hybrid water heater, like this one from GE, uses a heat pump with an electric backup to heat your water without using as much power, rather than relying solely on dirty fossil fuel power from the grid.

4. Double Pane Windows

Replacing your old windows with energy-efficient ones can save you hundreds of dollars per year, depending on where you live. Have you ever stood by the window in winter and felt a draft? The double paned glass helps keep your home at a comfortable temperature by not letting out your heated or conditioned air.

5. Smart Strips

Say goodbye to energy vampires! Replace those old power strips with new smart strips. Smart strips work by setting one "control" device. When that device is off, the strip completely cuts power to all of the other devices. For example, if you set your receiver as the "control," then your TV, video game system, and DVD player will all turn off when you turn off the receiver.

6. Home Energy Management Systems

An energy management system, like the Nucleus, lets you see your energy use in real-time. You can find out where you're wasting energy at what time of day and change your habits to compensate. Maybe you didn't realize how much energy you wasted by not unplugging your microwave when it wasn't in use. Knowledge is power!

7. Energy Efficient Appliances

Large appliances, like the refrigerator and dishwasher, can be huge energy sucks. Next time you need to replace one of your appliances, choose one with an Energy Star rating instead. For example, a modern, energy-efficient refrigerator can be up to 60 percent more efficient than a fridge from 20 years ago.

8. Smart Glass Windows

If double paned glass isn't fancy enough for you, try looking into smart glass windows instead. Smart glass adjusts to either let in light and heat in winter or block out the sun's rays in summer.

This post was produced in collaboration with GE as part of the launch of their new DataViz App.

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by trekkyandy

You know we love little ways to add green to small spaces, but what about bigger areas that could use more green space?

Pretty much any major city could use a little oomph in the green space department, don't you think? Cities tend to be more about buildings and roads than parks and gardens. That's why NYU student Marco Antonio Castro Cosio focused his master thesis bus rooftops. He describes the project, Bus Roots, on his website:

Reconnecting urban communities with nature in a practical and playful way. Bus roots is a public and playful project that uses plants as a creative medium.

It connects the citizens with their community while trying to use the least amount of resources and improving the quality of the environment around it.

Between city buses, school buses, and even private coaches, rooftop bus gardens could actually add a good square footage of green space to cities. What impact would it have on air quality if these buses were transformed into miniature rolling parks? Even better: what if you planted food in these rooftop bus gardens?

Adding rooftop bus gardens to New York's MTA buses alone would add over 1.5 square feet of green space to the city. Not to shabby!

Source: Wake Up World

Image Credit: Photo via macascos

Remember those super nice gals at Greyslater who gave away a shampoo and conditioner bar set? Well, they are at it again with another awesome no-waste idea: the mason jar to go cup for your coffee or tea!

By now I'm sure you've seen the Cuppow. It's a special lid for a Mason jar that instantly turns it into a sippy cup. The trouble with toting your hot coffee in a glass jar is that the steamy liquid is going to turn the glass awfully hot. The super savvy ladies at Greyslater have a genius solution: add a cozy to keep your hands cool and help your coffee stay warmer for longer. You can find all the supplies you need to make a Mason jar coffee cup over at Greyslater! Already have a stash of Mason jars? You can just pick up the Cuppow and the cozy, but they carry glass Mason jars, if you need one.

Have you guys seen any cool to go cups lately? As you have probably figured out, I'm a little bit obsessed with to go mugs.