A view of Jordan Pond in the Acadia National Park of Maine, USA

By Maria Rainier

In the spirit of giving this holiday season, don’t just consider minimizing your carbon footprint during an eco-tour.  Consider what more you can do to give back.  Many tours and travel experiences that encourage you to volunteer—voluntourism, as it were—are much more affordable than their lounging-on-the-beach varieties.  With a carefully planned eco-tour of your own or hopping on the bandwagon with like-minded do-gooders, you can face the new year with your wallet intact, a cleaner conscience, and a cleaner planet.

Cactus at Big Bend National Park in Texas

Stay Local to Mind Your Carbon Footprint

Not only do air fares skyrocket during the holiday season, we leave a hefty carbon footprint every time we step on a plane.  Instead, consider riding a train or even cycling to your eco-destination, depending on your location.  If you call North America home, consider the Big Bend National Park in Texas.  It’s got 800 acres of America’s biggest national park and it’s open year-round, although it may close on Christmas Day.  Rather than driving around and pitter-pattering carbon footprints across the park, get out and enjoy the outdoors and camp in one of the three campgrounds, $14.00 a night after a $10 seven-day pass per individual.

If you’re on the east coast, consider the Highland Lake Inn in Flat Rock, North Carolina, where you can bring the whole family (even the dog) and go hiking and fishing, and relax after a day spent outdoors at its gourmet restaurant with its own two acre organic garden.  During the summer and fall, guests can learn how to grow, harvest, and cook assorted veggies, herbs, and flowers you might find in such a garden.  A room costs $89.00 a night.  If you’re planning a holiday vacation here, consider the Christmas Day Buffet Celebration Weekend Package or the Christmas Eve 4-Course Dinner Weekend Package.

Meanwhile, up north awaits the Acadia National Park, from where you can see the Atlantic coastline and the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.  You can camp for between $14 and $20 a night depending on the site.

Raspberry bushes at a small WWOOF participant farm in Wattamolla Valley, near Berry, NSW, Australia

Give Back to Save Greens

If you’re feeling more industrious and a little bit like pinching pennies this holiday season or in the coming year, consider bartering your way through an eco-tour.  Sierra Club’s Outings program has countless trips ranging from $400 in the U.S. to over $5,000 trips to safaris in Botswana and boat tours in Antarctica.  Be prepared to volunteer your time and your muscle, however, as is the nature of true voluntourism.  Similar programs include Ecovolunteer, which allows you to participate in efforts to protect nature and its inhabitants through local conservation organizations.  Coral Cay Conservation is in the same vein and is also worth a look.

Perhaps the most rewarding and budget-friendly experience is World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), which welcomes travelers across America to participate in their daily goings-on.  The cost ranges between a $20 and $50 registration fee and transportation fees to the farm—that’s it.

WWOOF has counterparts in other countries; you can go to Tuscan wine country and pick grapes for weeks and not only enjoy some of the most beautiful countryside you’ll ever see in your life, but make good friends, eat good foods, and even pick up a little Italian, too.  In this way, you can make this season and 2012 a year of win-wins—for the planet and your wallet.

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education performing research surrounding online universities and their various program offerings. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

By Philipp Mimkes Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren

By Hunter Richards

Greenwash (verb, \ˈgrēn-wȯsh\): to market a product or service by promoting a deceptive or misleading perception of environmental responsibility.

Companies have been launching major ad campaigns to show off green products and services, but many of their claims are questionable. Greenwashing is threatening the credibility of legitimate environmental marketing and turning would-be green consumers away from the hype.

So how can we know who’s telling the truth about supposedly green products and who’s just greenwashing?

We can increase transparency and put an end to greenwashing through carbon accounting. A new kind of software is a key component of the solution.

Scrutiny of green business campaigns is reminiscent of the demand to hold corporations accountable for their financial reporting. The U.S. is still a leader in financial accounting, but we need to develop the same infrastructure for environmental accounting to restore credibility.

Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) software is becoming the foundation of this infrastructure, and the market is growing. ECA software enables companies to track and measure all the components of their carbon footprint and find opportunities to lower costs and reduce waste. It’s expanding the potential for corporate environmental transparency.

When the transition fully takes hold, greenwashers could disappear entirely.

For ECA software and environmental accounting adoption to get rid of greenwashers, we need action in five main categories:

• Clear government action on regulations
• Adoption of carbon accounting principles
• Expansion of Scope 3 emissions accounting
• Better green business incentives
• Demanding, informed consumers

Clear Government Action on Regulations

lncreased coverage of existing new policies and decisive action on new legislation could quickly boost the adoption of carbon accounting and ECA software. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which requires businesses that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of greenhouse gases annually to disclose their emissions to the Agency, could be strengthened to include smaller businesses. Firm action on new legislation could also help encourage ECA software adoption and end greenwashing.

Adoption of Carbon Accounting Principles

Stricter requirements for disclosure of standardized corporate emissions information, now more feasible with the adoption of ECA software, would provide a precise way to examine a company’s environmental record. When such a measure exists and becomes widely used, one will only need to refer to these numbers to get an impression of a company’s overall environmental performance. It will be a lot more difficult to conceal corporate environmental impact during marketing campaigns.

Expansion of Scope 3 Emissions Accounting

Mandatory inclusion of suppliers’ emissions and other indirect emissions sources in company environmental reports (Scope 3) would prevent under-reporting of emissions; all emissions would be measured and reported without room for loopholes. Requiring Scope 3 measurement would also spread more adoption of general carbon accounting throughout the supply chain. When a business must account for Scope 3, it must ask its suppliers to track their carbon footprints; a chain reaction could quickly increase the number of companies with comprehensive carbon emissions reports.

Better Green Business Incentives

Using ECA software to identify eco-friendly savings opportunities can make it cheaper to truly go green, making it unnecessary for businesses to greenwash in the first place. Businesses often find that shrinking their carbon footprints and minimizing costs can go hand-in-hand. Government incentives can also encourage eco-friendly business practices. ECA software could alert users to new opportunities to take advantage of government incentives as more of these opportunities emerge, ensuring that green sincerity is in the best interests of businesses.

Demanding, Informed Consumers

Demanding the hard numbers from standardized carbon accounting reports, while boycotting the proven greenwashers, forces businesses with green marketing campaigns to prove their sincerity or risk failure. After all, fully informed consumers won’t be fooled. When standardized carbon accounting is required and ECA software is available, companies won’t have any more excuses to conceal their carbon footprint. The final blow to greenwashing will be dealt by informed, rational consumers.

Hunter Richards is the accounting market analyst for Software Advice, which reviews hospitality and travel accounting software along with other systems. To learn more about ECA software and greenwashing prevention, check out Software to Hold “Greenwashers” Accountable.

By Jack Lundee

Discovering new ways to lessen our carbon footprint comes in many shapes and forms, from algae-based fuel substitutes to solar energy. Many 21^st-century findings are aimed at long-term feasibility for increased efficiency so as to compete with oil companies.

Meanwhile, who’s looking into short-term attempts to moderate the rate in which we use energy?

According to Energy Bulletin, US Military energy consumption is the single greatest consumer of energy in the world, outputting thousands of trillions of Btu’s (British Thermal Unit) every year. In 2006 alone, the US Military used nearly 900 TRILLION BTUs of Jet fuel, which can be quite costly.

But, looking at the consumption of military jet fuel over time, we can clearly see a steady decline of consumption:

Similarly, municipal fleets, including buses and other forms of city transportation, use a heavy amount of energy every year. Although, much like the military, we’ve seen a steady decline in the rate at which city transportation consumes fuel. Factors include:

• Manufacturing (technology)
• Fewer people traveling
• People living closer to work
• Hybrid transportation

Ultimately, we can say that these slowly declining numbers are part of a systematic attempt to increase fuel efficiency through technology. One particular method of doing so involves fleet route optimization.

The CGI (Clinton Global Initiative) and Doug band are one fine example of a large collaborative unit of corporations, political figures, and non-profits that are helping in the process of route optimization. Route optimization can be defined as an attempt to locate the fastest route from point A to B, similar to the algorithms found in most GPS’s.

In a partnership with San Francisco, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) — a company that specializes in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) — and NAVTEQ — which creates digital maps and map content — the CGI and Doug Band provide a commitment to incorporate plans to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from fleets in the San Francisco Bay Area through Fleet Route Optimization Software. This will target anything from public transportation to work force vehicles. NAVTEQ actually makes digital maps and content that drives navigation- and location-based services solutions worldwide, including:

• Auto navigation systems
• Mobile navigation devices
• Internet-based mapping applications
• Government and business solutions

Utilizing GIS mapping software, ESRI also helps the user interpret data, further aiding in transportation-based decision-making, reliant on the best information and analysis. Much of this is similar to what the average consumer finds on his/her portable GPS. Furthermore, it’s important to note that this technology has been around and is widely used.

Most of the time, this feature will be labeled as “alternate routes” and will allow the user to view multiple paths, along with other elements like fuel cost, distance, time, and gas station stops. Similarly, developers incorporate mechanisms that permit users to view weather/traffic in their area.

This is GREATLY beneficial to travelers, as nobody likes to get in bad weather, or a traffic jam for that matter! Typically, users will have to pay a little extra for these features, and may even have to attend to a monthly fee for traffic/weather updates.

Both forces hope to provide powerful solutions for technology companies that enforce municipal transportation efforts. Once a seamless integration of communication and navigation has been implemented, transportation will become much more efficient. Again, this is something that has already taken effect and will continue to improve energy efficiency in regards to transportation fuel costs. As technology progresses and becomes more affordable, individual consumers will begin seeing the GPS as no longer just an option, but rather as an integral part of any vehicle.

Jack Lundee is an avid follower of all things green and progressive. His endeavors have lead him to http://shadesofgreen.info where he’ll talk about the various topics he’s been submitting to the green blogosphere for months now.