Wanna a super quick, super cheap, super easy way to save water, energy and cold hard cash? Of course you do, especially what with the drought and economy and all. Well, just slap an aerator on the end of that old kitchen faucet and voila!

See, an aerator mixes air with the water flow cutting the sheer volume of water used nearly in half without affecting your pressure. And you save oodles of energy used to heat the hot water, cuz you're using less water.

When shopping for an aerator, look for one that has a flow rate of 2.2 gallons per minute (or less), which can save up to three gallons a day. It's easier than skipping showers, Tommy Lee. All you do is screw an aerator on to your existing faucet. Plus, it makes this really cool whooooshing sound when you run the H2O.

Where to get an aerator: EarthEasy has 'em, so does Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot and any other good houseware store. Or get totally crazy and Google "aerator"...see what pops up!

We have gone over the more environmentally friendly cleaning products in a past post. But one thing we didn't really touch on is keeping white clothes white without all that harmful chlorine bleach. For almost a year I have been trying to figure out a way to keep my husbands socks clean and white with out the bottle of bleach, now I share with you what I have learned.

It is best to avoid most bleach, sodium hypochlorite, moderately toxic chlorine that can potentially bond with other chemicals to form cancer-causing toxins in the wastewater system.

Oxygen bleaches are available and found primarily in health food stores, and are based on hydrogen peroxide not chlorine. I like Seventh Generation's Non-Chlorine Bleach-Free & Clear with oxygen bleach stabilizers, but sometimes it can be hard to find.

Want to try something more natural? Add a ½ a cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle of a medium load of whites it will lightly bleach your clothes. If you have a lemon tree in your yard, this is a great way to use some of those extra lemons that don't make it into the lemonade.  

Another kind of "old school" product that I just stared using over the weekend, and it really worked is borax. It's actually a natural mineral compound. I know it's probably what your grandmother used but she used it for a reason. My whites looked really bright and it has a fresh scent to it. It turns out that it's one of those natural products like baking soda, which can be used for tons of other stuff around the house. And it's cheap. I'm told it works best if you don't have hard water.

Leave it to the Brits to come up with an innovative and entertaining all-purpose guide to recycling just about everything.  "How Can I Recycle This?" is an interactive, community-based site that lets readers submit mind blowing suggestions as to how to recycle, oh I don't know...everything!? 

For example, let's say you have an old 10-gallon fish tank not living up to it's original purpose.  You would post an entry on the "How Can I Recycle This?" site and wait as your fellow eco-buds weigh in with creative ideas as to what ELSE you can do with a 10-gallon fish tank.  (I base this example on a recent real life entry, so it would only be fair to let you in on the suggestions for said tank: a terrarium, grow herb for the kitchen, a candlescape, put vellum on the outside and a string of Christmas lights inside for a sophisticated accent light, upside down to protect or accent a collection of something, a wastebasket or a paper recycle bin, on end for a mini bookcase for oversize books...)
 
It's freakin inspiring! Ever wonder "What the heck am I going to do with this?"  Never fear, they have the answer...Poke around on the site and be wowed at how gosh darned resourceful we can be...kiddie pools, worn jeans, aluminum can pull tabs, deflated balloons, old windows, discarded basketballs, even stale cake (good for biscotti) and yes, half-used hair gel can be bewitched into something new and useful.  Try the handy search engine on the site for specific items and inquiries. You don't even have to be MacGyver to make something cool.

So before assuming that thingamabob is only good for trash, make a pit stop at "How Can I Recycle This?" first. What do you have lying around? That's an old washing machine drum! ----->

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is offering a $5 credit for customers that enroll for electronic bill payment.
 
Electronic bill payment provides customers a way to pay bills on-line, check water and energy usage, and access environmental information.  Paying bills is also good for the environment because it reduces paper and printing and gas to get the bill and payment to you and then back to the DWP.

The $5 credit will be provided only once on each residential or commercial account when you register. It would be nice if it was more than a one-time deal, but we take what we can get.  To register on the website, you will need your Customer Access Number from your bill, the last four digits of your Social Security Number or Tax ID, and an e-mail address. Click HERE for additional info.

Save a few bucks and do something good for the environment.

I love the animation in this Brazilian eco-public service announcement, it reminds me of the deliciously off-kilter style favored by the boys in Monty Python. A lovely reminder that every choice we make has lasting and long reaching consequences. Plus, there's a snuggly seal.

I admit I don't love summer. I know it's the time of lemonade, watermelon and Slip-n-Slide, but I have an aversion to heat and this weather makes me homicidal. The only thing that gets me through this triple digit drama is a gigantic tub of Dr. Bronner's Liquid Peppermint Castile Soap. It's frosty, winter goodness in a bottle.

Used in the shower or bath, Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap is like a refreshing breath mint for your skin. It's fresh and chilly and leaves an ice-cold tingle long after the soap is gone. Plus the bottle is clad in a label that provides non-stop entertainment and a shower-full of interesting reading including tidbits like: "The intensity of a man's emotions is a greater driving force and more decisive than the sum total of his education, his money, plus the size of his brain. Proof: Einstein!"

Here's what else I love about this magical peppermint concoction:

• It's a certified Fair Trade product and good for at least 18 other soap-related uses including laundry, household cleaning and shampoo (best on short hair). Even my pup loves a minty bath!
• It's made with natural, certified organic oils like coconut, olive and peppermint oil for irresistible softness. Did I mention it's vegan and biodegradable?
• The bottle is made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.
• It comes in a never-empty one-quart bottle.
• There's not one harsh detergent ingredient and it's never animal tested.
• Dr. Bronner's Magical Soaps have been around for 60 years. I've been utterly devoted for almost 20 years!
• It also comes in lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, almond, rose, orange and baby soap varities.
• Dr. Bronner's has a long-standing tradition of community activism, including a wide array of social and environmental causes.
• It prevents me from committing hari kari when the temps rise to a buck sixteen.
  

I get my Dr. Bronner Soap supply from the local Trader Joe's, but you can find it in any good grocery or health store. For a good time, you've just got to see the Dr. Bronner website, packed with wacky insight, the Dr. Bronner movie and off-the-wall philosophies. Soap is a religion for this company. For me, it's a summer lifesaver.

Morgan Freeman, is teaming up with Sierra Club for some public service announcements on climate change and storm preparedness.

Freeman is the founder of Plan!tNow, a non-profit storm preparedness organization that provides people and communities in high risk regions the information they need to help protect their families, lives, homes and businesses.

The hot news today is the new, sexy redesigned milk jug now being used by Costco and Wal-Mart stores. The one gallon plastic container boasts an environmentally friendly design that uses less plastic, is cheaper to ship, costs less to manufacture and gets fresher milk to you faster.

It's an irresistible combination of reducing carbon emissions, cutting labor costs, slashing fuel usage and serving up a frosty beverage with all that Vitamin D. Plus it looks all fun and funky. Sounds rad, right?

It is rad...except that apparently milk jug designers neglected to include one minor feature in their eco-friendly design: a pour spout that pours. Users are bitterly complaining that the clumsy container dumps milk unceremoniously, upending unsuspecting bowls of cereal, tumbling tumblers and dousing the kids.

The retailers are undeterred, though even offering demonstrations on how to pour milk without flooding the kitchen. And when paired with a nice chocolate chip cookie, consumers will eventually be lulled into using and loving the green jug. Because at the end of the day, the fact that we have to adapt a little to a new way to fill a glass is a small price to pay for a happier planet.

For some eco-peeps cards (the greeting variety) can be a bit of an issue. I personally did not send out Christmas cards last year because the cards are mostly printed on virgin paper and I'm not willing to lose a tree so I can send out holiday greetings. I sent e-cards instead, I'm not a total scrooge! Yes I know I could buy cards made from post consumer recycled paper, which is what I do for birthdays and anniversaries etc. But there is all that gas to deliver my cards. I know I'm a bit of a nut.

Anyway I digress...I found a really cool website called peez & ques they are based in Los Angeles and hand make cards for all occasions and the eco-fab thing about the cards is they are made from old magazines, mailers, catalogs and even pieces of old greeting cards.

You can pick from their line of already made cards or if you want something unique they will custom design cards just for you. They can even create your wedding invites for you.

If your getting married, having a baby, moving into a new home or you just love really cute eco-friendly note cards. Click Here.

I'm trekking to Michigan this July to attend a family wedding and because I simply don't have the time or the fortitude to walk there, I'm getting to Grand Rapids via one big, gas sucking, CO2 spewing, toxic offender of an airplane. For all the talking we do about reducing our carbon footprints, what's a girl to do?

I bought a TERRAPASS!

A Terrapass is a handy little program that allows you to balance the environmental damage we do when we use energy we can't mitigate. Because even though we're doing everything we can to conserve energy and reduce our carbon footprint by driving less, using less air conditioning, buying local products and recycling like maniacs there's some energy use we can't avoid...like airline travel.

"Planes use a lot of fuel. A cross-country flight burns more than 100 gallons of fuel per passenger. Airline travel already creates a significant proportion of the world's global warming pollution, and it's growing faster than any other single source."

Here's how Terrapass works: For this particular cross-country flight I'm taking this summer, I bought a Terrapass for $16.99. Terrapass takes that money and invests in clean energy, like wind energy farms, to balance the environmental drama I'm creating by getting on a plane. The Terrapass funded projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It's so easy that when I bought my flight on Expedia.com they offered a Terrapass at checkout! You can also buy directly from the Terrapass site.

And Terrapass isn't just for airline travel...you can buy a carbon offset pass for everything from home energy to every day driving to weddings!  Use the site's handy carbon calculator to find your personal carbon footprint.

So for those times it feels like there's nothing you can do about the energy you're using, now you can be all proactive and helpful...even when winging to Grand Rapids, MI or some other sexy summer getaway destination.

To find out more about Terrapass, go HERE.