Way back in the mid 1980′s, the city of Lima was about to do something progressive with green transportation. They were going to build an electric train. Unfortunately, the project never really took of. For all of these years, the ruins of the project have just been sitting there. They’ve basically just been an eyesore for the area, a reminder of how this great project failed.

The project may not have worked out but the eyesore is no longer there. That’s because it’s been replaced with a free park for children. And it’s not just any park. It’s a park that used recycled materials to create the rides and playground structures for its young visitors. In fact, it is made from the old ruins of the electric train that was here for so long.

The park is called the Ghost Train Park. It includes swings, climbing structures and even canopy lines. It is one of the many great green projects launched by the group Basurama, an organization that discusses the waste and re-use of trash in many different formats. What’s really cool about this organization is that they don’t limit themselves to just one approach to diminishing waste but instead look at many different options through annual festivals and competitions.

Tags: basurama, green, green park, lima, recycled park

One of the blogs I like is Retro to Go, a blog that covers all things retro that are being released right now. They’ve got an interesting little post up today about a retro-style car that’s being recreated for the modern era. It’s the old-fashioned Bubble Car and it’s been made in a new eco-friendly design for modern drivers to adore.

The cute little car, marketed under the clunky name Vehiconmics Smite, has a great strange design. The design is based on the classic Mid-twentieth century vehicle called Messerschmitt KR200. It’s kind of like a cross between a modern VW bug and an old school 1950′s Chevy with some futuristic touches added here and there.

In terms of being a green car, there are a few different things going on. For one thing, it’s a small light car so it doesn’t use up a lot of resources in terms of construction. As far as the gas issue, there are a couple different versions of the vehicle being made – one that uses very minimal amounts of gas and one that uses electric energy.

In a bit of fun marketing, the Smite website describes the car as:

Smite is…
eco-friendly, efficient, light, strong, bright, smooth, economical, non-offensive, easy, free, user friendly, street smart, rational and very caring

Right now this car is just a concept car being talked about in Sweden. Will it ever come to the market either in Europe or over in the US?

Tags: bubble car, green, green cars, retro

I’ve been doing some blogging for Maverick Hammers, a really cool company that creates hydraulic hammers for the demolition industry. I’m happy to say that two of my posts for them were included in blog carnivals recently.

First, I wrote a post for them about being green in this industry. It’s not an industry that’s focused on green issues at all so it’s been interesting for me to learn about how they stay green and continue to get greener even though it’s not an industry focus. This post was included in the All Things Eco blog carnival. That carnival is filled with tons of great green links to check it out if being green interests you.

Another interesting thing about this company is how it considers itself to be part of a chain of businesses. Maverick Hammers believes in a job well done because the company knows that failure at that results in problems for many other businesses as well. The post I did about this topic was included in the Muse on Everything carnival.

Tags: Blog, blog carnival, busines, green, links, maverick hammers

One of the topics that interests me as a SmartChick is the topic of being green. I’ve researched and written about numerous green topics including green interior design, green technology issues and green money-saving habits. However, the topics that interest me most in the world of being green are those topics that don’t get touched on much by the mainstream writing world.

For example, I’ve written a lot about green creativity, including green writing. And recently, I started to take an interest in what it means to be green in industries that aren’t focused on being green. What I’ve learned is that it’s fairly easy to be green in industries that have already gotten on the green bandwagon. Farmers have a lot of options for going green as do real estate professionals and home builders. However, it’s not nearly as easy to go about being green in industries that haven’t adopted an emphasis on this topic yet.

For example, I recently did some research into the business of construction and demolition. There is definitely attention to being green in the area of construction. However, the emphasis on being green is a lot less visible when it comes to demolition. The green efforts of this industry seemed to be limited to proper recycling of waste from demolition jobs.

So what do you do if you’re a green business that wants to contribute to the world around you in a healthy way but the industry that you’re in doesn’t make that easy? The answer to this can be explored at least in part by taking a look at Maverick Hammers. This is a company that manufactures hydraulic hammers. That’s not an industry that’s particularly green but the business tries to do its part anyway.

The key ways that the business does this are by using durable materials to decrease continued waste, reducing the amount of shipping they do to limit transportation waste and staying informed about green issues and options. These are things that any business could work on doing even if the industry that the business is a part of isn’t quite at the top of the green supporters list.

Have you discovered industries that are tougher to be green in? What are the best ways to make it easier for those businesses within these industries to be green?

Tags: demolition, green, green business, green construction, hydraulic hammers, kathryn vercillo, maverick hammers

T-mobile is working the green angle with a set of products and services called Mobilize Initiative. This is a way for the company to put all of its green efforts under one umbrella. This might make it easier for mobile customers to go green.

3 of the features of the Mobilize Initiative program so far are:

• Green phones. T-mobile is trying to make its mark with offering eco-friendly handsets. This is probably going to be increasingly popular as time goes on.
• Green perks. There’s a new program called Green Perks which allows T-mobile customers to shop from their phones using coupons for green products.
• Green accounts. You can choose to go green with paperless billing and other eco-friendly features by selecting a green account from the company.

Green is popular right now so this could be something that helps set T-mobile apart from other cell phone carriers. What do you think – would you switch to T-mobile if it meant you were being greener?

Tags: cell phones, green, green coupons, green perks, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, mobilize initiative, Technology, tmobile

I recently took a trip back to Tucson. I drove there from San Francisco. That’s a long drive (fourteen or so hours depending on the route that you take) but I had a sibling with me for at least part of the drive each way so it wasn’t so bad.

To be honest, I was kind of excited about driving. I gave up my car when I moved to San Francisco. Since I don’t drive daily anymore, driving has now become fun. The rental car was brand new, it was equipped with satellite radio and I got really lucky with low traffic both ways.

What I didn’t like was the driving that I had to actually do while I was back home. It feels like it takes forever to get anywhere in Tucson. The truth is that it takes me just as long to get places here but that’s because I’m walking here. I’m active and surrounded by interesting sights so it doesn’t feel as time-consuming as just sitting in traffic does.

I still drive. I’m not opposed to cars. However, I’m really glad that I don’t own one anymore!

Check out my top ten reasons to give up your car.

Tags: car, car-free, driving, give up your car, green, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, no car, society, stop driving

I think that I live a life that’s basically green in comparison with the average person. I don’t own a car. I walk more often than I use cabs or buses. I carry canvas bags with me to the grocery store in a city that doesn’t even have plastic bags available any more. I recycle most of my stuff. But I know that there’s more that I could do if I really truly wanted to live a completely green life.

Most of the time I don’t think about this issue. Like everyone else who has a busy life, I feel like I do what I can and I’m not going to stress out about what I can’t do. However, I sometimes have occasion to think about the serious environmental problems that we’re facing and I realize that there are some scary things going on with the environment. Reading too much about it freaks me out!

I was just reading about the top environmental concerns of the EPA. Thinking about the air pollution and the water pollution and the overpopulation and the deforestation of the planet and all of the issues that relate to our changing climate makes me feel like the problem is so overwhelming that the small part that I do couldn’t possibly be enough to change anything.

The thing about that is, however, that we don’t know whether or not our small changes will make a big difference to the long-term life of the planet. What we do know is that our failure to make individual changes will cause these problems to continue on and likely to grow. So is my small part enough? Probably not, I should probably do better … but at least I’m working on doing something!

Tags: environment, epa, green, health living, hubpages, kathryn vercillo

I got my first car when I was still fifteen because I was that eager to start driving as soon as I was legally allowed to do so. At 18, I took a photography job that had me in my car two days per week traveling to and from all of the little cities of Arizona. When I was 21, I took off in my pickup truck with the guy that I liked at the time and we traveled all over the country together. And at 25, I accepted a brief job helping an artist which included driving him across the country to different conventions where he sold his work.

The point here is that I’ve spent a whole heck of a lot of time in cars. Sometimes I loved it. I like road trips. I like the convenience of driving. But ever since I moved to San Francisco, I don’t own a car and I almost never drive and I much prefer life this way than the way that it was when I had a car that I drove every day.

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of things that I don’t like about not having a car. I don’t like the days when it’s raining out and my umbrella doesn’t work right and I’m trying to decide whether it’s worse to walk in the rain or worse to get on a crowded bus with dozens of wet people. I don’t like the times on the bus when the creepy people bother me. I don’t like that I can’t get in my vehicle and just drive up the coast for the day because I don’t have a vehicle anymore.

But overall, I’d rather have a car-free life. I live in a place where I can easily walk to and from most of the things that I need to do on a daily basis. I like that a whole lot better than living in a place where I’d have to drive to and from my daily stops. I live in a place where public transportation is decent and I can go a really long way from here on trains and ferries if I want to. Mostly I prefer that to those lonely hours spent on highways around the country.

Because of the way that I live now, I have trouble understanding how people drive every day. I don’t know how my mom and my brother can each spend multiple hours in the car each day running errands and running around. I don’t understand when friends mention that they commute several hours each day to and from work. And I don’t remember how it was that I drove as much as I did back when I did. But everyone is different. Some people love driving. What about you?

Tags: autos, cars, driving, green, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, transit, transportation, Travel

People who are concerned about green issues may wonder if there is any area of their life which they haven’t gotten green enough with yet. Even if you’re really eco-friendly in your home, you can probably find new areas for green improvements. Maybe one of those areas is in your reading. Are you a green reader?

Here are some tips for getting greener with your reading:

• Buy or borrow used books instead of buying new books.
• Recycle or re-gift your or books instead of throwing them away.
• Treat all books kindly so that they last a long time.
• Use damaged books to create cool book art.
• Support writers and publishers who are green in their work.
• Always use recycled wrapping paper and shipping materials when sending books as gifts.
• Purchase eco-friendly reading glasses if reading glasses are something you need.
• Use low-energy reading lights with eco-friendly light bulbs in them.
• Always use eco-friendly transportation when going to bookstores or literary events.
• Read more about green issues so that you’re on top of being green.

Did I miss any important green reading tips here? What would you do to be a greener reader?

Tags: books, eco-friendly, environment, green, green issues, green reading, kathryn vercillo, readers, real words, writers

It’s St. Patrick’s Day – let’s be green!!

Earlier this week I wrote about making your own carpet cleaner at home which isn’t just a way to save money but also a way to be more eco-friendly in your home. I submitted that post to the All Things Eco blog carnival where it was included along with loads of other posts that might interest you if you’re into being green.

Some of the other important topics that were covered in this blog carnival included:

• Saving energy without spending a fortune
• Green issues in entertainment (like in Wall-E)
• Living off the grid
• Green technology (like the self-winding cell phone)
• Vegetarian living topics including a great recipe for fruit filo pastry and cheap green cooking
• Recycling and donation topics
• Thoughts on renting any items that you need
• Nature posts on Sheshnag Mountain
• Green politics and business
• And general green tips for frugal green living (like greening your reading and cheap eco-shopping)

Generally, this blog carnival was all about what we can do to make a difference in the world around us by being green. Hope you’ll take a read at some of those other posts.

Tags: blog carnival, blogs, carpet cleaner, eco carnival, eco-friendly, green, links