"If you anthropomorphize a little bit, these trees are not dumb. They’ve been living here tens of millions of years. If you’re designing trees to live, make sure that they could survive. Make them take advantage of that sunlight," Saleska explained.

-- Use only woods certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and local area beetle-kill Lodgepole pine trees in building construction. A Vail Valley company is currently working with the U.S. Forest Service to establish a procedure for reclaiming the dying trees to be used in the project. Wherever possible, the Company will purchase and incorporate local and regional "green" materials for construction.

"People have an aversion to dealing with our own waste, but this type of toilet uses far less water and makes far fewer demands on our resources. There's work to be done educating people about how compost toilets work and the benefits, but there should be financial incentives and effort made to implement this concept."

“Anyone interested in today’s oil industry (or according to Mary Roach, anyone who drives a car), should read this book. It’s not an energy book. It’s more of a travel book, which starts in a California gas station, and circles the globe in a search for an explanation of where a gallon of gas comes from. Margonelli’s writing is magnetic. The reason this book took me so long to read is because I did not want to miss a word.”

With the plethora of newsprint and commentary about climate change in the last couple of years, reflecting its meteoric rise up the political and media agenda, it is perhaps little surprise that these green buzzwords have entered the lexicon. So next time someone looks at me blankly when I tell them their Chelsea tractor is increasing their carbon footprint, I can add "A large, four-wheel-drive vehicle used in urban areas" is causing a rise in "the amount of carbon dioxide emitted due to the activities, especially the consumption of fossil fuels, of a particular person"(i.e.you).

"(Green priorities) will absolutely soon be the norm because we can't carry on as a world without making some serious changes. That's not preachy, that's reality."

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.

From Miami to Munich, hundreds of urban planners and environmental activists plan today to set up tiny "parks" in metered parking spaces -- installing everything from lawn chairs and palm trees to beauty salons and self-service lemonade stands. It's an effort to raise awareness about the lack of open public space in urban areas, and to draw attention to the gas wasted and pollution created by drivers circling the block for low-cost curbside parking spaces. PARK(ing) Day organizers are bracing for angry merchants, frustrated drivers -- and in some cities, parking tickets.

Most Best Buys and [new] bank branches, are located in strip malls with seas of impervious parking lots that are accessible only by car. This phenomenon - where green buildings are located in unsustainable contexts - can be called "green sprawl. Green sprawl presents several problems: it justifies the continued development on the periphery, perpetuates reliance on overburdened infrastructures and misses the opportunity to build in a sustainable manner."

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai is a celebrated political activist, feminist, and environmentalist. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an environmental group in Kenya that has restored indigenous forests and assisted rural women by paying them to plant trees in their communities. Since 1977, it has planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya and been replicated in dozens of other African countries. Maathai is currently Kenya's Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources and a Member of Parliament.