Summer vacation? Traveling on a plane or car?

A recent article analyzed the fuel efficiency of airlines and found they get 60 to 75 seat miles per gallon of fuel in 2009.  Better than the 50 mpg of a Toyota Prius hybrid automobile. Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, and Continental were best.  The most fuel efficient planes were the Boeing 777-200ER wide body at 82 mpg and Boeing 737-900 at 99 mpg.  The Airbus A320 at 77 mpg is their best.

Want to go a step further? We noticed a Climate passport kiosk in the airport.  You can pay to offset your airplanes emissions. A 2,000 Miles (4 hr flight) generates 1,869 lbs of  CO2, and costs $11.44 to offset.  The money goes toward:

“The Carbon Offsets purchased through the Climate Passport Carbon Footprint Calculator are sourced from the Garcia River Forest, a conservation-based forest management project located in Mendocino County, California. The project achieves multiple goals including: increased sequestration and storage of carbon in native redwood forests, wildlife habitat restoration, and a sustainable supply of certified wood products.”

Tripbase has a CO2 Emissions Calculator that’s been made to help people out with being a bit more green and socially responsible when it comes to flying.

The trend is to consider green practices when constructing a new building or when remodeling your kitchen, bathroom or home.  Here are some useful resources.

Build It Green has some very good guidelines and checklists for Green Construction, remodeling and building new homes.  They are a non-profit dedicated to help all of us out even though they focus on California.  They have extensive lists of building material recommendations and sources.

Advanced house framing techniques for new homes, require half the wood of the past.

Build it Green NYC has information on low cost salvage and surplus building materials.

Using salvaged or reclaimed items helps cut down on resource utilization.

Heritage Salvage in Petaluma sells reclaimed building materials.

Driftwood Salvage in Palo Alto sells surplus construction items.

Urban Ore in Berkeley sells surplus items.

List of other San Francisco Bay Area Salvage yards.

CalMAX – California Materials Exchange – One business’s trash is another business’s treasure.

Remember to donate your spare items after your remodel back to these salvage yards.

Source: CNNMoney.com

CNNMoney.com has a nice analysis of how fast a hybrid pays off. They compared a buying a new $24,548 Toyota Prius Hybrid vs a conventional $19,635 Toyota Camry.

You can see that it takes 4.5 years to break even with gas at $4, 6 years at $3. Some hard numbers that should help prevent you from paying a crazy markup for any hot new green hybrid or electric vehicle.

Kiplinger’s has a Green Car Calculator that compares two cars costs and 5 year overall costs.

Remember that it takes a LOT of energy to build a car, so it may be more eco to keep what you have or buy a used fuel efficient vehicle. A hybrid still emits about 20 pounds of carbon with each gallon of gas you burn up.

Check out our hybrid driving tips.

Edmunds.com has a new Gas-Guzzler Trade-In Calculator that helps you figure out the pay back period and fuel saving associated with trading in a vehicle for a new more fuel efficient one.

“A common example demonstrates the potential pitfalls of ditching that SUV: A consumer trades in a four-year old GMC Yukon, worth $13,483, for a new $21,647 Toyota Prius. The difference is $8,164. If the consumer drives 1,200 miles per month and gas costs $4.07 per gallon (national average), the monthly fuel savings will be $201.34. While this may seem attractive, it will take 41 months to pay back the additional cost of the Prius over the trade-in value of the Yukon.”

Considering a Prius would probably cost more than $21,647, the pay back time is even longer especially if gas prices fall. Consider regular high mileage compacts such as the Honda Fit.

Also consider a recent (2 or 3 year old) vintage fuel efficient preowned car.  The biggest cost in owning a car is depreciation at almost 50%, followed by fuel costs at near 20%.

A recent article titled: Why Are So Few Chemicals Tested? reminded us about how scary the chemical world is.

“Many of the chemicals we use for everyday activities like washing our clothes and cleaning our dishes have never been tested for safety. Since the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) became law in 1976, the number of chemicals in commercial products has risen from 60,000 to 80,000, yet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required testing on only 200 and restricted just five.”

Under this act, chemicals are given the benefit of doubt. They are presumed safe unless proven unsafe. New laws are being proposed that would allow the EPA to regulate of new and existing chemicals and to take faster action. You sure do express your support for these measures with your local representatives.

A recent CNN program – Toxic America by Dr. Sanjay Gupta reiterates elements of a safe and clean home.