Green Travel Summit 2009 Explores Business Travel Strategies

For most organizations, travel is their 2nd largest variable expense. Historically, the three main criteria for determining corporate travel purchases have been cost, security and convenience. Now with many companies' sustainability strategies, green is another key factor in travel planning.

The Green Travel Summit, is the first fully dedicated forum focused on exploring green travel strategies and their impact on business travel and corporate meetings.

Join thought leaders, industry peers and progressive travel service providers who will converge under one roof to share information on the risks and rewards of building a sustainable travel and meetings strategy.

The Green Travel Summit will assemble the leading experts on Green Travel to provide a forum for information sharing, best practices and successful case studies in a unique interactive conference format.

Learn more about the Green Travel Summit at:www.greentravelsummit.com

Flash the green. Roses and eco-friendly lingerie for Valentines Day!

Chances are, if you are reading this "green" blog, you're

environmentally conscious. Valentine’s Day is this week, and here's an opportunity to send green panties to your loved one. Not actually green in color, but sustainable lingerie for both men and women.

Inspired by vintage fabrics and French glamor, Enamore offers unique, feminine lingerie sets, garters and even wedding lingerie in hemp, organic silk and soy fabrics. http://www.enamore.co.uk/

Feeling demure? Pick up matching Organic 100 percent Organic Cotton Interlock Robes for a snuggly evening. http://www.Underthecanopy.com

Perhaps have a little romp in a racy ribbed romper from Perfectly Imperfect. Made from 100-percent organic cotton with wood button details is conservative, yet sexy. http://www.thegreenloop.com

Magic Global Warming Knickers' 100 percent fair trade and organic cotton briefs will definately have a heating effect on your global warming. Green Knickers also makes some smokin' panties from 60 percent hemp and 40 percent silk. If you’d like to see them on someone else, give them as a gift, and they’ll arrive in a fair trade recycled gift box. http://www.Greenknickers.org

Tips for a Greener Bedroom: You are probably spending one-third of each day, year, lifetime, in your bedroom. You breathe the air, and absorb the chemicals of the room. Therefore, the bedroom should be a priority when upgrading your home for environmentally friendly living. See green bedroom tips from Amazon.

an All-Natural Kitty Litter

After writing the blog on biodegradable poop bags for dogs, I received “equal time” requests for cats. So thanks to your probing paws, today's entry is about greener, healthier, kitty litter alternatives. A quick search on the web shows several outlets for organic kitty litter, so the supply is out there.

Did you know that cat litter started off with recycled, organic materials such as sand, sawdust, fireplace ashes and old newspaper? Each had their faults like unless the sawdust was from cedar there was no odor control. It wasn't until recent times that clumping, odor-control versions of cat litter were developed using things like clay (which is a non-renewable resource, removed from the ground, fill up landfills and never break down).

If you're a Do-It-Yourself type, you can pick up sawdust on the cheap from your local garden or hardware stores, or mix some baking soda in with sand or ash as an alternative to the cheaper grocery store kitty litter.

If you're not interested in a home made cat litter solution, there are several commercial alternatives available including Feline Pine and Yesterday's News.

Next up: Environmental alternatives for raccoons, squirrels, tigers and giraffes. Just kidding, I think.

Biodegradable poop bags

Here's a simple change people can do to make a daily chore a bit greener.

Your ears will perk up when you hear about this one, especially if you live in a city and have to pick up after your pup. 100% bio-degradable poop bags for dogs.

BioBag Dog holds the distinction of being the first biodegradable and compostable "plastic" pooper bag in the world.

Besides being the law in many towns, picking up after your pet is part of being a responsible pet owner. Polyethylene-based plastic bags can last hundreds of years and often "mummify" your pet's waste, which would otherwise decompose naturally. Now owners have a environmentally friendly solution, BioBag Dog.

In the past, the best solution for disposal of pet waste was to separate it from the bag or paper and flush it down the toilet. Using BioBags the waste and the bag can be thrown in your backyard compost, where both items can decompose naturally; the waste and bag can be buried, where micro-organisms will quickly eat both; the waste and bag can be set at curbside with other yard waste where communities collect biodegradable waste for composting. Disposal options vary by community.

Amazon.com sells BioBags from about $7.50 and up.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is Recycled to Build New Homes

The country’s most popular tree is going Green. The eight-ton Christmas tree, stretching 72 feet above Rockefeller Center, is being milled into lumber for Habitat for Humanity homes in Brooklyn, New York.

This isn’t the first Rockefeller Center Xmas Tree to be recycled. In 2007, lumber from the tree was was used to build housing for survivors of Hurricane Katrina and in past years the tree was made into mulch for hiking trails and wooden toys for the animals at The Bronx Zoo.
In 2007, the Rock’s tree went "green," when it started using LED lights.