Having a bad day? Reading lots of depressing things about the future of our dependence on oil? This 27min watch suggests we can fix it without government intervention and with current technology while boosting our economy. Seem too good to be true? Perhaps!

For about $70 buy a device that plugs into your car and talks to an iPhone app. It monitors your driving behavior and gives you tips on how to drive more energy effeciently, plus other stuff (like telling you where you parked).

This quote sums it up nicely: "Think of it as an air traffic controller for organic matter," Gordon says. "If you're a food charity, you've got the logistics ability of anybody else in the food chain now."

A good starting point when looking into the concept of Cradle to Cradle design with some links to actual work being done.

This is a 9 minute talk about the waste involved in plastics, particularly disposable shipping Styrofoam. The solution the presenter is showing is the ability to use local bio-waste (like farming by-products, rice husks, etc.) and growing your styrofoam blocks.

Sometimes perfect is the enemy of good. Many people know that meat is not environmentally sustainable with our current diets. And yet being a vegetarian just sounds too hard. This short talk (~6mins) suggests that going part way is a good solution. No need to be all or nothing! This lesson can be taken further than this particular environmental impact too.

Modern buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows give spectacular views, but they require a lot of energy to cool. Doris Kim Sung works with thermo-bimetals, smart materials that act more like human skin, dynamically and responsively, and can shade a room from sun and self-ventilate.

This is googles somewhat marketing driven document on the efficiencies of using cloud computing. I would emphasize that the most valid aspect of this analysis is for small businesses. Small business will rarely use the "full" potential computing power of local servers, but even during idle time that server requires power and cooling capacity.

Using smart power strips can help save electricity by turning off devices that don't need to be on. Good example: when your computer is turned off, so should your printer and speakers plugged into it!

Kill-A-Watt's are a good tool to determine what appliances in your house are using the most energy. It is also a good tool to determine what appliances are using electricity when OFF.