Stay at locally owned and run hostels, guesthouses and hotels. This is where you’ll find the best information and you can see for yourself how electricity and water are used, conserved and wasted. You won’t see how the real world works from a four star hotel.

Skip the car! In most cases, it makes more sense to use the local public transportation. The subways, buses and trains are a better way to experience a new place than a private car or taxi. Save the car rental for the parts of your trip that require it. If you’re American, you’re in for a shocker – whether its Europe or South America, every part of the world seems to have a modern train and/or modern (ie, dvd’s played and bathrooms onboard) bus system.

Hikes and sports are green and healthy. Break a sweat while traveling and you’ll never forget it. Go for a hike, rent a bicycle – be active on the road. I love theme parks but there’s nothing like an interesting walk or ride in exotic places. The companies that offer tourists walking tours and other activities are usually small and locally owned. Keep an eye out for how they use and conserve energy. What are the challenges that they face in keeping things green?

Pack light! Smart travelers know they can get most things on the road. A week’s clothes is more than enough (there are laundromats even in Bolivia). You can buy drinks, cheap beach towels, snacks and whatever else as you need. Fight the instinct to overpack! The less weight you carry around, the better – for the airline and your back!

Enjoy the culture in the places you visit. Music, dance, theater – whatever it is you’re into, experience it on your trip. The perfect day is a day of hiking or exploring a city followed by an evening of live “world music” and then sleeping in a hotel that cares about the environment and energy conservation.

Hopefully you’ll blast your senses with ideas about green living and you’ll return with a few that will help you at home and the office.

A clean energy holiday isn’t as hard as it sounds!

Plan Your Clean Energy Holiday!

Clean Energy Holidays Illustration

The municipal transport and road ministry recently announced a phase-out of the iconic green and white Volkswagen Bug taxis, or Vochos, by 2012, declaring them more dangerous and responsible for more pollution than other modern vehicles. Also in 2012, in a joint effort to reduce the increasing number of car commuters, city officials plan to unveil 186 miles of bike paths.

In contrast to the air, Mexico City has plenty of green initiatives and options. Everything from local food, to eco holiday lodgings to transit choices, there are ways to lower your travel footprint and let you absorb the plethora of cultural offerings with a clean conscience.

1. Take the Metro
   With 175 stations, the affordable Metro is the quickest way to get around town. Of course it is very crowded in the morning and evening rush hours. Furthermore, it is a favorite place for pickpockets. Stay alert and avoid peak travel times to avoid undesired experiences.
2. Ride MetroBus, Mexico City’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The MetroBus, Mexico City’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, operates on clean-burning, ultra-low sulfur diesel. It is the most convenient and clean energy way to travel on Avenida Insurgentes, the city’s main north-south road. Purchase a card at any station and charge it up with pesos before swiping to enter.
3. Stay at El Patio 77, or Hotel Catedral, La Casona, or CondesaDF. The “green revolution” hasn’t swept the city’s hotel scene just yet. Nonetheless, there are a few notable guest lodgings close to main attractions, so you won’t have to travel far. El Patio 77 is a new, comfortable eco hotel, earning rave reviews for its development, upkeep and friendly management. The Hotel Catedral offers good value and is in the Historic Center. The moderately priced La Casona is a cozy and comfortable hotel in the lively Roma neighborhood. CondesaDF is a trendy boutique hotel with a rooftop sushi bar and an ultra-modern aesthetic.
4. Rent a Bike Despite the crowds and awful drivers, biking around Mexico City can be faster and less stressful than public transportation. Get a free bike (with deposit) through the recently launched bike sharing program, Mejor En Bici, and head for the ciclovía, which is a 56 mile bike trail following the old Cuernavaca railroad to the Morelos border.
5. Dine at a Green Restaurant Eating on a budget is easy to do in Mexico City. In the Condesa neighborhood, the Green Corner is both an organic grocery with fresh local produce. The restaurant, Origenes Organicos is an intimate café with local, organic foods and outdoor seating in a photogenic plaza. The plaza is also home to a small market, with an abundance of local and imported organic items. Tao is a great macrobiotic vegan eatery with a cozy atmosphere and friendly service. Vege Taco, at Calle Carrillo Puerto 65, cross street Alberto Zamora, Col. Coyoacan, lets vegetarians enjoy grilled tacos that even carnivores love. The Tacos al Pastor are highly recommended.

   Slightly pricier, Yug sells fresh, vegetarian à la carte dining and an all-you-can-eat buffet upstairs for a few pesos more. Their à la carte menu offers yummy fixed menus including fresh juices, salads, and veggie versions of classic Mexican recipes.

6. Dine Upscale at El Bajío and Izote For an upscale dining experience, try El Bajío. They boast richly authentic and traditional Mexican fare in bright, colorful fine dining surroundings, plus they are slightly off the beaten path, giving them a certain cache’. Taste the rare mixture of local ingredients. You will undoubtedly the trip to Colonia Obrero well worth the effort. Izote in the posh Polanco neighborhood serves up modern renditions of native dishes, prepared with local ingredients including yucca flower, cactus, and zucchini flower.
7. Satisfy your Retail Therapy with Green Design Souvenirs While the eco shopping scene is still relatively young, PIN offers an interesting choice of furniture, bags and books from eco-aware designers in the cool Roma neighborhood.
8. Checkout Sembradores Urbanos, an Urban Garden Mexico City’s ecological heritage and future can be further discovered at the Sembradores Urbanos project in La Romita. The urban gardening and environmental education project diffuses educational opportunities on subjects ranging from edible flowers to medicinal herbs.
9. Travel around on a Segway If you’re not as clumsy as some unfortunate celebrities who have fallen off of the popular people mover, you can zip around quickly and avoid worsening the air quality problem by renting an electric-powered Segway. Despite the electricity tapped from the grid, Segways produce 14 times less greenhouse gas emissions than a car.
10. Stroll the city’s largest park, the Bosque de Chapultepec Want to go for a jog, bike ride, or picnic? The city’s largest park, measuring 1,600 acres Bosque de Chapultepec (The Hill of the Grasshoppers), is situated in the west of the city. It is easily accessible by public transportation. Adjacent to outdoor cafés, an amusement park, historic buildings, and a zoo, are lakes, springs, and woodlands containing some massive ancient trees.

We wish you a delightful stay in your Clean Energy Holidays — in Mexico City, and wherever else you go!

Today’s new kitchen appliances use nearly 50 percent less energy than those built just a decade ago. Still, when holiday time rolls around, your energy bills can rise considerably, what with your stove, oven, and dishwasher running overtime, and the door to your refrigerator standing open frequently as family members search for hidden treats.

Home DIY Clean Energy Saver Holidays Illustration

Thankfully, it’s not difficult to keep added holiday energy costs to a minimum. Just follow these few simple tips from the California Energy Commission.

Oven Tips

The turkey is traditionally stuffed early in the morning and roasted for hours. Since it’s a long, slow cook, there’s no need to preheat your oven, even when the recipe suggests it. This also holds true for a holiday ham. In fact, unless you’re baking breads or pastries, you may not need to preheat the oven at all.

Don’t open the oven door to take a peek at what’s cooking inside. Instead, turn on the oven light and check the cooking status through the oven window. Opening the oven door lowers the temperature inside – by as much as 25 degrees – which increases cooking time and wastes energy.

As long as your oven is on, cook several items at the same time. Just make sure you leave enough room for the heat to circulate around each casserole and pie plate.

In an electric oven, you can turn the heat off several minutes before your food is fully cooked. As long as the oven door remains closed, enough heat will be stored inside to finish cooking your meal. The same principle applies to your electric range-top – the metal heating elements stay hot even after the electricity is turned off.

If you use glass or ceramic pans, you can turn your oven temperature down 25 degrees, and foods will cook just as quickly.

Self-cleaning ovens use less energy for normal cooking because of the higher insulation levels built into them. (However, if you use the self-cleaning feature more than once a month, you’ll end up using more energy than you will save.) Consider using the self-cleaning feature immediately after using your oven, to take advantage of the residual heat.

Stovetop Tips

When cooking on top of your range, match the size of the pan to the heating element. More heat will get to the pan and less will be lost to the surrounding air. Believe it or not, a six-inch pan on an eight-inch burner will waste more than 40 percent of the energy!

Clean burners and reflectors provide better heating, while saving energy. If you need new reflectors, buy quality ones. The best on the market can save as much as one-third of the energy used when cooking on top of the stove.

Other Ways to Cook

Don’t overlook the other cooking appliances at Thanksgiving. Fast and efficient microwave ovens use around 50 percent less energy than conventional ovens, and they don’t heat up your kitchen. Consider using them to bake yams, steam your favorite fresh vegetables, or heat up leftover turkey and gravy for a midnight snack. They’re especially efficient for smaller portions or items, but when it comes to the turkey or large items, your oven or stovetop are usually more efficient.

Remember your small appliances, great energy savers that can save you money all year long. Slow cookers (crock-pots) are perfect for busy families. On average, they will cook a whole meal for about 17 cents worth of electricity. Electric skillets can steam, fry, saute’, stew, bake, or roast a variety of food items – and some can double as serving dishes. If you’re baking or broiling small food items, a toaster oven is ideal because they use one-third the energy of a bigger oven.

If you’re truly adventurous, don’t confine your cooking to the kitchen. Most Californians live where the climate is mild enough to cook outdoors even in November. If you haven’t tried roasting your Thanksgiving turkey on a charcoal grill, you’re in for a treat. You might save a little on your utility bill, and you’ll have plenty to talk about over dinner.

Refrigerator Tips

In addition to your stove, your refrigerator and freezer also get a real workout over the holidays. While newer refrigerators are much more energy efficient than older ones, they remain one of the largest energy consumers in your house, often accounting for as much as 15 percent of your home’s total energy usage.

Help your refrigerator and freezer operate efficiently and economically by keeping the doors closed as much as possible so the cold air doesn’t escape. However, leaving the door open for a longer period of time while you take out the items you need is more efficient than opening and closing it several times.

It’s easy to keep your refrigerator and freezer full at Thanksgiving. It’s also energy efficient, because the mass of cold items inside will help your refrigerator recover each time the door is opened. Don’t cram it so full, however, that cool air can’t circulate properly around your food.

Dishwasher Tips

One simple, fun, and cost-effective way to save energy at holiday time is to gather everyone together in the kitchen and wash and dry your dishes by hand. But don’t keep a steady stream of hot water flowing, or you’ll waste more energy than you’ll save.

According to research, a load of dishes cleaned in a dishwasher requires 37 percent less water than washing dishes by hand. However, if you fill the wash and rinse basins instead of letting the water run, you’ll use half as much water as a dishwasher.

If you opt to use the dishwasher, wash full loads only. If you must rinse your dishes before loading them, use only cold water so you’re not running up your energy bill by heating water unnecessarily.

Don’t forget to use the energy-saving cycles whenever possible. Dishwashers that feature air power or overnight dry settings can save up to 10 percent of your dishwashing energy costs.

Saving energy in the kitchen is a habit you should practice all year long – why not begin this Thanksgiving? Throughout the holiday season and into the New Year, you’ll watch your energy bills drop even as you use less of our precious energy resources – just one more thing to be thankful for this holiday season.

Illustration of an Ugly American Tourist in Paris

While having a chuckle at the Onion’s piece, I realized I was laughing at myself too. I’ll admit it: I’m guilty of masquerading as some kind of international globetrotter with impressive foreign language skills while traveling. In one particular situation, my attempt to fit in with the locals led to the extreme of pretending to be one.

On a trip to Amsterdam this summer, a local woman approached me in the Tassen Museum of Bags and Purses, pointed to the display in front of us and, with a mischievous grin, uttered some clever remark in Dutch. She began laughing, and I laughed with her as if I had understood what she had said — but I don’t speak a word of Dutch.

My charade fell to pieces when the woman continued to try to strike up conversation as I toured the museum. I had already indicated that I spoke Dutch, and there was no going back. I spent the rest of the evening nervously avoiding the woman, ducking behind cases of couture handbags whenever she came near.

Why was my first instinct to act like moronic Tyler Hill? There’s nothing wrong with being a tourist, but sometimes it’s nice not to feel like an outsider while traveling — if only for a few moments. Travelers interested in fitting in while on the road should check out our 20 tips for blending in with the locals (none of which suggest pretending to understand an unfamiliar language).

1. Switch to compact fluorescent lamps
2. Unplug those unused appliances
3. Skip the supersized appliances, buy what you need
4. WALK, don’t drive
5. Turn the computer off at night

Clean Energy Solutions illustration

1. Compact fluorescent lamps have never been cheaper and easier to get. They cost more than the old light bulbs, but can save you $30 (in the US, for example) in electricity costs over the lamps life time. The average life span of compact flourescent lamps is 8 to 15 times that of incandescants! Lighting counts for about 9% of household electricity usage in the US. Start by buying a few to get used to the difference in the light (it’s white and not yellow). After a few days, you’ll probably end up prefering your new lights! You’ll definitely see a difference in your electric bill.

2. Have a stereo with fancy disco lights that you only use twice a week? Go unplugged! Same goes for the dvd, microwave and anything else in the house that uses lights while you’re away all day. Also, consider not putting compact flourescent lamps in every fixture. Homes often come with more than you need. Let there be light, but let there not be too much light! Even if you find one fixture that you realize you don’t need, you’re saving energy!

3. A bigger microwave takes more energy to heat last night’s pizza. A bigger refrigerator requires more energy to cool your food. If you don’t need an oversized microwave and fridge, consider buying a small one. You’ll save twice – once when you buy it and again every month on your electric bill. Most of us don’t do major chef cooking on a microwave (who does?!) – the smallest model is the way to go. Those oversized refrigerators will encourage you to buy industrial sized food and you’ll end up with a supersized stomach! A smaller model will gently push you to go shopping twice a week instead of once a month. You’ll save energy and be healthier.

4. Walk to the store, to work and to your friends! If you live in a smart community, then most of your daily needs should be within a 15 minute walk from home. Make use of it! The best way to get back at those evil oil exporting countries is to leave the tin box at home. Plan your week so you need the car less. If you just bought that smaller fridge and you’re going to the supermarket twice a week instead of once a month, take a small backpack and go for a walk. Save energy and burn the best kind of energy – calories!

5. Turn the computer off at night. You’re downloading some amazing filesharing stuff and you want to finish. But consider this – you could be spending that same electricity bill money on buying the cd’s and dvd’s that you’re downloading! Turning the computer off for 7-10 hours a day will make a big difference. If you’re going to be out of the house for over an hour, turn off the computer and save energy! While we’re talking about night time, make a plan for night lights. Go through your house and decide which light you *really* need on at night. There’s usually no reason for more than one – the one between your room and the bathroom. The energy you can save during the time you’re asleep in your bedroom will add up to a lot – it’s 6-8 hours a night of less energy. If you do need one light on, make it a compact flourescent lamp that has a small wattage. Saving at night will give you more money to spend in the day! Saving energy is the way to go.

If we all do our part and lower our energy bills, we can make a big difference. Take a tour of your home – look around and see what *you* can do! Clean energy can be fun if you keep a positive attitude – see these tips as a fun project that will add extra cash to your wallet.

We wish you a lower electric bill!!