It's time to break free from old habits and start the new year fresh. Losing weight and quitting smoking are common new year's resolutions—and also on the list of top 10 most commonly broken resolutions. Try something new this year by making a pact with the planet for a leaner and greener carbon footprint. Here's how: 1. Drive more efficiently or take transit: Depending on the size of your car, you could be reducing a ton or two or more of carbon dioxide a year by combining trips, mapping out your trip and opting for public transit when possible. You can also fit in aerobic exercise and enjoy the fresh air by walking or biking. 2. Ditch your old bulbs: Compact fluorescent light bulbs and light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are available for more energy-efficient lighting, which reduces your carbon footprint by using one-third or less of the energy. A single bulb could save you around $40 or more over its lifetime. 3. Stop the junk mail: It's estimated that clearing forests for junk mail produces as much greenhouse gas emissions as 9 million cars. You can dramatically reduce your junk mail through the service of our nonprofit partner 41pounds, which will contact dozens of mailing companies to remove your name from lists, including catalogs you specify. The cost is $41 for you or a household for five years, and 41pounds will donate $15 to Carbonfund.org to support our carbon reduction efforts. Sign up now. 4. Eat fresh: When life gets hectic, it may be easy on you to rely mostly on prepackaged foods for meals, but it can take a toll on the environment. Start the new year with a resolution to plan some meals drawn from locally sourced food. Make this commitment easy by joining a farm co-op or getting local produce from your market. 5. Go carbon neutral: Make reducing your carbon footprint an integral part of your life by committing to reduce what you can and offset what you can't this year to support third-party validated projects that are reducing emissions globally. Check out Carbonfund.org's calculators to reduce your climate impact from your home, travel or business and consider going carbon neutral as a ZeroCarbon™ individual or family in support of our innovative projects. Check out these energy-saving tips for more ways to do your part for our environment in the new year.

Second chances are rare. Opportunities for redemption in the business world are especially scarce in our current economy. That's why successful business and Carbonfund.org partner Clean Air Lawn Care pledged to share the wealth by giving away a franchise and an opportunity for a fresh financial start in the new year. Opportunity 2011 is the second annual contest that searches for someone who has the skills, passion and determination to do something positive for themselves and their environment, but who doesn't have the means. Clean Air Lawn Care is the nation's leading full-service sustainable lawn care company, which stands out in the industry with its use of solar-powered lawn mowers, organic fertilizers and quiet electric equipment. The winning candidate will be provided a Clean Air Lawn Care franchise and start-up package worth more than $35K, including training and equipment. Apply by November 5th to win a chance to start the new year fresh with your own environmentally conscious business. Check out the video entry from last year's winner, James Turner of Wilmington, NC.

You may know that Walmart has set a goal to eliminate all US landfill waste by 2025. You may not know to what creative and slimy depths they will go to meet that goal. Sam's Club, Walmart's warehouse retailer, launched a program to recycle the grease generated by the rotisserie chickens sold in the stores. In an interesting Triple Pundit article, writer Leslie Back discovered:

• In 2010, Sam’s Club collected 236,000 gallons of grease, with 611,000 pounds recycled into biofuels (enough to power 18 semi trucks for 1 year) and 1.2 million pounds recycled into animal feed (equivalent to feeding more than 5,000 chickens for one year).

• The grease trap required traditionally held 2,500 gallons. However, according to Sam's Club, because of this program, the trap has been reduced to only 1,500 gallons.

Proving YET AGAIN (why yes, I will continue to beat this dead horse... please excuse the violent idiom) that sustainable practices are a mondo money-saver, Walmart saved $15.8 million from recycling chicken sludge rather than sending it to the dump.

Carbonfund.org is thrilled to be nominated in TreeHugger's annual Best of Green Awards. We love what we do, and it's great to be recognized, but awards like these really are a testament to supporters like you who share and spread our mission to reduce and offset our climate impact and hasten the transition to a clean energy future. So let's spread the love, folks.

Vote Carbonfund.org for Best Carbon Offset Provider.

Then, you can  Tweet your vote. Thanks for your support!

Consumer products company and Carbonfund.org events partner Unilever has unveiled its Sustainable Living Plan, which uses the company's global reach to double sales while also halving the water, waste and carbon impacts of its products over the next 10 years. To achieve these goals, Unilever took into account the life-cycle of their products, from the sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing of products, transportation and storage, all the way to the waste produced by consumer use of these items. Unilever seeks to lead the consumer industry in reducing the environmental impact of their products and saving money in the process. Other goals for the Sustainable Living Plan include: • Sourcing 100 percent of agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2015, including 100% sustainable palm oil. Unilever buys three percent of the world's annual supply of palm oil. • Making drinking water safer in developing countries by extending sales of its Pureit home water purifier. • Improving standards of living by working with agencies such as Oxfam and the Rainforest Alliance to link 500,000 small-scale and related distributors to the Unilever supply chain. "Consumers want more," Unilever chief executive Paul Polman told the UK's Guardian newspaper. "They see food shortages, malnutrition and climate change, and governments are not addressing those problems. Companies that do this will get a competitive advantage. Those that do not will put themselves at risk."

First they brought us the sweet sounds of ABBA and Ace of Base. Then they delighted us with the home decor empire Ikea. Now Sweden's hottest idea export is a clever source of cheap and renewable energy: body heat capture. Stockholm Central Station is the busiest train depot in Scandinavia with over 250,000 travelers and shoppers bustling through each day. Engineers for real estate company Jernhusen figured out how to harness the heat energy generated by the moving bodies and use it to heat an office across the street, lowering that building's energy bill by 25%.

There are about 250,000 people a day who pass through Stockholm Central Station. They in themselves generate a bit of heat. But they also do a lot of activities. They buy food, they buy drinks, they buy newspapers and they buy books. All this energy generates an enormous amount of heat. So why shouldn't we use this heat. It's there. If we don't use it then it will just be ventilated away to no avail. -- Klas Johnasson, one of the system's creators and head of Jernhusen's environmental division

The commuters in the train station aren't left out in the cold to warm the office dwellers across the street. What happens is Central Station is heated appropriately, and then heat exchangers in the ventilation system convert excess body heat into hot water, which is then pumped into the office's heating system. This isn't the first instance of body heat harvest, but it is the first to figure out how to transfer energy to a different location. Can you imagine how much clean, renewable energy could be generated by the sofa-slipcover-seeking hoards of the 316 Ikea stores worldwide? Sounds like a match made in Sweden.

Can states sue electric companies for failing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions? The Supreme Court has agreed to hear this case. The high-profile case, American Electric Power v. Connecticut, established in 2004 that coal-burning utilities were liable for lawsuits because of public nuisance for their contribution to global warming. The review by the Supreme Court is seen as a win for the utilities in question—American Electric Power, Duke Energy, Southern Company, Xcel Energy and the Tennessee Valley Authority—as it gives them the opportunity to try reversing the lower court's decision. The power companies assert that this is not a judicial issue but a legislative one that should be handled under the EPA's Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases, essentially that the Clean Air Act trumps common law decisions. However, as explained by UCLA law professor Jonathan Zasloff:

The EPA’s regulation only applies to mobile sources, not stationary sources like power plants.  Thus—and here is the kicker—until the EPA actually starts regulating all sources of carbon dioxide, the Court said that it can’t really determine whether or not displacement has occurred. This holding is potentially significant, because it can put polluters in a real bind.  Their normal strategy is to tie up new regulations in the courts for several years—maybe until they can get a more friendly administration.  But now, the Second Circuit has told them that the only way to get rid of the public nuisance lawsuit is to let those regulations go into effect.  The judges have told the power companies to choose their poison.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the appeal in March 2011.

Over the years the Sundance Film Festival has introduced a number of groundbreaking environmental documentaries that surprised the world with the depth and scope of their popularity. Films like The Cove, An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car all debuted at the annual Salt Lake City festival and leveraged their critical acclaim to catapult their message into the public eye, garnering support and notoriety along the way. This year's film festival is at about the half-way point and includes two environmentally focused films that are already sold out and booked solid. The Last Mountain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0563_RTvx6s

It’s easy to forget that each time we turn on a light, we are contributing to the ecological damage caused by the coal that generates electricity in this country. The Last Mountain gives us plenty of reasons to remember. Contaminated air, soil, and water; coal dust, cancer clusters, and toxic sludge are all by-products of this widespread energy source. Focusing on the devastating effects of mountaintop coal removal in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley, filmmaker Bill Haney illustrates the way residents and activists are standing up to the industry and major employer that is so deeply embedded in the region. With strong support from Bobby Kennedy Jr. and grassroots organizations, awareness is rising in the battle over Appalachian mountaintop mining. Forces are aligning to prevent coal removal on Coal River Mountain and preserve the region’s precious natural resources. Superb storytelling and exquisite photography combine to remind us that this environmental calamity impacts us all.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDBb1F2tiNs

Marshall Curry’s documentary tells a timely story of political action and environmental beliefs at loggerheads. His reconstruction of the recent history and unraveling of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is a fascinating exploration of a modern revolutionary movement and its efficacy. Fusing fervent concerns about ecological imbalance and capitalism run amok, ELF members and sleeper cells employed economic sabotage by destroying facilities involved in deforestation to remove the profit potential from companies wreaking environmental destruction. Focusing on Oregon-based activist Daniel McGowan, Curry relates the tale of a mild-mannered, middle-class citizen driven to extremes and brought to trial on charges of terrorism for his participation in ELF-related arson plots. Detailing activists’ past disillusionment with public protest—and the police brutality and inertia that often followed—the film poses difficult questions about the possibility of effecting change from either within or without the system and examines the changed stakes for revolutionaries today in a world fixated on branding all dissenters as terrorists.

Carbonfund.org Foundation is proud to partner with GUERILLAPPS for Trash Tycoon (www.TrashTycoon.com), the first ‘Upcycling’ game for Facebook. Trash Tycoon allows players to maneuver around a visually whimsical world to recycle, collect litter and ‘pitch in’ to help make the planet a more beautiful and sustainable place to live. Players become eco-entrepreneurs as they earn game money and points by collecting trash and upcycling it to create marvelous new products. They can even manage a worm farm and control their “worm families” in a mini-game within Trash Tycoon. Trash Tycoon also features a Charity Contest where players get to vote on their favorite Carbonfund.org carbon-mitigation program to take environmental action in the real world. Players can vote for reforestation, renewable energy or energy efficiency, and each month the game will donate 10% of the voters’ virtual currency revenues to the program with the most votes. “Trash Tycoon is a fun, interactive game with a great underlying message,” said Eric Carlson, Carbonfund.org president. “We’re excited about this project because it’s a fresh, easy approach toward making environmental consciousness a part of our everyday lives.”

Carbonfund.org supports domestic and international renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects that reduce carbon dioxide emissions. All of their projects meet the highest standards and are third-party validated to ensure every donation is making a positive impact. By playing Trash Tycoon, users are supporting clean technology and reduction projects that drive investment and innovation, and hasten the market transformation to a low carbon future.

Carbonfund.org and Guerillapps hope Trash Tycoon can harness the power of Social Networking games to help teach consumers about the environment and resource conservation, and, with the use of in-game campaigns featuring social goods, rally players together to help in the fight against climate change by contributing to carbon offset projects while enjoying game play. Trash Tycoon was created by GUERILLAPPS, a company building online social games that tie in with real-world brands and activities.  “With the help of Carbonfund.org, we are able to gamify charity donation, make it fun and give back to the environment,” said Raviv Turner, Co-Founder & CEO of Guerillapps.

Electric Vehicles (EVs) stole the show at this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. As if showing up without a battery-powered prototype was just bad manners, automakers dutifully curated their collections to show off the latest engineering in emission-free vehicles. Volkswagon Golf Blue E-Motion Hits the market: 2014 Stats: Goes from 0-62 mph in 11.8 seconds Tops out at 84 mph Driving range is 93 miles Tesla Roadster Hits the market: Already out Stats: Goes from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds Drives 245 miles per charge Plugs into nearly any outlet anywhere in the world [caption id="attachment_7590" align="alignnone" width="524" caption="Image courtesy of Honda.com"][/caption] Honda Fit EV Hits the market: Scheduled for 2012 Stats: Five passenger, four door hatchback 100 mile driving range Tops out at 90 mph [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="564" caption="Image courtesy of Ford.com"][/caption] Ford Focus Electric Hits the market: Late 2011 Stats: 112 mile driving range Tops out at 100 mph Electric Vehicle app allows you to monitor your car's battery life from your smartphone Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-Cell Hits the market: Unknown Stats: Gullwing doors (hinged at the top) 60 kWh lithium battery and four electric motors 130 miles driving range Goes from 0-60 mph in four seconds Porsche 918 RSR Concept Car Hits the market: Don't hold your breath Stats: 563 horse power at 10,300 rpm Two 75-kW electric motors powering the front wheels only Boosts maximum power to 767 horse power Captures energy from breaking and re-releases it with the push of a button

All images courtesy of naias.com