A model stands next to a Toyota Hybrid at the Auto China 2008 auto show in Beijing Sunday, April 20, 2008. On April 21, it was reported that hybrid sales jumped 38 percent in 2007, even as overall vehicle sales dropped 3 percent. One analyst says the rising cost of gasoline may affect some buyers, but many are buying because there are so many more options available and consumers now trust the technology.
A slip cover made from multi-colored thread scraps is shown at the Environment Furniture display at the High Point Market in High Point, N.C., Monday, April 7, 2008. There's a growing movement toward furniture that touts recycled materials, wood collected from certified sustainable forests, cushions created from soy, vegetable-based stains and enviromentally-sound fabric and foam.
Students from the Institute of Collaborative Education, build molds for concrete at ReBuilders Source in the Bronx section of New York, March 27, 2008. The newly opened store sells building materials donated by demolition or construction contractors, home renovators and hardware stores with surplus inventory, offering an alternative to the landfill for building supplies that normally might get thrown into the trash.
The Red Stag Supper Club, shown March 11, 2008, opened in the fall of 2007, and is one of the few in the country recognized for it's environmentally friendly design. Restaurateur Kim Bartmann says she found her inspiration in the old-style supper clubs she grew up near in rural Wisconsin, but built it using many recycled materials including the bar top, bar stools and many of the tables and chairs.
Eco-savvy consumers are realizing they no longer need to rely on traditional pesticides, which may pose health risks, to combat rodents and insects. Environmentally friendly exterminating services, dubbed integrative pest management, are popping up across the nation.
More towns around the country are committing to "going green." In Cherry Hill, N.J. for example, the township is switching to lower-energy traffic lights, offering residents incentives to recycle and even looking into putting solar panels on a municipal building.
For eco-minded travelers, the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco has created a number of eco-suites. The decor includes a coffee table made of leather recycled from Lexus vehicles, eco-friendly fabrics, an organic mattress system, towels and robes, environmentally friendly paint, and mini-bars filled with local organic wines and cheeses. The $869 plus tax per night cost includes use of a Lexus low-emission luxury car.
It's no longer enough to live a greener life, now people are being encouraged to be environmentally friendly when they leave the Earth too. Cardboard coffins, shell-shaped urns and fireworks that can be packed with people's ashes were met by smiles at the Natural Death Center's Green Funeral Exhibition Saturday in London on April 19, 2008.
Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags annually; less than 1 percent are recycled. In 2007, San Francisco banned plastic bags in the city's larger stores. Seattle's mayor wants to charge 20 cents per bag. Ikea plans to ban them in October. Beginning April 22, 2008, Whole Foods won't use them. Most stores sell reusable bags made of cloth or recycled plastic.
Reusable bags only work if you remember to have them with you. Hand bag designer Anya Hindmarch's "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" cloth shopping totes became a must-have fashion accessory in New York and London when the bags went on sale in limited supply for $15 each in April and July 2007.
These outfits may be over the top for everyday wear, but they sport an important message. The dresses modeled at the Eco Chic fashion show in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 3, 2008, are all made from recycled items, including plastic flowers, cooking wicks, bamboo, computer chips, bamboo, plastic wrap and and corn husks.
Rudolph the Recycling Reindeer is seen in one of the holiday windows at Barneys New York on New York's Madison Avenue, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. In keeping with the store's switch to eco-conscious catalogs and recycled shopping bags, each of the themed "Give Good Green" holiday windows had a green-related theme.
Over the holidays, many of Christmas trees lighting up state Capitols used energy efficient LED bulbs. The 84-foot-tall Norway spruce at Rockefeller Center in New York sported energy saving bulbs and organizers planned to recycle the tree, using it as lumber for Habitat For Humanity projects in New York, the Gulf Coast, India and Brazil.