Everyone deserves a vacation … and now there are more options than ever for Earthkeepers wanting their time away to be restful, relaxing and environmentally-considerate:

• Organizations like the International Ecotourism Society and the Green Hotels Association can help you locate environmentally-responsible destinations, lodges and tours around the world.
• Through sites such as Carbonfund.org, TerraPass.com and Carboncounter.org you can calculate the environmental impact of your travel, then compensate for that impact by purchasing carbon offsets.
• For one-stop shopping, many travel sites including Orbitz and Expedia now allow you to browse energy-efficient hotels, book hybrid rental cars and buy carbon offsets for your trip.

Even given the bounty of green travel options and resources, many are still finding it easier – and less expensive – to vacation in their own backyard.  If you’re among those looking to get away from it all without really getting away, check out greenliving’s rules for a successful “staycation” (rule #3 is our favorite).

Enjoy … and don’t forget your sunscreen.

In Chicago, a group of 13-year old kids are spending their summer not singing campfire songs or tying lanyards, but learning about geothermal heating and cooling, greenroofs and other elements of sustainable design.

The best part?  The program has inspired these teenagers to draw up plans and make recommendations for how to green the cultural center building where they meet twice a week, turning their summer learning into sustainable action.

Earthkeeper hero Elizabeth Redmond spent a day with these teens last week to talk alternative energy and share her POWERleap technology, resulting in a great hands-on, active learning experience for everyone.

Elizabeth shares more photos and her thoughts about the day over on Changents.com.  For more coverage of POWERleap, check out this recent blog post on EcoGeek or last week’s alternative energy program as heard on the Boston-based National Public Radio show, Here and Now.

Green is good, no doubt about it … but it’s so easy to get caught up in our Earthkeeping desire and responsibility to purchase nothing but the greenest that we sometimes run the risk of buying things we don’t really need.  As Dunn points out, “Recycling is great; buying green is great; but they both take energy and resources that can be saved by having something that will last a lifetime.”

For a sharper, deeper dive into the environmental impact of our production and consumption habits — and how we can change those habits – visit Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff website.  If you haven’t seen it, Leonard’s Story of Stuff video offers a thought-provoking glimpse at how the consumable goods cycle impacts our lives (including the staggering statistic that 99% of the “stuff” we buy gets disposed of after a mere six months):

You’ll never look at your iPod the same way again.

Once upon a time, fuel-efficient vehicles were the ride of choice only for a subgroup of environmentally-enlightened extremists … but with gas prices topping out at more than $4 a gallon nationwide, “stingy sippers” are increasingly popular with consumers who are interested in saving a buck along with the planet.

If you’re in the market for a new car but unsure how to make heads or tails of all the fuel-efficient hype out there, Car & Driver recently rated the most fuel efficient vehicles in the US … and fueleconomy.gov offers some excellent pointers on how to increase your miles per gallon, no matter what you’re driving.

Finally, for those of you wondering exactly how much of your paycheck you’re pouring into your gas tank, check out CNN.com’s “Hours for Gallons” calculator. 

Drive safely.

• 49% of survey respondents said a company’s environmental record is important in their purchasing decisions … but that number dropped to 21% when consumers were asked if this had actually driven them to choose one product over another.
• When asked why most companies that adopt environmentally friendly practices do so, the most common response (47%) was “to make their company look better to the public.”

So how do you separate fact from fiction in today’s green marketing epidemic — and how can you make it work for you?  Courtesy of BusinessWeek.com, here’s environmental marketing expert Scot Case lending insight and suggestions on how to be a more eco-savvy shopper:

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TriplePundit’s Tom Schueneman, who was so enthralled with the site he became a member, writes, “Truly, the more I got into working my Changents story, the more excited I became about the possibilities of the platform.”

Innovation, energy, powerful possibilities … all the reasons we get excited about Changents, too.

Our thanks to TriplePundit and Tom for sharing his Changents experience … and kudos to the Changents team (including our Earthkeeper Heroes) for making that experience so worthwhile.

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 From the folks at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, here are a few more reasons to buy local this summer:

1. Local produce tastes better and it’s better for you.
   Fresh produce loses nutrients quickly; food grown in your own community was probably picked within the past day or two … and tastes like it.
2. Local food supports local farm families.
   Fewer than one million Americans now claim farming as their primary occupation (less than 1%) – and they make, on average, less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar.  Buying directly from local farmers puts more money in their pocket and helps them stay in business.
3. Local food preserves open space and supports a clean environment.
   By supporting local agriculture, you help to protect your region’s farmland from urban sprawl and development and help preserve open spaces, natural ecosystems, and biodiversity.

For further inspiration and assistance, the Local Harvest website provides a comprehensive national directory of farmers’ markets, farm stands and other sources of locally grown food … and FoodRoutes provides tools and information for sustainable farming and local food system advocates, including mapping technology to help you find good food near you.

Big Green Bus blogger Andrew Zabel notes, however, that even the simple pleasure of skiing down a snowy slope on a sunny day is not without guilt:    “… the carbon dioxide emissions from lifts, or in the case of our July adventure, an SUV, reduce the likelihood that we’ll get to enjoy a similar experience in the future.  In a warmer world, mountain snowpack in the Rockies will rarely if ever last into July.”

The good news?  The experience left the bussers relaxed, rejuvenated, and all the more committed to their journey in the name of alternative fuel education.

Click here for more breathtaking snow photos and here for the rest of the blog post about the Big Green Bus team’s summer ski adventure.

The debate centers around a report issued by WWF which suggests that “marketing” approaches to creating environmentally-responsible behavior change are inadequate, and that the consumer-friendly message that small and painless steps can ultimately lead to larger-scale impact is misguided. 

The WWF report and subsequent blog post led to a healthy debate on whether small steps can actually save the world.  Comments following the WorldChanging blog post ranged from “there’s nothing small about individuals taking personal responsibility” to “the huge problems facing us cannot be solved with the use of ‘greener’ bulbs.”  Following WorldChanging’s post, Treehugger also weighed in, stating, “To deride a small step as useless is to deride a single vote as ineffective, but that is what will make change happen.”

Clearly, a hot topic for Earthkeepers everywhere … and we think that’s a good thing.  The more voices lending insight and opinion to the discussion, the more we collectively learn … and the more ideas we generate about how to solve the problem.  Our thanks to WorldChanging for stirring the pot.

Read on to see what some of our favorite green blogs and websites have to say about the opportunities and challenges of greening your green space:

• At Ecolocalizer.com, Jason Philip highlights an all-too-common lawn care crisis – chemical dependency – as well as some staggering statistics about the environmental impact of lawn maintenance.
• The folks at lowimpactliving.com offer 12 easy ways to modify your lawn and yard care to minimize your environmental footprint.
• Katharine Wroth over at Grist laments her experience with a reel mower.
• Sprig.com recently talked with a team of edible-lawn landscapers looking to green the planet, one yard at a time.