150 miles north of Toronto is the most extraordinary wilderness, Algonquin Provincial Park. If you own a car, it is an easy drive on good highways. If you don’t it is not so easy; a bus or train to Huntsville, an expensive taxi ride or hitchhike in; for camping, just like anything else, the system is easy and convenient for cars and difficult for the rest. If we are going to get people out of cars, this has to change.

And it is changing; this year a new non-profit called Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photos: NineMSN, GoGet, ChargePoint.

It was 2005 when we last reported on Australia’s pioneering car share business GoGet. The guys have been going places since then, figuring that their service now keeps the equivalent of more than 230 cars off the road, through their more than 26 car share pods in four states (though we suspect the…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photos via Jaymi Heimbuch

S.P.R.Out (Seed and Plant Resource Outreach) is a non-profit seed and plant library based in West Marin, and while the project is one that many gardeners are thankful for, it’s also an exercise in nursing along an idea. S.P.R.Out founder Medea Aranda was working hard to not only expand the library, but also just simply keep it going. She spoke with us about her model for the organization, as well as some of the challenges that make seed libraries – indeed most lending libraries – a labor of love….Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via Bob n Renee

Garage sales rock as a way of getting rid of stuff you don’t need anymore, and for finding those random little things you do need. Thrift shops are also a fantastic option. But in these tech-centric times, online is usually an even easier, fast, and effective way to trade or sell your stuff. Craigslist, eBay and Freecycle are old staples, but the new kid on the block is NoLongerNeedIt.com – and this site brings a whole new level of professionalism to secondhand shopping. …Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via Google LatLong Blog

So far, the iPhone has been a traveler’s best friend when it comes to easy apps for getting from place to place. But Google wants to ramp up its Android offerings and compete a little more, so now users can get directions for biking – which was only recently added to Google in the first place – shortcuts for driving, destination sharing among friends, and other features that make moving around mu…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Images via Granola

There’s a plethora of programs that help you trim the power consumption of your computer by switching how quickly it goes into sleep mode, timed shut-downs and so on. But what about while we’re using the computer? For many of us, our computers are far more powerful than we really need them to be – especially for those of us who simply check email, catch a few news articles, use word processing programs or treat it as a place to store digital photos. Yet, your computer can be sucking up a…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via iTunes

In the utterly confusing mass of green labels, there’s a ray of hope. When you head to the store and start sifting through the stamps of “fair trade,” “all natural,” “organic,” “certified,” and so on, you need something on hand to help you make sense of them all and decide which are real and which are greenwash. Luckily, a new app by the Natural Resources Defense Council is helping you stay sane while searching for the most ecofriendly products. …Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit: Good

Peak oil, many argue, will lead to a hyperlocal revolution. It’s not a new idea and, for one community in Portland, Oregon, it’s quickly becoming a reality….Read the full story on TreeHugger

Alastair Fuad-Luke at ESDi’s 1st International Congress of Design and Innovation of Catalonia. Photo by Miriam Millán

Designers should get away from ego-design and concentrate on eco-design, or even better, on co-design as Alastair Fuad-Luke believes. Designer Gui Bonsiepe commented in his speech at ESDi School of Design in Spain last week that we need to amplify design from environmentally sustainable to socially sustainable. Can that be the way to post-crisis design? And, How do we balance industrial skills with the ability to work with other people?, is …Read the full story on TreeHugger

Trinity College, Dublin

TreeHugger loves Product Service Systems, where you borrow and share instead of own. They are also called libraries, and Kris De Decker of No-Tech Magazine points us to a lovely post by Brian Kaller, a former newspaper reporter now living in rural Ireland. He loves his local library, but more importantly, writes about the principle beh…Read the full story on TreeHugger