Before I tell you about my test drive this week of the new, all-electric Nissan Leaf, a disclaimer: If you’re looking for a review packed with performance stats (or any mention of the word torque), you’re out of luck; my experience with cars consists of putting about 4,000 miles a year on a fairly battered 2004 manual transmission Volkswagen Jetta that my husband refers to as Robocar.

(Before that, I lived for eight years sans car in Philadelphia, then Boston, then New York City; before that, I had a 1985 VW Cabriolet that spent more time on a AAA tow truck than it did on the road.)

OK, now the test drive results. Here’s what I can tell you about the Nissan Leaf:

It’s a real car. This may sound silly, but I think people expect electric cars to feel more like a toy than an all-purpose vehicle that you could take on the highway, on a road trip, and up in the mountains to go camping. The Nissan Leaf is not a novelty; when you’re in it, you would never know that it’s an “alternative” vehicle, save for the ultra-quiet driving experience and the fact that you’re fueling it for practically free.

Read the rest of the review here.

Since the BP oil spill, I’ve become pretty much consumed trying to eliminate every last possible petroleum-based product from my daily routine. I know my actions aren’t going to stop the spill directly, but it feels good to know that I may be helping to reduce our reliance on oil in the long run. As Amanda Little, author of Power Trip, has said, we need to save what little oil we have left for “its best and highest use,” finding sustainable alternatives wherever possible.

To that end, today’s featured alternative is a totally nifty product called EcoCradle. You know those big pieces of polystyrene that are used to cushion the ends of furniture and electronics in shipping boxes? Well, instead of being made from petroleum, EcoCradle is manufactured (actually grown, using a living organism) from agricultural byproducts like cotton burrs and buckwheat hulls. The process uses a mere one-tenth of the energy required to make synthetic polystyrene.

Read the whole story here.

Methane. It’s what led to the explosion that caused the Deepwater Horizon to burn and sink in the first place, unleashing a torrent of crude into the ocean that has now surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst oil spill in United States history. The gas is also still being released along with the oil: According to BP, the mixture spewing from the ocean floor is about half methane and other gases, and half petroleum compounds. Oh, and it’s a greenhouse gas that’s 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

A powerful greenhouse gas. That makes up half of the estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons of oil leaking each day. Of which an unknown portion is escaping into the atmosphere. Why is no one talking about this?

When I contacted Jeff Chanton, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University who has been closely following the BP spill, he was quick to point out that the immediate short-term threat to the ecosystem in the Gulf, is, of course, the oil itself. But, he says, “Methane is undeniably bubbling out with this oil and escaping to the atmosphere. This will exacerbate the greenhouse effect.”

How much so is not so clear. Based on Chanton’s recent research looking at natural oil seeps on the sea floor, he estimates that anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of the methane released might make its way into the air. This, he says, is because the oil actually forms a protective coating around the methane bubbles, allowing the gas to escape to the surface instead of being dissolved in seawater and consumed by natural methanotrophic bacteria.

“We looked at several sites this past summer, and at one of the sites, the natural seep was very oily,” he says. “At the site that was very oily, we did find elevated methane concentrations in the atmosphere over the site. But another site that was more shallow, where the bubbles were not oily, we didn’t see that. So the oil helps the methane get to the surface by kind of armoring the bubbles and then they don’t dissolve as much.”

So now, for the holy cow analysis: For calculation’s sake, let’s use the natural gas leakage figure given last week by BP: 15 million cubic feet a day (although based on BP’s oil spill estimate at that time of 5,000 barrels a day, that figure is probably a lot higher).

According to the EPA Interactive Units Converter:

1 cubic foot (CF) methane (CH4) = .04246 pounds of CH4
15 million CF CH4 x .04246 = 636,900 pounds CH4 = 318.5 metric tons CH4
318.5 metric tons CH4 = 6,066.9 metric tons CO2 equivalent a day

For comparison, that’s more than a third of daily CO2 emissions for the entire New York metro area.

Any other number crunchers want to take a crack at it?

The Shanghai World Expo is set to open this Saturday–the largest world’s fair in history, with more than 70 million people expected to attend–and I think it’s mighty neat that an American design firm was chosen to design the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion.

ESI Design, based in New York City, was tasked with creating a building that would express Shanghai residents’ dreams for the city’s future, including a greater commitment to environmental responsibility. The resulting 40,000-square-foot masterpiece, dubbed the “Dream Cube,” achieves that and then some, with an exterior made of transparent recycled (and recyclable) polycarbonate tubes filled with LEDs; a solar thermal system that generates electricity and heats water for the pavilion; and rainwater collection for a misting system that will help keep visitors cool and add to the general dreamlike aura of the exterior.

More interactive adventure than structure, the Dream Cube invites visitors on a kaleidoscopic journey whose details I won’t even begin to describe here, for fear you’ll think I’ve ingested a dose of peyote along with my morning coffee. But the experience sounds and looks magical, to say the least. Take a glimpse for yourself by clicking here.

It may only be March, but I already know what I’m putting at the top of my green holiday wish list: A 2011 Nissan Leaf. It was announced yesterday that the electric vehicle (EV) will be available for both purchase and lease in select markets in December.

It may even be possible to realize my wish, thanks to a hefty federal tax credit of $7,500 that will knock the price of the Leaf down to $25,280. That credit will also be factored into leasing deals, which are expected to start at $349 a month. And because I live in the state of California, where an additional $5,000 tax rebate is available, the cost could be even lower. (Green car enthusiasts living outside the Golden State need not feel excluded; $5,000 and $1,500 tax credits are available in Georgia and Oregon, respectively.)

The Leaf may not seem as affordable as, say, a Honda Fit, but factor in the operating costs and the Leaf starts to look pretty tempting: Charging the Leaf for 100 miles will set you back a mere $3 in electricity costs; compare that with the more than $11 in gasoline to drive the same distance in the 2009 Fit (based on the current national average fuel price of $2.94 a gallon). Plus, the prospect of never again having to stop at a gas station is pretty compelling. Take that, ExxonMobil!

An electric vehicle isn’t without environmental cost, however. EVs increase demand for electricity — and if the electricity from your utility isn’t coming from a green source like solar or wind, you could be passing the buck to coal-fired power plants.

Read the whole story here.

Local food enthusiasts often use the term farm-to-plate; meaning, the way in which most of our food makes its way from its source to our dinner table. The average American meal travels nearly 1,500 miles before we even take our first bite, consuming large quantities of carbon-emitting fossil fuels over the course of its journey. It stands to reason, then, that if you want to reduce your impact on the planet, you should shop locally whenever possible.

But most city dwellers and suburbanites (myself included) who frequent weekly farmers markets to savor just-picked produce still have no idea what really goes on at the farm; the love and care, for instance, it takes to turn the milk of a grass-fed cow into that Point Reyes Blue you so greedily gobble up with your glass of Pinot Gris. After all, when was the last time you brought your plate to the actual farm?

It’s forging this kind of connection that is at the heart of Outstanding in the Field, which brings together the people who raise our food with the people who eat it, in a kind of utopian farm-dinner dining experience. Every summer, the OITF team tours the country, orchestrating alfresco family-style feasts that feature the talents of top local farmers, chefs, winemakers, and food artisans. And the settings are spectacular: Aside from the traditional farm mise en scène, former dinners have been staged in pastoral gardens, on majestic mountain tops — even in a secluded sea cave.

At $220 per person, an Outstanding in the Field dinner is, for most, a once-in-a-lifetime experience (the perfect green wedding gift, perhaps?). But at least you get bountiful bang for your buck: The price includes a five-course meal with wine pairings, gratuities, purveyor discussions, and a tour of the farm.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to splurge this year, just don’t hesitate when the tickets for the 2010 season go on sale this Saturday (at 9 am Pacific Time, according to the website — they’re not messing around): Last year’s events sold out within hours of their announcement.

Click here to see the North American tour schedule.

Warning: If you’re a man who didn’t grow up with sisters, you may be a bit squeamish when it comes to the following topic; but stay with me — this is important stuff.

When trolling the feminine care aisle, most of us give little thought to the matter at hand beyond how to get rid of those cramps and preferred absorbency. Judging by the plethora of plastic out there, the environment isn’t much of a consideration, either, despite the fact that 12 billion pads and tampons are sent to US and Canadian landfills every year. But in developing nations like Rwanda, menstruation is a matter of survival: Millions of girls and women miss up to 50 days of school or work a year because they can’t afford to buy sanitary pads.

One woman, Harvard Business School grad Elizabeth Scharpf, has come up with a way to change all this, and to do it in a way that actually helps the environment: sanitary pads made from trash-bound banana-tree fibers. As if this weren’t amazing enough, Scharpf and her Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) organization are working to help Rwandan women set up their own businesses manufacturing these pads. (Farmers benefit, too — they now get paid for those banana-tree fibers that were once thrown out.)

This is world-changing stuff: Scharpf shared the stage with Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative last September.

I came across Scharpf’s story in the February issue of Marie Claire, but that article is not online, unfortunately. Read more about the incredible work Scharpf and her team are doing by visiting the SHE blog.

Photo via Flickr: Nexeus Fatale

Well, wonder no longer: Evidently with Christmas fast approaching and the economy in the toilet, some Freecyclers are getting greedy, turning the message boards into a personal holiday wishlist.

Read the whole story here.

My friend is up for one of the coveted internships at Polyface Farm, that near-utopian model of sustainable agriculture of The Omnivore’s Dilemma fame. He just returned from his interview at the farm in Virginia’s verdant Shenandoah Valley (he finds out about the internship in January — fingers crossed!), and forwarded me a couple photos from the hoop houses that are home to the chickens and rabbits in the wintertime.

He writes:

Here is a picture of one of the hoop houses with chickens and rabbits stacked together. The rabbit droppings fall through the floor and the chickens love to scratch through them so they are composted into the soil. Also, since their urine goes through the cage and into the soil it is not strongly ammonia and burning the rabbits’ lungs. Did you know industrially raised rabbits are the most heavily medicated of all CAFO animals?

Here’s a zoomed-in look at this closed-loop hoop house in action:

I was surprised to hear that about rabbits, since I didn’t even know there was a market for rabbit meat large enough to justify industrial production. I thought it could possibly be for their fur, since mukluks will be hot as long as Kate Moss is sporting one of her many pairs, but my friend informed me that there was, indeed, a year-long wait list at Polyface for rabbit meat before the farm stopped bothering with the list altogether.

Could sustainably raised bunnies, cute as that sounds, be an abundant source of organic meat for the world? Think about it — they’re relatively easy to care for, are pretty darn tasty (I’ve been told), and reproduce like, well, rabbits.

Since reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about where our food comes from, and this has led me to now question nearly every food purchase I make, from produce to eggs. It’s no longer enough for me to buy organic; as anyone who’s ever seen Chilean-grown organic asparagus at Whole Foods in the dead of winter can attest, sometimes organic food comes with as high a carbon footprint as its conventional cousin. Bottom line: If you want to lessen your environmental impact and eat the freshest — and thereby most nutritious — fare, buy local.

And what could be more local than farm-fresh eggs from your own backyard?

Read the whole story here.

One (of many) eco encounters in Portland was the Urban Farm Store, which specializes in edible gardening and city chickens. The red clapboard mini-barn of a shop was so adorable that I wanted to buy five flannel shirts, snap up a few chicks (as well as a house in the super cool surrounding Belmont neighborhood), set up my very own urban homestead, and never look back.

Alright, I’m sure there’s a bit of work (and poop-shoveling) involved in planting a bountiful garden and raising egg-laying hens, but Urban Farm Store proprietors Robert and Hannah Litt make it seem so darn easy — even for a city slicker like me — thanks to their free bimonthly chicken-keeping classes and the tips they regularly Tweet (cheep). Looks like their stellar customer service is paying off, too: The Urban Farmers are moving to a new, larger store today, just a couple blocks from the old location.

I’ve been pretty obsessed with all things DIY since attending a workshop by Homegrown Evolution founders Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne a few months back. As they said in their opening remarks, when it comes to doing your part for the environment, what sounds like more fun: screwing in a compact fluorescent bulb or brewing your own beer and raising chickens? (Change your light bulbs too, though.)

Stay tuned for my vblog about the urban chicken movement in Los Angeles.