Recycling plastic bags - small things

I watched a friend of mine's dogs for a few days, and she provided their food rationed out in plastic ziplock bags. When It was her turn to watch my dog, I reused those baggies to provide my dog's food.

Use the heat from your dryer to heat your house

Why waste all that energy you're using to dry your clothes? Divert the hot air from your dryer into your house with an inexpensive and simple to install diverter.




http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004YWK2?tag=tidbandstuf-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B00004YWK2&adid=02NKFDYR76ERR0BAQ4CE&

Plant a Row for the hungry

http://www.gardenwriters.org/Par/

Shade-grown coffee

keeps rainforests from being torn down to grow coffee unsustainably.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
more info here: http://www.shadecoffee.org/shadecoffee/

Mercury thermometers and medicine disopsal

if you're in the SF Bay area, go to this site to find out what to do with your old medicines and mercury thermometers... http://baywise.org/

Hydroponic Garden Pots

These great pots use a soil-less potting medium and feed the plants hydroponically, allowing the roots to gather nutrients without using a lot of soil to do so, and allowing the gardener to grown a large amount of plants and veggies in a small space.

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/hydroponic.html

send your #5 plastics here...

http://www.recycline.com/

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

the US government's energy laboratory site, there some interesting info here...

http://www.nrel.gov/

Recycled glass products

Based in Seattle, WA this place takes your old glass and makes cool glass tiles, tumbled glass, and art glass.

http://www.bedrockindustries.com/

Human-powered Gyms

http://cleantechnica.com/2008/08/27/green-gym-uses-human-powered-energy/

Green Tech Log

blog about technology

http://greentechnolog.com/

http://earthfirst.com/

Recycling Rechargeable Batteries

They are in your phones, laptops, drills, when you replace these items, please be sure to recycle the rechargeable battery that came with it...

http://www.rbrc.org/

Eneloop Batteries

http://www.eneloopusa.com/eneloop.html

lazy gardening

use any land you may have in the city to grow food.

Someone else does all the work, you get fresh veggies...

http://www.myfarmsf.com/about.html

Resources for green business Leaders

http://www.sustainableindustries.com/

Huddler green home

Online Green Community

http://greenhome.huddler.com/

Eco Promotional Items

This company, Eco Imprints, specializes in ecologically-friendly promotional items and logo-wear such as these Recycled pencils made from 50% recycled paper.



http://www.ecoimprints.com/

Make your large conferences green...

from the site: Use the MeetGreen® Calculator to track your conferences' environmental practices, benchmark the progress and discover areas for improvement. This innovative tool will give you valuable information about where your meeting practices are currently and how to make your meetings even greener in the future.

https://www.meetgreen.com/

if the steep cost of the test, certificate is too much... they also offer a book for $30

Green Hotel Chains

Starwood Hotels & Resorts this week opened the doors of its first Element brand hotel in Lexington, Mass. The goal is the have a chain of eco-friendly hotels. also Starwood will open the "1" chain of hotels as well. The firm plans to build all its “1” hotels to meet LEED standards. The level of LEED certification it hopes to achieve will vary from building to building, says Starwood spokesperson Tom Johnson.

Plans for other “1” hotels are underway in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and Paris, France.

Eco Metro Guide

At Andronico's grocery in Berkeley today I saw this Eco Guide which essentially a entertainment guide for the eco-friendly world. It costs $20 but is full of coupons and info for local communities. They are avail for the East SF Bay area, Portand, Eugene OR, Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St.Paul), and Seattle. Get yours here:

http://www.ecometro.com/

3 Floors down

Today as I was leaving work, I had to use the restroom, but the one on our floor was being cleaned so I stopped 3 floors down to use theirs. First, The bathroom itself was SO much nicer than the one on our floor...but the other thing I noticed was that they installed dual flush handles on their toilets...they are made by Sloan.

http://waterefficiency.com/products.html

RiverKeeper Kayak Trips

Riverkeeper is hosting some summer kayak trips down the Hudson River where you can learn about the history of the river and it's environment, and get some summer kayaking in...
http://www.riverkeeper.org/events_story.php/1523

More info on RiverKeeper: They have been making sure the watersheds that feed into the Hudson are not polluted and keep the drinking water safe. I'm glad to see someone is out there making sure NY doesn't turn into a cesspool...

http://www.riverkeeper.org/

Precision Watering

One way to reduce your water usage (especially in California where we are experiencing drought conditions) is to use this awesome little sprinkler head that allows you to water oddly-shaped planting areas without waste.

Get one here:
http://www.noodleheadsprinkler.com/product_options_for_the_noodlehead_sprinkler_systems.html

Green Pots

My mom sent me a cooking pot set that is supposed to be healthier for you to cook with and eat from than Teflon.

They are big in the UK, and only avail through the HSN in the US, here's a writeup about them from http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifKitchenCritic

Get Paid to Recycle

A guy in PA was frustrated that we had maxed out our recycling out of the goodness of our hearts (or guilt), and decided to take it to the next level by paying your for your garbage. And so started RecycleBank.

So far, they are available in NY, Philly and Ontario...There are rumors of expansion to the West Coast.

http://recyclebank.com/

Building reuse directory

Find a building salvage yard near you using the Building Materials Reuse Association diretory.

http://www.buildingreuse.org/directory/

Nellie's has a new site...

Nellie's, makers of non-toxic detergents and those awesome dryer balls, have redesigned their site, and it's worth a visit...

http://www.nelliesallnatural.com/

Lawn info

Great anti-turf lawn site... "the art and science of the american lawn" lot's of info on lawn maintenance and impacts to our greatest natural resource, fresh water.

http://www.naturemuseum.org/lawn/

mindset car

Swiss company Mindset have a concept car, designed by former Volkswagen designer Murat Guenak that they are aiming to have in production soon... a hybrid with solar back-up.

http://www.mindset.ch/

Green Toys

Made from recycled milk cartons, and made right here in California, these are a great alternative to the plastic toys made out of the country.

http://www.greentoys.com/

"Green" billboard

This is kinda cool...McDonald's made a living salad billboard...it grew over 16 weeks, so the message appeared slowly on the billboard. I wonder if they composted it when it came down?

http://www.foodfacts.info/blog/2007/10/mcdonalds-living-salad-billboard.html

All recycled Office supplies

Find nothing but recycled office supplies at this site:

http://www.treecycle.com/index.html

Biobling

A service that connects people to green cars and the fuel that runs them.

http://biobling.com/

also find biofuel here: http://www.nearbio.com/

Algae-Powered Van

Check out the story at Jalopnik:

http://jalopnik.com/394479/sears-tower-or-bust-my-algae+powered-car-adventure

Chevy Volt Gets Green Light?

It's rumored that The Board of Directors gave the green light to funding the Chevy Volt. My main question is why does GM have such a micro-managing Board of Directors? Don't they trust their employees to make smart decisions? This is probably the source of GM's tumble from the top.

Diesel Hybrid

http://www.lincvolt.com/

This guy is my hero, he's taking a 1959 Lincoln Continental Mk IV convertible, and putting a diesel-electric hybrid powertrain in it.

It's been a pipe dream of mine to do the same with one of my Cadillacs (well maybe not exactly a diesel-electric hybrid, but you know, something similar). Icant wait to see how this turns out.

http://www.lincvolt.com/

Hybrid cars

There's a whole slew of hybrids coming onto the market, so the "unique" styling of the Prius, or the crappy little Civic are no longer your only options to be greener... check out this site for a list of the options.

http://www.hybridcars.com/shop-by-technology/hybrid

Less toxic Coolant

Today while buying supplies for my car, I paid the extra dollar for the less-toxic coolant. It's supposed to not kill your cat or dog if they happen to drink it, and be slightly more friendly to the enviornment.

Five great things you do when you buy organic cotton

Protect our fisheries
Runoff containing pesticides from cotton fields killed 240,000 fish in Alabama in 1995.

Prevent chronic health problems in Egyptian cotton workers
In the 1990s, fifty percent of Egyptian cotton workers suffered from chronic pesticide poisoning, including neurological and vision disorders.

Prevent health disorders in some of the poorest workers in the world
Chances are that famous-label tee shirt you're wearing was made in Bangladesh where ninety-one percent of Indian men working in cotton eight plus hours/day suffered illnesses related to chromosonal aberrations and cell death.

Save American lives
Each year, more than ten thousand Americans die from cancer associated with pesticides.

The life you save may be your own
A third of a pound of fertilizers and pesticides are used in the growth and production of every cotton t-shirt you pull over your head.

Green Phones?

I can't wait to fins out more about this...

Nokia is planning to launch around 40 new green phone models this year — each comprising biodegradable components that can be easily recycled.

Recycled office supplies

I started a new job and needed to order some basic office supplies...When I got to the sizzors, I was happy to see an eco-friendly alternative.

Recyled Door Pulls

100% recycled Glass door pulls and lead-free pewter from Spectra Decor.

http://www.spectradecor.com/

Portland Bike Routes

http://bycycle.org/regions/portlandor

If you are in portland, this is a great site to figure out what are the best routes for you to take on your route. Hopefully, this will be available to other cites soon.

The Twike

From the site: human-electric hybrid vehicle, designed to carry two passengers comfortably through any weather with speed and style, and without harmful emissions of any kind.


http://www.twike.com/

The Daily Dump

sounds like something your doctor would reccommend, but It's really a composting company...

http://www.dailydump.org/products.htm

Electric ATV

Get your mud on without the CO2
http://www.barefootmotors.com/index.html

Rainwater Hog

Avail at Design Within Reach...



Catch your rainwater for use later... One unit holds 47 gallons of rainwater collected from a downspout, and if a larger capacity is needed, simply attach another Hog. A percentage of the sales of this $650-dollar raincatcher goes to the nonprofit Water Aid. Also in keeping with the eco-conscious Hog, it ships without packaging. Other than a small box holding an Elbow Vent and Connector taped to the unit, the Hog arrives unwrapped and unboxed. 71"x20"x9" this low profile rainwater collector fits easily under a deck or mounted on a wall...

http://www.dwr.com/category/rainwater-hog.do?utm_content=rainhog-040408&utm_campaign=History%2FEducation&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

Wiked Outdoors Blog

This guy is living off the grid in vermont.

http://www.wickedoutdoorsy.com/

Google Maps Bike There Petition

sign it!

http://www.petitiononline.com/bikether/petition.html

Help with computers...

If you are going to buy a new computer, make sure it's the greenest you can get. Check with site like http://www.epeat.net/ to see how green you next purchase is...

EPEAT is a system to help purchasers in the public and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks and monitors based on their environmental attributes.

Smudge Sticks?

I don't really understand what you use a smudge stick for, but I do know that the sale of these is making the CA Ntive plant White Sage very Rare.

This place sells them does that mean they are anti-native plant?http://www.juniperridge.com/

Seems like everyone's talking about Bees

What's happening to them, and what can we do? well, to be honest, I haven't been keeping up, so I'm not sure if they've found a reason, but if you are thinking about fostering a bee hive on your property, check out this article from Bush Farms - It's extreamly informative!

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnewbees.htm

Recycled Umbrella

http://www.themonsoongroup.com/trash.html

The 69 MPG VW

VW couples a new 7-speed DSG transmission with a 1.2-liter, TDI diesel engine and an electric motor capable of operating in all electric mode. The diesel engine puts out a max of 74 hp and 132 kb-ft of torque, and its electric counterpart puts out 20 kW and 103 lb-ft of torque at its peak.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/vw-hybrid-gas-mileage-460325?src=nl&mag=tdg&list=dgr&kw=ist

green lawnmower you can build yourself

it's not cheap!

http://www.arttec.net/Solar_Mower/Parts/List.htm

Rebates for Gardening

Gardening Green Week

Some counties like Santa Clara offer big rebates (Up to $1000 for residential landscapes!) for landscaping with drought-tolerant plants (off of their approved plant list) so you cut back or eliminate water usage in the garden.

Gardens

Gardening Green Week

Jepson Herbaria - Berkeley http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/

Overfelt Gardens Native Plant and Wildlife sanctuary 368 Educational Park Drive, San Jose, Ca 95133http://www.sjparks.org/Parks/Regional%20Parks/OverfeltGardens0107.asp

Filoli Gardens 86 Canola Road Woodside CA (650) 364-8300 x507 http://www.filoli.org/

Strybing Arboretum Golden Gate Park 9th Avenue and Lincoln WaySan Francisco CA 94122 (415) 661-1316 http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/

U.C. Berkeley Botanical GardenCentennial Drive Berkeley CA 94720(510) 643-2755 http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/

East Bay Regional Botanical Garden Tilden Regional Park Wildcat Canyon Road Berkeley CA 94708 (925) 631-6614 for events and classeshttp://www.nativeplants.org/

Sierra Azul Nursery and Gardens 2660 East Lake Avenue (Hwy 152) Watsonville, CA 95076 (831) 763-0939 http://www.sierraazul.com/

U.C.S.C. Arboretum U.C. Santa Cruz Santa Cruz CA 95064 (408) 427-2998www2.ucsc.edu/arboretum/

Gardening Groups

Garden Green Week

California native Plant Society
http://www.cnps.org/

Master Gardeners
http://mastergardeners.org/

Nurseries

Garden Green Week

Bay Area nurseries with CA Natives:

- Annies Annuals (Richmond)
- Natives Here Nursury (Berkeley)
- Orchard Nursury (Lafayette)
- Yerba Buena Nursery (Woodside)
- Mostly Natives (Marin)
- California Nursery (Fulton [Santa Rosa])


Wholesale:
Native Son (So. Cal)
Las Pilitas (So. Cal)
North Coast Native Nursery (Petaluma)

Gardening with natives

Very few of the nurseries that carry native plants seem to be open on the weekends for any length of time.

I was feeling a little down about my goal of creating a hummingbird/butterfly garden with CA Natives, but this weekend, I actually found some. I revisited a nursery I had previously not thought well of (visiting them in January is apparently not a good time). and they had two sections of CA natives. on was tucked way back in the carner, and had 4" pots of plants, not a huge selection, but enough (I bought 3 - a california fuscia, a scarlet monkey flower, and chinese houses plant)and then there was a larger section with 1 & 5 gallon pots that were more shrubs and trees.

Then, I noticed that one of the pots I bought form that nursury had the name of another nurseury in the area that I had been menaing to go to annie annuals, and seeing that Annies carried CA natives, made me want to go there.

Annies is HUGE! and they have a larger section of CA natives I bought about 7 CA Natives (and 3 non-natives for another place in my garden). I'm feeling much better about my plan now.

advertising

Need some help advertising your green business? try these guys out and let us know how it went...

http://www.sustainlanegreenadnetwork.com/publishers.jsp

Blog about conscious spending

http://consciousspending.blogspot.com/

All Edibles

"Berkeley Tetris Garden"

If you're serious about making a change to your lifestyle, you can call these guys to help you.

http://www.alledibles.com/

They will take your yard and make it a productive edible landscape for you to enjoy.

Fake Plastic Fish Blog

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/

this is a great blog from a woman who is trying to reduce her plastic waste. I love this post where she reduced her waste to .6oz:

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2008/02/week-6-results-6-oz-of-plastic-waste.html

nau - clothing

https://www.nau.com/homepage/index.jsp#/shopnau/products/107W802

Heating your greenhouse with the earth

I love this article on using the Earth's stored energy to heat a greenhouse.
Link is to Earthtoys - The renewable energy magazine

http://www.earthtoys.com/emagazine.php?issue_number=03.08.01&article=finch

Live in the city but need a little county?

Nature in The City work to save San Francisco's natural areas. The website acts a a guide to what you can do to help and where the natural areas are in the city for you to enjoy.

http://natureinthecity.org/mtsutro.php

Interesting blog on veggie growing

A canadian blog with some good links!

http://veggie.ca/profile/index.html

Awesome Composting instructions

This is what I've been looking for: simple, general instructions on how to make composting work.

http://www.nature.org/activities/art23424.html

Nature Conservatory website

http://www.nature.org/activities/everydayenv.html

Disposing Old Medications

from an article in USA Today full article here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/painter/2007-04-22-old-medicine_N.htm

•Don't flush old medications unless the patient information packet that comes with a drug specifically advises it (as will still be the case for certain narcotics and other medications that have a high potential for danger or abuse).

•It's OK to throw most prescription and non-prescription drugs in the trash — but only after taking a few steps. Crush pills or dissolve them in water; dilute liquid medications, too. Then mix the drugs with kitty litter, coffee grounds or other unappealing materials. Place the mess in a sealed plastic bag and discard.

•Remove and destroy prescription labels before throwing away original containers.

•Find out whether any sites in your community have legal approval to collect and discard consumers' unused medications. In some states, pharmacies can take back medications.

•When in doubt, ask your pharmacist for advice.

Whatever you do, "don't let medications just sit around," says Catherine Polley, chief policy officer of the pharmacists' group. "Unused, expired medications can be harmful to everyone in the house."

Even if you don't have children or pets, she notes, you are at risk. You might accidentally take old medication yourself or be tempted to use old antibiotics, painkillers or other prescription drugs for a new problem — always a bad idea.

Finding new ways to throw out old drugs won't keep them entirely out of the water system — because an estimated 70% to 80% of drug residues are from human waste — but it can make a difference, Masson says.

Dry Cleaning

"Organic" Dry cleaning is springing up all over the place, but what does it mean? Since The term Organic is not a certification in the dry cleaning industry, who can you trust? Here are some good articles to help you figure out where to go:

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/ask/wetclean

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/ask/drycleaning

http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/latest/812

Bamboo Bike

From the site:
Appropriate for everyday use and for racing. The bike is made from Bamboo that has been smoked and heat treated to prevent splitting.

http://www.calfeedesign.com/bamboo.htm

new kind of solar "panel"

Well, it's really more like astro-turf...

http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20163/

Urban Farm

1/10 acre farm in Pasadena, CA

http://pathtofreedom.com/

Wine with a consciousness

http://www.quivirawine.com/philosophy.php

This place uses solar power, recyled glass for their bottles and organica growing processes

Vegan Footwear

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2008/02/cri_de_coeur_sh.php

Get your Flowers here...

Veriflora - Cetified Sustainably Grown

click on the link called find Veriflora flowers to see a list of places these flowers are available.

http://www.veriflora.org/default.asp

Newspaper Pots

I was doing some planting this weekend, and ran out of pots to start seeds in, so I found these links on how to make pots out of newwspaper.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/newspaperpots.htm

http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/

http://www.raft.net/ideas/Newspaper%20Planting%20Pots.pdf

this one even has a movie to demonstrate: http://www.nuganics.com.au/2008/01/18/how-to-make-seedling-pots-from-newspaper/

Horticultural Blog

A blog by the suthor of the book above, it looks like a british book, but the blog is informative and interesting.


http://perrone.blogs.com/

EcoMoto

http://www.ecomoto.org/ magazine

A blog from TrendHunter about eco trends.

from the home page "EcoMoto is a digest of Environmental Trends, Green Innovation, Electric Cars and Hybrid Cars discovered by our global network of trend hunters."

Growing Vegetables

I didn't realize that our frost date was so early here in Cali. I'm behind on planting my veggies (well some of them).

I found a link to the Farmer's Almanac Frost calendar http://www.almanac.com/garden/frostus.php check out the frost date for your area. If you are planting seeds, you should start some plants indoors read your packet for specific instructions (ususlly 4-6 weeks prior to the last frost date in your area.

Story of Stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

PG&E site

http://www.letsgreenthiscity.com/

Eco Geek

http://www.ecogeek.org

On Vacation...

be back on Monday!

SF Environment

Information for the SF Bay Area on environmental topics.

http://www.sfenvironment.org/index.html

Book

Sometimes thriftyness is confused with being green. I think that's probably where all this anti-green becasue hippies are crazy stuff has come from over the last few decades.

here's an example: The High Art and Subtle Science of Scrounging - Book

Jesse James goes Green?

photo tkaen from autoweek website and tkaen by SCOTT BREITHAUPT

excerpt from article:
"
"I see Al Gore--he's a dork," James said, provoking loud laughter. "I see these people on the Internet, and it's like they just want to take away all the Camaros. Is it just hype or is it real and there will be no gas?

"I know I don't want to go to an electric Formula One race," James said. "At the track it would be like, 'I think they're coming, but I can't hear them.' "

James said his stand on the environment is all about balance." - autoweek magazine

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/FREE/729436743/1528/newsletter01

Why should living green mean make you smelly?

Saffron Rouge - Source for organic skin care and aromatherapy

http://www.saffronrouge.com

less-toxic leather tanning

Here's a link to an article from Treehugger on a less-toxic leather tanning meathod:

excerpt:
"Raghava Rao and a group of researchers at the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) in Adyar have found a simple way to reduce the amount of chemical pollutants involved in tanning by merely reversing the order of tanning and post-tanning steps. By doing so, they were able to cut the amount of chemicals released by 82% and increased energy efficiency by 40%, without observable reduction in quality."

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/eco-friendly_leather.php

Sculpture garden at the dump?

only in SF...

http://www.sunsetscavenger.com/AIR/sculpturegarden.php

Green Consulting

This place has the formula for success:

http://www.deepgreenliving.com/

Rubber flooring

This rubber flooring from ecosurfaces claims to use 100% post-consumer waste and 30% post-industrial waste. But it doesn't say what percentage of the product is each of these ingredients.

http://www.ecosurfaces.com/

Mac claims green

Here's an article form the 7x7 (sf magazine) green blog. I don't know why Ms. Stef McDonald seems so happy about this. Why didn't Apple use recycled instead of recyclable materials to make the new MacBook? We all know they charge enough for their products to be able to buy recycled and their designers are talented enough to make it look gorgeous. But they still choose to use new materials.


A Greener Apple
http://www.7x7sf.com/home_design/green_blog/13907912.html

I've got a tech geek inside of me that comes out on occasion—usually when a friend gets a new gadget or I read a news report on that latest and greatest release on the market. Often I exhibit self-control and hold out. (Do I really need a new cell phone when the one I have works just fine—even if the newest model is so slim and cute?) But sometimes I find myself pulling out my credit card before I can reason with myself.

News reports on the annual Consumer Trade Show in Las Vegas are always tantalizing and then Apple revealed plans for the launch of the MacBook Air last week, and I got pulled in to the reports that revealed that it is more eco-friendly than other models. It’s encased in recyclable aluminum, the inside cables aren’t constructed with nasty PVC (that’s the worst of the plastics), its LED display is more power-efficient and also made without mercury and arsenic, and it meets EnergyStar requirements.

The most environmentally friendly thing for me to do is to hold on to my laptop until it goes, but it’s good to know that when the time comes to replace it, I’ll have greener options.

To find out more about the MacBook Air, check out 7x7sf.com's MacWorld 2008 blog.

Natural store for Pet products

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/default.aspx

Ball seed starters

http://www.ballseed.com/SH_ellepot.aspx

Ordered Seeds

I ordered some seeds from Parkseed, they should arrive next week. I ordered a bunch of organic vegitable seeds, and then some perennial flowers for a butterfly/hummingbird garden I want to plant in the front yard.

My plan is to plant them soon in planting trays that I have left from last year's purchases, and when those run out, I'll make paper oragami cups, or use used paper cups for planting. Then I'll be able to give away extra plants that I won't be using.

Abby Poulette's blog

Who's Abbey Paulette you ask? well she's the web editor for organic gardening, and her blog is great.

http://www.goodnplanty.com/

Green Blog

http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=2405

Fisker Karma

I love it! There are so many new companies springing up to make better cars! not only better for the environment better, but cars that look better as well.

This one is from a company called Fisker (no not the decorative scissor company) but named for Henrik Fisker, designer of some top-shelf autos.

Check out the car and company here: http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/

Organic Flowers

With Valentine's Day just a month away, here is a good option for the mandatory flower-buying. Get organically-grown flowers at Organic Bouquet, which is also the home of the most ginormous bouquet of roses I've ever seen...Which is unfortuanatly sold out through April.

http://www.organicbouquet.com/Index.aspx

Native plant nurserys in the Bay Area

Here are some links from the park conservatory for nurseries around the Bay Area that specialize in Native plants.

http://www.parksconservancy.org/our_work/native_plants/index.asp

Green Rving

Here's a beautifully designed and earth-friendly (though not wallet-friendly) way to explore the great outfoors.

http://www.verdier.ca/

Thanks to Jamie W. for the link