Eco-friendly vehicles are no longer a vision of the future. They are vehicles of the here and now. However, many of the cool new eco-friendly vehicles you see today are designed for one or two people. They are designed for tooting around town or getting to and from work, but what about eco-friendly transportation for families?

Here are 3 cool forms of eco-friendly transportation the whole family can enjoy:

1) Bicycles: When you need to get around town or want to get out with the family, bicycles are a great way to get around. If your kids are old enough, each of them can have their own bike or you can add a bike attachment for younger kids.

Going for a bike ride

It makes for a great family outing and allows the entire family to travel together.

Don’t forget…May is National Bike Month. It’s the perfect opportunity to get you and your family some exercise and enjoy the great outdoors too.

2) Nissan LEAF: If you need a vehicle for a family outing, the Nissan LEAF seems to be a decent choice. With an estimated 100 miles on a single charge, the Nissan LEAF is a sensible option for driving around town, running errands or taking the entire family out for a local excursion.

Charging for the Nissan LEAF can be done in about 8 hours from a home outlet. However, if you need a quick charge, the LEAF can be charged up to 80% capacity in about half an hour using a quick charger.

Image by cliff1066™ via Flickr

One of the nice features of the Nissan EVs is the “EV-IT support function”. This feature connects your vehicle’s on-board transmitting unit to a global data center to provide such information as:

• how far you can go on your current charge,
• available charging stations within range of your destination,
• best time to start charging your car in order to get lower electric rates,
• text messages when your car is fully charged and more.

Take a look at some of the other advantages of having a Zero Emission vehicle. What do you think? Is the Nissan LEAF a vehicle you would consider for your family transportation needs?

3) EcoRoamer: If you are looking at taking a longer family vacation take a look at this EcoRoamer. Promoted as “The world’s first open-source, eco-friendly, family sized, 4×4 overland expedition vehicle“, this vehicle may be just what you need if you are looking for an outdoor adventure.

The EcoRoamer was designed to be environmentally-friendly too. Built on a recycled chassis, rather than buying a new vehicle, the EcoRoamer (and backup generator) are powered by bio-diesel.  Recycled Aluminum/plastic material make up the camper shell.. No plywood was used in the building of the camper either.

Solar panels on the roof and LED lighting help bring the electric impact down. Recycled foam board insulation was used to help lower heating/air conditioning costs. When there is a need for A/C, the 24V DC unit takes energy from the solar panels so neither the engine nor generator need to use fuel in order to keep the trailer cool. Even the toilet is “low emission”….it’s a composting toilet.

More detailed information and photos of the EcoRoamer can be found here.

Also, if you are interested, and in the Southern Arizona Santa Cruz Valley area this coming weekend, EcoRoamer will be at the Overland Expo 2010.

Of course there are many different forms of eco-friendly transportation nowadays, from the simple to the extreme, but no matter where your personal adventures take you, please do check out eco-friendly vehicles, fuel additives, public transportation, eco-tours, etc. If you can have a great time while having less impact on the environment, why not do it?

I’d love to hear what adventures you and your family are planning this year. Do you have any cool eco-friendly family rides in mind?

Image by Muffet (via Flickr)

Valentine’s Day is coming up in just under two weeks, but if you are anything like me, you haven’t quite had a chance to finalize your plans. Should you give flowers? Candy? Exchange cards? What about green or eco-friendly Valentine’s gifts? Well, there are many different ideas to choose from and many ways you could go, but let me give you a few of my favorite eco-friendly ideas for Valentine’s Day:

1) If you are going to go the traditional route e.g. chocolates or flowers, go for the organic variety. I highly recommend Equal Exchange when it comes to organic chocolate. They have chocolate bars (which are currently on sale until Feb 14th), organic dried berries and nuts, organic hot cocoa, organic chocolate and coffee gift bags, etc. You can even get free-shipping (UPS ground in the contingent U.S. only) if you enter the code: chocolatelove. Go for the chocolate/coffee gift bag….a great eco-tasty choice!

When it comes to flowers, California Organic Flowers is a nice choice as they have a wide variety of organic flowers, with many great options under $50. If you want to make your own living bouquet, take a look at this video from California Organic Flowers as they provide some helpful tips on doing your own arrangements.

2) Get away for the weekend. If you are one of those people who likes to get away for Valentine’s Day weekend, how about a trip to the new Aria™ Resort & Casino at the CityCenter in Las Vegas? The Aria is LEED® Gold Certified and features smoke-free walkways, floor to ceiling airflow (to help remove smoke from their casino), energy-efficient lighting, bicycle valets and much, much more. While you are there, don’t forget to relax and indulge in the Aria’s spa services including a heated-stone massage or unwind and breathe in the air from their infused salt room.

If you are looking for a tropical rainforest type get-away, one of the ones on the top of my to-do list is the Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa in Australia. This eco-lodge is located in a 30-acre rainforest valley in Daintree National Park. Their guest rooms are ecologically-friendly treehouses and since they only have 15 of them, you’ll want to book early.

3) If you can’t take time away or would rather stay closer to home, you can do a day trip to a local eco-friendly or green spa. Spa Index has a list of eco-friendly spas you can choose from. (Hint: many of the spas on their list offer discounts for first-time customers.)

If a spa day at home is more your cup of tea, check out these at home spa tips and recipes. You can easily turn your Valentine’s Day into a spa day, without even leaving the comfort of home!

4) If you decide to stay in, make a meal for you and your significant other. What’s nice about making a meal at home is that you control what goes in your meal. You can include fresh or locally-grown fruits/vegetables, pick out a great organic or vegan wine and design your meal so it’s just right for you.

For example, you could start off with a tomato bisque soup,  make a simple grilled BLT panini or a Butternut Squash Enchilada for your main dish and end off with some chocolate-dipped strawberries. But, if you are hoping for romantic evening, you might want to add one or more of these aphrodisiacs into your meal.

5) For those of you with kids, a creative eco-friendly idea for Valentine’s Day is to get outdoors. It doesn’t cost much, it’s a nice way to get some fresh air and a wonderful way to get the kids (and family) to fall in love with nature again. If weather permits, you could pack a picnic lunch and enjoy a meal outdoors. If not, then maybe just a walk…look at the trees, do some bird-watching, maybe take some pictures or pick up some beautiful fallen leaves. Whatever you choose to do, reconnecting with nature is a wonderful thing to do on Valentine’s Day!

6) Make your own Valentine’s Day cards/gifts. Rather than going out and spending between $1.00-$5.00 on a Valentine’s Day card, just make one. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have something lying around that they can use to make a Valentine’s Day card. You can take that junk mail you got or an old magazine and cut it up to make a heart-shaped valentine. You can even use the fallen leaves you and your kids collected to make some creative leaf rubbings or press your leaves/flowers onto a votive cup to make a beautiful candle holder.

Well, those are some of my favorite eco-friendly ideas. What are your favorite eco-friendly ideas for Valentine’s Day? If you have a favorite gift, idea or site you think other readers should be aware of, please let me know. Enjoy your eco-friendly Valentine’s Day!

Image by John E. Robertson (via Flickr)

When it comes to the next great eco-friendly invention (or any cool invention for that matter), we often wonder why we didn’t think of it first. Well, this list is probably no different. Each of these were dreamed up by the young minds of students or graduates who were looking for a more eco-friendly option (and in some cases a little grant money too). Each idea was designed/started with sustainability in mind, so much so these inventions and businesses could actually change the way we think about what’s “normal” and turn it into “what’s viable for the environment”.

1) During the last few month of 2009, The University of Michigan held their annual “1000 Pitches” competition. Students were asked to submit a 1-3 minute video “pitch” of their idea for a new business or product in a variety of different categories. Over 2,100 pitches were received in total. The winner in the Environment category was Shahnoor Amin, a graduate engineering student. He pitched the idea of a portable solar-powered device that would provide lighting and electricity to households in developing countries. Take a look for yourself and see what you think of his idea.

2) Started by two good friends (Bob and Rich) in a dorm room office at Yale University, the next creative eco-friendly invention is YouRenew.com.  As described on their website, YouRenew is “the easiest, fastest and greenest way to turn your old electronic devices into cash.”  Essentially they want to pay you to be good to the environment. Pay you to recycle your old electronic devices and keep them out of the landfills. They want to cut down waste by making “ReCommerce” the commerce of choice.  You can find out a little more about YouRenew.com from this CNN video. But don’t miss checking out their website for corporations too, at CorporateRenew.com.

3) The next one comes from Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, two RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) graduates. You might know them better as the creators of Greensulate™, the mushroom based eco-friendly insulation. This is a particularly creative eco-invention in that they didn’t just come up with a new kind of insulation, their “composite materials are literally grown, harnessing the incredible efficiency of nature”. As a result they ended up with an extremely energy-efficient product made from natural materials. How eco-friendly is that?!

4) Because they didn’t stop with just insulation, this one also goes to Eben and Gavin from ecovativedesign.com for their EcoCradle™. EcoCradle is an environmentally-friendly packaging material grown (yes, grown) using agricultural by-products. But it gets better than that…when it comes time to dispose of EcoCradle packaging, instead of just throwing it in the trash – which you can do, as it will decompose quickly – you can use it as a mulch in your garden or toss it in your composter.  Any way you look at it, EcoCradle is a creative invention that replaces commonly used packaging with an eco-friendly solution.

5) This last one on my list (note: these were in no particular order) came about during a late-night dorm room bull session at MIT. Five students collaborated on what later came to be known as “GenShock“, an energy-producing shock absorber. But not only did they come up with the idea, they went all out and “developed and patented a novel, green technology that can improve a vehicle’s fuel economy by harvesting wasted energy in the suspension.” They estimate their energy-producing shock absorbers will increase a vehicle’s fuel efficiency by 2-10%. Nice! That’s one I’ll have to add to my list of Tips to Lower CO2 Emissions too.

Now, I know there are many more eco-friendly inventions that deserve mention, but these are a few of the ones that caught my eye. Do you know of any recent eco-friendly inventions you feel are worth mentioning? Do you have an eco-invention of your own? Let me know!