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If you’re looking to green your finances, there are more and more banks offering green incentives to customers. Some banks are also working in earnest on increasing energy efficiency and water conservation in an attempt to reduce their carbon footprint – as well as their long-term operating costs.

A few suggestions on greener banking regardless of where you house your stash:
1. Bank online. By getting online statements, choosing automatic deposit and paying bills online, you're saving trees and reducing the amount of transportation pollutants that occur with paper transactions.
2. Don’t get a receipt at the ATM

If you’re in the market for some home improvements, check with your bank to see if they offer a lower interest rate for eco-friendly purchases. If you’re building a new home, and you’ve invested in materials that increase your home’s energy efficiency, you may qualify for an Energy-efficiency Mortgage. Go here for more information on energy-efficient mortgages. ()

The three “greenest” banks in the US at the moment are Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Wachovia. What makes these banks greener? Depends on the bank ...Read More

It’s that time of year again. Strategy, game plans, sudden death: a time when challengers fall and only the victors remain. Am I talking about the Presidential primaries? Actually, I’m thinking more about the NFL playoffs. As football fans, you probably haven’t been spending sleepless nights thinking of ways to green your Super Bowl. Little did you know how enjoyable this can be. The best way to be environmentally friendly during the playoffs is to drink organic beer! If being green was always this easy, I know a few people who could leave Al Gore in the dust.

If you’re newly green, you don’t want to strain those developing muscles. Start with what’s easy and move on to the more challenging green choices later. Here’s a quick pick of 5 simple green steps to start with:

1. When you’re at the ATM, don’t print a receipt. If all Americans chose not to print their ATM receipts, we would save 2 billion feet of paper – that’s enough to circle the Earth’s equator 15 times.

2. If you’re a Starbuck’s junkie (guilty!), spring for a travel mug. Unfortunately, Starbuck’s cups are NOT recyclable so every cup you throw away can only be landfilled.Read More

In the 2008 presidential race, red and blue won’t be the only colors – how green each candidate is will have more impact on voter’s choices than ever before. In many polls, environmental concerns rank in the top five issues facing the U.S. today, and the majority of candidates have outlined their stance on environmental issues. If the environment is an issue that you consider to be very important when voting for a candidate, Grist has a comprehensive (yet simple) chart that clearly outlines most candidates’ position on everything from cap-and-trade programs to nuclear energy.

A handy little button in the last box on each candidate allows you to delete that candidate from the chart, leaving only the candidates who you want to compare. I have to say, deleting some of these candidates gave me a somewhat twisted pleasure. Grist also offers short synopses of each candidate here.

Take a quick look at the positions of the winners in Iowa and New Hampshire:Read More

My mother is the Holiday Queen. The tree is up the day after Thanksgiving and down on New Year’s Day like clockwork. Holiday decorations are coordinated and complete. Presents are artfully wrapped and cards are mailed on time. This may explain why I am holiday challenged. One Christmas, I actually bought the tree on Christmas Eve as the lot workers were breaking everything down. I got a great deal on the tree, but my son hasn’t let me forget it.

Now that I see the world through greener glasses, it has changed the way I approach the holidays. I’m still not a Holiday Queen, but I am relatively easy on the environment. One of the main pastimes during the holidays is sending cards. Of all holiday cards (or any cards for that matter) the e-card is clearly the most eco-friendly.

Everyone is familiar with the free cards available through hallmark.com, but if you want to really green it up this season, send a card from care2.com. Every time you send an e-card through care2.com, you save one square foot of rainforest. So you’re not only saving a tree by sending an e-card, you’re saving yet another tree.Read More

The main question when it comes to environmentally smart trees for the holidays seems to be, “What’s better: a fake tree or a real one?”

The disadvantages of a fake tree vastly outweigh a real one. First, they’re made from petrochemicals like PVC and since they can NOT be recycled, they all eventually end their lives in landfills, where they will live on for decades to come. Also, 85 percent of fake trees are manufactured in China and shipped to America, creating enormous amounts of pollutants.

However, if you already have a fake tree, either use it ‘till it looks like the one in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special or while it’s in good shape, donate it to Goodwill, so that a family who can’t afford a real tree can get a great deal on your gently used fake one.

A real tree is the clear “green” winner during the holiday season. There are almost 500,000 acres planted with Christmas trees in the US. Each time a tree is cut, three are planted to insure a replacement. All of these trees absorb carbon throughout their lives, keeping tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.Read More

Holiday time is here and now more than ever, there are eco-friendly options for decorations that will make your festivities easier on the environment and your wallet, especially when it comes to lights.