Update Your sustainablog Feed

sustainablog.org is up and running, with a snazzy new design and everything. That does include a new feed address, but as Blogger allows me to redirect the Atom feed to Feedburner, all subscribers should still be in the loop. However, if you're not getting sustainablog updates, please resubscribe to the Feedburner address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/rYNO

Look forward to seeing you at sustainablog.org!

sustainablog.org Is Now Live

While we're still working out some issues, one thing that is working for the new version of sustainablog is the URL sustainablog.org. I'd be grateful for your bookmarks...

The design will become more distinct shortly, too... we've got our tech team working night and day to get it all working right and looking pretty. Another blog that we've added, Jennifer Lance's Eco Child's Play, is also up at ecochildsplay.com.

sustainablog is moving...

I mentioned some changes last week, and the first one is nearly complete: sustainablog has moved! While there are some things that still haven't taken effect (like the new URL, http://sustainablog.net, directing to the right place), you can go immediately to the new version of the blog at http://sustainablog.greenoptions.com. Yes, sustainablog is now connected to Green Options -- there's more to tell here, but I'm going to wait until we roll some things out at this weekend's San Francisco Green Fest before spilling my guts completely. And if you'll be at Green Fest, come by and say "Hi!" -- we're in booth 775.

This is just one step in getting sustainablog going strong again... more are on the way. I will publish another post or two here to update you on progress, but will start doing substantive posts at the new site... so come by and say "Hi!" there, too.

Happy Halloween from sustainablog!

So, clearly it's been a really busy month, so I wanted to make to get at least one post up in October! Happy Halloween -- hope you (and the kids, if you've got 'em) are enjoying yourself... maybe with some Fair Trade chocolate...;-)

My unplanned hiatus over the last month stemmed from some monumental efforts by all of us at Green Options to get some developments in place for the San Francisco Green Fest on November 9-11. We've got some big plans, and, if you're in the Bay Area during the Green Fest weekend, come by our booth and see where we're going... we feel pretty certain that our days of being labeled a "Treehugger clone" (and, hey, there are certainly much worse ways to be perceived) are numbered.

You'll be seeing some changes here in the near future, also. While the Vida Verde collective didn't go quite as well as we hoped (it was a busy month for all of us), I'm going to be back here much more regularly in the very near future. I love my work at GO, but, as I was saying to David today, I do miss being a blogger...

I hope you'll come back by... I'll start giving you reasons to do so again. If you're hard up for some sustainability news, come by and visit my StumbleUpon and del.icio.us pages...

Happy Halloween!

sustainablog Joins Vida Verde Collective

Things have slowed down a bit here again as we ramp up for some changes and expansion at Green Options. At the same time, though, the number of posts you'll be seeing here will soon start increasing, as I've accepted an invitation from fellow green web publisher Chris Baskind to join the new Vida Verde publishing collective.

Chris has pulled together a small group of top-notch green bloggers that will share our work with each other. Each week, we all submit an unpublished post, and we're all then free to publish any of those posts on our blogs. I'm really honored to be included in such distinguished company; the other bloggers in Vida Verde are:

• Maria Surma Manka, Maria Energia
• Shane Jordan, The Sietch
• Colin Beavan, No Impact Man
• Bentley Christie, EcoSherpa
• Kevin Bedell, 21st Century Citizen
• And, of course, Chris and Lighter Footstep

It's great to be working with such a talented group of bloggers (and friends... we all know each other pretty well, in the online sense). While I've struggled with the idea of bringing other voices onto sustainablog regularly, I jumped at the chance to feature work from this group. While none of us will publish every post from everyone else each week, I'm looking forward to sharing their thoughts with you.

While this will change the nature of sustainablog a bit, I'm not planning to let these folks do all the work (or have all the fun) -- I'll definitely still have plenty to say!

Categories: vidaverde, publishing, green, blogs, sustainablog

Begging Off...

Long couple of days at work, so I'm going to beg off tonight. That doesn't mean I don't have anything to share, though: been hitting StumbleUpon pretty hard the last few days, and there are many interesting and cool stories out there... take a look.

I'll be back tomorrow... g'night!

A Little of This, A Little of That...

When relaunching sustainablog, I decided to set myself the goal of four substantive posts per week... I know I can do that with the other demands on my time. Every now and then, I'll throw in a "housekeeping" or other kind of post related to the blog itself.

A couple of things on my mind:

1. I want to clean up the sidebar and the blog in general. I'm thinking hard about getting rid of ads for the time being -- it's not like I'm getting rich off of them, and they take up space that I could use for items of more relevance to the sustainablog community. Thoughts?
2. Now that I'm in the web business world, I've been working a lot harder on using social bookmarking and networking programs. Shea's gotten us all really involved with StumbleUpon, so come by my page there. I've also started getting more active with MyBlogLog -- thoughts on making the most of this service? My buddy from AssistGuide, Kendra, just introduced me to GoodReads. And I'd definitely love suggestions on how to make better use of MySpace and Squidoo.

What else would make sustainablog better for you?

Have a good weekend, and, as always, let me know your thoughts.

Jeff

Four Years Down, and More to Come...

Yep, sustainablog is back, just in time for its four-year anniversary (today). The last few months have required a lot of attention in other places, but things change, and I'm very happy to be able to devote some time to this blog, which just keeps calling me back...

The biggest change of late is my leaving Treehugger. I had a good run there, and thoroughly enjoyed my time writing for them, but with the success of Green Options, TH founder Graham Hill thought it might be better if we parted ways. I was fine with that: GO has been successful, and I want to be able to concentrate on doing my part to keep things that way. I left TH with no hard feelings: I wish them well, and hope there are opportunities for us to work together again.

While it would have been easy to just bury myself in my GO work (and there's plenty of it), once I wrote my last TH post, I immediately thought "Hey, I could start sustainablog back up." A blogger blogs, as I wrote yesterday, and I'm a blogger at heart. I also know that, while I enjoy working on sites run by others, there's nothing quite like my own space on the web. Multi-writer blogs feel like conferences sometimes; a small one like this feels more like a conversation with friends in my living room. I miss that...

In getting sustainablog relaunched, I've also decided to refocus just a bit. Four years ago, it was relatively easy to stay on top of coverage of sustainability -- there just wasn't much of it! Things have changed there, too -- now, you can't pass a magazine stand, or visit a news site, without seeing a reference to "green" this, or "eco" that. I'm thrilled by that development, as you might imagine -- I also realize, though, that staying on top of the broad range of developments is more challenging. So, I'm going to focus in a bit more, and give preference to things happening in my part of the world: mainly, the Midwest. I won't make this focus exclusive, but will give preference to stories from the region -- there's a lot happening around here, and not just ethanol...;-)

Finally, I do plan to keep sustainablog largely independent of GO. I'll do some cross posting, but plan to make that the exception, rather than the rule. Next week will be an exception... I'll explain more about that in the coming days.

If you're reading this, thank you -- I'm glad you're here, and I hope you'll come back. There's an awful lot of green on the web these days -- I hope you find sustainablog valuable enough to give it some of your time. Always feel free to let me know what I could be doing better... this blog is, and always has been, a community effort.

So, let's get back at it...

Carnival of the Green #79

Ladies and gentleman, step right up! Welcome to the greenest show on the web, the Carnival of the Green! sustainablog is proud to serve as the stopping point for the 79th installment of the COG, now organized by Treehugger. Last week, the carnival struck ground at everyday trash; next week, it will move along to groxie.

It's a holiday weekend in the US, so everyone should already be in a festive mood. If you need a little help, though, here's some music to put you in the right frame of mind. And away we go...

Hungry?

We've got plenty of choices for snacking while enjoying the Carnival this week (though no funnel cake or cotton candy):

• Mark at blogfish takes a look at the future of sustainable seafood... yum!
• Chris at Lighter Footstep has some great tips for easing into vegetarianism.
• Tracy at ecostreet offers ten ways to reduce your food miles.

Animals on Display

We've got a couple of wonders from the animal kingdom here for your entertainment. Please note that all animals used in the Carnival of the Green live under humane conditions!

• Mel at Bean Sprouts was so excited by the popularity of her post on raising chickens that she expanded it into a three-part series.
• Sally at Veggie Revolution makes the claim that US housecats are an "invasive species."

Business and Government

Our mini trade show this week includes some information on finances, real estate and utilities.

• Don, the Evangelical Ecologist, shows you how to read your city public works department's Consumer Confidence Report.
• Robert at Sustainability Blog continues his recovery from affluenza, and sits down with Green Key Real Estate founder Chris Bartle.
• And Cody at THRILLING/heroics takes note of a Johnson Controls report showing business owners are much more concerned with energy prices these days, and are investing in efficiency measures.

Enjoy a Ride!

A couple of participants in this week's COG think about getting from here to there.

• SavingAdvice.com's Jeffrey spells out ten ways you can save money (and energy) in your commute.
• Walter at Highlight Health notes that a big increase in ethanol use could have a negative impact on air quality.

Stroll Down the Midway

Finally, to wrap things up this Monday,

• The Natural Collection, under the guiding hand of old friend (and former City Hippy) Al Tepper, points us to London's Trafalgar Square, which went green for a few days.
• Jennifer at Green Options (yeah, that's my other site) takes a look at natural and organic beauty products, and finds that caveat emptor is the rule rather than the exception.
• David at The Good Human wonders how our lawns became an extension of our egos.
• And, finally, Zenofeller argue (tongue-in-cheek, we believe) that global warming is good thing...

That's a wrap for this week's Carnival of the Green! See you next week at groxie.

On a personal note, I said on Saturday that today's COG post would be the last at sustainablog for the foreseeable future. I say that with a heavy heart -- my little sustainability blog has been a real source of joy and pride for nearly four years, and connected me with many good people around the globe that I now consider friends. Many, many thanks to all of you who've supported sustainablog over the years -- you've made it all very worthwhile. Please stop by Green Options or Treehugger to say "Hi!" -- I'm not going away...

Best,

Jeff

sustainablog Hosts the Carnival of the Green

Several months ago, I requested to host the Carnival of the Green for this Memorial Day weekend. I meant to get a post up earlier in the week, but, obviously, I've been rather tied up... But the Carnival will be here on Monday for a special holiday edition. Please pass along your posts to me.

Despite my lack of posting here, I have been thinking a lot about sustainablog -- as I've said over and over, it's my baby. Unfortunately, I simply haven't been able to give my baby the attention it deserves.

So, once the Carnival post is up on Monday, sustainablog will officially be on indefinite hiatus. I'm following the model set by good blog buddy Al Tepper (aka City Hippy). I hate to have the blog just sitting here gathering dust, so I'd rather close it for now while I can't give it (and sustainablog readers) the attention it (they) deserves. I hope to restart it at some point, but know I can't promise that -- Green Options is taking up the lion's share of my time, and I am still writing at Treehugger (though on a lighter schedule than before).

It's been almost four years since I put up that first post of a few lines, and I've been incredibly grateful for the attention it's received since then. I hope you'll come by Green Options and/or Treehugger to say "Hi!"

Best,

Jeff

So, What's Up with sustainablog?

Obviously, I haven't been posting as regularly as I'd like lately. While I hate to neglect sustainablog, I'm in that interesting position of having got what I asked for: I always thought that keeping my little blog might help me land a job in the green business sector. It worked... and, unfortunately, means I can't devote as much time and energy as I'd like here.

That doesn't mean I'm closing up shop here by any means -- from the beginning at Green Options, I made it clear that I wanted to maintain sustainablog. I'm deeply grateful to the readers that have come by and even stuck around over the years. While I do hope you'll make GO a part of your green web routine, I also plan to still give you reason to come by here. Maybe not as often, but I hope you'll check regularly -- I'll post at least a couple of times a week.

I've thrown out the idea of bringing on another writer before, and am considering it again. Whaddaya think? Is it time for me to share my baby? As always, I value your thoughts.

JM-S