Fresh Greens

Today's TreeHugger list of 5 Surprising Fashion Brands Going Organic tries to ameliorate two activities that are not so good for the environment - shopping in a mall and fast fashion. We learned last week that shopping in a mall uses way more energy than purchasing from the comfort of your home computer. Fast fashion, too, promotes a cycle of cheaply- and unsustainably-made disposable clothing. These five brands in your local mall are taking some environmental steps that can make you feel better about heading to the mall for the latest trendy tee.

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Author, activist and think tank fellow Van Jones will be joining the Obama administration next week as a special adviser on green jobs, reported the White House Council on Environmental Quality today. Jones will work with agencies and departments to advance the administration's climate and energy initiatives, with a special focus on improving vulnerable communities, according to a White House statement. Jones is the founder of "Green For All," an environmental group dedicated to bringing green jobs to the disadvantaged, and the author of "The Green Collar Economy." Environmental groups are, of course, thrilled with the decision - in their opinion, no one knows green jobs like Van Jones.

But there are a few questions raised - first, about the role of Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor. A proponent of green jobs, it was thought that the responsibility would fall to her, but Climate Progress (a blog run by Jones' think tank, the Center for American Progress) assures us that, yes, both positions are necessary. "The Labor Secretary can’t tell any other Cabinet officer or agency what to do — so if you want to coordinate a crosscutting initiative that affects so many different departments, including energy, EPA, Commerce, and so on — you need to do this out of the White House." His title, by the way, does not contain the word 'Czar' - another issue raised by the Wall Street Journal regarding 'Czar fatigue.'

Jones has long been a proponent of environmental justice. He, along with other advocates like Majora Carter, try to raise awareness of the fact that the communities most hurt by unsustainable practices are often the poorest. Jones told Mother Jones Magazine last year:

"The only reason that we have the unsustainable accounting that we have right now is because incinerators, dumping grounds, and sacrifice zones were put where poor people live. It would never have been allowed if you had to put all the incinerators and nasty stuff in rich people's neighborhoods; we'd have had a sustainable economy a long time ago... We don't want to be first and worst with all the toxins and all the negative effects of global warming, and then benefit last and least from all the breakthroughs in solar, wind energy, organic food, all the positives. We want an equal share, an equitable share, of the work wealth and the benefits of the transition to a green economy."

Another two favorite quotes from Jones come from his speech at the Power Shift weekend last month:

"We could power the country with clean coal, or we could have unicorns pull our cars for us."

"If women are making 75 cents to a dollar in our green economy, something is wrong with it."

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From a previous U.S. News article about 13 Facts about Daylight Saving Time:

"Daylight saving time was first used during World War I, as part of an effort in the United States and other warring countries to conserve fuel. In theory, using daylight more efficiently saves fuel and energy because it reduces the nation's need for artificial light."

This fact has long been disputed by politicians and energy experts. Many believe that the extra artificial light needed in dark Daylight Savings mornings cancels out the benefit of brighter evenings. However, a 2008 Department of Energy report to Congress found that Daylight Savings Time does indeed save energy, though not as much as we'd hoped. According to the report, the total energy savings throughout the period of Daylight Saving Time add up to 17 Trillion Btu of primary energy consumption, which is only .02 percent of the country's total use in 2007.

To put that number in perspective, the average household uses 106 million Btu per year. So, the energy savings throughout the period of daylight savings would be roughly equivalent to that of merely 160,000-some households, which is about the population of Vancouver, Wash.

This will be the second year that we adjust for Daylight Savings in March, not April, so don't forget: Sunday is the day to "spring ahead."

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Two shows - one a longtime obsession for legions of fans, the other an eagerly anticipated new personality - have taken on a green makeover of their sets and practices. Fans of Fox's 24 and NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will be pleased to learn that the former has gone carbon-neutral, and the latter has retrofitted its studio in an entirely green way.

Here's how the shows are green:

24:

• The eco-friendly production offices replaced incandescent lighting with SFLs and installed motion monitors in bathrooms and kitchens.
• Scripts, schedules and memos are digitally distributed to eliminate paper waste.
• The show's producers purchase wind, solar and hydro power from California utilities for a savings of 940 metric tons of CO2.
• Hybrids and bio-diesel reduced gas usage by 1,300 gallons (though this is just a fraction of what the show consumes each week).
• Unfortunately, to achieve true carbon neutrality, many of the most exciting elements of the show would have to be tampered with. That's why the show has chosen to offset the remaining 1,239 tons of CO2 through investments in carbon credits, instead.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:

• Fallon, on the set makeover that he ordered: "Everything is recycled. We are building everything with recycled metals and using all green lighting. We are starting [construction] from scratch so it is NBC's policy that we make everything from the ground up entirely green. Everything…I wrote up a three page Word document and gave it to the set designer. The craziest stuff I asked for - believe it or not, I got."
• The set features sustainable building practices such as low- or no-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint, seating reclaimed and refurbished from Radio City Music Hall, and carpeting on the audience risers and the band platform from recycled materials.
• Doors and metal were reclaimed from local salvage stores for the set.

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