Anyone still caring for a clipped green lawn can lessen their enviro guilt by trading in weed-killing chemicals for a herd of goats. If you’ve got invasive plants, never fear: Your milkweed brings all the goats to the yard. They could eat it, but they have to charge ($725/day plus tax for a 60-goat herd at Rent-a-Ruminant). Increasing numbers of companies offer goat-driven brush and weed control. Unlike cows, which eat grass, goats like to eat weeds and shrubs -- even poisonous ones. (I mean, they are GOATS. They eat whatever. It’s the beauty of goats.) Large lawn owners from …

The title of this post should really be "Bike lanes create jobs, duhhhhhhhhhh." A new study from the University of Massachusetts is only the latest evidence that bike infrastructure projects create more jobs than road infrastructure -- but the message hasn't gotten through to everyone, so with UMass' help we'll just keep beating that horse. Anyway, the latest study shows that bike and pedestrian projects generate 46 percent more employment than roads. So, you know, no big deal, just HALF AGAIN AS MANY JOBS.  Looking at 58 projects in 11 states, the researchers found that cycle-oriented infrastructure created 11.6 jobs …

Within the next year, Austin, Texas, could be home to In.gredients, a grocery store that eliminates the paper and plastic containers that most food comes in. Instead, the zero-packaging store will offer most of its wares in bulk bins. (Some products will be “packaging-light” instead, with recyclable containers.) Customers can bring their own boxes and bottles or borrow compostable ones from the store, weigh them, and fill them with goodies. This includes beer (bring your own growler!) and cleaning products. It’s a return to a simpler time, when our grandparents got along just fine without resealable plastic freshness packs, and …

Yo dawg, I heard you like solar power, so I put some solar power in your 3D printer so you can solar power while you 3D print. The Solar Sinter, an art project by Markus Kayser, is probably not actually going to replace energy-hog fabrication processes. It's more of a concept piece, but it's a pretty spectacular one that beautifully demonstrates the awesome power of the sun. Kayser uses the strong sun in the Sahara desert (yes, contrary to appearances, he is not on the Black Rock playa) to melt sand into layers of glass, building gnarled glass objects that …

The New York Times obtained government documents that call natural gas companies' enthusiasm about shale gas and hydrofracking "irrational exuberance.” That exuberance has convinced some lawmakers, though. Nine of them are writing to President Obama to ask him to push for more gas drilling. In other technology-that’s-not-actually-going-to-save-us news, China's building a $1.5 billion clean coal plant, the first commercial clean coal plant of this size. European countries are ditching even the tiniest of cars in favor of public transportation, because -- surprise! -- global treaties matter and EU countries need to cut carbon in some way to meet their Kyoto …

If you won't put animal products in your mouth, shouldn't it stand to reason you wouldn't put them on your wang? Or maybe you're courting a vegan, and you want to seal the deal. Lucky for you there are vegan lubes and condoms available, to replace the raw-meat-and-gelatin lube and condoms you were using before. I had figured that "vegan condom" was sort of a technicality -- you can get your facility certified as vegan, maybe, and thus gain the right to put a "vegan" label on your contraceptives. Sort of like getting declared kosher, but instead of a rabbi …

There's been a small vogue for houses and buildings made of shipping containers, which are cheap, plentiful, and often end up tossed in the sea (either on purpose or otherwise). This airy two-container dwelling is one of the prettiest we've seen, and it only cost $40,000 to build. Architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe removed most of the inward-facing walls from the two containers and placed them about a hallway's width apart. The material from the walls then became a roof and clerestory window for the hallway, which keeps the interior bright and cool, while the slightly expanded footprint keeps the whole thing …

Regardless of how they felt about global warming -- from "alarmed" to "dismissive" -- nearly everyone in this 2009 survey supported increased fuel efficiency standards. Even the ones who dismissed the threat of climate change weren't very strongly opposed. What's more, 90 percent of people think clean energy should be a priority for the president, including 85 percent of Republicans. And more than 80 percent support increased funding of renewable energy research. This is more or less unprecedented in terms of public support for policy options -- how often do you see 90 percent of people agreeing on anything? And …

One day you'll be able to head out on the highway WITHOUT getting your motor running first. Take that, Steppenwolf! Last week the Association of American State Highway and Transportation Officials breathed new life into a long-fallow plan to build an interstate bicycle system, approving new routes for the first time in more than 30 years. AASHTO has identified a number of likely corridors for a nationwide system of interstate bike paths, and got started on building them in the 1980s. But the project fizzled after establishing only two bike interstates: U.S. Bicycle Route 1 from Virginia to North Carolina and …

Siemens just unveiled the world's first hybrid-electric aircraft, the DA36 E-Star. It uses an unique power train to do the seemingly impossible: take off and land on nothing but batteries. It's received wisdom among pointy-headed energy thinkers that the one thing batteries can never, ever power are airplanes. Pound for pound, even the best batteries store only a tenth of the energy of gasoline, not to mention jet fuel, which is even more potent stuff. But electric engines are smaller and lighter than their gasoline counterparts, which helps make up for the extra weight of the batteries the plane must …