The email query came not from you, dear reader, but from a staffer at the Mothership: "Grist is moving offices this spring, and we're looking into environmentally friendly office furniture," it read. "I've been tasked with researching some companies, and it was suggested you might be able to identify good places to look into. Any thoughts?" Any thoughts, indeed. A Grist staffer hard at work. Photo: iStockphoto. Buying eco-friendly desks, chairs, cabinets, space dividers, and other furniture is getting easier. With government agencies, universities, and corporations specifying greener products, furniture makers have been fairly quick to put environmental options on …

In the early 1990s, I knew a 10-year-old boy named Davy who had never been to Toys "R" Us. When I told his story, people would often respond to this part of his life with a sort of sentimental longing. "How wonderful that he has never been to that awful place," they'd say. Davy's lack of experience, however, was a marker not of his protected status, but of his deprivation. Arriving at school barely able to keep his eyes open, Davy spent too many nights staying up late and caring for three younger siblings, one of them still in diapers. …

Dear Umbra, I long to have a partner join in (or be excited and supportive) when I participate in an environmental event, or write a well-researched and poignant letter about a pressing environmental issue. I have broken off three serious relationships in the past few years because I decided the men were not environmentally sensitive enough. Where does a nice, smart chick like me meet a nice, smart, environmentally sensitive activist? Edelweiss Ottawa, Ontario Dearest Edelweiss, I read your letter to a friend and he said, "Hard core -- good for her." I had a slightly different take on your …

Click on the image to see a full-size version. The wrong side of the tracks: we often talk about a figurative gulf between rich and poor in the United States, but as this phrase suggests, there is also a literal chasm between the classes. If you live in poverty in this country, odds are you live in the "bad" parts of town -- the parts that are dirtier, more dangerous, harder to access, underserved by schools and stores and social services, and short on the aesthetic charms and everyday conveniences that the wealthy take for granted. That, in turn, affects …

Dear Umbra, I am getting married and would like to register for some socially and environmentally responsible household and kitchen items: pots, pans, etc. I found plenty of resources on organic cotton and hemp, but other than that I have come up with nothing! Paige Doughty Cambridge, Mass. Dearest Paige, This is a potential stumper. First we would have to figure out every possible thing that might be wrong with the pots and pans in our lives, not to mention blenders and teaspoons. Then we would have to figure out if anyone has made better ones, then find a registry …

Can you hot box in that thing? Willie Nelson's on the road again ... in a limited-edition "Willie's Willys" pickup, which will run on pure BioWillie, natch. Just 500 of the re-created 1941 Willys hot rods were made -- and one can be yours for the low, low price of $97,000. Willie's BioWillie-run Willie's Willys would appreciate you refraining from willy jokes. Thanks. Photo: Serious Wheels. Yearning to breathe free In a harsh blow to those who view renewable energy as an anti-American conspiracy run by communist pagan pedophile Hollywood atheist Jew Christmas-killers, the world's foremost icon of Freedom© will …

Eco-entrepreneurs pay people to recycle What's the best way to get people to recycle? Same way you get them to do anything: pay them for it. Patrick FitzGerald and Ron Gonen founded RecycleBank in 2004 on the notion that economic incentives would motivate recycling more effectively than green principles. Their system rewards households with up to $400 a year in credits to national chain stores based on the weight of the recyclables they generate -- tracked when sanitation crews scan "smart waste" tags in specially supplied recycling bins. In a six-month Philadelphia pilot project involving 2,500 households, recycling rates jumped …

Plaster of Paris Paris Hilton got covered in white powder, and no, she wasn't partying with Kate Moss. Instead, the famous-for-being-famous socialite was walking next to fashionista Julien Macdonald, whose fur-heavy designs aroused the ire of PETA. So they pelted him with flour, hoping he'd "rise to the occasion." Dude, you got antique'd. Elle in a handbasket Take a ream of recycled paper, cover it with toxic ink, fill it with a panoply of chemically scented advertisements, print up hundreds of thousands, and what do you get? That's right: green! At least that's what Elle would have you think. (Oh, …

Without further ado, here's the first draft of my index-card manifesto. It turned out to be two index-card manifestos, with five points each: one for stuff I consider immediately urgent, and a second for what I consider longer-term goals. Feedback is welcome -- nay, requested. (I'll discuss the whole project more in a subsequent post.) WHAT A GREEN WANTS: IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES Energy efficiency: Proven techniques can get the same amount of work with 50% of the oil. Tax/subsidy shifts: Markets should tell the ecological truth. That means shifting subsidies from industries and practices that harm us to those that help …

Dear Umbra, Our home is mostly wood floors, but we would like to have a carpeted den. My gut instinct is that the carpet pad (looks like the foam from the inside of a car seat all smooshed together with other pieces) is full of chemicals that will constantly offgas. Am I right? If so, is there an alternative, or something to do so we can have a safe carpeted area? Yosh Schulman Millerton, N.Y. Dearest Yosh, Almost all the articles I just read on your behalf started with the reasons carpet is our nation's No. 1 floor covering: comfort, …