5 Easy Ways to Green Your RV

About ten years ago, Ty Adams asked himself a question that became an obsession. How do you make RVs green? The question led him to quit his job at an RV magazine, sell his house, and build his first green RV, the biofueled BioTrekker. Adams now works as a freelance writer, but is still involved with green RVs. He volunteers as an adviser to SolTrekker, another biodiesel RV and environmental program on wheels. The non-profit that operates it, also called SolTrekker, uses the RV as a sustainable showroom, exhibiting solar systems and renewable materials. Adams’s projects are exciting because RVs are notorious for their carbon footprint. He found ways to turn this symbol of excess into one of sustainability.

The SolTrekker boasts some labor intensive projects like a biodiesel engine, a solid waste compost system, and a rainwater catchment/grey water collection unit. But what can RV owners do today, in a couple of hours, at minimal cost? We asked Adams to share some tips for RVers just starting to green up. It turns out you can do a lot of things without a huge expense or technical know-how.

The End-of-Summer Bucket List

Summer started off with so much promise! There were so many places to go, people to see, and things to do. But now the leaves are starting to change color, and you still haven't finished off all your summer goals. A thin layer of dust covers the copy of Infinite Jest on your nightstand and the new hiking boots you bought in May have nary a crease or stain. Don't worry, though! Cooler days are coming, but there's still time to cram in some of the adventures that you initially sacrificed in order to plow through the new season of Arrested Development.

Go hiking or backpacking.

Hiking never really goes out of season, but trekking through the wilderness in the summer months is decidedly easier than toughing out a cold winter excursion. If you're in the market for an intense hike, check out one of America's most dangerous hiking trails or consider visiting a leg of one of the Triple Crown of Hiking trails, which includes the Pacific Crest, Appalachian, and Continental Divide trails. Just don't worry about hiking as fast as record-breaker Josh Garrett. If you're stumped, look up a national park near you.

Take a kayak or canoe for spin.

Hiking might be an evergreen activity, at least in theory, but kayaking or canoeing in the winter is considerably more intimidating. Some notable destinations for kayaking and canoeing include Arizona's Colorado River, Alaska's Glacier Bay, The Ozarks in Missouri, and The Everglades in Florida. But, again, don't let your distance from a famous location deter you from enjoying the water one final time before winter's freeze. There are plenty of suitable bodies of water throughout the country, many of which rent out kayaks or canoes on a day-by-day basis.

Hey Mr. Green, How Can I Be Cool at School?

I’m an environmentalist going off to college. What’s the best thing I can do for the earth once I’m there? --Ted in St. Louis, Missouri

To misquote the immortal Johnny Cash, “Don’t take your car to school son / Leave your car at home.”

Abandoning your wheels is one of the greatest things you can do to shrink your collegiate environmental footprint, since burning a gallon of gas emits almost 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. That’s 600 pounds of CO₂ in just four 200-mile trips home and back.

If you must travel off campus, take the bus or train—or sign up for a car-sharing service like Zipcar, which has locations at more than 100 U.S. colleges. Most schools also have online ride-share boards.

In addition to preventing all that pollution, not having a car at school will also save you from excruciating parking searches and keep some serious cash in your wallet: Campus parking passes can cost as much as $300 per semester, plus there’s the wad you would have to spend on fuel.

Many schools make the environmental decision for you, banning vehicles for freshmen or enacting other tough vehicular restrictions. In fact, frosh aren’t allowed to have cars at five of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking.

If you were already planning to be car-free at school, you can ditch the popular but energy-sucking dorm-room mini-fridge. And if your campus doesn’t ban cars, you could start a campaign encouraging administrators to do so, which will give your university a better shot at placing high on Sierra’s annual ranking of eco-colleges. --Bob Schildgen

Got a question? Ask Mr. Green!

Form Meets Function: 4 Surprising Tent Designs

We put many things on our backs — responsibilities, packs, even entire sports teams. The last thing you need is your on-the-go home, your tent, to weigh you or the environment down. We've found four ingenious tent alternatives for your next outdoor adventure.

1. Topeak Bikamper

Those who eat, drink, and sleep biking can finally satisfy the last of the three with this one-person tent. Its inventiveness lies in its use of your bike's frame and front wheel in place of tent poles. The Bikamper rolled away in 2005 with both a IF Eurobike Award and a reddot design award for best of the best. Clocking in at a total weight of 3.59 lbs., you can carry it around and still have enough energy to gaze up and watch the starry night through one of its three mesh panels. MSRP: $229.95

California Heavin': America's Most Polluted City

Pollution. The word gets thrown around so much these days that we wouldn't blame you if the term has lost some of its sting. What specifically makes one city more polluted than the other? Big-name cities get the obvious knock, but the rankings for everyone else can seem haphazardly gathered at times, their data meshing and looming into one giant, confused mass — much like the smog that hovers overhead.

So if you guessed the country's most polluted city is in California, congratulations, you're right. The Golden State takes 22 of the top 30 cities among three categories.

But if you guessed it's L.A., well, stay confused.

The American Lung Association's annual State of the Air Campaign for 2013 reported that the Commander-In-Chief for both year-round pollution and short-term pollution is none other than Bakersfield, California.

Thanks to a combination of oil production, agricultural practices, and the largest population growth of any American city in the past decade, Bakersfield ranks highest in both annual average of particle concentration (year-round) and in particle spikes averaged over a 24-hour period (short-term).

The City of Angels doesn't fall into the top three in either of these groups. Merced, CA, and Fresno-Madera, CA, follow in year-round pollution, while Fresno-Madera and Hanford-Corcoran go one-two, respectively, in the short term.

4 Cool Bike Accessories

It's Bike to Work Week, which means you have the perfect excuse to spruce up your bike with these unique accessories!

Wearable Bike Planter:  We've seen an old bike repurposed as a giant flower planter, but what if you could just strap a plant to your bike and take it with you on your daily adventures? Well, now you can! Check out this petite bike planter and other adorable planters that you can wear as accessories.

Bicycle Wine Rack/Beer Holder: We don't advise drinking and biking, but this gadget could come in handy if you're headed to a party or barbeque this spring. Don't bother trying to squeeze these beverages into your purse or bag, just head over to Etsy and get your bicycle wine rack or beer holder for under $30!

Charge Your Phone While Cycling

There are many reasons why biking to work rules. You save money, eliminate the stress of parking, get in a quick workout, and now, thanks to Aaron Latzke and David Delcourt, you can even charge your cell phone using kinetic energy generated from your ride! Yeah, we know, pretty awesome.

The Kickstarter campaign for the Siva Cycle Atom was launched a few weeks ago, and with only a few days left to pre-order, the project has already seen more than $110,000 pledged by 1,200 backers. Needless to say people are pretty excited. The Atom, which reportedly weighs about as much as a banana, is a small device that can be attached to the back wheel of your bicycle. While you pedal, the Siva Cycle Atom converts the kinetic energy into electronic energy that charges up the Atom. You can choose whether to charge your gadget (phone, ipod, etc.) directly while riding or store the energy generated in the battery pack to charge your electronics when you finish your ride. So as long as you have your bike, you can rest assured that you won't be caught without a battery charge.

For more information about the Siva Cycle Atom, check out the video below by the creators or head over to official Kickstarter project site. 

Discounted Bikes for Sierra Club Members

It's time to kick off Bike to Work Week, and this year we've got the perfect ride. That's right, we're talking about our very own limited-edition, not-available-forever Sierra Club bicycle.

Made by PUBLIC bikes, the leader in European-style rides, our custom bicycle is avaliable in two styles to fit the needs of every rider. The first option is PUBLIC's C7 model, which offers a step-thru "Dutch style" frame, ideal for riders wearing skirts or dresses. The PUBLIC V7 model, our second option, boasts a sloped diamond frame design. Both models come in bright grass-green and feature the Sierra Club's logo on the rear fender and head tube, as well as our slogan on either side of the down tube. Click here for more information on this nice ride and to get your own today.

Cat Facts: Electric Vehicles Beat Gas Cars

We've stuck our cat-noses up at the notion that April Fools' means one day of fun. So in the spirit of whimsy and whiskers, each day this week we present an environmental fact and a cat. First, we focused on a fat cat and oil shale. Next came big ears and bicycles. 

Any-meow, here’s today's environmental fact, along with a cat.

Just the facts:

While the best bet for curbing carbon emissions is driving less, period, driving smart helps.

Conventional cars and the process of extracting, refining, and transporting the oil they require dumps more than three trillion tons of carbon pollution into the air each year. Electric vehicles (EVs) rely on battery power — which can take from 30 minutes for an 80-percent charge to eight hours for a full charge, outlet-voltage depending. For fully electric vehicles, no tailpipe is necessary.

Essay Contest: What Does Wilderness Mean to You?

Are you a young writer who with a passion for the outdoors? Enter our essay contest for a chance to be featured in Sierra magazine!

The Sierra Club's National Wilderness Essay Contest

It has been nearly 25 years since Bill McKibben declared “the end of nature.” What he really meant was the end of wilderness — the idea of wilderness. In the era of climate change, he claimed, we can no longer conceive of a natural world that is free of human influence — a pristine wilderness where our spirits can awaken to authentic nature.

Generations Y, Z and beyond will never know that pristine wilderness; they will know only what humans have created. And the outlook has only gotten worse: in 2005, Richard Louv warned us that “nature deficit disorder” was on the rise. Today’s children, he worried, spend far more time in front of screens than they spend in the woods, and end up radically disconnected from the natural world. They may care about biodiversity, sustainability, and environmental justice—but do they care about wilderness?

So we pose the question: What does wilderness mean to the millennial generation? Does the idea of wilderness have any relevance for twenty-first century environmentalists? Is there still a case to be made for wilderness? If so, how can we make that case?

We invite essays on the idea of wilderness from writers under 30 years old. Visit the contest website to find more instructions and the entry form.