Where to plan your next environmentally vacation: 15 green cities

by Anna Brones on

The good folks at Grist put together their own list of 15 green cities. Although their thought was probably to showcase the green efforts made by local governments and locals to make the cities more environmentally friendly, in reading it I realized it was a great list of places to chose your next eco-vacation.

If you’re looking to take public transportation, play in parks and learn more about sustainability as part of your next vacation, here are the 15 cities that made the list:

  1. Reykjavik, Iceland
  2. Portland, OR, U.S.
  3. Curitiba, Brazil
  4. Malmö, Sweden
  5. Vancouver, Canada
  6. Copenhagen, Denmark
  7. London, England
  8. San Francisco, CA, USA
  9. Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador
  10. Sydney, Australia
  11. Barcelona, Spain
  12. Bogotá, Colombia
  13. Bangkok, Thailand
  14. Kampala, Uganda
  15. Austin, TX, USA

Some of the selections surprised me; Bangkok for example, but apparently it’s all about the city’s strategy to make things greener. Check out the full list with accompanying explanations here.

What green cities have you visited?

STAPLES Hometown Views Photo Contest

by Adrienne Wilson on

After reading through all the official rules for this Hometown Views Photo Contest I spotted a few days ago while standing in Staples, I must say the prizes are worth chasing after and it shouldn’t be too painful to enter. To start you must be an amateur photographer (meaning you haven’t been compensated for photography in the last five years) and the photo you submit must not have been previously published. That’s the major rules from what I gather aside from age, residence, etc. Now all one must do is submit a photo that tells a tale about their hometown; a photo that says, “Hey, Omaha Rocks!” or “Look at how super Seattle is!” Give your photo a caption 15 words or less, be the Grand Prize winner and you and a friend can be on your way out of Kansas and into Iceland!
The trip is a 5 day/4 night photo adventure trip through Reykjavik and includes a pretty swanky hotel stay and the opportunity to check out some very, very cool tours. If you don’t nab first there are still 40 Finalist prizes to shoot for and they too aren’t that bad looking. You’ll need to check out the STAPLES website for additional info, but imagine, your photo, poster size, sold to thousands, and royalties. Nice!

Contest ends March 15, 2007.