Photos: Kristin Rule

A couple of years ago Kristin Rule, alias 'The Unconventional Cellist' undertook a 20 week music tour, toting her cello on a motorbike with a solar trailer. With a new album recently released, she is soon to be touring again, but this time by bicycle accompanied by a solar-powered, electric-assist trailer.

photo via wonderofcreation.org

With Labor Day around the corner, people are trying to get their last licks of summer in before the days get shorter and the temperatures get cooler. One suggestion where you can travel close to a big city, but still feel worlds away are the San Juan Islands in Washington.

If you prefer to walk or bike instead of using a car, enjoy being outside, use reusable bags, avoid plastic bottles, eat meat sparingly or not at all, research makeup and cosmetic products for safety, carry a refillable water bottle, and generally avoid buying crap you don't need and using the stuff you do have as long as it is useful, then you are well on your way to successfully completing by DoSomething

Nothing new about this; shopping mall parking in 1958. Library of Virginia.

Alex recently asked Can Great Design Redeem the Parking Garage? He was talking about a new parking structure by Herzog and de Meuron on Miami Beach's Lincoln Road, which is a pedestrian street de

Image Courtesy of: archdaily.com

Parking garages are generally considered to be a necessary evil: necessary because everyone drives; evil because they are usually drab, ugly concrete structures that take up valuable urban space.

Image credit: SocialBicycles

Whether we are talking about grassroots "peer2peer" bike rental, or multi-million dollar public bike share schemes, there's no doubt that these initiatives are revolutionizing the way we thin

All images courtesy Graham Hill.

Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger.com, is an insatiable tinkerer/designer who strives for elegant design solutions. His latest foray into problem-solving, a collaboration with bike manufacturer Schindelhauer bikes, has resulted in what he calls the ThinBike -- a full-sized urban bicycle that all but disappears when brought indoors.

We've been focused on educating people about reducing their oil consumption (see our Minus Oil series), so when we heard from DoSomething about their Weekend Without Oil it was as if the idea had been plucked straight from our heads.

Image credit: Cycle London

London's new bike rental scheme, like Paris' velib scheme before it, may be a huge hit.

Image credit: US Strategic Perspective Institute/the Working from Home Council

Many employers still resist telecommuting, but there's no doubt that encouraging people to work from home—even part time—could go a long way toward cutting congestion and reducing our dependence on oil.