As consumers take increased responsibility for what they eat, many choose to become “locavores,” favoring foods grown or produced in their communities. This is the second film in the PBS series The Lexicon of Sustainability. Watch the film below and learn more about the lexicon of sustainability here.

Watch Local on PBS. See more from The Lexicon of Sustainability.

CNN looks at the problem of waste in the U.S. and how a group of artists are turning other people’s junk into works of art. Includes an interview with Edward Humes, author of Garbalogy.

“Swap shopping,” once the province of local fashionistas, goes online

Swap shopping is a green- and budget-friendly way to clean out your closet and then promptly stock it again—this time with stuff you actually might wear. At a swanky L.A. café with ivy crawling up the brick storefront, a group of vintage enthusiasts recently hosted a vintage clothing “swap and shop”; in Canada a nonprofit masterminded a clothing swap–turned-benefit with an emphasis on sustainability.

Now ubiquitous, these swaps are held in living rooms and community centers around the world, but have only recently spread to the online domain. Look to England-based Tradeizze, which allows users to buy, sell, or swap just about any item imaginable, and Little Black Bag, which serves as a storehouse for regifted luxury handbags and jewelry, ready to be traded.

Intrigued? Also check out DigNSwap.com and Thredup.com, specifically for children’s clothing. Or just hold a swap of your own; according to this swap veteran, it’s as simple as inviting a group of friends over, dividing unwanted but quality clothes into categories, and trading for more desirable garments. It’s frugal and fun and might even help make a dent in the 23.8 billion pounds of clothing and textiles that end up in landfills each year. One person’s trash is, truly, another’s treasure.

 Image credit: Creative Commons/BethMOlson@flickr.com

The average hotel stay can be a huge drain on the environment; from wasteful long showers and blasting air conditioning to the unnecessary luxury of a daily linen service.

The bill left upon checkout is a hefty one. Hotels contribute 60 million tons of CO2 emissions annually due to uninformed guests and wasteful policies.

Through a few simple steps, hotel guests can greatly minimize the environmental burden of an overnight stay.

The hotel industry has started to clean up its act through eco-friendly policies, but what would happen if all hotels in America implemented similar measures to reduce their carbon footprint?

What is the future of hotels? The Future of Hotels is Green. An initiative brought to you by hotel.info.

Image credit: Creative Commons/Wayan Vota@flickr.com

Small spaces, and the storage solutions they require, are the next big (little?) thing in building

Economist E.F. Schumacher’s 1973 book, Small Is Beautiful, encouraged “enoughness” and warned, among other things, that living in a space with boundless square footage inspires more frustration than happiness. Centuries earlier, Leonardo da Vinci felt similarly, writing, “Small rooms and dwellings set the mind on the right path; large ones cause it to go astray.” And let’s not forget Henry David Thoreau, who lived and worked, deliberately, in a 150-square-foot cabin that cost him $28 to build.

Even so, the ’90s and early 2000s gave rise to the lavish McMansion, which collapsed right along with the housing market in more recent years. If today’s proliferation of miniature houses is any indication, lots of modern architects and developers are harkening back to a minimalist philosophy—erecting tiny spaces to suit all sorts of purposes. Called the tiny house movement, the trend is being led by a California builder and designer who dubs pre-recession mansions “debtors’ prisons for the 21st century.”

Inspired by the compact Airstream trailer he employed for family vacations, one designer masterminded a 160-square-foot apartment, the smallest allowed by California building code, that features a bench used also as a dining room table and guest bed. Not only a sign of our tightened belts and desire for low-impact living (as well as a potential solution to the affordable-housing crisis?), we think this trend—which has gone viral on account of all its charming details—is proof that the allure of childhood cubbyholes and tree houses trails us on into adulthood.

Image credit: Creative Commons/caseorganic@flickr.com

There’s lots of talk about the “sharing economy” and “collaborative consumption,” with most adherents presumably in it to save money and/or live more sustainably. But did you know there’s money to be made by sharing what you have? Could you use an extra $21,000 a year? That’s the average amount New Yorkers make when they rent their space via Airbnb.

Learn more courtesy of this infographic from venture fund Collaborative and the Startup America Partnership:

Please Help Amnesty International and Euro RSCG Prague Bring an End to Death by Stoning

Working with Amnesty International, Euro RSCG Prague created the campaign “Stones for Sakineh,” a Facebook petition and campaign to raise awareness of, and bring an end to, the barbaric sentence of “death by stoning.” The campaign urges people to save Sakineh Ashtiani from this horrific sentence by selecting a stone and adding it to the mural of Sakineh. Each stone added helps complete the mural of Sakineh and will change the usage of stones from killing tools to tools for social change.

[Click Here] to watch the video case study.

[Click Here] to go to the Facebook app “Stones for Sakineh” to sign the petition.

Mashable has put together a fabulous collection of upcycled accessories made from classic computer and video gear. It was a tough choice (the VHS pencil case is fun and customizable), but we think the keyboard purse may be the winner:

Check out the other accessories here.

See below for key findings from Euro RSCG Worldwide’s Consumer Conscience study, based on an online survey of 4,000 adults in Brazil, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

David Jones, global CEO of Havas and Euro RSCG Worldwide, and author of Who Cares Wins, speaks with Monika Mitchell of Good Business International on why good business is better business: