Like most Americans, I watched the State of the Union to hear President Obama outline his goals for the year ahead, to understand his energy outlook and plans, and of course, to see what Michelle would be wearing (a stunning royal blue, of course).

When listening to the President highlight his administration’s clean energy initiatives, I couldn’t help but remember the First Family's goals to reduce childhood obesity in America. By no surprise, the link between nationwide health improvement and energy efficiency efforts is strong. By reducing our demand for processed and imported foods, we can improve the health of generations to come, extend our overall lifespan and reduce the energy we waste on packaging. [More]

This week, Erin talked about how she's helping her parents (and learning from them) as they maintain an outdoor compost pile. By composting, you can nourish your garden for very little cost while keeping organic garbage out of sewer systems and city dumps. Compost materials range from food scraps to worms, and you can keep your compost in an open pile outdoors or in a specialized container.

Of course, composting isn't just for homes - you can also participate in composting at the office. [More]

“Hey, don’t throw that away!” This a phrase I heard quite often when I visited my parents over the holidays. What were they referring to? All the banana and carrot peelings I would discard, nonchalantly into the garbage bin. My father, an avid gardener for as long as I can remember, has taken-up composting again, this time with renewed fervor and an ever watchful eye.

In addition to the usual suspects of compost (coffee grinds, apple cores, etc.) both parents insisted things as specific as the papery outer skins of onions, discarded bags of chai tea, and rinsed-out eggshells all go into the makeshift “compost bin” on the far side of the kitchen counter (to later be added to an outdoor pile). [More]

I was reading an article a friend posted to her Facebook status a week ago by author Thomas L. Friedman. In the article, Friedman quoted a letter that his friend, Mark Mykleby, wrote to the editor of The Beaufort Gazette in South Carolina. It really put things into perspective for me, and while I have spent most of my summer trying to find my place here at the Department of Energy, this letter helped bring me back to basics and reminded me how much the little things count on this road to clean energy: [More]

On Tuesday, John told you about his experience with composting and vermiculture—or composting with worms. John pointed out that communities use a lot of energy pumping and treating water and wastewater, and composting can help avoid sending so much food and water through the water treatment system, ultimately keeping our energy use and costs a bit lower. Many people also compost to produce rich soil for their gardens. What is your experience with composting? Each Thursday, you have the chance to share your thoughts on a question about energy efficiency or renewable energy for consumers. Please comment with your answers, and also feel free to respond to other comments.

It's hard for many of us of the "me" generation to think about being careful and conserving energy, even when it directly affects our pocketbooks. We leave the lights and television on when there's no one in the room, despite the fact that this specific action—or lack of action—increases our electricity consumption, raising our next electric bill. How much harder is it for us to take steps that may benefit our community, or society, but that are harder to discern how they affect us economically? My wife, Jane, and I have been composting for more than a dozen years. We've been taking food scraps and placing them into a space capsule-shape composter out in the back yard. After all these years, we've never gotten any compost out of the composter. When I look inside, it doesn't look appealing. Yet, despite the large amount of waste we've added over the years, the bottom of the composter has grown very little. We've been doing this not so much to obtain good compost for the gard... [More]