LiveGreenNOW

She started her recycled paper career making journals and selling at local markets like Lafayette Square and Freret Street, then quickly evolved into custom work and invitations, making Paper-NOLA Karen’s full-time business since May 2009.

Feaux-green interiors filled with celadon, jade, sage decor have nothing on the state-of-the-art structures that reflect a conscious decision to reduce, reuse, and recycle in every facet of structure and design. Commercially, it is now even simpler to be green with earth-friendly furnishings, textiles, and design (need help? Check out our local greens page).

This is a follow-up to last week’s article that discussed the city’s abysmal road conditions and what it means for bicyclists. If that made you feel pessimistic, then let this cheer you up: thanks to an influx of federal dollars, the Department of Public Works has plans to build a number of bike lanes within New Orleans.

The crisis/opportunity paradigm is not unique to New Orleans; Santa Barbara is also an inventive hub of sustainable and green innovations that will build the green economy that the world needs. Check out these three Central Coast companies that are making it work:

The modern environmental movement was born in Santa Barbara on January 28, 1969 ~ reaction to an environmental nightmare when a Union Oil Co. platform stationed six miles off the coast of Summerland suffered a blowout. Oil workers had drilled a well down 3500 feet below the ocean floor. Riggers began to retrieve the pipe in order to replace a drill bit when the “mud” used to maintain pressure became dangerously low. A natural gas blowout occurred. An initial attempt to cap the hole was successful but led to a tremendous buildup of pressure. The expanding mass created five breaks in an east-west fault on the ocean floor, releasing oil and gas from deep beneath the earth