10 top eco-friendly picks for a weekend away from this month’s Fashion sponsor, Clary Sage Organics.

Clary Sage Organics‘ Co-owner, Patti Cazzato, spent over 20 years in the retail industry honing her chops with the likes of industry giants like the Gap and Levi’s before starting her own consciously curated company with partner Daniel Kalish.

“We believe in empowering people to live healthy, thoughtful, and ecologically responsible lives,” says Patti. “Toward that end, our store serves as a center for holistic wellness, offering the best organic fashions, sustainable beauty products, and a comprehensive array of time-honored natural medicine programs.”

That’s what we call a sustainably rounded business.

We asked Patti to pick some of her favorite things from her shop’s shelves. If you like these picks (or your own even better), just got to the Clary Sage Organics site, enter the code LEAPYEAR at checkout and get 20% off!

ColumnConscious life, hear me roar.

Before there were foodies, there were hunter-gatherers.

If you were hungry around 10,000 years ago, you likely had a good sharp spear, a stone implement, or a bow and arrow to help. You moved stealthily through grassy inlets, dark forests, and rough waves, or the tall grasses of a savannah, looking for deer, rabbits, fish, elk, anything with a heartbeat. You were a scavenger, too, finding eggs and carcasses. You caught fresh seafood, and you knew what nuts and berries to pick that wouldn’t kill you. Your family had to survive off what you captured, so you had to be good at what you did.

Today, modern day eating includes two kinds of people: those who eat simply because they are hungry and those who grandstand. For the latter, it’s trendy to be aware and hopeful. Want arugula with that?

We are so caught up in our organic, pro-biotic, farm raised, grass fed, locally caught, CLA-rich meats and hydroponically-grown produce that we’ve lost sight of an important aspect of our diet – the courage it takes to know where it comes from. We’re not going to see Portland hipsters in oxfords gutting deer or upper middle class types in North Face jackets slitting a grassfed cow’s throat. We’re not going to see trendy, knee-booted girls in leggings pulling feathers out of chickens for their new, cute hair extension, then eating the meat, nor are we going to see the fedora-topped, sullen-faced musician spear-fishing his wild salmon from the Pacific. (Mark Zuckerberg may be more authentic than any hipster could ever hope to be.)

We are a culture of hypocrites. We shun the real hunter, wrapped in camouflage and Hunter’s Orange. We refuse to meet eye-to-eye the seasoned fisherman at the end of the pier – the one who will gut and fine fillet.

I was at a friend’s dinner party in Brooklyn recently, where long-haired grassfed beef burgers were going to be served at the lively hour of 11:30 p.m. The group’s conversation centered around the hairy cow whom we were to eat momentarily, as we grazed on organic, local cheeses and freshly baked artisanal bread and drank urban winery wine. All of it lovely, to be sure.

Later, biting into the bloody burger, I found myself wanting to be anywhere but with my mouth on the flesh of a once-hairy beast that had roamed a beautiful farm in upstate New York. I ate around the edges, avoiding the cool middle. Within moments of putting down the rare part, it had been snatched by not-so-polite fingers and horrified faces. I wasn’t meaning to be wasteful.

Who was the conscious consumer, and who wasn’t? To be graceless consumers of bespoke foods, as if each bite brings us closer to mindfulness. Some of us eat to survive: Cheez-its and Hamburger Helper. Some of us eat to feel whole: farmers’ market kale and quinoa. In the latter case, we should also ask ourselves if we are doing this to be more conscious, or simply to be more cool.

Between the Lines, is a weekly column navigating the sometimes-sharp, sometimes-blurred lines of life and culture between city and country.

Image: Erik Brett

The Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco is a wallet-friendly city-center green retreat.

When you’re travelling on business, how green are the places where you choose to stay? The Orchard Garden Hotel is slap-bang in the heart of Frisco, near Union Square, so you’ve got no excuse for not taking public transport to get there. They’ve even got bike stalls.

What the hotel lacks in interior-design zing, it more than makes up for with its eco-credentials. Made from recycled materials – glass and steel – it was one of the US’s first LEED-certified hotels. Its interior decór doesn’t have us singing, but the green agenda seals the deal: paper and carpets are made from recycled materials, the inks are soy-based, the paint is non-toxic and the cleaning products are citrus-based and chemical free.

The 86 guest rooms, spread over 10 floors, are decorated in the natural tones, and furniture is made from FSC-approved wood, with organic Aveda bath goodies for pampering (being good has its rewards). As in many hotels these days, you get a large-screen HD TV, DVD player, iPod dock and WIFI.

Now, listen up: when you leave your hotel room, do you remember to turn off all these electronic toys? Really? Honestly? (I don’t.) Doesn’t matter – your eco-conscience is safe, as this hotel has the genius keycard system, as used in Europe. When you enter your room, the (recycled plastic) card goes in the slot, all the lights come on and everything is ready to go. When you leave, you take it out, and – hey presto – all systems go off (bar one outlet for charging a device). All this saves a whopping 20% in energy costs. And potential second-guessing.

Staying downtown in a city, even if you’re here for work, it’s a crime to miss the view: suites have their own terraces, as well as a sofabed for tagalong buddies. If your budget doesn’t stretch to that – prices for interior rooms are impressively reasonable – you can always check out the skyline from the roof terrace.

Rates start at $125/night plus tax, city buzz and bike parking included, car parking definitely not.

Clean energy, public transit and local food make these 10 big cities the greenest of them all.

Honking cars emit foul black clouds, skyscrapers blot out the sun, litter lines the gutters and healthy green space can be hard to come by. But in many of America’s biggest cities, these negative traits are being eclipsed by clean, efficient public transit, bike-friendly infrastructure, multiplying trees, reliance on renewable energy and a fierce pride in locally-produced products. Slashing greenhouse gas emissions and coming close to zero waste is no easy feat for a metropolis with a population of at least 250,000, but these 10 cities – from Boston to San Francisco – prove that sustainability is possible on the largest of scales, in good economic times and bad.

10. Boston, Massachusetts

Representing the entire East Coast in impressive renewable energy stats, Boston boosted its solar power with the Solar Boston program and counts wind among its top three sources of electricity, with a turbine on city hall and more slated for several public schools. Other big plans include turning fall leaves and other yard clippings into power and fertilizer with a new biogas facility, and using recycled trash to power homes. For those residents who don’t rely exclusively on the nation’s most utilized public transportation systems, taxis will soon be another green option as they’re all required to go hybrid by 2015. New bike lanes and 250 bike racks have increased Boston’s pedal power, and the city saves a whopping $400,000 a year thanks to LED traffic lights.

9. Denver, Colorado

The Mile-High City is an outdoor wonderland with 14,000 acres of parkland in the mountains, 200 parks within the city limits, 850 miles of dedicated bike trails and 29 recreation centers. Denver preserves and protects its active, natural heritage with conservation measures like a no-pesticide policy in its parks and the Mile-High Million program, which plans to plant one million trees in the metropolitan area by 2025. For a city in a semi-arid region, Denver is adept at managing its water consumption, offering residents incentives to keep their usage down. Any concrete going into new city projects must be green, and Denver has also made some significant renewable energy goals, hoping to run on 20 percent wind power by 2020.

8. San Jose, California

Maybe it’s not California’s best-known or most-beloved city, but San Jose deserves some serious accolades for its clean-tech goals and innovations. Angling for the title of clean tech capital of America, San Jose has already created over 25,000 jobs in green industries and actively works to lure green businesses to the city. In fact, after Tesla Motors relocated its headquarters there in 2009, San Jose began rapidly developing infrastructure for electric vehicles including plug-in charging stations. It’s home to many of the nation’s top solar manufacturers as well as the world’s largest testing facility for solar products.

In a bid to become a zero-waste city, San Jose has managed to divert 62 percent of its waste to recycling and plans to reuse 100 percent of its waste water for landscaping within the next 15 years. The city’s Green Vision plan also includes a goal to reduce per capita energy use by 50 percent and get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources within the same time period.

7. Oakland, California

Hop on a zero-emissions bus for a tour of one of America’s model green cities, checking out dozens of urban farms, renewable energy projects and a wide variety of eco-friendly businesses. Oakland is working to rise above high levels of unemployment and poverty to position itself as a leader in sustainability, particularly in the areas of local food, green jobs and renewable energy. Taking cues from its bigger Bay Area sister San Francisco (and sometimes even eclipsing it), Oakland gets 17% of its energy from renewable sources like hydroelectric, biomass and wind, and in 2007, it won the City Solar Award from NorCal Solar for having more solar power wattage than any other big city in Northern California.

The city aims to lower its greenhouse gas emissions to 36 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020, the most ambitious target in the nation. It’s also home to Van Jones’ Ella Baker Center, one of several local organizations that focuses on training low-income adults for jobs in green industries.

6. Austin, Texas

Austin may be best known for its vibrant music scene, but this city shines just as bright in the sustainability arena. Not only is Texas’ capital city bicycle and pedestrian friendly, with plenty of mass transit and even hybrid plug-in stations, but its building codes encourage green practices and home energy audits are mandatory when selling a house. Austin is also the largest local government to run on 100% renewable energy, and by 2020 the city aims to have 30% of its residential, commercial and industrial energy consumption shifted to clean sources.

Birthplace of Whole Foods, Austin is brimming with organic restaurants and natural food stores, including America’s first zero-waste, packaging-free grocery store, In.gredients. If you’ve never been there and imagine the entire state of Texas as a dusty wasteland full of tumbleweeds, banish that notion from your mind, at least as it pertains to Austin – this city is surprisingly lush, offering stunning outdoor settings for biking, kayaking, swimming or just relaxing.

5. New York, New York

The fact that the Big Apple can compete with much smaller cities like Austin and Oakland is reason enough to land it in the top five greenest cities. It’s undoubtedly no easy task to keep a teeming metropolis of over 8 million residents from turning into an environmental nightmare, and while New York City can’t boast quite the same statistics on clean air or water conservation, it excels in public transportation and does surprisingly well on greenhouse gases and public park space. It’s the city’s very density that makes it so efficient, with just 20 percent of the population driving their own vehicles on a regular basis. Tall, jam-packed skyscrapers are more energy efficient than single-family homes, and of course, they use up a lot less land. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is further kicking up the city’s eco credentials with tree-planting programs, hybrid taxis and a program that phases out heavy heating oils.

4. Chicago, Illinois

Boardwalks, parks, nature centers, organic restaurants, green hotels and lots of eco-friendly shops: Chicago definitely has a lot to boast about.  The United Nations chose it as one of just two U.S. cities for UN-Habitat’s 100 Cities Initiative for its work over the past two decades addressing climate change and healthier, greener living in general. Since 1989 the city has seen 500,000 trees planted, 10,000 bike racks installed, 114 miles of bike lanes established and 900 acres of abandoned, polluted land returned to productive use.

Chicago’s City Hall boasts a stunning rooftop garden, adding to more than 2.5 million square feet of green roofs within the city limits – more than all other U.S. cities combined. A downtown airport was demolished to make way for a 100-acre park, adding to the city’s reputation as a testing ground for reducing the urban heat island effect. The city is also making headway on a 2008 climate goal that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent come 2050.

3. Seattle, Washington

All of those waterways surrounding Seattle don’t just give it its postcard-perfect beauty and contribute to its wet, mild climate – they also provide over 90 percent of the city’s power in the form of hydroelectricity, and more low-impact hydropower plants are planned to reduce impact on wildlife like salmon. The city’s two global warming initiatives, Seattle Climate Action Now and Seattle Climate Partnership, have distributed thousands of home energy efficiency kits to residents and urged over 100 local businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. And when something like blackberry brambles threaten to overtake Seattle City Light’s substations, the utility employs a chemical-free solution: goats.

2. Portland, Oregon

Seattle’s carbon-neutral electricity makes it the star of the Pacific Northwest when it comes to climate change, but Portland has it beat in all-around sustainability and green living. A quarter of Portland’s workforce commutes by bike, carpool or public transportation with about 9,000 city residents biking downtown every day. The first city to adopt a climate change action plan, Portland offers free plug-in parking spots for electric vehicles and has more LEED-certified residential towers than any other city in the U.S. Portland is beating back sprawl with zoning regulations that encourage dense urban growth while leaving farmland for agricultural use. And on top of all of this, Portland has rightfully earned a reputation as a laid-back, eco-friendly place to live thanks in part to a lively local food and beer scene.

1. San Francisco, California

While Portland and Seattle are snapping at its heels, San Francisco manages to hang on to its title as the greenest city in America for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that city residents seem to have concern for the environment encoded into their DNA. Voters routinely approve aggressive green programs like banning plastic grocery bags and financing renewable energy for public facilities. San Francisco diverts a jaw-dropping 70 percent of its waste thanks to mandatory recycling and composting, and urban farms produce 20 times more food than the city’s residents can consume in a year. Nearly half of all San Francisco residents bike, walk or take public transit every day. Despite being more populated, San Francisco has a lower annual output of greenhouse gases than its Pacific Northwest competition, and is on track to reach its goal of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Images: Tony the Misfit, Manu_H, dherrera_96, Wikimedia Commons, Ella Baker Center, Andreanna Moya, njt4148, compujeramey, wordridden, periwinklekog, kevincole

ColumnThe Blue Angels and the Blue Asses who love them.

I’ll say it: I hate the Blue Angels.

I don’t hate the pilots, especially since one in 10 dies in these shows. Their skill is impressive, but so is ibuprofen’s power to eliminate the headache I had all weekend.

What I hate is the hypocrisy and denial from otherwise educated, progressive folk, or what those outside of San Francisco like to call elitists. How can a typically, or at least stereotypically, intelligent and engaged population possibly think the annual Fleet Week celebration culminating in a fuel-guzzling spectacle of mind-melting noise and nostalgic military might is cool?

Every year, the local media love to report on the inevitable controversy. There are those who adore the Blue Angels (the majority), the hippies who hate them (the minority) and the people who know they shouldn’t go in for such things but mumble about “civic pride” and “feat of engineering” before dashing down to the Embarcadero. Reliably, some outlet, usually a small weekly, will publish a complaint about this celebrated collective embarrassment – with politically-correct emphasis on the noise, never the navy! God no! – and the controversy flares up in the comment box.

This time around, when SF Weekly had the commie audacity to grumble about the deafening 150 decibel levels of the jets whizzing by their offices (“deafening” as the categorization for 150 happens to be an actual scientific fact), a keyboard-enabled denizen of San Francisco promptly attributed such grumbling to “carpetbagging transplants” who would dare deprive children of the fabulous experience of having class interrupted by the noise of the jets. No child of the Bay Area should grow up without that experience, he railed. I think it’s reasonable to venture someone still takes his PB&J without the crusts when no one’s looking.

This isn’t a video game. You can’t check into the Blue Angels on Foursquare. If you want to honor a great American marvel of technology, go bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. Fart all you like along the way, while you’re at it – you’ll put out far less toxic gas than the jets scorching overhead.

In short, I’m disappointed in my Berkeley-marching, Marin hot-tubbing, Haight-Ashbury pot-smoking brethren. (I’m also disappointed that sistren is not a word, but more on that another time.) Not because I out-smug them. Quite the contrary. I don’t attend rallies, I’ve never marched in protest, I wouldn’t wear Birkenstocks even if Birkenstock paid me in Manolos to do it, I eat meat and – wait for it – I don’t believe in sacrifice as a strategy. This hardly endears me to many a resident treehugger, but then I’m hardly enamored of an otherwise green population that mindlessly shows up once a year at the pier to cheer an outlandish and outdated display of sky-high dick swinging. Why must patriotism and pride always come wrapped around a weapon?

No one’s arguing that what the Blue Angels do isn’t enormously impressive. It is. The atom bomb was impressive. The many dams that have upended vital ecosystems are impressive. American feats of engineering, all. And you can argue for their necessity quite convincingly to many people and for many decades we have.

We are living in precarious times – thrilling times, to be sure. Our economy and our environment are in shabby shape, and that’s being generous. So for me, getting excited about a jet show is about as mature as getting excited about sandwich crusts. It’s just so entirely out of touch, and I have yet to hear a coherent defense.

I suppose this makes me a carpetbagging transplant and possibly a commie and definitely a curmudgeon, but in my opinion it’s time to put the Blue Angels on the shelf next to Formica, meatloaf TV dinners and Mommy’s Little Helper. We have much more fascinating “feats of engineering” going on, ones that might save us here and now, in the real world, in the true time and space we are all actually in and must face whether we want to or not. Escapism can be fun, but that doesn’t make it right.

The Insider’s Guide to Life is your editor’s weekly column exploring topics such as media, culture, sex, living, and anything else, including high decibel ranting. Cheers and spellcheck!

Image: (matt)

Love food and live in the Bay Area? Put FallFest 2011 on your calendar!

A celebration of the Bay Area’s best in local food, wine and cocktails, FallFest 2011 is your chance to see San Francisco Magazine’s award-winning food editorial come to life at the hands of local restaurateurs, winemakers, epicurean artisans, eco experts, and mixologists. It’s all about eating and celebrating local and we’re excited to be an official media partner of the event! There’s even an eco-cocktail competition. What more do you want?

The festival is also a benefit for San Francisco’s Meals on Wheels, who deliver meals to homebound seniors. You can score raffle tickets which help raise money for Meals on Wheels and enter to win one of three getaways. $10 gets you a ticket or $50 for a package of six. 100% of the proceeds go to Meals on Wheels and you don’t even have to be present to win! Purchase tickets now.

WHEN: Sunday, October 9, 2011, Noon to 4 p.m.

WHERE: Justin Herman Plaza at Embarcadero Center, San Francisco

TICKETS: You can buy tickets here. We’ll also be sending out a special promotional code to EcoSalon newsletter readers, so if you haven’t signed up yet, do so now!

Image: San Francisco Magazine

 Learn the basics of being a food activist.

Dr. Marion Nestle was right when she said:

Vote with your fork. Every time you make a food choice, you are voting for the kind of food system you want. More voting for sustainable, local, organic would be game changing. It doesn’t have to be 100% one way or the other, just more. But I also think people have to vote with their votes. Join organizations, write representatives, run for office!

Activism comes in all shapes and sizes, and if you care about food, you can take action three times a day. Interested in food activism? Then you might want to check out Civil Eats‘ Kitchen Table Talks.

Civil Eats is hosting another round of its Kitchen Table Talks tonight, Tuesday September 20, in San Francisco, and it’s all focused on food activism, which will culminate one week later:

We encourage participants to take their newly learned skills the following week to a free San Francisco mayoral candidate forum on Monday, September 26, sponsored by the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance, San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance, and Bay Area Water Stewards. There you can engage candidates on their perspectives on issues related to urban agriculture, schoolyard greening, and the city’s management of water resources.

When: Tuesday, September 20, 2011, Food and drink at 6:30 pm; Discussion at 7:00 pm

Where: 18 Reasons, 3674 18th Street (@ Dolores), San Francisco

Joining in the conversation will be special guests San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, Eli Zigas, co-coordinator of the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance, and Stephen Burdo, Political Director for Kathleen Russell Consulting.

Check out Civil Eats for more info.

Image: Civil Eats, Rick Bradley

ExclusiveSan Francisco’s Mission District recently served up local street fare to a hungry crowd.

In the Mission district of San Francisco last Saturday, an expansive variety of street food was served at the 3rd annual San Francisco Street Food Festival, put on by La Cocina. Food carts, trucks, stands, coolers, grills, and brick-and-mortar restaurants showcased their offerings of food and drinks priced from $1-$8. People carried cash or special event passports in search of all the best food they could find. EcoSalon was on the scene scouting local foodie goodness.

Here are the top picks from this indulgent day:

#6 Watermelon Gazpacho from Commonwealth

In several years of covering food events, I like to think that I have reached some kind of method for the madness. For instance, after judging a cupcake challenge, I go straight to a vegan restaurant for some on-the-fly cleansing. Rational? My approach perhaps makes no nutritional sense, but it’s what I do. Another well-honed tactic: There is something to be said about starting an event off with a shot of liquid courage, so that is another food fest rule. For this afternoon, I started with a shot of watermelon gazpacho with lemon verbena oil artfully decorating the top. It was sweet and tart as I shot it down, prompting a handful of fellow foodie goers to ask, “That looks so refreshing, where did you get?”

The answer was Commonwealth, a top Mission restaurant who had a stand for this event and offered the shooter for $2. It was an inexpensive way to coat my stomach with something ostensibly healthy before the delicious abuse it was about to endure.

#5 Thai Grilled Chicken with Sticky Rice from Lers Ros

Next up was the most beautiful-looking chicken and sticky rice I’ve ever seen. I was on the prowl for something substantial but not too heavy (read: fried). I was excited to encounter Lers Ros, a top Thai restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant features a diverse menu including items such as frog legs and alligator. I have yet to visit and try these exotic meats that “taste like chicken,” so it was beneficial to see how they actually prepared their food. They do it very well. It fell off the bone. I generously rescued it with a spoon and grabbed some sticky rice for a full dip in the sweet and spicy chili sauce. My first thought? Oddly enough, that this is how mall food should taste.

#4 S’mores from Kika’s Treats

In an interview I did with San Francisco local and Top Chef: Just Desserts winner, Yigit Pura, he confessed that Kika’s Treats were one of his favorite sweets. I endured the long line to see what spell the chocolate-dipped graham crackers held over a master pastry chef. One look at the torch turning a marshmallow and a graham cracker into a S’more and I got it.

#3 Banh Mi and Pad Thai Taco from The Peached Tortilla

Some out-of-state vendors were present and I was so intrigued by one menu that I had to try all of the offerings. A food truck from Austin, Texas that was serving a Pad Thai taco and a Banh Mi taco? Obviously I had to try both. I got the Pad Thai taco with tofu and was a little turned off by the look it. Noodle-free, essentially a mash-up of toppings, I had my doubts. One bite in and I realized the best part of pad thai: the sauce, the crushed peanuts, the bean sprouts and the lime wedge. The tortilla was just the vessel for this flavor powerhouse. The Banh Mi taco was similarly fashioned, but had Vietnamese braised pork belly with pickled Daikon and carrots topped with Srichacha mayo and cilantro. Once again, the toppings were supreme. If I lived in Texas, you can guarantee this would be my go-to truck after a night of cocktailing.

#2 The Yes Please! from The Crème Brulee Man

Living in San Francisco, the Crème Brulee Man – and his Twitter feed – is one of my regular haunts. For the festival, I had a mouthwatering brulee featuring Nutella and balsamic strawberry. I can now die and go to heaven.

#1 Arepa de Queso from The Arepa Lady

I do not recall when or where I first heard about The Arepa Lady, but like a mythical creature, I knew she existed. Hailing from Jackson Heights in New York, she also goes by the nickname “Sainted Arepa Lady.” As part of the visiting vendor program, she graced us and gave us all a great Arepa gift. It may have the same appearance as a Salvadorian Pupusa, but the Arepa version is much denser and sweeter. Summed up? Imagine tender dough cheese-filled, buttered and grilled to a brown and crispy sweet perfection – and then topped with more cheese. This was, without question, the best thing I ate at the festival. Possibly ever. (Butter! Cheese!)

I was quite full by the time I ate this, but my mouth and taste buds were completely reawakened by all the cheesy goodness. I am one who prefers to savor, so with only two bites taken, I saved it. Later in the day in my food coma nap, I even dreamed about it.

Editor’s note: The author and EcoSalon’s editor-in-chief, Sara Ost, are not related (except by their love of food).

San Francisco’s Hotel Triton has been a pioneer in eco lodging since the early 1990s.

Kimpton Hotels have been leaders in the industry when it comes to eco-friendly accommodations. The company’s Hotel Triton in downtown San Francisco is no different and actually started it all with an “eco-floor” back in the 1990s, which spread to the rest of the hotel in 2003. Because of its environmental efforts, the Hotel Triton inspired the current company-wide eco-program for all Kimpton Hotels.

Each property owned by Kimpton has a theme and the one for Hotel Triton is pop culture. It was inspired by the imaginations of San Franciscan artisans and the décor is whimsy and fun with personal touches from celebrities that have stayed there, such as artwork, quotes, concert memorabilia, photographs, and personally selected amenities. The hotel is also a supporter of the local arts community by serving as a showcase for emerging artists with a rotating gallery of art.

The Hotel Triton has been called “The best hotel in San Francisco,” and we love the fact that it’s right smack downtown, across from the Chinatown gates. And it’s pet-friendly too!

If you go: Stay in the “Eco Premier King Rooms” which feature different eco design elements a guest can experience first-hand and consider in their own home environments. They each have a special theme like the Trust for Public Land, Happy Planet, the Collage Foundation and the Eco-Chic Room.

Rates start at $180.00USD per night.

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

Great stories from EcoSalon you may have missed this week.

In San Francisco’s Fashion Incubator At Macy’s Heralds New Designers, fashion writer Rowena Ritchie notes that over the years there have been numerous efforts to breathe life into San Francisco’s struggling fashion scene, “so it was a thrilling day for industry pundits when the announcement was made from Mayor Edwin M. Lee’s office on Monday that a new fashion incubator would launch next year.” The Fashion Incubator San Francisco at Macy’s Union Square (FISF), now has a group mission to turn creative fashion apparel designers into successful San Francisco entrepreneurs. We can’t wait to watch and see what happens.

With the healthy future of our environment at stake and a younger, more urban generation so far removed from forest paths and babbling brooks, are we in trouble? In Wanted: More Urban Children To Embrace Nature, writer Sarah Lewis-Hammond says, “Widely reported problems with our increasing penchant for urbanization expand well beyond the economic and environmental, and issues ranging from increasing obesity to widespread depression and stress disorders have been pinned on our proliferation of concrete.” Time to bring in the jackhammers.

If you live in the city of Portland, Oregon, you’re fully aware it’s been rated a top green city in the U.S. so it’s not a surprise that in this past week’s Places & Spaces, the Avalon Hotel and Spa, in Portland, Oregon has been featured. Kara DiCamillo points out that “With a cool architectural design, this luxury retreat is the tenth hotel in the world (and the first in Oregon), to be certified as a LEED hotel by the U.S. Green Building Council.” Pack your bags and go west, young women.

Foodie Underground columnist Anna Brones is back with more cupcake analysis. “Trendy cupcake stores are one thing, and even if I can’t get behind the popularity of the baked good, I’ll agree that they’re colorful, cute and, if you have a sweet tooth, taste good. But restraint is not a virtue Americans possess, and so we weren’t satisfied with adorably stenciled hole-in-the-wall cupcake shops. Instead we had to make the cupcake a national trend on a level of the beanie baby. Cupcakes have literally taken over.” See all the bizarre cupcake accessories you can handle in Burned Out On The Cupcake Trend.

In International Train Traveling To Romance You, Shira Levine explains that “Train travel is one of the cleanest, greenest, and often prettiest modes of transport for seeing the world. Less carbon is burned when riding the rails vs. flying or driving alone and thanks to technology, traveling by train has picked up speed over the last hundred or so years.” Did we mention that it was also totally sexy?