Ideal Bite

Heather's most eco-egregious habit is that she only drinks Italian wine even though she lives right smack in the middle of CA wine country. She's offsetting this lushy luxury by tooling around SF in a converted biodiesel Benz, so that she'll use dino-fuel to get her wine to her, not to get her around town. Heather also knows that all her flying about creates serious carbon emissions, but figures that if she flies to Italy and buys the wine there, she's moving in the right direction... but only if she offsets.

Jen just got a hot tub, and they are huge energy-sucks! But what else is a girl who lives 10 minutes from a ski slope to do? For starters, she is neutralizing the effect by committing to use a clothesline (on all days her clothes won't end up as popsicles) and promises to convert the hot tub to solar power when the Bite is a bit more in the green. In the meantime, she eases her guilty conscience (along with her aching back) by making her house carbon balanced, thanks to TerraPass!

Kay loves to drive and frequently does - straight to Whole Foods. So while she's offsetting a small number of her carbons by shopping green, she has a whole bunch more to contend with, as she's a self-proclaimed road-trip junkie who drives around Northern Cali to swim meets, soccer games, river cleanup efforts, runs, classes by her favorite yoga teachers, and the occasional (OK, maybe not so occasional) wine country trip! She's promised the rest of the Biter team that she'll trade in her gas guzzler for a hybrid but in the meantime, she takes the train as often as possible, walks to get her cup o' Peets coffee, and offsets the rest of her carbons with a Terra Pass!

Jenifer (with one "n") loves to fly, and it shows! Ironically, it was only after flying all the way to Poland, where she had no other alternative than to bike to work and use public transportation for three months, that she realized she was capable of breaking her addiction to driving. Jenifer recently sold her car in favor of walking, running, and even occasionally skipping. When she absolutely must drive, she reserves a hybrid from her local car share service, Flexcar. She also does a bit of carbon offsetting (and nature communing) by planting trees each year on her birthday.

Sara loves to go to far-off lands and just returned from Hawaii. She figures that since she walks or takes public transit everywhere, she is due a few plane flights that don't come with tiny packs of peanuts or a guilty conscience. However, because she is our most do-good Biter, she is going one step further and greening all of her future flights with Terra Pass's green tags when she travels on Expedia. It's just a check box on checkout, and she gets a snazzy luggage tag that helps her show off her environmental pride.

Toshio loves scary movies and watches at least one per week, but he always ends up sleeping with the lights on afterwards (which adds up, despite the fact that he uses energy-saving CFLs). In order to counterbalance his nighttime nightlight habit, he unplugs electronics like crazy to avoid phantom loads and put his entertainment system all on one power strip that he can just flip off. Tosh also chose to carbon balance his car's emissions since it is getting a lot of use driving Heather to and from the airport.

Hilary is in no way ready to give up her favorite (not-so-eco-friendly) recreational past time – downhill skiing. And, after a day on the slopes, nothing soothes her muscles like a 90-minute hot yoga session. (Yep, yoga done in a 105-degree heated room. Slightly eco-egregious? We think so.) Hilary redeems her carbon footprint a bit by not just carpooling, but all-out sharing a carbon-neutralized car with her boyfriend, and walks to work every day. Plus, she "votes with her dollars" by purchasing her ski pass at a resort that buys wind offsets for its lifts, always sells her used equipment at the local ski swap, and does her Half Moons on a non-PVC mat.

Elisa has been known to travel long distances to see concerts (most recently a Joshua Radin show in NY). However, she does offset her musical addictions by offsetting her plane travel with TerraPass, and she downloads her music using iTunes to forgo all the packaging and distribution energy associated with CDs (which are kinda obsolete anyway).

Diane is not of fan of washing dishes by hand and she's convinced that the Delicate/Economy mode on her dishwasher won't get the glasses spotless. To offset her need to use the Regular wash cycle, she runs the dishwasher only when it's full so she saves water and a bit of energy. Diane is more eco-conscious when it comes to washing clothes. Slacks don't get washed after every wear, items are laundered only in cold water, and most articles of clothing go into her Ikea "drying" closet or onto an actual drying rack. Another confession, she tosses air-dried clothes into a gas-powered dryer for a few minutes to tackle wrinkles and stiffness. She hopes walking three hills, taking one bus, and two trains to get to work, while leaving her flex-fuel car in the garage, earns her some favorable eco-points.

Having driven across country now three times (and jetted countless others), Theresa has finally faced a hard truth: a bicoastal lifestyle isn't exactly eco-smart. While she hasn't owned a car in 12 years, she plans to put the kibosh on flights for a while (right after a trip to Turkey this summer). This will allow her more time to work on her craft, making handmade gifts for friends, like tree-friendly dinner napkins and nontoxic puppets.

Alison takes care to buy local and seasonal foods year-round, but she's a sucker for specialty gourmet imports. She figures that since she subscribes to a CSA and supports local farms, a few slices of French cheese and a handful of Italian olives once in awhile can be forgiven. To get around Chicago, Alison walks, uses public transport and rides her bike (when weather allows!). She's also pretty vigilant about keeping the thermostat low, despite Midwest winters, which may have something to do with the surplus of blankets and slippers scattered around her apartment.

Mike likes music. A lot. Five nights out of the week he falls asleep with his laptop, powered computer speakers, and external hard drive running all night long. And if he’s not plugged into his iPod, it’s probably being charged. (After many years, he’s finally ditched the CD player in the bathroom.) But he uses power strips to cut down on phantom loads when he’s away and opts for downloads whenever possible, which cuts down on packaging. He drives a truck, but opts for public transit whenever possible.

Besides her extensive traveling (sorry Earth), Hanah is admittedly a little OCD and tends to take really long, hot showers…sometimes two in one day. To offset this, Hanah takes public transportation and walks everywhere - in heels. Hanah has also forgiven her dark green father for the embarrassment he caused while she was growing up thanks to his noisy biodiesel cars, dumpster diving, and the trash sculptures displayed in their organic garden. (In reflection, Hanah finds these things all pretty cool.)

As a former Fashion & Beauty Editor, it's no surprise Brianne loves to shop. However, with overflowing closets comes laundry in never-ending mounds. Since 75 percent of clothing energy consumption comes not from manufacturing or from distribution but from laundering, she only runs full loads, uses cold water, and all-natural detergent, and line dries wherever she finds space in her tiny Greenwich Village apartment. Brianne also shops in vintage stores and donates all of her old clothes to charity. She always has a canvas tote on hand, walks most places, and loves taking hybrid buses with the sweet little old ladies.

Erica loves warm weather so SF’s foggy, cold climate isn’t her fave. Hence, she relies on her old-school electric heater in the winter. She tries to turn the heater on for only a short time but loves the heat on cold SF nights. (Of course, she puts on a sweatshirt first.) She offsets this drain on the electrical grid by composting obsessively, biking to work everyday, and only supporting local businesses in her ‘hood.