Environmentalism isn't my cause célèbre by any means. That said, I've always believed that being frugal and responsible includes not wasting things, and some people have turned that into an environmental message, so I suppose I am a moderate environmentalist in an incidental sort of way.

Anyway, DR at The Dough Roller recently posted about 13 "green" products that also save you money. Most of the products listed probably won't surprise anyone (compact flourescent bulbs, rechargeable batteries, etc.), but I wanted to comment about a few of them.

GT Nomad LTD Comfort Bike: As DR notes, this is primarily useful for people who live close enough to their office and who live in a place where it's climatically feasible more than a few months out of the year. For others who experience a significant commute or extreme climates, a potentially more environmental and cost-saving solution would be simply to ask your boss if you can work from home, even if only some of the time. Of course, monetary and environmental savings might be offset by the cost of having to heat/cool your home during the days you work there. Being creative and finding other cost savings, such as not eating lunch out so much, would be one way to make working at home "work."

Kindle 2: This one made me laugh and reminded me of the suggestion that a Nintendo Wii might save people money, which I commented about in 2007. While it's true that the Kindle 2 could be a cost-friendly, environmental solution to some people's daily habit of paper consumption, I think it's pretty clear that the Internets are changing the way people consumer daily publications even without the Kindle. And for cheap books, just go to the library.

Voltaic Solar Backpack: For someone backpacking in an African desert or the Amazon, this might be an interesting option. For the rest of us, it probably would just make others want to kick our collective pretentious ass.

Tesla Roadster: DR even admits it's not a money saving device, so why is it on this list? Probably because blog titles with numbers are catchy and because people like prime numbers so 13 is perhaps more generally attractive than 12. I'm not accusing DR of being intentionally disingenuous, but I think adding this item to the list is really sketchy. If he wanted to include the Roadster in the post, he should have put it as an "also ran" in a section separate from the actual list.

The other items on the list all seem pretty kosher, so regardless of your reasons – whether to save the environment or your bank account, or both – you should check them out.