Sprig.com adds new features, columns and online tools to inspire readers to easily integrate beautiful green choices into their daily lives. Brand new content—breaking news, actionable fashion and beauty tips, and celebrity scoop—and interactive features, including the ability to share, bookmark and comment on stories and products, will help readers take easy steps towards a more beautiful, stylish and eco-friendly lifestyle.

The average American household spends hundreds of dollars each year buying bottled water. If these families were to fill reusable bottles with their own filtered tap water, they could save an average of at least $500 per year and help reduce the nearly 200 million pounds of plastics waste in the country’s landfills annually.

To help consumers reduce waste every day, Base Brands today introduces WaterWeek, a set of five 16 oz. reusable, BPA-free water bottles for the work week in a specially-designed tray that fits neatly in a refrigerator. Available in a variety of colors and patterns, these leak-proof bottles are ideal for a variety of indoor/outdoor activities where consumers typically use bottled water like the office, car or gym.

Having a baby gives moms a whole new outlook on being eco-friendly. But choosing the best foods, clothing and nontoxic products for pregnancy, babies and young children can be a source of anxiety for many women.

Experts speaking at a March of Dimes luncheon for reporters here, titled "The Eco-Friendly Baby: Common Sense Guidelines for Mom," helped de-mystify the subject and provided tips to help moms become smart and knowledgeable "green" consumers.

Alan Greene, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician and author of "Raising Baby Green: The Earth Friendly Guide To Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care"; and Joel Forman, MD, associate professor of Pediatrics and Community and Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, answered some of the most frequently asked questions, including:

Find out after the jump.

The U.S. Postal Service is offering greener choices, and an easy, online resource for consumers to make environmentally friendly decisions about their mail.

From eco-friendly products and services to ideas for recycling and ways to help marketers create greener advertising, usps.com/green contains hundreds of facts, suggestions and programs to help improve environmental awareness and make it easier for consumers to go green — including a way to calculate carbon footprint savings by conducting Postal Service business online.

Almost anything a customer can do in a Post Office can be done online. The green web pages provide the extra benefit of one quick, easy and convenient location to learn how to be greener consumers. An easy-to-use navigation bar directs users to product, recycling, Postal Service environmental innovation, direct mail and ideas for greening mail, including links to local recycling centers, reusing boxes and packages for shipping, and ensuring home addressing is current to make sure consumers receive the mail they want and eliminate waste

The "ice" surfaces are manufactured by Mitsubishi plastics and are being marketed as a way to keep costs down while increasing the number of rinks in Japan, as skating booms in popularity for its athletes. Ice rinks are closing due to economic strain, and the fabricated rinks can save operators roughly $190,000 U.S. annually in both air conditioning and water bills.

Many schools in the US and Canada are boycotting bottled water in hopes of making a point about green living. To them, there’s no reason to sacrifice the Earth’s health for something that can be acquired through a faucet.

Yet, bottled water is often a more palatable choice than tap, since it doesn’t contain as many impurities. But this benefit should not come at the expense of the environment, a fact few bottled water manufacturers realize… except for Water Vend.

Water Vend is the only company in North America that has created an eco-friendly water vending machine. Known as the Azure, this vending machine doesn’t even store water in bottles or cans. Instead, it pours cold water into a sports bottle, (which is supplied by the customer).

In terms of the water itself, the Azure works by filtering tap water. Everything undesirable, such as chlorine, unusual odors or tastes gets removed instantaneously. From there the customer is given the option to add flavoring and/or carbonation. This means that through Azure, customers can get freshly-made club soda, sports drinks or iced tea.

The Azure also offers other eco-friendly advantages. The machine uses LED lighting and flash water chilling technology, which help conserve electricity. Additionally, the Azure operates without releasing CO2 byproducts or waste water into the environment.

Eco-drivers will love the re-engineered Mini Cooper D, which ticks several environmentally-friendly boxes. It easily delivers 50mpg while putting out a green-as-grass 104 g/km of CO2 emissions. The new version also features an integrated stop/start system, which cuts the engine in standing traffic, boosting its green credentials even further.

It’s a pleasure for motorway driving, damping down wind noise and rarely registering above 2500rpm on the tachometer. The extra-supportive seats cushion driver and passengers against bumps in the road, making for a luxury drive. It holds its own during country back roads, too, with confident and secure steering on even the tightest corners.

Cooperlease’s Marketing Director, Ben Newton, says: “The Mini Cooper D is an all-round little sports car. Its energetic acceleration and sharp transmission combine with steady suspension and low ground clearance to give the classic Mini go-kart feeling. It’s also one of the safest cars around. Anti-Lock Braking System, Cornering Brake Control, Electronic Brakeforce Distribution and Brake Assist Automatic Stability Control + Traction all come as standard on the Mini Cooper D.”

Spring is here and for many New Englanders, that means it's finally time to fire up the barbecue or head outside for the first picnic of the season. And this year, diners who prefer to eat alfresco can do so without feeling guilty about using disposable plates and tableware that will languish in a landfill for years. Instead, thanks to Market Basket, they can choose to use a new line of eco-friendly disposable tableware from StalkMarket.

StalkMarket plates and bowls are now available in all 59 Market Basket stores throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Both of these products are made from a sugarcane fiber-based paperboard called bagasse. Sugarcane is a renewable resource that can be grown and harvested in a matter of months, making it a much more sustainable alternative to products made of wood pulp.

Hallmark is introducing greeting cards produced on paper made from sugar cane pulp and recycled fiber for the Connections from Hallmark brand. The cards are currently available in 3,600 Wal-Mart stores across the U.S. in time for Earth Day.

The new cards are printed on stock containing 50 percent sugar cane pulp, which is a byproduct of sugar cane harvesting, and 50 percent recycled paper. The sugar cane cards contain messages for birthdays and other occasions, and sell for 94 cents.

Partnering for Environmental Progress
In 2007, Hallmark partnered with Wal-Mart on an initiative to recycle its employees' retired blue vests into greeting cards. Hallmark designed and printed the "blue vest" paper stock to produce packets of holiday cards for American military serving overseas. The servicemen and women could send the cards back to family and friends for the holidays.

Positively Green, a new quarterly magazine geared towards those mainstream women who want a no-nonsense solution guide to living a greener, healthier life, will launch in bookstores and retail stores nationwide in early August.

The magazine is the brainchild of Nashvillian Kelly Magill, who also publishes Nashville Interiors magazine. In her daily routine of caring for children, working, and maintaining a home life, Kelly realized she was not alone in her quest to incorporate going green into her life and the lives of her loved ones. Thus, Positively Green was born.

“I wanted to produce a very visually stunning, fresh-feeling magazine that addresses a variety of interests and concerns, but was centered on green living,” said publisher of Positively Green, Kellly Magill. “So I incorporated travel, fashion and gossip, cooking, health and home decor and all those things we all enjoy, and based it all around the very simple idea of leading a greener, healthier lifestyle in a way that would resonate with women juggling work and children and all the other things we deal with in life.

evolve showerheads announces the release of Roadrunner low-flow showerhead to cut water usage in half with patent-pending ShowerStart technology. Last year a record 32 states recorded a period of drought. Yet every day in the typical American home, gallons of water are lost unnecessarily as we step away while waiting for the shower to get hot.

It's difficult to gauge your shower's temperature unless you stand with your hand under the stream -- and most of us would rather grab a cup of coffee or brush our teeth than spend precious morning minutes waiting for it to get hot.

Wouldn't it be great if there were a way to "pause" the hot water with a showerhead that felt luxurious but also conserved water?

Smell french fries? At Merrimack College, the scent is coming from a tail pipe, not the cafeteria. The college is using a more eco-friendly blended fuel (cooking oil/diesel) to run a fleet of maintenance vehicles to help the environment and save money for the college.

While watching a TV program on the use of eco-friendly fuel, the director of the Physical Plant Department at Merrimack, Robert Coppola, had a “eureka” moment. “If they can do it, why can’t Merrimack?” Now, the blended fuel is being used in all of Merrimack’s diesel run vehicles – over 20 pieces of machinery, both small and large.

WHY USE BLENDED FUEL? Find out after the jump.