Prince Charles is building the world's first green town.

It takes a lot of guts and a very special type of person to build a town, and say it's going to be the most eco-friendly town in the world. A person like the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles.

A free bicycle with every home and wind-generated electricity - welcome to Prince of Wales' 'eco-town'.

Prince Charles has been granted permission to build Sherford, a brand new town for 12,000 people, in South Devon that is billed as Britain's greenest settlement.

The Prince's advisers have suggested that cars should be banned from some areas and three quarters of buildings fitted with solar power panels.

The ambience of the town will be traditionally English.

Also, there are plans for a cricket pitch and bowling green.

The Prince has said he wants to build places "we all know strike a chord in our, by now, rather bewildered hearts, however 'modern' we are - places that convey an everlasting human story of meaning and belonging".

The project is due to be completed by 2020 on the rolling farmland on the edge of Plymouth and planners intend half of all Sherford's energy to come from renewable sources on site. Wind turbines will loom over the town's 400-acre park.

This is going to be interesting to follow as it's being developed, but unfortunately it sounds like that could take a while. At least they've got the right idea, and now we just wait and see if it works out the way we hope it will.

Chicago-based ComEd (Exelon) is promoting a new initiative to reduce paper usage and waste by promising to donate trees when customers sign up for electronic billing and statements. From their news release:

To raise awareness about the environmental benefits of going paperless, ComEd this month pledges to donate one tree for every 100 customers who enroll in e-Bill and direct debit in March. The trees will be purchased for planting at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., to commemorate Arbor Day.

ComEd customers can go paperless when they enroll in both e-Bill and direct debit.

ComEd claims this will reduce paper consumption by 1,344,000 pounds and save 13,000 trees, as well as reduce CO2 emissions by 3,399,000 pounds, which they say is the equivalent to taking 300 cars off the roads.

The question I frequently hear asked by opponents to this type of initiative is 'how much electricity will be used to send out electronic bills?' and the answer is very little. The machines used to send and receive electronic billing statements are the same machines that would be in use anyway, so any additional power consumption by using electronic systems is negligible, and the cost-benefit ratio always benefits switching to electronic systems.

To enroll in ComEd's paperless billing program, go to their website.