Fom the rise of hybrid vehicles, to the increase in vegetarian diets, to the call to decrease purchases of plastic-bottled water, one thing is clear: The word is go for green.

But while everyone's thinking (and panicking) globally, animal shelters are charged with acting locally.  Driven by mission, shelters are, appropriately, more focused on saving animals in their communities than they are on the larger picture of reducing pollution, increasing recycling, and going green. And shelters everywhere deal with the realities of the other kind of green-greenbacks, that is, which must be used to pay staff, feed and house animals, buy gas for animal control trucks, pay utilities.

Whether a shelter's budget is bare bones or fat cat, one thing never changes across the spectrum - the mission to help as many people and animals as possible with those limited funds.  That means any green measures a shelter implements have to make practical, economic sense, or they won't be sustainable over the long term.

Thankfully, many environmentally sustainable choices are economically sustainable - even beneficial.  Energy is expensive, and while volunteers may donate their work, utility companies have yet to be so generous. A chunk of every organisation's annual budget goes to energy costs.  That's money most would prefer to spend directly on the animals - money from donors who want to finance chew toys and vet care, not oil tycoons and electric conglomerates.  Cutting energy bills helps the environment and the animals.

While saving the environment may not be foremost on a shelter's agenda, the drive to protect the planet is related to a shelter's mission of animal protection.  After all, a facility that relies heavily on oil and electricity isn't doing a world of good for the rest of the critters on the planet (including people).  And while most shelters can't transform their facilities overnight into solar- and wind-powered, composting, recycling temples of green, many organizsations are finding ways to make a positive impact on both their planet and their piggybanks.

Some shelters are going green from the ground up, integrating environmental design into new or retrofitted buildings. Thanks to shifting priorities, the construction industry has come a long way.

Developing or retrofitting a facility to use less or renewable energy is a big step not only toward green practices but reduced energy costs - a goal for every budget-strained animal care agency.  

Beyond the money issue, standards can pose other dilemmas for animal shelters:  Animal shelters have different operational demands than the many businesses that, when developing blueprints, don't have to factor in disease control or the wear-and-tear from hundreds of animals. 

For shelters that need to go green on the cheap, try some low-expense energy conservation methods, like putting up shades to keep the building cool in hot weather, installing better insulation, replacing leaky windows with double- or triple-pane glass to prevent heat loss, and using simple weather stripping around doors.

With all the more modern green trends on the scene, it's easy to forget the granddaddy of the environmental movement: recycling.