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For the more dedicated and efficient shopper, Extrabux is both a godsend and a necessity. For those of us a little slower on the uptake, a few clicks discover that Extrabux is an immensely popular online shopping portal (launched by a couple of twenty-something guys in San Diego) that offers coupons and cash rebates per transaction at an impressive array of retailers.

To leave a literal mark on Earth Day 2012, Extrabux has vowed to plant a tree for every purchase made on the site this weekend. Kicking off yesterday, Thursday, April 19 and running through Sunday the 22nd (which just so happens to be Earth Day), the site teamed with American Forests to help bring the initiative to life. Their goal is to plan “a whole forest.”

They also use the occasion to emphasize the 2008 Carnegie Mellon study which found that shopping online is a whole 35 percent greener than the traditional method of going to a physical store.

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Popular Swedish-based home furnishings retailer Ikea announced this week the planting of two million trees throughout the U.S. In conjunction with American Forests, Ikea’s Plant A Tree program strategically targeted areas in need, including 74,000 trees planted in California’s Sequoia National Forest as part of the McNally Fire restoration.

“Forests are the most important land-based ecosystems on earth. IKEA’s commitment to planting trees makes a real difference, both for the health of our planet and its inhabitants,” said Scott Steen, CEO of American Forests in a press release. “We at American Forests deeply appreciate the partnership of IKEA and its customers in this important work.”

Introducing the Plant A Tree program back in 1998, Ikea has a long history of practicing sustainability, including an extensive solar panel initiative and being the first major retailer to stop all sales on incandescent lighting.

Stevie Wonder once titled an album Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants”. Thanks to an ambitious German artist, we can start to hear how that might have actually sounded.

Bartholomäus Traubeck has created a modified turntable that instead of reading vinyl grooves, digitally translates tree rings into haunting, mournful piano music reminiscent of Philip Glass.

For his project entitled “Years”, Traubeck utilized a slew of technical components including Arduino and Ableton Live software, which analyzes the tree’s rings for thickness and rate of growth. Also reading the wood’s texture and color tone, the high-tech tone arm generates the music while “playing” across the wooden “record”.

The resulting music is a sonic representation of the tree’s life cycle, and various environmental factors it endured as it grew.

The ominous piano tones they generate would be perfect for a particularly spooky movie soundtrack or as the intro music to a Radiohead show. You know, something dramatic.

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In this Nov. 6, 2011 file photo, New York Giants' Eli Manning, right, is congratulated by New England Patriots' Tom Brady after the Giants' 24-20 win in an NFL football game in Foxborough, Mass.

After two of the wildest finishes in NFL Championship history, the opponents in Super Bowl XLVI are finally set: Eli Manning and the New York Giants will square off against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in a marquee rematch of Super Bowl XLII.

While NBC breathes a sigh of relief that they’re not stuck trying to sell a 49ers/Ravens match-up, the media world prepares to descend on Indianapolis, where the NFL has the big game poised to be the most eco-friendly Super Bowl yet.

The game is being hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium, which like many NFL stadiums, strives to be as environmentally conscious as possible with extensive recycling and conservation efforts. But much of the sustainable action is happening outside of the stadium and around Indianapolis.

We’ve already mentioned the NFL’s “1^st and Green” challenge to football fans in an effort to promote conservation. 1^st and Green is also behind a host of more immediate green initiatives throughout the city, like a composting program with the Marriott hotel during the week of the game. All food waste will be transported to GreenCycle center, where it will be converted into compost (leftover stadium food is already earmarked for local food banks by the Second Helpings organization).

The NFL is also using renewable energy at every turn, from the media center to the fan-friendly Super Bowl Village, thanks to the Green Mountain Energy Company. The League has set up two EV charging stations in town, and even surpassed its’ goal of planting 2012 trees by this year on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis.

Now if they could only do something to fix the Pro Bowl…