A clock powered by water and salt. A cork lounge chair. A solar-powered bag that can recharge your electronics.

The newly launched “Green by Design” Web site resembles a lot of similar green product sites, but might be worth a second look. The site’s design is clean and easy to navigate, and while it includes a large catalog of products for sale, the entries come with a useful green scorecard showing why the product is “green.”

Among the products found there: biodegradable guitar picks, golf tees and ball markers from Wheatware USA in Placentia (golfing accessories shown below).

The Web site also provides short takes exploring topics like the virtues and drawbacks of electric cars, or the link between the “Ridesharing Community” and Charles Darwin (hint: feedback-driven “evolution” of products and services).

The site’s Bay Area creators pledge to take a cold, hard look at green claims about products.

“Green By Design also aims to tone down green noise and empower people toward wise choices,” the site says. “Many products claim to be green — yet how truly green are they?”

Founder Martha Danly, who has worked in the field of “e-commerce,” says she wanted the site to be easy to use, and to avoid the hard sell.

“We’re addressing the person for whom the green factor is not the driving factor,” she said. “As I like to say, we’re not too hemp, and we’re not too hip. We want to appeal to the mainstream consumer. We are not extreme green in any way.”

But with a combination of interesting articles and light-touch marketing, she hopes her site will feel like a refuge from rising green clamor.

“It’s safe to be green here,” said Danly (right). “You don’t have to worry about being green-washed, too much green noise, green fog.”

The site avoids criticizing bad products and ripoffs — Danly said she wanted to stay positive — but simply leaves items with a questionable green pedigree off the Web site.

“If something is bamboo, by definition is it fantastic, really?” she said. “It depends. It could have VOCs (volatile organic compounds, a class of pollutant) or some pretty nasty glues in it. It could be unsustainable bamboo.”

And for products she does list, the accompanying scorecard is meant to specify just what is green about it.

“We tell readers where the materials come from, what it’s made out of, the manufacturing process, the country of origin,” she said.

Recent posts:

• Casting call for OC greens: submit your “going green” video
• Kick America’s oil addiction? We can do it, says film screening in Irvine
• UCI expert: stimulus could bring cleaner air to OC
• OC’s stim wish-list: more green construction, more jobs
• For kids, a greener forecast for 2030
• Restoring OC’s natural landscape — and not a chemical in sight
• Wildlife partnership meets — in the wilds of OC
• Sewage sludge on wildfire areas? Not this time
• Global warming: bad news for birds
• Water testing wells being drilled in Santa Ana
• UC Irvine students win “Crazy Green Idea” contest
• How toxic is your commute? New pollution study seeks answers
• $30 million youth camp receives $10 million donation
• No-fishing zones off OC? The discussion begins.
• Live online: owl lays eggs while webcam watches
• Budget crisis could halt Newport Bay dredging
• Former El Morro trailer park is latest victim of budget crisis 
• OC driver’s Tesla draws a crowd at green expo
• Green for rent: apartments are a first for OC

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