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1. The Oregon State Fair is going green(er), but they're not shouting about it
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2. Ride for free on TriMet just by sending an email...and this is not one of those Internet scams
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3. Toyota Plugs All-Electric Vehicle As 2009 Sales Outlook Dips
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4. Americans have a right to free grocery bags, and other reasons to reject a new fee
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5. Watch Letterman's compost taste test
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6. Green Mountain Energy Cites Policy, Not Price, for FPL Program's Death
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7. Xcel Energy: Did We Say Profit? Not When We Count Carbon
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8. Riverfest wants you to respect the Willamette this weekend -- take a kayak tour
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9. Look Out, First Solar: AVA Solar Scorches With $104M
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10. The Daily Sprout
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11. NBC Bans Pickens Ad, Boone Responds
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12. Flint Buys Back GM's Love With Tax Breaks for Volt Plant
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13. Solarfun, GT Solar Shares Slide on Pricing Expectations
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14. Mitsubishi to Quadruple Solar Cell Production by 2012
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15. Nanosolar Boosts Funds to Massive Half Billion Dollars
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16. Riverwired.com: Don't Be a Girly Man — Be an EcoDriver
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17. Riverwired.com: Beyond Climate Change 101
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18. The Mint makes a green pitch for the coin that never caught on
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19. Riverwired.com: Great Eco-friendly Backpack – for Back-to-School Kids or (Sigh) Back-to-Work Adults
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20. Riverwired.com: Don't Miss Car-Free Saturdays in New York! Last One This Weekend
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21. Riverwired.com: Beat Summer Heat Forever
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22. Riverwired.com: Quick Green Home Office Tip
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23. Recycle old TVs, computers at Portland Expo Center
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24. Riverwired.com: Buy A Greener Broom
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25. Riverwired.com: Quick Tip for Water Savings
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26. Riverwired.com: 5 Tips to Keep Your Cell Phone from Killing You: Save a Little Energy and, Oh Yes, Your Brain
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27. A greener coin -- are you buying it?
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28. Riverwired.com: Past Green Building Resources & Green Living Tips
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29. Your comments: Eco-terrorists with car wash bias; worm juice and composting tips
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30. Want a new tree in your yard, or more trees on your street? The time is now
The Oregon State Fair is going green(er), but they're not shouting...
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Ride for free on TriMet just by sending an email...and this is not...
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Commuting
Toyota Plugs All-Electric Vehicle As 2009 Sales Outlook Dips
Tony Borroz - Big Green
The news from the Wall Street Journal today is that Toyota (TM) has rolled back its sales predictions for the upcoming year, but the company is still committed to hybrid car production and its plans to produce an electric vehicle to compete with rival auto manufacturers.
Despite a 700,000-vehicle predicted drop in sales, Toyota is still on path toward its goal of selling 1 million hybrids a year by the early 2010s. The company also announced that Toyota would start producing an electric car by early next decade, a direct challenge to the plans of Nissan and Mitsubishi, which plan to mass produce their own electric vehicles within the next two years. Toyota stock rose slightly, indicating that the company’s pursuit of efficient technologies is one that The Street agrees with.
Are slower sales sign of tough economic times? Yes, of course, but they also point out that Toyota can’t get away with producing larger, fuel inefficient vehicles any more than Ford or GM or Chrysler. Toyota’s big sales drops have, like Detroit’s big three, largely come in the full-sized truck and large car segments. Hybrid and small car sales remain robust.
The heart of Toyota’s future growth remains hybrid vehicles, and Toyota is not slacking off on its hybrid push one iota. Toyota still plans to unveil the next-gen Prius as promised, on schedule, next year as well as to introduce a new Lexus hybrid. It’s also forging ahead with other, more fuel efficient models. President Katsuaki Watanabe says Toyota plans to use the foreseen slowdown to streamline its already lean manufacturing operations, making its production system in the U.S. more agile, and to develop more hybrid cars and other fuel-efficient vehicles.
The undercurrent here seems to be, ‘OK, we were a little off in our production estimates, but we’re still pressing ahead with the next Prius, and we’re serious about producing an electric car too!’
To which we can all say, “Good!”
Americans have a right to free grocery bags, and other reasons to...
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Watch Letterman's compost taste test
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Green Mountain Energy Cites Policy, Not Price, for FPL Program's...
Celeste LeCompte - Energy
After the Florida Public Service Commission unceremoniously shuttered FPL’s leading utility green power program earlier this month, citing high marketing and sales costs, Green Mountain Energy has released data disputing the claim.
Costs for sales and marketing accounted for just 52 percent of Green Mountain's revenues. That figure is comparable to other top-ranked programs in the U.S., including Portland General Electric. Thor Hinckley, green power program manager for PGE, says Green Mountain Energy spends 56 percent of its budget on marketing costs for the Portland program.
The Florida PSC told Earth2Tech in early August that voluntary programs like FPL’s were no longer necessary, thanks to the state’s forthcoming Renewable Portfolio Standard.
Xcel Energy: Did We Say Profit? Not When We Count Carbon
Craig Rubens - Policy
While cleantech investors are betting that global warming will make their investments perform well, most publicly-traded companies have had their head in the sand when it comes to warning its investors about the financial risks of global warming. That is until now — in an agreement between environmental crusader New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Minnesota-based Xcel Energy (XEL), the utility will disclose to its investors in detail the risks global warming pose to its business. This first of its kind disclosure could be a sign of things to come for the electricity generation industry, the single largest contributor to the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Under the agreement, Xcel will disclose in SEC filings the risks of future climate change regulation and legislation, climate-change related litigation and physical impacts of climate change. Additionally, Xcel will also disclose its current carbon emissions, projected emissions from proposed coal power plants and its plans to reduce emissions.
Xcel already provides such information to the voluntary Carbon Disclosure Project and in its annual “triple-bottom-line” report. Xcel estimates that, at $9 per ton (lower than EU prices, but higher than current prices on RGGI), its carbon emission would have cost the company $603 million last year, according to TwinCities.com.
In 2007, Xcel reported just $577 million in profit. (Numbers like these are why banks have been taking into consideration what carbon regulation could mean for their investments and scaled back their plays in areas like coal.)
Xcel is the first of five utilities subpoenaed by Cuomo. The Attorney General’s office is still negotiating with AES Corp., Dominion, Dynegy and Peabody Energy. In the carbon-constrained economy of the future, just as the SEC likes to keep track of corporations’ financial dealings, they will want to know about companies’ carbon dealings as well.
Riverfest wants you to respect the Willamette this weekend -- take a...
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Look Out, First Solar: AVA Solar Scorches With $104M
Katie Fehrenbacher - CNN Green
AVA is working on making thin-film photovoltaics out of cadmium telluride — the same material that has boosted First Solar to its solar darling status — so everyone is interested to see how the company will stack up to the leader. In some of the Fort Collins-based company’s literature it boasts it can produce solar PV modules at a cost below $1/watt. First Solar calls its manufacturing cost per watt of $1.14/watt for the first quarter of 2008, “the lowest in the industry;” that production cost will also likely come down over the coming months and years.
We’ll see what AVA’s production costs end up being after it starts up its 200-megawatt solar PV factory sometime this year. The company appears to be using a similar process to First Solar, depositing a thin layer of cadmium telluride on glass.
AVA says it has reached “distributed conversion efficiencies around 11.5 percent” — First Solar has similar efficiency, and has reported an average of 10.7 percent with its cells, and a goal of 12 percent.
If AVA could end up being able to produce its PV more cheaply than First Solar, it would put them in a good position to enter the new, massive market of utility-scale and rooftop solar. First Solar brought in revenues of $267 million for the most recent quarter, 36 percent above the $196 million in the previous quarter and more than three times larger than the $77 million in the second quarter of 2007.
It’s not always hip to be a company a little later to the game. Eric Wesoff and the Greenlight crew, who tipped off the story of AVA’s funding yesterday, talked to investors that passed on AVA’s funding, because the valuation was too high, and the deal was too much of a copycat of First Solar. But AVA could still create a sizable business. AVA was incubated out of the labs at Colorado State University with a partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and formed in January 2007.
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
Florida’s First Energy Farm Planted in Destiny: Destiny, Florida, a city claiming “eco-sustainability” (whatever that means), says it has created the Sunshine state’s first energy farm where it will grow energy crops like sweet sorghum, algae, jatropha and other crops for alternative fuels - Press Release.
EcoMotors Expanding Operations in Michigan: Khosla-backed EcoMotors, a startup which aims to deliver a 100 mpg diesel engine by 2011, says it’s moving to a bigger space and will be hiring 157 new people - Cleantech Group.
U.S. Gas Price Heat Map: We do love maps, and this one from Gasbuddy shows the varying price of gasoline in the continental U.S. It’s interactive too, so make sure to click around - Gasbuddy via Autoblog Green.
GEOSmart Loan to Help Homeowners Go Solar: Arizona utility APS and the non-profit Electric & Gas Industries Association have created a new loan to help eliminate to large, upfront cost of residential solar - Press Release.
China’s Zero Energy New Great Wall: Beijing’s Media Wall is one of the world’s largest LED displays, standing four stories tall. The wall charges itself during the day using integrated photovoltaics and then performs a show once the sun goes down - ScribeMedia.
NBC Bans Pickens Ad, Boone Responds
Craig Rubens - Big Green
The Pickens Plan media blitz hit a glitch this week when NBC refused to air the latest television spot promoting the former oil tycoon’s natural gas and wind energy plan. The 15-second ad, entitled “Iran” and embedded below, asserts that Iran is converting its own cars to run on natural gas “and we’re not doing a thing here.” NBC wants the Pickens Plan to prove that we are indeed a do-nothing nation when it comes to natural gas transport, according to the group. While it is a strange nit to pick, NBC has a point. Things are being done, some of them by Pickens’ own natural gas car venture.
Find more videos like this on PickensPlan
The ad was cleared by all the other major networks, and NBC has only taken issue with this one ad, out of four new ads that will be running on television this week. T. Boone sent a letter to NBC Universal CEO and President Jeff Zucker expressing his dismay and again proclaiming his patriotic duty: “To deny this advertisement is to deny Americans their fundamental right to information and the ability to make their own decisions.”
Flint Buys Back GM's Love With Tax Breaks for Volt Plant
Tony Borroz - Big Green
Pop quiz: Monday was a good day if you were (A) General Motors; (B) planning on buying the Chevy Volt; (C) an unemployed resident of Flint, Mich., or (D) all of the above? You know the answer. Yesterday, GM received millions in promised tax breaks to help build a new $359 million, 530,000-square-foot engine plant for the Chevy Volt, the most highly anticipated green car this side of the Tesla.
The plant will assemble the 1.4 liter turbo four-banger that will be used in the Volt as well as in Chevy's new Cruze compact. The new engine works will be built near Flint Engine South and Flint Truck plants and create 300 jobs. GM is to begin production in 2010, with Volt assembly set for GM's storied Hamtramck (Mich.) plant just 65 miles away. GM is also seeking additional tax breaks from the state of Michigan for Volt production, and Congress is considering tax incentives that would defray purchase costs of the Volt.
The news was welcomed, if not whole-heartedly, by Flint Councilman Jim Ananich: “A lot of people still feel…General Motors owes us more than just a couple hundred jobs,” he told the Detroit News. “I understand what people feel — I still sometimes have those feelings — but as competitive as the market is and the trouble General Motors is having, we have to help them with whatever we can do to keep them competitive.”
Flint used to be GM's go-to city back in the day. “Without Flint, GM would have to shut down,” or so the saying went, but by the mid ’90s, the city of Flint looked like a set for the next RoboCop sequel. Remember, Flint, Mich., was the city featured in Michael Moore's "Roger & Me." So, 300 jobs are a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of thousands that used be there, but at least it's a step in the right direction. Re-tooling idled plants that are scattered throughout the Midwest to manufacture greener cars like the Volt seems like an obvious idea; we’re glad to see GM’s at least building in the neighborhood.
GM will unveil the Volt at either the Los Angeles International Auto Show in November or the Detroit Auto Show in January.
Solarfun, GT Solar Shares Slide on Pricing Expectations
Kevin Kelleher - Big Green
The mood in the solar stock sector today might best be described as dark green. Shares in Qidong, China-based Solarfun posted financial earnings that were ahead of analyst expectations, but the shares dived as much as 11 percent percent on concern that prices for its photovoltaic cells and modules will decline as much as 10 percent next year.
That followed another earnings report Tuesday from Nasdaq newbie GT Solar, which saw revenue more than triple to $57 million in its most recent quarter. The report, its first following its high-profile but ultimately disappointing IPO last month, also showed GT swinging to a profit of $5.1 million, or 3 cents a share, vs. a year-ago loss of $5 million, or 4 cents a share.
Yet shares of Merrimack, N.H.-based GT, which makes equipment that solar-panel companies use in their facilities, fell more than 10 percent to change hands for as low as $12.61 on Wednesday morning — a 23.6 percent drop from its $16.50 offering price.
The renewed bearishness follows what last week had started to look like confidence returning to solar stocks. It seems past performance, however strong, isn’t outweighing lingering concerns about what lies ahead for solar companies.
Take Solarfun. In discussing its financial outlook, the company made statements that suggest silicon prices will remain high at least through the coming quarter, while average selling prices, or ASPs, for its own goods are poised to come down in 2009.
“Gross margins for the second half of 2008 are expected to improve from levels seen in the second quarter of 2008, although the Company expects that polysilicon and wafer pricing will continue to be high during the third quarter of 2008.” “For the Full Year 2009, management expects … ASP's to decline 5-10% from the expected full-year 2008.”
Nevertheless, Solarfun also said it expects its gross margins to improve next year as it manages the squeeze. That wasn’t enough. The negative sentiment about the solar market seems to have won the day.
Mitsubishi to Quadruple Solar Cell Production by 2012
Craig Rubens - Big Green
Even the big boys of solar need to keep ramping up production to meet global demand. Today, Mitsubishi Electric said it will invest 50 billion yen ($455 million) to quadruple its annual photovoltaic production capacity to 600 megawatts by 2012 from 150 megawatts today. The plan calls for the construction of a new fabrication building at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida factory in Nagano Prefecture. This new plan is 100 megawatts bigger and a year sooner than the goal Mitsubishi set in March when it announced an investment of 7 billion yen to expand solar cell production. Mitsubishi forecasts a global PV market size of 1,950 megawatts in 2009, growing to 4,430 megawatts by 2012.
Although solar incentives in certain markets are weakening, and are threatening to expire in the U.S, demand is expected to increase as the world switches to cleaner energy sources, especially if oil prices remain high. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. solar market passes Europe’s in a few years,” Aiji Suzuki, head of the Nakatsugawa Works facility, told Reuters.
And while oil prices might have slipped from their record highs earlier this summer, silicon prices are expected to slip too. Solar manufacturers are expecting silicon prices to fall drastically as a glut of new fabrication facilities come online in the next few years. New Energy Finance’s Silicon and Wafer Price Index estimates that solar silicon prices will fall 43 percent next year.
Nanosolar Boosts Funds to Massive Half Billion Dollars
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
Thin-film solar maker Nanosolar was already one of the more well-funded startups in cleantech with at least $150 million behind it. But this morning Nanosolar’s CEO Martin Roscheisen writes on the company blog that Nanosolar has raised $300 million in an oversubscribed equity financing round, which closed in March, that brings its total to just under half a billion dollars. That could make it one of the most well-funded startups. Period.
Roscheisen says the funding comes from power company AES, the Carlyle Group, French utility EDF and Energy Capital Partners, which made investments through Riverstone Holdings, and EDF Renewables; the funding occurred at the same time as AES and Riverstone formed AES Solar, and the funding was part of the business case for forming the joint venture, Roscheisen explains. A smaller part of the round came from Lone Pine Capital, the Skoll Foundation, Pierre Omidyar's fund, GLG Partners, Beck Energy, and Grazia Equity.
Roscheisen says the funding will go toward ramping up production of the 430 MW San Jose plant and the 620 MW Berlin factory. Nanosolar has been producing its thin-film solar product for utilities since December. But given we’ve seen a few U.S. utilities sign solar power contracts that included thin film solar — PG&E with OptiSolar and Southern California Edison with First Solar — we asked Roscheisen if Nanosolar has been bidding on solar power projects in the United States. Rocheisen tells us that yes, Nanosolar is involved in U.S. utility solar bids through the AES partnership.
Riverwired.com: Don't Be a Girly Man — Be an EcoDriver
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has teamed up with Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado to unveil the ecoDriving campaign. [WARNING: When you click on that link, the Governator immediately starts talking to you, with nary a stop or mute button in sight.] Auto manufacturers and dealers, along with industry leaders and politicians, have aimed the campaign at drivers who want to increase the fuel efficiency and reduce the emissions of the car they already drive.
The site offers tips like keeping tires properly inflated and “riding the green wave” — maintaining a steady speed to hit all the green lights on a long street. I have an uncle who is the king of this maneuver; I thought he was anal, but it turns out he’s a natural-born ecoDriver. The site also recommends keeping the gas cap tight to reduce evaporation.
There’s a clever ecoCalculator to tell you, based on your yearly mileage, mpg, and driving habits, how many pounds of CO2 you could be saving by adopting a couple new habits. If I kept the tires on my little red truck inflated, for instance, I’d save $68 a year on gas and keep 76 more pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
The site has games, resources, and will help you send a message to your governor asking him or her to sign on to the ecoDriving campaign. In a related measure, the National Automobile Dealers Association is recommending that its members give free green checkups in the month of September, along with child safety seat inspections.
Riverwired.com: Beyond Climate Change 101
ProgressiveKid - Sustainable Ideas
by Julie Hall at ProgressiveKid
As with all meaningful change, there is no simple fix for our climate change crisis. There is no pill, band aid, 12-step formula, or "expert's" advice to heal Earth or its life forms. There is no "clean" nuclear power that will preserve our current luxuries without risking even more environmental disaster, no green product that will redeem generations of overconsumption, no fluorescent light bulb that will reverse the excess of our industrialized systems, no recycling process that can restore forests, no zoo or seed bank that can preserve our world's biodiversity, no replacement planet we can relocate to. For worse and for better we are stuck here with our mess and our weakness, our solutions and our strength.
Not that you shouldn't install those fluorescents if you haven't already. Yes of course cut out the plastic, switch to reusable bottles and bags, recycle and reuse, buy less, eat less meat, trade your grass for trees and plants, conserve water, ride your bike, buy locally and organically. Each step toward sustainability counts. But these are merely first steps, and we can't stop here. As we take the next steps to restructure our local communities toward more sustainable self-sufficiency (as they once were), commute less, conserve more, transition to renewable energy sources, and regreen our environment, there are deeper changes we face.
Our climate problem isn't merely an overdose of CO2. Global warming is fundamentally connected to overpopulation, pollution, industrial manufacturing, industrial farming, capitalist media manipulation, exploitation of natural resources, poverty, corporate abuse, and governmental abuse. We've had evidence for a long time now that these are unsustainable situations around the globe. Climate change is merely one more, albeit the most radical, reality check in a long series of warnings that have gone largely unheeded.
So as the weather around us turns strange, as drought, fire, floods, and storms reach unprecedented proportions, let's hope we ask ourselves the right questions: What matters? How should I live? What should I teach my kids? What do I actually need? How can I take less and give more? What can I contribute to heal the damage around me? How can I help other living species?
There are more specific questions that may follow. How does the food I eat make me feel? How does television affect my thoughts and emotions? How do my specific choices and actions affect the world around me? How am I using my time? Am I connected with my family and friends? Are my kids receiving positive messages about themselves and their world? Are my kids confident, humble, connected, empathetic, resilient, capable of joy, and awake to the world around them? Am I?
These are not easy questions to ask or answer, which is why they must be addressed. As Rilke reminds us, "Most people have (with the help of conventions) turned their solutions toward what is easy and toward the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust in what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it. . . . That something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it." The power of difficult challenges in our lives is why millions of us around the world are watching the Olympics right now. We admire the athletes for achieving something profoundly difficult. Although the media would have us ignore the athletes who do not win medals, we are impressed nonetheless with their accomplishment of making it there and trying. And this is why we are disappointed when athletes take the easy route with drugs.
Most of us know intuitively that when it comes to taking care of our extraordinary home planet there is much more we need to do. We know that there is no easy fix to solve climate change and no easy fix to solve the related environmental problems we have wrought. Although we may have lost sight of it, we know in our wisest hearts that life is to be honored, not exploited, squandered, or taken for granted; that one by one we must each take responsibility and not look to others for answers; and that in the process of saving ourselves we might just recover our own dignity and sense of purpose along the way.
Julie Hall is the author of A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids: Understanding Climate Change and What You Can Do About It, a poet, and cofounder of the green online store ProgressiveKid.
Image by David Goehring, 2006, Creative Commons license.
©2008 ProgressiveKid
The Mint makes a green pitch for the coin that never caught on
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Riverwired.com: Great Eco-friendly Backpack – for Back-to-School...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
By Susan Seliger
Time to get the kids — and yourself — ready for Fall. Tired of that heavy old backpack? Here’s one from Progressive Kid – a web store with some of the best eco-friendly stuff for your favorite small fries — that will work for you, too.
It's Good: It's smaller than the average pack (1300 cubic inches/22 liters capacity; 1 pound 9 ounces/.71 kilograms weight). Plus it's got these features:
- Single zip front panel access with mesh and fabric utility pockets
- Pass-through access to internal pocket
- Two recycled PET mesh side pockets
- Recycled spacer mesh harness and back panel
- Recycled removable web waist strap
- Recycled PET stretch woven cell phone/electronics harness pocket
- Recycled PET main body fabric
- Recycled Regrind buckles
- Internal front panel organization
- Internal laptop sleeve
- Smart key clip that works with electronic keys
It's Green: Made by Osprey, known for their earth-friendly ReSource series from 70 percent recycled materials. Also the color names alone are worth it: Rainforest green or glacier blue.
It's Here: Progressive Kids Store
It's: $59
Photo credit: ProgressiveKid.com
Riverwired.com: Don't Miss Car-Free Saturdays in New York! Last One...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
Car-Free Saturday in NY City -- Park Avenue at Grand Central Terminal.
For the last two Saturdays, I have been enjoying one of the most exhilarating rides New York City has to offer — I have been peddling my bike down the middle of Park Avenue — one of the busiest and most beautiful promenades in the city. Six miles of car-free bliss.
This weekend is the last of car-free Saturdays. So don’t miss it. You save gas, clean the air, and you get to ride the city streets without dodging those kamikaze yellow taxicabs.
Hey– Mayor Bloomberg– why just 3 half days? Let’s ditch those cars every Saturday.
Other cities are doing it. The Mayor Bertrand Delanoë in Paris, is planning to make the center of that city car-free in time for the Olympics in 2012, which they hope they’ll host.
If your city has similar car-free events, let me know. And if you have photos of such events, even better — send them to me: susan (at) Riverwired.com.
Photo credit: Susan Seliger
Riverwired.com: Beat Summer Heat Forever
jchait - Home & Garden
Maybe not forever, but long-term solutions sure beat here and now solutions. You can make some changes to your actual home that will save you energy, cut heat inside the house, and keep costs lower in the long run.
Buy window awnings: Awnings block more sun than you might think, without compromising too much incoming window light. If you go with awnings, choose opaque or light colored material, that’s tightly woven.
Make your landscaping work for you: Just like you can block cold winter wind with trees and bushes, you can also block the summer heat. Tall trees, big shrubs, and even well-placed vines can block quite a bit of sun and heat. To learn about green landscaping visit the EPA.
Curtain the outside of your home: Drapes inside cut heat, but there are also woven mesh screens that you can hang outside to block sun. Visit North Solar Screen to learn more.
Paint your home right: There are no clear studies but it stands to reason that lighter colors reflect the sun, and thus heat, so painting your home a dark color is not the best choice for hot climates.
Try some film: Window films are a little weird to use, but do block heat well.
Riverwired.com: Quick Green Home Office Tip
jchait - Home & Garden
If you’re looking to green your home office experience, you can start with the energy factor. Even when your computer, printer, and lamp are plugged in, they’re draining energy. That costs you money and resources.
Unplugging is a possibility, but also a pain if you’ve got a ton of office equipment. Charges, lamps, electronics, and a radio; it’s a lot to remember.
What to do: Invest in one simple power strip, like the ecostrip. Once you’re ready to leave your office, you can simply turn off the powerstrip, rather than unplug each and every cord. This is a simple green tip that can save you money, time, and resources.
Recycle old TVs, computers at Portland Expo Center
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Riverwired.com: Buy A Greener Broom
jchait - Home & Garden
The O-Cedar broom it greener than some of the conventional brooms you’ll find out there. If you need a new broom consider the benefits of the O-Cedar broom, such as bristles made from recycled plastic bottles, and a long, long warranty, which tells me these brooms are built to last. Built to last is always more green than built to toss.
Visit the O-Cedar website to learn more.
Riverwired.com: Quick Tip for Water Savings
jchait - Home & Garden
Showers and baths use an insane amount of water. To conserve more water, cut five minutes off your daily shower. To double your efforts, try placing a small plastic bin in the tub as you shower. Use that water to water plants, wash the car, or mop the floors. The two easy steps above can save upwards of 375 gallons of water a month!
Riverwired.com: 5 Tips to Keep Your Cell Phone from Killing You: Save...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
Will your cell phone really do you in? The evidence is not all in. The well-respected Swedish National Institute for Working Life reported (in the largest study on the issue) that they may cause brain tumors. But the Dutch Health Council reviewed international research and found no such links as did a study published in the British Medical Journal.
Still….brain tumors?!? Why mess around? Especially for phone calls that consist largely of shouting, "Can you hear me now?"
So here are 5 things you can do right now that definitely won't hurt you and might just keep that little brainpan of yours safe from killer cell-phone radiation (no promises regarding the Loch Ness monster and space aliens).
1. Put your phone on speaker – and keep it away from that cute little ear (because the earbone (am I getting too clinical here?) as you know, if you had any singing ability, is connected to the brainbone.) But make sure you go outside because the rest of us do not want to listen to your lame excuses for why you’re running late.
2. Use the Bluetooth earpieces – that’s even safer than speaker phone. Who cares if people think you're talking to yourself as you walk along the street – if they think you're crazy, maybe they'll keep their distance.
3. Make fewer calls and keep them short – so you can save energy, too. Maybe then you'll only have tiny tumors.
4. Text instead – and practice doing it at full arm's length. Holding your arms out in front of you while texting is a neat isometric exercise and will build muscles at the same time – all right, very little muscles, but still…
5. Check your phone's SAR Rating — Next time you buy a phone (if you last that long – just kidding) choose one with a low SAR rating. Honestly I do not know what that means – OK, Specific Absorption Rate. But really can manufacturers actually measure how much radiation your body will absorb? Do they know how thick (or thin) your skin is? Anyway, all you need to know is BUY LOW.
Which, in the current economy, is not a bad philosophy for the rest of your life as well.
FOR MORE INFO TO SAVE YOUR LITTLE BRAIN:
* Check CNet for a list of the 10 phones with the lowest SAR rating.
* University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute – on the potential dangers
* And if you want some more tips, check out The Consumerist which may or may not have some serious advice – I leave that up to you.
Illustration credit:
mooreslore.corante.com/…/computer_interfaces/
A greener coin -- are you buying it?
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Comments
Riverwired.com: Past Green Building Resources & Green Living Tips
jchait - Home & Garden
In the post, Green Building Resources & Green Living Tips I noted that Best Green Home Tips used to be located in a different spot, at the RiverWired network. Over there, we looked at many a green building and remodeling tip. I thought that if you missed these posts, it would be cool to catch you up to speed. We looked at about half of these posts in the first recap, and here’s the rest…
Green building:
- 4 Green DIY Alternative Energy Home Projects
- How to Flush Your Toilet Using Rain Water
- Reclaimed & Salvaged Home Building Material Use
- Intro to Green Prefabs
- 35 Ideas for Building A Greener House
- Earth Friendly Building Materials
- Find the Best Green Real Estate for Sale
- Are Log Homes Earth Friendly?
- How To Green Your Hardware Store Trip
- Building Green Can Save You Money
Green home interiors:
Save energy & resources:
Fun:
- 17 Eco Treehouse Inspirations
- 16 Plus Earth-Friendly Architects
- Eleven Recycled Houses
- Eliminate Summer Bugs with Natural Methods
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