It’s easy to become a green plumber in California
In California during 2008 a new green program for plumbers came to town. GREENPLUMBERS® launched an accreditation program that trains plumbers in water conservation and climate issues. The program originated in Australia in 2001 and is open to all plumbers, regardless of affiliation or association membership.
Like anything in life it’s always admirable to continually educate yourself and add “another notch to your belt” GREENPLUMBERS® is providing a way for the plumbing industry to enhance their image as well as give plumbers a very specific purpose in becoming a direct spokesperson in educating the public of what options are available to protect our environment and conserve resources.
GREENPLUMBERS® has developed a 5-course accreditation that totals 32 hours or training.
• Climate Care -
• Caring for our Water
• Solar Hot Water
• Water Efficient Technology
• Inspection Report Service
By educating our plumbers on new ways to conserve water and utilize new technology we will strengthen the plumber consumer relationship and the positive change will prove to be beneficial as informed consumers will prefer and demand a green certified plumber.
It is the objective of the GREENPLUMBERS® to train as many plumbers as possible. Their aggressive goal is to accredit 15,000 California plumbers in the next 10 years. Their workshops are open to all c-36 contractors & plumbers.
To learn more about GREENPLUMBERS® go to www.greenplumbersusa.com or call (888)929-6207
4 Mistakes I made on Earth Day
I just realized that Earth Day slipped right through my fingers. How did this happen? Well, let’s walk through my day….It is Thursday, April 23, 2009. I awoke with a start at 4:15 am because I was abnormally and uncomfortably hot even though the windows were open. I tried going back to sleep and was drifting in and out of a half sleep thinking of my friends and family in Seattle and wondering about how many unusual and abnormal snow storms they experienced this past season. As I pondered once again how I was going to get back to sleep, I realized I might have made a few errors during the day.
Mistake #1
I awoke on Earth Day around 6:00 am so I could have a little quiet time to myself for checking emails and working on the computer before my daughter, cats, guinea pigs, fish and husband all need help from me getting ready in the morning. My loft office has a serene view of a lagoon and I should have taken time to notice the sun rising and enjoyed watching the water fowl and other great aviary visions. Even better, I should have got up and watered the vegetable garden and then taken a brisk walk around the block as I’m trying to fit some exercise into my life…
Mistake #2
Not that it’s a mistake, but I work for a printing company. Everyday I walk into the sunless, windowless office and am surrounded by buckets of paperwork, stacks and mounds of stuff that needs to be filed, or tossed into the enormous recycling bin out back. I watch the production team cranking out various magazines and tabloids on an offset web press then they stitch, bind and inkjet address each piece for postal delivery. I constantly wonder what kinds of steps we can take to reduce waste. Do we really need to have so many hard copies of internal paperwork that is stuffed in drawers and record retention boxes then stored in outside storage bins and is occasionally if ever referred to every again? Can we survive in a paperless office? What can I do to change things?
I also think about all the little things I personally could have done differently on Earth Day. I stopped at Starbucks bought my usual hot green tea grande and I disposed of a paper coffee cup when I could bring my own mug. Instead of using a lunch box, I brought my lunch in a plastic grocery bag that I carelessly tossed into the trash that goes to the landfill. I used a plastic fork to eat my lunch because I was too lazy to wash a regular fork .
Mistake #3
I picked my daughter up after school and she mentioned that there was a Family Science Fair at school at 6:30. The Scandi Lab, part of Lawrence Livermore Lab provided many cool tactile science experiments for the children. Her favorite experiment was threading a wooden skewer through a blown up balloon without popping it. My mistake was ignoring her plea to ride her bike back to the school as I didn’t give my self enough time to get there. I drove a few blocks and missed yet another opportunity to exercise.
Mistake #4
Once again I’m not sure this is a mistake but I kind of forgot it was Earth Day because I didn’t listen to the radio, I didn’t watch any TV, I didn’t really surf the Net, and I’m not linked to any useful relevant RSS feeds. In fact if I hadn’t quickly glanced at comments from my friends on my Facebook profile I would have totally missed it. (Thanks Fred T:)
So what did I learn from mistakes? Well I guess I have a decision to make. Although nothing I did was totally detrimental, I have to ask myself, do I really want to change?
My answer is YES! I do want to change, I will work towards having a “greener’ conscience. I want to be informed of what options I can choose, I want to be empowered to make intelligent decisions. Thank goodness I have all day long to make a change.
