West Coast Green Expo
| September 29, 2010 | to | October 1, 2010 |
| September 29, 2010 | to | October 1, 2010 |
We are thrilled to begin envisioning next year’s event at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, Sept 29-Oct1, 2010!
GreenFest 2010 - Walnut Creek
| August 14, 2010 | ||
| 10:00 am | to | 3:00 pm |
| 10:00 am | to | 3:00 pm |
Benefiting the “Helping Hands” nonprofit – providing scholarships and donations to local charities.
Join us as we put a FACE to the GREEN businesses in our communities and learn more about being sustainable, saving money and saving energy.
EVENT: GreenFEST 2010
DATE: August 14, 2010 from 10am-4pm
LOCATION: 1870 Olympic Boulevard, Walnut Creek, near Marie Callender’s Genova Deli and CVS Pharmacy at Contra Costa Association of Realtors® SILVER LEED RATED Building.
3 Steps to Save Money, Save Energy, and Reduce CO2, Doing Your Laundry
I’ve been pondering ways to save money and reduce my energy consumption around the house and I stumbled upon interesting ways to save money doing my laundry.
First a few facts:
1) According to a laundry article I found on the City of Concord’s website, doing your laundry has a significant impact on our environment. Did you know that over the lifetime of a T-shirt up to 9 lbs of carbon dioxide can be release in the air just through washing and drying?
These are general usage cost for a family of 4 for a washer and dryer
Clothes washer (with hot water) -
Electricity kWh/yr - 1,080
Cost /Year - $86
CO2 emitted/yr 1,544
Clothes washer (minus hot water)
Electricity kWh/yr - 99
Cost /Year $8
CO2 emitted/yr 142
Clothes dryer
Electricity kWh/yr - 1,060 -
Cost /Year $85 -
CO2 emitted/yr- 1,516
Surprising huh?
So what is my plan? Well, I have a few obstacles but I can still make a difference. First the simple fix……
1) Wash my clothes in cold water. I had no idea that the hot water consumed 90 percent of a washers energy usage.
Second fix a little more challenging but doable……
2) Line dry my clothes. This is FREE SOLAR ENERGY and another big way to save on energy, laundry supplies and to preserve the longevity of your clothing. Have you ever smelled line dried sheets and towels? They are the best! Did you know the sun is a natural whitener as well as a natural antibacterial? A couple of challenges are living in a community that doesn’t let you hang your laundry as mine doesn’t allow you to hand your laundry outside. I’m thinking about hanging my laundry in the garage or you can watch this funny video clip that is trying to get a petition signed so it is a right to hang your laundry. Check it out here.
Another advantage to line drying is you don’t need to use bleach or fabric softener, just shake, snap and hang your clothes upside down. If you really don’t like the stiffness of your jeans just toss them in the dryer for a couple of minute on wrinkle release.
3) Finally, use a really good biodegradable phosphate free laundry soap.
Here’s a link to some laundry soap options
National Hanging Out Day in Concord, CA
| April 19, 2010 | ||
| 5:30 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
Starting at Home: A Community Conversation with
Mayor Jim Bouley, Amanda Osmer, Jonathan Gregory, Patti Dann, and Nik Coates
Most climate change policy attention has been addressed to long-term options, such as inducing new, low-carbon energy technologies and creating cap-and-trade regimes for emissions.
Come learn how you can save money, energy, and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions through line drying, water conservation, a few small purchases, a couple small diet changes, and improved driving and transportation.
How does Concord set an example for the nation? How does America set an example for the rest of the world? It all begins at home.
When
Mon Apr 19 5:30pm – 8pm Eastern Time
Where
54 The Conservation Center, Portsmouth Street, Concord, NH (map)
Sustainable Contra Costa County - No Impact Project - Join Us for a One Week Cleanse
| April 18, 2010 | to | April 24, 2010 |
The No Impact Experiment is a one-week carbon cleanse starting on April 18. It is a chance for you to see what a difference no-impact living can have on your quality of life. It’s not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern “conveniences” you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money. For more information visit www.noimpactproject.org and/or Sustainable Contra Costa’s Facebook page
Read to Book, Watch the Movie, Listen to it on Audio of Kindle. Make your own decision.
San Francisco Green Festival April 10-11
| April 10, 2010 | to | April 11, 2010 |
San Francisco Green Festival
April 10th-11th
Concourse Exhibition Center
200 Speakers
Demonstrations
Kids Activities
Green Marketplace
Green Bash - Official Green Festival After Concerts & Parties
go to greenfestivals.org
Two Free Ways to Go Green - Reuse and trade
I’m pretty excited about two websites that I’ve been using lately FreeCycle.org and Swaptree.com. It’s like a huge never ending online garage sale. What a great bunch of like minded people exchanging, and trading items that they don’t use anymore for something they do need. Virtually no money is exchanged and useable items are not being thrown needlessly into our landfills do to plain laziness or lack of options of what to do with the item you no longer need.
FreeCycle.org is free to join and it comprises of a continually growing population of 4,775 groups and approximately 7 million members worldwide. FreeCycle.org is a non-profit organization and it’s all about generous people giving and receiving all kinds of free items in the own home town.
Their primary goals are to:
• Keep useable items out of our landfills
• Reuse someone’s junk is sometimes someone’s treasure
The Freecycle Organization is a volunteer army. All towns participating in the program are moderated by a local volunteer. Here’s the link to sign-up.
Swaptree.com is a cool website that lets you trade books music and video games. There is no charge for listing ads and most items can be mailed for $2.50 via US Media Mail. It’s easy to list items you just type in the ISBN number located on the back of the item you are trading into their search engine. Trade requests are emailed to you. You don’t even need to go to the post office you can print postage directly from Swaptree. Currently, if you refer friends to the website you can earn free shipping.
You can even provide trader feedback similar to Ebay.
I encourage my fans to check out these two great resources and let me know what you think. I love books and I enjoy the thrill of the finding something free hunt. Happy hunting!
Go Green in Silicon Valley, California - Invest in a “Bloom Box”
What do five major companies in Silicon Valley have in common when it comes to investing in green energy and technology?
Fed Ex, Walmart, Staples, Google, and Ebay are among the first large corporations that recently invested in their neighbor “Bloom Energy” located in Sunnyvale, California. These green minded corporations purchased Bloom Energy Servers. This technology in a nutshell is comprised of thin fuel cells that are manufactured from beach sand and are painted with a patented green and black ink on both sides of the cell. They are then stacked together and are sandwiched with metal alloy. These skinny fuel cells utilize oxygen and various fuel sources to create electricity with no emissions. The end result of this cutting edge technology is changing the way people generate & consume energy. The number one benefit of the Bloom Box is unlike solar and wind power, it’s produces continuous and reliable energy 24/7 365 days a year. Therefore it has the capacity to provide everyone with clean, reliable and affordable power.
K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy originally invented the technology for NASA to produce oxygen on Mars. When the project was scrapped by NASA, Sridhar reversed his Mars machine and started pumping oxygen in instead of producing oxygen. After proving the effectiveness and versatility of his Bloom Box, Sridhar is setting very ambitious goals for setting up a Bloom Box server at the White House, as well as placing them in every American home within 10 years and creating opportunity for the product to be in homes worldwide.
Since July 2008 the Bloom Energy Servers have collectively produced over 11 million kilowatt hours of electricity - with C02 reductions estimated at 14 million pounds. The perspective of these statistics is comparable to powering 1000 American homes for a year and planting one million trees.
Bloom Energy was recently broadcast on 60 minutes. You can watch the episode here.
Is There a Green Light for the “Kia Ray” to Enter the Hybrid Market?
At the recently held 2010 Chicago Auto show, Kia unveiled a snazzy concept hybrid car “The Kia Ray” that turned a few heads at this prestigious show. Upon a first glance, this car proves to be very eye catching with its EcoDynamic inspired design. This amazing four seat compact sedan has a proposed mileage range of about 746 miles with an impressive fuel rating of 202 mpg. The battery alone can power the car for about 50 miles on a single charge. This truly green car reduces its carbon footprint by utilizing roof top cool glazing solar glass and recycled materials whenever possible
Kia’s popularity has been gaining momentum in the US market since it’s official entry into the market in 1994. Recently Kia opened a plant in Georgia employing 2,500 people and creating an additional 7,500 jobs in the surrounding area. Their best quarter sales were stated in 2009. They continue to diligently and methodically market themselves and are spreading their consumer awareness through providing an affordable vehicle and a solid 10 year 100,000 mile warranty.
If you are curious about how the various Kia vehicles perform, rent a Kia on your next vacation or road trip. Budget, Hertz, Thrifty, Dollar, National & Alamo all provide Kia car rentals. Do your own research, make your own decision and remember, invest your money wisely. Choose companies and products that resonate with your core beliefs.
