How plastic bottles can lighten up the darkness...

http://www.wimp.com/lightenup/

Kaia Magazine

Green Magazine Kaia Magazine  In this issue you will find great articles from some of the top healthy and sustainable living experts that the web has to offer. From eco-conscious travels to delicious recipes that make the most of bountiful harvests... Click the link below for more information:

http://issuu.com/kaiamagazine/docs/june_2012/1

Giant, 10-day-long UN conference on sustainable development gets underway in Rio de Janeiro

(Silvia Izquierdo/ Associated Press ) - Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, right, and Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira arrive for the inauguration of Casa Brasil or Brazil’s Pavilion, one of the events taking place on the first day of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, June 13, 2012. The Rio+20 gathering, that runs from June 13-20, marks the 20th anniversary of the so-called “Earth Summit”, which some say put climate change on the world agenda.

RIO DE JANEIRO — The United Nations’ largest-ever conference has kicked off in Rio de Janeiro.
The Rio+20 conference on sustainable development is expected to draw some 50,000 participants including delegates, environmental activists, business leaders and indigenous groups.  For more of this story go to:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/giant-10-day-long-un-conference-on-sustainable-development-gets-underway-in-rio-de-janeiro/2012/06/13/gJQAbPGVaV_story.html

Five Green Trends This Week

From hitching more rides to finally reusing all of those plastic Coca-Cola bottles, more Americans are proving that the environment is on their minds. At a time when global warming is a hotbed political issue, an increasing number of people see the need to do their part to reduce their ecological footprints in support of the planet. Here are five green trends this week that show exactly how more Americans are combating climate change.

1. Gas Guzzling Is a Huge No-No. With gas prices continuing to rise, many people – even those who could care less about being “green” – are looking for less gas-guzzling options. Sales of the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle actually have gone up during the first two months of this year — and trend that shows that the current economic realities of the United States are driving more Americans to think a little greener.

2. “Slugging” Is Cool. Yet another current green trend this week strongly relates to today’s soaring gas prices – the trend of people who are engaging in blind carpooling, also called “slugging.” In this act, people usually catch rides with strangers to save on high gas prices during rush hour, and the drivers gain the benefit of being able to use carpool lanes (and possibly even earn a little gas money in the process). These lanes are popular because they allow drivers to avoid stop-and-go traffic, but drivers must have a minimum of three people in their vehicles to use these special lanes. The trend of slugging definitely is green in that it translates to fewer cars on the road and thus reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

3. Spring into Action. With spring already in the air, more people are returning to the garden this week, but along with that, a rising number of people are become environmentally conscious with regard to the use of pesticides. This trend is in line with March 18-24, which is National Poison Prevention Week. People are increasingly being encouraged by news media to become greener by choosing more pest-resistant plants and by keeping garden soil healthy. Pesticides negatively affect creatures such as frogs and birds and also contaminate drinking water.

4. Homes Are Becoming Greener by the Day. With spring promotions actively pushing homeowners to become more environmentally friendly – such as March’s Fix-a-Leak Week (March 12-18) – many homeowners are revisiting their sinks and toilets to see if they can boost their water-efficiency. This trend includes tightening pipe connections, checking for leaks in toilets and replacing fixtures with models such as WaterSense-labeled ones, as these devices use 20 percent less water than their counterparts. Recent National Association of Home Builders trend research shows that water-saving devices are becoming more commonplace and should become an even greater standard by 2015.

5. It’s About Time Those Plastics Got Reused. The recycling of plastics, in particular, is on the rise in the United States. A new trend report from the American Chemistry Council reveals that a 72 percent year-on-year boost in the recycling of rigid plastics is prevalent in America. The number of plastic bags being recycled also is increasing as more consumers strive to reduce their ecological footprints in a simple, inexpensive manner.

Reduce Your Plastic Waste

over 7 million tons of plastic
spanning an area twice the size of texas
destroying our oceans
and harming our food chains

Amazingly green cities of the future

The core concept of green 'garden' cities is not at all a recent development of our contemporary age. It was thought of long back by one eminent town planner Ebenezer Howard in 1898. But with the current instigation of global warming, scarcity of non-renewable resources and mercurial levels of pollution, such conscientious concepts have become all the more important in the present day context. Moreover, humanity now has the wondrous chance to be fostered by the latest spurt of 'go green' technologies, to progress to a truly sustainable age. So, let us take a whiff of fresh air and explore the 10 astounding yet fastidious green cities of the future.

Click here for the entire from Ecofriend

The Most Compact Urban Folding Bike Ever

and now....the rest of the story...CLICK HERE

'Green' Municipalities Cut Ties with Utilities

A growing number of cities and counties dedicated to energy efficiency are deciding that local sustainability initiatives can’t coexist with for-profit utilities.

Read the rest of the story here:  http://www.governing.com/topics/energy-env/gov-green-municipalities-cut-ties-with-utilities-in-quest-for-efficiency.html

Bike to Work Week

Hi Everyone! Don't forget....next week is Bike to Work Week! Come join us on Monday morning for the Kick-Off Ride. We will be meeting at 7:30am at Riverstone Park and we'll be riding down NW Boulevard (with a police escort) to City Hall. For more info on bike to work week and all the other activities go to our website...
Bike to Work

Do we really need so much stuff?

 

EXCERPT:
I’ve moved more than 20 times in the last 10 years. That’s 20 nights spent wrapping plates and bowls in smudgy pages of newspaper, writing “FRAGILE” in block letters on the tops of boxes headed on an uncertain journey. Twenty days spent stuffing T-shirts and tights and worn-out flannel pajamas into suitcases that are always too small; more than 20 hours cursing my collection of purses and my love of shoes...
Read More!  

Cities Extract Energy from Everyday Activities

http://www.governing.com/columns/tech-talk/gov-col-cities-experiment-with-extracting-energy-from-everyday-activities.html

Utah Envisions a Sustainable Future

http://www.governing.com/topics/energy-env/gov-utah-envisions-sustainable-future.html

The Plastic Bag Ban: A Battle of Socio-Economic Policy

http://www.governing.com/columns/potomac-chronicle/gov-the-plastic-bag-ban-battle-of-socio-economic-policy.html

Curbside Composting Added to a Major City: Is It Yours?

http://www.governing.com/topics/energy-env/gov-curbside-composting-added-to-major-city.html

Austin Goes 100% Renewable

http://www.governing.com/topics/energy-env/austin-goes-100-percent-renewable.html

Seattle food forest!

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/02/21/its-not-fairytale-seattle-build-nations-first-food-forest

Yummy!

Free AYCE (all you can eat) Solar info?

http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom

FROM THE SITE:
This site is an electronic book on PV. It can either be read from start to finish as a course on photovoltaics or used as a reference. This project started out as an electronic textbook, distributed on CDs and so we have kept the ungainly title of PVCDROM. As the project and the text itself has grown over the years we have added many enhancements unavailable in static textbooks. Be sure to read the instruction page to make sure you have all the appropriate plugins installed and so that you will be aware of all of the features available to learners.

Not Every City Can Be the Most Bicycle-Friendly

A couple of weeks ago, Chicago transportation commissioner Gabe Klein mentioned to us that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had set a goal for his hometown to become the bike-friendliest city in America. This was right around the time Nate Berg reported on Long Beach, California, which is awkwardly planning to do the same.

A quick Internet search reveals that this is more than just a two-town contest. Portland, Oregon, and Minneapolis didn’t even realize other cities seriously thought they were in the running. Davis, California, already has the official motto on lock-down as “most bicycle friendly town in the world” (not to mention the most bicycle-friendly municipal logo). Boston is aiming for the slightly less measurable promise of becoming “the leading bike-friendly city.” Meanwhile, New Orleans also has its eye on the mantle. As do bike advocates in Buffalo, New York, Columbus, Ohio and Flagstaff, Arizona.

This is a great development for the U.S. bike scene. Nothing motivates Americans (and our elected officials) quite like the race to appear in a magazine as the “best” at something. Unfortunately, we can’t all be superlative at the exact same thing at the same time. And so as a public service to the collective imaginations of these and other cities out there, we thought we’d propose a couple of civic distinctions they could aspire to instead. In a world where it will hopefully soon no longer be so notable to befriend cyclists, who wants to fight for these titles?

1. Most Aging Baby-Boomer Friendly City in America. We imagine this would be a place where the public transit is extensive, the walkable one-bedroom housing is ample, the hospitals are superb and no one ever has to shovel the sidewalk.

2. Least Car-Friendly City. It’s one thing to embrace bikes. But are you willing to go all the way and shun cars? Jack up your meter rates, put all your downtown parking garages to more productive use and then accept the political fallout from publicly stating that your city is not meant for cars.

3. Most Solo-Friendly City. More and more Americans are living alone, and those who do don’t want to live in a place where people will look at them funny. In this city, single women don’t fear walking alone at night, there are more Trader Joe's than Costcos, and indoor stroller bans are socially acceptable.

4. Most Transparent City. This town would set national records for the fastest turn-around on FOIA requests, the deepest open-data website and the toughest protections for public access to government business.

5. Least Wasteful City. This title could be awarded to the town that produces the least trash per capita, with bonus points for the maximum use of innovative recycling.

6. Most Edible City. This would be the urban center that produces the largest share of its own food (and has the friendliest laws for doing so) – from rooftop gardens to public fruit trees to backyard chicken farms and bee hives.

7. America’s Best Prepared City for Climate Change. Obviously, the people in this city would first need to admit that climate change exists. Then they would invest actual resources and planning to make sure vulnerable infrastructure and local communities can withstand oddball weather, rising sea levels and strange migrating insects.

8. Least Unequal City. This motto would probably work better on a bumper sticker than “Most Equal City,” which we suspect would confuse folks. This is where the gulf between the highest and lowest earners (and the neighborhoods in which they live) is the smallest. It also may be where 100 percent of the people are in the 99 percent.

9. Hardest City in America To Find and Have a Smoke. We wanted to suggest a public-health honor, but "least obese city" seemed tacky. So this town is one where smokers are least welcome in public places, and where cigarettes are the most expensive to buy where you can find them.

10. America’s Safest City to Cross a Street on Foot. More than just a reflection of walkability, this superlative would also factor in degrees of locally specific aggressive driving behavior and relative ratios of car-on-pedestrian collisions.

Aspiring cities are invited to steal any of these (just please don't all reach for the same one).

by Emily Badger


Emily Badger is a contributing writer to The Atlantic Cities. She also writes for Miller-McCune, and her work has appeared in GOOD, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times. She lives in Washington, D.C. All posts »

Camp stove w/ built in USB charger

http://biolitestove.com/CampStove.html

Here is innovation at work... While we don't expect anyone to toss out their existing camp stove if you already have one- here is an idea for those that need one!

A new source of power

Avista Corporation is asking the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to approve a purchase power agreement with Kootenai Electric Cooperative's landfill gas generating facility near Bellgrove, 15 miles south of Coeur d'Alene.
The 3.2-megawatt project is a qualifying facility under the provisions of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. PURPA requires that electric utilities offer to buy power produced from qualifying small power producers or cogenerators.
Click here for full article: http://www.cdapress.com/news/business/article_b659b16c-20aa-5887-b906-b3c9ed4e87fb.html

Solar Cheaper Than Diesel Making India’s Mittal Believer: Energy

India is producing power from solar cells more cheaply than by burning diesel for the first time, spurring billionaire Sunil Mittal and Coca-Cola Co. (KO)’s mango supplier to jettison the fuel in favor of photovoltaic panels.

The cost of solar energy in India declined by 28 percent since December 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The cause was a 51 percent drop in panel prices last year as the world’s 10 largest manufacturers, led by China’s Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP), doubled output capacity.

“Solar is going mainstream in India, helped by Chinese pricing,” said Ardeshir Contractor, founder of developer Kiran Energy Solar Power Pvt. Kiran, whose investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, an early financier of Skype Technologies SA, won one of the largest projects auctioned by India last month.

India joins pockets of Italy, Spain and Hawaii where rising fuel costs and lower panel prices make solar pay for itself without state subsidies, New Energy Finance data show. Factories and homes in the Asian nation switch on emergency diesel-fired generators during chronic blackouts and to bridge gaps in the power-delivery grid as the government prepares a $400 billion program through 2017 to curb the shortfall and spur growth.

“If they had the foresight, these factories would be replacing their diesel generators now or at least getting what they can from solar,” said Lalit Jain, chief executive officer of Moser Baer Clean Energy Ltd., which owns 100 megawatts of operating solar plants in India, Italy, the U.K. and Germany.

Click here for the whole article

Solar Roadways

The State of the City

During the Mayor’s State of the City address this year (December 13, 2011), she reiterated many of the things the City does to be sustainable (what being green means too many folks).  The very brief list of items she included is as follows.  Please visit the City web site and check out the City Departments and press releases to keep up with the latest/ ongoing efforts.

• Wastewater Department utilizes technology to conserve energy and process waste in the most efficient and effective manner.
• Wastewater Department utilized methane gas to heat several buildings on their campus, through use of methane created by one of their digesters.
• Wastewater Department uses bio-solids from the plant to create compost utilized by many nurseries in town.
• The Street Department conducts an annual leaf pick up program, utilizing those leaves for mulch and fuel, which ensures they don’t end up in the landfill or storm drains.
• The Street Department creates and utilizes a sugar beet juice brine for de-icing, which is a cost savings and less impacting to the environment, roads, and cars than traditional deicer.
• The City has worked with Waste Management to implement single stream recycling.  In its first year 4.1 million pounds of recycling has been collected rather than placed in the landfill, additionally participation in the program has risen from 27% to 62%.
• The Parks Department has instituted a Calsense Conservation system in 7 parks. This system monitors the moisture in the grass and shuts down the sprinklers as needed (i.e. during a rain event), conserving lots of unneeded water use.
• The Water Department instituted a water rate study that provided for a “use extra, pay extra” approach, which has lowered the communities 10 year average of water use.
• The City has partnered with Kootenai Environmental Alliance to do a xeriscaping demonstration at the community garden at 9^th and Garden. This spurred the City to create a greenhouse at the Jewett House property to grow xeriscaping plants and provide them to area farmers markets.
• The Green Team of the City continues to seek methods of educating employees and the community regarding sustainable efforts.
• Walkability is an important community effort to create healthy alternatives to vehicular transportation, therefore the City has accumulated 39 miles of trails and bike paths, and has adopted a master plan for more.
• Protecting and enhancing open space is another priority of the City, who recently accepted the donation of Fernan Hill Park.  This will preserve vistas, views, protect watershed, and allow walking trails and waterfront access to the community.

More winterizing tips....great info except I would go with LED bulbs over CFL. They are about 4 times more efficient.

Ever wonder how single stream recycling works?

Energy Conservation