Tuesday, November 16, 2010

GREEN: Greg Peterson and Messages from Mother

(By Julie Markowitz)


Everyone has t-shirts with clever or funny messages, promoting everything from classic cartoons to classic candy brands. Why not use your clothing to make an environmental statement? Greg Peterson of YourGuideToGreen.com has created a line of organic t-shirts and tank tops with messages from "Mother Nature." They say things like "I don't care who started it—I said STOP!" and "When you have your own planet, you can make the rules." These shirts are funny, thought-provoking, and a great way to remind everyone around you of the importance of being environmentally conscious.

Shane Snips was able to interview the creator of these t-shirts while passing through Arizona.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Sustainable Housing Doesn't Always Mean Starting from Scratch

(By Brooke Hubbard)

Prospective homeowners are beginning to expect that new homes are outfitted with a green design and new ways to save energy and housing developers are trying to stay ahead of the curve standardizing sustainable designs into their houses. However, owning a green home doesn’t mean going out on the market for a newly designed house. In fact, David Brook, an extension agent specializing in energy for Oregon State University stated, “What we've learned about basic energy efficiency isn't readily available to homeowners, builders and contractors,” meaning that even the newest houses don’t have all the bells and whistles. Despite this, there is a variety of ways to outfit your older (and newer) house with new energy saving techniques.

The first is obvious: Limit the amount of heat energy lost to outdoors
Heat rises, so in many older houses the attic ends up being the culprit for heat loss. Many old attics have gaps to the outdoors or are not well insulated. But don’t be too confident in your insulation either, insulated attics doesn’t necessarily mean old attics. For more information on how to check your house for attic heat loss as well as how to do home repairs, read this helpful article from “This Old House.” Oh, and, uh, close your doors and windows.

Second is easy: Turn off unused electronics, and lights
It seems like turning off lights when you leave a room would only create a minor change in energy usage, and that can be very true on the individual level. However, consider what energy would be saved if everyone in your neighborhood worked to turn off unused electronics and lights. And to everyone out there who believes that turning lights on and off uses more energy than just leaving them on, MythBusters has kindly cleared all that up for us. Episode 69: “Lights On or Off?”:
MYTH: “Temporarily leaving a light on is more energy efficient than turning it off and back on”
CONCLUSION: BUSTED
EXPLAINATION: “Through numerous tests, the MythBusters calculated that the power surge from turning on a light would only consume as much power as leaving it on for a fraction of a second (except for fluorescent tube lights; the startup consumed about 23 seconds worth of power). Furthermore, the wear and tear of turning the light on and off repeatedly did not reduce the bulb’s total life expectancy enough to offset the increased electricity usage. Therefore, it is far more economical to turn a light off rather than leaving it on.”

The third will save you money!: Reprogram your thermostat
Program your heating to maintain a lower temperature during the day when you aren’t home and at night when you are snug under your covers. It takes a lot of energy to heat a house so why use that when nobody is home to keep warm? If you are really determined to lower your heating bill, try dropping the room temperature a few degrees and see if you notice the difference. At my house, my father would periodically do this to save money. I remember when I was young we would keep the house at 72 degrees, but now we keep it around 68 degrees and I hardly notice a difference (of course if I do say I’m cold, he just tells me to go put on another sweatshirt, which also works well).

Of course, there are many other ways to save energy and money in your home. This site quickly lists 20 things you can do around the home easily to be more sustainable.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Arizona does it best

Spending some time in Phoenix gave me some insights into how hard locals can work to change their city toward to green. Kimber is one of those gals who has really made a difference in her 20 years of building at art community into a community of change.

The Solar 2010 conference in Arizona’s biggest city was trying hard to make an impact for green. There were some funny picture around the convention center and this was one of them.

What:New Mexico Green Radio
Join your neighbor state in this green radio program. We'll be exploring how sustainability is growing and changing in the southwest.
When:Friday, June 4, 2010 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Where:Sustainable 1000
NM

And folks in the Corporation Commission are always trying to make change in how renewable energy is viewed by this evenly split conservative to progressive board. It decides lots of rules about utilities.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

My Evolution in Storytelling

Over the next 7 days, I am going to attempt to drastically change the storytelling style of my website. It's ultimate goal is to engage people to learn about sustainability as well as to ask people to tell me their stories. I want to know what makes life sustainable for them. This projects has been good at finding and exploring the green converts. Those folks who have a environmental or social conscious way of thinking at easiest to find. BUT how do I tell the story of what fits where. This is something that I will figure out.


Today, while downtown in Phoenix for some interviews at the Solar Conference. I was floored again by the amount of information that comes at me in each town. With some help from my virtual scheduling team (Thanks Gaby & Co in San Diego), I have begun to get ahead and schedule meetings with dozens of people two states ahead, but even this blathering here on this blog is not a story yet. That is why I am up for story makeover starting now.

Last night while thinking about the interview with Kimber, the founder of Local First AZ and a serial entrepreneur, I grew tired. I thought about my work to date and the stories I was creating, then realized it was not enough. I needed to go farther, weaver the stories together and bring these people I was talking with to life as a community of voices.




As a new media journalist who wants to grow and expand how we use video, audio and web details, storytelling is my number one priority. I welcome suggestions and partnerships that help to tell this story even better.