Frankly Green

GrayisGreen.org - The National Senior Conservation Corps

I had the good fortune of meeting Robert E. Lane when my friend Robert Lane (no "E" and no relation to the former) introduced us. They met by chance and by virtue of sharing the same name. When I first met Robert E. Lane, he had the idea for GrayisGreen.org and now, through his efforts and the efforts of others, it has come to reality.

Below is a description of the National Senior Conservation Corps. I love the energy and attitude that they, and their entire generation for that matter, bring to tackling tough problems (and they have tackled a few!).

So congratulations Robert E. Lane and thank you Robert Lane for the introduction.

__________

GrayisGreen.org is a product of the elderly residents of Whitney Center, a retirement home in Hamden, Connecticut. While the generation born in the 1930s may be called seniors, we elderly were born in the 1910s and 1920s. With one exception, ours is an honorable history. We grew up in – and survived – the depression, defeated Fascism, Nazism, and Japanese imperialism, created the United Nations, held steady in the Cold War and, along with our children, defeated the tyrannical Communist system. We have been called the “Civic Generation” because, more than earlier and later generations, we took an interest in public affairs, turned out to vote, organized civic groups to fight for civil rights, civil liberties, and the relief of illness and poverty.

Get Paid to Recycle Old Electronics

We all have drawers full of outdated electronics; why not trade them in for cash or recycling? NextWorth users will now be able to trade-in their old BlackBerry phones, digital cameras, GPS systems, video games and video game consoles in addition to the original iPod and iPhone trade-in categories. They can opt to have a check sent or paid via PayPal, or receive a Target or Amazon gift card in the amount of the trade-in value. If the device does not hold any value at the time of trade-in, NextWorth still provides free shipping to customers and disposes of the device through responsible recycling practices.

Help keep our environment clean and prevent the some 1.5 – 1.9 million tons of electronic waste disposed every year from ending up in landfills.

Earth Hour - Saturday, March 28 at 8:30pm

Who: Earth Hour (a global WWF climate change initiative where individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn out their lights for one hour to show their support for action on climate change.) and Experience Project (EP)   (the largest site for anonymously connecting and sharing common experiences).

What: Earth Hour and EP have teamed up to urge the public to get involved by sharing their support, stories, and practical tips on going green as part of Earth Hour’s annual event where millions of people spanning 64 countries ban together and turn off their lights for one hour as a statement against global warming.  Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, will also stand in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

To show support for Earth Hour, EP will go dark. For every 100 points EP members pledge (points are earned by participating in challenges, posting stories etc.), the site will go dark for one second.  The goal is to keep the site dark for as long as possible.

By visiting the EP links below, visitors will have the ability to get proactive in helping reverse climate change through various means such as: a 30 day challenge to turn off all unnecessary appliances, signing a petition to conserve energy, or playing trivia games where accrued points can be used to buy time to keep the EP homepage dark during the day of the event.

In addition, Earth Hour also has a Facebook application where members can earn “Earth Minutes” by sending messages to friends urging participation.  The goal of the app. is to reach 60 friends to achieve 60 Earth Minutes.

When: March 23 through March 28, 2009 
Where: http://www.experienceproject.com/index.php
Pledge to go dark: http://www.experienceproject.com/mk/earth_hour_pledge.php
Access the Earth Hour Facebook application: http://apps.facebook.com/ep-earthhour/

Silver Spring's Smart Look at Power

Thanks to my friend Ryan for this article. Having real-time information about consumption can really change behavior and encourage conservation. Someday we will all have real-time displays in our homes that will allow us to monitor our consumption and see what we are paying for it in real-time. Very cool stuff!

by Rebecca Buckman - Forbes.com
Link to article

The stock market's blowup is crippling many Silicon Valley startups that need cash. Raising funds privately is hard, going to the public markets next to impossible.

Then there's an outlier: Silver Spring Networks, an under-the-radar firm that expects $100 million-plus in revenue this year and double that in 2010. The Redwood City, Calif. company boasts big-name backers and is making a play in the politically popular business of upgrading the nation's aging, out-of-shape electric grid. (The Obama stimulus package contains money for "smart grid" projects, among other goodies.)

Silver Spring's networking gear is being deployed on a large scale by utilities such as California's Pacific Gas & Electric and Washington, D.C.'s Pepco Holdings, which together have 7 million customers. Last year the company hired Warren Jenson, who ran the books at Amazon.com and nbc, as financial chief. He presumably knows a thing or two about managing money at a public company.

You Don't Still Use a Screen Saver, Do You?

Thanks to Michael V. for sending this!

Link to Source

By Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent

I'm happy that at this stage in my career I often find myself writing articles about energy-efficient ways to use computers, peripherals, gadgets, and consumer electronics. It makes me feel so, you know, virtuous.

Whenever I crank out a list of helpful hints, one of the first items I include is this obvious but often overlooked gem of advice: Kill your stupid screen saver. In the good old days of tube monitors, screen savers such as those unforgettable flying toasters were invented to prevent burn-in, a permanent shadow branded into the phosphors of your monitor by a static image of, say, a spreadsheet that you left on your screen all weekend.

Well, flat-screen LCD monitors don't burn in, so if you still have flying toasters or an endlessly looping slide show of your adorable niece and nephew, you're behind the times. When you're not sitting in front of your monitor it should be off off off.

Help for Gadget Freaks - What to do with Old Electronics

My friend Zem made a great post on her site ecofabulous listing several resources for gadget freaks! The resources include places that will fix gadgets (rather than dumping them in a landfill), supply parts, and buy your old gadgets and electronics.

GreenIQ: How Green Are You?

GreenIQ is an online calculator that measures how green a consumer is by taking their carbon emissions and green lifestyle choices into account when calculating their GreenIQ.

Unlike traditional carbon-only calculators, Green IQ also takes an individual's daily eco decisions into account in order to emphasize the impact that small but significant choices make. In other words, you can offset some of your environmental impact created by the big ticket carbon items into account- like transportation and power, by making ecocentric choices in all areas of your life- like recycling, oxygenated faucets, turning off the water when brushing your teeth, and buying locally grown food.

Similar to a restaurant guide, which takes food, decor, and service into account- totaling a restaurant's Rating; Green IQ takes transportation, home and lifestyle into account to calculate the carbon emissions and environmental footprint of each individual- totaling an individual's GreenIQ.

Green IQ’s mission is to show consumers that every little bit counts and that doing your part can and will help in the fight against global warming. GreenIQ is not into making people feel bad about what, for many, are major carbon emitting non-negotiables- like long car commutes and air travel. Instead GreenIQ shows them the areas in their life where change CAN easily be made. The last thing GreenIQ would want to do is make someone feel that their recycling or water conserving is pointless just because their carbon emissions from transportation and electric use are exceptionally high.

Maybe one person's recycling or dedication to being a vegetarian on Tuesdays alone can't make this world a greener place, but thousands, millions of ones will. One drop in a bucket hardly makes a splash. But millions of individual drops make an ocean.

Blackle: Energy Saving Search Site

Thanks to my techno-geek friend Chris S. for sending this!

Blackle.com

How is Blackle saving energy?

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen."

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

Heap Media believes that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly they feel that seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.

How can you help?

Set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. Remember every bit counts! You will also be reminded about the need to save energy each time you see the Blackle page load.

Nokia Outlines Commitment Towards Greater Environmental Sustainability

Thanks to Marc N. for sending this along.

Nokia outlined its long heritage in addressing environmental issues and commitment to driving new initiatives in the mobile industry in areas such as energy efficiency, materials used in products, take back, recycling, and packaging. This was against the background of the launch of the Nokia 3110 Evolve, a mobile device with bio-covers made from more than 50% renewable material. The device is presented in a small package made of 60% recycled content and it comes with Nokia's most energy efficient charger yet, using 94% less energy than the Energy Star requirements.

The Nokia 3110 Evolve is the latest in a series of environmental initiatives from the company. For example, Nokia was the first manufacturer to put alerts into its devices to encourage people to unplug their chargers. The power that could be saved globally by all Nokia phone users unplugging their chargers when no longer needed is equivalent to enough energy to power 100,000 average-size European homes. In February 2006, Nokia also introduced new compact packaging that reduced materials used by 54%, a move which by the end of this year will have resulted in 5,000 fewer trucks needed to distribute products, reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions, and savings of EUR 100 million.

Top 10 Environmental Searches in 2007

2007 may go down as the year people stopped just talking about Green and actually did something about it. According to Yahoo!’s top 10 environmental search terms for 2007, consumers are moving beyond awareness to become more action-oriented about the environment and its impact on climate change.

Top 10 Environmental Searches in 2007

1.         Recycling
2.         Global Warming
3.         Freecyle
4.         Earth
5.         Pollution
6.         Al Gore
7.         Environmental Protection Agency
8.         Live Earth
9.         Hybrid Cars
10.        Solar Energy

Source: www.yahoo.com