Green Week in Review - June 21st-27th, 2010

What a range in topics this week.  We have continued discussion of carbon taxes and clean energy stimulus, putting food style labels on light bulbs, how much food we grow to feed our food and even Solar-Assisted AC.  Everything with the exception of one article from the MITnews office in the runners up section is from TreeHugger this week.  Here goes.

Taxes and Stimulation

What's the Best Way to Price Carbon Emissions: Cap and Trade, Cap and Dividend, or Carbon Tax?
A pretty good run through of some of the leading ways to price pollution.  I myself am a big fan of a simple carbon tax with offset income tax decrease, but suspect that with our political system setup how it is, a straight tax is not going to make the cut where as we've seen Cap and Trade systems in place in New England working.

Considering a Clean Energy Economic Stimulus Bill
Supporting local clean energy is definitely something worth stimulating and I wouldn't mind to see the added Green Jobs as long as it is crafted well.

What If We Abolished Income Taxes & Replaced Them With 'Stuff Taxes'?
This is an interesting consideration.  I'm definitely in favor of adding a broad carbon tax (any fossil fuel consumption) and an offsetting income tax decrease to lessen the burden on the economy.  What resonates with me is the notion that we should tax things that are harmful, like polluting, as disincentive and not tax (at least not as much) things we should be doing like making money.  That said, anything in the extremes usually has extra consequences and I believe that we need some funding for government based on income too, but much less than today.

Light Bulbs To Get Nutrition-Style Labels Next Year

I'm very excited to hear that light bulbs will soon be coming with useful information on them.  Even to an electrical engineer, the "wattage" of a given bulb is meaningless.  Look for intensity (aka brightness) as well as color temperature and estimated energy usage for comparison.

Half Of World Crop Is Feeding Animals, Not People

Staggering figures coming out of the recent UN report.  I know it is more efficient to eat the food crops directly than to feed them to animals to eat the animals, but I do love meat, though am definitely considering the less meat is better and also bumping up the quality of the meat and seeking organic sources.

Solar-Assisted Air Conditioning Comes To Market

While LG's headline about solar hyrbid air conditioning is all hype and fits in with them fooling the Energy Star refrigerator energy tests by not turning on the door seal heating element at exact test conditions, the Sunsource offering is pretty cool.  If you can afford it, I think a large PV array providing electricity to the house and then using some of the electricity for AC when needed is more realistic, but cool concept.  Check out last weeks Green Week in Review (6/14-6/20) for more efficient AC technology

Runners Up:

MITnews: Enhancing the power of batteries
The Persistent Myth of the Internet as Energy Hog
Where Does Oil Come From? Where Does it Go?
Greener Graphene? Eco-Friendlier Mass Production Method Shows Promise

Have fun this week as summer really kicks into gear. I hope everyone has some great green plans for the 4th of July!

Happy Greening!
Jon

When Does One Hybrid Equal Five Hybrids?

Image: Boston Cab claims greenest Boston
taxi service is moving to all hybrid fleet

Today I needed to get across Boston fairly quickly for work, so I grabbed a cab.  I was really happy to get into one of the newer Toyota Camry Hybrid cabs that I've been seeing in Boston and other cities around the country and started talking to the driver, I really regret now not noticing his name.

I asked him how he liked the hybrid and he said he loved it.  He also indicated that he used to pay $25-28/day for gas and now it is more like $7/day.  I'm certainly glad my fuel costs are not that high every day.

I've heard arguments against cities requiring hybrid cabs before, particularly around them not being rugged enough, so I asked the driver about their reliability.  He said he hasn't heard of any problems, except the Toyota recall, but that the car is smooth, quiet and he repeated how much he was saving in gas money.  I take it the cab drivers pay for the gas themselves, so this is a big deal.  On the low end that is $18/day savings and assuming working 5 days that is $90/week or something around $4,500 a year in savings.

Then came the real shocker, he told me how many miles he has driven the hybrid, a shocking 48,000 since last October.  That's 6,000 miles a month or 72,000 miles per year. Considering that the average car in the US is driven 12,000 miles per year, replacing just this one cab with a fuel efficient hybrid has the emissions reduction of replacing not five, but six family cars with hybrids!

Having learned this I am even more excited to have learned from Lee that all new Boston cabs need to be hybrids.  To be fair, he did share the one downside with the Toyota Camry Hybrid he drives, its lack of luggage space.  With all those batteries taking up the trunk space, you can only fit two large suitcases in there which can sometimes be a problem for travelers.

Because cabs travel so many more miles than typical cars and because most of their driving is in cities, they are a great place to focus on technologies like hybrids, which are optimized for stop and go driving.  I look forward to seeing how the hybrid cabs fair in the long term when they have been in use for three or more years at 70,000+ miles per year.  As a Toyota Camry Hybrid owner myself, I certainly expect and hope they hold up for a long time.

So, the next time you need a cab, consider taking a hybrid if you can. If you some places like New York's Central Park you can even find a pedal powered taxi.  You'll be having less impact on the planet and enjoy a nice smooth and quiet ride.

Happy Greening!
Jon

Green Week in Review - June 14-20th, 2010

After the Murkowski Resolution (aka "Dirty Air Act") was voted down, just barely, the Friday before, it is not surprising to see a number of legislation related topics up for discussion this week.  We also cover topics related to the BP Gulf Oil Spill and a breakthrough in efficient air conditioning that could really revolutionize building climate controls.

Senate Proposal to End $35 Billion in Oil & Gas Tax Breaks

We are not paying the true cost of fossil fuels such as the health and environmental consequences when we buy gasoline for our cars and electricity in our homes, but it is worse than that.  We aren't even paying the true cost of collecting, processing and distributing the fossil fuels.  Senator Barnie Sanders (VT-I) is looking to remove the huge tax incentives for fossil fuels.  Maybe if we didn't subsidize our gasoline and electricity so much, renewable energy sources like solar and wind would not need the incentives to make them competitive that they do today.

TreeHugger: Why We Should All Be Paying More at the Pump

I am a proponent of a basic carbon tax that would apply to gasoline, natural gas, oil, etc. to take into account some of the externalities of fossil fuels, but mainly to drive behavior.  Not that long ago we were paying $4/gal at the pump and behaviors started to change.  SUV sales plummeted while small fuel efficient cars and hybrids became extremely popular.  I think we should pay more to consume energy and that will drive people to pay a little bit more for much more efficient products and to change behaviors to conserve energy.  With prices for fossil fuel low, now would be the right time to start phasing in a gas tax adding $0.25 per year for the next 10 years.

TreeHugger: Each Year, 75,000 Homes Waste as Much Energy as Contained in Entire BP Gulf Spill

Image: Energy Savvy

This number shocked me.  We think of the gulf oil spill being a huge amount of oil, and it is, but considering that at this point, it only represents the wasted energy of about 75,000 homes in the US, it reminds me just how much fossil fuel we consume as a country and in the world. With 80 million single family homes in the US, we are wasting almost 3 BP Oile Spills of energy every day in the US!  For other interesting facts and figures that put the oil spill's scale into perspectivel, check out The BP Gulf Oil Spill By the Numbers on TreeHugger.

How About 90% More Efficient Air Conditioning?

Image: NREL

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) does it again.  What exciting news!  Keeping buildings cool uses about 5% of the energy in the US, so improving the efficiency of Air Conditioning is major.  Read on for more of the technical details on how this works in humid and arid climates.

Enjoy the beginning of summer and be sure to get outside and enjoy the weather before it gets too hot.  We don't have those really efficient air conditioners yet, so try to use a fan to supplement AC.

Happy Greening!
Alicia & Jonathan

From Books to Oil Spills - One Less Fish

We stumbled across a book this week that helped us talk to our twins about the Gulf Oil Spill.  We weren't sure how much they knew about the disaster, but after 6 weeks of headline news, we figured they probably knew something about it.  We didn't intend to have this conversation when we did, but if you're looking for a way to open the conversation or even just feel them out at a little, this book is a great way to get started.

Our 5 year old son picked out One Less Fish written by Kim Michelle Toft and Allan Sheather in 1998 from the library last week.  Knowing nothing about it, Alicia read it to him and his sister in the car this weekend and their reactions were amazing:

"Half my life I'm going to be a soccer player and half my life I'm going to go around the world saving animals, I might even save some at my own home."

   

"Dad, guess why I'm asking you a lot about life. It's because I need to know a lot to save the world when I grow up."

And our 5 year old daughter, when asked what we should do to save the world, responded with:

"Don't cut down trees and don't throw trash and plastic bags in the sea."

What more can an EcoDad ask for from his kids. The story is written in the familiar pattern of their were 10 little fish and something happened, now there are 9. Our children typically enjoy books written in this style.  The story in this book is centered around the Great Barrier Reef and the things that man is doing to cause harm to corral reefs around the world.  The authors even use a variety of real tropical fish to illustrate the story.  I was particularly amused  when Alicia commented, "so that is what that fish is called" referring to "Moorish Idols".  In addition to the basic story, the book also provides a very clear, but understandable for kids, explanation of the harm certain actions are causing and what is being done to fix it.

One of the actions that they talk about is drilling for oil and the possibility of oil leaks.  When we read that one to the children, we asked them if they had heard about the oil spill going on right now.  It turned out that they had, and that they had a lot of questions about it.  One of the nice things about using the book to frame the discussion is that we didn't just leave the conversation hanging somewhere, but went on to read the entire book and talk about all the different actions that the book describes.

We highly recommend this book for parents who are trying to teach their young children about protecting our planet and particularly as a way to open the conversation about the oil spill occurring today.

Happy Greening!
Jon

Green Week in Review - June 7th-13th, 2010

Wide range of topics last from farm runoff ending up in tap water at dangerous levels to higher than previously thought subsidies for fossil fuel industry lead off last week's green news.

cnet GreenTech: IEA: To promote efficiency, cut fossil fuel subsidies

We've been fans of reducing the hidden subsidies for the oil industry and other fossil fuel to drive the true cost of our societies behavior for some time now.  Why are we not surprised to find that the subsidies are higher than previously thought.  If dirty energy costs reflected the true cost acquiring the energy, then there would be less need for the subsidies for clean energy like solar and wind.  We are fans of going a step further an imposing a tax on carbon that would try to account for the global warming impacts of burning fossil fuels, but that is a hard sell to politicians on both sides of the aisle.

MITnews: Chris Zegras on greenhouse gases and the built environment

An interesting report by an MIT professor shows the connection that increased prosperity leads to increased transportation carbon footprint.  This is significant when so much of the world is in the developing stages especially considering that the emissions levels are already above what the scientific community feels is sustainable.

DOE Announces $29 Million in Recovery Act Awards for Weatherization Training Centers

As big fans of air sealing and insulation as ways to reduce our energy consumption, we are excited to see funding going into training new professional to provide these services.  This is stimulus that will return for years and generations to come.

7.6 Billion Pounds of Diaper Trash

As big proponents of cloth diapers it is nice to see some figures that help illustrate the harm that disposable diapers cause to our planet.  According to the EPA 2.3% by weight of the trash each year is disposable diapers resulting in billions of pounds of diapers being thrown away each year.  We have plenty more to say about the cloth diaper choice.

Other interesting and important green news from last week:

• TreeHugger: Green Eyes On: Atrazine Higher in June - Watch Out Midwesterners! 
• TreeHugger: Yes, It's True: California is Banning Plastic Bags
• TreeHugger: NASA: Last Spring Was the Hottest on Record
• TreeHugger: Does Converting Utility Vans to Natural Gas Make Sense?

We'll have a great kids book review coming up later this week, stay tuned.

Happy Greening!
Jon & Alicia

Going For Solar - Efficiency First (Step 2)

Before investing in a renewable energy system like solar panels, be sure to tackle efficiency improvement projects first.  You will get a quicker return on your investment and the amount of energy you need to generate through your renewable energy projects will be reduced.  There is an exception to this rule if you live into New Jersey, but I'll talk about that at the end.


Here are some of the projects you should tackle before you go for solar:
(The links take you to earlier GLC articles on these topics)

• Home Energy Audit
• Programmable Thermostats
• Install Faucet Aerators and Low-flow showers/toilets
• Air Sealing and Insulation
• Use Energy Saving settings on your PC
• Heating/Cooling System Efficiency
• Find what's using energy when you're not using it and turn it off (vampire load)
• Lighting upgrades (e.g. CFL in place of incandescent light bulbs)
• Turn down the thermostat on Hot Water Heater
• Energy Efficient Appliances (Energy Star)

If you are unsure what to do, the Home Energy Audit is a good first step because the energy expert who conducts the audit will provide you with a prioritized list of projects to get you started.  In most of Massachusetts you can get a free home energy audit through MassSave.com.  If you live elsewhere, you can also start with a tool like EnergySavvy.com which will ask you a series of questions about your home and lifestyle and then provide recommendations for next steps to take, provide connections with local contractors and incentive programs that are relevant for you.  I have spoken with the developers of EnergySavvy and am impressed with their business plan and tool.  We scored an 80, what do you score?


It was when I was exploring EnergySavvy.com that I learned that the new Commonwealth Solar II Rebate Program had begun which caused me to  get our solar PV project rolling. You should take a look and find out what sort of programs might be available where you live (unfortunately, at this time, it's information about contractors and incentive programs is just for the US). 

The next segment will describe what happens on a solar site survey in our third post of this series: Going for Solar - Solar Site Survey (Step 3)


Oh, and I almost forgot, the New Jersey exception to maximizing efficiency before pursuing renewable energy projects is that New Jersey photovoltaic incentives are capped by your current electrical usage.  So, even if you have the money and desire to be a net electricity producer to take advantage of the very favorable SREC (solar renewable energy credit) market, you cannot get the incentives for systems designed to exceed your current annual electricity usage.  Some good friends of mine who are putting in solar in NJ recently ran into this problem.  They have the space, the desire and the funding, but had to limit the size of their PV array based on their electrical usage which they already reduced significantly through efficiency and conservation.  I'm not too worried though, it is still a great deal and opportunity for them, stay tuned.

Happy Greening,
Jon

Check out the other steps in Green Lifestyle Consulting's Going for Solar Series including photos throughout the construction.

Green Week in Review - May 31st - June 7th 2010

Last week had a range of eco-friendly stories ranging from solar AC to a huge break through in internal combustion engine efficiency.  Read on for a glimpse at the stories that caught our attention last week.

Technology Review: Reinventing the Gasoline Engine

Test heavy duty diesel engine
Credit: Derek Splitter

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison built a new internal combustion engine that could reduce fuel consumption in cars by 30% and 20% in heavy trucking.  The break through is mixing two fuels and very precisely controlling the injection and timing to maximize combustion which also reduces pollution.  Using this technique they have built the heavy duty diesel engine that achieves about 55% efficiency (up from 40-45%).  The engine can also adjust to optimize efficiency based on the load the truck is carrying.  The smaller engine is schedule to be unveiled this fall.  This is really exciting, especially since this can be done with minimal additional cost, something the auto manufacturers and consumers will really appreciate.

TreeHugger: Who Will Answer Our Clean Energy Wake Up Call?

Tragedy can often be the turning point for real and meaningful change.  In the article (with video) Leilani Münter draws a comparison between the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf Coast with the death of racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. who died on the last lap of the Daytona 500. After his death NASCAR made meaningful changes that have resulted in numerous lives being saved in the sport of racing. Hopefully, we too leverage the Gulf Coast tragedy to make meaningful changes to the extraction, processing and eventual consumption of fossil fuels that will save lives and the environment in the future.

TreeHugger: Solar Air Powered Air Conditioning Comes To Dubai

ClimateWell's Triple-State absorption
technology using salt and water

Solar Air Conditioning is in many people's minds the holy grail of solar energy.  During the hottest days of the summer is when the electrical load is the highest because of the all the electric chillers and air conditioning units trying to keep homes and businesses comfortable.  That also happens to be the time when the sun is at its peak.  Many approaches have been tried for solar AC including a new one deployed recently in Dubai that leverages salt and water instead of ammonia.  Read the article for more details and for a reflection on various solar AC attempts over time.

TreeHugger: Time to Stop Waiting For Others to Teach Our Kids Eco Literacy

Our friends over at TerraCycle, the ones that sponsored our great LunchBox Giveaway, are at it again with a new school curriculum to teach kids of all ages about the entire lifecycle (material cycle) of products.  Check it out.

Other interesting articles that didn't make this week's list:

•  TreeHugger: Biodynamic Wine: One California Vineyard Doing it Right (Slideshow)
•  Ask Pablo: Is A Freezer Chest The Environmentally Friendly Choice? 

Happy Greening!
Jon

Greening your Camping - Cloth Diapers

We just got back from our annual Memorial Day camping trip with friends. We've been camping together since before any of us had kids and now some families are up to three kids. To us camping is about going out into nature and appreciating the beauty and wonder and at the same time hanging out with good friends. Of course you want to put your best green foot forward when you camp, but as we were preparing for this trip we realized the many things we do that are actually less environmentally friendly when camping, than when at home.  In the first part of our series we will discuss diapers.  In later posts we'll talk about cooking, camp fires, electronics, waste and recycling.

Here we were, preparing for the trip with 2 five year old kids and a 10 month old in diapers.  At home we use cloth diapers on our baby and wash them in our front loader Energy Star washing machine and most of the time even line dry the covers and some of the liners.  Even though we practically took the kitchen sink (Alicia only does car camping - when the kids are older I'll take them backpacking some weekends), I wasn't going to fit in the washing machine.  We only have a 2 day supply of cloth diapers and we were going camping for 3 days and 3 nights.

So, we faced a conundrum: Do we go disposable for camping or find a way to wash the diapers while camping?

Alicia did some research and asked around and we got several suggestions from fellow cloth diaper users and some encouragement that it could be done, so we gave it a shot.  In complete honesty, we did have a stash of disposables that we keep around for emergencies in the car in case we needed them, but fortunately they never left the car until we were unpacking at home.

How to manage cloth diapers while camping?

Depending on the style camping you are doing, you may need to modify this approach to suit your specific needs.  We were at a location with running water (flush toilets) and trash disposal.  The bathrooms by us had only cold water.

TIP: Use flushable liners, especially when expecting poop.  This helps avoid having to swish in the toilet, and we didn't have our handy power sprayer along.   It's also helpful to have a mother-in-law around who doesn't mind taking the poopy diaper up to the bathroom to toss the solids while you finish diapering the baby.

We kept the dirty diapers in the diaper bag in the tent, but they could have been stored in the car if smell had become an issue.

When it was time to wash, I got out our two camping stock pots and filled them about half way with water.  I put the largest one onto the camping stove (fire would have worked as well, but the stove creates less black soot on the pot and gives you a better angle for working with the "laundry").   I brought the water to a boil and added some laundry soap (biodegradable & phosphate free).  Then I added the diapers and liners and boiled them for about 15 minutes to kill any bacteria stirring occasionally to agitate the diapers. I used a big set of clean tongs to stir and pick transfer the diapers as they were too hot to handle.  The cleaning part was easy.

After turning off the heat I rinsed the diapers and liners in batches to get the little bit of soap out. This was the hardest part as it took a fair bit of time and I had to replace the rinse water a few times because it got a bit soapy and too hot to work with.  Before hanging the diapers on the line to dry, I did my best to ring out the water.

The sun and wind did the rest.  I recommend doing this in the morning right after breakfast so you have all day to let the diapers and inserts dry.

While this was definitely more work than using the disposables it felt so right and we'll definitely do it again for our next camping trip.  Here we were appreciate nature and not adding to the ever growing waste stream with diapers.  We have some other fun and interesting green camping ideas to share in subsequent parts of this series, stay tuned.

So, the next time you are considering traveling or camping think about what you can do to make the trip greener.  Be sure to check with your friends and ask other cloth diaper users about ways to manage.  If our parents and grand parents were able to figure out camping with cloth diapers, we certainly can manage it as well.

Happy Green Camping!
Jon & Alicia

For travel and other cloth diapering tips check out the Real Diaper Association

Other articles in our Greening Your Camping Series:
Greening Your Camping - Getting Started
Greening your Camping - Reusable Utensils
Greening your Camping - Mosquito Bite Relief

GLC joins Kelly's Closet's Affiliate Program

As big fans of cloth diapers we are happy to join forces with Kelly's Closet, a leading online retailer of cloth diapers. We have bought diapers from them in the past and been very happy with their prices, selection and service.

Check their site often as they frequently have free diapers offers and other discounts available for purchases over $25 (about 2 diapers). Currently they offer free shipping on orders over $50 and are giving away 6 BumGenius One Size 3.0 pocket diapers via facebook.  Be sure to click on the facebook once you visit the site for more details.

Another feature of Kelly's Closet that we really like is the Diaper Dollars (tm) Rewards Program where you can earn gift certificates for buying things at Kelly's Closet and for writing blog posts.

In terms of full disclosure, Green Lifestyle Consulting does earn a small commission for qualified purchases you make through Kelly's Closet when you follow our links.  So go check out the great deals and selection from Kelly's Closet and recommend cloth diapering to your friends.

Happy Greening!
Jon & Alicia

Green Week in Review - May 24th - 30th, 2010

The lead up to the Memorial Day holiday weekend was busy for us as we prepared to go camping. Stay tuned for a post about greening up our camping trip, but in the meantime here are a few news articles from last week of interest.

TreeHugger: Washington DC Bike-Sharing Program Getting 10x Bigger!

Photo: Flickr, CC

Seeing the expansion and success of bike sharing programs in the nation's capital is exciting. I know as someone who works in the city it would be great to be able to check out a bike and go from point A to point B quickly and not have to worry about what I would do with the bike once there. Bike sharing enables people to get places more efficiently, especially when combined with public transit.

MIT: Pooling MIT’s resources to ‘rethink’ water

Water is already a scarce resource in many parts of the world and even in parts of the US.  I am very glad to see places like MIT looking at the future of clean water as well as Energy.

TreeHugger: 'Revolting' Levels of Bacteria Found in Canadian Bottled Water

We've been pushing tap water and reusable bottles for a while, and this article just reinforces one of the many reasons people should give up the bottled water.  Since bottled water is not regulated or required to meet standards like tap water, it does not surprise me that Canadian researchers found higher levels of bacteria in bottled water than water from the tap.

MIT: ‘Efficiency Forward'

Graphic: Christine Daniloff

MIT and NSTAR have launched a major initiative to cut campus electricity usage by 15% in just 3 years.  The majority of the savings will be achieved by efficiency improvements in lighting and HVAC systems and behavior changes.  Efficiency really is the most cost effective investment people can make now and for the future.

TreeHugger: DIY Electric Car Breaks World Record Going 624 Miles on One Charge

 624 miles on one charge is amazing, even if it was on a closed track under ideal conditions.  For an electric car to be a practical replacement for one of our family's two vehicles, we would need a range of 300-400 miles or enough to get from Boston to New York (200 miles) to the grand parents with some room to spare.  Of course we'd need to recharge there for the trip back.  We'd also need room for 5 people (2 adults, 3 child seats) and our stuff, so while it may be some time before electric vehicles become practical for that trip we are still excited to see the progress.

We hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Memorial Day Weekend and we want to say thank you to all the service men and women who have so honorably serviced this country.  Thank You!

Happy Greening!
Jon & Alicia