Smart Design: Water Faucet Innovation

After a successful first meeting at my new job, I feel that I can finally concentrate long enough to write an article of substance, so here we go!

I was perusing through Designyoutrust.com the other day and I came across a pretty ingenious design of a water faucet which I wouldn't mind investing in the near future.

This faucet is designed to distribute only 1 liter of water per use because, according to the designer, people will use up to 6 liters of water when only one liter is necessary. As you can see from the picture below, this design looks cool as well as serves an important function.

It may not come as a surprise to any of you that I am pretty aware of my environmental impact and I try to be as good as possible when it comes to consuming resources, but when it comes to water, I think we are all pretty guilty of overconsumption.

I know it is bad, but I really do enjoy taking long hot showers, and I have been known to leave the faucet running while brushing my teeth/doing dishes (even though I have been getting better).

With a design like this, I believe that many of those bad habits would be addressed out of functioning constraints and not conscious decisions. I know that leaving the faucet running is bad, but for whatever reason I am constantly forgetting to turn off the faucet.

Having a faucet that still works easily but keeps you using excessive amounts of water could be very useful for a person like me, and I suspect it would be well suited for the vast population of America/ROW.

Starbucks Needs To Stop Distributing Two Cups Per Visit

I love coffee shops. For those that know me personally, this is far from a huge secret. I will spend hours in a coffee shop reading and catching up on work that I would otherwise never do in my own apartment.

I think it is the relaxed atmosphere that attracts me to coffee shops...and the coffee, I like coffee.

However, the thing that I still can't wrap my head around is constant waste of paper cups. I wrote on this topic back in November as many of you will remember, and today I have developed yet another complaint about the paper cup system.

Starbucks seems to love serving their coffee in not one, but two paper cups stacked on one another. By stacking two cups on top of one another, they have created a small space of air between the two cups allowing the coffee to stay warmer longer. This is essentially the same result you get from putting plastic wrap over your windows during the winter to keep the heat from being lost as quickly.

If your only concern is that your coffee needs to be warm, then this is a fine solution. I have even mocked up a plan below that will allow Starbucks to have the WARMEST COFFEE EVER.

I'm a photoshop expert.

9 cups. Boom! I think this system actually allows the coffee to get hotter as it just sits there.

In all seriousness, if you're looking to have your coffee stay hot as long as possible, then I guess stacking cups is fine. However, because most people fail to recycle their cup(s) after finishing their coffee, the stacked-cup system is essentially doubling the waste that Starbucks is generating.

An alternative solution to keeping your drink hot for as long as possible is to get a personal mug. Many of them are made out of materials that can retain heat much longer than paper ever could and the repeated use you get out of them is "greener" than constantly using paper cups.

Walgreens: Leading In Corporate LEED Establishments

You see the term "LEED Certified" thrown around a lot. More times than not, you will see this term describing a new office building being constructed out of cleaner materials and utilizing more efficient means of energy consumption.

This is great and I hope the practice only continues to grow, but when it comes down to it, it goes unnoticed. For the most part, the only people noticing these LEED certified changes are the people working within the office building, and even then they don't really see the results until they look at their energy bill.

The transparency of these changes is a mixed blessing:

• It is good because people have this idea that more efficiency means sacrificing aesthetic value and functionality, so when they don't notice a difference between LEED certified and traditional buildings it proves that there are no sacrifices being mad.

• It is bad because when people don't notice the changes taking place, it makes it more difficult to transfer these clean practices to people's homes.

This is where Walgreens is doing such a nice job "educating" the general public. Walgreens has been rolling out LEED certified stores in Illinois and is planning to expand their sustainable fleet to other states in the near future. Here is what their store in Chicago has to offer:

The Logan Square Walgreens, nestled in an urban area right off the Kennedy Expressway, features a “green roof” with plants growing on it. The roof also has a white coating to help reduce heating and cooling costs. The store will save nearly 34,000 gallons of water a year with efficient water fixtures. During construction, 85 percent of waste was diverted from landfills. The site was a brownfield which was cleaned up and redeveloped for this project. Coolers, freezers and exterior signs all use LED lights, reducing energy use by 50 percent over fluorescent lighting. The store will save enough electricity to power more than five homes a year. In addition, there is special parking for hybrid vehicles, bike racks and nearby public transportation.

This is great for many environmental reasons, and I don't think I have to hold your hand and explain exactly what those are. What truly is great about this is that hundreds of people walk through this Walgreens every day, and each one is getting a hands on experience of what efficiency can look like.

The store also showcases many different informational signs telling the shoppers about all the different aspects of this green store. This is definitely something that a LEED certified business park can't offer to the general public.

Finally, this just makes good business sense. The most glaring benefits are the water and electricity savings that the store is enjoying:

• 34,000 gallons of water saved.
• Cutting enough electricity from their bill to power more than 5 homes a year.

These are real savings that Walgreens can take to the bank.

Also, did you catch the part about the LED lighting?

          You think that their informational signs will praise their lighting?

                    Want to bet that Walgreens will start selling more LED bulbs this year?

I hope more companies follow Walgreens lead and start pursuing these sustainable business practices more aggressively.

High-Speed Rail: China Begins To Leave The US Behind

It is no secret that I think that high-speed rail is a necessary next step for the United States, because I have written on the subject multiple times in the past:

• Reader Email: High-Speed Rail
• November 12: Weekly Review, High-Speed Rail
• November 5: Weekly Review, High-Speed Rail

I have touched on this subject repeatedly in the past because I know it would improve our transportation system as well as reduce carbon emissions across the board.  There hasn't been too much talk about a system being placed in America lately, but China is forging ahead with their own system.

Crisp Green reports:

Developed through a partnership of the China North Vehicle Yongji Electric Motor Corporation and the Southwest Jiaotong University, the new energy fuel cell light-rail train combines hydrogen fuel cells and an advanced permanent-magnet synchronous motor/frequency converter to achieve top speeds approaching 220 miles an hour.

This is important for China for two reasons. One reason is that because China has quickly become the most pollution intensive country, providing a cleaner rapid transit system will help alleviate traffic as well as the carbon emissions that are smothering the country.

The other reason is that by developing their own high-speed rail technology, China is placing themselves in a position to sell their technology to other countries that are interested in installing their own high-speed rail systems.  This is something that the US could still pursue, but by putting off the development of our own high-speed rail system, the US is essentially handicapping themselves in the transportation marketplace.

For The Nerds: Video Game Console Energy Consumption

Recently, a tradition has been developing with my family over the holidays.  I come home from the city, my brother comes back from Scotland, and we all get together and enjoy one another's company... for about 5 minutes.

After those blissful 5 minutes pass, my brother and I quickly retreat to the basement where I spend a good chunk of my time on this laptop job searching (hire me!) and he spends the better part of the day playing Call of Duty on Xbox 360.

Words cannot describe how annoyed my dad gets with us never moving from the basement, but what can you do?

This is relevant because today I read an article over on the NY Times Green Blog about power consumption levels and how the Xbox 360 is the most power hungry gaming system out there:

The Wii drew an average of 13.7 watts vs. 84.8 watts for the PlayStation and 87.9 for the Xbox. (The figures do not count the TV screens that the boxes must be connected to.)

It isn't surprising that the Wii is the least power hungry because Nintendo hasn't upgraded their graphics in at least the last 10 years.  It also isn't surprising that Xbox is the least efficient because the graphics are much more advanced than the Wii and the system itself hasn't truly been upgraded since its release in 2005.

Alone, these numbers aren't shattering records for energy consumption in the home, but when you consider the energy it takes to power a large television along with an internet router, along with the fact that there are over 41 million Xbox 360s sold around the world, it quickly becomes clear that these are true energy costs.

Do I think that people should stop playing video games? No.

Do I think people shouldn't play them as much? Probably... but good luck convincing my brother to do that.

Energy Prices Predicted To Remain Relatively Stable

I'd like to wrap the week of with an article The New York Times published about the Department of Energy's new report on the future of energy prices up until 2035:

The information released on Thursday was based on what the government calls a reference case, or estimate; its report in March will also include a low case and a high case. Among the major changes from last year, it projected that the price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity in 2035 will be 9.2 cents; last year it estimated that would be 10.3 cents. The price in 2009 was 9.8 cents.

Lower electricity prices are important because as they decline, the economic argument for building nuclear reactors, wind machines or solar cells gets weaker, as does the economic argument for more energy-efficient appliances.

I do suggest that you go over an read the entire article, because there is a lot of good information outside of this small section I stole.  While my first reaction to this article was to throw up on my keyboard, there are a lot of things that this article does not address.

Though the NY Times is not-so-subtly hinting that alternative energy companies are screwed, this simply is not the case.  While future prices of energy don't look that threatening, this doesn't mean that there won't be a market for alternative energy and energy efficiency.

Many other countries outside of the United States (yes, the US is still in fact part of the rest of world) are still pursuing alternative energy at an aggressive rate.  China is a great example of this as they have become the #1 target for alternative energy investment.  Call me crazy, but I believe America would do well to try and compete within the international marketplace.

Also, lets face it, these predictions don't mean crap.  Yes they are formulated by highly educated people who would probably beat me at Scrabble, but that doesn't mean that they have a crystal ball that they can see the future in.

Mustaches! I see mustaches in my crystal ball!

Here is are two facts that are undeniable:

1. Natural resources such as oil, coal, and natural gas are finite
2. Even in more efficient manners, burning these resources produce large amounts of carbon emissions

I know that economic forces pretty much dictate anything and everything that occurs, but it does seem relatively backwards that we are still investing as much money and time into these industries that are clearly going to fail at some point.  Yes, it is near impossible to estimate the exact amount of these resources left, but this should scare the shit out of investors, not place them at ease.

Ultimately, I hope that America still provides friendly economic policies for these emerging alternative energy and energy efficiency companies, because in the long run they will be what keeps the US competitive in the world marketplace.

The Inefficiencies of Netflix

I came across this comic yesterday, and even though it isn’t Sunday, I’m going to go ahead and post it and talk about something other than alternative energy today.

This is actually was one of my fundamental complaints about Netflix because you typically only rent a few DVDs a month, and it takes anywhere between 1-3 days for you to get a new DVD after returning the ones that you have checked out.

Aside from the obvious inefficiencies of this system, Netflix has a huge membership base with approximately 194 million visitors to their website in 2008 (Thanks, Wikipedia!). It is safe to assume that a large portion of these visitors had DVDs delivered to their home multiple times throughout the year. This is an incredibly high use of shipping resources, and though I do admit that shipping the DVDs is not too much work, but it does add up to a lot of resources being used to get the DVD to your home.

The use of shipping resources has only grown since 2008 and with the expansion of Netflix to Canada; it is not unforeseeable that Netflix will continue to grow in international markets, burning even more resources.

These growing resource consumption numbers can be mitigated if more people started to switch their DVD delivery plans to the online streaming plan, which is cheaper and faster than waiting for a DVD to arrive in your mailbox. While the selection isn’t as vast as the DVD selection, that will certainly change, especially if consumers make it clear to Netflix that they are more interested in the streaming service.

Granted, with the streaming service you are essentially shifting the resource allocation from fuel for shipping to electricity for running the servers, but I think you know me well enough to know how I would address the electricity issue.

I’ll give you a hint:  It rhymes with “fallbernative crynergy.”

How Cities Should Be Designed: Argonne National Laboratory

Before I start, I would first like to apologize for the lack of posts over the past few days.  I realize that about 100 people visit this blog on a daily basis, which is way more than I would have thought a blog of mine would get, so I should have probably tried harder to keep the posts coming.

On the other hand, I want to finish strong in school and my final papers seemed like a better use of my time, so a thousand apologies for not taking the time out of my schedule to write overly-sarcastic material and posting comics on Sunday - deal with it.

In any event, I came across this article posted about Argonne National Laboratory winning a federal award for energy savings a few days ago and I am just now going to get around to it:

Instead of bringing in outside consultants, Argonne reduced costs by using its own team of engineers and maintenance mechanics to identify projects to save energy. When the projects save money, Argonne reinvests those funds in additional projects. In 2009, Argonne ran 14 in-house projects that together saved nine megawatt-hours of power—enough to power 6,000 households.

Whoa whoa whoa. Wait a minute. You are telling me that people are saving money and THEN reinvesting the savings to pursue further savings and increased revenues? Get out of here.

The lab also installed outdoor light poles powered by small wind turbines and solar panels; the lights run entirely off the grid, and their battery packs can store enough energy to power the light for three days without sun or wind.

This is the really awesome part of what Argonne has done, and I hope to see more of this in the future in cities and towns.  Every day we drive, walk, and bike past hundreds of street lights which are all extracting energy from the power grid, but we never think twice about the money that this costs the taxpayer.

Imagine if Chicago replaced their street lighting with wind powered lighting systems.  The long-term savings would be huge; there are just no two ways about it.

Obviously there would be an upfront cost to installing these new systems, but you can say that about any new project geared towards infrastructure.  If we let initial investment costs deter us from pursuing new projects, there would never be any progress.

And for those that are really upset about not having a Sunday Comic, here is an awesome picture of two veterinarians dressed in panda costumes so that they can care for a baby panda:

The Problem With Recyclable Coffee Cups

I doubt that this is the first article ever written about coffee cups and it certainly won’t be the last, but I’m going to go ahead and write about it anyways because the only opinion that matters is mine*!!!!!

*Hmmmm...

I typically start every weekday morning with some form of coffee from one of the coffee shops near me. Whether it is Starbucks, Dunkin, or a local shop (my favorite kind), they all serve coffee in a disposable cup.

Most of the time these coffee cups are made from recycled material. I imagine this makes people feel good when they are buying a drink. However, the whole ‘recycled material’ thing only really helps if people are turning around and recycling their cups after they are finished with their drinks.

I know many of these coffee shops have a recycling service within their shops, but this doesn’t help when most people are getting their drinks to go. Most of the time, people will just throw their cups in the trash because they either forget about recycling their own cups or, more often, they just don’t have an option.

I say they don’t have an option because many places just opt to not have a recycling bin. This doesn’t make sense to me, especially on public transportation such as trains.

Trains provide transportation for a countless (maybe not countless, but I’m lazy) amount of morning commuters, most of which are drinking their morning coffee out of these cups. Many of these people will finish their coffee on the train and then not have a choice but to throw their cup in the trash.

It is inevitable that recycling will become more widespread, but it is annoying that we have to wait for some accountant to deem it cost-effective. This doesn’t mean that there is nothing that individual people can do.

If you are a regular coffee drinker, then I suggest you get a mug that you can just rinse out after you are done with your coffee. Most places are more than willing to fill up a personal mug instead of giving you a disposable cup, and let’s face it, they are much cooler.

I love this damn cup.

That is my rant about paper cups. I expect that a widespread adoption of personal coffee mugs will take place tomorrow, dramatically shifting the paper-products market and mitigating deforestation.

You're welcome, World.

The "Energy Internet": The Next Big Boom

Underlying all my ranting about alternative energy and energy efficiency is the 'Smart Grid.'

Luckily, this was Dayaway Career's Energy IQ term for today, which saves me the trouble of writing up my own definition and instead just stealing theirs!

Smart Grid - is a form of electricity network utilizing digital technology. A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital communications to control appliances at consumers' homes; this saves energy, reduces costs and increases reliability and transparency. It overlays the ordinary electrical grid with an information and net metering system, that includes smart meters.

I would feel bad for blatantly taking their material, but they got their definition from Wikipedia.  For all we know the Wikipedia definition was written by a 5 year old, and my moral compass tells me that stealing from children is permissible.

Social ambiguities aside, the development of a national smart grid is not only necessary, it is just a matter of time.  In order for any of the other developments in the sustainable marketplace to really make an impact, they are going to have to work together:

• Electric cars communicating with wind turbine's to determine when it is cheapest to charge their batteries
• Excess energy produced from a home's solar panels being sold back into the energy market
• Appliances turning on and off in accordance to aggregated energy usage
• Avoiding and preventing power outages that cause million's of dollars being lost

These are just a few examples of how a smart grid will benefit America (emphasis on the few).  Make no mistake, a national smart grid will cost a mind-numbingly huge number.  However, if America is going to even think about staying competitive with other countries (all of which are also pursuing the digital smart grid), then we will need to invest.

Like other huge infrastructure projects, such as the internet or the highway system before it, a smart grid will definitely offset the initial cost of development with untold benefits down the road.  This is why you are seeing around $350 billion spent on these projects annually.

So 5 years from now when you are charging your electric car, managing your appliances from some website, and making money from your solar panels, remember that Colin Brownell guy wasn't just making things up back in 2010.

Things That Should Be Solar Powered: Leaf Blowers

I decided to start a new segment today called 'Things That Should Be Solar Powered.' The reasoning behind this is that often I will see something that (at least in my mind) should be powered by solar power.

Today's segment focuses on the leaf blower.

"I'm going to enjoy nature with my gasoline powered leaf-blower"

As you would expect from Autumn in Chicago, all the trees have been losing their leaves for the past few weeks which would inform the heightened level of lawn-care going on in all the surrounding suburbs. It has gotten to the point that every morning I am awakened by the sound of leaf blowers that sound like chain-saws, which frankly is the exact sound I don't want to be woken up abruptly by in my bed.

I have a few common complaints about leaf blowers:

• What happened to good ol' fashioned child labor where neighborhood kids were paid one dollar to pickup leaves?
• Is a rake really that troublesome to use? No wonder people are so out of shape.
• A leaf blower makes little sense in an area that has been dubbed 'The Windy City.'
• Must they all reek of gasoline? These engines can't be as efficient as they could be.

The last bullet point about gasoline use is probably my most serious point (right after child labor). Using gas to essentially power a big fan seems like a huge waste to me - especially when you can smell these damn things from 40 yards away.

I don't see any reason why a company can't develop a leaf-blower that you can initially charge by plugging into a wall and then mitigate power loss by having a solar cell attached to the blower. Most of these leaf-blowers already have a backpack for the engine or a fuel tank - so just 86 the tank and replace it with a solar cell and there you go.

I'm looking at you, engineers.

A Rare Opportunity For Sustainability In New Orleans

It is easy to see that I am passionate about all things clean energy related.  However, it isn't as easy to see how these things are applied in real life because for the most part the application of clean energy and sustainable practices is scattered randomly across the nation on a small scale.

In New Orleans it is a different story.  Yes, Hurricane Katrina was a terrible event that is still indescribable on so many levels...but if there was a silver lining to this tragedy, it is the opportunity to rebuild the city in a cleaner, more sustainable fashion that can serve as an example for the rest of the nation.

Recently I was down in New Orleans observing the impact that the oil industry has had on the area (particularly with the Deepwater Horizon spill).  Aside from seeing a spider eat an entire frog right before my eyes*, I also visited the Lower Ninth Ward which was the hardest hit area in New Orleans during Katrina.

*Awesome.

The interesting part about the Lower Ninth is that the opportunity to rebuild a whole section of a city is rare at best because it is typically impossible to justify the costs of tearing down an entire neighborhood in order to rebuild.  Tragically, the majority of the Ninth was destroyed, but moving forward it can now be rebuilt in a more sustainable fashion.

This is exactly what some organizations such as Global Green USA is doing right now.  Global Green is building new homes in the Lower Ninth which are LEED Platinum certified which is the gold (platinum) standard of energy efficient building.

I had the pleasure of walking through one of these homes and they really are quite impressive.  Solar panels on the roof, incredibly efficient appliances, energy monitoring software, responsible water usage in the bathrooms, and much more - these homes are amazing.

Also, there is no feeling that you are sacrificing comfort which I feel a lot of people assume when they hear about sustainable living.  The rooms are spacious and the materials are nice.  If you were to walk into this house without knowing that it was LEED certified, I would be willing to bet that most people wouldn't recognize a difference between these homes and other newly built homes in other areas.

It is wonderful to see that there are people out there that recognize the opportunity for sustainability in New Orleans and I hope that this becomes more and more common in other cities across the nation as time goes on.

Disney Setting A Good Example With Energy Efficiency

CP, an incredibly good-looking* reader, sent in a message the other day highlighting Disney’s effort to make their theme parks more energy efficient and sustainable environments. These suggestions range from making sure that the lights are turned off when you are leaving the room to keeping the thermostat at a reasonable level.

Found on the inside door of hotel suites.

These are all just simple energy saving tips that anyone can do. What is so important about Disney posting these signs in every room is that it is instilling these sustainable habits into children at a young age...and apparently 20-somethings. If there is one thing that Disney is good at, it is trying to plant (sometimes creepy) messages and lessons into people’s minds.

Another important factor with these messages is that being more energy efficient just makes good business sense. To put it into perspective, if college dorms in University of North Carolina can save more than $950,000 on their energy bill, then expand that idea on a scale as large as Disney World’s campus.

I’m not a mathematician (as many of you will painfully become aware of as you continue to read this blog), but it doesn’t take a genius to see the millions of dollars Disney can save if these energy saving tactics are followed.

With all that saved money, you can just imagine the possibilities for Disney:

• Invest in solar panels to further reduce their energy footprint.
• Invest in smart grid technologies to more accurately monitor their energy distribution.
• Make the ‘Small World’ ride even more obnoxious!
• Two Words: Aussie Disney (you heard it hear first)

The point of all this is that Disney is setting a wonderful example for other businesses across America as well as the rest of the world. By saving money on your energy consumption, you can direct that money elsewhere to improve your business model and enjoy a fatter bottom-line.

All of this stuff has a pesky side-effect of being beneficial to the environment as well, but you would have to be a hippie to care about that kind of thing…right?

*Editors Note: Levels of hotness may be exaggerated** in order to protect feelings.








**Seriously though. Smoking hot.

"Range Anxiety" Presents Opportunities - Not Limitations

This past Friday during Sustainabili-City's Weekly Review, I briefly talked about range anxiety and how it can adversely affect sales of electric cars.

For those that don’t know what range anxiety is, a brief explanation is that electric cars have approximately a 40-50 mile driving range before the car needs to be charged again. This has been striking fear at the heart of potential electric car consumers, and on the surface it is understandable.

Is the Tesla expensive? Yes.
Awesome? Definitely.
Worth it? Maybe not (yet).

The numbers vary depending on the source, but the average American drives between 30 and 40 miles per day. This means that at the initial level of technology these cars are being released at, the battery capacity is just bordering on the limit of a day of driving (not true for the Nissan Leaf which boasts 100 miles of battery capacity).

However, I believe that as you begin to dig deeper into the issues, range anxiety becomes less of an issue for the following reasons:

• I would argue that range limitations present at the release of these electric cars will actually lead to more innovation. These innovations will range from ‘charging stations’ that mimic gas stations to the newer concept of charging your car as you drive in special lanes which is being demonstrated by HaloIPT.

• The fuel cell industry is one of the most dynamic technology industries today, and as electric cars are introduced into the marketplace, competition to develop a more efficient and longer lasting battery cell will grow and the electric car’s driving range will benefit.

• Many of these electric vehicles that are going to be released contain a small gas engine in the event that you do run through all of their battery’s capacity, which would either enable you to make it home (or an ‘electric station’) where you can then recharge your vehicle.

• At running the risk of repeating what I said yesterday, sometimes sustainable products require us to change our consumption behavior.  If the biggest problem with electric cars is that people need to be more responsible when planning their driving routes to the grocery store or work, then I say that is a small price to pay when trying to reduce our country's dependency on oil.

It is easy to just hear the term ‘range anxiety’ and decide that you aren’t going to make the transition to a (cleaner, smarter, cooler) electric car.  However, I believe after taking the bullet points above into consideration these concerns of ‘range anxiety’ are mitigated and consumers shouldn’t let these things deter from making the transition.

Also, aside from the obvious clean benefits of driving an electric car, other clean industries will benefit from the release of electric cars:

• Solar
• Wind
• Fuel Cell
• Smart Grid

                              ...but more on that later.

Sustainable Products Require Certain Adjustments

The original title of this post was 'Sustainable Products Require Certain Sacrifices,' but I decided to change 'Sacrifices' to 'Adjustments' because people generally hate the concept of sacrificing comfort. I also changed the title because what I am going to be talking about in this article should never be viewed as an earth-shattering sacrifice.

Recently, SunChips decided to discontinue their compostable bag in the United States due to "consumer pressure."  By consumer pressure, of course I mean a facebook page - what else could I mean?  In a world where a movie about a website is being considered for an Academy Award, I wouldn't expect anything less from web-based petition movements that are most likely started by some stoned-coed.

At least Canada still seems to be sane by releasing a public service announcement talking about why the bags may be noisier than their petroleum-based counterparts.

I like to believe that market-based forces are the best solution for many of our environmental problems, but this is a fantastic example of how the market can be resoundingly backwards.  I have a hard time believing that SunChips was spiraling into the red because their bags were noisy - the more likely reason is that SunChips (PepsiCo.) was just worried about negative press.

They should have realized by now that America has a relatively short attention span when it comes to these types of stories and they should have stuck it out in the pursuit of doing the right thing while also setting an example for other companies.

As our population continues to grow so will our levels of consumption - which ultimately increases our amount of waste.  It is unlikely that we are going to reduce our intake over night, so the more logical move is to move to more sustainable products that have a minimal impact on the environment - such as these chip bags.

Yes, there will be tradeoffs and adjustments when using these products, but if noise level is our biggest concern when using these products then people need to just deal with it.

Sunday Comics

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
(http://www.smbc-comics.com/)

At one point while living in my first apartment in Chicago, I actually thought about doing this.  Then I realized I had no idea where to begin and ordered a pizza.

Copy and Paste

Not often will I blatantly quote the New York Times, but it is Thursday and I have turned almost all of my attention towards my costume for Halloween this weekend - so...

Plagiarism on!

Updating and expanding the electrical grid to accommodate new sources of energy will be the biggest challenge, and will require partnerships among states, federal authorities, the utilities and private investors. The Google project could be crucial to delivering wind power to Eastern cities, but major investments will also be needed in the West and Southwest. President Obama recently declared that no industry has greater potential to create jobs than clean energy. He is right. But it is never going to happen unless the administration and Congress do a lot more to push it ahead.

The entire article can be found here at the NY Times' website, but essentially it talks about how America needs to pick it up when it comes to alternative energy programs.

I will hammer this point forever.  You don't have to be a hippie or some idealist to see the benefits in alternative energy and energy efficiency along with other sustainable movements.

These things create jobs.
                 Jobs create money.
                            Money buys things.
                                    Things being bought sustain other jobs...and so it goes.

I can go on a huge rant about national security and environmental benefits that stem from these things, but I'll save that for another day.

Try to tell me that pursuing these technologies and practices are not the rational next move.

D.I.Y.D: Using Outlet Timers To Shut Down Power Vampires

Most of the time you are going to find me talking about developments that will eventually impact your lives. Despite the (hopefully) exciting nature of these developments, the vast majority of readers won’t experience the full benefits for some time.

That is where these D.I.Y.D (Do It Yourself, Damnit) posts come into play. I will regularly post things you can do in your daily lives that will save you money and help you lead a more sustainable lifestyle.

One of the most common suggestions made when talking about methods to reduce your energy consumption around the house is to connect your energy hungry appliances (televisions, entertainment systems, etc) to a surge protector and turn the protector off when you are not using the appliances.

While this is a great suggestion and does provide a noticeable level of relief on your electric bill, it can become somewhat of a hassle. This is especially noticeable when you have a large entertainment system or computer system that is constantly draining power, but to unplug it when you aren’t using it means you would have to move a large desk (or in some college student’s cases, an elaborate systems of milk crates).

To help make it easier to stick to this plan, go out and buy an outlet timer and plug your surge protector into it. These allow you to set certain times during the week where the timer will switch off the surge protector for you.

An example of this would be that you have your outlet timer switch everything off during the hours you are at work and at night while you sleep. Timers are relatively cheap and eliminate the ‘I can’t believe I forgot to switch off my entertainment system…again’ moments.

You may ask, “But dude, what if I am playing Halo: Reach on Xbox at 3 AM and the timer shuts off my system. Won’t that lose all my progress?”

To this concern I respond, “Well, person who still says ‘dude,’ I would be more concerned about playing video games at 3 AM, go to bed.”

Yes, it is convenient to have your entertainment system supplied with power all the time because you can turn it on at will, but these are also some of the largest unnecessary drains on power found in households.

By introducing a little discipline to your life, an outlet timer becomes a small and effective step towards making your home more energy efficient, and will make the wait for new energy technologies to become available less strenuous (while also developing some good habits along the way).

"Sea Britain" Revisited

Often you find me talking about alternative energy and things that individuals can do to help reduce their "energy footprint."  While I do believe that energy consumption is the most pressing issue facing us today, water consumption is an extremely close second.

Water is a limiting resource, and as population increases, more water is going to be demanded.  This has led to the development of more efficient systems of water use ranging from more efficient washing machines and dishwashers to low-flow toilets (9 out of 10 men will agree that there has to be a better way make sure these damn toilets don't get clogged as much - I'm looking at you, engineers!).

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

However, no matter how efficient we get with our water usage, the bottle-neck of water treatment still exists.  The thought of using chemicals to clean our water leaves something to be desired for a lot of people, mainly because it is a constant drain (pun!) of money.

That is until now.

Floating Island International has developed a technique to create man-made islands that use the same natural processes as bogs and wetlands to clean polluted water without the aid of chemicals.

There is a good interview with the company's owners (Bruce and Anne Kania) over at Marc Gunther's blog outlining all the work that they have done up until now.  Most projects are on a municipal level which, in my opinion, is right where it needs to be.

Bruce goes as far as to say that one day he would like to create ocean-front real estate with his islands to support human living conditions, and while even I think that sounds a little bit like science fiction, I am prepared to eat my words the day it happens.

Will this end the need for chemical treatment of our water systems? No.

This will follow the same trend as alternative energy working in collaboration with coal.  Maybe one day we will figure out how to completely replace the dirtier process, but until then we can make great strides in mitigating the pollution we are exerting right now.


(For those of you who don't get the title of this entry, "Sea Britain" is one of the more brilliant jokes that came from Season Three of Arrested Development.)

Prelude

Let me be clear.

At this stage of my life I know very little about alternative energy, smart grid technology, and sustainable living.

However, this lack of a thorough understanding doesn’t make me blind to the potential of these fields. Instead, every day I look for an opportunity to talk about these emerging industries. This is for two reasons:

• I believe that the more people hear about these things, the less that they will believe that alternative energy and smart energy-distribution systems are some futuristic dream.

• I like sounding smart.

These two points highlight the purpose of this blog (sarcastic self-indulgence and shameless promotion of clean practices).

By discussing these sustainable advances, I am hoping to make my (millions of) readers and Stumblers more aware of the issues while also furthering my own understanding so that I can continue to (think I) sound smart.

I invite anyone to comment on or criticize anything that I say here, because ultimately we will all be benefit from the conversation in the end…hopefully(maybe?).





Probably.