Gentlemen, we can blog it. We have the technology.
May 20th, 2007
From BBSpot:
“I just love it,” said soccer mom, Wendy Glickman, “I feel a lot safer knowing I have the spare Explorer. What if I forget my cell phone? What if the GPS in the Exorbitant fritzes out? Half a million dollars is a small price to pay for peace of mind.”
February 2nd, 2007
So I have been known to harbor cynicism towards mega-corporations, and I’d like to think sometimes its with good reason. But I recently came across something that made me proud of my mega-corporation employer. The EPA published a list of the top 25 buyers of green energy, and guess who topped the list? Yep, Wells Fargo. So I did some digging into what this actually means, and I’m quite impressed.
Apparently you can buy “green power”, which is energy generated from renewable sources such as water, air, or solar. Now there’s no special wires that you can install at your house or office that will ensure that the electricity you receive is only green. But you can buy what are called Renewable Energy Certificates (REC’s), that represents renewable electricity generated and delivered somewhere on the power grid. Wells Fargo gave me a link to the green energy provider they partner with, 3 Phases Energy. They have a handy Carbon Footprint Calculator where you can figure out how much fossil fuel you personally use on a monthly basis, and they offer the opportunity to purchase for a reasonable price enough REC’s to offset that with clean renewable energy. Because of the current higher cost to generate green energy, the money you spend goes directly to developing more of these earth-friendly power plants.
With scientific warnings about global warming getting ever more serious, it’s important to find everyday things that we can do to play a part in reversing the trend. And investing in green energy seems to be a great idea.
January 25th, 2007
From the NY Times:
While so-called organic cotton is exemplary in the way it avoids pesticides, cotton garments squander energy because they must be washed frequently at high temperatures, and generally require tumble-drying and ironing. Sixty percent of the carbon emissions generated by a simple cotton T-shirt comes from the 25 washes and machine dryings it will require, the Cambridge study found.
A polyester blouse, by contrast, takes more energy to make, since synthetic fabric comes from materials like wood and oil. But upkeep is far more fuel-efficient, since polyester cleans more easily and dries faster.
Over a lifetime, a polyester blouse uses less energy than a cotton T-shirt.
An interesting read. Check out the full article, and also an interesting chart in the sidebar called “How ‘Green’ Is Your T-Shirt?”