Business Facilities Magazine released its report on the top cities in alternative energy. I was happy to see my home city of Louisville, Kentucky made a couple of good lists. Louisville was #8 on the list of alternative energy leaders.
The top 10 list of alternative energy industry leaders is below:
- 1. Tuscon, AZ
- 2. Albuquerque, NM
- 3. Midland, MI
- 4. Clarksville, TN
- 5. Greenville, SC
- 6. Fort Madison, IA
- 7. Knoxville, TN
- 8. Louisville, KY
- 9. Junction City, KS
- 10. Bakersfield, CA
- One item that helps Louisville to get on this list is the recent news that a $20 million philanthropic contribution went to the Speed School for Engineering at the University of Louisville. Kentucky Governor Beshear has now established the Kentucky Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship at the University of Louisville.
More good news for Louisville is White Energy Technology Riverport LLC wants to build a clean-energy facility that would produce alternative fuel for use in power generation at Jefferson Riverport International in southwest Jefferson County in Louisville.
Louisville also was #7 on the list of best cost of living. All of this news is music to my ears. Yay for us!
To see more of the city rankings : http://www.businessfacilities.com/Rankings/BFJulAug10_METRO_RANKINGS.PDF
Where does your city stack up?
I made the below video almost two years ago, but I have recently changed up the audio. This video is a culmination of facts about our environment as well as ways we can improve the environment. I think you'll learn something. I see it as the video version of the Ways2GoGreen website. Enjoy.
Earth Day is an annual holiday founded by peace activist John McConnell, who also designed the Earth Day Flag. It started as a grassroots effort to inform people to support environmental concerns and create a movement. Now there are millions in the world who celebrate Earth Day each year on April 22nd. If you haven't already, learn more about Earth Day and become involved.
The first official Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. The day was proposed by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson. It marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately 20 million Americans participated that year, with a goal of a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.
In 1990, 200 million people in 141 countries celebrated the day and lifted the status of environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. For 2000, Earth Day had the internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. Including, hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating all over the world.
The Earth Flag was designed in 1970 by Earth Day founder and pioneer John McConnell, an early leader in the international peace movement. Inspired by the striking first photographs of the whole Earth taken during America's historic Apollo 10 space mission in 1969, this symbolic creation attained immediate world-wide recognition, including a lifetime association with renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead. Dr. Mead carried what she called "the flag for all people" with her wherever she appeared from 1969 until her death in 1977.
Earth Day originally had a symbol that was a combination of the letters "E" and "O" taken from the words "Environment" and "Organism", respectively. Later a theta was used because of its historic use as a warning symbol, or the peace symbol. Theta is now associated with Earth Day.
Celebrate the planet locally or globally every day, not just on Earth Day. To find Earth Day events in your area, go to Earth Day events.
I've seen many articles and blogs which contain eco-friendly holiday gift ideas. I wanted to place some of them here to be of little help to some of the late shoppers who are trying to get something nice for themselves or their green friend. These suggestions are better than giving fruitcakes. However, I do hear that many fruitcakes have been reused and regifted, so I guess that is pretty eco-friendly.
Go Green this Christmas - gift ideas
Green holiday gifts can bring joy, save money
Joy of green giving: High-tech, environmentally friendly gifts
Inexpensive Christmas Gift Ideas: Save Money and Go Green with Cheap, Earth-Friendly Gifts
Christmas Gifts 2009: Do It Yourself!
Last minute Christmas gift ideas {green products and services}
Happy shopping and have a great holiday season!
My tomato plants have done their job for the year. No more good
tomatoes or blooms are on the vine so today I picked off all of the respectable
tomatoes and heaved my tomato plants into my compost bin. Alas, colder
weather is near (in Kentucky anyway) and this is just one of the things to do to
get ready for autumn. My tomato plants won't be lonely, a lot of leaves
will be joining them very soon.
Don't fret, I made sure there were no bugs or diseased areas on the plants.
You don't want to spread disease into your compost bin. That just wouldn't
be good for your compost bin at all. Speaking of compost bin, mine has
seen better days. It has gotten pretty sad looking. I made it around 8 years ago out of wood.
It has done its job, but I plan
to get or make a new one for this coming spring.
Don't have a compost bin and don't know how to compost, and would like to?
Do It Yourself Composting At Home
I just saw the movie 'Away We Go' with John Krasinski (of "The Office") and Maya Rudolph (of "Saturday Night Live") are expectant parents who go in search of the perfect place to start their family in this low-key comedy from director/producer Sam Mendes ("American Beauty" & "Road to Perdition)". I thought it was a really good movie and I would recommend to every adult. It is rated R for a reason; especially the opening scene. You'll see what I mean. The cast also includes Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton. The story and the actors caught my eye, but also the Special Features of the DVD. It mentioned the eco-friendly things that Sam Mendes did on the set of the film.
From the FilmInFocus website:
Away We Go’s achievements can be broken down into four main areas: energy, transportation, catering/craft/water, and waste. Specific achievements include:
* For energy, biodiesel fuel was integrated into generators, using blends ranging from B-5 to B-99, resulting in substantial emissions reductions at point of combustion as well as through life-cycle analysis.
* For transportation, hybrid vehicles were driven 45% of the total miles driven during the production, and also reduced carbon emissions through their reduced idling policy and charter flight avoidance policy.
* For catering/craft/water, the production shifted its sourcing to local and organic sources for more than 50% of their meals and craft services, and eliminated plastic water bottles from their set.
* For waste, the production redirected 49% of its waste from landfills into recycling and composting.
Other achievements included consolidating shooting locations so as to reduce travel miles, adopting sustainable habits in the production office, and eliminating all those wasteful little plastic water bottles. The production switched to branded reusable bottles and, when it came to dinnerware, served with corn and sugar-based utensils.
Filmmaking while being eco-friendly is possible. Let's hope that other directors and producers get onboard and become more eco-friendly. With all of the movies that are made these days, that could make a huge impact. If you don't see this movie, I urge you to see a movie soon. Movies are a great 2 hour escape. And don't we all need escapes?
Many people have closets similar to the one above. No, you may not have a robe with duckies on them, but you probably have at least one closet that needs to be decluttered. Don't just dump all of your unwanted clothing into the trash, however. You have the opportunity of doing something green, get yourself a little more organized and receive a tax deduction. How cool is that?
You can combat a messy closet by going through your used clothing and put them into four piles.
1. Clothing you still wear and that you will keep - this will be clothing that you have worn in the past 12 months or you know you will wear in the next 12 months
2. Clothing you don't wear, but is in good condition which you can donate - there are many great choices when it comes to donating your clothing. Just a few are:
3. Clothing you don't wear, but may be cleverly reused - find out some ways to reuse used clothing here
4. Clothing that is falling apart, which can't be worn or reused and needs to be thrown away
Clothing donations are needed by many of the 600,000 homeless families in the United States. But the need doesn't end there: more than 28 million children living in low-income families and their parents could also benefit from donated clothes.
Clothing donations should be clean, undamaged, and reasonably wrinkle-free. Clothing can be folded and packed in sturdy boxes or bags; avoid hangers. Items that come in pairs (shoes, gloves, socks) should be kept together (shoe laces can be tied together, gloves and socks can be stuffed inside each other). Pockets should be emptied and any belts should be securely fastened to their appropriate items.
For tax purposes, you should keep a list of the clothing you donate. Donation centers usually give you a tax receipt, but if you mail your clothing or shoe donation to a charity, also send a self-addressed, stamped envelope so it can send you a receipt. Shipping costs are tax deductible as well.
Take all the time you need: whether it be two hours or two weeks. You'll be doing something great and eco-friendly for yourself, your spouse and possibly your local community.
