I found this great tip on ecofriend:

Usually people think to save energy at home only. They are least concerned in saving the energy at their office. If you believe on the statistics of the Sierra Club, various business houses waste $1 billion worth of electricity every year. If we all adopt eco-friendly habits to save energy, a better future can be made for our younger generations. There are some means that can save energy during office hours without trying too hard:

1. Many people still believe that it is important to leave a computer running constantly to prolong its life. While this may have been true back in days of amber screens and 1MB hard drives, it’s definitely not true now. If you have finished your work for the day, always turn off your computer and unplug it from the power strip. If you take several breaks during your working hours, you can put your computer in sleep mode cut energy use by 70 percent something screen savers can’t do.

2. Turn your monitor off if you are going to be away from your computer for a few minutes.

3. While taking print outs of a document, always use both sides of the paper. Prefer using chlorine-free paper with a higher percentage of post-consumer recycled content.

4. Business travel can be made through train, bus or subway. Apart form this hybrids cars, other high-mileage vehicles, carpool, and bikes can save energy too.

5. Add some plants in corridor and near your desk.

6. Try to use as much natural light as possible - working near windows will save turning on lights so often and ensure windows are kept clean. The sun’s light - particularly the diffuse light out of the direct beam of the sun’s rays - is great to work in and is much cheaper than electricity.

The scope for energy savings is huge. You may be using twice the national average and three times what a really good building would. It time to act now!

(via ecofriend: via sheknows)

Hi All, happy monday! Here I my three favorite images that surfaced last week.

The above two photos are from metaefficient in an article about how Denmark is teaming up with California company, Project Better Place, to use the country's abundance of wind power to build the a nation wide infrastructure for plug-in electric cars.  Denmark is the world's leading producer of wind power.

These remarkable looking towers our being planned for the Putjrajaya waterfront, also known as precinct 4, 30km south of Kuala Lumpur in Malasia.  from inhabitat:

The winner of a recent contest, the design for Precinct 4 comes from Studio Nicoletti Associati and Malaysian architects Hijjas Kasturi Associates, who provided the masterplan of Putrajaya. The goal of the designers was to provide a model for sustainable residential design that was inspired by the city’s unique landscape which includes an expansive artificial lake. The biggest inspiration came from the sea and the entire development resembles a fleet of ships.

The architect’s goal was to design buildings that tell “of its place of origin which is culturally modern, Islamic and tropical in nature.” Added to this is Nicoletti’s extensive experience in design and construction for extreme climates. For Precinct 4, the Italian firm brought sustainable strategies like terraces, sunshades, natural ventilation and integrated green space into the design. The buildings will source from alternative energy and are expected to produce 50% less CO2 emissions than similar residential projects.

There's nothing quite like unique, forward looking green buildings sprouting up in every culture around the world.

Tomorrow is the big event.  At 8pm communities around the world will be turning of their lights for Earth Hour.  Check out my post on earth hour for an explanation and great video.

Ecogeek has a good statement on the scale:

So on March 29th, whenever 8pm rolls around, over 350 cities in 35 countries, millions of individuals, the Sears Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, and 2,100 corporations including HP, Coca Cola and McDonald's, are all turning off their lights.

Everyone should participate in this important event!!

A review of all the eco oriented links I've been posting about or checking out for the past week.

Solar Thermal Electricity: Can it Replace Coal, Gas, and Oil? : CleanTechnica: A multi phase plan to switch to solar over the next couple of decades.

votesolar.org: Tell the nation we need solar now!

Enviu, Innovators in Sustainability : TreeHugger: An article on Green innovation incubator in rotterdam netherlands. Makers of the Sustainable Dance Club.

YouTube - The Truth About Bottled Water: By Penn and Teller!

Conscious Consuming: "What's Tappening?: An article on Tappening, a project promoting the switch from bottled water to tap water.

Food and Water Watch: Learn about how we can make our food and water consumption sustainable.

Green Towers In Malaysia Modeled After Fleet Of Ships : MetaEfficient: Beautiful Buildings!

Renewable Energy Gets Annual Review : Sustainablog: Renewable Energy is growing nicely.  Lets hope it grows even faster.

Antarctic Ice Chunk 7 Times Bigger than Manhattan Collapses : TreeHugger: Like I said, uh oh...

New Record: Wind Powers 40% Of Spain : MetaEfficient: A few blustery days in Spain prove what a difference the wind can make.

No Impact Man: Lady Liberty ditches her automobile boyfriend: Great video of an action calling for America to end its love affair with the auto-industry.

7 Ways To Save Fuel Without Buying A New Car. » GroovyGreen.com - Start Today :: Save Tomorrow: Great tips for those who still love there car.

See the difference you can make - Earth Hour 2008: Earth Hour Is Tomorrow, March 29th at 8pm.  Turn off your lights!

We Can Solve It | We Can Solve It: Join the petition of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection

Community Green Living Tips: How to promote sustainability in your community.

Dude, Gcycle your batteries : TreeHugger: Find out where to recycle your batteries with Gcycle.

WorldChanging: The Front Fell Off: Hilarious video!!

No Impact Man: A great blog about one man's quest to live a zero footprint life.

The sustainability movement has produced some remarkable innovations.  Some are real game changers in how we look at our everyday lives, our public spaces and our human potential.  Enter Sustainable Dance Club, a project from Rotterdam's enviu, which takes human potential literally, as potential energy.  The SDC is researching, developing and implementing sustainability for our music hall across a wide range of issues: from water to waste to energy.  But their real coup d'etat (they call it their piece de la résistance) is the electrity generating dance floor which captures the movement of dancers, converts it into electricity and powers the clubs LED lights and possibly its sound system.  The floor works by taking the up and down movement of dancers, which compresses cylinders under the floor and converts the movement into energy.  This video explains it well:

I find innovations like these to be the most exciting.  They completley change how we interact with our environment in our everyday lives by turning fun into conciousness and sustainability.  The first SDC will open latter this year, Watt in Rotterdam Netherlands.  Hopefully the idea will spread the dance scene world wide will turn to sustainability if the want to remain on the cutting edge.

(treehugger remined of the sustainable dance club in an article on the parent company of the project, enviu)

A hilarious cartoon from gcycle...

Gcycle is a great (and funny) flash site that provides information on where to recycle your batteries and used electronics. Cut down on e-waste and laugh at the same time!

(via treehugger via the sietch)

This car is totally sweet! To bad it only sits one person.  From inhabitat:

What is the most efficient vehicle on the planet? And more importantly, how far can it go on a single liter of gas? The Microjoule is your answer, getting over 3,794 kilometers per liter, or approximately 8,923 miles per gallon! Looking less like a car than an amoeba-on-wheels, the Microjoule is the design of students from the French Technical School, St. Joseph La Joliverie, who are set to compete in the Eco-Marathon 2008 to be held in Europe this coming May. 

An article on earth2tech reports that the utility, Southern California Edison, will be building the largest  solar cell installation in the country on many commecial building over the next few years.  Starting in August over two square miles of solar cells will be intalled on 100 buildings and hopefully the project will be complete by 2013.  The project will install 1megawatt of solar capacity per week to reach 150megawatts at the end of the project.  That will power 162,000 homes and is ten times larger than the current leader, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, which currently has 14megawatts of capacity.

One of the most interesting things about the project is that it is being built in an urban area well connected to the grid.  From earth2tech:

By spreading the panels out over an already highly wired area, SCE hopes to save itself — and presumably its customers — the cost of having to install new transmission lines. Access to transmission lines is one of the leading challenges for large solar and wind power installations, which are often located in remote regions.

This is a huge step in California's Million Solar Rooftops plan and shows that shifting our energy generation to renewables can happen quickly on a mass scale.  If you want to get involved in spreading the solar movement, check out votesolar.org.  They are a solar advocacy group that also currently has a petition to send to congress promoting the Federal Solar Bill, to be voted on this summer, which will create strong incentives for homes, businesses and utilities to instal solar.  Sign the petition by clicking here.

If you want to bring solar into your everyday lives on a bit of a smaller scale, check out our great solar products on earthscreen.

(photo from treehugger)

Bottled water is one of the greatest consumer farces of the last couple decades.  Not only is tap water just as healthy, the bottling process takes ton's of energy, harms local water supplies, and the product itself is an expense you don't need.  This video from Tappening explains the situation well (using magic tricks to boot!):

Switching to the tap is one of the best ways to lower your consumption and put less strain on the Earth. No Impact Man lays down the facts provided by Food and Water Watch:

• 40% of the bottled water sold in the United States is tap water anyway.
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires hundreds of tests each month on municipal water supplies, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates bottled water, requires only one test a week on bottled water.
• Only 40% of bottled water--that which is sold across state lines--is regulated by the FDA in the first place.
• Plastic bottles in the United States require some 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture each year--enough to power 100,000 cars.
• 86% of plastic bottles in the United States never get recycled.
• Tap water costs about a penny a gallon and bottled waters costs up to $10 a gallon.
• Chemicals that leach from plastic water bottles may affect our health.
• If people abandon the use of municipal drinking water, then there will be no political will to ensure that we invest the necessary resources in the water infrastructure.
• The United States has some of the best drinking water in the world and we must keep it that way.

There is more than just environmental considerations at hand.  As Tappening mentions " The money we, as a nation, waste on bottled water could insure every single uninsured child in America!"

If your worried about the loss of convenience in making the switch to tap water, think about the money you'll save not buying it.  Also using a canteen to bring tap water on the go is an easy and chic way to quench your thirst at any moment and send out the message that your not buying into the bottling up of our natural resources.  The stainless steel Klean Kanteen is my favorite.  If you're still worried about the quality of tap water, you can get a tap water filter.

(via concious consuming)

Treehugger reports that an ice chunk 7 times the size of Manhattan just fell apart in Antartica's Wilson Ice Sheet.  And it happened 15 years before scientists expected.  They note that "since the ice was floating, it won't cause sea levels to rise, but it is a bad sign for the other ice nearby that isn't in the ocean."  And its a huge sign that climate change is even more urgent than we thought.

(satalite photos of the sheet)

So I've had a keen interest in wind lately and I was very pleased to hear this week that wind energy will break the 1% mark for its portion of total US energy output in 2008.  But then I was blown away when I heard that for a brief period in Spain last week, wind energy accounted for 40% of energy consumption.

From Metaefficient:

Wind power is breaking new records in Spain, accounting for just over 40 percent of all electricity consumed during a brief period last weekend. As heavy winds lashed Spain on Saturday evening wind parks generated 9,862 megawatts of power which translated to 40.8 percent of total consumption. Between Friday and Sunday wind power accounted for an average of 28 percent of all electricity demand in Spain. Spain’s wind power generation equaled that of hydropower for the first time in 2007.

Now Spain doesn't generate this much wind power year round but this really speaks to the possibilites of  large wind infrastructure around the world.  And because it can get gusty in every country around the world, here for your learning pleasure are some statistics for wind energy use in various countries.  First, to contextualize, wind accounts for 1% of worldwide energy production.

Furthermore, these are the ten countries with the most wind generating capacity with the number of megawatts listed (1MW will power 100 homes for a year):

But as a percentage of total energy consumption here's how the countries stack up:

"19% of electricity production in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland," 3% in India, and 1% in the USA.

The US has a long way to go but also a lot of wind so I see a promising future for this clean energy.

(sources: Wikipedia, ifnotwind.org)

Groovy Green posted these 7 great tips on using less gasoline that I figured might come in handy for those of us communiting tomorrow morning.  Of course if you can you should take public transportation and really save on gas!  In the article they suggest keeping track of your gallons per mile, how many miles you drive per month, and how many gallons your car consumes per month to check if these tips are helping.

1. Take less trips. This may seem obvious, but simple steps like posting a shopping list of the fridg. and only going to the store once a week, combining trips or riding bicycles when you can will save quite a bit of fuel.

2. Drive slower. OK, maybe not always, but when you are driving faster than 30 miles per hour, air resistance becomes a significant factor. …

3. Time lights. Many traffic lights are timed so that if you drive at or below the posted speed limit (on the major road) that you will get green lights all the way. My personal record over 20 green lights on a 6 mile trip through an urban area. If you make the trip often, you will learn what it takes.

4. Coast. Pay attention to areas ahead of you where you will have to slow down. Let off the gas and let your car slow down on it’s own. There is no point driving fast and then having to hit the brakes.

5. Don’t let your engine idle. In the morning, don’t let your car warm up more than a minute or two. At train crossings, turn the engine off. If you aren’t moving, you are getting ZERO miles per gallon.

6. Air resistance. Luggage racks, roof racks and open windows all contribute to slow down the flow of air over your vehicle. I was able to remove the bars to the roof rack on my van and the square license plate holder on the front of my car. I almost always drive with the windows up. In the summer, I use the vents when I need air.

7. Rolling resistance. Make sure your tires are properly inflated and that chassis and wheel bearings are properly lubricated. Have the brakes serviced and make sure the front end is aligned. Generally, make sure your vehicle is properly maintained. Friction is your enemy!

Drive Safely!!

has a really great breakdown of the numbers involved in wind power and what you should know before investing in a residential wind system:

In general the article states:

 the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) says that in 2007, wind power installations increased by 45% in the United States, and in 2008, we should, for the first time, see over 1 percent of the nation’s electricity generated by the wind. That doesn’t sound like much but it translates into 5,244 megawatts of energy and $9 billion in sales and installation costs.

 And on the cost of energy from the electrical grid: 

If you leave a 40 watt light bulb burning for 24 hours, it will use up approximately 1 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity.

One kilowatt hour from the utility grid generates 1.5 pounds of carbon dioxide – almost half a pound of carbon emissions.

It takes 1 gallon of oil to produce 40 kilowatt hours of electricity.

The average household uses over 10,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year.

In 2007, the average cost for electricity from the utility grid was about 10.7¢ per kilowatt hour.

And on the cost of wind:

In 2007, average cost per kilowatt hour of electricity generated by residential wind energy systems was between 10–11¢ per kilowatt hour.

In 2007, average cost per kilowatt hour of electricity generated by utility-scale wind turbines was 4–7¢ per kilowatt hour.

One 10 kilowatt wind turbine system, operating at a site where the average wind speed is at least 12 mph, can generate around 10,000 kilowatts per year.

And calculated together, with the price of residential turbines ranging from $6,000 to $30,000:

How much you save depends on the energy efficiency of your home and your local electricity rates. However, depending on your wind turbine system size, wind quality, permit and energy costs, and turbine performance, payback periods for small wind systems range from 6 to 15 years. Larger systems (10 kilowatt) can take 15 to 30 years to make up your initial costs.

 Here on earthscreen we have a few smaller models of wind turbines than whatitcosts reviews.  The X Land Wind Generator and the Whisper 100 Wind Generator cost $680 and $2,305 respectively.  The Whisper would take about 15 years to pay back but at over 1,000 kWh's per year it would reduce your carbon emmisions by 10% compared to if you stayed on the grid.  Hopefully providing clean wind energy to your home will become cheaper still as the technology gets better and governments create tax inscentives for wind as it is doing for solar.  So combined with solar, and making your home more efficient, that could make a huge difference. 

On March 29th, 2008 at 8pm communities around the world will be turning of their lights for one hour to send out a strong statement that we must, together, fight against climate change.  This is part of the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour and it is a wonderful and simple action for you to participate in and organize your communities for too.

Residential and commercial energy use is a major factor in creating emissions from our power plants. And as this video, narrated by Jeremy Piven, shows, not only does turning off your lights send a strong statement to the power companies and our governments but the act itself can reduce a communities energy use by 10% for that hour.

From the Earth Hour Website:

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

 

About Earth Hour On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming – coal-fired electricity – by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city. What began as one city taking a stand against global warming caught the attention of the world.

 

In 2008, 24 global cities will participate in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.

Worldwide the major cities involved are Aalborg, Aarhus, Adelaide, Atlanta, Bangkok, Brisbane, Canberra, Chicago, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Dublin, Manila, Melbourne, Montreal, Odense, Ottawa, Perth, Phoenix, San Francisco, Suva and Lautoka, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto, and Vancouver but even if you don't see your city here that doesn't mean you can't participate and get your communities involved as well.

So get your taxes done, bust out some candles and get ready for March 29th!

(via treehugger)

The Alliance for Climate Protection released a petition yesterday at wecansolveit.org and almost a million people have signed on already!  The petition is simple and effective:

Solutions to global warming exist and we, already more than 800,000 strong, are calling on leaders to make them happen.

By coming together, we’re showing overwhelming support for leadership on this critical issue. Add your voice to this important movement right now and help make climate change a priority:

"I call on leaders in business and government to solve the climate crisis."

I urge everyone to get on board so we can show how many of us think climate change is the most pressing issue of our time.  We are the majority, we just need to prove it.  Sign on here.

Every week dozens of great images surface in the green media sphere, so for your viewing pleasure, here are two of my favorites from last week.  And at earthscreen we strive to connect the big ideas behind images like these to earthfriendly products you can use in your everyday life, so I'm including links to those as well!

 (via Treehugger)  The maiden voyage of the Beluga Skysails, a cargo ship using a giant kite as an source of auxillary wind power, proved a success.  The sail subsitutued for 20% of the ships engine power saving tons of fuel.  Feeling the call of the sea? Check out this wallet made from used sails to get reconnect with our ancient wind powered mariner ways.

(via ecofriend)  As you might already realize, I love art made from recycled materials and this Red Bull bull, made by Japan's Tsuyoshi Ishikawa, fits that bill perfectly.  Check out pentatray, great serving trays made from re-used aluminum traffic signs.

Happy Monday to all! Here's a hilarious satire on oil company PR to start off your week.

(via worldchanging)

(via earth2tech) To kick off your weekend, a great video overviewing the current possibilities to bring energy generation to the individual with small devices to power your gadgets and keep the powered.

you can find the solio mobile solar power charger here on earthscreen as well as several hand-power devices. I will try to get the Hymini mobile wind power generator into our database asap.

I've been doing some more research on water issues and one thing I have learned is that the theme of this years world water day is sanitation.  A treehugger article informed me even while we hate standing in line for the toilet,  2.1 billion people globally lack basic sanitation.  However, a super-cool action to raise awareness on the issue is being conducted in New York City: Stand Up For Those Who Can't Sit Down.   New Yorkers plan to raise awareness on water issues by creating the longest toilet line ever

So if you live in New York head out to Central Park West tomorrow and stand in line for those that don't even have the option.

For more on water check out these links:

Treehugger: An Explanation of the Watercycle

Worldchanging's innovative solutions to the water crisis: drip irrigation, rainwater harvesting or green water use

And AboutMyPlanet's Top Ten Ways to Reduce Water Use and Save Money, a must read on easy steps to reduce your impact on the Earths water cycle.

If you didn't see this video when it surfaced a month ago its definitely worth a watch

Now this video shouldn't sway your opinion on the importance of alternative energy and wind power. Only a few wind turbines of the many thousands have malfunctioned so drastically and earth2tech reports on how wind companies are moving to reduce that number even farther.

check out wind related products on earthscreen

Updade:  Today, treehugger reports that "global wind power capacity reaches 100,000 megawatts."  As Jonathan Dorn of earthpolicy.org states "that is enough to satify the residential electricity needs of 150 million people."

Mark your calendars for World Water Day on Saturday, March 22 (though some blogs are reporting that it is today, March 20th).  Nearly 1.1 billion people around the globe do not have access to safe drinking water and that could get much worse from climate change, desertification, and underdevelopment.  Thats why th UN set up the first World Water Day on March 22, 1993. While we strive to reduce our impact on climate change we also need to demand that this basic resource be available to all.  Luckily those aims can be synergistic.  Better water infrastructure uses less energy to heat and process water and likewise conserving water means less energy to process less water.  So lets all remember to take shorter showers and help the international effort by checking out the UN's world water day hompage to learn more and get involved.  For even more information and ways to get involved check out wateradvocates.org.

I thought this was just about the coolest thing.  Its a sculpture made completely from recycled computer keyboard buttons by Korean painter, Choi Jung Hyun.

Recycled computer parts make for one electrifying aesthetic that you can help promote here on earthscreen.  Were a bit more practical than beautiful sculptures so you should check out the recycled mother board coasters, clocks, journals and business card cases as well as this circuit money clip found on earthscreen.

(via metaefficient)

Hello loyal earthscreen fans!

Shortly we will be launching a new weekly newsletter and more informative daily blog posts to alert you of important environmental news, great earth-friendly products and insightful tips on how to live green.

We will also be launching new campaigns to help you invite your friends to join earthscreen.

We're always on the look out for new products to bring to the earthscreen community.  Expect ton's of new energy efficient and earth-friendly products to be available on the site.

If you have any ideas for blog posts, ways to improve earthscreen, or great earth-friendly products we want to here from you!  If you are not yet a member and are interested in receiving weekly email updates please join earthscreen here!

Have a great day,
Jay & Chris