Mokugift - Plant a Tree

I stumbled across this site called Mokugift and thought I should write a blog about this really cool idea. It's a basic idea, you log in to the site, pay $1 to send an e-card to someone for any kind of occasion. When the person receives the e-card, they are played an animation of a little bunny who plants a tree. But that's not where the magic is in this wonderful idea. Mokugift has teamed up with Trees for the Future as well as Sustainable Harvest to plant a tree for every donation you make.

The numbers are enormous and the cause is great. They don't just go and plant a tree just anywhere, they focus on tropical areas; "Mokugift plants Cocoa, Coffee, Banana, Orange, Cedar, Teak, Mahogany, Oak, Acacia, Eucalyptus, Laurel, and Leucaena. Overall, hardwood sequester more carbon, whereas softwoods sequester less, but benefit local communities with cash crops and sustainable lifestyles." Looking up the numbers on the Sustainable Harvest site as well as the Trees for the Future site and you can see that with the help of Mokugift these fine organizations are helping in phenomenal ways and have already planted more then 2 million trees.

So this holiday season why not give a gift that also helps the environment and head on over to Mokugift and see what they are all about!

Illinois First Waste Transfer Station gets Gold LEED Ranking

Tuesday, October 28th marked the day for the Waste Management of Illinois to be one of the first Waste Transfer Stations in the United States to be recognized by the USGBC. The LEED program awarded the facility gold certification, its second highest LEED rating.

The 15-acre transfer facility serves as a key component of integrated waste processing for communities in Kane, Cook and Du Page counties. The facility handles non-hazardous solid wastes, recyclables and yard wastes. Materials recovered by local collection trucks are taken to the facility, where they are consolidated and transferred to larger semi-trailers for shipment to processing facilities or remote disposal sites. It's purpose is to achieve efficiency in waste processing and reduce transportation costs for the community.

The Bluff City Transfer Facility earned 42 LEED rating points, including 29 for design and 13 for construction. Some of the environmental elements that were implemented were: water use reduction; the diversion of construction waste from landfills; use of wood meeting the requirements of the Forest Stewardship Council certification program; the use of locally manufactured construction materials with high recycled content; and the reduction of energy usage by approximately 65%.

"Our Bluff City Transfer Facility represents a continuing commitment by Waste Management to pursue sustainability goals and responsible environmental stewardship," said Steve Batchelor, Market Area Vice President for Waste Management of Illinois. "Because we are in the environmental services business, this is important recognition for this facility and it is doubly gratifying to our Company and people. We are truly delighted the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has chosen to bestow this honor on Waste Management for our efforts to develop a facility that meets the highest environmental standards."

Batchelor added, "Waste management has made a commitment to sustainability. Last year we outlined four company wide goals to help us continue to meet the growing need for smart, innovative waste management solutions. By the year 2020, we expect to triple the volume of recyclables we manage to 24 million tons a year; double the waste-based energy we produce to meet the needs of two million homes; to increase our collection fleet's fuel efficiency by 15 percent; and to expand the number of wildlife habitats at our landfills to 25,000 acres."

Top 10 LEED Homes

In this post I will highlight the top 10 USGBC LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) homes based on design and efficiency. The LEED hype is in full swing and more and more houses and even large scale condominiums and apartments are popping up all over the nation, this Friday post will showcase some of the top 10 designs. Im a sucker for clean lines and minimal interior design. Now a good interior designer will use native plants and colors that are in tune to the area of the building, but an even better designer will focus on the environmental impact in both building materials and energy costs. I have scoured the internet for some of the nicest LEED qualified homes, I hope you enjoy the images and if you have any suggestions on other LEED qualified homes please drop me a comment or an email and let me know where to find info on them. Have a good weekend everyone!

10. Lexus Hybrid Living, Santa Monica, California
Livinghomes.com





















9. Architecture of Kieren Timberlake
Livinghomes.com




















8. Hi'ilani House, Big Island, Hawaii
StudioRMAprojects

















7. Pasadena Eco House, Pasadena, California
StudioRMAprojects

















6. Spa Hotel in the Desert, Palm Springs, California
StudioRMAprojects











5. Project7ten, Venice, California
Project7ten















4. 32nd Street
StudioHT



























3. Margarido House
Mcdonald Construction & Development

















2. IT House
Tkithouse





















1. The Lucida
thelucida

New York sets the path for going green!

In the past year several very important, large strides have been made to turn NY into one of the nation's "green" cities. This has been no easy task as one can imagine, but the good folks at the USGBC in New York are on the right path. Last week several very important people including Mayor Bloomberg met at the Museum of Natural History to give out awards and to recognize the many companies and organizations stepping up and making a difference in New York.

Basically what is happening is builders are starting to realize the importance of not only building new buildings around green technology, but also in recycling old materials when tearing down structures. It seems that LEEDS is making strides left and right and over the coming years you will see more and more companies offering their expertise as more people are certified in the program. Let's hope that this trend picks up in other major cities across the US.

Energy Star "Recycle My Old Fridge" Campaign

Today I was reading an article on Google's Haunted House page that focuses on ways to save energy around your house. I was mainly focused on saving energy using appliances and what people can do to recycle their old appliances. A couple links later and I found myself on the Energy Star "Recycle My Old Fridge" website where I picked up some very valuable tips. The good people over at Energy Star started a campaign in April of 2008 to get people to recycle their refrigerators. The bonus to this is of course people will use less energy by purchasing a new refrigerator and also by cutting down their carbon footprint in the household.

I will highlight the steps you will need to take to estimate just how much energy your current appliance is using, and then point you in the right direction on which Energy Star appliances will work best for your needs.

Step 1. Find out how much your current refrigerator costs to operate

Step 2. Relate these costs to those of a new Energy Star Approved Refrigerator

Step 3. Find a refrigerator recycling program in your area

Step 4. Call up or email your state's program department

Step 5. Say goodbye to your old fridge and find an Energy Star Approved Refrigerator

Step 6. Share your story and motivate your friends to do the same!

ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Results are already adding up. Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2006 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 25 million cars — all while saving $14 billion on their utility bills.

The U.S. Department of Energy's overarching mission is to advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States; to promote scientific and technological innovation in support of that mission; and to ensure the environmental cleanup of the national nuclear weapons complex.

Where have all the blue bins gone?

It seems with the new trend being "Green" we would be high on the heels of residential recycling programs. Unfortunately this just isn't true. In my current residence, which lies within an HOA we have no recycling programs put in place. Maybe it is because the majority of the residents in my complex are well over 65 and are just not in the "know", or maybe their are other reasons that have not come to light.

In the early 1990's I was in my teens, I remember residential recycling being implemented across the state and country. I also remember how big of an impact this made on families. It was literally over night that my mother was washing out plastic coke bottles and collecting newspapers and had assigned my chore list with new duties, one of them being, bringing the blue bin out to the curb twice a week.

Well apparently people have just kind of "forgot" about this very important environmental decision. In the past 10 years, recycling programs have actually gone down in the amount of recyclables they are picking up, from both the curb in front of your house, and from the glass and aluminum depositories. It seems, even headed into this whole "green awareness" that we have forgotten the simple one. The one that should have never been forgotten. The blue bin.

Citing this PDF article from Pennsylvania and also citing this 2002 article from California, we are talking about massive amounts of recyclables that ended up in landfills. Now most people would ask "Why" well that is a great question. Some experts point to the rising Hispanic growth in the US, others point to lack of information being publicized by our government, and even more contribute it to sprawling urban areas outside of the city where recycling trucks just do not run routes. Which ever is the cause, it is time for a national awareness campaign to bring this age old tradition back into each and every home in this country. What will it take to make every single person recycle? Well at this point, it will take a lot of work. Aside from having a press conference with the President of the USA demanding everyone follow suit the most we can hope for is just simple awareness. Similar to the ones we saw when recycling was first implemented here in the states in the early 90's. We need one movement, one massive collective of people willing to take the time and effort to recycle properly.

My plan for this would be two fold. On one end each state would up the amount of awareness advertising they are doing. Obviously bus shelter ads and vinyl ads on dump trucks are not doing it. We need a massive campaign, one that would involve every person in the state to get a letter (printed on recycled paper of course) each letter would be double sided. One side in English, the other in Spanish. It would basically be the same information that was sent out across the nation in the 90's when this plan was first adopted. It would be informational and urge people to recycle and more importantly WHAT to recycle. Most people don't know this, but their are actual humans that pick through our recycled waste as it comes in to the plants, they hand pick out what is not considered "recyclable" and it is honestly a lot more then you would think. The money spent on this campaign would then be paid back by recycled glass and aluminum, and remember, we are talking about millions of dollars here in recycled materials.

The second part of this would be implementation. We would need a hotline number on the letter (and to even further reduce human waste, have it be automated) this phone number would basically allow you to enter in your name, address, phone number. When your information is received, you will get a brand new (or gently used) blue bin for your home. Having this hotline in both English and Spanish I think would be very useful and would get more people involved. Run this whole campaign with some commercials on both radio and television in both markets and you will see another "Green initiative" like we had in the 90's where every home literally took part. I don't know what it is about us as humans, but we tend to forget things quite easily. I think it is time for the sleeping giant to once again awaken and remind everyone just how important it is to recycle.

For information on finding recycling centers near you, I highly recommend checking out Earth 911's site, they have a wealth of information on both recycling and many other energy saving tips.