Stop Junk Mail. Be Eco Friendly. Do Good. The GreenDimes Blog

The greening of... websites?

This is a first for me... but kinda cool, no?

Our web designer extraordinaire sent us this link today to check out. This site, CO2Stats, adds up the time users spend on your site and calculates/ translates that into the amount of carbon dioxide used to power the computers and servers involved. Huh.

The cool part is that the company pays the equivalent used to offset your sites 'footprint' to Sustainable Travel International. Check it out today, get the code onto your site and see the offsets put to good use.

Happy Friday!

Kendra 

Rockefeller Tree Lights Go Green, and So Can You

Daily Green Holiday Rush Series

Mm.  I miss New York.  Hard to beat skyscraper snowball fights.  And this year is especially great because the Rockefeller tree went green. 

How?  The 75-foot spruce is adorned with energy-saving LED lights.  The star isn't lit at all, it's a set of 25000 crystals.  All told, tree will consume 2000 kilowatts less per day than previous years.

They used other green methods too. They used a hand saw instead of a power saw, and all the lumber is going to be used in Habitat for Humanity projects.

Now it’s your turn.  According to AskPablo.org, a 100 String Light:

LED                         vs            Traditional

Price                      @ Costco -$8                      Probably less                     

Energy                  2 watts                                 42 watts

Lasts                      200,000 hrs                         Depends*

*How many times have your bulbs burned out

I told you Pablo was good.  Now I don’t need to tell you that eventually you’d be paying less over time.  And if you’re a Griswald type from the Vacation movies, you’d be paying way way less.

-Sanjiv

Why are Green Superheroes so Lame?

First of all, it took me forever to even find one.  Eco-man?  Dr. Environment.  Green Lantern doesn't count.  There weren't even any bad guys who wanted who wanted to pollute the planet (Lieutenant CO2)?  The best we could do were mascots, Woodsy, Smokey the Bear was kinda cool.  But I remember,there was some green superhero.  Who was it?  When finally I stumbled upon the answer...

Captain Planet and the Planeteers?!  I'm not kidding.  Sounds like a name I'd invent for a green parody band.  It's him and some kid planeteers, turning off light switches, I don't know. 

He's not even green.  And if you think about that pic for a second, his face is blue, which means his skin is blue, which means he's wearing a sleeve-less midriff, gloves, and go-go boots, and not much else.

We can do better   This is a call out.  First one to draw a decent superhero gets a FreeMe! (our junk mail service), a tee shirt, a tote, whatever, I'll pay for it myself.  The rest get a tee or tote.  Upload it into the comment section.

Here an idea, draw GreenDimes v the DMA locked in battle.

Your Junk Mail Destroyer,

-Sanjiv

Naughty or Nice?

Ahhh, the holidays.

Makin' a list? Checkin' it twice?

ForestEthics sure is... for catalog companies, that is. They have published a list of companies who are naughty and nice in hopes of encouraging all of us to save the forests for our dear (or deer) friends, the reindeer (or caribou as it were).

Have a look. Pretty good stuff. Hey, I like any rating system based on Caribou (nice), Fruitcake (checking twice) and Coal (naughty).

They know if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!

-Kendra

Ask Your Friendly Sustainability Engineer

Weekly Eco-Tools Series

Pablo The Engineer

Quick, what's worse for the environment?  Paper cups or using water to rinse out your coffee mug? (paper cups are worse)  Charging my cell in my car vs my home? Paper napkins or washing a load of cloth napkins (man I go through a lot of napkins)?  These are deep philosophical questions I ask myself on a minutely basis.

Want the answer?  Go to askpablo.org.  Some of it's pretty technical, he is a sustainability engineer after all and the our resident techie Ted referred me to the site, but if you skip down to recommendations, you'll get your answer.

-Sanjiv

Biodiesel from ‘waste chocolate’?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who coined the term ‘waste chocolate’? Obviously none of us here in the GreenDimes office…

Anyway, I read a sweet (ha ha) article today about ‘the first carbon neutral journey across the Sahara’-which in and of itself is a really cool thing. But that’s not all, folks- the Ford Iveco Cargo truck carrying two adventurers from England to Timbuktu is being run on chocolate. Mmmm, that sounds like my kind of adventure.

The 4,500 mile journey will likely take three weeks and be fueled entirely on cocoa butter extracted from a confectioner’s ‘misshapen’ chocolate ‘rejects’. I digress, but the words misshapen and reject don’t belong as adjectives of chocolate. Really, it’s offensive.

Not offensive, however, is using waste to fuel transportation. And just think about how good the streets would smell if we were all burning chocolate instead of gasoline.

Mmmm, yummy environmentalism… I like it.

-Kendra

Give the Gift of GreenDimes

GreenDimes Weekly Shameless Promotion Series

Whoa, the holiday season is here!  GreenDimes gifts are flying off the shelves (if we had shelves.)  Our orders have increased a bunch fold.  Here's why you should consider GreenDimes.

It makes a great Stocking Stuffer.

It makes a great Hanukkah gift.

It makes a great Kwanzaa gift.

It's a great gift for your activist friend.

It's a great gift for an activist friend to give.

It's great for Grandma.

It's great for Ma.

It's great to warm up your inlaws.

I think I can, Sam I am.

Okay, you get the pictures.  You can print out a beautiful PDF certificate.

Hurry while supplies last (okay supplies never run out, but oh the pressure of thinking supplies will run out.)

One more - Give your mail carrier the gift of carrying less junk mail and a less achy back

-Sanjiv

The Firefox and the Hound

GreenDimes Weekly Wildlife Series

Firefox: Wrapped in his own fur
Nope.  That's not even the cutest pic of the firefox (aka red panda).   If I posted the cutest pic, forget about it.  You'd spend all your time downloading it as wallpapers, converting it into keyrings, and making logos out of it for your open source internet browser company.  You'd be doing all that while I need you to focus on the real issue. That this little guy is endangered.

By the Smithsonian National Zoological Park's estimates, there are fewer than 2500 of these Himalayan climbers left. (their habitat is generally in 7000-12000 ft altitudes)  And what are the primary causes.  Poachers (who are the animals?) and deforestation.

Wanna help?  Click on the WWF (not the Hulk Hogan WWF) and "adopt" one today.

-Sanjiv

Free rice?

A co-worker sent me the coolest site to check out- and I want to pass it along. Yes, it's that cool. It's kinda like a game, but better, and you earn *free rice* to be distributed through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

I'm in.

Check it out: www.freerice.com And when your boss asks you why you are playing games at work, you can fire back that you are just trying to stop world hunger, that's all. S/he will feel bad. Win-win.

-Kendra

The Car That Emits Water Vapor and on Sale

Weekly GreenTech Series

Honda FCX (city landscape
sold separately)
Did anyone catch that Honda FCX commercial?  Zero emission car?  Hydrogen fuel cells?  Emits water vapor?  Available soonish? (alright, enough with the questions) I had to check it out myself...

Turns out to true.  Here's all you need to do to.  Move to Torrance, Irvine, or Santa Monica , CA because that's where the hydrogen refueling stations are.  Then, this summer, sign up for a 3-year $600 a month lease (includes maintenance and collision insurance), and pick up one of 1000 available.

Okay, so obviously, this car has a few limitations, but it makes a great commuter car if you live in Southern California.  It goes about 270 miles and can reach 100 miles per hour.  Apparently it has great pick up, and runs smoother than our current cars. 

How does it run?  The hydrogen fuel cell converts the H2 and O2 into electricity (that's hydrogen, which won most available element in the universe)

Oh, and their upholstery is made from a plant-based bio-fabric.

Kudos, Honda (someone wake up GM please)

- Sanjiv