20 Ways...

Whenever you save energy, you not only save money, you also reduce the demand for such fossil fuels as coal, oil, and natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants.

You do not have to do without to achieve these savings. There is now an energy efficient alternative for almost every kind of appliance or light fixture. That means that consumers have a real choice and the power to change their energy use on a revolutionary scale.

The average American produces about 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. Together, we use nearly a million dollars worth of energy every minute, night and day, every day of the year. By exercising even a few of the following steps, you can cut your annual emissions by thousands of pounds and your energy bills by a significant amount!

Home appliances

Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.



Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.



Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry. You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher's total electricity use.



Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions - the same amount emitted by the entire nations of Kuwait or Libya.



Select the most energy-efficient models when you replace your old appliances. Look for the Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy and prevents pollution. Buy the product that is sized to your typical needs - not the biggest one available. Front loading washing machines will usually cut hot water use by 60 to 70% compared to typical machines. Replacing a typical 1973 refrigerator with a new energy-efficient model, saves 1.4 tons of CO2 per year. Investing in a solar water heater can save 4.9 tons of CO2 annually.


Home Heating and Cooling


Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.



Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.


Small investments that pay off


Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only 1/4 the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient compact fluorescent bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one compact fluorescent bulb can save 260 pounds of CO2 per year.



Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket, which costs just $10 to $20. It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.



Use less hot water by installing low-flow shower heads. They cost just $10 to $20 each, deliver an invigorating shower, and save 300 pounds of CO2 per year for electrically heated water, or 80 pounds for gas-heated water.



Weatherize your home or apartment, using caulk and weather stripping to plug air leaks around doors and windows. Caulking costs less than $1 per window, and weather stripping is under $10 per door. These steps can save up to 1100 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. This service may be provided free or at low cost. Make sure it includes a check of your furnace and air conditioning.


Getting around

Whenever possible, walk, bike, car pool, or use mass transit. Every gallon of gasoline you save avoids 22 pounds of CO2 emissions. If your car gets 25 miles per gallon, for example, and you reduce your annual driving from 12,000 to 10,000 miles, you'll save 1800 pounds of CO2.



When you next buy a car, choose one that gets good mileage. If your new car gets 40 miles per gallon instead of 25, and you drive 10,000 miles per year, you'll reduce your annual CO2 emissions by 3,300 pounds.


Reduce, reuse, recycle


Reduce the amount of waste you produce by buying minimally packaged goods, choosing reusable products over disposable ones, and recycling. For every pound of waste you eliminate or recycle, you save energy and reduce emissions of CO2 by at least 1 pound. Cutting down your garbage by half of one large trash bag per week saves at least 1100 pounds of CO2 per year. Making products with recycled materials, instead of from scratch with raw materials, uses 30 to 55% less for paper products, 33% less for glass, and a whopping 90% less for aluminum.



If your car has an air conditioner, make sure its coolant is recovered and recycled whenever you have it serviced. In the United States, leakage from auto air conditioners is the largest single source of emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which damage the ozone layer as well as add to global warming. The CFCs from one auto air conditioner can add the equivalent of 4800 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.


Home Improvements.

When you plan major home improvements, consider some of these energy saving investments. They save money in the long run, and their CO2 savings can often be measured in tons per year.


Insulate your walls and ceilings. This can save 20 to 30 percent of home heating bills and reduce CO2 emissions by 140 to 2100 pounds per year. If you live in a colder climate, consider superinsulating. That can save 5.5 tons of CO2 per year for gas-heated homes, 8.8 tons per year for oil heat, or 23 tons per year for electric heat. (If you have electric heat, you might also consider switching to more efficient gas or oil.)


Modernize your windows. Replacing all your ordinary windows with argon filled, double-glazed windows saves 2.4 tons of CO2 per year for homes with gas heat, 3.9 tons of oil heat, and 9.8 tons for electric heat.



Plant shade trees and paint your house a light color if you live in a warm climate, or a dark color if you live in a cold climate. Reductions in energy use resulting from shade trees and appropriate painting can save up to 2.4 tons of CO2 emissions per year. (Each tree also directly absorbs about 25 pounds of CO2 from the air annually.)



Business and community


Work with your employer to implement these and other energy-efficiency and waste-reduction measures in your office or workplace. Form or join local citizens' groups and work with local government officials to see that these measures are taken in schools and public buildings.



Keep track of the environmental voting records of candidates for office. Stay abreast of environmental issues on both local and national levels, and write or call your elected officials to express your concerns about energy efficiency and global warming.

Living Green by Making Your Home Green!

New Living Green Building + Home in Rice Village had it's July 4 grand opening and the city breathed a collective, cleaner sigh.

It's where Wagner Hardware used to be but they are fighting a snobbery issue!

“We’re up against this misconception that green is for rich people,” says Jeff Kaplan, one of the partners and the go-to guy for the store’s overall concept. “Our job is to get the cost down on green products and make them accessible. We’re focused on health and design.”

When you walk in to New Living the atmosphere is so relaxing! The open floor plan and muted color scheme leads to the line of Novoc paint, which is toxin- and odor-free, naturalorganic mattresses, green cleaning supplies, reclaimed wood flooring, even an environmentally friendly playhouse for kids.

“In a way, we’re the evolution of a hardware store,” Kaplan says. “It’s a practical place. I think the most frivolous thing we sell is a candle.” (but it's soy and smoke free)

The new Rice Village business has good bones for its broad mission.

For 60 years, the space at 6111 Kirby was home to Wagner Hardware, a homegrown chain founded by Eugene Wagner in 1938. Those were the days when hardware stores were community gathering places, catering to commercial business on weekdays and neighborhood folks on the weekends.

“We used to sell refrigerators, lighting and fireplace fixtures,” says Nancy Abernathy, Eugene Wagner’s daughter. “Now there are stores that sell lighting only. We just didn’t have places like that back then.”

At the height of the business, there were five Wagner Hardwares open at the same time: Palm Center, Highland Village, Lantern Lane, Bellaire and Kirby. Each was calibrated to the specific needs of area homeowners, with plumbing and lighting fixtures that reflected the age of the houses. Of course places like Highland Village has all but kicked out all of the locally owned mom and pops for the big rent payers. Greed is not good in this case!

Her Dad always liked to put his hardware stores near grocery stores, Abernathy adds, because he thought more people would wander in if they were already out and shopping.

As a kid, Abernathy didn’t spend a lot of time in the family business. “I was a girl,” she says with a shrug. But she remembers that her dad always had a hard time closing on time: “We never turned anyone away.”

Abernathy left Houston as a young adult but made her way back after a divorce left her in need of a job. She started working in the Bellaire store full -time in 1989, overseeing charge accounts and payroll. At that point, her brother, Hank, was pretty much running things. When Hank died about four years ago, Abernathy closed the Bellaire store and relocated to the Kirby location.

Then Jeff Kaplan came along.

At first, he didn’t tell her his big plan. He took over some floor space in November 2007 and started selling environmentally friendly products, testing the waters with traditionally minded Wagner customers. As Abernathy fantasized about closing the last family hardware store, Kaplan and his business partners dreamed about opening a new kind of business that would house merchandise, office space and a common area for special events. KISMIT!!

When Kaplan finally told Abernathy what he wanted to do, she was thrilled. Still is.

“Jeff has a total open mind,” Abernathy says. “He wants feedback, and he’s willing to make changes.”

But there were obstacles.

For one, Hurricane Ike ripped through town last September, delaying Abernathy’s closing plans by more than a month. Then the economy tanked. And finances were a constant concern.

“I didn’t know if we had enough money,” says Kaplan, 30, who describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. He owns small pieces of a handful of other local businesses, including Caroline Collective, Beaver’s Ice House and Trentino Gelato. But with the build-out of New Living in late 2008, he put more on the line than ever before.

Kaplan and his partners raised money. They got loans from Green Bank. And the people they hired to design and build the new store — including architect Brian Malarkey and Forrest Custom Construction — pretty much worked for cost.

In the end, the 
build-out cost less thanunder $1 million, says Kaplan, and added an upstairs loft with office space for local green businesses was added, along withand a demo kitchen downstairs. It also gave the business a chance to practice what it preached.

New Living reused wood from shelving in the old stores and retrofitted the original light fixtures with lights twice as efficient as the old fluorescent florescent bulbs. The original floor was made of recycled metal mixed with concrete, and New Living recycled that recycled floor. The old Wagner Hardware sign still hangs out front, and a number of objects from the old store have made their way into the new environment.

Abernathy is amazed at the transformation.

“They took a filthy store, 60 years of grime and dust, and stripped it down,” she says. “We used to joke about the Grand Canyon aisles. They’d just go up and up. It looks so different now.”

Despite a delayed grand opening, the store has been open for months with a dedicated staff, including Jennifer Touchet — who said she’d be the chief operating officer if New Living had titles like that — and Sara Cooney, who considered her title for a moment and said “visual coordinator.” Lewis Caufman, the only employee “recycled” from Wagner Hardware, is New Living’s green- product specialist and just became passed a U.S. Green Building Council exam that certifies him as a green building professional.

Customers are already in place, as well.

Ashleigh Guadagnolo is a regular. After she and her husband decided on a green remodel for their Old Braeswood home, they bought a lot of materials from New Living, including NovocOVOC paint and a green staining product for their hardwood floors.

“I have two small children crawling around on the floor and did not want 2,400 square feet of toxic stain,” Guadagnolo says.

She’s happy with the results — and with New Living — though the remodel wasn’t without incident.

“We learned that contractors say ‘great’ when you tell them you want a green remodel, but the subcontractor situation melts down. They want to use what they know, what’s fastest and cheapest. These green products don’t dry or stain the same; they can be less forgiving.”

When subcontractors laid the first coat of floor stain and it streaked, New Living actually sent to Guadagnolo’s home an employee who got on the phone with the manufacturer and figured out what went wrong. Today, she says, the stain looks great.

Kaplan and company understand that there’s a learning curve with any new business — for owners and customers. They consider New Living a work in progress.

“The people who have already found us say, ‘Thank God you’re here,’ ” Touchet says. “I think people are glad to not have to sort though a lot of junk.”

For Kaplan, whose enthusiasm for the business often veers toward the intense, the sky’s the limit. He wants to hold eco-socials, host product demonstrations and offer yoga classes at New Living.

“We’re selling essential goods,” he says, “and people are starving for community.

(Most of this story is from Maggie Galehouse from the Chronicle, Great Story MAGGIE!!)

Saving Water!

Did you know that if you have a dripping faucet or a running toilet that it could waste up to 100 gallons of water a day?? A DAY!!!

Aside from the negative impact on the environment, think of what that's doing to your water bill?? It's so much cheaper to just get it fixed already!

Dish Woke up Green Today!

We had to reset our wireless router today and while down under the desk we saw 2 other things plugged in down there that we don't use every day!! That's such a waste of electricity! NOT ACCEPTABLE!! So we unplugged them and proceeded to go through the house repeating the process! There were 5 things plugged in that we don't use everyday! Some of these things had not been used in MONTHS! So all plugged in appliances have been unplugged and will remain so until they are needed. Including the cell phone charger.

What are you doing to get a little more green?

Clean and Green

You can participate in the year long Clean & Green project on the Bayou!

It's a public-private partnership and anyone can participate.

Click HERE to read more about it and see how you can help!

How to Create Your Own Compost

Whether you're an apartment-dwelling window box gardener or a homeowner with a sizable spread, composting is a simple operation that will provide a bounty for your plants while helping cut down on landfill waste.
What is compost? Basically, it is organic matter that has been broken down by the action of insects and microorganisms into a rich substance that loosens soil, improves moisture retention and provides a tremendous host of nutritional benefits. Frequently, compost gardeners will find that they no longer need to buy chemical fertilizers and soil amendments.

How you compost will depend on your needs and your space availability. For apartment gardeners with a small patio, there are small barrel-type composters available at most garden centers and online. They usually consist of a small metal or plastic barrel with a hatch and a crank for turning the contents. They will turn out a batch of perfectly finished compost in a very short time.

For those you with a yard, the options are far more numerous. You can construct a "free-form" heap, with your items piled up loosely, although they don't work as efficiently and can be difficult to keep weed-free. The cheapest route, and the one most-used by hardcore composters, is the chicken-wire enclosure, using either 3- or 4-foot wire to make a circular enclosure of roughly the same diameter.

If you have wooden pallets, they can be nailed together to make an outstanding heap. Use heavy-duty hinges on one side to make it easy to open for turning and emptying.

Basically, any material that can be used to build a round or square enclosure can be a compost heap. The important thing is what goes into the enclosure ... namely just about everything. Grass clippings, leaves, plant trimmings and other non-weed yard waste is a good foundation, but don't forget about your kitchen. If you're a coffee drinker, your grounds (filter, too!) should go into the heap. They'll provide moisture and a great source of trace minerals. Making a salad? Put those trimmings, stems and skins into the heap. Even your breakfast-time eggshells make great compost, adding more minerals to the mixture. Anything organic can go in, but avoid meat and bones, as they will attract pests, not to mention the stink. You want a compost heap, not a junk yard.

As far as maintenance goes, you can do as much or as little as your schedule allows. The more often you turn the heap, the faster it will break down and provide you with your end result. I tend to let my three heaps fill, turning them occasionally, all during the spring and summer, then break them open in the fall and winter, when it's time to work the flower beds in preparation for spring planting.

Keep the heap moist, although if you have an open-topped heap in an average climate, Mother Nature should take care of that fairly well. Again, the more attention you pay to proper moisture levels, the faster you'll get your finished product.

When you do "harvest" your compost, be sure and save a couple of bucketfuls to use as "starter" for the next go-round. That will provide a dose of the microorganisms and bacteria that dig in and start munching on your raw materials.

And where can you use your black gold? Anything green and growing will benefit from a dose of compost. For new plantings, use one part compost to four parts soil. For existing plants, in pots or gardens, gently work a layer of compost into the top layer of soil around the base of the plant. You can even spread it in your yard by hand or with a broadcast spreader to make your grass the envy of the neighborhood and help cut down on your watering.

One final tip for those of you using traditional on-ground heaps: Every couple of years, change where they are placed. Plant pumpkins in the old spots. You'll grow the biggest jack-o'-lanterns ever!

Farmers Markets

	Midtown Farmers Market
Houston Farmers Market Tuesdays on Rice University Campus from 3:30 to 7 PM: The Tuesday Market is located in the parking lot south of Rice Stadium, University Blvd near Montclair. Free parking in the lot at Entrance 9 or in the Greenbriar Lot, entrances 13A and 13B. Saturdays in the Heights from 8 AM to noon: The Saturday Market is located behind Onion Creek Coffee House 3106 White Oak between Studewood and Heights Blvd	At Monica Pope's t'afia
	3701 Travis Street
	~ Where everything is LOCAL!
	~ Just picked produce: vegetables, fruits, herbs
	~ Small production, handcrafted prepared foods
	~ Fresh baked breads and sweets
	~ Fresh roasted, fair-trade & organic coffee
	~ Pasture raised beef, lamb & chicken
	~ Cut & potted flowers & plants
	~ BREAKFAST!!!
	Every Saturday 8 am - 12 noon RAIN OR SHINE!! at Monica Pope's restaurant t'afia (in the parking lot and inside the restaurant)

Recycle Houston

To learn about recycling, the cycle, how to do it and what it means to the earth, click here. Keep Houston Beautiful.org is an amazing resource and helps take the stress out of the recycling process. For a list of Houston's recycling centers, click HERE.

Make it a fun project for your kids! See if they can identify what's recyclable and what bin it goes into and then on Saturday's it's a fun trip to the recycling center!