Category Archives: Business of ecology

Warmth of a H.U.G. (Home Utility Gift)

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Here is a new idea and timely- purchasing a H.U.G. (Home Utility Gift)!  This is a program offered in my locale by Louisville Electric and Gas (LG&E) for customers who want to warm up their loved ones, literally.  In the winter season where utility bills creep up higher and pull funds away from other categories in the budget, anyone can go ahead and pay some or all of another household’s bill.

“Even with wholesale natural gas costs at six-year lows, many families are on fixed budgets because of the sluggish economy and are trying to manage their energy usage more wisely,” said John P. Malloy, Vice President of Energy Delivery — Retail for E.ON U.S. “These non-traditional gift certificates are the perfect idea for many shoppers because they are unique, convenient, and very practical for any recipient.”

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Karma for your career? Certainly

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I admit that I remember the 70′s- the gasoline lines, the will-work-for-food signs, the high mortgage interest rates.  I also remember Mean Joe Green’s coke and a smile and Dave Thomas was making it big with his restaurant business and turning it into an adoption awareness foundation.  Could it be that when times are tough- and we’re at a 26-year low mile marker according to Meridith Levinson at Computerworld/Careers- the tough get nicer?

If you want good karma for your career, you certainly will tap into your nice side.  Here at HealthPatio, we have miracles rolling around under the picnic table every day, but out there in the work-a-day world, it couldn’t hurt to take this advice from Heather Gardener with 360jobinterview.com :

Doing good deeds by putting yourself out there for a good cause is an excellent way to at least provide a perspective hiring manager something positive about you. If you get heavily involved this might even prompt someone to talk “nice” about you and your working efforts to help others and provide a solid reference alternative.


Be a Mean Green Cleaning Machine

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After the Swiffer Mop and Before the Vinegar

After the Swiffer Mop and Before the Vinegar

After the vinegar!

After the vinegar!

So I’m cleaning my apartment for the in-laws’ holiday visit and my kitchen’s tile grout looks filthy.  I use my Swiffer mop and then scrub with Clorox (the new Green Works version available in stores) to no avail.  In desperation, I seek google’s sound advice.  The solution (literally)?  One part vinegar one part water or a little baking soda paste.  It sounds homey and environmentally friendly and inexpensive, but does it really work?  Just look at the before and after pictures above!

When picking out cleaning products I try to moderate between price and environmental efficacy, so I have an assortment of ‘green’ cleaning products in my apartment.  Some work, some don’t.  But what seems to be most puzzling as peruse my way through all of the cleaning products I own is why have cleaning products in the first place?  Nearly everything I clean, as I think about it, could be easily cleaned with three fully biodegradable, non-toxic household items: lemon juice, vinegar, and baking soda.  The Do-it-yourself website, has a new Going Green topic on its side menu, has a great article called How to Clean Green which lists several recipes for green cleaners. Here are two easy and useful examples:

Carpet Spot Remover
•Cornstarch or baking soda
•Club soda
Blot the spot and apply baking soda or cornstarch immediately. When dry, blot with club soda and vacuum.

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But we can still hug any trees if we want

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This just in from the popular and timely blog NowSourcing, a Social Media Marketing company.

Treehugger brand Hugg.com, a Discovery company, has decided to close the doors on Hugg, a popular green social news site.

From Hugg.com:

PLEASE READ!

On November 17th, 2008, Hugg will no longer accept new submissions or registrations. Hugg will remain publicly viewable until the end of the year, at which time Hugg.com will be closed. The Hugg.com domain will be directed towards a new feature on the TreeHugger forums where participants will be able to post and comment on interesting green links (coming soon). We welcome you to the thriving community at the TreeHugger forums and hope you’ll join us now to carry on the discussion. Go ahead and poke around on the forums – we think you’ll like it and enjoy conversing with such a diverse group of intelligent, passionate people!

We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to the many Hugg users who have poured time and energy into providing the community with tons of great content. Unfortunately, due to increasing maintenance costs, we can no longer provide Hugg with the resources it needs to continue.

Please email tech@treehugger.com with any questions or comments.

Thank you.

(h/t – Paul Smith)

How Ike Saved Cents

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Out of sight, out of mind

In the height of hurricane season, it seems proper to feel a bit humbled by natural forces.  Forces that in spite of our best technologies we are unable to control or even marginally predict.  While the damage in comparison to Katrina was minimal, the storm still traveled across ten states and killed over 150 people in the United States and in the Caribbean.

This is all very unfortunate, but was it all bad?  Students of all ages were freed from the bounds of school  to marvel at amazing weather patterns and to *gasp* play without videogames, movies, and IPods.  Maybe they played in puddles or in the breeze. Later, perhaps due to the dark and exhaustion of real outdoor play, they actually went to bed on time!  My brother-in-law at Texas A&M  and my brother at Westlake High School both experienced cancellations.  At Westlake High School, students were released to make room for evacuees from Galveston and Houston who stayed for days in their gymnasiums and auditoriums. What better way to appreciate one’s own home and family then through community service? On a more personal level, I got three days off of work. I got to have purely candle-lit dinners with my husband, and I opened my windows!

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Necessity is the Mother of (Green) Invention

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actual cleaning bucket in use at my house

When you buy the product, you are buying the package, too.  So says my friend Gina who comes half-day on Mondays and a full day on Friday to help me clean up after myself and my family.  I finally realized that I am not a slacker mom if I enlist some help around here.  And Gina makes it nice. Continue reading →

The EPA Picks a Pack of Power Winners

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Green Power Partnership logo

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Green Power Challenge Winners for 2008 were announced in April and list Fortune 500 Companies, Retail Companies, Colleges and University. The winners consertedly bought only (or almost only) Green Power to maintain the function of their businesses. (The combined green power purchases of these organizations amounts to more than 6.6 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power more than 676,000 average American homes each year! Visit the EPA’s website for a more detailed table on the top participants in each. Interestlingly, the EPA narrowly escaped its own top ten list, as the 11th organization,

Organization Type Providers Green Power Resources 1. Intel Corporation Information Technology Austin Energy, PNM, Sterling Planet Biomass, Geothermal, Solar, Wind
2. PepsiCo Food & Beverage 3Degrees, Sterling Planet Various
3. U.S. Air Force Govt. (Federal) 3Degrees, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bonneville Power Administration, Colorado Springs Utilities, Georgia Power, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Rocky Mountain Generation Cooperative, Sterling Planet, TransAlta Energy Marketing Biogas, Biomass, Geothermal, Solar, Wind
4. Wells Fargo & Company Banking & Fin. Srvcs. 3Degrees Wind
5. Whole Foods Market Retail Austin Energy, Community Energy, On-site Generation, PNM, Renewable Choice Energy Biogas, Solar, Wind
6. The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. Food & Beverage 3Degrees, Sterling Planet Various
7. Johnson & Johnson Health Care 3Degrees, FPL Energy, On-site Generation, PNM, Reliant Energy, Sempra Energy Biomass, Small-hydro, Solar, Wind
8. Cisco Systems, Inc. Information Technology Sterling Planet Biogas, Biomass, Solar, Wind
9. City of Dallas, TX Govt. (Local, Municipal) Gexa Energy, Reliant Energy, Suez Energy Resources NA Wind
10. HSBC North America Banking & Fin. Srvcs. FPL Energy

FedEx Going Places with New Hybrid Fleet

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As I waited at a crosswalk on Brooklyn Avenue the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to read “hybrid electric” written on the side of a passing Fedex truck! Intrigued, I did a little research and found that the vehicle I saw was due to the efforts of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Project of 2004:

The new vehicle [About the FedEx OptiFleet E700] is expected to decrease particulate emissions by 96 percent, reduce smog-causing emissions by 65 percent, and travel 57 percent farther on a gallon of fuel, reducing fuel costs by over a third.

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