Finally, after months of screening questions and some minor adjustments to our services description, Green Gurus has been approved by Co-op America.
We’re very thankful to join the ranks of approved businesses, non-profits and other entities enrolled in their ranks of Do Green Gooders 
and look forward to our first appearance in their National Green Pages, coming soon to the online version and in the Fall for their print version.
We’ve added their seal of approval throughout our site (and will be adding it here to our blog soon).
Again, we’d like to extend our thanks publicly to Co-op America for approving us and look forward to the changes this process has inspired us to take.
What a whirlwind life and business can be. Here’s a quick snapshot of our last month or so…
Coachella was a great time, working with The Do LaB there…though the event still is far from the sustainable festival it could (and should) be. Lightning In A Bottle on the other hand, is the pinnacle of what green festivals are meant to be, and we were proud to have so many of our team members be so intimately involved with its production, again.
This year’s event highlights for me, were mostly the guest speakers that I booked to speak in the Temple of Consciousness/Healing dome space. Some of the highlights included talks from the Algalita Crew, a dot-com panel with some other great, green gurus Creative Citizen CEO Scott Badenoch, Jenn Breckenridge (web marketing consultant for the Greenloop, managing editor for eConsciousMarket.com, and more), Ben Clayton (Gliving, WattsUp America, etc.), and moderated by our very own Ryan Wartena.
Speaking of whom, Ryan recently joined one of the most exciting clean and green tech companies, iCel® Systems, Inc. as their Chief Technology Officer! Congratulations to him on his continued personal and professional path.
In regards to our company’s development, we’ve been exploring a number of different paths: from a deeper look into green data center development, services, etc. to getting our company LEED’s certified, to finding some new, key members to help actualize some of these options. We’re also looking into opening an east coast office, due to a continued request for our services on the greater eastern seaboard. Should you or someone you know be interested in joining either of coastal-based teams, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
As for our solar powered web hosting intentions, they’ve fallen much farther behind schedule then we’d hoped to be with this service offering and have now put any sort of public launch of this on hold, due to manpower restraints. And in that time, other companies have manifested similar services as we too had sought to make available.
Lastly, in area’s more personally related, my fiance and I recently found out we’re expecting…which has obviously triggered a whole new perspective on what it means to be living green and such. So much so that you’ll probably be seeing a whole new range of services here in the not so distant future.
We’ve launched our new website design today.
If you catch any bugs or glitches, please let us know about them.
Also, Brent and I will be out of town for the next week working at Coachella with The Do LaB. We will not be able to respond to any emails until the 28th. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Marlene Martinez from Public Affairs with Caltrans approached us this week about doing a table at their Earth Day event roughly two weeks from now.
So, we’ll be doing a table, hosted by Ryan Wartena, along with Freya Bardell of GreenMeme. Come on out and say hi if your in the neighborhood! Details on the event below…
–
California Department of Transportation
District 7 – Los Angeles & Ventura Counties
100 South Main Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist07
EARTH DAY EVENT
WHO: California Department of Transportation
WHAT: Earth Day - “A Day of Information”
WHAT: Come share information concerning one or multiple ways your company is environmentally improving your practices and/or emissions
WHEN: April 22, 2008, 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Caltrans Building Plaza at 100 South Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
BACKGROUND: The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is celebrating Earth Day by planting trees in our plaza and inviting other environmentally conscious businesses and departments to share information and ideas
COST: No charge to participants or the public
PHONE: 213-897-3656
Electronics in the United States should have a UL (Underwriters Laboratory) tag on them somewhere, in Europe, it’s the CE tag.
Guess how much electricity your computer uses and then take a look at the tag and see what the maximum power consumption is.
Power is measured in Watts, W (Watts, Volts and Amperes are always capitalized since they are named after people). Sometimes, on battery-powered devices, the power is not stated, but the current (in Amperes or Amps) and the potential (in Volts) will be. In this case, you multiply the current (in Amperes or Amps) with the potential to get the maximum amount of instantaneous power your device uses (in Watts). Typically, cell phones use 3 to 5 Watts and laptops use 35 to 50 Watts. Coffee makers are typically 900 Watts. Wow.
When you use power for a duration of time, you can determine how much energy has been used. If you use your cell phone at a power level of 5 Watts for 1 hour then you have used 5 Watthours (Wh) of energy. A battery’s capacity is how much energy it holds.
Take a quick gander and count up the amount of power you are using right now. You may have to catch the refridgerator if its running. You can also split that up between your housemates. Honestly, it will take some real effort to determine how much power you use at any moment, there is a lot of power that was put into making the products in front of you. This is okay, as long as we are aware that our power and energy usage and continue to clarify where it comes from and educate our selves to the direct and embedded energies that fuel our lifes.
Right now, my direct power use is about 100 Watts (two computers and a cell phone) and its daytime so I don’t need to worry about lighting and the alarm clock by the bed is on but I don’t see it. I’m sure Im not counting everything, but I’m getting closer.
In 1998 the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology issued its vision for each person to live under 2000-Watts, the current average in the United States is 12,000 Watts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Watt_society
There is a new design paradigm emerging, one that replaced the brute-force method of getting it done. In the past, adding more power or energy meant getting more functionality (more gas give more speed). Now, the elegant design challenge is to get more functionality with less energy (go farther with a hybrid-electric car with regeneative charging from breaking). Where does this lead? All the functionality with no to minimal energy. This is beauty.
And, this is enegy awareness and it spreads. Electrical power is political power. Know your power and energy.
We’re pleased to announce the addition of one of our green consulting team members Ryan Wartena, here to our blog team.
He joined our open source collective a few months back and has quickly become a core voice in our operations. His wealth of knowledge spans a great many topics: sacred geometry to PV and battery systems design, to business development to so much more. He’s really all around quite a bit of fun too, which we feel is an important part of the creative and professional processes…why else would or should you do something if it doesn’t bring you some measure of joy?
Anyway, we welcome him here to our blog and look forward to his future posts!
Shena, our Chief Green Officer, is scheduled to speak at the upcoming South By Southwest festival.
She’ll be speaking on the “It’s Not Easy Being Green” panel:
Room 12AB
Saturday, March 15th
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Here’s the panel description:
“Music business initiatives in the environmental field are gaining traction, most notably in the touring and recording fields. Great numbers of initiatives and solutions are offered, more than any one company can process. How does one choose which efforts to undertake?”
She’ll be joining Kelly Cox (Integrated Mktg, NRDC) and Neal Turley (Ringmaster, Who Is Guy Grand), who’ll be moderating the panel.
If you’re in the area or are already planning to go, be sure to check it out and say hi if you can.
Wish her luck!
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is really, truly unconscionable.
It blows my mind that nearly every single article I’ve come across in my research states that “There’s nothing we can do about it now…” (Eriksen, October 19, 2007). What kind of asinine, uncaring and lazy response is this?
In case you haven’t yet heard of this man-made atrocity, there is a collection of human waste (mostly plastic trash), that has piled up into a floating island (some say two islands), twice the size of Texas, about 1,000 miles west of San Francisco. What’s even more astounding to me anyway, is that this has been known to exist for the better part of half a century now (though it was until the last few decades that it’s neared its current size).
An article from the San Francisco Chronicle states:
“Ocean current patterns may keep the flotsam stashed in a part of the world few will ever see, but the majority of its content is generated onshore, according to a report from Greenpeace last year titled “Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans.”
This is just totally unacceptable.
Having just learned of this recently and then really took a hard look at it today, I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to write off this horrendous creation and let it continue unabated. To that end, I have just registered a domain which I hope to evolve into the official, leading source of information, activism and action against this atrocity. In the coming months, I hope to raise funds to start dismantling this floating island of trash, generate significant publicity, donate hundreds if not thousands of hours and dollars, both of my own and others, to turn the tides on this.
The GreatPacificGarbagePatch.com will serve as my central focus on what I hope grows into a massive wide effort to eradicate this abysmal by-product of our global industries. I hope that you will join me in my efforts, in whatever way you can.
Stay tuned for more info on this including a website, blog, donation system, and much more.
“A new study suggests that baby lotion, baby powder, and baby shampoo may be exposing babies to potentially harmful chemicals called phthalates.”
“Phthalates are used to make plastics flexible and stabilize fragrances, and are found in a plethora of consumer products including toys, personal care products and medical equipment.”
All the more reason to go green, organic and as sustainable as possible within your grocery and other supply shopping trips…some great alternatives you could use in place would be Jason’s, for instance. Otherwise, be sure to really do your homework online and if necessary, go so far as to contact the manufacturers directly before purchasing any products you’re uncertain of (or us if you’re not sure how to go about this).
What in the world is Arnold thinking? Below is Environment California’s brief but urgent news:
“In a move that has stunned nature-lovers across the state, Gov. Schwarzenegger’s latest budget proposal would shut down 20 percent of the state’s parks, as well as cut down on lifeguards at state beaches. Of course, we all know California needs to balance the budget. But we’re talking about a step that would save $9 million — less than 0.1 percent of the state budget. Meanwhile, the costs to our environment, our quality of life, and our confidence in state government would be incalculable.”
Please cast your vote online now against this obscene motion attempting to slip past under the radar.
