Baltimore City is set to launch a new green energy efficiency and conservation program called The Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge, which will challenge various neighborhoods to reduce their energy consumption over the next nine months.

Baltimore City is set to launch a new green energy efficiency and conservation program called The Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge, which will challenge various neighborhoods to reduce their energy consumption over the next nine months.

Working with the Baltimore Community Foundation, an organization that helps businesses and donors carry out charity work, and using a grant of $500,000 donated by Constellation Energy Group Inc., Baltimore’s leading supplier of energy services, the city will aim to reduce its total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by the year 2015.

The Plan

So, how is this new energy conservation program going to work? Here’s some information:

• Participating neighborhood households will receive free or subsidized energy-saving kits that come with information on energy conservation.
• The households will sign a waiver allowing Baltimore Gas & Electric Company, which is a subsidiary of Constellation Energy Inc., to measure their energy consumption before, during and after the pilot.
• Neighborhoods will be assigned “captains” that will recruit volunteers to educate neighborhood residents on energy use.

Sounds like a good plan, right? We think so, and we hope that if the new energy conservation program works, that it will extend out to the rest of the state and maybe even the nation.

Source: WBALTV.com

Visiting the zoo has always been a favorite pastime for Americans because they get to see exotic animals from other countries. In fact, over 80% of the cities in the U.S. have their very own zoo complete with animals, rides, refreshments, and….animal waste?

It’s true. Zoos create millions of pounds of animal waste each day, and one of those zoos is the Miami Metrozoo. But the zoo has come up with a “zoo doo” recycling waste plan that takes the waste from animals and composts it into fertilizer.

Visiting the zoo has always been a favorite pastime for Americans because they get to see exotic animals from other countries. In fact, over 80% of the cities in the U.S. have their very own zoo complete with animals, rides, refreshments, and….animal waste?

It’s true. Zoos create millions of pounds of animal waste each day, and one of those zoos is the Miami Metrozoo. But the zoo has come up with a “zoo doo” recycling waste plan that takes the waste from animals and composts it into fertilizer.

Miami Metro’s Biggest Contributor

The Metrozoo says it produces about 4,000 pounds of animal waste per day, and all of that is composted into fertilizer that is used to grow food for the zoo animals.

It’s not a surprise that one of the zoo’s biggest producers of animal waste is the Asian elephant Dollop, who creates about 500 pounds of waste a day!  Other animals that contribute to the “zoo doo” are giraffes, rhinos and zebras.

This is a great way to recycle animal waste into organic and all-natural fertilizer. The zoo says that it might even start selling its fertilizer to South Florida farms.

Maybe before long we’ll all be seeing “zoo doo” in a Home Depot near us.

Source:  Just News

The Keep a Child Alive Community, which works to save the lives of children affected with HIV/AIDS around the world, along with STA Travel, a discount student travel agency, have created a new commercial contest geared towards high school and college students.

It’s all about combining creativity with humanitarian efforts to provide proper AIDS medication to effected children.

The Keep a Child Alive Community, which works to save the lives of children affected with HIV/AIDS around the world, along with STA Travel, a discount student travel agency, have created a new commercial contest geared towards high school and college students.

It’s all about combining creativity with humanitarian efforts to provide proper AIDS medication to effected children.

Here’s how it works:

• Using a digital camera, your iPhone or any other type of digital recording device, students will create a 60-second commercial that asks viewers to text the word “ALIVE” to the number 90999.
• This commercial will be uploaded to YouTube here.

For people who watch the commercial, once “Alive” is texted to 90999, $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill. This $5 will be donated directly to the Keep a Child Alive community, which will use the money to supply proper AIDS medication to children.

Want to know what the Grand Prize is? Two grand prize winners will win:

• A free round-trip ticket to Africa to work with the Keep a Child Alive community for one week in January 2010
• Free airing of their commercial on YouTube, the Keep a Child Alive website and other related sources

Here’s a contest submission that is now on YouTube:

The contest has been extended until June 1, 2009, so if you want to donate to a good cause and possibly visit Africa, give this video contest a try!

Source: Keep a Child Alive

Forum for the Future, a charity committed to sustainable development, recently awarded a $75,000 first place prize in its global climate change competition. And the first place winner is…the Kyoto Box, a solar powered cooker that’s helping people in developing countries cook their food and practice living an eco lifestyle.

Forum for the Future, a charity committed to sustainable development, recently awarded a $75,000 first place prize in its global climate change competition. And the first place winner is…the Kyoto Box, a solar powered cooker that’s helping people in developing countries cook their food and practice living an eco lifestyle.

Why make a solar powered oven?

So, why did the Kyoto Box win the first place prize? One big reason is that it only costs $6.60 to make, which makes it affordable for just about anyone in any country.

Another reason that it is a winner is that it’s easy to make. Each oven is made from:

• A few pieces of cardboard
• Black paint
• Tin foil
• An acrylic cover

That’s it! The acrylic cover traps the sun’s green energy, and then the black paint and silver tin foil absorb the heat. This solar powered oven produces heat that can be used to boil unsanitary water to make it drinkable, as well as to cook food.

The Kyoto Box also helps reduce the carbon footprint of the villagers by cutting down on pollution and lowering the cost of energy from fuel.

Want to see why this green product is so important? Check out this video on YouTube:

This is a great way to use solar power and solar energy, and we hope that the Kyoto Box will have a positive impact on the lives of people around the world.

Source: Yahoo! Green

As interest in taking environmental initiatives continues to grow, it seems that green festivals are popping up everywhere. But there’s one green festival that brings green products, career opportunities, news and more directly to a college campus, and it’s called the PLAYgreen Festival.

Hosted by Cal Recreational Sports, which is dedicated to enhancing the overall health and wellness of California residents…

As interest in taking environmental initiatives continues to grow, it seems that green festivals are popping up everywhere. But there’s one green festival that brings green products, career opportunities, news and more directly to a college campus, and it’s called the PLAYgreen Festival.

Hosted by Cal Recreational Sports, which is dedicated to enhancing the overall health and wellness of California residents, and held on the UC Berkeley campus, this live green festival provides college students and the surrounding community with the information that they need to live an active eco lifestyle.

Katherine Scherbel, who is an event coordinator for Cal Recreational Sports, provided this information to Green Student U:

‘Cal Recreational Sports has created the PLAYgreen Festival, the Bay Area’s premier eco-experiential event for 18-24 year olds and campus supporters who want to play, live and work a greener lifestyle.

Held February 20, 2009 on the UC Berkeley campus at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, admission to the highly interactive eco-experiential event is FREE. Over 5,000 Cal students, campus and community supporters are projected to touch, taste, feel, experience and learn about the latest products, fashions, technology, services, travel, trends and educational and career opportunities from the very best local and national fair trade, eco-friendly and sustainable organizations.’

Some other cool aspects of the PLAYgreen Festival are:

• It has its own Green Shorts Film Competition and Festival, which is a video contest that features Bay Area residents living a green lifestyle.
• There’s an Eco Art Show, which is an art contest where people can submit an original piece of art made from post-consumer products.

If your school doesn’t have something like this then it doesn’t hurt to bring it up to the administration. Just have them check out the PLAYgreen Festival website on their own to see what a positive impact it can have on the community!

We’d like to thank Katherine for providing us with information about the PLAYgreen Festival. We hope that it is a success and will continue for years to come!

Wouldn’t it be great if all outdoor parking lots had a nice canopy that could shade your car from the sun’s rays and other harsh outdoor elements, as well as generate electricity for surrounding facilities?

Well, that’s exactly what the employees have at the Agilent Technologies campus in Santa Rosa, California…

Wouldn’t it be great if all outdoor parking lots had a nice canopy that could shade your car from the sun’s rays and other harsh outdoor elements, as well as generate electricity for surrounding facilities?

Well, that’s exactly what the employees have at the Agilent Technologies campus in Santa Rosa, California.

Agilent Technologies, which provides electronic and bio-analytical measurement services, has partnered with SunPower Corporation, designers and manufacturers of solar panel solutions, to create a SunPower Tracker. This SunPower Tracker is going to greatly reduce the carbon footprint of the company, as well as save the company money in the years to come.

What is a SunPower Tracker?

The SunPower Tracker is a 1-megawatt solar tracking system that uses high efficiency solar cells and solar panels to generate solar power.

This ‘solar canopy’ is not only is not only going to generate 25% more electricity than traditional solar rooftop panels, but it’s also going to offset over 33 million pounds of Agilent’s carbon dioxide emissions over the next 30 years!

Can you imagine how much of a positive impact this one solar parking lot is going to have on California, and the rest of the world? It’s the same kind of impact as GM’s Solar Panel Rooftop in Spain, Ma Yanjun’s Solar-Powered Beer Bottle Roof in China and Fenway Park’s Solar Heating System in Boston.

If this SunPower Tracker proves to be successful, we can only hope that parking lots around the country can adopt this energy efficient idea, and that solar energy will become a popular way to generate electricity for all companies.

Source: ENN.

Since she was four years old Emily Cummins has been creating very useful and eco friendly products inside her grandfather’s potting shed.

Her interest in helping Third World Countries led her to create a portable solar fridge that can keep perishables cool for days at a temperature of 6c…

Since she was four years old Emily Cummins has been creating very useful and eco friendly products inside her grandfather’s potting shed. Her interest in helping Third World Countries led her to create a portable solar fridge that can keep perishables cool for days at a temperature of 6c.

So, how did Emily get this idea? She spent a great deal of time researching how to keep things cool and discovered that evaporation plays an important role in the cooling process.

With a hammer, a metal cylinder and some wood/plastic Emily was able to create a fridge that uses solar electricity to keep food cold and can easily be transferred to another location.

How does it work?

It’s quite interesting how the solar fridge works. Here’s a diagram:

The best thing about this solar power invention is that it has already proven useful in Africa! Emily spent 5 months in Africa and let families try out her invention. She became known as ‘The Fridge Lady’ and gave many people hope for the future.

This solar electricity fridge proves that with a little curiosity and hard work almost anyone can create an eco friendly and life-changing product.

So, now that you’re inspired, are you ready to change some lives for the better?

Source: Mail Online.

Since Americans spend about $1.5 billion on gas everyday, wouldn’t it be wiser, and more affordable, to carpool with others to cut fuel consumption in half?

Of course it would be, and that’s why there are ride share programs like eRideShare.com.

Here’s a blog post that was contributed to our Stories and Successes section by Jill Miller…

Since Americans spend about $1.5 billion on gas everyday, wouldn’t it be wiser, and more affordable, to carpool with others to cut fuel consumption in half?

Of course it would be, and that’s why there are ride share programs like eRideShare.com.

Here’s a blog post that was contributed to our Stories and Successes section by Jill Miller.

“Are you looking for innovative ways to green your campus?

Some universities are now using eRideShare.com, North America’s leading online carpooling service. Carpooling saves drivers money, reduces traffic and parking congestion, clears the air, and cuts greenhouse gas pollution’20 pounds of CO₂ per gallon of gas.

In addition to its well-known public service, eRideShare.com also offers private carpooling groups that help people find partners from within their organization to share the ride to and from school, work, and special events.

eRideShare.com has been featured in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, three times in the Wall Street Journal, and in dozens of other publications, radio and television news programs. It’s number one on Google and Yahoo!, and is cited in Al Gore’s book “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Currently, DePauw University, Keene State College, Wayne State University and other schools are signed on. Make your school the next! Individual and small group use is free; organizations with more than 200 employees pay a modest amount for customized private service. The site has more than 20,000 users and 300 groups. Go to www.erideshare.com/corp.htm for more information.”

Jill M.

Edwardsville, IL

We appreciate Jill’s information, and hope that your university can use eRideShare to go green.

Bryan Beer not only has a cool last name, but he also has a very cool idea for the future of fuel: Jatropha trees.

If you’re wondering what a Jatropha tree is, it’s a tree that is native to Central America, and it produces fruit with seeds that contain oil. This oil can be used to power diesel engines.

Bryan Beer not only has a cool last name, but he also has a very cool idea for the future of fuel: Jatropha trees.

If you’re wondering what a Jatropha tree is, it’s a tree that is native to Central America, and it produces fruit with seeds that contain oil. This oil can be used to power diesel engines.

Following the Lead

According to Roy Beckford, an agricultural scientist with the University of Florida, Caribbean nations have been using the fruit oil as biofuel for years, and countries like China, India and Brazil have already planted millions of acres of the Jatropha tree.

The U.S. was a little behind on this green initiative, but now that we know we are trying to figure out the best way to grow trees for future energy use.

Beckford believes that within the next five years we’ll have the technology to aid in the growth of Jatropha trees and other types of biofuel sources.

Beer apparently read about this, because he planted 30 acres of the trees next to his 2,5000 acres of citrus fruit.

He said that he just wants to produce enough oil to run his four tractors (which consume 120 gallons of fuel each per day) to keep his citrus business alive.

You can read the entire article here.

It just goes to show people that with a Beer and an idea, almost anything is possible!

That was a joke.

A small town in Missouri known as Rock Port has become the first community in the U.S. to operate completely on wind power.

According to a map published by the U.S. Department of Energy, Missouri has the highest concentrations of wind resources, so Rock Port is using four wind turbines out of a larger set of 75 located across three counties to gather its power…

A small town in Missouri known as Rock Port has become the first community in the U.S. to operate completely on wind power.

According to a map published by the U.S. Department of Energy, Missouri has the highest concentrations of wind resources, so Rock Port is using four wind turbines out of a larger set of 75 located across three counties to gather its power.

The Benefits

This initiative by Rock Port is benefiting many people in different ways. Not only is it bringing environmental recognition to the town, but it will also:

• Bring in more than $1.1 million in real estate taxes
• Benefit landowners who lease their property for wind turbines
• Provide electric service for at least 20 years
• Not increase utility rates for the next 15-20 years

Sounds like a win/win situation for the people and the environment.

You can read the entire article here.

Alternative energy is becoming increasingly more important with each passing day, so we need to realize the benefits of what towns like Rock Port are doing for the future of the environment and follow in their footsteps.