Category Archives: water conservation

Energy Conservation And Renters – Some utilities say less then others

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Some utilities say nothing at all. Here is a fairly terse response.

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/WaterandLight/Conservation/r-guide.php

Renters’ Guide…To Outfitting Your Energy Budget

As your publicly owned utility, it is our hope that we can help you become a resourceful and efficient customer. By choosing energy efficient housing and by following energy saving habits you will keep your costs at a minimum. Rental property owners are finding that energy efficient units are easier to rent and require less Renters' Guidemaintenance than inefficient dwellings.

If you are a renter, the following information can help you incorporate energy efficiency into your decisions before you rent and lifestyle choices after you rent, resulting in lower energy costs in your monthly budget. The information is divided into two parts:

If you have any questions or comments please contact the Utility Services Department at Columbia Water & Light, 874-7325.

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More tomorrow.

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Carbon Neutral Is Different Than Energy Neutral – The difference is subtle but real

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Energy Neutral is different from Carbon Neutral. Energy Neutral means it produces as much energy as it consumes. Carbon Neutral takes into account all carbon used to make the place and its usage.

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2008/02/lighthouse-uks.html

Lighthouse, UK’s First Zero-Emission, Carbon Neutral Home

Lighthouseuk

In England, a handful of efficient demonstration homes have been built on the grounds of the Building Research Establishment Ltd, including “The Lighthouse,” which is the first net zero carbon house in the UK.  The house is also the first to attain level six in the Code for Sustainable Homes, which indicates that it is carbon neutral. The two-bedroom house is only 93.3 square meters (barely over 1000 sq. ft.) in a 2-1/2 story building.  The building has solar panels and evacuated solar tubes on its roof, as well as making use of passive measures with ventilation chimneys.  It also incorporates rainwater catchment as part of the building design.

The materials used include highly insulated, airtight building fabric which has been designed to provide generous daylight levels and includes effective solar control, together with integrated building services based around a platform of renewable and sustainable technologies. These include water efficiency techniques, renewable energy technologies, passive cooling and ventilation, as well as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).

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http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/11/25/how-to-build-a-carbon-neutral-home/

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How To Build A Carbon Neutral Home

Written by Reenita Malhotra
Published on November 25th, 2008

Is it possible to build a carbon neutral home? Apparently so says the Australian Home Lifestyle TV show. Watch this segment about green building construction.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/08/japans-carbon-neutral-hom_n_111519.html

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Japan’s Carbon-Neutral Home: Leave Your Carbon Footprint At The Door

Wall Street Journal:

As leaders of the world’s most powerful nations discuss climate change at the Group of Eight summit in northern Japan, Japan’s big tech companies are displaying some of their most cutting-edge solutions in a nearby “zero emissions house.”

The single-story, 2,152-square-foot house generates all the energy required for a family of four, therefore eliminating carbon-dioxide emissions, according to the Japanese government. Products inside, many already on sale in Japan, include a washer that requires no water and an air conditioner that senses where people are in a room and automatically sends cool air in their direction rather than cooling empty space. Yet the eco-friendly products also carry a steeper price tag than traditional appliances.

The house uses a wind-turbine generator and a photovoltaic generation system, which directly converts light into electricity, to produce about 15 kilowatts of energy a day, nearly five times the amount used by a regular household. The government has presented the house as one of its contributions toward helping the world cut greenhouse emissions in half by 2050.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

As leaders of the world’s most powerful nations discuss climate change at the Group of Eight summit in northern Japan, Japan’s big tech companies are displaying some of their most cutting-edge solutio…
As leaders of the world’s most powerful nations discuss climate change at the Group of Eight summit in northern Japan, Japan’s big tech companies are displaying some of their most cutting-edge solutio…

Filed by Dave Burdick |  Report Corrections

More in Green…

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More tomorrow.

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More On Green Wash – Somebody should start the Boo Hiss Award for the worst offender of the year

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I had no idea when I started this meditation how many sites there were that focused on the topic of Green Wash. Here is another with an excerpt of an article they cite. It will come complete with music tomorrow I hope.

http://www.greenwashingindex.com/

Site Goal #1:Help consumers become more savvy about evaluating environmental marketing claims of advertisers.

Site Goal #2:
Hold businesses accountable to their environmental marketing claims.

Site Goal #3:
Stimulate the market and demand for sustainable business practices that truly reduce the impact on the environment.

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http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/06/10/ftc-cites-kmart-tender-dyna-e-for-false-green-claims/

June 10, 2009

FTC Cites Kmart, Tender, Dyna-E for False Green Claims

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged Kmart Corp., Tender Corp., and Dyna-E International with making false and unsubstantiated claims that their paper products were “biodegradable.”

FTC charged the companies with making the following deceptive biodegradable claims:

  • Kmart Corp. called its American Fare brand disposable plates biodegradable.
  • Tender Corp. called its Fresh Bath-brand moist wipes biodegradable.
  • Dyna-E International called its Lightload brand compressed dry towels biodegradable.

Kmart and Tender have agreed to settle the cases against them while the case against Dyna-E will be litigated. The FTC says with the recent growth in “green” advertising and product lines, the agency will continue its efforts to ensure that environmental marketing is truthful, substantiated, and not confusing to consumers.

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More tomorrow.

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Earth Day Is Here – So what does it mean

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I could post a lot of things, like the burning oil rig or the price of gasoline, but this year I think it is important to remember the past. We also need to think about how far we have come but how far we need to go.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20100421/cm_huffpost/536130

Huffington Post - The Internet Newspaper

The History Of Earth Day Plus How You Can Get Involved

Play Video KGW NewsChannel 8 Portland, Ore. – Green gadgets for Earth Day with Brian M. Westbrook

  • Reuters – A man walks through a garbage dump on the eve of Earth Day in Mumbai April 21, 2010. REUTERS/Arko Datta

Bill Lucey Bill Lucey – Wed Apr 21, 11:18 am ET

On April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day will be celebrated from coast-to-coast; a day which was first realized by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson who wanted to find a way to increase environmental awareness and to promote urgently needed federal legislation to deal with an alarming ecological crisis.

It wasn’t until visiting Santa Barbara Calif in August, 1969, and reading about the popularity of “teach-ins” at college campuses as way of educating students about the Vietnam War that an idea caught hold in Nelson’s head to hold a similar “teach-in” only with a focus on environmental awareness.

Since the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, when a chorus of demonstrators around the nation (some 20 million strong) voiced their concerns about the environment, specifically about the pollution of air and water, that a significant amount of federal legislation was passed to protect the environment.

Nelson, who was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 by President Bill Clinton, the nation’s highest civilian honor, died at his Bethesda, Md home on July 3, 2005 at the age of 89.

What follows are summaries of some of the most important federal legislation that was passed during the 1970’s, thanks in large part, to Sen. Nelson and his grassroots environmental movement.

• The Environmental Protection Agency was created on December 2, 1970, in response to the nationwide concern over environmental pollution. The newly formed agency was responsible for consolidating a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities under a single regulatory agency to protect health and safeguard the natural environment, including air, water, and land

• The Clean Air Act of 1970 is a comprehensive federal law, which required the EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect against common pollutants, including ozone (smog), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, and particulate soot.

The Act was subsequently amended in 1977 and 1990 to set new goals for achieving NAAQS. In particular, the phasing out of lead gas by the mid-1980’s, was hailed by many as one of the most important health initiatives of the 20th century. Additional amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990 included the controlling of acid rain and the elimination of leaded gas in automobiles by the end of 1995.

Despite repeated violations of basic health standards, leaving millions of Americans at risk, important progress has been made since the Act was passed, including the reduction of emissions of toxic by 98 percent, the reduction of emissions of sulfur dioxide by 35 percent, and the reduction of emissions of carbon monoxide by 32 percent

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There is much more. Please read the whole article and then buy the Whole Earth Catalog.

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Earth Day Coming Up – The back to the land movement was WAY ahead of its time

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All this week I have been posting about radical things from the environmental movement that have become main stream starting with a post on cars (CAFE standards) and continuing with posts on recycling, and residential energy conservation. Today it is the Back To The Land Movement. While they were laughed at and many of their efforts failed, the back to the landers had it right in so many ways…big cities are dumb energy dinosaurs…single labor “jobs” are alienating and defeatist…fresh air and hard work are good for you..and on and on. Yet the single biggest thing they got right was corporate food is poison and locally grown food is wonderful. So on this day before Earth Day in 2010 I give it up for:

http://www.ilstewards.org/

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Wednesday April 21, 2010

REGISTER NOW! Local Food Awareness Day at the Capitol

On April 28th, local food consumers, farmers and advocates from across the state will come together in Springfield to encourage their legislators to support local food and sustainable agriculture. Illinois Stewardship Alliance would like to invite you to join us for our annual local food and sustainable agriculture lobby day and legislative reception, on April 28th, 2010.

Registration deadline is next Monday, April 19th. For more information and how to register click here.

Posted by: Lindsay Record

4/16/2010 2:22 pm

Would you rather attend a stuffy fundraising dinner
with a group of people you don’t know, or enjoy a delicious meal with family and friends at a great restaurant in your area?
With Share-A-Meal, you will not only have a wonderful meal with people you enjoy but support 13 local charities in Sangamon County.

The Seventh Annual Share-A-Meal with Community Shares will take place at restaurants in Springfield on Tues. April 13, 2010. The event is sponsored by Community Shares of Illinois, a nonprofit organization representing more than 78 charities statewide.

Participating restaurants in Springfield are expected to donate 20 to 25 percent of their meal proceeds to Community Shares of Illinois and its member organizations. Using pledge cards provided at each restaurant, diners will also have the option to direct a portion of their bill to any of the 78 charities that are members of Community Shares of Illinois.

Participating Restaurants in Springfield Include:
 Maldaner’s – 222 S. 6th St.; (217) 522-4313 – lunch and dinner
Augie’s Front Burner – 2 West Old Capitol Plaza; (217) 544-6979 – lunch and dinner
– Tuesday night special: 50 percent off bottles of wine
Tai Pan – 2636 Stevenson Dr.; (217) 529-8089 – dinner

All you must do to contribute is dine out at one of the participating restaurants. Share-A-Meal combines the pleasure of eating out with the joy of giving in one fun-filled event.
Community Shares of Illinois represents more than 78 organizations working to make our state a better place to live. These organizations work to improve the quality of life in Illinois by addressing a wide range of issues, including affordable housing, health care, the environment and civil rights, as well as other issues affecting women, children, people of color, working families, people with disabilities and the poor.

For more information about Share-A-Meal and an up-to-date restaurant list, click here.
To learn more about Community Shares of Illinois, click here.

Posted by: Lindsay Record

4/6/2010 11:59 am

Did you know the Illinois Stewardship Alliance (formerly the Illinois South Project) helped found the Carbondale Farmer’s Market?  Did you know that ISA has been active in state and federal policy working on issues such as protecting farmland? Did you know abut the Stewardship Farm providing research on organic practices, our pilot program to utilize WIC coupons and Illinois farmers markets?  These are just a few of many issues ISA has taken on over the last 36 years since the founding of the Illinois South Project in 1974 in Herrin (?).  The Illinois South Project was founded to give citizens a voice in the development of the federal coal program introduced in the mid-1970’s.  The Illinois South Project acknowledged the negative impact strip mining would have on farmland and the local economy in southern Illinois.  “Central to our program is empowerment of people through active involvement in issues that affect them. To address critical farm policy issues, we organized farmers to attend hearings and town meetings organized by their elected officials. We sent out numerous alerts on crucial issues being debated in the state legislature and in Congress and we submitted testimony on important aspects of the 1985 farm bill” – Illinois South Project 1985 Annual Report

In 1990, the organization opened an office in central Illinois, became a membership-based organization and has worked on a variety of local food and farm issues over the years through research, policy advocacy and education but there has always been a common thread of working for environmental stewardship, economic viability of small farms and connecting rural producers with urban populations.  ISA staff and board are proud to celebrate 36 years of supporting local food systems in Illinois.  We invite you to join us as we continue to advocate for sounds policies that support sustainable local food systems.  ISA continues to be a membership-driven organization with individual and organizational members.  If you aren’t a member, please consider joining now.  If you are a member, don’t hesitate to contact staff and let us know how we can serve you better.

Posted by: Lindsay Record

3/18/2010 4:07 pm

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Large Sequoias point to the death of the Anastasi and other North American Tribes

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No trees were sacrificed to complete this study.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36083323/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Earth’s biggest tree rings tell fiery tales

Fallen giant sequoias reveal a 3,000-year-old history of fire and drought

Image: Tree
Hemera/ThinkStock
The tree rings of 52 fallen giant sequoias, Earth’s biggest trees, have revealed a 3,000-year-old history of droughts and fires.
By Larry O’Hanlon

Using huge chainsaws and strong backs, the largest trees in the world are finally giving up their 3,000-year record of fires and droughts. No trees, however, were harmed in the making of this fire history.

“We only used dead trees,” emphasized tree ring researcher Thomas Swetnam of the University of Arizona. Swetnam led the study that was reported in a recent issue of the journal Fire Ecology. “We spent multiple years collecting the wood and hauling it back to Tucson.”

The giant sequoias in California’s Sequoia National Park are far too thick to be cored for the extraction of the pencil-thin cores typically used by tree ring researchers. So the authors of a new report on tree ring evidence of past droughts and fires used all sorts of other tools to slice and dice 52 giant dead and fallen sequoias, lug the pieces back to roads by hand. Then they spent years piecing together the valuable history in their laboratories.

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This raises the question, “what if you are good to the Earth and it burns you anyway”?

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Healthcare Bill PASSES – But does it save energy

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Yes I know I am a google whore. It’s been said before. Here is the deal however. If the Healthcare Industry…and that is what it is, an Industry, cut their energy cost tomorrow, they could pass that savings on to you and “bend the healthcare curve down”.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/consumptionbriefs/cbecs/pbawebsite/health/health_howuseenergy.htm

EALTH CARE BUILDINGS

How do they use energy and how much does it cost?

Total Energy Use by Fuel Type

Reference 1:  What is a Btu?

Health care buildings account for 11 percent of all commercial energy consumption, using a total of 561 trillion Btu of combined site electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and district steam or hot water.  They are the fourth highest consumer of total energy of all the building types (see total energy figure on home page).

Natural gas and electricity are the predominant fuels used in health care buildings, with natural gas used a bit more than electricity.  Health care buildings are more likely to use district heat than most building types.

Site electricity is the amount of electricity consumed within the building; electricity use can also be expressed as primary electricity, which includes the energy consumed in generating and transmitting electricity.  Health care buildings used 637 trillion Btu of primary electricity, which brings the total energy consumption for health care buildings up to 987 trillion Btu, or 9 percent of total primary consumption for all commercial buildings.

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Some estimates put it as low as 9%, but that would be real savings.

http://managedhealthcareexecutive.modernmedicine.com/mhe/Exclusives/Healthcare-facilities-account-for-9-of-energy-cons/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/569619

Employees and executives are being called upon to assist as organizations implement “green” systems within healthcare facilities. The term “green building” or “sustainability” can mean a variety of things. Commonly, however, “green” design and construction includes:

  • promoting a healthier, more productive build environment;
  • increasing energy efficiency;
  • increasing efficiency in the use of water and other scarce resources;
  • reducing the project’s impact on the surrounding environment; and
  • decreasing liquid and solid wastes, building emissions, and other adverse impacts of the building’s operation on the broader environment.

Sustainability has particular resonance for healthcare facilities because improved indoor environmental quality demonstrably improves the health of patients, professionals, staff and visitors. Further, healthcare facilities are major generators of waste and are substantial consumers of increasingly energy and water.

Healthcare facilities generate more than 2 million tons of solid waste annually, which accounts for the majority of hospital waste disposal cost. Given a likely increase in waste disposal costs, designing or renovating a facility to more efficiently handle waste is an economic necessity.

Additionally, equipment-intensive facilities use several times more energy than office buildings, while hospitals typically use 90 to150 gallons of water per bed per day. In fact, healthcare facilities account for 9% of all commercial energy consumption in America, according to the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

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Physician heal thyself

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Earthships – Michael Reynolds and the build your own eco habitat

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There is so much about this guy and his projects. The good news is that they are finally winning the building code battles. Oh and of course they ran up against the utility companies too. They hate houses that do not use power. So these are not houses for the faint of heart.

http://www.vaboomer.com/the_portal_to_boomeranger/2009/03/earthships-part-i.html

Earthships – Eco-Friendly Houses for the Future (Now?) Part I

Biotecture – from Trash to Shelter Earthship3

Just think — a house made of discarded garbage; used tires rammed with earth, soda bottle walls.  And the cost to heat?  $40 per month in the ‘dead of winter’.

The brainchild of architect Michael Reynolds, earthships are truly the homes for the future.

An Earthship is a type of rammed-earth house, sort of a modern version of a Native American pueblo dwelling. It is a utopian type of passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials such as earth-filled tires.  The home is “bermed,” meaning that dirt is gently placed, from ground to roof line, on the northern, eastern, and western sides of the home.  The berm is about 15-20 feet deep. They’re much more than houses — they provides shelter, heating, cooling, power, water and sewage. In these very tough economic times, there are people in America living very comfortably with a zero, yes, zero utility bill. They live in Earthships, beautiful homes made out of recycled tires and bottles, built completely off the grid.

Architect Michael Reynolds

Mreynolds

The Earthship, as it exists today, began to take shape in the 1970s. Mike Reynolds, founder of Earthship Biotecture, a company that specializes in designing and building Earthships, wanted to create a home that would be sustainable, rely on natural energy sources and be economically feasible for the average person with no specialized construction skills to be able to create.

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Doesn’t hurt to have a certain level of skills and can do spirit.

http://www.earthships.com/

Earthship Landing:
A Pictorial History

My name is Stuart Simmons and I built an Earthship home near Durango, Colorado. I decided to make the photo journey of my experience available to the public because there wasn’t much available in the WWW Land about alternative structures and there is quite a bit of interest in building alternatively. I used to live in the Bay Area, but due to the Rat Race and several other factors, I decided to move to Durango where I found my piece of Heaven. The pictorial history of Earthship Landing on the Internet is an ongoing process. I will start off by putting the pictures on the web as I believe this is what people mostly want to see, but over time I will add a lot more text to the pages of my experience of building the home and what it’s like to live in a house made of tires. The way I am going to set up the pages is like a book. each page will have one or two pictures two help keep it small for downloading. I am going to start at the beginning and go through the history of building the Earthship. At the end of the book I will also show some other peoples Earthships and how they have built them differently. Let’s get on with it . I would love to hear from you once you have seen these pages. If you know of another link which you think should be included in these pages, then please let me know its URL and I will include it. If you know of other styles of alternative houses, please let me know and I will include them as well. You can E-mail me at Info@Earthships.com

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I mean you have got to admire people like this. Why wasn’t I born that cool?

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/earthship.htm

Earthships

The Earthship concept is the brainchild of Michael Reynolds, who has written several books on the topic. Near Taos New Mexico, where he has his Earthship Biotecture business, are whole communities of earthships. The basic earthship design incorporates substantially bermed, passive solar architecture. The primary retaining walls are constructed with used tires, filled with earth and stacked up like bricks. The interior surface of the tires is then plastered with adobe or cement so the tires don’t normally show. Mike has also pioneered the use of empty aluminum cans mortared into lightweight, curvable walls. Earthships often employ many ecological concepts, such as water catchment from the roof, reuse of greywater, composting toilets, indoor gardening, etc.

While some of the work of building is simple to do, it also tends to be very labor intensive. Furthermore, the wood framing required is not simple. Some of the earlier designs tend to overheat, especially in the summer, because of the slanted glass to the south. I have seen some truly elegant earthships, along with some that are pretty funky. Engineered plans are available that seem to please building inspectors, as these have been built in many localities.

Here is a 5 minute radio interview with Kelly Hart talking about Earthships:

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Please go to the above site and listen to the radio interview…we may yet survive.

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I Was Gona Do Another Post On Solar Water Heaters – The commercially available ones complete with installation

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I was going to include a rant here:

That Americans have been brainwashed to believe that  energy isn’t free. The point being that if all we allowed was renewables that is all we would have. If we mandated geothermal and solar water heating for residential then in 20 years most of America would be off the grid. But powerful mining operations employing 1000s of people and powerful oil interests employing 10s of 1000s of people are never going to allow that, let alone the utility industry which employs millions of people. Then I ran across this article on PeakOIL and I thought isn’t this a much better way to put it…more on solar water heaters tomorrow.

(This was my original lead in march with the below citation for an obscure publication that ran an interesting article about the transition movement in Milwaukee of all places. I am not even sure I like the town that much..But after a nasty interaction with the editor I have taken that piece down completely…..June, note DN)

According to this dreadful woman:

From: Katherine Keller <editor@bayviewcompass.com>
Subject: You have published copyrighted material (publisher is “bitching”)
To: info@censys.org
Cc: “Daniel Gray” <dangray35@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 9:29 PM

I am really only allowed to publish 12 words, but she would graciously give me 150 if I would just limit myself to that. SO:

please do not go to this website…ever…because it really sucks

http://bayviewcompass.com

Here are some sites that don’t:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns

Transition Towns

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to:navigation, search

Totnes, Devon: a Transition Town

Transition Towns (also known as Transition network or Transition Movement) is a movement that originates from a student project overseen by permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins at the Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland. The term “transition town” was coined by Louise Rooney[1] and Catherine Dunne. Following its start in Kinsale, Ireland it then spread to Totnes, England where Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande developed the concept during 2005 and 2006.[2] The aim of this community project is to equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil. The movement currently has member communities in a number of countries worldwide. The Transition Towns movement is an example of socioeconomic localization.

Contents

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http://www.transitiontowns.org/

What is a Transition Town (or village / city / forest / island)?

Here’s how it all appears to be evolving…

It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?

They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model (explained here at length, and in bits here and here) with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.

A Transition Initiative is a community (lots of examples here) working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:

“for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?”

After going through a comprehensive and creative process of:

  • awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community lead process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon
  • connecting with existing groups in the community
  • building bridges to local government
  • connecting with other transition initiatives
  • forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)
  • kicking off projects aimed at building people’s understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement
  • eventually launching a community defined, community implemented “Energy Descent Action Plan” over a 15 to 20 year timescale

This results in a coordinated range of projects across all these areas of life that strives to rebuild the resilience we’ve lost as a result of cheap oil and reduce the community’s carbon emissions drastically.

The community also recognizes two crucial points:

  • that we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there’s no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope
  • if we collectively plan and act early enough there’s every likelihood that we can create a way of living that’s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.

If you want to find out more, check out the other menu items on the left hand site of the page.

Final point

Just to weave the climate change and peak oil situations together…

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http://www.transitionus.org/

  • Great Unleashings in Carrboro-Chapel Hill, NC, Bloomington, IN and Laguna Beach, CA!

    As part of the Transition Model, the Great Unleashing is the coming together of the people in a community to envision a positive, resilient future in response to climate change and the end of cheap oil. For many groups, the Great Unleashing marks the kick-off of working groups to start in earnest to build the community that they want to see. Here are some recaps of the Unleashing events this month across the country, with each place with its own unique flavour.

  • May Round-up of What’s Happening in the World of Transition – US Edition

    Here are some highlights of what’s keeping Transition Initiatives busy across the country and around the world…

  • Tucson takes it up a notch: Cyclovia Tucson

    In Arizona, members of Sustainable Tucson, 29th Official Transition Initiative in the US, have been collaborating with the folks planning Cyclovia for Tucson. The Inaugural Cyclovia Tucson took place on April 18th, 2010, within the comfortable traffic free city streets, public parks and areas in-and around the University of Arizona.

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More tomorrow

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Solar Water Heaters – This is definitely where the Energy Audit stops

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I know…I just had you insulate your water heater BUT if you use it for a holding tank it was not a waste of time…

http://www.simpleheaters.com/?hop=goodanswer

“You Can Easily Build Your Own Solar Water Heater and Save up to 33% Off Your Electric Bill Every Month While Helping the Environment.”

Using a solar water heater will save you up to a thousand dollars every year.

Our do-it-yourself solar water heater guide is easy to follow with step-by-step instructions and is extremely affordable!

Works in warm and cold climates

Will greatly improve your homes energy efficiency

Boost performance while reducing electricity usage

Works anywhere in the world

100% safe/legal – guaranteed!

Get set up for the cheapest, best value price.

Enjoy incredible savings on your electric bill.

Build your water heater for the lowest price. Similar water heaters cost $1000 and up!

This system can be built in as little as a weekend.

Our easy step by step guide will show you several different plans to build your very own solar water heater system. These plans are easy enough for anyone to follow and will give you the option of how you would like to set up and install your water heater. You can build an entire system for less than $70. Once installed, you will be saving up to 1/3 of your electric bill each and every month.

Can a Water Heater Really Be Solar?

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