Greenbiz.com here. It is a pretty good detailed report that summarizes the achievements from last year. For example, the US has doubled in sales of hybrid vehicles from 2006 to 2007 but that only accounts for 1 percent of all new vehicles purchased. So although, it will not make a huge difference, it is a stepping stone in efforts to become more environmentally friendly. Another factor that was measured was commuting to work. Efforts to increase carpooling and public transportation is not making much movement but I am not surprised. In the bay area, if you work in downtown San Francisco and live in San Francsico, it is relatively convenient to take public transportation. If you live and work anywhere else, public transportation is horrible and some places can almost be impossible to get to. I don’t see that changing either because the peninsula and south bay are just not meant to be public transportation friendly places. It would take a lot of work and way too much money to make Silicon Valley a public transportation work environment considering how spread apart everything is. The bay area also continues to grow since land is pretty crucial here so people are moving further out as well so the commute continues to grow. Telecommuting however, is on the rise which can be good because by working from home, your carbon footprint is reduced by not having to drive to and from work.
One of the positive factors is the fact that we consume less paper now due to the technology of email and computers. People are printing less now since everyone saves documents on their computers and emails now. That is a great help as having less paper consumes less electricity and power in printing, storage space, and recycling. Companies are becoming more aware of their carbon footprints. The report seems to be both positive and negative at the same time because even though there are efforts in the fight, it is not enough. I guess it is a good motivation for people to do more but on the other hand, it can also discourage people to bother even doing anything since it will take a lot of effort from more people to make a difference. This is similar to the whole voting idea, where people think whether or not one vote makes a difference.
I wanted to share how a company shutdown can save a company energy. At Yahoo!, during the holiday week last year, there was a holiday shutdown where employees were encouraged to either take the week off or work from home. The offices operated minimally for those who did go into the office. Yahoo! also gave away 2,000 CFLs in the lobbies of the Sunnyvale and Mission College campuses. The shutdown resulted in a 107,000 kilowatt hours decrease of energy consumption which equates to a savings of 73,000 pounds of CO2 and also equates to $12,000 in estimated savings.
The stock market recently has been such a roller coaster ride as recession fears are all over the place. There most likely will not be a big scale recession but there may be a minor one until election rolls around. There is no better time to become green than during a recession! Trying to save money is always a good thing but especially good when the economy is not doing so well. Changing out those light bulbs and consciously saving electricity can make a difference to your electricity bill. When you leave the house, you can also remember to turn off the heater or leave it at a lower temperature. Turning off your monitor instead of having it go to screensaver and having your computer go to sleep instead of leaving it on is another good suggestion for saving electricity. The Edison Electric Institute has some good tips on saving electricity in your home. It has tips for the kitchen, laundry, water heating, lighting, insulation, heating, air conditioning, and outside your home.
I found this article pretty interesting. It seems like California will be shorthanded when it comes to green-collar jobs according to corporate and government leaders at a summit on Monday. As we continue to implement solar panels and renewable energy, there does not seem to be enough people doing the actual installation of the panels and workers to implement those systems. California schools will soon have more programs that will cater to this industry such as the PowerPathway program that guarantees graduates a job afterwards. It is good news for providing jobs in this state and will probably encourage more people to come to California. The alternative energy industry has been creating a lot of buzz as plenty of companies are growing or starting up in the bay area and it looks like things will continue getting better. Hopefully the stock market will pick up soon as many fear a recession is happening. Being election year, things will surely turn around as the year continues.
China just announced that they are going to be banning thin plastic bags from being handed out at stores and supermarkets. The cabinet said that finance athorities should also consider raising taxes that discourage the production and sale of plastic bags. China uses up to 3 billion plastic bags a day and refines 5 million tons of crude oil every year to make the plastics that are used for packaging. Several different countries around the world have been doing something similar in banning bags and taxing the production of thin plastic bags. Previous entries about plastic bag bans are here and here.
Reusable bags are going to be popular and will most likely be a new trend for grocery shoppers around the world. In China and Hong Kong, big red, white, and blue bags (pictured above) have been used forever and were very popular. Maybe we will start seeing more of those again. Locally, stores such as Costco and Ikea have been selling their own reusuable bags and those seem to work pretty well. Costco has always reused old boxes to put your items in which was pretty nice. I have seen department stores selling their own reusable bags as well. The problem with having a reusuable bag at department stores however, seems like an easy way to shoplift though if items do not have the bar code sensor thing on them.
