Fresh AIRE

Register for Arlington Green Games - Only 18 More Days!

You likely read about the opening of this new exciting program on our previous blog posting here or our press release here.  There are only 18 days remaining to register your commercial property or office for Arlington's Green Games. 

 

The Arlington Green Games is a friendly competition for commercial property owners/managers and office tenants to reduce costs while reducing their emissions. The year-long competition pits buildings against buildings and offices against offices in the race for business gold. The highly interactive program incorporates trainings, best practices, and technical assistance along the way. Top performers and most improved scores will be recognized by the County and local media.

 

You can register for the inaugural season here until December, 2010. The inaugural season will occur January 2011 - December 2011 and winners will be determined in early 2012.

 

Learn more below and register today!

http://www.arlingtongreengames.com 

 

 

The Gas-powered Alarm Clock

Remember a couple months ago when ENERGY STAR shut down their entire labeling program? You know, the gas-powered alarm clock that achieved an ENERGY STAR label. 

Well, the program has started back up again as of April 16th, 2010.  Wonder what changed? See links below…

EPA/DOE Joint Press Release

EPA/DOE Joint Letter to Administration

EPA Letter to Manufacturers

Highlights –

• All electronic submissions will require staff review of lab reports showing product meets criteria.
• Self-testing is acceptable until the end of the year, after then the plan is for all products to be tested in a 3^rd party accredited lab. 
• All manufacturers will soon be required participation in an ongoing verification testing program to ensure continued compliance.
• Stricter rules on use of the ENERGY STAR logo have been implemented.

It's worth noting that ENERGY STAR already had been doing off-the-shelf spot check testing on labeled products and found that 98 percent of the products comply with ENERGY STAR criteria.  Also worth noting is that the company that manufactures gas-powered alarm clock is fictitious (as is the alarm clock), created by the GAO to show how vulnerable the program is to fraud. However, with more organizations and communities specifying ENERGY STAR in purchasing policies and development policies, this scrutiny couldn't have come at a better time.  Here's to hoping we won't see anything like Tropical Thunder Appliance's "Air Cleaner" on the shelves at Home Depot.

Warren Buffett a "Climate Killer?" What Do You Think?

Back in November, Warren Buffett invested $26 or $34 or $44 billion to buy the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad (BNSF) (I saw several different values and didn't waste a lot of time trying to figure out which one was right). Last week Rolling Stone Magazine lampooned him for being a "Climate Killer." About a quarter to a half (again, conflicting figures) of BNSF's business is hauling coal, the antichrist of the climate change battle--300 million tons of it.

Elena Schor at World Changing blog presents both sides.

Green Energy Reporter reports on a couple of angles.

So what do you think? Is Warren a "Climate Killer" by buying BNSF or is he supporting a lower carbon future by investing in greener transportation? I welcome your comments.

==========================
Steve Offutt, Arlingtonian and Climate Consultant
Cross posted at www.steveoffutt.com
(photo attribution:http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfsullivan_1056/ / CC BY-ND 2.0)

Good Business = Green Business

There is a lot of talk out there about "going green" - and not only for individuals, but for businesses too.  So, what does that mean exactly?  Well, it doesn't have to be as complicated as some might think.  In fact, the benefits and values that businesses gain from going green are often quite similar to those gained from running a good business.  So, what do you have to lose? 

One Arlingtonian, Jeremy Litchfield, CEO of Arlington-based Atayne, presents the case for busineses to go green in a column in the Washington Business Journal.  I encourage you...check it out...you just might look at your business in a whole new way. 

National Public Health Week is April 7-13

More and more people are ‘taking their green to work’.  People refuse to check their morals and beliefs at the door and are helping business take the lead on climate change. 

Also, businesses are finding that incorporating sustainability practices can save them money, reduce liability, increase the health and wellbeing of occupants, and raise employee performance.

National Public Health Week is April 7-13 and it is the perfect time to look at the connection between climate change, health, and your place of employment.  We spend 90% of our time indoors, and 40% of Greenhouse Gas emissions result from commercial office buildings.  That is the largest segment of emissions in Arlington, not transportation surprisingly. 

Sometimes greenhouse gas reduction, office greening, and occupant heath can be a rather nebulous idea.  We don’t walk behind buildings and cough from their emissions like you might behind an idling truck.  Rather, your air quality is directly impacted by your energy use in your office through your airshed.  That means that coal fired power plants upwind from you actually cause degraded living conditions and cause increased extraction of natural resources for fuel due to your offices consumption.

Here are a few tips for your office to get you moving in the right direction to do your part!

1. Form a green team and set organizational goals
2. Evaluate your current practices (bulk purchasing, recycling, energy conservation, water conservation, etc).  These can save you money!
3. Create an action plan.
4. Dive in!

To learn about the Fresh AIRE business partner program please email:  climate@arlingtonva.us

First Green (UMC) Church in Arlington

On January 26, the church council of Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church voted to become part of the Green Church Initiative of the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church. Mt. Olivet UMC is the first United Methodist Church in Arlington to make this declaration and the second in the state of Virginia -- a state with more than 1,200 UMCs. The church spent more than a year discerning how it would meet the requirements in the areas of worship, education, church/individual lifestyle, and outreach.

As a member of Mt. Olivet myself, and an active member on the environmental stewardship committee, I was thrilled and proud. And it's an exciting decision, too, because the annoucement aligns with the County's goal (through the FreshAIRE program) of having businesses and organizations to commit to making “green” progress in the areas of energy efficiency, green building, transit use, and recycling.

Here’s just a sampling of what Mt. Olivet did in different areas:

CHURCH LIFESTYLE: Conducted an audit of energy use of the church’s facilities; conducted an audit of water use; replaced many of church bulbs with CFLs or other energy efficient fixtures; installed automatic switches on lights in bathrooms and some rooms; achieved Wildlife Habitat Certification; used biodegradable paper cups (Ecotainers) for coffee; promoted members bringing their own coffee cups; used fair-trade, shade-grown, organic coffee for coffee; surveyed how members come to church and promoted walking, public transit, riding the church bus to church and carpooling; hosted our first-ever Bike to Church Day (see photo).

WORSHIP: Included prayers for the environment in the weekly prayer bulletin; promoted electronic giving as a way of reducing paper; printed bulletin on 30% recycled paper;  recycled all bulletins and paper, and included bulletin “blurbs” on how to become more ecologically responsible.

CHURCH EDUCATION: Used an environmental theme for children’s vacation bible school; developed material for mission teams on links between global warming and hurricane strength; held Sunday School lessons on mountain top removal, not using water bottles, using public transit, and buying fair trade/organic cocoa

CHURCH OUTREACH: Showed “Inconvenient Truth” to church and community; developed a partnership with Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment; identified environmental activities to be a part of church youth outreach; developed a process to promote “non-partisan” letter writing or petitions to government officials on the environment; hosted women’s retreat on “Greening the Church “and provided a meatless meal using mostly locally produced organic products; and sold compact fluorescent bulbs and canvas bags at alternative gifts fair.

--Jennifer K. Smith
Arlington County