Community

From Durham to Sacramento, cities get help with ‘climate showcase’ projects

Retrofiting by insulating pipes in Durham, N.C.

In Durham, N.C., homes will get an energy retrofit. In Salt Lake City, they’ll develop a plan to reduce auto pollution.  In Sacramento, they’ll be improving the landscape around a river to reduce pollution runoff. And in Denver, they’ll be looking at a little bit of all that — energy efficiency for homes and businesses, bike sharing and renewable energy.

It’s all being made possible by $10 million from the EPA’s Climate Showcase Community Grants, set up to help communities develop their plans to reduce greenhouse gases and lighten their carbon footprint.

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Furman University to tap alternative ‘elliptical’ power

By Ashley Phillips

South Carolina’s Furman University, one of the schools that has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, will be using a new form of renewable energy to improve its carbon profile: Student power.

Along with other schools such as the University of Kansas and the University of Florida, Furman is going to tap the energy of exercising students (and faculty) and turn it into electricity.

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Moving beyond green buildings to build sustainable communities

By Barbara Kessler

If you had the money and connections, you could build a snappy green house these days. Sink a geothermal heat pump to tap Mother Earth’s energy, slap up some solar panels, finish it out with non-toxic drywall, cork floors, denim insulation, recycled glass countertops and floors made from sunken ship decking.

Green house (Image: Axepin/dreamstime.com)

But does a green house a green home make? The answer to that is….of course not. Green builders, and those who live in green houses, soon bump up against what some land planners have known all along: It takes a village to bring green to its fullest expression.

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NYC Pizzeria Roberta’s reuses, recycles and grows its own food

Roberta's, a no-frills pizzeria (Photo: Sommer Saadi.)

By Sommer Saadi

New Yorkers have gotten pretty good at finding new places to grow plants: rooftops in Brooklyn, abandoned rail lines in Manhattan, and now they’re conquering the tops of old shipping containers.

At least Roberta’s pizzeria in Bushwick, Brooklyn is giving it a shot. The pizzeria is housed in a former garage and tucked between rows of old, gritty warehouses and industrial factories. The wood-paneled walls match the wood picnic-styled tables, and prominently placed at the front of the restaurant is the bright red, wood-burning oven duly named Roberta.

But in the back yard is where they keep the main attraction.

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Pennsylvania man denied permission to install solar panels

By Barbara Kessler

Robert Caffro found a solar solution for his home, then acquired a problem that’s cast a cloud on his plan.

The front of Bob Caffro's house; solar panels would be on the rear roof.

Caffro’s homeowners association in his neighborhood in Chester County west of Philadelphia denied his request to install the low-profile rooftop solar panels that he’d arranged to buy at Home Depot.

The governing group sent him a letter on Jan. 5 citing this clause in the neighborhood’s rules:

“Any addition, enclosure, garage, appurtenant building, fence, wall, planting or other improvement or modification erected, placed or maintained within a Unit shall be harmonious in design with the single family residential dwelling within the Unit.”

Which left Caffro, 45, scratching his head over the meaning of the word “harmonious.”

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WWF’s Earth Hour set for March 27

From Green Right Now Reports

World Wildlife Fund announced today that Earth Hour 2010 will take place on Saturday, March 27, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with many of the nation’s most iconic landmarks dimming their lights for one hour in what is expected to be the largest call for action on climate change in history.

WWF said the initial list of U.S. landmarks taking part in the event includes Mount Rushmore, Empire State Building, the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, Harrah’s Caesar Palace and the MGM Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. New Earth Hour participants in 2010 will include Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis. Other local landmarks taking part include Atlanta’s Bank of America building and the Pike Place Market sign in Seattle.

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Want to help in Haiti? Consider these charities

By Bill Sullivan

The images from Haiti are grim, and Americans already have rushed forward with millions of dollars in donations to help the residents of the earthquake-ravaged nation.

Cell phone users can contribute $10 by texting “Haiti” to 90999; the donation will be charged to their accounts with their service providers.

Most charitable organizations have discouraged donations of clothing, contending that money is the best way to make a difference. This leaves citizens to figure out which avenues will be the best to assure that their dollars make a difference.

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Movement urges kids to get out there for a green hour

Photo: Charlie Archambault

By Ashley Phillips

In 2007, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) launched Green Hour, a campaign that encourages children to have 60 minutes of unstructured play outside. The campaign has since branched out into NWF’s “Be Out There” movement. “Be Out There” officially kicked off last October in association with the movie Where the Wild Things Are. Sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, “Be Out There” seeks to inspire and connect children with the great outdoors.

“National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There campaign engages families, schools, communities and policy makers to give back to American children what they don’t even know they’ve lost: their connection to the natural world,” said Rebecca Garland, executive director of NWF’s Connecting People with Nature.

According the NWF’s website, the average American child now spends only four to seven minutes each day playing outside. This is half the amount of time that their parents’ generation spent outdoors. The negative health risks that are associated with this change are scary; the statistics are thoroughly documented.

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Twins’ new stadium will feature water recycling system

From Green Right Now Reports

With more and more sports venues thinking green these days, Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins have opted to make a bit of environmental history when they open their new home park, Target Field, this year.

Working in conjunction with sports sponsorship agency GreenMark, Minneapolis-based Pentair will donate and install a custom-designed Rain Water Recycle System (RWRS) to capture, conserve and reuse rain water in the new facility. The system is expected to reduce the need for municipal water by over 50 percent, helping the stadium qualify for LEED certification while saving more than two million gallons of water annually.

Under a multi-year sponsorship agreement, Pentair technology will purify rain water to a level equal to or better than municipal tap water standards. The system is designed to allow the Twins to recycle and conserve water used to wash down the lower decks of the stadium and irrigate the ball field.

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U-Haul to help redistribute unwanted goods

U-Haul's Reuse Centers provide a redistribution network for gently used household items. (Photo: U-Haul)

From Green Right Now Reports

If seeing your discarded household goods, furniture, etc., headed out to the nearest landfill doesn’t make you feel so good about yourself, U-Haul offers an alternative solution.

Don’t want that old couch? A U-Haul customer or employee might. The U-Haul Reuse Program is a national initiative that provides a redistribution network for gently used household items, furniture, sporting equipment and clothing — all kinds of items that might otherwise come to a less environmentally-friendly end.

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