Solar farm lets investors buy panels

From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Delavan - Welcome to the field where sun power and the sunflower meet.

Well, not just one sunflower. More like thousands. And not just one solar panel, either. Thousands there, too.

Convergence Energy of Lake Geneva is building one of the largest solar projects in the state, and the first that allows individual investors to buy a stake in the project.

The Convergence Energy Solar Farm began construction last year on 14 acres near Dan Osborn's wholesale nursery.

The idea, said Steve Johnson, vice president of business development, is to provide a green-power investment opportunity for people who live in a condo or have too much shade to make solar power workable on their own home's roof.

By the time it's finished this year, it will be the second-largest solar project in Wisconsin, after Epic Systems' corporate campus solar project in Verona.

But instead of being developed by one large company, this project is being built, piece by piece, as investors take a stake in the project.

"It's a way for a small investor to have a part in it all," said investor Dave Smith of Libertyville, Ill. "When you live in a town home like I do, there's nothing you can really do."

Read more »

Great news from Clean Technica

How is this for a headline:

Responding to a Trillion-Dollar Call to Retrofit Buildings

Here is some great and positive reading, including a report on reducing energy use in the Empire State Building by 40 %, and seeing a trillion dollar investment in retrofitting buildings into similar savings of money and carbon, while, hopefully, creating a 1000's of new jobs for the green economy.

Read more here:  : http://cleantechnica.com/2011/09/28/responding-to-a-trillion-dollar-call-to-retrofit-buildings/

"The serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson brought to life an international need and business opportunity centered on thermally upgrading existing buildings, the world’s biggest users of energy. NYC’s Empire State Building was able to reduce its energy use by 40%, saving ~$400,000/year thanks to a retrofit. Sir Richard founded the “Carbon War Room” based in Washington D.C. to unite international entrepreneurs, business leaders, researchers, policy experts, thinkers, to focus on solutions, not rhetoric, in efforts to tangibly combat climate change while creating 1000’s of “green” jobs.

One game-changer leveraging Sir Richard’s vision is a LEED-rated composite which is many times stronger than concrete but is 80% lighter in weight. Positherm (PT) has ballistic properties, is water-, insect-, hailstone- and hurricane-resistant, but has thermal properties akin in part to NASA Space Shuttle tiles. PT is a multi-billion dollar global economic and environmental opportunity to make a difference..."

The serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson brought to life an international need and business opportunity centered on thermally upgrading existing buildings, the world’s biggest users of energy. NYC’s Empire State Building was able to reduce its energy use by 40%, saving ~$400,000/year thanks to a retrofit. Sir Richard founded the “Carbon War Room” based in Washington D.C. to unite international entrepreneurs, business leaders, researchers, policy experts, thinkers, to focus on solutions, not rhetoric, in efforts to tangibly combat climate change while creating 1000’s of “green” jobs.
One game-changer leveraging Sir Richard’s vision is a LEED-rated composite which is many times stronger than concrete but is 80% lighter in weight. Positherm (PT) has ballistic properties, is water-, insect-, hailstone- and hurricane-resistant, but has thermal properties akin in part to NASA Space Shuttle tiles. PT is a multi-billion dollar global economic and environmental opportunity to make a difference.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13me0)

The serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson brought to life an international need and business opportunity centered on thermally upgrading existing buildings, the world’s biggest users of energy. NYC’s Empire State Building was able to reduce its energy use by 40%, saving ~$400,000/year thanks to a retrofit. Sir Richard founded the “Carbon War Room” based in Washington D.C. to unite international entrepreneurs, business leaders, researchers, policy experts, thinkers, to focus on solutions, not rhetoric, in efforts to tangibly combat climate change while creating 1000’s of “green” jobs.
One game-changer leveraging Sir Richard’s vision is a LEED-rated composite which is many times stronger than concrete but is 80% lighter in weight. Positherm (PT) has ballistic properties, is water-, insect-, hailstone- and hurricane-resistant, but has thermal properties akin in part to NASA Space Shuttle tiles. PT is a multi-billion dollar global economic and environmental opportunity to make a difference.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13me0)

Read more »

Listen to Positive Energy Moving Forward WARL - 1320 AM Providence, RI

Listen to Positive Energy Moving Forward WARL - 1320 AM Providence, RI

And you will hear our show, Renewable Now.


Also, coming in November, a new, one-hour live, call-in Renewable Now show weekly on 1320 WARL/Providence.

Read more »

New show tomorrow streaming live at 10a and 4p, EST

Enjoy the show:

Read more »

Milwaukee Electric Vehicle Meeting - Sunday, Oct. 9th in Milwaukee

I'm sending this out to you as an invite to the first ever official meeting of the Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Association! (WiEVA)

The meeting will be held at:
Milwaukee Makerspace
3073 S. Chase Ave, Bldg 34
Milwaukee, WI 53207

On Sunday, October 9th at 1:00 PM.

The Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Association is a chapter of the Electric Auto Association, whose goal is to promote electric vehicles through education, and help owners and drivers of electric cars connect with each other. We are just starting up, and want to become THE state-wide organization for those interested in electric vehicles and clean transportation. If you are interested in a Chevy Volt, NIssan Leaf, or are already DRIVING your own electric car, we want to hear from you!

The Milwaukee Electric Car Club is an informal group of guys in the greater Milwaukee area who get together to convert their own vehicles to electric. They already meet at the Milwaukee Makerspace, so we are piggly-backing on when of the days when their members are in working on their cars. Those coming out to the meeting are welcome to arrive early and stay late to visit with Milwaukee Electric Car Club members, and take a look at their vehicles. They typically meet from 10AM to 4PM for electric car work.

If you are getting this e-mail, then you have already expressed interest in electric vehicles at an event such as the MREA, Green Drive Expo, EcoFair 360, or other event we have already been displaying vehicles at.

We would like to have as many electric vehicles at our meeting as possible. So, if you have an electric car, truck, scooter, motorcycle, lawn mower, Chevy Volt, or other vehicle you would like to s how off, bring it out. If you are interested in buying or selling an electric vehicle, or converting your own, this will be the place for you as well. If you know what Electrathon is, or have ever wanted to drag-race a "PowerWheels", come on out! Electric Vehicle Dealers WELCOME!

If at all possible, please bring your electric vehicle with you. If you can make it, but can't bring your EV, please bring photos or any other information you have on it. We will also have computers and internet access for anyone who wants to show off any web content about their vehicle.

We hope to do a round-robin of introductions, do a little general education on EVs, and show off a number of different vehicles, with informal tours by their builders. We'll have some snacks and beverages there for you as well!

Please tell anyone else you think would be interested in this event about it. If you are on an eco or transportation mailing list, please share it with your other members.

While this meeting will be held in Milwaukee, we hope to hold meetings in other locations around the state in the future. We need your help deciding how to make our organization as useful as possible to members, and educating the general public.

I genuinely hope that you can make it!

See you there,

Ben Nelson
Member:
EAA, Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Association, Milwaukee Makerspace
ben@hdvideoguy.com
414-403-0021

PS: It's worth coming out just to see the Milwaukee Makerspace - a collaborative creative workshop concept making amazing real-world projects. See their web page for directions to the Makerspace, its members, and projects. If you receive a duplicate of this e-mail, my apologies, I am a member of several mailing lists that have overlapping memberships. If you received this message in error, let me know, and I'll remove you from my list. Also, plenty of parking there, and smaller vehicles, motorcycles, and convertibles can be parked inside in case of poor weather.

Read more »

Thanks, again, to Sipa in DC

For sending us more material for the blog.  Keep up the good work, Sipa, and we encourage everyone to contribute, as you contribute, we hope, to a cleaner, more efficient world:

First story and link:  

Carbon War Room-Brokered Consortium Set to Unlock Multi-Billion Dollar Global Commercial Property Retrofit Market

Ygrene Energy Fund-led PACE Commercial Consortium launches first $650 million retrofit package for commercial property in Miami-Dade County, Florida and Sacramento, California

Sept. 19, 2011, 7:00 p.m. EDT

MarketWatch

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/carbon-war-room-brokered-consortium-set-to-unlock-multi-billion-dollar-global-commercial-property-retrofit-market-2011-09-19

Part of the story:

"NEW YORK, Sep 19, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Carbon War Room, an independent non-profit, founded by Sir Richard Branson, that harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to unlock gigaton solutions to climate change, announced today the launch of a new consortium that will unlock billions of dollars of investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies for US commercial real estate.

The PACE Commercial Consortium (PCC) integrates the program management and engineering best practices of Lockheed Martin, the financial sophistication of Barclays Capital and the pioneering insurance partnership of Energi and HannoverRe in an end-to-end solution administered by the team's leader, Ygrene Energy Fund."

In today's business world, how often do you hear "unlocking billions of dollars of investment"?  Personally, I have not heard that in a long time, but I applaud The Carbon War Room for leading the commercial real estate market into a sustainable future.  Wonderful investment.

Also, take a look at this:

New Report Shows U.S. Solar Outpaces Global Market: PV Demand Grows 69 Percent Year-Over-Year

September 20, 2011

Solar Energy Industries Association

http://www.seia.org/cs/news_detail?pressrelease.id=1592

Part of the story:

"BOSTON and WASHINGTON - The U.S. solar energy industry continued its rapid growth through the second quarter of this year, gaining a greater share of the total global market according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)'s latest quarterly U.S. Solar Market Insight report.


Leading the way was the U.S. solar photovoltaics (PV) market, which installed 314 megawatts in the second quarter, 69 percent more than the same period last year and 17 percent more than the first quarter of 2011. The U.S. remains poised to install 1,750 megawatts of PV in 2011, double last year's total and enough to power 350,000 homes.


"The second quarter data illustrates that the U.S. solar industry continues to be one of the fastest growing in America," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA. "More than 100,000 Americans are employed in solar, twice as many as in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies - the vast majority being small businesses - across all 50 states"


How is it, then, that some of the major solar providers in the US, with great technology and backing from the US Government, fail and collapse into bankruptcy?  Great news on the expansion of our use of solar--very bad news on the business side of manufacturers being much less sustainable than their products.  Why?

We will be looking more closely at both stories on future shows very soon.

Send us your comments, though, in the meantime.

Read more »

New 100kW Turbine Dedicated Sunday near Random Lake

from an article in The Sounder, September 22, 2011

An open house and dedication will be part of Sunday’s program to dedicate the 100-kilowatt wind turbine on the Preder farm west of Random Lake. The wind turbine was erected jointly by the Jeff and Kathy Preder family, and the Ed and Stephenie Ritger family, who are neighbors living on County Rd. I.
Sunday’s open house from 1-4 p.m. will have exhibits about renewable energy, tower inspections, farm tours and light refreshments. Among the exhibitors will be the Lakeshore Technical College wind energy program and the Random Lake High School Science Club. The 2 p.m. dedication ceremony will include a talk about the theology of environmental stewardship by Fr. Ed Eschweiler. Among his writings is the prayer, “Beatitudes for Stewards of Earth,” and the book, “Celebrating God’s Good Earth in Prayer, Discussion & Action.”
There will be comments by elected officials, including Cong. Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac) and State Rep. Dan LeMahieu (R-Cascade). Northern Power Systems of Barre, Vermont, will give a jobs report. Visitors can park at the Preder Farm, N254 County Rd. I, west of Random Lake.
The turbine is expected to produce all the electrical power needed to run the Preder household and the farming operation with enough electricity left over to power 12 to 15 additional homes. That additional power will be sold to the We Energies utility.

Read more »

Thanks to Sipa in Washington DC

For alerting us to this story, which clearly falls squarely on the  business side of green:

The link:  http://www.prisonplanet.com/ba-faces-e50m-bill-for-carbon-emissions.html

Part of the article:


BA faces €50m bill for carbon emissions

Pilita Clark
Financial Times

Sept 19, 2011

"British Airways faces a bill of nearly €50m, the highest of any airline, when carriers around the world are brought into the European Union’s carbon emissions trading scheme next year, a new study estimates.

But BA and other large European carriers will face a relatively smaller burden than their rivals in the US and China, because they should get an average of 81 per cent of the carbon allowances needed under the scheme for free. The Chinese and American carriers will only get an average of up to 64 per cent, says the report by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, the energy research firm.

The airline industry’s total bill is expected to be €1.1bn ($1.5bn) at today’s carbon prices, the study says. The whole sector may only make a $4bn profit this year, the International Air Transport Association has forecast."


We know, ultimately, these fees get passed to us in airline ticket prices.  The question becomes, does this become enough of an incentive for BA to invest in newer planes or modifications of their current fleet to improve fuel performance and reduce their carbon footprint--which would be a win-win for us and the environment.


We did a show with Cape Air, a wonderful, full-service airlines, serving many different routes, and they made positive changes, as described on the show, in their fleet, buildings and with their employees to become a very green airline.  Let's see BA and others do the same.

Read more »

An easy, positive change for the environment anyone can do/Weekend Edition

How is this for a very simple step on combing saving money and energy:  From Environmental Leader:

P&G to Advocate Coldwater Washing to 100m US Homes

"Procter & Gamble Company has pledged to launch an information blitz on 100 million U.S. homes aimed at promoting coldwater clothes washing.

In partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy, and through its Tide brand and Future Friendly conservation education campaign, P&G wants to provide the households with the information needed to convert from warm and hot water laundry habits to cold water washing by Earth Day 2013.

This campaign, launched at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York, is part of P&G’s corporate sustainability goal of converting 70 percent of total global washing machine loads to cold water washing by 2020.

About three quarters of the energy used and greenhouse gasses emitted when washing a load comes from heating the water, the New York Times recently reported.

Research released earlier this month showed that, despite many detergents working perfectly well in coldwater, most consumers are wary of using the cold cycle when washing their clothes. Sales figures from Henkel – the German company that markets coldwater specific detergents – showed sales for their products declined 16 percent in the last year in the U.S., despite many people trying to cut costs during the recession, the paper reports.

According to P&G studies about 7 percent of white laundry loads are done in cold water and 57 percent of “darks”, the paper reported."

We hope you'll join in now in making the switch to cold water and feel even better about putting on those clean clothes.

Read more »

Germantown company erects 100 ft Wisconsin-built wind turbine

From an article on ControlDesign.com:

It was like the Egyptian obelisk going up in “The 10 Commandments,” only it was a lot faster, and the slaves were replaced by portable hydraulics. Oh, and there was a 32 ft diameter fan at the top.

This was the scene on a sunny, early-September afternoon as Wago installed a 100 ft tall wind turbine next to its U.S. headquarters in Germantown, Wis. And, as if the gleaming white tower wasn’t impressive enough, it was “tipped up” in an amazing 8-10 minutes by a portable hydraulic unit hooked up right next to the tower. After that, it took only another 15 minutes to bolt down the tower, hook up its electronics, and get it spinning in the breeze of Wisconsin’s famous “dairy air.”

Capable of generating 20 kW for Wago’s multi-function facility, the small-scale, commercial-grade VP-20 turbine was built by Renewegy in nearby Oshkosh, Wis. The turbine employs Wago’s 787 Series power supplies, 756 Series cables/connectors, 288 Series fuse blocks and backup capacitor module.

The wind turbine’s initial cost was $80,000, but state and federal incentives allow Wago to reduce its bill by about $35,000. Other VP-20s have been installed at SCA Tissue in Neenah, Wis., and at the North Texas Job Corp Center in McKinney, Texas. Renewegy reports that it can install single 20 kW units on farms, 40 kW dual units to serve schools, and 100 kW five-unit systems for small wind farms and commercial applications.

Read more »

From Eco Geek: Computer Energy Efficiency Doubles Every 18 Months

Good news on the computer front:  Not only is their weight, capability and versatility improving at a rapid rate, they are also using half the power, saving us all significant money on energy, as new models get introduced.  How is that for a great ROI?

The link to the story: http://www.ecogeek.org/efficiency/3590.

Part of the story: " A new study done by an engineering professor at Stanford University has found that the energy efficiency of computers doubles roughly every 18 months, and has done so since the very first general purpose computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) that was built in 1956.


With help from Intel and Microsoft, Professor Jonathan Koomey was able to gather information about computing devices from 1956 until now and with this new finding, Koomey is revising and improving Moore's law -- the observation that computer processing power doubles every 18 months.  Fortunately, the things that contribute to that power improvement (reducing component size, capacitance and communication time between them) also increase energy efficiency."

So, more good reasons, assuming the old units are properly recycled and reused, to update our computer equipment.  Our kudos to the computer industry for doing more with less.


Now, other industries need to catch up to this level of efficiency.  Bring about lots of happy customers, and a lot of happy environmentalist hoping to reduce their carbon footprint.

Read more »

Natural Gas: Energy, Economics and the Envronment

Thank you to Jack Gregg, of EVUIS, who has helped us track the on-going story of gas leaks from pipes buried under cities around the world.  Here is a great update from Boston:

Lost and Unaccounted Natural Gas: Energy, Economics, and Environment

"University researchers and partners have found hundreds of natural gas leaks in Greater Boston having conducted a mobile greenhouse gas audit earlier this year. At the same time, environmental and economic costs of lost and unaccounted gas from extraction in rural areas are coming under increasing scrutiny. Such gas leaks contribute to greenhouse warming potential; amounts to about $2 billion per year in US lost revenue; and have been implicated in damage and mortality of the urban and suburban forest canopy. Evidence indicates that the situation in Boston is likely similar to cities and towns across the nation.

The purpose of this workshop is to explore and create awareness around “the unknown” – the extent – the cause – the locations – the how – of these methane gas leaks; to explore rural- urban environmental and economic interdependencies surrounding the natural gas resource and industry; and develop a consensus on a research strategy to address these findings. Leaders from government, research, citizens, utilities and private sector will gather to share information and brainstorm next steps."

Clearly, this story cuts to the heart of the business side of green, our focus:  lost revenue, contribution to greenhouse warming, and the destruction of our urban and suburban forest canopy.  What is the financial balance between finding and fixing these leaks, and that costs, versus leaving them as is?  Can we come together and capture these gases into proper use while stopping the pernicious leaking of gas into our city's neighborhoods?

We will focus a show on this story but, in the meantime, stay tuned for updates.

We'd love to hear your comments.

Read more »

Sorry we did not get this posted sooner

We broadcast live a new show today, with Joe Loberti, which ran live at 10a and 4p.  Sorry for the late notice on this, but it will now move to on-demand and you can, and should view the show anytime.

Joe is a former executive with APC, a phenomenal tech success story, and is hard at work finding and nurturing the next great tech company.  Who will that be?  Tune in and found out.

Read more »

From RI Eco News

Some disturbing news today from a very good, on-line newspaper:

Dead Zones are Killing Ocean Ecosystems

Here's part of the story and the link: http://www.ecori.org/front-page-journal/2011/9/19/dead-zones-are-killing-ocean-ecosystems.html

By JESSICA WURZBACHER/special to ecoRI News

"A dead zone is an area of an ocean that has too little oxygen to support marine life; it’s hypoxic. This is a natural phenomenon that has been increasing in shallow coastal and estuarine areas as a result of human activities.

Eutrophication is an increase in nutrients in the water, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen. Human activities have resulted in the near doubling of nitrogen and tripling of phosphorus flows to the environment when compared to natural values. Sources of nutrients in coastal waters include lawn fertilizers, agricultural manure, sewage discharges and stormwater.

“Dead zones” are the most severe result of eutrophication. This dramatic increase in previously limited nutrients causes massive algal blooms. These harmful blooms can cause fish kills, human illness through shellfish poisoning, and the death of marine mammals and shore birds. This population explosion is unsustainable, and eventually dies off, as they block out the light and use up all the oxygen. The algae sink to the bottom, and bacterial decomposition uses the remaining oxygen from the water."

Easy to predict the economic consequences of fish kills, human illness through shellfish and the death of marine mammals and shore birds.  Our failure, in this case, to protect our water systems has poisoned part of the local economy, too.

We encourage you to reduce your use of fertilizers and pesticides, and to think carefully about everything you put into the ground as it all, ultimately, ends up seeping into our drainage, sewers and rain runoff.  

On past shows, we've highlighted good farming techniques, and maybe we can do the same with home and commercial landscaping.  There is a better way.

Read more »

Lake Country Moving to Solar, Saturday, Sept. 24

We are having a "Lake Country Moving to Solar" bash at Lake Country Unitarian Universalist Church, W299N5595 Grace Drive in Hartland from noon to 4 this Saturday, celebrating our 19.68 kW solar PV system which came on-line last month. We are having speakers INCLUCING MICHAEL VICKERMAN, musicians, tours of the solar installation and community garden on the premises, solar tea and other snacks, informational tables including a petition to Obama, Kohl, and Johnson to Move Away from Fossil Fuels, and children's activities. We will have preferred parking for bikes and hi-mpg vehicles!

Hope you all can make it to this. Call me (Gerry Flakas) at 262-646-2703 if you have any questions.

Read more »

Great e-waste event coming up at Arpin in Oct

We are happy to share news on great events that help the environment and the local economy.  Take a look at this:

"We are happy to announce our newest, biggest event to collect e-waste and approved hazardous waste material, batteries and lots of shredding to protect people identity.  Whether you or someone you know helps sponsor this fun, heavily promoted event, everyone can come that day and bring us electronics, batteries and lots of other materials to properly dispose of and keep out of our landfill, while helping to raise lots of money to keep people warm this winter.

One valuable element of the company-sponsored e-waste event, is that those businesses can bring their e-waste, shredding and approved hazardous waste, no charge, but also get their employees to do the same.  Also, employees and their families, particularly their children who have community service requirements through school, can come work the event that day. 

Companies can display on site that day at Cardi's, which will be our host location for banners, information, refreshments, displays and much more.

Arpin is a major supporter of Artic Mission which is one of the true, grass-roots groups that gets people through difficult transitions and back on their feet.  We are a group that is run by entrepreneurs who give people hand ups, not handouts.  We are on our way to creating our own enterprises that will self-fund most of our growth.

This is truly a business man's non-profit--focused on Corporate social responsibility with economic growth and a transformation of one of the State's most depressed areas--West Warwick.

We have packaged great value into the e-waste fest, and offering that event for free to those annual corporate sponsors.  Again, we deliver tremendous value back to sponsors, with lots of radio, PR, print, posters, on-site visibility, etc, rather than asking for a simple donation.  For companies and estates/trust that like positive PR, this is a great series of events to affiliate with.

We appreciate any help you can give, including promotion and visibility through your contacts, social media and affiliated web sites. Let's get the word out and fill the industrial park that day and raise lots of money for keeping people warm this winter.  And please contact me right away as a corporate sponsor so I can make sure you get proper credit and get a head start on all the activities.  I also want to reserve a spot for you at the Cardi's parking lot if you are planning on setting up a table that day."

Here's more, including contact information.  Also, you can contact them though us to volunteer or sponsor:

THE ARTIC MISSION
The Artic Mission is a non-profit, 501c3

volunteer organization working to

improve the quality of life for the underresourced

and homeless of West

Warwick, RI. The Mission helps clients

overcome addiction, improve general

life skills, and find job and housing

opportunities.

Recently, the Mission has experienced a

tremendous reduction in donations and

grants. With the winter months fast

approaching and Rhode Island’s

unemployment rate hovering at recordsetting

levels, we anticipate the requests

for heating assistance will be at an alltime

high.

To ensure that we can continue to help

those in need, the Mission will be

hosting an e-waste recycling collection

and document shredding fundraising

event on October 22, 2011. The event

will be held at the West Warwick

Industrial Park campus, 99 James P.

Murphy Highway, West Warwick, RI,

from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. All

donations collected will benefit the

Artic Mission’s Heating Assistance Fund.

Currently, we are

seeking corporate

sponsors to help us

promote the event.

With a donation of

$250, your business

will enjoy premium

exposure at this highprofile

event

including:

❖ Special mention as

a participating

sponsor on radio and TV ads.

❖ Logo placement on T-shirts and the

Artic Mission’s website.

❖ Prominent signage at the event with

optional sponsor display space.

All donations made to the Artic Mission

are tax deductible.

We welcome your consideration of this

request. Should you need additional

information, please contact Charlie

Nault by calling (401) 828-9400 or via

email at cnault@the articmission.org.

Read more »

Veterans and farming Sierra Club Magazine/Weekend Edition

Great article in the Sierra Club magazine (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201109/act.aspx) on veterans coming home, even those injured in the war, and becoming local farmers.

Ironically, the Providence Journal covered the same story today.  We will be doing a show on this, and invite anyone out there, a veteran, organization or farmer who is part of this movement to please get in touch and be part of this heart-warming story.

Here's part of it:

 "A young veteran called us up last week from North Carolina. He had just bought 50 acres of land. He told us both of his legs had been ripped off in the war, but they'd been reattached, and now he was ready to farm. He's a perfect candidate for our program.

"I've worked in the organic-farming industry for 40 years. I visited New York not long after 9/11 and came across the statue of a guy beating his sword into a plowshare, and a lightbulb went off in my head. In 2007 I talked to some Northern California farmers about creating jobs for returning veterans. From the beginning, there's been something so positive about the concept. It transcends politics.

"We do everything from introducing veterans to agricultural careers to helping them establish their own farms. Early on, I would go out and help vets plant and weed their fields.

"This project grew out of the organic-farming industry, but we don't overemphasize that part. A lot of the veterans we work with grew up on family farms, and we're not about to tell them that their dad's not farming properly. These veterans are getting into farming because they are attracted to nature. They are looking for something healthy and peaceful.

"One of the first vets we worked with had been injured in a mortar blast and had to relearn to walk and talk. Now he has his own blueberry farm. He's made the entire place wheelchair accessible and has started training other vets to farm. I've seen so many veterans come to our program with debilitating injuries and go on to thrive.

"These kids have chosen to do the two most difficult things in our society, and a lot of them aren't even 30 years old. They volunteered to go to war, and now they're coming back and saying, 'I'll take on feeding the country.' As a group, they're amazingly strong." —interview by Wendy Becktold

This is a fantastic story, and a perfect blend of ecological and economic social benefits.  We applaud every vet, every farmer, every supporter for inspiring us.

Please share this story and offer your support with comments back to us.

We love sharing good news, and will let you know when the show airs.  

Read more »

Dunkin Donuts' 4-Step Solution to Brewing Energy Efficiency

Coffee lovers rejoice:  One of the big players, very popular in Eastern US, is taking a step towards a sustainable future by reducing its use of energy to brew its coffee.  Interesting, as you read their story, they became very motivated "After observing the success of EDF Climate Corps fellows at other companies, executives at Dunkin' Donuts believed energy efficiency could mean potential savings for their own company as well."

We love this statement as it is our goal to motivate you through sharing other success stories.  Whether you are an individual, non-profit or business, there is, in our view, plenty of room to make a good economic decision that will benefit the environment as well, and you can see and hear that through our many shows.


Here's part of the story: " Freshly brewed cups of coffee are sold to millions of faithful American guests that flock to Dunkin Donuts' doors daily. The company's culinary and operational recipes have proven to be quite successful: already a Northeast staple, Dunkin' Donuts is continuing to extend its presence across the rest of the United States. Excitement at the company runs particularly high nowadays, in response to its recent and successful IPO


...But it gets trickier when you consider that Dunkin' Donuts, as a franchisor, owns virtually none of the Dunkin' Donuts stores. The corporate parent owns only a handful of actual restaurants. Instead, individual franchisees own each of the nearly 6,700 Dunkin' Donuts stores in the U.S. So even if Dunkin' Donuts were to identify very financially attractive energy efficiency investments, these investments would not be undertaken unless franchisees (the actual store owners) became interested enough to implement and pay for the projects on their own.

How can a franchisor convince franchisees that an energy efficiency project is worth the investment? Below are some recommendations from my work to-date regarding franchisee engagement and benchmarking:"

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/09/16/dunkin-donuts-4-step-solution-brewing-energy-efficiency

Now, Dunkin Donuts needs to find a non-Styrofoam cup to serve.  They are killing our landfill.  If you can, please switch to a reusable cup so you, too, can stop the flood of cups that cannot be reused or recycled.

The link to finish the story:   

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Port of Milwaukee Gets "OK" for Wind Turbine Project

From an article by Tom Held and Thomas Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A project to build a wind turbine adjacent to the Port of Milwaukee's administration building will move forward after a contractor agreed to increase its use of businesses owned by minorities or women.

The Board of Harbor Commissioners gave the project a go-ahead at a meeting Wednesday morning. The board had delayed action on the contract last month because of concerns about participation levels of minority and female-owned businesses.

"We're excited to see this project move forward and we're glad that the issues the board raised were able to be resolved successfully," said Matt Howard, the city's environmental sustainability director.

The low bidder on the project, Kettle View Renewable Energy of Random Lake, offered to boost minority hiring on the project in order to keep the project on track. The vote to approve the $520,922 contract was unanimous.

Construction of a foundation is expected to start in the coming weeks, with the tower and turbine to be installed in the spring.

The 154-foot turbine would be located just north of the port administration building on South Lincoln Memorial Drive, west of the Lake Express ferry terminal.

Kettle View was the low bidder among five firms that submitted proposals for the project.

As proposed, a combination of $400,000 in federal renewable-energy stimulus money and grants of up to $100,000 each from the state Focus on Energy Program and We Energies would pay for the wind turbine.

The turbine for the project would be made in Vermont by Northern Power Systems. Kettle View is considering a Wisconsin contractor for the turbine tower, said Erick Shambarger of the city's environmental sustainability office.

The project aims to demonstrate the city's commitment to clean energy and provide more than enough electricity to meet the needs of the port administration building.

The wind turbine that the city selected is less than half the height of a utility-scale wind turbine, such as those erected in Fond du Lac County in recent years.

It's shorter than the Bay View Terrace condominium tower along the lake, but taller than the small turbines that are outside the Discovery World museum.

It would generate enough electricity over a year's time to power up to 15 typical homes.

The city is forecasting savings on utilities plus energy-related revenues totaling $14,000 to $20,000 a year.

The turbine that's planned for the site is the same model as those built in recent years around the state, at Wausau East High School, the Fort Atkinson campus of Madison Area Technical College and the Village of Cascade in Sheboygan County.

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Carbon Day

We are heading to Boston today for this event at Copley Square.  Please join us if you can.

We are shooting interviews with many of the organizers and exhibitors who will be showing products and ideas for reducing carbon output.  We will be editing into a great, one-hour show that we will release later this year.

Our major goal, though, is to bring this event to as many cities as possible and, ultimately, have Carbon Day celebrated (right now, to our knowledge, it is Chicago and Boston only) in every state.  Then we can help coordinate a moment of carbon reduction that can be synced across America and, ideally, across the world.

Can you help us do this?  Again, this is not a belief/non-belief in global warming.  We'll leave that to others.  Our mantra is simply let's enjoy the many benefits of reducing emissions and cleaning our air.  An international celebration of Carbon Day would be a wonderful start.


Here is the link:  http://carbonday.com/media/join-us-in-copley-square-for-an-open-air-event-showcasing-electric-vehicles-and-public-information-on-wednesday-september-15th-copley-square-%E2%80%93-back-bay-on-the-boylston-street-side-of-copley/

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UW Milwaukee Receives Top Dollar Gov. Grant for Energy Program

The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee was awarded 1.5 million dollars from the DOE (Department of Energy) in order to continue to train under-graduate and graduate level engineering students to become future leaders in industrial energy efficiency. The award is part of a larger 30 million dollar DOE grant given to 24 universities across the county, who currently are leaders in this field. The money will be used to set up an assessment center where students will be able to learn, though working with larger corporations and smaller businesses, how to reduce energy waste and save money through energy efficiency. The money will be given to UW Milwaukee in installments over the next 5 years. Energy Secretary Steven Chu thinks this will open the door to new jobs in this ever growing industry.

Other universities receiving the grant

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We look forward to having you as part of the show today

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Dear Peter, Tomorrow is the date for ReNewable Now's first LIVE event, and you can be a part of it by going to ReNewable Now. PLEASE BE AWARE the show is from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m EST. This is an interactive show where you, our audience, are encouraged to participate by not only asking questions, but also providing ideas. Our goal for ReNewable Now is to help increase awareness of the business side of green and to hopefully see our country engage this new economy. It is through effective group forums such as this, that we hope to enlighten people to the potential that exists. We also encourage you to tell others about this forum and invite them to participate live, online by visiting "www.renewablenow.tv." Once there, they can submit questions via the chat room, or if they like, they can TWEET us at https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23asklinc. Our partners from "ecori News RI" will be manning our Live Social Media in the studio, and they also invite you to submit your questions for the Governor to their FACEBOOK page. We look forward to having you visit the show, and being part of it. We want to take a moment to thank our sponsor's who have shown leadership in helping to educate the public, the private sector, and also our government when it comes to understanding the green economy. "The Arpin Group" "ecoRI news" "Cardi's Furniture"

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