Local Actions for Global Challenges
Having watched efforts to push climate legislation at the Federal level fizzle, some decided the time just wasn’t right to push for legislation. Oregon-based non-profit Our Children’s Trust decided instead to take a different approach. They re-cast the issue of control of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from being an international obligation, to an issue personal [...]
Today, April 22nd, 2011, is Earth Day. Earth Day was established in the spirit of the populist protests of the 1960s, providing a common day for people to stand up, walk out of work (the first Earth Day was scheduled for a Wednesday to achieve maximum effect), and to demand action to clean up the [...]
With gas prices at or above $4 a gallon these days, many of us are revisiting ways to stretch our fuel budgets. News articles abound with recommendations for how to increase the Miles Per Gallon (MPG) you get from your vehicle, but what really works? After much surfing around news and auto websites, and even [...]
On April 5th, the Edmonds City Council voted to move forward with the leasing of the Frances Anderson Center roof for the installation of a solar power array. This agreement will permit the Edmonds Community Solar project to move forward with their plan to install an array of up to 75kW on the roof of the building, [...]
Sustainable Edmonds Board Member Chris Herman was interviewed by MyEdmondsNews.com regarding the Edmonds Community Solar Project. The Project agreement with the City of Edmonds is on the Edmonds City Council agenda for this Tuesday, 3/22/2011, at 7pm, at the Public Safety Complex in Edmonds. Do you support the idea of installing Community Solar? If so, [...]
Each year, community and environmental groups from across Washington State come together to agree on a short list of environmental action priorities. The list is always long, but in order to be effective, it has to be rounded down to a select few issues. For 2011, there are FOUR environmental priorities: Budget solutions for [...]
The NY Times reported on 1/20/2011 that the US Congress is considering cutting the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program (EECBG), as a budget-cutting measure. The surprise is that mayors across the country have risen up in defense of the program, citing major savings from the projects funded by EECBG funds. What have EECBG [...]
(Excerpt from the B.C. website, The Tyee) Green buildings have earned a reputation for being large, complicated and absurdly expensive. This is particularly true in Vancouver, where taxpayers are still forking out millions of dollars a month in interest payments on the world’s first LEED Platinum neighbourhood — the 2010 Olympic Village. But this reputation [...]
Sustainable Edmonds, in partnership with Tangerine Power, is announcing the Edmonds Community Solar Cooperative (ECSC). ECSC is developing up to a 75kW solar array on The Frances Anderson Center. You can become a cooperative member of ECSC, and purchase a slice of a solar power system that will be constructed on the roof of the [...]
Just as it takes energy to provide water, it also takes water to provide energy. Roughly 89% of U.S. electricity is produced in thermoelectric plants—plants that use a heat source such as coal or nuclear fission to produce steam, which spins a turbine that generates electricity. Water is used to create the steam, and then more water is used to cool that steam and condense it back into water. Averaged nationally, thermoelectric plants use 0.47 gallons of water for each kWh of electricity produced, according to a 2003 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) paper (see “Save Energy to Save Water,” Hydropower, which accounts for 9% of U.S. generation, consumes a lot more water because of evaporation from reservoirs.
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