Greener Impact

   The Home Depot®, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, expanded its long-term commitment to the environment and sustainability by launching a national in-store, consumer compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb recycling program at all 1,973 The Home Depot locations. This free service is the first such offering made so widely available by a retailer in the United States and offers customers additional options for making environmentally conscious decisions from purchase to disposal. The Home Depot Canada launched a CFL recycling program in November, 2007.
   At each The Home Depot store, customers can simply bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk. The bulbs will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance. Read more…

Greener Impact has teamed up with ibuyeco, 100% carbon neutral car insurance provider* to offer free festival tickets this summer. 5 readers will each win a pair of tickets to the fabulous Cornbury Festival in Oxfordshire on the 5th and 6th of July 2008. Headline acts at this year’s boutique music event include KT Tunstall, Paul Simon, Beverly Knight and Crowded House.

Headline sponsor of the Cornbury Festival, ibuyeco, offers car insurance with a difference: it allows you to offset 100% of your car’s CO2 emissions* for the duration of your policy. In fact, ibuyeco has announced that it will make Cornbury 2008 even greener by offsetting up to 1,000 tonnes of the CO2 generated by visitors to the festival! For more information please visit www.ibuyeco.co.uk

This year’s event promises to be an eclectic and fun-packed weekend of music, dance and activities for adults and kids alike. Visit the ibuyeco family tent for the Funtastics, Postman Pat readings and kids singalong workshops.

For your chance to win, just answer this simple question:

What does ibuyeco offer as part of its car insurance policy?
Free fluffy dice
Pine-scented air freshener
Offsetting of 100% of your car’s CO2 emissions

To enter, send answer to info@greenerimpact.com, and write “Cornbury Festival” on the subject line.

*100% carbon neutral car insurance means ibuyeco will offset 100% of the customer’s vehicle’s CO2 emissions for the duration of the policy, based on the information the customer supplies to us. For terms and conditions visit http://www.ibuyeco.co.uk/cornburyterms.asp

Celebrating its 1st Birthday, ibuyeco, the 100% carbon neutral car insurance provider has pledged to offset the travel of UK visitors to this year’s Cornbury Music Festival in Oxfordshire up to the amount of 1,000 tonnes~. Headline acts at the festival for 2008 will include Paul Simon, KT Tunstall, Crowded House and The Bangles.

From today, UK visitors to the www.ibuyeco.co.uk website will be able to calculate the amount of CO₂ their journey to the festival will emit and offset that, completely free of charge, up to a total 1,000 tonnes.

Hugh Phillmore, Cornbury Festival Organiser, commented: “We understand that bringing all the family and camping gear to Oxford for the weekend will mean most visitors have to use a car. It’s great then that ibuyeco, headline sponsor of the festival, is supporting our efforts to make Cornbury greener by offsetting CO₂ emissions caused by families’ travel to the event.”

Running since 1796, the Cornbury Festival is an eclectic, distinctive and diverse music festival. With previous headline acts including Blondie and David Gray, Cornbury has always offered parents and kids alike a fun-packed weekend of music, dance and fun creative workshops. Famous visitors to last year’s festival included George Michael, David Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson and Hollywood screen writer Richard Curtis.

Read more…

Firefly Energy Boosted By Drive to Invest In Clean Technology

Ground-breaking Battery Developer’s $15 million equity financing shows how investors are thinking green

Peoria, IL - June 11, 2008 - Firefly Energy Inc., (http://www.fireflyenergy.com/), the Peoria, Illinois-based company developing a portfolio of next-generation lead-acid battery technologies, today announced it completed a $15 million Series C equity round of financing led by a strategic group of Clean-Tech investors.

Leading this Series C round of funding were Quercus Trust, Khosla Ventures, and Infield Capital, investment firms focused primarily on clean technologies addressing environmental issues. Securing funding from these organizations underscores Firefly Energy’s status as a strategic player in innovative alternative energy technologies. These new investors join existing Firefly Energy investors Caterpillar, BAE Systems, Husqvarna, KB Partners, the Illinois Finance Authority, and the Tri-County Venture Capital Fund.

Firefly Energy will use its new capital to accelerate into volume production for first-generation products in commercial and military markets. The funding will also be used to support expanded product development, research and product awareness in new markets.

The notable first market for Firefly Energy’s technology is adapting its microcell foam-based battery for the long-haul trucking market. Typically, drivers using their sleeper cabs run their engines during rest periods in order to power accessories, such as air conditioners, television sets and microwave ovens. This practice wastes millions of gallons of costly diesel fuel while increasing the amount of emissions generated. New regulations recently enacted in California and other states severely limit the time a long-haul diesel truck can idle its engine. And as prices for diesel fuel have climbed from $3 per gallon to nearly $5 per gallon in just the last few months, there is a renewed search for cost-effective and reliable power alternatives that would enable truckers to turn off their engines. Firefly Energy’s new battery, Oasis, will supply power to a truck’s sleeper cab while the engine is off, reducing fuel costs while lessening the environmental impact. Moreover, the battery’s construction features less lead than used in conventional lead-acid batteries.

Read more…

New York, NY – May 2008. The Organic Wine Journal—the leading online magazine devoted to organic and biodynamic winemaking—has relaunched its website with a striking new layout and expanded content. Celebrating wines that are as good for the planet as they are for the palate, The Organic Wine Journal is reaching more readers than ever before as wine-lovers, chefs and restaurants around the world embrace what the publication terms “responsible hedonism.”

Read more…

So I finally got my Neuton electric lawnmower through the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s lawnmower exchange program. They made the drive-thru process incredibly easy. As I pulled up someone unloaded my old mower, to be recycled, and someone else loaded my new mower without me ever getting out of my truck!

Read more…

Here is one of those real “ahhaa” moments, where I wish I thought of this myself.  A green company called Eco-Libris, has finally come up with the perfect solution to replenishing trees taken from the forests, that are used for paper in books, by planting a tree for every book sold.

The facts are staggering, as stated by Raz Godelnik (co-founder of Eco-Libris): “More than 20 million of trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the U.S. alone. What we want to do is to raise awareness to the environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and provide people and businesses with an affordable and easy way to do something about it: plant one tree for every book they read, sell or publish. Customers also receive a sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out saying “One tree planted for this book” and can later display these stickers on their books’ sleeves. Publishers can use our logo in their cover designs to indicate one tree is planted for that book.”

Read more…

Our Friends at ProTraveller have published a really informative article, that we at Greener Impact would like to share with our readers. Here is just a taste of it, but to read the entire article you will have to go on their site (ProTraveller)…. 

The earth is getting warmer and warmer with each year that passes and that means we’re going to see some significant changes in the land around us. For a few lucky places, global warming means positive things. For example, British Columbia is hoping that the extra few temperature points could mean a more Mediterranean climate that will boost their wine business and take industry away from wine hot spots like the South of France and the United States’ Napa Valley. However, a great number of places aren’t going to be nearly so lucky.

In addition to those wine hot spots that will be economically destroyed when the weather warms up, there are a large number of beautiful places that are going to devastated if global warming comes to pass. Numerous vacation destinations that are revered for their beauty and tranquility will drop off the map as the heat eats up the very things that make them appealing to travelers today. Famous diving spots, much-loved coastal cities and famous landmark attractions are all at risk of being lost to the global rise in temperatures.

Following you’ll find information about some of the spots which are most threatened by global warming. You might want to book a trip to see some of them before it’s too late!

Read more….

Do you toss your yogurt containers in the trash?
Yogurt is not only an excellent source of nutrients (calcium, phosphorus, Iodine, Zinc Potassium, and a slew of B vitamins), but recent evidence has shown that the bacterial cultures may help you to live longer, and may fortify your immune system.
All good indeed, but what is to happen with all of those plastic Yogurt containers?
Here’s the good news: Yogurt containers are commonly made of #2 or #5 plastics.  Although #5 plastic, is not  recyclable in most communities, some yogurt producers have adopted  polypropylene #5 packaging, because it uses significantly less plastic than HDPE #2 plastic and does not require the use of chlorine. Bottom line, recycle your yogurt containers. Also, rinsing the food off of the container before tossing it, makes the recycling process more efficient….but no need to go nuts here. You can rinse them in the used dish water, or find a nook in the dishwasher before turning it on, therefore not using any additional energy or water.

….what a Sexy tag line, from myfax. Besides, who doesn’t want to save a tree these days? I’ll bet however you didn’t know these gnarly facts about paper usage in the office:

• In the US, annual office paper consumption is enough to build a 10-foot-high wall that’s 6,815 miles long. That’s more than the distance from New York to Tokyo.
• Producing one ton of paper (200 000 sheets) requires 20312 gallons (76889 litres) of water. Not Much? In the UK alone, 12.5 million tons of paper was consumed in 2005.
• If 1% of all paper faxes sent in America each year were sent electronically, 73.5 million trees would be saved.
• Reducing paper use by 10% in the US alone would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases — the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road (now that’s sexy).

There are those “forward thinking” companies that I’ve spoke about on other posts, who have created easy solutions for guys like me and you (yes I still drive my SUV to Whole Foods) to take small attainable actions, that will ultimately result in huge benefits to our fragile environment (if everyone could do just this one little thing). In this case, it is toss that “energy vampire” of a fax machine into the garbage.

Why the hell would I want to do that?

According to Energy Star (whoohooo, one of our community partners), fax machines are one of the most energy-intensive pieces of equiptment in a typical office. They are constantly drawing power around the clock because they need to be available at any hour to send or recieve a fax.

So toss the fax, and get started faxing online with myfax…and let them reward you with a three free months of internet faxing through May 31, 2008 (hurry up…time is ticking).

May 13, 2008, Austin, Texas – BeGreen, the carbon offsets division of Green Mountain Energy Company, announced its participation in the American Airlines AAdvantage® program. The exclusive offer provides eco-conscious AAdvantage members with the opportunity to earn miles while also reducing their impact on global warming through the purchase of carbon offset products and “green” gifts from BeGreen’s online store.

As part of this participation, AAdvantage members can purchase any of BeGreen’s Express products including the BeGreen Driver, BeGreen Flyer or the BeGreen Home through BeGreen’s Web site (www.begreennow.com) – and earn miles for doing it. The products are designed to offset the carbon emissions associated with daily activities such as driving cars, traveling by airplane and cooling and heating homes. For each dollar spent on the purchase of these carbon offset solutions, BeGreen will award AAdvantage members five miles.

Read more…

Hastings, MN (April 21, 2008) — According to recent national survey commissioned by Smead, 77% of office workers said buying paper office products made from trees grown and harvested in a sustainable manner was important to them. To meet the growing consumer demand for “green” filing products, Smead is pleased to announce that it has been certified as a member of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) ‘Certified Sourcing’ Program. The SFI Program provides rigorous environmental standards and performance measures that integrate the protection of our environment with the perpetual, sustainable growing and harvesting of trees.

Read more…