Alex Szabo and his green office (dot com)

by The Green A-Team

Q: How did you come to found TheGreenOffice.com?

A: I founded the company after a few years working in an area generally termed the sustainability consulting field and after working with too many clients who were looking to establish a green purchasing policy but were having a hard time finding a one-stop solution, eventually I set out to form a company that really served as, like I said, a one-stop resource for all of your office greening needs.  So, TheGreenOffice.com is focused on providing folks with all of the products they might need to fill their office and source those on line, shipped next day, with all the great prices.  Of course, we add on top of that a variety of services and information that help extend your office greening initiative beyond the purchasing of office products.

Q: What, as far as you can recall, is the real history of the paperless office as a concept?

A: Yeah, sure.  The concept of the paperless office, as far as I’m concerned, was brought about as we all started going online and began to process our information digitally, the notion that we might be able to rely less and less on the paper and pen started to come about.  I think that the notion is fundamentally a good one; perhaps what we’ve seen over the past decade or so is that our historical attachment to paper is going to be harder to break than some originally might have wished.  So the transformation to the paperless office has certainly not happened in a big revolution but we are seeing folks finding more and more ways to store information digitally or online in hard drives and rely less and less on the paper and pen.

Q: Why have companies been so slow to adopt the paperless office idea?

A: I think there are a few reasons why companies have been slow to adopt the mantra of the paperless office.  One is force of habit.  We’ve been using paper for hundreds of years if not thousands and the systems from our educational systems all the way up to the system we use to store valuable and invaluable information have for a long time relied on paper.  One reason is that folks are reticent to kind of go back on that and store all of their information that isn’t as tangible or easily accessible in a crisis perhaps.  I think other reasons are that there are certainly laws out there, in certain arenas, the legal arena would be one of them, where they are required to have physical hard copies and other systems in place in larger organizations will also require hard copies so there’s a variet of reasons.  I also think people like to put their hands on something.  For a variety of those reasons I think we’ve seen the transition a little bit slower than we otherwise might have.

Q: What are the pros and cons associated with digital vs. physical these days given the technology?

A: I think there are clearly a lot of pros for storing, manipulating information on your computer whether it’s using word processing like Word or an Excel sheet, very very powerful tools so there are a lot of pros there.  The cons are again, folks who are concerned about loss of information to a machine they may not fully understand.  Of course, there are risks of having information corrupted and compromised especially when you’re online.  So those are a few pros and cons on the digital space.  Of course, you have similar issues with hard copy.  You may only have one hard copy especially if you’re writing on it by hand, a piece of paper gets wet, the ink smears, it burns up, so there are risks on both sides.  There are risks on both sides and like I said, I think the clear trend is closer and closer to the paperless office but I still there are some vestiges out there that are going to be harder to remove.

Q: I agree.  Now, there are a whole lot of other things that you can do on the procurement side and policies there but what are your thoughts on telecommuting and the elimination of the traditional office environment altogether?  Is that realistic?  Where’s that going?

A: Again, I think technology and the better we get with technology and the more pervasive things like video conferencing are as opposed to just calling in on a conference call, the more easier that’s going to be for folks to palette.  There is a very visceral difference between just talking to someone on the phone, hearing their voice, as we are now, and meeting with them face to face, there’s a lot of information that’s communicated through body language and so forth.  So I think, more and more we can see each other, hear each other better the more immediate it is and easier it is for us to digitally walk into each other’s offices the more that’s gonna become prevalent.  So that’s one thing and then just, again, force of habit; people getting used to working that way, adjusting working styles, and honing communication skills when you’re not necessarily in the same room with them.

Q: What about new innovations?  Have you seen anything come past your desk that’s caught your eye in recent days or months?

A: Yeah, we’re certainly seeing new products that are moving closer and closer towards the ideal that we call cradle to cradle design where you take into account the full life cycle impact of a product and work to reduce any of the negative impacts along the way.  So we’re seeing all sorts of papers moving closer and closer, 100% post consumer recycled paper has been around for a little while now, now paper is being process without the use of chlorine which is a chemical that can be harmful to the environment and tree-free papers where you’re using other agricultural materials, of course printing tools, we’re seeing more and more printers that are more and more energy efficient.  You have printer settings where you can reduce the amount of ink used you can turn it onto fast or draft mode.  One of the coolest things I’ve seen recently is something we’ve been looking for for a while, our customers have been demanding it and we’re finally seeing the market respond, it’s a toner product petroleum free toner product made with a remanufactured ink and toner cartridge, it’s actually a soy-based toner.  So you combine the energy efficient electronics with recycled or tree-free paper and you’re starting to move closer and closer to a very low-impact printing process.  Something that I like to talk about with folks and I used to advise my clients in the sustainability consulting work I did, you start by looking at what are your real needs for printing?  There are basically two cases where people use paper: they print it up on a traditional printing machine or they’re taking notes, they’re writing with a pen.  So look at each of those two cases and ask yourself when is it really necessary that I do this, and there might be some cases where that’s true and just by doing that, you start to eliminate the use of paper alone.  And then, you switch over when you do actually do need to print something out, you go to a system where your using again energy efficient electronics, soy-based printing, using less by setting your software to draft mode, printing on both sides, using recycled and tree-free papers, you can really start to make an impact.


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GM battles rage down on the farm

by The Green A-Team

Full BBC News article here.

Green Air Filter:

Genetically modified or GM crops have been one of the most promising solutions to the rapid decline in food production. All they require is a simple spritz of chemicals; the grower never even needs to take a step in soil. But that is exactly why farmers have unwittingly waged a war against the miracle crops.

The few farmers who still grow their crops the traditional way have been under investigation by large GM corporations such as Monsanto for ’seed piracy’. GM pollen can easily travel across acres to local farms and potentially be saved by the farmers to use. It seems to be a classic case of ‘evil corporation’ bullying on the part of Monsanto. But maybe it is the action that needs to be taken in order to protect a technology as vital and important in this day and age.

Photo by MillyNeT.



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Green data centers: How nature goes digital

by The Green A-Team

The natural and digital worlds combine to help decrease the global impact of today’s internet addiction.

Nowadays it’s nearly impossible to imagine a world without the internet when just over a decade ago, the internet itself was scarcely a thing of the imagination.  With it’s billions of users, the earthbound mechanisms that keep this digital universe expanding are showing signs that surfing the web can lead to an environmental wipeout.

The bulk of the information that flows through our computers is stored and powered by a network of high-tech data centers.  The hardware used at these sites needs shocking amounts of electricity that generates lots of heat.

New green data centers like Oregon-based Taproot Hosting, power their boards on 100% wind energy.  They even tell their employees to stay home, opting for tele-commuting over terrestrial commutes.  Other centers bury their gear, taking advantage of natural geothermal cooling instead of conventional air conditioning.

For more on how to reduce your carbon e-print, have a look at some of these sites:

Sun’s take on green data centers in 2009 (GreenTechMedia.com)

Green Data Center Blog

Google: Our green data centers get a lot greener (GreenerComputing.com)

Photo by ibmphoto24.


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More than a hint of mint in the stimulus plan

by The Green A-Team

A breakdown of the numbers from the NRDC:

The bill provides:

$6 billion for clean and safe water, creating more than 200,000 jobs

  • This insures critical funding for the nation’s pipes and treatment plants.  We don’t often worry too much about where our clean water comes from and this line seeks to keep it that way.

$4.5 billion for greening federal buildings

  • The Federal building codes and standards apply to buildings constructed or used by any Federal agency that is not legally subject to state or local building codes.  This means that any building, not just the White House, Pentagon, Capital Building, etc., ANY building paying their energy bills with Federal money will be subject to completely revised energy efficiency performance standards which have been set by the DOE.

State energy grants, issued through the Treasury Department, that will fund renewable energy projects that are eligible for the available tax credits.

  • As of October of last year, the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 prolonged tax credits in solar, fuel cells, and microturbines; increased the credit amount for fuel cells; established new credits for small wind-energy systems, geothermal heat pumps, and combined heat and power (CHP) systems; extended eligibility for the credits to utilities; and allowed taxpayers to take the credit against the alternative minimum tax (AMT) subject to certain limitations.  If you’ve got these systems already in place are are planning to build new ones, you should apply here.

Funding for the state energy program, which includes important utility reforms and building code conditions.

$2.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy Research and Development.

  • In many cases, the technology just isn’t there yet and it takes resources to get there, hence, this line item.

$5 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program, creating approximately 90,000 jobs

  • The expansion of this service will help the program reach a critical mass and deliver what it was designed to do - help low income families make energy efficiency improvements on their homes and spend less on utilities.  See if you qualify here.

A multi-year extension of the renewable production tax credit.

  • Even greater insurance to individuals and corporations interested in these upgrades that their renewable energy improvements will be rewarded for many years to come.  This is the kind of thing that boosts investor confidence in green stocks.

A more effective tax credit for home efficiency upgrades.

$6 billion in loan guarantees for renewables, transmission and leading edge biofuels

  • This is a great boon for companies investing in these industries.  Now there will be real money to back up the loans guaranteed by the government.  This comes as particular significance to the USDA.

$2 billion for advanced batteries

  • More than just rechargeable batteries for your TV remote, this category of tech development may be the most important.  Certainly the automotive industry has a lot to gain with hybrid-electric vehicles seeking to replace the current fleet.  Here’s an interesting piece from the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USCAR).  The storage of electricity produced on a massive scale for residential and commercial use is also an integral component to making the new renewable grid happen.

$9.3 billion for intercity rail, including high-speed rail

  • With these new high-speed rail systems, the U.S. may actually be up to speed with the rest of the world.  Here’s a little more on that idea.

$27.5  billion for highways (this large pot of money is not exclusively for highways, and states and cities must use this flexibility to invest in fuel-efficient public transportation)

  • While this may seem a bit imbalanced up against the public transportation budgets, the ethos behind it suggests the auto fleet will be markedly cleaner by the time the highways are improved.  Like it or not, the U.S. is a car culture which means the industries and infrastructure must change to accommodate it.

$8.4 billion for transit

$1.5 billion in competitive grants for transportation investments (which could be used for public transportation)

  • These last two lines combined with the high-speed rail budget is a pretty formidable sum to help the country’s beleaguered public trans condition.  However, it may also prove to be a mere drop in the bucket if the other energy system improvements are not met.

Photo by kali.ma.


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Trash blasting:
The future of waste removal

by The Green A-Team

The future of trash isn’t too hard to predict - there’s going to be a lot of it.

So what’s in store for the future of trash removal?

According to the EPA, the average American produces about 4.4 pounds of garbage a day. Thats an annual 240 million tons produced nationally. So how can the country that invented the internet and the airplane maintain it’s technological leadership under this hulking mountain of trash?

One very high-tech solution involves the blasting of garbage with lasers. While it may seem too sci-fi to be true, the process is known as plasma gasification and uses high electrical energy and high temperature to obliterate the molecular bonds that hold garbage together. The elements are separated and collected as gas, later to be used to power the facility itself.

Garbage zapping is already being used abroad with Florida on deck to be the first state in the US to bring this futuristic form of trash blasting into the present.

For more on the future of trash tech, check out this video.

Photo by gardinergirl.


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Plasma gasification

by The Green A-Team


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E-waste: Where do all the gadgets go?

by The Green A-Team

The International Consumer Electronics Show wrapped up in Las Vegas but what happens to these soon-to-be-obsolete electronic devices once their lifetime has expired?

Electronic waste, made up of discarded TV’s, computers, and cell phones, known as E-waste has swiftly risen to become the fastest growing component of our country’s waste stream.  In reality, the physical stuff of these magic machines consists mainly of lead, mercury, and cancer-causing dioxins that poison the people and habitats around them.

One such habitat can be found in the Guiyu region of China.  Here, nearly 80% of the world’s e-waste is shipped to be sorted, dismantled, and melted down to its valuable elements, including gold.  The result is the highest concentration of cancer and child lead poisoning in the world.

Ensure your e-waste isn’t contributing to this toxic scourge by checking out recycling brokers and accredited e-stewards the next time you’re ready to toss a used gadget.

For more on what to do with e-waste, check out some of these resources:

Electronic Waste - Guiyu, China

Regional Computer Recycling and Recovery (ewaste.com)

E-Waste: Dark side of digital age (Wired)

Following the trail of toxic e-waste (60-Minutes)

Photo and slideshow by alistair.ruff.


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Autoshow electrifies and trians are back in style

by The Green A-Team

Electric cars win big at the Detroit Autoshow and a real plan is emerging to fix the nation’s transportation problems.

Foreign automakers aren’t the only ones rushing electric cars to market, it’s domestic manufacturers including Ford who’ve unveiled prototypes at this year’s auto show.  Unlike the electric golf carts you may be familiar with, the new green fleet of autos are quiet and quick and don’t require the noxious burning of ancient plants.

While this innovation does reduce carbon emissions, what about it’s effect on the power grid?  Experts agree that cars won’t burden the grid if owners charge their batteries at night.

Other solutions to our transportation dilemma include airport improvements, expansions, and creating high-speed rail links. Eliminating the horror of terminal gridlock on our runways may lessen headaches for travelers and increase jobs for contractors.  High-speed rail links between city centers bring the classic form of train travel up to date ushering time-crunched travelers to and from their points of passage.

For more transportation innovations, check out some of these sites:

Green Transportation (Mother Earth News)

League of American Bicyclists

Green Autos

Green Eye

Photo by rmarinello.


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Give a tweet!
Twitter quenches the world’s clean water crisis

by The Green A-Team

How is Twitter helping to provide clean water to developing countries?

Still fuzzy on what Twitter is? If you can express it in 140 characters, you’re ready to “tweet” yourself into the micro-blogging community some 750 thousand strong.

One thing you may find difficult to express in 140 characters, however, is the dire need for clean water in countries outside our own.  Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation cause 80% of all the sickness and disease worldwide.  So how does a seemingly trivial web gadget help this planetary plight?

On February 12th, over 100 cities will be hosting Twestivals, bringing together Twitter communities to raise money and awareness for the non-profit organization called charity:water.  All donations will directly fund costly yet vital clean water bearing systems.

Because of the power Twitter has to connect, mobilize, and inform people, these Twestivals have turned a quirky phenomenon into a force for global change.

Join the Twestival in your city by clicking on the following links:

Anaheim Asheville Atlanta Augusta Austin Baltimore Baton Rouge Boca Raton Boston Calgary Charlotte Charlottesville Chicago Cleveland College Station TX Columbia MO Columbus OH Dallas Denver Des Moines Detroit Durham Edmonton Fargo Galveston Halifax Hampton Roads VA Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Ithaca Iowa City Kansas City Kelowna Lafayette Lakewood Las Vegas Los Angeles Madison Memphis Mexico City Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Moncton Montclair Monterrey Montreal Nashville New Orleans New York Ottawa Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland Raleigh Richmond VA     Rochester San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santa Barbara Savannah Seattle Somers CT South Padre Springfield Tampa Toronto Traverse City Vancouver Washington Wichita Wilmington International Cities and South America


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Big tech claims carbon neutrality without standards

by The Green A-Team

The world’s biggest technology giants have vowed to reduce their carbon emissions to win your green dollar.

So who decides what “going carbon neutral” really means?

According to the Wall Street Journal, companies like Dell, Google, and Yahoo are all active in cutting the amount of carbon dioxide produced in their operations.  The problem is that each company defines their carbon neutrality in a different way.

Dell calculates their 490 thousand ton footprint from what comes out of their offices, company cars, and employees who fly.  20 thousand of this was cut making some green building improvements and grounding some of their airborne employees. So what about the other 470 thousand tons?

The solution seems to be in the good work of others. Renewable-energy certificates, or carbon credits, are created by clean energy companies and sold off to offset the remaining tonnage acquired by these big companies.

Until a universal standard for carbon neutrality is decided, the onus is on the consumer to find out how green a product truly is.

For more details on how to calculate corporate carbon neutrality, try out some of the following links:

Google to outspend government on environment (Planetsave.com)

Revealed: How the Times got confused about Google and the tea kettle (Tech Crunch)

Dell, Apple, Microsoft, H.P. perceived as U.S. green tech leaders (Environmental Leader)

Photo by bobby__emm.


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Birds killed by windmills: Fact or foul?

by The Green A-Team

Birds killed by windmills.

Should construction on new wind farms be stopped?

As we race to live the dream of clean energy we are confronted with obstacles on every front, whether it be inefficient technology, flawed design, or in the case of wind energy, bird life.

James Castle is a Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies at San Jose State University and an expert in a bird kill study at Altamont Pass, known to be one of the most notorious sites for avian mortality.

The industry itself is actually helping out.  They are shutting down wind turbines in the winter when the largest amount of birds are passing through.  They also have improved some of the new designs so that they reduced the impact on birds.

As windmill design has improved with larger, slower moving blades easily dodged by flying birds, the hazard to these animals has begun to diminish.  Wind energy remains one of our greatest hopes of achieving clean energy independence and the risk to wildlife has certainly been taken into consideration as we progress.

For more on wind energy and the birds at risk, try out some of the following links:

Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group

Altamont Pass, California (The Encyclopedia of the Earth)

The Deadly Toll of Wind Power (San Francisco Chronicle)

Putting Wind Power’s Effect on Birds in Perspective (AWEA)

Photo by Charlene Burge.


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Solar power plane that can fly day or night

by The Green A-Team

Full LA Times article here.

Green Air Filter:

Around the world in 80 days or even less than 80 days is no longer the spectacular notion it once was. With technology unwilling to flail at any time soon, priorities have shifted from reaching the destination to how one makes the destination.

Solar panel planes have been in development for quite a while by now but the problem had always been the very fact that they are solar powered and therefore can only fly by day. But unlike Icarus, two Swiss innovators are no longer afraid to fly too close to the sun with the help of special solar powered batteries that can be used to fly at night. As long as the batteries are powerful enough to beat the night, that is.

Photo by Neil Donoghue.


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Current.com: The Collective Conscienctiousness

by Rich Awn

If you’re not getting enough from your bookmarking sites, readers, comment apps, and content penetrators, stop squirming and start sharing on Current.com.

Recent noodlings around this explosive and intelligent community have seen two Green Air posts make it to the homepage and one almost made it on TV! While that may sound tawdry, I assure you this is like total vilification amid the hulking mass of Google AdSense supported contamination out there.

The ultra-sympathetic and largely discerning user base rapidly shares content through a media accelerator that does most of the work for you.  Once a url is submitted, pictures from the submission can be selected, descriptions can be made, heart palpitating headlines can be added as well as links, files, and a webcam soundoff recorder if you can’t bark your point accross loudly enough with words.  Customizable notifications are available and I would recommend customizing with a heavy hand.  I checked all the boxes and allow 100% of the updates on new submissions and comments to be emailed to me and admitedly, it’s a bit much.

What’s slightly unnerving from a traditional broadcast perspective is how the Current TV News segment has the sound of total automation and the complete absence of anyone real producing it.  The tin-throated cyber female announcer delivers the generic interstitial copy with perfect diction and the top stories are there from the most votes accumulated from (what we hope are) human users.  This isn’t to say I’m not totally impressed by it… I’m just worried talking heads may be obsolete pretty soon!

I’ll say I’ve had more fun and ease of use with Current than any other social bookmarking site I’m on (and I’m a whole lot).  So if you go, add me!


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Fish Phone

by Rich Awn

It’s your first date and you’re at the pricey seafood restaurant of her choice.  You want to impress and seem savvy by ordering the “right” dish.  You seem to remember reading something about tuna… yeah, tuna… it’s bad right?  Wait… or was it salmon… or grouper?  DANGIT!!!

Before you soak your shirt with anxiety and opt for the garden salad, your aquaculture-alert-on-the-go cell phone function has arrived… introducing, Fish Phone!

Our fishing-forward friends a the Blue Ocean Institute are the master mariners behind the “first sustainable seafood text messaging service.”  From geared up smart phone users to pay-as-you-gosters, anyone can tap the up-to-the-nanosecond news on species with significant environmental concerns.

The fish are ranked according to Blue Ocean’s evaluation of species’ life history, abundance, in the wild, habitat concerns, and catch method or farming system.  Health advisories are also provided indicating unsafe levels of mercury, PCBs, and dioxins.

Now take a deep breath, order the halibut, and get on with the courtship you eco STUD!

Thanks Fish Phone!

Photo by soxer123.


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Army Base Tracks Its Carbon “Bootprint”

by The Green A-Team

Full LA Times article here.

Green Air Filter:

A recent information blitzkrieg has stormed the Green arena on companies like Enviance and GreenCore Technology Inc. working to help the army reduce its munitions emissions as they’ve been pegged as one of the world’s largest climate offenders in their role as democracy defenders.

Where is this coming from?  Could it be our President is as concerned about the damage he’s doing to the earth as he is about obliterating its inhabitants?

The whole idea is like a mushroom cloud of contradictions fraught with government contracts for Green defense technology that screams of misguided agendas.  With the amount of time and resources our country spends on soaking up the top graduating physicists from MIT to work on defense initiatives or purchasing solar air conditions to meet the requirements of the Naval Research Laboratory’s 365 days/year of air conditioning, it’s astounding to think how this flow of intellectual energy and finances could be diverted to prevent any of these problems from happening in the first place - climatological or ideological.

Photo by kig1309.


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Cutting Edge Breakthrough: Organic Composting Factories

by The Green A-Team

Every year 25 million tons of solid waste is entering our landfills but can it be used to grow healthier crops?

With food prices choking our wallets, you may be surprised how wasteful Americans are with food. Whether it’s fresh food gone bad or throwing good food out, 27 percent of all edible food produced in the US never even makes it to our plates.

One company though sees the food waste stream as a way to benefit the community. Ed Gildea, CEO of Converted Organics.

With forward-thinkers like Ed, our country’s mounting trash may soon be a thing of the past and the promise of a Greener future.

Here’s some more on Converted Organics and information on home composting.

Photo by rotomotor.


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A climate threat from flat TVs, microchips

by The Green A-Team

Full Los Angeles Times article here.

Green Air Filter:

A new enemy is on the loose and it lives inside your television. It is not the Poltergeist kind but it is just as alarming. Microchips inside flat screen televisions contain a chemical called nitrogen trifluoride which can cause 17,000 times the damage carbon dioxide creates.

With flat screens continuing to rise in popularity, it is a wonder that officials are not doing more to control the substance. Many consider the procedure would be excessive because only about 2-3% of nitrogen trifluroide gets released during the manufacture of the microchips. This comes as no surprise for a people who have been firm believers of the mantra “Worry when it is too late”. Maybe Mom was right about sitting too close to the TV.

Photo by Karin and Bruce Levenstein.


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Large Solar Energy Array Set for G.M. in Spain

by The Green A-Team

Full New York Times article here.

Green Air Filter:

In 1854, the Crystal Palace was built in London in order to house the greatest spectacles the world had to offer while acting as a visual spectacle in itself. General Motor’s plant in Zaragoza, Spain offers the same feat with glistening rooftops of solar panels.

The Spanish have become one of the greatest purveyors of solar power not because they are the most environmentally aware people. It all comes down to the government which allows very generous subsidies of Euro per kilowatts. If our own government follow suit, we will soon be in awe of the future of the solar energy revolution like billions of human magpies.

Photo by Alison Martin.


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Balloonacy!!!

by Rich Awn

I discovered this floating balloon thingy in the corner of my daily go-to Green product site, GreenUpgrader.com, and thought, “Hmm… that’s cute.”

Clicking further I thought I’d get involved and post the available widget and embed my own little floating balloon thingy.  Keeping in constant with the “air” theme we’ve got going here, I thought Green Air might make a natural home for some of the balloon racers to be… and so did Orange, the masterminds behind Balloonacy, a surprising and fun way to float around the internet.

Still uncertain how the whole thing would pan out, our site was accepted as part of the Race Map and is now on the float path of those cute animal-shaped animated balloons that you can boost and move as you go.

There’s a whole bunch of prizes you can actually win from this like a luxury private villa with a pool and tennis court, your own private chef, spending money, jet skiing, windsurfing, para-sailing, speed boat rides… DANG!

Other than prizes, I haven’t yet unraveled the purpose of this whole thing other than it looks cool and it’s fun but then again, what more purpose do you really need in a web thing these days?  Float on balloons!

Background site from Alan O’Connor.


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World’s Greenest Dad:
GU and GA Honor Father Earth

by The Green A-Team

You may have the world’s Greatest dad, but is he the Greenest?

Stumped on pop’s perfect Father’s Day gift? How about a free Green gift from GreenUpgrader.com, your source for products to Green upgrade your life?

Help Dad cut down on wasteful water bottles with this rugged and sleek reusable stainless steel canteen from Klean Kanteen.

Any techy dad would love a handy personal solar chager by Solio keeping all his gadgets powered up, off the grid. The built in battery lets you charge it in the sun and save power for when you need it.

And for the lawn lover, check out the Remington Tools 3 in 1 electric PowerMower. Discharges, bags or mulches your grass all without discharging harmful gas. With its removable rechargeable battery you can mow you lawn in quiet green bliss.

For your chance to win one of these three great gifts, click on the banner at the top of the page or visit the Green Father’s Day Giveaway entry page at GreenUpgrader.com.

Mug available at Nigel’s Eco Store.


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The digg Mutant Carnival Frat Nerd Bacchanal

by Rich Awn

It happened but a block away. My dear friend Shawna from the Rosen Group dropped me an invite and seeing the location, I had no choice but to succumb.

The kindly Melody Lowe, also of the Rosen Group, made sure my superior press access was granted despite the hundred people packed outside Studio B who were later rained on (I snuck in before the downpour thankfully). To my surprise, the whole place was JAMMED! For what? A popular social network thingy that’s on pretty much every single news site, blog, and web page worth it’s 2.0 salt? Who ARE these people???

For one, there’s Brian Brushwood, a hyperactive Vaudvillian “bizarre magic” sideshow performer of a special brand of fire eating/puppetry/comedy acts during which I found myself sandwiched somewhere in the lame VIP section (stands for Very Inopportune Position… to grab free stuff thrown into the crowd). I somehow managed to pull some hairy zoom shots of his act and get a whiff of arm hair as he torched what was left of it. His last prank actually got me so I tip my hat to “Schwood.”

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Green Upgrader:
GET UP!

by Rich Awn

Anyone need an upgrade? Not just for your ‘puter, this is the kind of improvement that makes your LIFE function more optiomally - its Green Upgrader!

“Matt (the Brains…the founder of this site), Doug (the Brawn, although he thinks he’s the beauty), and Sara (the Beauty, and the Greenest one on our team, she keeps us in line)” are SKILLIN’ it up in New England hangin’ off cliffs and Greenifying the digi-scape with a GORGEOUS site devoted to helping you make the simple upgrades to a better way of life.

Mostly product-based information, the site functions neatly and is a crisp nugget of solid information, beautifully written and composed to make any blogger blush. Stay tuned for some good times with the Green Upgraders and Green Air!


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Tech Take-Backs:
Slaying the Printer Bohemouth

by Rich Awn

It’s starting to become a little game now - what’s recyclable and how I can recycle it. Today’s challenge: ditch the printer.

After months of deliberating, reading some banal spec sheets, posting questions on tech forums and constantly refreshing for replies, I FINALLY decided on the Photosmart HP C2580 (mainly because it looks cool and my lady would scold me less). If we had to walk past the BOHEMOUTH laser jet ink thing taking up about 300 cubic feet of our 350 cubic foot apartment ONE MORE TIME, our heads would’ve exploded.

Pleased by the favorable price at B&H Electronics where conveyor belts with little green boxes whizzed overhead while Hasidic brainiacs happily assisted the thronging masses of gear junkies, I braved the busy and bizarre high-tech market located in the heart Manhattan’s extra ugly Port Authority domain to make my purchase and getaway.

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Listen to this Green Air Minute:

Green Toys

by The Green A-Team

Our planet is not a toy, so why play around by introducing our children to toys that may be environmentally harmful?

At this year’s American International Toy Fair in New York City manufacturers, buyers, and designers are gathering around the latest in fun gadgets, gizmos, and playthings you’re likely to find on shelves later this year.

A growing safety concern involves the manufacturing, use, and disposal of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, commonly found in children’s toys. This material has been linked to serious health problems including cancer and birth defects and according to the EPA, PVC factories contribute significantly to air pollution.

Laurie Hyman, Co-owner of Green Toys, a company that uses only recycled plastics in the production of such classics as tea sets and sand box molds has found that going green in toyland isn’t anything to play around with.

For parents and grandparnts shopping for their little ones, PVC products can be easily detected by their smell best compared that of a “new shower curtain” or a “rubber ducky.” Also, pay attention to lables. Any mention of phthalates spelled with a “ph” is a definite red flag.


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Listen to this Green Air Minute:

Your GAS is GRASS:
Getting rid of our need for foreign oil

by The Green A-Team

Why hasn’t someone perfected this yet??? It sounds TOO PERFECT!!! All those sweet smelling summer grass clippings could actually get you from Dallas to Denver?

The sensation around the American switch grass fuel solution fertilizes even the most jaded of skeptics. What many don’t realize is that ethanol is already the predominant fuel for autos in Brazil. Their nearly bankrupt economy has seen a massive upswing as a direct result.

Hardly a novel innovation, ethanol’s American heritage dates back to Henry Ford’s visionary prediction in 1916, “All the world is waiting for a substitute for gasoline. The day is not far distant when, for every one of those barrels of gasoline, a barrel of alcohol must be substituted.” A farmer himself, Ford knew that just about anything could be fermented including vegetable matter, fruit, weeds, and sawdust.

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