Plano, Texas, a sprawling suburb north of Dallas known for its fine homes, strong schools and high ambitions, is carving out a new facet of its reputation, that of the greenest city in North Texas.

Two years ago, the city of 260,000 introduced Live Green in Plano, a sustainability initiative that encourages its citizens to be good stewards of the environment. “We’re setting the standard in Texas, with our scope of programs and services offered,” says spokesperson Melinda Haggerty.

Under the program, the city has expanded its recycling to reach beyond where most Texas towns go: Plano picks up paper, glass, aluminum and organic scraps from residences and restaurants. It turns the food waste into compost and sells it back to residents at reasonable rates.

The organic waste collection closes a loop in the food chain that helps Plano tamp down landfill waste and return something of value to citizens.

But the city doesn’t stop there. It offers a rebate to residents who improve their home landscapes and reduce water consumption at the same time. Plano residents can earn up to $200 by following the requirements of the YardWise Landscape Beautification Rebate. After enrolling in the program, they must:

1. Attend all four YardWise education classes.
2. Submit the rebate application and photos of the property from before and after the improvement.
3. Show copies of receipts for materials used in the new landscape.

Plano’s sustainability experts recommend that residents planning to make their landscape more sustainable consult horticulture experts to find native, drought-tolerant plants. One web resource they recommend is the Texas Smartscape, a site developed by the North Central Texas Council of Governments to help gardeners find hardy, native plants.

The Live Green in Plano program is sponsored by the city’s Sustainability Department and offers a wide range of green tips as well as promoting a number of community earth-friendly events, says Haggerty. Some of these include: a recent sustainable home improvement seminar; a four-week series of energy efficient workshops co-sponsored by Elliott’s Hardware Store; a home energy efficiency seminar Feb. 21 and a lecture on “10 Steps to a Greener House” on March 5.

Some of the Live Green programs are open to non-Plano residents, says Haggerty. One of these is electronic recycling. “Anyone can participate in electronic recycling which takes place twice a month — on the 1st and third Saturday of every month,” she says. “We work with a recycling vendor who monitors the e-waste and allows us to track where it’s going.” The city’s extra effort helps assure that the electronics don’t end up in a developing country with lax regulations for toxic chemical disposal, a problem that’s arisen in recent years as cities heave off increasingly large mounds of obsolete electronics.

The city also has started a “Material Exchange,” where residents can list items they’re wanting to jettison, in hopes of finding someone who can use the used stuff.  The program lists only items for giveaway and involves non-profits. It claims that it has helped divert 14 tons of material from landfills.

And on April 18, it will again host the Live Green Expo, a gathering of green vendors and home improvement businesses, at the Plano Centre.

Living green means creating a community in which residents conserve resources, minimize waste and reduce toxic products and materials, Haggerty says. Then residents can reap the rewards of healthier ecosystems, smaller utility bills and more environmentally friendly spaces.

The city further defines “sustainability” as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Copyright © 2009 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

J.C. Penney Company has announced plans to expand its renewable energy program with solar and wind projects that will provide electricity in 10 stores and one distribution center. In addition to these initiatives, J.C. Penney will also seek Energy Star certification for 200 stores by 2011.

“Hosting these solar and wind projects will add to our knowledge of the benefits and potential applications of renewable energy programs at our facilities,” said Mike Ullman III, J.C. Penney’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We are constantly looking for opportunities to contribute to a cleaner environment.”

SunPower Corporation based in San Jose, Calif., will install the solar power systems on the rooftops of 10 J.C. Penny stores. Four stores are located in California in the cities of El Cajon, Palmdale, Redland and Santa Clarita. The other six stores are located in New Jersey in the cities of Cherry Hill, Deptford, East Brunswick, Freehold, Wayne and Woodbridge.

According to Jim Thomas, vice president and director for corporate social responsibility for J.C. Penney, the benefits of the solar power systems include:

• Producing more than 4 megawatts of clean electric power
• Preventing 146,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over a 30-year expected lifetime — the estimated equivalent of annual greenhouse gas emissions generated by more than 800 cars.

Broadstar Wind Systems of Dallas, Texas, will install wind turbines at J.C. Penney’s 1.6 million-square-foot distribution center in Reno, Nev. Broadstar’s AeroCam wind turbine will be used, which captures and generates more power than conventional three-blade turbines.

Installations of the solar and wind systems are expected to completed in November.

J.C. Penney, based in Plano, Texas, is a participant in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, which recognizes the top 25 percent of commercial buildings and industrial plants for energy efficiency. Last year, four J.C. Penney stores received Energy Star certification. To reach the goal of 200 stores by 2011, J.C. Penney plans to push Energy Management Systems (EMS) and retrofit store equipment.

By the end of this year, 800 stores will be equipped with EMS, which provides remote motoring and control of electrical and mechanical systems, monitors store comfort levels (i.e., air conditioning and heating) and helps identify opportunities for energy savings.

J.C. Penney also will invest in replacing old lighting. In 2007, a total of 167 stores received lighting retrofits that will save 27 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually compared to older systems.
For more information on J.C. Penney’s solar and wind projects, visit their website.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Green pest control might sound like an oxymoron to some green devotees who believe in the “live and let live” mantra, or organic gardeners who appreciate that good pests and bad pests balance each other in nature.

Still, there’s the pest you can live with and the one you can’t. Some pests, like weeds, are simply organisms out of place. Like the nest of ants behind our cabinets. They don’t belong there and their incessant forays across the kitchen counter are not so appetizing. So what to do? Used to be, the answer was to grab a can of Triple Strength Ant Annihilation Spray at the grocery, return home and fire away.

That’s no longer the default solution. As green pest exterminator, Michael Bohdan, owner of The Pest Shop in Plano, Texas, tells us, consumers are getting pickier about how they pickle their pests, and pest companies are providing new, cleaner, less-toxic and more finely crafted products to get rid of invading invertebrates without despoiling our house or the environment. (Bohdan’s also the keeper of the infamous Cockroach Hall of Fame – but you’ll have to view the video to see that story.)

This new generation of greener products includes insect-repellents that rely on citrus oils and “low-impact” chemicals like boric acid that have been around for decades. They include traps that use grains or glues and simple compounds like Diatomaceous Earth (DE), made of crushed silica rock and seashells. Many more safer pest killers can be found on the list of Minimum Risk Pesticides put out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The active components in these green compounds zap bugs by trapping or poisoning them with ingredients that are less harmful to humans and less enduring in nature. The compounds are relatively safe to keep and store around the house, but are deadly to pests that ingest them.

These newer products (some are not new, so much as re-purposed) should not be inhaled (especially DE) and people should take care to avoid skin contact. Citrus-based products, for example, can sting eyes and skin. The EPA list includes many other natural oils, extracted from cloves, lemons, mint and thyme, that can sting.

But all these ingredients are less toxic and you can pick them out by looking at their labels. Generally they all fall into the category that requires the term “caution” on the label as opposed to “warning,” or the next level up, “danger.”

So use the labels to help find the less toxic alternatives. And if you want to check out some more “powerful” conventional chemicals for comparison first, see the EPA report on diazinon. Once one of the most widely used chemicals for lawn and household pest control in the United States, diazinon was banned for residential use in 2004 because in addition to killing ants, grubs and nematodes, at certain levels it killed birds and amphibians, raising concerns about human exposure to residues in water and food.