Owens Corning today announced that it is launching a new program that simplifies recycling asphalt shingles
for its preferred roofing contractors. The company said it will be the first roofing manufacturer to connect contractors with convenient recycling facilities through a national strategic alliance.

Based on a pilot conducted in Indiana, Owens Corning plans to will roll out the program nationally, starting in the Midwest. Contractors will pledge to recycle their shingle tear-offs.

Owens Corning is working with Heritage Environmental Services, the largest privately-held environmental services company in the United States. Heritage will provide dedicated, convenient drop-off centers that will recycle and process shingle tear-offs.

“Millions of tons of asphalt roofing shingles are sent to landfills every year, wasting valuable resources such as asphalt and aggregate,” Bill McDaniel, president and chief executive officer of Heritage, said in a statement. “With the combined efforts of Heritage and Owens Corning, material that would have been wasted will now be reused and made into roads.”

Owens Corning said that recycling glass-based asphalt shingles is a cost-effective alternative to producing new asphalt and helps preserve resources. Last year the Asphalt Institute estimated that the asphalt from recycled shingles has a potential value of more than $1 billion, which is variable upon the price of asphalt.

The Department of Energy announced $10 million has been awarded to 16 cities for 40 new Solar America Cities Special Projects. The funds, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will enable the cities to increase solar energy use in their communities through innovative programs and policies that the government believes can be replicated across the nation.

The cities chosen for these awards came from the group of 25 large U.S. cities that are part of the DOE’s Solar America Cities program, which recognizes the participating cities as partners highly committed to solar technology adoption at the local level. Those cities already have been given millions of dollars in funds and technical assistance to accelerate solar adoption.

To this point, the cities have used the funding to develop solar financing models, improve solar permitting processes, and create training courses for solar installers, among other uses. The DOE said this new award will enable the cities to scale up their most promising projects and concepts to overcome key barriers to urban solar energy use. The DOE plans to share the lessons learned and best practices from these projects with local governments throughout the nation through a substantial outreach effort planned to launch in early 2010.

The DOE has selected the following Solar America Cities Special Projects:

Austin, TX

• Solar Curriculum Development and School Demonstration Projects

Berkeley, CA

• Smart Solar Regional Expansion and Solar Map Enhancements

Boston, MA

• Solar Evacuation Route

Madison, WI

• MadiSUN Community Solar Financing
• Target Marketing Solar to Businesses
• Solar Business Center

Milwaukee, WI

• Solar Hot Water Business Council
• Solar Water Heating Demonstration Projects and Best Practices Manual
• Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing
• Solar School Swap

Minneapolis – Saint Paul, MN

• Solar for District Heating and Cooling

New Orleans, LA

• Third Party Solar Tax Credit Implementation
• Sustainable Energy Financing District Implementation

New York City, NY

• Smart Solar City Data Acquisition System
• Community Solar Financing
• Smart Solar Virtual Community

Portland, OR

• Solar Now! Regional Outreach Campaign
• Neighborhood-Based Volume Solar Purchasing
• Residential Solar Power Purchase Agreement Model for Utility-Bill Financing
• Neighborhood-Scale Distributed Energy Systems

Salt Lake City, UT

• Solar Rebate Program Expansion and Third Party PPA Legal Analysis
• Financing Options for Mid to Large Scale Solar Systems

San Diego, CA

• Solar Financing Options for Multifamily Affordable Housing
• Solar-Powered Fire Shelter Integration into Disaster Response Planning

San Francisco, CA

• Debt-Financed Solar Water Heating Retrofits for Affordable Housing
• San Francisco Sustainable Financing Program (SF²)
• Commercial Solar Power Purchase Agreement Model
• Solar Financing for Public Schools

San José, CA

• Property Assessed Solar Financing through Joint Powers Authority
• Solar Loans for City Staff
• Qualified Energy Conservation Bond Financing for Revolving Solar Loan Fund
• Streamlined Regional Solar Permitting Process
• Solar Train the Trainer Internship Program
• Solar Career Training for At-Risk Youth
• Green Vision Education and Demonstration Center

Santa Rosa, CA

• Clean Energy Advocate

Seattle, WA

• Community Solar Financing through Municipal Utility

Tucson, AZ

• Creative Financing for Municipal Solar Installations
• Solar One Stop Shop
• Solar Integration into Green Building Codes and Infrastructure Planning

Dell and Goodwill Industries International announced they are expanding Reconnect, a free drop-off program for consumers who want to responsibly recycle any brand of unwanted computer equipment.
The program is adding 451 new donation sites in seven states — Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and West Virginia. The program also will expand in Wisconsin to the Southeastern and South Central parts of the state.

Reconnect is now available in 18 states, plus the District of Columbia.

Goodwill said it will have 1,400 stores participating in Reconnect nationwide. Goodwill, focused on creating job opportunities for individuals with disabilities or others having a hard time finding employment, plans to hire additional staff to oversee the expanded recycling program.

Consumers can drop off any brand of used equipment at participating Goodwill donation centers in their area and request a donation receipt for tax purposes. You can find a list of participating Goodwill locations across the U.S. at www.reconnectpartnership.com.

Cars.com recently released its second Green Cities Index, ranking cities on their interest green vehicles. The list was calculated by evaluating the number of hybrid searches as a percentage of overall car searches in each market, then ranking them.

West Coast buyers, particularly the Pacific Northwest, showed the greatest interest in hybrid vehicles. Eight of the top 10 cities on the list are in Oregon, California or Washington, with Eugene, Ore.; Portland, Ore.; and Santa Barbara, Calif., taking the top three spots.

“What’s interesting to note is, aside from the cities on the West Coast that one might guess would have a very strong interest in hybrid technologies, college towns rank high on the list for their interest in hybrid technologies,” Cars.com senior editor Joe Wiesenfelder said in a statement. “Among the top 15 cities on the list are a group of smaller cities with large state universities where hybrids are very popular, including Charlottesville, Va., home to the University of Virginia; Gainesville, Fla., home to the University of Florida; and Madison, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin.”

The Cars.com Green Cities Index monitors hybrid-vehicle shopping in all 210 designated market areas across the country. Here are the complete rankings:

RANK CITY
1 Eugene, Ore.
2 Portland, Ore.
3 Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo,
Calif.
4 Monterey-Salinas, Calif.
5 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Calif.
6 Charlottesville, Va.
7 Medford-Klamath Falls, Ore.
8 Chico-Redding, Calif.
9 Juneau, Alaska
10 Seattle-Tacoma, Wash.
11 Boise, Idaho
12 Eureka, Calif.
13 Gainesville, Fla.
14 Austin, Texas
15 Madison, Wis.
16 San Diego, Calif.
17 Phoenix, Ariz.
18 Butte-Bozeman, Mont.
19 Salt Lake City, Utah
20 Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, Calif.
21 Lexington, Ky.
22 Denver, Colo.
23 Honolulu, Hawaii
24 Helena, Mont.
25 Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
26 Glendive, Mont.
27 Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho
28 Rochester-Mason City, Iowa-Austin, Minn.
29 Portland, Maine
30 Fairbanks, Alaska
31 Burlington, Vt.-Plattsburgh, N.Y.
32 Billings, Mont.
33 La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wis.
34 Duluth, Minn.-Superior, Wis.
35 Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City-Dubuque, Iowa
36 Missoula, Mont.
37 Reno, Nev.
38 Bangor, Maine
39 Raleigh-Durham (Fayetteville), N.C.
40 Palm Springs, Calif.
41 Washington, DC (Hagerstown, Md.)
42 Springfield-Holyoke, Mass.
43 Columbia, S.C.
44 Tucson (Sierra Vista), Ariz.
45 Lafayette, Ind.
46 Lansing, Mich.
47 Boston, Mass. (Manchester, N.H.)
48 Bend, Ore.
49 Fresno-Visalia, Calif.
50 Tallahassee, Fla.-Thomasville, Ga.
51 Ft. Wayne, Ind.
52 Spokane, Wash.
53 Los Angeles, Calif.
54 Kansas City, Mo.
55 Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, Wash.
56 Sioux Falls (Mitchell), S.D.
57 Casper-Riverton, Wyo.
58 Harrisonburg, Va.
59 Charlotte, N.C.
60 Nashville, Tenn.
61 Wilmington, N.C.
62 Great Falls, Mont.
63 Bowling Green, Ky.
64 Anchorage, Alaska
65 Louisville, Ky.
66 Syracuse, N.Y.
67 Las Vegas, Nev.
68 Albuquerque-Santa Fe, N.M.
69 Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney, Neb.
70 Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.-Asheville,
N.C.-Anderson, S.C.
71 Omaha, Neb.
72 Terre Haute, Ind.
73 Fargo-Valley City, N.D.
74 St. Louis, Mo.
75 Cincinnati, Ohio
76 Albany-Schenectady-Troy, N.Y.
77 Jacksonville, Fla.
78 Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Mich.
79 Wausau-Rhinelander, Wis.
80 Ft. Myers-Naples, Fla.
81 Des Moines-Ames, Iowa
82 Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, Ill.
83 Columbus, Ga.
84 Green Bay-Appleton, Wis.
85 Tulsa, Okla.
86 Springfield, Mo.
87 Topeka, Kan.
88 Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Fla.
89 Panama City, Fla.
90 Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va.
91 Charleston, S.C.
92 Mankato, Minn.
93 Indianapolis, Ind.
94 Oklahoma City, Okla.
95 Ft. Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers,
Ark.
96 Chattanooga, Tenn.
97 Rochester, N.Y.
98 Milwaukee, Wis.
99 Colorado Springs-Pueblo, Colo.
100 Dayton, Ohio
101 West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, Fla.
102 Providence, R.I.-New Bedford, Mass.
103 South Bend-Elkhart, Ind.
104 Knoxville, Tenn.
105 Peoria-Bloomington, Ill.
106 Columbia-Jefferson City, Mo.
107 Hartford-New Haven, Conn.
108 Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, Va.
109 Richmond-Petersburg, Va.
110 Minot-Bismarck-Dickinson (Williston), N.D.
111 Evansville, Ind.
112 Pittsburgh, Pa.
113 Lubbock, Texas
114 Joplin, Mo.-Pittsburg, Kan.
115 Dothan, Ala.
116 Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota), Fla.
117 Binghamton, N.Y.
118 Columbus, Ohio
119 Macon, Ga.
120 Jackson, Tenn.
121 Bakersfield, Calif.
122 Biloxi-Gulfport, Miss.
123 San Angelo, Texas
124 Rockford, Ill.
125 Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas
126 San Antonio, Texas
127 Abilene-Sweetwater, Texas
128 Johnstown-Altoona, Pa.
129 Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, Pa.
130 Salisbury, Md.
131 Davenport, Iowa-Rock Island-Moline, Ill.
132 Greenville-New Bern-Washington, N.C.
133 Buffalo, N.Y.
134 Birmingham (Anniston and Tuscaloosa), Ala.
135 Grand Junction-Montrose, Colo.
136 Columbus-Tupelo-West Point, Miss.
137 Sioux City, Iowa
138 Baltimore, Md.
139 Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem, N.C.
140 Atlanta, Ga.
141 Philadelphia, Pa.
142 Augusta, Ga.
143 Chicago, Ill.
144 Marquette, Mich.
145 Toledo, Ohio
146 Wichita Falls, Texas-Lawton, Okla.
147 St. Joseph, Mo.
148 Watertown, N.Y.
149 Traverse City-Cadillac, Mich.
150 Utica, N.Y.
151 Twin Falls, Idaho
152 Presque Isle, Maine
153 Memphis, Tenn.
154 Erie, Pa.
155 Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Ark.
156 Wichita-Hutchinson, Kan.
157 Elmira, N.Y.
158 Cleveland-Akron (Canton), Ohio
159 Tri-Cities, Tenn.-Va.
160 Huntsville-Decatur (Florence), Ala.
161 Quincy, Ill.-Hannibal, Mo.-Keokuk, Iowa
162 Sherman, Texas-Ada, Okla.
163 Amarillo, Texas
164 Ottumwa, Iowa-Kirksville, Mo.
165 Paducah, Ky.-Cape Girardeau, Mo.-Harrisburg,
Ill.
166 Rapid City, S.D.
167 Youngstown, Ohio
168 Wilkes Barre-Scranton, Pa.
169 Parkersburg, W.V.
170 Savannah, Ga.
171 Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Mich.
172 Tyler-Longview (Lufkin & Nacogdoches), Texas
173 Hattiesburg-Laurel, Miss.
174 Cheyenne, Wyo.-Scottsbluff, Neb.
175 Houston, Texas
176 Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
177 Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola (Ft. Walton Beach),
Fla.
178 New York, N.Y.
179 Charleston-Huntington, W.V.
180 Detroit, Mich.
181 Baton Rouge, La.
182 Myrtle Beach-Florence, S.C.
183 Clarksburg-Weston, W.V.
184 Lima, Ohio
185 Yuma, Ariz.-El Centro, Calif.
186 Montgomery-Selma, Ala.
187 Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas
188 Waco-Temple-Bryan, Texas
189 Odessa-Midland, Texas
190 Monroe, LA-El Dorado, Ark.
191 Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill, W.V.
192 New Orleans, La.
193 Jackson, Miss.
194 Wheeling, W.V.-Steubenville, Ohio
195 Jonesboro, Ark.
196 Shreveport, La.
197 Lafayette, La.
198 Corpus Christi, Texas
199 Zanesville, Ohio
200 El Paso, Texas
201 Albany, Ga.
202 Lake Charles, La.
203 Alpena, Mich.
204 Alexandria, La.
205 Victoria, Texas
206 Meridian, Miss.
207 Greenwood-Greenville, Miss.
208 Harlingen-Weslaco-Brownsville-McAllen, Texas
209 North Platte, Neb.
210 Laredo, Texas

MORE FROM GRN

The Boy Scouts of America announced today that its Boys’ Life magazine has been certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, an organization that promotes sustainable forest management.

As part of its certification program, the Boy Scouts said its printing company, Quad/Graphics, will be required to undergo annual surveillance audits as well as full certification against the SFI standard every five years. The certification process will be conducted by independent, accredited certification bodies and the audit reports will be published on the SFI program’s website.

“At its heart, Boys’ Life is about the outdoors and about teaching our young readers to be good stewards of the outdoors,” Mike Goldman, managing editor of Boys’ Life, said in a statement. “We are dedicated to minimizing our magazine’s impact on the earth while maximizing our readers’ enjoyment of nature.”

Boy Scouts officials also said the millions of youth and adult members of the Scouting program will be offered an organic clothing line, and the 12th edition of the Boy Scout Handbook to be released in late- summer, also will be green certified.

Boys’ Life magazine is published monthly and has a circulation of 1.1-million.

In a separate announcement, Quad/Graphics President and CEO Joel Quadracci said the company has donated a conservation easement on its 325-acre Camp/Quad parcel of land in Erin, Wis., to Tall Pines Conservancy, a non-profit land trust dedicated to preserving natural areas in and adjoining Northwestern Waukesha County.

“When we purchased the land in 1997 we always intended for it to remain in its pristine condition,” Quadracci said in a statement. “Designating Camp/Quad as a conservancy is an ironclad way to ensure the land can never be developed commercially, residentially or otherwise and that it will continue to serve as an environmental showpiece and education center for generations to come.”

The property, situated near Highways 83 and Q in the Town of Erin,  was purchased from the Boy Scouts of America in 1997 to serve as an educational and recreational nature center for Quad/Graphics employees and their families and friends.

Fisker Automotive, the new green car manufacturer based in Irvine, Calif., announced its first North American dealers. The luxury plug-in hybrid Karma sedan is priced at $87,900 and is expected to achieve the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

So far, 32 auto retailers have signed on to sell the Fisker marquee when it launches later this year. The company said its goal is to 40 locations in the U.S. and Canada by the end of June 2009.

Fisker Automotive said board member Vic Doolan has been instrumental in guiding development of the emerging company’s retail network. Doolan led BMW NA and Volvo Cars NA to record sales in the 1990s and 2000s, the company said, and has relationships with top retail principals.

“Our retail partners are our most important assets,” Doolan said in a statement. “To our customers, they are the face of the company. For that reason, we’ve chosen those who will give Fisker owners the comfort and confidence to drive the future.”

Fisker said the dealer showrooms will feature natural and sustainable materials such as wood and textiles. Dealers with have the option to use a solar-powered car port to keep the demonstrator cars fully charged and ready to go.

Here are the first Fisker Automotive dealers:

Alabama: Century Automotive Group

British Columbia: Fields Auto Group

California: Sullivan Luxury Cars LLC (Beverly Hills-Santa Monica), Shelly Automotive Group (Orange County), Serra Automotive (Pasadena), Price Family Dealerships (Sacramento), Price Family Dealerships (San Jose), Marvin K. Brown Auto Center (San Diego), Price Family Dealerships (San Francisco)

Colorado: Rickenbaugh Cadillac Volvo (Denver)

Florida: Warren Henry Automobiles (Miami), Fields Auto Group (Orlando), Elder Automotive Group (Tampa Bay), Palm Beach Motor Cars Ltd. (Palm Beach)

Illinois: Fields Auto Group, Patrick Dealer Group

Maryland: Capitol Cadillac Company

Michigan: Serra Automotive

Minnesota: Borton Automotive

New Jersey: Bergen Jaguar (Bergen County)

New York: Manhattan Motor Cars (Manhattan), The Dorschel Automotive Group (Rochester), Jaguar of Great Neck (Long Island)

Ohio: M2 Motors, Inc.

Oregon: Ron Tonkin Family of Dealerships

Pennsylvania: H.A. Ott Motor Cars LLC (Philadelphia)

Texas: Roger Beasley Highline Group (Austin), Barrett Holdings, Inc. (San Antonio), Frank Kent Motor Company (Fort Worth)

Virginia: Britt Auto Group

Washington: O’Brien Auto Group

Wisconsin: Bergstrom Corporation

TruGreen, the largest lawn care services provider in the U.S., announced it is going greener by introducing a new lawn care program that will emphasize organic lawn products.

TruGreen said its “Go greener” service will be tested in 38 markets this spring before rolling out nationally in 2010. However, the company says its new natural, organic products will be immediately available nationwide on request.

While TruGreen is not going to be completely organic, the new “Targeted Lawn Care” suite of services will be more Earth friendly. That shift in company philosophy resulted from customer research and is evidenced by TruGreen dropping the “ChemLawn” branding it had widely used.

In 2008, TruGreen joined the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, an EPA maintained group of businesses committed to reducing the amount of pesticides in the environment. TruGreen executives say the company’s new vision is to develop programs that meet consumer needs for a healthier, sustainable landscape, promote the environmental benefits of lawns and landscapes, and reduce overall use of pesticides.

The company says its Targeted Lawn Care program announced today will include these service options:

• Targeted Lawn Care: a customized lawn inspection at every application with “new, proprietary technology that controls weeds only when and where needed”
• TruPerformance: A fertilizer with Targeted Lawn Care weed control
• TruBlend: A blend of 100 percent natural, organic fertilizer and traditional fertilizer with weed control
• TruNatural: A 100 percent natural, organic fertilizer

“Targeted Lawn Care is a common-sense approach to caring for your lawn. Our programs are designed to be environmentally responsible, and TruGreen’s professionally trained route managers make certain our products stay on lawns and out of our waterways,” Kirk Hurto, Ph.D., TruGreen’s vice president of technical services, said in a statement. “We’re committed to reducing the use of pesticides, and our specialized TLC delivery system helps to ensure this reduction goal while still providing effective results. It’s doing the right thing for the environment – and for our customers.”

TruGreen said the new programs will roll out in 16 states in 2009 before going national in 2010. Here are the pilot markets:

Northwest: Portland; Seattle

Midwest: Merrillville, Ind.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa; Cary/Elgin, Ill.; West Chicago; Crestwood, Ill.; Hickory Hills, Ill.; Lake Forest, Ill.; Naperville, Ill.; Park Ridge, Ill.; Rockford, Ill.; Wheeling, Ill.; Appleton, Wis.; Madison, Wis.; Milwaukee

Southeast: Savannah, Ga.; Charlotte, N.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C.; Lake Norman, N.C.; Raleigh, N.C.; Augusta, S.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Columbia, S.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Newport News, Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Virginia Beach, Va.

Northeast: Hartford, Conn.; Rocky Hill, Conn.; Boston; Springfield, Mass.; Manchester, N.H.; Binghamton, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.; Burlington, Vt.

You can read TruGreen’s product use statement on it web site.

Related video:

• This video from TruGreen introduces the company’s new lawn care program

Advertisement

Post a Job! $25 for 60 days

It’s already mid-March and that means the snows will melt and if the ground’s not too saturated farmers will soon be planting seeds for the food that will feed us this year.

Since time immemorial farmer’s markets have been with us: farmers harvest, bakers bake, dairy farmers milk their cows and they all meet at a central location where there’s lots of foot traffic … and they sell. The common theme: the food is fresh.

In addition to the standard organic fruits, vegetables and eggs, farmer’s markets offer items you wouldn’t usually consider: hand-made brooms, herbs, bath and body care products, lobster rolls, wine, organic teas and “traditional handcrafted leather goods and repair”, rabbits, natural and dyed yarn and spinning supplies, photographs of local scenes, elk and moose meat, organic spice blends and increasingly, fresh fish.

1. It’s locally grown

Most but not all Farmer’s Markets in the US require vendors to have grown, produced or crafted what they sell at the market. Most vendors are small, one- or two-person operations and they grow only what they can manage. They grow what’s in season and it’s local. Ask the farmer if they grew what they’re selling, ask if it’s organic. Don’t buy until you’re satisfied with their answers.

2. You know the farmer personally

You know where the farm family lives; you’ve seen their farm, your children go to school with their children, you see each other at church or at Little League games or at a movie. You know the farmer and you trust him. He’s a neighbor.

3. It’s where the chefs and restaurateurs shop for fresh produce and baked goods

Patrick Soucy, chef at a Portsmouth, N.H. restaurant that specializes in New American cuisine, buys at the local farmer’s markets because of the “better health, better quality” of the food.

“And the produce defines ‘tree-ripened’. It’s fresh. ”

Raj, chef at an Indian restaurant in southern Maine, buys there “because it’s local, within a 20-mile radius. It didn’t come here from California. Also, I support the local community.”

4. Prices are often cheaper than supermarkets

… but not always. Organically-grown and the small-operation produce is very labor-intensive. Individually planted by hand, individually nurtured during the growing process and then individually harvested by hand obviously takes a tremendous amount of time. But the local farmer doesn’t have the tremendous labor, mortgage, transportation and other expenses of a supermarket, so cost comparisons show that all-in-all the farmer’s market sells food for less than a supermarket.

5. There’s less of a carbon footprint: field to farm

What about the bananas at a supermarket in America that come from El Salvador, the berries from Chile, and the kiwis from Australia … how can they possibly be their freshest when they were harvested so early in their growth process and they grew older on their journey? Local produce usually travels less than 10 miles from field to market. Take a bite from a store-bought peach and then take a bite from a locally-grown peach. As chef Patrick Soucy says, “I needed five napkins to wipe my mouth after biting the locally-grown peach”.

They’ve sold the candy bars. They’ve sold the wrapping paper. Perhaps they’ve even sold cookie dough (not healthy) or had car washes (not good during droughts). The problem with typical school fund-raisers is that the kids just end up selling more stuff – at a time when the world could benefit from a little less stuff.

Thus, a green wave of school fund-raising efforts has washed across the country, and companies are springing up to meet that demand. Eco-friendly firms will provide everything from stainless steel water bottles to fair-trade T-shirts, energy-efficient light bulbs to recycled wrapping paper as alternative, Earth-friendly ways of raising money.

No small number of them were launched by environmentally sensitive parents who didn’t like what they saw their kids selling to friends and family.

The Green Schools Initiative – a non-profit group in California – has a far-reaching agenda to make schools across the country more environmentally conscious. Co-founder Deborah Moore said that a few years ago she began getting more requests from parents for ideas to raise money and serve a greater purpose at the same time.

“I just tried to collect some information to email the person, tell them there are other kinds of products they could sell,” Moore said. Since then, she said, there’s been a surge in “turn-key” green fund-raising businesses. (She offers numerous links to green fund-raising groups on the Initiative’s Web site.)

Many of the for-profit entrepreneurs see an opportunity to contribute to the environment and make money selling products that are both useful and earth-friendly.

Corey Berman launched Green Students Fundraising in 2007 and started providing CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) to schools, not just to raise money but to teach kids about the environment and save customers some electric-bill money. Today, they offer complete fund-raising packages to schools and sell all sorts of green products. Their most popular items are Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles (pictured above – schools can earn $6 a bottle) and Nellie’s Dryerballs (to replace dryer sheets).

“We started with four pilot schools,” Berman said, “and we probably have around 200 now,” in Canada and across the U.S. His fund-raising program works like most others: They send information and promotional materials to schools, the schools collect orders for products, and his company sends the products back to the school for distribution to customers. He makes a profit, the school makes money, and the Earth benefits.

Lisa Olson was a PTA mom frustrated with the typical fund-raising products. Her desire to find something to make the world a little better, “and something I really needed,” led to Green Raising. The company launched two years ago and now offers numerous products (reusable grocery bags, fair trade chocolate, coffee and jewelry, and recycled gift wrap, for example) to about 1,100 schools and other non-profits. “We even have a reusable gift sack (pictured at left) made out of cloth that you can use over and over.” Her business has expanded beyond the ever-green West Coast and is growing in the Northeast, especially in New Jersey. “Many schools are adding spring fund-raisers tied to Earth Day (April 22),” she added.

Success isn’t measured strictly by how much money a school raises, Berman said, but also by the value of the products sold.

Harvesting daylight is an ancient trick – as old as the first man-made structure, as old as life on our planet, actually. Using the sunlight provided by nature is the most basic and simple way to illuminate one’s world. But when it comes to modern, sustainable architecture, the idea is relatively young.

Only in recent times has “daylighting,” as it’s sometimes called, made a blip on the broader green movement’s radar, with industry experts speculating that fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. buildings use natural light in a substantive manner (going beyond windows). The 21st century approach is waaaay more technologically involved than, say, a prehistoric clan setting up its fire pit next to the cave entrance.

More from GRN

Slideshow: Lighting with natural daylight

“In a layman’s terms, daylighting – which was our original term for it – is the process of bringing natural sunlight into a building and distributing it so you can turn the electric lights off,” says Bruce Bilbrey, co-owner of the Natural Lighting Co in Phoenix, founded in 1990 by his brother, Paul Bilbrey. (See the photo above of Frito Lay offices in Arizona — lit totally by daylight.)

“It’s not using the sun to create power to run the lights. It’s not a solar electric system. It’s using the sunlight directly. You use it with lighting controls, so that the lights can be off when there’s an adequate amount of daylight in the space.”

Bilbrey says the technology involves installation of skylights and reflective “lightwells” that architecturally bend lighting into a space, then, via large lenses and diffusers, deflect the light around. The company’s various systems can be used in residential and commerical spaces, and, depending on a building’s size, ceiling heights, lighting requirements and other needs, different types of diffusers and are employed.

“In very basic terms, it’s solar lighting. We call it simple solar,” Bilbrey explains. “But it’s not the same as having a skylight, which is just a feature on the roof where the light kind of comes in and goes where it wants – though the whole process does (use) ‘skylights.’”

Over the past several years, he and others in the business, such as Lighting Control & Design in Glendale, Calif., have noted a steady rise in the harvesting and harnessing of natural solar goodness. By doing so, “daylighting” converts don’t just save on energy bills and carbon output; they increase productivity among workers and create a healthier indoor environment that can lift spirits as well as enhance mental prowess. (This picture shows a daylight system at a charter school in San Diego.)

Daylighting even helps boost retail sales, studies show.

Large retailers including Whole Foods Market, Kohl’s, Target, Wal-Mart and JC Penney now use solar lighting (known generically as light, or daylight, harvesting) in many of their stores, while corporations such as Frito Lay/Pepsi and branches of the U.S. military employ solar harvesting to shed light on multiple situations – provided the situation occurs during daylight hours.

“Solar lighting really only works during the day,” says Bilbrey, who along with his brother and co-founder James Hennessey works with retailers Whole Foods, Target and Safeway, as well as various schools, municipalities and military bases around the U.S.

“We manufacture and install Component Daylighting Systems, which don’t store light, like a solar electric system,” the Arizonan says. “But in many buildings, the (daytime) lighting load is 50 to 70 percent of total energy use. The lighting load in one gym we worked with was 70 percent of the energy used in that building.”

While the “locavore” ideal is certainly an appealing one — if you eat food produced near you, the thinking goes, you minimize the carbon impact of transporting it to you, support small farmers, and probably get better tasting food to boot — it can be a daunting project to find what’s available, and when, within your area.

Four mapmaking students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hope to change that, using their data-mining and geographical skills to produce the first of what they hope will be many 100 Mile Diet Maps.

The initial map, currently available as a “beta” version, tracks food available within a 100-mile radius of Madison. An image of the area pops up with pushpin-style graphics of varying colors representing community gardens, restaurants, farmers, and the like; clicking on icons alongside the map allows users to single out categories of food (produce or meat, for instance) and see which nearby vendors handle it.

The designers of the map, who call themselves the “Chick Mappers,” gathered much of their data from Madison-specific nonprofits, but they clearly have ambitions beyond Wisconsin. “We designed the map so that we could fairly easily modify it for other locations,” says team member Althea Archer. “We estimate that it would take a couple weeks up to several months, depending on whether the cities have existing data sets that we can start with.”

Archer tells Green Right Now that in only a week of the map’s being online, they’ve gotten enough word of mouth that “we’ve had more than 2,000 hits already from 22 different countries.” Though they aren’t finished with the Madison version — they intend to add direct links to vendors, for instance, and create more search functions — they’re already talking about ways of implementing it elsewhere and are “anticipating working on a consultancy basis with other cities that are interested across the nation.”

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media