Plastic Package Inc., which manufactures 100-percent post consumer recycled plastic containers, said it will installing the largest cylindrical thin film solar system west of New Jersey to power its operations.

The project will use solar technology from Solyndra.

The Sacramento, Calif., company said it will use solar technology from Solyndra for the project. That Bay Area company recently was funded by a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. Plastic Package officials said the installation will be done by Premier Power Renewable Energy of El Dorado Hills.

The new 208 kilowatt system being installed on the roof will initially handle all of Plastic Package’s peak demand and assist its local power provider, Sacramento Municipal Utility District to reduce its summer peak loads during the hottest part of the day.

The company noted that with solar, the production peaks simultaneously with energy demand. As the sun heats up into midday, power demand increases. With the sun higher in the sky the output from the rooftop solar system is increased.

Solyndra can boost production even further by adding a white membrane roof. Solyndra has devised the cylindrical modules that enable its solar panels to capture sunlight over a 360-degree photovoltaic surface.

“If you build a better solar panel, the world will beat a path to your door,” US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “Building a better solar panel is what Solyndra has done. Compared to traditional solar panels, these innovative thin-film systems produce more energy for less money and less hassle.”

That approach appealed to Jim Kaye, Plastic Package Inc.’s chairman, and Jennifer Kaye, the company president. The Kayes said they spent the last couple of years researching solar technologies and investigating solar integrators that could provide them with a packaged solution that would help them to offset their increasing electrical consumption as their business grew.

“The plastics business is not normally thought of as a green business”, Jim Kaye said in a statement, “but we are making major strides in that direction by using recycled soda bottles as well as bio-based materials in our products. Now that we’ve added solar, we want to let the community and our clients know, so they can feel comfortable that when they use our packaging, they are part of the sustainable process.”

California is experiencing its third year of drought, statewide, and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which provides two-thirds of California’s fresh drinking water and yields a giant portion of the nation’s food supply, is dangerously close to running dry, water conservationists and water managers say.

Yesterday, federal officials vowed to act. During a visit to Sacramento, Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes met with local interests – farmers, fisheries, families and municipalities in the region – and promised to free up more water for their use. He acknowledged that the drought has compounded a pre-existing condition – the overall degradation of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Hayes said that restoration of the vital delta is as significant as the restoration of Florida’s Everglades or the East Coast’s Chesapeake Bay.

“Not only is it a crucial ecosystem that is in peril, but more than 20 million Americans in the most populated state in the nation rely on it for their drinking water,” Hayes said. “The status quo is not sustainable.”

Help can’t come too soon. In Fresno County alone, thousands of farmers have lost income and crops due to the drought, which is now ending its third year. According to a county request for a gubernatorial “State of Emergency” proclamation in April,  due to “surface water allocations (that) have been reduced to zero percent… Fresno County farmers (will have to) fallow thousands of acres  of crop land… (and) 250,000 acres will not be farmed in 2009 due to lack of water.”

The Sacramento-San Joaquin estuary is where two of California’s largest rivers converge and intermingle with saltwater from the Pacific Ocean. It is the West Coast’s largest estuary, hosting 500 species of wildlife, including 20-plus endangered species (the salt harvest Suisun Marsh mouse and the Delta smelt among them; it also is a critical migratory channel for regional salmon). It serves cities and farms from the Bay area to the Central Coast to Southern California – encompassing approximately 738,000 acres of farmland, yielding crops such as asparagus, grain, pears, corn, hay and tomatoes, and bringing in over $500 million each year.

But with the current drought, those contrasting needs have become more pronounced. Consider that over the past three years, California’s rainfall has been 35 to 25 percent below average. The state received 63 percent of average rainfall in 2007-2008; 72 percent of the average in 2008-2009; and 75 percent by the end of June 2009 for the 2009-2010 water year.

The timing of Deputy Secretary Hayes’s visit to Sacramento couldn’t have come at a less convenient time for the city itself. After a report last week that municipal water usage has spiked over the past three years while residents’ has been restricted,  capital city officials are scrambling to figure out what happened – What caused, for instance, a 76 percent increase at one city property alone over the past two years?

The story, which appeared in the Sacramento Bee on Sunday was based on three years’ worth of metering records. It reported that at city properties overall, expenditure of the precious resource jumped by 22 percent.

The two biggest city guzzlers were a golf course and public park, and the city’s historic cemetery, where the Bee reporter noted antiquated watering systems that left wasteful pools of water.

The office of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has not yet responded to a request for comment by GreenRightNow. But with the U.S. Department of the Interior finally weighing in on California’s water woes – something the Bush Administration artfully dodged for eight years  - the California capital is most likely putting its nose to the grind – and trying to figure out its own civic water balance.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service says it will add $5 million to California’s air quality resources. With the grant, California has received a total of $20.9 million from NRCS to help farmers and ranchers reduce air quality emissions from off-road mobile or stationary agricultural sources.

The primary goal of this new portion of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program is to help farmers and ranchers attain the standards set by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Producers in the 36 California counties that are currently not in compliance with one or more of these standards are eligible for the program.

“These funds should help California producers comply with local and state regulations,” Dave White, chief of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, said in a statement. “We believe agriculture can be on the leading edge of setting a cleaner, greener example for protecting the air we all breathe. We’re doing what we can to help in that pursuit — technically and financially.”

White was named chief of NRCS in March. With approximately 12,000 employees and an annual budget in excess of $3 billion, NRCS is the nation’s leading agency in conserving natural resources on private lands.

White announced the new funding program while in California to chair the national Agricultural Air Quality Task Force meeting in Fresno. The funds help pay for practices that have been shown to reduce ozone precursors, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), particulate matter and fine emissions from agricultural sources. The agency says applications will be ranked and funded based on the amount of emission reductions achieved in the proposed plan.

The 36 eligible counties are: Alameda, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura and Yolo. Interested applicants in eligible counties should contact their local NRCS service center.

Applications are being taken until June 26, 2009

SOURCE USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service

Earth Day isn’t just a date on the calendar or an annual do-good commitment; it’s a way of life, a state of mind, a mission even – and certainly an intention. The date itself, April 22, merely reminds us that, January through December, all days  should be “earth days” in our respective, collective communities.

You know this is true when mainstream news giants like Time magazine feature cover stories declaring the eminent demise of millions of species. Climate change is real, and potentially catastrophic. Still, there are loads of things we can do to stem climate change, or even help reverse it. Which is why each year Earth Day gathers more meaning and momentum, urging us to expand our green consciousness to 365 days a year.

Eva Radke, founder of Film Biz Recycling in New York City – a nonprofit committed to greening the film industry – grasps that idea.

“This might sound trite, but everyday is Earth Day in my book,” she says. “I think it’s stupendous to heighten awareness, and these events across the country (which number in the tens of thousands) get more and more people involved and I salute everyone involved, truly. But to me personally, it’s just another day. … We have to think about what we do to the planet as a result of our daily lives — daily.”

That said, Radke – recognized as April’s “Industry Star of the Month” by the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting – concluded, “I will probably do nothing different from what I do everyday, which is build Film Biz Recycling as an environmentally and socially responsible model for every industry, not just the film business. If New York City’s film community can alter its thinking and methods, even slightly (to the tune of 62 tons since Radke started FBR in June 08), then so can the hotel industry, clothing and auto makers, chemical companies, grocery stores, conventional farmers, carting companies, toy companies, the U.S. government, banking, Renaissance festivals, construction companies, land developers, space programs, day-care centers. … On Earth Day, I’m just gonna keep on keeping on.”

But – you ask – how can I do something as meaningful? Something that can truly change my immediate community?

Let’s say you don’t have the time or resources to commit to a 24-7 venture, as Radke did. But ask yourself these things: How can I convince my family, my kids’ school, my neighbors, or my government to be more pro-active? Well, like any grassroots movement, these things start by applying our imaginations – and a few of those little gray cells.

Here are three potential approaches:

• Plant trees. Join a tree-planting campaign in your town or city; make your community look more lush, and help Mother Earth breathe mo’ better.

• Grow food: Carve out a plot in your yard (it’s easier than you think!) or join a community garden. If your burg doesn’t have one, then start one.

• Promote Pedal Power. If your town doesn’t have designated bicycle lanes, grease the wheels at City Hall to help the town lower its carbon footprint.

While the vast majority of Americans are car bound, rising numbers are getting on board with public transit, commuter and light rail, trolleys and buses.

Those riding the rails and buses took 10.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2008, a 4 percent increase over the number of trips taken in 2007, according to a ridership report by the American Public Transportation Association.

During the same period, the number of vehicle miles traveled on roadways declined by 3.6 percent, the group reported, citing the U.S. Department of Transportation.

While the road miles driven could simply reflect fewer people commuting to work combined with lower driving levels resulting from last summer’s soaring gas prices, the APTA sees the increase in ridership as a continuation of a longer term trend.

“Public transportation use is up 38% percent since 1995, a figure that is almost triple the growth rate of the population (14 percent) and up substantially over the growth rate for the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on our nation’s highways (21%) for that same period,” the association explained in a news statement released Monday.

In sheer numbers, the 2008 ridership was the greatest since 1956; though today’s higher population means the percentage of riders is still much less than it was at that time.

APTA president William W. Millar noted that those switching to public transit can save themselves more than $8,000 a year in gasoline and car maintenance costs, as well as helping lessen their carbon footprint.

“Now, more than ever, the value of public transportation is evident and the public has clearly demonstrated that they want and need more public transit services,” Millar said. “Public transportation is good for the economy, good for the environment and good for energy independence and now is the time for the federal government to increase its investment in public transportation.”

Light rail — which includes trolleys and modern street cars — saw the biggest percentage increases in ridership.

The city of Charlotte, with a light rail system that opened in late 2007, saw an 862 percent increase.

Charlotte was followed by New Orleans’ light rail system, still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, with an annual increase of 218 percent.

Wouldn’t you just love to pick your house up, turn it this way and that way on the lot, and figure out where it really makes the most sense? The spot where it catches the prevailing breeze, has shade in the summer, sun in the winter, and energy savings year-round?

That’s how houses were placed before air-conditioning, when a family’s comfort inside depended on how well the house functioned. But today, we live in tidy rows on uniform blocks that line up in a way that makes more sense for real estate than anything else. The decision as to which way our doors and windows face was most likely made by a developer putting down dozens of homes at once; the placement of our driveways and patios followed suit.

More from GRN

Slideshow: Trees that can help cut your energy costs

And if the sun bakes us in the summer, or if our living room is freezing in the winter, we tend to focus on things we can do inside the house to mitigate the problem. We turn the thermostat up or down; we dig out the blankets in winter or the fans in summer.

And we pay for all of it, in comfort and utility bills.

What to do?

Tackle the problem from the outside as well. Plant trees.

Deciduous trees – those that lose their leaves in the fall – will shade a home in the summer and let the sun through in the winter, reducing both cooling and heating costs. Evergreen trees will block a cold wind or shade an air-conditioner year-round.

“Planting trees to save energy costs makes sense,” said Misha Sarkovich, Program Manager of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s Shade Tree Program. In addition, “you improve the air quality, improve the property values and beautify the community,” he said.

Sacramento’s utility district, called SMUD for short, has planted more than 450,000 trees since 1990 in a program where homeowners get the trees for free. The Sacramento Tree Foundation has community foresters who visit the homes, work with property owners on tree location and selection (they offer 38 varieties), and then deliver the trees. The homeowner plants the trees and pledges to care for them. And everyone benefits: The homeowner improves the property and saves money; the utility reduces its electric load (which California has required), and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is reduced.

And the trees do more than provide shade. In essence, each tree creates its own micro climate – in photosynthesis, water vapor escapes through the leaves, creating a minuscule mist – and can reduce the temperature surrounding it by several degrees.

Sacramento is one of the largest and oldest tree programs in the country, and is a member of the American Public Power Association (APPA), a national organization that represents community- and state-owned utilities.

The APPA’s Tree Power Initiative encourages utilities nationwide to organize tree-planting activities in their own communities. Since it began its program in 1991, 267 shade-tree programs have been started in 38 states. A list on the web site identifies the companies and cities that participate.

“The right tree in the right place, that’s our mantra,” said Tobias Sellier, a communications specialist who helps administer the program. “We try to encourage the utilities to be as big a partner as they can in the process,” Sellier said.

The concept drawings here, provided by the CHSR Authority and graphic animators Newlands & Company, Inc., illustrate how the system would work and be meshed with existing infrastructure.

Building the rail lines would cost less than adding highways, according to the CHSR Authority — as suggested by this picture where the train could carry as many passengers as are riding in four lanes of highway traffic.

There’s no doubt that community gardens, a tradition that first surfaced in the United States in the early 1900’s, are at the grassroots of today’s urban “buy local/grow local” movement. But today, in places as diverse as New York City and Madison, Wisc., community gardens are also a socio-cultural equalizer, bringing together plot farmers from all backgrounds and ethnicities.

In Madison’s historic Eagle Heights Community Garden (circa 1962) near the University of Wisconsin, if all gardeners were present on a busy spring weekend, you could hear up to 60 different languages and encounter gardening techniques from around the world. Stop by Boulder’s Growing Gardens near the Iris Gardens, where more than 1,000 gardeners are involved, and you’re liable to hear Hmong mingled with English, Spanish and various other languages. And there’s no point in trying to estimate how many float on the breezes above New York City’s 1000+ community gardens.

Across the United States, community gardens are attracting people accustomed to providing some of their own sustenance; retirees who finally have time for gardening, church members providing for the low-income and young urbanites seeking a closer connection to their food. Many gardens have waiting lists, as people seek a way to reconnect with what they eat.

“People want to grow their own organic food and know where it comes from,” says Bill Maynard, vice president of the American Community Gardening Association and the coordinator of Sacramento’s five city-owned community gardens.

What’s more, they enjoy the social aspect of gardening alongside others who might come from different backgrounds, but share this common interest. “They don’t know each other, but now they’re friends,” says Maynard.

“We have legislative aides who come down from the Capitol and water (their plot) in their suits. We have retired people. We have families. And we have ADA accessible beds, raised beds” set aside for people with disabilities, and people from Asian cultures with the know-how to farm acres, he said. All turn up at the city’s gardens, particularly the city’s oldest and recently renovated Fremont Community Garden in the urban center, which is being transformed into a neatly arrayed city-operated garden and gathering spot.

There is no perfect way to gauge the current upswing in community gardening in the United States because the majority of gardens are not officially registered with the ACGA. It’s, shall we say, an organic movement? But organizers in several locales report robust participation. Madison’s 31 community gardens have grown by about 50 percent in the past five years, adding more than 500 participants, according to the Madison area’s Community Action Coalition that helps low-income residents with their plots. Sacramento reports waiting lists for its community gardens; Maynard says he could easily fill two new gardens in design phase.