From Green Right Now Reports

Calling themselves “Clean Energy Patriots,” dozens of environmental leaders today asked the U.S. Senate to quit serving the interests of “Big Oil” and take action on behalf of Americans who want clean energy and climate solutions.

The leaders from nearly 50 environmental and social responsibility groups signed a declaration at the U.S. Capitol. It demands that the Senate quit stalling on climate action, and kicks off a 40-day countdown until Earth Day, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on April 22.

They urged citizens to join in what they are calling the Earth Day Revolution.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa today confirmed earlier reports that the city will partner with RecycleBank to launch an incentive program that will reward households for Blue Bin recycling. Initially, a pilot program will serve 15,000 single family homes along selected routes in the West Valley and North Central sections of the city.

The program is designed to encourage additional Blue Bin recycling.

The mayor said the program is designed to encourage additional Blue Bin recycling, increase recycling rates and put meaningful savings in the pockets of participating residents.

“The City of Los Angeles has worked tirelessly to ensure that recycling is accessible to every single resident. Los Angeles’ ambitious environmental agenda is one of the reasons why we already recycle more than any other big city in America and why we will be the cleanest, greenest big city in America,” Mayor Villaraigosa said in a statement. “To reach our goal of zero waste, we are building innovative partnerships that will employ outside resources. We are proud to be the biggest city to work with RecycleBank, since the program will motivate residents to recycle more and will pump money directly back into the local economy.”

RecycleBank measures the amount of material recycled in a community and converts that amount into points that can be redeemed for rewards at hundreds of local and national RecycleBank Reward Partners. Rewards come in the form of groceries, gift cards, school supplies, restaurants, among other choices. RecycleBank works to involve local merchants so residents can enjoy savings while helping the local economy.

There also is an option to donate reward points to local schools through the RecycleBank Green Schools Program. National RecycleBank partners include retailers and brands such as Kraft Foods, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ruby Tuesday and CVS/pharmacy.

The goal of the pilot program is to elevate environmental stewardship, personal responsibility and volunteer action in recycling on a community wide basis. Residents in the pilot areas must sign up for their personal RecycleBank account, either online or by phone, to begin earning reward points.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

If you had the money and connections, you could build a snappy green house these days. Sink a geothermal heat pump to tap Mother Earth’s energy, slap up some solar panels, finish it out with non-toxic drywall, cork floors, denim insulation, recycled glass countertops and floors made from sunken ship decking.

Green house (Image: Axepin/dreamstime.com)

But does a green house a green home make? The answer to that is….of course not. Green builders, and those who live in green houses, soon bump up against what some land planners have known all along: It takes a village to bring green to its fullest expression.

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

Everyone is told to recycle because it is good for the environment, but what if it was also good for you? RecycleBank is a program that financially rewards households for recycling. And the concept is sweeping the country, with small and large cities signing on. Even cities that already offer recycling, such as Chicago and Los Angeles, are looking at the independent program as a way to raise recycling rates.

When a person uses RecycleBank, their community money by conserving natural resources, and diverting trash from landfills — and they earn points for discounts at stores. The bins are weighed each week, and for every pound of recycling a person collects, he or she receives 2.5 points. The more one recycles, the higher the reward, up to the maximum of 450 points per month.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Robert Caffro found a solar solution for his home, and acquired a problem that’s cast a cloud on his plan.

Caffro’s homeowners association in his neighborhood in Chester County west of Philadelphia denied his request to install the low-profile rooftop solar panels that he’d arranged to buy at Home Depot.

The governing group sent him a letter on Jan. 5 citing this clause in the neighborhood’s rules:

“Any addition, enclosure, garage, appurtenant building, fence, wall, planting or other improvement or modification erected, placed or maintained within a Unit shall be harmonious in design with the single family residential dwelling within the Unit.”

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By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now

Ben Flanner’s farm grows lush in summer with rows of squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce. And during all seasons, it provides a visual feast: a perfect view of the Manhattan skyline.

Rooftop Gardens in Brooklyn

That’s because Flanner’s farm is on top of a vacant three-story warehouse building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

A 6,000 square foot slab of concrete covered in more than 30 varieties of fruits and vegetables (not to mention the herbs) is unusual, but it’s no longer rare. Communities are pushing for greater access to locally grown food, but with land in the city so expensive, non-profits, restaurants, residents and entrepreneurial farmers like Flanner and his partner Annie Novak are turning to the city’s most under-used and readily available spaces: its rooftops.

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a 145-corporate-member green roof and walls industry association, reported a 35 percent increase from last year in the number of constructed green roof projects nationally, which totaled more than 3.1 million square feet. That number is likely to increase as more city farmers discover, as Flanner and Novak did, that rooftop farms can be profitable ventures.

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By Harriet Blake

Fact: America has an abundance of food.
Question: So why does anyone go hungry in this country?

A potato gleaning in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Armed with this simple thought, the Society of St. Andrew (SOSA) took up the cause of feeding the hungry in 1979 with the idea of gleaning fields for salvageable produce.

“We do this in two says,” says Carol Breitinger, communications director. “We use volunteers in the field for hands-on gleaning, or we send out trucks to pick up surplus crops that farmers can’t use and would just end up in the landfill.”

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By Sommer Saadi and Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

If anyone doubted that there’s a global grassroots movement to fight climate change, they may reconsider after viewing the photos that streamed in this weekend from the International Day of Climate Action.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Northampton, Mass.-based non-profit Soldier On, which will break ground this month on a limited-equity housing project for formerly homeless veterans, said the project will use photovoltaic technology supplied by Berkeley, Calif.-based Borrego Solar to supply electricity to its 39 apartments.

Berkshire Veterans Village will house formerly homeless veterans. (Image: Soldier On)

Berkshire Veterans Village in Pittsfield is intended to serve as a new national model for transitioning veterans from homelessness to home ownership. The Soldier On, which has been helping get veterans off the street since 1994, said a second limited-equity housing project is planned for Leeds. The organization said it eventually hopes to take the model to a national level.

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By Chris Reinolds
Green Right Now

Isn’t it great when you can save green and go green at the same time?

Sopo Bike Shop

For serious and recreational bicyclists, bike cooperatives across the country are meeting that need. They offer tools to fix your bike, volunteers to teach you how and the support to keep riding. Cooperatives are located in nearly every major city and supported by volunteers, grants and donations.

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

The U.S. Green Building Council, started 16 years ago, has 20,200 members and more than 50,000 LEED registered and certified projects around the world (80 percent are in the US).

And the group plans to get even bigger as it turns its attention to college campuses and enlists the help of students.

The USGBC is helping universities across the country to establish sustainability courses and USGBC student organizations, and of course, to build green. The Washington-based NGO estimates that there will be 4,300 LEED projects registered (underway) and certified (completed) on college campuses at the end of 2009.

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Jen McKenna’s family attended Summer Streets for the first time this year: “It might take some getting used to but once people do I think everyone will learn to enjoy it.” (Photo: Sommer Saadi)

By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now

You’ve only got one weekend left to witness the near impossible: a car-free street in New York City.

Summer Streets is back for its second year and is once again offering New Yorkers three weekends in August to play, walk, bike and breathe on a nearly seven-mile stretch of city streets void of any motorized distractions.

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