Hippy Green

Photo by khalid-almasoud

I am always blown away by how people say the “technology” has been the problem with GREEN. Didn’t you see that movie? with Al Gore?

Well for those not paying attention to their RSS feeds, ecogeek posted an interesting story about Porsche. Porsche the well know German car company built a car with in-wheel electric motors with an onboard gas engine to charge batteries more then 100 years ago! The in-wheel motor is pure genius and is something that I would like to see on more lightweight electric vehicles. Porsche is featuring this car in Los Angeles’s Auto Show and promoting their “going green”.

I just do NOT get it, why are car manufactures that DUMB! Seriously, wasn’t someone thinking about these types of cars in the 70’s and 80’s when gas was a problem. I also do NOT understand how these soccer moms complain about $4/gallon gas bills while driving their Hummer H2 to hold their “over weight” kids and hold their daily grande low fat upside-down caramel macchiato. UGH!

Well, I am ALWAYS interested in major companies going green and hopefully in the next couple of years we will see these types of technologies being implemented in future vehicles.

On a side note I will be restructuring Hippy Green a bit and focus on ebooks and articles on how to Go Green rather then report on Green articles. I find that I am just reposting the article with my views rather then “creating value”. I want to give my readership something worth reading and offer tips and tricks on how to go green, even on the cheap!

The email keep rolling in. The latest is from Raz Godelnik and who is the co-founder of Eco-Libris, a new green biz that lets book readers balance out the paper used for the books they read by planting trees.

So what Eco-Libris is all about?

About 20 Million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the U.S. alone. What we want to do is to raise awareness to the destructive environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and provide people with an affordable and easy way to do something about it.

The process itself is fairly simple - upon entering our website, customers decide how m sooner then later, books will be made from recycled paper or other eco-friendly materials and logging for paper will stop. On that day Eco-Libris plans to move on to a new cause, but until then they think every book reader should take action. We also don’t forget the responsibility of the book publishing industry to the current situation and we intend to become a strong voice in a call for change towards printing books in an eco-friendly manner.

I love hearing about these types of companies who are thinking outside the box and taking action to fight for something they care about. I know I am tired of buying books and then just putting them on the shelve hardly ever reading them again. In the past year I have thought about buying a eBook reader (since I read a lot!, but just can not stand how BADLY designed they are. UGH! I just do not understand how SONY or any other company can screw it up so badly. I guess I will add my eBook Reader idea to my todo project list.

Thanks Raz for help creating this site and bringing it to my attention. Please keep me posted on your continue works with getting publishing companies to plan trees based on how many they use!

Until next time, plant a tree

I love hearing from other green blogs as well as stories/articles that are current or up and coming. Please feel free to submit any stories via our contact page. Thanks again for all of those who submit stories!

I recently received this story and wanted to post it up. This stories comes from the co-founder of Swaptree, Mark Hexamer.

As a former Vermonter let me congratulate you on a fantastic blog. Lots of great green tips, comments, and insights on there.

Since your both green and tech geek, I wanted to introduce you to a site I co-founded called www.swaptree.com. Swaptree is a unique website that allows you to swap and recycle your books, CDs, DVDs, and video games for free.

You simply list the items you have and the items you want, and Swaptree’s trade algorithms, instantly find the members who want what you have and have what you want. So on Swaptree one copy of Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows, can be traded to another member, and another, and another, saving trees and pollution in the process. After all do we really need 40 million copies of Harry Potter on the planet? Shouldn’t say 5 million be enough? Lets recycle all the paper AND all the books.

Moms (and their children) in particular may find Swaptree interesting. What mom hasn’t been frustrated when they buy a $55 dollar video game for their child, only for them to get bored of it 2 weeks later and want another, or when they spend $200 on Baby Einstein DVDs, only to have their child quickly move onto the Dora stage. With Swaptree, parents can trade through their children\’s\’ stages by simply listing what their children are no longer interested and trading them for the items they want now, for free.

Anyways I encourage you to take a look at the site and give it a try. I feel Swaptree is inline with the spirit of your blog, in that its all about sharing, recycling and consuming less.

Thanks in advance for your time, and let me know if you have any questions, and please keep up the good work.

Best

Mark Hexamer

Swaptree has also been covered on treehugger and on grist.org.

I took a look around Swaptree and am VERY impressed. I have always encourage recycling while moving as well as keeping green. Seeing this website I will be sure to test it out since I have over 200 DVDs. So take a look, give it a try, and comment below.

Following up Kohl’s plans to install solar panels on its buildings, they recently flipped the switch and turned on the Laguna Niguel Kohl’s location. This roll out is just the milestone in the building of solar electric systems at 63 of Kohl’s 80 California locations. Keep in mind Kohl’s operates 834 stores in 46 states, but has not yet announced plans to roll out solar to all its other store locations. To put this into perspective of how much solar Kohl’s plans to install. In total, more than 138,000 solar panels are expected to be used when Kohl’s solar installations are complete in 2008. Once finished, Kohl’s solar installations will generate more than 35 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually, the equivalent of powering about 3,087 California homes.

Working at a business and want to go green? Start by replacing your lights, or replace them as they go out, with a new LED replacement for fluorescent lights.

EverLED TR is the first commercially available fluorescent tube replacements that utilize LED technology. This replacement allows for easily going green in the work place, but cutting down on the amount of electricity being used. LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lights use less electricity then fluorescent lighting.

So for a business, you can just order the EverLED TR and replace your current fluorescent lights with the same size/dimension light, but with a LED based light rather then fluorescent. You could take a big step and replace all the fluorescent lights, but they are about $149.00 a light.

Well, its been a while since last post, sorry about that, but hopefully with me doing this startup I can focus at least 1 hour a day and get some blogging done, rather then all this “traveling” I have been doing the past few months.

With all the Green Google is making, their putting it right back into the environment. Google is starting to reduce its CO2 emissions by cutting oil by using plug-in hybrids. Google has launched RechargeIT.org, a fleet of converted Prius to plug-in hybrids. Google is working with A123 Systems and Hymotor to convert a Toyota Prius into a plug-in hybrid which allows the car to run on electric power stored in batteries rather then a gasoline engine. This allows a Prius to be plugged into an outlet and use electric power and cut down on oil usage, this also allows for alternative energies to charge the Prius such as wind, solar, etc.

Each Prius is equipped with GPS for tracking and monitoring fuel consumption and is calculated and displayed on RechargeIT.org. By using a plug-in hybrid, the cost savings is pretty amazing, driving on electricity cost 2-4 cents/mile rather then 8-20 cents/mile for gasoline miles. I have already discuss other green projects Google is running, and this is just the icing on the cake. With the solar installation at Mountain View these cars can run completely on alternative energy and not only save money but save our planet! Google is going green and even rethinking its current power consumption.

Yes you read that right, walmart is going green! Its interesting how walmart is going green and trying to bring all 180 million customers on board. Walmart even created a 10 things you can do to SAVE MONEY and make a DIFFERENCE? The first one on the list concerns me a bit, it’s to use Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) light bulbs. CFL light bulbs may be efficient, but LED light bulbs also cut down on power consumption. We need to think about the big pictures rather then what Walmart is selling.

Walmart is trying to “create value for our customers while minimizing our footprint on the environment” a bold statement coming from a company that is committing to low prices while paying their CEOs top dollar!

The idea of power in numbers is great and I hope walmart understands that offering more environmentally products will force millions (about 180) people to buy green. It seems most large companies are going green? Is green the new money maker or are these suits really putting the environment first then the dollar? Investing in green can now also be financially beneficial due to the large tax breaks as well as free press (like this blog post?).

The other day I posted about how you should recycle your used ink cartridges. Today, I want to help you find a recycling plant near you so you can get rid of that junk that is piling up. I know spring has gone and its officially summer, but you may want to throw out some stuff that have been pilling over in your closets. I know if you have a computer you can recycle your computer, that was easy!, but what about that used dishwasher in the basement, or maybe a refrigerator from college? Have no fear, the recycling center is here!

Yes you can now find a recycling center in or around your neighborhood, its quick, easy, and faster then using Google. Please feel free to commit stuff that you need to get recycled and if you have had any luck lowing your ewaste

In case you missed the green news of google, Google is going solar and will continue with this path towards green by going carbon neutral by the end of 2007! In order to do this Google is committed to invest in a new green ideas (listen up BUSH!).

Google will be creating an additional 50 MW of renewable energy by 2012 as well as investing in technology that encourages cleaner energy rather then just buying carbon offset. Google understands that carbon offset is not a complete solution, but can still help the environment and invest in reducing the global carbon emissions.

Google will also be investing in plug-in hybrid cards as well as the co-founder of Climate Savers Computing, a industry plant o increase computer efficiencies can cut carbon emissions by 54 million tons a year by 2010.

With such big plans I am glad Google is behind going green and will no “do evil” (even though they may in other areas, adsense anyone?). Google has posted more details about going green.

Amanda over at PetSmart Charities recently emailed Hippy Green and wanted to spread the word on how readers can help animals by donating ink cartridges.

Most of us use printer cartridges pretty frequently. Well those cartridges cannot only help the environment but animals as well. PetSmart Charities is trying to help save the lives of homeless pet one pet at a time. In the process they are also recycling which is great for the environment. PetSmart Charities program is called Recycle for Life. By donating your used ink cartridges you are donating between $2-15 to save homeless pets. PetSmart carries pre-paid mailer bags for you to grab at your inconvience and send in your ink cartridges as well as used cell phones. This is a great program and the more we get people to donate their ink cartridges the better the environment will be and the better off the animals will be!! So help—Go to your local PetSmart store and pick up some mailer bags! For more information visit www.petsmartcharities.org or email awerber [at symbol] petsmartcharities [period] org

If you are working for an organization or company that is benefiting the environment and want to be featured on Hippy Green, please contact us and we will be happy to get the word out.