Bicycles are the most efficient mode of transportation, even over walking. It actually takes less energy (in the form of calories) for a person to bike one mile than to walk one mile. When compared to the energy used by cars, the difference is even more astounding–a car can only travel about 1/20th of a mile for the same amount of energy it takes a cyclist to travel the full mile.

Bicycles also have the advantage of producing almost zero CO2 emissions (only slight CO2 emissions from food production are counted). This can have a great effect on reducing your personal carbon footprint as well as air pollution. This combined with the top energy efficiency easily make bicycles the greenest commuter option if you live a reasonable distance away from your work.

Cycling is also great for your personal health and well-being. Studies show that cyclists are exposed to the lower amounts of air pollution compared to other commuters. Cycling also offers a chance to get some great exercise during your commute–it’s the perfect way for someone with a busy schedule to stay in shape. In addition, psychologists agree that riding your bicycle is mentally rewarding because it leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment. You also get to whiz past rush-hour traffic if you live or work in a densely populated area. This is a great way to reduce stress.

Finally, cyclists never have to worry about the rising prices of oil and gasoline, because the only fuel they require is breakfast! For the average American, being able to rely solely on a bike to commute and never having to pay to purchase or maintain a car can save around $250,000.00 over that person’s lifetime. That’s an astonishing figure that may very likely increase as we run out of fossil fuels and driving becomes even more expensive.

Knowing your office carbon footprint is an important part of moving towards a greener and more efficient business operation. Calculating your footprint can be a perfect first step in determining baselines for conservation and emission reduction initiatives. It also gives you an excellent tool for tracking the progress of conservation efforts, comparing your carbon footprint with similar businesses, and motivating employees to participate in conservation campaigns.

Track your energy usage with a range of tools.

Green Irene provides an online office carbon footprint calculator tool to its clients. This calculator enables your business to analyze energy use and cost for multiple years, track greenhouse gas emissions quickly and easily, view weather data to learn if weather affects your energy use, see the results of your energy conservation efforts on easy-to-read charts and graphs, and submit your commercial building data to ENERGY STAR to receive an official energy rating.

The calculator looks at energy, water, and heating fuel use. Coupled with a resource such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol calculator (http://www.ghgprotocol.org/calculation-tools/service-sector), which concentrates more on carbon emissions from vehicles, these calculators can serve as a robust toolkit for companies in designing office energy/water/carbon footprint reduction campaigns.

Submit data to ENERGY STAR and receive an official rating.

The Green Irene calculator requires access to a history of monthly utility bills (water and fuel data are optional if these utilities are not metered separately for your office). Also note that the calculator requires a minimum entry of 5,000 for office square footage.

As part of a Green Office Makeover, your local Green Irene Eco-Consultant can provide you with more information on this calculator, as well as many additional resources to help you develop and implement your conservation initiatives, including policy templates, research support, and a full line of eco-friendly products. Contact him or her today and get access to powerful resources that can help your business go green!

From the National Association of Realtors Green Designation, of which Green Irene LLC is a Founding Sponsor. This impacts new non-residential buildings in California:

Green Building Gets a Boost With CALGREEN

The green building movement just got a big boost. The state of California was the first state to mandate green building standards when the California Building Standards Commission unanimously adopted the Green Building Standards Code (CALGREEN) last month.

When CALGREEN takes effect on January 1, 2011, all new nonresidential buildings over 10,000 square feet will need to adhere to the code. Its goal is reducing green house gas emissions, energy consumption and water use.

“This is a major step for the green industry,” comments Al Medina, director of NAR’s Green Designation. “Before, green mandates were left up to municipalities. I wouldn’t be surprised if other states start following California’s lead.”

Of CALGREEN, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “With this first-in-the nation mandatory green building standards code, California continues to pave the way in energy efficiency and environmental protection. Today’s action lays the foundation for the move to greener buildings constructed with environmentally advanced building practices that decrease waste, reduce energy use and conserve resources.”

CALGREEN will require new buildings constructed in California to:

- Reduce water consumption by 20 percent
- Divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills
- Install low pollutant-emitting materials
- Include separate water meters for nonresidential buildings’ indoor and outdoor water use, with a requirement for moisture-sensing irrigation systems for larger landscape projects
- Get mandatory inspections of energy systems (e.g., heat furnace, air conditioner and mechanical equipment) for nonresidential buildings over 10,000 square feet to ensure that all are working at their maximum capacity and according to their design efficiencies.

Once a building passes the state building inspection, its owner will be able to label the building compliant with CALGREEN.

CALGREEN likely will spur advances in building products. “California is a hotbed of innovation. With the mandate, there’s a lot of opportunity for small manufacturers with innovative products,” he says. Moreover, builders likely will be seeking out such companies and manufacturers because they’ll need products and materials to meet the CALGREEN standards for projects.

“Before, a new start-up would have to claw its way to get in front of builders. They have opportunity, in the next couple years, for builders to find them,” adds Medina. Moreover, he notes that opportunity exists for California specialists, such as real estate professionals, builders and developers, to become expert in CALGREEN and become the go-to person for consumers and building end-users and be the one to explain CALGREEN and its effects on them and their businesses.

And in the long term, CALGREEN has the potential to improve all buildings, not just new ones. “There will be a stark difference between new and old buildings in terms of energy efficiency and comfort,” he observes. He anticipates a time when the gap between new and old will be so wide that older buildings will be forced to upgrade to remain competitive in the market.

With the central role played by technology in the modern workplace, greening your IT operations is a fundamental part of improving office efficiency and reducing environmental impact. Take this quick quiz excerpted from the Wall Street Journal to test your awareness of green IT issues:

1) Which of these roles for information and communications technology has the potential to yield the biggest reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030?

A. Retrofitting existing buildings
B. Designing new buildings for reduced emissions
C. Telecommuting and virtual meetings
D. E-commerce and replacing paper

Answer: D. According to a study by the World Wildlife Fund, a big increase in online shopping and in the use of electronic transactions and documents to replace paper bills and publications could eliminate nearly a billion tons of greenhouse gases a year from the environment. That’s about twice the reduction estimated to result from either making existing buildings more efficient or designing new buildings that constantly monitor and adjust air conditioning and heating to minimize waste. More telecommuting and virtual meetings would save about 160 million tons of emissions a year, it estimated.

9) What percentage of corporate PC users leave their computers on nights and weekends when they aren’t in use?

A. About half
B. Hardly anyone
C. About 25%
D. Almost everyone

Answer: A. According to the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy, less than half of corporate PC users shut their computers down overnight, even though they aren’t using them. Turning them off would save an estimated 20 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions a year—roughly equivalent to the impact of four million cars.

10) What makes Windows 7 greener than Vista and other older Windows operating systems?

A. Microsoft prints the product manual on recycled paper.
B. It won’t run on high-energy microprocessors.
C. It reduces processor activity while the computer is idle.
D. It adjusts for intermittent power from wind turbines and solar panels.

Answer: C. It reduces background activity by electronically checking all connected devices at once and then going to sleep, rather than checking them at random times, which requires a central processor to be in operation almost constantly. It also reduces power consumption in other ways: It can be configured to stop searching for a network connection when a network cable isn’t plugged in. It suspends Bluetooth radio connectivity when it senses the Bluetooth device is in low-power mode. And it dims displays after shorter periods of inactivity than previous models.

How well did you know these green IT facts? Green Irene’s Ask Green Irene database can provide you with much more information about energy conservation in your IT operations, which can translate into cost savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions for your business. A 3-month membership to Ask Green Irene is included in the Green Office Makeover service offered by Green Irene.

What is green air filter and how does your air filter choice impact your building and the environment? Simply put, a green air filter provides a high level of filtration efficiency for improved air quality while providing low airflow resistance to minimize energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Green air filters also provide long life for fewer change-outs and use minimal components to reduce source and waste streams. Overall, green air filters can be effective in reducing building operating expenses as well as protecting the environment.

Indoor Air Quality

Air filters are no longer simply used to protect HVAC equipment. Effective air filtration provides the primary defense for building occupants against pollutants in a building. Now more than ever, air filters play a critical role in the indoor air quality of the building itself. Better indoor air quality can reduce absenteeism and has been shown to improve employee productivity.

Energy Efficiency

HVAC systems consume approximately 40% of the energy used in commercial buildings. Air filters play a significant role in the energy used to operate the HVAC system. The higher the filter’s resistance to air passing through it, the more energy is consumed to operate the HVAC system’s motor.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The resistance of an air filter is directly related to the amount of energy consumed by an HVAC system. Greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to energy consumption, and more specifically, electric power generation. Simply put, minimizing energy consumption reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Source and Waste Stream Reduction

Since some filters are disposable products, they have a significant impact on the waste stream of a building. By extending the life of a filter, or by using filters with fewer or lighter weight components, both the source and waste streams of a building can be reduced. Permanent HVAC filters can be washed and reused, reducing items sent to the landfill. Green Irene sells MERV 13 HVAC air filters for homes and small businesses that improve indoor air quality, as well as permanent air filters that can be washed and reused.

Energy has become one of our biggest challenges because of our dependence on foreign sources and the environmental consequences existing sources have. Our dependence on foreign oil means that we have to send dollars abroad that could instead stay domestically to create jobs and fuel growth. Our use of fossil fuels as our main source of energy is causing the planet to warm rapidly as a result of a growing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Clearly, energy is a big issue, and the first thing we need to do is learn how to avoid having to use energy without giving up quality of life (conservation). So here are five reasons why you should conserve energy.

1) Save Money. The best reason why you should conserve energy is because it will save you money. This is money that you can instead spend on paying for green products or purchasing clean energy. When your office conserves energy, it saves money on its energy bill. In general, energy efficiency upgrades can be paid back relatively quickly, so these are smart investments to make. Conserving energy by changing behaviors can have no monetary costs while accruing big savings.

2) Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions. As mentioned already, fossil fuels unfortunately release carbon dioxide when burned. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas causing the planet to warm rapidly, and so this requires us to dramatically reduce its emissions. When your office conserves energy, it reduces the burning of fossil fuels and therefore cuts on carbon dioxide emissions, helping slow down global warming.

3) Reduce Air Pollution. In the same way that carbon dioxide is released when we burn fossil fuels, air pollution is a result of fossil fuel combustion. For example, the burning of coal releases sulfur dioxide and soot, pollutants that lead to acid rain and respiratory illnesses. Gasoline combustion releases nitrogen compounds that, when hot enough, lead to ozone formation and smog. Air pollution is responsible for thousands of deaths annually, so it is in our interest to reduce air pollution by conserving energy at work and on the road.

4) Reduce Mercury Pollution. Our heavy reliance on coal means that we also emit a lot of mercury, which is found in significant amounts in coal. When coal is burned to produce electricity, mercury is released into the atmosphere and quickly deposits into water bodies and soils, eventually making it to fish populations. When they reach fish, mercury is already in the form of methylmercury, a toxic form that is a known carcinogen. Conserving energy, as a result, would directly impact our health as we would be less exposed to mercury in the food we eat and in the environment.

5) Save Water. Finally, you may not have thought of this. Just like when you reduce water use you save energy because that water does not have to be heated nor treated at the wastewater treatment plant, when you reduce energy use you also help save water. This is because power plants, particularly those that are fired by fossil fuels, require copious amounts of water in order to keep them cool. In fact, power plants represent the second largest consumer of water in the country, gobbling up 39% of all water withdrawals. Moreover, since the water is used to cool power plants, the end product is thermal water, which is much warmer than normal and affects local aquatic ecosystems.

There are very good reasons why we should be conserving energy other than the typical worries given out. Interested in learning all you can do to conserve energy? Sign up for a Green Office Makeover today. Look up your local Eco-Consultant and get on the path of conserving energy.

Commentary: Green Irene believes that small businesses will be the engine of the green economy. Most jobs created over the next few decades to make a transition to clean energy will be in small businesses. These businesses will help homes and businesses reduce energy use, install solar electric and heating systems, and provide eco-consulting services. Green Irene is a great example of that, with over 400 Eco-Consultants and counting across the United States. To learn more about how to become an Eco-Consultant, visit BeAGreenIrene. Green Irene Eco-Consultants are ready to help businesses Go GREEN.

As the United States debates how it should tackle climate change, “Big Business” has generally received the most political attention. Small companies are mostly disengaged from the climate debate, business advocates say, yet environmentally conscious, small enterprises could become influential supporters of climate legislation.

“Small business has to be a strong constituency if this legislation is going to be passed,” said Scott Hauge, president of Small Business California. “If we are going to create the innovation, we are going to create the jobs, we are going to reduce energy use, there needs to be a concerted focus on small business.”

World leaders will craft an international treaty to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change this December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Whether the United States can agree on climate change policy in the coming six months will heavily influence the outcome of the Copenhagen negotiations.

The Pew Charitable Trusts revealed last week that the U.S. clean energy economy – more than 68,000 companies that supply clean energy, energy efficiency, conservation strategies, and pollution mitigation technologies – created 770,385 jobs in 2007.

Many of these “green jobs” are small businesses, defined as an employer of 500 workers or less, according to The Center for Small Business and the Environment. In a report also released last week, the Center’s Executive Director Byron Kennard said that the 27 million small businesses in the United States, which produce 51 percent of private sector output, are turning to environmentally beneficial services in greater numbers.

“These are not tree hugger prophesies. These are real businesses, taking real risks, creating real jobs,” Kennard said. “Economically, politically, and socially as well, these green businesses are having a real impact.”

The U.S. House of Representatives is debating the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a bill that promises to reduce U.S. carbon emissions 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, compared to 2005 levels, through a national cap-and-trade system. In addition to placing a price on carbon, which would benefit low-carbon businesses, the legislation would increase energy efficiency standards, establish national mandates for renewable energy, and boost clean energy research.

The current version allows industrial polluters – businesses that emit more than 25,000 tons of carbon annually (such as large electric utilities, natural gas distributors, and cement producers) – to receive about 80 percent of the cap-and-trade system’s emission permits for free. The remaining would be auctioned, often to polluters. These funds are intended to assist consumers with higher energy costs, avoid deforestation in tropical countries, research clean-energy technologies, help developing countries adapt to climate change, and deploy clean energy-technologies worldwide.

The bill would also form a worker assistance and job training program, which supports reducing businesses’ dependency on fossil fuels. The program would be funded with roughly 0.5 percent of the permit auction funds. Commercial buildings would also be entitled to some of the legislation’s financial support for weatherization programs.

Scott Sklar, steering committee chair of the Sustainable Energy Coalition, a group of national and state-level business, environmental, consumer, and energy policy organizations that promotes increased federal support for energy efficiency and renewable energy, said the legislation’s benefits for small businesses are too small to provide meaningful support. He criticized the bill for prioritizing large industry instead.

“I don’t think any iterations of the [climate] bills I’ve seen so far support small businesses,” said Sklar, president of The Stella Group, a renewable energy marketing firm. “The allowances are given to big business polluters for the most part.”

California industries used similar arguments in an unsuccessful effort to derail the state’s cap-and-trade bill. Upon realizing that small business owners were likely to support the legislation if businesses could improve their energy efficiency, legislators responded with a small business toolkit. The program guides businesses on how to reduce their energy costs (and therefore greenhouse gas emissions) through voluntary efficiency gains.

“By small business stepping up to give the voice to our position, we were heard,” said Hauge, who helped pass the bill in 2006. “Big business was not aligned.”

Credit to the Worldwatch Institute.

Commentary: Green Irene can help your business Go GREEN right away. Our Green Office Makeover is an affordable, high-quality service that can get you on the path towards a Green Office. Our Local Eco-Consultants are ready to provide you with the support needed to implement specific measures that will help your business Go GREEN. Green Irene also carries various products at SHOPGREENIRENE that can get you going right after your first Green Office Makeover. So, why wait? Join the rest of the business community in Going GREEN with Green Irene!

Article excerpted from E-Week.

A report from Forrester Research finds that interest in PC power management software is growing thanks to the recession. A problem is that most businesses rely on their employees to power down their PCs when they’re not in use or to activate power management settings on their PCs. But businesses are beginning to look more at software solutions designed to make PCs run more cost-effectively and with more energy efficiency, the report says. IT pros must now make sure to get PC users to buy into the power management program, and be able to show business executives the money that can be saved with such initiatives.

A growing number of businesses are looking for ways to reduce the costs of running and managing their corporate PCs as the recession drives up the pressure on all parts of a business—including IT—to do what they can to reduce facility expenses.

However, more than half of businesses that say they have green PC programs in place rely primarily on users agreeing to power down their machines or activate power management settings, according to a report from Forrester Research.

A small percentage of surveyed businesses currently have proactive software-based PC management programs in place, although a growing number are either ramping up such programs or are considering it, according to the report, released April 10. Forrester surveyed 91 IT professionals.

“Right now there is a significant amount of interest in PC power management,” said Doug Washburn, the lead analyst on the report. “Given the recession, there is more interest in using IT to help reduce overall facility costs.”

Over the past few years, when talking about green IT, much of the attention has focused on data center systems, including servers and storage devices, Washburn said. However, some businesses are finding that IT assets outside of the data center—such as PCs, monitors and peripherals—can account for as much as 55 percent of overall IT power consumption.

Commentary: You can begin making your office more energy efficiency immediately by first getting a Green Office Makeover (GOM). A GOM will help you identify what kinds of improvements you can make in your home. Green Irene will provide specific recommendations that you can implement with the help of government funds and save money while reducing your footprint. Green Irene also carries a range of energy efficient lighting products that will save you hundreds of dollars annually on energy costs. This is the time to GO GREEN while saving GREEN. Get a Green Office Makeover today! Contact your Local Green Irene Eco-Consultant for more information.

Excerpted from Green America:

In an old folktale, a man travels the world in search of treasure, only to return home and find it had been in his hearth all along. Similarly, as we all hear daily news reports on the ever-worsening effects of climate change, we tend to look beyond our own communities for the solutions, from looking forward to new renewable fuel sources to waiting for exciting future technologies, like plug-in hybrid cars. But a huge solution—one that’s available right now and can cut our climate emissions in half, quickly and painlessly—has been in our own homes the entire time: energy efficiency.

We can create significant energy savings—at home, at work, and in our communities and beyond—using technologies available today. Simple things like light bulbs, surge protectors, and clotheslines, banded together with more complex machinery like Energy Star appliances, solar powered hot water heaters, and other cutting-edge solutions, when implemented together, hold the promise of massive energy savings—and massive climate crisis mitigation.

The quickest, easiest, and most powerful way to move at the speed and scale necessary to counteract the worst effects of climate change is by vastly ramping up our energy efficiency efforts—at home, at work, and as a nation and world. It’s the closest thing we’ve got to a magic bullet that will solve the climate crisis, but all of us have to be willing to do our part, right now.

That’s why we’ve amended our 12-step climate change plan to say that US homes and buildings need to be 50 percent more energy-efficient than they are today. Fifty percent is possible, right now, using existing technologies. Fifty percent is, according to numerous experts, cost-effective, meaning we’ll actually save money taking these steps. And fifty percent will bring us benefits that go beyond curbing climate change and preserving our world for future generations—our homes will be more comfortable, our energy bills will be lower, our air will be cleaner, we’ll create green jobs, and we’ll pave the way for a green energy future, making it more cost-effective to install massive amounts of solar and other renewables.

Continue Reading…

You probably heard of Earth Hour, an international effort that took place last Saturday, March 28th to save energy and raise awareness about global warming. Earth Hour counted with the participation of millions of individuals, thousands of cities, and many governments committed to taking action on global warming. More than a gesture of energy-saving, Earth Hour was symbolic because it demonstrated a global will to enter a new future powered by energy efficiency, renewable energy, and more sustainable lifestyles. In effect, it showed a universal commitment by people to move human society towards sustainability.

Among the landmarks that participated in Earth Hour are:

• The Great Pyramids in Egypt
• The Acropolis in Athens, Greece
• The Empire State Building in New York, USA
• The UN headquarters in New York, USA
• The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Wembley Stadium in London, UK
• The Bird’s Nest Stadium, the Water Cube, Ling Long Tower and Pangu Plaza in Beijing, China
• The Oriental Pearl Tower and the 492m high Shanghai World Financial Center, in Shanghai, China
• The Reserve Bank of India, the Air India buildings, and Indian Tourism Development Corporation’s flagship Ashok Hotel, in India
• The World Bank in Washington D.C.
• Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy
• The Big Ben in London, U.K.

Beyond Earth Hour, we have to continue to show our commitment to combating global warming and moving towards a greener planet. Green Irene is here to help you achieve that goal beyond Earth Hour. Our Green Home Makeover and Green Office Makeover are affordable, high-quality services that can get you going on making energy conservation permanent, reducing your waste and water use, protecting human health by eliminating toxic substances, and much more. Green Irene’s greenbase is also ready to provide you with any information you need to help you Go GREEN, in addition to a full research team ready to answer any questions not answered by our greenbase. In addition, Green Irene carries products that can complement your Green Home or Office Makeover. We carry green products that will ensure that what our Local Eco-Consultants recommend can be implemented right away. Green Irene offers the best, national solution for you to continue your commitment to Earth Hour and move towards a more sustainable lifestyle. So, in honor of Earth Hour, why not continue your commitment today with Green Irene. Sign up today for our services and begin the process of Going GREEN.

To learn more about Earth Hour, see this video below:

To see pictures from around the world, click here.