Many businesses have their own vehicle fleets to ship items or carry out business activities. Such businesses have a significant carbon footprint from transportation that can be reduced by taking simple and big steps towards reducing fuel consumption. In the long-run, most of these steps can accrue significant savings to businesses with vehicle fleets. Here we provide five tips your business can take to green its fleet.

1) Purchase hybrid or plug-in vehicles. Hybrid vehicles run on a combination of gasoline and electricity, while plug-in vehicles run entirely on electricity, increasing energy efficiency substantially. These options can help reduce fuel consumption drastically, saving money in the long term.

2) Run trucks on biodiesel. Diesel engines are becoming increasingly more efficient for trucks than gasoline engines. The newest models are polluting far less. In addition, these engines can run on biodiesel, an increasingly popular fuel that can substantially reduce emissions. Whenever possible, try running your trucks on biodiesel.

3) Conduct regular maintenance. To ensure that your car is burning fuel efficiently, make sure you give it a tune-up regularly (including keeping tires filled up well). This will help keep the engine running smoothly. In addition, every time you change an essential liquid, like motor oil, make sure you discard of it appropriately.

4) Opt for car-sharing program. If your business’ use is sparse and you’re in a metropolitan area, consider opting for a car-sharing program instead. This will allow you to drop the cost of keeping an unused vehicle and also save substantially on carbon emissions. Examples are ZipCar and WeCar.

5) Avoid unnecessary rides. If your destination is reachable using public transportation, encourage the use of public transportation instead. Only keep vehicle use for destinations out of bounds by public transport.

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 changeouts 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 builiding. 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 landfil. 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.

In the United States, the average person uses 50 pounds of tissue paper per year, using up about seven trees worth of paper. Paper represents over one-third of all municipal waste and roughly 9% of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. With increasing concerns for the destruction of forests, it has become more important to reduce paper waste.

You will typically find paper towels in the bathroom or the kitchen, These paper towels gobble up not only a lot of carbon, but also a lot of waste. In your office’s bathroom, in particular, a lot of paper is probably being wasted as people choose to take a new sheet to dry hands. However, there is another option that saves both energy and paper.

The XLERATOR, a fast hand dryer, not only dries hands quickly, it also will result in more than a 95% savings vs. paper towel costs. In addition to paper towels, the following costs are also eliminated: ordering, storing, replenishing, collecting, and disposing of bacteria-laden paper towel waste.

If you want reusable paper towels, check out Green Irene’s Twist Sponge Cloth at ShopGreenIrene.

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: Green Irene has been carrying covered CFLs of various types at SHOPGREENIRENE. In addition, Green Irene’s CFLs have the lowest amount of mercury possible, are high-quality (so they will not fail until at least the end of their lifetime), and have high luminosity and colors for lighting quality, all while saving you money. You can learn more about them by contacting a Local Eco-Consultant or you can shop directly at SHOPGREENIRENE.

Valley retailers are offering new compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) that get around one of the biggest obstacles – ugliness – for consumers to install the low-power devices.

The new covered bulbs look like traditional lightbulbs but offer the energy efficiency of the curvy, pigtail-like bulbs that sometimes raise shoppers’ eyebrows.

Some of the other drawbacks remain, including the mercury inside that requires special disposal and the fact that shoppers have to pay a little more attention to buy the proper light for the job.

Although CFLs still are more expensive than traditional incandescent bulbs, using one of the 13-watt CFLs saves about $35 in electricity costs compared with a 60-watt traditional bulb, and they’re designed to last longer so they don’t need to be replaced as often, utility officials said. Most homes have about 35 lightbulbs, but utility officials said customers can save a lot without replacing all of them.

And the new covered bulbs do that without looking eccentric.

“It looks like a regular bulb, but has a CFL inside,” said Debbie Kimberly, SRP’s energy-efficiency manager. “If you are an energy geek like myself, you can walk down the aisle and notice they have made tremendous advances in the way the bulbs look as well as their performance.”

Another common complaint from people who switch to CFLs is the lighting quality.

Hines and Kimberly said when switching to CFLs, customers need to learn to buy bulbs based on the lighting output measured in lumens and make sure to buy the proper type of bulb for recessed lights or other specialty sockets.

“Look for the light output that you want first, and the smallest number of watts to get that,” Hines said. “If a CFL light is too dark, go up to the next wattage. You’re still going to save a ton of energy.”

Article excerpted from AZ Central.

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…

A recent article in the New York Times discussed problems Americans are facing with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). The article focused on how compact fluorescent light bulbs have been registering quality problems because of the government’s emphasis on bringing down their prices at the expense of quality. Specifically, this has been as a result of some manufacturers choosing to replace better components with cheaper components. Unfortunately, this leads to an increase in bulb failures, which result in complaints from consumers.

Green Irene wanted to take this opportunity to discuss why, in spite of these realities for some CFLs, our light bulbs are high-quality and will do what they’re meant to do for our clients. First of all, Green Irene’s CFLs aren’t cheap for a reason. While they’re not too expensive, they’re also not as cheap as CFLs that you can find in typical stores. Green Irene’s light bulbs are sourced from well-recognized suppliers who ensure that the bulbs do what we normally expect them to do most of the time: provide 8,000 to 10,000 hours of lighting, dim well when needed, have low mercury levels and high luminosity, and save you money! In addition, we always strongly recommend our clients to use our eco-consultants to verify which CFLs should be installed in which fixtures to avoid matching problems.

Second, Green Irene guarantees that its CFLs will work. To fulfill that guarantee, it provides its clients a 30-day (CFLs typically fail within a few days if they will fail, so this is enough time to find out) warranty under which failed CFLs are taken back and clients are either provided with a new one or are refunded. Since Green Irene is a small business, it can handle refund requests from clients much more easily than typical stores that sell CFLs coming from distribution centers.

Finally, Green Irene has spent a significant amount of time researching suppliers to ensure that its CFLs are in fact high-quality and will not fail on clients. We’ve made sure our light bulbs meet most of the requirements typically demanded from CFLs, from having less mercury than the average CFL to having the right lighting color to meet typical needs. We also provide our clients with full instructions about how they should go about installing their CFLs and where’s the best location to place them at home or in the office. Green Irene’s CFLs are among the best in the market and ensure that you will save money while enjoying of high-quality lighting. To purchase CFLs from Green Irene, check out our line of products at ShopGreenIrene.

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.