Thursday, September 29, 2011

Great news from Clean Technica

How is this for a headline:

Responding to a Trillion-Dollar Call to Retrofit Buildings

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Listen to Positive Energy Moving Forward WARL  - 1320 AM Providence, RI

Listen to Positive Energy Moving Forward WARL - 1320 AM Providence, RI

And you will hear our show, Renewable Now.


Also, coming in November, a new, one-hour live, call-in Renewable Now show weekly on 1320 WARL/Providence.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

New show tomorrow streaming live at 10a and 4p, EST

Enjoy the show:

Thanks, again, to Sipa in DC

For sending us more material for the blog.  Keep up the good work, Sipa, and we encourage everyone to contribute, as you contribute, we hope, to a cleaner, more efficient world:

First story and link:  


Carbon War Room-Brokered Consortium Set to Unlock Multi-Billion Dollar Global Commercial Property Retrofit Market
Ygrene Energy Fund-led PACE Commercial Consortium launches first $650 million retrofit package for commercial property in Miami-Dade County, Florida and Sacramento, California
Sept. 19, 2011, 7:00 p.m. EDT
MarketWatch

Part of the story:

"NEW YORK, Sep 19, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Carbon War Room, an independent non-profit, founded by Sir Richard Branson, that harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to unlock gigaton solutions to climate change, announced today the launch of a new consortium that will unlock billions of dollars of investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies for US commercial real estate.

The PACE Commercial Consortium (PCC) integrates the program management and engineering best practices of Lockheed Martin, the financial sophistication of Barclays Capital and the pioneering insurance partnership of Energi and HannoverRe in an end-to-end solution administered by the team's leader, Ygrene Energy Fund."

In today's business world, how often do you hear "unlocking billions of dollars of investment"?  Personally, I have not heard that in a long time, but I applaud The Carbon War Room for leading the commercial real estate market into a sustainable future.  Wonderful investment.

Also, take a look at this:


New Report Shows U.S. Solar Outpaces Global Market: PV Demand Grows 69 Percent Year-Over-Year
September 20, 2011
Solar Energy Industries Association

Part of the story:

"BOSTON and WASHINGTON - The U.S. solar energy industry continued its rapid growth through the second quarter of this year, gaining a greater share of the total global market according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)'s latest quarterly U.S. Solar Market Insight report.


Leading the way was the U.S. solar photovoltaics (PV) market, which installed 314 megawatts in the second quarter, 69 percent more than the same period last year and 17 percent more than the first quarter of 2011. The U.S. remains poised to install 1,750 megawatts of PV in 2011, double last year's total and enough to power 350,000 homes.


"The second quarter data illustrates that the U.S. solar industry continues to be one of the fastest growing in America," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA. "More than 100,000 Americans are employed in solar, twice as many as in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies - the vast majority being small businesses - across all 50 states"


How is it, then, that some of the major solar providers in the US, with great technology and backing from the US Government, fail and collapse into bankruptcy?  Great news on the expansion of our use of solar--very bad news on the business side of manufacturers being much less sustainable than their products.  Why?

We will be looking more closely at both stories on future shows very soon.

Send us your comments, though, in the meantime.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Thanks to Sipa in Washington DC

For alerting us to this story, which clearly falls squarely on the  business side of green:

The link:  http://www.prisonplanet.com/ba-faces-e50m-bill-for-carbon-emissions.html

Part of the article:


BA faces €50m bill for carbon emissions

  • PrintThe Alex Jones ChannelAlex Jones Show podcastPrison Planet TVInfowars.com TwitterAlex Jones' FacebookInfowars store
Pilita Clark
Financial Times
Sept 19, 2011
"British Airways faces a bill of nearly €50m, the highest of any airline, when carriers around the world are brought into the European Union’s carbon emissions trading scheme next year, a new study estimates.
But BA and other large European carriers will face a relatively smaller burden than their rivals in the US and China, because they should get an average of 81 per cent of the carbon allowances needed under the scheme for free. The Chinese and American carriers will only get an average of up to 64 per cent, says the report by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, the energy research firm.
The airline industry’s total bill is expected to be €1.1bn ($1.5bn) at today’s carbon prices, the study says. The whole sector may only make a $4bn profit this year, the International Air Transport Association has forecast."


We know, ultimately, these fees get passed to us in airline ticket prices.  The question becomes, does this become enough of an incentive for BA to invest in newer planes or modifications of their current fleet to improve fuel performance and reduce their carbon footprint--which would be a win-win for us and the environment.


We did a show with Cape Air, a wonderful, full-service airlines, serving many different routes, and they made positive changes, as described on the show, in their fleet, buildings and with their employees to become a very green airline.  Let's see BA and others do the same.




Saturday, September 24, 2011

An easy, positive change for the environment anyone can do/Weekend Edition

How is this for a very simple step on combing saving money and energy:  From Environmental Leader:


P&G to Advocate Coldwater Washing to 100m US Homes


"Procter & Gamble Company has pledged to launch an information blitz on 100 million U.S. homes aimed at promoting coldwater clothes washing.
In partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy, and through its Tide brand and Future Friendly conservation education campaign, P&G wants to provide the households with the information needed to convert from warm and hot water laundry habits to cold water washing by Earth Day 2013.
This campaign, launched at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York, is part of P&G’s corporate sustainability goal of converting 70 percent of total global washing machine loads to cold water washing by 2020.
About three quarters of the energy used and greenhouse gasses emitted when washing a load comes from heating the water, the New York Times recently reported.
Research released earlier this month showed that, despite many detergents working perfectly well in coldwater, most consumers are wary of using the cold cycle when washing their clothes. Sales figures from Henkel – the German company that markets coldwater specific detergents – showed sales for their products declined 16 percent in the last year in the U.S., despite many people trying to cut costs during the recession, the paper reports.
According to P&G studies about 7 percent of white laundry loads are done in cold water and 57 percent of “darks”, the paper reported."
We hope you'll join in now in making the switch to cold water and feel even better about putting on those clean clothes.

Friday, September 23, 2011

From Eco Geek: Computer Energy Efficiency Doubles Every 18 Months

Good news on the computer front:  Not only is their weight, capability and versatility improving at a rapid rate, they are also using half the power, saving us all significant money on energy, as new models get introduced.  How is that for a great ROI?

The link to the story: http://www.ecogeek.org/efficiency/3590.

Part of the story: " A new study done by an engineering professor at Stanford University has found that the energy efficiency of computers doubles roughly every 18 months, and has done so since the very first general purpose computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) that was built in 1956.


With help from Intel and Microsoft, Professor Jonathan Koomey was able to gather information about computing devices from 1956 until now and with this new finding, Koomey is revising and improving Moore's law -- the observation that computer processing power doubles every 18 months.  Fortunately, the things that contribute to that power improvement (reducing component size, capacitance and communication time between them) also increase energy efficiency."

So, more good reasons, assuming the old units are properly recycled and reused, to update our computer equipment.  Our kudos to the computer industry for doing more with less.


Now, other industries need to catch up to this level of efficiency.  Bring about lots of happy customers, and a lot of happy environmentalist hoping to reduce their carbon footprint.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Natural Gas: Energy, Economics and the Envronment

Thank you to Jack Gregg, of EVUIS, who has helped us track the on-going story of gas leaks from pipes buried under cities around the world.  Here is a great update from Boston:


Lost and Unaccounted Natural Gas: Energy, Economics, and Environment





"University researchers and partners have found hundreds of natural gas leaks in Greater Boston having conducted a mobile greenhouse gas audit earlier this year. At the same time, environmental and economic costs of lost and unaccounted gas from extraction in rural areas are coming under increasing scrutiny. Such gas leaks contribute to greenhouse warming potential; amounts to about $2 billion per year in US lost revenue; and have been implicated in damage and mortality of the urban and suburban forest canopy. Evidence indicates that the situation in Boston is likely similar to cities and towns across the nation.
The purpose of this workshop is to explore and create awareness around “the unknown” – the extent – the cause – the locations – the how – of these methane gas leaks; to explore rural- urban environmental and economic interdependencies surrounding the natural gas resource and industry; and develop a consensus on a research strategy to address these findings. Leaders from government, research, citizens, utilities and private sector will gather to share information and brainstorm next steps."
Clearly, this story cuts to the heart of the business side of green, our focus:  lost revenue, contribution to greenhouse warming, and the destruction of our urban and suburban forest canopy.  What is the financial balance between finding and fixing these leaks, and that costs, versus leaving them as is?  Can we come together and capture these gases into proper use while stopping the pernicious leaking of gas into our city's neighborhoods?
We will focus a show on this story but, in the meantime, stay tuned for updates.
We'd love to hear your comments.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Sorry we did not get this posted sooner

We broadcast live a new show today, with Joe Loberti, which ran live at 10a and 4p.  Sorry for the late notice on this, but it will now move to on-demand and you can, and should view the show anytime.

Joe is a former executive with APC, a phenomenal tech success story, and is hard at work finding and nurturing the next great tech company.  Who will that be?  Tune in and found out.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

From RI Eco News

Some disturbing news today from a very good, on-line newspaper:

Dead Zones are Killing Ocean Ecosystems


Here's part of the story and the link: http://www.ecori.org/front-page-journal/2011/9/19/dead-zones-are-killing-ocean-ecosystems.html

By JESSICA WURZBACHER/special to ecoRI News

"A dead zone is an area of an ocean that has too little oxygen to support marine life; it’s hypoxic. This is a natural phenomenon that has been increasing in shallow coastal and estuarine areas as a result of human activities.
Eutrophication is an increase in nutrients in the water, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen. Human activities have resulted in the near doubling of nitrogen and tripling of phosphorus flows to the environment when compared to natural values. Sources of nutrients in coastal waters include lawn fertilizers, agricultural manure, sewage discharges and stormwater.
“Dead zones” are the most severe result of eutrophication. This dramatic increase in previously limited nutrients causes massive algal blooms. These harmful blooms can cause fish kills, human illness through shellfish poisoning, and the death of marine mammals and shore birds. This population explosion is unsustainable, and eventually dies off, as they block out the light and use up all the oxygen. The algae sink to the bottom, and bacterial decomposition uses the remaining oxygen from the water."
Easy to predict the economic consequences of fish kills, human illness through shellfish and the death of marine mammals and shore birds.  Our failure, in this case, to protect our water systems has poisoned part of the local economy, too.

We encourage you to reduce your use of fertilizers and pesticides, and to think carefully about everything you put into the ground as it all, ultimately, ends up seeping into our drainage, sewers and rain runoff.  

On past shows, we've highlighted good farming techniques, and maybe we can do the same with home and commercial landscaping.  There is a better way.


Monday, September 19, 2011

Great e-waste event coming up at Arpin in Oct

We are happy to share news on great events that help the environment and the local economy.  Take a look at this:


"We are happy to announce our newest, biggest event to collect e-waste and approved hazardous waste material, batteries and lots of shredding to protect people identity.  Whether you or someone you know helps sponsor this fun, heavily promoted event, everyone can come that day and bring us electronics, batteries and lots of other materials to properly dispose of and keep out of our landfill, while helping to raise lots of money to keep people warm this winter.

One valuable element of the company-sponsored e-waste event, is that those businesses can bring their e-waste, shredding and approved hazardous waste, no charge, but also get their employees to do the same.  Also, employees and their families, particularly their children who have community service requirements through school, can come work the event that day. 

Companies can display on site that day at Cardi's, which will be our host location for banners, information, refreshments, displays and much more.

Arpin is a major supporter of Artic Mission which is one of the true, grass-roots groups that gets people through difficult transitions and back on their feet.  We are a group that is run by entrepreneurs who give people hand ups, not handouts.  We are on our way to creating our own enterprises that will self-fund most of our growth.

This is truly a business man's non-profit--focused on Corporate social responsibility with economic growth and a transformation of one of the State's most depressed areas--West Warwick.

We have packaged great value into the e-waste fest, and offering that event for free to those annual corporate sponsors.  Again, we deliver tremendous value back to sponsors, with lots of radio, PR, print, posters, on-site visibility, etc, rather than asking for a simple donation.  For companies and estates/trust that like positive PR, this is a great series of events to affiliate with.

We appreciate any help you can give, including promotion and visibility through your contacts, social media and affiliated web sites. Let's get the word out and fill the industrial park that day and raise lots of money for keeping people warm this winter.  And please contact me right away as a corporate sponsor so I can make sure you get proper credit and get a head start on all the activities.  I also want to reserve a spot for you at the Cardi's parking lot if you are planning on setting up a table that day."

Here's more, including contact information.  Also, you can contact them though us to volunteer or sponsor:

THE ARTIC MISSION
The Artic Mission is a non-profit, 501c3
volunteer organization working to
improve the quality of life for the underresourced
and homeless of West
Warwick, RI. The Mission helps clients
overcome addiction, improve general
life skills, and find job and housing
opportunities.
Recently, the Mission has experienced a
tremendous reduction in donations and
grants. With the winter months fast
approaching and Rhode Island’s
unemployment rate hovering at recordsetting
levels, we anticipate the requests
for heating assistance will be at an alltime
high.
To ensure that we can continue to help
those in need, the Mission will be
hosting an e-waste recycling collection
and document shredding fundraising
event on October 22, 2011. The event
will be held at the West Warwick
Industrial Park campus, 99 James P.
Murphy Highway, West Warwick, RI,
from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. All
donations collected will benefit the
Artic Mission’s Heating Assistance Fund.
Currently, we are
seeking corporate
sponsors to help us
promote the event.
With a donation of
$250, your business
will enjoy premium
exposure at this highprofile
event
including:
❖ Special mention as
a participating
sponsor on radio and TV ads.
❖ Logo placement on T-shirts and the
Artic Mission’s website.
❖ Prominent signage at the event with
optional sponsor display space.
All donations made to the Artic Mission
are tax deductible.
We welcome your consideration of this
request. Should you need additional
information, please contact Charlie
Nault by calling (401) 828-9400 or via
email at cnault@the articmission.org.




Saturday, September 17, 2011

Veterans and farming Sierra Club Magazine/Weekend Edition



Great article in the Sierra Club magazine (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201109/act.aspx) on veterans coming home, even those injured in the war, and becoming local farmers.

Ironically, the Providence Journal covered the same story today.  We will be doing a show on this, and invite anyone out there, a veteran, organization or farmer who is part of this movement to please get in touch and be part of this heart-warming story.

Here's part of it:

 "A young veteran called us up last week from North Carolina. He had just bought 50 acres of land. He told us both of his legs had been ripped off in the war, but they'd been reattached, and now he was ready to farm. He's a perfect candidate for our program.


"I've worked in the organic-farming industry for 40 years. I visited New York not long after 9/11 and came across the statue of a guy beating his sword into a plowshare, and a lightbulb went off in my head. In 2007 I talked to some Northern California farmers about creating jobs for returning veterans. From the beginning, there's been something so positive about the concept. It transcends politics.

"We do everything from introducing veterans to agricultural careers to helping them establish their own farms. Early on, I would go out and help vets plant and weed their fields.
"This project grew out of the organic-farming industry, but we don't overemphasize that part. A lot of the veterans we work with grew up on family farms, and we're not about to tell them that their dad's not farming properly. These veterans are getting into farming because they are attracted to nature. They are looking for something healthy and peaceful.

"One of the first vets we worked with had been injured in a mortar blast and had to relearn to walk and talk. Now he has his own blueberry farm. He's made the entire place wheelchair accessible and has started training other vets to farm. I've seen so many veterans come to our program with debilitating injuries and go on to thrive.

"These kids have chosen to do the two most difficult things in our society, and a lot of them aren't even 30 years old. They volunteered to go to war, and now they're coming back and saying, 'I'll take on feeding the country.' As a group, they're amazingly strong." —interview by Wendy Becktold

This is a fantastic story, and a perfect blend of ecological and economic social benefits.  We applaud every vet, every farmer, every supporter for inspiring us.

Please share this story and offer your support with comments back to us.

We love sharing good news, and will let you know when the show airs.  

Friday, September 16, 2011

Dunkin Donuts' 4-Step Solution to Brewing Energy Efficiency

Coffee lovers rejoice:  One of the big players, very popular in Eastern US, is taking a step towards a sustainable future by reducing its use of energy to brew its coffee.  Interesting, as you read their story, they became very motivated "After observing the success of EDF Climate Corps fellows at other companies, executives at Dunkin' Donuts believed energy efficiency could mean potential savings for their own company as well."


We love this statement as it is our goal to motivate you through sharing other success stories.  Whether you are an individual, non-profit or business, there is, in our view, plenty of room to make a good economic decision that will benefit the environment as well, and you can see and hear that through our many shows.


Here's part of the story: " Freshly brewed cups of coffee are sold to millions of faithful American guests that flock to Dunkin Donuts' doors daily. The company's culinary and operational recipes have proven to be quite successful: already a Northeast staple, Dunkin' Donuts is continuing to extend its presence across the rest of the United States. Excitement at the company runs particularly high nowadays, in response to its recent and successful IPO


...But it gets trickier when you consider that Dunkin' Donuts, as a franchisor, owns virtually none of the Dunkin' Donuts stores. The corporate parent owns only a handful of actual restaurants. Instead, individual franchisees own each of the nearly 6,700 Dunkin' Donuts stores in the U.S. So even if Dunkin' Donuts were to identify very financially attractive energy efficiency investments, these investments would not be undertaken unless franchisees (the actual store owners) became interested enough to implement and pay for the projects on their own.



How can a franchisor convince franchisees that an energy efficiency project is worth the investment? Below are some recommendations from my work to-date regarding franchisee engagement and benchmarking:"
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/09/16/dunkin-donuts-4-step-solution-brewing-energy-efficiency

Now, Dunkin Donuts needs to find a non-Styrofoam cup to serve.  They are killing our landfill.  If you can, please switch to a reusable cup so you, too, can stop the flood of cups that cannot be reused or recycled.

The link to finish the story:   

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Carbon Day

We are heading to Boston today for this event at Copley Square.  Please join us if you can.

We are shooting interviews with many of the organizers and exhibitors who will be showing products and ideas for reducing carbon output.  We will be editing into a great, one-hour show that we will release later this year.

Our major goal, though, is to bring this event to as many cities as possible and, ultimately, have Carbon Day celebrated (right now, to our knowledge, it is Chicago and Boston only) in every state.  Then we can help coordinate a moment of carbon reduction that can be synced across America and, ideally, across the world.

Can you help us do this?  Again, this is not a belief/non-belief in global warming.  We'll leave that to others.  Our mantra is simply let's enjoy the many benefits of reducing emissions and cleaning our air.  An international celebration of Carbon Day would be a wonderful start.


Here is the link:  http://carbonday.com/media/join-us-in-copley-square-for-an-open-air-event-showcasing-electric-vehicles-and-public-information-on-wednesday-september-15th-copley-square-%E2%80%93-back-bay-on-the-boylston-street-side-of-copley/

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

We look forward to having you as part of the show today

RN
Dear Peter,

Tomorrow is the date for ReNewable Now's first LIVE event, and you can be a part of it by going to ReNewable Now.

PLEASE BE AWARE the show is from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m EST.
This is an interactive show where you, our audience, are encouraged to participate by not only asking questions, but also providing ideas. Our goal for ReNewable Now is to help increase awareness of the business side of green and to hopefully see our country engage this new economy. It is through effective group forums such as this, that we hope to enlighten people to the potential that exists.
We also encourage you to tell others about this forum and invite them to participate live, online by visiting
"www.renewablenow.tv." Once there, they can submit questions via the chat room, or if they like, they can TWEET us at
https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23asklinc. Our partners from "ecori News RI" will be manning our Live Social Media in the studio, and they also invite you to submit your questions for the Governor to their FACEBOOK page.

We look forward to having you visit the show, and being part of it.

We want to take a moment to thank our sponsor's who have shown leadership in helping to educate the
public, the private sector, and also our government when it comes to understanding the green economy.
Parnters
This email was sent to peterarpin@msn.com by arpinmediagroup@gmail.com |
Arpin Broadcast Network | 999 Main Street | Pawtucket | RI | 02860

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Nice event to be part of

In addition to watching our first, live broadcast tomorrow at 10-11EST (with the Governor of RI, the first of the 50 governors we will interview on the show), we thought you might be interested in this event as well:


"Tomorrow, people from around the world will join hands to create 24 Hours of Reality. I hope you'll join us. Together, we're going to focus the world's attention on the scope, scale and impact of the climate crisis.


24 Hours of Reality begins at 7 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday, September 14. Over the course of the day, there will be 24 presentations across 24 time zones in 13 languages. I'll be presenting in the final hour at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

Use our simple tool to set a reminder so you don't miss it.
Set a reminder
http://climaterealityproject.org/reminder/

Together, we're going to take a stand against the "new normal." We're going to remove any doubt stirred up by deniers.

Together, we're going to catalyze urgency around an issue that impacts every one of us.

Find a presentation in your language or your part of the world and use our tool to schedule a reminder email. You'll receive 15 minutes before the event.

http://climaterealityproject.org/reminder/"
Our goal here at Renewable Now is to find better, cleaner ways of running businesses and living day-to-day.  Our argument is simple:  What is the downside to cleaner air, less pollution, less waste all the while, saving money?  Whether we are at crises or not is, we think, better left to the scientist to argue.  Let's just get better, leaner, more sustainable and find innovative ways to power our lives. 
Thank you for being part of the Renewable Now family.  We are proud of your contribution to a better life. 

Environmental Leader/9/12/11

Great article in the above magazine this week on ROI's in renewable energy.  Here's the headline:

ROI of 11-12% Predicted for Commercial Renewables

The article goes on to say, and we've seen and heard this from our past guests on the shows, that the ROI and leapfrog as high at 20% on such investments in wind, solar and geothermal projects.

Take a good look at this article:  It cuts to the heart of "the business side of green"...our favorite subject.  It is just one great example of the returns generated by the right investments in green.  The link:

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/09/12/roi-of-11-12-predicted-for-commercial-renewables/

A look at the article which highlights the landscape in UK, but is very applicable to investments all over the world:  "Businesses that invest in renewable energy could make average returns of 11 to 12 percent, with the potential for returns in excess of 20 percent, according to research by U.K. low-carbon advocacy group Carbon Trust.
New financial incentives, energy market trends and building regulations are combining to create what Carbon Trust calls “a compelling case” for British businesses to generate their own renewable energy, according to The Case For Renewables in U.K. Business."
Tell us about your projects, your investments.  Get in touch with us for a future show (we can stream you in, in real time, from anywhere in the world) if you are expert and can offer guidance and advice to our viewers.  Let's build on each other's success.
And, join us tomorrow at the Arpin Broadcast Network, Renewable Now channel, for our first live broadcast of a very special one-hour show.  See yesterday's blog for full details.
You can reach us tomorrow by Twitting in through RI ECO NEWS.