Phoenix City Living

Renewable Choice Energy: making a difference today!

Most of the electricity we use in our homes comes from burning fossil fuels. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this is the leading cause of industrial pollution. So every time you turn on a light or crank up the air conditioner, harmful pollutants are released into the environment. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Wind power is now available for anyone, anywhere in the country. Wind power is a clean and renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Not only is wind power pollution free, but it also helps rural farming communities and diversifies our energy supply, preserving natural resources.

Since it is physically impossible to deliver electricity straight from a wind farm to your house, wind energy credits make purchasing wind power possible. Wind energy credits ensure that the amount of electricity you use is replaced onto the power grid with wind power, making it cleaner for everyone.

SIgn up today and you'll also have your choice of gift cards including Whole Foods as a thank you for a commitment to sustainable energy and an earth environment with a future.

Check it all out and make a change to your future at Renewable Choice Energy.

MarketWatch's "Green at Home" list

From MarketWatch's Go Green at Home Without Going Broke:

1. Insulate your water heater. If it was built before 2004, you  can save as much as 10% on your annual water-heating bill by wrapping the tank in an insulating fireproof blanket.
2. Tune up your furnace. Getting your furnace serviced every two years not only reduces the amount of carbon dioxide it emits, it also cuts your heating bills by up to 10%.
3. Lower the temperature. The Alliance to Save Energy estimates that you can take 5% off your heating bill for every degree you lower your home's temperature during the cold season.
4. Pad those pipes. You can cut heating costs just by insulating exposed hot water pipes in your home.
5. Weatherstrip your doors. Putting weatherstripping around your front and back doors will net you around $30 a year in energy savings.
6. Wash your clothes in cold. That uses 50 % less energy than washing them in hot water.
7. Don't use permanent press. Employing the regular setting instead of the permanent press setting on you washing machine will conserve five gallons of water per load.
8. Watch your water flow. Save a gallon of water per minute when you're doing the dishes by restricting the water flow to a stream the width of a straw. Save another two gallons by turning off the water when you brush your teeth for two minutes.
9. Fix that leaking faucet. That constant drip, drip, drip isn't just grating, it's also wasting water -- 2,700 gallons a year to be exact.
10. Check your toilet tank. If you put a drop of food coloring into your toilet bowl and it doesn't disappear, your tank is leaking, says Clark. Get it fixed and you can salvage 200 gallons of water a day.

When it's a good thing to have a "green" pool

Scottsdale pool company's 'green' technology goes prime time:

Scottsdale-based pool cleaning company Calsaway Pool Services Inc. will be featured on NBC Nightly News Sept. 27 for its environmentally friendly technology used to clean swimming pools.

The feature will air during the 5:30 p.m. time slot and will be hosted by NBC anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams.

Calsaway burst onto the local scene in January, when it began offering its mobile pool cleaning service to the Valley. It uses a custom-engineered filtration process that removes hard minerals and kills bacteria, algae and insect larvae from pools without draining the water.

... The Calsaway process uses chemicals that bond with minerals and biological matter in water. The minerals become heavy and fall to the bottom of the pool. Using Calsaway's truck-mounted filter, the minerals are removed while the water is poured back into the pool.

Most residential pools hold about 15,000 gallons, which takes more than a day to empty and another day to refill. Additionally, typical acid-wash cleaning methods take six hours to complete. Pool builders suggest cleaning pools every two years.

With more than half a million pools in the Phoenix area, Calsaway officials estimate the company could save the region more than 338 million gallons of water over the next three years. The company just invested in its second service truck, opening the doors to twice as many customers as before, Scheer said.

How the restraints of the future should influence urban planning today.

Tomorrow is holding up quite a large sack of uncertainty. What will the price of gas become? How congested will our roads, or our air, be? Will any number of factors make long-distance commuting unthinkable? Will the planet's ecosystem, under duress from unchecked sprawled growth, lead to a greater sensibility in design, density, and living styles?

How much better for our long-term survival as a species would urban-centric, high-technology, mass-transit population centers be? Look at the math: take an average high-rise condo building on one singular footprint vs. tearing down acres and acres of virgin desert. Put up a sprawling mass of 70-100 stucco tinkertoys to match the housing units of just one high-density building and the realization hits you like a mallet. Simply finding the cheapest buildable land anywhere near a highway was the mantra of the past. Or forget the highway: we'll build today and hopefully a highway will come (look at what and where Johnson Ranch was when commenced or the west end of today's Ahwatukee). But the roads aren't getting bigger, the subdivisions continue their growth, yet city and state revenues are getting smaller. Where is the financing of new roads to be generated (does everyone remember the ghost bridges of the 101 dotting the landscape of the SRPM Indian Community after the construction demise of the 80's)?. Or who is going to build that once-planned commercial center or take a chance on a retail strip mall when half the homes in these outlying areas of Phoenix could sit empty? Too many factors that supported urban sprawl are changing rapidly for the worse. Our air is turning brown, today's long commutes were simply unimaginable just a few years ago, the price of gas continues its climb with no ceiling in view, and massive stucco mini-mansions dot the landscape sucking the life out of the desert and consuming electricity and water with an ever-increasing ferocity. Urban living in higher density buildings allows massive savings on energy consumption, mechanical systems, infrastructure costs, commuting times, accidents and bodily injury, and maintains our green environment. Market demands, and the more "individualized" nature of urban development, allow developers to explore new green and high-efficiency technologies, space-saving floorplans and storage designs, and aesthetically-forward buildings. Thoughtful, affordable, and sustainable urban building designs and planning must morph into a dominate influence on tomorrow's living: or our planet will have much more to say on our myopia.

As originally posted on UrbanVertical | the blog

And you thought Phoenix was nothing more than red-tiled roofs!

According to a recent report by the Trust for Public Land, Phoenix, with over 38,000 net acres of parkland, is among the nation's leaders in providing recreational space for its residents. Phoenix has created over 26 acres of parkland for every 1,000 population trailing only Houston, San Diego, and Raleigh for top spot. The national average is 17.5 acres far below the lists leader Raleigh at over 36 acres. Phoenicians have been generous with their support of various bond propositions and the Parks and Preserve Initiative. This money has been used to create and rehab various open areas including the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve, state parks, and various community and neighborhood parks.

azcentral.com goes green'ish

Phoenix's azcentral.com has created a portal for articles and reports, both local and national, for America's new obsession - going green .  From local news with a twist of green to the challenges and opportunities for a changing planet azgreenliving has a good cross-section of thoughts that matter. What are businesses doing to change their behavior and what should you do? Check out their ideas and make a difference for a stressed planet.

Simple steps to help a hurting planet

From iVillage on their "12-step program" to be a better steward of our planet.  Give it a try kids and the jolly green Santa may think good of you by year's end.

"You turn out the lights when you leave the room, and diligently set your bundles of newspapers and rinsed bottles on the curb. But are you doing everything you could to reduce waste? Allen Hershkowitz, PhD, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that living an eco-friendly life is easier than you might think. "If you operate efficiently, you both reduce waste and save money. There's really no reason not to do it," says Hershkowitz. Convinced? Here are 12 great ways to get started.

1. Buy a battery recharger. "Batteries contain dangerous metals that aren't combustible and shouldn't go in a landfill," says Hershkowitz. Over time, the charger will pay for itself, since you'll no longer shell out for new batteries every time your Walkman runs out of juice.
2. Ditch the paper towels and napkins. Hershkowitz says that the paper industry is the number-one consumer of fresh water and the number-one industrial cause of deforestation. Do your part by using cloth napkins, dishtowels and sponges in the kitchen and dining room.
3. Keep your tires properly inflated. Your car will run more efficiently, using less gas and emitting fewer pollutants.
4. Patronize local businesses. When you buy from stores that get their products locally, like farmers markets and food co-ops, you're supporting companies that don't waste precious natural resources by shipping products across the country. "You're also supporting your local economy," says Jim Merkle, author of Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth (New Society Publishers, 2003).
5. Pack refillable juice boxes in your kids' lunches. "You can buy them for $1 at bargain stores, instead of using disposable juice boxes," says Hershkowitz. "It saves paper, plastic and money." Set a good example for the kids by bringing a coffee cup to work, or finding a coffee shop that will refill a travel mug.
6. Keep your lawn pesticide free. You won't pollute water, and you may safeguard your children's health. "There's a documented increase in child leukemia in homes that use pesticides on their lawn, and there is an even greater incidence in homes that use them indoors," says Hershkowitz, who has maintained a healthy lawn for 15 years without pesticides.
7. Shop at thrift stores and tag sales. Whenever you opt for used clothing, appliances or furniture, you're not just saving cash. You're also reducing the demand for newly manufactured products. "We're a wasteful society, and it's good to make use of that waste," says Merkle.
8. Install a low-flow showerhead. "This is a high-efficiency showerhead," says Hershkowitz. "It will perform as well as a standard showerhead but uses less water."
9. Reduce the office paper jam. One-third of all our garbage is paper, says Hershkowitz. Making double-sided photocopies and printing on the back side of used paper goes a long way.
10. Get a bike. Do you drive five minutes to pick up a loaf of bread at the supermarket? Hershkowitz says that 25 percent of all car trips are less than a mile. By riding a bike or ‑- egads! ‑- walking for short trips, you'll save energy and money, and you just might slim down in time for swimsuit season.
11. Put a big shade tree in front of your house. "It will keep your home cooler, and you won't need to use the air conditioning as much," says Merkle.
12. Look for the recycling symbol on toilet paper and tissues. The manufacturing process for making paper from other paper products is less wasteful than making it straight from trees. "Don't buy Kleenex that's made from 100 percent virgin trees," says Hershkowitz, who points out that Marcal, Seventh Generation and CVS are all made from post-consumer recycled paper."

Check out the source:
12 Ways to Reduce Waste

A first step towards cleaner Phoenix air

Will planes, when landing some day in the future, have to speed up to punch the brown layer covering the Valley?  In a deal struck between parties typically hell-bent on maintaining individual control of their destinies, the first step was made in dealing with an problematic and growing issue with the quality of Phoenix's air.  Breathe deeply and check it out:

Via AZCentral:

"A compromise has been struck over a hotly contested air-pollution bill that aims to cut down on particulate and ozone pollution and avert potentially crippling sanctions from the federal government

....Through months of meetings, everyone from homebuilders and road builders to oil companies and the agriculture community haggled over how much they should contribute to cut down on the levels of coarse particulates that have run the Valley afoul of federal clean-air standards.

...The measures in the bill should cut 10,425 tons of coarse particulates, or PM10, from the city's air per year, said Jim Buster, lobbyist for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.  And that would get the Valley 80 percent of what it needs to meet the health-based air standard.  The remaining 20 percent should be achieved through measures that the Maricopa Association of Governments are working on with local cities and towns."

For highlights of the bill and the fuller description of the measures proposed:
Compromise reached to combat Phoenix's dirty air

Moving? Got Boxes?

The pain of moving...its inevitable.  The excitement and joy of moving into your new home is always tainted by the sheer fact that you cannot click your heels twice, wave your wand, and have your dishes re-appear inside your new cabinets.

Instead of having to beg at your local grocery store for old boxes or purchase expensive new ones, give UsedCardboardBoxes.com a try and save time, money, and save some trees!  In just one or two days, UsedCardboardBoxes.com will deliver the moving kit that meets your needs directly to your doorstep...including boxes, tape, packing paper, and markers.

UsedCardboardBoxes rescues "truckloads of quality used boxes from businesses that might otherwise be thrown away" as well as "brand new misprints and overruns from box manufacturers that can no longer use those boxes."  Before they arrive at your door, the boxes are all thoroughly inspected to ensure they'll make it through the move...let's just hope you can survive too.

A sleek vase for your Spring flowers

We all know its Spring-time in the Valley with the arrival of the baseball fans...so why not bring Spring inside your home as well with some beautiful flowers.  But do it in style and why not do a little for the earth while you're at it? 

Finally someone has discovered a way to use empty wine bottles for more than just a candle-holder at the neighborhood Italian restaurant.  Check out these great, funky vases from re:modern.  Manufactured through Artecnica's Design With A Conscience program, the series offers five hand-crafted vases in three different colors made from recycled wine and beer bottles.