RNC Chair

Alright you pack of rabid screaming liberals, even though I know most of you aren't paying much attention to the race for Chairman of the Republican National Convention you would do well to examine the guy who is most likely going to win out. Here's a link with some quick quotes from Michael Steele regarding energy.
http://www.ontheissues.org/International/Michael_Steele_Energy_+_Oil.htm

I Just Hurt My Arm Patting Myself On the Back

Yeah, that's right.  I just booked a 4th honeymoon for my wife and I to the beautifully secluded island of Holbox off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.  Pursuant to my previously published New Year's "anti-resolutions" for '09, I chose to purchase carbon offsets for my air travel from Dallas to Houston to Merida and back.  It's my little way of reducing blatant energy wasters from my life (well not eliminating, but at least making up for them in my treehugging capitalist kind of way).

In case any of you heathens don't believe me, here's the confirmation from TerraPass, the company that arranges for the carbon offsets through the Expedia.com web site:

Pics from the 2009 International Builders' Show

More analysis to come later, but here are some photos that we took at the International Builders' Show out in Las Vegas last week (comments below each photo):

Check out the bottle of Maker's Mark in the bottom-left corner.  Vegas is really a drinking town.  This was a chef who was cooking on some really cool kitchen appliances.

This big contraption is an air ventilation system that improves the indoor air quality of a home.  It was installed in one of the homes that Palm Harbor Homes set up at the show.

This amazing device is GE's Ecomagination Smart Connect system.  It basically is the brains of your house.  It has connections for your home security system, water management, power management, lighting, music, and more.

Here's a screen shot from the user interface of the GE Smart Connect system.  As you can see, it's touchscreen and elegantly designed.  Sweet.

This is the inside of the GE Smart Connect system.  All those wires running into the box are the various ethernet and phone cables that connect all your home systems to the brain box.

These are Kohler water efficient urinals.  Especially in the deserts of Las Vegas, these will come in handy.

Another way to save water, a dual-flush toilet.

Stylish looking solar panels that integrate into the shingles on your roof.

The wall is insulated with Icynene spray foam, which does an amazing job of eliminating air leakage.

Here's an example of the Icynene spray foam being used in the ceiling. This stuff really makes the house airtight and energy efficient.

Well, that's all for now folks.  Be on the lookout for my analysis of the show and of the state of green building in general.

Everyday Green Thinking @ Whole Foods

Saw that my receipt from Whole Foods was shorter than usual.  Then I turned it over to see that about half of the items were printed on the backside of the receipt.  Here's a pic:

Printing on both sides reduced the amount of paper used by about 50%.  Taking this Green thinking a step further, Mark Graban from the Lean Blog asks, "Why don't they give you the option of saying 'no receipt please'?"

I've always asked the same question myself at gas stations when the computer at the pump doesn't give the me option of declining a receipt.  This is wasteful, for obvious reasons, but it's also annoying because I have to wait around in 32 degree weather for the stupid receipt to print.

Viva Sustainable Energy Construction Practices!

Having been in Las Vegas for the better part of last week I have deemed it necessary for my next blog post or four to involve that wonderfully debaucherous city.

If you are out and about in Vegas you cannot help but notice a massive construction project going on involving what seems to be the most glass I have ever seen in my life. This would be the City Center project by MGM.

Check out how CityCenter is incorporating sustainable design and construction here.

It is very impression some of the design aspects that have been included on a project of this size. Can any of you think of such a massive undertaking in your area that included sustainable construction?

On a side note - it might be time to invest in a new condo!!

Whiskey & Water

Due to the overwhelming popularity of Mike's whiskey post, I thought I'd share this article about a bunch of distillers in Scotland (including those that make Chivas Regal as shown) that are turning their waste into energy in the form of a new power plant. Waste that includes "wood chips, ...a solid grain product removed from the mash during fermentation called 'draff', and a high protein residue left in the still called 'pot ale'" The plant will produce enough energy to power 9,000 homes. I've always dreamed of the day when we can generate power with our trash, a la Mr. Fusion, so this kind of news makes me excited that we may be seeing more things like this in the future. What other industries can think of creative ways to use their byproducts?

Bottled water, which barely existed 20 years ago, is now a huge industry whose products are responsible for tons and tons of unnecessary waste. This is one of those issues that is discussed and debated everywhere, so I'll assume that everyone can agree that bottled water costs a ton more than tap water, creates more waste and may or may not taste better. That being said, how would you feel about a ban on bottled water? Would this reduce the amount of waste, or would people switch to drinking soda? The freakonomics blog discusses why they think there would be substitution to another bottled form of refreshment. I know that when we used to drink bottled water I wouldn't drink it at home, but it was convenient to grab one on the way out the door. We quit drinking it mainly for the cost savings. What do you think? Do you think that the government should stay out of the matter all together, or do you think that this is a great way to reduce unnecessary waste?

What Can I Say?

This week the first African-American (and bi-racial person for that matter) was sworn in as president of the United States of America.  He is a man who has promised an open government that makes decisions based on science and reason.  To move our country towards the future and to stop clinging to an outdated past.  To move towards green energy and away from black oil. If he does 10% of what he has promised, he will be a 'philospher king.'  I am so damn proud. What more can I say?

If you missed his innaugral address, you can watch it here: Whitehouse.gov

Headed to the International Builders' Show

The Doctor Sean Levy and I are headed out tomorrow to Las Vegas for the International Builders' Show.  I had the opportunity to go to this show the past two years when it was in Orlando, and let me tell you, it's amazing!

Exhibitors from all over the world present concepts and products relating to every aspect of building.  All the latest, greatest innovations and inventions will be on display, everything from sustainable building materials to cutting-edge design software to fully completed homes.  That's right, completed homes!  

Thanks to the power of modular homebuilding, it's possible to construct, deliver, assemble, and finish-out a gigantic custom luxury home in only a matter of a couple weeks.  My company, Palm Harbor Homes, Inc., a national leader in the manufactured housing industry, will have three completed homes on display at the show.

The Doc and I will be reporting back on what we see, especially in the way of green building techniques.  I expect to have a lot to share with you in the coming days.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...Vegas baby!!!

I drink Maker's Mark (a lot), therefore I am Green?

Okay, here's the scene.  I'm at Zen Bar in Addison, TX with some friends from work.  I'm working on my 2nd Maker's Mark on the rocks.  Got the laptop open, scanning some articles.  Then I come across this jewel from one of my favorite green blogs, Inhabitat:

"Is it Green:  Maker's Mark Bourbon Whiskey"

Turns out, Maker's Mark utilizes some pretty darn cool sustainable business practices.  Therefore, I have decided (and believe you me, this is a big decision) that Maker's is my official "go to" bourbon of choice.  Wow, I've committed myself to Green in a big way, huh?

P.S. I'm still at the bar, still drinking, so I better sign off before my friends start making fun of me for being a blogger.  Peace out!

Getting Fat Off The Land

This post it a bit of a follow up to my New Year's Anti-Resolution. First let me begin by saying that I am a follower of the Dude philosophy. I can sit on my ass, take elevators up one floor, and eat fast food with the best of them.  I know these things are bad for me, but I continue to do them. With all this green on the brain, I've had a bit of a personal revelation. It has really sunk in that not only are these lazy habits bad for me, but they are bad for the environment. 

Our society has recoded the word "lazy" into the more palatable word "convenient."  It is not that I am lazy that makes me drive five minutes to a store two blocks away rather than walk, it is that it is more convenient.  We rationalize such behavior by arguing that we are just too busy to do things the slower way.  Meanwhile we waste our precious and limited time by watching an average of 4 hours of television per day. All the while we are getting more Jabba the Hut like, creating more waste, and depleting the earth's natural resources. Burning dirty fossil fuels to power our elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks.  This realization and addition to my personal shame has truly motivated me to stop being so convenient. I just hope it sticks.

In closing, economists should coin a new industry term; the Lazy Industry. This would include elevators going into 5 story buildings, moving sidewalks, escalators, fast food restaurants, and cities that build endless stretches of highway while being completely devoid of bike routes. What else should be included in the Lazy Industry?

Note: Most of the pictures above came from public Flickr accounts, but I was too lazy to write down the creators' names. Please email us if you want them removed.

Getting Off my Ass for Obama

After watching the speech and video describing President-elect Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, I decided to do my small part to support the effort. Here is the e-mail I sent to Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker and to Representative Gene Taylor:

Dear Senator Cochran,  

As a Mississippi resident and state employee at the University of Southern Mississippi I wanted to voice my support of President-elect Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. This is where I want my tax dollar spent; retooling America to be a leader in sustainability while fixing our crumbling infrastructure and creating millions of jobs. Know that I speak for many 30 somethings who believe that green is not only good for the planet but good for the American economy. This is the time for us, the greatest nation on earth, to lead. This is the time to show the world that we are the innovators, able to harness the collective good of humanity to revive the ailing world economy and save mother earth in the process. At a more local level, the state of Mississippi needs new jobs especially with events such as the unfortunate postponement of the planned Toyota Prius plant. Please support the President-elect's plan and let's move our state, our nation, and the world towards a brighter future.  

Sincerely,  

Matt Stambaugh

Would you like to do the same? If so, visit senate.gov and house.gov to find contact info for your senators and representative.

Where the venture capital flows, so flows innovation!

Quick lesson for anyone who isn't sure what Venture Capital is, for those of you who do just skip ahead. From Wikipedia-

"Venture capital is a type of private equity capital typically provided to early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital investments are generally made as cash in exchange for shares in the invested company.

Venture capital typically comes from institutional investors and high net worth individuals and is pooled together by dedicated investment firms."

My point to posting this is that one way to find green investment ideas is to take a look at what types of green companies venture capital dollars have been flowing towards. An article I found written by David R. Baker from the San Francisco Chronicle indicates that nearly 46% of the money invested in green technology in 2008 went to solar power companies.

Flow of Venture Capital for Green Tech Companies

What this means is rather large investors are betting large portions of their wealth on solar power becoming a widely used energy source moving forward. It would behoof any investor to take a look at adding a company from that energy sector to their portfolio.

One other opportunity I would like to mention is the same article goes on to talk about the shift in investment from the biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to the synthetic biology fuel produced from algae. Take a look at this article posted on greenchipstocks.com written this past summer.

Investing in Algae Biofuel

There are several companies listed towards the bottom of the article which are worth keeping an eye on for a possible future investment.

Living Local

One thing that I've been trying to do more of is buying and eating locally. I define this as within a 100-mile radius. People 100 years ago got by (with a much smaller radius) and I think I can too without really impacting my lifestyle.  There are blogs and websites devoted to this type of thing and while I can't make it an intense focus in my life, I think I can survive the winter (or summer) without produce that has to come from across the world.  Produce that has been genetically changed so that it ships better, stays fresh longer, looks prettier, is more uniform in size, but generally tastes worse.  I set out to find a farmer's market that I could easily visit once a week and select locally grown produce. What I found is that the farmer's market in Winter Haven, FL has a very small amount of produce grown locally and the rest is probably produce that is bought wholesale (think of the stands on the side of the road). I was hoping to see dozens of local growers selling their products. I think there were two people like that. I'm going to one in Lakeland next week, so maybe it will be more promising. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it.

The next is another in I'm sure a long line of Netflix knock-offs. This time it's Netflix for toys. Via Treehugger, the toys are sanitized and tested and you send them back when your child gets tired of playing with them. I know from experience that kids like some toys and you wonder why and they refuse to play with the coolest toys you buy them so a service like this could prevent waste (like that ball shooting toy that broke after 10 minutes of use). Or it could teach your kids to be absolute toy snobs. I'm not sure, but it's interesting to see things like this becoming more common.

Also, GO GATORS!

Green Gators

I don't wanna jinx the Gators by talking smack before the National Championship game tonight, but I did want to mention the fact that "IF YOU AIN'T A GATOR, YOU MUST BE GATOR BAIT!!!"  Okay, so much for not talking smack.

To make this somewhat relevant to this web site, I'd like to pass on a green-related University of Florida web site (courtesy of fellow UF alum Pat "She got 'Maloneyed' way out in the middle of nowhere" Maloney:  "Save Money by Saving Energy."

And I think I speak for Gators out there everywhere when I say, "Thank you in advance St. Tebow for a wonderful performance tonight.  God willing, may you return for a senior season."

Lessons of a Clogged Toilet

This week I am diverging from politics to continue with the theme of waste. I could of course come up with many apt toilet metaphors for politics, but I will spare you.

For the holiday break (yes I work at a University and actually got a two week break), I went home to Florida and spent part of the time staying with my folks.  My parents home, built when I was in utero, is as old as I am. About 7 years ago there was a fire which left the structure intact but led to the replacement of everything else. Because of this it has more up to date insulation, wiring, HVAC, etc than most 30 year old homes. The plumbing though is still original.

After the fire, my parents installed new 1.6 gallons per flush toilets, which combined with old and poorly installed plumbing in places, has created a clogging machine in the guest bathroom. This toilet will clog every time if spartan toilet paper management techniques are not employed. It is so bad my wife refuses to use it no matter what.

The upside is and the point to this post (took me a while huh) is that this toilet forces the user to use a lot less paper. This is not scientific and I assure you no actual measurements were taken, but I think I cut my tp use by about 90%.  This dramatic improvement was not at the expense of good hygiene, it just took a little conscious thought.

Of course now that I'm home and using a "properly" working toilet, I am back to my old wasteful ways. Sure I try to remember what my parents clogging toilet taught me, but I often forget. This is where businesses come in. I as a consumer want to use and purchase things that are designed to limit my stupid mindless wastefulness. Let's face it, the world is too complex and we are too busy to ALL do the right thing. I am one of the ones who try and I still am an uber waster. Government needs to regulate wasteful behavior and business needs to provide affordable and effective solutions. This is the answer, expecting people to do it out of the good of their hearts is not.

(On a side note, I stole this picture from the Treehugger blog and read this old but interesting article on how archaic and dangerous water based waste removal systems are. Makes you rethink the worst green product ever as posted by Mike way back.)

Good Move HP

Image courtesy of art_es_anna via flickr

You all know what electronic waste is, but did you know that since 2005, it is the fasting growing category of solid municipal waste in the US? According to the EPA, in 2006, we generated 2.9 million tons of e-waste in the US alone. Of this amount, only 330,000 tons (11.4%) was recycled. Part of the problem of the low recycling rates is that not all of the material used in electronics is recyclable, but some think the bigger problem is that there is no incentive for people to recycle their old cell phones, PC's, and printers. I have half a closet full of outdated electronics that I never use, and according to these stats, I'm not alone.

Hopefully those e-recycling rates will change for the better when more companies follow HP's lead, and actually offer consumers cash back or credits for their unwanted electronics.

Screw ebay, I'm going to clean out my closet this weekend: www.hp.com/go/ConsumerBuyback

Revolution in Consumption

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame sets forth some thought-provoking ideas in his latest blog post:  "Sign of the End Time."  His fundamental premise is that...

"...we're on the cusp of a change as fundamental as the industrial revolution. But this time the change will be on the consumption side, not the production side."

He continues by saying...

"...The coming consumption revolution won't be strictly for the benefit of the environment. It will be an economic necessity, driven largely by the huge numbers of retired poor. There simply won't be enough stuff for everyone if waste is allowed. "

Waste.  That word is so important to me.  As a advocate of both Lean & Green, waste in any form is inherently evil to me.  Doesn't matter if it's the waste embedded in a business process or the wasted energy of an inefficient automobile.  It's all evil.  Imagine how much better our lives would be if we could snap our fingers and eliminate all the waste around us.  Imagine if at work you never had to fix a screw-up or wait around for an answer.  Imagine if all our shopping destinations were within walking distance.  Not that it's possible to snap your fingers and make it happen, but it's something we should strive for in the long-term, for the sake of the environment and for our own sake.

Later in his post, Adams concludes...

"This is the sort of change that could never happen if the economy was in a happy bubble and it seemed that money was abundant. But as the reality of our economic situation settles in, unthinkable options become thinkable. The good news is that the unthinkable options will have lots of advantages."

This is very often the case with waste elimination.  Most people fear change...they truly dread it.  But, when external factors force us to change, we come up with smarter, more innovative ways to do things.  I think the big winners in a future such as that envisioned by Scott Adams will be those who can eliminate the most waste.  If you're a homebuilder, you better be able to design & build sustainable homes in an efficient manner.  If you're a lawyer, you better invest in some good video-conferencing equipment so your clients don't have to drive across the city to give a deposition.  If you own a restaurant, you better develop relationships with local farmers and ranchers who can provide their products quickly and efficiently.  What do you need to do to become a change leader in your industry?

Portland, Oregon - Land of amazing microbrews, great music scene, and lots of green!

In my never ending search for "green" investments I began to wonder what type of investments are major cities making in green? I came across this little nugget from the Office of Sustainable Development in Portland, Oregon.

City of Portland and Energy Trust of Oregon offer $425,000
for innovative, high performance green buildings

I am hoping that there are many more programs like this one out there that I just have not come across as of yet. What a tremendous opportunity this program provides to green building innovators in the Portland area.

On this same topic I found a full article from a Portland Architecture blog.

OSD seeks Green Investment Fund applicants and feedback for new High Performance Green Policy

Do any of you know if there are similar programs in the metro areas where you live?

An Inconvenient Check

Mark Graban over at the Lean Blog posted this "tweet" on Twitter:

"Going to ask my credit card bank to quit mailing me 'convenience checks.'  Convenient only for ID thieves."

That got me thinking about how truly annoying and wasteful those stupid checks are. You get them too, right?  They usually come in the form of an unsolicited full page of five or six blank checks that nobody ever uses.  You probably do the same thing that I do, you immediately tear-up or shred those suckers and throw 'em away.  Waste of paper, waste of ink, waste of the mailman's time, waste of my time, and as Mark mentioned, a risk for ID theft.  What the heck?  I'd bet that the statement on the photo below is true...