Green Options

Get fabulous deals on Cyber Monday, November 30th, at Nimli.com starting with $1 Fair Trade silk scarves.

Tesla has not always had an easy time breaking new ground in the electric roadster market. There have been plenty of hiccups along the way, and it doesn’t help that their first production vehicle costs well north of $100,000. That is, unless you live in Colorado.

The state best known for its snowy peak and undefeated football team (boooo Broncos) also offers a substantial tax break on all hybrid and electric vehicles. For the Tesla Roadster, that amounts to an amazing $42,000 off of the $109,000 car.

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Well, I am certainly not a doomsayer. However it does look like the economy is going to slow down over the next few months if not longer.

Often it is marketing and giving that get hit first as companies focus on their core costs.

This especially hits those types of organization hardest that really need the support of their local communities and businesses, folks like the North Texas Food Bank, The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald Tennessee or other civil and charitable institutions.

So Proforma Green is offering a challenge to other Ecopreneurists that read our column.

Starting now Proforma Green is offering a 20%-30% discount from End Quantity Pricing (EQP) on promotional items to 501(c)3, NGOs, charities, schools and other civic organizations, if they allow us to co-brand the products with our web address www.proformagreen.com in some small way. Not all items in our catalog are available with this discount, but most are, likely 85%.

Buying second-hand products is always green, but it’s easy to be discouraged by the stories of broken laptops from eBay or Craigslist. To quell these fears, here is a 10-step checklist on how to find a used laptop that isn’t just a high-tech lemon.

Most wouldn’t flinch at the idea of buying a used car, but the thought of a used computer sends them squirming. The tech industry tries their hardest to keep it that way: they advertise new products in such a way to render the previous models perceptually obsolete; they block even the simplest hardware upgrades; and they sell bottom-of-the-line models that simply break within a couple years.

This shouldn’t scare you away from a used computer purchase, but know that they are imperfect machines; some research, determination, and basic knowledge is required. To make this list, I used both my own experience along with some tips from Peter Montesano of Peter’s PC Repair, one of the most highly regarded repair shops in San Francisco.

I am a clearance shopper. I love a bargain, especially when I’m getting a really quality product at a super low price. The challenge of the hunt is a huge part of the fun and there’s nothing better than being rewarded with a new sweater or pair of shoes, or even, say, some eggplant. It used to be that I wouldn’t even think of shopping the clearance cart at the grocery store. I was afraid to buy old food, just this side of moldy.