Building managers and environmental passers-by always scream when they see office lights on in the middle of the night, illuminating someone’s cubicle for hours when they’re not there. Ledalite’s Ergolight Controls System has been designed to take care of that problem, as well as increase office energy efficiency. It’s such a good solution, that it was recognized by the David Suzuki Foundation as one of their climate change solution case studies. Designed to help building designers and architects achieve LEED certification, depending on the set-up, customers can decrease their energy consumption by up to 80%.
By SolveClimate •
May 2, 2009
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Friday, May 1, at SolveClimate.
It is time for President Obama to mobilize us all to help build the new energy economy.
He has begun shaping the public policies we need. Now he needs to launch an Apollo project, interstate highway project, war effort and Marshall Plan all rolled into one.
For starters, he should call on us all to pick up our caulking guns and enlist in the war against energy waste – a national clean energy surge.
The potential for savings through efficiency improvements and conservation is enormous.
As Obama noted during the campaign, the United States is only the 22nd most energy-efficient major economy in the world right now. With very few exceptions, every vehicle, home, power plant, factory, community and state is hemorrhaging energy, energy dollars and greenhouse gas emissions.
Consider just a few examples:
By Lisa Wojnovich •
April 10, 2009
New York City’s Empire State Building is the latest poster child for green innovation. Earlier this week, Anthony Malkin, president of W&M Properties, the company that owns the building, announced that they would begin a $500 million self-financed program to renovate the world famous landmark – $100 million of which would be used to reduce the building’s energy consumption and carbon emissions.
By Isa Cann •
April 4, 2009
Legacy electricity grids, the current distribution systems used for a century in the US, are highly inefficient…7%, never makes it to the user, lost at the transmission and distribution levels…..Environmentalists and others have been pushing for smart-grid technology for over a decade because it will enable consumers to use less electricity and benefit the environment.
By Ariel Schwartz •
February 10, 2009
Google is persisting in its quest to change the way we live with the announcement earlier today of Google PowerMeter, a program that displays real-time information about home energy consumption on your computer. The program is in closed beta right now, but Google hopes that it will eventually be distributed to anyone who has a smart meter.
June’s most often associated with weddings, summer vacations, and Father’s Day… as you can see by the headline, we went in some other directions that month, too.
Summer was here, and the living was sustainable… and here are some of our best efforts.
June 2008
By Marika Collins •
December 17, 2008
Did you read all about the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour coming up on March 29th and get excited about what you can do to make a difference? Here are three simple things you can start with to take action:
1. Sign up for Earth Hour 2009
You can take action by signing up to participate in Earth Hour.
2. Spread the word
The most powerful tool you have is your voice. Tell your friends, neighbors, schoolmates and coworkers, about Earth Hour. Email the story and encourage others to sign up and further spread the good word. Run your own Earth Hour using this tool.
By Reenita Malhotra •
November 25, 2008
Is it possible to build a carbon neutral home? Apparently so says the Australian Home Lifestyle TV show. Watch this segment about green building construction.
Which would you rather have: your Sony Playstation 3 or a year’s worth of electricity for the entire city of San Diego?
Silly question? You might not think so after reading the Natural Resources Defense Council’s new study, “Lowering the Cost of Play: Improving Energy Efficiency of Video Game Consoles.” Prepared with the help of Ecos Consulting, the report finds that energy inefficiencies and poor practices like not turning off games that aren’t in use are wasting huge amounts of energy and generating lots of greenhouse gases.
This is the first time anyone’s taken a hard and comprehensive look at the energy and carbon footprint of video games, and the findings might surprise you:
Congress might have finally moved the one-hour “fall back in the fall” time switch past Halloween so young trick-or-treaters don’t have to roam the streets in the dark, but it’s time to chuck the idea of Daylight Saving Time altogether. Why? Because it wastes energy and creates pollution.
The concept has been around since the days of Benjamin Franklin, who saw it as a way to reduce candle tallow consumption for household lighting. But while Daylight Saving Time, or DST, might have made sense purely from a lighting perspective in the 18th Century, it doesn’t work in a 21st Century society that also uses electricity for heating and cooling, according to research by Matthew J. Kotchen and Laura E. Grant of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Gas prices are sky-high and people are hurting. Is it market speculation, tight supplies or the first throes of peak oil? And, if it’s the latter, how can civilization survive?
Well, residents of the small Alaskan capital of Juneau are showing us how. Following an April 16 avalanche that severed the city’s main power lines, Juneau found itself forced to cut its energy calories big-time literally overnight. It was that, or face energy bills double or triple or many times more than the month before. The good news: society didn’t collapse.
How did residents do it? Let’s count the ways:
Building managers and environmental passers-by always scream when they see office lights on in the middle of the night, illuminating someone’s cubicle for hours when they’re not there. Ledalite’s Ergolight Controls System has been designed to take care of that problem, as well as increase office energy efficiency. It’s such a good solution, that it was recognized by the David Suzuki Foundation as one of their climate change solution case studies. Designed to help building designers and architects achieve LEED certification, depending on the set-up, customers can decrease their energy consumption by up to 80%. 
