Green Options

Leading the way for the green evolution for the Hilton Garden Inn franchise, the Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg, drawing inspiration at the doorstep of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has embarked on the fast-track to bring this upscale hotel into the green business movement. Opening in May, 2009, this 118-room hotel is nestled across the street from the rumbling Little Pigeon River in downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and offers a spectacular view of Mount LeConte in the distance, often sculpted by clouds and mist.

The Hilton Garden Inn Gatlinburg offers more than window dressing in terms of their green efforts. That’s why, when the final points are tallied, it will likely earn Silver LEED certification.

A few of their eco-innovations include:

• Rainwater retention on site with parking lot pavers, capable of absorbing 100 percent of the rainwater. The pavers were acquired within 500 miles of the site and are non-reflective, reducing the heat island effect.

I love the look of wine and wine bottles and when I saw one of these wine bottle lamps at a craft show I knew I wanted to make my own.

It took a little practice and a lot of help from my husband but we figured out how to make them just right. Then we ran out of lights and couldn’t find anymore. Hopefully this season we can.

A new Kansas-based company called EcoFit Lighting believes it can make the transition to LED street lighting not only much easier, but also much cheaper.

EcoFit’s design is a retrofit module that slides right into place in existing streetlights, eliminating the need to have a full replacement. The company claims using their product would bring down costs from $700 to $900 (for a complete replacement) to just $400. Savings also come in the form of energy efficiency and extended lifespan as EcoFit’s LED lights are 60 percent more efficient and last six times longer than sodium streetlights. Additionally, as it’s estimated that replacing street lights with EcoFit LED lights would take just five minutes (as opposed to taking up to 30 minutes to fully replace the head), labor costs are also expected to be reduced.

From green gadgets and gizmos, to DVDs and loose-leaf teas, I get the occasional product sent to me for a review.  In most cases, I like to give it a thorough once-over before I’m comfortable putting a stamp of (dis)approval on it.

If I take a long time to review a product, it is usually because: the product stinks and the manufacturer wouldn’t want me to publish anything anyway; the product really stinks and I don’t want to waste my time or my readers’ time with it, or; the product is actually quite good and the length of time spending reviewing it is extended because I’m trying to find something bad to say about it — but can’t. In the case of the DOT-it LED lights Sylvania sent me, the reason for my slow turnaround is definitely the last one. These lights are great.

The first of the two lights sent to me by Sylvania was the DOT-it Golden Dragon (pictured top). The ninja-sounding Golden Dragon is the Cadillac of Sylvania’s puck-style LED lights.

Sony Pictures Studios believes in creating a culture on their Culver City campus. For CEO Michael Lynton and Co-Chairman Amy Pascal this includes a culture of environmental responsibility and sustainable stewardship, according to Jon Corcoran, VP, Corporate Safety and Environmental Affairs and John Rego, Director, Environmental Sustainability for the movie studio.

During a recent tour of the facilities, they each pointed out that education and employee awareness were key to behavior changes when it comes to environmental stewardship. This philosophy is in keeping with the Japanese tradition of creating an employee culture, a loyalty that reaches beyond the standard employee-employer structure, and one that gives and takes both ways. [Pictured: John Rego, Sony Studios; Paige Donner, Greening Hollywood; and Jon Corcoran, Sony Studios; photo by Ann Burkart]

Case in point: On June 29th, as part of Sony Studios “Links Green Series” they hosted a lunch time “Residential Solar and Hybrid Car Program,” presentation. This is an incentive program, offered through the studio, that gives employees a check for up to $5000 when they either buy a hybrid electric vehicle or install solar voltaic panels on their residence. This incentive “payback” is above and beyond the State and Federal tax incentives. Believe me, I asked. Don’t everyone blast your resume off to Sony Pictures Entertainment now!

A post by contributing writer Melissa Chungfat.

The eco-holiday tips are beginning to pour in everywhere. Al Gore was on Oprah last week discussing the impacts of global warming and giving advice on how people can help the environment and save some cash this holiday. And, Obama is certainly doing his part with his plans to green the White House.

If you are an early bird ecopreneurist who wants to distinguish your business this holiday season or are at odds on what to give your customers, staff or business partners, one thing you can do is get a CarbonFree® Product Certification from the non-profit, Carbonfund.org. With CF, with the click of a mouse, you can give the gift of carbon neutrality. 

Few people will argue that LED lights are particularly attractive, but they may just be able to make you more attractive. German researchers reported last month that people who received several weeks of treatment under LED lights experienced a lessening of skin wrinkles similar to what is seen with Botox treatments.

Because I love encouraging my kids to be creative, Halloween becomes another excuse to get them to make some great artwork that I will invariably want to put on display for the rest of the year. Best of all, there is more than enough in the way of recycled materials to use as raw materials for their artwork.

Crafty green Halloween décor may be lurking in the most unusual places…like your trash can or recycling bin.

You can create cute favor boxes crafted from cardboard toilet paper rolls and bejeweled black cats from empty plastic laundry detergent bottles. Old scraps of fabric can become ghastly ghosts and discarded pieces of wood can be transformed into a creepy cemetery in your yard. Empty Styrofoam containers and leftover Styrofoam packaging can also be transformed in reusable tombstones.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on new mass produced stuff at the Halloween store to have a frightfully fun Halloween. Instead you can go green and reuse everyday objects and implement natural elements to turn your home into a Halloween haunt.

The incandescent bulb has been the standard in lighting since it was introduced over 100 years ago and we switched from candles. Incandescent lights are very inefficient as they expend a large portion of the energy needed to power them on heat. In the last few years compact fluorescent lights have become widely available and are now a common and easy to find replacement for standard incandescent bulbs. Although compact fluorescent lights are much more efficient than [...]

It has become predictable, with every approaching holiday, the green blogosphere erupts in eco-advice. Recently, I have received several emails asking for suggestions on how to reduce waste during this sometimes glutinous holiday. All the shopping bags, gift wrapping, decorating, etc. adds up to a tremendous amounts of packaging waste, which makes it challenging to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Here are a few suggestions for greening your Christmas celebrations. These suggestions also apply to other winter holidays.

1. Wrap Presents in Fabric and Forgo the Box: If you feel the need to wrap presents, which does create some wonder in children’s eyes, try wrapping presents in fabric. Fabric is reusable and less likely to be tossed in a landfill after the presents are opened. You can find less expensive fabric that has already been cut into “fat quarters” at fabric stores, as well as thrift stores. Left over fabric wrapping “paper” is great for later kid crafts and quilting. Furthermore, if offered a box from a retailer to place your present in before wrapping, decline this extra packaging. The more we reduce, the less waste we create.