Green Options

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Editor’s note: Hopefully, a tax rebate or economic stimulus check is in the mail for you. Our friends at Low Impact Living have some ideas on ways to invest that money in your home… and the environment. This post was originally published on Monday, May 12, 2008

We know that many of us will need to spend our tax rebate check on critical items like food or rent or paying off debt. But just in case you have some of your tax rebate check left and you’re looking for eco-friendly ways to spend the money, we have some ideas we’d like to share with you.

And we’ve geared these tips to supporting the US economy, so you get to do the right thing for the planet and be an eco-patriot at the same time! In coming up with our list of ideas we decided it would be good to recommend ideas that reduce our negative environmental impacts but also support US manufacturers and service providers. So here are five eco-smart ways to use your rebate to support the Earth, the US economy, and save your household money in the long run.

1. Buy a high-efficiency water heater. A high-efficiency water heater can cut your energy use, water use, carbon footprint and even utility bills (over the long run). For most homes you can get the heater itself for $600 - $1,200, but you’ll probably have to spring for installation as well. Models made in the US include the AO Smith Vertex (a storage model that beats the pants off of tankless HW heaters), electric models made by American Tankless Water Heaters, and natural gas tankless heaters made by Rheem (some made in the US). Click here to learn more about making the tankless decision, and click here to find local installers.

(via U.S. Department of Energy)

Editor’s note: Turns out we don’t just share content with Low Impact Living; we also share writers. Today’s post (by Cassie Walker) takes a look at the basics of putting your money where your values are: green and socially responsible investing. This post was originally published on Sunday, May 4, 2008.

One of the primary imperatives for being an environmentally conscious consumer is to vote with your dollars - support companies that have a positive impact on society and the environment by purchasing their products and services. In the minds of many, that concept is easy to apply to the day-to-day stuff we buy at the grocery store or retail outlets. But some folks forget that our longer term investments can speak just as loudly.

Enter Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). SRI takes into account the impact that companies have on society and the planet, and recognizes that we can factor these concerns into our investment choices. Now our decisions as investors, which used to be determined solely on corporate financial performance – perhaps based on short-term and short-sighted goals – can now be based on the whole of a company’s standing, including their impact on the environment.

Once only a small piece of the total investment market, SRI now represents $2.71 trillion, more than 10% of all investments. That figure is up from $639 billion in 1995, an increase of more than 300%. As SRI has matured, green investing specifically has taken much of the limelight - as demand for clean technology, alternative and renewable energy, green building and other environmentally driven businesses rise, so does the desire to invest in them.

With this growth, opportunities for us as individuals to get into green investing and SRI abound. There are the usual suspects like stocks and bonds, mutual funds and venture capital. For example, dozens of mutual funds exist for investors looking to put their money where their mouth is, and support companies who share their values. And many of these funds focus on green companies, with large numbers of them joining the ranks within the last year or two.

In a recent post, my colleague Jennifer Lance asked whether Hillary Clinton can take on big oil. Among other things, Jennifer concluded that despite the good intentions of Senator Clinton,”A gas tax holiday will not solve the problem of peak oil.” And that is exactly the same message the Obama campaign wants to deliver in an ad now running in North Carolina ahead of next Tuesday’s primary.

The commercial denounces the proposed gas-tax cut, a proposal which Senators Clinton […]

May 1: May Day.

For the average American working for a paycheck, May Day — a pagan spring ritual where you dance around a Maypole — marks yet another, less festive occasion.

From the first of January until around the first of May, all the money many of us will earn goes to pay our share of income tax to the US government.

Kiss those months — that money — goodbye (the present tax stimulus package is really just a refund).

We followed the advice of our parents, as most children do: get a good education, go to college and get a job — a nice, secure, well-paying one, with great fringe benefits, stock options or profit-sharing. But the bimonthly paychecks — after the government gets its share for income, Social Security and Medicare taxes — aren’t enough to keep up with the bills. Even with raises and promotions, many of us feel that we keep getting further in the hole, since the more we earn in earned income, the more it’s taxed. The reality is that the system is largely devised this way, not to tax the very rich but to exact a fee on the middle class and poor to keep these wage earners on the treadmaster of a job — or “promising career.”

It is often said that the so-called ‘low hanging fruit’ in the energy puzzle is not wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, or any of the other renewable resources. The cheapest way to create more available energy is to use our current capacity more efficiently. In other words the ‘low-hanging fruit’ is energy efficiency.

I was reminded of this fact recently when I read an interview with the king of all energy geeks, Amory Lovins, at Mother Jones. Lovins was asked the question, “If you had $1 million to invest in the energy sector, where would you put it?” Lovins responded,

“Efficient use. I want to do the cheapest things first to get the most climate protection and other benefits per dollar. Buying micropower and “negawatts” instead of nuclear gives you about 2 to 11 times more carbon reduction per dollar, and you get it much faster.”

While not as ’sexy’ as solar and wind, energy efficiency might be the smartest investment play if you’ve got some cash burning a hole in your pocket (though that’s not really the current trend). And while we here at CleanTechnica do not really fancy ourselves to be professional analysts of Jim Cramer or Tom Konrad caliber, we do keep our eyes on emerging trends in the industry. For that reason it is hard not to pick some favorites. I’d like to share two of my favorite energy efficiency plays with you: Echelon (ELON) and Beacon Power (BCON) .

…while Mother Nature plays the streets for chump change.

Even in this economic down turn, oil companies are still making record profits!

Is it sad that I dream of a day when we are exploited by the renewable energy industry?

Federal renewable energy tax credits, Congress’ favorite subject to debate but do little about, has once again been brought to the Senate floor. But because the amendment still has no funding mechanism suitable for pay-go rules, I would argue it stands little chance of passage. Pay-go compels new spending and tax law changes to not add to the federal deficit, or if they do, they must create some sort of offset somewhere else in the budget [read more about pay-go].

In a wonky twist that would alter the clean energy incentive structure in this country rather significantly, Senators Alexander (R-TN) and Kyl (R-AZ) offered an amendment (S. Amdt 4429) that would extend the production tax credit for two years (instead of one) for wind, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, small hydro, and wave and tidal power.

Perhaps China’s been peering over India’s shoulder, watching the deals it’s worked out with Australia to fund its burgeoning cleantech market; and it wants some of the same.

Like China, many emerging economies need and want to cut their global warming emissions but don’t have the money to purchase the latest technologies. So China’s come up with the idea of a Multilateral Technology Access Fund to […]

The IRS has had tax deductions in place through the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which allow taxpayers to deduct the cost of energy-efficient equipment installed in commercial buildings they own. But publicly-owned buildings aren’t taxed, and therefore, there is no additional tax savings to the building owner. However, the law allows the designer of the energy-saving portion of a public building to claim the tax credit.

Kids outgrow toys and clothes faster than the weeds in my garden (well, maybe not that fast). Beyond hosting your own kiddie swap, there are several sites now that make exchanging kids’ gear easier for families, who may not have local connections for such trades. Reusing and reducing the amount of your children’s paraphernalia will not only lessen your carbon footprint, but it will de-clutter your home!

• Zwaggle: Kristen Chase of Cool Mom Picks calls Zwaggle, “basically a more organized Freecycle“. Organization is good, especially since Zwaggle focuses on socially responsible parents. It is a simple concept: “You receive Zwaggle points (or Zoints) by giving your gently used things to other families, then use those Zoints to obtain “new” things for your family.” You can obtain Zoints just by signing up through Parent Bloggers Network.