Green Sexy

Schools that "Go Green" save "Green"

Schools all over the nation are doing little things that are saving their districts a lot of money. 

 15 schools in District 91, Idaho Falls, Idaho received the Energy Star Label for increasing their energy-efficency by changing their habits.  How'd they do it?  Not by making any sweeping changes that required a lot of time and money---rather, they made simple changes in their behavior by being more mindful of their energy use.  For example, the district has saved more than $40,000 dollars a month by making sure that lights were switched off in rooms that were unoccupied.   Think of all the empty rooms with lights on in a typical school that you pass while walking down the hall---how many light fixtures are there in a typical classroom?  How many bulbs are in each fixture?  How old are those light fixtures?  How much energy per kilowatt-hour (kWh) are these bulbs burning?  How much is the school being charged per kWh by their electric-provider during these peak-hours when school is in session and the grid is most taxed?  How much money could be saved if teachers simply hit the off switch when they left the lavatory or their classrooms?

Another conscious effort made in these schools was to shut down computers when they were not in use.  The district saved over a million dollars in energy costs!  The U.S. Department of Energy recommends that you should consider turning off your computer's monitor if you don't plan to use it for more than 20 minutes and to consider turning off your computer altogether if you're not going to use your PC for more than 2 hours.  In the warmer months, shutting down computers helps to save on cooling costs because of the extra heat that computers produce.  Thankfully, most district's computers are set to power down to a "sleep mode", in which a computer consumes "15 Watts or less power, which is around 70% less electricity than a computer without power management features."  This feature saves much money in energy costs, but the computer is still on, and it still is consuming energy, so if nobody is using it, then why is it on at all?

So, in this time of economic hardship, isn't it amazing how making a simple conscious change in our daily habits can help save money for our schools, and potentially even help save enough money to save someone's job?   If you have any green-energy tips, please feel free to pass them along.  Hey, every little bit can add up to a whole lot!    

Exxon Must Be A Bakery 'Cause It's Making Lots of Dough!

It's thrilling to watch an athlete beat his or her personal best---not so exciting to watch Exxon beat its previous quarterly earnings by earning $11.68 billion, up from $11.66 billion at the end of 2007.  Yippee.  Despite these staggering figures, investors were "disappointed".   How can one be disappointed with record figures such as this?  Well, it turns out that there was a "10 percent drop in oil production and a 3 percent decline in natural gas production from the second quarter of 2007."  You see, when oil was only $20 a barrel, oil producing countries such as Russia, Venezuela, Iran and Nigeria signed agreements to let oil companies come in and work their oil fields, but now that the price of oil has skyrocketed, these same countries are in the position to demand more of the profits.  Heck, some countries are telling American and British oil companies to get out!  This, in addition to the rising cost of simply doing business---especially with demands on the marketplace from countries like China and India----makes the future for oil companies look much bleaker than the present picture.

In response to the inevitability of the oil industry's fall from grace, many oil companies are allocating large portions of their profits towards renewable and alternative energy sources.  BP, for instance, is making a big push into solar and wind power to help offset the difficulties of being a mega-oil corporation.  Exxon, however, has expressed little to no interest in going down the green brick road.  As revealed in Sierra Club's Exxpose Exxon campaign: "Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson dismisses renewable energy as 'uneconomic.' In a 2006 speech on Capitol Hill, Mr. Tillerson argued that developers of energy alternatives should be left alone to compete with the oil and gas industry. Without reference to the billions of dollars handed out to the oil and gas industry, he deplored renewable energy incentive programs. 'Interventions only distort the market,' he said." 

If the executives at Exxon don't change their tunes in the near future, they'll find themselves in a very dark oily pit of their own making. For my part, I'm going to do what I can to avoid Exxon Mobil from now on.  Let's see how much of a dent I can put in that $11+ billion figure...not much, eh?  Join me then, and bring your friends.   

Keeping Your Gas-Guzzling Car May Make Cents

My wife and I once had the opportunity to test drive a Toyota Prius and we were just smitten. Unfortunately, love alone cannot make owning a hybrid car a reality.  We may live green at our house, but we don't necessarily have much "green", if you know what I mean.  With one car free of car payments and another almost paid off, the economics of our household precludes us from buying a hybrid car that can range anywhere from the low to mid $20,000's (for models like the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic, Saturn Vue) up into the $30,000+ range (for models like the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid or the Lexus RX 400h AWD).   No, the prospect of acquiring a car loan at this point is not only unattractive, but also economically suicidal. 

Unfortunately, despite all of our hybrid dreams, prudence takes the wheel and directs our course in this matter.  Even with ever-rising gas prices, most people will be better able to keep their heads above water by hanging onto their gas-guzzling cars, rather than springing for that oh-so-attractive hybrid car.  According to Consumer Reports, you'd be better off hanging onto your 2005 Ford 500 SEL V6 sedan (21 miles per gallon) rather than buying the 2008 Toyota Prius hybrid (44 miles per gallon).  How so?  Well, suppose you drive 12,000 miles a year with gas prices at $3.75 a gallon (you'd have to build a time machine to get back to those prices!).  That equals about $2,000 a year in gas for the Ford and just $1000 for the Prius---not bad, eh?  However, consider the total cost of ownership: "depreciation, finance charges for a 60-month loan, insurance, maintenance, sales tax and fuel costs...the Toyota will cost about $9,000 to own for the first 12 months, while the Ford costs $6,000 during the same period...a difference of $3,000."  Ah, the pain of cold, hard economics. 

Well, there's always the lottery...