Read It

Eco Stimulus Package – even the little guys are doing it

Considering what is going on in the world right now I was wondering what the eco world is doing to support the tough economic times, bolstering the economy while maintaining their commitment to the environment.

Well, I thought I would focus my search for the not so public companies. I came across My Mad Monkey Inc (www.mymadmonkey,com) – small outfit that sells Bamboo T’s but also has an overall natural approach to living and supporting some environmental initiatives.  I think they feel the pain of the public and have recently dropped the price of their T’s by 40%!!! That seems huge and they have committed to this for the long term. So, I bought 2 t’s and saved a tonne, while knowing I was helping indirectly to some green initiatives.

The click was totally worth it for me! Also, t’s are awesome, very comfortable and look great!

- Boompa

Learning Green and keeping warm

I was sitting around the house today catching up on my favourite news, blogs and of course celebrity gossip when I started thinking about the home projects I need to get cracking on.  Besides trying to green up the place, there are other things that the wife wants me to do.  Looking over my list I decided that before taking on any project I would take 10 minutes to plan it out first and look to see if there was any way to make the project green, either with the finished project, the way I will complete it or with the tools and services that I use to complete the task.

As part of my planning I did a few searches and stumbled upon a fantastic site that I already knew about but have been neglecting…One Million Acts of Green. This site has countless ways to improve your carbon footprint.  It also lets you add to the acts of green, challenge yourself and other groups to be more green, read what other people are doing and contribute ideas and photos of what you are doing.

My first task today was to seal up any drafts my house has.  With the help of this site I picked up some caulking for the windows, weather stripping for the doors and a plastic window insulation kit.  This should seal up my house and will have an excellent impact on my energy bills over the winter and next summer.

What green projects do you have around the house?  Next for me is putting up the L.E.D. Christmas lights. 

- Jo e k

Incandescents are also hard on the eyes

Well…. it shouldn’t take accidently smashing an incandescent light bulb in your eyes to make you wonder what we’re doing with this whole light bulb “situation”.  But that’s what happened.  I guess it’s not really a situation but that’s the best I could do.  So, I picked shards of glass from my eyes and hair went inside and asked my wife what we were doing with all these light bulbs in our house.  Turns out our plan isn’t that difficult.

• 1) Go to hardware store and buy Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL’s).
• 2) When old bulb burns out, replace with CFL’s
• 3) Hopefully you will do what I am trying to do and recycle old bulbs.

Cool stats about CFL’s

- CFL’s have a much longer lifecycle than the incandescent.

-  If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

- Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime.

- Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.

This info was taken from http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls  so check it out.

Bad news is that incandescent bulbs end up in landfills.  What am I going to try and do to recycle them?  I can always use more salt and pepper shakers, little flower vases, maybe some artwork.  I’ll be posting the pics of my creations when the bulbs start burning.

If you were wondering, i flushed out my eyes and I’m fine.

- Jo e k

My House is an energy black hole

I guess that seems a little harsh considering this really is my wife and I’s first family home.  But after being here for a year we have both realized the house was built for comfort and attractiveness.  It’s a large single home with three bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an open concept kitchen family room.  The ceiling in these rooms varies from about 12 feet up to about 17 feet.  The living dining rooms have 9 foot ceilings as do the rest of the house except the master bedroom with peaks at 13-14 feet.

Now, why is any of this important?  It’s not like I’m selling the thing.  We love our home.  THIS HOME SUCKS UP ENERGY and is nowhere close to being green.  We are so on the grid that we should probably get more of it. WE NEED MORE GRIDS!

Ok, maybe not, but winter is coming and I need to take action. What am I going to do immediately (in the next 5 days) to lower the tax we are putting on the environment and my wife’s wallet?:

• 1) Program the thermostat properly and change it by at least a degree. Cool daytimes and nighttimes.
• 2) Improve the air tightness of the home. Re-caulk all the windows and put the plastic window wrap to reduce air flow. Make sure all outside doors fit tight and if not go to your local hardware store and get a repair kit.
• 3) Changing old light bulbs to Energy Star Compact Florescent Lamps (CFL’s)

I think this a good start to prepare the home for winter.  And some of these even allow you to get grants from the Canadian government.  Check out http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/energystar/english/consumers/products.cfm?PrintView=N&Text=N  to see what you can do to qualify.

 And I know there is more to do, and it’s exciting.  If feels good to know that we are making a small improvement to our world as well as our wallets.

Do you have any winter heat saving tips?  Drop us a line!!

- Jo e k

 

What did you do?…additup!

Be Greeny not Greedy

So, I’ve been curious about how and what I could invest in that would be considered “green” investing without compromising the ideals of investing: Making an adequate rate of return. After all we all have mouths to feed, some more than others. Also, based on what’s going on right now in the world, especially the financial health of people, gave me more incentive to start looking at where I see opportunities in the future based on current trends…one of the largest movements in the world is the move to become more “green”…I gotta stop using quotations when I refer to “green” (there I go again) - like I’m saying it’s not a real word…oh, it’s real! And it’s insane what kinds of investments are available today for the average person to take advantage of – THIS IS WHERE YOU GET GREENY…

So, the first step I took is finding out what being green (yippee!) means as it relates to investments? Well, I came up with the following criteria:

• Environmentally friendly – either by what or how they make their products
• Is the product renewable or sustainable
• Fair labour laws and equal rights

This lead me to the term Social Responsible Investing. Here is a good excerpt from Wiki to explain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socially_responsible_investing

From my research I found that there are a plethora (ya, that’s right, I said it, plethora) of investments that are considered socially responsible and green – most cover all my mandates as well as having a pretty decent rate of return.

So, the moral of the story is that you should start getting Greeny with your money, not greedy. Do your research, ask your investment dude or dudette, and get a little more involved.

- Boompa

Be green without sacrificing your car

Helping the environment doesn’t have to mean compromising your style or giving up your favorite toys. The Mad Monkey goal is to be both carbon neutral and stylish. Join us on our green adventure as we take on the eco-fashion world – you’ll look great, have a blast, and be able to drive your SUV guilt-free!