The Bright Tucson Community Solar Program offers an easy and affordable way to meet your electric needs with locally generated solar power. As a TEP customer, you now have the opportunity to purchase solar power in “blocks” of 150 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month. You can buy some or all of your power through the program, reducing or eliminating your energy from conventional resources.

Features and Benefits

•    No up-front expenses or equipment maintenance costs

•    Renewable energy option for renters and homeowner association (HOA) residents

•    Protection offered against future energy cost increases

•    Surcharge exemption for solar energy purchases on renewable energy, fuel and purchased power

•    Minimized carbon footprint and reliance on fossil fuels

•    Clean, green renewable energy for an affordable price

Minimal Cost

Solar power costs more than conventional energy derived from fossil-fueled power plants, so participating in the program will increase your electric bill. Each block replaces the charges for an equivalent amount of conventional power at a rate that currently adds $3.00 to your monthly bill.

Program rates must be paid in full each month regardless of actual energy consumption. If the solar energy purchased through the program exceeds actual usage during a monthly billing period, the excess is carried forward to the next billing period as a credit. Any credit remaining after the September billing period will be paid in full as a credit on the next bill.

Added Benefits

Program blocks are exempt from two surcharges applied to other electric usage: the Renewable Energy Standard Tariff (REST) and the Purchased Power and Fuel Adjustment Clause (PPFAC), so your actual impact will be lower. Both surcharges are adjusted annually to reflect changing energy costs and other factors, so the benefit of avoiding them would increase over time if the surcharges rise.

Rate Protection

Bright Tucson Community Solar Energy rates will remain fixed for 20 years. While blocks purchased through the program will still be subject to non-fuel rate changes, they won’t be affected by changes to the base energy rate, the PPFAC, or REST surcharges. By purchasing your share of locally generated solar power today, you can lock in a rate that could end up saving you money if energy costs rise.

For complete program information visit the Tucson Electric Power website.

Information courtesy of Walk to School.org

Join kids and families around the globe to walk and bicycle to school in October. Communities are using the walk or bike to school as the first step to change community culture and create environments that are more inviting for everyone, young and old.

Here are some reasons to support walking and biking to school:

Physical Activity

Free, convenient, enjoyable and does not require special equipment or training: Walking is a great way for adults and kids to be active. Lack of physical activity is a major cause of chronic illness and death for our country’s adults. Being overweight can cause health problems like diabetes during childhood and research shows that physically inactive kids are more likely to grow up to be physically inactive adults — and are therefore at high risk for obesity and related illnesses.

There are plenty of great reasons to walk to school — less traffic, safer streets, cleaner air — but one of the best is that children and parents will be healthier. With obesity rates skyrocketing and only one-quarter of American’s able to get the Surgeon General’s recommended daily dose of exercise (just 30 minutes), it’s an ideal time to encourage people to walk to school for their own health and well-being.

Kids need to move

Obesity rates among children have more than doubled in the past twenty years, according to the National Longitudinal Study of Youth. Even worse, rates of obesity are much higher among minority children than among white youth, suggesting a grave social inequity in the availability of safe, healthy recreational opportunities.

Add walking to the mix. Physical activity recommendations for children suggest that they need a variety of activities each day-some intense, some less-so, some informal, some structured. Walking or cycling to and from school is an ideal way to get some of that activity at no extra cost to the child or family.

Walking to school is a missed opportunity. Roughly 10% of children nationwide walk to school regularly. Even among those kids living within a mile of their school, only 25% are regular walkers.
Parents who walk or bike to school with their kids get to be sociable.

Air Quality and the Environment

Walking or biking to school protects the environment and your health. When children decide to lace-up their sneakers to walk, or strap on their bike helmets to pedal to school instead of riding in a car, they reduce the amount of air pollutants emitted by automobiles.

These air pollutants can be especially harmful to children. Children have respiratory systems that are not fully developed, they spend more time at higher activity levels, which can cause them to breath more deeply and take in more air pollution. They are also more likely to have asthma or other acute respiratory problems that can be aggravated by air pollution than other age groups. By walking or riding a bike to school, children lower the amount of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which helps reduce toxic air pollutants.

Vehicles emit a variety of air pollutants. For example, ground level ozone is created by a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compound gases in the presence of heat and sunlight..
Particulate matter are particles of dust, soot, smoke, dirt, and liquid droplets that are also released into the air by cars, trucks and other vehicles.

Hazardous or toxic air pollutants like the ones mentioned above are known or suspected to cause serious health effects such as cancer, birth defects, or respiratory, neurological, immune, or reproductive effects.
Safety

The promotion of bicycling and walking to school provides an opportunity to address safety. Every year, about 25,000 child pedestrians are injured by motor vehicles. Reducing the risk of injury includes teaching children pedestrian and bicycle skills. It also means reminding drivers to watch for others using the road. Hazardous conditions along routes to school need to be identified and fixed.

Some of the best ways to increase the safety of a child’s walk or bike to school are to:
•    provide safe, well-maintained walkways separate from vehicles;

•    Teach children to cross streets at marked crossings and to always look left-right-left

•    Slow traffic in neighborhoods and near schools through traffic calming and enforcement

•    Work with parents of children with disabilities and special education professionals to identify accessibility barriers

•    Ensure that walkways are continues and meet national accessibility standards

•    Install curb ramps at every intersection and mid-block crossing

•    Provide accessible pedestrian signals at intersections

Celebrate Walk to School Day on October 5th on your community and throughout the month of October. Together, we can make a difference around the globe and  in our own community. For more information, visit their website: Walk to School. Org

It’s that time of year again, and we are all facing the same thing- colder temperatures. During these chilly months it is easy to crank up the heat and not think twice about the damage your warm house is having on the environment.

How many times have you left your house for a full day at work and not turned the heat down? What you probably didn’t realize is that for every degree you turn down your thermostat you can save between 1% and 3% in your heating costs.

Want to learn more ways to make your home a winter wonderland for you, your family and the environment? Take a look at these helpful tips such as running your fans in reverse, changing your furnace filters and lowering the temperature of your water heater.

Invest in a Programmable Thermostat

It’s wasteful to heat an empty house, so why not take advantage of a programmable thermostat? These thermostats will automatically lower your household temperature while you sleep, are away at work, as well as bringing the heat back up when you wake or arrive home.

With proper use, you’ll never notice the difference in temperature, but your bank account certainly will — you could end up saving more than 10 per cent on your home heating costs. And now, with so many easy-to-use Energy Star certified options, like the new Ecobee Smart Thermostat, you can change your home heating and cooling preferences whenever you want with at-home display panels or online through your WiFi network.

Run Fans in Reverse

Most people think of fans only when they want to be cool, but many ceiling units come with a handy switch that reverses the direction of the blades. Counterclockwise rotation produces cooling breezes while switching to clockwise makes it warmer: air pooled near the ceiling is circulated back into the living space – cutting your heating costs as much as 10%!

Turn Down your Water Heater

While many conventional water heaters are set to 140 degrees F by installers, most households don’t need that much steam, and end up paying for it — in dollars and the occasional scalding burn. Lowering the temperature to 120 degrees F (or lower) would reduce your water heating costs by 6% to 10%.

If you start to wonder why you need a tank at all, then you may be ready for a tankless water heater, or to go solar. If you are in the market for a new water heater, take advantage of the federal tax credit, which pays 30% of the cost for solar water heaters, or up to $1,500 for conventional systems. (Note: 2011 tax credits are less generous.)

Dress To Impress

Gone are the days (for most of us at least) when we can afford to lounge around in our underwear while it’s frosty outside. Remember what we said about each degree on the thermostat costing you money?
Roughly speaking, a light long-sleeved sweater is worth about 2 degrees in added warmth, while a heavy sweater adds about 4 degrees. So snuggle up and start saving.

Buy organic cotton thermal long johns for everyone in the family and wear layers of clothing made from breathable organic fabrics.

Seal It Up

One of the simplest ways to retain heat and reduce energy costs this winter is by installing proper weather-stripping and caulking around the house. Once all doors and windows are properly sealed, it’s time to plug those less obvious air leaks. An easy way to find hidden drafts is to hold a lit stick of incense around baseboards, light fixtures and electrical outlets – a strong leak will make the stick glow brighter and blow the smoke away, while smaller leaks will puff the smoke in a distinct direction.

Change Furnace Filters

Yes it’s easy to forget, but it’s important to replace or clean furnace filters once a month during the heating season. Dirty filters restrict airflow and increase energy demand.
Mind your pipes and gutters

By making sure that your gutters are clean and pipes are protected, you can save yourself some major repair headaches down the road. Keeping your gutters free of leaves, sticks and other debris will help melting snow and ice to flow freely, and prevent ice dams that can cause water damage to your home’s roof and walls.

Turning off the water to your outside garden hose spigots and draining the lines will  prevent water inside from freezing and expanding, which could lead to cracked pipes, water damage and waste. Also, look for any pipes inside that aren’t insulated and run through unheated spaces like garages and basements, and wrap them in insulation sleeves to prevent freezing and breakage — remember, there’s nothing worse than being knee-deep in a flooded basement in the dead of winter.

It’s likely you won’t even notice these small changes like this in your lifestyle, but what you will notice is the decrease in your heating bill, and future generations will notice the difference in state of the environment.

By Brock Sheridan

There is an office concept sweeping the nation and having a positive impact on our environment at the same time. And so inconspicuous are these office complexes, that you may have one near you and not even recognized it. You may have passed one having thought it a closed restaurant, historic resident or perhaps even a bicycle shop.

They are called co-working office environments and they take the office sharing concept and open it to promote collaboration, creativity and create sustainability. Interestingly, the green aspect of most co-working offices are usually by both default and design. The inconspicuous architecture and design are usually the same – products of both creativity and efficiency.

Co-working was a term first coined by Bernie DeKoven, currently the CEO of The Technography Center and publisher of CoWorking, where he published the term in 1999. By 2005 however, Brad Neuberg  organized a co-working site called the “Hat Factory” in San Francisco, spawning the creation of some 400 co-working areas that exist today throughout the United States and worldwide. By 2007, Kerry Miller labeled it  “Where the coffee shop meets the cubicle” in her article published in Bloomberg Business.

Where co-working separates itself from the competition of office sharing is in the open working environment and green synergy. Co-working offices encourage collaboration among clients, even though those clients may be working for different companies in separate industries.

“The difference is the atmosphere,” says Tim Bowen of Spoke6, a co-working office space in Tucson, Arizona. “We have wide open spaces with all natural lighting. The people are key as well. There’s a lot of energy among our clients because we don’t stick them in some cubicle farm.”

“With office sharing, you get your own little office and you share a receptionist,” Bowen continued. “With co-working, you are actually working at the same table as somebody else. Someone might share feedback on an on screen design with someone or assist someone with a computer application or program.”

Most co-working facilities are very open and feature an array of natural lighting making the savings in utility costs an obvious benefit. Energy efficient LED and CFL lighting is almost an industry standard where natural lighting may not be practical. However, the co-working culture also appears to promote sustainability and green lifestyles to a much higher level. Look at the website of nearly any co-working facility nationwide and you will find “sustainability” or “green” in the initial descriptions of the facility.

Although sustainability is an important part of Co-Habitat in Dallas, founder Blake Burris recognized a large opportunity. “We are currently located in a 100 year-old house near downtown,” Burris said, “but are taking steps to make that a sustainable reference case. In fact we recently concluded an entire efficiency audit. We have also had some of our geek talent contribute to different projects, whether it be new weather stripping or any other aspects of the project.”

For Spoke6, that includes paying a little bit more to the local power company to insure they are using energy generated by the company’s solar panel farm. Or it is something as small as offering an inexpensive energy measuring device on a grab and use basis. “We’ve used it on everything from our water heater to lap top computers versus, say, flat screens to determine the most efficient use of energy,” Bowen said.

For Citizen Space in San Francisco, green started in the design of the office space, a former carpentry shop. The green effort for them began literally from the bottom as they installed bamboo planks for the necessary flooring. Not only is bamboo inexpensive, but highly sustainable because of its rapid growth rate.

Chris Messina, who runs Citizen Agency with his partner Tara Hunt and opened up Citizen Space in November of 2006, told changingworld.com, “I guess I got involved in co-working originally because I was working out of cafes and wanted a more collaborative, productive environment to go to and work around other people. The green part sort of just came naturally.”

Co-working facilities also seem to generally promote a non-automotive culture. Many co-working facilities, like Spoke6 in Tucson, offer storage for bicycles and promote biking to work. Most co-working office spaces are also located near downtown or vibrant metropolitan areas within walking distance to businesses, restaurants and housing.  CoHabitat has been the official starting point for the Uptown Fun Runs with the Dallas Running Club and is conveniently located near the Katy Trail, a linear 3.5-mile long landscaped pedestrian, inline skating, and bicycle trail system that runs through the most densely developed section of the city.  While not all employees or clients are runners, Burris said he wanted to created in easy opportunity for others to take up the sport including showers.

Bowen mentions how the cycling culture around Spoke6 has been contagious. “[We had a client] developer, who had not ridden a bike for years when she came here. But she saw that opportunity, went out and bought a bike, and now she bikes in everyday. Sometimes just letting people know there’s that opportunity, gives them that extra push. They say “Oh wow! It’s nice to do things this way.’”

Differences certainly exist among co-working facilities around the world, but the collaborative, flexible and creative threads seem to weave through each. These are not office sharing facilities that offer isolation and communication through phones and fax machines, but rather a unique and innovative work environment for a specific segment of the workforce in the digital and paperless markets.

“It’s not for everyone,” says the website for Workhaus Co-Working Lodge in Dallas, Texas. “It’s for people who can conduct their business in a light, mobile, and paperless fashion. We have seen co-working work well for graphic and web designers, techies, writers, consultants, sales people, marketing gurus, and especially bootstrappers who are doing all they can to get a business idea off the ground.”

But co-working is also about sustainability in the workplace and taking that one step further like Tim Bowen in Tucson or Blake Burris in Dallas. Whether through promoting telecommuting, cycling, energy management, running, renovation or bamboo floors, co-working is as much cultural as it is convenient or efficient. There just appears to be in intangible variable in the formula in which co-working offices are increasing the efficiency of our resources – resources in both intelligence as well as gas and electricity.

But we’ll leave the geeks to figure that out.

Our mission is to provide professional co-working space for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to work and hold meetings near Downtown Tucson. This space facilitates an evolving atmosphere of creative synergy for professionals and to provide educational events in Tucson. Spoke6 is a destination for focus and inspiration.

www.spoke6.com

439 N 6th Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85705

Could you choose between restoring a river and preserving a park? What about caring for native wildlife or developing cleaner transportation?  With Environmental Fund for Arizona (EFAZ) you can support 29 environmental and conservation nonprofits, all working to make Arizona healthy, vibrant, and beautiful.

EFAZ serves to connect Arizonans with the wide variety of green work being done in our communities, and to inspire people in making a difference through education, volunteering, and support. Since 2001, we’ve raised nearly $800,000 to help improve Arizona’s environment.

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We can help you incorporate a green choice in your community giving program, and can provide presentations, tours, and other activities to teach employees about our environment on issues including:

•    Land management
•    Renewable energy
•    Habitat preservation
•    River restoration
•    Wildlife rehabilitation
•    Recycling
•    Environmental Education

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You can make a real difference in helping create a healthier environment by partnering with the Environmental Fund for Arizona – it’s your easy way to support green at work.

Visit us online at www.efaz.org to learn more.

The Clean Energy Foundation (CEF), an international non-profit organization, is based in Phoenix. Its purpose is to develop renewable, clean energy solutions to help satisfy human needs for potable water, health, energy, education, and food. Current projects are related to biogas, solar lighting and water purification implementation. With operations currently in Nairobi, Kenya, the foundation seeks to make an impact globally.

1411 South 47th Ave. St. #110
Phoenix, AZ 85043
(602) 278-6545
Website: www.cefnd.org

Who’s Green  has decided to give water use a little extra attention in 2010.  We believe there are many steps, large and small, each of us can take to help keep an ample supply on hand. This is not only for ourselves but also for those who follow.  We will continue to provide you with useful information in a number of other areas while creating a greater awareness on how this natural resource can be used more wisely.  Because you use water in every area of your life we will present you with ideas for the home, the workplace, in business, and within the community.

Who’s Green enjoys helping you explore greener living.  In our efforts to share both simple and practical choices we will cover a wide range of ideas:

• For the home we will offer tips and suggestions such as not leaving the water running, installing more efficient nozzles and toilets, and creative methods like rainwater harvesting .

• At the workplace we will remind you to actively look for ways your employer can conserve water and give tips on greener habits for you to adopt as we continue to discover them.

• In business we will provide you with information on joining incentive based programs, the various workshops being offered, and finding organizations that offer you support.  Each of these is designed to help you save on costs as well as water.

• We will pass along different ways you can become involved  in our community whether attending special events, participating in educational programs, or opportunities to volunteer.

As always our greatest source of information is you in the community. For this reason we continue to welcome your feedback and ideas. Remember, we all enjoy the many benefits of water; drinking it, bathing in it, and growing things with it just to name a few.  So lets all join in on using it more wisely.

Be sure and check our site for information on these upcoming events:

The Water Project- March 26-28.. For more information visit their website: http://www.waterprojectfestival.org/

Oasis Water Harvesting offers a line of products to get you started in the exciting undertaking of rain water harvesting. On our website,  you will not only see the great line of products we offer, but also information on how you can use those products.  Oasis carries rain barrels from 50 to 3,000 gallons and a variety of rain chains.  We service all of southern Arizona.

For more information visit our website:
www.oasisrainwaterharvesting.com

520-234-7681

Through its signature Trees for Tucson program, Tucson Clean & Beautiful can provide up to two low-cost trees for homeowners within the Tucson Electric Power service area. Selection varies throughout the year, but commonly available varieties include mesquite, desert willow, willow acacia, sweet acacia, palo verde, ironwood, and much more. Sponsored by Tucson Electric Power, residents can obtain trees to plant on the east, west, and south-facing sides of the home for only $8 per tree. These trees provide an immediate, and continually growing, improvement to your home’s landscape aesthetics and property value with relatively minimal maintenance and watering required.

Trees also provide valuable wildlife habitat, soak up rain to reduce stormwater runoff, and pulling Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere to reduce global warming. As the tree grows to shade the walls of your home – and especially windows, doors, and air conditioners – you should also begin to see a gradual reduction in your energy bill because of the cooling effect of trees! A bonus is that every bit of electrical energy that you save also reduces the need to release Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere through power generation.

For Tucson Electric Power customers, to request a Trees for Tucson home shade tree application please visit www.treesfortucson.org or call (520) 791-3109.

If you are outside the Tucson Electric Power service area and reside in the Trico Electric Cooperative service area surrounding metropolitan Tucson, please call Trico at (520) 744-2944 or visit www.trico.coop for information on Operation Cool Shade.