environmental friendly, natural products, solar power, recycling, organic food - Easy Eco Blog

Powered Green

easy eco blog — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:00:36 +0000

Powered Green is an environmental startup founded by two former students of the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The company was created to provide people with a unique opportunity to support renewable energy sources along with the ability to show their support for a greener future. Through the sale of products they have raise funds for six different wind farms across the country.

Although they have expanded to additional products to allow more people to support renewable energy, our main efforts revolve around the Energy SealTM. The Energy Seal is a recycled aluminum sticker, and its purchase represents that renewable energy sources have produced the amount of energy one laptop uses throughout its lifetime, making it carbon neutral.

Since launching in September 2008 Powered Green has empowered a thriving community of over 1,200 individuals dedicated to spreading awareness for renewable energy. Grassroots efforts thus far have stopped over 1,000 tons of CO2 from reaching the atmosphere, which is equivalent to driving your car 863.6 times across the US or removing 235 acres of forest. All of this is simply from the support of the Powered Green Community.

“There were a lot of students like us on campus that were looking for a way to get involved and make an impact on the environment,” says Brandon Gador, Co-Founder of Powered Green. “So we set out to create a symbol for renewable energy that the individual can rally behind and show their support for a greener future. Much like what Livestrong did for cancer research, we want to do that for renewable energy.”

Iqua BHS-603 Sun Solar Powered Bluetooth Headset

easy eco blog — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:00:01 +0000

Iqua BHS-603 Sun Solar Powered Bluetooth Headset solar panel that provides theoretically infinite standby time. An eco-friendly Bluetooth headset at a low price, that rarely needs charging is a useful gadget we all can use.

Vitamin Water Controversy – Vitamin Water zero

easy eco blog — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:00:28 +0000

photo credit: TheTruthAbout…

Is Vitamin Water super water or a virtual soda like drink in disguise? Vitamin Water recently made the news. Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Coca Cola who owns Vitamin water over deceptive and unsubstantiated claims on its VitaminWater line of beverages.

“Coke markets VitaminWater as a healthful alternative to soda by labeling its several flavors with such health buzz words as “defense,” “rescue,” “energy,” and “endurance.” The company makes a wide range of dramatic claims, including that its drinks variously reduce the risk of chronic disease, reduce the risk of eye disease, promote healthy joints, and support optimal immune function.”

“In fact, according to CSPI nutritionists, the 33 grams of sugar in each bottle of VitaminWater do more to promote obesity, diabetes, and other health problems than the vitamins in the drinks do to perform the advertised benefits listed on the bottles.”

Vitamin Water may provide do harm than good because many of the flavors are filled with sugar and caffeine that offsets any possible positive effect of vitamins. One 500ml bottle had 8 teaspoons of sugar, 82ml of caffeine. “consumers not to drink more than two bottles a day because of the caffeine content (82 milligrams) and [the label] recommends it not be taken by children or pregnant or lactating women.”

How about sticking to plain old water?

Apparently Vitamin Water is listening. In 2010, they introduced a new line of drinks for a weight-conscious market called Vitamin Water zero that has 0 calories per eight-ounce serving. It uses sweeteners from Truvia, a high-purity extract of the stevia leaf.

High Fructose Corn Syrup getting replaced

easy eco blog — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:00:40 +0000

High Fructose Corn Syrup is getting replaced by sugar in many packaged foods and drinks. High Fructose Corn Syrup has recently gotten a bad reputation as an artificial sweetener. It is heavily processed and offers little nutritional value. Changing to sugar is almost a marketing gimmick. Researchers have concluded that sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup have the exact same effect on obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. One is not better than the other. Consumers should seek less sweet alternative products.

People need to drink water instead of soda. Snack on fruit instead of cookies. Yes they are not as appetizing, but they are far healthier.

Recycle Your Denim – Gap 30% off

easy eco blog — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:00:05 +0000

GAP Stores has a recycle your denim and receive a 30% off coupon event, March 5 through March 14, 2010. They will recycle the denim and turn it into the eco friendly housing insulation.

GreenFinanceSF – Financing program for energy efficiency

easy eco blog — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:00:44 +0000

The city of San Francisco recently started GreenFinanceSF, a financing program that helps to pay for water savings, energy efficiency, and renewable energy projects that you might not have been able to afford. The repayment obligation is attached to the property, rather than the individual, and is paid back through property taxes over the life of the financing.

Eligible projects include energy audits, upgrading heating systems, upgrading water heaters, installing solar hot water, installing solar electric panels, and conserving hot water. The program has an online application and application processing fee of $300.

Costco 100% Recycled Premium Bath Tissue – Toilet Paper

easy eco blog — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:00:31 +0000

Costco now sells Nature’s Choice 100% Recycled Premium Bath Tissue. No need to make a special trip to Whole Paycheck aka Whole Foods to get recycled products. Price is as low as you would expect from Costco and performance of the product is fairly good too.

The NRDC states: If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees.

Eco Friendly or Green Coffee Paper Cups

easy eco blog — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:00:10 +0000

We saw this cup at a museum store that looked like a standard coffee cup but was made with porcelain. It is called “I Am Not a Paper Cup” and is dishwashwer and microwave safe, $12 from Amazon. eco cup is another similar reusable coffee cup or beverage cup.

Many coffee shops will not allow you to use your own cup, claiming health code problems. Starbucks sells a $15 reusable Venti cup and applies a 10-cent discount on the price of the drink of your choice each time you bring your cup in and order. Apparently these sold out an are being scalped on eBay.

I wonder how many other coffee places will let you use this. Most independent coffee shops have no problem with this. Just thinking about how many paper cups are tossed each day is mind boggling. Few people wash their coffee cups and recycle the cup and plastic top.

Wireless Network (Wi-Fi) Health and Safety Advice

easy eco blog — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:00:11 +0000

EMFacts has a nice flyer with health tips concerning Wireless networks or Wi-fi. With the advents of Wi-fi, Cell phone signals, Alarm systems, Wireless utility meters, consumers are getting bombarded with more and more radiation.

Some common sense tips they recommend:

Do not sit in close proximity to a wireless router (keep it in an unoccupied room if possible)
Turn off any wireless devices at night time while you sleep – as these devices emit microwaves at all times – not just when the device is transmitting data

Avoid using a wireless laptop on your lap for extended periods of time

Take note of the short-term health effects – if you notice any symptoms

Try to remove or reduce your exposure to the wireless devices

Rent Computer, Rent Audio Visual Technology Products

easy eco blog — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:00:04 +0000

Have you considered renting a computer or audio video gear lately? Do you have a meeting, project, trip, etc that requires some new gear you do not own? If you like to try out a new Mac or digital camera without making the full commitment, renting is a great solution. No need to spend thousands of dollars for a temporary need.

Meetingtomorrow.com rents computers, audio, and video gear and only charges $49 round trip shipping. Renting a MacBook Pro for a week is $255. Zilok helps rent equipment too. BorrowLenses.com rents high end digital camera equipment.