Tag Archives: World Wildlife Federation

The Coachella Valley Earth Hour challenge

Posted: March 28th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: The Green Blog | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Yo, Coachella Valley. This Saturday from 8:30-9:30 p.m. is Earth Hour – a 24-hour, rolling symbolic demonstration of the power of individuals to take action to stop climate change.

Now in its sixth year, Earth Hour encourages people first to turn off their lights for one hour — 8:30-9:30 p.m. in their time zone, so it moves across the globe. The second part is then challenging individuals to commit to other, year-round actions to decrease their carbon footprints. 

The event started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, according to the Earth Hour website, when 2,000 businesses and 2.2 million people switched off their lights and lit candles for one hour.  Organizers hoped to bring in all of Australia for 2008, but then other cities and countries signed on as well – 400 cities in 35 countries.

Last year, millions of people in 135 countries joined in.  This year, some of the world’s most iconic buildings and larndmarks will be going dark — the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House, and the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building — 2,716.5 feet– in Dubai.  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed that the United Nations headquarters in New York will be switching off.

Click here to see a video on the event – very cool and inspirational.

The World Wildlife Federation, which organizes the event, is also upping the ante for 2012 with a new campaign called “I Will If You Will.” You can set a challenge – like getting a tattoo if 10,000 people commit to recycling for the rest of the year – or accept one.

The tattoo challenge is real. Click here to see that and other “I Will If You Will” challenges.

Now – beyond the usual crew of climate change skeptics — I can already hear the howls of protest.  It’s smack dab in the middle of season, it’s Dinah and Kraft-Nabisco weekend.  People would lose business; it’s not practical.

Well, what if we looked at this as a challenge. I mean think about it. People could have candle-light dinners  on their patios; restaurants could turn down or turn off the house lights and also use candles. Heck – the women partying on at Dinah could do without their disco lights for an hour – it’s early in the evening.

Maybe St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert could turn off the cross on the hill for an hour.

And, as the Earth Hour website makes abundantly clear, any lights having to do with public safety and health care can and should stay on.

Turning off the lights for an hour might also give us a little time to contemplate just how dependent we are on electric light. Thomas Edison opened his first coal-fired power plant 130 years ago in New York City, lighting a few blocks of lower Manhattan. By 1927, 25 percent of American homes still didn’t have electric lights.

For most of human history, we did without them. Beethoven wrote the 9th Symphony without electric lights; William Shakespeare wrote his plays, Charles Dickens, his novels without electric lights. We fought the Revolutionary War and the Civil War without them. 

According to the International Energy Agency, as of 2009, 1.3 billion people around the world were still living without access to electricity.

Not that I am suggesting we go back to kerosene lamps and torches – I am as addicted to my compact fluorescents as the next person. But one hour without them will not spell the end of civilization as we know it – unchecked climate change is more likely to do that.  It’s  about being willing to inconvenience ourselves a little and consider some basic changes in how we live.

So, yes, I’m going to set the valley a challenge. 

My downfall on energy efficiency is hot showers. I’m a total hot water hog. For me, 5 minutes is a quick shower;  10-15 minutes is normal, and the water  has to be just this side of scalding. I believe in personal steam cleaning.

 If 5,000 people and 50 businesses across the valley turn off their lights for Earth Hour, I will commit to buying a timer and sticking to 3-minute showers for the rest of the year.

So, come on, Coachella Valley. If the Empire State Building and Eiffel Tower can do it, so can we.

Welcome WindMade — a new green label

Posted: June 15th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: The Green Blog | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Today is Global Wind Energy Day and back in New York City at 8:30 a.m. — 5:30 a.m. our time — a new green label, WindMade, was launched at a media event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

The result of an international effort, the new label will be available later this year to companies that procure at least 25 percent of their electricity from wind sources. Standards and a label for individual products are also under development and could be available in 2012.

The new WindMade label launched today in New York.

The idea, as speakers at the event said, is to bridge the gap between existing consumer demand for cleaner, greener energy and lagging or, in the case of the U.S., nonexistent national policy to promote renewable energy.

“It gives consumers the opportunity to vote with their wallet,” said Bragi Fjalldal, director for emerging markets at Vestas Wind Systems, one of the companies behind the new label.

A survey of thousands of consumers in 20 countries found that 79 percent would be willing to pay more for products made with wind energy, he said.

Other companies and trade groups behind the new label range from the World Wildlife Federation to the Global Wind Energy Council and American Wind Energy Association to Bloomberg, Lego and Price Waterhouse Coopers.

That kind of corporate support shows in the new organization’s website — where you immediately find a multimedia intro and user-friendly video ready to roll and go viral.

“We wanted a program robust enough that it would drive new wind investment and development around the world (and) flexible enough to (let companies) participate,” said Elizabeth Salerno, chief economist at the American Wind Energy Association.

To meet the 25 percent standard, a company would either have to  build its own wind installation, have a long-term power purchase agreement to buy wind energy or buy renewable energy credits, called RECs, from a verifiable source, she said.

The label will also have two levels — one certifying a company is using at least 25 percent wind energy and a second for companies hitting the 25 percent wind mark and using other forms of renewable energy as well. Companies will have to recertified every year.

Today’s event marked the roll-out of the proposed standards companies will have to meet to qualify for the WindMade label and the beginning of a 60-day public comment period.

The subtext here is that the groups and individuals involved realize they will need broad buy-in from businesses and the public. They will also need to ensure that the WindMade standards are rigorous enough so the label doesn’t become an easy green-wash device for companies seeking to cash in on consumer demand for cleaner energy.

For example, a company that earns a corporate-level WindMade label would not be able to use it on individual products that might be made in off-shore factories run on coal or oil.

The WindMade label could also be a wake-up call for wind energy in the Coachella Valley.

The San Gorgonio Pass is filled with thousands of windmills but many are old, inefficient or broken down. While repowering efforts are underway, a lot more needs to be done to keep the region competitive with new wind plants coming online in Southern California and across the country.

The WindMade program could be a spur for the region to tap into the growing demand for wind energy, update its aging turbines and draw new investment and development for wind projects in the area.