Going green for St. Patrick's Day

Hi world,

Earlier today we posted a little quip on assorted social media:

“Want to go green for St. Patrick's Day? Reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, conserve.”

It's easy to say and do, but we thought we would expand and give you some more definite information. The US Environmental Protection Agency has a whole site dedicated to it here: http://www2.epa.gov/recycle, as does the San Juan Islands Conservation District: http://sanjuanislandscd.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/composting.pdf.

But in case you don't feel like clicking the links, here's the upshot:

Reduce, reuse, recycle is laid out in order of importance. Those “three Rs” are always said in that order for that reason. (Well, unless you also now have the Jack Johnson song stuck in your head. If not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSM2riAEX4U)

Reduce:

As in buy less. Do you need the kitchen gadget that you'll use once and will sit in a drawer for a year before you contemplate it again? Do you need to get whatever you're purchasing individually wrapped or will bulk do?

Reuse:

This one's easy. All those canvas bags in the trunk of your car? They not only are good for the environment but good for your hands. Grocery store bags, paper or plastic, both have drawbacks that the reusable bags do not. Something cold creating condensation will go through a paper bag. Something heavy will turn a plastic bag into a torture device.

Recycle:

From PET bottles to car batteries, we can recycle almost everything now, generally for free and close by, if not at home.

Compost:

Ok, ok, this is something we're less acquainted with, so allow us to quell your fears. It is not having a nasty, smelly bucket of rotting after-dinner under your sink, festering. Or in your backyard. It is recycling, just with food. Everything herbaceous (planty) you would normally throw away you just put in a different bin. Onion bits, teabags and coffee grounds, breads and pastas – anything that originated with a plant, even paper can be composted. The only exception (as far as we know) to this rule is eggshells. If you have land, compost is wonderful fertiliser. If you do not, most towns have somewhere you can take your compost, from municipal yards to community gardens. Some will even pick it up along with your garbage and recycling.

Conserve:

Again, we've been hearing this one for a while. Turn off your water while you're brushing your teeth. Turn your car off instead of idling. We know these and it is just a matter of making them a habit – making all of these a habit.

These are only our suggestions and we don't want to tell you how to live your life, but it is like everything we do: one person makes very little difference, but many can effect real change.

-SWW

Also, if you want to wear green for St. Patrick's Day, we recommend green undies. You'll feel naughty all day.

What resources do you use?

Hi world,

This is just going to be a short post and question(s). Looking in on @StartupCanada's #StartupChats on Twitter twice a week has been interesting, funny, and educational, which, in posts that always include a hashtag and max out at 140 characters, is pretty darn impressive.

image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

This is not an advertisement for that company or that particular chat but a reminder to all entrepreneurs that there are a great many resources for information and advice for what to do and how to do it outside of whatever pages your internet search may come up with. Which is good, because no one resource should be taken as gospel.

So here is what we want to know:

Where do you go for advice?

What pages and communities do you use?

What are your recommendations?

We are always looking for new ideas to not only better our business or marketing but ourselves. Trying to be active members in our communities, both online and at home is part of that, but we won't turn down invitations to outside groups or ideas as long as they work with and for us. Because in the end, we are looking to be a benefit and have a benefit and don't feel like we need to hide that.

That's it for today, world. How can we be of benefit to each other?

-SWW

World Wildlife Day

Hi world,

So you want to save the planet? Well, you can't. Not by yourself, anyway. What you can do is be a part of a group working toward the same goal, and since today is World Wildlife Day, that is what you should focus on.

There is an inherent problem with things like World Wildlife Day, however. We think of big animals: lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! The animals we want to save are cute (like pandas), or majestic (like eagles), or beautiful (like the short-crested coquette, which, along with being a very colourful hummingbird clearly has one of the best names available, along with the Thaumatodryinus tuukkaraski, which as a hockey fan is indescribably playful).

We think of exotic animals: leopards and gorillas and rhinos, and that's not entirely our fault. These species have great PR and in order to gain your attention, they are used as poster-species. We don't think about the Aaandonta anguarana, a very basic-looking land snail on the critically endangered list from IUCN, or Stigmaphyllon nudiflorum, a small plant in Ecuador, or any more than 100 of the 4635 species on the critically endangered list.

That is good; these animals need saving too, but there are .. wait. “Lions and tigers and bears.” We have bears. They're right here. They are so right here and their habitats are so encroached upon that they are walking into people's homes at random, in large cities like Vancouver, BC, where the police receive over 7,000 calls a year about black bears in residential areas. So if it's not all exotic and spectacular mammals that live on different continents, what is it? It's about the world. What is “over there” from here, is “here”, to over there. Just because your city is not home to the rare red-beaked, meringue-crested giraffe-hoofed water squazzle doesn't mean that it doesn't need help. (And really, don't you kind of want that to exist?)

The truth of the matter too is that it is not a problem that is far away, that is “over there”. It's here, in our backyards, in our parks, on our coasts and in our mountains. It's here and it's right now. Critically endangered does not mean we can sit back and wait for a few generations to pass before we do something; it means that a few generations from now, they will be extinct. This sounds scary and is meant to. It also sounds like a monumental task, and it is, but the sooner it is acted upon, the sooner something can be done.

We need to help, and we can make a difference. The “us” we, not the “other people” we. Not the “yeah, yeah, all of us” but the you and I we.

It is difficult to see the forest through the trees, as it were, and hard to see how one person can make any sort of difference to such a vast issue, but therein lies the joy: you are one person, as am I, but we are many, and we can effect change. World Wildlife Day is not about one person doing something and then ignoring the situation for a year. It is about a community working together. You, as an individual can do that. You can make a small donation and spread the word and ignore it for a year, easing your conscience, and that is just as ok as someone who can afford more – more time, more money, who has more interest. No one is asking to put you out or make your life difficult. If you can volunteer or be active in some other way, if you can afford to make a large donation or use your skills to raise awareness, I am sure it would be appreciated, but it is not necessary. What is necessary is that something be done, and we can no longer wait for the hypothetical someone else to do it. We have to play an active role in our own world.

I (personally, as the writer of this blog) can afford to make a small donation and raise some awareness, so that is what I am doing. What will you be doing? What can you afford? Time? Money? Education? If you are interested in helping in whatever way, big or small, financial or not, please go to: http://www.wildlifeday.org and get involved.

If you're reading this after March 3, CITES is on social media:

on twitter.com/wildlifeday

on facebook.com/WorldWildlifeDay

on youtube.com/worldwildlifeday

on flickr.com/photos/worldwildlifeday

Mention us:

on twitter.com/shawwaterworks

on facebook.com/Shaw-Water-Works

on https://plus.google.com/ShawWaterWorks

Go do something and help the world. March 3, World Wildlife Day.

-SWW

A Eulogy

Hi world,

Leonard Nimoy passed today, and we mourn his loss. Not just because he played Mr. Spock on Star Trek, and not because he was a famous actor, but because in playing the science officer of the Enterprise, because in being involved with the series, he helped shape the world we live in.

They may have used pepper shakers as props for the communicators, but we have real communicators (cell phones). They may have only imagined tablets and touchscreen control panels, but we have them. A great many innovations have come from today's scientists – from engineers to astrophysicists – watching Star Trek when they were young and thinking “That's cool. I wish we had that,” then turning those dreams into reality. 

Yes, Mr. Spock took being logical to an extreme, but science is logical.  We needed Mr. Spock more than James Kirk to change the way we think, the way we communicate, the way we access information. He was more than just his character, but the character he was able to portray so adeptly is an integral part of our culture, and we thank him for it.

To his friends and family, you are in our thoughts. Mr. Nimoy had a profound effect on all of us, whether we were children during the original television series in 1966, or the movie reboot in 2009. Thank you for giving us decades of imagination and wonder.

-SWW

Ten sites to excite

Hi world,

From the most vehement eco warrior to the person just wanting to save money, many of us lose faith, spending too much time on the internet hoping to find the thing that will save the planet, ease our consciences, and cost us less money. The reality is that there is no one thing; there are many, and all of us working together is what will ease our climate and environmental woes. Power in numbers.

For those of us who aren't finding what we're looking for or want to keep in touch with new products or ideas, new causes and foundations, we've compiled a list of ten, in no particular order:

EcoGeek

Articles, products, and ideas. EcoGeek.org is an amazing resource for what is new and upcoming on the sustainability front. Also, Hank Green.

National Geographic

More than just amazing photography, National Geographic has an entire section devoted to the environment which includes articles, news, and educational quizzes as well as spectacular images to inspire you.

Nature Conservancy and Ocean Conservancy

Just what you would think: organisations that work to preserve natural heritage through purchase or donation to encourage nature's processes. Volunteer, donate, sponsor.

Let's Talk Science

Bringing science, technology, engineering, and math to Canadian (sorry, rest of the world) youth. Through this, they can inspire young minds and make our future better, for the next ecologically friendly device will be made by them.

WWF

Way beyond just wildlife preservation, WWF is working toward a 100% renewable future through renewable energy mapping, driving an energy revolution, and climate-smart planning and adaptation. Responsible for Earth Hour City Challenge, WWF is pushing us to be better.

SustainabilityTips

This blog gives tips and ideas to adopt an environmentally-friendly lifestyle in everyday decisions. Well-researched and comprehensible, this is an easy introduction for those who want to make good choices day to day.

Inhabitat

Focussing primarily on eco-friendly architecture and design, Inhabitat also offers a plethora of articles on various products, technology, energy, transportation. This is a good overall site with a lot of ideas and news.

Ecopreneurist

For new businesses and products, this is the place to go. This blog not only has many helpful hints and ideas for ecopreneurs, but products and clean tech.

Ecoki

From eco-friendly ergo office posts to a discussion about NASA's proposal for fuel-efficient aircraft, Ecoki is a great resource. Science, technology, fashion, travel, all green, all under one roof.

ShawWaterWorks

You didn't think we'd leave ourselves off, did you? With a new, innovative technology and design, our Peco-M Systems are eco-friendly and once installed, require no maintenance or even thought, other than asking yourself why you didn't get this earlier every time you see a power bill.

So, world, what did we miss? What are your favourite sites and companies to look for eco-friendly ideas and innovations? Tell us in the comments below.

-SWW

The Love

Hi world,

We have an update for you we couldn't wait to share! Remember how we had the cases for our Peco-M Systems on display? Well we have done some reconfiguring and gotten a new design and are ready to reveal our first renderings of what they will be. Check it out:

Peco-M 7100 Series

It's sleeker, more user-friendly, and easier to manufacture. We could hardly be happier, and at a perfect time. Our engineering consultant showed us the love this Valentine's.

We are constantly impressed with what can happen when ideas are allowed to flow freely and creativity is encouraged. Sometimes a different angle or an untrained eye is what you need to sculpt ideas into wonderful realities, so from our engineering department through to office management and even accounting, we take everyone's opinions and thoughts into consideration to create something we can all be proud of.

From our most humble beginnings, we're beginning to see into a bright and environmentally-friendly future. With each Peco-M System in place, the world will be a little better, a little safer. Join us and have a positive impact on our environment!

We love you, world!

From all of us at ShawWaterWorks, happy Valentine's Day.

-SWW

(those clips, though!)

The Breakdown

Hi world,

Did you know that your hot water tank is the least efficient appliance in your home by far? The US Department of Energy¹ posted a frightening graph last summer depicting the efficiency of the most common home appliances and it looks like this:

This chart shows how much energy a typical appliance uses per year and its corresponding cost based on national averages. For example, a refrigerator/freezer uses almost five times the electricity the average television uses.

We've been talking about how important it is to lower your energy usage, not only for the planet but for your wallet as well. A 20% reduction from the 2300 kWh a 2-person home uses on average for hot water heating drops you to 1840 kWh, a reduction of 460 kWh. At a residential average of $0.1246 per kWh, that's a savings of $57.32 just on the smallest version of the least efficient appliance. That means that even if you only had one Peco-M 3600 Series working in your home, it would be paid for and saving you money within the first two years of use. With a five-year warranty, that is a smart decision. If you have a 50 gallon tank, like most homes do, and you use it an average of three hours a day, you're looking at $591.30 per year and could save up to $118.26 in a year, recovering your costs almost immediately. From then on, you're just saving money, year after year.

Now imagine if you were using Peco-M Systems with other appliances in your home. BC Hydro² says electric baseboard heating accounts for 44% of your yearly bill ($607.50 as a low average for total yearly, $267.30 of which is from your baseboard heating). A Peco-M 2400 Series would, based on those numbers, save up to $53.46 a year.

image from troymedia.com

Add in a 1500W space heater³ and you're saving another $32.85. All this adds up – with three systems in place in the average North American home, the savings with three Peco-M Systems are a staggering $204.57 per year. Plus, because many electricity providers charge different rates according to energy usage, you'll likely stay within the lower rate as well.

But the big benefit is to the environment.  If you are using 2200 less kWh, the power companies have to provide that much less, and though each individual home will not have a large impact, having even five homes means the power company is needs to create a whole home's less power for the year. Even if we underestimated and said it were one in ten, that is still 10% less power, 10% less draw on our resources.

Will you work with us?

-SWW

1 http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/tips-appliances

2 https://www.bchydro.com/accounts-billing/rates-energy-use/electricity-rates/residential-rates.html

3 http://energyusecalculator.com/electricity_spaceheater.htm?