Carbon Credits - Is this really being "green"?

As businesses are being persuaded to go greener, one option available to some is to purchase carbon credits. By purchasing these credits, a business is not required to make significant changes to its processes in the immediate future, but rather, simply provides financial support either to businesses that exceed the government's environmental standards (and thus, have extra carbon credits they can sell), or to groups that promote conservation of the Earth's natural resources.

At first glance, it may seem that giving businesses the option to purchase credits is simply allowing them to put off ever making changes themselves. Should this option be considered a satisfactory way for them to meet the ever-increasing environmental requirements? The answer is - it's not too bad (at least for now). According to The Nature Conservatory, funding projects that prevent forest destruction is currently one of the most cost-effective ways to battle climate change. As discussed in one of our earlier blogs http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/02/deforestation-and-coffee-cups.html , deforestation accounts for a significant portion of the Earth's greenhouse gasses. And since the majority of deforestation occurs in other parts of the world, American businesses can get quite a "bang for their buck" when funding these preservation efforts.

So while businesses will ultimately need to make significant changes to their processes in order to have a neutral or positive effect on the planet, funding forest preservation and other environmental projects is a cost-effective way for them to handle the transition as cleaner technologies and processes are developed.

The Nature Conservatory is sponsoring conferences in Denver, Atlanta, and Nashville in the upcoming weeks, to discuss these options to businesses in more detail.

We welcome any comments; if you have any thoughts on this or any of our other topics, please feel free to post them or visit our site http://www.gogreenmug.com/ to see more about us and send a message. Thanks!

Catastrophic Global Warming Is Possible

Steven Chu, the head of the US department of energy and a Nobel prize winning physicist has recently suggested that a rise in temperature of 5 or 6 degrees centigrade would be catastrophic for planet earth.

The 2007 IPCC report http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tp-climate-change-water.htm leaves little doubt that the planet is warming and that we need to act now to prevent catastrophe.

Before we panic though and start denying, looting and pillaging, we should make a go of reducing waste and funding projects that will eliminate our carbon emissions.

Earth day is coming up next week and over the next 2 weeks there will be quite a few activities to get out and do something positive to reduce your waste. You can even join the team at GoGreenMug.com for some of their activities.

Earth day is one day, but we need a more sustained effort, so get started now and extend Earth day to Earth year, decade or even century.

Hope to see you at some of our activities in the coming weeks. Check out http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/04/earth-day-activities-surf-hike-and.html for details.

Earth Day Activities: Surf, Hike and Reduce Waste

April 22 is Earth Day. Earth Day was originally conceived to celebrate life on our planet and to encourage us to enjoy this life. The first Earth Day celebration was held back in 1970. Unfortunately since then we have not treated earth very well, as we have continued to waste and overuse the planets resources. In 2009 the day has taken on a much more important and urgent message. This message is for everyone on planet earth and hopefully will encourage us to do more to reduce our waste not just on April the 22nd but for the rest of our lives.

GoGreenMug.com will be involved with a number of activities celebrating Earth Day over the next 2 weeks. We are committing our time and resources to raise awareness, promote environmental causes and reduce waste. Here are some of the events that we will be taking part in over the next 2 weeks:

• We have signed petitions against offshore drilling and asking congress to take strong action to reduce global warming.
• April 18 from 8:00 AM until we are tired, we will be enjoying the beach and surf in Southern California. Exactly where will depend on conditions on the day. If you would like to join us send us an email at support@gogreenmug.com or leave a comment on this blog.
• April 19 from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM, we will be helping Surfrider Newport Beach at a beach clean up. The beach cleanup is held at the most southerly end of Huntington State Beach. There is also an Earth Day Celebration at the Rainbow Disposal Center (on Nichols St.) in Huntington Beach, where people can bring their e-waste, tour a Materials Recovery Facility, and view fuel-efficient vehicles and energy conservation displays.
• April 23 from 9:30 Am until 11:00 AM, we will be at another beach clean up once again organized by Surfrider Newport Beach. This time at the Newport Beach Bilboa Pier.
• April 25 in the afternoon, we will be hiking the canyons around Laguna Beach/ Crystal Cove in Southern California. Once again send us a message at support@gogreenmug.com if you would like to come along. Distance and exact location will be determine by participants.
• April 26, we will be at Newport Bay’s Earth Day 2009 - “Learning From Nature” celebration.
• From now until Earth Day April 22, visit http://www.gogreenmug.com and get yourself a personalized reusable travel mug for 20% off with coupon code: svplntmg

You probably realized that many of these events are in Southern California, but we know there are numerous events taking place all around the world. So please visit http://ww2.earthday.net/ to find out what activities are available in your area and get involved or simply get out and enjoy the planet - take a walk, swim or surf in the ocean, climb a mountain, but enjoy Earth and think about what you can do to reduce your waste.

Earth Day is about awareness and action and there are many events happening not just on the day itself but for the days before and after. However one day or even 2 weeks will not be enough to reduce CO2 emissions or our use of single use plastic containers or even to clean all our beaches. We need to remain aware throughout our lifetimes and reduce and reuse every day.

Save Water Now

Last week, as I was reading through my issue of The National Wildlife Federations magazine, I came across an article in which they interviewed Doug Kent about creating a carbon neutral, sustainable garden. In 2008, Doug was involved at the 19th Annual Southern California Spring Garden show, where he designed and built an "Ocean Friendly" garden and won Best Theme Presentation at the show. I volunteered with Doug for a day in 2008 in helping to setup the garden. The garden included innovative methods of reducing water runoff from the garden. It did this using native Southern California plants with low water requirements and landscape features to contain the water in the garden, instead of allowing it to run off into the street and watershed. This garden therefore required less water consumption.

California is currently in its third year of drought. Southern California gets most of its water supply from the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountain snow packs during the dry seasons of spring and summer. Rising temperatures and increased rainfall, due to global warming, may lead to a large reduction in the snow pack and therefore an even bigger water shortage for Southern California.

If CO2 emissions continue at their current level (fired by burning coal, oil, gas and single use products), temperatures are likely to rise. Increased temperatures may bring increased rain fall to Southern California during the winter but will result in dryer summers and a drastic reduction in the snow pack. This would pose a difficult problem for water managers in storing winter rainfall, reduce power production through hydroelectrics, and of course reduce snow recreation activities.

We therefore need to start reducing waste now. We have already discussed numerous ways to reduce waste. Here are 7 more ways we can reduce water waste inside our houses and how much water they can save.

1. Fix leaky faucets. This can save up to 20 gallons per day per leak.
2. Only wash clothing when you have a full load. This will save up to 20 gallons per wash.
3. Only use the dishwasher with a full load. This will save up to 4.5 gallons per load.
4. Do not let the water run when you are rinsing dishes or brushing your teeth. This can save up to 2.5 gallons per minute.
5. Bath less often and instead take showers. When taking a bath, save up to 25 gallons by only making the tub half full.
6. Shower with a friend or shorten the time you spend in the shower. Every minute less you spend in the shower can save 2.5 gallons.
7. Fix leaky toilets. This can save as much as 50 gallons a day per toilet. If your toilets are old you can also upgrade to a high efficiency toilet and look out for the rebates from the water companies.

Spring is almost here and we are looking forward to a good period of activity. The team at GoGreenMug will be involved with Earth Day on April 22 and International Surfing Day on July 21 as well as other environmental activities. With Earth Day just over 2 weeks away we are offering a 20% discount at http://www.gogreenmug.com to promote reducing waste at coffee shops, by using less disposable coffee cups. Get yourself a reusable mug, personalize it with your name, drink order and photograph and use it whenever you visit a coffee shop.

The coupon will also apply to gift certificates, so gift your friend a mug too.
Enter the Coupon Code: svplntmg at checkout.

The Problem With Clean Coal

We know that you voted for Earth on Saturday 28 March and turned off your lights. We enjoyed the hour playing cards by candle light and of course we happily survived, although there may be some candle wax on the cards.

Earth Hour was a great opportunity to show our concern over global warming and to get those billion votes that they are hoping to take to the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. Remember though that during that hour we also did not need much electricity in our homes or workplaces and therefore we were able to burn less fossil fuel and reduce our CO2 emissions.

Assuming the Earth Hour goal was reached and 1 billion people around the world turned off their lights for the full hour we can estimate that about 450 million pounds of carbon dioxide were kept out of the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of taking 350 million cars off the road for that hour. This is more than the total number of registered cars in the USA.

As we thought about these savings, we started talking about clean coal. We have heard a lot about it, particularly from the energy companies. They suggest that clean coal is as viable a solution to global warming as any other natural environmental energy such as solar and wind.

After doing some research here are 7 facts about clean coal.

1. We all know that coal is a fossil fuel that is used mostly by energy and electric companies in power plants and is burnt to create steam, which turns turbines and thereby creates electricity. Burning coal releases CO2 (carbon dioxide) into our atmosphere. You can see it pouring out of a power plant smoke stack.


2. One aspect of clean coal technology is to literally wash the coal with liquid prior to burning. This removes the unwanted impurities. Wet scrubbers are also used to remove sulfur dioxide (a major cause of acid rain) by spraying the coal with limestone and water.


3. Clean coal technologies also use low nitrogen oxide burners and gassification which convert the coal into a gas to burn. This is said to reduce the amount of coal burnt.


4. Any method used to clean coal will still result in CO2 emissions which will then need to be stored.


5. Carbon Dioxide capture and storage is the technology that proponents of clean coal seem to be most enthusiastic about. They suggest that CO2 emissions can be captured and kept out of the atmosphere . The captured CO2 needs to be collected in secure containers. The CO2 is then stored in 2 possible ways. Either under the ground by injecting the CO2 into depleted oil or gas fields and seams, or injecting liquid CO2 into the ocean 500 to 3000 meters deep.


6. Storage methods (underground or ocean) must be able to contain the CO2 until peak emissions subside. This will take hundreds of years.


7. The environmental effects of all the forms of storage are largely unknown. By injecting CO2 into the earth we may cause changes in the soil and pressure under the earth, and by injecting liquid CO2 into our Oceans we could damage marine life. Any form of storage will need to be carefully prepared and monitored.

Now that we have some facts, we are not convinced. With clean coal technology, we are taking the coal burning, CO2 emissions, problem and shoving it under the bed so that we can ignore it. Global warming is not "somebody elses problem" . We need to step up now and change the way we create and use energy. Drop the idea of clean coal technology and rather spend that research money on solar and wind power technology. Forget about capturing and storing CO2 and fund research into battery technology to store the natural energy sources that we have available.

Of course, you know that you can do your part too. Reduce your waste, Recycle whatever you can and Reuse as much as you can.

We still have a long way to go. I met with a friend to catch up on Thursday, at a local coffee shop. The coffee shop was full, with a line out the door, as it usually is, but unfortunately I was the only customer using my own mug. Everyone else was using a paper cup and all of them had plastic lids. There is an easy solution to this waste. If you do not have a mug then get one at http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and always remember to bring it with you to coffee shops.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Turn Off Your Lights

Saturday, March 28th from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM (your local time) is Earth Hour.

Turn off all your lights and electronic devices for this hour and enjoy some candlelight fun or get outside and do some star gazing.

GoGreenMug has signed up to take action and we will be turning off our lights and unplugging our electronic devices on Saturday night, both in our offices and at home.

Visit the earth Hour website at http://www.earthhour.org/. You can register as a supporter of Earth Hour and see what other companies and individuals are doing in your city for Earth Hour.

Put it in your calendar right now. Lights off from 8:30 to 9:30 PM on Saturday 28th March.

Have a great week and reduce your waste!

10 Ways to Keep our Oceans Clean

Last week we mentioned that we would be taking part in the Rockwater race on March 21, 2009. This is an annual race from mountain to ocean to raise awareness about the watershed organized by Surfrider Newport Beach Chapter. We want to thank Surfrider Newport Beach, particularly Robert and Robyn, for organizing this event and for much of the information given below.

A watershed is any river, gully, canyon or pathway that drains to the ocean. Watersheds are everywhere and anything on land can find its way to the ocean via a watershed. This means that if you throw something on the ground it may eventually end up in the ocean. Drop a cigarette butt or plastic fork, and it will end up in the ocean, on our beaches, or in the stomach of a fish, sea bird or other marine animal.

It's up to you to make the right choices and protect our watersheds, oceans, beaches and marine life. Here are 10 ways you can help:

1. Always pick up your pet's waste.
2. Rake up and discard yard clippings. Do not let them get washed away with the next rains.
3. Always dispose of your cigarette butts properly.
4. Do not use a hose to water down your driveway. This wastes a lot of water and also drains the oil and other pollutants from our cars into the watershed. Use a broom instead.
5. Plant native and if necessary drought resistant plants.
6. Always dispose of motor oil properly at an approved collection and recycling facility.
7. Join in at beach clean ups or pick up trash whenever you can and dispose of it properly.
8. Excess fertilizer is often washed away into the watershed with watering or rain. Reduce the amount of fertilizer you use.
9. Reduce the amount of single-use plastic. Use reusable shopping bags for your groceries. Do not buy bottled water.
10. Get a personalized travel mug and remember to bring it with you whenever you visit a coffee shop. Do not use a disposable coffee cup, plastic coffee cup lid or cardboard sleeve. This is all waste!

Now that you know what to do to protect the watershed, here are some pics of the Rockwater 2009 race and our GoGreenMug team. The race is a 28.8 mile run/walk/bike/skateboard down the Santa Ana River from the trail head at the border of Orange County and Riverside to the Ocean in Huntington Beach. Our team consisted of Sam, Scott, Jay, Sally, Jennie, Melanie, Sarah, Sean, Dennis, and Dudley; we covered the full 28.8 miles in a little more than 4 hours 10 minutes. Congratulations to the team and to the other teams who competed.

To see more pics of the race click here.

Next year we will be back to race again. Why don't you plan to put a team together to challenge us?

Have a great week and reduce the waste.