Gardening in Environment Friendly Way November 28, 2008

Maintaining a nice landscape or garden is very important for most home owners. Gardening has become a passionate hobby. The plants provide the food and ornamental benefit to owners and also help in reducing the carbon dioxide in atmosphere. They consume water and carbon dioxide to make their food in the presence of sun. This process is called photosynthesis (assuming most of you know this but just in case!).

Native plants are adaptive to the environment and do not require watering every day. The Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) recommends Big bluestem, Eastern red cedar, Blazing star and Pitch pine as low water use plants for the North East region of the country. See their website for recommendations for other regions.

Xeriscaping is the concept of landscaping or gardening without any requirement of supplemental irrigation. It requires sowing of plants whose water requirements are met through regional precipitation. Though it requires adequate planning in sowing, it can be very helpful in saving the time on regular basis and money by reducing water and energy bills.

Plants that require irrigation should be irrigated in the evening instead of daytime to minimize the water losses due to evapo-transpiration. Sprinkler systems cause undesired wetting of plant and hard surfaces (roads, patio and pathways). Drip or trickle systems are more efficient than sprinklers in saving water since these systems add water directly into the root zone. A drip system provides water exactly where it is required, so it saves both water and energy by reducing the time of irrigation. It is important that any irrigation system should not be left unattended for long.

Mulching not only helps in reducing the evaporation but also reduces the weeds. Organic manure or compost helps in increasing the soil water holding capacity. High water holding capacity of soil decreases the loss of water due to gravity. It helps in retaining the nutrients in root zone for long duration and reducing the water sources contamination, since washed-out nutrients can pollute the surface or ground water resources. Fall is the right time to start preparing the compost for next year. So think ahead of time and plan your garden to conserve the natural resources.

If you have a balcony, see how you can garden then. You can even set up a garden at your office if you have a rooftop. And if you’re interested in urban gardening, check out this blog. There are also lots of blogs out there about sustainable gardening, such as Garden Rant. Take a look, it’s great stuff!

Tax Credit for Renewable Energy November 20, 2008

If you are planning to install solar panels or wind turbines, this is the time to act fast. In January 2009, Federal tax credits will be given to the U.S. homeowners who have invested money in renewable energy sources. So in addition to the savings in utility bills, these tax credits make renewable energy sources more lucrative.

On the installation of new gadgets for utilizing renewable energy, you can save up to 30%. The upper limit of tax credit is $2,000 for solar water heating, whereas solar electric systems are not capped. The tax credits are also available for reducing the energy consumption by adding insulation to homes, energy efficient windows or heaters. There is 10% tax credit available, up to a total of about $500, for these energy efficient measures. This will encourage people to join the energy policies of new administration.

Similar tax benefits were given in 2006, but they expired in 2008. The details of the program can be found on Energy Star website. Now, as a part of economic bailout package, tax credits are announced, starting from January, 2009. Last time, these tax credits were available only for solar energy, but now the benefits are extended to wind turbine with an upper limit of $4,000. Home fuel cells, geothermal heat pumps and biomass stoves are also included. If you want to lower the gas bills along with electricity, there are options for that too. The tax credits are available for plug-in hybrids of GM and Nissan. Some states also offer similar benefits to the homeowners for renewable energy initiatives. So collect the information and read the fine print to join the fight against global warming. For state incentives, check out the Database for State Incentives on Renewable Energy (DSIRE) website.

Climate Change and the Bottom Line November 14, 2008

Under pressure from the Attorney General of New York, Dynegy Inc. recently became the second power-plant operator to agree to disclose pertinent environmental data and related business risks. As part of their standard SEC financial filings, Dynegy and Xcel Energy Inc. must now publish current and forecasted information on carbon emissions, as well as present and future measures taken to stem these emissions. New York will follow up on these feats by trying to convince a handful of other similar companies to agree to such reporting guidelines.

In addition to information on emissions, the power companies must report their perceived financial risks stemming from four sources: regulations handed down by government agencies, legislative measures, civil lawsuits, and environmental degradation. The disclosures are aimed to help investors stay abreast of the information that plays a role in their investment decisions.

This type of mandatory reporting is significant in a number of ways, both symbolic and material. Reporting emissions and environmental risks as part of SEC filings is a clear sign that environmentalism and sustainability are deeply intertwined with the bottom line. Sound environmental practices are now linked to the corporation’s fiduciary duty to its shareholders in the most critical ways—the ways that affect investors’ wallets. In the wake of the recent macroeconomic financial crisis risk is taken increasingly seriously, a fact which could compound the effects of these reporting guidelines. That is, reporting a risk in 2009 could have more profound implications than it would have had in 2007.

Detailing how an energy company itself would be negatively impacted by the impact its operations have on the environment transcends regulatory matters. Legislation and regulations are subject to change every time Congress, the White House, and State Houses turn over. But no amount of lobbying dollars can solve such environmental harm. If energy companies see and show that environmental damage could, in turn, damage everyone’s bank accounts, then greener practices will rapidly follow suit.

Maintaining a double- or triple-bottom line is laudable and important. But at the end of the day, company executives will always care most about the bottom line. If these reporting guidelines continue to gain traction in the business community, they could mark a significant step in using the business world to affect positive change.

Geothermal heat pumps – a hot way to heat and cool your house! November 7, 2008

Have you ever thought of using the natural heat of the earth to heat your house? It’s actually not a new idea but dates back to the time of the Roman Empire, when people used sources of hot water and steam that were near the earth’s surface to heat buildings. Because of modern technology, people can now use geothermal resources anywhere in the world to heat and cool their houses in an cost-effective way with a geothermal heat pump system!

What is a geothermal heat pump system?

A geothermal heat pump system is a heating and/or cooling system, which uses the earth either as a heat source in the winter or as a heat sink (to put the heat into the ground) in the summer. This is possible because ground temperatures remain stable throughout the year, at around 50-60 F.

This system is also known as “GeoExchange” system and “ground-source heat pump”. Geothermal usually requires a length of buried tubing on the property, a liquid pump back, and a water-source heat pump. There are both open loop systems and closed loop systems. Closed loop systems are more commonly used in households and circulate the fluid through the pipes and exchange heat between the fluid and the earth across the pipe.

Benefits

• Cut your electricity bills. Geothermal heat pumps systems save from 30% to 70% more energy than conventional systems, because they simply use electricity to move heat from the earth into buildings instead of burning fuels to generate heat. Geothermal heat pump systems thus bring in higher efficiencies, and can be up to 400% more efficient than conventional systems. Studies shows these systems can save the average family from US$400-1400/ year. In the summer, water is heated for free and only for a small cost in the winter.

• Save money in the long run. Geothermal heat pumps systems have a longer life span than conventional systems. Most loop fields are warranted for 25 to 50 years and are expected to last at least 50 to 200 years. You do not have to worry about replacing the system in the short term and once installed, systems can last twice as long as conventional systems.

• Convenient and safe. A closed loop system means no freezing of the flue vents in cold weather when you need heat the most. In addition, there are no gas lines, and therefore no potential for a gas leakage or fire.

• Friendly to the environment. The switch from fuel to geothermal reduces greenhouse gas emissions. There are more than 1,000.000 geothermal heat pumps already installed in the U.S. and the technology has reduced an estimated more than 5.9 million metric tons of CO2 annually and more than 1.6 million metric tons of carbon equivalent annually.

Cost
The initial cost of installing a geothermal heat pump system is usually two or three times than of a conventional heating system. However, some electricity companies offer special rates to customers who install geothermal systems, simply because it helps reduce their peak load due to the increased efficiency of heat pumps.

Want to know more?

• U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Geothermal Technologies

• GeoExchange